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“Hey, everyone! Here on ‘Chatting with Xingqiu’, Liyue’s very own Yanfei!” Yanfei glares at Xingqiu, “We’re not on a talk show.”
“...Anyways, I’ve been hearing rumours that you went on a date with Hu Tao, manager of Wangsheng Aroma, any response to those rumours?” The lady had no choice but to play along Xingqiu’s shenanigans. “Well, I suppose the rumours are true.” Xingqiu gasps, “Consider my mind blown! Would you mind telling the audience how it went?” He rummages through his stuff and pulls out his phone, “Hang on, we need an actual audience, I’m calling Chongyun.” Yanfei snickers, “Alright.”
Xingqiu holds his phone up so Yanfei could see Chongyun’s face on the screen. “Can someone tell me why Xingqiu woke me up in the middle of a nap.” Chongyun didn’t sound like he was asking, Yanfei assumed he was more on the Only Doing This For My Boyfriend side of the bed, if it made sense. “See, Yanfei? The audience is eager to hear about your smashing date!”
“Smashing?”
“Whatever! Just tell us already!”
“God, fine!” Yanfei fumbles with her phone. “If I recall, it was around 2PM when I arrived at her coffee shop, Wangsheng Aroma, which I’m sure the audience knows.” She shoots a smile at Chongyun, who was already asleep, so her smile quickly fades. “Her shift was about to end so that’s when we decided to meet up.”
“Oh, hey! It’s my favorite customer!” Yanfei rolled her eyes at Hu Tao, “I’ll have an espresso.” Hu Tao winks at her, “Coming right up. And don’t worry about payment, it’s on the house!” She quickly turns to Zhongli, who was about to protest Yanfei not paying for her coffee. “On. The. House.”
Cool. “Thanks, Tao. I’ll be over…” Yanfei looked across the room until she spotted a free seat, “...there! Yeah, I’ll be over there.” She smiled at Hu Tao, “Just call me when it’s ready? Like usual?” Hu Tao hummed in response. Yanfei walked over to a vacant chair and sat on it.
“I waited for, like, 10 minutes or so, then she approached me in her casual outfit. I don’t mean to sound absolutely smitten here, but she looked so good! She somehow managed to make a plain dark red and beige outfit look so gorgeous. She’s like a model, you know? So pretty. Hu Tao’s like those girls who’d receive a shit ton of likes even if she posted the silliest shit.” Yanfei sighs. Xingqiu shakes his head, amused. “You started with ‘not to sound absolutely smitten’, then proceeded to talk about Hu Tao like that .” She scoffs, “What do you mean I talked about her like ‘that’ ?” Yanfei made air quotes. Xingqiu sighs, before turning to Chongyun and saying, “Sorry, dear. But I’ll have to end the ca- oh, he’s asleep.” A gentle smile appeared on his face before turning off his cellphone.
“Okay, in your immortal words,” Xingqiu continues, “ She’s like a model, you know? So pretty. Hu Tao’s like those girls who’d receive a shit ton of likes even if she posted the silliest shit. ” Yanfei purses her lips, “Well, if you put it like that I sound like I like her, like, like- like her, which I do, by the way.”
“Oh my God, we’re getting sidetracked. You’re not telling me about the date. God, you’re the worst gay person.” Yanfei gasps, “ I’m the worst gay person? Talk about irony.” Xingqiu glares at Yanfei, “You are so dead to me.” To reply, Yanfei winks at him.
“Anyways, where was I?”
“Hey, sorry I didn’t get as dressed up as you did-.” Yanfei turned red. Oh God, it’s that weird feeling again when I first saw her… the… the thing you feel in your stomach when you're nervous?? The… insect? associated with nervousness… bees. “If you ask me, when I saw you enter the shop, it’s like time stopped. You know how there’s a slow-mo in movies of the love interest and the protagonist gets butterflies in their stomach? It’s like that.” Hu Tao sat in front of Yanfei. Oh, so it’s butterflies… not bees. “Hey, are you okay? You’ve been quiet ever since I approached you.” Yanfei snaps out of her thoughts. “Oh, yeah! Yeah, I’m okay. I’m just… you’re very pretty, you know? I also got butterflies in my stomach when I saw you.” She chuckles. Hu Tao doesn’t need to know that I thought it was “bees in your stomach” rather than butterflies.
