Kizuna lightened her steps as she pushed open the back door of the classroom.
Lunch break wasn't over yet, and there were only a few scattered classmates napping on their desks. The curtains gently billowed and fell in the breeze, while the sunlight sliced several shifting bands of light across the floor.
Her gaze habitually drifted toward the second-to-last row of the column next to the window.
Qiluo was still in the same position as when she had left, her profile resting on her folded arms, her eyes closed, her breathing slow and even.
Standing beside the desk, she looked down for a few seconds.
She was sleeping so soundly that even the sound of pulling out a chair hadn't woken her. It was completely different from her usual, somewhat aloof and calm demeanor.
She usually seemed a bit cold, but her sleeping face was completely defenseless. The contrast was huge.
She suddenly recalled what Yuki had said in the corridor.
“Sometimes Qiluo smells like starlight.”
Standing so close now, she could indeed catch a faint, crisp fragrance. It wasn't perfume, but rather resembled the scent of late autumn night air after being warmed by the sun.
“It smells so good... It should be fine to get a little closer and sniff, right? She's asleep anyway.”
Kizuna leaned down, moving closer.
The crisp fragrance became clearer, mingled with a subtle sweetness—like a freshly unwrapped candy wrapper, or the warmth of a fireplace late on a winter night. It was strangely comforting.
She remembered her older sister once saying that everyone has their own unique scent, and some people's scents make you want to stay by their side forever.
She hadn't understood it back then, but now, she seemed to.
She leaned in even closer, her nose almost touching the stray hairs behind Qiluo's ear. The tips of the hair trembled gently with Qiluo's breath, brushing against the tip of her nose.
“Uh, is this distance a bit too close?”
She could clearly see the faint veins on her temple. Her eyelashes were so long.
“Strange, did her eyelashes just twitch?”
“Oh no, is she actually awake?”
Kizuna's face slowly began to flush, starting from the tips of her ears.
But Qiluo didn't open her eyes, nor did she move.
“If she's pretending to sleep, her self-control is way too impressive.”
She made a mental note: “Tian Gong-san smells like winter stars.”
Qiluo lay on the desk, her face buried in her folded arms, keeping her breathing extremely slow and steady.
“Are you serious, girl?”
She could feel Kizuna's nose stopping right behind her ear. The warm breath brushed against the fine hairs on her ear, tickling her so much she almost broke her expression.
“What is this girl doing?”
“Kizuna is sniffing me.”
“She's not a puppy, why is she sniffing me?”
“Kizuna, do you have some kind of weird fetish?”
Kizuna finally pulled back gently and pulled out her chair to sit down.
She noticed a stray hair resting on the corner of Qiluo's mouth. The strand trembled slightly with Qiluo's breathing, but Qiluo didn't wake up.
Hesitating for a moment, she reached out and gently brushed the hair away with her fingertip. As she pulled her hand back, her pad accidentally grazed the corner of Qiluo's mouth. She instantly retracted her hand, her face burning.
She whispered a soft apology to the sleeping Qiluo in her mind. Turning around, she flipped open her notebook and used a highlighter to trace over the words “school festival,” drawing with extra force as if she could push down her strange nervousness that way.
Qiluo buried her face a little deeper into her arms, subtly rubbing her itchy mouth against her sleeve.
“She almost jumped out of her skin!”
“That girl's fingers still smelled of highlighter ink—a bit sour, probably lemon-scented.”
“It made her want to sneeze.”
“No, I can't wake up yet.”
“If I wake up now, won't I expose myself?”
“I'll just have to wait for the class bell...”
The warning bell marking the end of lunch break rescued Qiluo from her arms.
She could finally “wake up” with a perfectly valid excuse.
She wiggled her fingers first, then slowly raised her head, squinting to adjust to the light while rubbing her numb arm.
The entire sequence of movements was completely natural, identical to any ordinary high school girl who had just woken up.
She glanced at Kizuna out of the corner of her eye.
Kizuna was sitting up straight, her highlighter hovering over her notebook, but her hand was trembling slightly.
In the gaps between tracing with the highlighter, the corners of her mouth kept twitching upward, quickly pressing back down, and then twitching up again—like a kitten that had stolen a fish treat but was pretending nothing had happened.
“Weren't you quite bold earlier? Why are you afraid to look at me now?”
Turning her face toward Kizuna, she spoke in a slightly raspy voice that sounded like she had just woken up. “Aren't you sleepy?”
Kizuna's highlighter suddenly slipped on the final stroke, dragging a crooked, bright streak across the page.
Flustered, she slammed her notebook shut, stuffed the highlighter into her pencil case, and pulled out an eraser, rubbing it a couple of times before remembering that highlighter couldn't be erased.
“...I'm not! I'm not sleepy at all! I'm wide awake!”
She finally turned her head to look at Qiluo, hugging her notebook to her chest to block the crooked highlighter mark.
“But what about you, Tian Gong-san? Why didn't you go sleep in the nurse's office? Slumping over the desk is bad for your back.”
“The nurse's office is too far.” Qiluo stretched out her numb arm, rotating her wrist.
She rubbed the back of her neck with her other hand, tilting her head to look at Kizuna with a slight smile. “Besides, didn't you go out earlier? When did you get back?”
“J-Just got back! Only a few minutes ago!”
Kizuna hugged her notebook tighter, raising it just high enough to cover her blushing cheeks.
“You were already asleep when I came back, so I didn't wake you—” She suddenly stood up, her chair sliding back a bit with a soft scraping sound against the floor.
“I need to use the restroom, I'll be back before class!” Placing her notebook on the desk, she quickly walked out the front door.
Before Qiluo could watch her leave, the phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated.
She pulled out her phone. A message had popped up on the screen, sent by Murai, the manager of the convenience store.
First, he asked if she had been safe during this period, and then he got to the point: the convenience store had finished reorganizing and was ready to reopen. The shift schedule was the same as before, and he wanted to know if she was still willing to come in.
He also mentioned that he had been reassigned by the corporate office, and a new store manager would take over next week.
Qiluo stared at the words “new store manager” on the screen, and a figure sitting in a wheelchair, draped in a deep red blanket, flashed through her mind.
“It couldn't be the person I'm thinking of, right?”
Her finger hovered over the screen, hesitating to type.
“But what if it really is Misa Tachibana?”
After a moment's thought, she began typing: “Manager, I'm doing fine physically, thank you for your concern. I'm glad to hear the store is okay, and I'd love to go back to work. However, I've still been having occasional nightmares about what happened that day, so I might need a few more days to adjust. Maybe the school festival next week will cheer me up, and we can start scheduling my shifts after that. Would that be alright?”
This was the most suitable excuse she could think of.
Murai replied quickly: “No rush, your health comes first. Just contact me whenever you're fully rested, I'll keep your shifts open for you.”
Qiluo sent a thank-you emoji, slipped her phone back into her pocket, and stared blankly at the blackboard for a while.
The identity of Qiluo Tian Gong needed this income to maintain an ordinary life.
Although she could earn royalties through Lightweaver.
But right now, these two identities had to be kept strictly separate.
But... I really don't want to go to work!
I just want to stay at home and sleep all day like Star-trail.
“Yuki, Kizuna, can you guys just adopt a Qiluo Tian Gong the way you raise Star-trail?”
Rate on N.U.
