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An didn’t think much of the first time she saw Kohane. She did wonder why a tiny girl like her kept pacing back and forth near the guild. And she wondered what such girl must have been muttering to herself, twiddling with her little fingers all alone in a dim alleyway. She even wondered how the girl could look so cute by just letting her hair down, with a straight fringe that was probably past due for some trimming, and amber eyes that sparkled as she flicked them from side to side.
But An did think a lot about how cute Kohane looked. That was just how An acted whenever she had a crush on someone. And Mizuki had probably figured what was happening when An decided to show up at their shop, with a big smile on her face, because they shot a little smug expression in return when the two’s eyes met.
“So, who’s the girl this time?” Mizuki started, quickly moving their attention to arranging their astrologer board, picking the scattered beads and carefully separating them by colours in small boxes on the table.
An scratched her head, taking the free chair in front of the table without much ceremony, “I— What do you mean?”
Mizuki stopped organising the board for a moment and lifted their gaze to meet a blushing An, “Heh? It’s even more hopeless this time, then?” And, upon noticing An’s arched eyebrows, quickly added, “I will help, of course. What is it that you seek this lovely day, my dear An?”
The woman paused. “Do you really talk like that with all of your customers?” An shook her head at the pretentious phrasing, to which Mizuki just smiled. Well, Mizuki was the witch here, and An was in dire need of their help; she decided to go directly to the point, “So, I met a girl...”
“Yes, that part is quite obvious, you have this huge gay smile all over your face,” Mizuki pulled up the corners of their lips, in a cheap imitation of An’s expression, “Wiphe zhis~”
“Mizuki...” An admonished, the pink-haired astrologer laughed. “Uh, so...”
“Fine, fine. You want to know if you two are destined to each other and all that,” by now Mizuki had finished cleaning the board and organising the beads and dies in the little boxes on the table, so they put both hands together, elbows on the table, and stared at An waiting for a positive answer.
“No,” An retorted, quickly. “No...?” she was having second thoughts. “Well, that wasn’t really the plan, but sure, why not?”
Mizuki chuckled, “As you wish~”
Picking some of the red beads from the box, Mizuki shook them in their hands for a few moments, before dropping them over the board and watching as the little things traversed through the illustrated starry sky and reached constellation points, forming recognisable ones and not-so-recognisable others.
“What’s she like?” Mizuki asked, nonchalantly, while their fingers moved a couple of beads from the northern positions into southern ones. An watched the ritual as confused as she had been every other time. A couple of moments of silence prompted Mizuki to continue, “Is she from the capital? What’s her name? Her role?”
“Oh!” The realisation that Mizuki was expecting answers finally dawned, “Oh, I don’t know. We haven’t talked yet.”
Mizuki stopped. “You haven’t talked?!” Moved a couple of the southern beads back to their northern positions. “But you have a crush on her?”
“Is that... strange?” An doubted herself for a moment. Thinking back on it, all of her past crushes took a few interactions before she went about bothering her friends with whatever it was she was feeling at the moment. Although, now that she thought about it more, she had singled their cuteness pretty much instantly too.
“No?” Mizuki tried reassuring her, which to An could only mean that she was making weird faces while thinking. “No, it’s not strange. It’s just...,” An watched Mizuki consider their words for a moment, “unusual for you? But I didn’t mean it as a bad thing.”
“Uh, well...” An twirled the tip of her hair with her fingers, “she’s... cute.” She saw Mizuki listening, intently, with their ears and their fingers, which now traversed the board upon each word coming out of An’s mouth. So she continued, “Like really cute? But not, like, your well-considered cuteness, she’s just naturally cute.”
“An...” The woman noticed that Mizuki’s fingers had stopped before she registered her name being uttered. With a serious expression on their face, Mizuki continued “Are you saying I’m not naturally cute?”
“What? No!” An retorted. “Of course you’re cute! That’s not what I was saying. And this isn’t about you, Mizuki.”
Mizuki chuckled, “Fair, fair. Thanks for the compliment, An.”
