“How observant of you.” There was a series of cracks as the Revenant straightened his broken leg. He pouted at Yiran. “That really hurt.”
“You ran at a moving car. What did you expect?” said Yiran’s asinine mouth.
“Ha ha. Let’s see if you’re just as funny when you’re dead.”
The Revenant’s hand was at Yiran’s neck, cold fingers digging in, pulling Yiran to his knees.
“You’re an Exorcist, aren’t you?”
“Cadet,” Yiran choked out stubbornly. He was getting lightheaded, which might explain his stupid and petty urge to argue with a Revenant.
To his surprise, the Revenant boy loosened his grip.
Yiran gulped air into his lungs.
“What are you? A sixth-year?”
Yiran wheezed, “Enrolled a few weeks ago.”
The Revenant raised an eyebrow.
“I’m a special case.”
“You should’ve stayed away from that place and all the lies they feed you. This world is full of useless fools. There’s no need to save them all.”
“What are you talking about?”
The Revenant’s lips curled with pleasure. “Don’t worry your pretty little head over it. I’m only making polite conversation over dinner.”
“Seems a bit rich for you to tell me not to worry, seeing that I’m the meal,” Yiran retorted, giving him a humorless grin in return.
Keeping his smile, the Revenant licked his lips suggestively.
Yiran felt a shiver of anticipation. “Do you have a name or something?” he asked, suddenly curious. Maybe too curious.
Confusion flickered in the Revenant’s eyes, as if he never thought someone would ask a creature like him something so courteous.
“Yuki.”
“Well, Yuki, can’t say I’m pleased to meet you under such circumstances. I’m Yiran.”
“Enough with the attitude.” Yuki rolled his eyes, muttering, “If only you knew.”
“Knew what?”
“Aren’t you a nosy one?”
“Aren’t you a tease?”
Yuki pressed his full lips together, seemingly unwilling to say more. But Yiran could tell he wanted to. It struck him that Yuki might be enjoying their conversation. The cold hand around Yiran’s neck was relaxed now, as if Yuki had left it there because he wanted to touch rather than to hurt. But Yiran had a feeling any sudden moves from him meant a certain and swift death. He needed to play for time, to draw things out until Rui and Zizi came looking for him.
“You’re interesting.” Yiran kept his tone conversational, as if the two of them were hanging out together on a coffee shop date and one of them didn’t have his hand wrapped around the other’s throat. “I didn’t know Revenants could speak. The last time I met one, all it did was growl at me. It had these scary red eyes and it turned into a tentacled monster and tried to kill me. You’re different, you look different—I mean, no tentacles, which is awesome. You seem so... you’re not like—”
“Not like other Revenants?” Yuki scrunched his nose and made a face that Yiran thought was unfairly cute. “You’re so transparent. If you think flirting with me in such a pathetic manner will stop me from ki—”
“Human. I was going to say you seem so human.”
Yuki went so still it felt like time had stopped. Emotion crept across his face in a slow, painful way.
