Imperfect Desires

The very next day, Jackie showed up and made a beeline for Rowan's room. He smuggled the box of snacks that he had been entrusted with saying, "These are from your Jie. Enjoy!" He ruffled his fluffy hair.

Rowan slapped his hand away, "JJ, stop doing that. You always mess up my hair. I spent so much time pressing them down."

Jackie chuckled at him, "I'm going now."

"Already?"

"I have to see my Jie since I'm already here," replied Jackie and walked out of the room.

He found Xiu in the garden trimming the flowers as she continued to talk in her recorder. Although Jackie was being too quiet so as not to disturb her, she still noticed his presence. Placing the pruning scissor down, she took off the gloves and stopped recording. Looking at him, she asked, "So, what did you sneak in?"

Jackie pressed his lips together, "Sister Xiu, my darling sister. Do you think I'm a moonshiner?"

"Love does that to people," stated Xiu with certainty. "I'm not surprised that love turned you into a smuggler now."

Jackie raked his fingers through his hair carelessly. He looked quite handsome at this age. He was already in high school and he grew up quite tall as well. Since in the past couple of years, he had gotten into playing basketball, it made his body quite athletic.

Noticing his silence, Xiu raised her brow at him in question, "Wow! You didn't deny this time."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"In the past, whenever I said its love, you'd deny it," she told him. "But today, you're quiet. Is it really love now?"

Jackie scratched his head saying, "I don't know. Don't you and Nora always say I'm too young to understand that?"

He wasn't just saying it though, he really meant his words. He really didn't know what his feelings were. Maybe it could really be defined as love, he wasn't sure. And he was the kind of a person who was always certain in his life. From a young age, he acted m?tur? for his age. But his understanding of feelings like love was just like any other kid his age or maybe even worse since he spent most of his time with books.

Xiu patted his head lovingly, "My little brother is growing up."

"Huh? Did you just notice?"

She shook her head, "Nah. It's just that it isn't every day that Jackson Jing would waste his time pondering about feelings." She took a moment and asked, "Asteria asked you to bring something for Rowan?"

"Yeah," he didn't lie to her. He just couldn't lie to her.

"What did she say?" asked Xiu.

"Nothing much," replied Jackie as he recalled his conversation with Asteria earlier... 𝗳𝒓𝙚e𝓌e𝚋𝙣𝚘𝐯𝙚𝙡.𝑐૦ｍ

He came since she texted him that she needed his help and he left everything to get here as soon as possible. When he faced her, she just gave him the box full of snacks and asked him to bring it to Rowan for her.

"Didn't you think about rejecting her?" asked Xiu. "You're always running errands for her."

Jackie frowned at that, "Why would I reject? Of all people, she reached out to me for help. Shouldn't I be helping her? Don't you say that helping others is good?"

Xiu laughed out at his response and patted his shoulder, "Little brother, you're quite amusing now."

"What do you mean?" he asked in confusion.

"Nothing," she responded.

Jackie followed her inside silently and didn't continue this topic. Instead, he brought something else up, "By the way, even if you're grounding Rowan, can't you let Ava and Asteria come over to see him for a while?"

Xiu stared at him for a long minute. "Do you think what I did is wrong?"

Jackie shook his head and flailed his hands almost immediately, "No way! My sis is never wrong."

"Why do you think I'm doing it?"

"Because you want Rowan to understand that he can't always hide behind others even though others are willing to protect him. Also, he has to learn to own his mistakes and not try to run from them."

"Impressive! My little brother does understand me," commented Xiu.

"I would be ashamed of myself if I couldn't even understand you of all people in my life," responded Jackie. "Do you wanna come home with me tonight?"

"Why?" asked Xiu.

"Oh, in that way, we'll give Rowan a scare that you left him because he was being a bad kid."

Xiu stared at Jackie wide-eyed and came over to check his temperature by touching his forehead with the back of her hand. "It seems normal to me." She cupped his face and looked into his eyes, "Did Ava's soul enter your body?"

Jackie laughed out loud at her question. "Why would you ?ssume that?"

"Oh, because only she has such evil ideas in her head. She is always up for some mischief," answered Xiu. "And Ava loves you the most. So, I thought she might have rubbed off on you a little."

"I was just kidding with you," stated Jackie. "My dearest niece can't possibly rub off on me. Ever!"

"But the one who had been on your mind for years is definitely getting influenced by your dearest niece," reminded Xiu.

"Xiu!"

Xiu looked over at Nora who came to her house at this time in surprise.

"You aren't at work?" questioned Xiu.

"I had a terrible headache," answered Nora as she sprawled on the sofa. "So, I left early today. I was going home but then I thought I should come over to you instead."

"Why? So I can worsen your headache?"

Nora glared at Xiu, "I was hoping you'd fix it!"

"I know I'm omnipotent but there are still things I can't do," said Xiu with a big smile on her face.

"It's been years and I still get the urge to slap your face when you smile like that," told Nora.

"Funny thing, you couldn't slap me before and you certainly can't do it now," Xiu looked at her smugly.