talk to you ⨾ PHAIDEI

⟢ phainon's pretty problem

⟢ phainon ;

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OVERTHINKING HIS WAY through life was absolutely nothing new to phainon.

don't get him wrong, MAN did he love his job. his coworkers were genuinely like family. aglaea, the owner of the okheman historical museum, was an incredible boss, having employed phainon fresh out of college with a degree in the history of the wider kingdoms before the merger that had brought them to current-day okhema.

she'd also given his baby sister cyrene a chance to work with her- comparative religion in history- before she'd even finished college, having heard her beam about her passions for a mere few minutes before deciding to take her under her wing. phainon suspected this was because she reminded aglaea of the triplets she'd adopted- bright, bubbly, and full of joy for life.

castorice, one of the tour writers, was absolutely wonderful- soothing in all the right ways, but had a spice of her own with her surprisingly dark humor, matching with her twin polyxia's. cipher, the gift shop manager, was a bit more spicy than you'd think at first glance- almost feline in her wiliness and cunning nature. guests always left with full bags when she was on the floor selling.

his old debate professor, anaxa- always insisting "call me anaxagoras"- was a regular visitor of the museum. he claimed it was to "ensure quality", but everyone knew he was just fond of his students, many of whom had gotten jobs at the museum post-grad. hyacine, his TA, was also a good friend of phai's, and she visited more often than not- phainon suspected she had a crush on castorice, solely on the way she spent so much of her time loitering in the back with her, smiling and chatting softly.

there was a polycule of 3 undergrad students who often visited as well, and man, they were absolutely the LIGHT of phainon's job- caelus, the baseball player with an obsession with travel through the ages, dan heng, the oldest and the most responsible, an engineer with an obsession with ancient technologies, and march 7th (was that her real name? no one knew, but she'd always just gone by marchie, and everyone loved her for it), an influencer who'd brought no small share of traffic to their museum.

now, none of this was the issue phai was experiencing. no, no, all of these things were wonderful. and.. if he was entirely honest with himself, phainon's issue was also rather wonderful.

mydeimos.

man.

phainon glanced across the canteen, half hoping the man occupying his thoughts wasn't looking, and half hoping he was, so he could feel validated in his ogling. sure enough, mydei was looking at him, but instead of looking away bashfully, he raised his eyebrows in friendly challenge, a smirk tugging at his lips as phainon's cheeks colored visibly.

fuck. he was in deep, down horrendous, pining in a way he hadn't since he was a schoolboy with his first crush. there wasn't a day that went by that phainon hadn't pulled some stupid stunt to get his attention, a day that phainon hadn't stayed up far too late, heart in his throat thinking about the way it'd feel if mydei would just drop the pretenses and let him in.

there was a certain shame to it, honestly. phainon had no small share of suitors, he would admit it that he was a charming, handsome man. he was tall, with snowy white hair and bright blue eyes. broad shouldered, strong from his time training for fun at the gym, but gentle around the edges from the amount of food cyrene insisted he eat for "all of that training".

and man, cyrene could COOK. phainon's mouth watered as he turned his attention back to his fragrant chicken rice- cyrene's latest obsession was cooking food from the xianzhou region, after becoming friends with dan heng. he'd taught her to make a few recipes and every one had been mind-obliteratingly delicious. caelus and march were absolutely spoiled rotten, he'd decided.