The days after their little poetry-night went by magnificently. Their connection was getting stronger and purer by the day.

Xueer only sees her on two occasions though. In English Lit and in the hallways when they decide it's time to have a little confrontation again. She’s getting better and better into understanding the poems. She used to be so superficial when it came to them, pretty much like everything else in her whole life, she guesses. But Jiaqi had taught her to read in between the lines and she soon found herself finding deeper meanings into everything. And she doesn't just mean within the countless poetic words.

She still has no idea what the badass is to her. But Jiaqi’s definitely starting to shape into a very important something, a very important someone. Their confrontations are more fueled than ever. They call out the best lines, and just when one of them thinks they won, they surprise each other with a dazzling comeback. In the end, no matter who wins or loses, both of them leave with a huge satisfactory grin on their face. Perfectly civil in the classroom, yet so hostile in the décor of the hallways.

Xueer loves it.

The last three days, she loved less. The short haired girl been absent for three days on a row. Nothing heard from her. English Lit was beyond boring. Suddenly analyzing poems wasn't that engrossing anymore. The hallways she just tried to avoid. Go to locker, pick books, go to classroom, end class, return books in locker and leave the hell out of there. It was only then that Xueer realized how drastically her life changed over the last few weeks. She used to need Jiaqi for that war of words once a week, just so that she could feel good. And she couldn't care less about the rest. Now, the redhead finds herself craving the otherd girl and finding her life mind-numbing without her. Even if they didn't saw each other all that much, just the thought that she was in the same building as her soothed her mind. At first the redhead thought that she was probably just a little sick or she simply didn't feel like going to school so she ditched a day. But three days in a row? Though she'll probably never admit it, the cheerleader knows that Jiaqi enjoys going to school. She used to assume that she was probably one of those brainless badasses, but she proved her wrong on so many levels as her intelligence seems to stretch so much further than hers.

The fact that Jiaqi didn't come the last few days means that something is wrong, and Xueer wants to know exactly what. That's why she’s here in her building, in front of her door actually, just standing there for the last ten minutes urging herself to knock on the damn piece of wood already. One, two, three gentle knocks on the door. One knock for every day she missed, every day Xueer missed her.

She hears some faint noises on the other side of the door, first of footsteps then of fiddling with the locks. And then the door swings open.

"Xueer?" Jiaqi’s face is full of surprise.

She looks like hell. Black eye, busted lip, and a slightly swollen cheek. Something is up. Incapable of forming any coherent sentences and without even thinking, the redhead shifts her hand to her cheek and carefully the bruised marks. She feels her lean into the touch and her eyes flutter for a brief moment, letting her guard down before harshly snapping back into reality and griping her wrist of off her face.

"Where the hell did you get this address from?" She snaps harshly.

"I… Principal Chou gave it to me. I tricked him into giving it to me so we could work for our assignment." She lets out hesitantly, her eyes never leaving the other girl’s battered face.

"Well, don't worry Princess. I'm going to give you my part, no need to worry about your perfect GPA." Jiaqi spats in her ever sarcastic mood.

"Like I said… I tricked him. I didn't come down here for that."

"Then why did you?" She grunts, clearly not amused by her presence.

"Because! I was worried about you." The redhead says truthfully.

"Yeah, right." Something resembling a bitterly scoff leaves the badass’ mouth.

"I was, okay? And it seems I had a right to be."

"Look, nobody's worried about me okay?" She hisses as she glares Xueer in the eye.

"Jiaqi, that's not true. I wouldn't be here if it were." She chooses to say earnestly, trying to make her understand than she's not alone in this.

In turn, the badass stares down for a second and crosses her arms across her chest, only to gaze right back at Xueer, with fire-filled eyes.

"Two years ago, I didn't go to school for three weeks. I had three broken ribs, a broken nose and a concussion. Nobody came to visit me in the hospital and nobody came to see me when I was at home. Not even a call. And when I went back to school, nobody was there to ask me where I was or how I was doing. Nobody even noticed my absence. Where the hell were you then, huh." Jiaqi whispers in an iced voice, angered chocolate eyes never leaving honey ones.

And those words were painful to hear, because they were painfully true.

Truth hurts. And at that point, it hurt badly for Xueer.

"Two years ago, I was a moron who cared more about her clothing than the sake of any human being. I'm not that moron anymore." Sincerity voicing her words.

"Then who are you?" She whispers voice slightly breaking in a moment of weakness.

"I'm a moron who cares about you."

The redhead raises her hand to her face again. Gently tracing a line from under her eye, across her cheek and alongside her busted lip. Jiaqi doesn't lean into her touch this time, but she doesn't back away either.

"Who did this to you?" The cheerleader whispers, lightly shaking her head and not understanding how anyone could do this to her… how anyone could hurt her this much.

"Look, it's no big deal. I was planning on going back to school tomorrow so..." She says in turn as she slowly lowers the redhead’s hand from her face.

"Jiaqi, have you looked at yourself? I do