TFOA Chapter 39

They began to follow Raul.

The sharp, nose-stinging air characteristic of the city. An atmosphere where busyness and leisure coexisted.

Benjamin and Niksi pursued the bartender. In the lively atmosphere, only they had a disaster-site kind of atmosphere.

"Walk a bit further apart."

Niksi was shuffling along, moving her hands and feet together awkwardly.

The embarrassed painter walked apart from her, pretending they were strangers.

So much for shouting 'Let's tail him!' big and loud - was this her first time tailing someone or what?

Raul turned the corner from the main street. They hurriedly followed.

Worried they might lose him, they rushed forward desperately and swung around the corner.

"5 euros, thank you!"

The bartender came out having bought flowers from a shop right in front of their noses.

Raul turned his head at the mysterious presence.

Niksi and Benjamin, who he thought would go somewhere else, were observing the flowers displayed in front of the flower shop.

"Wow. This. For me. You're giving this to me?"

Niksi picked up a bunch of hydrangeas and said awkwardly.

Benjamin nodded, clutching his head.

'What, so they really are in that kind of relationship after all.'

Raul, despite his merchant instincts, was completely fooled by such terrible acting.

He smiled and continued on his way.

"Did he leave?"

"Yeah."

Hair sticking out from behind the hydrangea bouquet.

The bouquet couldn't possibly cover her entire face, yet she was deliberately hiding her face behind it.

The painter found her both absurd and amusing, so he ended up buying the flowers she was holding.

"...I'll take this."

"Oh? You're buying it for her?"

"You grabbed the flower stems. I have to buy them."

"That'll be 3 euros."

"Thanks, painter!"

Niksi rushed out of the shop to avoid losing track of Raul.

"Oh my."

The flower shop owner stopped wrapping the hydrangeas and let out an exclamation.

The familiar milk tea-colored hair. This was a customer who had visited this flower shop once before.

"You're back again?"

The painter stood still for a moment, seemingly lost in thought.

'Ah. This was the shop where I bought tulips before.'

"You said you were buying flowers for someone precious, didn't you? I wondered who that precious person was, but it was your girlfriend?"

"Painter, hurry up!"

Niksi shouted from outside the shop.

'How does that girl look like...?'

"No, she's not."

First Raul, now this person too. I really don't understand what they see between her and me that makes them think we're lovers. Enemies, maybe.

He pressed his temple and took the wrapped flowers.

Outside the shop. Raul, who had been walking down the main street in the distance, entered some building.

Movie posters were stuck on it. It was a theater.

Raul, who had entered, looked around as if searching for someone.

Eventually, having found whoever he was looking for, he walked toward the inner lobby of the theater.

Niksi hid behind a flowerpot next to Benjamin and poked her head out slightly.

She stroked the wooden pillar and teared up.

"...I think we're screwed, painter. That person Raul is meeting - no matter how you look at it, she's a woman. And a very high-class, elegant urban lady at that."

"What are you muttering to a tree?"

It was a truly desperate situation.

The 'well...' that Raul had met was a very beautiful woman.

An appearance that appropriately mixed elegance and grace. Gentle-looking eyes. Atmosphere, clothing style, blah blah blah that would hurt your mouth to list.

"Our Greta wouldn't lose to anyone in Auvers in terms of looks, but that lady seems like whoever comes couldn't beat her, right?"

You'd need to call some country's queen just to barely have a deathmatch.

In this hopeless game, Niksi wiped her tears on the hydrangea leaves that Benjamin had bought for her.

Then the painter raised his hand.

"Hey. Look at that first before we talk."

"Huh?"

"That woman. She's wearing a ring on her ring finger."

As the painter said, the softly laughing woman had a ring on her ring finger.

Anyone could see it was a wedding ring.

'Already married?'

"Huh? Then what was Raul holding?"

"That's..."

Raul and the unknown woman began walking toward where they were.

Niksi pressed herself against the wall, pretending to be a poster, while Benjamin just stood next to the flowerpot, pretending to be Benjamin.

"Shall we decide on this one then?"

"Yes, sounds good."

Anyone could see it was an ordinary couple on a date.

"How is your son doing?"

"Fine. How about you, Raul?"

"So-so."

