"Kid! What are you doing? Leave us alone..."
"You're scaring us! Stop!"
My attempt to help these humans is almost impossible. My lyre has been playing the same song five times, but the humans haven't yet to feel more close to one another. Moreover, they were repulsed by my music as I got closer. My lyre only made a perfect song for them!
They wanted to play cat-and-mouse chase with me! How ridiculous for a blooming session to have this kind of game. I was not a good chaser nor a runner, and the bloomers were already a few steps ahead of me. I couldn't tell them that I'm a coward, can I?
"Are you done? We're busy here!"
"Not yet! This little...human can still...do more...than just...running!" I was so exhausted.
"Kid, we're not playing with you! Leave us alone!"
My face turned immediately in shock when I heard them rejecting me. They weren't just unhappy with me, but they didn't want me at all. I've been singing along with them for so long, hoping they finally ease their minds and confess as quick as they could. But they weren't happy at all! They were just...disappointed?
"What? But I thought...you were..."
"No, we don't! We're not happy! Leave us alone, kid! And watch yourself...!"
"Yeah, what's wrong with your skin? Are you wearing a tan?"
Those humans even noticed my cookie form. I was so excited to spend more time helping them that I ended up revealing parts of my Joyling self to them. I've almost looked all the way pale from head to toe, and I couldn't be more embarrassed to leave them.
I quickly ran as fast as I could from the shore, heading straight into my human family while my dough was turning white. All my chocolate puff and strawberry cheek were paling before me. I couldn't do much but get a view from the humans as I turned even paler. I believe they haven't fully grasped me yet.
"Is that girl leaking chocolate?"
"Why is she white?"
"Who's that?"
"Is that child okay?"
"Someone help that child!"
Unfortunately, my human family caught me in a terrible time with my pale skin. With their curious heads searching for their precious daughter among the humans on the sand, they find her running towards them like raw dough. My skin was the brightest among the humans here, and I was the attention I didn't expect to be.
"Dorriel! Your skin!" My mother came to aid me. Her eyes were in disbelief when she saw her daughter in that dough skin.
"Dorriel, what did you do to yourself?"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't realize the water was salty."
"Oh, you poor little girl. Salt and sweet don't mix well!" Amanda came to wrap me in the towel.
"Huhuhu..."
—————————————————————————————————
[15 minutes later]
We had been lying low since the humans started taking notice of me, and I couldn't be more saddened by my fate. I was confronted by Darren, who wasn't any way happier or lovely with his bloom one. Perhaps after I was fiddling with humans too much, I might have proved myself too risky for him.
The others were returning to their life again while me and Darren were alone talking about what happened on the shore. He wasn't happy about it, and hate flowed within him as much as yesterday when he was yelling at me.
"Hrgh, what did I tell you about not making a mess around?"
"I'm sorry! I was just trying to help them! That bloomers are—" I plead as I could for him, but Darren seems to hate it.
"No bloomers, Dorriel! I don't want to hear any of that. You've almost got yourself caught there! What if you get in danger? Won't that be terrible?"
"It's terrible."
"Good, then you know what to do?"
"I will stay here and not making a trouble as you said, Darren."
"Good." He left.
It was a terrible warning from my brother Darren. He seemed dismissive of my idea, and he only wanted to make me stay in this spot for the rest of the vacation. How can I do that when duty calls before me? Those few bloomers out there are still bored without enough flirts and teases. But my brother's words are sacred and must be followed, as how I followed my family's loyalty.
"Aww...can't do anything more than waiting..."
"Hehe...hmm...mhm..." I grew even more impatient.
I watched again as my brother and his bloomed one enjoyed some sweet treats like ice cream near a bar, which would be a perfect treat for someone who was desperate here. But no—Doorwell had to eat healthy and sugarless because the doctor said so! Now, she was starving and pale, and she was loveless.
"This is such a lovely day..."
"I love you so much, dear..."
"Let's get married soon!"
The beach is filled with sorrow, and everyone is filled with hate. But Doorwell won't let that happen while she's around. Luckily, while Mom and Dad were busy blooming again, I snuck out of their sight and carried out my lyre as I headed to another couple in dire need of love.
"Hehe...!"
