Chapter 624: Side Story 1. The Twilight Zone - 6
Bassena rarely cried.
He used to be a crybaby when his mother was still there to soothe him. He cried a lot during the hellish training period leading to his awakening. And then he stopped, because crying only made him beaten up even more.
After that, he never cried again. The emotions that used to trigger his tear glands shifted to anger instead, and that was how he became a wild beast that Han Joon and Radia needed to tame in the academy.
But he never cried again, even when everything felt so painful. He did not cry again even in front of his mother’s grave.
He did not cry again until he met Zein.
It was when he found out what happened to Zein during the kidnapping. And again, when Zein finally, for the first time, uttered that magic word; love. That he loved Bassena.
The tears came again when he heard the same word, in the same place, uttered with the same expression; serene and sincere.
It was like he reverted back to his childhood crybaby era. Strangely enough, Bassena did not feel embarrassed about it. It wasn’t cool, but Zein did not care about cool people anyway. If anything, in Bassena’s eyes, he could never be as cool as Zein himself.
Moreover...
"Pfft--what is this? Why are you crying?" Zein cusped the esper’s face and wiped the dripping tears with his long sleeve. The blue eyes softened and the pretty lips curled into an amused smile. "What a cutie..."
Zein liked how adorable Bassena was when he cried. Rather than the devilishly charming esper with a smile meant to seduce that used to fill the billboard, Zein preffered this messy hair and scrunched-up face wet with tears. The raw Bassena with no pretense and secured vulnerability.