Chapter 1247 – #290_Proposal(8)

#1241

1.
Dorothy is a witch with a relatively regular sleep pattern.

She usually falls asleep around 1 AM, wakes up around 5 AM, and then works or studies magic.
However, on days when she spends a hot night with Darling, she sometimes sleeps in until late afternoon.

It was 4:24 AM, when the last vestiges of the night were still rubbing their eyes and begging for five more minutes.

Dorothy woke up before her alarm went off and turned it off.
Wearing fluffy pajamas and a sleep cap, Dorothy’s eyes were wide open as if she hadn’t been asleep at all, and she jumped out of bed.

Actually, it wasn’t like she had just woken up.
She had been lying down since 1 AM, but she hadn’t been able to sleep at all and had tossed and turned all night.

For the past few days, her sleep quality had been consistently poor.

“Ready, ready.”

Dorothy quickly got out of bed and ran to the bathroom.

She took a light half-bath in hot water, then showered in cold water.
After drying her goosebump-covered body, she sat in front of her vanity, carefully styled her hair, chose the prettiest dress from her closet, and applied light makeup.
The finishing touch was three spritzes of the special perfume she had received as a gift from Amelia.

“Oh no~ I forgot my underwear~”

Dorothy was startled.

How could she make such a mistake, so unlike her!
The most chaste witch in the world almost turned into a pervert!

She belatedly put on her racy and sexy underwear.

After her flurry of preparations, it was 5 AM.

For reference, Dorothy is not usually like this.

The fact that she has no limit to her lifespan makes humans leisurely.

Combined with her unique laid-back nature, Dorothy’s morning preparations usually took anywhere from two to three hours.

The reason she was in such a hurry was not because she had a really, really important appointment today… or rather, it wasn’t.

She didn’t have anything scheduled for today.

“Munch, munch.”

This is evidenced by the fact that Dorothy is sitting blankly, barely eating the sandwich she had prepared to eat after waking up.

At the same time, her gaze is fixed on the corridor connecting to the academy’s annex.
Anyone who wants to enter Dorothy’s room has to go through that corridor.

From behind, it might look a little funny.

“Huh?!”

When she senses someone approaching, Dorothy’s shapely bottom wiggles.
If she had a tail, it would be wagging.

“Sigh…”

But when she realizes it’s just another witch’s silhouette, she becomes noticeably depressed.
If she had a tail, it would be tucked between her legs.

What is there to hide?
The reason why the great Dorothy is making such a fuss from the crack of dawn is one thing.

It’s because of the proposal craze that’s sweeping through couples.

Siwoo and his lovers have dinner together almost every evening.
Dorothy’s intuition was on par with a thousand-year-old fox, so she could roughly sense it while eating at the table.

Who had received a proposal, who had made one, and who was preparing one.
She could tell everything just by the subtle differences in the atmosphere.

In the end, Dorothy was frustrated by Siwoo’s shadow, which didn’t appear until dawn.

“Seriously, should I just do it myself?!?! Why aren’t you proposing to me sooner! I’m waiting here! It’s too much! Too much! I hate you! I’m going to hate you, Darling!”

Dorothy rolled around on the floor, throwing a tantrum.

Tears welled up in her eyes at the thought of it.

Actually, it’s not like anyone set any rules, and in Sharon’s case, she even proposed herself.
It means that if Dorothy gets tired of waiting, she can take the initiative and propose first.

Not to go far, if it were herself from a year or two ago, she would have dealt with this kind of lukewarm situation decisively.

Without losing sleep and waiting, she would have walked in with a bouquet of flowers and said, ‘I’ll give you the overwhelming honor of marrying me~’ and then tried to kiss him.

Dorothy herself has a very proactive personality and has the cool-headed ability to make decisions rather than hesitate.

The reason she doesn’t do that is really simple.

“But, I want to be proposed to…”

That’s it.
There is no logic or basis for it.

