Chapter Text
Pink Is Dreamy
Tetia : find smth in the library!!!
(06:15)
Tetia : it looks like ouija board<3
(06:18)
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Coco slides off the notification and puts down her phone. She does not have time for some board game nonsense. The exam pressure is already bad enough that she’s one step away from abandoning modern civilization entirely and disappearing into some mountain to cultivate enlightenment under waterfalls like a sleep-deprived saint.
She cannot get herself invested in anything else at all. She even declines the idea of going to the theatre for her favourite anime release.
So, nope. Coco is definitely not getting swept up by something like this.
The exams are so close they practically choke her. Coco did not think her college life would go downhill like this. At this point, every day blurs into classes, work, unfinished notes, and whatever sleep she can squeeze in. Hopping from one deadline to another deadline.
When she first moved to the city, she was beyond happy. She was finally a full-fledged adult. She could live on her own, work part-time jobs, and go to cinema halls with her friends to watch her favourite shows.
And, to be fair, she does exactly that. Which is also how she ends up in her current situation.
Looking at the books feels like they are mocking her. Honestly, they have every right to.
Coco huffs and half-slams her face into the book, letting out a long whine. The more she tries to study, the more the words start looking ancient. It is no use.
She pushes herself up from the study table and heads to the living room with her books. Maybe changing places will help. Only to slip on an empty packet of chips.
“Shit!” Coco mutters, annoyed at herself for absolutely no reason and somehow for every reason at once.
She sits down in front of the sofa and drops her books onto the low glass table. Picking up the empty chips packet, Coco crumbles it in her hand as violently as possible before tossing it toward the bin near the kitchen island. It misses completely. Of course it does.
Her phone pings with another notification. Then another. And another. This particular brand of notification assault is enough for Coco to recognize Tetia as the sender without even looking at the screen.
With a tired groan, Coco picks up her phone and switches it on, not even bothering to unlock it as she reads the text messages straight from the notifications.
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Pink Is Dreamy
Tetia : What do we need for a Ouija board game?
(07:22)
Tetia : candles and salts (｡· v ·｡) ?
(07:22)
Tetia : right????
(07:22)
Richeh : incense.
(07:23)
Tetia : never saw that to be used¿?
(07:23)
Tetia : do this board looks like it need incense?
(07:24)
Tetia : [image attached]
(07:24)
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With a sigh, Coco unlocks her phone and opens the messaging application to see what godforsaken Ouija board has suddenly found its way to Tetia, of all people, right before exams.
The picture looks exactly like what one would expect from an Ouija board.
An old wooden board engraved with the English alphabet, along with the single-digit numbers from 0 to 9. At the bottom, Good Bye is carved neatly into the wood, while Yes and No sit in the upper left and right corners.
The board is decorated with carved wooden illustrations. In the upper corners, stars and clouds drift around a small boat where a man reaches out his hand.
In the lower corners, a maiden in ancient clothing reaches back toward him, but her body is slowly transforming into branches, and instead of hands, roots extend outward as if trying to reach him too.
────୨ৎ────
Pink Is Dreamy
Richeh : maybe
(07:25)
Tetia : Why is Coco lurking???
(07:25)
bcz i do not get the meaning of all this
(07:26)
(·•᷄ࡇ•᷅ )
(07:27)
Richeh : you will
(07:28)
Tetia : we are on our way XD
(07:28)
what????
(07:29)
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Coco mouths the word silently while staring at her phone screen with a slightly dumbfounded expression. Her friends go offline one after another after dropping that bomb on her.
She glances around her living room. It is a mess. Then her eyes shift to the books sprawled across the glass table. Also a mess.
Logically, if she cannot focus right now, she cannot force it. At least that is what her uncle used to tell her when she was younger.
Clinging to that bit of borrowed wisdom, Coco gets up for the second time. And this time, it is not for studying.
Coco walks over to the little kitchen island, the chips packet still lying on the floor. She kicks it lightly, not bothering to bend down, pick it up, and throw it into the bin sitting just beside the island.
