Archive of Our Own

High among the sun-basked branches of a pine tree several metres away from the Atelier, Agott sat curled up, barely making a sound. Above her, a couple of Pipewish butterflies glided between the twigs, their little colourful wings fluttering around the bark. She tracked them with a quiet stare, barely blinking, lost in her own mind for the better part of a clock-mark.

"…"

It wasn't unusual for Agott to spend her precious morning free time getting lost in thought while observing the scenery, especially when it included a group of animals. But today, she found herself getting lost in thought longer than usual. After all, Pipewish butterflies were fascinating. They didn't bother covering themselves with any exterior shield or mask, completely open about how they wanted to be perceived. They flew through the air with honesty, revealing their brilliant patterns to the whole forest without a single trace of fear. They just lived, unbothered by stifling expectations or the inevitable judgments one would find while living in a society.

Then, Agott's eyes caught a single, solitary butterfly resting on a wilted leaf just a few inches lower than the rest.

It was a loner, kept apart from the group. At first glance, it looked almost plain—its outer wings were a dull, unimpressive black, almost blending perfectly into the dark bark around it. But as the breeze passed through the branch, the butterfly shifted, fanning its wings open for just a second. As it turned out, the underside of its wings was painted in stunning, vibrant shades of deep purple and emerald green, hiding beauty beneath that exterior.

Agott stared at it, her heart sinking slightly. In a way, it felt like an obvious contradiction of her own self. The butterfly’s outer shell was dark and dull, while its inner part contained all the colour and warmth. Agott, on the other hand, spent every moment of her life maintaining a flawless and rigid exterior—an imperfect facade, but a facade, still. Yet deep inside, she was undoubtedly a mess of feelings and tangled anxieties she couldn't even begin to express.

Agott pulled her knees a little tighter to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. It was maddening, honestly. These tiny animals had a kind of easy freedom she couldn't seem to touch—especially when freedom itself reminded her of a certain former outsider that kept running around in her mind. The thought always came with an incredibly distracting feeling and always seemed to completely throw off her focus. It wasn't jealousy, annoyance perhaps, but Agott had an inkling that this feeling ran far deeper than either of those. If only it were magic, she could just study the glyphs, trace the ink lines, and make sense of how it worked.

Perhaps…

Perhaps if she could just have an inkling of what Coco was thinking behind every smile and sincere words each time they interacted, Agott could finally figure out what made that girl so… unsettling and why she had always succeeded in making Agott feel such unnecessary feelings. And maybe, Agott could also begin to accept herself as something whole and not fractured, just like how Coco seemed to do as easily as breathing.

Then there was silence, before a sound snapped Agott out of her daydreaming daze.

Whoosh—!

"….!!!"

Agott caught a sudden, sharp whistling sound that cut straight through the rustle of the leaves.

"A—Agott! Watch out!"

It started as a faint rustle of wind, but within a second it turned into a familiar, terrified, high-pitched scream hurtling straight toward her. Agott’s instincts kicked in a moment too late. Her shoulders tensed, and her head started to turn, but—

Thwack!

Something slammed hard into the back of her head with a violent force. The sky and the green canopy spun into a blurry mess at the impact; the branch beneath her suddenly vanished, and Agott felt like she was falling—the world seemed to surge into a white-hot burst of pain before going completely dark.

.

.

.

When Agott finally started coming to, everything felt fuzzy and out-of-place. There was the smell of damp dirt in her nose, a dull hum at the back of her neck, and a heavy, throbbing pulse behind her eyes.

"W-what just…"

Agott forced her eyelids open, fighting off the lingering dizziness. The blue, unassuming sky above was blocked by someone kneeling right over her. She squinted, waiting for her vision to settle, but the second her eyes focused, her breath hitched in her throat.

Staring down at her was... herself.

It was her own face, her own dark, curly hair framing it but completely stripped of the usual composure she had come to associate with whenever she looked at her face in the reflection. Her eyebrows were pinched together in a trembling mess, her lower lip quivering, and her eyes were wide with panic that Agott wouldn't be caught dead showing in public over something so trivial. She stared up at her own face in sheer disbelief, her mind clinging to the frantic hope that she had just hit her head hard enough to hallucinate.

But… what had hit her so badly that she started to hallucinate? Herself?

Right. As if that could happen. This was most definitely a dream. She almost closed her eyes again to ignore the absurdity.

"Agott!"

The sound snapped her awake like a splash of freezing spring water. It was her voice—undoubtedly hers—but it was shouting her own name in a rising, desperate pitch. Somehow, it had the embarrassing ring of an old childhood habit she had buried years ago, back when she was still tiny enough to address herself in third person.

Agott sat up abruptly at the realization, the sudden movement sending a sharp spike of pain through her temple. She winced, reaching up to press a hand against the sore spot. It seemed like it definitely would bruise… badly. The physical ache was real, but as she shifted her hand, her sight landed on the hand in front of her face; a cold, sinking feeling washed over her.

Her first thought was as follows: Thankfully, it was still a human hand.

But it was undoubtedly not hers. The fingers were roughly the same size and stained with bits of conjuring ink, sure. But as her thumb brushed over her fingertips, the skin details were all wrong. The tough calluses she had built over years of relentlessly gripping an ink wand until her hand cramped up were gone. In their place, the skin was slightly softer, lighter—worn only by a few short months of practice.

She blinked once in bewilderment. Twice in disbelief.

"Agott! I-I am so, so sorry!"

The words came tumbling out of her stolen mouth in a breathless, chaotic rush. The person sitting beside her in her original body was waving her arms around wildly, tears already gathering in the corners of those purple eyes.

"I don't know what happened! I just wanted to fly around with my sylph shoes, but suddenly they went completely out of control, and—and—and we collided, and now it seemed like we swapped bodies!!"

Agott just sat there, completely frozen, staring at her own panicked face as the ridiculous reality finally settled in.

"Wh-what..."

The voice that came out of her throat was familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time, only because she wasn't expecting it to come out of her own mouth. Light, somehow energetic, and carrying an expressive lilt that had never belonged to Agott for a single second of her life.

"What did you just say to me?"

Agott took a slow, quivering breath, forcing her rising anxiety back down into her chest. This is fine, she told herself firmly. It has to be. She was aware that magic was capable of extraordinary things; surely a predicament like this could be resolved with a counter-spell.

She only needed to think and find the culprit spell that caused this mind-swap. Or body swap.

She swallowed hard against the nervous lump in her throat, her mind racing to piece together a solution. But once she started speculating, a cold, harsh reality immediately slapped her in the face. She wouldn't know any spell that could undo this. After all, any magic that tampered with the human mind or body had been strictly forbidden since the Day of the Pact.

Then, a terrifying thought seized her mind. Had Coco somehow gotten dragged into another one of the Brimmed Caps' schemes and pulled her along by accident?

No. Agott shut the thought down, trying to be calm. They had only just returned from the Great Hall for that exact reason—the attack in the Romonon's cave. It would be illogical for the Brimmed Caps to strike again so soon. Besides, even if that were the case, it could hardly be blamed on Coco. She wasn't the one to inflict the spell on both of them, at least based on how panicked the other girl was currently behaving.

For now, Agott needed to address the situation with as cold a head as possible.

Agott glanced at the still-panicking "Agott" beside her. So, Coco was... currently occupying her body. How did she feel about that? For some unknown reason, the sheer sight of it made her chest execute a strange, uncomfortable flip.

That feeling again.

Agott shook her head slightly, trying to clear the sensation out of her mind, but the subtle motion immediately caught the other girl's attention.

"A-Agott! Is your head hurting? Oh stars, I'm so, so, so sorry—"

Before the rising volume could echo through the whole forest, Agott snapped her hand out, pressing her palm directly over... her own lips? Coco's lips? Her brain stalled for a second, confused as to how to even categorize the physical boundaries between them right now.

"Just... try to calm down first," Agott said weakly, then winced, feeling a deep wave of depression wash over her as the words tumbled out of her throat. It sounded exactly like Coco's voice, yet not quite.

To her credit, Coco—currently wearing Agott's face—nodded rapidly and snapped her mouth shut, remaining quiet for the first time in ten minutes. It was actually somewhat admirable; Agott knew for a fact she wouldn't have managed to ramble for more than ten minutes in her own body even ten years from now.

Pushing the absurdity aside, Agott turned her full attention to the core issue, which was discovering how on earth their bodies had been swapped in the first place.

"…"

After a moment of silence, Agott shifted her weight, unbuckling the sylph shoes attached to her feet to inspect the spell etched into the sole. She squinted closely at the glyph. The design was... relatively normal. There were no odd, unfamiliar symbols or strange tamperings that could account for a soul-swapping phenomenon, and the ink lines were unmistakably drawn by Coco's hand—containing those ridiculously straight, sweeping strokes she was known for.

