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“Can I get a chilli mocha, please?,” Wei Wuxian asked the cashier as he fished out exact change from his pocket.
“A chilli mocha, again? You’ve had three of those this week. I thought you liked to mix it up some more,” the cashier commented. She was here for the early shift on most mornings Wei Wuxian came in and she was a friendly person. Wei Wuxian was sure her name was Lin Yueyang but he could also be mixing it up for the other regular barista who worked early morning shifts whose name was Yu Lanying. He wanted to ask to confirm, but it had already been two months since he had become a regular customer and asking now would be a bit awkward. He needed to find a way to conspicuously work out which one was which.
“The chilli mochas you make are too good to pass up,” Wei Wuxian answered with a sly smirk. Lin Yueyang, or perhaps Yu Lanying, blushed in response and took his money.
“Are you having it here as usual?,” she asked and Wei Wuxian nodded and agreement. “It’ll take a little longer than usual. Our machine has been having some problems this morning and I need to fix it before the rush comes in. Is that okay with you?”
Checking to make sure that the table he always sat at by the window was still open, he pointed to it. “I’ll just be over at my usual table.” He was in no hurry to leave, so he planned on just soaking up the morning rays through the window as he waited.
The girl that was possibly Lin Yueyang nodded in agreement. “I’ll bring it over as soon as it is done.”
Wei Wuxian immediately headed to his seat and sat down on the comfortable plush bench seat. In the whole cafe, this was the spot that he always claimed for himself. It was one of the few tables that was positioned at the long, cushioned bench that ran along the east wall as seating and had a large window next to it. It was cosily tucked away near one of the corners of the cafe, away from the hustle and bustle of the busy cash register during the morning rush hour. In another fifteen minutes, business men and university students seeking out coffees to go will start to pour through the doors, but he could avoid the chaos in his little corner. This particular spot also had a great view from outside the adjacent window where Wei Wuxian could enjoy the morning sunrise peeking over the tops of buildings as it warmed his back.
It was a great spot, truly, but Wei Wuxian wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to give it up in favour of another spot, one table down that was always occupied by another regular patron.
Just like Wei Wuxian, this man came in every morning at the same time and took the table that was nestled in the corner. The corner spot meant double the cushioned benching that looked like the perfect place to nestle up in with a good cup of coffee. It annoyed him that he never had the opportunity to claim that spot, but it annoyed him even more to see that the other customer never made use of the prime real estate he had claimed. Instead of sitting on the far superior cushioned bench, the man favoured for sitting on the hard, wooden chairs that accompanied each bench and table set up. Wasting the opportunity to snuggle up in the cushioned corner was a massive wrongdoing in Wei Wuxian’s books and if it weren’t for the fact that it was before seven in the morning and he had been up since five, Wei Wuxian would have some choice words with the man about wasting the privileges he had.
If Wei Wuxian could chose to, he would very happily sleep in everyday until noon. However, ever since he was a young child, he had been suffering from the same recurring nightmares that always promptly awoke him at five am. He could only remember snippets of the dream he had, but knew that it was the same one each time. Faceless monsters, that appear to be more human than monster though, chase him relentlessly in these dreams. They would laugh, mock and jeer at him for being a monster himself, ironically enough, as though they saw him as something to ridicule and shame. After they had their fill of fun with him, they would stab and slice at his skin with large silver needles until he was struggling to stand. No matter how many times he saw this image, it terrified him.
It was the exhaustion from these nightmares that left Wei Wuxian with barely enough energy to function, or even think about getting into an argument with the other regular patron.
The man would usually order a plain green tea, despite the fact this cafe was famous for specialising in more experimental drinks. Besides the chilli mocha, Wei Wuxian also favoured the coffee that was infused with tequila. Drinking just a plain tea, that he was sure didn’t have any sugar in it either, seemed like such a boring thing to do in his opinion. While the man drank his tea, and sometimes ate a pastry of some kind, he would be focused on folding paper cranes. Every morning he would fold up to about thirty paper cranes of all different colours and patterns and would place each perfectly made crane into a box so they wouldn’t get damaged. Wei Wuxian had honestly lost count of how many cranes the man had folded, but by his calculations, it had to be nearing the thousandth mark, if he hadn’t already passed it.
Wei Wuxian would spend some mornings just watching the man fold all his many paper cranes as he drank his coffee. Sometimes he found himself staring more at the man rather than his hands folding the paper however; but he wasn’t afraid to admit that he took a fancy to the man’s handsome features.
