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Dani felt hopeless.
"You're staring again," Megan said, sliding into her seat in the cafeteria, her mist swirling like fog on a lake at midnight.
Dani blinked, yanked her head away from where she’d been watching Sophia float gracefully above a picnic table in the courtyard, sketching in her moonlight journal.
“I was not staring,” Dani mumbled.
"You made a heart in your mashed spleens," Megan added, pointing delicately at Dani's lunch tray.
Dani looked down. She had, in fact, clawed a very soft, romantic arc into her food.
“Coincidence,” she grumbled, tail twitching.
“She literally detached from her lower half this morning, and you said, ‘Oh wow, that’s so graceful,’” said Yoonchae, who appeared out of nowhere with her tray like a tiger in the mist.
“IT WAS GRACEFUL!” Dani barked, cheeks pink under her fur.
“She floats like a flower in a thunderstorm,” Megan said dreamily. “A haunted lullaby. A glossy-lipped Filipina vampire. I, too, would trip over my tail for her.”
“I’m not tripping.”
“You walked into your locker on Tuesday.”
“That locker has a face! It blinked at me!”
“That locker ships it,” said Manon, flopping beside them with a water serpent coiled around her wrist. “It told me so.”
The worst part was that Sophia was just... so Sophia.
She glowed after sunset. She had this soft way of talking like she was reciting a memory. She sang to herself under her breath when she thought no one was listening, old lullabies in Tagalog that curled around Dani’s ears like warm smoke. And the worst— absolute worst—was how kind she was.
Like, just that morning…
“Hey Dani,” Sophia had said gently, hovering beside her at her locker.
Dani, mid-yawn, accidentally knocked her own textbooks out with her elbow and hit herself in the face with a binder.
“Oh shit—I didn’t mean to—”
Sophia floated down, caught a falling notebook mid-air, and smiled.
“It’s okay. You good, wolfie?”
“Yeah,” Dani said, because wolfie had officially ended her life.
Of course the girls wouldn’t let her forget it.
That afternoon, their laag was worse than usual.
Dani was trying to explain a new group number choreography, but it was hard to focus when Sophia’s upper half hovered near the lake, softly humming.
Lara leaned against the bench, sipping vampire-red juice. “What’s the move called where Dani forgets left and right every time Sophia sings?”
“It's called 'the swoon shuffle,'” Megan offered, levitating her sandwich.
“Actually,” Yoonchae mimicked Dani's voice, “it’s 'uh-uh-Sophia’s glowing again, help.'"
“I will howl in this room,” Dani threatened.
“You already did,” Manon said. “You barked and wagged your tail when she said 'hi' last week.”
Sophia floated back towards the table, lower half now reattached.
“Are y’all ready to head back to the dorms?”
Everyone turned to Dani.
Who, very bravely, said “Uh.”
“Smooth,” Manon whispered.
The classroom was dimly lit, perfect for Sophia to glow just a little more than usual. Dani sat near the back, pretending to take notes, but her eyes kept drifting to the front, where Sophia was quietly sketching in her notebook.
“Dani,” Lara whispered, elbowing her. “Eyes on your own paper.”
Dani blinked and quickly shoved her notes in front of her face, only to accidentally knock over her water bottle with a loud clink .
Megan snickered from beside her. “Nice one, Casanova.”
Manon leaned over, voice barely audible. “Girl you’re gonna get caught. And not in a good way.”
Dani sighed and glanced back at Sophia, who was humming a low tune under her breath, a melody that seemed to pull at something inside Dani’s chest.
Lara nudged Dani with a playful grin. “Want me to cast a ‘focus’ charm on you?”
“Please,” Dani muttered.
Just then, Sophia looked up and caught Dani staring.
Their eyes met, and Dani’s cheeks flared red enough to rival a full moon.
Sophia smiled softly, whispering, “Caught.”
Dani groaned, hiding her face behind her notebook.
Later that night, after a long shower and even longer attempts to suppress the way her heart fluttered when she thought of Sophia’s laugh, Dani flopped face-first onto her bed. Her tail curled around her ankles like a scolded puppy.
She groaned into her pillow.
There was a knock at the window.
She sat up—only slightly alarmed—and opened it.
Sophia hovered there, glowing like moonlight personified, a little out of breath and holding…
A taro mooncake.
“I, um… made too many,” she said. “And thought you might want one?”
Dani blinked. “You flew here with pastry.”
“I was hungry. And thinking about you. I mean—not like that. I mean, yeah, like that, but not—”
“ You were thinking about me ?”
Sophia hesitated. Hovered a little lower. She was rambling now. “Yeah. You always smell like sugar and kinda like a sampaguita. You’re so unapologetically yourself. Like you're about to pull the moon closer.”
Dani's brain short-circuited. “Oh.”
Sophia offered her the mooncake. “I’m saying I like being near you. Even when you forget your words and walk into lockers. I think it’s… cute. Endearing, too.”
Dani took the mooncake, very slowly, like it might disappear.
“I think you’re… otherworldly,” she blurted. “And it’s annoying.”
Sophia laughed.
Dani added quickly, “Annoying in a good way.”
“Annoying in a girlfriend way?”
“Exactly… WAIT WHAT. ”
Sophia floated forward, giggling as she leaned close. Their noses nearly touched.
“Just so you know,” she whispered, “the others are right. You wag your tail when I talk.”
Dani looked down. Betrayed. WAGGING. VIOLENTLY.
She groaned again.
“Do you wanna go out with me sometime? Properly.” Sophia added casually, but the hue of pink on her cheeks contrasted starkly to her pale glow. “Before your tail breaks something?”
Dani laughed, heart pounding, and nodded like it was the easiest yes she’d ever said.