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I wanted to make it special if possible, but not wanting to ruin the wedding, I ultimately chose another way.

The ring cuts a bit off the budget. I don’t rely on promotions or anything like that. It’s not that it’s bad, but I just wanted to do it my way.

The same goes for the wedding venue.

I thought about the people who would sincerely celebrate our marriage.

In this world, I have no family. The only ones I have are the orphanage where I grew up, the teachers there, and the children.

The magical girls were friends who would risk their lives to protect each other, but that was really it.

I still wanted to be congratulated by those I spent my childhood with.

“A wedding at the orphanage?”

“…Is that not allowed?”

Of course, I should also hear the opinions of the other kids.

The proposal is easy; I just need to choose a suitable place and a fitting gift, but for the wedding venue, I needed to properly discuss it with the girls who would become my wives after the proposal.

They might be dreaming about walking in beautiful white wedding dresses in stunning venues, receiving congratulations from numerous people, and carrying expensive floral arrangements.

If my three brides wanted that, I would think about giving it to them.

But if they allowed it, I would like to hold the wedding here, in the place that allowed me to fully spend my childhood.

And to do that, I needed to get some prior permission.

“I see. This is practically your home.”

The teacher, who was a bit older than when I was a high school student, said that.

She said it so readily that I was momentarily at a loss for words.

“I can’t say you haven’t caused any trouble, though.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay; they’re kids, after all. Besides, all of this being operated is thanks to you. Isn’t that right? There’s still a lot of donations left, so whenever something gets old or broken, we can fix it or replace it right away. Though we still keep an emergency fund just in case.”

“That’s a relief.”

I’ve caused quite a bit of trouble here, too.

“…”

The teacher looked at me quietly for a while and then suddenly said,

“Thank you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Thank you for thinking of this place as home. I am genuinely happy about that.”

“…”

“There was a time when I thought you might just want to escape from here due to various reasons.”

“No, I never thought that.”

Not all orphanages are like this.

I can say with certainty that there are places where the teacher embezzles funds for operation and abuses children. There are also certainly orphanages where teachers don’t care about teaching and protecting the children.

But I never felt that way about this place.

The room that I used to share with Ji-hye was genuinely comforting to me. I even thought of wanting to return to that room several times while wandering around outside.

“Until I became an adult, this was definitely my home. Ji-hye probably feels the same way… In fact, I’m the one who is grateful. I have always received help from you. I will remember it for life.”

“Right, I hope you’ll repay that by helping other kids who need it more than me.”

The teacher said that almost jokingly.

At those words, I had to hold my mouth shut to refrain from crying.

*

About two weeks later, as the summer vacation at university was coming to an end, I finally found a silver shop with Cherry.

It was a bit different from the hotel we had visited before. It wasn’t a super shabby place, and there were indeed many customers, but it didn’t quite have that luxurious atmosphere.

You could say it felt more like a wholesale store.

“It’s probably accurate.”

Cherry said.

There wasn’t any private service like at that hotel, but I wasn’t too concerned about the eyes on me while buying rings, knowing that I had already found a place where I could get married without worrying about other people.

I actually preferred it this way rather than advertising the wedding itself.

Above all, most of the people here were like me, just coming to choose rings, so they wouldn’t particularly engage with me.

Seeing that made me feel a bit more relaxed. Phew, I was unnecessarily tense.

“Ji-eun, Ji-eun.”

While I was choosing rings in front of a staff member, Cherry pulled at my sleeve.

“Yeah?”

I looked at Cherry, and she was pointing with her hand beneath her at something on the glass display.

“How about this?”

What she pointed at was a bracelet with a slight reddish tint.

It wasn’t bright red, though. It had a texture and vibe like gold, with a slight pinkish hue—a bracelet like that.

“It’s pretty.”

“Your taste is excellent! I’m sure it would suit the customer very well!”

The quick-witted staff member quickly opened the display and took out the bracelet. It was a bit big for Cherry, but the owner said it could be adjusted, so she held it up against Cherry’s arm.

“It suits you.”

I said that sincerely. The design, being rather simple, suited her even better.

“ Squeak.”

While I was momentarily distracted by fitting the bracelet, I heard the un-translated squeaky adult language in my ear. But just looking at her expression, I could tell that Cherry really liked it.

Cherry chose a rose gold one for herself and a platinum one for James.

Honestly, I had thought about a similar ring for the rose gold color, but I gave up, thinking that only Ha-yoon would suit it.

Since I was getting rings for all three of them, it would feel like I was thinking about only one person if Ha-yoon wore pink, or if all three wore pink rings.

Besides, Ha-yoon’s hair is only pink; her skin is quite fair. I thought that shade might stand out too much on that pale skin.

“…Could you show me this one?”

Instead, I pointed to a platinum ring, inspired by the other color Cherry had chosen.

“You have excellent taste as well.”

As expected, the staff was smiling pleasantly again.

“Colors like this suit people with fair and pretty skin like yours very well. Do you have any particular stones in mind?”

“Um, then how about a diamond…”

“In that case, this one—”

The staff member showed me ring after ring without any sign of disliking or being bothered by my other requests.

While I couldn’t buy anything too expensive, I was about to choose something quite pretty, and then—

“Could you tell me the finger size of the person you’re buying for?”

“…Ah.”

That’s right.

Finger sizes vary for everyone.

I have plenty of memories holding hands with Ha-yoon, Ji-eun, and Jua, but I had never thought about the size while holding them.

“I can adjust the size for you, so how about making a reservation first?”

“Then I’ll do that.”

I felt my face get a bit warm as I replied like that.

*

“Ji-eun.”

While watching a movie in the theater, Ha-yoon called me very quietly.

“Uh, yeah?”

“Why are you touching your finger so much?”

Without even looking at the movie screen, Ha-yoon leaned towards me and whispered.

I was a bit flustered by how the other customers didn’t seem to care at all.

No, well… I mean, Jua and Ji-hye are sitting next to us, but they all just randomly chose seats near me.

…It’s embarrassing to admit that I couldn’t get the ring because I didn’t know the finger size after going to buy it.

More than that, it was also a secret that I was trying to buy a ring in the first place. I wanted to surprise the kids.

“Right? You’ve been touching my hand a lot since earlier. Isn’t that a bit much?”

Ji-hye, who had raised her arm and was clinging to me, whispered.

Are you guys even watching the movie?

I may not have been watching either.

“…I guess you’re not curious about my hand.”

“Of course, I am curious.”

Jua, who was behind me, leaned forward and placed her hand on my head as she spoke, making me respond in disbelief.

By the way, even though you’re sitting at the back, is this okay? Ah, I guess it’s not popular, so there aren’t many people around since it’s a weekday afternoon.

“…Let’s all watch the movie, the movie.”

Because everyone started talking to me before I could focus and remember, I ended up giving up on trying to measure the size.

Ugh, this is more difficult than I thought.

How on earth am I supposed to figure it out?

…Is there something like a point of measurement for finger thickness? If there were, I could ask them outright without embarrassment.

It’s amazing that such convenient things weren’t created by those great companies with amazing marketing skills. Just focus on making these kinds of things instead of splitting a cake on a day like this!

 

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