By The Way, I like You

All eyes immediately snapped toward a femimine figure illuminated by faint moonlight.

It was a young girl who looked to be around seventeen or eighteen. She was wrapped in dirty robes and staring around wildly.

However, a cresent mark on a part of her dirty robes, exposed her as an outer disciple of the Moon star sect.

"No, please! I'm not dangerous! Listen—"

She was instantly surrounded. Some refugees backed away in fear, forming a cautious circle around her.

"Explain yourself!" barked the big man who clenched his fists warily. "Are you one of them?"

"No! I swear—I'm only an elementary Qi practitioner," the girl sobbed desperately. "I barely entered the cultivation realm! Please, I won't turn!"

An uproar erupted.

"You're still dangerous!" someone shouted.

"Get her out of here!" yelled another. "She'll turn and rip us apart!"

"Don't let her stay!"

"Please!" the girl pleaded while dropping to her knees and sobbing hysterically. "The plague isn't even here yet! I won't—"

But fear had already won. They roughly dragged her toward the outskirts of the camp.

Noah's muscles tightened instinctively as he fought the impulse to intervene.

But then vivid memories flashed in his mind: corrupted cultivators shredding innocents at the city gates... including children, blood spattering across his skin, those empty glowing eyes, inhuman strength…

He instantly stopped himself.

One of the frightened refugees grabbed a branch and swung it brutally against the girl's head, knocking her to the ground.

Noah calmed his aching heart and reminded himself that these cultivators were the same spiteful ones that ridiculed him and many others for being incapable of cultivating.

Besides that, he recalled the most important thing right now...

'You interfere, and you might end up a chew toy for corrupted cultivators.'

He closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. Survival mattered more than being a hero.

"Let's just kill her, it's safer."

"Do you want to have the blood of a kid on your hands?"

"She hasn't changed yet so maybe we shouldn't."

"Just send her out! Let her get far far away from us!"

Different refugees voices their opinions while the girl staggered to her feet, sobbing and clutching her bleeding temple.

She recalled how her life changed just a few days ago when she was finally accepted into the sect after reaching the first cultivation stage.

How happy her parents had been and how they had given their blessings, looking forward to her becoming a great disciple of the Moon star sect...

Who knew that the world would turn upside down just a few days afterwards and her happiness would turn to utter sorrow.

She cast one last broken glance toward the refugees and then disappeared into the darkness.

"You fools! We should have killed her!" The thin man from earlier yelled while the crowd dispersed.

"She hadn't turned. That would just be child murder," the broad man stated.

"Idiots! What if she turns later and leads a whole bunch of them here! We're so dead! We're so dead!" The thin man put his hand on his head while yelling with a look of horror.

Seeing as the man wouldn't stop yelling, everyone decided to ignore him.

However, his words were slowly beginning to twist its way into their heads and there was no tell what would happen next time if such a situation was to occur again.

Silence soon fell heavily upon the valley again...

Noah moved quietly over to where Old Duyi and Lian had stirred awake, disturbed by the chaos.

"What happened?" Lian whispered fearfully.

Noah hesitated, then shook his head gently. "Nothing good."

He took a deep breath, crouched beside them, and lowered his voice:

"Listen carefully, both of you. We need to remember three things, okay?"

Duyi eyed him seriously. "Go on."

"One," Noah began quietly while holding up a finger, "from now on, we only look out for each other. No exceptions."

Lian's expression hardened slightly before nodding firmly.

"Two," Noah continued, holding up another finger, "sentimentality gets people killed. We cannot let it cloud our judgment."

Old Duyi sighed before nodding slowly. "A harsh truth. Understood."

"And three," Noah voiced with nearly a whisper, "unless it absolutely won't put us at risk, we don't stick our necks out for others."

Lian swallowed hard. "That sounds… cruel."

"It's reality," Noah voiced softly with a look of guilt. "Look—I don't want to become a snack for some zombie cultivator, and I don't want either of you to, either. The world changed tonight. We need to change with it."

Noah had watched enough Zombie movies back on his Earth to understand that people who always died first in apocalyptic situations were the ones always trying to be heroes or those who second guess quick minute decisions and put their trust in others.

If they wanted to survive, they needed to curb certain habits right away.

Duyi reached out and squeezed Noah's shoulder gently. "I know this isn't easy, son. But you're right. Our first duty is to survive."

Noah nodded slowly. "Exactly."

Lian sighed softly while leaning against her grandfather. "This change really sucks."

Noah chuckled weakly. "Tell me about it."

They fell silent again as the gravity of their situation settled over them like a shroud.

Noah lay back, looking at the dark sky, wondering where Ava was right now. Was she alive? Had she escaped this nightmare? He shut his eyes and tried to dull his aching heart.

His mind wandered back years, timelines, and entire worlds ago.

---

It was year Two of High School when she first transferred to Greater Heights.

She walked into class like the lead actress in a movie she didn't even know she was starring in. Wavy brown hair that shimmered red when the light hit it right, smile like sunrise, eyes that somehow made every guy in the room forget what their name was.

Noah didn't care.

Or at least, he pretended not to.

He was the angry kid. The one teachers whispered about. Always in detention. Always bruised from another fight.

He didn't like people. And they didn't like him.

Even the ones who thought he looked good from a distance crossed the hallway when he came near. He was too intense, too angry and too much for them.

But Ava... She never crossed the hallway whenever he was passing.

She even waved and smiled at him whenever he came across her.

This was a first so Noah was so startled that he didn't even respond or wave back.

Unexpectedly, she sat next to him the next day.

Asked him questions. Laughed at his dry, bitter jokes that weren't meant to be funny.

And she... stayed close.

He didn't know why... Everyone else avoided him... Yet this girl that was the center of attention and had become the dream of every boy in class, stuck around.

---

He remembered the first time she caught him losing it.

Some jerk had shoved his tray over in the cafeteria.

Noah snapped, punched him and slammed the guy onto a table.

He broke his knuckles in the process... Again.

Everyone stared in terror. Whispers erupted. Teachers shouted and the Principal called... Probably to suspend him again.

Noah was sitting on the steps outside the school when she found him.

"You good?" she inquired while kneeling in front of him like he wasn't the guy with bloody hands.

He expected her to flinch. To look afraid. But she just looked at him with an expression of compassion that he had never seen on the face of anyone.

"You're not a bad person," she stated.

He scoffed. "Right. Tell that to the guy whose face I cracked."

"You're angry," she said. "You've got reasons. But I don't think you even know why you're mad anymore."

She held his bloodied hands and added; "I think, you only act this way to solidify the terrible way you believe people see you. You're not the monster they think you are."

He didn't reply so she sat beside him in silence.

Year Three came and they had become inseparable.

People gossiped. The beautiful girl and the broken boy.

Ava never cared.

She'd drag him out of his head, make him try dumb stuff like karaoke, drawing with her in a sketchbook, watching horror movies and pretending not to be scared. She found all the soft spots in him that he didn't know existed.

She made him want to be better. Not because she told him to but because she looked at him like he already was.

He found himself, became less gloomy and exuded a refreshingly hilarious personality most times which was quite different from what he used to be.

He even stopped fighting and helped others whenever he had the chance to.

Noah and Ava got together officially one rainy afternoon when she shoved a milk carton into his hand and said, "By the way, I like you."

He'd blinked like an idiot. "Like, *like-like*?"

She smiled. "Yes, doofus."