It was supposed to be a cold, peaceful night as the storm approached the area sooner than night. The weather is great for plans like camping at the bed, watching lengthy films or just sleeping like a log but unfortunately, it was hard for Mashiro when an unwanted guest kept on bugging her room at this ungodly hour.

"Come on, Shiro. It's my lunch break." The guest said, hinting her boredom in her tone.

The latter groaned upon hearing her name and cursed on the pillow she used to cover her ears. But sure enough, the other person in the room giggled as if it was nothing.

"Since when did you become so grumpy? Come on! I know you wanted to go eat anyway."

The woman, Mashiro, grunted in annoyance and shouted. "Since you became this annoying. So, let me sleep in peace and leave me alone!"

Of course, hearing that isn't not enough to push the other girl away as she sits beside the lying woman and bounced to her seat repeatedly. "Come on now, grumpy dwarf, let's go! I'm already hungry."

Mashiro bolted up upon hearing the girl's teasing remarks and glared at her. The other girl bouncing on her bed is in her usual outfit—shiny black shoes, black slack pants, white polo with a black tie and black vest, with a gold pocket watch hanging on its pocket and finishing her trademark fit, a huge black fedora.

But ruining her dark, gloomy and intimidating image, the grim reaper, Youngeun, is now bouncing on Mashiro's bed like an impatient child waiting for her parents to give her what she wants.

Apparently, Mashiro's not liking the looks of it, especially in the middle of a rainy night.  "Stop bouncing on my bed! Oh I swear to god, Youngeun-"

The other girl laughed and smiled annoyingly, as if the sharp stare from Mashiro was nothing to her. "Hey hey hey, swearing to god is bad!" She joked, earning her a swift pillow in the face. "Ow! Throwing at me is bad either."

"Yeah? Well get out of my apartment or else it will not be just pillows anymore!" Mashiro growled and threw another pillow towards Youngeun.

"Chill out, I'm just inviting you to my lunch break." Youngeun raised her hands in defeat, offering a ceasefire to Mashiro who forced a smile, showing her gritted teeth and her balled fist that was holding another pillow.

"Youngeun... it's goddamn 2 in the morning–"

"Please? Besides, I'm your only friend. Will you let your only friend starve?" Youngeun replied, using her cute, high-pitched tone that annoyed Mashiro more.

"Liar. You grim reapers don't feel hunger." Mashiro took it as a cue to throw another pillow directly at Youngeun's face to catch her off-guard. Youngeun gave out a sly smile in return and Mashiro took it as a sign that the girl is far from giving up.

She then gave out a heavy sigh and rolled her eyes at the other girl. "You are so pissing me off, you know that, don't you?"

Instead of an answer, the girl lowered her arms and gave her a big smugly shrug. Mashiro huffed in defeat and threw her one last plushy and stood up, this time, Youngeun caught it.

"You better cook or else I would rip that smile out of your face." She warned as she fixed her bed and dusting her pajamas.

Youngeun just chuckled while picking up all the pillows scattered on the floor. "I know you love me that much and I'm irresistible."

Mashiro rolled her eyes once more and closed the door as she went down to her kitchen. There, she met Youngeun who's still wearing that huge fedora, but now, the black vest and black tie was replaced by her pastel teal with white stripes apron. Her hair was tied in a low ponytail and her sleeves were rolled for her to prepare the food properly.

"You better not mess my apron up. I will shred you and your annoying hat, believe me." Mashiro warned her as she sat at the stool and grabbed a glass at the countertop and a carton of milk from the fridge

The girl only hummed in acknowledgement and smiled as she set up all the things she needed. She set aside a bucket of fried chicken near the microwave oven to be reheated later on, then brought out the meat from its plastic, the vegetables from the fridge and the condiments from the shelf above her. There, she worked in silence and with the use of her supernatural abilities, prepping was done immediately and she's now ready to start cooking. Dishes and ingredients went flying and floating around and above her as she worked on her own.

Mashiro then sat in front of the counter and listened to the sound of sizzles and clinks of the ingredients being mixed in the pot. She lowered her head and stared at her glass, almost empty with the moisture at the side. Her eyes drifted to Youngeun's side profile when a thought came to her.

"What is it this time?" Mashiro asked.

The latter hinted the seriousness at her voice that made Youngeun halt for a while as silence enveloped the whole place. She took a glance at Mashiro, yet the girl currently has her head down, looking at the table quietly, so Youngeun just continued throwing in the vegetables in the pot and covered the lid.

"Well, you know what it is." She answered as she wiped her hands at the towel hanging near the sink and turned her back at Mashiro, washing the utensils she used earlier.

She just hoped that Mashiro wouldn't dig deeper and just drank the thought away but she knew better.

"It could either be one of the two things," Mashiro respond once more, "one is that you're here to tell me that finally, you'll be fetching my poor and suffering old soul and taking me out of my misery or two, you're here to warn me that some other day, I'd be recognizing why I feel this pain in my chest, then I'll be dying inside, ripping my insides in a million pieces and that the loop is about to start again."

Youngeun chuckled from the latter's reply, thankfully her back is facing her, knowing that her eyes might reveal her answer whether she likes it or not. She's still searching for words to reply to her, something that will not bring the mood down further. But surely, those aren't needed, Mashiro is not that dumb and it's not new to her already.

"Bummer." Mashiro commented based on her lack of words.

