Little Pink Starfish

Yuan Yuanyuan had been trying to figure out who that mysterious person was. She wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but after pondering for days, she’d managed to piece together a few things.

First of all, the person must’ve been very familiar with Seventeen.
Second, their relationship had to be pretty good.

Her first suspect? Si Qun.

She even tried to test him out — sneakily, of course. But after exchanging just a few sentences with him, she realized she must have been out of her mind to think that was a viable strategy.

Still… Yuan Yuanyuan did think Si Qun was a likely candidate. Even though she hadn’t gotten anything conclusive out of him, she silently put a mental pin in it — “Probably Si Qun” — and didn’t mention it to anyone else.

Si Qun had been even more relaxed than her lately, quietly crouching in the back room washing cups. Sometimes, Yuan Yuanyuan found herself thinking that his peaceful routine was kind of nice — who knew how many years he’d been living this way?

She had been observing Si Qun closely for days now — probably more closely than she had all year — but rather than confirming whether or not he was the person in the manga, she stumbled across something else interesting.

That day, she had pushed open the back kitchen curtain, calling, “Qun’er?”
No response.

She looked around for a long while but couldn’t find him and was starting to worry.

After all, he wasn’t the same as before… Even if he’d been a popular pretty boy back then, nobody had known he was Yuan’s friend. Now that everyone knew, things could easily spiral out of control.

Yuan Yuanyuan was about to go outside to look for him when she turned her head — and froze.

There was a giant moth perched on the curtain.

No — not a moth. A butterfly.

She slowly walked up to it, gently reached toward the big white butterfly on the floral curtain, and nudged it toward the window. It had snowed the day before, and the world outside was blanketed in ice and snow.

What butterfly would show up in this weather? Climate change had officially gone too far…

She thought maybe the heat in the kitchen had hatched some silkworm cocoon from a nearby market into a giant moth. She was just about to squish it — and then realized it was definitely a butterfly.

A little fortune butterfly?
Where did you come from?
Maybe a customer’s pet?

She gently touched its wings. The butterfly quivered slightly, then suddenly flew to the floor. Yuan Yuanyuan blinked — and before she could see clearly, the butterfly gave off a soft glow and began to expand.

“Huh?” she stared as the little white butterfly landed on the ground, grew larger, and slowly took on the shape of a crouching person.

It was… Si Qun.
The one she’d been looking for just moments ago.

“…Qun’er, what are you doing?” she walked over and patted him on the back.

“Sleepy,” Si Qun yawned. “Just… want to sleep…”

Yuan Yuanyuan slowly pulled her hand back and walked over to the break room.

A second later, a string of bizarre sounds erupted from behind the break room curtain — clawing noises, “so dreamy, so dreamy, SO dreamy,” and “why’d he go all dumb?” echoed out. Si Qun sat in silence, still squatting there washing glasses.

Five minutes later, Yuan Yuanyuan finally emerged, closed the curtain behind her, and stared at Si Qun with sparkling eyes.
“Qun’er, was that your original form just now?”

“…Yeah,” Si Qun answered weakly.

“Why have I never seen you transform before?” she asked.

Si Qun bowed his head and didn’t say anything.

High combat ability plus a butterfly yokai form — yeah, that was dreamy all right. No wonder Si Qun looked so charming. The only downside was his… well, his brain wasn’t exactly sharp.
If he were smarter, he’d be a full-on dreamboat.

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at Si Qun. That white butterfly form had looked beautiful — no patterns, but the large wings were sleek and full of life. It was definitely a stunning creature.

She patted Si Qun’s head again — and got pricked.
“Ow!” she hissed, baring her teeth.

Something was strange. She looked at the rough, uneven texture of his hair.

Usually, a yokai’s original form shared visual traits with their human illusion. For example, one with bright feathers would have colorful hair after transformation.

Yuan Yuanyuan, being a half-demon, was an exception. But Si Qun’s unusual hair probably had something to do with his original form — maybe a pattern on his wings, or antennae or something…

But a butterfly didn’t have fur like that.
She ran her hand through his hair, then poked at his scalp and hesitantly asked,
“Qun’er… what is your hair made of? Butterflies don’t have feathers…”

Si Qun scratched his head. “It’s my… cocoo—”

“…” Yuan Yuanyuan paused.