She takes out a cup of ramen and reaches for her flask to pour in boiled water. But it is empty.
Coco can’t help it. Her head drops as both palms press against the cool surface of the island, and she lets out a frustrated groan.
She does not want to switch on the stove, because she knows she will spiral and end up actually cooking noodles instead of just boiling water for the cup ramen. So she chooses the safer option instead.
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Tetia
where r u rn?
(07:35)
in the convenience store ^^
(07:36)
u need anything?
(07:36)
food... ദ്ദി ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ )
(07:37)
ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧
(07:37)
────୨ৎ────
Coco sits on the kitchen island stool, scrolling through her phone. There is not much to check. A few unread messages from her uncle Qifrey sit there waiting. She does not feel like lying right now. The easiest option would be not replying at all. Instead, she scrolls through his posts.
The most recent one shows her brushbuddy Milk curled up on a table, wrapped around a coffee mug. The fur looks absurdly fluffy. Coco stares at it for a moment, like she might actually reach through the screen and smooch it.
She misses her brushbuddy. In her rush for exams, she left it at her uncle’s place, even though she genuinely needed it for emotional support. She should not have left it at all, especially when she is not even studying properly anyway.
^. .^₎⟆
The sound of the calling bell startles her for a moment. It always has a slightly eerie edge to it. Uncle Qifrey had told her she could change it if she wanted to. She had even considered it. Somehow, she still hasn’t.
The moment Coco opens the door, Tetia hugs her so tightly that everything turns pink. Hair, clothes, presence, all of it swallowing her vision.
Coco lightly taps her shoulder in protest. “You’re gonna kill me.”
Tetia finally lets go, giggling sweetly. “That won’t do before the play,” she says, lifting one hand to reveal a purple plastic bag. Undoubtedly it's carrying the Ouija board.
Behind Tetia, Richeh comes into view, carrying two grocery bags filled with everything except actual food. She gives Coco a small nod with half-lidded eyes before walking inside without much ceremony.
Richeh sets the two bags on the kitchen island and takes out a packet of Pocky before heading to the sofa and getting comfortable. Her eyes briefly flick to the books on the coffee table, then away without interest. She unwraps the Pocky.
“We still have time. Let’s…” Tetia claps her hands as she speaks, but the sentence collapses halfway as her eyes land on Coco and the books. She awkwardly clears her throat. “Just… study until it’s time.”
“It doesn’t have a fixed time,” Richeh says, not really looking at Tetia. She fishes her phone out of her trouser pocket, types for a moment, then adds, “Google-ly accurate.”
Tetia scrunches up her nose. Fisting both hands into her fluffy pink pigtails, she protests, “It’s the vibe! Spirit associated with nighttime more, you know!”
Coco sits back down in front of her books again, not bothering with the Ouija board for now. They still have an hour before the vibe, apparently. She might as well try force-feeding herself some studying again.
Tetia slumps down beside her, head tilted back against the sofa. She mumbles something incoherent, counting on her fingers for a while before suddenly turning her face toward Richeh. “We do have candles, right?”
Richeh shakes her head. Tetia immediately turns to Coco with a please-say-yes look, eyes practically begging. Coco just blinks at her. “Won’t torch light be enough?”
“What?” Tetia chimes, sounding mildly offended. “It won’t be the same!” She nudges Coco with her elbow. “You must have some candles. Check first.”
Coco gets up to check if she has any candles. There should be some. She goes through the kitchen cabinets, then her room, and even the living room where she does not even keep her things.
Eventually, she finds four candles that look like they survived a war. One is broken in the middle, one is half-used, and the other two have somehow changed colour from white to a brownish shade.
“Will this be enough?” Coco asks, raising her hand and showing the four candles clenched in her fist.
Tetia pouts at the candles and nudges Richeh lightly with her head. “Do we have enough change to get some candles from the store?”
“Richeh bought food,” Richeh answers, biting into a Pocky stick. The way she says it makes it clear she did, in fact, buy food but absolutely nothing related to the Ouija board. Which is, oddly enough, a relief.
