Jinwoon woke up early the next day and ran out the door to meet his friends at the town’s movie theatre.

“Hey guys, I hope I’m not late. My mom made me eat breakfast even though there is a perfectly good café right there,” He pointed out with a laugh. Jonghyun pulled him into a bro hug as a greeting and laughed along with him.

“No problem, bro.  Come on, let’s go see if that girl is at her window,” Key laughed as he shrugged on his sling-bag.

 Taemin sighed in frustration, “She has a name you know!” He shouted and Jinki came up with a smile.

“Ignore them Maknae, just let them be,” He left Taemin’s side and joined the group of boys.

“Her name’s Desi,” Taemin pouted and before his friends could get out of his line of vision he ran to catch up with them.

Desi had been looking out her window, as she has been since she can remember when Taemin and his friends had come bounding up the small hill that led to the church.

Her eyes widened and she ducked back below the window ceil, in a futile effort to hide. The churning dread in her stomach hurt. She had no idea what was going on; she had never not wanted to see people as much as she did right now. 

She never normally wanted, or wished to be alone. All she ever wanted to do before the festival was go outside and enjoy being with people. But now everything’s changed; hiding and watching from afar are now her preferences.

“Desi? Desi are you there?” Taemin’s sweet voice made her ears prickly and her heart thump loudly.

“I…” she began, but clamped a hand over before she could reply.

Muffled whispers could be heard from her window, and she assumed that they had left.

“Hey guys, why don’t we just go in the church?” Jinwoon asks, already walking towards the church’s large double doors. The guys hadn’t thought of that. They began following him to the door, but before he could open it a woman beat him to it.

“Jinwoon?” She asked.

“Oh, Aunt EunAh; hi,” He said confused as to why she would be going to the church. It wasn’t Sunday was it?

“Jinwoon, what are you doing here?” She asked, truly confused as to why her brother’s oldest child would be going to the church on a Friday.

“I…uh, well can I not go to church? Wh-why are you here?” He asks, cursing himself for his stutter. Aunt EunAh had always frightened him to no end. She was always seducing men, and touching Jinwoon. It made him feel awkward that she was always overly nice to him.

His Aunt laughed brightly and opened the door, “Why don’t we go in together then?” Her eyes drifted over to Jinwoon’s friends, who froze under her gaze.

“Your friends can come along too,” She held the door open for him and motioned for his friends to come along. They all followed her into the large church.

The church was so much prettier on the inside. The stain-glassed windows, 50 pews, and lit candles were amazing, leaving the boys awe-struck.

Their footsteps echo throughout the church, each step sounding louder than the rest, “Let me just take care of something and then I will be right back,” EunAh smiled before disappearing.

“Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever been inside this church,” Jonghyun muttered to himself as he took in all the architecture of the old building.

“Or any church,” Key rolled his eyes and Jonghyun him in the arm.

Desi had been resting on her bed when her door suddenly opened to reveal her aunt. She released the choke hold she had on her pillow and smiled slightly.

“Hello, Desdemona; I have something for you,” EunAh had begun to dig through her purse when Desi spoke up.

“Thank you, but I don’t deserve it; I went outside against your wishes…” She turned away from the woman to peer outside the small window quietly.

EunAh clicked her tongue on the roof of and left the room, “If you change your mind, I left it at your doorway.”  Her voice ricocheted off the walls of the corridor that led to her small attic room.

Hands curled up into fists, her head resting on her knees, Desi hated the sound of disappoint in her aunt’s voice. She hated herself for letting her down, and not accepting her gift, and everything else that she did wrong.

But I won’t cry. I won’t let myself cry again…

Desi got up; the floor boards creaked with protest as she made her way out the door. Her feet barely touched the familiar stone steps that led to the bell tower of the church.

The scent of metal hit her in the instant she was in the tower. Desi smiled at the nostalgic feeling it gave her, she remembered it was up in this tower that she first learned about marriage.

“Now Desdemona, I need you to ring this bell at exactly noon today. Can you do that for me?”

The little girl of about seven stared at the jolly, old pastor in curiosity, “But, why do you need me to ring the bell?”

Ruffling her hair as he laugh, he led her to the small bench to the side of the biggest bell,” Two people are getting married!”

Desi scrunched her nose up, “Married? What’s married?”

The old man rubbed his stubbly chin in thought at the little girl’s question, “Married? Well when a man and a woman have known each other for a long, long time and love each other very much, the man comes to the woman with a ring and asks for her hand in marriage. If she says yes, then they get married under the words of God.”

Desi grabbed his hands and examined them for rings, she found one on his left ring finger, “Were you ever married?” 

The pastor picked her up and placed her on his lap, “I was married. Her name was JinEun; she was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Her eyes lit up when she smiled, her laughed would always be contagious, and she could make friends easier than anything.” Desdemona remembered how his eyes had glazed over as he spoke so highly of his wife.

“She sounds amazing! Can I meet her, please?” She jumped up and down in excitement. He placed her on the ground and bent down to her level.

“Well, JinEun-ah is with God in heaven having the time of her life,” He explained and no more had to be said at that moment as her too-long-for-a-seven-year-old arms wrapped around his neck and she felt his warmth.

“I’ll ring the bells for the people, but I will also ring the bell for JinEun.” She had said in a sort of finality that only a child could, “I hope she can hear them from heaven,” She had ended it softly. The pastor had smiled and left the bell tower for the ceremony that Desi had watched through the cracks in the floor.

The woman had come down the aisle in a stunning white dress that was decked out with lace and jewels. Her eyes had been filled with tears and with the way she had looked at the man, Desi knew it was love.  The look he was giving her made shivers run up and down her spine; he was overjoyed and completely star struck.

Oh how she wanted someone to look at her like that, she had thought as she rung the bells for the happy couple. The woman looked back at the bell tower with a smile and Desi could have sworn she locked eyes with her. The woman’s look softened and she cried and cried some more out of the happiness she had with her new husband.

Desi wanted to know how that felt.

Desi rolled her eyes as she walked on the beams that served as half the floor of the bell tower, “Like that would ever happen,” She mumbled bitterly and made her way over to the smallest bell that they normally rung for deaths.

Long fingers leaving trails through the thick blanket of dust that had rested on the bell as Desi walked past it to the middle bell. She rests her forehead on the cool metal of the bell and sighed.

Before she could think, the rope was in between her hands and she was yanking as hard as she could. The bells—all three of them—began to rock back and forth, creating the harmonic ringing that only church bells could. Today they seemed a bit too melancholy.

A monster ringing church bells… how cliche.