Son? Niksi blinked. Then she immediately turned around solemnly.

"Painter. I'm certain now."

For someone saying such things, there had never been anything nutritious about it.

The painter reluctantly asked back.

"What now?"

"It's an affair."

'As expected.'

The painter momentarily began contemplating what in the world had made her thought circuits so bizarre and grotesque.

Niksi, not noticing the painter's meditation time, laid out her opinion.

"Raul is enjoying dangerous fire play right now. That ring case-looking thing is a bomb. If someone catches them in the act, he'll throw the bomb to protect their love."

'Is she insane?'

The painter looked at her with the expression of someone looking at a stink bug.

"No matter what, that guy isn't the type to cross such lines."

"No smoke without fire!"

Shh. The painter covered her mouth.

Raul and the mysterious woman were just entering the theater.

The movie that these two, who were enjoying dangerous fire play, went in to watch was Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast.

It was truly a movie that only lovers would watch.

The painter and the farmer's eyes met.

'Do we really have to go?' versus 'Wow! This looks fun, we absolutely have to go!' - a tense standoff of gazes.

Benjamin let out a small sigh seeing Niksi who had suddenly popped off and was buying popcorn with a big grin.

Originally, their purpose was to find out what kind of relationship the village bartender and the queen-like woman had.

However, 10 minutes after the movie started.

They had completely forgotten their purpose and were absorbed in the movie, spellbound.

"The exit is this way!"

They came to their senses when they emerged from the theater exit, holding empty popcorn containers they had thoroughly consumed.

Niksi, who couldn't find a trace of romanticism even if you washed your eyes clean and looked, watched with sparkling eyes during the parts where the Beast appeared, but wailed when the Beast became human.

"He was much cooler when he was a beast!"

Conversely, the poor artist painter was absorbed in Belle, who went to the Beast's castle like a female breadwinner for her father who was indebted to the Beast.

"Of course it was Belle's fault! If she had returned in a week, the Beast wouldn't have been on the verge of death!"

"The Beast was rotten from the start for threatening to take the daughter hostage using the father."

"She shouldn't have picked the rose in the first place. Are you a contrarian? Always doing exactly what you're told not to do."

"If a family member is sick, and you don't know what might happen to that family member, you should release them so they can stay by their side until the end."

The two bickered as they came out of the theater.

But there was one thing they agreed on.

In conclusion, their love was damn pretentious. Only they were making such a fuss.

While the painter and farmer were having a blood-spattering debate of infinite length, the unmarried bartender and married modern girl woman walked toward them from across the way.

"Painter! There's the bartender!"

At this rate, they would be discovered by them.

Thud!

Niksi immediately pushed Benjamin against the wall and smack, slapped her hand on the wall.

Like a scene from a romance movie, it was a powerful pose.

"...What are you doing...!"

The painter whispered in bewilderment, looking at her hand placed right next to his head.

"I didn't want to do this either, you know?"

Before getting caught by Raul and getting hit by a ring bomb, they had to look like a couple doing romantic antics in a public place.

Such couples make you furrow your brows, so your vision becomes about 78% blurrier than usual.

Niksi blocked the view with her wide-brimmed hat.

The painter turned his head, trying to avoid her face that had suddenly come close.

A struggling man and a woman pressing in. From a distance, it looked quite intense.

"Belle's devoted love must have moved the fairy too."

"Hehe. Yes, Raul. It was an interesting movie."

Raul and the mysterious woman passed by them.

"It would be fun to watch it with your son later too. Goodbye, Benjamin, Miss Niksi."

"Oh? Oh! Goodbye."

"Ah, shall we slowly head to that place now? You said the child needed to get school uniforms fitted?"

In the place they had passed, his and her, a chilly silence lingered.

"......"

"......"

"......Should we separate?"

"......Let's separate."

The remaining Niksi and Benjamin looked at each other awkwardly, then separated in embarrassment.

The next place the bartender with hidden dangerous intentions and the woman of unknown identity went was a tailor shop.

From their earlier conversation, it seemed they were going to get uniforms fitted for a friend, presumably the woman's child.

While Raul and the woman were choosing black patterns with pretty yellow checkered lining, Niksi and Benjamin were watching them from behind a mannequin in the shop across the street.

