#{ ft. soonhyung. }

[tuwam]

@urianius

meixi is mad. 

but it never transfers well, she’s mad but she has to undergo deep breathing when she is or her powers will spiral again. she doesn’t really need vines growing from the floor and she definitely doesn’t need any thorns piercing anyone’s heart. BUT every time she undergoes the breathing exercises she looks more like a chipmunk having an asthma attack, than a concerned friend.

and right now she’s a concerned friend who is very mad.

“you big ‘xcvwwca′, the wings didn’t give you powers to jump off cliffs.” yiche, visibly shrinks into himself because meixi’s been mad, but never at him. he can’t shrink much though because his arm’s in a sling and he’s got several other bruises that probably make it hurt to breathe. soonyi perks up from the job she’s doing attending to the sling, probably because she’s never heard meixi speak in her uncle’s language. meixi’s uncle is part fae, and she knows this because she’d repeated some of the curses he thinks she can’t hear, and soonyi had looked up isntantly. 

there’s laughter then, because her face is still wet from the initial tears when yichen had showed up and because yichen’s shrink turns into a smile the more he regards her. she looks like a chipmunk she knows! and her friends think it’s so cute and they’re probably less concerned BECAUSE she’d cried first, asked questions later. 

it’d just surprised her because as much as she and soonyi snuck around to find out what yichen does when he’s not with them - they didn’t suspect this.

‘i stuck the landing. you should see the other guys.’ and he shouldn’t be smiling, not like this. not now, when she can see him wince from a cut in his lip or a bruise around his eye.  ‘well - the other guys are dealing with an amateur i’m sure they’re fine.’ soonyi’s not pleased but she’s less upset, she’s more curious than anything about their findings.  ‘i’m not an amateur.’ ‘you’re an amateur.’ meixi deapans and her and soonyi say it at the same time, fire in their gaze as they regard the taller male. 

vigilantism. saving the city from - criminals? that’s what soonyi had called it. meixi had been even more upset she hadn’t been around to help drag him here herself.

her uncle’s previous grounding had extended to more of lockdown, for reasons he won’t tell her, so when soonyi sauntered in with a battered yichen meixi was very confused. 

‘i’m fine guys - really.’

and the way he says it, with a shrug off to his injuries shows them both that he’s done it before and that this isn’t new. meixi wonders how many times he’s hidden bruises, broken limbs and such from them. soonyi must pick up on her stress, that or her breathing isn’t working how it should but her best friend saunters over, flutters over actually to tug on her cheeks.

‘don’t stress about it, he’s in one piece.’

she softens at the words but still sends a glare over soonyi’s shoulder to yichen who is definitely totally not off the hook. he is very much still on the hook. 

“why are you so calm?” ‘well - humans have done stupider things.’ to this, meixi lets out her first laugh of the evening, enough that her shoulders start to fall and soonyi effectively stops massaging her cheeks to the end of time. she’s thankful for her friend and because she’s getting the time to breathe and voice her thoughts without exploding, her cheeks puff up as much as possible.  “soooooooonyi, he could get hurt.” ‘i knooooooow, but don’t worry.’ soonyi’s got that look in her eyes like she has a plan and meixi instantly perks up. 

‘what are you guys planning...” yichen’s voice comes from the back again but meixi almost forgets he’s there because the wheels in her head are turning. sometimes it’s as simple as a look for her and soonyi to be on the same wavelength, sometimes it’s little nudges and mouthed words. but she gets it, or she thinks she does and she takes the time to consider it - and actually breathe.

‘you’ve still got a couple flowers blooming in your hair.’ yichen has walked over, obviously worried about the silence between them and meixi fiddles with the flowers to yank them and toss them in his direction. normalcy is back in the room and her head is buzzing with ideas now.

bonus.

‘no.’ “what do you mean no - no we don’t have healing spells or no i can’t learn them.”

her uncle fixes her with a look, one that’s mostly because of how persistent she’s being and how she’s still on thin ice after attempting the love potion behind his back. meixi falls back into the couch, amongst all the books she’s had open prior to him walking in.

‘you’re obviously asking because you know we have some - i’m saying no i’m not teaching them to you.’ meixi’s been at these crossroads before, begging her uncle to teach her things faster, or things that aren’t exactly in her curriculum. she’s always hungry to learn, always excited for all this world has to offer her and he’s always the opposite. all he has is poorly concealed enthusiasm when she finally lands a spell properly. but he’s very reserved in what he chooses to teach and expose her to, despite how free-roaming and lax as a person she knows he is.

she doesn’t need to ask why not for the look to manifest the question in the air.

