⧻

She missed the warmth of his fingers as soon as they had left her cheek. She shivered a bit as the last bit of warmth left her and crossed her arms tighter around herself. “How do you forget about something like that, your head is completely different color.” She said, quirking an eyebrow and giving a smile behind her scarf. She knew if her hair ever changed color she’d never forget. She’d always wondered what it would be like to have blonde hair, hell, even brown hair. Her hair had been jet black her entire life.

"It's not like I look at it every day," he replied, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "I've probably spent more time melting mirrors than I have looking in them." After a short pause he grinned and added, "Plus I was drunk when I went out and got it dyed, so the first time I realized it was dyed was a week later when someone said something about it." It had been strange really. They'd complimented his hair and he'd been confused for about 10 minutes before he'd bothered to look. He wasn't quite sure he liked it, but he was 100% sure he didn't care enough to change it.

After the awkwardness of their last few interactions she was glad he’d said yes. She just wanted some good food. Good Japanese food. Tonkotsu ramen, katsudon, gyoka, takoyaki, korokke, kare pan, castella cake, anmitsu- she had the main restaurant and then a bunch of little bakeries and shops she knew she wanted to visit to get food. She’d read somewhere in a magazine that guys didn’t find girls who ate a lot attractive, but she didn’t really care. As far as she was concerned, he only really tolerated her. She wasn’t expecting much more from him, at least that’s what she convinced herself, but she at the very least appreciated his company… 

Kai stiffened slightly as the woman grabbed his hand, wondering what on earth had caused the reaction. Then again he wasn't entirely sure why he'd reached out to touch her in the first place, it wasn't as if he could instill upon her the warmth he had been born with. The power was more of a curse anyway, even if the benefit meant he was never cold. He flashed a smile anyway, the words that flew out of his mouth unfiltered, "But of course". 

Kozue was bundled up to fight against the cold January air, warm in layers of a black sweater with eyes all over it, a trench coat with chunky knit sleeves, and a simple black dress underneath it all that ended well above her knees. She’d be damned if the weather was going to stop her from wearing short skirts. It was practically all she wore. Her exposed legs were protected by a pair of bright blue tights, a rare splash of color in her monochromatic wardrobe, her well worn boots adorning her feet. On top of it all she had a furry bomber hat, grey fur on black, mittens and a matching scarf. All those layers and yet it felt like the cold wind blew straight through her.

An all too familiar voice pulled him back to reality, making him blink a few times as his eyes focused. The first thing he noticed was the bright blue covering the woman's legs; Well that's new he thought to himself, folding down the top of the kernel bag and hopping off the wooden crate. Brushing non-existent crumbs off his shorts, he nodded his head, a little surprised she'd asked him. He always seemed to fuck it up but then she'd come back with a new proposition and they'd be right back where they started before he messed up, again. It was like a cycle he didn't know how to break.

She cast him a look as he spoke. Did that mean he actually remembered what she wore? She really didn’t wear a whole lot of white, he was right… Her head was a little foggy around the edges from the couple of beers she’d drunk. It had turned off her filter for a brief moment. “Hey… Sorry if I made things weird by kissing you the other night…” Kozue spoke softly, fixing her bangs with her hands nervously. She wasn’t quite sure how to handle a situation about this… Usually if she made a move she wasn’t rejected. This was all new territory for her.

Kai's shoulders stiffened slightly, his entire being screaming with unhappiness at the new topic of conversation. He really didn't want to talk about that kiss, he didn't even want to think about it. He was never good at dealing with his emotions and although he didn't regret the decision he'd made (mostly because he vowed to himself never to regret any decision since it'd seemed right at the time) he still realized he'd royally fucked up whatever chance he'd had with her.

Kozue crossed her arms in front of her chest as the two of them, managing to find a way to stand that didn’t hurt her back much. At his little mutter, she cast him a short look. She wondered why he said that. Maybe he didn’t see anything with her beyond just the occasional favor. That kiss was a huge mistake and she knew it. He was taking it the wrong way and it was ruining everything. “I guess…” She said quietly to herself, looking down at the terrain in front of her as it switched from bar floor tile to pavement

"Eh… I guess so…" She murmured quietly, keeping her eyes off of his for the moment. "Though I don’t know. I think aside from the whole hair thing, I looked better in high school. I was skinnier…" She said and placed her hands on her waist, looking down, pulling a bit of a face. She may have been a fighter, but she was still a girl. She pretty much drank all her calories in the form of beer and worked out by beating the shit out of thugs back then and it kept her in shape. 

Kai looked at her, raising a brow but not saying anything. On the topic of weight he always stayed quiet, never truly understanding why girls thought it mattered so much. Sure, he usually found slimmer girls more attractive, but it wasn't like he looked at someone with a little extra and threw up. If anything having extra was better than being underweight, in his eyes the girls with the best figures were the ones that were fit; which Kozue was. 

"No way, I’m at fault too," Hakeyon says with a wave of his hand to push the whole thing awy. Although an apology would be appreciated, Hakyeon doesn’t see himself as deserving one since it was his fault to go around charging like this through tents and it wasn’t like the boy would know when he barraged past. It was all good timing. That aside, a part of him appreciated someone who would actually say this. It was a nice change.

Kai thought about it, quickly seeing the other's point. You could only entertain people with fazing tricks for so long. "You might be able to tag team with someone if you're actually interested in performing," he added as an idea came to him. "Find a knife thrower, my first stop would be Xia if you know who that is, pretend to be an audience member, get pulled up there, they 'miss' but you turn out fine. Could be interesting." He shrugged, for all he knew the other man might not even be interested in something like that. 

"Well, I did get to skydive, and swim with sharks. I also had plenty of time to master four languages and a few hobbies. So, technically, I did put my immortality to a good fun use," he said. As Kai asked him old he was, looking him up and down, key smirked. "Would you rather have my real age? Because I claim to be 21." he said, with a slight smirk, and crossing his arms a bit. "My real age is 436," he added. Key was proud of his age, because not only had he seen a lot, but he also did a lot of things.

"Four languages?" Kai asked, raising a brow. "That's quite a few." He nodded at the age; his brain had immediately assumed thousands of years but hundreds seemed more plausible.... then again if you went by societal norms  "Twenty one physically, four hundred thirty six for real. We must all seem like children to you."

"Oh…well," Ai paused, hands placed daintly on her lap suddenly unsure what to do. At one point it was probably not a good idea to help at a first-time meeting when she didn’t know anything about his cottage, but at another point he had fed her. She decided it best to just accept what he said.

"Yeah, I don’t know. When I was kinda kicking the shit out of the shorter one his buddy got up and managed to just-" She made a kicking gesture, her boot hitting the bar with a soft thud. "Right in my back. Punks didn’t know how to fight for shit if that was the only way he could a land a hit, but I’ve had worse." She said and lightly shrugged, wincing a bit from moving the muscles in her back. She figured that the lack of expression was just him being in his normal state of being.

Kai shoved his tongue into the side of his mouth and flicked it upwards in irritation; a long time habit he was hardly aware of. It was more of a tick really, but anyone who'd been around him before he started a few fights probably would've picked up on it. It was probably the only reoccurring 'expression' he had besides his trademark smirk.