Butterflies don’t spin cocoons… only moths do.

Wait, his hair was made of cocoon silk?
That was… kind of wild.

So he ended up with that weird hairstyle because of this?

Well… okay then.

Curious, she pressed further.
“When I touch your hair, do you feel anything?”

“Nope.” Si Qun shook his head blankly.

…Then why does it hurt so much when I do it?
That’s not fair.

Yuan Yuanyuan experimentally touched it again — this time she tried to endure it longer. She clenched her teeth, but it really stung.

She had never pushed it this far before. Curiosity had overtaken reason.
Some of her worst ideas were born this way.

She kept going until red marks appeared on her fingers.

Her hand trembled as she lowered it. This time, she was genuinely shocked.
She’d never imagined Si Qun’s hair could cause real injury.

She blew on her hand and inspected the marks — then stopped.
Her brows furrowed. She gently pressed the area with her other hand, and her face darkened.

The red was spreading. Tiny crimson dots appeared. It was subcutaneous bleeding.
She was familiar with this — she’d had internal injuries before.

But those had involved her organs. If her hand was bleeding like this, imagine what internal injuries would look like.

“Silver threads… what could that be?”

“Three-Thousand Silver Threads?”

A conversation from long ago with Fat Cat suddenly came to mind.

She looked down at Si Qun’s black hair, then back at her own hand. Slowly, she asked,
“Si Qun… was your hair white before?”

“…I think so?” Si Qun replied.

“What does ‘I think so’ mean?” Yuan Yuanyuan pressed.

“It’s like… back when he wasn’t this dumb, his hair was white. Then after he got dumb, it turned black.
Clearly, stress levels show in your hair,” a voice suddenly chimed in. It was Li Zi Jie, who had just walked in.

She looked at Yuan Yuanyuan.
“Why are you suddenly asking about his hair? Did someone say something to you?”

“N-no, not at all…” Yuan Yuanyuan quickly stuffed her injured hand into her sleeve.
Thankfully, tavern uniforms had wide sleeves — easy to hide things.

“Don’t listen to people trying to stir up nonsense.” Li Zi Jie waved a hand.
“Si Qun’s fine. The three of us are doing well hiding out in this kitchen. No need to get involved in anything else. Just shut the door and stay in.”

“Yes, yes…” Yuan Yuanyuan nodded quickly.
Li Zi Jie probably thought someone had said something to her. But since no one had approached her yet, Li Zi Jie wasn’t going to dig further. Still, Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t dare say anything more. Li Zi Jie was smart — much smarter than Si Qun. Say too much and she’d get suspicious.

That day, Yuan Yuanyuan obediently finished washing cups, went home, and spent the whole walk deep in thought.

Some things… if no one reminded you, you’d forget.
Like how Si Qun’s surname was Li — he was the younger brother of the Li family head.

They didn’t look much alike, and their personalities were night and day. So it wasn’t surprising that she kept forgetting.

She pushed open the door and saw Fat Cat sitting there playing with Xiao Ying.
Ever since Yuan Yuanyuan had told him that the little girl in episode one was Xiao Ying, Fat Cat had latched onto her — then heard about the “delivering ribs” story…

His reaction?
He stared at Xiao Ying and silently conveyed the word “warrior” with his eyes.

Since then, Fat Cat had dedicated himself to playing with Xiao Ying for fun.

“Hey… Fat Cat…” Yuan Yuanyuan said heavily as she walked in,
“What do you think a butterfly yokai’s hair would be made of?”

“Hair? I dunno. Is there something special about it?” Fat Cat blinked.

“…Wait, it’s not supposed to be anything special?” Yuan Yuanyuan was caught off guard.
She dug for more clues.
“Um… this butterfly… he’s a Gu King… but he’s kinda dumb.
Would that affect his hair? I mean, your brain and your scalp are right next to each other…”

She rambled on, until she noticed Fat Cat staring at her like she was an idiot.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“I haven’t seen many butterfly yokai — they’re rare.
Most of them die before they even become proper demons,” Fat Cat said.
“But I do know what a Gu King’s hair is made of…”

“What is it?” Yuan Yuanyuan was still confused.

“It’s Gu,” Fat Cat said bluntly.
“That stuff is Gu. Haven’t you seen any dramas? Read any novels? Are you dumb or what?”