snowflake ☆ k.dy ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

doyoung [twenty-six]

The conclusion of breakfast was something your butt was very much looking forward to. The coolness of the stone chairs had seeped through your pants fairly early into the meal, and you made a mental note to bring a blanket to sit on next time. Minhee had just begun picking up plates and cups along with the kitchen staff when Doyoung stopped her.

"Minhee, I have a special request for you."

She looked up curiously, handing the dinnerware to Taekwoon instead, "Yes?"

"I'd like for you to show Y/N around the castle while I attend to other matters," he continued. "Just for the morning, you'll still be let off at lunchtime."

"Okay!" Her tone had some pep in it as she agreed.

"Great," his eyes flicked over to where Chaewon and Chanshik had started walking over to the doorway that you'd used earlier before focusing them back on the younger attendant. "I need you to listen very carefully to what I'm about to say."

"Of course."

"Minhee, she isn't like you and I; her natural body temperature is much higher than ours. You have to make sure she stays warm. And if her lips turn (blue/pale), or any part of her turns (blue/pale), that's very dangerous. If that happens, or she starts shivering, or her teeth start chattering, you take her to the Lady's Spring. Do you understand? She can die if she gets too cold."

"Doyoung, I'm not going to die from a shiver," you finally interrupted his speech. "You're scaring the poor girl. And making me sound like some delicate flower that can wilt away at any second."

"She's never been around anything but Erethulians before, she doesn't know what to look for like I do. Doesn't know how dire hypothermia is. And apparently neither do you."

"I'll self-regulate like normal, Doyoung," you assured him, bringing your hands up to rub at his furrowed brow with your thumbs. It was a little awkward with the thick gloves on, but he seemed to get the point, relaxing his frown just a little bit.

"Promise?"

"I promise."

He took your hands in his, bringing them up to kiss your knuckles, something you could barely feel through the material.

"Be safe, have fun. I'll see you for lunch, okay?"

"Okay," you smiled at him. "Have fun doing important things."

"I have a feeling it won't be very fun."

"Well then I'll just make sure lunch will be fun. I'll brush up on my knock-knock jokes."

Finally, a hint of a smile flickered across his lips, "Please don't."

You shoved on his shoulder playfully, "Rude."

"Bye, Y/N," Doyoung pressed a final kiss to your gloves before dropping your hands.

"Bye, snowflake," you responded quietly, watching as he met the two at the doorway, giving you one last glance before the three of them took leave of the room. Your eyes did a double-take on a strange grey mark on the back of Chanshik and Chaewon's necks, an inverted triangle with some kind of flower within it. They were too far away and left your vision far too quickly for you to get a better look than that. But you were pretty sure you hadn't noticed that before.

As soon as Doyoung disappeared from your view, you shook your momentary confusion away and turned to Minhee, a mission in your mind. Doyoung had been so sure that the Chancellor had destroyed every picture of his family without even looking. You weren't going to give up so easy. He deserves to be able to remember what his own parents look like. He deserves some kind of connection to them and to his past.

"Should we just start at the red hall and go from there?" You suggested as the two of you began your own path from the dining hall.

"The red...?" Minhee seemed confused by your phrasing for a split second before she seemed to understand what you meant. "Oh, you mean the Mono Wing?"

"Ah, so that's what it's called, my bad."

"We shouldn't go there now. That's where the government center is located."

"The what?"

"Where the Royal Family makes important decisions, where town halls happen, any criminal trials happen, things like that."

"Why shouldn't we go there now?"

"Prince Doyoung will be discussing our situation with the townspeople in there."

As much as you didn't want to be ignorant of the issue plaguing Erethulia and your boyfriend's people, it didn't sound like the kind of place that would aid in your search. So you nodded in understanding.

"Oh, and we're in the... orange..."

"Di Wing," Minhee corrected you at your prompting.

"Di Wing," you repeated to commit it to memory. "I've seen the dining hall, could I see the kitchens? And is there anything else in this wing?"

"Just the kitchens. Come, Onmyoji, I'm sure the rest of the staff will be delighted to meet you."

Delighted? You weren't sure if you knew what Erethulian delight even looked like. It was an entire new culture and society for you to get used to. While Doyoung was Erethulian and had initially been cold and unemotional to you, it had faded as you got to know him better, and he was definitely the most emotionally expressive out of all of the ones you'd met: Chaewon, Chanshik, Minhee, even the brief split-second impression of Taekwoon that you'd gotten seemed to line up with them as well. He would still easily be considered reserved by human standards, but here it seemed that he was incredibly emotive in comparison. Doyoung had spent his early years in Erethulia, enough of it that he could remember some customs, but most of his formative years and most of his life had been in the human world, around humans and other Ayakashi that weren't snow spirits. Surely that must be why he stuck out here.

You continued ruminating on this as Minhee led the way towards the kitchens.