The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

114 A Weird Feeling

“That’s because you always think of me as a bad person,” Levi answered Emma by sticking out his hand, “Looks like our time is running out.”

Emma grabbed the hand that then pulled her up, “Are you hungry?”

“I do not know,” The man answered lightly.

Levi directed Emma to stand beside him, before moving forward slowly. Instinctively, Emma followed Levi’s movements beside him. They slid into the crowd where the booth they rented shoes at.

While moving her legs, Emma looked at Levi with a surprised mixed funny face, “You don’t know?” she repeated.

“I can’t feel hungry. I’ll eat when it’s time to eat.” He answered.

“Huh? Is there such a thing?”

Levi nodded, “I won’t make up stories about stupid things like this.”

“Is it a disease?” Emma asked with a serious face. She also didn’t feel Levi was making up a story.

.....

“Hmm,” He nodded slightly.

“Since when did that happen?” Emma asked again.

“Since I was a kid, maybe? I don’t really remember.” He answered carelessly.

Without realizing, they had arrived near the shoe rental booth. It turned out the place was pretty deserted. It was because it was already quite late.

Levi helped Emma to get to the ground. After being able to stand balanced on the ice, automatically, Emma was able to walk on the carpet. Then, the two of them immediately took their walking shoes from the locker and changed shoes on the long seat earlier.

“Thank you..” Emma said to the staff who was standing behind the booth, which turned out to be no longer accepting new customers. This time, Emma was holding her own shoes.

“But have you had dinner?” Emma asked Levi as they walked away from the booth.

Levi shook his head, “You didn’t see me do it, did you?”

“Hem.. I’m so hungry..” Emma complained while holding her own rumbling stomach. Even though she had previously intended to have dinner, she instead ended up ice skating with the man.

Then suddenly, Emma’s eyes caught a food booth selling toast. She immediately pointed at the place with the bright white light, “Let’s buy some food there.”

Finally, the two of them approached the toast booth. However, the owner of the booth seemed to be cleaning up his booth to close it.

“Sorry.. Can we still order?” Emma asked the saleslady.

“Oh.. Too bad. Coincidentally, the food ingredients have run out. I’m also preparing to close.” The woman answered.

“We can buy it there.” Levi pointed to another booth not far from there.

“I heard they’ve run out of ingredients too. It was a busy night.” The woman informed.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the owner of the booth came out from inside and started to close it.

“It’s getting late. All the booths should be closed.” The woman added again.

Emma let out a long sigh with a disappointed face, “Oh!” she suddenly remembered something. “Of course.. why did I forget it?” she slapped her forehead. Then, she looked at the booth woman, “Do you have an oven?”

The woman nodded, “Just a small microwave.” she shifted to show the silver object she used to melt the frozen jam.

“Perfect! Can I warm my food in it for a bit here?” Emma asked quickly.

“Of course,” The woman answered.

“Thank you!” Emma said happily. “Please wait a minute. I’ll get the food in the car.” She said as she hurried off.

“Hey..” Levi was about to stop Emma who was running so fast in the heavy snow.

“I’ll be right back!” Emma shouted, didn’t stop her footsteps at all.

“Tsk!” Levi clicked with a worried face, “She could slip on the stairs if she ran like that.” he muttered to himself.

“Your girlfriend is so cheerful, isn’t she? You both must have had a great time together.” Said the middle-aged woman with a chuckle. The relationship of young people was very warm and romantic. She missed her youth when she had a lot of energy.

Levi gaped at the statement of the woman in the thick jacket. Seriously?

“We’re not dating.” He corrected with a face that was not happy and confused at the same time. Let alone dating, he wasn’t even sure they were friends.

“Ah.. Sorry. I thought you two were a couple because you guys look so good together.” The woman laughed even more. Indeed, she was one of that kind of elders. It was very easy for them to talk to young people as they please.

Less than a minute, Emma finally returned breathlessly. She even ran fast on her way back to the booth.

“Here.. Please help me warm it up..” Emma placed two lunch boxes on the counter. White steam could be seen continuing to billow in front of her breathless mouth.

