NOVEL NEXT Chapter 82: I Dont Understand.
The game of Go commenced. He wasn’t a novice, that was clear, but it seemed like he was distracted, clearly thinking about something else. Eventually, I began to feel the tension leaking off of him and it started making me nervous
He swirled his finger again and suddenly my clothes dried. “You should be more careful with how you act around men…” He said sternly.
‘Wait… What?’
“And you shouldn't get so close to people like this, especially not guys.”
“O…K…”
“You should be more careful about how you act too, you're not reserved enough. Especially until you get strong enough to protect yourself.”
“Sorry?” I was unsure why I was apologizing. It felt like I didn’t actually do anything wrong.
“Just be more careful in the future.”
Silence filled the room as I thought over everything that happened between us. In the end wasn’t he acting more promiscuous than I was, grabbing my hand without asking? There was the way that we rode Flicker together too.
I started to get more agitated the more I thought about it. “Are you saying I’ve been acting like some kind of bimbo ever since I got here?”
He cleared his throat. “Of course not, you were just a bit too carefree with some of your actions.”
“Sorry,” I said again out of habit. “Wait a minuet no Im not! How was I any more carefree than you were!”
He sighed. “Your right. To be honest it was easy to think of you as a boy at first.”
“Oh…” I muttered, trying to hide the underlying grumble in my voice.
“My mother died in childbirth, then my father took me away to train in the mountains until I turned 10. After that, I became a warrior. Everyone in my battalion was male. When I had left, I returned to the mountains for more training.
“When I turned 15 I was announced king, as the undisputed strongest person in the realm. I was so busy ruling the kingdom from then on that the thought still never crossed my mind. I ended up staying like that until I ascended just after my 18th birthday. So… Yea… I didn't have time for girls. My life required strict discipline. There was no room for distractions.”
My eyes widened. “You've seriously never even shook a girl's hand? What about servants at the palace? Friend’s wives?”
“Well back in my day bowing was more traditional.”
“You never had a friend that you hugged?”
“The majority of the women I knew were married, It felt wrong to hug them given the circumstances.”
“There weren't any girls in the entire palace? Are you serious?”
He slammed a fist into his upward-facing palm. “Oh, there was this one girl, she was around 15 I think. Yea, she made bread for me every morning.”
“Aaaaaaand…”
“I never actually spoke to her. She made good bread though.”
I raised my palm to my forehead and hit myself. ‘This must be what people call Culture shock…’
“Yes well…” He returned to his normal boyish self, dignified and elegant. “That's the simple truth.” He said, magically filling the teapot and pouring another cup.
“So, when you came to this astonishing revelation that I wasn’t a guy… You started to get flustered. How is that my fault though?”
“Well maybe if you hadn’t started changing right in front of me…” He muttered.
Thinking back, it was true that I took my shirt off in front of him… But a two-ton bear was standing between us, it wasn’t like he could even see me. ‘Was that really inappropriate?’
I stared at him while thinking about it and he turned away. ‘Shouldn’t I be the one embarrassed here?’ “You… Didn’t look did you?”
He choked on his tea. “Of course not!”
“I really don't see the problem here.”
He stood up, shrinking the table, and walking to the other side. “The problem is that you are an attractive young woman, and you don’t seem to realize that your actions can have serious consequences.”
“No, that’s not what this is about.”
He stopped in his tracks, acting confused.
“Realistically, in that scenario, if said guy tried anything, the two-ton bear next to me would have eaten him. Well. I guess she isn’t violent right, so she would what, shove him? Either way, I’m good.”
He let out a heavy sigh.
“Sorry, you’re right. You see, after becoming more aware of you. I came to the conclusion that you would probably end up being married someday, and I suddenly realized that some of my actions today were inappropriate. So I am sorry.”
I squinted at him. “I'm fourteen. Besides that, I don't even look fourteen, I look like I'm 5, or so I’m told. For you, isn’t that more like playing with a child? I mean, I could be your 10x grandchild or something.”
He choked on his tea and spat it out again, making me think it was turning into a habit... “Don't make me sound–” he paused, thinking over his words carefully and calming down before he spoke again.
“That may be true about your current physical body, but you're not Siya right now, are you? You're back to your old self because at heart you don't see Siya as your true self yet. That means that you look like you did when you were back on Earth. A 16-year-old girl, and less than two years younger than me. Considering I ascended on my 18th birthday.”
I paused. “Ohhhh… Right… Still, I’m not sure we did anything inappropriate, I mean…” I thought back to when he wrapped his arms around me to grab Flickers scruf so we could ride together, and all the jokes we made about love. “Oh… I see what you mean…”
‘Still, it's not like it was that big of a deal.’ The more I thought about it the less sense any of it made, and the more irrational he was starting to seem. None of it made any sense. “You’re saying you would call a boy cute and joke about falling in love with them?”
He choked on his tea again, this time making his cup just vanish so he would stop trying to drink it “I read similar lines in a novel, and I thought they would make you happy and take your mind off of everything. I was trying to think of you as a boy, but it wasn’t like I actually thought you were one.”
I let out an exasperated sigh, unsure of what to think of him. I understood how my own brain worked, but the more he spoke the less I felt like I understood his. One thing seemed fairly certain though.
‘I don’t think we’re going to get around to finishing our game… He hasn’t made a move sense he started talking about this…’