However, as Agott examined the heel, she found the flaw that explained why Coco had lost control in mid-air in the first place.

"Coco," Agott called out softly.

Her new voice rang clearly in the forest's quiet air. The girl in question snapped her head up instantly. Her eyes were shimmering with tears, practically dripping with guilt and remorse—a look that immediately made Agott profoundly uncomfortable because that was her face! Agott barely cried these days; in fact, she can proudly declare she hadn't shed a single tear in years!

"C-Coco, don't use my face to cry," Agott half-pleaded, the request taking a massive amount of self-restraint to utter aloud. Stars above, this was getting more and more ridiculous.

Noticing Agott's genuine distress, Coco squeezed her eyes shut and frantically wiped at her cheeks with her sleeve. "A-alright! I won't!"

Hearing her own voice utter such a bright promise obediently made Agott briefly consider slamming her head against Coco's head a second time just to see if it would return their mind back to their own respective bodies.

Naturally, she resisted the urge, choosing instead to maintain her composure.

She tilted the shoe, showing the underside of the sylph footwear to Coco. "The line right near the heel has almost faded," Agott explained, her tone somehow falling into a familiar lilt she always used when tutoring her fellow apprentices. "This is most likely the cause of why you lost control, since balance is important while flying. You should always check your sylph shoes before taking off."

Coco listened, letting out a small gasp of understanding, nodding small, obedient nods.

So that was it. The faded ink, combined with Coco's drawing style, had caused the sylph shoes to malfunction, making her lose her balance and collide straight into Agott. At the very least, it was a relief that this disaster was the result of a clumsy accident rather than a Brimmed Cap ambush.

Agott would count this as a small victory, for now.

Agott let out a weary breath, her mind shifting back into high gear—until she noticed the air around them had subtly changed without her noticing.

A swarm of bright, fluttering shapes had begun drifting down from the higher branches. It was the Pipewish butterflies Agott had been staring at just moments before. They looked like they were swarming around both Coco and Agott, but as Agott squinted more thoroughly, a knot of dread tied itself in her stomach.

The butterflies weren't gathering around both of them.

They were surrounding Coco—or rather, Agott's body.

An uneasy feeling seized her heart just then, remembering the nature of what could possibly attract Pipewish butterflies in the wild aside from wishes…. it was the smell of blood.

"Coco..." Agott said as slowly and carefully as she could, taking extra care not to startle her.

Coco tilted her head in confusion, but as she tried to shift her weight on the grass, she staggered heavily to the side. And that single sway was enough to confirm Agott's fear.

"You're bleeding...!" Agott blurted out, her voice immediately melting into agitation.

Coco blinked again, looking thoroughly dazed. She slowly raised a hand to touch the back of her head, pulling her fingers away only to find her palm coated in dark, sticky red.

Both of their eyes widened at the exact same time.

"C-Coco, hold on. Don't pani—"

And then, before Agott could even scramble across the dirt to catch her own body's falling frame, Coco's eyes rolled back, and she collapsed limply onto the ground.

Coco felt inexplicably cold.

It felt like drowning in deep, freezing water—suffocating and terrifying, yet somehow, right at the center of the coldness, there was a comforting, steady heat. Coco also felt like she was being wrapped in a blanket that smelled faintly of dry ink and lavender, like she was being embraced by someone she held impossibly dear.

Coco grunted, trying to fight through the heavy wave pulling her down mercilessly into the realm of unconsciousness. She forced her eyelids to twitch open, her vision swimming in blurry shapes.

Are we… flying?

No, wait. They were landing; more importantly, someone was holding her close while landing. The wind had stopped whipping through her curls, replaced by the rhythmical thumping motion of someone running at full speed.

Coco blinked, the fog in her head slowly parting just enough for the smidge of memory to hit her. The feeling of her flying with uncontrollable speed, the sight of Agott's shocked face, and the pain that followed after.

Oh stars!!

Agott and the accident! Coco had wanted to refresh her mind by flying around with her sylph shoes, ended up losing control, and crashed straight into Agott while she was quietly spending her free time. Even worse, their bodies ended up swapping in the process too.

Just when things were finally getting better between them! Just when Agott had started letting her guard down around Coco after everything that had happened at the Great Hall—Coco had gone and ruined it again.

She had to apologize again.

She had to make it right.

But her condition seemed to disagree. Her mind flickered once more, floating away from her grip. Out there, someone was calling out to her. The voice sounded panicked, yet strangely familiar. Almost like it was her own voice.

Right... she had fainted because she lost too much blood. The back of her head felt hollow and cold.

"Master Qifrey! Coco, Coco is—!"

Coco couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. The strength drained out of her limbs completely, but through the darkness, another familiar voice broke through, laced with concern.

Oh, yes. It was Master Qifrey's voice.

"Coco! You're back. Why is Agott—?"

"Huh? No, Coco is—!" The panicked, breathy voice beside her stumbled over its own words, breathless from carrying her all the way back. "Wait! Right! Agott got into an accident, and she needs to go to the hospital now!"

"What?"

Before Coco could process the utter confusion in Master Qifrey's voice or feel the shift as she was carefully taken into someone else's arms, the world folded in on itself, and she blacked out completely.

.

.

.

When Coco’s eyes slowly fluttered open, the soft, familiar sunlight filtering through the window revealed the stony walls of her own bedroom. Except the bed placement was slightly altered from what she remembered.

"Where… am I?"

The moment the words left her throat, Coco gasped, slapping both hands over her mouth. The voice… that definitely wasn't hers. It was slightly lower and possessed a certain lilt that sounded lady-like. It was Agott’s voice.

Memory immediately rushed back in a terrifying wave.

The body swap!

Coco began frantically patting down her face, her chest, and her shoulders, her fingers tracing the familiar curly hair framing Agott's face. It was real. She was genuinely inside Agott’s body.

N-no!

Attempting to sit up, a sharp pang shot through the back of Coco's skull, making her wince and hiss through her teeth. She carefully reached up to touch the tender spot, feeling the thick, neat layers of gauze wrapped around her head. As she looked around the room to orient herself, her eyes landed on a pair of vapour bubble trays resting on the bedside table.

Curiosity instantly winning over her pain, Coco leaned over the edge of the bed, put the trays on top of her lap and separated them with a hand. In the next second, the moisture in the air gathered into a large bubble of water that reflected her own appearance.

She gasped loudly, her free hand flying to her cheek in the reflection. Staring back at her was Agott’s stunning, pale face, framed by dark curls and decorated with those intense purple eyes. But instead of her usual composed expression, Coco saw Agott's face following her own emotions whirling around her mind: surprise, fear, and fascination at the same time.

Coco blinked in surprise. Huh.

"This is kind of amazing…" She mumbled in a daze.

Then, unable to help herself, she tried to let out a massive, beaming smile across the reflection's face. 

The Agott in the reflection smiled along, and the image was so inexplicably cute that Coco almost giggled aloud.

Woah... Agott is actually so beautiful when she smiles...

She stared for a moment longer before a curious thought struck her brain once more. Leaning a little closer to the water, she softened her expression and tried speaking again, attempting to say her own name in Agott’s tone.

"Coco..." she whispered gently.

The result sent an immediate, scorching wave of heat straight to her face. Coco clutched her burning cheek, screaming silently inside her head.

Why did her own name sound so... so appealing coming out of Agott’s mouth?! Her heart was pounding against her ribs with an unrelenting pace.

Coco wondered if she had really, really wanted to be best friends with Agott. It wouldn't be particularly strange, since the girls from the Atelier were the very first female friends of a similar age that she could befriend. Shaking her head, Coco placed a palm over her chest to force a deep inhale and exhale to steady her racing heart.

She carefully set vapour bubble trays back down on the table, her mind spinning. Should she call out for Master Qifrey? Or should she just pretend to be asleep until Agott came in so they could figure out this body-swapping incident together?

Before she could decide, there was suddenly a creaking sound, and the bedroom door swung wide open.

Coco gasped in pure panic. Caught entirely off guard, she froze completely—torn right down the middle between throwing herself back onto the bed to fake sleep and awkwardly greeting whoever was entering.

Standing in the doorway was... herself. Golden-green hair and a familiar white dress, but the expression streaked across her face was anything but familiar.

"Coco!" Agott called out immediately, closing the door behind her in a hurry.

The girl occupying Coco's body walked inside, her expression morphing into a look of sheer relief once she seemed sure that she wasn't hallucinating about Coco waking up. It was absurd hearing her own voice sounding so terribly urgent, calling her own name, but Coco couldn't look away as "Coco" hurried across the room, carrying a plate of mariberry pie.

