Chaewon lets her eyes roam over the rusted sign of Silken Slimer, hands digging deep inside her pockets and doubts even deeper inside her mind. Far be it from her to claim to know the inner workings of youngins’ mind nowadays, especially one belonging to Hong Eunchae, but even Yunjin was surprised when the youngest of the group listed “exquisite slime” as one of her birthday gift hints.

Which is literally just a whole list of the things she wants.

Again, Chaewon would never claim to know the inner workings of Hong Eunchae. But even Yunjin was surprised, which apparently was because slimes went out of style, like, centuries ago, Eunchae-yah, but Eunchae just turned her nose up at them and moved on to the next items in her list.

(“The is a slime?” Chaewon whispered to Yunjin urgently after the meeting was adjourned. “Eunchae didn’t just make that one up?”

Yunjin sighed, sympathetically patting her shoulder. “No Unnie, it really was a thing. But I was also not joking when I said it went out of style centuries ago. There was a craze for it during like, uhhh, Tiktok era?”

“Holy, that’s centuries ago—”

“I told you, I wasn’t joking.”)

Yunjin wasn’t even sure if there’s still a place out there for a slime business. She offered looking up a recipe for a handmade one, but Chaewon reminded her that Eunchae doesn’t only want slime, she wants exquisite slime, which means that anything made by their own hands is an automatic fail. She appreciated the spirit though, and contemplated moving on to other things Eunchae listed—

“Don’t go broke over birthday gifts,” Sakura told her when they dropped by her unit and lamented about it. She finished typing strings of code into her laptop and pulled back, smiling in relief when a hologram of Maru-cat then flickered to life. “What was the hint again?”

“Exquisite slime,” Chaewon repeated. Watching quietly as Maru-cat meowed at the flickering salmon Sakura made to appear. “Maybe I should try my hand on making one, but with premium ingredients so—”

“You know that won’t work,” Sakura said without averting her gaze from Maru. Chaewon deflated, even though she had already thought so herself.

Sakura hummed thoughtfully, then continued. “But, I do know of a store that might have some slime still.”

Yunjin perked up. “Even now?”

“…I can’t guarantee, but it won’t hurt to try.” Sakura finally glanced at Chaewon. “I’ll give you the coordinates, but it’s a pretty secluded place. You’ll have to abandon your capsule at some point and go on foot quite a while to find it.”

Chaewon shrugged. “I survived the ranger training.”

“Yet, you can’t even say no to a junior’s troublesome birthday gift hints.”

Yunjin snorted. Chaewon just let the remark slide without any reaction, because Sakura was a hypocrite anyway. Saying all that as if she didn’t already have an Eunchae-approved gift prepared.

(The youngest had long wormed her way into their heart, something that, in hindsight, felt inevitable. It was bound to happen. Even if it meant accepting her youthful ways and taking her birthday gift hints list seriously every year.)

Maru purred, and Sakura put her hand, palm facing up, on the table for Maru to nuzzle to. She sighed, half content and half something less easier to identify as anything. “Well, I’ll send it to you then.”

“Thank you,” Chaewon said, grateful nonetheless. “Now while we’re here, can we also talk about the 01XT mission—”

-

Well, the mission talk was rough, but that's not the reason Chaewon is standing before the small shop that almost seems to be in hiding. Silken Slimer doesn’t boast a colorful scheme, despite what Yunjin confidently stated (“Just look for a rainbow-colored shop! Or one with bright quirky placards!”). It’s placed on the low ground, easily unnoticed for capsule riders who follow high ground tracks; meaning that the shop is very old, and the owner didn’t bother to relocate when others must have, not minding that the shop gets obscured by other buildings and new roads.

If Chaewon were to be honest, the rusted sign doesn’t inspire much confidence in the supposed exquisiteness of the products, but she can't back out now. Sakura recommended this shop. If the homebody ranger Miyawaki Sakura recommends your shop, that has to mean something.

Inhaling deeply, squaring her shoulders, Chaewon goes to the cream-colored door, which immediately slides open. She half-expects a hologram to greet her, or a robot at least, like other businesses have tended to operate by now, and so she raises her eyebrows when someone very much human comes over at the sound of her entry.

“Welcome! Can I help you?”

“Um, yeah, I was told that I can find slime here? Hopefully?” Chaewon's gaze slides towards the nametag and she reads it out loud, “Kazuha-sshi.”

“Oh! Of course. Master-nim hasn’t really made anything new, but even so, there’s a wide selection to pick from. Follow me, please.”