My second client would be the two chocolates on the bar, who were having the saddest day of their life without a love for each other. It appears even ice cream could not ease their pain on a beautiful day like this. Fortunately, there is another sweet side dish they could try instead.
I sneak on the fence of the bar, trying to avoid both two bloomers from seeing me. I see many sweets waiting by the kitchen of that man, but I must endure the feeling for the sake of the greater good. However, knowing that Doorwell is too pale to do this, she has to improvise herself further.
—————————————————————————————————
[Wiltham Coast Bar]
"Hmm...how should I helped these bloomers?"
My head was shaking confusedly as I was thinking of something more than just a lyre. The hymn from that music I made grew stale just by remembering how humans dislike it. Moreover, with my brother and his bloomed one in the same bar as the humans I've been trying to bond with, I couldn't get any closer without alerting them.
It appears that I have to use the old ways for this one. I thought I would never need this tool since the incident I had with six Joyling bloomers in the Garden of Passion. Fortunately, the bow stuck with me as much as the guilt of that mistake.
"Aagh...I love this thing..." I tried to be nice. The bow didn't want this, either.
The bow was enchanted with love, but it was no ordinary love. In my place, it was moulded by the sweetest candy cane from Sugary Heaven before being wrapped in berry vines of attachment and glittered with sugar of pleasure.
As I pulled it out of my wings, I could feel the waving surge of happiness flowing in my hands again. The firm, passionate energy of love can only be wielded by the sweetest, loveliest Joyling of all, except for Pearl, who happened to wield it sometimes.
"Aww, Sicilia. How can I ever be bored here when you are here?"
"Alright. Say goodbye to that frown as you find happiness once more!"
I aimed as keenly as I could, for my eyes are doing so well with these bloomers. Arrow emerged from my hand and into the bow, ready to be shot into the bloomers. I only needed to maintain focus and aim so that I didn't lose my sight before them. My grip on the string is growing loose.
"Come on...come on..."
I waited for a perfect moment. So many humans passed by, and they were a long wall to wait for. As soon as I saw the wall thinning and the people distancing, I immediately took the best opportunity to shoot while my eyes hadn't been dizzy yet.
Woosh. The arrow left my grip, flying towards the couple in one direct line as I had expected.
"I didn't like being around here, love. People seem to look at us like a bad couple. I mean, aren't we a happy one?"
"Oh, James. Why are you so afraid of that? What else could be here changing our love now?"
"I mean, you could expect a cupid shooting at me right now because they wanted me to—"
Jleb! It hits them! It hits the man! It hit the...man?
My aim was so direct and clean, but I didn't expect the man to turn around when that happened. My arrow struck him, but not in a way that I wanted it to be. Now, the man finds his love blinded and half-hearted with his eye! He was so in pain!
"Ouch..."
"AAAH!!"
"James, wait!"
The man was running away from his bloom one, and he was running with jam in his eyes! He was hurt so much, but he couldn't remove the arrow from him. That arrow should've disintegrated when he touched it! Why didn't it go out yet? Oh, he was even running in the same direction as my brother.
"Amanda, I believe that you and I have been going together for a long together. I wanted to ask you for a long time..." My brother was holding something for Amanda on the table.
"Yes...tell me..."
"Would you like to have a camping trip with me on Sunday so we don't have to go to church...? I think of something fun we could do together..." Darren is teasing Amanda with something on a box. I couldn't tell what, but she didn't like it. But before she could finish her word, the man was passing by.
"Oh...? I thought you were asking me to—"
"AAH!!"
'James, wait! Just go to the infirmary!"
"Woah! That's a weird love..."
"No, that man's hurt! We need to help them."
Now my brother had seen the man and his bloom one in pain. They were trying to help the man outside the bar and a few humans even gathered to see what happened. The man and his bloomed one were trying to remove that arrow from his eye, but it was hurting him so much. The people could only watch them struggling.
'Aah! Get it out of me! Aah!"
"James, don't push it! It's going to bleed you!"
"It's hurting me like hell! I need to take it out!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Settle down! Let me help you with that. Hey..." Amanda came to aid the man.
The arrow was finally out of the man's eye, but he looked even worse with it. Why does a human have a red jam inside their eyes? It looked disgusting, and there was a void inside. It wasn't the kind of love I was trying to share, but at least everyone was clapping for these bloomers now. So, it is good, right?
