"Love?" RuJin asked, his cold eyes suddenly softened as he thought about this.

"Yes. I love you. For so long, I was in love with you. I found out so long ago, but I didn't want you to know. I thought that one day, you would surely know how I feel. What I had never expected was that something like this would have happened. If you had known, if we were both still as close as we were before, maybe you would've found out, but I know that I can't live in the past, so, now I'm telling you everything." ShuYan calmed down, his heart beating faster as he confessed his true feelings.

"Me? But, why me? How? I don't understand." RuJin was now confused, he had never knew, he had never thought about this. Because love was something he couldn't have, because it would be easier to get hurt with, easier for the one he loved to get hurt.

"I don't know. All I know is that my heart chose you, that you were chosen. It could just be because of you, you existing. Although you have changed so much, my heart is still choosing you. You have been imprinted deep within me, something that I will never be able to erase." ShuYan softly muttered, his eyes filled with undeniable love.

RuJin pushed ShuYan away, his hands trembling. He fought to keep his composure.

"No, that is impossible. How can you love me? How can you possibly say that you love me after realizing who I have become? It must be a lie. You just want me to believe in you so that you can enter into my heart, then backstab me. Do you think I don't know what your Sect Leader told you to do? Why he sent you here in the first place?" RuJin spoke, taking a step back.

"RuJin, you know well that I will never betray you. The reason why I agreed to this in the first place was so I could meet you. I knew that you would not have wanted to meet me, and this was the only way I could meet you. I may follow the righteous road, but I will still follow my heart. And right now, my heart is telling me to follow you. To stay by your side and protect you." ShuYan spoke calmly, as if he knew what RuJin was struggling with and wanted to help calm him.

"Give me time, and I will prove myself to you. I will show you that I have remained faithful to only you, that I will follow you forever."

RuJin took a long look at ShuYan, his eyes were wavering, his emotions were taking over him. He watched ShuYan closely, trying to find any hint of emotion radiating from him that might be a lie.

He had lost so much in this life. He had lost almost everything in his life. He couldn't afford to lose anything else. But for this moment, he wanted to be selfish once more. He wanted to try and cure that place in his heart that had begun to spread itself. He wanted to stop the madness in his head, and the voice that tells him he will be everyone's demise.

"Ok, you get one week, one week to prove yourself to me. In this time, you will be my guest in this place. No one will be able to harm you, and you will not be restricted in any way. If before this one week ends, you have proven yourself, I will end this, and allow you another chance to be by my side. But, if you are not able to prove yourself after this one week, I can only give you death. Are you still willing to do this?" RuJin asked ShuYan.

"I am. I will agree to your conditions, but will I be allowed in your room?" ShuYan said as he looked towards the throne.

At first, RuJin was confused by this sentence, then, he realized what ShuYan was asking. If it weren't for his ability to not show much emotions, his cold face might've start turning red.

"No."

"I swear I won't do anything." ShuYan said, quietly adding in his head, if you don't want to.

"I will take you to your room. For now, nobody has know you yet, they might attack you. If anything happens, just take this pendant out." RuJin said as he handed a black pendant to ShuYan.

ShuYan took a careful look at it before he pulled his sword out and tied it on the sword. After finishing this, he put it back and looked towards RuJin.

"You can lead on." ShuYan carefully followed behind RuJin, admiring him in his heart.

He understood that people only saw RuJin for who he was now, but he knew that even though RuJin had such an image, he was once a kid too. He once was just like everyone else, that was something that can't be changed.

He knew that RuJin wanted him successfully prove himself, even though RuJin didn't look like it at all. He knew that RuJin was giving him this chance because he still cared about him.

The first day that he had even fell in love with RuJin, he could still remember it as vivid as back then.

"ShuYan, is the water cold?" The youthful RuJin asked as he was clothed in only pants, his upper body was bare.

ShuYan who was already in the water looked closely at RuJin. As he stared at him, he suddenly felt hot, and the slight cold water no longer felt as cold.

"It's fine, you can enter." ShuYan reassured RuJin, then splash some water towards him.

RuJin lightly frowned before he gave up, and stepped one foot into the water before he was pulled in by ShuYan.

As RuJin stared towards ShuYan with anger, the water ran down from his body and his hair that was drenched wet fell apart.

"ShuYan!"

ShuYan looked towards RuJin, an unbearable aching was suddenly felt before he was shocked, slowly but surely, he sunk further into the water.

"ShuYan, are you ok?" RuJin asked him, noticing something odd about him.

"I-I'm good." ShuYan stuttered as he tried to control that 'thing'.

And that was how he first found out about his feelings.