Rykar Ryker wonders about romance

Short white hair. Wavy. Bright blue eyes hidden behind the frame of a pair of circular glasses. You can usually find her at her home in Altlan City but she won't answer the door unless she knows you by at least your first and last name.

Middle names were unimportant.

In the case of someone not having a last name or a name in general they could always simply grant themselves one before considering knocking on the cherry door Number 4 of Mastlin Avenue.

This habit was not one that only Rykar did as the youngest followed very much in her sister's footsteps. The main difference being that while one would consider you even if you knocked without a name at hand the other would rather close the door and return to their activity. That would be including the underrated activity of 'nothing', which was what most of them were usually doing.

If home is not an option then the next best place would simply be at her university. However, most would be surprised how her pale hair colour and similar coloured tone of skin would not be enough to spot her in the crowd. Thousands of students pass through the university every day, all day. Most of them might take a moment to direct you in her general direction, if they know her, while the majority would simply send you on your merry way without sparing a second glance. So, unless you know her, there really is no point in searching her out.

That is the problem that the Candymaker came across when making their way through the street, collecting signatures in order to stop the government from removing The Day of Hearts from the calendar.

Removing the day from the calendar merely includes pretending as though the day, May 04, was just as normal as any other day without a holiday and not making it so that each year had only 363 days rather than the normal three hundred and sixty four.

The Candymaker so far had succeeded in collecting signatures from every member of the households they visited. The heels of their black low shaft, tight ankle boots clicked against the pavement. The bright pink clipboard in their arms in stark contrast against the long black coat, white trousers, and black shirt they wore.

There was confidence in their walk.

Their slightly pink cheek held up high as their fingertips of the same colour held onto the clipboard with joy. And soon they found themselves standing before the cherry red door of Number 4.

They turned their head to the right, and to the left, noticing the strange garden that surrounded the house. A piece of art that had been there long before the house had been constructed upon it. The Candymaker thought it odd, finding it too unique for that specific road and wondering if the family had considered moving their land somewhere else. Somewhere where cherry red doors were not unique and big tourist attractions like gardens would not be considered a nuisance by those around them.

Their finger rose and pulled at one of the two strands of hair longer than the rest, reaching their chest while most of the waves cascading down their head stopped just a single finger below the back of their neck. The finger twisted the piece of hair, slightly undoing the white string tied around it. With a deep breath they settled themselves before the door. Their back straight, their chin high, their smile wide, and their emerald eyes full of life. Without thinking twice the finger on their hair reached for the doorbell, announcing their arrival.

It took fifteen seconds. The Candymaker counted each and every single one of them. In the foreground they then began to hear someone moving and soon after the door opened. A small tiny girl with long white hair reaching her waist of about thirteen or fourteen opened the door. Her eyes narrow and her expression bothered. "Name?" The child, whom we- dear reader- know to be Aimen Ryker, asked.

"Good evening. I am the Candymaker and I have-" The Candymaker began to say before the door was suddenly slammed shut, cutting them off mid sentence.

The speech they had prepared and delivered hundreds of times not given the chance to shine. They stood in front of the door, their lips still trapped in between the words they had prepared. Their expression frozen between 'polite' and 'bewilderment' with just a tinge of 'annoyed' along the eyebrows. With a deep breath they reached out and rang the doorbell once more.

This time, instead of the door being unlocked a small piece of wood, in the shape of a window barely the size of a palm, was removed. "What?" Aimen called through the opening.

"Is there anyone else in the home I can talk to?" The Candymaker asked, attempting to keep their tone sweet and gentle. Making the mistake of talking down to Aimen as if she were a child. Which she was, but few children like being reminded of that fact.

"What's your name?" Aimen said, leaning against the door and stretching out her arms. "If you don't have one just go. We don't trust people without a name."

"I'm the Candymaker." The Candymaker stated.

