Barefoot struggles. . .

Yashiro panted and crouched down to regain her breathing, hands on knees while she tried to calm the erratic breathing of her heart. Hanako heard her and quickly turned around instinctively. He didn't know whether to be concerned or just laugh at her. He thinks that everyone can see her obvious attempt at making herself taller.

"Yashiro?" Hanako asked curiously, his eyes trailing down on her body. "What happened?"

Yashiro exhaled slowly, placing a palm on her chest where her heart is, beating rapidly. "Hanako-kun!" She cried in joy, her tone almost close to tears. "Just the person I was looking for!"

Hanako grinned teasingly, his eyes filled with mischief (and sadistic amusement). "Oh? Really?" He sang, floating near her and circling around as if she's a prey. But then his expression turned innocent again. "But why are you on your tip-toes, Yashiro?"

Yashiro's eyes averted down to where Hanako was staring at. Her shoeless radish legs. She just opted to laugh sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head. "I kinda. . . ran here because — Ah, well you see. . ."

Hanako hummed and tilted his head, his eyes basically burning holes on her face with how intent he's watching her. "Go on."

Yashiro looked away and decided that the floor is much more interesting. Oh, look, what a wonderful floor. So squeaky clean, yeah, I cleaned this.

"Yashiro," Hanako said impatiently.

"The Mokkes stole my shoes and now I can't find them because they think we're playing hide, steal, and seek!" Yashiro blurted out.

Hanako let out a long sigh. His face turned dark. "Oh? Is that so?"

Yashiro panicked and frantically flailed her arms around. "Wait, but don't punish them or anything!" When Hanako asked why not, Yashiro whined. "It's kind of my fault for playing along their silly games. . ."

Hanako stared at her with blank eyes. "Tell me everything."

A breeze went past them, causing their stray strands of hair to land on their face. Hanako just shook them off while Yashiro shakily placed the strands behind her ear.

"Well, uh. You see, Hanako-kun. . ." Yashiro laughed the awkward tension off. "You didn't return yet from your meeting at the time — you have a lot of meetings lately and I can't seem to talk to you anymore — and I couldn't find Kou, so I just chatted with the Mokkes," Yashiro explained in a fast pace. "While I was busy trying to open the wrapper of a candy one of the Mokkes wanted to eat, a Mokke near me stole my shoe. I was trying to get it but they also managed to get the other shoe - don't look at me like that. I was sitting down, okay?"

"Always attracted to hot guys, supernaturals, and trouble. You really just can't take a break, huh, Yashiro?" Hanako chuckled and patted her head. "Seems to me that I'm becoming your assistant."

Yashiro glanced up at Hanako with wide, teary eyes. Hanako's brow quirked at this. "Hanako-kun, Hanako-kun, please help me. . ." she begged, even adding a pout.

Hanako smiled and lightly pinched her cheeks. "Alright, how can I say no to that face?" he cooed.

Yashiro beamed, but she couldn't exactly show it because Hanako was still pinching and stretching her cheeks.

"Now." Hanako smirked. "How about we go find those sneaky thieves?"

Without any warning at all, Hanako lifted Yashiro effortlessly and carried her bridal style, hands supporting her back and legs. Yashiro shrieked in the process, confused.

"W-Why are you carrying me? Won't that be hard?" Yashiro asked when she reflexively held her arms close to her chest.

Hanako looked down at her and laughed. "Hard? You're light as a feather, Yashiro. Besides, it's not like it's the first time I carried you."

Yashiro blinked several times. "Oh."

"Alright! Mission: hunt down the shoe thieves, has already started!"

You could hear Yashiro's screaming fading into the distance accompanied by Hanako's obnoxious laughter.

- - -

They checked everywhere.

Literally.

From room to room, corner to corner, each possible place a Mokke could hide, they searched through it all.

It was almost comical with how desperate the two became.

"Where are they?" Yashiro cried out in despair.

Hanako grumbled something along the lines of I swear I won't go easy on them if I find them. "They're really good at Hide and Seek. This is more tiring and depressing than Yashiro's love life."

Yashiro gave him a good ol' smack on the head.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Hanako whined, holding his head when he let Yashiro go down on the ground.

Yashiro was about to scold him for not making fun of her tiring and depressing love life because she's already done enough of that, until she caught something moving at the corner of her eyes.

Yashiro paused and went over to a potted plant, with a pink ear beside the leaf. She poked the ear and it instantly jolted. A Mokke came out and fell right onto her arms.

"Ah! You found me! You found me!" The Mokke chanted with disbelief (and sort of relief).

Hanako cheered. "Victory!"

Yashiro frowned and poked the Mokke. "I found you. Now, tell me where all the other Mokkes are because I need my pair of shoes."

The Mokke stayed silent.

Hanako went behind Yashiro so he could get a better view of the bunny-like creature, holding a knife near his dark and threatening face. "Tell her. Now." Sometimes, the two acts so much like parents.

The Mokke shook. "Okay, okay! They're all in No. 7's bathroom."

Hanako and Yashiro deadpanned and glanced at each other. "Oh."

They checked everywhere, except maybe that.

The two stomped angrily towards Hanako's boundary, the Mokke on Yashiro's arms, worried for its fellow soldiers. Yashiro was basically fuming while Hanako was close to snapping.

Yashiro kicked the door opened and was blessed with the sight of her shoes. Which has at least 2 Mokkes inside with each pair and the rest just studying them. Yashiro's heart squeezed at the sight, but she shouldn't fall for it!

"Give me back my shoe!"

All the Mokkes stared at Yashiro when she exclaimed those words. They had no choice but to just give it back, especially because Hanako is right beside her. One of the Mokkes squeaked out an apology but Yashiro just waved them off.

She wore her shoes and sighed in relief. "Finally. . .I can go home now."

Hanako eyed the Mokkes when they trampled on Yashiro. "Now, now. I think you've caused enough trouble for today. Stealing someone's shoe is very childish. Say sorry to Yashiro now."

All the Mokkes apologized.

Yashiro laughed a bit. "It's fine. I'm just glad that I was able to find my shoes and hang out with Hanako-kun."

"Geez, Yashiro. You missed me that much?"

Yashiro glared at him.

Hanako chuckled and grinned. "It's okay, I missed you, too. Today was also really fun for me."

- - -

I-

I CAN EXPLAIN!!

You see, after watching the latest episode, I just wanted to write a whole chapter about Tsukasa. But it failed 😭

So I used all these inspiration rush and wrote a chapter that is actually worse. I didn't know where this was going but I wanted to write 😭😤😤

Anyways, hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!

(Congratulations 🎉 to us for reaching 1k views and near 100 votes! 💕💕💕)