She’s exhausted, her body aches and her head buzzing with what feels like static. There is an inexplicable aura of tiredness that hangs about her and her usually lively eyes look dead as her head makes acquaintance with the table. The cafeteria is quite empty for nine in the night, she notes, before raising her head and tugging her meal towards her.

“Thanks for the crap.” She says to no one in particular, looking at the unidentifiable mess on her plate in disgust. The food tastes awful, bitter, cold and hard. The weather isn’t friendly either, her fingers freezing as she attempts to quickly swallow the food and sudden tears that seem to fight their way into her eyes.

She realizes that all the work has made her extremely lonely.

“Daiyu?”

Her head snaps up and she trains her tired eyes on his concerned face. She tries to contort her face into a smile but all that forms is a grimace. She feels nauseated by the exhaustion coupled with the strong need to just cry.

“Hey Xing.” she manages to respond, she feels like she’s eating sawdust as the taste in slowly starts to fade away making it harder to swallow as the lump in grows.

“Why are you sitting alone?” he settles down in front of her, placing an overloaded plate on the table as Daiyu wonders how on earth he was going to finish eating all of that food. She sighs, too exhausted to answer. She’s usually upbeat, confident and strong but suddenly she looks like she has crumbled to dust with only her body holding her together temporarily. It’s a terrible feeling.

“You don’t look too good.” His voice softens as his eyes sweep over her face.

“I’m just tired.” She replies, waving her hand in a dismissive motion. Yixing doesn’t seem too convinced about what she says but doesn’t pursue the topic. Daiyu is verbose when she wants to be, and giving her space and asking her the right questions would reveal her feelings far more efficiently than provoking her.

“You should get some sleep then.” He remarks watching her grimace grow at a worrying rate. He knows her schedule is packed, she wakes up early and sleeps at odd hours.

“Can’t sleep. Need to finish a reading.” She says, laying her cutlery down on the empty plate. Yixing is quick to follow, losing his appetite at the sight of Daiyu’s troubled face. Standing up he extends his hand.

“Come on, let’s go for a walk together.”

“B-but…”

“The reading can be forgotten for a day.” His hand grasps at hers intertwining fingers, feeling her frozen one against his warm ones. She feels it seeping through her skin and for just a second, she feels a tiny bit better.

They leave the cafeteria wordlessly.

When exhaustion kicks in.