A curse

The sun had not come out yet and it was twilight. In a large room with wooden decoration and soft color, behind a large desk, a person with long curly hair in the color of night had fallen asleep and his drawing pen was still in his hand.

The table was full of drawing tools such as paper, pens and pencils. Also, a laptop and a digital design device that was still on can be seen.

On the computer screen, a half-finished black-and-white drawing was visible, showing that the curly-haired person had left it half-finished due to exhaustion and fell asleep.

The alarm clock on the table showed 5 am and at that moment it started ringing loudly.

The curly hair shook and raised his head. A part of his hair was removed from his face and a snowy skin with long and fluffy eyelashes, a budded lips, a flat bridge of the nose and a mole on his chin was revealed.

Curly hair slowly opened his eyes and looked at the clock with his bright blue eyes that were red from lack of sleep. He quickly reached for the clock to turn off the alarm, a thin and elongated hand appeared from under his long sleeve, neither too small nor too big. He cut off the bell and got up from the chair while his young face was still dazed like a young child and opened his eyes completely. His gaze was gentle and radiating a feeling of loneliness, and something dumb could be seen in its depth.

Finally, he woke up completely and his attention was drawn to the bright monitor, he stared at the half-half design for a few seconds and after writing a note next to the design, he turned off the monitor screen.

He yawned and left the room. His clothes were so long that from a distance he could be mistaken for the priests of the big church in town, yet his doll house slippers were still visible under his long clothes.

He entered the bathroom and the light turned on automatically. He washed his face with lukewarm water and shook his head and stared at himself in the big mirror in front of him.

Despite the long hair and delicate features of his face, which gave him a genderless face, after a little scrutiny and digging into his face, it became clear that he was a very handsome young man with an ethereal state.

He gave himself a weak smile in the mirror, his hand was shaking a little, he lifted it and placed it on the mirror, exactly where the image of his weak smile was reflected.

Welcome to your 30th birthday and don't forget that you are a law-abiding citizen!

His smile disappeared in the mirror and a layer of ice appeared in his always calm eyes. Today was his birthday and also ridiculously the date of his mother's death!

"Cherish love, but never sacrifice your life for it! Never forget this, my poor boy..."

These were the words of that poor woman who were repeated in his head every year at this time, even the voices of the indifferent and gossipy people she met every day in the orphanage.

"This is the woman's child who was the director of marriage registration center number 3"

"They even talked about it in the news! The woman decided to marry a man she was already in a relationship with by forging documents and entering false genetic information into the artificial intelligence."

"How shameful that idiot should have known that everyone is equal before the law and one day he will be exposed"

"Hush, bring your voice down, that poor child can hear"

"Poor kid? He's more like a curse that's never going to be removed from his life."

His temple was pulsating and the voices in his mind surrounded him and he was not far from a nervous attack.

If it was so bad, wouldn't it be better for him to die with his mother?

He was confused. He sat on the

ground and hugged his knees. Aram raised his head and stared at the bathroom door. The teardrops fell like pearls from his ocean eyes. After twenty years, this was the first time he shed tears.

Tears for his dead mother?

Because of the unpredictable changes that were going to happen in his life?

Or for the hidden and inexperienced feeling inside his heart?

"Meow"

A white cat with big gray eyes touched the boy's leg with its paws, as if to comfort him.

"Meow?"

The boy bent down and picked up the cat and held it in his arms.

"Ms. Delicia, you should be asleep now."

"Meow"

"I..."

Delicia bent down and licked the boy's tears with her tongue. The boy fell into awe and smiled deeply in disbelief while crying, as if a lost and kind sun shone on the snow in the winter.

"Okay, you win! I'll get you more canned food."

Delicia ran away from the boy's arms and rolled on the bed. The boy left the room and threw himself on the bed and took the cat in his arms and closed his eyes and took refuge in the arms of sleep without thinking about the next few hours.