An sighed. Took a moment to recompose herself. She could never truly tell when Mizuki was being serious or messing with her. “The first time I saw this girl she was just circling the guild anxiously, and she had her long hair down, but still gathered in low twin tails. And a fringe that would definitely get in her eyes during a fight, but also made her face look pretty and petite. And her big glasses compounded on that, too.”
“She was wearing this cute frilly cape, too, and, since her outfit was mostly neutral, her light hair worked well to accentuate it. It’s like she was sparkling, I just couldn’t take my eyes off her.”
Mizuki seemed to have finished moving the beads into their rightful places, judging from the colourful board in front of An. They held their chin in their hands, shooting An a genuine happy expression that the woman hadn’t seen on their face for a while. Mizuki asked, “What about the other times? Were you just staring at her from a distance as well?”
An looked crestfallen for a bit, “I haven’t met her after that. That’s what I wanted to ask you to help with.”
“Oh...,” Mizuki, who by this point probably assumed that An only came to their shop with her Useless Lesbian problems, let their hand float over the board again, eyes quickly re-evaluating the constellations that formed. “Oh. You should’ve said that from the start.”
“I tried to—” An stopped herself before the two got side-tracked again. “But I really need your help. I’ve been searching all around the upper parts of the town and all I’ve got was people telling me they saw her around the guild that day, but then nowhere else. I’m starting to believe she was just passing by to deliver something to a member and then continue her merry way to her hometown in the coastal west or something— well, she didn’t look like an adventurer in any case.”
Mizuki hesitated for a moment. “Look,” and hesitated for another, considering their words again. “I can’t really locate someone with just that. But I will, at least, try my best to look into any chance meetings you two may have in store for your future.” And saying this, Mizuki’s eyes met An’s for confirmation. “You really fell for this girl, huh? I thought it was just one of your regular crushes.”
“What are you saying?” An asked, a confused expression on her face. “She’s cute, so I’d love to meet her again. That’s all. Isn’t it the same for you, anyway?” An waited for Mizuki’s words of affirmation, but the astrologer just smiled back.
There was a similar ritual. Mizuki threw the beads over the board and watched them take over their destined places. This time, however, Mizuki didn’t proceed to move the beads around based on An’s words, but rather took some of the dies from the box nearby and rolled them on the side. An’s heart skipped a beat as she caught a glimpse of the number 1 facing up in one of them. Mizuki analysed the numbers and moved a handful of beads around, with an expression that An couldn’t quite read.
When the astrologer was done with their work, the two’s eyes met again. Mizuki smiled. “You are a very lucky woman, you know, An?”
“Huh? Me?” An pointed to herself, confusedly, and watched Mizuki giggle. “What does that even mean?”
“Who knows~?” Mizuki responded, in their usual way of singing words at the end of a phrase. “But I think you will have some happy news fairly soon. Though, as for the nature of them, that’s not something I can see.”
* * *
A few days flew by, with An being as requested for guild jobs as usual—and equally requested for guild partnerships, which she always declined. Sometimes An wondered if by “happy news” Mizuki meant being swamped by work, with little chance to devote her mind to wondering about the light-haired girl.
She had been so busy, in fact, that she couldn’t even find the time to pay Mizuki a visit—in an attempt to have them fork over a bit more of information, sure, but also because she got genuinely worried about Mizuki’s well-being from time to time.
So, now that she was finally back from her cavern dwelling in the mountain ranges of Materia, which divided the continent to the east, she had already drafted an entire plan that involved chilling in town for a bit and checking up on her friends. And she walked up the stairs that led up to the guild’s building without any intent of staying around for long this time—apologies to the guildmaster already at the top of her mind, lest the woman would find it appropriate to pull An aside for some beers and endless stories of when she used to travel through Marusia.
Not that An had any particular dislike towards Maria; she was just too aware, by now, that once the woman started talking An could well scrap all of her plans of resting on her own for the day.
Plans that she ended scraping much earlier, along with the apologies that floated through her mind moments ago; along with everything in her mind. Atop the staircase, staring at the big wooden door that led to the guild’s building, stood the girl An had seen earlier, humming a song that An didn’t recognise, but with a melody that moved the blue-haired woman nonetheless.