"Isn't it just Romeo who sells cocktails and Juliet who has a child? Their families opposed their love, so they secretly meet like this."

The cheerfully laughing tailor held up a purple dress to Niksi.

Niksi instinctively struck a pose.

"Why do you insist on thinking they're lovers? Couldn't they be cousins?"

Benjamin looked at the suit pants that had been handed to him.

'So even the shop owner thought my pants looked strange,' the painter mused.

"Wow, painter, don't go around giving relationship coaching to people. How do those look like cousins' eyes? Look, look at those eyes!"

'How am I supposed to see eyes from this distance? People look like matchsticks from here.'

Benjamin squinted like someone dazzled by bright light.

"If that's not love, you can take my life!"

"I refuse."

"Why!"

"Because I don't need it."

Their meaningless bickering continued, and Niksi and Benjamin's hands became piled high with clothes chosen by the shop owner.

It was when Raul and the beautiful woman across the street had finished choosing all the fabric for the uniforms.

Swoosh!

Niksi and Benjamin emerged majestically, pulling back the fitting room curtains.

"It's love!"

"No."

Benjamin said, loosening his cufflinks.

"If it were love, it would be even stranger. Anyone can see the other party is married. Raul may charge quite a bit of interest on credit, but he's not rotten enough to like someone else's wife."

A charcoal-colored jacket that would match his bright milk tea hair color.

Perfect-length pants that fit his leg length exactly. The waist area was slightly fitted, creating gracefully falling pants, and the upper part was a stylishly simple shirt.

It was a sophisticated look, almost like perfect Parisian modern fashion.

Niksi swept her half-tied hair back and retorted.

"Hey, is love a right that only unmarried women and unmarried men can enjoy? If you make such old-fashioned remarks you'll be unpopular, painter. Love is an emotional state that humans can basically enjoy. A legally permitted state of mental illness, you know?"

A purple silk dress that slightly revealed her shoulders.

The front had white lace that seemed woven with silver thread and an elegant purple ribbon, and the flowing skirt that came below the waist had intricate embroidery.

She looked outstanding, like a gorgeous butterfly from the Renaissance era.

"It's love!"

"No."

"Love!"

"Oh my, you two look so good together!"

"Thank you!"

Still between opinions that wouldn't narrow. The two growled at each other.

Just then, Raul and the pretty woman, having finished choosing all the fabric, left the shop. Niksi and Benjamin hurriedly grabbed the clothes they had stripped off to follow them.

"Sigh... So, do you even know what love is when you're making such claims?"

"I don't know! But do you have to know to make claims? Australopithecus reproduced just fine without knowing such things."

"...That's why they went extinct."

"All together, that's 300 euros!"

"Yes! Here!"

They clutched their heads at each other's stubbornness, while the shop owner smiled brightly, not caring about any of that.

"Thank you! Please come again!"

Ding-a-ling. The shop bell rang with the cheerful clerk's farewell.

They were holding shopping bags in both hands.

'We got played.'

'We got played indeed.'

They belatedly realized they had been completely taken for a ride.

The next place Raul's party headed was a high-end restaurant that obviously only bourgeoisie could afford.

"...It's a restaurant."

"...It's a restaurant indeed."

Though they were country farmer and painter dressed like Parisians after falling for the boutique clerk's recruitment, that was the kind of place where they were afraid to cross the threshold.

The pasta prices written on the gold-framed menu board were equivalent to the cost of treating a broken back.

"This won't work. Let's go there."

Benjamin pointed with his thumb to the sandwich shop across from the restaurant.

But Niksi stood silently in front of the shop.

"Hey?"

He asked in confusion.

Niksi took a deep breath and then suddenly held up a piece of paper in front of the painter.

"Let's use this."

It was a check with Gilbert Grace's name on it.

The painter narrowed his eyebrows looking at the name written on the check.

"Did you... steal it?"

It was the expression of someone looking at a thief who had crossed a river of no return.

Niksi, feeling wronged, waved her hands frantically.

"No! He gave it to me! Gil told me to buy something delicious with you!"

But he still had the expression of someone who had seen a criminal.

Exasperated, Niksi grabbed his hand and marched right into the restaurant.

