The Tragedies of Life {A Genshin Impact OC Story}

Chapter 18: How do I turn it off?

Everywhere she goes, he is there. And Kinoko couldn't help that even for the world. She wanted desperately to let yesterday go, where she couldn't fight how happy she was to be close to Wanderer, and enjoy the rain with him, even if he hates the rain himself. 

"Please, Kinoko, stop daydreaming. This is serious." Tighnari insisted. "And what kind of hat is that?" This morning, the sun was shining brightly, a big contrast to the rain from yesterday. Tighnari and Kinoko were talking just outside his house. She shifted a little on the wooden floor to ground herself again, and leaned against the wooden crate behind her.

"Sorry, Tighnari." She said nervously. She couldn't stop thinking about Wanderer, and that left her with a nervous feeling. She's never thought about someone so often. "Yes, I won't eat those berries again." Even her thoughts distracted her from the itching pain on her arms from accidentally eating a poisonous berry. She touched Wanderer's hat gently, feeling over the smooth, golden attachments to it. "It's Hat Guy's. He let me borrow it since it was raining."

"Really?" Tighnari raised an eyebrow, amused. "Weren't you saying how annoying he was, and you used to complain about him all the time during dinner?" He pushed through the leaf doors of his house, and Kinoko followed. He walked over to a counter and started preparing a small cup of medicine while Kinoko let her eyes wander across the butterflies and plants inside.

"Yeah, but we decided to become friends yesterday." She explained before sitting down at his desk chair. "He's not...bad." She admitted awkwardly. She felt her cheeks heat up from embarrassment.

"Oh?" said Tighnari while he grabbed a jar of herbs from the top shelf above the counter. He started sprinkling some into the cup before placing the cup on the desk in front of Kinoko. "Do tell."

She took a moment to drink the medicine, almost gagging at the taste. After swallowing, she said, "There's nothing to tell." That was mostly a reassurance to herself that there was nothing to tell, that she was really just being stupid about the whole thing.

"You sure~?" He asked teasingly.

"Yep, yep! Completely sure!" She said awkwardly. "I actually have to return the hat anyway, so, bye! Thanks for the medicine!" She bounded out of there at the speed of lightning. She knew that running from her problems wasn't good, but whatever "problems" this feeling was, it seemed worthy to run from in her defense.

She ran to her and Wanderer's usual spot-a palm tree behind the city wall-meeting him not long after. As he arrived, he looked very strange without his hat on. A smirk appeared on his face when he saw Kinoko with the hat on her head. "You look stupid with that thing on." He said teasingly before taking the hat off her head and putting it back on his own.

"Hey!" She countered, but this time, she wasn't intending to start an argument. Arguments felt pointless now that they were friends.

She looked down at the paper in his hand, and he held it up to show the commission they were going to be doing that day. They were meant to investigate some ruins deep in the forest underground, which seemed like a plan for complete failure, but it paid a lot of mora. They walked a while before breaking through some rocks, which eventually led them inside said cave.

"We're supposed to find this artifact. They made some drawings for us." Wanderer said flatly and handed Kinoko the paper again. She took a big look around the ruins in the cave, at the concrete broken structures, at the papers, crates, and supplies scattered around like the place had been attacked by a tornado. The only lights in the room were some flickering candles along the stone brick walls, and from the outside daylight. She looked down at the drawing of the artifact. It looked like some sort of fancy goblet marked with fancy jewels.