Chapter 28 –– Snow Festival

Yumi, Meixia, and Haru finally met again after such a long time. It’d been years since the three of them hung out together. Back in the academy, they used to hang out all the time, along with one more member from their friend group.

After the graduation, all of them chose a different career path. Haru became a Sacred Guard, Yumi became an Exorcist, and Meixia became an Intelligence Agent–– unbeknownst to Yumi and Haru. It was a rare occurrence that they met each other in a time like this.

The three of them walked towards the Snow Festival. Upon arrival, people stared at them, particularly at Yumi. Her appearance took everyone’s breath away. Her long, shiny golden hair was so distracting as it resembled the King’s and the Crown Prince’s. Along with slender figure and fair skin, she definitely gave off some royal vibes. People at the festival could recognise the Princess right away, even from a far distance.

Meixia and Haru noticed that people were looking. They then said something to her.

“Well, as expected from the Princess,” Meixia said.

“Everyone is looking at you, Yumi,” Haru added.

Yumi didn’t pay them any heed and kept walking. She told Meixia and Haru not to pay attention to the crowd either, letting them look however they wanted.

After a while, they finally arrived at the square. The floor was covered with snow and creations made out of snow could be seen all over the square. The people around wore sweaters, scarves, and some nevea clothes to keep them warm. There were also multiple snow statues at the square, being constructed by the contestants.

The three of them took a look around, looking at the contestants building their statues. There was still time for them to perfect their creation before the time was up and the voting session started, so they were hurrying to finish their creation.

“Did you know? I heard that in another nation, they use ningua* sorcery for the Snow Contest, instead of making them by hand,” Meixia said, telling them a trivia.

“Well, that sounds convenient,” Yumi replied.

After walking around for a while, they decided to take a seat at the square, watching the contestants finish their statues.

“So, how have you been, Yumi?”

Haru asked her how she’d been. Even though they met at the cemetery during the Day in Memoriam, they didn’t have time to catch up because Yumi had to exorcise ghouls that appeared that time.

“W–well.....”

Yumi’s face suddenly got red. She blushed, didn’t expect Haru’s sudden question.

Meixia was observing her. She sensed something about them two.

“I heard you had a date recently,” Meixia said, trying to get the conversation flowing.

Yumi was surprised that Meixia knew that. Yumi immediately glared at her, signaling her not to bring up that topic in front of him. Meixia was still oblivious of what was going on.

“It wasn’t exactly a date. We just had a talk, that’s all. Hehe,” Yumi said, nervously.

Meixia noticed that Yumi was hiding something from them, but she didn’t know why.

“Really? On the day of the first––”

Yumi suddenly stepped on Meixia’s foot to stop her from talking. Meixia almost screamed, but held her voice.

After the date, Dasom told Meixia all about it, including her coincidentally meeting the Princess at Sannam Tower. That was how she found out about Yumi going on a date with the Premier.

“Meixia, can you come here for a second?”

Yumi excused herself to Haru and pulled Meixia with her. The two then had a private a talk.

“Are you being serious right now?” Yumi said, being annoyed.

“What? It’s not like you like Haru anywa––”

Suddenly, Yumi’s face got all red again. She was stumped and couldn’t deny what Meixia assumed about her.

“Seriously?” Meixia was surprised.

All this time all of them were friends, Meixia never noticed that Yumi had feelings for Haru. Yumi was really good at hiding it from everyone.

“Does he know?” Meixia asked.

“Of course not. He’s a Sacred Guard, he can’t be dating,” Yumi said.

Meixia just understood what was going on. However, she didn’t think Haru saw her the same way.

“Then, what about the date with the Premier?” Meixia asked, getting the facts straight.

“Well, he asked me if I wanted to come hang out with him, and since I was free I thought why not. I didn’t expect that there were only the two of us, though. But, it wasn’t bad,” Yumi explained.

“Do you like him?” Meixia asked.

“Well.....he’s my brother’s childhood friend, so I’ve only thought of him as a brother.....” Yumi said, denying Meixia’s assumption about that.

The two of them had a moment of silence. They were processing the situation.

“By the way, after the Premier and I spent a day together that day, I can’t help but notice some similarities between him and Haru. He reminds me of Haru,” Yumi added.

“Like what?” Meixia asked, curious.

“Their long eyelashes, the shape of their lips, also they way that they both have a sweet tooth.....” Yumi mentioned some few things she noticed from the both of them.

“Now that you said that.....”

Meixia didn’t think of it at first, but after recalling her encounter with the Premier at the bar, Meixia did notice some similarities between the two. She acknowledged the things Yumi mentioned, but besides that, she also noticed some kind of similar “energy” both of them were giving.

Suddenly, the chimes were heard and the clock stroke at noon. The time was up for the contestants and it was time for the voting session. Yumi and Meixia returned to their seat, to reunite with Haru.

The voting process was simple. Every visitor was given a sticker. All they had to do was to stick it to the creation they liked the most. They could only choose one creation, so it would be better if they chose wisely.

The three of them decided to take a look at the creations made by the contestants together. They walked together around the square, looking around to see if there was a snow statue that they liked.

“Brother?” Yumi exclaimed, with a confused tone.

Suddenly, they came across upon a familiar face. It was Yujin. He was participating in the Snow Contest.

“What are you doing here?” Yumi asked. She was very confused to see her brother participating in the contest.

“Oh! Yumi!”

Yujin immediately hugged her, welcoming her to his creation.

“Well, they said that the winner of this contest will get two tickets for UI’s concert at the end of the year. I heard they’re sold out everywhere, so this is my last chance to get it.”

Yumi sighed, not surprised by her brother’s actions. Yujin had always been such a thrill seeker.

“You can just ask our guards to get them....” Yumi said, suggesting that the Royal Guards could easily get the tickets for him if he wanted to.

“Well, where’s the fun in that?” Yujin said, wanting some challenge in getting it.

Yujin then saw the two people who came with his sister. He saw the girl that he met at the bar the other day.

“Oh, you’re the Sacred Guard that I met that night! Welcome!”

Yujin shook Meixia’s hands, even though he forgot her name.

“And this is....?” Yujin asked about the guy, since he never saw him before.

“This is Meixia, and this is Haru. They are Sacred Guards from Garuda Squad,” Yumi introduced them to her brother.

“Oh, you’re in the same squad? That’s cool. Wait, how do you know them, then, Yumi?”

“They’re my friends from the academy.”

“Ah! You’re having a reunion, huh.”

Meixia and Haru were watching the interaction between the two siblings. This was one of Yumi’s sides that they’d never seen before.

Yumi then took a look at her brother’s creation. It was a statue of an evil harpy, a type of humanoid fiend with a bird’s beak replacing its mouth, bird’s wings replacing its arms, and bird’s feet.

“Why a fiend?” Yumi asked, confused with her brother’s choice for his statue.

As an Exorcist, Yumi was very familiar with monsters and ghouls. She defeated countless of them, so she was sick of seeing another one in the form of a snow statue.

“Well, since you’re an Exorcist, I thought this reminds me of you, so....”

Yujin teased his sister, saying that she looked like a harpy.

Yumi got irritated by him, so she pushed him and walked away, sulking.

“Hey! Come on! Vote for me before you go!” Yujin shouted at her, walking away.

Meixia immediately followed her steps and left Yujin. Meanwhile, Haru stayed a bit longer to take a serious look at Yujin's creation.