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Chapter 22

It is quiet and serene around the house. The sun is shyly peeking from the horizon. Its glorious radiance removes the night veil that envelops the earth with darkness, replacing the curtain of night with the curtain of dawn. Realizing the stage has changed, the moon and stars slowly fade away, giving space for the next scene. The birds sing in harmony as if praising nature's majestic art.

An almost similar scene happens inside the house. The sound of the alarm clock fills the room, interfering with the harmonious melody of dawn. Awaken and disturbed by such a chaotic performance, Khaiser removes the blanket that covers his whole body. Only at that moment does he realise that the room has turned bright. He is confident that he switched off the light before he went to sleep last night, leaving him with the conclusion that someone might have entered the room and switched it on, probably in an attempt to wake him up.

The alarm clock is still yelling, begging for attention. Khaiser rolls to his left and reaches for his phone on the small table next to the bed. With his eyes half-opened and blurry sight, he gazes at the phone screen and turns off the alarm before pulling back the blanket to cover his entire body. He is still not in the mood to get up yet but is also too lazy to switch off the light. The ambience becomes peaceful once again.

"Khai, wake up. It's morning." Unfortunately, the peaceful ambience just lasts for around a minute before it is shattered once more. Lukas suddenly shows up at the door. Upon hearing his father's voice, Khaiser squirms a little on the bed, stretching out his body as a warm-up before starting the day. He removes the blanket that is covering his body and gets up before opening his eyes. His body feels lighter and his vision is clearer now since he did not actually sleep after turning off the alarm. He knows very well that he is unable to do that.

"Maybe you can start getting ready now. We're going to grandpa Lyman's house after breakfast." Lukas proceeds with the day's plan briefly after seeing his son fully awake before disappearing behind the door and closing it. Khaiser sits on the bed motionless. No response is given to his father even though he hears and understands what his father said clearly. He rubs his face with the blanket to remove any sleepiness left before getting out of bed, reaching for his towel and leaving the room to do what his father has told him to do.

***

The road is rather empty that morning and there are barely any vehicles or people except for two cars. Even so, Lukas carefully drives his car, focusing on the road and the car in front of him which is his father's car. Since both he and his father are heading toward the same destination, they decided to go together. Ford and his wife are in one car with Izaac as the driver while Lukas' family is in their own car.

Just like the morning ambience, the interior of Lukas' car is relatively peaceful. Sometimes, the voices of Lukas and his wife and also the twin sisters occupy the car, but they are rather soft and gentle. Everyone in the car has topics to talk about and partners to conversate with, leaving Khaiser alone in his own world. However, he does not mind at all. The exact same situation happened everytime they are on a road trip, especially when he is in control behind the wheel. Besides, he is not much of a morning person. He prefers to start his day in silence. From the moment the car started moving until now, he is just staring out of the window. His mind is spinning as fast as everything that passes the car, creating random thoughts and imagination to occupy him along the journey.

"Oh, there're so many people already." Lukas slows down his car after seeing a group of cars lined up on the roadside. Nadya just nods a few times in response. He looks around as he passes the cars one by one. However, he still did not forget about his parents' car in front of him. Even though he is busy looking around, he makes sure that it is still within his sight.

Izaac slows down as he drives toward the roadside and parks the car together with the other cars. Noticing his brother's decision, Lukas does the same thing and parks right behind him. After turning off the engines, all of them get out of the cars almost simultaneously.