Coco places the four candles on the glass table in front of Tetia, then walks back to the kitchen island and grabs two bags of chips. She hands one over to Tetia, who takes it with a dramatic huff.
“For the vibe, I think old things will work better,” Coco says quickly, clearly making an excuse so they do not have to go to the store at this hour. It is cold outside at night, and she definitely does not feel like going out. “What do you say, Richeh?”
“Coco is right,” Richeh mutters, dusting her hands as she gets up and drags the purple packet from under the table. “Let’s settle things out.”
Tetia straightens up, her pouty tone gone, replaced with an excited voice. “Right now?” she asks, taking the plastic bag from Richeh and folding it neatly.
Richeh hums in reply, unpacking the board from its hard cover. Inside, there is also a small notebook and a page filled with complicated designs. It looks like something out of witchcraft studies Coco used to read about when she was little.
“We did that around evening before,” Richeh says. She glances at Coco, then pauses. “I didn’t buy ink.”
Coco does not understand half of what Richeh is saying. She blinks dumbly and asks, “You did this before coming here?” completely ignoring Richeh’s last sentence for the moment.
Tetia makes a grumbling sound as she exhales. She rests her hand on Coco’s shoulder as if answering her question while also getting ignored by Richeh, just like Richeh ignored her earlier words.
“She was in the occult club in high school,” she explains, then makes an oddly satisfying exasperated sound. “And I had to join her for one experiment.”
Every day, there is something new about them that Coco does not know.
She nods slowly at Tetia while Tetia continues softly scolding Richeh. “Ah, I told you to get the ink first. It clearly said ink would be needed.”
Asking Richeh to get ink first while they are literally in the snacks aisle is kind of ridiculous. Coco lets out a small laugh at the thought. The two bags of snacks are here because Tetia handed the money to Richeh.
“We will use your eyeliner,” Richeh replies to a half-combusted, half-desperate Tetia, setting the board down on the glass table. “You have a lot.”
Tetia immediately makes an offended face, pulling back slightly. “Eyeliner are not for black magic! And mine are not even black.”
“Does a Ouija board game count as black magic?” Coco asks, not really interested in taking part in black magic. She had enough black magic stories from her witch books.
“Does it?” Tetia asks back, not knowing the answer herself. She turns to Richeh for help.
“It depends. Modern people don’t take it as such,” Richeh replies like a professional. Well, she might be one. She was in the occult club once after all. Serious or not, she must’ve learned something about these things.
“We need ink,” Tetia says again, nudging Coco like she can summon supplies out of thin air.
For a moment, Coco wonders if this whole Ouija board thing is just because Tetia is also that pathetic with her exam prep that she might actually end up asking spirits for help. Honestly, it feels like a mid-level possibility.
“Get it,” Richeh says slowly, pushing herself up from her comfort spot.
She walks over to the console table where a few small decorations sit: a flower vase, a glass bowl filled with tiny cute trinkets, a little dish for keys, and a small black glass bottle.
Richeh picks up the little glass bottle and places it in front of Coco, making her blink in mild confusion. Is this… ink? Coco stares at it like it might start explaining itself.
She had no idea this was ink. She is not the one who does the monthly cleaning of the whole house, after all. Nor does she poke around things that are not hers. Every time she sees the little black glass bottle, she assumes it is just another decorative piece.
“This is ink,” Richeh points out the obvious. Then she sits back down in her earlier spot, continuing in her calm, unbothered voice. “Didn’t want to waste money on ink when we already have it.”
“You knew she had ink in her apartment?” Tetia asks.
Richeh hums with a simple nod, reaching over and taking the pen tucked between Coco’s books.
“Then why did you drag out my eyeliner?” Tetia complains, her sparkling eyes going wide in disbelief. Though she ends up laughing when Coco starts laughing beside her.
“Joking,” Richeh replies flatly, her face is completely unreadable. It is genuinely hard to tell when Richeh is joking.
Richeh takes the small round notebook. It is old and worn out. There are not enough pages left for it to properly qualify as a notebook anymore if not for the leather cover keeping it from falling apart.