‘they’re out of your affinity and you and you can barely manage your own.’

okay.....true.

‘you could do more damage than actually heal.’

also true.

“you would need full on anatomy training and you barely passed that class.”

also true.

but she’s determined.

“what if i - take the class again and get full marks and then I make a perfect score on my next evaluation.”

‘i would be shocked but still no.’ here’s where meixi knows she can bend him. it works with yichen and almost always works with her uncle. it’s her three step plan to getting him to agree to something, strict as he is he’s still weak to one thing. her lips pout out and her eyes start to shake as she opens them to get the puppy dog look just wild.

“please.” ‘stop.’ “please.” ‘....i’ll think about it.’

close enough.

[tuwam]

a visit.

daewon’s sure of a few things.

number one, he’s 99% sure he locked the door. he never misses out on locking the door because that usually means they’re closed and that means he gets an early day. it also means he gets to visit a certain flower shop earlier than usual with tea and a good book in tow. 

number two, they are closed. which is why he knows he’s closed the door. which is why when he stands to turn the figure in the doorway, he’s completely dumbfounded. because - that is a figure in the doorway and because - there shouldn’t be a stranger in the doorway because they were closed.

and he’d locked the door. hadn’t he?

“i’m sorry - ” perplexed as he is and too flustered to search his memory, he remembers his duties as an employee before anything else. with his full attention now on the man, daewon gestures towards the counter moving to help himself not trip over his words. “can i help you?” his initial guess is that the male is a customer, one who is in generous need of a trim. 

the stranger’s hair is orange, quite an impressive color actually, not too bright but bright enough to almost look natural. almost. hopefully he needs a trim, a dye job would be far too much work. the purple robe the man adorns only serves as a reminder that the shop should be closed as daewon would love to retreat to comfier clothes himself, but he doesn’t dwell. he watches the eyes of the stranger follow his gesture to the counter as well as his movements to pull out the scheduling book.

‘you’re the owner here?’

daewon gets his response through a voice that’s just about as perplexing as the owner itself. he male’s in a strange combination of this comfortable looking robe robes with his socks inside slippers, his eyes a striking amber that daewon has to look twice to make sure he’s seeing right. there’s that, and the surprising calm to his voice that doesn’t match the loudness of his outfit. it’s gentle, deliberately intended for daewon and it echoes through the shop light, a tad drowsy. it’s many things and daewon thinks it’s interactions like this that truly make the best stories. 

“I work under sohee.” as of late, sohee’s committed to leaving most of the shop operations to daewon whether he’s asked or not. sohee’s not the type of woman to give people things they can’t handle though she isn’t the type to ask if they can handle it either. she just does. and so daewon has done as he can, handling shifts, opening and closing the store, handling deliveries and repairs alike. he might as well own the salon. 

‘do any other men work here? is your owner a man?’ there must be a reason for the question. it’s not as if it’s the first time someone has seen him in the salon and asked for the next available stylist. it’s the twenty-first century and people are still perplexed to find he’s one of the employees, still perplexed to know men can cut women’s hair. sohee says they’re just missing out though daewon gets the suspicion this man is asking for other reasons, less condescending, though just as incredulous.

“i’m the only male worker - what do you need?’ he feels as if he’s going in circles. ‘you’ve received my letter yes? regarding my ward?’

as the realization clicks daewon’s sure this isn’t how he expected the meeting to go. just as he knows he didn’t expect the author of said letter to look like this. by this he means someone that looks like they just rolled out of bed from a mansion perfectly in time for a halloween costume party. but it’s spring time and the clothes are loud, strange and it’s close to closing time. it is closing time.

“you’re the one with the ward,” the man has the nerve to look like he’s the stressed one, as if the entire ordeal hadn’t troubled daewon when he’d first received the letter. ‘yes i’m the one whose student is head over heels for you.’

“are you joking with me?” ‘i assure you that i am not and that her feelings are not only serious but troublesome as well.’ well on that note, given his experiences with heated cheeks and stumbled words, daewon can understand the trouble for the young miss but not to the point that it’s troublesome to the stranger in front of him. he wants to laugh, as a crush on him still seems a bit unbelievable but the way the male’s arms lock over his chest, he knows this not to be a joke. nor a laughing matter.

daewon’s own arms cross over his chest, the scheduling book left untouched. the silence between them becomes more apparent and daewon realizes he’s only moved his arms to hold onto himself. the man’s stare is unrelenting, a little uncomfortable. the frown on his face looks strange, as if it’s going against the natural lines of his face. that makes things worse.