A chandelier where one crystal would probably cost as much as a box of well-raised potatoes.

The scent of basil and rich wine wafting through the air.

When bold Niksi said they hadn't made a reservation, the waiter mistook her for a spoiled young lady from some prestigious family.

But thanks to that, they were guided to the best window seat.

A spacious hall with a piano in the center.

Luckily, it was behind Raul's table.

When they ordered what seemed like reasonably decent items from the menu, an aperitif was served.

The painter tasted it quite skillfully and then chose a wine.

Despite drinking only absinthe every day, he had quite sophisticated taste. Niksi whistled at this unexpected side of him.

"Oh, do you come here often?"

"It's my first time."

"Then why are you so skilled?"

"If you act nonchalant, you look the part."

In other words, being shameless was the key.

When warm, freshly baked pre-dinner bread and balsamic sauce were served, a warm conversation continued at Raul's table.

So is it an affair or not!

Niksi's upper body naturally leaned toward that direction.

"I remember when you cried when I said I was getting married, Raul. You were so cute."

"Why do you still remember that... But I'm glad if you thought I was cute."

'See, I was right? It's forbidden love.'

Niksi gave the painter a victorious smile.

But that was only for a moment.

"I was happy that you found a good person."

"Hehe. I was so grateful that you were so happy for me too. You're my best student."

An unexpected relationship. Unforeseen teacher's grace.

Benjamin smiled slightly, putting bread in his mouth at the suddenly heartwarming atmosphere.

Niksi held her fork with her fist and turned cold.

"Teacher? Student?"

"Well, now I know what kind of relationship they have."

"Really? Not a steamy relationship?"

"You need to fix that extreme thinking of yours."

Niksi sat there with her mouth agape.

Benjamin, unable to bear her dejection, pushed a huge piece of meat into her mouth.

They seemed to have taken some roundabout way, but somehow their goal was accomplished.

The mysterious woman Raul came to meet was his longtime teacher. Raul was a devoted student.

Finally, they could tell Greta this good news.

Though they had actually forgotten about it completely.

"I naturally thought it would be love. If it weren't that, who would pour so much time and attention into someone like that?"

Niksi said after barely chewing and swallowing the meat.

It was truly an unknowable emotion. Love.

Especially the irrational behavioral patterns of those who fall in love were even more incomprehensible.

Well, they say you understand naturally when you fall in love, but how can you understand when you've never fallen?

'Geez, it's really hard to guess love correctly. Wait, come to think of it...'

Niksi recalled when she had been ranting about love to the villagers.

She had asked the painter a similar question back then.

What did the painter answer?

'It's about making choices you'll regret.'

"Painter. Have you ever been in love?"

That comment that had passed by fleetingly back then, so she wasn't sure if the answer was right.

Something with regret dripping off it - not the kind of thing someone who knows nothing about love would say after picking up some random phrase to create atmosphere.

At Niksi's sudden question, Benjamin furrowed his brow.

"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"

"Huh? I asked if you've ever been in love. You told me first. You said love is about making choices you'll regret."

Niksi stared at him intently. When this neighbor opened her eyes like that, it was usually difficult to slip out of her questioning.

The painter gathered his expression and put a piece of meat in his mouth before responding.

"I have."

A past tense answer.

As she had expected, it was the kind of love that would leave regrets.

The painter's love.

Maybe because the man in front of her was such an embodiment of dark and gloomy energy, she had a feeling it wouldn't have been anything like normal love.

The painter, noticing her thoughts, added:

"It wasn't ordinary romantic love between a man and woman, so don't have strange imaginations."

"Huh? Then what?"

That was even more suspicious and strange.

Whether Niksi was thinking such thoughts or not, he recalled his younger brother who was four years younger than him.

His brother who was physically weak but always acted tough.

His kind brother who always said he was sorry for not being able to help his older brother.

Whenever he said such things, he would scold him not to get sick and prepare dinner with only things his brother liked.

The reason he could grit his teeth and decide he had to survive somehow, even in the pitiful street life abandoned by parents with not even an umbrella to block the rain.

"There was something like that."

He put broccoli in his mouth.

'Looking at him being taciturn again, he must be thinking about the past.'

Niksi decided not to ask.

