Shhh—

When Ling’s hand overlapped with Aer’s, the air hissed like an old TV losing its signal; the world flickered like a dying tube lamp.

Fear hit Alicia first, like a carp jolting under ice. What was happening to a perfectly fine day?

She stepped out from behind the rock, toward the frozen Ling and Aer. With each step, the static swelled, and the picture smeared like wet ink.

She reached out and brushed Ling’s blurred silhouette. Crack—like glass under frost, Ling splintered into shards, and through Alicia’s touch, Aer shattered as well.

Alicia jerked back, heart skittering like a startled sparrow. The collapse didn’t stop; mountain and water and grass—all of it webbed with cracks.

Clack-clack… the frame stuttered like a jammed reel, then fell into a hush-black darkness.

Numb acceptance washed over Alicia; she’d grown used to the senseless. Maybe it would snap back in the next heartbeat.

Just as she thought, the dark held for a few seconds. Birds sang, a silver thread through the night, and one blink carried her into a sea of bamboo.

Green light sifted like rain. In the grove’s heart, a small wooden hut drew her gaze, and she walked straight over, peeking through the window frame.

Ling stood by a door, a white flower cupped in her hands like moonlight. She beamed and offered it to the beauty before her—Aer.

“Aer! Look, I found another lily!”

Aer took the bloom and turned, nesting it in a celadon vase. The vase already cradled countless lilies; one more vanished into the tide of white.

Done, Aer faced Ling’s grinning face again. “What, flowers for me again today?”

Ling turned away with tsundere pride, dodging Aer’s eyes to hide her fluttering heart. “I’m not giving without a reason! Today’s our anniversary!”

“The ten-thousand-four-hundred-ninety-second-day anniversary? From the day we met, it’s exactly 10,492 days. I still don’t know how you kept count…”

“Dummy Aer! If I say it’s meaningful, it’s meaningful. You’re the one with no nostalgia!”

Aer ruffled Ling’s bristling hair, her eyes full of helpless fondness for a child who argued like a kitten with raised fur. “Alright, alright. My bad. I’m sorry. Don’t be mad. Ling’s the best, okay?”

Heat bloomed on Ling’s cheeks like cherry petals. “Then… I’ll forgive you this time! Don’t say it’s meaningless again!”

How could Aer refuse? She nodded fast, as if a late nod might spark another round.

With the storm passed, Ling’s child-heart let go and latched onto the odd, square thing in Aer’s hands—a book that looked… not very edible.

“What is that, anyway?”

Aer lifted the book with its strange cover, weighed it, then set it flat before Ling, letting her see. “A good book. In every way, a good book.”

“Is that so…”

Ling wasn’t surprised. Aer always held it and never told. She’d already guessed it was a book, which meant this answer told her nothing at all.

“Want to take a look?”

“Huh!?”

Against all expectation, Aer offered the book. The thing she never let Ling touch suddenly hovered in reach, and the change left Ling blank.

“Not looking? Then I’ll put it away.”

Aer drew it back a little, selling the act with a casual look of never mind, then.

No chance Ling would keep dazing. She lunged and snatched it. “Look, look, look! I want to read!”

Hehe—Aer covered her mouth and laughed; the little sprite looked too funny for words.

Ling didn’t care. The book had her utterly. Something inside it tugged like a red thread; she and it felt stitched together.

“How is it? Like it?” Aer’s voice brushed her ear, and Ling, still dazed, nodded on reflex.

“Is that so… then I’ll give it to you.”

A shock bloomed in Ling’s eyes. Aer was gifting the treasure she guarded so closely. Aer got goosebumps under that stare and waved it off.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not so stingy I can’t give you a book. You’re my most precious thing. A book can’t compare.”

Whump—

Ling dove into Aer’s arms, rubbing her head against Aer’s chest like a kitten, wordlessly spilling her joy.

“Thanks, Aer. I love you most!”

Aer hugged her back and patted her gently. “Mm… me too. I love you most, Ling.”

Set aside, the strange book pulsed with a soft red glow, as if it, too, felt very… happy.