Yarn Limboombah was a rare and special wool found only in Korea, shipped across Asia to buyers like Song Wei.
Its scarcity meant it was available only during a specific time of year.
A week after Song Wei received her order and crafted a cozy sweater for herself, the Yarn unexpectedly appeared in her dreams.
Yarn Limboombah had spikes of wool jutting out from every angle and was shimmery, so shimmery, its silver caught the light.
The Yarn's bright appearance had been the start of Song Wei's dreams, and then it had reshaped itself, forming limbs and sharpening its spikes into silver needles.
But it didn't hurt Song Wei. How could one hurt their mother?
Instead, it took Song Wei's favorite song she had been listening to on repeat for the past week and danced to it. Choreographing and synchronizing perfectly.
Twisting its legs with the beat, bending its spiky, thin waist with the flow, moving its fragile arms to perfection.
Song Wei had enjoyed this performance and clapped fervently to show her pleased appreciativeness.
Then the weirdest thing happened—Her husband, He Sheng, was suddenly there, and Yarn Limboombah assured Song Wei it would give her the best performance of her life.
Like all dreams, this sounded threatening, and Song Wei began to suspect something was amiss.
This was when Yarn Limboombah jumped onto He Sheng, wrapping around his head in the form of a hair, giving Song Wei a rare sight she had never seen.
Her husband's head full of hair.
But that wasn't the end. As if compelled by Yarn Limboombah, He Sheng began to dance, twisting and moving with the-
"Mother Wei! Don't you want to catch your breath? That's it, deep breaths, breathe in, breathe out."
Gu Wei's voice broke through the tale, and Song Wei followed his instructions to breathe in confusion. Then she looked around the room at her friends and sighed.
"Well… That's how it went. And this was only last night, so I'm here in the hopes that it won't chase me all the way to a hotel. I see I talked too much, forgive this mother children, she got too carried away."
Protests rose as Song Wei bowed. Xu Ai raised her shoulder, and they all dismissed her apology.
This was a place to share after all. "Ahem, at least you have a conscience. Ha Xing and Shi Yi never know when to stop."
Ling Jie said, gulping more beer, frowning when a drop landed on her tongue instead.
Gu Wei wholeheartedly agreed.
"STOP WHAT?!" A voice blasted from Zhai Mei's phone, ringing loudly in the quiet room, and Gu Wei and the others visibly flinched.
Ling Jie, who was closest to Zhai Mei, covered her ears and moaned, leaning to the side as she held her ears in pain.
Zhai Mei fumbled with her phone nervously, shooting them apologetic looks and trying to lower her phone's volume.
Her cheeks were more rosy than ever, pinged with the darkest pink as she hunched over the phone, her lips were moving, but Gu Wei couldn't make out what she was mumbling.
Then she pressed her lips tightly together, and it took a moment before Gu Wei realized… Was she trying not to laugh?
"Meaning stop their annoying back and forth and just talk to each other! If not for Gu Wei, we would've butted in and slammed their heads together or something. So annoying."
Song Wei nodded at Xu Ai's words, and Zhai Mei, seeming to have fixed the problem, asked, "What not for Gu Wei?!"
Gu Wei snickered out loud before he could stop himself because Zhai Mei had raised her head, and her eyes were wide and blinking like she wanted to stay awake, and the phone volume was still high as ever, just not at the peak of hurting.
Zhai Mei was drunk.
And Gu Wei came to this conclusion so suddenly it had brought out a laugh from him.
Gu Wei quickly turned his laugh into a menial coughing fit, taking his mug and sipping to cover the smile on his face.
So drunk Zhai Mei was loud and had the rosiest cheeks, Gu Wei took note of this happily, one more thing about Zhai Mei to know.
Why did he want to know about Zhai Mei again? Gu Wei's thoughts were getting jumbled again. He blamed the alcohol.
Clearing his throat, Gu Wei interrupted Xu Ai before she could speak, "Let's not talk about XingYi today, please. I'm already at my limit."
Xu Ai nodded and stretched back, covering her mouth as a yawn escaped her. It infected the others, and they all copied her pose, yawning and stretching.
Zhai Mei's mechanical voice sounded again. "Who's XingYi?"
"Their names. Xing from Ha Xing, Yi from Shi Yi." Song Wei replied, suddenly straightening as she recalled that Gu Wei still hadn't said why he had been crying.
"Wei Wei-ah, I'm so sorry. I got carried away. You still haven't told me what's bothering you. Why were you crying? What happened today?"
Asked out of the blue, Gu Wei sighed as the memories of his torture flooded him, and he was about to speak when he remembered Zhai Mei…
Zhai Mei didn't know about his condition, but it would be rude if he left her out, and it wasn't like his story shouted 'learning disability,' so, either way, it was fine.
Gu Wei recounted his struggles to his sisters and mother, sniffing dramatically at the end as they cursed out Miss Li and sympathized with him.
Amid Gu Wei's faking, a stray tear dripped out, and Gu Wei wiped it before he actually started to cry.
The day's events had taken a toll on him, and Gu Wei didn't want to admit it, but he had been hurt by Miss Li and his other teammate's dismissive tone.
Fu Yuan Jie Jie and SB had been the only humans among them. Gu Wei rubbed his forehead in frustration.
Even still, why was he crying? He wasn't a crybaby.
Oblivious to his own body, the crybaby was unaware that a certain temperature was slowly but surely rising.
"Did you beat them up?" Zhai Mei's mechanical voice said, and Gu Wei looked up. "Eh?"
Zhai Mei's fingers flew over her screen. "Miss Li and the others, did you beat them up? They deserve one."
Gu Wei's confused expression was the tipping jar for the other. And they grabbed their stomachs as belly-deep laughter escaped them.