Chaewon swallows, following the steps of what she supposes is the staff of Silken Slimer, navigating deeper into the shop. For a building that looks small from the outside, Chaewon is surprised to find that it’s fairly spacious inside, and she is even more surprised when Kazuha gestures to a woman who can’t be any older than she is, referring to her as Master-nim.

I mean, a slime is a slime, so maybe Chaewon shouldn’t have expected a Master of slime to be, like, a very old elderly, but still.

“Master-nim, we have a customer.”

The referred person turns, eyes immediately piercing sternly towards the staff. “Zuha, I already told you to just call me by my name—”

Oh, so the Master-nim remark was meant to be playful.

“—and I thought you said we should close the shop today—oh.”

The Master’s words cease the moment her eyes meet Chaewon’s. Chaewon clears , already feeling apologetic for coming, but the Master beats her to it.

“Ah! Many apologies, I didn’t notice you until now. I take it you’re our customer…?”

 “Chaewon,” she quickly introduces herself. “I’m sorry if this isn’t a good time. I can just, um, come tomorrow, or—”

“No, no. Chaewon-sshi, it’s okay,” the Master interrupts. “We might not be here tomorrow, it’s actually why Zuha initially suggested to close the shop today, but we’re glad to help you. It shouldn’t take long.”

“…Right.” Chaewon swallows. “If you’re sure. I’ll try to be quick.”

The Master laughs softly. “I didn’t mean that you have to rush, Chaewon-sshi. Just that people don’t typically spend a long time shopping for slime. I’ll, give me a moment to change,” she gestures towards herself, and only then does Chaewon notice the colorful stains across her apron. “Zuha will show you around in the meantime.”

“Sure, um…?”

“Hitomi. You can just call me Hitomi.”

“Hitomi-sshi,” Chaewon parrots.

The Master beams, cheeks gathering up and looking even younger than Chaewon initially guessed. “And if you can get Zuha to start calling me that too, Chaewon-sshi, I might even let you walk away with a slime free of charge.”

-

Despite her concerns, the slimes Kazuha displays do look exquisite. It’s sparkly, colorful, and comes with a wide variety of themes that Chaewon’s head spins five minutes into looking. After the third question or so, she just starts answering Kazuha’s further inquiries with “it has to be exquisite.”

“A gift for an exquisite person then,”

Chaewon thinks of Eunchae and hums dubiously. “…You can say that, I guess.”

Kazuha, for her part, looks mightily entertained. She points and presents jars of slime and provides a basic rundown of what the theme is, the colors, the included decorations, the possible meaning. Chaewon gets this vague sense that she doesn’t get to ramble about slimes often, and wonders if Eunchae would appreciate being introduced to a slime enthusiast altogether. Judging by how elaborate Kazuha gets about nearly every jar, Chaewon thinks Yunjin and her would get along swimmingly, too, if only in discussions and debates.

In the end, Chaewon tries her best to describe Eunchae, and Kazuha finally decides that a Mischievous Moonshine-themed jar would be the way to go. Chaewon doesn’t pretend to understand what the that theme could possibly mean, but it looks simultaneously pretty and elegant and cheeky, and she supposes Eunchae would be over the moon for at least a month if described as such.

“Ah, have you done selecting?”

Both Chaewon and Kazuha turn, the Master—Hitomi—stepping into view. Kazuha passes over the Mischievous Moonshine slime to Hitomi’s hands, and Hitomi hums delightfully over it.

“Cute choice. The recipient must have a personality you wouldn’t ever get bored with,”

Chaewon thinks of Eunchae again, and at least this time, her hum doesn’t sound as dubious. “…She has such a personality, that’s for sure.”

“I’m sorry for not coming earlier, but I trust that Zuha helped you enough…?”

Chaewon smiles faintly, opting out from admitting that she has learned too many things about slime themes against her will in under 20 minutes. “I think the choice she helped me take is excellent.”

Hitomi nods in satisfaction, handing the jar back to Kazuha. “We’ll wrap it for you then.” Kazuha waltzes off, and without missing a beat Hitomi adds, “What about yourself though, Chaewon-sshi?”

“…What about me?”

“You implied that this slime is for someone you know. What about you, no interest in getting one for yourself?”

Chaewon chuckles, surprised. “Hitomi-sshi, I don’t mean any offense but I don’t think I suit slimes—”

Hitomi smiles. There’s a knowing glint in her eyes that slightly intrigues Chaewon, enough that she doesn’t object when Hitomi says, “Why don’t I show you a few that might change your mind?”

