Celebrity Lady

Walking with a glass of cool fruit juice, we entered the street lined with tents.

Merchants engaged in various betting games were gathered.

“Oh, that looks interesting. Do you want to try?” Lark pointed to one of the signs in interest.

[A chance to get up to 10 gold medals for just 50 silver!]

[Trust your senses!]

Several boxes were covered with blackout silk on the stall, and goods were visible behind the merchant.

From cheap cotton dolls to pendants that look like they cost about 10 gold…

“Let’s play a game.”

“Oh, welcome.”

Lark quickly sat down on a chair in front of the stall and raised 1 gold.

Looking closely, there were five boxes. Each item was written on it, and I pointed to the leftmost box that said [Pendant worth 10 gold].

“Put my hand in, touch what’s inside, and guess what it is, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. But the 10-gold one is a bit difficult— Uh, scary for a woman to do it, I think?”

“I’ll try even if I can’t win!”

Lark chuckled as he saw me overflowing with enthusiasm.

“Let’s see…”

When I shoved my hand through the hole on the box, I felt something soft. There were also fluffs.

‘Hmm… It’s a touch that might frighten ladies. There’s a reason he scared me first.’

Was it a bug? The merchant made eye contact with me and smiled.

“It’s squishy. It’s the size of a fist, with several segments, and has fur…”

“Yes, so?” For some reason, the merchant became nervous when he saw my calm expression.

“Hohoho… Why does it feel like an imago silkworm?”

“Oh, dear!”

The merchant was surprised— No, he was pretending to be surprised.

‘Who are you fooling?’

I’d seen silkworms a few times while doing clothing business in earnest.

There was also an insect of the same kind as the silkworm that spun yarn in this world. Its appearance was more terrifying than silkworms. I didn’t want to see it twice.

Anyway, I’d never touched it but I felt like it should feel the same.

‘But there’s no way they put real bugs in there.’

It was obvious that the young guests would be terrified. He wasn’t crazy enough to put that big bug here, right? Like the fact that he scared me from the start, it was definitely a trick.

‘This guy has good facial expressions.’

I praised the merchant’s surprised facial expression and skillfully removed my hand.

“It feels like a bug!”

“… Feels like?”

“But it should be a rubber ball with fur!”

“Oh, my!”

The merchant tapped his forehead and smiled brightly.

“Wrong!”

“Eh? Then what is it?”

The merchant, who rubbed his hands together and smiled sinisterly, swept off the blackout silk.

Then what I saw was…

Clear near the head, rolling black eyeballs, and two non-aggressive but terrifying-looking cracked teeth.

“Aaaaaaagggh!”

… a real silkworm.

“Aaaagh! Agh! Aaaaagh!”

“Ouh, I’m going to be deaf.”

Flustered by the tremendous decibel, the merchant covered his ears.

Had I told you?

“Aaaaagh!”

I hated bugs the most in the world.

“This is crazy!”

My head spun, and my vision blurred. I just touched that thing! Me!

I immediately turned my body and reflexively embraced Lark, who was sitting there, like I was pouncing on him.

“R-Ruby?”

It was embarrassing to get on his lap and hug him, but now I couldn’t afford to pay attention to that.

“Agh! Aaaagh! I-I touched that thing!”

“I-I understand! Wait, calm down! Calm down!”

I hugged Lark, who was flustered with embarrassment, and struggled arrogantly on his lap.

You might say that I was making a fuss about touching an insect once, but no one will be able to criticize me when you see the appearance of a silkworm.

I, who hated bugs, even having a history of fainting at the sight of cockroaches…

“Aaahhhh…”

“Stop, stop. You can cry it out. It’s okay, it’s okay.”

I got goosebumps all over my body, imagining the bug that would be staring at me if I turned my back.

Trembling, I continued digging into Lark’s arms.

“E-Excuse me? How can I do business here if you do this in the middle of the day? The inn is over there…”

I heard the voice of the nasty merchant.

“Ruby, calm down. And first of all… Umm… Can you get down?”

“Cough, hicc…”

The hardened Lark tried to soothe me, but my heart hardly calmed down.

When I tried to get down, I turned my body incorrectly and flinched again upon making eye contact with the bug. So I held onto him for several more minutes.