Gu Wei was still confused. "Why would I beat them up?"
Zhai Mei sucked air through her clamped teeth in a 'ssss' sound, scolding him more like. Her reply was even more scandalous.
"Why not? They gave you a hard time. Did your idol not beat them for you? If not, I can. I will. Just tell me where they work… Better yet, where they live, so it'll be personal."
Ling Jie wheezed a laugh as she said, "Yes-ah Gu Wei Ge, did Fu Yuan not beat them for you? Ha ha, ha ha hahahaha."
Out of all the things Gu Wei had expected Zhai Mei to say, this was not one of them. It wasn't even close.
Gu Wei stared at her determined expression for a second, thinking. "Then… If it's not too bothersome for Zhai Mei, beat them for me?"
Nodding affirmatively, Zhai Mei finally settled her case. Song Wei placed a hand on her forehead to cover her face.
These two…
Still smiling derisively at Zhai Mei's unexpected display of protection, Gu Wei wiped at the sweat on his nape. He had been wondering why the room was so hot before, and now he was even sweating.
Song Wei noticed his exhausted posture and patted her shoulder. Gu Wei contentedly placed his head on his mother's shoulder, sighing when her arm surrounded him and petted his hair.
It was with this that Song Wei finally felt Gu Wei's burning temperature, yelping when her hands brushed his skin.
"Gu Wei! You brat! You're burning up. Why didn't you say anything?!"
"What? Gu Wei has a fever?"
"Ge, why're you drinking alcohol when you're sick? You're even more childish than me."
His friends made a fuss over him as they called the night to an end. Gu Wei protested and dug his feet into the carpet when Song Wei tried to drag him up.
He was like a child who had been caught eating sweets when they should've used drugs instead.
Zhai Mei helped pack the leftovers with Ling Jie, while Xu Ai and Song Wei struggled to drag a grown-up man to bed.
"Wahhhhhh!" Gu Wei cried, giving up when he felt the sheets against his face and a wave of cold swept through him.
The duvet was draped over him and Song Wei tucked her child in, asking Xu Ai if it would be too late to buy drugs now.
Xu Ai advised letting him ride it out first. A fever had to break on its own either way, there was no rushing it.
Voices came and went as Gu Wei sank further into the depths of cold limbs and shivering. Gu Wei hoped he hadn't disturbed the girl's night with his fever.
The voices faded to a muffle, then indistinct sounds, until all was silent. Gu Wei mumbled and shifted in his half-sleep, half-awake derision.
He felt something cool against his skin and calmed slightly. The coolness traveled all over his head, leaving trails of cold air as it disappeared, then returned.
The girls washed up for the night, still scolding their brother, Gu Wei, whenever they could. He had worsened his fever, keeping it in and drinking like a sneaky brat.
Zhai Mei listened, feeling more guilty by the minute. If she had said something when he'd snatched the peculiar bottle from Song Wei, maybe the fever wouldn't have gotten so bad.
Dumping water on her face cleared Zhai Mei's head a bit, and she shuffled to her single bed, catching Song Wei as she draped a duvet on the floor and settled in beside Gu Wei, who had occupied her bed for the night.
That reminded Zhai Mei. They hadn't booked a room with five beds, so Gu Wei would've been the one sleeping on the ground if not for his fever. What suspicious luck.
Zhai Mei carefully made her way over to Song Wei and tapped her. Song Wei turned and came upon Zhai Mei's cute appearance.
Her hair was packed in a rough bun, her fringe pulled back with a cute, furry headband.
They hadn't bought a change of clothes, so she was still in her yellow sweatshirt and long skirt.
The room was dark with the lights turned out, so Zhai Mei couldn't read Song Wei's lips. She brought out her phone instead, typing quickly.
Let's switch, my bed's more comfy.
Song Wei reached for the phone, and Zhai Mei handed it to her. She typed her response out.
No, no need for that. Your bones might hurt. And you're a guest here. Letting you take the duvet would be rude.
Zhai Mei shook her head, the phone was passed back to her.
Not rude, don't worry. And we're all guests here, remember? Hotel and all. Actually… I feel guilty about Gu Wei's condition cause I checked before we came in and knew he had a fever, although it was small at the time.
You should be sleeping in your comfy bed, and he should've been suffering on the floor. So… We're both at fault. Let me replace him??
Song Wei raised an eyebrow at the twisted mentality.
This girl… Anything to be close to her son. Song Wei wasn't complaining though.
The words Zhai Mei had typed out made her recall how she'd stuck to Gu Wei during school then. If XingYi were coins, then these two were magnets.
Song Wei smiled and shuffled away from her nest.
You convince well Zhai Mei. Okay, take the duvet, but don't complain tomorrow when your bones hurt.
Grinning in victory, Zhai Mei nodded, bunny head bobbing, and shifted to the side to let Song Wei pass. Unknown to Zhai Mei, Xu Ai noticed Song Wei's movement and asked,
"What's going on?" Song Wei shushed her, glancing worriedly at Zhai Mei, who was innocently tucking herself in, and quieted a confused Xu Ai back to sleep.
Ling Jie had passed out the moment her head hit the pillow, so she wasn't witness to the monumental exchange.
Song Wei sighed in satisfaction at the feel of a mattress, peeking over the edge like a spy, only to find the nest empty.
Zhai Mei had disappeared.
Song Wei looked around in panic before spotting a figure coming out of the bathroom, tiptoeing to her space and carefully placing a towel on Gu Wei's head.
Song Wei silently shook her head and sank into her pillow, the only witness to the secret display. Her mind drifted into the fog of sleep as she fondly went over the day's events, and her thoughts swayed.
These children… are really… something…