Without much ceremony, she tears out a few pages and hands them to Tetia and Coco.
Then she gives a brief explanation. They are supposed to copy the spells from the hard page that came with the board. There are more than fifty of them, each with a name attached. The language, though, looks so ancient that Coco briefly wonders if it is just some elaborate human-made nonsense designed to look mysterious.
Tetia and Richeh seem to be doing a far better job at drawing the spells than Coco. They do not have wands, so they simply do what anyone would do in their situation: use pens as substitutes. It uses more ink, but as Tetia insists, everything has to be done according to the method the Ouija board demands.
By the time they are done, the two of them have already finished seven spells, while Coco has done nothing except waste a few pages.
Sure, she was never interested in this game to begin with. But watching her friends put in this much effort, it only feels logical that, as a good friend, she should help.
And that is exactly what she does.
The only small round page she has is her one chance, so she takes the hard page with the spell designs and lays it down carefully. Then she places the last remaining sheet over it so she can clearly see the patterns underneath.
Tracing should be simple enough. She randomly picks a spell and starts following the lines, copying it over the page. It actually works surprisingly well.
Just as she is about to close the final circle, Tetia stops her, leaning in with sudden seriousness and telling her they have to finish it while summoning the spirit.
Tetia and Richeh move the glass tea table to the corner, shifting the carpet along with it. Tetia somehow manages to hunt down salt for a protection circle, while Coco ends up making hers with barely any salt at all. As she already have a low budget bounty on her head.
Drawing the pentagram takes the longest. According to Richeh, it has to be done without lifting the hand. For some reason, Tetia is the first one who ends up breaking that rule halfway through.
“It won’t work like that,” Richeh says, giving Tetia a side-eye as she holds the eight spells. She places their drawings in front of the protection circle, the salt ring acting like a flimsy boundary between intention and whatever this is supposed to summon.
“I am trying,” Tetia mutters, still actively wiping out the pentagram for the ninth time with a tissue paper.
“It is not like it will really work anyway,” she whispers, more to herself than anyone else. Coco hears it anyway, because she is right there. And respectfully, she cannot fully disagree.
“You never know,” Richeh replies calmly, though a little louder than usual so the two of them can hear her properly.
Ackk!
“Let me do it,” she says instead, taking the pen from Tetia’s grasp. There is barely any ink left in the bottle now.
Coco tries her best to draw a proper pentagram. It is not actually that hard when it is on notebook paper. Doing it on the floor, however, is a completely different story. Especially at this size.
The star comes out relatively fine, only a little wobbly around one corner, but Coco deliberately ignores that part. At least she manages to draw it without lifting her hand once. She deserves some credit for that.
By the time they finish arranging everything, it is nearly ten. The living room now successfully looks like a hidden black magic meeting spot, and they look very much like the culprits behind it.
“Open the window,” Tetia tells Coco while sitting inside her salt protection circle. One of the worn-out ancient-looking candles rests in front of her, not lit yet.
“It’s cold,” Coco protests. The whole setup is giving her a creepy vibe already, and they have not even turned the lights off yet.
Coco does not consider herself a scaredy-cat, but something about putting this much preparation into a simple Ouija board game keeps rubbing her the wrong way. And now Tetia wants the window open too. (For the vibe and aesthetic?)
“How will the spirit come in if the window is closed?” Tetia reasons, lighter already in hand and ready to light the candle at any moment.
“They’re spirits. Can’t they just come through the wall?” Coco argues back, having absolutely no intention of opening the window. The apartment is small: a tiny kitchen with an island, a cramped living room, a bedroom and a bathroom. Excluding the little ventilator, there is only one actual window in the entire place, and it is in her bedroom.
If she opens it, then the bedroom door also has to stay open so they can see the window from the living room while performing this godforsaken ritual.
“It’s for safety. We don’t want to disrespect them by calling them over and making them come through the wall.”
Coco makes an uneasy sound. She is still not fully convinced about opening the window, but within the logic of this entire setup, Tetia’s reasoning somehow feels believable enough.
