sweet girl ☆ q.k ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

kun [two]

"Jungwoo!" You called out when you arrived at the shrine on Monday afternoon.

After finishing your last class of the day, you'd swung by your apartment to grab Taeyong and drop your school bag off, then headed right over to the shrine. Normally Jungwoo was waiting for you or was fairly easy to locate considering he never left the shrine. But for some reason, despite yours and Taeyong's repeated calling out to him, you couldn't find him.

"Strange," you frowned. Sungchan wouldn't be here either, he had business in the town around this time on Mondays, too.

Heading out to the back, you called out Jungwoo's name one more time before you heard rustling in the depths of the forest to your left. You whipped around, immediately spotting your friend. Jungwoo approached you with a small basket on his forearm, mellow smile across his features.

"Hello, Lady Onmyoji, Taeyong. I apologize for any inconvenience," he bowed his head to you before leading the way back into the shrine.

"Oh, it's fine, I was just a little worried was all," you explained, looking at the various plants in his basket. "What's in there?"

"Herbs. I am an apothecary as well, just refreshing my stores."

"Oh cool! What kind of stuff do you do as an apothecary?"

"Remedies for small ailments, wounds, headaches, difficulty sleeping, things like that."

"Well you're definitely not helping Jeno with that last one," you joked, watching Jungwoo methodically separate and store his new acquired herbs in their various shelves.

Jungwoo's back was to you, but you heard something that could be called a chuckle come from him before he spoke, continuing to organize his herbs, "I think we are going to try something different today, Lady Onmyoji."

"I'm down. Everything else has been a fucking dud."

"Yes, I could sense that you have been getting quite frustrated with our sessions lately."

"We all are," Taeyong retorted to the Tsukumo-gami.

"That is why we took yesterday off, to give everybody involved a break. Lady Onmyoji, do you know of any others who are joining us today?"

"No clue, they just kind of show up when they want," you admitted.

"Very well. We will wait a few more minutes before starting."

"We can start without them. They're not the ones training."

"Correct, but I do not wish for your focus to get broken once we have begun."

Over the next few minutes, almost everybody had shown up—save for Jeno, who you were sure was passed out in his apartment.

"Don't you two have a business to run?" You scoffed when both Johnny and Renjun joined you all.

"Even café owners have to take lunch breaks," Johnny defended them.

"It's 2:30 in the afternoon."

"Johnny's still paying me," Renjun provided his own reason with a nonchalant shrug.

"Alright, if that is everybody for today, then you can all follow me," Jungwoo gestured for everybody to take after him through the shrine.

The group stopped at the worship hall, a large room at the back of the shrine where religious services would have been held when the building was still being used for its original intent. You hadn't been in that specific area since Jungwoo gave you a tour on your second visit here. The room was warmly lit by the sunlight filtering in through the windows—which were mere cutouts in the stone walls with no glass panes or modern aspect to them whatsoever—and along the floor were thick sitting mats in a circle.