Though initially irritated at him for having remained in Shijima for so long without telling her a thing about it, Minsuk quickly forgave Eiji when he explained how full and sequestered his days had been. She explained to him that it was mainly the shock of how she’d found out he was still in Shijima that ruffled her.
—–
In the middle of running an errand for her bosses one afternoon, she was laden with the restaurant supplies she had been sent to pick up. On one of the main boulevards of the commercial district, she found her path blocked – there was some sort of public event happening, and the crowds of people on the sidewalk were packed so tightly that it was difficult even seeing what it was. It turned out to be some kind of military parade, just now approaching, ablaze with eye-searing color and ear-splitting fanfare. She walked for a long while down the sidewalk, pressing arms-full through the crowd. There had to be an end to the parade sooner or later, somewhere that she could cross. It went on for block after block.
She wasn’t taking in much of what was happening in the parade itself, concerned as she was with getting past it, but it was impossible to ignore it altogether. Like a well-designed advertising campaign, it drilled its way into the half-conscious mind by omnipresence alone. As she moved down its length, the uniforms were getting more and more prestigious-looking, the auto-chariots more and more ornate, the men in them more and more self-important of mien. Finally something caught her eye that made her stop in her tracks and look twice at the parade. Her mouth fell open. She nearly dropped the bags in her hands.
A legion of soldiers in red-and-black uniforms and newly-minted armor was passing, and after them came a massive auto-chariot painted in the same red and black color scheme, gilded with gold trim. On the auto-chariot flew two massive red banners, both bearing calligraphy in Old Meihonese – one Minsuk couldn’t read, but the one that she could said “Commander.”
Standing solitary with the grace of command , overlooking the ranks of subordinates and the throngs of new admirers alike, nodding amicably as his auto-chariot rolled past, was Eiji. The man who had just weeks before asked her to marry him, whom she had fretted every day was enduring the hell of the front lines, looked larger than life. His shining suit of ornamented armor, his polished red-feathered black helmet – it all made him seem not like a man of this world, but like a warrior-king of historical lore.
She saw him then, but he didn’t see her. And that was how she found out he was in Shijima.
—–
“I’m sorry,” Eiji said, his ears growing hot as Minsuk went over in embellished detail how striking he had looked. “That’s really bad.” He rubbed his fingers through his hair, shook his head, “I kept wanting to come and see you, but there was never time to get away. Please don’t think me insincere.”
Minsuk laughed a little laugh, feeling better now that she’d finally been able to relate the strange experience to him. “I don’t. Thank you for coming to see me, finally,” she said, and slipped her arm around his as they walked. “What’s it like, being in a parade like that, with all those people worshipping you?”
“Just as strange as it was for you to see me like that, and then some,” Eiji said. “I was surprised when they told me I was getting a commandership, and even more surprised when they told me about how important my new unit was going to be, but I figured I could handle it. I was only thinking about the battlefield part, though… I don’t really know if I’m cut out for this other side of the job.”
“You looked very natural,” she said.
“Really?” He was surprised. It hit him that up until now he hadn’t been able to hear a single person’s opinion of how he had come across to the public on that day.
“Yes,” Minsuk nodded, “I think it suits you.”
“Thanks,” Eiji said.
Minsuk laughed, “To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have guessed it beforehand, but it really does.”
Eiji laughed too. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She laughed harder, and turned to press her face against his shoulder as she laughed. He pushed her playfully away.
“Your speech after the parade was impressive, too.”
“Speech?” Eiji’s eyebrows dropped and he slowed to a stop, trying to remember. All at once, recognition came into his eyes, and his cheeks flushed. “You heard that?”
“They rebroadcast it like crazy, and printed it all over the journals.”
Eiji said nothing, and they started to walk again.
“My husband-to-be,” Minsuk giggled, “the decorated warrior-poet of the Empire.”
“Who would have thought?” he said, resignedly.
“Who would have thought,” she repeated. “It’s a good thing we met when we did.”
“Of course,” Eiji nodded his agreement without thinking about it.
“What I mean is,” Minsuk pressed on, “if you’d only just met me now, you’d never know that I would have loved you even as a lowly front-line foot soldier with a charming, clumsy shyness about you.”
Eiji laughed.
As they walked, they passed just to the left of them the entrance to a secluded alleyway, which a little further down led to a empty windowless neighborhood square with a small gazebo and benches, such as there were many of before the great reconstruction of Shijima. Minsuk tugged gently on Eiji’s arm, and he turned his head to look at her. The look in her eyes startled him at first – it seemed out of context here on a sidewalk stroll, outside of the bedroom, and for a minute he wasn’t sure he was really seeing it. But Minsuk pulled him into the alleyway, and Eiji learned that context for the act of love is entirely something you make.
