The Globe [2min]

The Globe

 'Taemin?' My voice echoed in an empty hallway, not able to find the addressee. I shook my head, wondering where the hell did this boy go. He wasn't in a garden, nor in a living room. The kitchen was empty, too, even though my friend loved to sit there for a long hours, always looking for more snacks. Going through flooded with sunshine corridors, I've noticed the last room, that I haven't checked yet.

Oaken door creaked silently, as I pressed the door handle. I entered an elegantly furnished, and now semi-darkened, office of my father, a place we usually did not explore, not to disturb the privacy of the owner. Nonetheless, this time I found my friend standing in the corner of the room, deep in his thoughts. It was extraordinary, because of his lively type of personality.

A bit puzzled, I crossed the room and stood behind Taemin, trying to spot the thing that the boy was looking at. His object of observation turned out to be an old and a bit yellowed globe, proudly occupying its place on the top shelf of a wall unit. Never before had I looked at it closely, treating it as just an element of a decoration. Nevertheless, fascination painted on Taemin's face did not let me stay indifferent.

'What are you doing?' I whispered conspiratorially, bending over my friend's arm and with silent amusement observing as he wince and turn around, just to look at me accusingly.

Most of the office room was covered with dark bronzes of wooden furniture. However, one of the windows stayed unshaded by roller-blind, becoming some kind of a gate for the light of the day. The sunshine was flooding gracefully through the narrow channel of the glass, a gold river covering our faces, painting my friend's hair in indescribable colors. Even his full of reprimand face wasn't so sharp anymore, because he had to squint his eyes in protection.

'I'm planning,' Taemin answered laconically, pointing the round shape with his finger.

'You mean this trip with your family?' I asked, as I reached for the globe, because it was standing too high for my friend to take it by himself.

'Mhm,' he mumbled with a pensive tone of voice, but I didn't have a chance to react, because he suddenly sat on the floor, with fascination sparkles in his eyes, as his finger was making the shortest possible journey through the whole world. 'What do you think about England? They say it's raining all the time... Maybe France? I could go on the Eiffel's Tower... Oh, Spain! The sun is always shining in there...' Listening to his lively monologue, I sat next to Taemin, ignoring the fact, that we should rather leave this place, than stay in my father's office. The house was empty anyway, because my parents went shopping. Me and my friend spent most of the day in the open air, only just now finding ourselves in a coolness of the inside of the building.

I really loved to observe those precious moments, when my friend was so fascinated in something, that he was losing contact with reality. In that case, he'd be gesticulating vigorously with youthful curiousness painted on his face. But what enchanted me the most, were his shapely eyes, in which the whole waiting outside the house world seemed to reflect.

'Or Italy and gondolas...'

'Taemin,' I cut in, making him raise his dreamy stare on me. 'It's all so far away...' I mumbled, shrugging my shoulders, not even sure what I was trying to say. Nevertheless, my friend seemed to understand my intentions, because he smiled apologetically.

'Next time I'll persuade with my parents to take you with us,' he said breezily. I waved my hand nonchalantly, not wanting to cause remorse. It's true that we were planning to spend this summer together. But if there was a chance for Taemin to go around the world, I couldn't bring myself to protest. Especially because seeing new places was giving him so much happiness. Happiness that perhaps only I could notice, because only I was observing the shape of his lips so closely, only I knew the color of his eyes so well.