Tale of Our Love // Pucca (EXTENDED)

Chapter 6

Apparently, they ran out of potatoes, courgettes, garlic, cucumbers, scallions, daikon, and onions. It was a special holiday, so all of the stores and businesses were closed for one entire day. Jae-geun and his brothers were the only ones who refused to go on a vacation. With all of the stores closed, Garu, Pucca, and Daisuke had to head over to the rural areas of Sooga to gather their ingredients. They already knew from the get-go that this was going to be a challenging task. Who would even plant these things in the middle of nowhere, without thinking of eating it?

They managed to grab a handful of onions and daikon, but they could not find any sight of the other ingredients just yet. The forest that they were in was a gigantic one. It may take them an entire day to roam around this place. Pucca was happily chirping along, Garu couldn't get rid of his shyness, and Daisuke laughed at the sight of the two kids playing around. Even so, there was no sight of the vegetables they were attempting to find at all. It was like they had completely vanished into thin air, disappearing without a trace.

Without even realizing it, they reached one of the most confusing areas of the forest. This area was quite peculiar; one wrong mistake and you could be separated from your group. It was like a maze, except maybe even a maze would be less confusing than this. It took a while for both Pucca and Garu to realize that the both of them had been separated from Daisuke. They kept roaming around the forest for a while, until Garu suddenly called for his father, having found a plant that looked like a potato, excpet he wasn't sure if it was really a potato or not.

Yet, he couldn't find a sign of his dad anywhere.

"W-Whaaa?!" Garu exclaimed. "Where did my dad go?!"

"What? Did we get separated from him?" Pucca gasped. "No way! Daisuke-appaaaaa!"

"It can't be..." Garu whimpered. "Daddy, nooo..."

Pucca was surprised by Garu's next action, which was collapsing onto the floor and sobbing his eyes out. He covered his eyes with his fingers, not even ashamed to be crying in front of someone else anymore. Though he had been more than embarrassed to talk to Pucca, she was the only one who he could rely on as of the moment.

Pucca knelt down in front of the crying boy, trying to look for a way to calm him down. Whenever she cried in front of her older siblings, they always brought her candy or many other sweet treats in order to cheer her up. Unfortunately, without her magic, there was no way she could do that for Garu. The only thing she could rely on was the movies she watched and the books she read. There were a few scenes where one character comforted another character who was scared out of their wits. Maybe she should try that.

"Erm... Garu-oppa," Pucca stated. "It's okay. We'll meet your father soon..."

"But what if we don't?" The crying boy asked of her. "We're lost, and this forest is bigger than you think! It's bigger than even Sooga village as a whole!"

Yeah, she knew how big this forest was. She always caught sight of it whenever she watched over the village of Sooga. It had been around for years and years already, and everyone knew of this forest. Since the forest was really big and anyone could get lost, parents often told their kids about a scary myth (that was never even true).

"We will make it back!" she pumped her fist in front of her chest, trying to assure her new-found friend that she was going to get all four of them out of the forest, no matter what it took. "Even if the entire world tells me that we won't make it out, I believe we'll make it out no matter what!"

Garu stopped making crying noises, but his eyes were still moist with tears. At least, even for a bit, she was able to calm him down. It seemed like he was finally eager to listen to her.