The third ballad (Kingdom's Louis Fanficiton)

3 - A lot of possibilities

Back home I sighed as I realized that I had forgotten about my laundry. I wanted to do it after breakfast. Well, that just meant I would have to do it now. After I threw everything in the washing machine, I wandered over to Seungbo's room and poked my head inside after knocking. "Hey, best cousin in the world?", I asked sweetly. He raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "What do you need?", he asked. "Can I use your laptop for the evening? Gotta check my mails and all that", I said. Seungbo sighed. But before he could answer, we suddenly heard Dongsik's voice. I flinched – he was out of my sight. "You can use my old one. I don't need it and actually wanted to sell it but haven't found a buyer yet", he said. I stepped in the room fully and finally found him on the couch behind the door once again. "That would be really helpful", I answered. "Sure, wait a second", he said and got up, wandering over to his bed and getting something from a box underneath it. But instead of handing it over, he passed by me and announced: "I will come along to the living room. It doesn't really make a difference if I sit here or there except that Seungbo will be mad if I interrupt his thinking." Confused I looked back and forth between the two guys before hurrying after Dongsik.

"Furthermore", the latter one said as he took a seat on the couch, "I wanted to ask you something anyways." "And that would be?", I asked and placed myself next to him, staring at the laptop. He chuckled. "You'll get it if I get a yes." Now I averted my gaze to him and raised an eyebrow, waiting for his question. "Can you tell me more about your Europe trip?", he asked with sparkling eyes and I started to smile. That was not what I thought of, but I would gladly do so. "Of course", I nodded and held out my hands, "But only after checking my mails." "Sounds fair", he agreed and finally gave me the laptop. I turned it on and while waiting for it to boot, I pointed over to my bag: "Go and get the extern hard disc then I can show you some photos." He did so and patiently waited for me to go through my mails. As I sighed, he looked up curiously. I realized it and murmured: "I will have to attend an online lecture next week. It's obligatory." "That doesn't sound very motivated", he replied and I shook my head: "It isn't. Simply put it is my professor reading out his written script word by word. He could just upload that and it would have the same outcome if not a better one because the concentration would probably be higher." "That sounds boring", he answered. I shrugged my shoulders: "Can't be helped." Then I took the hard disc and plugged it in. "By the way what are you studying?", Dongsik suddenly asked. "Horticultural engineering", I answered while opening the folder with the pictures on the laptop. "What in the world is that?", he investigated further, clearly confused, and I chuckled. "Production of ornamental plants, vegetables, fruits and trees as well as designing gardens and indoor greenery, floristry, graveyards et cetera. Furthermore, you can work as someone who breeds plants, develops pesticides or keeps their use in check, takes care about the quality of fruits and vegetables in supermarkets, advices gardeners or integrates and manages IT-systems for gardeners and their machines." Dongsik looked at me with wide eyes. "That's... a lot", he said after some time and I chuckled. "It is. But the versatility of it makes it so perfect for me." "And you can do all that afterwards?" "Hopefully. Probably not before I collected enough work experience though." "And what do you want to do specifically?" I shrugged my shoulders: "Not so sure yet. Probably tree nursery. But I'll see where life brings me." "Sound good", he smiled. "Well then", I smiled back, "Should we take a look at the pictures?" "Absolutely", he answered and scooted closer. As our shoulders touched, I shortly felt a shiver running down my spine. I definitely wasn't used to that. I placed the laptop on both our knees and opened the first picture.

I felt a wave of melancholy wash over me as I started to tell him about my trip. The photos reminded me of the wonderful places I saw, the precious people I met and the many, many important things I learned. While going through them, Yunho joined us. "I knew you were out of the country for a while but I didn't know how much you have seen in that time", he said with big eyes and I smiled. "Yes, I did", I sighed smiling, "But take it from me - Home is the best. Nothing beats the feeling your family can give you, may it be the real one or a chosen one." "Bet on that", Dongsik nodded and I showed the next picture. "Oh, wow, we're already here?", I asked myself softly as I realized what it showed. "Who's that?", Yunho wanted to know and inspected the picture closer. "That is Andrea. I was allowed to stay at hers while I was in Romania", I explained. "I miss her", I added, "She's someone very special." Dongsik glimpsed at me and then shyly patted my arm. Seeing him being so unsure on how to behave right now made me laugh softly and for a moment I caught his hand and sent him a short, thankful look before I let go. "However, it's not like she's out of reach now, right, guys?", I smiled. "Surely not", Yunho answered and Dongsik nodded firmly.