"Are you feeling alright?"

At the question, Coco immediately tried to beam a reassuring smile, but caught herself just in time, quickly forcing her face back into a neutral line. After all, Agott would never make a face like that, and Coco was determined not to make Agott uncomfortable seeing her own body act completely out of character—especially after Coco had already ruined her morning.

So she decided to give a simple nod instead.

Thankfully, Agott didn't seem to notice her inner turmoil nor the strange, stiff twitch of Coco's facial muscles. She swiftly placed the mariberry pie on the bedside table, setting it down with a soft thump! before looking down at Coco.

"You've been unconscious for two days," Agott said bluntly by way of an opening, her voice tight. "And we haven't switched back a single time."

"…"

"Wait, t-two days?!" Coco stuttered out after a beat, her jaw dropping open.

Agott nodded grimly, the expression looking a bit strange on Coco's usually cheerful face. "I originally assumed this was just a temporary spell. Most likely an after-effect of our collision. But after two days with zero change, it's clear that there's something more to this."

Listening to the explanation, the mood instantly shifted, and Coco tightly gripped the soft blanket resting over her lap, her knuckles turning white. "W-What if we never swap back?" she whispered, her voice trembling. Tears threatened to spill from Coco’s eyes. "I-I am so sorry, Agott! This is all my fault—"

"Stop it," Agott cut her off, letting out a weary sigh as she raised a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. "I was partly to blame too. I was... overly distracted watching those butterflies instead of paying attention to my surroundings…"

Agott’s words suddenly trailed off. Her fingers froze against her face, her eyes widening as a realization seemed to strike her like a bolt of lightning.

Without warning, Agott jolted forward, lunging across the mattress and grabbing Coco by the shoulders. Coco let out a startled hiccup, her breath catching in her throat at the sight of her own face hovering mere inches from hers. What is wrong this time?!

"Did you make a wish?" Agott demanded suddenly, her voice laced with urgency. "Before the crash—did you make any kind of wish that had a connection to me?"

Coco blinked, feeling some kind of familiarity with the demanding question Master Qifrey forced on her on the first day she had become a witch, and instinctively trying to lean back to create some distance, but Agott was relentless, pinning her down with those golden-green eyes.

Panic setting in, Coco frantically searched her memory, trying to recall every fleeting thought she'd had over the past few days that had any connection to Agott. The moment the memory surfaced, a scorching heat rushed straight to her cheeks. If she remembered correctly, she did talk about several things involving Agott with the other girls before taking off flying that morning. What did she say, again?

I really want to know more about Agott!

"…!!!"

She couldn't possibly admit that out loud! Not to Agott's face!

But seeing the dead-serious look on Agott's face, Coco knew she shouldn't hide it if she wanted to return to her own body. But Agott wouldn't hate her for this, would she? Coco was briefly contemplating staying in this body forever if that would mean Agott wouldn't get weirded out by her wish. But if she stopped and thought about it for a moment longer, Agott would hate staying in her body for too long, too!

She supposed she was screwed either way.

"I... I think I might have wished to get to know you better...?" Coco confessed, trying to avert her gaze somewhere else, but Agott's piercing gaze held her. Her voice ended up quivering softly despite her effort to stay calm.

A heavy silence blanketed the bedroom for a few seconds.

Then, Agott reacted in a way Coco hadn't expected. Agott bristled like a surprised cat, her entire posture going rigid. A sudden, undeniable flush of pink swept across her pale cheeks.

Coco panicked instantly, convinced she had made Agott uncomfortable all over again. She scrambled to fix it, waving her hands in the air as though to dispel the awkward air suddenly forming around them. "I—I mean, I wished that for Richeh and Tetia too! Because we're all friends!"

At those words, the thick tension in the room shifted immediately. The bright blush faded from Agott's cheeks after a beat, replaced by an unreadable expression. Coco watched her nervously, completely unsure why the atmosphere had suddenly dropped, though she was at least relieved Agott no longer looked startled.

Clearing her throat with a cough, Agott moved to sit at the edge of the mattress.

"In any case," Agott began, regaining her composure, "I believe I know what caused our bodies to switch."

She paused, gesturing toward the open window. "The cause might be the Pipewish butterflies I observed yesterday. There's an old fairytale surrounding their name… that if someone speaks of a wish in the presence of one, there is a rare chance the magic within them will grant it. I had assumed it was merely a bedtime story, but it seems the myth holds true."

As Agott spoke, explaining the lore effortlessly as though she remembered it by heart, Coco felt a sudden, soft warmth bloom in her chest. She pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on said knees, and let out a small, fond smile. It was always endearing to see Agott's fascination towards animals and their fairytales. But Coco wouldn't say anything for now, lest Agott get embarrassed and the awkward atmosphere might form again.

Unaware of the thoughts forming in Coco's head, Agott blinked, catching the warmth of Coco's expression mid-sentence. She paused, her eyebrows knitting together. "What are you staring at?"

"You're so capable, Agott," Coco blurted out, her tone full of genuine admiration.

Agott turned her head away in a huff. "T-this isn't a big deal! You'd be privy to this kind of basic information too if you bothered to open a book once in a while!"

"Right," Coco giggled, nodding happily. "Thank you, Agott."

"I-In any case," Agott stammered, clearing her throat once again to regain control of the conversation, "we need to keep this entire situation a secret from Master Qifrey and the others. At least until I can locate another swarm of Pipewish butterflies and wish ourselves back to normal. For now, just try your best to act and fill my place, understood?"

"Yes, I will do my best!"

Coco was undeniably trying her best, but Agott couldn't stop the persistent headache from forming behind her temples.

Maintaining the image that they hadn't swapped bodies was proving to be an absolute nightmare. In a single morning, Coco had already almost called her "Agott" three times when the others were visiting her, and she had beamed enough blinding smiles to last Agott nine lifetimes if she were a cat. Worse, if anyone had caught "Agott" grinning like a sun, the entire Atelier would know something was horribly wrong with Agott's head. Thankfully, Coco was still bedridden from the concussion, limiting her interactions with the rest of the Atelier. That gave Agott the freedom to leave her be and sneak around outside in between classes, using the time to search for another cluster of Pipewish butterflies.

The very same day as she figured out the reason for their body swap, Agott slipped out once again from the side door and tried to sneak into the forest. She took three cautious steps past Master Qifrey's herb garden before—

A heavy hand suddenly clapped down onto her shoulder, locking her in place.

Agott gasped, spinning around with her heart leaping into her throat. Standing behind her, looking down with his usual sleepy, unbothered expression, was Olruggio.

"M-Mister—I mean, Master Olruggio?" Agott stumbled over her words, quickly adjusting her posture to match Coco's slightly softer stance and fidgeting habits. "D-Do you need anything?"

Olruggio raised a thick eyebrow, scratching at his scruffy beard. "Don't call me 'Master'... and to answer your question, no. But I've seen you darting around outside the Atelier since the other day, Coco. Is something bothering you?"

Agott gulped, shifting her weight nervously from one foot to the other. Her mind whirred into overdrive, weighing the options. Should she confess? Tell him about the fact that she was searching for a butterfly? No… that would raise too many suspicions and more headaches.

She forced her lips to stretch into what she hoped was a bright, naive Coco-esque beam. "N-No, not at all! I was just... trying to test out my sylph shoes again after I redrew the spell!"

Being Coco is exhausting, Agott thought bitterly, her face already aching from the smile.

Olruggio stroked his chin, letting out a quiet hum of contemplation. "Well, if you're going out to practice on flyin', you shouldn't be wandering off alone. We never know what might be lurking out there. And you have a horrible record of getting sidetracked by things, Coco."

Damn it!

Agott blinked, a terrible, icy dread settling over the back of her neck at the implication. "Wait, I don't need—"

.

.

.

"Hey! Wait for us!"

True to her absolute worst fears, ten minutes later, the side door burst open once again. Tetia came bounding out with her sea-foam colored witch cloak fluttering in the wind, with Richeh trailing quietly behind her.

"Master Olly said you were practicing your sylph shoes, Coco!" Tetia cheered, skidding to a halt right beside Agott and throwing an arm around her shoulders. "We're coming too! We can fly around together in the meantime too! This is gonna be so fun!"

Agott stood frozen in the dirt, staring at the two girls with wide eyes. She was, quite frankly, completely screwed.

...Or perhaps not? An idea suddenly popped up inside her head.

Since she was occupying Coco's body, it might be fairly easy to gain Tetia and Richeh's trust to keep anything a secret. Maybe she could ask for their help to search for the Pipewish butterflies. Three pairs of eyes were absolutely better than just one, after all.

