From Tashian's resolute words, Diego could only bite his mouth. He then lifted the goblet with a displeased expression on his face.
"Are you still in the mood to be on a date now? To be precise, that's my younger sister! Always keep in mind that I have my eyes on you."
"…. You've talked enough, stop now."
Meanwhile, even after the secret conversation between the two men was over, Eun-woo was watching the audience for a while, unaware of the passing of time.
The atmosphere inside rose because all the unnecessary lights had been turned off, making the people anticipate the performance. People in the lower seats were all noisy, changing their seats, whereas the upper floors were all filled with dinner, likely a tea party. Everyone was engrossed in their own entertainment, some even played cards or gathered together to have drinks.
Eun-woo muttered to Selena, who was standing side by side with her, watching the audience.
"It doesn't look like a theater where performances will start at all… It's mostly like a restaurant."
"Is that so? I really don't know since it's my first time here in the Grand Theater. I initially thought that it would be like this."
Eun-woo was briefly frozen at Selena's answer. She then realized how dumb she was to compare the theater in modern time than in this time.
She smiled awkwardly and covered the situation.
At that moment, a gentle melody filled the hall. People who had been noisy at the quiet, yet heavy sound of music murmured all at once, and the noise subsided in an instant.
Seeing that, Eun-woo and Selena made eye contact.
"I think it's about to start."
"Let's go back to our seats."
She followed Selena, who was returning to Ikshid's side, and returned to her original seat. After all the lights went out, the inside of the theater was dark, except for the faint light illuminated from the other side of the curtains, where all the attendants were waiting.
Eun-woo relied on the light, leaking through the red curtain as she made her way next to Tashian.
As Ikshid foretold, the play was about the Quill of Lucius, and the jewel of Genova. And the main story in the play was about the romance between a prince and his fiancée, who were forever lost in people's minds due to the curse of the quill.
The play began with a loud chorus. Prima Donna Calista as the fiancée and another male solo as the crown prince reached the climax of the first act.
Eun-woo was a little surprised to see the noisy crowd quietly focusing on the play. After three or four songs, the first part came to an end when the main character, the Crown Prince, was cursed by a quill pen due to his uncle's scheme.
As soon as the act was over, the theater was filled with indistinct noises again. The vendor who had gone back to the theater after being away for a while, the vigor in the lower seats became noisy too.
Eun-woo, who was drunk with the afterglow of the first play, was startled by the commotion.
The candle was lit once again in the box seat where they were. Eun-woo was then aware of the existence of Tashian, who was looking at her face.
"… How was it, was it worth watching?"
"It was great. I didn't know that time had already passed."
Eun-woo sheepishly blushed and answered him. It must have been because she was in love with the play that she didn't expect that long time had passed.
Tashian answered with a faint smile on his face.
"It seemed so."
When did a person like him, who always sits at a desk, overlooking all his work and duties every day, and sometimes would be occupied with seeing people associated with the imperial palace, thought of this idea and had her come along?
Eun-woo was moved by his kindness. She whispered as if he could not hear it.
"Thank you for bringing me along. Let's go again next time."
" … Of course."
His response was barely audible for her. And she thought that it was because of the buzzing surrounding.
Act 2 began in the noise. Diego, who had been sitting next to Eun-woo, had disappeared somewhere.
She looked around her and searched for Diego's presence.
"Where do you think my brother went?"
"It seems that he has found a new target again. Don't mind him too much. Your brother disappears after a day or two anyways."
Ikshid muttered muffled. Act 2 begins at the scene of the panicking of the remaining characters after the disappearance of the prince. Several supporting actors appeared on stage as a group and started singing.
Eun-woo was drunk with the cheerful yet roaring melody and almost stood in front of the railing. In fact, in some box seats, a few crowds could not resist the excitement and got up from their seats and leaned against the railing to watch the performance enthusiastically.
Eventually, the group song responsible for the excitement of the second act ended, and a gentle melody began to flow. As the music started, the curtains swung back.
Eun-woo widened her eyes when she saw the servants who suddenly came in the middle of the song, were carrying something.
It was ice cream. To be precise, it was a dessert like shaved ice mixed with milk and crushed ice in a bowl of mashed various fruits. It was a brilliant snack made to be eaten with a teaspoon in a small glass bowl.
It had been quite some time since the second act started, so it was also a time when she was bored. The sound of spoons hitting the glass bowl reverberated here and there. There seemed to be occasional laughter and chattering surfacing from somewhere. Opera, which used to be quiet, has regained the hustle and bustle of the break.
Tashian took his share of dessert from the servant and explained softly.
"The audience takes a piece of dessert while watching the play of Aria."
Eun-woo took the spoon into her mouth and responded with a mumble to Tashian's explanation.
It wasn't surprising anymore. She enjoyed a dinner before the start of the performance, but she had wondered what kind of dessert it was during the performance.
Tashian received the dessert bowl from the servant and placed it on Eun-woo's plate.
However, he himself refused the dessert.
She scooped the dessert that looked quite appealing and delicious,, before shoving it into her mouth. The cold vanilla-flavored sorbet melted in her mouth in an instant. The sweetness she regained from the dessert came with the happiness she felt. The sweet song resonated in Eun-woo's ears, and her mouth was filled with the refreshing scent from the dessert.
However, she gradually became unable to focus on the desert alone. The song that started quietly had a sad melody.
Eun-woo thought as he put the spoon into her mouth.
'It's sadder than I thought...'