So she gets up and heads to her room to open the window. Cold air immediately slips inside. The faint wind brushes against her skin and sends a shiver through her.
“Slide the curtain,” Richeh instructs from the living room. Coco does exactly that, leaving the window open while pulling the curtain shut over it.
She returns to the living room, leaving her bedroom door open behind her. At a signal from Richeh, Coco switches off the lights. The apartment immediately sinks into darkness.
It is cold, yet Coco can still feel sweat gathering around the back of her neck. It is stupid, she knows that, but she cannot help it.
She quickly sits down inside her salt circle and takes the lighter from Richeh to light her half-used candle. The broken candle rests uselessly beside her, contributing absolutely nothing to the ritual.
“So… do we start, Richeh?” Tetia asks in a whisper. The candle flames sway faintly from the weak wind drifting in through the open window, throwing flickering shadows across her face and making the whole room feel far spookier than it already was.
Richeh takes out the planchette and places it on the board, then signals for them to follow her lead. She positions her fingers first, showing where they should go.
Coco places her index and middle fingers on Yes.
“You need to place your fingers on the planchette, Coco,” Richeh murmurs. (She does not need to be murmuring at all with a candle right in front of her in a dark room.)
Coco nods and shifts her fingers onto the planchette as instructed. Richeh mutters something under her breath that sends a faint chill down Coco’s spine. It almost sounds like a chant. Is she really chanting some kind of ritual?
“Is there any friendly spirit with us?” Richeh asks slowly. The most classic question people ask in movies.
They keep their fingers resting on the planchette for a minute or two when it moves.
For all the knowledge, Coco knows this is not real. It's due to the ideomotor effect. Yes, she likes magic and loves reading witch stories, but that does not mean she believes in any of it. And right now, she is literally sitting in her living room doing an oddly specific Ouija board ritual with her friends, calling out to spirits… and the planchette just so happens to move (for the effect).
The planchette points toward the Yes sign.
Richeh asks again, “Are we disturbing you?”
It is such a ridiculous question, Coco thinks. Even if spirits were real, summoning something at night and then politely asking if it is annoyed would be kind of funny.
The planchette moves again to Yes. Tetia lets out a shaky breath, muttering something unclear under it. Coco is fairly sure it is a prayer and not the kind of low, eerie chanting Richeh had been doing earlier.
“Any way we can ask for forgiveness for the disturbance?” The planchette starts moving across the board, letter by letter. Slowly, it traces out something like a word before settling on the number four.
“You need a spell with number four on it?” Richeh asks in her same professionally calm tone. The planchette shifts again to Yes.
Coco squeaks before she can stop herself, “What?”
Tetia immediately shakes her head at her, silently telling her to stay quiet and let Richeh continue her professional occult work.
“Do you know who has it?” Richeh asks again. She really looks like she knows what she is doing, like she could run this whole thing with her eyes closed.
The planchette moves… then stops in the middle space, not pointing at any letter or number. Richeh opens her eyes and looks at it.
Her other hand slips into her trouser pocket, shuffling briefly before she pulls out three small pages. The ones they had drawn just hours ago for this whole dramatic setup.
She checks each page for a moment, then slips them back into her pocket and lifts her eyes toward Tetia. Tetia follows her cue and looks down at the four pages neatly placed in front of her inside the circle. After a careful glance, she shakes her head.
Now it is Coco’s turn. It is painfully obvious (like her soon-to-be exam results) that her page is the only one with the number four drawn on it.
She pulls the spell out from her hoodie pocket and shows them. It is not really necessary. If neither of them has it, then it has to be hers.
“Complete the spell,” Tetia whispers, leaning slightly toward Coco while flicking her eyes toward the pentagram. The nearly empty ink bottle and scattered pens sit beside the Ouija board, right where their other hands are still resting on the planchette.
Coco stretches out her free hand to grab the ink and pen. The bottle is almost empty now. She dips the pen in as much as she can manage, squeezing out the last bit of ink.
She places the spell beside the pentagram. Her hand trembles slightly as the ink-dipped pen touches the unfinished circle. She looks up at Richeh and Tetia. A few minutes pass, but nothing spiritual happens.