“Hmm. Let’s close the box again. My little friend is too scared.”

“Ah, shall we?” the merchant chuckled. Soon there was a sign of the box being covered with silk again.

Lark, who I tightly held, stroked my back with a stiff hand.

“We can’t see it anymore.”

“R-Really?”

“Mm.”

“N-No more bugs?”

“… Not really… but it should be okay because we can’t see it.”

“Cough.”

I got down from Lark’s lap, trying my best not to look back. As soon as I came down, I sprang to my feet.

“It was fun. I hope your business-” As I clung to Lark’s side as I greeted the merchant, I froze. “…runs well. Then, bye.”

“Haha, it’s nice to see young people. Won’t you play one more game?”

“That’s all right. Just buy some bug food with the change.”

“Aaaaghh!”

The merchant chuckled at me reacting to the word bug while Lark shook his head helplessly.

***

“You can’t just sit on a man’s lap like that.”

“Ugh, sorry. But I was really surprised. I could’ve died instantly from a heart attack.”

In the middle of the capital where the sun was slowly setting. 

While enjoying the festival for another half a day, Lark said worriedly in the middle as if he were my real brother, “That won’t be the only time you see bugs in your life. Are you going to get on the lap of every man every time you’re surprised?”

“But I’m terrified of bugs. I even fainted when I saw a cockroach.”

“Huh… This is a big problem. You know, there are a lot of bugs in Lubon villa because it’s located in the mountains.”

“… Come to think of it, yes.”

Seeing me trembling, Lark chattered incessantly in worry. He said that he should send an insect extermination company to Lubon…

Surprised to see such a talkative Lark for the first time, I laughed out loud.

“Don’t laugh. I’m serious.”

“Yes, yes. I laughed because I liked it.”

“You like listening to me nagging?” Lark, who was grumbling, stopped walking for a moment. “Oh, dear.”

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

The reason soon became apparent. The group of bullies, Joe and friends, were walking towards us from a distance of 5m.

‘Ugh. We meet again.’

Lark, who was looking around, grabbed my hand and hurriedly entered the alley between the buildings.

A narrow alley that barely fit one person. Lark pushed me to the end and stood with his back out of the alley.

“They’re too persistent, aren’t they?” Lark took off the mask he was wearing, took off mine, and whispered while holding his breath. “Let’s stay like this for a minute.”

“…”

He pointed at the wall behind me and bowed as if he were about to kiss me.

“Ah…”

The unexpectedly close distance and his revealed handsome face caught my breath.

“Where have these bastards gone?!”

“Oh, Joe! Let’s just give up!”

The commotion outside the alley was getting closer, but it didn’t bother me.

“Shh.”

Perhaps it was because I was paying attention to Lark, who smiled after putting his face close to me, like lovers who secretly hid and kissed…

“What’s this?”

I heard Joe’s voice from the end of the alley. Fortunately, my face was not visible, thanks to Lark covering it.

Ba-thump, ba-thump.

I didn’t know if it was because I was nervous that I’d get caught or for some other reason, but my heart suddenly raced.

Unlike me, who was very nervous, Lark always smiled and was relaxed.

“Ugh! Why is there so much sticky stuff in broad daylight?!”

“W-Whoo! Hey, guys! The inn is over there! No matter how busy you are, you can’t do this here!”

As if they hadn’t recognized us, the signs of sarcastic glances at the alley moved away.

“L-Looks like they’re gone.”

“Yeah. What a bunch of idiots,” Lark muttered and chuckled, still with his face close to me, as if he had no intention of leaving.

“Let’s go, now?”

“Ah, don’t let your guard down. Let’s leave when they’re farther away.”

“H-Hmm…”

We had no choice but to endure a little longer with this strange posture and atmosphere.

And apparently, this mischievous man knew I was embarrassed. I tried to avoid his eyes, but he stared at me tenaciously.

“Thank you for today.”

“… For what?”

“For hanging out with me?”

“N-No need for that. I had fun, too.”

At a distance close enough for noses to touch and mix each other’s breath.

When the conversation stopped, the atmosphere became strange. And Lark’s eyes were still toward me.

As if we were possessed, we didn’t move our eyes off each other like we had made a promise.