The man’s knees were still on the dirt and half-buried by the poppy flowers. She was still looking down at the ground and couldn’t see his face, but could tell he said that with a big, gentle smile.

For some reason then, she became curious what he looked like. She flicked her eyes up at his face for a second, despite her better judgment.

Just then, gust of wind blew past them, sending petals flying in the air.

Her sight blurred in that whirlwind of golden orange.

* * *

Wherever you go, there are people like him. Those who listen more than talk. Those who only smile when asked about their past. Those who set themselves on fire to keep you warm, and do so knowingly. Those who are the fire most times. Those who are the moth very few other times. Kuromitsu_33 was one of them.

Kuromitsu_33 is how Byul knew him. So we’ll call him Kuromitsu_33 as well. Kuromitsu_33 woke up that morning too with the sun brightly shining through his window. The sunlight caught on his long eyelashes, and he blinked slowly. The freshness in his eyes gave away that he had already been awake for quite some time. He stayed laying where he was for a moment, watching the clouds drifting by.

The morning air still had a slight chill in it. He pulled the rolled-up sleeves of his wool sweater back down and rubbed his hands together to get the blood flowing. In the kitchen, he took out an egg from the fridge. He lowered his hand with just the right amount of pressure, and at the gentle but definitive crack of its shell giving out, his big Golden Retriever came running.

“Woof!”

“Good morning, chap.”

He got down to his knees and let his dog lick all over his face.

“Wait.”

He said to his dog as he finished peeling the boiled egg. He dug his two thumbs into the egg and split it in half, revealing the nearly orange yolk. His dog sat up at the command, tail wagging and drool beginning to form.

“Good boy. Good Goldfish.”

He handed half of the egg to his dog. The dense sound of Goldfish munching into the egg filled the kitchen. He remained kneeling until his dog was done with the food, then playfully disheveled the dog’s long, golden locks.

He got up and chewed his half of the egg. He felt the outside of his water boiler with two fingers. The water in it was still warm. He poured himself a cup of green tea with citrus and ginko, added some honey, and took a sip. It was sweet.

Sweet like black honey.

* * *

Byul let out the longest, most weighted sigh she had sighed in a long time. She felt all the energy leaving her body as it went from ultra-stressed to fully relieved. The man and his bigger Golden Retriever were finally on their way, and had receded to two hazy figures, far along in the distance of this never-ending poppy field.

She had successfully prevented him from seeing her face and hearing her real voice.

She had also failed to see what his face looked like, but not like that was any concern to her. It was merely a passing thought that she had wanted to see it in the first place.

She put Veggie back down. She trudged herself to the picnic table where Crystal was sitting and plopped down. Her head was throbbing. Veggie, as clueless as ever, trailed her happily and jumped up on her laps.

“Dude, you okay? What happened?”

Crystal asked, raising one eyebrow. Byul finished what was left of her mushroom drink in one gulp and answered.

“Yeah, I’m okay…. Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it? You looked like a wanted criminal trying to hide in front of a cop. And doing so really badly.”

Crystal said, cackling in a joking manner.

“Was it really that bad?”

Byul asked, embarrassed. She buried her face in her perfectly manicured hands.

“It was pretty bad. Who was that?”

“No one…”

Byul said, then she caught how wishy-washy she was being. It was only a matter of time before Crystal found it suspicious. She had to come up with a convincing but succinct lie that would explain her actions and prevent any followup questions.

“Just my ex-boyfriend.”

Byul continued. The ex-boyfriend card was always reliable in situations like these. As expected, Crystal’s jaw dropped.

“What?! Damn, I should’ve gotten a better look at his face”

‘Sorry, Crystal. Please take it as a white lie.’

Byul thought. She felt a tinge of guilt in her heart for lying to her friend.

“Even the Byul Lee gets that awkward in front of her ex, huh?”

Crystal poked fun still, but as Byul had figured, the focus was shifted back onto her and not on the man.

“We just don’t talk anymore and I got caught off-guard seeing him here of all places. It’s nothing, really. Let’s just enjoy the rest of our day out here.”

Byul changed the topic. She unconsciously ran her fingers through Veggie’s soft neck hair. This was like therapy to her, always. It started calming her down immediately and she could feel the headache alleviating. Veggie licked her hand. She lowered her head and gave him a kiss on the forehead, right on the white spot in the shape of a diamond.

That bigger Golden Retriever had the same diamond spot on his forehead that Veggie had. He had to be a mix of some sort, too, just like Veggie. That white spot. That size. Those dinosaur paws. Those big black eyes. That name, Goldfish.

Byul knew exactly who that Goldie was.

That dog was the one she had seen on her VTuber account’s follower’s page. The one she had admired and had compared to the imagined version of grownup Veggie in her head. The dog so cute that she even followed back the follower.

That dog belonged to Kuromitsu_33. Which meant that man was Kuromitsu_33. The person who was in her Twitch streams, in her channel comments, in her Discord, in her Membership-only videos. The person who had, presumably, listened to her voice for hours upon hours and likely could recognize it at a heartbeat. The person who, if he had gotten a picture of her face or could spin stories reliably enough, could blow up her anonymity and expose who she really was to the world.

She couldn’t tell Crystal that he was, in fact, not an ex-boyfriend but a devout fan of her alternate, subcultural, anime, otaku, weeb account, her VTuber identity under the name Hoshizora Martini.

But none of it mattered. He didn’t look like he recognized her, neither her face that he’d possibly know from her book influencer identity nor her voice that he definitely knew from her VTuber identity. Crisis was averted. Nothing would go wrong or change for her from here on.

Surely, nothing at all.

* * *

Veggie opened his mouth wide for a yawn. He always looked like a little fox when he did that. Byul stopped what she was doing, kissed the tip of his nose, and squished his soft cheeks in between her thumb and index fingers. The sun had ran its course and was beginning to set. With the sky stained in its reddish orange and the horizon covered in poppy flowers, the world seemed it was made entirely of copper and gold.

Crystal and Byul finished cleaning up what they had eaten for the day and put all their things in the car trunk. Before Byul loaded up Veggie in his doggy car seat, she stopped and admired the sun going down.

“Wanna stay and watch the rest of the sunset?”

She asked. Crystal nodded. They sat down on a slight hill amidst the poppies. Veggie hovered over, blinking his sleepy eyes, and plopped down in between Byul’s legs. She raised his knees and hugged him from behind, feeling the gentle tickle of his fur.

“Hey, Byul.”

Crystal rummaged through her tote bag and pulled out a polaroid camera.

“This one’s for you.”

“Aw, you don’t have to do that. We got plenty of good footage earlier.”

Byul flapped her hand at Crystal.

“Not for your Instagram feed. For you.”

Crystal said, pointing the camera lens at Byul and Veggie. She placed her eye on the viewfinder.

This idea was somewhat foreign to Byul. Something for her, and just for herself. She simply smiled and said:

“Okay.”

Veggie trying to look at Byul’s face without turning around. Stretching his head back enough to get glimpses of her upside down, he reached up his little paw at her chin. The sunset behind them framed the outlines of their faces in a soft, golden glow. His paw landed on her chin, then again on her lip. At his third try, he missed her chin and leaned just a little too far back, tumbling backwards into her arms. She laughed as she caught him safe and sound.

There were a million flowers in the field but the most precious one was in her embrace.

Crystal pressed down on the shutter. The polaroid printed with a slight mechanical whirr.

To be continued...