‘well?’ daewon swallows. “well, i - i’m not quite sure what you wish me to do.”

he hears a sigh.

‘you humans are rather insufferable do you know?’ daewon splutters at that. it’s nothing different from his usual awkward expressions but he thinks he’d heard the man wrong. humans? as if he wasn’t? that in itself is hard to process but the man is already moving towards him. 

daewon had never spent long dwelling on the possibility of other creatures and a quarter until 11, standing in the salon was not a time he’d like to either. the man is getting closer, the amber of his eyes becoming stronger, defiant. he’s bold enough to even lean completely over the counter and he’s inches from daewon’s face. daewon wants to move back but crashes over his feet at the sound of the door chiming open. 

‘i thought you were closed.’ “we are.” it’s a groan, but it’s ill-placed when his eyes meet the owner of the voice. sure enough there she is, pink hair fading considerably and smile always as sweet and gentle. her eyes seem to smile before her lips do and daewon thinks he might fall again, the position suddenly looking more compromising than he’d intended. the stranger doesn’t move, though his eyes do fall on her and daewon uses the distraction to move from behind the counter completely. 

‘you said we’d meet right after you closed up but you didn’t show up so - i headed over.’ her eyes flit from the stranger to daewon who is presently cursing him for forgetting he’d sent that message. had that much time passed? he can’t recall. the stranger’s eyes are the ones passing by between daewon and her own figure as daewon hurries to close the scheduling book and rush to grab his things.

“i completely forgot, you weren’t waiting long were you?” ‘not longer as usual.’ her voice is light, as light and familiar as he remembers but maybe too familiar. maybe too light. he doesn’t dwell on it, instead with his keys and bag over his shoulder he finally turns to his guest. the said male has taken to sitting atop the counter and is regarding them with amusement. ‘did you have company?’ ever the polite one, she regards the stranger with curiosity, something glinting in her eyes that daewon couldn’t recognize if he tried. the thought dissipates though because he’s focused on the fact that the man is actually sitting on the counter.

“no no, he was just leaving?” if it comes as a plea it’s because daewon would rather deal with all of this later. much later. the stranger’s eyes fall on both of them now, and it takes a few seconds before he’s smiling. it looks more natural than the frown but it leaves daewon feeling uneasy, worse than before. 

‘i can see you have no intentions with my ward.’ the words. immediately daewon can feel the threaten of red across his face at the implications. but he’s left no time to respond because the male is removing himself from the counter and dusting his robe off. ‘good. if i were to write the rejection she wouldn’t believe it. so please find a way to let her down gently alright? she is a youngling after all.’

a youngling. before daewon can process the words the stranger is gone out the door taking everything his presence held with him as he leaves.

‘a friend of yours?’ “he’s -” daewon is struck with the knowledge that he doesn’t quite know what to call the man other than disarming. “the guardian? yes i think that works, the guardian of-” ‘the young lady who has a crush on you. his ward.’ even hearing it aloud still proves too much for him. daewon feels his cheeks heat with the thought, and the stare that she’s now giving him. her lips are still pulled in gentle amusement, but the words. they’re friendly, always of course, but there’s something again behind it.something new. daewon thinks he’s possibly a little tired. “yes.” 

the silence is back, and her eyes don’t reach him anymore because they’re looking at the door, possibly outside it. daewon fidgets uncomfortable in her presence now for reasons he can’t quite understand. he doesn’t like it. he wants the comfort back, the routine of it. every time his world falls out of routine he’s used to blaming one thing and now, he’s not sure he can.

“let’s go? before the cafe closes we can get something warm.” that stirs her, dare he think he brings her back from her stupor. she regards him with the warmth he’s used to and daewon wants to bury the worry. 

he’s locking up behind him in seconds and thinking it might not be that easy. but she’s smiling and tailing beside him as they start walking, talking about the day as usual. he tries his best to put everything behind him. the strange man with his orange hair and purple robe and his talk of humans this and crushes thought. 

and a door that he’s pretty sure if locked now.

he puts it all behind him the minute a hand slips into his own.