Dorothy could do it, but she just wants to be proposed to.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a really silly proposal, or a clumsy proposal that smells of Darling’s inexperience.
The important thing is that she wants to ‘receive it from Darling.’

Why does she become so passive and dependent in front of him?

“No, it’s Darling’s fault.”

He should have noticed without being told and come and proposed before making her worry like this, right?
Huh? If a man makes a woman fall for him like this, shouldn’t he be able to do that much on his own?

“I don’t know, Dorothy is not going to be a mama anymore. Dorothy is a baby. Babies can’t propose, so Siwoo has to do it.”

Just as Dorothy’s train of thought, which had been rolling around on the floor, was becoming a jumbled mess.

“Dorothy, good morning. Huh? What are you doing on the floor?”

Siwoo, who had torn through space and popped out of thin air, was bewildered to see Dorothy, who was wriggling like an inchworm with her bottom raised high.

Come to think of it, Siwoo also travels well using space movement!
Why didn’t she think of that?

“S, stretching~”
“That’s quite avant-garde.”
“I’m also cleaning the floor.”

Dorothy was even more flustered, but she dealt with it calmly.
Anyway, the more important thing is that Darling is here!

It’s a proposal, a proposal! It’s proposal time! She’s going to get a proposal from Darling! People of the world! Look here!

Tears were already welling up, so Dorothy turned her head slightly to look at the sky.

“Ah, it’s not that… I have to go to Seoul this time, and I was hoping you could come with me, Dorothy.”
“Seoul?”
“The location point, I mean.”
“Really? Then~ Why me?”
“Professor Sua said that she needs your advice.”

What? What about my proposal? Dorothy almost said that…

But her intuition was very, very fast.

“Okay! Let’s go!”

2.
It was generally expected.

To ask her to go to the mortal world alone at this timing.

Couldn’t you see the angle?

Of course, they actually visited the location point, and Siwoo did his work, and Dorothy met with Professor Sua and gave her some advice.

Most of the enemies had been captured or killed, but there were still some enemies lurking in the Central and South American regions.

However, since she had already handed over a lot of data, Dorothy’s advice was practically meaningless.

In other words, this formal task was Siwoo’s plan to go to the mortal world alone with Dorothy.

The first piece of evidence was that Darling was more dressed up than usual.
The second piece of evidence was that it took less than two hours to complete all the tasks.

“Hmm, we have some time left. Shall we go on a date for the first time in a while?”
“If Darling wants to, I’m happy to~”

The two of them went on a date, strolling around the middle of the city, arm in arm.

There was nothing special about it.

It’s not like downtown Seoul is a great resort where you can relax just by walking around and enjoying the scenery, and it’s not like there are historical and traditional cultural properties between the buildings on the street.

For Dorothy, a VVIP who used to spend money like water in all kinds of tourist spots, travel destinations, and resorts, Seoul was just an impersonal city like any other East Asian city, with nothing much to enjoy except for the night view.

In that impersonal city, they walked around a nearby park, breathing in the air that was moderately mixed with exhaust fumes and fine dust, and then casually went into a department store, which was no different from anywhere else in the world, to look around.

It’s not like they went into luxury brand stores and walked around with shopping bags dangling from their arms.

“But I really don’t understand why this is 50 million won. How can leather be dozens of times more expensive than electronic devices that are the culmination of human technology?”

She listened to Siwoo’s grumbling and agreed, “Yeah, yeah~.”

“Darling~ Do you want to watch this movie? Romantic comedies are perfect for dates.”
“Sure. You’ll have popcorn, right?”
“I like caramel popcorn with butter squid.”

Since they were in the department store, they watched a boring romantic comedy movie at the movie theater.
They watched a movie filled with all kinds of clichés and proven humor codes for 1 hour and 58 minutes, holding hands.

It’s embarrassing to have such feelings about such a mass-produced movie… but the ending was touching and very fun.

It was a precious time because it was so ordinary and not special.

