“Welcome home~”

Rafi’s smile burst like a lantern in dusk, already painting a blissful future. But…

“Who told you Nina’s moving in?”

Nina’s words cracked the daydream like a pebble through glass. She said she’d rather sleep outside than share a roof with a creep.

Rafi froze, her face stiff as drying clay. “W-why?”

“I’m not a creep,” she forced a grin. “I’m a gorgeous big-sis beauty, okay?”

“Oh?” Nina’s brow arched like a drawn bow. “Then what am I in your eyes?”

“A perfect little fairy,” Rafi blurted, eyes shining. “A rare treasure the dust of this world shouldn’t stain.”

Even if she’d asked to tease, the shameless praise made Nina bristle. Her voice rose like a struck drum.

“If you know that, then liking that makes you a creep, right?”

“N-nope! Not a creep,” Rafi rattled on, waving air like flags. She launched into “gentleman” nonsense, rules and codes tumbling like beads from a broken string.

Nina muted her in her head; the speech rattled on like rain on a shut window. Ten minutes passed. Her face stayed flat as a still pond.

Rafi’s sermon collapsed. She shrank into a corner, a mushroom after sun, silent and small.

The hush gave Nina room to untangle her thoughts, thread by thread. A strange place. No family. No friends—she refused to count the creep. With small arms and short legs, running blind meant danger.

The image slid in like a cold draft under a door; her skin prickled, and the world outside felt greasy and mean.

Maybe staying here is the best choice, she thought. At least that one hasn’t hurt me.

Decision made, Nina walked over and tapped Rafi’s shoulder with a small hand. “Nina’s decided. I’ll stay here.”

Rafi had just flipped her self-isolation switch; the news blew the fuse. “Really? You’ll move in?”

Nina answered with a smile she didn’t know had bloomed—unguarded, clean as spring water.

Warmth spilled through Rafi like sunlight through winter glass; her heart tightened, then eased, heat pooling. Even around Ling, she’d never felt that sudden bloom.

She swallowed the giddy rise of laughter, turned brisk, and fled with, “I’ll go make up your room.”

Watching that retreating back, Nina’s lips tilted up like a feather caught by a breeze.

She’s a creep, Nina thought, but unexpectedly kind.

A seed dropped into soil; with a little care, it would sprout in time.