“You need to complete the circle fully. No gap will work,” Tetia whispers again.
Coco nods and drags the inked pen over the circle, carefully closing the tiny gap. She finishes the line and completes the shape properly this time.
Then she waits. For something to happen, like the others are expecting. The wind blows, slowly increasing in force, turning the whole apartment ice cold. From where Coco sits, she can see her room clearly. The curtains are flapping rapidly. She can feel her heartbeat, the sound so clear in her ears. She is pretty sure it is the same for the other two as well.
“Ack!” Tetia yelps suddenly, her free hand gripping Coco’s hoodie. “I think I saw something?”
“What?” Coco says at the same time as her window slams shut with the wind, making a loud noise and giving all three of them a jumpscare with an Ouija board.
“What was that?” Tetia whisper-yells at Richeh, who looks just as shocked and, respectfully, just as nervous as them.
“Don’t know,” Richeh answers the infamous classic line in an uneasy tone. “It must be just wind.”
With the sheer fear of non-existent spirits creeping in, Coco almost wants to laugh but she holds it back and lets her more childish fear slip through instead. “I don’t wanna play. Let’s stop this.”
Tetia shakes her head immediately, agreeing without needing any more words. Richeh nods as well.
Following Richeh’s guidance, they slowly move the planchette toward GOODBYE. As it reaches the end, the wind outside begins to settle, easing back into silence.
All three of them just look at each other for a moment. Then Coco is the first to lift her fingers off the planchette.
“That was so scary!” Tetia visibly shivers, wrapping both arms tightly around herself. “What did you do?” she asks Richeh.
Richeh blinks once, then presses her lips together. “Richeh did what the manual said.” She lets out a small sigh and gets up to switch on the light. The switch clicks but nothing happens. No light comes on.
Richeh tries again a few times, then pauses. She takes out her phone and checks it properly. After a moment, she states calmly, “Load shedding. No WiFi on the phone.”
She makes her way back to the sofa like she always does. Coco gets up too, gathering the now-empty ink bottle, the pens, and the broken candle. She places them on the glass table in the corner for now.
Tetia is the last to step out of her protection circle. She shivers again as she settles onto the sofa. “What do you think that was?” she asks.
“It was wind,” Richeh replies, already scrolling on her phone. She rummages through her trouser pocket again, but when she does not find what she is looking for, she looks at Tetia and says, “Earbuds.”
“I know that was wind,” Tetia argues, taking off one earbud and handing it to Richeh. “What I mean is, what was that for?”
Coco tidies up as much as she can manage. The candlelight is not enough, so she decides she will properly clean everything in the morning. Her heart is still thumping against her ribs.
“It was strong wind. And now there is load shedding,” Coco answers Tetia’s question, more like she is trying to calm herself down than actually explain anything. “That sums it up.”
“Buzzkill,” Tetia says, yawning as she leans into Richeh, who does not react much, still absorbed in her phone.
“It will be too late if you don’t return to the dorm by now,” Coco reminds them as she also throws herself onto the sofa. It is a two-person seat, but three bodies are now lazily sprawled across it, completely hogging the space.
Under Coco’s weight, Tetia lets out a small squeak. “What about the cleaning?” Tetia chirps, her face buried between the sofa and Richeh’s left arm.
“Can’t be done now with load shedding,” Coco reassures her. “And it’s late. You should be back at the dorm by 11:30.” The clock is close to hitting that time already.
“Get up. We need to return to the dorm,” Tetia urges Richeh, even though she herself is still sprawled on the sofa along with Coco.
A moment later, Richeh lets out a grunt and gently pushes Tetia off her. “Get up. We need to return to the dorm.”
Tetia jolts upright, blinking like she has almost fallen asleep sitting up. Coco ushers them toward the door. Tetia gives a sleepy little wave that is supposed to mean goodbye, while Richeh simply shakes her head slightly in acknowledgment before stepping out.
Coco shuts the door and, using her phone flashlight, heads straight to her room. She checks everything to make sure it is alright, closes the window, and when she finally feels safe enough, she locks her bedroom door.
