"Otherwise..." Shu looked at Kiana's surprised expression, pointed at Mei and Bronya who were talking, "In your memory, how good is Bronya's relationship with you? That's roughly how good our relationship is..."
He didn't dare mention Mei. He had met Kiana only slightly earlier than Bronya, definitely couldn't compare to Mei...
Kiana's eyes went completely round. She looked incredulously at Bronya, then at Shu, blurting out in a cracking voice:
"You mean I was even attracted to you—"
"Stop! Not that!" Shu quickly stopped Kiana's outrageous claim, glancing sideways. The conversation on the other side had stopped; both were looking over here puzzledly.
"What's wrong, Kiana?" Mei looked confusedly at the utterly astonished Kiana.
"Bronya thinks she heard..." Bronya, with her dead fish eyes, was about to say something when Shu quickly interrupted.
"Nothing at all, we were just mutually..." Shu wanted to say "rehabilitating," but forgot the word existed. Mei and Bronya watched Shu gesture vaguely in the air twice, then slap himself sharply.
"Mutually treating! We were mutually looking for memory gaps!"
"I see..." Mei nodded in realization. Remembering Shu didn't recognize the gesture, she added, "I understand. Bronya, where were we?"
"Sister Mei, it was the rope..."
Seeing their attention diverted, Shu sighed in relief, turned back to Kiana, only to see her still staring at her hands, questioning life.
"Kiana...?" Shu tried to get Kiana's attention back.
Kiana looked up numbly at Shu, asking softly and hesitantly, "Um... Was I really attracted to you..."
"No such thing," Shu waved his hand. Kiana breathed a sigh of relief, patting herself as if recovering from a major shock.
"I thought I actually started liking boys, thank goodness..." Kiana muttered under her breath, causing Shu's expression to contort wildly.
Liking girls is the abnormal part!! Siegfried, what did you teach her?!
Also, am I that bad? Is such a big reaction necessary?!
Why does this feel like being rejected by a good bro?!
After muttering to herself, Kiana finally returned to normal, scratching her head and flashing Shu a sunny smile.
She had just thought of a brilliant idea!
"As the saying goes—a good pen is no match for a bad memory head! How about I write you down to remember you!" Kiana extended a finger, leaning closer to Shu.
Shu's wildly contorted expression gradually smoothed out.
"That's a good memory is no match for..." Shu subconsciously retorted, but seeing Kiana's excited look, he retracted the statement. "Never mind... How are you planning to write it?"
Kiana had already turned around, rummaging in her bag for a thick black marker. This kind of ink dried quickly and was hard to fade; writing on skin would likely take a month to disappear.
Clearly, Kiana was planning to "tattoo" herself.
"Can play together with me... Strong enough to be my captain, can even defeat Herrschers..." Kiana uncapped the pen, tapped the barrel against her chin, pouted, and started listing Shu's various actions, then arrived at an answer—
"Um... You're a good person?"
"..."
Shu's expression almost flew off again.
"Can you think of something better?" Shu asked, his expression twitching. He felt that familiar sense of speechlessness from when he first met Kiana returning.
"Hehe..." Kiana grinned, trying to bluff her way through.
"Let's just write it like that!" Kiana said; the previous sentence was just her teasing him.
Actually, she had already decided what to write: "...The person who comes to save us whenever we cry and make a fuss..."
Kiana wrote character by character onto her palm. Shu glanced over; she was writing in Chinese... Was it because she stayed in Shenzhou for over two months?
"Shu... Huh?" When she got to the name part, Kiana suddenly struggled again, looking up embarrassedly at Shu. "What was your name again?"
Shu sighed. "My name is Shu... Shu..."
Shu's words abruptly stopped. He looked silently down at his hand, frowning deeply.
The 'Shu' in my name... how is it written again?
Wait, is my name really Shu? Not some other name... like Kevin... like...
What did Mei and the others call me? Shu...?
A drop of cold sweat slid down his forehead, merging with the tiny water droplets condensed on his hair from the morning mist, dripping onto his palm. Shu gritted his teeth, his palm starting to tremble slightly.
He snatched the marker from Kiana's hand and tried to write the character for 'Shu' (曙) on his own hand, but his hand faltered after the first few strokes.
His movement stopped there.
The pen barrel began to tremble. Shu gripped the marker, seeming about to forcefully stab the tip into his own palm.
Myself... what was my name?
"Hey? Can you tell me how to write [Shu]? I don't want to get your name wrong..." Kiana, having had the pen snatched, urged strangely from the side.
But she was startled by Shu's heavy breathing and quickly patted him. "Hey, are you okay?"
Suddenly jolted from the uncomfortable struggle, Shu gasped deeply like a drowning person momentarily rescued. He shoved the pen back into Kiana's hand and held his head with both hands.
"It's fine..." Shu's voice was somewhat hoarse. He kept his head down, hiding his expression.
In reality, cold sweat had already soaked his palms and hairline.
No... how could forgetting my name be fine...
...Is it important? Forgetting names seems commonplace, right? Didn't Kiana just forget my name again?
...That's not right! That's forgetting someone else's name! I forgot my own name!
...Seems like... no difference?
Is this important?
Seems unimportant...
No... a name is... is...
A kind of... not... very important... thing?
...Name...
...My own name...
Shu's heavy breathing gradually calmed down. He let out a long, relaxed sigh.
It's fine... Just something unimportant...
---||---
Meanwhile, Kiana looked troubledly at the small characters on her palm, then at Shu beside her.
"See, still angry..." Kiana muttered, then tapped her head with the pen barrel.
"Then let's leave it blank for now," Kiana whispered, drawing a circle in the space reserved for the name and writing a few lines beside it.
"Important things must be written three times..."
[Important]
[Important]
[This is a very important person!]