Remember me || JHS ||

13.

 I'm sitting on a bus heading towards the museum with Mina next to me, while Hobi has taken a seat behind us.

The journey, which only takes about ten minutes, is over quickly and when the doors open, Mina is the first to jump out of the bus. I get off right after her, only Hobi has to wait a little because of all the other people.

I'm just about to take Mina's backpack with butterflies on it when someone takes it out of my hand. I turn around in surprise and my face is only a few centimeters away from Hobi's.

He clears his throat and takes a step back. "Let's go to the ticket office and get our tickets." With that, he turns and walks towards the entrance, while Mina skips happily after him.

Sighing, I set off too and follow them inside.

As I enter the large hall, I look around in fascination. Everything is made of white marble, in the middle is a pedestal with the skeleton of a mammoth. And the ceiling consists of a glass dome through which you can see the blue, cloudless sky.

I look around in search of my two companions and discover them at the cash desk. I quickly make my way there, only to discover that Hobi has already paid the entrance fee for the three of us

I look at him, pouting. "That's far too expensive, I would have paid for Mina and me. You need your own money. After all, YOU worked hard for it in the café." He waves it off with a smile. "It's all right, you can buy me a coffee to make up for it. What do you think?" He winks at me and takes Mina by the hand.

"Why should I invite you? So you can keep bugging me?" I ask when I've caught up with her again, but he just shrugs and grins.

We follow the signs that say 'Tour and in the first room we enter we find an exhibition of beetles, butterflies and other interesting insects.

Mina's eyes light up and she grabs my hand and pulls us both towards the boxes of butterflies.

There are so many different species that I can't even count them and each one is more colorful than the next. Mina excitedly points back and forth between them. "Look, so many beautiful butterflies. These are my favorite animals."

We continue walking and Mina is already far ahead of us when I stop at the last box, which still contains butterflies, before moving on to the next one with beetles.

The name is written on a small golden sign under the display case. A scarlet swallowtail. A beautiful butterfly.

"Pretty, isn't it?" I wince slightly and turn my head to the side. Hobi stands next to me and admires him too. "Yes, maybe not as special as the others, but I still think he's the most beautiful."

"Not everything has to be special to be beautiful. Don't you agree?" With those words, he turns around and follows Mina. I look after him in amazement and wonder if he means something else with these words, but I don't know what.

There is a rock exhibition in the next room. It's less interesting for me and I can see from Mina's face that she feels the same way.

She grabs my hand again and walks with me to the next passageway. Behind it is an artificial whale and Mina stands open-mouthed as she admires it.

"Look Mina, there's a movie about whales, shall we watch it?" Hobi points to one of the information boards and looks questioningly at the little girl, who nods happily.

"Well then, let's go in." I say and make my way to the darkened room. Mina heads straight for the first row of seats and we follow her.

When the movie starts, I look around and realize that we are the only ones there. It starts with an explanation of why these giants of the sea are so important to the ocean and then continues with lots of facts about them.

After a few hours of walking through the rooms full of plants, skeletons, fish and, rarely animals, we are now sitting in a restaurant that belongs to the museum and waiting for the food we ordered to arrive.

Mina, who is sitting opposite me, wiggles her legs impatiently and Hobi, who has taken a seat next to me, looks through the pictures he has taken with his camera. Sometimes he happily shows me one of the pictures that he thinks is particularly good. It's usually pictures of me, Mina or the two of us together.

"And Mina, what did you think of our trip today?" When I ask her, she looks at me with a grin. "It was sooooo great. And it's even better because Hobi was with us. We need to do this more often."

"We'll see about that." "I think she's right, we have to do it again." I give Hobi a piercing look. Did he not hear what I just said?

As soon as our food arrives, we start eating and then make our way to the bus stop.

We are seated just like this morning, but there are far fewer people on the bus.

As I look out of the window and watch the houses pass by outside the window, I feel something on my arm, when I look to the side I see that Mina has fallen asleep.

I take her head and lay it on my lap. She blinks her eyes for a moment and I stroke her hair until she falls asleep again.

When the bus stops, Hobi takes her in his arms and we get off. While I fish the note with the address out of my pocket, he sits down on a bench with Mina in his arms.

"We have to go two streets further. Are you sure she's not too heavy?" I give them both a worried look, but Hobi waves it off. "It's fine, I've carried heavier things before." I nod and point in the direction we need to go.

We only walk a few minutes until we arrive at a small house painted green. I quickly run up the few steps to the front door and press the doorbell.

I hear someone shouting from inside and a little later the door is opened. Mina's mother is standing in the doorway, her hair tied back in a bun and she looks tired and exhausted.

When she realizes it's us, she smiles at us and her smile looks just like Mina's. She invites us in and asks me to sit on the sofa while she shows Hobi the way to Mina's room.

The living room is decorated in bright colors and there are pictures of Mina and her mother hanging on the wall.

There is a glass table in front of the blue sofa and colorful flower pots with beautiful plants in them on the window sills.

As I admire the room, I feel the sofa next to me sink in and when I look next to me, I see that Hobi has sat down next to me.

Mina's mother comes into the room with three cups and puts one of each on the table in front of us before she sits down on an armchair opposite us.

"Thank you for looking after my little one today, I really wouldn't have known what else to do." "We were happy to do that, Mina enjoyed it and if they need help again, they can always let us know." She gives me a grateful smile and nods.

-

After three hours of chatting with Mrs. Sung, we stand in front of her door and say goodbye. "You two get home safely." She calls after us and waves before stepping back into the house.

"We'd better go home now, then, hadn't we? Bye." I wave and walk towards home.

But when I realize that Hobi is following me, I turn around and look at him questioningly. "Don't you want to go home? As far as I know, you have to go the other way."

He just shrugs his shoulders. "I'll take you home." I furrow my brow. "Wae?" A laugh comes in reply. "You don't think I'm going to let you walk alone. It's dark and anything can happen."

I doubt I'll be attacked by a murderer on the short walk home, but what the hell, let him do what he can't help doing. "Whatever."

When we arrive at my door, Hobi says goodbye and makes his own way home.

As I climb the stairs to my apartment, I wonder if I've been a bit mean to him. He seems like a really nice person, and just because I feel a bit weird when he's with me doesn't mean I have to be so mean to him. I should be kinder to him from now on. Maybe we could even become friends.

The thought makes me grin. Anyone who has him as a friend can count themselves lucky. He's a great person.