It was worth the try.

Before long, Agott, Tetia, and Richeh soared above the sunlit meadow, the wind whipping through their cloaks as they flew into the sky. Agott maintained a steady flight path, her eyes constantly scanning the tree line below until she spotted a perfect spot to land. Timing her descent perfectly, she made a landing right in the middle of the grass.

The other two girls swerved mid-air, rushing over with concern etched across their faces. "Coco! Is something wrong?" Tetia asked, landing with a soft thud seconds later.

Agott quickly pulled herself together, throwing a distressed, slightly uneasy smile toward the pair. She wrung her hands—just like she’d seen Coco do a hundred times when she was nervous—and lowered her voice. "Actually... can I tell you two something?"

Tetia immediately nodded her head with vigour, her eyes shining with curiosity, while Richeh gave a subtle eyebrow raise before nodding along.

"Actually, I didn't come outside to practice with my sylph shoes... but rather, I am searching for a butterfly," Agott confessed, putting on her best innocent tone.

Both girls instantly perked up, leaning in closer. Agott had to forcibly suppress a smirk. She didn't think that it was this frighteningly easy to gain their trust.

She smoothly continued her act, "I borrowed Agott's book the other day and saw a drawing of Pipewish butterflies, and they are very beautiful! So… I've been sneaking around to find it."

It was a flawless cover story that Agott was almost proud of her own brain for coming up with this scenario. Coco was naturally curious about everything she stumbled across, so running around the woods to hunt down a pretty butterfly was completely within character.

However, the reaction that followed was... wildly different from what Agott had expected.

Instead of a cheerful “Aww!” or an encouraging pat on the back promising to help, Tetia’s cheeks flushed a bright, sudden pink, and Richeh silently gave her a firm thumbs-up.

A thumbs-up? For what?

Agott blinked, completely bewildered.

Before she could process it further, Tetia suddenly lunged forward and wrapped Agott in a tight, affectionate hug. Agott stiffened, exerting every ounce of her willpower to suppress the flush rising on her own cheeks and tried to hug her back as smoothly as possible.

Refrain, she reminded herself. Physical contact like this is normal for them and Coco.

Thankfully, Tetia pulled back just enough to smile right at her face before Agott could combust on the spot. "We'll totally help you look for them!"

Agott almost let out a genuine sigh of relief, but Tetia’s very next sentence froze the air in her lungs.

"But, Coco. You must really, really want to give those butterflies to Agott, huh?"

Agott blinked once again, her brain coming to a screeching halt.

What on earth does myself have to do with this?!

Richeh piped up from the side, her expression flat as always. But this time, Agott had an inkling that Richeh was teasing her, somehow. "Well, Richeh thinks your interest in Agott hasn't been subtle at all lately. This seems like a good first step to give her a nice gift."

Agott swallowed hard, her throat suddenly feeling bone-dry. "W-What do you mean... by interest?"

Tetia broke into a fit of giggles, undoing the hug entirely before twirling around in a circle. "Why are you acting so shocked? Isn't it super obvious by now? Coco and Agott sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N—"

"N-No! We're not like that at all!" Agott blurted out in her panic, her defensive reflex completely shattering her sweet 'Coco' act in a single second.

"…"

Richeh and Tetia blinked in unison, caught completely off guard by the sudden outburst. They exchanged a brief, puzzled look.

A cold weight sank straight to the bottom of Agott's stomach and she gulped hard. Oh no. Did I ruin it?

Noticing Agott’s visible agitation, Tetia quickly reached out and took her hands into her own, offering a placating laugh to ease the tension. "A-Alright! We must've guessed wrong! Sorry, Coco!"

Richeh nodded beside her, adjusting her ink-pouch. "Well, if that's not what this is about, we should get moving to search for the butterflies."

Just like that, the awkward atmosphere evaporated, and the two girls turned to head deeper into the woods. Agott stood frozen for a beat, her heart hammering against her ribs as she slowly followed behind them, her mind spinning out of control over what they had just implied.

What in the world just happened?!

After having her breakfast, Coco pulled the soft blanket higher up her shoulders, cozying herself deeper into the mattress. As much as she hated being stuck in bed with a dull ache thumping behind her temples, a small part of her was almost relieved to be bedridden. After all, she had a feeling that she had already induced Agott a massive headache with her terrible acting. But she really couldn't help it! Lying had never been her strong suit, for the most part.

But still, doing nothing but resting while everybody was outside made her a little lonely.

Coco lifted her right hand into the sunlight filtering through the window. She never really had the time to observe Agott's hands properly before this, even though she admired the spells that had been drawn by this hand immensely. At first glance, it looked similar to her own, dusted with the usual dark specks of conjuring ink. But looking closer, the smudges ran much deeper into the grain of the skin, a testament to just how relentlessly hard Agott worked day after day to master magic and be the proper witch she had hoped for.

A heavy, sinking feeling settled into the back of Coco's mind.

Once again, she had hindered Agott in her goal. Agott could've been using the time during their swap to practice more on drawing spells and studying runes rather than running around outside, burdened with fixing a mess that Coco had single-handedly caused. It was a familiar, painful thought. She really only seemed to bring trouble wherever she went—first to her mother, now to Agott, and to everyone else who cared for her.

Just as she was about to spiral deeper into her own head, several knocks were heard, and the door slid open to reveal Qifrey standing in the hallway.

Coco gasped internally, her eyes widening as she frantically tried to squeeze them shut and fake sleep, but it was far too late.

"Ah, Agott. I see that you're awake," Qifrey said smoothly, his tone warm as he stepped into the room. "Do you mind if I take your time for a conversation?"

Coco held her breath, not daring to speak for fear that her naturally bright tone of speaking would instantly shatter the facade. In the end, she could only manage a slow, cautious nod.

Taking that as permission, Qifrey invited himself in and pulled up the wooden chair resting near the bedside table, settling down with a quiet rustle of his robes. A somewhat awkward five seconds of silence stretched between them, filled only by the distant rustle of leaves outside.

Coco was sweating bullets, wondering how she should start the conversation. At the same time, she belatedly realized that she wasn't familiar with how Agott presented herself in front of Master Qifrey. Thankfully, before she could drown herself in her own sweat, the silence was shattered by the oldest of the two.

"Ah, forgive me," Qifrey spoke up, resting his hands neatly over his lap. "I really should have prepared you a fresh cup of tea before I came here. Which reminds me, do you still remember that tea I brewed for you when you first arrived at the Atelier?"

The question sent a spike of curiosity through Coco's chest. Wait... did Master Qifrey brew a special tea for Agott when she was still the only student here?

Should she nod? A pang of sympathy bit at Coco's heart; she really wanted to give him a verbal answer, but she knew she couldn't risk giving a real answer that might give him an idea about the swap. Still, the overwhelming urge to hear more kept her eyes glued to her Master's. In the end, Coco let out a muffled hum from the back of her throat, hoping it passed as a bedridden grumble from a concussed Agott.

Thankfully, it seemed to be enough. Qifrey offered a gentle, nostalgic smile, looking toward the window as he began to recount the past.

"It feels as though a lifetime has passed since then, doesn't it?" he murmured, his voice rich with fondness Coco had come to associate with the sound of home. "Yet, in truth, it has only been a few short years... and look at you now, steadily growing into such a fine witch."

Coco bit down hard on her lower lip, wondering as to how she could let herself ignore the monologue Qifrey was having. She knew she had to keep her mouth shut and play the stoic role, but listening to him praise Agott so warmly while Coco herself lay here in Agott's body was simply too much to bear. She couldn't just let him speak to a ghost.

In the end, she conceded to the guilt.

"I... I don't quite understand why you would think of me as someone who's growing into a fine witch, Master Qifrey," Coco blurted out, her voice low as she tried to imitate Agott's way of speaking. "I have only ever caused more trouble, haven't I? Even now... with this concussion..."

Coco stopped herself and gritted her teeth, her fists clenching tight into the fabric of the blanket over her lap. Her chest throbbed with a sharp surge of remorse.

I will stop here, she panicked internally. I almost poured my entire heart out!

Qifrey blinked in mild surprise, taking in the sudden gloomy intensity. Then, his soft, crinkled smile returned, accompanied by a light chuckle.

"Ah... are you referring to the accident?" he murmured, adjusting his glasses. "Nonsense, my dear. Coco came to me directly and insisted that it was entirely her fault. She claimed she was distracted, focusing on something else entirely and failing to observe her surroundings. And that was why you guys collided in the first place."