She does not need to do that. But after the cursed ritual they just did, she needs some mental reassurance, and for now, this is the most she can give herself.
She will see what happens the next morning.
The insufferable alarm clock wakes Coco up. She does not even remember what she was dreaming, but the sound does not just wake her normally. She sucks in a sharp breath like someone who has been underwater too long and just resurfaced, coughing as she tries to breathe properly while still lying there.
Her hand flails out in search of the clock, finally managing to shut it off. Even after turning off the alarm, she just lies there for a while.
The window is closed, the curtains drawn shut. A few books are missing from her study table. She remembers leaving them in the living room.
Thinking about the living room, she lets out a curse. Last night it looked genuinely cursed. Right now, in the harsh honesty of daylight, it must look like nothing more than a messy playroom a naughty child left behind.
Coco gets up quickly at that thought. She needs to leave for college too, and she also needs to return the book she borrowed from the library soon. It did not help her at all, and there is no real reason to keep it anymore. So she will just do it while she still remembers and get it done.
She opens her room door and lets out a small laugh to herself. She was genuinely scared last night, more than she wants to admit even now.
Coco reaches for the claw clip from her bedside table and twists her shoulder-length hair up, securing it neatly.
The living room looks messier than she remembered. The salt circle is disturbed. The glass table is still pushed into the corner with books on top. The ramen she took out from the cabinet is still sitting on the kitchen island, along with the two half-finished snack bags.
She is hungry, so the first thing she decides is to eat. Ramen is not a bad option. She heads straight to the kitchen island. And for some unknown reason, there are clothes on the floor in the kitchen?
Coco is about three steps away from them. They look extremely expensive. Wine-red fabric with creamy inner layers, golden embroidery, and a cream-colored winter coat with wine-red fur accents. It looks less like something someone casually owns and more like something straight out of a museum display.
Something shifts inside the bundle of clothes, nearly making Coco’s heart jump out of her chest. She instinctively stumbles back.
Her foot lands on the chip packet she had not bothered throwing away. The floor tilts her just enough for gravity to win. She slips and falls butt-first with a very undignified thud.
That feels like a bad omen.
Coco does not believe in omens. At least, she didn’t. But after last night, her confidence in that belief is… a little cracked.
She doesn’t get up. Instead, she crawls towards the pile of clothes. Even touching them gives her goosebumps. Who knows where these come from?
She takes every deity’s name she knows and moves the pieces of clothing one by one. Her heart is beating so loud it feels like it is near her ears.
What if it is something dangerous? A snake, maybe. How did these clothes even get here when her door was perfectly locked? The spare key to this apartment is only with her mother and Uncle Qifrey.
A cat.
Inside the pile of expensive clothes is a cat. A black, fluffy cat to be specific. It seems to be sleeping, its soft furry belly rising and falling with each breath. And its fur… is curly.
It has a collar around its neck. No… it is not actually a collar. It looks more like lavender lace, studded with glittering stones. The possibility that those stones are diamonds does not feel impossible.
There is no name on it. But by the look of it, it definitely belongs to someone. Coco unconsciously pets the cat. The black cat does not react at all.
She has no idea what to do. What is she supposed to do with the clothes? Maybe she should call the police? But what would she even say?
Someone left an expensive-looking ball gown in my apartment magically because no one should have the key?
She picks up the cat, leaving the clothes still on the floor. The cat seems to be in deep sleep because it does not react to any movement. Is it sick or something?
Coco places the cat on her sofa and goes to her room to get her phone. She takes a picture of the cat along with the clothes.
────୨ৎ───
Pink Is Dreamy
found this
(08:11)
[ image attached ]
(08:12)
and this clothes
(08:13)
[ image attached ]
(08:13)
Richeh : the cat is so cuteeeee (˶>⩊<˶)
(08:14)
Richeh : Where did u get it?
(08:14)
Richeh : 𐔌՞ ܸ.ˬ.ܸ՞𐦯
(08:15)
in my kitchen...