Throughout the date, Dorothy never mentioned the word proposal.
Siwoo also knew Dorothy well, so he probably knew that Dorothy had noticed, but he didn’t show any signs of it.

Knowing but pretending not to know, and trying to deceive while knowing that they are being deceived.
That day, Dorothy and Siwoo’s date was a date in such a silly play.

It was almost dinner time.

“Let’s go to the place I’ve booked for dinner.”
“That’s my Darling! You have a plan!”

Siwoo glanced at his watch and took Dorothy to a nice restaurant nearby.

She was so confused that she didn’t even remember what the course was because she was wondering if he would take out a ring with wine here.

However, Siwoo’s expression, which was also subtly nervous, was etched in her memory like an engraving.

In the end, there was no proposal with a congratulatory song sung by the restaurant staff, and they headed home after a walk – shopping – movie – dinner.

“……”
“……”

The place they were going home to was not Gehenna, but the apartment where Dorothy had stayed for a while when she was resurrected.

Like a couple who had a few drinks and were going to a motel-filled alley with implicit consent and shyness.
Neither Siwoo nor Dorothy said anything, and they headed to their home.

As they got closer to the apartment, Dorothy couldn’t help but laugh as she saw Siwoo becoming more and more conscious of his coat.
A laugh that was inevitable because she was so happy.

“Come in. Don’t be too surprised?”
“……”

As soon as they got on the elevator and opened the door, they saw a scene that was all too predictable.

A procession of short candles leading from the dark entrance to the living room, red rose petals scattered here and there.
A fresh flower arrangement on the sofa and heart-shaped helium balloons attached to the ceiling.

It was so predictable that it was like something an AI drawing program would output if you entered the prompt ‘proposal event’.

“Oh my~ What is all this, Darling?”

She said it as if she was joking, but she realized that her voice was terribly muffled.
She had expected it all. Like a fool again.

In the middle of the living room, in the middle of the heart-shaped candles, Siwoo knelt on one knee and took out a ring case from his pocket.
So he had put it in that inside pocket.

And then, showing a diamond ring that was a pair with Dorothy’s necklace, he asked.

“Dorothy, will you marry me?”
“……”

Dorothy quietly.
She looked at the ring sparkling in the flickering candlelight.

In the silver shimmer of the ring, the question she had occasionally asked herself was replayed.

What is life?

It wasn’t that she wanted to become a great witch who didn’t have to fear anything, as the incantation ‘Do not be afraid’ said.
It wasn’t that she wanted to become a mythical merchant who controlled the prices of the arms black market and made large-scale supply contracts with various governments.

But she lived as a witch and as a merchant because she didn’t know what else to live for.

But now she knows the answer.
The meaning of this life is enough if she can be a wife loved by a kind fool.

The joy that bloomed in her heart, even though she knew all about the event, proclaimed.

“Darling… if you do this… I’m going to cry…”
“Dorothy, you’re beautiful even when you cry.”
“You’re going to make me cry… in bed later too…”
“……”

Siwoo smiled bitterly at the joke she blurted out without realizing it, embarrassed to show how happy she was.

“Darling, put it on for me. Here.”

Dorothy pouted and held out her hand, and the ring was placed on the ring finger of her left hand.
The moment Siwoo’s hand was about to move away, Dorothy’s hand grabbed his.

“Really~ If Darling melts me like this, I can’t help it, can I? I’ll have to cry ‘moo moo’ again.”

Dorothy, who had thrown Siwoo onto the sofa, grinned slyly.

“Dorothy? Are you doing it right away? I’ve already drawn a bath?”

Siwoo was bewildered by her quick recovery, as if she had never sobbed. The fool she loved the most, the meaning and reason for her life, the person who would be her first and last.

“Take it off!”

A woman who takes off her clothes right after receiving a romantic proposal…
Is this something that will get her criticized for being a mood killer?

But it can’t be helped.

It’s Darling’s fault for making her love him this much.