But as to why he was folding so many cranes, Wei Wuxian didn’t know why. It bugged him to the high heavens not knowing what the purpose of all these cranes were. It was a questioned that he pondered each and every morning. However, in his irritation, he didn’t even realise that he had spoke aloud. “Why are you always folding paper cranes?”
By the time that Wei Wuxian realised just what had slipped out of his mouth, the man had already paused in making a fold to his paper crane to turn his attention to the person who asked the question. Wei Wuxian felt like a right idiot. He had basically just admitted that he watched him folding cranes every morning. However, as much as he wanted to bang his head against a wall right now, he would feel even stupider if he pretended like he didn’t say anything at all. Now determined to make himself look like less of a fool, and also to sate his curiosity, Wei Wuxian gestured to the cranes and asked again. “Why do you fold so many paper cranes every morning?”
The man stared back at him for a while as though he had some glimmer of recognition at seeing Wei Wuxian before he turned his gaze away so he could continue working on his paper crane. Wei Wuxian, who thought he was being ignored, frowned and huffed in exasperation, feeling his cheeks flush slightly.
“I am collecting them,” a response came a minute later and Wei Wuxian jerked in response a little.
Unsatisfied with such a vague answer and needing to know more about the mysterious patron, Wei Wuxian decided to do what he did best and dive head first into the water. He stood up and unabashedly made his way over to the stranger’s table and made himself comfortable in the cushioned corner bench seat that he enviously eyed off every morning. He leaned forward on his elbow to watch as the man expertly folded another paper crane, unperturbed by the fact he had gained a new seat mate.
In the box that the man would stow away all of his paper cranes each day, Wei Wuxian could count thirty already made. “What are you collecting them for?,” Wei Wuxian asked.
The stranger paused in his actions for a second before making a strange fold that made Wei Wuxian wonder how he did it. “To make a wish,” the stranger bluntly answered after a beat. Wei Wuxian waited for him to say anything more, but he seemed unwilling to give away any information without the necessary prompting. This only encouraged Wei Wuxian to bug the man more, however.
“A wish? How on earth is a lot of paper cranes going to grant you a wish?,” he innocently said as he cocked his head to the side in confusion.
The man raised his gaze from his paper crane to stare directly into Wei Wuxian’s eyes with an expression that gave nothing away. To some people, they might interpret the man’s lack of expression as annoyance, but Wei Wuxian was unconcerned and flashed a smile back at him. Seeing Wei Wuxian’s bright smile, the man awkwardly cleared his throat and went back to making the final folds on his paper crane. After carefully inspecting it to make sure it was as flawless as the rest, he placed it in the box with the others. “There is an urban legend in Japan that if you fold one thousand paper cranes, your wish would come true.”
Even though he suspected such a large number before, Wei Wuxian was left aghast at how many paper cranes the man intended to fold. The man just picked up a new piece of origami paper and began folding it as Wei Wuxian processed the information. “That is a lot of paper cranes! But why chose a wish making method from Japan? Doesn’t the west have far easier methods for making a wish?,” Wei Wuxian asked.
The man slightly shook his head. “I’ve already tried other methods, most hailing from western countries, like throwing a coin into a well or wishing on a shooting star. I haven’t tried this one yet.”
Wei Wuxian stared down at the identically folded cranes. “Just what is it that you want to make a wish on?,” he asked.
Before the man could answer, the girl who was possibly Lin Yueyang came over with his coffee in hand. “I see you have made a new friend here,” she said as she placed Wei Wuxian’s chilli mocha in front of him.
Wei Wuxian beamed at her. “Yes! This is, uh-,” Wei Wuxian said, but fumbled when he realised he didn’t know the stranger’s name.
“Lan Wangji,” the man supplied.
“This is Lan Wangji!,” Wei Wuxian parroted. “I am keeping him company as he folds all of his paper cranes.”
“Ah, I see you doing this every morning. You must have hundreds of them by now! I’ve always wondered, are you perhaps trying to have a wish granted by folding a thousand of them?,” she questioned. Wei Wuxian had to wonder if he was the only one who didn’t know about this legend.
“Yes,” Lan Wangji answered.
“Well, the best of luck to you then! Hopefully your wish will come true.” Maybe Lin Yueyang said and then promptly left to go help her co-worker at the register. When Wei Wuxian turned to look at Lan Wangji, once again the man was engrossed in folding his paper cranes, only stopping to take a sip of his tea every so often.
