She looked back at him in surprise. There was a confident smile on his face, which was attractive enough to bring her closer to him.

“The real beginning of the festival is the nighttime.”

The noise during the day was nothing, compared with the big nighttime fuss.

Bang! Bang!

Firecrackers were shot from place to place, embroidered the dark sky with bright fireworks. Every time the firecrackers were set off, they cheered.

Cheng, cheng.

Kung kung kung.

People beat gongs and drums here and there to heighten excitement, and played flutes. The exciting performance of the vagabond players made them move their shoulders up and down.

“How about it? Isn’t the atmosphere different from the day?” Ruhae asked, in a satisfactory tone.

Carried away with the exciting scenes before her eyes, she nodded and exclaimed,

“Awesome!”

She would have had lots of regrets if she had gone back home after watching the festival during the day only. While the festival was noisy during the day, it was colorful and exciting during the night. While she was watching the scenes, she smiled and laughed and moved her shoulders up and down.

“Look over there!”

Bursting into laughter suddenly, she pointed her finger somewhere, where a circus group with fluffy animal masks were dancing a funny dance. Several people joined their hands, wearing masks, and imitated a giant dragon and giraffe.

Ruhae and Kyosul followed the circus group for a long time. They mingled with strangers and danced together in a large circle. They clinked their glasses together and became drunk.

For the first time since she arrived in the Mok Kingdom, she was having fun during the night festival.

After going to many festival events here and there for some time, they went out to the outside, holding small fireworks. They sat on a secluded outskirts and watched the festival far away.

Although they were right outside the festival area, it was already quite dark and quiet.

They felt as if their great excitement and joy during the night festival were fading away.

They stepped away from the noisy festival area and moved to a dim place. And then they set off small firecrackers there. The firecrackers with gunpowder glued along the long wooden stick sparked along it and glinted like flowers.

Her face was illuminated by the flickering light of the small flame.

She didn’t take her eyes off the stick firecrackers, while he fixed his eyes on her.

“Aren’t you amazed?”

“What were you amazed by this time?”

“I mean gunpowder.”

“Gunpowder?”

Gunpowder was a word that didn’t fit the romantic atmosphere at all.

He felt embarrassed when she mentioned gunpowder, so he asked again.

But she stared at the flame seriously and continued calmly, “Don’t you think the firecrackers that they shot a while ago and this flame are beautiful?”

“Yes, that symbolizes the beauty that wraps up the festival.”

“Then, this beautiful gunpowder becomes a weapon that kills people on the battlefield, doesn’t it?”

“You bet.”

He nodded, paying respect to her amazing power to connect things when she remembered the terrible explosives of the battlefield while watching the beautifully igniting fireworks.

“After all, it’s a human problem. Depending on a person’s intention, gunpowder can be such a beautiful firecracker or a cruel explosive. ”

The flow of their story flowed from gunpowder to humans. It was difficult for him to keep up with the wide range of her topics, but her thinking had some connection and logic. That’s why he was embarrassed but interested at the same time.

She continued to explore other topics this time.

“The milestone that can make the world beautiful or cruel comes from people’s minds, right? So, the heart of the matter seems to focus on the matter of controlling humans. Because it depends on humans whether they can make the world a just and happy place or an evil and scary place.”

“Are you now touching on politics?”

“Politics?”

“Well, if you talk about the matter of governing humans, isn’t it politics?”

“Well… I didn’t think hard about it. ”

While she had been talking about a thought-provoking topic, she suddenly stopped shyly.

He smiled and cheered her up.

“You’re thinking much deeper than that. I am amazed by your insight. You can read people’s minds by looking at a small flame.”

“Oh, no. It’s not my insight. That’s just my funny thinking. Anybody can speak like I do.”

At that moment some old man appeared before them and said suddenly, “When I checked my fortune today, I read two letters , ‘bird’s rain.’ Figuratively speaking, bird’s rain will come down today. I think the rain symbolizes you guys!”

Kyosul flinched at his mention of ‘bird’s rain because ‘bird’ was included in Ruhae’s childhood name Yuuljin, and ‘rain’ included in her childhood name ‘Woorum.’

As if he noticed Kyosul feeling restless, the old man shouted at her quickly.

“The hill was broken because of you!”

“Broken?”

“What I mean is I see blood and regrets flowing from the hill because of you.”

The old fortune teller’s words were not clear.

When taken at its face value, his expression did not fit the logic.

Kyosul could not understand what that old man talked about.

She asked, “What do you mean by the hill and blood and regrets?”

As she was bewildered, she asked that old man in detail, but Ruhae interrupted and blocked her, with his face hardened.

At first he made a serious expression with wariness, and now showed extreme displeasure.

“Ruhae!” she said, turning to him suddenly.

“That’s bullshit we don’t have to listen to,” he said resolutely.

And then he stepped toward the old man.

After lowering his upper body to catch his eyes, Ruhae warned him in a low voice.

“Do you know what you’re talking about? If you dare to make reckless remarks to us…”

“Well, what do I know as a man wandering about in a back alley? I’m just telling you what I see. ”

Cutting off Ruhae’s threat in the middle, that old man stared at him.

While speaking in an innocent and ignorant tone, he glared and leaned forward and

spoke to Ruhae, “You already know something about it, don’t you?”

His glaring eyes and eerie smile were scary.

Ruhae had goosebumps momentarily and stepped back.

The old fortune teller was not interested in him.

Giving Ruhae a piece of his mind, that old man turned his eyes to Kyosul.

Suddenly, the old fortune teller pointed at her, “You’re too young.”

As she was bewildered at his reminder that she was too young, Kyosul just blinked. Ruhae stepped between them, hiding the old fortune teller from her view.

“This old man is trying to deceive you with reckless words.”

Ruhae did not believe in ‘fortune-telling” and hated it.

At first he thought that old man would crack some funny jokes then leave right away. But the current situation created by his mysterious fortune-telling made Ruhae very displeased.

As he felt so bad, Ruhae wanted to turn back immediately.

When he was trying to leave with Kyosul, the old fortune-teller ignored him and said to Kyosul quickly, “As you are trying to do something that didn’t make sense, your life has been entangled like this. If you had waited with patience, you would have achieved your goal, but you ruined it all because you went to the trouble of seeking it by yourself. You had to know how to throw a net and wait, but hastily chased the shadow of a fish, chased the splash of water, upsetting the whole apple cart. Although they say those who seek what they want are blessed, but that does not apply to your situation.”

What the old fortune-teller said was ambiguous. It was a series of unclear vocabulary and ridiculous fables, but it was powerful enough to stop even Ruhae who was about to turn away.

The old man’s voice was so attractive that Ruhae and Kyosul could have listened to him all night.

“Nonetheless, you are still young. You’re going to do things that will make you shed tears of regret later. You’re destined to throw yourself out because you have to pay the price for not enduring the cold. Tut, tut.”

The fortune-teller’s voice became softer until it was just murmuring.

“Tut, tut, tut,”the sound of him clicking his tongue rang long and low like breathing. After speaking, the old man sat on a small chair, crouched, lowered his head and didn’t move as if he fell asleep on the spot.

Kyosul swallowed around the dryness in her throat.

Was it because of that old man’s fortune-telling?

Did he have Ruhae and Kyosul in mind when he made such a difficult-to-understand prediction?

That fortune-teller’s preaching was vague and bordered on reproach. As he didn’t add any subject to his sentences, it was more confusing. He spoke while looking at Kyosul, so he clearly had her in mind. He said something like, “Somebody was young, somebody couldn’t wait, somebody made things messy, somebody got bruised and somebody who reproached.”