Mezzo Soprano, who leads Aria del Sovette, plays the role of a maid in the Imperial Palace who secretly loved the Crown Prince. She could not forget His grace who saved her when she was young, and she was a woman who had been hiding her affection for the Crown Prince for a very long time.
Aside from the prince's fiancée, she was also a woman who witnessed him under the curse. After his disappearance, beside his fiancée, who still remembers him and struggled to locate him, she was also commemorating his disappearance.
Sekonda Donna wistfully echoed quietly her role as Aria as the audience clattered their glasses
(My dear prince, do you remember the first day we met? You don't.
When was the first day we walked the same street? On those days when we saw the same thing and laughed?
You won't remember them. When did it always have to be me to remember such agony?)
A piano performance resounded on the stage, and laughter erupted here and there, as some of the audience seemed to be joking around.
Sekonda Donna's solo continued on the stage where no one was paying attention.
(Oh, Prince! Please tell me…! What should I be sad about now? Having no place to go into for the rest of my life? Or having to marry someone other than you?
No. The saddest thing for me is the fact that your vision will always come to haunt me every night and will also keep me from falling asleep.)
The noises from the glass and spoons echoed somehow long. It was thanks to the desserts given to them and the lower seats were also provided with it after they paid for it. No matter how heartbreaking the play was, everyone seems nonchalant, as if they were betting on the play in the very beginning.
It wasn't until the glass in the hands of the audience showed the bottom that the song of Sekonda Donna ended.
Even in front of an indifferent audience, the singer who sang enthusiastically raised her skirt to show respect to everyone. After she went backstage, her attendants came into view, collecting their empty glass.
It was then that he discovered Eun-woo's glass that had melted and flowed down from the ice that Tashian had not eaten. The dessert she hadn't eaten had completely melted and even her fingers holding the glass were wet.
Seeing her state, Tashian's heart pounded as if she had fallen from the 6th-floor staircase.
"You… are you crying right now?"
She tried to wipe off the traces of her crying in a hurry, as the tall man beside her had a contemplative face. But even so, her sleeves were all wet due to constant wiping of tears. Albeit wanting to shake off all the traces visible, her reddened nose says it all.
She answered, clearing her throat loudly so as not to make a noise in her throat.
"No! What do you mean, who's crying…?!"
She doesn't know if the real Eleanor was like this, but for her, it was the first time to see a performance like this.
In the middle of the second play, where not everyone is concentrating, 'A performance you listen to while eating ice cream,' and 'Aria Del Sorbet' was a disgraceful stage.
Nevertheless, Mezzo-Soprano's lonely tone touched Eun-woo's heart. It was because of the lyrics of the song with the sincerity of the maid, who was only a supporting role in the side tracks of the play.
Eun-woo fanned her hand around her eyes to appease her shyness and made a muffled sound.
"I guess they didn't clean the box seats well. There is a lot of dust."
The box seat she was sitting in was reserved for the imperial family. Therefore, it's a place servants wil especially maintain the cleanliness whatever happens. Tashian looked at the woman who couldn't raise her head, making excuses that didn't work on him.
Knocking, something touched Eun-woo's cheek. It was a dry cloth. Tashian held out his handkerchief.
"… I'll tell the manager to clean well."
Thanks to Tashian for pretending not to know, Eun-woo carefully received a gray handkerchief with no embarrassment in her hand.
"Thank you."
She patted her eyes with the handkerchief he had handed her, clearing her mind.
Suddenly, the curtains hung back and forth on the box seats where they were staying. There was nothing but the faint noise of preparing for the next stage and the shouts of the audience outside, and the inside of the curtain was completely silent.
Eun-woo raised her head and looked inside the box seat.
Selena disappeared from the seat as soon as the second act was over, and Ikshid was sleeping with his head resting on the back seat. Not to mention Diego, who had already left somewhere in search of something that will pique his interest.
In other words, she and Tashian were the only two in the box seat.
Inside the dark grand theater, the narrow box seat was a bit dark. In the silence, there was a rustling sound of the collar even if she moved a little bit from the seat where she faced Tashian.
"… How are your eyes?"
To Eun-woo, who was frozen by the strange tension flowing between them two, Tashian tilted his head toward her.
"Ye- Yes?"
"I mean your eyes. There was dust in it, you said."
Eun-woo blinked her dry eyes now. She had thought that he'd feign ignorance forever, then she guess no.
Then a large hand suddenly reached her cheek. It was a natural touch, as if he was going to remove the dust from her eyes.
It was sudden, but Eun-woo couldn't shake his hand on her cheek. She had to raise her head from where she was sitting to meet his face.
Without even lowering her head, she received his gaze, staring into hers.
It was his quiet eyes that met hers, but what kind of fireball was in it that she had experienced in the garden of the Imperial Palace earlier?
Again, her heart started beating uncomfortably.
Then his thumb suddenly brushed her lips. Eun-woo was startled like a bird that had been attacked and leaned her body backwards.
"… There's jam on it."
Eun-woo blinked again. It looked like the sauce from the sherbet she ate earlier. She felt heat rising from her cheeks.
However, Tashian's surprise actions did not end there.
"It's still there."
He lifted his other hand and lightly wrapped it around her cheek, and with the rest of his hand he rubbed the corner of his lips once again.
Eun-woo was surprised and pushed his chest with both of her hands.
"Oh my, I'll, I'll do it!"
But he was not easily pushed back. It only appeared that she was pushing a rock-hard stone.