The silver-colored intercity express train sparkled even without sunlight. The doors of the train opened and a young boy got off. He was wearing a cream colored turtleneck sweater with a long thin brown coat that reached below his knees. His curly black hair was tied back with a simple blue ribbon.

His face was cloudy just like the sky he was standing under.

[Marriage center number 7]

The boy went to the large, two-storey center with a glass front and paused for a moment in front of its entrance.

He took out his cell phone, "timothy kim" was calling.

"Timothy"

"Congratulations on your 30th birthday, Florence. Of course, I guess you haven't visited the forum and company page yet, and you haven't opened any of the congratulations and gifts, am I right?"

"Yes"

"The boss insisted that I should definitely call you, he was afraid that you would forget to go online again and your fans would call the National Security Organization again! Those boys and girls are very unpredictable and eager. They will be very worried if their favorite author is absent from his birthday party, which is held by the biggest publishing house of this kingdom!"

Timothy's laughter was heard from behind the phone. It was a young and lively voice in contrast to Florence's calm and cold voice.

Florence: "..."

"I called now as your manager to remind you of all these things, didn't I..."

Florence interrupted Timothy.

"I am in front of the marriage registration center and I am getting married today"

Timothy's laughter stopped and his tone became serious.

"That's right, today you turned 30 years old and finally you have to do your duty as a citizen..."

Timothy chuckled.

"Have you thought about the fact that you want to make the news of your marriage public and reveal your face to people after all these years? You know that whatever decision you make, I and the company stand behind you."

Florence swallowed and paused.

"No, I will not do this. I prefer to appear in all the news and media events with a ridiculous mask on my face for the rest of my life. I will not make the news of my marriage public, anyway, people don't even know that Exactly how old I am."

He said his next sentence so slowly 

that even he doubted its truth.

"No one should understand that the man who wrote the most popular stories in this kingdom is actually a curse!"

Florence smiled sarcastically, his tone mocking.

"Unless the Second Royal Prince, Oswald Leander, becomes my husband, then the news will spread like a bomb throughout the country and the boss can be happy about his stock multiplying. Don't you think so, Timothy?"

Timothy remained silent for a moment and the sound of his breathing could be heard from behind the mobile phone.

"You're thinking about him, right? That guy who's been working as your assistant for 5 years and none of us have even seen a picture of him! You fell in love with him, flo?"

His sarcastic smile disappeared and sadness settled on his face

"Love is something that can only be experienced in the stories left to us, we can only stone our hearts so that when we hold the hand of a stranger who has become our spouse, we can still feel alive, I'm a damn realistic person and you You know this too, tim, love is in stories, it belongs to past centuries that we can't dream of. You don't know, but it hurts me every time I talk to him about stories It hurts me, but this is really enough for me."

"Think about it! We will do everything we can for you, we will borrow and lend money so that you can pay your fine, you can suffer less..."

"I'll hang up"

He ended the call and put his mobile phone in his pocket and slowly entered the marriage registration center and stood facing the reception.

"Young man, can I help you"

The secretary, who was a middle-aged woman, gave him a kind look.

"Marriage Request"

"I understand. Please put the finger of both your hands there so I can confirm your identity."

Florence placed his delicate fingers on the sensor and a blue light began to scan it.

"Mr. Florence Elmer, 30"

"Yes"

The woman gave him an electronic card and sent him to a room at the end of the corridor to take blood tests and record genetic information.

Florence entered the blood collection room and sat on the chair. The technician took a syringe and gently drew blood from him.

"You are the first client today, Mr. Elmer. I hope you will be successful in your marriage, I wish you a good life together."

The woman smiled, but behind her smile was a hidden pain, something that had penetrated most people in this society.

Florence nodded and left the exam room and went to the waiting room. He took a deep breath and stared at the monitor that was playing images with his deep blue eyes. Pictures of people who married their chosen spouses in this center. Certainly some of them were happy, but most of them just accepted their fate. And now it was his turn.

"Cherish love but don't sacrifice your life for it"

He closed his eyes and waited for the fate that would shape his future.