Coco’s eyes widened in shock, and the words hit her like a sudden splash of cool water. At a glance, it sounded as if Agott had simply put all the blame on Coco for being clumsy (even if she really was at fault). But Coco knew the truth of what happened on that tree branch… this was Agott admitting she had been distracted watching the butterflies and protecting "Coco" by telling Master Qifrey that Coco was the one who was distracted and failed to pay attention; Agott was actually taking the full blame upon her own shoulders in front of their master.

Coco felt her heart give a fluttering squeeze against her ribs, a wave of heat rushing straight up to her ears and cheeks.

...But if she admitted all of that in front of Master Qifrey while possessing Coco's body, didn't it mean that, in a way, she was still blaming Coco for it?

This is confusing. Coco decided to ignore the details and paid her full attention back to the Master in front of her.

Qifrey clapped his hands together with a soft pop, his smile widening into something deeply affectionate. "I had noticed that you two were gradually growing closer, but to see it to this extent? I must say that I am quite overjoyed. After all, Coco holds an admiration for you, a special kind at that. She barely left your bedside, tending to you for the entire two days you were unconscious. Do you remember?"

What?! 

Inside her head, Coco was violently combusting into tiny pieces. Her heart hammered against her chest with such sheer force she genuinely feared Agott's body was going to pass out all over again. But how can she not? Agott took care of Coco for two whole days by herself!

Grasping frantically for a lifeline to save her melting brain and to answer the suspended question, Coco forced herself to remember Agott's favorite tactic whenever she was flustered: deflecting and redirecting the conversation.

"Th-That is entirely beside the point!" Coco squeaked out, her voice cracking slightly before she forced it lower. "A-Anyway! Why don't we... why don't we discuss the tea again—"

She cut herself off instantly, biting her tongue so hard she nearly tasted copper. Stupid, stupid Coco! She had zero knowledge of whatever tea memory Agott shared with Qifrey, and pushing the topic would only dig a deeper hole!

Fortunately, Qifrey seemed to interpret her flustered burst in a completely innocent light. He chuckled good-naturedly, pushing himself up from the bedside chair with a gentle rustle of his light-grey cloak.

"My goodness, you must truly be longing for a hot cup of tea! Alright, I will go and brew a fresh one straight away." He walked toward the door, pausing at the threshold to glance back. "I will return in just a moment."

"T-Thank you..." Coco managed to squeeze out, giving a quick, stiff nod.

"You're very welcome," Qifrey replied softly, stepping into the hallway.

The moment the wooden door clicked firmly shut, Coco let out a long gasp of air and a silent scream. She threw her hands over her face before rolling her body to press her face against the pillows as her brain threatened to overheat and short-circuit simultaneously.

That was dangerous! What do I do?!

Tetia let out a long grumble from above, her cape flowing behind her in the breeze as she drifted back and forth, squinting through the thick leaves. "Nothing! I found nothing but ordinary bugs!"

"We are also getting closer and closer to the Kalhn borders," Richeh added neutrally, hovering nearby and glancing up at the sky. "Also, Richeh think it will be dark soon."

Agott didn't say a word, her mouth drawn into a tight, tense line. A wave of panic began to claw at her throat, her mind whirring with the question: What if there's a time limit to the butterfly's magic and the swap becomes permanent because she took too long to make another wish to dispel the first one?

She bit down on her thumbnail in concentration, floating mid-air aimlessly.

Think, Agott, think! Is there any other way to undo this besides making another wish?

A wish was an intent—something akin to a spell designed to fulfill a desire. Agott also considered the possibility that a Pipewish butterfly's magic could naturally be dissolved once the original wishes were granted. But that hypothesis also raised another question. In a case for her and Coco, do both wishes need to be satisfied simultaneously, or could they be fulfilled one by one? There was almost no documented research on this! Agott would know if there were any. In the first place, the wish-granting magic was only a legend, a fairy tale. There was always the possibility that this was actually the Brimmed Cap's doing. In any case, she needed to ask Coco about when she had made her wish to further strengthen her hypothesis, but flying back to the Atelier now would burn more time she couldn't spare.

Does she have to gamble? And how on earth was she supposed to grant her own wish when she couldn't even define what she was feeling?!

"Coco! Down here!"

Tetia's voice snapped Agott straight out of her spiralling thoughts. She paused mid-flight and glanced down toward the forest floor. Both girls were standing in a small, sunlit clearing, waving their arms frantically up at her—a sight that momentarily reminded Agott of a pair of overly enthusiastic myrphons. Suppressing a sigh, she glided back down to the grass.

"What is it?" Agott asked, trying to keep her tone bright and breathless. "Did you find them? Did you see the butterflies?"

Richeh shook her head.

Agott’s eyebrows unconsciously scrunched together in slight annoyance. She opened her mouth to ask why on earth they had called her down if they hadn't found anything, but before she could speak, Tetia giggled and lightly tapped the center of Agott’s forehead.

"Now, now! Let's not get too hasty!" Tetia scolded cheerfully. "We'll find your butterflies soon enough, but we haven't had lunch yet, and I brought us a little something!"

With a theatrical twirl, Tetia pulled out three freshly baked soft rolls, a patterned picnic blanket, and an entire tea set from beneath her witch cloak.

Agott gulped, her mind momentarily halting as she stared at the mountain of supplies. How had Tetia managed to pack all of that while flying through the air? The real Coco would definitely be curious, but Agott had known Tetia the longest, so she already knew her quirks and had already arrived at a point where she just ignored the logic behind it. She chose to help smooth out the picnic blanket on the grass instead.

While sitting down, Agott couldn't stop her knee from bouncing nervously. After all, every second spent sitting here eating bread was a second wasted. But she couldn't push them any harder either without looking suspicious, because as far as Tetia and Richeh knew, "Coco" was just trying to catch the butterflies due to her curiosity about their beauty, not because she was trying to resolve a body-swapping accident.

She picked up a roll, chomped down on it in three quick bites, and tried to gulp down her tea in a single swig.

"…"

"Say, Coco?" Tetia asked suddenly, setting her own cup down with a quiet clink. "Are you hiding something from us?"

Agott froze mid-swallow, nearly choking on her tea, and her heart nearly leapt into her throat. Surely, she wouldn't get found out impersonating Coco this fast? Agott was pretty confident in her acting, but perhaps she had been acting too hastily a few times.

She forced an awkward laugh anyway, clutching her knees. "N-No? Whatever would make you think that?"

Richeh leaned forward, her light blue eyes staring intently straight into Agott's soul. "You're not getting threatened by Agott to go hunt for those butterflies, are you?"

"Wha—What?! No!" Agott denied it instantly, a bright, scorching flush exploding across her cheeks at the unprovoked attack.

A painful sting bit at her chest. Is that really what they think of her? She had never bullied Coco—well, okay, she had been terrible to her when they first met. A wave of bitter guilt washed over her. Maybe she deserved their suspicion. She was still working on trying to say a proper apology to Coco in her head, after all.

"No! Richeh, why would you say it like that?" Tetia immediately interjected, waving her hands in protest. "You know Agott would never do something like that to her anymore!"

Agott nodded stiffly, swallowing down the lump in her throat. Tetia was right. She wouldn't do that to Coco anymore. She had already acknowledged her past mistakes, and she was actively trying to treat her better.

Then, mid-nod, a sudden flash of realization struck Agott like a thunderbolt.

Wait.

She remembered her own subconscious back on that pine tree branch, wishing that she wanted to know what Coco was thinking to better understand the strange feeling in her own chest whenever Coco was involved. She had wished to make sense of her feelings toward the former outsider. Perhaps the butterflies were giving her a chance to answer her question by forcing Agott to impersonate Coco. And right here, sitting on this picnic blanket, were two girls who most likely understood the dynamic between her and Coco far better than she did.

Okay. She hoped that this was worth trying.

Even if the Pipewish butterfly's magic required both wishes to be fulfilled at the same time, resolving her side of the wish right now was a gamble Agott was more than willing to take.

Agott set her teacup down, taking a slow, steady breath. She leaned forward, fixing Tetia and Richeh with a focused gaze.

"Say..." Agott began with her best bashful smile, trying her absolute best to soften her voice back into Coco's signature lilt. "Earlier, when you mentioned my 'interest' in Agott... what interest do you think it is?"

"…"

"…"

Both girls blinked, staring at her in silence for a beat before Tetia burst into a loud, ringing laugh. Even Richeh let out a small, quiet pfft, covering her mouth with her palm, and her eyes curved into annoying crescents.

Agott’s face burned. "Is there something funny about my question?" she demanded, her hands flying to her hot cheeks.

"Nothing is wrong with it!" Tetia squealed, wiping a tear from her eye. "It’s just that we finally figured out why you’ve been acting so weird and jumpy all day!"

