The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

197 Emma Cries

Levi turned to the side, looking at Emma who suddenly became somehow strange. The girl sat with her slightly facing him so he couldn’t see her face, especially because the barn was lack of light.

Since the first time he had known this annoying girl, Levi had never seen her very silent as now. This confused him. Could something have happened to Emma? Could it be that the damn thief had done something to her? Levi was sure the two of them must have passed each other at the barn door.

Levi frowned and he moved closer to see Emma’s face, “What happened to you..?”

Levi stopped when he realized that Emma was crying. It seemed his conjecture was correct. Something bad must have happened to her. “Hey, what happened? Did that thief do something to you?”

Emma didn’t answer. Her shoulders only trembled slightly while her hands continued to wipe the tears that were continuously flowing out. She didn’t want to show herself crying. But it was the heart that lay inside her chest that forced her to do so.

It happened that Levi was not the type of patient person. Seeing Emma cry like that made him panic alone. He immediately grabbed Emma’s shoulder so she was facing him. He swore, that if that fucking thief boy did something to Emma, ??he would look for him and make sure he wouldn’t be able to walk again for the rest of his life.

“Tell me what’s going on, Emma. I’ll teach that son of a bitch some lesson. Did he do anything bad to you?” He asked seriously.

“No,” Emma answered briefly by keeping her face down.

Levi was even more confused. Why were women so hard to understand? They just had to say what happened. How hard was it to do? Why did they have to cry without saying anything? Such behaviour indeed made a man feel like he was going crazy.

.....

“If it’s not, then what is made you cry? Just stop crying! Crying doesn’t make you solve anything,” He said desperately.

Levi’s irritating sentence went straight into the part of Emma’s brain that functions to separate logic and feelings. Levi’s words were cruel. If Nancy had said that Levi had never hung out with women, then Emma would believe it by now. He couldn’t handle a girl who was crying. He even said a cruel sentence which, unfortunately, made a lot of sense.

“I.. I thought you were dead. I thought the thief killed you,” Emma said in a hoarse voice. She desperately tried to stop her crying. It made it difficult for her to speak.

“What?” Levi put on a confused face. His eyes blinked.

“That kid.. He dropped a knife.. which was covered in blood. And.. you.. you suddenly disappeared inside. I thought.. he killed you. I.. I.. thought.. you died because you helping me. I really did afraid. I was so scared.. you died,” Emma said.

“Ha..” Levi was silent to process Emma’s words. Slowly, a wide smile formed on his lips. Then he started laughing out loud.

Levi’s behaviour made Emma frown in confusion. She looked at him with a questioning expression. She knew that Levi was insane, but she didn’t think this was something so funny that he needed to laugh so happily like this, “Why are you laughing?”

Levi rubbed the edges of his watery eyes, and then replied with the remains of his laugh, “You’re crying because you’re afraid I’d die? That’s so ridiculous!”

“Why it’s ridiculous? I don’t understand why that sounds funny to you. A person’s life is something you can’t take lightly.”

Levi finally managed to stop his laughter although there was still a tingling sensation in his stomach, “Alright, alright. I understand what you mean. Just stop crying then. Trust me, I don’t deserve your tears.” he said in a weak tone at the end of the sentence. Then he immediately smiled again and messed the girl’s hair excitedly.

“You’re weird. Even the way you judge yourself is weird.” Emma said while fixing her hair. Then she wiped her remaining tears with her sleeve, “But, even so, thank you so much for taking my purse back. One of the things that scared me was when I think you might lose your life just to get my purse back. You risked it to help me.”

Levi nodded, “I accept your gratitude. But there is one thing I need to clarify here so that this misunderstanding doesn’t continue any further. If you think I risked my life to protect your purse, you are so damn wrong, innocent lady. I asked for the purse back from that damn brat by telling him I would exchange it for money. It was an exchange.”

“W-what? So, you paid for it?” Emma asked with wide eyes.

Levi shook his head with a smile, “You’re the one who paid for it.”

“Sorry?” Emma was stunned for a moment, then she immediately opened her purse. She found the contents of her purse were still the same as before. Then she took her wallet out and opened it. Sure enough, all the cash was gone. Her wallet was empty, containing only her cards. Emma did always bring quite a lot of cash every time she hang out from her house. So, it was no wonder if the exchange process that Levi said was successful.

“You piece of shit! I shouldn’t have cried over you!” Emma exclaimed by hitting her purse on his arm.

“Ouch!” Levi immediately screamed in pain.

