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A short distance away, Li Ren was doing what she did best. Or at least, what she did best when she didn't have a weapon in her hand. Standing behind a shorter girl, she seemed to be caught up in deep conversation debating the various qualities of the jewelry pieces laid out before them.

The booth owner looked on with a very pleased expression, occasionally popping into the conversation to steer them towards or away from one piece of jewelry or another. At last they seemed to settle on a small, delicate pearl-adorned hair comb. The shopkeeper looked immensely satisfied with the selection as he named the price and Li Ren tossed the copper pieces at him. Sure, he might be giving her a discount, but his wares were hardly flying off the shelves.

Transaction completed, Li Ren took the comb, whispering into the girl's ear intimately as she slid the beautifully ornamented piece of jewelry into her hair. The girl flushed deeply, giggling nervously as she preened in a small mirror the shopkeeper held for her. As Li Ren paid her empty compliments about her beauty, it was then that her gaze broke for a second and caught sight of the gangly firebending student seated over some papers.

A few minutes more and the other girl had run off. Li Ren didn't know what these girls told their parents about the mysterious gifts, but she didn't particularly care. She enjoyed the thrill of a brief flirtation and starry-eyed adoration, but truly these girls were little more than objects to her and she felt contempt for them that they would allow themselves to be treated in such a way.

She strode towards the firelord's statue and with the boy so caught up in his studying, it was easy to creep up behind him. Bending down to his level, she chided softly, "If you keep looking like that, your face will freeze that way."

"I can't ignore a pretty girl in distress," she murmured into his ear. Amusement passed over Li Ren's features as she straightened back up and though she didn't see the contents of the scrolls, she more than noticed how anxious he was to prevent her from seeing them. "What's that you have there? I hope it's not love poetry; if you have to resort to love poetry, she isn't worth wooing," she advised casually, though her disdain for her own gender was easily discernible in her voice.

Without waiting for a response or an invitation, she settled down next to Rin-ji, leaning back on her hands and looking up at him expectantly, "Well? It's not really love poetry, is it?"

Li Ren didn't spend much time people reading, or at least she seemed oblivious to the fact that Rin-ji might not be enjoying her presence. She leaned back further, staring up at the sky, and at length seemed to actually hear what Rin-ji had said. "Bending scrolls? Why would need those," she wondered aloud, turning her gaze on him and squinting slightly in the sun.

Li Ren frowned deeply. This was the first she had heard about Razuten's disappearance. Her first reaction was to accuse him of lying, but she caught her tongue before the words crossed her lips. After all, the last time she had accused him of such things had turned out remarkably poorly for her.

Instead she arched an eyebrow at him, "He disappeared? When? Why?"

Li Ren's eyebrows furrowed as Rin-ji spoke. His tale was difficult to believe, especially when the Avatar was thrown into the mix; on the other hand, he seemed genuinely distressed and she didn't think even he would go to such extravagant lengths to keep her away from his master. The events that Rin-ji described were like nothing Li Ren had ever experienced before -- her world was so self-contained, all she troubled herself with were her own problems: an unwanted fiance and a father holding her back from her dreams.

She rubbed her chin against her shoulder thoughtfully as she tried to fully digest everything the taller boy had said. Honestly? She was kind of at a lack for words and felt somewhat helpless. Unsurprisingly, Li Ren didn't have any close friends and she certainly had never had someone confess all their troubles to her in such a fashion. Idle conversation over tea generally involved discussing who was engaged to whom and whose family was sinking into ruin. (Her own family, no doubt, was a hot topic of conversation among her so-called friends when she wasn't around.)

She shifted uncomfortably, crossing one leg over the other. Rin-ji was quite the damsel in distress after all, but Li Ren was hardly prepared to be his knight. Several moments had passed since Rin-ji had finished speaking before Li Ren finally responded, "It sounds like everyone knows something you don't."

Rin-ji's words forced Li Ren to face a reality check as well. Here she was, a woman of high birth, socializing in public with the lowest of low. Well, maybe not the lowest, after all he was no longer a servant as he liked to remind her. He was, however, on the run from a very displeased former employer, so was that really much better? He looked the part too -- couldn't Razuten at least have dressed him in some more acceptable clothing?

Li Ren sighed inwardly. Up until that moment they had almost been acting like friends, both of them forgetting the enormous social gap between them. Talking to Rin-ji was strangely nice when neither one of them was puffing up their chest at the other. It was a rarity for Li Ren to interact with someone without hiding behind one of her masks - either that of the well brought up nobleman's daughter or the fierce warrior in training. Rin-ji wasn't a part of either of Li Ren's worlds, though Li Ren herself was hardly self-aware enough to realize that this was why she felt momentarily free to just be herself.

She pursed her lips as she had a decision to make: leave and preserve her dignity, or stay and face unknown consequences later. Running would be easy. She could say something snide and leave him in the dust and never have to worry about him again. Society allowed Li Ren many eccentricities, but it would be far less forgiving of this particular one.

But when Li Ren claimed to fight so hard against the role society had trust her into simply for being a woman, could she really be proud of herself for yielding to it in this situation?

She leaned forward, stretching her arms out before her, giving all the appearance of having little care in the world despite the question Rin-ji had just posed of her. "I don't know what makes you so certain he's missing at all. My father leaves all the time and no one sends out a search party," her tone was faintly haughty when she finally spoke, but she preferred deflecting him back to Razuten's disappearance than try to actually answer his question.

"Maybe. I don't concern myself with my father's comings and goings. That's something for the servants to worry about," she replied thoughtlessly. Li Ren had never had a warm relationship with her father, but it had soured significantly since she had become old enough for him to start using her as a bargaining chip for political advancement. It wasn't that he was a especially cold hearted man, but that was simply the way things were -- particularly for a family like Li Ren's who had spent generations scrambling to raise themselves in society's eyes.

As Rin-ji mentioned Lord Yuan it only served as a reminder that befriending a boy like him was not only hurting herself, but her family as well. Not that.. she was befriending him. She hardly even liked him! She was just.. talking to him. There wasn't anything better to be doing at the moment anyway, right?

"You shouldn't worry yourself," she said decisively, flicking a piece of hair our of her face with annoyance. "He's bound to turn up eventually."