“Jacob continues to hold onto Marry while he navigates around the booths, Marry is confused but a bit flustered as well, it takes her a moment to muster some courage to speak up

“Hey Jacob, what are we doing?”

Her voice compared to her loud and usually energetic tone sounds weak, and after a moment Jacob realizes the situation he put himself in and lets go

“Oh sorry about that, I got caught up in the moment and Tin suggested we split up to enjoy ourselves more”

That was a bit of a lie, Tin never did  mention that, but at this moment this is the best explanation that Jacob could come up with for what he did 

“Your acting a bit weird Jacob you okay”

This was true, Jacob was usually a supportive person who didn’t take the initiative in situations, but for some reason, he felt like he should, he felt excited to move forward

  “Let’s try this gun booth”

Ignoring Marry's comment Jacob ushers her to the gun booth, the game is simple you have to shoot some items knocking them over to win 

“Pretty simple, I’m gonna try to win a prize”

The idea of shooting some prizes to win was more than enough to drop the current conversation for Marry, it was shooting time

“Just like how you won when we were little”

Her chuckle turns into a laugh as she continued her tease on him

“You say that like we weren’t kids”

“I was a kid, while you were what 13 at the time, a teenager who couldn't handle a toy gun”

“Your talking a lot of smack over there, Is this a challenge a hear”

“I don’t know can you handle the heat” 

“Your on”

Jacob with a smug and confident face raises his fist

“Boss 2 tries for the gun”

The middle-aged bald man takes the money from Jacob and proceeds to load up the gun with 2 pallets 

“Alright here I go”

Jacob aims the plastic rifle at the ninmendo mint, he lines up his shoot and misses, Jacob looks dumbfounded 

“So much for a challenge”

Marry just stares at him with a smug face

“That was a fluke, just one more try”

Jacob proceeds to repeat the process, he lines up his shoot, feels the wind with his hand, and then shoots, but he misses again, this time marry smug face turns into excitement at the fact that if she wins this nimendo mint she can rub it in his face

“Boss 1 try please”

The booth guy proceeds to load in 1 pallet, Marry takes aim and after just one swift movement she shoots down the nimendo mint, Jacob as well as the booth man fill with awe as they were both definitely not expecting Marry to succeed

“Hey boss bring down the game I won”

The booth guy proceeds to look over his equipment with a shocked face 

“Boss my prize now”

Marry raised her voice a bit when the guy continued to just make excuses while examining his setup, as he looked at her again to make another excuse he saw that her happy demeanor turned into a cold one, it felt as though she stared straight into soul saying

‘If you don’t give it to me now I will get it’

The guy rushes to bring it down 

“Here just get out of here no more tries”

With the booth man urging them away Marry examines her new Nimendo Mint, but most importantly she smiles when she sees Jacob half salty face, the face of a person who just lost the chance for this new gaming system

“Don’t worry salty man, I’ll let you game with me later if you compliment me on how good I was playing that booth”

“I don’t know what your talking about”

Marry shoves the nimendo mint in jacobs face

“You don’t know what I’m talking about huhhhhh”

Jacob couldn’t help but smile as he took the Mintendo from marry

“Thanks for the gift, I’ll make sure to never return it haha”

Marry couldn’t help but smirk

“Wow look at you, finally going out for once and you turn into an evil ass villain”

“What can I say my true nature always wants more, and that includes your new gaming system”

The both of them continue to laugh and joke around as they go to different booths, they played a variety of different games and got many different foods, sadly for him Jacob was having to help carry them all

“Oh Jacob I almost forgot to mention, wheres my birthday present”

“Birthday present?...oh that’s right, I almost forgot it's your birthday today, you greedy dragon”

“Hehe, I literally just told you in the morning how do you always forget this stuff”

“I didn’t forget”

“You just told me you did”

“Did I”

Jacob couldn’t help but smirk, for him teasing Marry like this was fun especially when she did it to him all the time, a guilty little pleasure so to speak, then he pulled out her wrapped gift

“Here your present, Happy birthday Marry BloodMarry”

Jacob pulled out a small rectangle-shaped present that Linda had given him, and Marry’s eyes were entranced by it, she opened it up only to see a golden necklace with a portrait of Jacob, Marry, Rose, Tin, Alexandra and everyone else that marry held dear

“Wow, I um-yea just wow, Honestly wasn’t expecting this, just wanted to mess with you but…um thank you for real”

As she took a closer look at it she realized something about it

“Jacob this is my mothers, how did you get my mother’s necklace, and this photo I thought you didn’t collect photos”

Jacob didn’t respond, he was astonished as well, after all, it was Linda that helped prepare it for him 

“Jacob?”

