The wind chime at the restaurant door chimed once as Yuki Kurokawa pushed the door open, her crossbody bag hanging from the crook of her elbow, its jellyfish charm swaying gently with her steps.
Her cheeks still bore a lingering flush from the battle that had not yet fully faded, though her breathing had returned to normal.
Her eyes immediately swept toward the window booth. Confirming that Qiluo Tian Gong was still in her original spot, her shoulders relaxed ever so slightly.
“What about the limited-edition one?” Qiluo set down her fork and rested her chin in her hand, looking up at her.
She was asking despite already knowing the answer, well aware that Yuki Kurokawa hadn't actually gone to buy a bookmark.
Yuki Kurokawa sat down across the booth, placing her bag on her lap. Her fingers unconsciously toyed with the tentacles of the jellyfish charm.
Shoot. On her way back, she had been so focused on returning quickly that she completely forgot to make a token purchase at the souvenir shop.
How am I supposed to conjure up a bookmark now? And Qiluo Tian Gong is being so caring...
“...They were sold out,” Yuki Kurokawa said, her voice softer than usual as her fingers mindlessly toyed with the silver tentacles of the jellyfish charm. “The line was too long. By the time I got there, they were already gone.”
She stared at the tissue box on the table as she spoke, avoiding Qiluo's gaze.
The blush on the tips of her ears, which had been there since before the battle, had not only failed to fade but had actually deepened because of her lie. She remained completely oblivious to the charm's tentacles wrapping around her fingers over and over again.
Qiluo rested her chin in her hand, watching the girl across from her who couldn't even tell a convincing lie.
She was so clumsy at lying—her eyes darting away, her ears flushed red—clearly feeling guilty for abandoning her friend.
She was nothing like Qiluo Tian Gong. When Qiluo lied, she did so with elaborate, seamless stories, without so much as blinking.
Back at the academy in her original world, Qiluo had once even fooled her mentor with fabricated data!
Though, in truth, her mentor had simply played along out of sheer exasperation...
A tiny speck of unmelted ice dust, about the size of a grain of rice, still clung to Yuki's hair just above her right ear. Under the warm, yellow lighting of the restaurant, it was virtually invisible unless someone leaned in to look closely.
The ice dust had splashed onto her hair when she froze the second low-tier Erosion Body, and she hadn't noticed it.
She looked a bit downcast. Was she feeling guilty for lying, or was she genuinely sad about not getting the limited-edition bookmark?
Whichever it was, Qiluo couldn't bear to see her like this.
“A bookmark,” Qiluo repeated the word, not exposing the lie but letting it hang in the air between them.
She noticed Yuki's hand, resting near the edge of the table, unconsciously clenching as her thumb gently rubbed against the side of her index finger.
“...Kurokawa,” Qiluo spoke up, her tone losing its usual playfulness.
Yuki Kurokawa looked up, her eyelashes fluttering slightly.
Tian Gong's tone... Did she realize I'm lying?
Lying to a new friend right off the bat... Will Tian Gong think I'm the type of person who hides everything from her friends?
What should I do? Why isn't she saying anything else? Is she waiting for me to confess?
“Actually, I was just thinking that if you didn't come back soon, I was going to eat your caramel pudding too. But you still beat me to it. We can just buy the bookmark next time. We'll come back again.”
She tilted her head, looking at Yuki Kurokawa. “Besides, you said you wanted to see every single exhibit, and we only got through half of them today.”
Yuki Kurokawa blinked, then lowered her head, gently rubbing the tip of her nose with the back of her hand as if trying to hold back a sudden wave of emotion.
Tian Gong had just said they would come back next time. She had said it so casually, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
But to Yuki, those words held more weight than any comfort.
Because no one had ever used the word "next time" with her, and she herself had never dared to imagine having a "next time" with anyone.
Yet Tian Gong had spoken it so casually, as if there would naturally be many, many next times between them.
She was resting her chin in her hand, looking at her without any hint of interrogation about the bookmark.
Right then, the waiter brought over the caramel pudding. Qiluo had asked them to delay serving it after Yuki left.
Two small ceramic bowls sat on the tray, the caramelized tops gleaming with an amber luster under the lights.
Qiluo picked up her spoon and gently tapped the caramelized surface of her pudding, breaking it with a crisp crack.
Yuki Kurokawa also picked up her spoon and mimicked her action, but her tap was too light, only leaving a single hairline crack on the caramelized surface.
“Do you always eat so carefully?”
“...No. I just don't eat pudding very often.” Yuki Kurokawa set her spoon beside the bowl and looked up. “Tian Gong... When you said we'd come back next time—did you mean it?”
She wanted to tell her that no one had ever paved a path for her with the promise of a "next time."
But how could she say it without sounding too heavy? How could she let her know that she had just done something incredibly meaningful to her?
“Of course I meant it. What's with that look on your face?”
Qiluo looked up at the unusually serious Yuki Kurokawa. When she asked that question, it felt as though she was really asking: Am I allowed to be a part of your life?
Having asked, Yuki didn't even dare to look at her, keeping her head down to stare at her unbroken caramel pudding.
To her, was a simple promise just a polite slip of the tongue from Qiluo Tian Gong, or was it a commitment that would actually be kept?
“Kurokawa.” Qiluo waited for Yuki Kurokawa to look up before raising her spoon like she was taking a solemn oath. “When we come back next time, you're responsible for showing me the rest of the penguin exhibit we missed today. And as for that sold-out limited-edition bookmark, you'll have to line up earlier next time.”
Yuki Kurokawa stared at her. She wanted to say “okay,” but the word caught in her throat, choked back by too many unutterable emotions.
In the end, she simply nodded with conviction. She then picked up her spoon and, mimicking Qiluo's earlier action, cracked the caramelized surface of her own pudding.
The crisp cracking sound came half a beat later than Qiluo's, like a belated echo.
“Tian Gong,” she said after taking her first spoonful of pudding and letting it melt in her mouth for a moment. “...This pudding is delicious.”
Qiluo scooped up a large bite of her own pudding, the slight bitterness of the caramel blending with the sweetness of the custard.
Watching Yuki Kurokawa take small, delicate bites of her portion, Qiluo suddenly felt that even though their meal had been interrupted by Erosion Bodies, the outcome wasn't so bad after all.
At least Kurokawa looked incredibly cute right now.
Once only faint traces of caramel remained at the bottom of their bowls, Yuki pulled a packet of tissues from her crossbody bag. She handed one to Qiluo first before wiping her own hands.
After wiping her hands, she folded the tissue into a neat little square and placed it beside her bowl. She sat up straight again, returning to her usual proper posture, but her shoulders were far more relaxed than when she had first arrived.
Rate on N.U.
