Chapter 403.
<strong>Chapter 403. A Heart-Pounding Day Together with My Girlfriend: Eating Marshmallows while Telling a Campfire Story. (4/4)</strong>
<span style="font-weight:400">Truly… getting deported when she did was the worst-case scenario. Having me with that timing too. Looking at it, everything was working against her. It was as if she was cursed. gued by misfortune after misfortune, a never-ending sequence of cmities and hardship. The world rejected her. She was one of the unlucky ones.
<span style="font-weight:400">Nothing could be done about it.
<span style="font-weight:400">That was life.
<span style="font-weight:400">Nature’s natural course.
<span style="font-weight:400">Her life was filled with ups and downs.
<span style="font-weight:400">Untold hardships and pain.
<span style="font-weight:400">From it, I understood working your ass off didn’t guarantee you anything in life.
<span style="font-weight:400">There were countless hard workers just like my mother chasing after a pipe dream who met a simr end.
<span style="font-weight:400">When I saw reality for what it was after I graduated from university and understood everything, I gave up on chasing the dream we were fed as children of those fancy unobtainable high-paying jobs.
<span style="font-weight:400">One day, I eventually took things into my own hands. What started out as a little hobby while I was working several shitty jobs at once turned into a means to earn some money on the side. I worked at it for years on end until I was able to cut down on the number of jobs I had to work at once.
<span style="font-weight:400">I wrote like a madman. As if my life was on the line while doing something I discovered I enjoyed the most.
<span style="font-weight:400">I limited my life to forty years.
<span style="font-weight:400">I wouldn’t ve away forever the way my mother did.
<span style="font-weight:400">I took things calmly as they came and went at life with a level head. I never panicked or freaked out over everything the way she did. If something awful fell upon me, I took it on with an ‘Oh well, so what’s new?’ attitude.
<span style="font-weight:400">Living that way, I was content at the end of my forty years. I didn’t believe there was anything wrong with me even if I was a defective, failure of a human from society’s point of view.
<span style="font-weight:400">Others would have thought I was pitiful, but I enjoyed life my own way. I couldn’t care less whether people thought I was sessful or not.
<span style="font-weight:400">Sess meant nothing to me, it was somethingpletely worthless.
<span style="font-weight:400">I was more than content being a failure so long as I enjoyed it.
<span style="font-weight:400">In my eyes, failure was something far more interesting than sess.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ran, what are you thinking about right now?” Rosa suddenly spoke up and broke my chain of thought.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’m not thinking about anything.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Liar, you’ve obviously been thinking about something depressing.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What makes you say that?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well aside from the listless spaced-out look in your eyes, there’s also the neutral expression on your face.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why would that convince you I’m thinking about something depressing? Isn’t that how I normally look?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sure, that may be how you normally look, but I can still tell. We’ve been together for long enough and I’ve always been watching you since the first time we met. Assassins are acute at picking up on subtle changes in the air.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“That’s way too vague.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well I can just somehow tell, that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What do you think I was thinking about in specific?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Obviously your mother, right?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well… you’re not wrong.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I see. Sorry…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“For what?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Making you talk about it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You don’t need to apologize for that. I’m not particrly sad or anything. I’ve long be numb to all of it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Rosa hopped off the rock she was seated on, plucked off the single marshmallow on the stick she’d been feeding me with, and bent her body forward in front of me until she was at eye level.
<span style="font-weight:400">“What?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thanks for telling me. As a reward, you get thest marshmallow I’ve roasted for the night.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh wow, what an amazing reward.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, it is. You should be proud of winning the prestigious marshmallow reward from me. Now open up to receive your reward.” She raised her hand with the roasted marshmallow up between us.
<span style="font-weight:400">When I opened my mouth, she stuck the marshmallow between her lips. Before I couldin about my reward being stolen, she leaned forward further until I felt the marshmallow enter halfway into my mouth. Our lips touched and I not only felt the warmth of skin, but also the heat of the mellow gooey substance between us.
