INSIDE THE BOX

Chapter - 3

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“Who even uses CDs these days?” The girl laughed lightly seeing her lover writing something in Thai on the CD using a marker.

“Then let’s make it look like then an old couple was living here, without really using too much of modernity here? Shall we?” The male leaned on the figure of the girl hugging from behind, leaning down to match the sitting male’s level.

“Ok, but what are you writing in Thai, you know that I don’t understand a single letter in that said script.” She rested her chin on the male’s shoulder while making guesses on what it might mean.

“Together, forever.” He whispered, but it was audible enough for her to hear.

“Is this about us?” She felt like she might choke onto her words so she tried to speak minimum.

“Yes, some of our random memories, I really want us to visit this place after years and relive it all, in an old-fashioned way while living in a modern era.”

“This is so cliché but why am I loving it?”

“I don’t know.” He finished writing it before putting their initials onto it, in English.

“Get ready, we’ll be leaving soon so be quick with this memory box of yours, I already kept what I wanted to preserve last night unlike you who is doing this an hour before we’ll be leaving this place.” She patted his back before leaving.

He got up quickly afterwards keeping that CD near that box because he still needed to do a final segment which he kept for the moment they’ll be leaving.

“Make sure to close the windows, that one stray cat has already broken 3 vases in less than 3 days. She might sneak in.” She yelled from the next room after suffering from that cat a lot.

“It’s just a cat honey”

~~~~~~~

“You seem off.” Ten noticed the silence Taeyong carried after making sure that everyone settled properly.
They were staying in one room after Yangyang decided to be staying with Johnny.

“These paintings, don’t you feel something about them? And the room Sooyoung and Seulgi is staying in had most of them. They even picked that room as soon as they explored the house without thinking much.” Taeyong wondered as he prepared the bed.

“It’s because the stuff inside that room gave her that home feeling she loves the most. This isn’t even the first time Yong.”

“Who?” Taeyong was confused, he thought it was their collective idea.
“Sooyoung”

****

The next morning after breakfast they all prepared for Ten and Yangyang to leave. They were able to attend their trip for only a day after their plans were cancelled because of Ten’s work emergency.

“Do you really need to leave this early?” Taeyong whined as he saw Ten packing his bags.

The fact that he barely could enjoy this time frustrated him. This was supposed to be their time without the work stress.

“Promise me that you’ll be alright.” Ten asked Taeyong who was staring deeply into one of the paintings hung on that wall as he finished writing something on a note before putting it in a drawer and continued packing.

“Huh?” Taeyong asked as he sniffed that painting.

“Aish! stop doing that.” Ten giggled as he made his way to Taeyong in their assigned room and hugged him from behind.

“These paintings, they make me wonder a lot.” Taeyong leaned his head towards the guy’s face who was hugging him, making their faces touching each other’s.

“Someone really loved their other half so much, it’s clear in these paintings” Ten looked at the painting before looking back at Taeyong.

“Tell me, will you be alright this week? All you need to do is call if you need me.” Ten rubbed soothing circles  on the latter’s belly slowly, almost like scratching a cat’s belly, making him purr as he kept on hugging him, finally getting his eyes off Yong and at the painting now.

“I’m going to miss this treatment for a week I guess.”

“Me too!”

“Hey Yong, this place is beautiful like I really have never felt this peaceful in any of the places I have ever visited. Let’s visit this place again in the upcoming time, just you and me together, secretly and make memories here.”

***

“We’ll miss you both, next time make sure to have more time with us, the rest of the people here are boring.” Sooyoung winked at Johnny who’s the next best mood maker of the group, he scoffed at her silently.

They all hugged before Yangyang and Ten got into the cab and all had to come back to their accommodation.

Ten really was the mood maker of the group, they sure were missing him from the moment he left.

“He’ll be back by the end of week from Thailand.” It was Johnny who took a slice of pizza from the box.

“But our trip here is like only 4 days more.” It was Sooyoung who whined, missing his presence already.

“Why are you whining so badly? We’ll meet him soon in Seoul after a few days.” Johnny teased silently, or that was what we all assumed earning a little nudge from Irene and an unnoticeable glare from Taeyong.

“Yah! Don’t look at me like that! He is the one with the best humor here, plus I needed some help in translating Thai.”

“You know we have Google translate in our phones these days.” Irene, next to her, joined Johnny as she high-fived him.

“Yeah, thanks for the advice, if only the writing of the person was readable enough. Even Google couldn’t do anything, it was that bad. Never mind, I’ll ask him on Kakao.” She took another slice of pizza after one.

****

They were back again exploring the box they discovered yesterday. Their sleep didn’t allow them to so yesterday so they decided to continue today.

“I just found this broken CD inside.” Seulgi showed her roommate a roughly cracked CD which seemed to be not in a condition to function, the moment she entered with a water bottle in her hand.

"Where did you find this? I didn’t see anything like this yesterday.” Sooyoung sat next to her as her interests peaked onto knowing what’s more is there to discover in that old wooden box.

They explored a little more before finding nothing more.

Slowly sleep was taking them over. After their little tour around the mountains before the said evening, they all were pretty tired anyways.

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