Her heart was thumping in her chest so loudly she was surprised Jin couldn’t hear it.

Until that moment, she’d not thought much about Jin beyond him being a companion. In her mind, he was a bit like Ye (but bigger). Somewhat mysterious, a little silly and sly, but generally good hearted (not withstanding his past prior to meeting her). She liked his company, now that he knew how to behave properly. That was as far as she’d ever gotten in her thoughts of him.

This was the first time it really occurred to her he was a man. An actual, breathing male of the same species as her. Her awareness of his male-ness was so intense and sudden it was sending little shivers across her body.

No wonder Madam Changying had said girls lose their innocence when seeing men naked! Even though she’d technically already seen him naked, this time was totally different. Who knew that women were such shallow creatures that they could get enraptured in a single glance!?

Even though the water was cold, she was burning up.

She realized she needed to get out of there. Even if it meant leaving her shampoo in her hair. Getting on her hands and knees, she took a few crawling steps backwards and inched towards the shore that had her drying clothes.

In that moment, a single pine cone sailed above her head and hit the back of Jin’s head. Mei Hua froze, eyes wide and horrified.

She hadn’t thrown that! It hadn’t been her!

Barely a second after that pine cone knocked into Jin’s head, he’d spun around to look for the culprit. She was barely hidden to begin with and because of her move away from the stone, she was completely exposed and so was Jin’s front.

…completely…

…exposed…

“…who dares!?” Jin cried out, angry at being sneak attacked.

Mei Hua stayed frozen in her spot, unable to move. She kept her face squarely down, not daring to look up after that first (glorious) eyeful. There was a sloshing sound and she heard him come closer.

“MeiMei? What are you doing here?” He sounded very confused upon seeing here there, on her hands and knees, long hair clinging to her body in messy elegance.

“I thought you were—” Jin’s words died in his throat. His brain had caught up to his eyes. He turned his face away, blushing slightly, and asked cautiously, “…where are your clothes?”

“…on the shore…” Came her weak reply.

“I’ll be right back then.” There was a woosh and sploosh sound, then silence. After a minute, there was a splash, followed by clothing being draped over her exposed shoulders and back.

“Why are you here?” He asked again, softening his voice to show he wasn’t upset.

“B,bathing.” Her voice stuttered, her body finally moving at the feel of the slightly damp clothes. She leaned back and pulled the clothes closer. Making sure to keep her eyes down, she whispered, “I didn’t know you were here. I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

“It’s alright, MeiMei. It’s alright.” Jin could feel her distress, embarrassment, practically radiating off her in waves. She was breathing like she’d run to the top of a mountain peek.

Intellectually he knew being in this situation had infringed on her virtue and that was upsetting her, but practically speaking it made no sense to him. Hadn’t she seen him naked before? He’d always gotten yelled at immediately for exposing himself. Now she was acting timid. What had changed?

Could it be simply because he saw her naked this time?

He’d only seen a little bit. Just a little. It had been very pretty, what he’d seen, but it still only been a little. It shouldn’t be a big problem… right?

Putting a calloused hand on her soapy head, he stroked her hair to try to calm her down. To his amazement, her face to her shoulders turned bright red at his touch. He immediately removed his hand, surprised by the reaction.

After an awkward silence he finally spoke. “I’ll leave first, then you can finish bathing. MeiMei, I’m sorry too. I didn’t know you were here either. I… I didn’t see anything. So don’t be upset, alright? I didn’t see anything.”

Before she could respond to such an obvious lie, he’d already leapt out of the water and was gone. She stared at the water for a long moment in a daze.

As she sat there, a memory of her time in the human town rose up in her mind. A group of young girls had been walking around town, enjoying the street stalls during a festival. A popular, handsome man had been doing the same and walked past them. Those girls had started giggling and sighing, while still somehow acting shy and coy. They didn’t approach him, just looked at him from afar. At the time, Mei Hua had thought the whole thing ridiculous. If you liked a man, just go up to him and say so, had been her way of thinking.

But now… She understood why they’d acted like idiots. When faced with a truly handsome man, it was so easy to lose all sense of yourself. And she wasn’t exempt. She just hadn’t met anyone she’d really thought was handsome.

Until now.

How was she going to act around Jin? She covered her face with a hand, groaning. Could she pretend to be normal? If she didn’t, how was she going to explain her behavior?

What had he been doing here anyway? Hadn’t she told Ye to—

…

“YE!” She roared in rage, her cry echoing into the trees and startling birds out of their trees.