“Should I include the bees and butterflies mishap I had in my head?” Yanfei mumbles, loud enough for Xingqiu to hear. “What was that last thing you said? After the part you called her pretty.” Yanfei laughs, “Nothing important. Don’t think about it.” Xingqiu laughed along, “Sure.” What is she talking about?
Yanfei cleared her throat, “Where was I?” Xingqiu rested his chin on his palm, “You were telling Hu Tao how pretty she was.” Yanfei wears a look of confusion, “Oh? So I haven’t told you the part where we’re Netflix and chilling. Literally chilling, by the way. It’s kind of weird how ‘Netflix and Chill’ is associated with sex. I mean, we weren’t even watching Netflix.” Xingqiu raises his eyebrow, “So… are you going to tell me or what?” Yanfei scoffs. “Fine.”
“What are we watching?” Hu Tao shrugged as she opened Netflix, “I figured it’ll just play in the background, like how I usually do with movies like…” she frowned at the thumbnail of some movie that Yanfei didn’t even bother to remember, “...these. It’s always the same guy and the same plot. One girl’s not like the others… blegh.” Hu Tao stuck her tongue out then turned to Yanfei, “You get me?” Yanfei sighed, “Yeah. Totally.”
Yanfei’s eyes scanned the room and landed on a table that was scattered with intricate butterfly drawings. Hu Tao turned to Yanfei and stopped scrolling on Netflix, “Oh, my drawings. Yeah, I like butterflies. They’re cool little things. You know how there’s, like, those cases with dead butterflies? Yeah, I don’t do that. So I cope by drawing them… it’s most of what I do here besides binging movies. I know that butterflies don’t feel pain because they don’t have pain receptors so that makes it kind of okay to collect dead butterflies and keep them in a case, but I find it weird. Sorry, that was a mouthful.”
Yanfei shook her head, “No! It’s cool if you keep talking about butterflies. I don’t have any conversation topics… plus, I don’t think you’d be interested in law and etcetera.” Hu Tao smiled, “I’m pretty sure I’d be interested in any topic as long as you’re telling me about it.”
“Gayest shit I’ve ever heard.” Yanfei scoffs, “You’re one to talk; calling Chongyun your beloved, wearing matching outfits, and that little moment just minutes ago-” Xingqiu interrupts Yanfei, “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard enough. I’m in love with Chongyun, sue me! Please continue telling me about your date.”
“You have a beautiful smile.” Yanfei, unknowingly, thought out loud. “Thanks. So do you.” Her eyes widened at Hu Tao’s reply, I can’t believe she heard that. In a hurry to avoid any awkwardness, Yanfei pointed at one of Hu Tao’s drawings, “Do you know the name of that butterfly?” Hu Tao’s eyes sparkled. “Yeah! I have silly names for them like ‘Lily’, but if you’re asking about the scientific name… that one’s called Celastrina argiolus, commonly known as the Holly Blue. The girl blues have black wing edges. Pretty cute, right? They’re mostly seen around England. There’s also a butterfly called the Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus, but what makes the Holly Blues different from the Common Blues is their undersides, which are pale blue with small black spots.”
Hu Tao suddenly sighed, “It feels great to talk to someone about these. I don’t really get to talk about butterflies at work, you know?” She clicked her tongue, “Oh! I have an idea, you should talk about your interests on our next date! Tell me all about law and bureaucracy and whatnot!” Yanfei giggled, “I’d love to.”
Xingqiu gasps. “Damn, there’s a next date!” Yanfei smirks, “Of course. We’re both great people with great personalities.” Xingqiu stares blankly at her, “You sure about that?” Yanfei humms.