Agott blinked in surprise, her breath catching in her throat. What did they mean by they found a reason? Could they have actually deduced the body swap just from a single question? That couldn't have been possible, unless Tetia and Richeh were secretly geniuses—

"It's because you're embarrassed about being caught having a huge crush on Agott," Richeh said in a flat tone, yet there was an unmistakable hint of teasing.

Agott instantly choked on thin air. A violent fit of coughing wracked her chest as she practically threw herself backwards on the picnic blanket. "W-what?!" Agott sputtered as she felt another heart attack incoming, her voice cracking in the most embarrassing way possible.

"Richeh! You can't just drop the bomb on her like that!" Tetia scolded, thumping at Richeh’s arm before turning back to Agott with a slightly apologetic look. "Nooo, it's okay, Coco! Don't be embarrassed! Having a crush is totally normal!"

Well. Agott knows having a crush in their teenage years is normal. That was what always happened in the romance books she liked to read! What she didn't know was why on earth everybody thinks Coco had a crush on her of all people?! Agott felt faint all of a sudden, her mind spinning out of control into absolute chaos.

Were they insane? Did the girls honestly believe Coco harboured romantic feelings for her?! And more importantly—what about the way Agott had acted around Coco all this time? Did they see right through her, too?

Agott forced a deep, shuddering breath into her lungs, desperately trying to rein in her spiralling panic. This… crush was surely just a ridiculous misunderstanding she could dismantle later, but right now, she had a golden opportunity. If she wanted to grant her own wish and figure out her own emotions, she probably needed to know how she looked to everyone else when Coco was around.

She sat up straight, forcing her trembling hands into her lap and putting on the most earnest, wide-eyed look she could muster.

"A-anyway," Agott stammered out, her face still burning embarrassingly hot. "A crush, right. But um... how does Agott act toward me? Does she... does she seem like she feels the same way?"

Tetia gave her an affectionate smile in response before tapping a pointer finger against her chin, tilting her head toward the sky as she hummed in deep thought. "Hmmm... who can say for sure? But she’s definitely mellowed out a lot for you, Coco! You are a charming girl like that!"

Beside her, Richeh gave a small nod. "Richeh agrees."

"I’ve known Agott the longest out of all of us," Tetia continued, her tone softening into something incredibly gentle. "And she’s a veeery diligent and talented girl! It’s practically impossible not to admire her. I still admire her so much! Especially because... well, she has this incredible way of making the rest of us feel completely safe by burying down her own fear." Tetia winked with a bright smile. "Ah, do you still remember the accident with the dragon in Kalhn? She was so dependable at the time too!"

Richeh took a slow sip of her tea before adding, "Richeh thinks so too. Back at the Romonon cave incident, she must have been terrified to go after… Euini all by herself. But she swallowed it all down and told Richeh to ask for outside help in her Agotta-do-it-myself way. Richeh knew she meant well... even if it was still annoying."

"Yes! But with you, Coco, it’s different," Tetia chimed in, leaning forward as her eyes sparkled with warmth. She cupped her hands together over her chest, as if she was holding something precious. "With you, it’s like... we finally get to see those deeper parts of her personality. Parts she never used to let anyone touch."

Beside her, Richeh gave a slow nod of agreement, setting her teacup down with a quiet clink. "She definitely drops her guard around you."

"Right?!" Tetia grinned, using her hands to make little fluttering gestures in the air. "And that's only because you've admired her so sincerely from the very beginning! You keep reaching out, trying to get closer to her no matter how many times she tries to close herself off. Honestly, Agott is just like a black cat!"

Said black cat didn't know how to respond to that.

Tetia tapped her cheek thoughtfully, putting a finger to her lips as if sharing a big secret. "Other than that, she also hides and pretends she doesn't need anyone, but deep down, she just wants to be loved. So you have to promise not to spook her too much, okay? Treat her right, Coco. After all, she’s always cared for every single one of us just as carefully whenever we were scared, even if she pretends it’s just a nuisance."

Tetia reached across the picnic blanket, placing her hand softly over Coco's. Her expression softened into a look of genuine, fond hope.

"I really hope you can do that for her... for all of us, Coco!"

"…"

Agott could only sit frozen on the blanket, her mouth slightly parted. Once again, she was struck dumb by the answers that came out of the apprentices' mouths in front of her. A strange heat started to bloom behind her ribs, crawling up into her throat until she could barely force air into her lungs.

All this time, she had lived under the assumption that she was entirely alone in this—that her value could only come from being flawless, better, and useful. Back in the Great Hall, showing even a sliver of weakness under the name of Arklaum meant you were failing—or even worse, you were worthless. Fear was also a flaw to be wiped out, not something you were allowed to feel. She had built herself into an iron wall because she genuinely believed no one would ever want her if she wasn't perfect.

Yet here these girls were, seeing right through the walls she had nearly broken herself to forge. And somehow, they didn't hate Agott for closing herself off and shut down their every attempt at breaking down her fortress. This Atelier—this strange Atelier full of people she held dear—had given her a place to belong before she even realized she was looking for one.

And Coco... Coco might have been the start of them all. The former outsider had barged into her life with her silly, bright eyes and her boundless talent, knocking down every single boundary Agott had ever set. She had admired Agott's magic with sincerity, looked straight at Agott's magic and told her that they were amazing. That frustrating knot in her chest whenever Coco smiled at her probably wasn't a problem she needed to solve. It was just... the feeling of gratefulness or admiration.

But how would she explain the blush that surged up on her cheeks every time Coco smiled?

An annoying voice, or voices—suspiciously sounding like Tetia and Richeh—echoed in her head, saying the sentence "Agotta have a crush on her" repeatedly.

"Ah... sorry, Coco," Tetia’s voice suddenly broke through the silence, since Agott was too stunned to respond, sounding hesitant and apologetic. "This probably wasn't the exact answer you were looking for... Coco?"

Agott blinked, coming out of her deep trance, only to find both girls staring back at her with wide, stupefied expressions.

Damn it, am I crying? Agott thought in a sudden panic. She hastily raised a hand to brush against her cheeks, but her skin was dry. There were no tears. So why were they looking at her like she had just grown a second head?

Before she could ask, an iridescent glow cast a shadow across the grass.

Agott slowly lifted her gaze. Fluttering down from the high branches was a massive, swirling kaleidoscope of Pipewish butterflies. Their colourful wings caught the sunlight, casting shimmering lights directly over her.

"…!"

A sudden, intense dizziness hit Agott like a physical blow. Her vision blurred, her mind spun wildly out of control, and before she could even call out for help, the forest floor rushed up to meet her, and everything went completely black.

Roughly ten minutes after stepping out, Master Qifrey re-entered the bedroom carrying a tray. Upon it sat a teacup completely unfamiliar to Coco, delicately polished and decorated with elegant, sweeping swirls of deep purple and gold paint.

Coco stared at the cup, trying and failing to hide the fact that she was incredibly fascinated. Her wide gaze was rewarded with an amused chuckle from Master Qifrey as he leaned down and offered her the tray.

Coco took the set gently, admiring the porcelain. This was a piece of Agott's history she had never been privy to, a glimpse into the time when Agott was just ten years old and the period of time when she was the only apprentice under Master Qifrey’s tutelage. A tender smile pulled at Coco's lips.

Ringing in the back of Coco's mind, she began to think that in a strange, twisted way, maybe this body swap really had granted her deepest wish to know and understand Agott more.

"Do you remember it now?" Master Qifrey asked as he sat down at the nearest chair, cutting smoothly through her train of thought.

Coco almost hiccuped in surprise, her shoulders jumping. She hastily cleared her throat and looked away, trying to hide the flustered heat rising to her cheeks. "Of—Of course. It was merely two years ago, Master Qifrey."

"Indeed!" Qifrey hummed, his voice carrying a light, sing-song lilt as he took a slow sip from his own cup. "Though... do you recall the little surprise this particular teacup holds?"

Coco tilted her head in wonder, her brow furrowing. She couldn't begin to think what kind of surprise might show up from a teacup. While thinking, Coco's hand slipped ever so slightly, causing the teacup and its matching saucer to clack together. The moment the two porcelain circles overlapped completely, a glow erupted from the rim. A sudden, mesmerizing splash of anemones began to take shape from the tea, moving and swirling like weightless, floating petals.

"—Ah!"

The spell took Coco completely off guard. Without realizing, she forgot about her duty to act stoic and threw the thought entirely out the window, her jaw dropped in pure amazement. It reminded her instantly of the trick teacup Master Beldaruit had shown her in the Great Hall, but with a far softer, more girlish charm. If she remembered correctly, Master Qifrey himself had created those teacups... which meant he had personally crafted this one for Agott, too!

