Chapter 4
At my rushed question, the man seemed to fold his arms.
Raising my lowered head, my eyes met the green jewels. Though the shadow cast by his hood remained, I felt as if the lovely light they gave off had grown a little deeper than before.
To see that, I would have to go where people gathered, but I had neither the time nor the leeway for that at all. My brow furrowed.
Pausing for a moment, he wiped down his face.
A long sigh escaped me at that answer. I hadn't expected any brilliant solution, but it was far more disappointing than I had hoped. I picked up my basket and stood.
The sudden solemnity in his tone made me freeze in an awkward crouch. Honestly, I had felt a twinge of guilt because I knew nothing about temple etiquette. Springing to his feet, the man pointed a finger at me.
I tried to speak, but he had already opened the door and walked out of the booth. Thud, thud. His heavy footsteps echoed away. Left all alone in the booth, I blinked in disbelief.
Sighing, my face crumpled. I awkwardly clasped my hands together, cobbled together ten lengthy variations of apologies to God, and offered them on the spot.
I hoped this would be enough to let it slide. Seeing how people often called God merciful, He probably wasn’t so petty.
Pulling myself together, I opened the door and stepped out to find Mark loitering outside. The moment he saw me emerge, he gave a wink, strode over quickly, and struck up a conversation.
Cutting across what seemed like an endless stream of chatter, I looked straight at him.
“…pretty?”
Flinching for an instant, Mark scratched his nose as if it itched and burst into an awkward laugh.
Having no idea what to make of his claim as he brushed his hands down his clothes, I took a closer, more earnest look at him.
Sun-browned skin, curly chestnut hair, and dark pupils deeper than the shade of his curls set inside large, round eyes drawn with simple lines.
From what he said, he seemed to think he was handsome, but to my eyes he looked nothing special. He was hardly different from any other man with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, yet Mark was fairly popular with the girls at the market.
Even the girl at the flower stall across the way always cast coquettish glances at him while glaring daggers at me.
‘Why don’t you observe it with your own eyes? See which flowers the bees swarm around. Once you see that, you’ll see the reason for the opposite as well.’
The priest’s low voice lingered in my head like a prickle. It was a voice with a strange resonance.
A voice that easily burrowed into a person’s tangled heart.
Right. Come to think of it, I had never once hung out with people my age in my entire life. The only people who existed in my world right now were Mrs. Vino, Mrs. Allmon, Laurel, and the women at the washing place.
When I made up my mind and asked, Mark wore a dazed expression as if he’d been struck, before breaking into a wide grin.
When I cut him off firmly while he waved his hands, his face flushed with excitement and his voice rising, he gave a quick, surprised nod. A trace of disappointment showed on his face, but he grinned again in no time and winked once more out of habit.
At Mark’s radiating confidence, I let out something between a laugh and a sigh. I couldn’t tell if I was doing the right thing.
One thing was certain: things would get more troublesome than before. Leaving behind Mark, who was waving cheerfully and calling out, “See you at nine!” I walked on. I only hoped it would be a trouble I could handle.After mashing boiled potatoes and mixing them with flour and butter to simmer into soup, a savory aroma filled the kitchen. As I took the bread knife and sliced a loaf into bite-sized pieces, I heard the sound of Mrs. Allmon returning home.
Mrs. Allmon helped buy and prep ingredients at a nearby herb shop. Though she had a house and a modest inheritance left by her husband, she wasn’t well-off enough to live without working.
Frowning as if exhausted, she tossed down a thick parcel of bloodstained paper. Opening it with delight, I found a cut of meat that was more than half white fat.
Already imagining the smell of pork fat sizzling in a hot pan, the corners of my mouth curled up on their own. After transferring the sliced bread to a plate, I quickly set the pan over the heat, but Mrs. Allmon, watching me closely, clicked her tongue.
Of course, I had already told her this days ago when the firewood ran out. That was why I had grocery money in hand in the first place, but Mrs. Allmon shook her head as if hearing it for the first time.
She seemingly had no idea that it was only because I had gathered branches that I could boil soup or keep a modest fire going in Mrs. Vino’s room. There was no way she would know just how much wood the oven devoured.
Slipping off her gloves, Mrs. Allmon retreated to her room. Melting butter in the heated pan, I set the pork onto it and thought to myself.
Telling me to sleep early meant a man was coming tonight. On nights like that, she tended to be quietly high-strung about my presence.
I’ll have to slip out quietly.
Though annoyance had been my first thought, part of me was also a little excited. Sneaking out at night, mingling with people, seeing a play—it was all a first for me.
‘You need to see and learn more. There are so many things in the world you don’t know. The world you know isn’t even the size of a single palm.’
Recalling what Laurel always said, I flipped the meat. Sizzling drops of fat spattered alongside a delicious aroma.After dinner, I changed Mrs. Vino’s diaper and tidied her bed. Listening to her breathing, which sounded like the growling of a small beast, I glanced around the room and suddenly caught sight of the mirror hanging on the wall.
My face, framed by loosely braided silver hair, was slightly flushed with heat.
It reminded me of Laurel smiling enviously, saying my skin was quite fair considering how much sun I took every day. Set in a slender face, my ash-gray eyes did their part in lending my expression a sullen air. The baby fat on my eyelids had flattened out before I knew it, giving my eyes a distinct shape, and they were rather large and round.
…Am I pretty?
Having never paid much attention to people’s looks, I had never really found anything beautiful. As that thought crossed my mind, I paused.
Ah, those eyes. There were those eyes like green jewels.
Gazing quietly at my own eyes in the mirror, I recalled the priest’s gaze.
Even shadowed beneath a black hood, their brilliance was so striking it had been hard to look away. They were beautiful eyes. The kind you could look at endlessly without ever tiring of them.
I wondered if I would see them again next time I went to the temple.