"That's not a name. That's your profession. A profession cannot be a name." Aimen told her, shaking her finger through the opening. "My sister is an unemployed student yet she doesn't go around introducing herself as such. For one, imagine how shameful that would be. For two, what if she were to change careers in the future? Would she be known as 'The Formerly Unemployed Student' or by her new career? That would be confusing. Besides, I don't know which candymaker you have. There's hundreds upon thousands of them around the world. If they are all The Candymaker then how will I be able to tell one from the other."

"By appearance would be annoying." The girl continued. "There's plenty of people who might share your looks. Maybe going off by your city of birth since there might be plenty of people who work in similar cities or towns."

"However, if two babies are born in the same town and end up with the same profession one would have to differentiate by personality or looks. In which case maybe looks would be more efficient, but my sister says that people are not fond of others calling out specific features." Aimen continued. "It could be by clothing or maybe some number. My sister is at times called out by her student number but once she leaves school that number will be given to someone else. What will she use to identify herself as then?"

"May I talk to someone else." The Candymaker stated, causing Aimen to turn towards the opening and stare at them through it. The girl's eyes suddenly all too invested in the person standing before their door.

The child shrugged. "That depends." The door returned to its original state and the Candymaker was left debating whether or not they would try once more.

They could feel the eyes of neighbours peeking at them through their curtains, people who had already granted their signature and therefore had only curiosity in their hearts. It was obvious to them the reason behind the cherry red door refusing them was due to the lack of name. Whether they agreed, or not, was up to each member of every household. The general consensus being that the youngest child of the cherry red door was the one currently answering the door and so the Candymaker was better suited to simply walk away.

A single figure walked towards the cherry red door. Black sneakers landing onto the pavement in measured steps, avoiding to step on the lines underneath her feet. The person stopped a few meters away from the door to her home, noticing the person standing in front of it with a bewildered look upon his face.

Rykar Ryker had been at school up until then, when she found herself walking down the street with her eyes focusing on the pavement every couple of minutes in order to make sure she was walking properly. Her school bag slung over her shoulder, the books inside it remaining silent and the single keychain on her bag shifting from side to side with her movements.

She stopped, wondering whether or not it was worth her time to go up to the person and start a conversation. Her teacher had spent most of the day berating her and as such she was too tired to listen to anyone else who might complain about anything. That was, until, she noticed the pink clipboard being held.

"May I help you?" She called out, continuing her way to the cherry red door and stopping a few moments from it.

The Candymaker turned towards the person that had suddenly approached them. "Are you from the household?" Their tone found itself slipping from polite to annoyed.

"Yes." Rykar said. "Is that a petition?"

The Candymaker looked down at their clipboard, prompting a smile across their lips. "Yes. I have come here to inform you of-" Her speech was interrupted by Rykar taking the clipboard from her hands.

Her fingertips removed the pen from the clipboard, twirling it around. "Petition Against the removal of The Day of Hearts." Rykar read. "The holiday or the day itself? It's starting to get hard keeping track of all the days being added and removed. I still haven't recovered from the removal of Friday."

"No one has." The Candymaker said, finally capable of smiling in relief. "This is the removal of the Holiday, rather than the day."

Rykar tapped the pen against the clipboard. "I'm slightly conflicted." She said. "On one hand I love signing forms. On the other hand I don't really care much about the removal of Holidays as much as for the removal of days. Adding holidays on the other hand is much more problematic than the removal of them. It's exhausting having to remember what is celebrated each day, such as yesterday that I forgot it was National Lemonade day and had no cash on me to buy someone a lemon. My younger sister is much more efficient than I am at keeping track of all the holidays, but she works with animals so it only makes sense for her to do so."

The Candymaker felt their stomach sink, their expression freezing in an awkward smile. Despite their urge to leave the room and make their way to other homes they had suddenly become all too invested in the family behind the cherry red door. They would get the signatures, even if their life depended on it. "The day is important to more than half the population of Altlan. Thousands of couples propose on the day, without it- when would they find the opportunity to propose to one another."