"Ah, it appears the wonder of it has finally returned to you," Qifrey remarked, watching her with warm interest. "For a moment, it almost looked as though you were seeing it for the very first time."

Oh, no! Coco coughed nervously, shaking her head. "N-No, of course not! My memory was just... a bit hazy. Probably an after-effect of the concussion."

"Is that so?" Qifrey set his cup down on the bedside table with a soft click, his expression shifting into something unreadable. "Then... would you allow me to retell a bit of that story for you?"

Coco swallowed hard at the offer.

What should she do?! She knew the real Agott would immediately decline, insisting she needed rest so she could bounce back sooner to health and practice her magic again. But Coco was dying to know. She didn't really know why, but she desperately wanted to hear more and more about Agott's past.

Dropping the facade just a fraction, Coco looked up and murmured, "If... if you'll have me, Master Qifrey."

And in the end, her overwhelming curiosity won out.

Qifrey smiled, leaning back in his chair. "Taking you in as my first apprentice was... well, it was an easy decision," he began, his tone sombre and reflective. "Even then, at ten years old, anyone could see how exceptionally talented and bright you were. Yet..." He paused, a brief flicker of sadness crossing his face, his jaw tightening slightly before he smoothed it over. "...it was obvious you were also quite fragile. Just a child carrying far too heavy a burden."

He ran a thumb along the rim of his saucer, his eyes looking far away past the window. "Your desire to run had also aligned with my own desire to leave the Great Hall and establish this Atelier; that was why I chose to carry you away from a home that had treated you so unkindly."

Suddenly, Qifrey looked directly at Coco, his expression filled with tenderness. "Agott, you are far more capable than you thought. You always study relentlessly, and you worked the hardest out of all the apprentices. But watching you like this…"

Qifrey stopped his monologue abruptly as though he realized something, and gestured toward the teacup filled with swirling anemones instead. "The day I decided to craft this teacup for you was the first day I ever saw that mask of yours crack."

He chuckled softly, as though the memory was tickling his humour in all the right ways. "You had only been staying at the Atelier for about two weeks. I woke in the dead of night to strange noises and found you rummaging through the kitchen in the dark. It turned out you were trying to brew a cup of black tea to force yourself to stay awake—because you were terrified that if you fell asleep early, you would fall behind everyone else."

Coco’s chest throbbed with a sharp, ache-filled pang, picturing a tiny Agott alone in the dark kitchen, getting defeated by her own mind.

Just what had happened in Agott's past?

Coco was curious, but she couldn't ask either, lest she arouse more suspicions.

"So," Qifrey concluded softly, reaching over to gently adjust the saucer on Coco's lap, "I decided to make this contraption just for you. A teacup to keep you awake... but wrapped in something beautiful, to remind you that magic is meant to bring joy for other people."

He looked at her with an affectionate smile, his eye twinkling behind his glasses. "Do you remember now, Agott?"

Coco nodded slowly, her head dipping low as she aggressively pinched her own thigh under the heavy blanket, using the sharp bite of pain to keep tears from spilling out of her eyes. Hearing how much Master Qifrey cared for Agott—and realizing how terribly hard Agott’s childhood must have been—made her heart ache with an overwhelming mix of warmth and sorrow.

But suddenly, the gentle atmosphere in the room shifted. Qifrey’s affectionate expression abruptly vanished, replaced by a chilling, piercing seriousness. His single visible eye narrowed behind his glasses as he looked down at her.

"I knew it..." he murmured, his voice dropping into a low, grave register. "You're not Agott. You're Coco... aren't you?"

"…?!" Coco’s eyes immediately widened in horror. She froze, completely paralyzed, unable to squeeze out a single word. "N-No..." she managed to stammer faintly, her voice trembling. "I—"

Qifrey shook his head, cutting her off softly. "Please, do not lie to me. The way Coco—or rather, the girl currently in your body—has been acting over the past two days is far too suspicious. And now I can say for certain, your demeanour, your expressions... none of it belongs to Agott."

He leaned forward, his hands gripping the armrests of his chair as a dark, intense shadow crossed his face.

"Tell me, did you have another encounter with a Brimmed Cap?" Qifrey demanded, his tone laced with a dangerous edge of panic. "Was it a forbidden spell? Did they tamper with your minds and swap your bodies? Please, tell me the truth, Coco. I only want to protect you and Agott."

Seeing Master Qifrey so visibly alarmed and ready to leap into battle, Coco panicked. She shook her head frantically, her fingers tightening around the teacup in her lap—though she took care not to chip or crack Agott's precious teacup.

"Y-Yes! I am Coco! We swapped bodies, but—but it wasn't because of a Brimmed Cap, Master Qifrey! I promise!" she blurted out desperately.

"… Are you sure?" Master Qifrey said with a tone full of doubt.

How did it even come to this? She shouldn't have let her curiosity get the best of her and ruin their disguise like this.

Coco nodded frantically, her eyes now tearing up for another reason entirely.

"Are you completely sure about that?" Master Qifrey pressed again, this time with his frown deepening.

Coco nodded once again, trying very hard not to hiccup in despair.

Thankfully, just like that, the suffocating, terrifying tension in the bedroom evaporated. Qifrey slumped back slightly, letting out a long, ragged sigh of pure relief, rubbing his temple with a weary hand.

"Thank goodness..." he muttered. However, the relief was short-lived. He lowered his hand and squinted at her, his face carefully blank. "If it was not a Brimmed Cap's doing... then why on earth are you two in this state?"

Coco gulped, setting the teacup safely down on the bedside table before turning back to him with flushed cheeks.

"It was an accident!" Coco began hesitantly, wringing her hands in her lap. "I collided into Agott pretty hard while flying on my sylph shoes. But Agott said... she said the real cause was Pipewish butterflies! We both accidentally made wishes at the same time near a swarm. She thinks the magic in the butterflies granted our wishes by swapping us!"

Qifrey listened intently, his fingers resting under his chin as he processed the explanation. And to Coco's relief, the guarded tension in his shoulders gradually melted away, replaced by an expression of fascinated curiosity.

"Pipewish butterflies..." Qifrey hummed, tapping his chin gently. "I was not aware of their capability to grant two wishes simultaneously..."

He struck a fist lightly into his open palm, his eye lighting up with sudden understanding. "Well, that's a relief. If the spell is rooted in a wish, then to undo it, your wishes simply need to be fulfilled, do they not?"

"I... I think so," Coco squeaked, feeling a wave of embarrassment wash over her.

"Then tell me, Coco," Qifrey said cheerfully, leaning in closer with a smile. It was slightly jarring to see such a cheerful expression on his face when he had shown Coco an expression so serious it had chilled her to the bone merely seconds ago. "What was your wish?"

But still, like an autopilot, crimson flushed further across Coco's face at the mention of the wish, spreading all the way to the tips of her ears. She buried her face in her hands, her voice muffled to a tiny whisper. "Do I really have to tell you?"

"Why, yes, of course. We need to rule out any possibility that this accident wasn't caused by another one of Brimmed Hat's schemes."

"Okay," Coco nodded carefully, already feeling exhausted by the roller-coaster of emotion she kept having over the span of time less than a clockmark. "I had wished to know Agott better..."

Silence fell over the bedroom, and Coco held her breath, expecting Master Qifrey to tease her or express utter confusion at such a silly wish causing such a disaster.

Instead, Qifrey blinked once, threw his hands up, and beamed radiantly. "Oh! Is that all? I can certainly help you with that!"

"Eh?" Coco looked up, peering through her fingers in utter shock.

"Where should we begin?" Qifrey declared merrily, ticking points off his fingers as though trying to list things off from his head. "Agott absolutely dislikes spicy foods; even a tiny sprinkle of red pepper will make her eyes water. Her favourite meals are things she can eat with one hand, and I think she has taken a liking to baking recently. Oh, and before she came to the Atelier, she actually had very long hair, but she asked me to help cut—"

"W-Wait, Master Qifrey—" Coco squeaked, her face burning hotter and hotter by the second as the endless vault of Agott's personal secrets was spilled right in front of her.

I-is this even okay?! This felt like an invasion of privacy!

"Furthermore," Qifrey continued smoothly, completely ignoring her embarrassment, "she is an exceptionally light sleeper who wakes at the slightest creak of a floorboard, she secretly enjoys reading silly romantic books when she thinks no one is looking, and—"

Coco’s brain was actively overheating. Her heart thumped against her ribs so loudly she thought it might burst through Agott's chest. "M-Master Qifrey, stop, please! That's enough—!"

Before she could finish her plea, a sudden, warm luminescence filled the room.