(08:15)
Richeh : these clothes look prettyyyyy.
(08:16)
why r u on her phone, tetia?(08:16)
Richeh : she is getting her things, im doing for both :)
(08:16)
Tetia : that aside, how do u get this in ur kitchen????
(08:17)
dunno, woke up and found these.
(08:17)
what should i do???
(08:18)
Richeh : It's late. Come to campus first.
(08:19)
────୨ৎ────
It seems that Richeh gets her phone from Tetia. It is surely late.
She needs to head out for college. Forget food for now, she will grab something from the canteen.
Coco quickly gathers the clothes from the floor and tosses them onto the sofa. Then she runs to her room, changes her clothes fast, and grabs her notes and bag.
She stops in the living room.
The cat.
It is a little cold here. Her room has a heater. And as someone who likes cats, she does not want to leave it in a slightly cold room when there is a better option.
So she carefully carries it into her bedroom, places it gently on her unfolded blanket, and softly closes the door behind her. Taking the key from the console table, she runs out for college.
^. .^₎⟆
When Coco gets to the convenience store near her apartment, she suddenly remembers she forgot about the book she wanted to return to the library.
She still has time. If she misses the train, she can just take the bus. Without wasting another second, Coco turns right back toward her apartment. She walks so fast it is basically half walking, half running.
If she does not take the book today, she will 100% forget it again and only remember at the worst possible moment.
The elevator is occupied, and she does not want to wait, so she takes the stairs. The fourth floor will not take long anyway.
She bumps into Miss Lulucy, who lives next door. Coco greets her in a hurry without really waiting for a response. Then she pauses mid-step.
Wait, she can actually report this to her. Miss Lulucy is a recruit constable. She could ask for advice on what to do. But Coco is already moving again.
She quickly unlocks her door and rushes inside, heading straight to the corner where the glass table is. There it is, the book. The moment she picks it up, a noise comes from her room.
That is probably the cat. Maybe it woke up. Coco slowly moves toward her room, careful not to make heavy noises in case she scares it.
She opens the bedroom door. Instead of a cat, she sees the back of a human.
Coco screams. A high-pitched one at that.
The person on the bed jolts up, grabbing the messy blanket around their body and turning around. The first thing they do is lunge at her. Coco stumbles back from the force and hits her head on the tiled floor.
Her heart feels stuck in her throat. She can feel sharp nails against her neck, curved and pointed, pressing into her skin just enough to make her freeze in the position.
The person...is a girl. She is on top of her, one knee on either side, holding her down with a hand around her throat. The nails aren’t cutting yet, but they’re close enough that it feels certain that one push would be enough to put her life at stake.
The person hovering over her has lace around her neck, dotted with glittering stones. It feels familiar.
Coco does not dare to move her eyes away from her face. In other circumstances, she would probably be rambling in her head about how beautiful it looks, how overwhelming the proximity feels, how she would be a flustered mess. But right now, her mind is completely blank.
“Did you open the door?” the girl asks, each word dragged out strangely, the voice warped around the syllables. It's heavy and clumsy at the edges. Her eyes glow faintly gold in the dim room.
Coco almost thinks she heard it wrong. Of course she just opened the door. And even though the girl is speaking in her language, it is still strangely hard to understand.
On top of that, Coco is currently in a position that does not exactly feel like it has a high survival rate.
The girl keeps her grip around Coco’s neck with one hand. With the other, she holds the blanket around her body in place. Her eyebrows are still slightly furrowed as her lips move again, like she is trying to form the words properly.
Then she asks again,“Where’s my clothes?”
Coco has no idea what is going on. Too many thoughts rush through her head at once, but none of them fully form. She can connect pieces, but she does not dare to. Everything already feels absurd.
“What…” Coco somehow croaks out, feeling the grip around her neck tighten slightly.
She cannot keep her eyes open properly on the girl above her. The back of her head throbs from the impact of the fall, but she still tries anyway, catching a glimpse of fangs when the girl opens her mouth. Maybe she says something. Coco cannot hear it.
Everything turns blurry. Her vision dims until there is nothing left.