“Oh sorry, well to be honest Mom gave me the present”

“Mom?”

“Oh I mean Linda, she helped me with that”

Marry just looked at Jacob, while it wasn’t clear to Jacob what she was thinking about she looked happy, and in Marry’s mind she was happy, happy to receive such a gift from him, but most importantly she was happy that he was moving forward with his life, happy that he had individuals who also loved him, no matter how many times she thought about it, she was happy for him. Jacob looked at her with a confused expression but remembered something about the necklace 

“It's a good luck charm I’ve been told, and the necklace says some writing in the back but I can’t understand it, any ideas?” 

Jacob flips the photo locket over with the inscription saying ‘lycka till tiger jag vill ha barnbarn’, and Marry just stares blankly at it

“So what does it say?”

“Wow, Mom had future plans”

“What does that mean”

“So anyway Put it on me won’t you”

“But what does it-”

“Put…It…On…Won’t you Jacob”

When he looks at her Marry has that face of drop the subject and help

“Weird but alright”

Jacob complies and puts the necklace on her, and her already beautiful appearance seems to shine more with the golden photo lock 

“How does it look”

Marry in this moment looked beautiful, Jacob for the most part saw Marry more like a junior he was in charge of, but in this moment Marry looked like a proper woman rather than her normal tomboyish self

“You look good…yea beautiful to be honest”

Marry was a bit flustered, but her eyes did not divert from Jacob, 

“Hey Jacob”

“What's up?

Marry got closer to Jacob, although everyone was running about and the festival was loud, in this moment they felt that time was frozen

“You know already don’t you”

“Know what?”

Marry softly punched Jacob, she spoke in a soft manner

“Don’t be a ass, You know I…I like you”

Her face turned a bit red as she borrowed into his chest

“Yea I know, but I-”

“Still have feelings for sis I know…”

Her voice faltered as she said those words, then her voice got even softer with the next ones

 “...And you See me as your little sister…”

Jacob upon hearing this was shocked, sure he never advanced on any of their invitations but still, Jacob never told anyone about his past relationship with Rose and how he viewed marry

“How did you-”

Jacob could feel Marry grip him tighter

“I saw your journals when I was cleaning with you”

“I see”

“Mhm”

Jacob looked at Marry, she was 20 years old and at this point, a full-grown woman, she was no longer that little girl he had known all those years ago, he knew this, this was an undeniable fact, yet he kept telling himself that she was like a little sister to him,

“Do you hate me for that”

“I…I don’t think so”

“Mk”

“...”

Neither one knew what to say in a situation like this, Jacob himself couldn’t sort out his own feelings, in his mind she  was wasting her time on a dead man

“Hey Jacob”

“Y-yes marry what’s up”

“Would you dance with me”

“I don’t know how to dance”

“Ptff, Liar”

Marry grabbed Jacob by the hand and brought him to the center of the festival plaza where the giant cherry blossom tree resigns, a change of pace to help brighten the mood would be best she thought, as they stood in the center everyone else notices the both of them, all eyes laid on them as they watched in curiosity as to what was going on 

“Marry really I don’t know”

“Then follow my lead smarty pants”

Marry puts jacobs hand on her back and then places hers over his neck, they follow a simple rhythm dance of 1,2,3, from right to left and from left to right, slowly at first they dance side to side as everyone can see them develop into a Walt Disney style type dance

“Didn’t know how to dance huh”

“I still don’t”

“I guess that just proves how good of a teacher I really am”

Marry face is full of pride, but it’s also a bit flustered from the looks of it, despite that she continues leading Jacob in this simple dance rhythm, as that happens everyone starts cheering them on, some people even start to join in, it starts turning into a dance session with people following Marry's lead, and before you know it Marry and Jacob are in the center of a decent amount of individuals dancing. Step after step, movement after movement they got closer as well as better

“I should be a dance teacher”

“Yea you should”

“Don’t agree with me”

“What?”

“You heard me, I don’t like how sudden you agree with me, it feels creepy”

“I'm complimenting you women”

“Haha”

Marry just laughed, she was enjoying herself and that's all that mattered,  they danced for a bit more until they both got tired and had to sit on some nearby tables

“Man I’m beat”

“Your out of shape that’s what’s up”

“At least I-”

Jacob’s phone rings interrupting them, he looks at it with the name saying “Don’t answer”

“It’s rose”

“Sis?, Huh I wonder what she wants”

Jacob instead of answering it just slides the decline options, 

“Huh?”

