It's the tears that throw him off the most - tears he's not once ever seen from Yue Qingyuan in his life. It's surreal, seeing him like this, and Shen Qingqiu can't help wondering what the final straw was that had finally broken the stubbornly repressed camel that is his ex-brother.

He finds himself unable to turn away, overwhelmed with emotional confusion as he listens to Yue Qingyuan's broken-voiced confession, watches Yue Qingyuan's tear-streaked face, looking ready to react somehow if those hands actually managed to touch him. "You...I told you not—"

His voice trails off as the meaning of Yue Qi's words finally sinks into his brain, his own eyes reddening ever-so-slightly as his lips press into a thin line. "...What's too late...is telling me this. All these years, I'd thought—" He pauses, finds his words, starts up again - "You weren't supposed to come back this time. You didn't listen then, you aren't listening now, I don't know why you're crying—" His fingers tighten their grip on the stupid plastic fan he'd picked up among the shop's accessories, unable to put to words exactly what urge he's actually feeling.