<span style="font-weight:400">I bit down into it and the marshmallow squished down at the center. Rosa’s tongue slipped in, disguised with the marshmallow, and that gooey substance transferred back and forth between our mouths.
<span style="font-weight:400">I suppose this was what they called a French marshmallow kiss. I’d heard of it before, but I definitely never thought I’d ever experience it myself.
<span style="font-weight:400">Somehow, a kiss from Rosa made me feel as if I was constantly winning the lottery.
<span style="font-weight:400">When the marshmallow was soaked in our saliva, Rosa pulled her head back. There was a long thin white gooey string connected between our lips. It eventually snapped and the two of us swallowed that oh-so-sweet marshmallow.
<span style="font-weight:400">“How was that onepared to the previous marshmallows you had before it?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“1/10, would not rmend.”
<span style="font-weight:400">She frowned and shot me a re.
<span style="font-weight:400">I held my hands up in defeat and told the truth, “I’m kidding, it tasted the best of them all.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Good.” When her smile returned, I suddenly felt like I was floating and on cloud nine. I really can’t beat her. She’s too strong. I guess this was just what it was like when you fell in love with someone.
<span style="font-weight:400">A simple smile from them was all it took for you to feel over the moon. I naturally wouldn’t ever admit to that out loud though. I’d definitely keep that a closely guarded secret to my grave.
<span style="font-weight:400">“So, shall we head to bed now?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. Let’s call it a night.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I dumped an eight-inch-long piece of log that was harder to burn which would keep the fire going overnight in the firece. We’d prepared it in advance earlier in the day when setting up camp. It wasn’t close enough to anything that would catch on fire, plus, with the three rocks and our tent around it blocking out the majority of the wind, we didn’t need to worry about it spreading. It was well contained.
<span style="font-weight:400">The two of us entered the tent together.
<span style="font-weight:400">Inside we only had a single sleeping bagid out on the ground. We decided to just share it as we were traveling light. I got into the sleeping bag first at Rosa’s behest.
<span style="font-weight:400">Before she entered the sleeping bag Rosa suddenly pulled her arms inside the shirt she had on.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Are you cold?” I couldn’t help but ask when she did that.
<span style="font-weight:400">“It’s a little chilly.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It’s not that bad, is it?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You’ve lived in a cold city a lot longer than I have. My cold resistance just isn’t as high as yours.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hmm, I suppose you’re right.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Therefore, it’s your job to keep me warm.” She slipped inside the sleeping bag as she said that. My vision went dark and I felt something pull over my head.
<span style="font-weight:400">I felt the warmth of her bare skin directly. It took me a second to realize what happened. She’d pulled my head under the shirt she had on. My face slid along her belly up and over her soft breasts until my head popped through the cor. My chin ended up in a position over her right shoulder. Our bodies were stuck closely together with the sticity of the shirt squeezing down on our bodies.
<span style="font-weight:400">It only hit me when our bare skin was touching that I’dpletely forgotten to put my shirt back on and I’d been shirtless this entire time.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Was this really necessary?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I want to sleep like this. I can’t?” Rosa questioned cutely while she wrapped around my back under the shirt and snuggled closer.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I guess… it’s fine.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then please do a good job and keep me warm throughout the night.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sure, I will.”
<span style="font-weight:400">After I zipped up the sleeping bag, I hugged her back beneath the shirt.
<span style="font-weight:400">Listening to the sound of her breathing and feeling her heart at ease beating through her chest, I felt calm. At peace. Nothing else in the world mattered right now. Like this, it only took a short minute to fall asleep.
<span style="font-weight:400">If this is what Heaven is like, sign me up.
<span style="font-weight:400">Well, I’m a devil so this might actually be Hell and I just don’t realize it.
<span style="font-weight:400">If so, Hell really isn’t such a bad ce after all.
<span style="font-weight:400">I think I’ve grown quite fond of Hell.