"My sister's fiancé proposed without the holiday. Can they not do the same? Why wait until a holiday?"

"Could I speak to your sister?" The Candymaker said with a sigh, hoping that the sister she spoke off was not the one who had refused to open the door. "Or could you sign the petition just for those who want the holiday to remain a holiday."

Rykar took a moment to think. "I suppose I could sign for others rather than myself. My sister isn't at home yet so if you don't mind waiting that would be suitable. However, before I offer you my home I need to know your name."

The importance of a name was beginning to bother the Candymaker, who had never thought of obtaining one. They had always been called 'child' up until the moment the previous Candymaker, their father, departed from their home to be never seen again. Whether he took the train or merely walked out the front door on his own was only known to him.

"I'm the Candymaker." The Candymaker attempted once more, suddenly questioning whether the title was truly one that they deserved. If the title wasn't considered good enough as a name then there would be plenty of paperwork they would need to file once they returned to their home.

"Candy Maker?" Rykar asked.

"I feel like you're misunderstanding me but sure. I'm Candymaker." They extended their hand but found that the girl would not take it.

Rykar frowned slightly but let her comment slide. "Well Candy, you might want to remove the 'The' from your name. Only I and another member of my family would let you in with a title rather than a name and even then, it is best to have a name." She made her way to the door and lifted the doorknob, placing her finger on the small scanner. "My sister should be here in about ten minutes or so. Maybe more. You know how it is with traffic nowadays. That's why I walk or bike or sometimes cry myself a river home."

The door opened, revealing a narrow hallway leading to some stairs. Aimen, of features too similar to her older sister making it so that they could be considered one if the same in different points in time, sat at the bottom of the stairs with headphones on. Her eyes narrowed turning towards the people making their way through the door. "You're not supposed to talk to strangers." Aimen complained. "Much less ones with professions as names."

"They have a petition for adults to sign." Rykar said, using her foot to push the younger sister out of the way before making their way up the stairs. Aimen moved out of the way, shifting in such a manner that would allow her to remain settled across the step. "If you don't mind making yourself at home in the living room, and the living room only." Rykar told the Candymaker before turning towards her sibling. "Pretend you're polite Aimen or I'll tell father you've been skipping your afternoon school lessons."

The girl sighed and dragged herself up. Offering their guest a glass of water while the look on her eyes said, in a not so literal way, "Ask me anything and you'll wish you had never been born in the first place."

Rykar walked to her room. She didn't really have a reason for it. Her belongings could have easily been placed in the living room. Instead she made her way up the stairs and into the room with her name engraved along the front, as if she were to one day forget which one belonged to her. You see, Rykar didn't like small talk. Most of her family didn't but, as most people know, common courtesy makes it so that the eldest in the room carries the conversation. Therefore, she would remain in her room for as long as humanly possible and hope that Caldera arrived home in time.

"I don't want to talk to them." A voice, belonging to Aimen, said. The young girl tossed herself onto the bed. "You can tell father and you can tell mother that I've been missing class. What will they do? Ground me?"

Rykar sighed. "You left a stranger in our home?"

"You're the one who let them in in the first place. Therefore, any emotional damage they might gain or provoke as well as anything they might still is not my problem." She sighed, covering her eyes with the back of her forehand. "I started a petition supporting the Day of Hearts cancellation. You can just go online to sign."

"Done." Rykar said, showing her sister the confirmation letter across her phone. "Your petition is not going to win, you know that don't you? And love wins again."

"Not love, just romance." Her sister shrugged. "I absolutely hate the holiday. All the pinks and the reds and the whites and blues. Even our street suddenly becomes lively on the day. Candy suddenly becomes extremely expensive and then unnaturally cheap." Rykar rolled her eyes, having heard her sister's discussion against the holiday one too many times before. She kept scrolling on her phone, settling near her sister. Neither of them cared all too much about the person they had left sitting in the living room, awkwardly waiting for anyone to walk up to them.

