snowflake ☆ k.dy ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

doyoung [forty]

You did sleep that night, your body's exhaustion from all the crying you'd done overtaking the mental anguish your brain was preoccupied with. You'd at least had the wherewithal to text Taeyong and let him know you weren't going to be at the apartment that night and to stay with Yuta for one more night.

Waking up in your childhood bedroom for the first time in almost a year, for just a moment you were in a world where yesterday didn't happen. Then it all came crashing back into you. You rolled over to bury your face into your pillow, not expecting to hear the sound of crinkling paper. With a quiet 'what the fuck' you propped yourself up onto your elbow. In front of you was a delicate origami bird, and for half a second you thought it was from Doyoung. But this one had a point coming out of the back of its head, a crest that wasn't on a dove. A jay or something. Flying note, not from Jungwoo, and definitely not from Doyoung. Some Erethulian giving you their condolences. You grabbed it and shoved it into your trashcan.

Despite sleeping hard last night, you felt just as wiped physically and emotionally as the day before, barely managing to pull yourself out of bed and into the shower. And even then, you sat on the floor of the shower, letting the hot water beat down on your back as your salty tears mixed with the spray of the shower.

The one memory you replayed that morning was the first time you'd ever hugged Doyoung. You pulled your knees to chest, squeezing your arms around them tight. When you pulled the shower curtain open after thoroughly scalding your skin for over half an hour, you almost jumped out of said skin as you were greeted by yet another origami jay hovering eye-level with you. With a bitter taste coating your tongue, you snatched it out of the air and threw it in the garbage.

Breakfast was pancakes, but you had no appetite. Still, you lifted a bite to your mouth and chewed it slowly, to appease your mom's concern. You'd just swallowed it when nausea came rushing up your throat and you barely made it to the kitchen sink before you hurled, the acid burning your already pained throat tenfold more. Your mom held your hair away from your face as you continued heaving long after your stomach had been emptied.

Thankfully, you hadn't gotten any on your hoodie. The same hoodie you'd worn the day before.

After the non-existent and dismal breakfast, you shoved your feet in your shoes.

"Where are you going?" Your dad asked gently.

"On a walk," you mumbled. "Be back later."

"Okay, sweetheart, be safe."

Out on the sidewalks, you were pleasantly surprised by the gloomy sky that greeted you. You'd have been beside yourself if the sun had been shining. You checked your phone for the first time that morning, flinching as if you'd been slapped when you saw your screensaver. A picture you'd taken of Doyoung on a date you'd gone to at a gallery, of him intently studying the painting in front of him.

Pulling down your notifications bar, you were greeted by a text from Taeyong asking when you'd be back today, another from Jaemin asking if you and Doyoung would be up for a double date with him and some mystery classmate of his, Johnny gently reminding you that you still had some of his tupperware in your possession, Renjun not-so-gently reminding you of the same thing. All perfectly... normal things. It was sickening.

You wanted to kill something.

Your first inclination was to go pick a fight with some Wraiths. Maybe if you were lucky you'd find some in human forms and be able to use your own bare hands instead of just your Onmyoji powers.

Right, you were an Onmyoji, you could do magic.

You were extremely doubtful, but you knew you wouldn't stop thinking about it unless you asked.

Your phone rang through your speakers, and you took a sharp turn down some random street as you waited for the recipient to pick up.

"Hello?" Mark Lee picked up after four rings.

"Hey, Mark. Are you busy?"

"Hey, Y/N. Uh no, not right now. What's up?"

"Where are you? I want to talk to you about Onmyoji stuff."

"Oh sure! I'm at my apartment. I'll send you the address."

"Thanks."

"See you soon."

"Bye."

☆

Mark's apartment was a fifteen minute walk from where you had been when you called him. That was a whole fifteen minutes for you to think over the morality of what you were going to ask him. And you decided you didn't care.

You knocked a couple times on the eggplant purple door before shoving your hands into the pocket of your hoodie. It was too hot outside for it, but you couldn't make yourself take it off. The sound of the deadbolt unlocking came before the door was swung open, a bed-headed Mark Lee behind it.

"Hey, come on in," he opened it wide for you, and you entered silently.

Your classmate locked it behind you before leading further into the apartment. You'd never been to his place before. It was small like yours, two-bedroom/two bathroom guessing by the number of doors, and a living room and kitchenette. The couch had a white lab coat on one arm, the rest of it being taken up by the owner of said lab coat. Ten was reclined on the tiny black couch, looking up from his phone at you.

"Oh right, you said the baby Onmyoji was coming over," Ten stated. His eyes scrutinized your appearance as he directed his next comment at you, "You look like shit."

"Ten!" Mark exclaimed in a chastising tone.

"Feel like it too," you spit back.

Ten's eyebrows shot up before his face was once more neutral, "Fair."

He returned to whatever he had been doing on his phone, and Mark motioned for you to follow him. The two of you went into another room, his bedroom.

"Sorry about him," he apologized as he flicked the light on. "If he's not bewitching you he's got no manners."

"I heard that, Markie!" The Ayakashi's voice carried into the room.

"Fuck off, Ten!" Mark yelled back before closing his door. He moved to sit at the head of bed and gestured to the foot of it for you to sit on as there was no other seating in the small room.

You toed your shoes off before doing so, the mattress dipping underneath you. Mark shoved up his round glasses that had slipped down his nose. The two of you were silent.

"So..." he finally broke the quiet. "What did you want to ask me about?"

"Doyoung is dead," you finally said aloud what had happened. It wasn't a weight that was lifted off your chest, it felt like the one that was already there got a thousand times heavier.

Mark's jaw actually dropped. He clearly wasn't expecting you to say that.

"Oh—oh my god, Y/N, I'm so sorry. How—how did it happen?"

"Magical ritual to save his kingdom."

"Magic what? To save his huh? I thought he was a businessman?"

"Oh, shit," you deadpanned, voice monotonous in an attempt to keep all your emotions at bay. "Yeah, he's an Erethulian. Snow spirit Ayakashi. Erethulian Prince actually. It's a long story, do you need to know all of it?"

"No, no, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to," he reassured you. "So, you want to know if you can bring him back to life?"

"Yes. And don't try any preachy bullshit on me about the natural balance and how I shouldn't resurrect the dead or whatever. I don't care. I want to know if I can, and how I can."

"Good thing I wasn't going to do that," your friend offered you a half-smile. "There's one thing that might work. But you'll need at least one of your True Ayakashi to do it."