snowflake ☆ k.dy ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

doyoung [eighteen]

Six days later and you were in Bibliophile Books, sitting on the front countertop and chatting with Sicheng. Your classes for the day had been cancelled so you opted to spend your day on Bell Street. You'd already done a cooking lesson with Johnny and Taeyong at Lenticular and had left your Nekomata there to bring a plate of food to Sicheng while they cleaned up and got better acquainted—the loft above Lenticular Café was to be Taeyong's home for the next week while you were in Erethulia.

The Mizuchi dragon was munching thoughtfully on the food and you occasionally picked bites off from the plate too, much to his annoyance. Sicheng's tart look at your scavenging turned to one of confusion. Covering his mouth with one hand, he reached up his other to grab something from between his lips. Secured between his forefinger and thumb was a white hair. A cat hair.

"Should've made Taeyong put the ears away," he said, flicking it into the small trashcan beside him. "Gross."

"He did have them away," you said with a thoughtful frown.

"Probably your shirt then."

"Oh, right. Cat mom shirt, I tend to shed too," you looked down at your fur-covered shirt sheepishly. "So what are you doing on spring break?"

"Working here."

"Anything else?"

"I don't have any concrete plans. I think Johnny is going to try to organize a beach day or something for us all, I don't know if I'll go though."

"Oh, yeah, he mentioned that earlier, asked when I was available. You should go, Sicheng. Have fun, you know. Besides, you're a water dragon or whatever, shouldn't you love the beach?"

"I prefer rivers, actually."

It took you a second to realize that he was messing with you, and you pushed on his shoulder with an eye roll as he snickered.

"You're fucking annoying. But seriously, you should go, whenever you're not singlehandedly keeping my parents' shop open."

"They do plenty around here, all the administration, paying the taxes, that sort of thing."

"I know, I know. I'm glad they can semi-retire now, and Dad can focus on the part that he actually likes, going to book swaps and hunting down rare books for select clientele, that kind of stuff."

"I'm happy to help. Especially because they pay me a living wage."

You chuckled in agreement, well aware of the struggles of working as a college student. This brought on a lull in your conversation, taken up by Sicheng carefully picking through the food, presumably looking for more cat hairs. He found a couple more, and you let your mind wander to your own spring break plans.

"Sicheng."

"Hm?"

"What do you know about Erethulia?"

Sicheng tilted his head with a thoughtful frown, taking a moment to think before answering, "I think she's like a snow goddess or something. That's all I've got. Why?"

"She was the first snow spirit, actually," you corrected him, earning a raised brow. "And I meant about the place."

"I didn't know that there was a place called that too. Why? Is this about the snow spirit?"

Sicheng vaguely knew about your relationship with Doyoung, but it was a topic that you two mutually avoided. You were well aware that it could easily be a point of contention if conversation ever steered towards him, because it was a slippery slope from Doyoung to Kun, and you knew that just the thought of the Oni would upset your friend. Sicheng never asked, and you never offered. But your insatiable curiosity about your boyfriend's life before you'd met him easily tore down that thin veil you kept between those two parts of your life.