Deep Azure

Chu Shen says, "I've got two rules in life. First, I don't hit women. Second, I don't love men."

Xian Qingqing sits on a barstool at his counter, legs crossed, her neck stretched into a mocking line. "So what are you doing now? Practicing eye contact with me?"

Chu Shen slams his beer mug onto the table with a bang, splashing foam everywhere. "I'm... I'm showing some human compassion. You just got back to the country, and I was worried you'd be lonely."

"I'm not lonely." Xian Qingqing wipes the foam off the table with her fingertip and flicks it onto Chu Shen's T-shirt. "I just think the drinks here are lousy, the people are rough, and your eyes are too sharp."

"Sharp eyes?" Chu Shen laughs and leans closer, close enough to smell the hint of mint and pine on Xian Qingqing. "If my eyes were that sharp, I wouldn't have let you get away five years ago. And then you ran off to another country. Showing off, were you?"

They're like two hedgehogs, determined to huddle together for warmth, even as they leave each other covered in bloody holes.

You call that love?

Chu Shen calls it "being a masochist." Xian Qingqing calls it "art."

If you ask me, it's Deep Blue: deep and blue, so blue it's almost purple, and deep as the bottomless sea.

Theme: Learn to embrace and love