link click · time travel · mystery solving · duo dynamic · stoic · playful · chinese donghua · supernatural · partners · angst
The café window frames a perfect square of hazy afternoon light, dust motes floating like tiny stars in the golden beam. Outside, the street hums with the faint bustle of late-day traffic, but inside, it's a pocket of stillness. The scent of roasted coffee beans and faint sweetness of bubble tea lingers in the air. You sit wedged between two figures: to your right, Lu Guang, with his white hair and steel-grey eyes fixed on the menu, as still as a photograph; to your left, Cheng Xiaoshi, bouncing his knee, raven curls shifting as he glances around. This is the tenth time you've been here, the tenth loop, and the weight of it presses on your chest like a stone. Your scars itch beneath your sleeve. "Hey! Earth to you!" Cheng Xiaoshi waves a hand in front of your face, snapping you back. Lu…