snowflake ☆ k.dy ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

doyoung [five]

Another week passed and you were still on the lookout for Doyoung. On purpose this time. Your talk with Johnny had actually helped a lot. Even just having a plan made you feel better. You had a plan, now you needed an opportunity to execute it.

As you were counting the change in your parents' register that night, you felt your hopes deflate. You'd been eagerly listening for the sound of the phone or the bell, thinking that maybe Kun would want another rare book, and you'd have an opportunity to see Doyoung again. But as it came time for closing, you found yourself disappointed.

You were closing up by yourself, your parents typically took off early on Fridays anyway, and Sicheng had requested the day off. You didn't mind, though, you liked helping out, and between the few customers that you got, you had plenty of time to get some schoolwork done.

The bell above the door rang and you nearly broke your neck with how hard you had snapped your head up to look. But your hopes were immediately dashed when you saw that it wasn't Doyoung.

"Hey, Johnny," you tried to make your voice as cheery as possible to not betray your disappointment.

"Hey, little lady," he grinned down at you, and behind him you saw Renjun coming into the store too.

"Oh, hey Renjun!"

The Satori mumbled a greeting back, hands stuffed in his pockets.

The Domeki spoke again, "We're closing up early to visit Jungwoo, do you want to come with?"

"I'd love to, but I've got to finish closing up here, then I have to do some grocery shopping and feed Taeyong."

"Surely he can open a can of cat food by himself," Renjun scoffed.

"We're out of cat food, hence why I have to go grocery shopping."

"He can't make his own human food?"

"He lit Chinese takeout on fire in the microwave the other day. Forgot to take the metal handle off the paper takeout container. He's been banned from doing anything more than pouring himself a cup of Goldfish."

Johnny, looking alarmed, offered, "Maybe I should give him a few cooking lessons then. And microwave safety lessons."

"That'd actually be great," you perked up. "He needs to learn to be more self-sufficient. Get actual life skills. I'll tell him about it tonight, thanks, Johnny."

"Of course," he smiled down at you. "We'll leave you to close up then. Have a good night, Y/N."

"You too! And tell Jungwoo I said hi."

"We will."

You watched your friends depart, then, with a great sigh, restarted your counting.

☆

Hearing the click! of the door locking, you tucked your keys back into your backpack and started down Bell Street. It took you a little longer than usual than close up—mostly thanks to Johnny and Renjun's interruption of you counting the register—so the sun was beginning to go down. Taeyong was surely already pacing around your apartment nervously, but there wasn't much you could do about that. You still had groceries to get. Clicking the power button on your phone to review your grocery list, you groaned when all it did was flash an empty battery symbol to you. Right, it had died a few minutes ago and you didn't have a power bank on you. Well, you'd have to do this by memory.

You had just turned the corner off of Bell Street and onto Flora Drive when you were suddenly knocked back by something. Thinking you had bumped into someone, you looked up and went to apologize, before realizing that nobody was there. As you got back to your feet, you looked ahead of you to see that the entire street was empty. Turning around with the intention of looking to see if you had maybe tripped over something, you saw a man standing about a foot behind you. The top of his face was concealed by the brim of a baseball cap, and he looked rather normal.