An rushed upstairs without a second thought, and when she reached the platform upon which the girl stood, An took a few more steps towards her. Her eagerness might have put the girl in a difficult spot, as An watched her turn around, their eyes meeting for a few moments before the girl averted hers to the ground, joining her hands and twiddling her fingers awkwardly.
“Are you headed to the guild? Is there anything I can help you with?” An asked, trying to appear as friendly as she could manage, but that might have had the opposite effect. An watched as the girl took a couple of steps back, opening and closing her mouth without making any sound. “Oh! You’re not in trouble or anything,” An made more assumptions about the girl. “It’s just... I saw you staring at the door for a moment and thought, maybe, you wanted to enter, but didn’t know how?”
“Ah...,” the girl spoke at last, “Uh...,” or tried to. She was having some trouble building up the resolve. An waited, but smiled in an attempt to encourage her. It might have worked, for she continued, “I was... I was thinking of joining, but I don’t think I could...,” her voice trailed off as her gaze shifted back to her shoes.
“Of course you can. The guild welcomes all—,” the girl dragged her feet around for a bit, and An stopped before she made matters worse. First, she knew nothing about the girl. “I’m An, and I’m signed in this guild,” she reached inside of her bag for a moment, searching for something with her hand before pulling a small card and showing it to the girl, who now had lifted her gaze a bit, even if she’d avert her eyes whenever they’d meet An’s. “You get one of these when you join, and then you pick up jobs that you think are suited for you—or that the guildmaster thinks are suited for you, sometimes.”
The girl nodded, but remained silent, so An continued. “I heard you humming here from the stairs. It felt so calming, and nostalgic, even though I have never heard it before. Ahaha,” An scratched her head awkwardly, “Sometimes I like to hum as well. It helps me calm down. And sometimes it helps me express whatever I’m feeling, too.”
There was another moment of silence. The girl would at times glance at An, and at times at the ground, fidgeting in place. An was a bit tired from all of the walking, so she pointed over to a couple of boxes laying near the girl, “Mind if I sit here?”
The girl looked surprised for a moment, her eyes darting from the boxes to An, and back again, before she shook her head. An proceeded to sit on top of one of the big wooden boxes, which closed the distance between her and the girl. Then An heard a couple of feet being dragged around; the girl put a little more of distance between the two.
“So, uh...,” the girl started. Hesitated. Then continued, “Miss An, was it?”
“Just An is fine,” An shot back, in a friendly tone, as she leaned against the box behind her. And she wished for her comfy sofa instead.
“An...,” the girl tried again. “Uh, An, so you like humming as well?”
“Sure do!” An beamed at the girl, and she must have done something right because this time she received a shy smile back. “I think it’s something I’ve always done. My dad used to be a poet and all that, so we always ended up humming together one song or another. And he was a member in this guild, too. He was one of the legendary party of four, the Raiders.”
“I wanted to be like him, too,” An continued. “Well, not exactly like him. I wanted to build my own legendary party. One that would surpass even the Raiders. So I’ve been working towards that for... well, for as long as I can remember now.”
When An turned to face the other girl, she found her sparkling amber eyes staring back, and an expectant expression on her face. “That’s amazing, An!” The girl blurted, and then she second-guessed herself, with her hands pulled close to her chest.
At first An was just taken aback by how cute the girl looked when she was sparkling with curiosity. And then she was at a loss for what to say to fill in the silence. Her hands found their way to the edges of the box, with her fingers hitting the sides rhythmically out of habit. Before she could notice, she was humming a song from her hometown again.
As the notes filled the air, An felt a bit more relaxed—enough to let her back rest against the box again, with her hands folded over her lap. The girl—An noticed from the corner of her eyes—the girl also allowed herself to lean her back against the wall, and allowed a relaxed expression to take over her face.
Through An’s mind, the lyrics her father had composed during her childhood decided to float up and make themselves at home. The woman didn’t complain. She allowed the words to guide her feelings, adjusting her humming accordingly. At times she was an adventurer travelling through the verdant valleys of the south; at times she was a researcher sailing through calm seas from the northern port.
