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“Let’s go.”
She followed the boy, not knowing where he was going. After walking for a while, it occurred to her that even the boy did not know where he was going.
“Hey.”
Grace, who was glancing at the boy walking along the seaside promenade with his bicycle, courageously spoke up.
“You were like a prince a while ago.”
The boy who was pouring the carbonated water bottle into his mouth, coughed.
He took his handkerchief out of the back pocket of his pants and paused. Tilting his head as he looked down at Grace with the ice cream in her mouth, he frowned slightly and sighed.
“It’s melting.”
He handed the handkerchief to Grace and wiped his wet lips with the back of his hand. Even the look was cool. The boy asked her as she looked up as if she saw a carbonated water commercial.
“Why didn’t you come today?”
“Huh?”
The girl who tilted her head again smiled with her lips turned red from the strawberry ice cream.
“Did you wait?”
Leon’s cheeks were as red as the girl’s lips.
“Then, did you come to find me?”
“Huh? No. There’s, there’s just nothing to do…”
He rolled his eyes and frowned.
“I see…”
Seeing the look of disappointment on her face made him think that he should just be honest.
“Name.”
“What?”
“My name is Leon. You?”
“…Daisy.”
Leon didn’t know why the girl hesitated for a moment.
“Does Leon live here?”
“No. It’s just a villa. You?”
He already knew she wasn’t from here. However, Leon pretended he hadn’t overheard Daisy’s conversation with the seller from a while ago, so he asked.
“I come from somewhere far. Like a family vacation…”
Grace turned around without saying where the ‘somewhere far’ was and without explaining why it was ‘like’ and was not a family vacation.
“I’m so excited because it’s my first time here.”
She had never been out of the remote mountain town before. Even more so than staying in a luxury resort for such a long time. The sea she saw for the first time in her life was amazing, and she ran into Leon while walking along the beach on the first day he came here.
“But, is it okay if you go alone without your parents?”
Why was there always no one by the girl’s side? It was difficult for Leon to understand, as he was always followed by an adult wherever he went.
“…Uh.”
Grace wasn’t actually allowed to go alone.
At first, she thought it was just a family vacation because her parents, who were often away from home, came back after a long time and asked her to go to Abbington Beach.
However, it was a little strange since they left her older brother. It was only when they arrived and unpacked their luggage in a secluded accommodation that she realized that it was not actually a vacation but a ‘mission.’
Grace had no idea what duties the adults were talking about. It was just a righteous act of saving the world, so she could only guess that they were the hero she saw in the book—like the heroes who save the world, they had to keep their identities a secret.
She overheard grown-ups saying that their mission was to get information from a bad soldier like Winston.
Still young, Grace’s job was to ‘cover up’ the adults who came with her to make them look like ordinary travelers. All the adults were busy and didn’t have time to take care of Grace. So in the morning, they left the money at the bedside of her bed and left.
With that, she spent the past week having a lot of extravagance and fun, but today, when she met Leon, she had lost the money and looked shabby in front of him.
“Oh, I got pocket money this morning. But I must have lost it while playing on the sandy beach.”
Grace mumbled an excuse he didn’t ask. Looking up at Leon’s face, the orange tree spread over his head naturally caught my eye.
“Leon, then, in return for buying me ice cream, shall I pick oranges?”
Grace didn’t know why Leon’s eyes were shaking. She looked around for the most ripe and tried to climb the tree though another hand touched her shoulder.
“Don’t climb trees in a skirt.”
“Why?”
“…It’s vulgar?”
Why didn’t this child know this? Daisy blinked her eyes wide, filled with question marks as if she couldn’t understand even the word vulgar.
“Pink.”
Did she understand now? Daisy’s face turned bright red.
“Oh no! I wore white today…!”
“…Why are you saying that with your own mouth?”
Adults passed by the boy and a girl facing each other under an orange tree with faces like ripe sunshine and gave a meaningful smiles.
Embarrassed, Leon took the bike and started walking again. Meanwhile, Grace hesitated, not knowing whether to follow him or separate from him. He stopped after three steps. The girl who was supposed to follow him was still standing idly under the tree.
It was then that he realized.
That girl never said that she was going on a date with him today, but from the moment they met, of course, they should.
‘Wait. I haven’t told her it’s a date yet, right?’
He had never said such a thing… No, he didn’t have to.
The socialization between the sons of the nobility was determined by their parents, not the party involved. When, where, with whom, and what to do were all decided beforehand, Leon had to follow it whether he liked it or not.
For the first time in his life, he had the opportunity to spend time with the girl he wanted. Still, the problem was…
‘How do you say, let’s go on a date?‘
Leon hesitated without saying anything. The moment his head turned white because he thought Daisy would just want to go away, he let out a terrible word.
“If you want to repay me for buying you ice cream, you can play with me.”
His hand pointed across the street to the grand carnival.
‘Play? Are you a kid?’
Leon wanted to slap himself on the cheek. Besides, he bought her an ice cream that didn’t cost a few pennies and talked about repayment. What cheap threats! Apparently, this date was ruined before it even started.
Daisy’s expression wasn’t very good.
“…Yes.”
The unexpected agreement came. Soon, the two took a bewildered step for their own reasons.
‘I heard that noble children have separate children to play with, am I like that now?’
Grace was a little offended. However, after she rode the rides three times, she completely forgot about it.
“Leon, I want to ride that one this time.”
“Okay.”
Leon stood in front of the carousel’s ticket booth without a word of complaint. He asked her to play with him. Nonetheless, in the end, it was he who played with her. Taking a merry-go-round, he was willing to ride a ride with the child.
Besides, he helped Grace ride the horse as kindly as a real prince. She felt like a princess.
While Leon secretly fiddled with her right hand, which he had held, he climbed onto the horse next to her. The merry-go-round began to spin as light music played. Grace, who would normally look outside and wave her hand, could not take her eyes off the other side this time.
Leon was also looking at her the whole time. He smiled shyly, then asked.
“Why? Do I look pretty?”
“Yes.”
The boy smiled softly at Grace’s serious answer.
“But, do you have a real horse at home?”
He nodded his head.
“Then, this won’t be fun.”
“Ah… It’s not…”
For some reason, he was perplexed. He couldn’t figure out why he started to gibber and talked about why the merry-go-round was more fun than riding a real horse.
“There’s a roof here, so I don’t have to worry about heatstroke….”
“Right. Right.”
It was absurd to even when he thought of it. Still, Daisy took his nonsense seriously. Actually, it was Leon who thought the merry-go-round was boring. Regardless, why did his heart pound like when he rode a roller coaster?
Then, there was the haunted house.
“Kyaak! Don’t let go! Don’t let go! You can’t let me go!”
Leon smiled secretly as he embraced the girl who kept clinging to her. He was glad it was dark.
“Hoo, that was scary…”
When she came out of the haunted house, Daisy’s face was wet with tears.
“Sorry. Then, as an apology…”
Before Leon could finish his words, Daisy’s hand pointed somewhere. At the end of it was a large dolphin doll hanging from a shooting game booth.
The two went to the booth. Five shots at a time. To get the doll, they had to score a hundred points. Leon paid the man who was guarding the booth and checked the scores of the targets on the opposite wall.
‘The highest is 25 points, followed by 15 points.’
As he thought so, Leon picked up the gun in front of him. It was an old rifle that was only licensed for entertainment. After checking that the barrel was not bent, he put his eye to the scale and checked that the line of sight was straight.
“Do you know how to shoot something like this? Do you want to be taught first?”
Ignoring Daisy in front of him, Leon pulled the trigger instead of answering.