"So you've never had a romantic partner?"

"I didn't have time for that."

"Wow. You've lived your life in vain."

"Then what about you?"

"I had some. But they all ran away."

Whether voluntary single or involuntary single, it was the same thing. In conclusion, both had lived their lives in vain.

Niksi put a nicely cut piece of meat in her mouth and chewed.

A rich sensation that stimulated the salivary glands tickled her tongue tip.

Like that subtle sensation that had mixed in the cave that one time.

"...But why were you so skilled at kissing? Was that also because you're good at pretending to be skilled?"

Cough. Benjamin, who rarely got flustered about anything, started coughing.

"What? What do you mean...?"

"You kissed me. In the cave."

"Were you conscious?"

"Half-conscious."

She shrugged her shoulders.

Because of the fever, she wasn't quite in her right mind, so her memory had gaps here and there, but she remembered him kissing her.

The medicine that came through her mouth was so terribly bitter that she momentarily came to her senses.

With such a bitter thing being poured into her mouth so crudely, naturally she had to remember it even in her unconscious state.

Moreover, the slow movement of another person's flesh wrapping around her was something that made her, who hadn't been without lovers, think 'Oh, he's good at this,' so she remembered it clearly.

Damn. Benjamin, who muttered a curse under his breath, ruffled his hair wildly and opened his mouth.

"You kissed me first from the beginning. You said you had fed me medicine like this before too, last time."

"Me?"

Niksi made an irresponsibly blank sound.

If "last time" meant when the painter was sick from the medicine's side effects.

"Damn... Why do you remember that...?"

Benjamin did a dry face wash with his reddened face.

It could have been from choking, but his ears had turned red like unripe strawberries, which was quite cute.

Niksi suddenly remembered the painter's face looking at her in the cave that day.

'Are you trying to say you're about to die?'

It seemed similar to now.

Not that his expression was similar, but the way he looked at her persistently with just his eyes despite being pitiful from getting rained on.

'What kind of ridiculous nonsense...'

The way he looked at her so desperately when she joked about dying, yet skillfully pretended it was nothing when he gently stroked her head.

"That was just a medical procedure, so forget it."

"Oh. I was going to do that anyway!"

His pretending to be nonchalant was quite cute. Like now.

'Cute?'

She felt some discomfort as she thought that.

A sharp foreign sensation like a thorn in her palm, stuck somewhere unknown but asserting its presence.

'What is this?'

Did she drink too much?

She downed the bitter wine and smacked her lips.

The next time they encountered Raul was in front of the restaurant.

In front of Niksi, who was pretending like she had urgently borrowed the restaurant's bathroom, Raul once again believed her lie.

'What restaurant would lend their bathroom to a customer who didn't even eat?'

Benjamin thought as he watched the backs of his cheerfully laughing blonde neighbor and the bartender.

"You changed into pretty clothes?"

"Yes! I needed to get some new clothes."

Niksi spun around holding her dress hem like an excited young lady.

"It suits you well."

Raul smiled.

'See, that's a soulless business smile for me. Different from earlier. But how are they just teacher and student?'

Niksi, who still hadn't given up her claim that "It's love!" grumbled.

On the way back by train.

She was fiddling with the hydrangeas she had received from him.

Watching her fidgeting, Raul opened his mouth.

"Did Benjamin give that to you?"

"Yes."

It was closer to extortion, actually.

The painter's gaze flew and stuck in the back of her head. She ignored it.

"I'm envious."

"Of what?"

"That you can give and receive such things so casually."

Raul fingered the square case in his pocket.

Niksi, who had lived most of her life reading others' moods, couldn't miss that brief moment of hesitation.

"Who was that woman earlier?"

She blurted it out immediately.

The painter couldn't hide his surprise at her brave back of the head.

If she was going to ask so shamelessly, why did we go through all this hardship, he thought in shock.

Raul seemed surprised by her question and widened his eyes for a moment.

"...You saw my teacher."

Niksi and Benjamin nodded.

Raul took a ring out of his pocket.

"She's the teacher who taught me Latin when I was young."

"You're a good student."

Benjamin, sensing Niksi's lingering attachment, drew the line early. It was to protect his friend, who was rare in the village.

"I was originally planning to confess today."