But now— now her mind was conjuring the image of sitting around the fire with her party, laughing at stories of old and sharing joyous moments with food. She had noticed, not too long ago, that the girl by her side was humming along the same melody.
There was a different feeling to it, though. An’s humming was daring; it pulled you from the chair and dragged you around the large ballroom, swirling you around here and there. The girl’s humming was relaxing; it invited you to sit around a large table to enjoy a good cup of tea and chocolate-covered cookies at your own pace.
Which is why, when An stopped humming, turned around to face the girl, and extended her hand towards her—and waited for her to notice, which took a couple of other moments, through which An felt this weird sensation of a cozy afternoon with friends—when An’s eyes and the girl’s met there was only one thing going through An’s head. And she blurted it out without a second thought, “Come join my party!”
The girl was at a loss for words. And at a loss for what to do with her hands. And eyes. “A-An?!” She let out, confused. An’s hand remained extended towards the girl, who, hesitantly, let her right hand rest upon An’s. From any angle, this would look like An was proposing; which, in a sense, wasn’t that far from what was happening.
“You said you wanted to join the guild, right? How about joining my party, then?” An paused for a moment, but since no answer came from the girl she continued, “I mean, I say ‘my party’, but right now it’s just me. So it would be you and me...,” and, upon seeing the girl avert her gaze to the ground, An felt nervous for a moment, “Or, uh, if that’s a ‘no’, can I at least help you talk with the guildmaster?”
“No...,” the girl managed at last, and An must have looked quite devastated upon hearing it, for the girl’s eyes opened wide, in shock, and she quickly reached for An’s hand with her left one, sandwiching it awkwardly in the process. “Sorry, that wasn’t what I meant,” and she took a deep breath, in an attempt to calm herself down—and maybe allow An to calm down as well, because she didn’t proceed until the hand she now held in hers stopped shaking. “I don’t know about joining you, An. You have such lofty goals, and I admire that, but I’m...”
The girl’s voice trailed off, but An had recovered enough—as anxious as she still was—enough to decide it was her time to lend the girl some strength. An held the girl’s hands in both of hers, inverting the scene, “They’re lofty, perhaps. But I don’t think they’re beyond our reach. The Raiders was a party of friends who were there for each other and loved adventuring. And I want to form a party like that, too,” An renewed the pressure on the girl’s hand, with their eyes meeting once again. “I want to form a party like that with you.”
“An...”
There was a similar hesitation on the girl’s voice. But this time An watched as the girl’s cheeks warmed up, tinted ever pink. An felt the girl’s heart race through the hands she held in hers. And An was sure the girl must have experienced the same, because she couldn’t help but feel her cheeks warming up, her heart beat faster and faster.
Where words had failed, their feelings had already reached each other.
* * *
An tended to drop by Mizuki’s shop unannounced. That day wasn’t unusual in this aspect. And they had been talking more, recently, because An was still in the middle of her little adventuring vacation, so it wasn’t like her visit was wholly unexpected.
The reason Mizuki had a surprised expression on their face as An walked over to the divination table had more to do with what was happening around An—the girl walking by her side.
“My, my! Welcome to my humble shop, dears,” Mizuki started as the two women made themselves comfortable in the chairs by the table. “What do you seek this lovely day, if I may ask?”
And before the two guests could answer, the astrologer tried a different question, turning to An and smiling mischievously, “By the way, how did it take you a whole day to ask for your partner’s name?”
An and Kohane exchanged glances for a moment, and reminisced their fated meeting in front of the guild, before laughing, cheerfully. No matter how one looked at it, An inviting the girl to her party, and then only learning Kohane’s name during her guild registration, the day after, was definitely odd. But it also gave them a sense of closeness that went beyond what words could describe.
Mizuki would have described it as something that was already spelled out in the stars; that An and Kohane’s meeting and companionship was something destined to happen. And, maybe, that was why Mizuki sat there silently, resting their chin upon their hand and smiling softly at the two women bonding in front of them.
Maybe that was what Mizuki saw in their board when An first visited that week; though they never confirmed or denied it.
In the end, for An, it didn’t matter. The attraction she felt for Kohane was unlike any she had experienced before. And she was just happy to know it was mutual.