Flower of Steel

There we go. It’s starting again. Changing his mind on everything made me annoyed. Ugh, I suppose that day was one of his ever-changing minds. There’s no way he was on my side.

“Make sure you do it right. Anyway, when will that be done?”

By “that,” he must mean “that.”

“I’m working on it, Your Highness.” Actually, I didn’t even make a sketch of it. Oh my god, what should I do!

“Is that so? I’m looking forward to it. You are dismissed.”

I took the documents and sighed. He might kill me if I haven’t even started it yet. Oh well.

On my way back to the office, I saw a familiar place and stopped. It was the place where I met that boy for the first time. The first love that I miss so dearly. I thought about him for a while, then turned.

‘It’s not time to daydream,’ I thought, as I returned to reality and took this annoying problem back to the Operations Department.

***

I was brainstorming about the doll and fell asleep. Then, I opened my eyes to a familiar place. Where is this place? The Royal Palace. Yes, this is the Royal Palace. Huh? But it looks much bigger than usual. Usual? What am I talking about? It’s my first time here.

“Rina.”

I turned to the voice calling me. My father, who was handsome as always, was looking at me. My father is an advisor to the Emperor.

“Father!” I’m proud of my father. Hehehe. It’s a historical day where I followed my father to the Royal Palace.

“Can you wait here for a while? His Majesty has called me with an urgent matter,” asked Father.

“Of course! I will wait here.”

He left me at an empty gazebo and hurried off. There were no knights around, as it seemed to be a remote area.

“What should I do now?”

Father left a chessboard, so I don’t get bored. I should just do that since I’m bored. ‘Huh? There’s someone there.’

I looked close by and saw a boy crouched on a flowerbed near the gazebo. Curious, I walked up to him. The boy looked around at the sound of someone approaching. His pretty eyes were teary.

“Who are you?”

I saw the boy, but he had no color. Everything around me was full of colors, but this boy alone had none. But even without color, he had such beautiful eyes.

“I’m Rina!” I said to him.

“Rina?” he asked back.

“Yeah,” I replied.

Rina was the name my father calls me. My actual name is Marina, but I said my name was Rina because it was more familiar. Then he became dumbfounded by my words and continued, “I didn’t ask for your name. How did you get in here?”

“Huh? My father wanted me to wait here.”

“Wait…?”

“Yeah. He’ll come back for me when he’s done with work.”

His expression became dark at once. Then he bit his lip, and tears began to fall from his eyes. I was shocked and asked him, “What’s wrong? Don’t cry.”

“I’m not crying!” retorted the boy.

But you are crying. The boy seemed angry at the fact that he was sobbing. “No one comes for me… even if I wait.”

Who is he talking about? He seemed to be trying hard not to cry, but tears kept falling. I felt saddened by that. I felt like I wanted to cry along with him. Then he grabbed his chest with his small hands.

“It hurts here,” said the boy.

I bit my lip as I felt like crying too. It was all because of him. He was trying hard to push those difficult feelings back, which made me sad. I thought about how to make his heart not hurt.