Oh, anyway, fast forward to a few weeks—I couldn’t remember how long Hera had been staying with me then. Here’s the thing, the town itself has an annual festival. There is no entrance fee, though, so everyone can enter. Even people from my neighborhood would clean themselves and go to the festival—at least to enjoy the festivity we couldn’t experience in our daily lives. Like, a break from our shitty situation, I guess. Sometimes, we can also find stalls that offer ‘food testers’ which we love.

I personally loved to go there with two of my friends, previously. We wouldn’t do anything shady, we would just be there, looking around, seeing people playing some games and eating some food. From time to time, when we somehow had a bit of an extra money, we spent them carefully yet leisurely.

I thought I wouldn’t go to the festival this year. I even forgot about it. But, when I was on a walk with Hera, she saw a poster of the festival. The poster itself was put up years ago, already torn and faded. Somehow, that poster caught Hera’s attention. She asked me what that poster was about, and I told her about the festival. She looked interested, so I asked her out. She was surprised, but very excited about it. Well, it made me looking forward to the festival, too.

That was why, we went to the festival. It was fun. Hera was all jittery. I never realized she could be so excited like a little kid. She dragged me around the festival. Listen, I had been with Hera almost all the time, but I never got to the point where I saw her this excited. I would never expect someone that looked so mature most of the time could be so childish.

“Have you never been to the festival?” I asked finally, couldn’t contain my curiosity.

“Nope,” Hera admitted. She spotted a cotton candy booth and flew straight to purchase one rainbow colored cotton candy. I couldn’t help but laughed. I didn’t even eat cotton candy past the age of ten!

I followed her to the booth. She smiled at me, showing off the big cotton candy. I sighed. “You’re spending too much,” I reminded her.

She chuckled and held my hand. “There’s no such thing as spending too much on a festival,” she stated, then shoved the cotton candy on my face.

I tasted the cotton candy—too sweet for me. “Come on,” I said, tugging on her arm. “Let’s find something else. This is too sweet, I need to wash my mouth with something savory.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Hera pouted, but followed me as I dragged her around to discover something else. We walked together, still hand in hand, looking around at the crowds. People there looked happy and enjoying their life. I spotted a few people I had seen, they looked more decent and brighter being in a festival.

Then, there seemed to be a commotion a few feet from where we were standing. It caught our attentions. We immediately searched for the source of crowd—and found people who looked neat and tidy.

Must be those high royals.

I clicked my tongue. Hera turned her back on them, diverting her gaze to me. “Why are the royals here?” she whispered. She seemed uncomfortable, so I pulled her and went the opposite way of those filthy riches. Perhaps, Hera didn’t like the royals—just like me.

“They come to this festival a lot,” I explained as we walked further. I noticed Hera keeping her head down as if she were hiding from something. I decided not to say anything, though.

“Every year?” Hera asked, sounding unsure.

I thought, maybe Hera was not from this area—her knowledge about everything around here was poor. “Yeah,” I said to her. “Those people dare to come to the land of poor only when the poor celebrates something,” I hissed, sounded more cynical than intended. “Those crazy riches are out of their mine. They treat us poorly, yet they expect us to pay taxes for them. We’re the ones who don’t have any money. They say those taxes will be used to increase the quality of life of the civilian, but they never do anything. Not to mention those crazy policies they make to suit themselves. They are a bunch of egoists who love to take everything from the poor.”

Maybe I sounded too bitter. I felt a little bad because Hera had to listen to my nonsense ranting. But, I mean, I just hate them a lot—now and all the time.

I didn’t want our date night to end with awkward atmosphere, though, so I turned and smiled at her, “But, I can’t lie that sometimes, I wish to have a life like them,” I admitted. “To live leisurely without constantly thinking if I can survive the next day... I long for that kind of life. A lot. Maybe I’m simply jealous of them.”

Hera looked surprised, but she smiled and nodded. “I believe everyone has their own circumstances,” she said. “We can’t change our lives in a blink of an eye, but we can always find things to enjoy, right?”

I squeezed her hand and said, “Right!”