"Alright...that's enough love for everyone! Woo! Hehe..." I left as fast as I could.
"I think I could eat something..."
From a distance, I watched my brother carefully holding that jam-covered arrow while the man and his bloom one were going away with doctors to aid his wound. Surprisingly, it looks like they are having fun now! The bloomers even get special treatment from the humans.
"*Sigh* That's the worst kind of fear I was expecting from an arrow. Glad it means now I have 2.5% lesser chance of getting hit by one. Am I right, Darren?"
"Darren? Are you alright?"
"Candy. Candy arrow..." Darren stares grimly at the arrow I took before suddenly making a glance at me.
"Oh...don't tell me..." Amanda slaps her face.
—————————————————————————————————
[Beach Mat]
I laid my body on the mat again, trying to erase the previous act that my parents had no idea. My wings are still shrouded behind my shirt, and my skin is still pale as the dough I was swept from. My parents have no idea what I did back there, so I feel more relieved.
However, my happiness changed as soon as I saw my brother and his bloomed one coming at me with a pouting face. Holding my arrow in his right hand, he called my parents out and put me at the center of this problem. Oh, poor Doorwell was just trying to help!
"Bow out, now." He mumbled.
"H-hey, brother. What a nice arrow you have there! Would you like to tell me where did you—" I wave for him, trying to play it cool and lovely. Darren sees through my lies eventually.
"Bow out. NOW."
I laid my body on the mat again, trying to erase the previous act that my parents had no idea. My wings are still shrouded behind my shirt, and my skin is still pale as the dough I was swept from. My parents have no idea what I did back there, so I feel more relieved.
However, my happiness changed as soon as I saw my brother and his bloomed one coming at me with a pouting face. Holding my arrow in his right hand, he called my parents out and put me at the center of this problem. Oh, poor Doorwell was just trying to help!
"Bow out, now." He mumbled.
"H-hey, brother. What a nice arrow you have there! Wou
"Bow out. NOW."
I pulled out my bow that I hid under my body. The sweet candy cane I was planning to hide was taken by a bad idea. With a few sweet goodbyes on the glittering sugar, I find my bow witnessed before my parents with an eye of disbelief and snatched by my brother with a fierce grip.
"*Gasp* Dorriel, where did you get that? That's dangerous!" My mother confronted me.
"Why did you have that? Where did you get that?"
"Probably her show's prop when she was leaving the studio. Why are you shooting that man in his eye!"
"You shot a man??" my father looked at me.
"I thought he needed some love!" I plead.
—————————————————————————————————
The day seems to have gone worse than I thought. My parents are now keeping an eye on me, and my lyre was confiscated by my father, who uses it to tune a terrible song instead! That's not how you use the lyre, Dad.
*Terrible music*
"Did I do it right, dear?"
"I think so. That's the most harmonious song you've ever sang for me."
"Ah, I knew I still have it!"
I sat here, wings folded, and no lyre to tune on my beach mat. Humans are once again blooming, and I'm unsure what to do to help them. My head remains firm with the goal, but I see no more bloomers to help around.
"*Sigh* I wonder how Pearl's doing."
—————————————————————————————————
I wonder if those bloomers are happy right now. It's getting noon, and the sun is much hotter than I thought. Though my dough feels much happier inside, it has never been purely baked from within. So maybe now I can finally be baked as a warm cookie at last and return to my brownness.
But those bloomers? I believe they would recover from that jam-spilling accident and find happiness somewhere in a way they also feel that attention when surrounded by a crowd of humans. If I had to be reminded again, this was one reason I never get to use the bow to Joyling bloomers since.
"Ouch...ouch, my eye..."
"Is it doing well now, James?"
"Yeah, it is. Just need more time to recover. I guess date wasn't that much terrible today, isn't it...? Wow, I feel more lovely with you."
"James, don't tease me now~!"
I started to realize how much I wanted these days to be over. The humans didn't need to wait for me. I just wanted to be known among those who needed love. If only I could just help one bloomer.
"That arrow. Who shot it?"
"What? Who are you?"
"The arrow. You were shot on the eye, right? Did you know shoot it?"
"How am I supposed to? Whoever shot me already ran off before I could see them. It felt painful! But there's a weird glitter in my eye now!"
"Good, so she was here."