Rykar did as her sister asked of her, sending the petition to cancel the holiday to friends and family members. The responses she got were mostly disagreeing with it, although coming to the conclusion that it was something to expect from the youngest child. The girl who fell asleep at weddings, shrugged at love confessions, whose body shook when public declarations of love or romantic gestures occurred, and who showed no interest in anything other than the music she listened to and the books in her father's library.

"'What do you have against love?' Ruby asks." Rykar muttered, showing her sister the message.

"What does she have for it? Besides, not against love. I love mother and father and you and the others. I care for my friends. But romance? Romance is pretty lame in my opinion. Besides, I'm tired of the entire world stopping during the Day of the Hearts. With proposals happening every minute you're practically forced to stay in place until the girl either denies or approves and then you have to go up to them and congratulate them. One time a boy brought a horse to school to pretend he was a prince. The horse got spooked and destroyed the chocolate tower I had spent days working on."

Rykar laughed, remembering her sister's calls on the day. The panicked voice and her sister's friends telling her to calm down. "I SPENT TEN DAYS ON THIS! DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!" Her sister had screamed before the call had cut off. When the family arrived at the school Day of the Hearts festival Aimen was covered in chocolate, standing over a boy while being held back by her friends.

"You understand my pain, don't you?" Aimen asked, removing her headphones from her head and stretching her arms, her bones cracking as she did so. "Everyone says we're the same."

Her sister's words made Rykar stop to think. Unable to really form an opinion on the subject. Holidays in general bothered her, there was no preference if she preferred one over the other. "We are similar in some ways but different in others you know." She eventually said. "For example, you want no romantic relationships. I think I do."

Aimen seemed oddly enough surprised at her comment. "Do you even know what romance is?"

Rykar turned her gaze towards the sky. "Huh." Memories of her life flashed through her eyeballs, blinding her for a moment. The answer she was looking for became simply a single symbol- a question mark. "I think I know what it looks like." The proposals, the words, the couples holding hands, and the holiday itself. Her sister raised an eyebrow, questioning her. "But I guess I don't." She then made her way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Her sister asked.

"I'm going to talk to Candy."

"Candy?"

"Candy Mayker."

Her sister closed her eyes for a moment, once they opened she had no expression across her face and found herself simply shaking her hands. Telling her to leave and close the door on her way out.

The Candymaker, or Candy Mayker as they came to be known, was still in the living room. Their shoulders pulled back, their spine straight and their eyes focused on the thousands of family portraits lined up against the wall. All of them with a black frame and dates written underneath each one of them. Their leg shaking, uncertain whether the household was one where it was allowed to make themselves at home or whether she had to pretend remaining still as a statue was much more interesting than making her way back home.

"Have you ever fallen in love?" A voice called. Candy looked up and saw Rykar leaning against the opening to the living room.

Candy swallowed. "I have not."

"What's the interest in the holiday then? It is only for couples, it is merely for romance. So if you have neither what's your interest."

Candy sighed, running their fingers through their hair. "Profit." They eventually admitted.

Rykar stood there for a moment in silence before reaching for the clipboard with her fingertips. She signed the petition and handed it over. She had never planned on not signing. No one in the street would consider not signing a petition as they would all find glee in doing so. Signing for contradicting petitions was pretty common in the area and as such it was common to see several people walking down the road, clipboard in hand. Thousands of links were sent to the group chat- causing many to sign at times more than twice.

"Profit is fine." Rykar said. "Why have you never fallen in love?"

Candy took the clipboard back and her shoulders shrugged. "It just hasn't happened." Rykar remained silent for a while, eventually agreeing with a shake of her head and abandoning the Candymaker in the living room once more. If their country cared enough to implement the 'Rate your Host' app the Candymaker would've made sure to sign in and complain. However, few cared about it in their country and simply hid their disappointment through forced smiles. Candy allowed herself to close her eyes and nod off, expecting to be woken up when the other family members would arrive at her home. It was too strange to simply walk out of the home, especially now that she had spent too long inside the home.