Emma was surprised to find that. At first, she thought that Levi was just pretending to prank her. But Emma just realized there was a strange colour on his coat. Due to the lack of light, Emma immediately took out her cellphone and shone the screen light on Levi’s arm.

“Gosh! Your arm!” Emma exclaimed when she saw the condition of his coat which had a neat cut. On the cloth, she could see a lot of blood had seeped out, soaking around the rip. “The knife! He did hurt you!” Emma muttered.

Even though Emma only looked panicked now, Levi responded casually, “It’s just a scratch. There’s no need to overdo it.”

“This can’t be left like this, Levi. Your wound could become infected. It looks like it’s very deep with that much blood,” Emma immediately grabbed Levi’s arm, “Take off your coat. I’ll check the wound,”

Then Levi shrugged and took off his coat. It turned out that the seepage of blood was even worse on his long-sleeved shirt.

“Give me your arm,” Emma said. After Levi gave her his large hand full of tattoos, she pulled the sleeve up slowly, “My God.. The wound is deep,” she muttered with a grimace on her face.

“That kid’s knife was still very sharp. It possibly was a brand new pocket knife,” Levi said while staring at the wound on his arm with a relaxed face.

Emma snorted, “This needs to be treated immediately. It even looks like it needs stitches. But we can’t get out of here.” she muttered with a worried face.

“Don’t mind it. I’ve been injured worse than this,” Levi pulled his arm.

“Wait. Do you bring a handkerchief?” Emma asked. She remembered that time Levi had given her a handkerchief when she was crying alone. It made her assume that Levi was indeed the type of guy who often slipped a handkerchief into his pocket.

Levi nodded, “It’s in my coat pocket.”

Emma immediately grabbed Levi’s coat that was laid next to the man while telling him to direct the light from her cellphone to her hands.

“At least, the wound must be tightly covered so that germs don’t enter and the blood can stop flowing out.” Emma said as she tied the handkerchief tightly around Levi’s arm, “Does it hurt?” she lifted her face to look at him.

Levi, who had been staring at Emma quite long, suddenly realized and turned his gaze to the other side, “No need to think whether it hurt or not. Hurry up and give me my arm back.”

Emma squinted her eyes sarcastically, “You’re such a jerk. How many times have I said that?”

“To the stage it sounds boring,” Levi replied with a mocking smile.

Emma snorted and continued to tighten the knot of the handkerchief. Luckily, the handkerchief was big enough to wrap around Levi’s big arm even though Emma found it a bit difficult to tie it at the last moment. “Hah.. Finally.. It’s done. Hope it’d be still fine until tomorrow.”

“It will definitely be fine,” Levi replied while turning off the light of the cellphone he was holding. Then he returned it to Emma.

“There’s still no signal,” Emma said while checking her cellphone, “What about yours?”

Levi checked his phone briefly and shook his head.

Again, Emma sighed as she leaned against the wooden wall, “This is bad. I have to make a presentation in class tomorrow.”

Levi just glanced at the girl beside him with a flat face. His gaze moved from her head, then slowly down to her feet. He blinked before turning his eyes ahead, at the pile of things leaning against a dimly lit wall across the room. Then he got up from his seat and walked over to the pile.

“Where are you going?” Emma asked as soon as she saw Levi walk away.

The man checked out the items for a while. Then he found a pile of used cardboard boxes there. He checked whether the boxes were still in good enough condition. And they looked like hadn’t been in the barn for too long.

With his bare hands, Levi pulled the plastic rope that tied the pile of cardboard until it broke. Then he took some pieces and carried them to where he had been sitting while shaking the objects to break down the dirt that had stuck to them.

“Make this a cushion. The floor is pretty chill,” Levi said by gesturing for Emma to get up. Then he put three cardboard boxes that he had folded and arranged them lengthwise. “Sit on them,”

“Thanks,” Emma said as she sat back down. Levi was right. Sitting on the cardboard was indeed more comfortable than sitting on a dirty, cold wooden floor. “This is a great idea. I didn’t even think about using cardboard as a seat.”

“They can even be used as bedding. Your life is too comfortable,” Levi replied.

Then the man put a piece of cardboard for him to sit on, “Damn.. This is better,” he mumbled himself. Then he glanced at his coat that was on the floor and picked it up and placed it on Emma’s lap, “Cover your legs with it. Aren’t you cold wearing a short skirt like that? Sometimes I get confused with women’s minds. Wearing skimpy clothes in cold weather? Very smart,”