𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 /GXG/

🔸️What My Love Whispered softly

She turns on a dim light, and then I see her pull out a sheet that covers something on the back. ''My new bike. If you feel something jumping on your legs, are rats,'' she warns.

''Are there many rats here?''

''I found a litter in the closet. They used paper for lining. Oh my! If they gnawed at our money, I would kill them!''

''You didn't kill them?''

''I pit... Have  you ever seen how cute they are?

''I like the ones with red eyes and white fur.''

She pulls the bike up, and we walk around the side of the garage. She is pedaling lightly, balancing, making a circle around me.

''I once had a pet hamster called Autun. Have I told you yet?'', she asks.

''...you fried him.''

''This was a mouse. Autun was a hamster. He was gray. He never let me sleep. He used to run at night on that little wheel.'' She continues to pedal in circles; I followed the movement with my eyes.

''Actually, there were two at the beginning: one was mine, the male, called Autun; and the female, my mother's, was called Hamtaro.''

''Really? Have you watched Hamtaro?''

''Sure! Everything that comes from your country, I like! The hamsters were destroying the strawberry plantation.''

I stand in front of the bike and reach out to hold it. It stops with the wheel between my legs. Chae won puts her feet on the ground and rests her arms on the handlebars.

''But I asked the seller for two male. I always cleaned their little house: I changed the sawdust, added white bath powder, food, and water. But then there was a day when I realized that food was running out quickly. I went to look and there were a lot of hamsters!''

She smiles. Something that borders on the perverse. ''I thought: I'm going to make money! I'm going to sell hamsters to my friends at school. So I took the photo and showed it. Some were interested. It was the first time I made money on my own. I was 12 years old.''

I move it completely back. She gets down, takes off the stand and leaves it on the sidewalk near the house, takes her cell phone out of her pants pocket, and takes some photos.

''But not everyone likes hamsters. Nobody else wanted to buy it. I was already discouraged by this, and everything became a mess! The hamsters started to breed and I went to look at the cage and in the sawdust there were more babies, and the older ones were chewing on the bars of the cage, and the whole night there was this noise of them running on the exercise wheel and then, I went to look and there was a hamster eating another. Eating in the figurative sense of the word: copulating.
I got angry seeing this and took the cage and threw it in the yard! It scattered hamsters everywhere! Then, hamsters were eating the strawberry plantation!'' She finishes her story without letting out a laugh.

''Are you serious?''

''Hehe.'' She winks at me. ''But of course I am!''

''Why did you blink then?'' I smile, placing my index finger on the tip of her cold nose.

''I didn't blink at you, I have tic disorder.'' She smiles and sits on the thin chrome seat.

''It's a 26'' Eleven Crossride 600.''

''Cool, isn't?''

''Cool!''

When I hold the handlebars, I feel the firmness, the weight, and the aggressive design, so different from mine. The bike is black with green stickers on the sides. On the aerodynamic rims, the details are red.