“Are you not eating?”

Xe pointed at hirs teeth. Come on, if you’re not eating then why did you accept my invitation?

“Maybe something that doesn’t involve your teeth like that one?”

“Then get me that.”

Come to think of it, a lot of food stuff from my previous life can still be found here, with the inclusion of more insect cuisine. Not that the shaved ice Lia wants to order has cockroaches in it. No.

“Sure. You’re paying for it.”

“You pay for it!”

“You’re the one who wants it.”

“You recommended it. Moreover, didn’t you say you would earn money?”

“It won’t happen so quickly, Lia.”

That was Avner, not me.

“Big bro.”

Lia tugged at me.

We proceeded down the queue.

When it came to our turn, we tabulated the order into the kiosk. I paid for it.

“I thought you said you didn’t want to pay for it.”

“Changed my mind.”

We picked up our order at the counter, after which we made our way over to an empty seat.

I ordered noodle soup. Alcohol is banned in school, yet somehow, they have this item on the menu. Broth made out of white wine.

“You know, I still think you’re a vampire.”

Lia stabbed the top of hirs dessert with the spoon.

“I’m not. Even if I say that I’m from another world?”

“That’s what I don’t get. Why? Where did you come from? I don’t know if I should consider you a stranger.”

“I inherited your brother’s memories so, I’m still Avner.”

“You’re insane big bro.”

“Perhaps.”

I slurped my noodles, watching as the mountain of ice crumble with each scoop.

“You’re not getting any,” Lia, who noticed me staring, quipped.

“Same here.”

And then another period of quiet eating.

“You know, now that your mouth is frozen from all that ice, plucking out the teeth wouldn’t be so painful.”

“No!”

“You can do it. It’ll hurt more if you leave it there.”

“No!”

“Fine.”

I finally finished my noodles, Lia also finished her dessert. I drank the cup of soy milk drink that came with the set.

“Big bro, why did you invite me?”

“No particular reason.”

It’s something Shin would’ve wanted to do in his previous world. He never got the chance to.

“Thank you.”

“It’s no big deal.”

“Has any of your exam papers come out yet?”

“Nope.”

“Don’t lie.”

I flipped the screen of my report card and showed hir. Besides all the Fs, the column for the October paper is still blank.

Lia didn’t say anything except blink.

“Don’t make mommy angry.”

“I know.”

“Then you should do your best in your exam.”

I nodded again.

Lia’s concern is one which I can empathise with since I was just like hir back then. Xe's similar to the Shin of the past. Just maybe, slightly naughtier?

“Big bro, that letter you got, who was it from?” Lia started looking around.

“It’s from Pu’er, didn’t I tell you?”

“I don’t see hir anywhere. So, are you going to accept hir? I don't know what mommy, father and aether would think about..”

“I’ll reject hir.”

“Reason being because you have another girl called Novelle that you like, is that right?”

I nodded at hirs sharp words.

“Who is she?”

“Was I that loud last night?”

“I heard everything. You even tried to hug me, you, disgusting.”

“What did I say?”

“You kept calling her name and also the name of the person who gave you the letter and also said something about a war with angels and demons in it. What’s that? Did you watch a movie somewhere?”

“No. It’s more like something I’ll have to face.”

{WARNING: DISCLOSURE OF IDENTITY WILL RESULT IN PENALTY}

What kind of penalty? I’m not interested to know.

“I didn’t know big bro has a side like this.”

“Like what?”

“I also like creating stories in my head. You too, right?”

It’s not the case, but since it’s like this, I’ll just go with the flow.

“I suppose.”

Lia and I chatted for a bit. One way or another, my soy bean drink ended up in hirs hands and xe began to drink it.

“What? We share food all the time don’t we?”

That was when hirs tooth went missing.

Xe looked at me, reproached.

“Your teeth.”

“My teeth.. eh? Seriously? It’s not there anymore..”

Xe hurriedly used her spoon to dig around the soy drink. Nothing was found.

“Looks like you swallowed it. Congratulations, calcium recycled back into your body.”

“I wanted to keep that for the tooth fairy!”

There’s no such thing as a tooth fairy. And trust me, you wouldn’t want to try that myth.

I remember the last time I tried keeping a tooth under my pillow, thinking that it would get exchanged for a nickel. I woke up in the middle of the night just to find ants crawling all over me. It was horrifying.

===

dotturndot: That last part about ants crawling all over just because Shin wanted to know if tooth fairies actually existed.. that’s a true story. It happened to me. Not kidding. How about you? Ever tried to call for a tooth fairy?