The master and apprentice duo immediately turned their head towards the source of the unnatural glow. Without waiting for their approval, a swarm of Pipewish butterflies started pouring into the bedroom from the window. It was a really beautiful sight—their vibrant, shimmering wings flickered with dazzling shades of diverse colours, swirling into a fluttering vortex directly above Coco's head.

"C- Coco!" Master Qifrey urgently called out.

The air around her thrummed with a strange magical feeling.

Then, a wave of intense dizziness struck Coco so hard her vision instantly spun in circles. She reached out blindly, her hand catching the edge of the blanket before her senses completely gave out, and the world dissolved into total darkness.

A heavy, thumping headache pounded behind Agott’s temples, making her wince in sharp pain as she slowly forced herself up onto her elbows. She blinked and blinked again, trying to clear the blurry spots dancing across her vision.

What just… happened? She forced herself to adapt to her surroundings, remembering that she had been sitting together with Tetia and Richeh before something—or rather, a kaleidoscope of the Pipewish butterflies—took her consciousness so suddenly.

Did it work, then?

She lifted a hand to rub the bridge of her nose and froze mid-motion.

Her gaze dropped to her fingers, trembling slightly in the morning light. They were slender, familiar, and hers. The deep ink-stains on the pad of her fingers that she knew better than anyone else in the world. Her hand. It was genuinely her own hand! She flexed her fingers, watching the knuckles move, and a wave of profound relief washed over her.

She was back. She was finally, truly back in her own body!

Agott suppressed the urge to bump her fist against the air, feeling her heart leaping into her throat, beating with a pleasant, fluttering rhythm. She scrambled to twist around on the mattress, searching for any reflective surface to confirm what her senses were telling her. But the sudden movement was cut abruptly short when her knee bumped against something soft and heavy resting on the blankets beside her.

She paused, looking down. Lying right next to her, fast asleep and breathing softly, was Coco.

"Wha—?!"

Agott’s breath caught in her throat, locking in her chest. Coco’s arms were wrapped snugly around Agott’s waist, pulling the two of them together into an intimate, warm proximity they had never, ever shared, aside from the hugs Coco initiated before on the riverbank and in the Great Hall.

But that was not important. There was definitely something more pressing here! It was the fact that the moment Agott registered the solid warmth pressing against her midsection, her mind unceremoniously dumped a wave of memories back into her consciousness—specifically, the memory of Tetia and Richeh sitting on that picnic blanket, giggling with absolute certainty that Coco harboured an undeniable crush on her.

A brilliant flush erupted across Agott’s entire face, burning furiously from the tips of her ears all the way down to her collarbone.

Panic setting in like wildfire, Agott gently reached down, attempting to pry Coco’s fingers off her waist as slowly and carefully as possible. Unluckily for her, the subtle movement only backfired. Coco let out a tiny, soft grumble, her shoulders shifting as her eyelashes fluttered open. She lazily rubbed her tired eyes with the back of her knuckles, squinting through the sunlight.

Coco blinked once. Blinked twice. Then she turned her head and her golden-greenish eyes locked directly onto Agott’s face.

Before Agott could even attempt a coherent sentence or pull away, Coco seemed to realize something shocking and lunged forward. She threw both arms wildly around Agott’s neck, hugging her so tightly that Agott’s air supply was instantly cut in half.

"Agott! Agott!" Coco cried out, her voice muffled right against Agott's shoulder, practically bursting into tears of pure, overwhelming relief. "You're here! We're back! Oh stars, we're really, really back!"

"…"

Agott sat completely rigid, her heart hammering against her ribs, trying to break free. Slowly, hesitantly, she raised her own arms and wrapped them around Coco's back, awkwardly patting her shoulder while desperately staring at the far wall… or rather, at literally anything in the room that wasn't Coco's face.

This was entirely too much for her fragile, overworked nervous system to handle. The lingering realization that Coco might harbour romantic feelings for her was fundamentally life-changing. She should've worded her questions differently towards Richeh and Tetia so she could still be blissfully unaware.

But it was already too late. For now, she should just ignore it…

"C-Coco," Agott choked out, forcing her voice to regain some semblance of her usual composed self despite the bright flush on her cheeks. "Let go. You're... you're strangling me."

Coco gasped, instantly recoiling and pulling back, though her hands remained resting lightly on Agott’s shoulders as though she was afraid Agott might disappear. She stared at Agott with wide, shining eyes before a radiant smile broke across her face. "Sorry! I'm just so glad! Wait... did the butterflies really undo the spell? How did your wish get granted?"

Agott cleared her throat sharply, looking away and stubbornly adjusting the stiff cuffs of her sleeves to hide her trembling fingers. "Tetia and Richeh... talked to me while we were searching in the forest. They answered some questions I had. That's all."

"Questions?" Coco tilted her head, her curiosity immediately piqued. "What kind of questions?"

"N-None of your business!" Agott snapped defensively, a fresh wave of heat dusting her cheeks as she pulled her knees up. She quickly turned the tables on her companion. "What about you? How did you get your wish of knowing me better granted?"

"…!"

Coco’s face instantly turned bright red, matching Agott’s blush step-for-step. She wriggled nervously on the mattress, burying her face in her hands. "I—Master Qifrey helped me. I didn't mean to tell him about the body-swap, of course! He figured it out all on his own! And then... and then he started telling me several things about you…"

Agott’s jaw dropped in pure disbelief at the influx of information. "What did you just say?"

"I couldn't stop him!" Coco squeaked out, waving her hands in frantic self-defense. "He just kept talking and talking! But... Agott..." Coco softened, her hands falling back into her lap as she looked up, her gaze sincere and infinitely gentle. It made Agott's heart do another nervous kick. "I'm really glad he did. I... I feel like I finally understand a little more of how hard you worked. How amazing you've always been, long before I ever came here."

Agott froze. The defensive retort died instantly in her throat.

Looking at Coco—really looking at her, with her messy bedhair, her bright, honest eyes, and that soft, ridiculous warmth she seemed to carry everywhere she went—Agott felt the heavy, terrifying knot in her chest finally unravel into something crystal clear.

The unsettled feeling that she had carried all these days didn't appear just because Coco had understood her. Richeh and Tetia understood her too, yet their words and actions never set her heart aching the way Coco’s did. The difference was that Agott had wanted to be understood by her. She wanted to be the person Coco looked at with that unwavering admiration, not out of pity, but out of her own choice. Perhaps her fragile ego had been too bruised and bewildered to recognize what was happening, misinterpreting her own longing as uncomfortable noise inside her head and leaving her even more confused.

Goodness, Agott might not be the best person suited for things revolving around feelings. But for Coco, she was willing to try.

"Thank you, Coco. I understand now." Agott leaned her body forward towards the other girl, hugging Coco with one of her hands—awkward, just like the rest of her, but Coco didn't seem to mind at all and laughed as she embraced Agott, enveloping her with warmth.

Tetia and Richeh were wrong about one thing, though. They probably thought Coco was the only one holding onto a silly, hidden crush in the dark.

Agott swallowed down her rising nerves, a small, quivering breath slipping past her lips as she pulled back and held Coco's golden gaze. She felt vulnerable, stripped of her pride and iron walls, yet for the first time in her life, she wasn't afraid of what lay ahead.

Well. She might not be afraid, but she was still deadly nervous!

Another alarm flared in the back of her mind as the truth settled heavily in her chest. She was sure now that she was crushing back on Coco too, but admitting that out loud right now—after everything they had just been through—would be way too much for either of them to handle, right?

I can't say it now, Agott thought frantically, her mind steadily starting to spin out of control. And yet... the urge to know was eating her alive. Were Tetia and Richeh actually right? Did Coco really feel that way about her, or was it all just a misunderstanding? Agott was painfully aware that trying to sort through her romantic crisis while staring directly into Coco’s wide, hopeful eyes was absolutely lethal and that a scorching heat had started to rush straight to her skin, her cheeks turning a deeper and deeper shade of crimson by the second. She desperately needed to step back, to take a breath, to—

Without warning, Coco leaned forward, closing the distance between them in an instant.

Tap.

Coco gently rested her forehead right against Agott’s, her breath fanning soft and warm against Agott’s lips.

"Agott? Your face is super red..." Coco murmured, her brow furrowing with genuine concern as she checked her temperature. "Are you getting a fever? Maybe the spell didn't completely—"

Agott's soul decided to choose that moment to evacuate from her body; her heart rate spiked unnaturally high, and she immediately felt faint.

"A-Agott?!" Coco squeaked, her voice echoing as if underwater.

But it was too late; Agott had promptly blacked out—for the last time, at least, for this segment of this story.