The following days were fairly the same.

At night, Arthur would have the same dreams of being at the bottom of the well, seeing a piece of green broken gem and waking up around the moment the skeleton talked. If he didn’t have any nightmares, then he would only have dreamless nights or not sleep at all.

During the day, Duy Anh would often leave after breakfast and come back in the afternoon or, if he’s lucky, for lunch. He would sometimes bring back snacks, flowers or ink and paper for Arthur. They still had met a lot less often than Arthur had imagined they would so they had barely gotten closer since the first day, despite Duy Anh’s sweet smile and patience. Binh would also often go out to run errands but would also bring Arthur along whenever she could, while Lien seemed to always stay at home, taking care of any housework, including cooking and sewing. Rather than a master and two maids, it looked like three acquaintances (now four) cohabiting.

Even if he exchanged a few words with everyone everyday, it was quite lonely. On his fifth night in the past, he had thought of sending messages to Truc again but he didn’t want to waste more battery as it could be much more useful later. Now, he was only bored and needed some company. Feeling more melancholic than usual, he lost sleep.

Arthur stepped outside, needing some fresh air. There, he saw there was still light coming out from the main house—the door was open. As he walked to the court, he heard Duy Anh’s voice.

“What brings you out here? Aren’t you resting yet?”

Looking closely, Duy Anh was sitting on the steps leading to the door, sipping on a cup of tea as the light illuminated against his shadowy figure.

“...couldn’t sleep”, Arthur replied. It was barely a whisper—he didn’t want to wake up any of the girls if they already were asleep.

“Then won’t you join me?” Duy Anh said, softly tapping on the wood, next to him.

“Yes. But won’t drink more tea” Arthur replied. He knew tea would only make it worse (and probably would make him wake up in the middle of the night to go pee) so it was better to turn Duy Anh down before he asked—because he definitely would.

Duy Anh softly laughed before nodding and leaving a spot so Arthur could sit comfortably next to him.

It was quite strange, to sit like this. It felt weirdly intimate, as if they were the only ones there. Maybe it was the quietness of the night, or the awkwardness of being left alone with someone he wasn’t used to. He was barefoot, in his underclothes, while Duy Anh...Duy Anh also looked bare. He did, at least compared to his usual multiple layers and the way he often had accessories hiding his face.

There, he was also barefoot, in his underclothes like Arthur was, although his outer robe was draping over his shoulders. His hair was elegantly falling down his left shoulder, reflecting the deep blue of the night sky. Duy Anh wasn’t exactly beautiful or pretty but his calmness and the peaceful aura emanating from him were very attractive—to describe it in another way, he looked like a pond of clear water rather than a bouquet of fancy flowers.

“You’re not sleeping either?” Arthur broke the silence.

“No,” Duy Anh replied, “my feet felt numb so I couldn’t sleep.” He took another sip of tea before turning to look at Arthur. “Like you, I went out to take a breath of fresh air, thinking it would help.” There was a moment of silence. Duy Anh finished his cup before speaking again. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there often although you’re my guest. I won’t have any work tomorrow. Would you want to spend some time with me then?”

“Yes, sure” Arthur replied. He was quite happy about it, actually. It’s not that he disliked being with the girls but Binh was still hard to read and Lien was often busy with taking care of the house; he missed talking to another fellow man.

Sitting there a bit with Duy Anh relaxed Arthur enough for him to feel sleepy so he had tried to hide his yawns several times—unsuccessfully, since Duy Anh gave him an amused smile and told him to go back to his room or else he’d catch a cold. Arthur followed his advice and left. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep.

As for Duy Anh, he still felt a bit uneasy and couldn’t yet find sleep. It was a while since Arthur had joined their house but he was barely able to spend time with him. When he had seen him going out of his room, he got nervous. What if he didn’t like it here? What if he really had hidden attentions that nobody could have caught yet?

Since the very first day, he had asked Binh to keep a close eye on Arthur but nothing had seemed suspicious—if anything, Arthur looked too innocent and naive. His injuries were real and he never looked like he faked his abilities or inabilities. When Binh had told him that Arthur got lost in the market and came back to her in a panicked state, he found it hard to believe but as the days passed, he noticed how easy it was to read Arthur’s emotions. Despite the language barrier, Arthur was incredibly easy to understand. He never had any difficult request or reaction. He was quite the simple man (or stupid, in Binh’s words but Duy Anh didn’t want to admit she was right).

On his side, he had also spent more time outside the house to make detours to the most extensive libraries he knew around, to learn more about Pham Hai Long’s background but nothing came out of it. The rumors of a weird man found in a well never even reached the ear of higher ranked nobles either.

If anything, he was probably the one who had the most impure intentions out of the two. Seeing the clueless look Arthur had on his face when they had met, he simply thought he was an illiterate man. As a scholar, he was offered the opportunity to teach to children of important families but he had never taught literature or writing to anyone before.

That was when he had met Arthur on his way home and thought he would make a great test subject. The man was a foreigner with close to no comprehension of the Vietnamese language and probably the speaking ability of a four year old child—and yet he was already an adult, so it was likely that he would have the patience and attention span of one too. It’d be easier to try to teach him the basics of the language that he already somewhat knew. It would be like teaching a child without him being an actual child (with all the issues that came with children being children).

Tomorrow would be the first day Duy Anh would really attempt to teach Arthur the language—one that he had already quite improved by staying here and interacting with others! At least that was a good sign, he was a fast learner.

Duy Anh was quite nervous. He didn’t know exactly how to do that but the best would probably to be straightforward and directly ask Arthur of his time; he wouldn’t refuse, he wasn’t the type to.

Duy Anh walked back into his room and blew the candle out, determined to give his very first lesson tomorrow.