Wei Wuxian waited for an answer to the question he had asked before, but it seemed that Lan Wangji had forgotten he had asked a question in the first place. “So are you going to tell me what your wish is?”
Lan Wangji didn’t answer his question immediately and focused instead on making the final folds of his paper crane and then placing it in the box with its kin. Wei Wuxian just patiently waited for answer however, confident that he wasn’t being ignored. One finally came when the man picked up a new piece of paper and made the first fold. “I have the same dream every night of the same man. In that dream, I want to tell the man something, but I never get the chance to. He keeps running away from me, even though I try so hard to keep him safe.”
Wanting to know more about Lan Wangji’s dream, Wei Wuxian prompted him further. “And?”
He raised his eyes to meet Wei Wuxian’s in a steady stare. “My wish to have the ability to tell him I want to protect him. I want my dream to end happily for once, where I don’t have to watch him die in front of him.”
Wei Wuxian, inspired by Lan Wangji’s plight, was struck with a sudden idea. “I also suffer from really bad nightmares! In there is also a man who always appears in them, trying to save me from the terrible monsters that want to rip me limb from limb. This man always talks in a muffled voice, so I can’t hear him. But I know that he is trying to tell me something important. Do you think you could teach me how to make some of these cranes tomorrow morning so I can also make one thousand and make a wish to hear what this man wants to tell me?,” Wei Wuxian asked with a twinkle in his eye.
It seemed Lan Wangji suffered from a similar fate as him. Not only did Wei Wuxian suffer from nightmares of monsters chasing him, but towards his dream, a man would always appear. He could hardly see what the man looked like, as he was shrouded in a blanket of shadows, but Wei Wuxian could tell that the man was desperately trying to talk to him. Whatever the man said, however, fell on deaf ears as he was never able to make out what the man would say. But despite the man being unable to communicate with him, Wei Wuxian thought of him as his only solace in his terrifying dreamscape. The man’s earnest kindness and effort to save him made him just a little bit happy to know that he was cared for in some capacity.
And like how Lan Wangji wanted to tell the man in his dream how he wanted to protect him, Wei Wuxian wanted to know what the man in his own dream was trying to tell him.
Lan Wangji froze as he was making the final folds to his crane when he heard Wei Wuxian ask if they could meet up tomorrow so he could learn how to make the paper cranes as well. Wei Wuxian furrowed his eyebrows together, already anticipating disappointing news.
“This is actually my final one,” Lan Wangji eventually said.
Wei Wuxian could only blink in response as he registered what Lan Wangji said. “This one here,” he said as he gestured to the paper crane that the man was almost finished folding, “is the thousandth one?”
“Yes.”
“Ah,” Wei Wuxian said with some awkward tension, “congratulations then!” Even though he was happy for the man, Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but feel a tinge of disappointment in his heart.
He couldn’t help but wonder if that meant the man wasn’t planning on coming into the cafe anymore, seeing as he fulfilled his goal of folding one thousand paper cranes. Wei Wuxian was suddenly overcome with the feeling of regret in that he didn’t speak to the man before. He seemed like nice company to have and Wei Wuxian would be able to fill his lonely, weary mornings with some casual chatting as laid claim to the corner seat. Plus, if he had Lan Wangji by his side, he could finally figure out if the barista who made amazing chilli mochas was named Lin Yueyang or Yu Lanying. Wei Wuxian could easily picture his mornings being more fun with Lan Wangji by his side.
It was a shame that he waited so long to talk to the man really.
“But I can teach you tomorrow,” Lan Wangji unexpectedly said after an awkward minute of silence. Hearing this, Wei Wuxian couldn’t keep the smile from blooming across his face in excitement.
“You will?,” he asked a little too loudly.
“Yes,” Lan Wangji answered back with a single, firm nod of his head.
Unable to hide his excitement, more so about seeing Lan Wangji again rather than learning how to fold paper cranes, Wei Wuxian did a little celebratory dance in his seat. “And you can tell me if your wish came true tomorrow!”
Lan Wangji returned back to making the final folds in his crane. “What is your name?”
With a start, Wei Wuxian realised he never told Lan Wangji his name. “I’m Wei Wuxian!,” he eagerly said as he watched Lan Wangji fold one of the ends of the crane into a head and gingerly placed it down into the box.
Lan Wangji then raised his eyes to meet Wei Wuxian’s. “Same time, same table tomorrow?”
Wei Wuxian smiled. “Absolutely. I have been eyeing off this corner seat for weeks now and there is no way I am going to relent it to anyone else now.”
Lan Wangji shared a small smile back.