379 Under the Moonlight and Fireworks

"There are so many," Emily complained as she held the large plastic bags full of toys she won as prizes from the games. Almost all of it had been won by Alex.

It didn't have a single major prize, however.

"I keep telling you to let me carry it. Why are you being so stubborn?" Alex asked.

"But these are so cute. I don't want to let go of them yet," Emily said in a childish manner. She was acting more and more freely around Alex now.

Alex was the same. He had lost a lot of awkwardness he had around her when they had first started being friends.

"How about this? Let's both carry it then," Alex said and reached for her hand holding the prizes. Emily's hand tightened for a second before letting loose. She opened it enough that Alex could slip his fingers through her hand and grabbed it.

Now they were both carrying the prizes.

"How many tickets do you have?" Alex asked.

Emily quickly checked and said, "Around 300."

"Hmm, let's go check out the concert then," Alex said and took her around. Thankfully, the festival area was set in a similar way to the one from his village, so he knew the general direction of where he should go to.

There was also the loud music that helped navigate directly to the concert.

The people singing in the concert were local singers and bands that came onto the stage one after another. Alex found a clean place on the ground and sat there with Emily.

They tried to talk a few times, but the sounds were too loud to speak to each other. So, they just stopped talking and enjoyed the show.

By the time they left the concert, it was very dark and was past evening.

"We have half an hour left before we need to return back to the hotel," Emily said as she checked her watch.

"Oh, let's go to the Ferris Wheel then," Alex said.

"Mhmm," Emily nodded.

The lights looked much brighter now that the sun was down and darkness reigned all around. The number of people had also significantly increased.

They finally reached the Ferris Wheel only to find a long line of people waiting for their turn.

"Damn, how long do we have to wait for?" Emily asked. They only had maybe another 20 minutes before they had to start returning back.

Alex looked at the Ferris wheel. "It seems like a 2 person Ferris wheel. We might have to wait for another 10 minutes considering how many people there are," he said.

The Ferris Wheel was quite large and had around 30 compartments. So, in total it held 60 people every ride. It spun around for 5 minutes per person, so Alex deduced that the 100-ish people in front of him would be gone in 10 minutes.

The Ferris Wheel came to a stop and more people got it before it started spinning. It was quite fast for the first 2 minutes then slowed down to replace a few compartments at a time.

"Oh wow, that looks quite scary," Emily said.

"Yeah, I only got on a similarly large Ferris Wheel in the amusement park in the city. Otherwise, I'm only used to small ones that have maybe 10 compartments in them.

"This will be my first time getting on such a large one too," Emily said.

Finally, after 10 minutes, they got to get on the Ferris Wheel. Alex and Emily sat side by side as the staff locked them securely.

They felt a jerk as the Ferris wheel slowly started moving. As it went up, it was slow too from adding all the different people below them.

It took them nearly a minute to start, and by that time, Alex and Emily were high up in the air.

"Woah! We are at least 150 meters high, aren't we? Urgh, I'm regretting it now. I can't look down," Emily said as she closed her eyes.

"Why did you even insist on coming here then?" Alex asked.

"I- I like the feeling of freefall when we go down," Emily said with her eyes closed and her hands holding the bar in front of them really hard.

Alex placed his hands on top and said, "It's okay, just lookup. Look at the moon."

Emily nodded and slowly opened her eyes and looked up. "Oh, it's a full moon today," she said as she finally paid attention to it now.

The Ferris Wheel suddenly sped up, and the two were pulled back in free fall.

"Aaaah!" Emily cried out loud. Alex laughed out loud too. Their screams and laughers were lost in the dozens of others that screamed and laughed too.

The wheel reached the top at the same speed and dropped once more. This happened a few times more and then it slowed down again.

People were starting to leave behind Alex's compartment.

He and Emily on the other hand were going to go for a full slow climb and fall before they had to leave for the others.

"This is quite fun," Alex said.

Emily looked towards him and nodded.

BTOOM BTOOM BTOOM

Both of them looked towards the distant sky and smiled. The fireworks were being set off in the distance.

"Such perfect timing," Alex said.

"Yes, we couldn't have gotten a better viewing spot," Emily said.

The sky got bright from all the fireworks and the lights illuminated their faces in the night sky. The multicolored fireworks were a sight to behold.

While Emily had all of her attention on the fireworks, Alex fell into thought.

'It's now or never.'

He lightly squeezed Emily's hand to get her attention. "Emily," he called out.

"Yes?" she said as she turned around.

"Will you go out with me?" he dropped the question.

Emily's face changed emotions like a chameleon. At one moment she looked stunned, at another moment she was surprised, then she was skeptical, and then nervous and happy. Finally, she blushed and said, "Yes."

Alex was elated. He was really happy to hear her accept his proposal. He looked at her blushing face and decided to go for it as well.

Under the moonlight and fireworks, he leaned in towards her. Emily saw him coming too and got nervous, so she closed her eyes.

While Emily had her eyes closed, Alex kept his open. As he got closer, Alex could see the shape of her eyelashes, could see the shade of her skin, could smell the fragrance of her perfume, could feel her breath on his face, and could see her soft lips.

He placed his lips on top of those very lips, and he kissed her.