Youngeun was right.

She doesn't have to reply to that question since Mashiro knew the answer anyway.

Youngeun quietly sighed before facing the other girl, flashing her remarkable smile when she saw that the girl was looking at her with a blank expression.

"Looking at the brighter side," she said with her playful smile, "at least my face won't be the last one you'll see on this terrible long life of yours."

She tried to shoot a joke, hoping that it triggers the sarcastic Mashiro that she's been witnessing for years. 

Mashiro smirked as she silently drank the last drops of milk from her glass and nodded. "Yeah, and I'm looking forward to that last supper I'll have before I get back on that ty loop they gave me."

It worked. Youngeun shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "I don't know with you but I'm about to cook you this great meal I learned in a different world I went to last time. And ironically, you eat this when you add another year to your age."

The woman who heard this scoffed and sighed. "Unfortunately for me, I'll be adding another count to my never-ending loop where I get to see how I lose the love of my life."

Youngeun groaned in frustration and glared at Mashiro who just giggled upon her own ranting.

"What? Why?" She asked.

Youngeun made a face and mimicked her. "'What? Why?' You're such a big downer, can't you see that I'm trying to lighten up the mood?"

"Aww, do you really care for me that you empathize with me like that?" Mashiro jeered, now that it's her turn to annoy the grim reaper.

"Whatever. You're ruining my masterpiece, you should be telling good things or it might absorb your darkness!" Youngeun frustratedly stated but Mashiro just laughed upon seeing her reaction.

"Yeah sure, laugh at me now but if my seaweed soup turns out to be bitter and dark, it's all on you." Youngeun once again made a face to the still-laughing Mashiro before turning her back to check the soup.

Finally, Mashiro's laugh subsided and stood up. "Ah that was a good laugh," she commented as she caught her breath for some seconds, "I'll be reheating my rice since I think my darkness, sorrowful aura went to your soup. I think it needs rice."

The other girl just rolled her eyes and muttered, mockingly mimicking the woman away from her. "'I think it needs rice' blah blah blah. I like you so much better when you're just a grumpy dwarf."

And just like that, silence overcame the room once more with Mashiro quietly setting the table for two and Youngeun doing one final taste test of her soup and reheating the fried chicken she bought at the microwave. As soon as Youngeun was done with the soup and the chicken, she placed them at the table and washed her hands before sitting across Mashiro's seat. She just noticed how Mashiro is looking at her, no, she's peering with her sharp, squinting eyes and Youngeun can't help but react.

"Okay grumpy, what's this weird staring?" She asked.

In a blink, Mashiro's gaze quickly turned into her judgemental staring and shrugged. "I don't know with you but you surely are one of the strangest grim reapers I've encountered. It's weird for me."

Youngeun scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief and hoping the latter doesn't notice how she's avoiding eye contact. "Yeah well, maybe I was a chef in my last life. Are you shaming my cooking skills?"

"No," the girl answered quickly, "but you do know that I can sense your emotions when you're in your human form, right?"

Youngeun forgot that part. There was no point in hiding it from Mashiro anyway.

"Yeah you got me, you don't have to say it." Youngeun muttered, staring at the bowl of rice as she served herself some soup she made. And to the side of her eyes, she saw how Mashiro slowly grinned and smirked upon resting her back to her seat.

"Sure, I mean, most of the grim reapers I met emit this dark aura, close to black–"

The grim reaper coughed, almost choking from the meat she didn't even chew.

"Yeah yeah, stop." Youngeun bowed her head when she felt the heat on her cheeks. Sometimes she really forgot how Mashiro isn't the usual human being who can never annoy her and overall, Mashiro's no usual mortal she's ever met.

"-and they were really formal to me. After they knew who I was and what happened to me, they backed off. They hate me sometimes when I feel like messing around their business but they never feel bad for me."

Mashiro continued her monologue while Youngeun sighed, with her controlling herself not to throw her fork across the blabbering woman in front of her.

"Oh good heavens, shut up." Youngeun muttered under her breath, but Mashiro didn't stop there.

"But you know, I appreciate it. You don't just sympathize with me, you mourn with me–"

"Ah shut up, you dwarf!" Youngeun exclaimed and a fried chicken flew straight at Mashiro, but the woman caught it in time.

As if it was a toast, Mashiro raised the drumstick that was in her hands and grinned at the fuming Youngeun. "Cheers." And she took a bite.

"Oh if only I could curse at you, I swear to god–"

"But you can't." Mashiro cut her off and smiled. "And I'm cursed enough in this life so don't bother."

"I hate you." Youngeun scoffed and grabbed a chicken herself, still avoiding Mashiro's eyes.

"And we both know you're lying." The girl replied smugly.

With that, silence took over once again, but this time, the atmosphere was light and they ate in peace, but with the two of them making a face with each other.

*****

"Don't go anywhere, okay?"

Mashiro raised an eyebrow when she heard that.

Youngeun is now back on Mashiro's white apron, washing the plates while Mashiro is back at the counter table with a glass of milk.

"Uh excuse me?"

Youngeun glanced at her back and saw how Mashiro was looking at her in confusion. She returned to face the plates and tried to hide whatever aura Mashiro might see.

"I forgot to bring something and it's for you." The grim reaper replied casually.

That made Mashiro furrow her eyebrows, receiving another judgemental stare from the woman. "And how important is