"I want to fall in love." Rykar told the table. It had taken her a while before she finally had come to the conclusion that it would be best to include her family in her decision. Her phrase had caused the family and guest to grow silent. Her mother looked up at her, seeming somewhat confused by the sudden declaration. Aimen rolled her eyes and continued eating. Caldera smiled brightly and pulled out her list of candidates she had prepared in the event of her sister suddenly choosing to fall in love. Had Dextera been in the home she would've possibly joined Caldera in searching for a fiancé, all the while they found themselves asking about the sudden interest in love.

Candy Mayker, who had found themselves dragged along to dinner, simply closed their eyes and took a deep breath. Their fork poking away at the steak resting on their plate.

"Well, that's good." Her mother said. "Do you have any plans on how to do that?"

"Not really no." Rykar sighed. "How did you do it Caldera?"

Caldera shrugged. "He came up to me first. Maybe you need to get someone to approach you first. That's how it worked for mom as well, didn't it mom?" Their mother nodded. "You could wait for 'Singles Searching For Love' day and hopefully someone will come up to you. That's how a friend of mine ended up with her first, third, and seventh boyfriend."

"That all sounds great but that day has been cancelled until further notice." Rykar reminded her sister.

"Oh yeah, the icicle incident." Caldera nodded before shrugging her shoulders. "The old fashioned way it is then. Why do you want to fall in love? Wouldn't it be easier to simply not? You might not be a relationship kind of person."

Rykar frowned. "Why?"

Caldera shifted her head from side to side, placing her cheek a few inches away from her shoulders. "I don't know. You just don't seem like the kind of person who has relationships. Do you even have friends?" Rykar raised her finger in protest. "Other than Ruby." The finger went down, leading to a disappointed look across her eyes.

"Ok. How do I fall in love then?"

Candy sighed. "You can't wish yourself to fall in love." The family members turned towards them, surprised that they had suddenly spoken after spending most of the meal in silence. "That's not how love works."

"How does it work?" Rykar asked.

Candy wasn't certain how to reply. They themselves had never actually fallen in love, even if their company was responsible for most, if not all, the ads involving couples giving candy to one another. "It's all about the journey." They said, feeling as though it was important for them to speak. "The big gestures. The lengths you would go for someone."

Quiet fell over the family. Three of them lost in thought regarding her and the other one simply questioning the texture of the steak. "So you're saying she has to go on a journey." Caldora said, her fingertips tapping against the fork.

"No, not really." Candy muttered, raising their hands in a form of what they believed to be a warning for them to calm down. "I'm just saying that-" It was too late. Rykar had already gotten up and made her way to her room. "She's not actually packing her bags? Is she?" Candy muttered.

"She might need the winter coats." The mother said before standing. "Caldera, get your coat, the black one. Aimen please stop playing with your food." The family moved and soon Candy found herself at the door next to Rykar, who had packed most of her belongings onto a backpack slung over her shoulder and a bright red suitcase on wheels.

"What did I say that made any of you think this is a good idea?" Candy asked as Rykar hugged her mother goodbye.

"None of it." Caldera replied with a smile. "But father always said that it was best to go on a journey when there was something you were searching for. That's what Dextera and my fiancé are currently doing, it's only normal that someone like Rykar goes off as well."

There was reason in the argument and the family was not related to Candy by blood. Therefore they did not care much about the fact that the person named Rykar was currently departing on a trip as the sun set across the city. All they thought to do was offer Rykar a card, if they ever needed someone to talk to or a place to stay. "300 stores around the country and 20 abroad." Candy said before marching away, clipboard in hand. The signatures of all adults on the street scribbled across the paper. For anyone who cares about holidays and whether they were cancelled or not. The Day of Hearts proved too popular to be removed and as such was celebrated the following year without much trouble.