Rapunzel, an unfortunate girl who was locked up in her mother's house without being allowed to go outside at all for no apparent reason.
Alice and I were standing in front of her tall house, her room was on the third floor and the windows were tightly shut.
"Can I shoot the window?" I asked, and Alice immediately elbowing me as if I'd asked the stupidest question in the world.
"Of course not, you idiot!" she scolded me, "If her mother finds out, it will be even more difficult for us because she will be even stricter!" She whispered as loudly as possible so we wouldn't get caught.
But behind the window curtain, I saw an eye staring at us from above. "She's seen us," I said, causing Alice to jump in surprise.
"We've been spotted?!" She quickly looked up and saw a girl peeking from behind the curtain with a curious expression.
It was Rapunzel peeking from behind the curtain, I can see her black eyes from down here, Alice then flashed a fake smile and waved enthusiastically at the girl with long blonde hair.
Realising she'd been spotted, Rapunzel immediately closed the curtains. I could already imagine Alice's annoyed expression—but, oh, she didn't show any signs of irritation at all.
She actually looked... understanding?
That was unusual.
"She won't show herself to us again until tomorrow, let's go," Alice said, her feet starting to move to leave the residential complex.
I followed her from behind, and for a moment I was very curious, "What makes you so sure?" I asked, but instead of answering, she gave me a long silence.
Well... she's the smart one here, I can't protest.
The next day.
As we walked quietly on the pavement, Alice, who was walking behind me, suddenly pushed me. "Huh?" She then ran past me, laughing.
"You're it! Come and chase me!" She pointed at me—There were two possibilities: she was either crazy or drunk, but since the rules don't allow minors to drink alcohol, she must be crazy.
"Hey! Why, are you just going to stand there?" she asked. "You're really no fun, Red!" She was acting like a child.
I glanced over and saw a pair of dark eyes peering down at us, and we could see a smile on her face; she looked amused and curious at the same time.
Ah, I see.
"Cheating, I'm not ready yet," I said, but it only made Alice look annoyed.
She ran up to me and whispered, "Can you act any better than that? Your tone is too flat, even a child could tell," she complained, nudging me in the side.
We both glanced at Rapunzel, who seemed more entertained. "She's probably dumber than a child," I whispered, and Alice couldn't argue with that.
"Ugh... wave your hands," Alice said and lifted my hands before waving them.
We both waved at Rapunzel, who immediately closed the window curtain again.
Before long, she opened the curtain and waved her hand, her face showing worry and fear.
Alice released my wrist and waved more enthusiastically, then Rapunzel waved back even more enthusiastically.
They waved for quite a long time. "Do you want to do this all day or what?" I asked, because I was getting sick of seeing Alice's fake happy expression.
The next day, Alice and I walked back to Rapunzel's house, but this time we brought pieces of paper with our names on them.
When we arrived, we saw that Rapunzel had already opened her curtains and was looking at us with excitement, as if she had been waiting for us to arrive.
Alice then showed her piece of paper that said, "My name is Alice!" And Rapunzel read it with a happy smile.
I then showed her my piece of paper that said "My name is Red" and Rapunzel tilted her head in confusion.
"She seems confused as to why your name is orange." Alice grinned and glanced at me.
"It's Red." I replied.
When we looked back at the window, Rapunzel was gone, but she returned shortly afterwards and showed us a piece of paper with writing on it.
"What does the paper say? I can't see it," Alice narrowed her eyes, the writing on Rapunzel's paper was quite small.
She turned to me, motioning for me to tell Rapunzel what was written on the paper. I turned and focused my eyes on the paper in Rapunzel's hand. After reading it, I paused for a moment.
Finally, I sighed and said, "She says her name is Rapunzel—
—and she is happy to meet us."