“What?”

“I mean my sis was calling you”

“Yea I know, I didn’t want to answer it”

The 2 of them stood staring at each other for a hot minute until Marry started strangling Jacob for being so insensitive, (in a non-life-threatening way), after that she called her on her own phone, it rang, after a moment she picked up

“Sis what’s up…nothing much…mhm…yea he is right here with me…yea…we're located in the center plaza…why?...Even Alexandra and Tin?...Weird but okay I’ll go get them…Yea…yea…but what about the festival?...Ohh okay…yea I’ll tell him…weird for you to say that but…Love you too sis”

Marry hangs up and sighs

“Sis got some stuff she needs help moving”

“Moving stuff?, doesn’t she have a whole corporation of employees who can help?”

“Yea but, she gave them the day off because of the festival, helps show appreciation for all their hard work”

“They don’t even go to the festival”

“Don’t shoot the messenger, and um oh she told me to tell you to meet her up the hill”

“What for”

“Said we were gonna watch the stars, had a picnic supply ready to be set up and she needed you to set it up”

“That's pretty weird but okay”

“Don’t look at me man I’m not my sis”

“No you're more of a monke-”

Marry just before Jacob could finish his sentence hits him in the stomach causing Jacob to bend over in pain

“Like a monkey huh”

“Ughhh and hits like one too”

Jacob after a moment managed to get back up, but instead of getting another fistful he looks up to see Marry looking lost in thought while staring at the sky, all the stars and beautiful vast expansion of space in clear view”

“wha-”

“Hey Jacob”

“Give me a sec you really knocked the wi-”

Marry doesn’t even allow Jacob to finish his sentence and just continues talking

“do you hate us for bringing you with us”

This question completely caught Jacob by surprise, Marry usually isn’t the type to think this sort of way, she is the type to just go with the flow, he looked at her her serious demeanor, and he knew that there was no getting out of this one, but still Jacob habits of trying to dodge the question kicks in

“Dude I told you it's for your birthday, I don’t mind go-”

“But do you?, you know I don’t want to ruin the moment. Honestly, I'm even a bit scared to bring up the topic cause I feel like this happy day will fall apart if I do…but, I want to ask, are you forcing yourself to be like this or are you choosing to move forward with us?

As stated before numerous times, Jacob is the type of individual who doesn’t want to get hurt, who doesn’t like the idea of leaving his comfort zone, someone who is  scared of being hurt in some way shape, or form, that is the type of guy he is, so the question that Marry is asking is a direct  challenge to the current Jacob that stands before her, will he move forward or stay back 

“I…”

This was the moment that would change jacobs life forever, a simple yes or no answer will decide the next chapter in his life, his heart started to speed up, and the thoughts of everything that could go bad rushed into his mind, it would have overwhelmed him if not for the girl in front of him who pressed her hand onto his, the moment her hand touched his the static of worry vanished, all that was left was her

“I’m here for you Jacob don’t worry”

With her words of reassurance his answer stood firm, he spoke

“I’ll try to move forward, I’ll accept it all”

Those were the words that Marry wanted to hear the most, sure she wished for a yes or no from him, but in his current position, this answer was more than what she could have asked for, 

“Jacob, thank you”

Marry with a heartfelt smile and a bit of tears that started to roll down her face continued to thank Jacob for allowing her to help him, Jacob as a individual was the helper of the town, he would assist everyone with their needs, he would go out of there way to help those who truly needed the assistance, he was a kind soul in that regard,  that is what made Marry want to support him,  the warmth in jacobs heart is what Marry came to love about him, and it is what made marry want to kiss him

“I like you Jacob Gonzales Thomsan, I just wanted you to know that”

“...”

Before he had a chance to respond back Marry tippee tode up to Jacob kissing him, it felt like an innocent kiss, her lips were soft as well as warm, and this feeling of warmth permeated Jacob’s very soul, it felt kind. 

“Mhh?”

Jacob didn’t know how to react, but he slowly but surely returned the soft kiss, just as quickly as the feeling appeared it left when she parted her lips from his, her face was completely red 

“rough”

she stood there looking down as Jacob himself found it hard to even respond to the situation that just happened, it stood like that for a bit until Marry broke the silence