#just me rambling about my favourite murder mittens here

[snailsweater]

I'm biting into this post like a dog and running down the alley of headcannons with it in my mouth, but what if you're right and Ai Di is actually wearing a necklace as an accessory here after prison?

We see him wearing a collar or something like a choker all the time in the series. It's something that makes him stand out, that he flaunts, and that he has voluntarily incorporated into his fashion style of a rabid cat. He is otherwise clear in being abrupt, wild and unpredictable.

But still, this accessory is always the same. It always clearly has the style of a collar, of something that holds him, that grounds him. Almost as if it were a reminder of belonging to be, but why?

He's a free spirit, doesn't take shit from anyone, does what he wants, and doesn't back down from anything. He is loud, hurtful, vindictive, ruthless. He is always rushing headlong into something new....

So in this feral character, where are the roots that Ai Di clings to?

Not in one place, he and Chen Yi are orphans, we know that.

Neither are their bosses, Ai Di respects them but still he lightly pulls on them behind their backs.

Ai Di has no footing. He has no real home, no sense of belonging.

Except with Chen Yi.

Chen Yi has always been there. He holds him back when Ai Di gets too carried away. He grounds him.

The collar connects him to the only person he would not survive to lose. The only person he would accept to belong to.

The person he fights and goes crazy for and protects.

Because no matter what he does, who he hurts, who he hunts, what mission he has, Ai Di still always returns to Chen Yi, back to their home.

Chen Yi is his root, his home, and he carries that memory with him every time.

And now to take it up a notch, the clip is from after prison.... And he's not wearing a necklace anymore.

It's a chain.

Because the choice he had, the choice to wear a collar, the choice to fight for Chen Yi, to fight for the gang, to tear himself away from rules, if only it meant that he could make Chen Yi finally see him... that choice is no longer his.

He is trapped.

Trapped in prison, trapped in his position, trapped in his choices, and trapped in his feelings that will never get a chance to be reciprocated.

He is trapped, but even if he wanted to, if he tried with all his might, he is no longer able to free himself.

It looks like this scene when chen yi pulls ai di into a hug is after the prison timeline, because chen yi is wearing a chain around his neck, and we only so him wearing it in the opening scene when he picks up ai di. I don't remember he had it earlier.