“Now, I sometimes name butterflies after people I know, obviously with their consent,” Hu Tao showed her drawing of an Adonis Blue to Yanfei and pointed to Xingqiu’s signature, “I made him sign after choosing a butterfly. This one’s the Adonis Blue.” Yanfei smiled, “You draw a lot of blue butterflies.” Hu Tao corrected her, “I draw a lot of butterflies, I haven’t even shown you the red ones. I sorted them by color.” The brunette started organizing her drawings. “Oh, can I help?” Hu Tao shook her head. Despite Hu Tao’s reply, Yanfei bent down to help her organize. “Don’t worry, this’ll only be a minute. Oh my God, I can’t believe I haven’t told you one of my favorite facts about butterflies: how they were named!” Yanfei gave Hu Tao three drawings and turned to her, “No time like the present, how were they named?”
“She told me and, my God, that is weird.” Xingqiu laughs, “I know, right? Hu Tao said that to me before I got to choose my butterfly… has she let you choose a butterfly?” Yanfei nods.
“No way! They looked at their shit…. which was called frass…” Yanfei giggled, “Weird name, to be honest.” Hu Tao snickered, “Yeah, it is! Imagine being one of those scientists. God, I’d rather be doing… anything that isn’t observing butterfly shit!” The two laughed. “It’s so… when I first found out about that, I thought it was a joke. But, no! Butterfly shit looks like butter, hence the name!” Their laughter slowly died down and they shared a pleasant silence.
Hu Tao shuffled through some papers with Yanfei staying by her side, in case the brunette needed any help. “Since I’ve told you about how butterflies were named, it’s kind of a tradition for me to let you choose a butterfly drawing of your choice, then let you keep it. Xingqiu insisted that I keep his, since his name is only given to the butterfly, not the drawing itself. I know there’s no point in arguing with him so I kept it.” She shrugged. “Choose a butterfly.”
“I chose the Lesser Purple Emperor. Or, the Apatura ilia . Hu Tao said there were two forms to that: the blue form ilia and the orange-brown form clytie . I signed the drawing and sealed the deal with a kiss.” Xingqiu groans, “Gross. I don’t want to hear about that. Kidding! That’s cute. Me and Chongyun kiss a lot.” Yanfei hums, “Not, like, an on-the-lips kiss, it was a flying kiss. She caught the kiss.” Yanfei giggles. “God, I miss our little hangouts where we just talk about our lives.” Xingqiu sighs in agreement, “Right? Hang on, was that the end of the date or..?” Yanfei shook her head. “We were organizing her drawings. Once we were done with that, we just talked about butterflies. They're so cool. Like, honestly, I didn't really care about them until me and Hu Tao started talking about it. We don't really have any common interest– aside from being the prettiest people ever, I guess-”
“I'll just pretend you didn't say that.”
“We just talked about butterflies and fell asleep while cuddling on her couch.” Yanfei smiles. I'm not lying, those did happen. But I swear I'm not telling Xingqiu about me mistaking the phrase 'butterflies in your stomach' as 'bees in your stomach'.
“Hey, Hu Tao, I have a confession.” Yanfei said, head resting on Hu Tao's shoulder. “Is this… serious?” Hu Tao looked at her. “No. But, I just thought that since we were talking about butterflies, I'd tell you about a little mistake I made… I don't even know why I'm telling you this, it's greatly irrelevant to butterflies– I think. But couples tell each other everything, so why not?” Hu Tao squeezed Yanfei's cheeks, “Just tell me already! If it's silly, I will not let you live in peace.”
Yanfei gave Hu Tao a look that said: “I can't tell you if you're holding me like that.”, so the brunette released her hold on Yanfei. “Sorry, but you're so cute.” She turned red at the comment, “Shut up. Anyways, I was going to tell you that I confused butterflies for bees-” Hu Tao opened her mouth to speak but was quickly dismissed by Yanfei, “like, when I saw you at Wangsheng Aroma in your casual clothes. I was like, 'holy shit, I think there's bees in my stomach'. Then you said the same to me, except you used the expression correctly.” Hu Tao started laughing. “Oh my God, you are absolutely adorable. Can I kiss you?”
“Oh, look! That's all for 'Chatting with Xingqiu', with me, Liyue's very own Yanfei! Thank you for tuning in. I've got a date with Chongyun in about 20 minutes, so I'll be going over to his place. Bye, Yanfei! This was cool.” Xingqiu says while standing up. “Yeah! It was fun hanging out with you, enjoy your date!”