It's during a slow period. Sometimes, Chen comes but Yixing only stares blankly when he asks for any news. And so Jongdae stays around those times. Maybe they talk. Maybe they eat. Maybe they just sit there, doing nothing at all.

"You are very kind."

The sentence is oddly timed, which isn't unusual. Jongdae turns around, his mouth open with a sharp quip. But then his eyes meet Yixing's own, and he gets caught in the myriad of colours that swirl across his iris. It is only with effort that he shakes himself out of it, and turning away he says. "Whatever it is I am, I am not kind." He closes his eyes. "Besides, I wouldn't want a kind heart. A kind heart is useless. It's a flaw in our world. It's only an opening, for which others exploit and attack mercilessly."

Yixing smiles. "Sounds like you've got experience."

He laughs when Jongdae looks at him sharply again and he reaches up and pats the mudang's hand. "You do have a kind heart, Jongdae. You exorcised all those spirits and demons when no one else wanted to. You're obviously not doing this for the glory or praise that the mantle of a mudang brings."

But Jongdae shakes his head, an odd smile on his face. "And so that makes me kind? Is that what you've been thinking? Then you're sorely mistaken. I just get a kick out of it. I like being cruel, remember? Those spirits aren't doing people any harm, there really is no need to exorcise them."

"Yes, that's what people say of Chen. But..."

"Yixing. Don't."

Yixing closes his eyes, ignoring the scandalized look that slips onto Jongdae's face. "You learnt from your teacher and so you know that spirits that are harmless now, get malicious over time as they stay on in our world. Harmless spirits are always easier to exorcise compared to malicious ones. But where's the glory in slaying harmless spirits?"

"I have no idea what you're saying." Chen says. Any hint of panic has slid behind a cool mask. "I do it all for fun. If you're trying to make me good, giving me a heroic back-story where there's none, you're just going to be disappointed."

"And we both know that's not true. Chen, nothing will happen to me if I say it. I'm too valuable, and they'd be silly to think with my sight I wouldn't know."

But Chen only looks away, his face an expression of stone.

"Jongdae." The word causes the mudang to look back into Yixing's gaze. And for a moment, as Yixing's hand curls around his own, he sees a chance and a hope. And for that moment, he leans in, drawn like a moth to a flame, tempted to burn if only it would take the chill of loneliness from his bones.

But then, he stops himself. And Yixing watches silently as Jongdae's lips curl in a sort of rueful self-depreciation. "Silly, silly chonrian. Having voices in your mind has made you all unhinged. But, even if what you've said is the truth, you're still wrong. I am not kind."

He pulls himself out of Yixing's grip. And the words he utters before he leaves are so soft, Yixing nearly misses them. "If I really were kind, you wouldn't even be here now, sitting, talking to me."

Yixing is left alone, staring at the empty space where Jongdae once was. He sits, eyes fixed on the door until minutes after the sound of Jongdae's footsteps have faded from the hallway.

The chonrian sighs before he addresses the walls around him. It's like they are really listening.

"Well, he won't be back for a while."