This bastard? The painter looked at the bartender who was wearing a wistful face as he looked at the ring case.

"I was waiting for this moment when her husband wasn't around..."

"Oh, yes?"

She had hoped it would be love, but not to that extent.

Niksi scratched her head at his shocking statement.

"So... Mr. Raul liked a married woman? Um... are you two having forbidden love by any chance?"

"It was... I should say. The teacher's husband passed away long ago."

"Ah, ah! I see. Well, that's possible then. If the legal opponent is dead and gone, you won't go to court."

"I tried to confess my feelings even when he was alive, but..."

'Hey painter. Your friend is screwed. He's trash.' Niksi whispered secretly. '...I know.' The painter replied quietly, feeling like he had lost a friend overnight.

"But I should give up. I'm not what the teacher needs."

No matter how trashy the behavior, if it only stays in thoughts, it can't be called a crime.

"That's a good thought."

"That's a good thought indeed."

In their hearts, Raul's position was restored to bartender and friend.

Anyway, Raul's love ended in failure and Greta's love remained as a possibility.

It was the most optimal ending.

On the train back to the village.

Niksi, who had been busy running around all day, immediately fell asleep.

It was amazing that she didn't wake up even though she kept banging her head against the window like a woodpecker.

At this rate, either the window or her head would be shattered. Concerned, Benjamin moved to sit next to her.

For him to put her head on his shoulder, he had to uncomfortably tilt his posture.

But he had to earn his keep for the meal.

Thinking so, Benjamin deliberately adjusted his posture to place her head on his shoulder.

Raul, watching this from across, smiled.

"When did it become like that, Benjamin? I never noticed at all."

"It's not like that."

"Then what kind of relationship is it?"

If he had to define it, employer and employee?

She had commissioned a painting from him and he drew.

Today too, she had proposed a Raul tailing commission to him and he had accepted it.

She proposed, he accepted. Dragging around, being dragged around. Leading, being led.

'This makes us like a farmer and an ox plowing the field.'

Benjamin realized his position was similar to livestock and tasted bitterness.

"See, you can't say anything, so there must be something there."

Raul joked. He was wrongly accused for not answering because he was thinking.

"I'm just in that kind of relationship with this girl."

"What's 'just that kind' supposed to mean?"

"Just..."

Dragging around, being dragged around. Leading, being led.

But then again, like an annoying fly that always follows but never leaves, although she was always bothersome when around, he had never been bored when he was actually dragged along by that pull.

So what kind of relationship would that be? Insufferably annoying when present, but when absent, that's also...

Watching his expression lost in thought, Raul asked:

"Do you like Niksi?"

Leading, being led.

At Raul's question, Benjamin froze for a moment.

But that was only briefly.

"No."

He answered with a disgusted expression. A firm denial like a cleanly cut radish cross-section, without a trace of hesitation.

"For someone who says that, you accommodate her pretty well. Normally you would have ignored her."

He always ignored it. She was the strange one for somehow breaking through.

She and he had a relationship that was difficult to explain in words.

So he just scratched his cheek and left it at that.

"Anyway, no."

"Hmm... if you say so."

The conversation ended. Benjamin sank deep into the backrest. Outside the window, a dark forest path was rapidly passing by.

'Do I like her?'

He glanced at Niksi.

She must have been quite tired, as she was even snoring softly in her sleep.

Once he became conscious of something he hadn't recognized, every little thing became noticeable.

For example, her golden hair kept brushing against his nape. When her head swayed, her slightly parted lips moved small.

Such sensations that subtly tickled inside.

Benjamin quietly pulled his sleeve and roughly wiped around Niksi's mouth.

It was to prevent his shoulder from getting damp.

"Mm, mmh..."

'Me, with this girl?'

Even after doing all that, she didn't easily wake up from sleep. It was surprising.

'That's impossible.'

The train headed toward Auvers like that.

▶ Today's Harvest

A bunch of hydrangeas, movie tickets, a butter knife, the painter's handkerchief.

▶ Overall Review

While I briefly fell asleep, the painter was using my head as a pillow and dozing. Since he looked uncomfortable, I moved him to Raul's lap! This is consideration! Human virtue! But why did he stuff a handkerchief in my mouth?