Chapter 46
***
I could feel his eyes on me wherever I went.
- Pick me one of those, please.
- Is there something you'd like to have?
A voice echoed my words.
I looked at the crude dolls I hadn't paid much attention to. They were all shapes and sizes.
They must have been painstakingly sewn by the children of the capital.
For this day, for days and nights.
The corners of my mouth curled up as I realized that this was something I was familiar with from my time in the slums.
- I like big things...... I'm not comfortable carrying it around, so I'll take that little pink bunny.
- The little pink bunny, you mean the one on the far left?
- Yes.
In hindsight, the smaller ones were many times harder to hit than the larger ones.
He walked up to the merchant and held out his hand. The merchant's face lit up as he explained the rules.
- Five shots. If you hit the doll within five shots, you get to keep it.
After hearing the direction, he shouldered his gun with the seriousness and skill of a hunter.
Then, bang, a noise that seemed cute to me, knowing how loud a real gun sounds.
His jet-black hair blew in the wind with the sound.
The stuffed rabbit that had taken the bullet in the head slumped to the floor in one fluid motion. The merchant let out a gasp of pure admiration.
- Your husband is a skilled shot, is he a member of the military?
- What else do you think is beautiful?
The merchant quickly picked up the doll from the ground. A fist-sized pink rabbit landed on my palm. It was crude in appearance, poorly finished, but surprisingly soft and warm to the touch. I looked at the shelf of dolls and realized that it was naturally mismatched.
- And a blue bunny next to it.
- okay.
Again, bang, with a cute noise, the blue bunny dropped to the floor. Two dolls landed on top of my hands. I whispered as he was still clutching the toy-like gun.
-Isn't it like you and me?
Bang, he looked back at me, the next bullet in the wrong place.
In the dim streetlight, his fading face was slightly red.
-What's wrong?
- Did you know you could think such a cute thing?
- It's just, the colors and the fact that they're a pair of stuffy like this⋯ They were poorly made, but......
When I think about it, I wonder if we could have been in the same situation if we were walking by and someone shot us for no reason.
I trailed off. He put the gun, still with two rounds left in it, down on the stall and stalked toward me.
Before I knew it, he had his arms around my waist and our lips were pressed together.
The nearby gasps and whistles were like hair dye, turning me bright red to my toes.
- I thought......, honey, aren't you being a little too much?
- Why, I'm going to kiss my wife, and it's not like I'm doing anything bad.
His next words were overly brazen.
- I've given you the doll you want, so I'll take what I want.
- Earlier.......
I stammered. I couldn’t tell him what happened before we left the palace, not here.
His gaze sank, and it was perhaps horribly unsurprising.
- What was that again?
- That....... You know, don't you?
- I have no idea. What happened earlier?
- I ...... honey.
Now that I think about it, honey, maybe that sounded nice.
He pulled me a little closer.
His sweet voice dripped into my ear.
- We've been married for six years now.
.......we have been.
- But is there still something you're hiding, something you can't talk about?
I thought about all the things I hadn't said.
We were a couple, but we weren't a couple.
Now that this time had come, and we had met our inevitable fate, he and I were finally taking the step of being honest with each other.
I glanced down, avoiding his gaze.
Sadness often sneaked up on me when I least expected it, building up inside me, and ironically, that was now. For no reason.
-......I can't tell you in a place like this. You know better.
-Oh, is that what you're talking about?
- Yes. Don't be mean about it.
- If you don't tell me, I don't know.
Somehow, I could feel the bones in his words.
For a moment, I thought I saw a different light in his gaze.
He swiftly turned his head.
-The fun of this carnival lies elsewhere, let's go there.
-.....okay.
Standing side by side, I began to take another slow step.
Matching my narrow stride, he whispered in a soft voice.
- There's a legend in the capital. Of the central clock tower.
-Yes?
-If you go up to the top floor, there's an observation deck, and it overlooks the central fountain. The angel statue in the center fountain is holding a large urn.
I recognized it from the last time I went to the slums, as I remembered seeing it in passing.
All I remembered was that it was large, more like a pond than a fountain.
- In the last month of spring, lovers who arrive together at the Clock Tower observation deck have a custom of tossing a coin into the urn of the angel statue. If the coin lands in the angel's jar, the lovers are said to never be separated, no matter what, but there is one condition.
The coin has to grant a wish, or they become an eternal couple.
It was a common story that was ubiquitous.
-A woman's foot should never touch the top of a clock tower.
Except for that last one.
I paused for a moment to consider what that meant.
- Does it mean that the man should carry the woman to the top of the clock tower?
- That's right.
-You're saying the man has to throw a coin into a fountain while carrying a woman?
- That's right.
- If someone is that patient, it's even weirder to break up with his lover.
I thought, "I'll put up with anything.”
The clock tower wasn't exactly low.
It was impossible to climb it without a certain level of physical strength.
And what if the coin you threw up there hit a passerby?
It seemed like getting hit by a falling coin from that height would end up with more than just a cracked forehead.
He left me with a laughable answer.
-That's why the area near the fountain is off-limits this time of year.
I thought it could be possible.
We walked through the city center and arrived in front of the clock tower.
I craned my neck and looked up at the tower. It wasn't normal height.
I suddenly realized why he had mentioned it.
-….So you're saying we should try it?
- Yes.
-Don’t you like it?
It was a legend I didn’t elieve, but only because I had something a little different in mind.
After I'm gone, you'll be alone.
How lonely your life will be if even your young soul is bound to me.
Knowing my future, even superstition could not touch me.
-Haha, the sexes are reversed here.
The keeper of the clock tower interrupted and spoke up.
- Pardon?
- Usually it's the women who want do it, and the men get annoyed. I've seen more couples break up after arguing in front of the tower than I have after climbing it. No wonder it's called the Clock Tower of Breakups.
The keeper chuckled.
- But it's not easy to climb a tower carrying a bag of flour, let alone carrying a person, so I usually resort to tricks.
-Tricks, like what?
- climb the tower with him halfway up and then let him carry you up a few steps at the end. Legend has it that only the top of the tower is off-limits to women anyway, but what about this way and that?
The tower keeper's alternative was out of the question, as there was no way my knees could handle that height.
Instead, my husband immediately put his hands under my knees and picked me up.
- Let me down.
-This wouldn't be a bad experience.
-⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯I'm heavy, don't throw me down the stairs halfway because of it.
***
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