“Okay. Wait a minute.” The woman took the two boxes which turned out to contain a few slices of berry pie and Lasagne.

“I just remembered that there I have food in the car. Before coming here, I visited my friend’s house and her grandmother gave me the food.” Emma explained to Levi.

The man only stared at her for a moment before turning his face towards the ice. For some reason, there was an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. It was the woman selling the toast that made Levi’s mind unable to focus. How could that woman say something so random and baseless like that? Girlfriend? Look good together? Was she kidding? Levi even seemed to have rarely heard those despicable words in his life.

Levi was surprised from his daydream when a box containing yellowish-brown food was suddenly floating in his face. Behind the food box that was still steaming, a pretty face of a girl with two beautiful round eyes and lips smiling broadly at him, “Let’s eat together.” Emma said.

Levi blinked a few times before coming back to his senses and taking a step back. There was a strange sensation that seemed to shock the blood vessels under his skin. A strange thing that made his blood boil disturbed. Suddenly, he felt very awkward at the girl who was still standing with a happy face in front of him. The girl who didn’t know what the toast woman had just said. If Emma heard the same thing, would she get a strange feeling like Levi’s right now?

“Come on, Levi. The food’s going to get cold soon. Ah.. We’d better eat in my car. This food will get cold in an instant if we eat it in the open air like this.” Emma muttered to herself as she looked around the already empty surroundings. It looked like the booths there have almost been closed by their employees.

“I’m not hungry.” Levi refused with a stiff tone.

Emma looked at him with an annoyed face, “I know. You have a strange disease that makes you unable to feel hungry, right? But of course, you have to eat to have energy.”

‘My dear, Levi.. You have to eat to have energy..’

A woman’s soft voice echoed in Levi’s mind. Instantly, his whole body became stiff and the hairs on his neck stood. It was a sentence he had heard years ago. Warm and sad at the same time. The words he missed, but didn’t want to hear again. And that sentence was said precisely by the girl named Emma Hilland.

“Come on Levi! Why did you suddenly become a statue like that?” Emma babbled by stepping alone. She knew that Levi would follow her in the end. Who could resist the charm of Hellen’s finest Lasagne aroma which was so tasty even by the smell only?

Maybe, Levi’s brain had also been frozen by the blowing winter wind. Without asking for his approval, his feet instead followed the girl up the stairs, and into the front passenger door of a maroon sedan.

When Levi had conscious, he was already sitting in the car with a very nice perfume smell that slowly emitted warm air from the heater. He turned to the side and found a girl with thick wavy caramel hair, busy preparing food for the two of them.

“That woman was so nice. She even gave us food paper boxes and forks for free. I really fell in love with the old people in this town. They are so kind.” Emma chattered to herself. Then, she gave the box that she had filled with pieces of Lasagne to Levi who had been staring at her in silence, “I promise you’d love it. It’s really good.”

“What did you do to me?” Levi mumbled blankly.

“Huh? What do you mean? I’m sharing this with you,” Emma answered with a confused face.

Levi suddenly realized what he just said. He didn’t know why he could be weird like this. During this time, he had never been out of control. This was really weird.

“I.. I mean. Why don’t you give me a fork?” Levi shook his head once to regain consciousness. Luckily, he could find another reason for what he just said.

“Oh.. Haha.. Sorry, I forgot. Here you go..” Emma put the plastic fork into the food box that didn’t have a lid, “Enjoy,”

After Levi received the food, Emma no longer waited for a second to eat her food. She even closed her eyes to enjoy the Lasagne made by Hellen, which she said was a recipe passed down from generation to generation by her family. Rachel must be very lucky to have a grandmother who was an expert at cooking.

Levi’s eyes couldn’t stop staring at Emma with a frown on his face. He was still confused about what had happened. Then, he looked at the food in his hands. He didn’t feel like eating the food at all.

“Food tastes better when you’re hungry. If you’re never hungry, doesn’t that mean you’ve never had that sensation?” Emma asked as she munched on her dinner.

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