amidst the winter season | kittyz

two

Hanni woke up the next morning to the dreadful sound of plastic scratching on concrete. 

It was still mostly dark inside the room, probably because of the thick curtains. However, a quick look on her phone showed that it was only 8 am, quite early in the morning. But how was anybody supposed to sleep with that noise going on outside?

Curious as to what was causing the disturbance, Hanni sat up and rubbed her eyes. The room had cooled down overnight and after tentatively sticking a foot out from under the duvet, she decided to keep the blanket on. Pulling it tighter around her shoulders, Hanni took the cover to the window with her and peaked through the curtains.

From her room, which was facing away from the mountain and towards the village, she had perfect sight of the area by the front door. With excitement, Hanni noticed that it had snowed during the night; the driveway and the parts of the road she could see were covered in at least a few inches of snow. 

Right below her window was a figure in thick winter clothes who was shoveling the snow with a plastic snow shovel. Each time the person would push the shovel over the driveway and carve a little snow-free line, there was a loud scratching sound. Looking closer, Hanni recognized Haerin, who was wearing head-to-toe ski clothing. 

Hanni slowly went over to her closet where she had put her clothes the previous evening and pulled out some items for today. Usually, she never gets dressed before breakfast as she likes to relax in the mornings and take her time, but she feels weird walking around in this unfamiliar house in her pajamas. 

Reluctantly, she got out of the duvet and got undressed, shivering from head to toe in the morning cold that had set in the room. Her outfit for the day was basically just loose pants over leggings to keep her legs warm, a t-shirt and a thick sweater. Hanni did not like winter clothing that much. She thought it made her look at least two sizes bigger than she actually is because of how thick it was. The colder it got, the more clothes she had to layer and the larger her rather small self looked.

After putting on wooly socks with little carrots printed on them, Hanni finally went down to the living room, only to find the house abandoned. There was no sign of hers or Haerin's parents and she awkwardly wandered around the house in hopes of finding someone to talk to. Her stomach rumbled, a loud signal of how hungry she was. But it would be very inappropriate and rude to just take things from a stranger's fridge, would it not? Hanni felt a little weird in this unknown house and did not want to overstep boundaries.

Just when she decided to go back up to her room and wait until Haerin was back inside so she could ask for help, the front door opened and the girl in question waltzed into the house, snow falling from her boots. After her, Cola entered the hallway, his tiny body wrapped in a ridiculously small red dog-sweater.

"Oh good, you're up," Haerin noticed, beaming at Hanni as she took off her jacket, "I haven't had breakfast yet. Are you hungry?"

Hanni nodded, awkwardly waiting for Haerin to get herself off of the thick ski trousers and shoes and help Cola out of his tiny jacket. Underneath her skiing clothes, Haerin was still wearing her pajamas.

"What would you like for breakfast?" Haerin asked, opening different cabinets, "Usually, I just eat some toast, but if you'd like something else, that's totally fine."

"Do you have cereal?" Hanni came two steps closer, examining the contents of the currently open cupboard.

"Yeah, what kind of cereal would you like?" Haerin opened the door of a cabinet and pointed at the different boxes inside, "chocolate flakes, honey nut cheerios, normal cornflakes... I think there must be some fruit loops somewhere, too..."