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“What are you doing, uncle Edgar?” Gin asked, stepping towards his desk to look over the partition.
“Folding paper stars,” Edgar replied, with a shy smile. “Would you like me to teach you how?”
Gin nodded eagerly and dragged over a chair, sitting elbow-to-elbow with Edgar at the desk.
Edgar handed her a thin strip of paper and meticulously began to explain how to fold them.
After a few stars, Gin began to get the hang of it and didn’t need Edgar to guide her through the process, so they sat in silence, folding stars.
“You have a lot in that jar,” Gin began, glancing at a small glass jar that Edgar had, sitting off to the side. “What are they for?”
“Well, according to some legends, if you fold one hundred paper stars, put them in a jar, and give them to someone you love, they’ll return your feelings.” He blushed, focusing back on the tiny star in his hands. “But I just thought they were pretty, and putting them in the jar is just, aesthetically pleasing.”
Gin wasn’t buying it, but she just smiled and decided to let her uncle Edgar be.
Then, as if getting revenge for the uncomfortable line of questioning,
“Perhaps you should teach your father how to fold these.” Edgar said, in a sly tone. “I’m sure a man such as he will have someone to give them to. Even if it isn’t truly magical, it’s still quite a romantic gesture.”
She couldn’t help but laugh.
It was obvious Yosano had spread the gossip about Oda and Kunikida around the office, just as Gin had wanted. She loved her uncle Edgar, but he could be a terrible gossip when it came down to it.
“I think I shall teach him, thank you, uncle Edgar.”
Edgar merely nodded and returned to folding his stars.
After that, Gin and Edgar would fold stars together quite often.
It was a soothing, menial task that they could perform in absolute silence, merely relaxing and enjoying each other’s company.
Yosano would join them sometimes, occasionally folding her own stars, but more often than not, reading over medical reports and the like. Gin did teach Oda, and although the stars looked fairly clumsy, he learned how, and Gin was sure he would get better over time.
She continued to hint about how folding one hundred stars meant you would be with someone forever, along with the occasional comment that Kunikida’s desk lacked personal effects, which was honestly quite sad.
When she made one such comment, sitting next to Edgar, he started laughing, a soft, wheezy sort of sound that honestly made her think he was choking, but once he assured her he was fine, she laughed too.
Ryuunosuke thought the jar of stars that Gin made was really pretty and he wanted one too, so she let him sit in her lap and fold them with her and Edgar. He gave up halfway through making star number six, instead finding Junichirou getting body slammed into the ground by Yosano, for trying to get off of bed rest, infinitely more interesting, so Gin finished it for him, deciding to just make a jar for him, instead of the craft having to be prolonged or dropped entirely due to the short attention span of a child.
Gin and Edgar made small-talk, occasionally talking about the jobs he did, or what Gin was doing in school.
It was nice, pleasant., something relaxing.
If Gin saw the jar that Edgar had slaved over sitting on Ranpo’s desk, she decided not to mention it.