Hitomi guides her away from the room, into another one that is just a tad smaller, filled only with a cushioned chair and a sealed shelf. Chaewon watches as Hitomi unseals the shelf, the accepting beep of the password turning the cover of said shelf transparent, allowing Chaewon to see the jars of slime inside.

Chaewon’s heart, oddly enough, skips a beat.

“What’s your favourite color, Chaewon-sshi?” Hitomi asks, but she’s already tracing the row filled with jars dominated by mint. Chaewon’s brows furrow, throat working up to say something, because what is her favourite color, indeed? Was it mint? She isn’t too sure, but mint right now sounds alright, and that uncertainty over something as simple as this feels so bizarrely weird to experience that Chaewon chooses to look at the rows above it instead, taking in the dominating colors.

Peach.

Coral.

Purple.

Sky blue.

Blue.

Yellow.

Orange—

Chaewon doesn’t have the faintest idea why, but closes up painfully, like a devastating sense of… something is choking her lungs. “I—” she hoarsely says, catching herself afterwards, swallowing deeply and gazing up at the top two rows. She forces herself to say something, anything, then blurts out, “…Is there no pink?”

She feels like there should be pink. Believes, somehow, in some completely baseless, groundless, sudden faith, that the empty top rows are supposed to house jars of pink slime.

A brief silence lapses before Hitomi finally replies, “There was. The owners already came to get them, though.”

It’s still so unreasonably difficult to breathe properly, so Chaewon tries to cheat around it by talking again, because talking forces her to breathe, “The owners? Are these other rows, do they also have—”

“Not every slime finds home, Chaewon-sshi,” Hitomi says. Her voice is light, and Chaewon should have found it calming. “But these ones, they’re not the one finding. They’re just waiting to be found.”

Chaewon swallows. Tries to laugh. Ends up letting out a strained chuckle. “Such a wonder,” she says, eyes travelling to the two rows below mint, finding white jars and emerald. Something behind her eyes burns.

“…Are any of, these, waiting for me then?”

Hitomi steps closer, a faint scent of vanilla and peach coaxing Chaewon into taking another breath. Hitomi leans forward, peering over the jars like it’s also her first time seeing them. And then Hitomi straightens, their shoulders brushing warmly, and something inside Chaewon’s chest pulsates with hurt.

Hitomi’s gaze meets hers, the smile on her face soft yet small.

“What do you think, Chaewon-unnie?”

-

Chaewon comes back to the ranger base with two jars of slime. The one meant for Eunchae is already wrapped neatly as any birthday gift would, Kazuha’s expert hands taking it a step further and shaping the package into resembling the head of a dog (“You mentioned that she was born in the year of the dog, so!”).

The other one, a jar taken from the mint row of the sealed shelf, is stored inside the drawer of Chaewon’s portable cubicle. She doesn’t want to put it somewhere she can easily see, not if it means relieving the… odd ache inside her chest. Like she’s missing something, or having lost something. It's ridiculous and maddening because Chaewon doesn't know anything that could explain it.

Sakura calls her the following morning, her hologram greeting Chaewon’s sleepy face and asking if she's found the shop.

“I did,” she answers after a long moment of sluggishly sitting up and rubbing sleep away from her face. “Got the brat’s gift, already. Thank you so much, Kura-unnie.”

Sakura laughs at her gruff, tells her it’s nothing. Lingers a little instead of hanging up like she usually would.

Asks Chaewon, after a brief lapse of silence that feels deliberate, “They haven’t closed, then?”

A small voice in the back of Chaewon's head wants to ask her if she visited too, a long time ago. But she bites her bottom lip then says, “No. Still up and running. Says they have to be away today though, and will be for some time, it sounds.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” She yawns, and resists the urge to rub her eyes again. “If that is all, Unnie?”

“Yeah, yeah! That’s all. I’ll leave you to your morning routine. Please don’t be late for the 01XT briefing.”

“Roger that. Later, Unnie.”

“Bye, sleepyhead.”

The hologram wavers out. Chaewon sits there, shoulders hunched, and if she closes her eyes, she could still smell the faint scent of vanilla and peach. Could still see the rows of color that without warning knocked the air off her lungs. Could still feel the faint ache inside her ribcage. Could still hear Hitomi’s words, asking,

What do you think, Chaewon-unnie?

Chaewon clenches her fists.

She needs to return to the shop again.

[ ♡ ]