Mediterranean Kiss ~ Taeten

History Lesson

Taeyong dove onto the bed and stretched out his tired muscles.

“Go and sleep on your own bed.” Mark grumbled, throwing a cushion at Taeyong’s head as he sat down on the couch in his cabin.

“Noooo!” Taeyong moaned back happily. He grabbed the cushion and snuggled into it, peeking around it at Mark. He was excited to see Ten soon but so sleepy after their busy day in Athens.

After they bought their tickets for the Acropolis the trio had joined the massive crowd that swept steadily up the ancient stone stairs to the rocky outcrop where the Parthenon and the remains of several other ancient buildings sat atop Athens. Taeyong had been stunned by the views of the city just as much as the massive marble temple that stood before them. Even Mark was silent in awe as he gazed up at the ancient structure.

Though he could easily tell where restoration work had been done on the marble columns and scaffolding wrapped around sections of the temple, Taeyong could understand why millions of tourists like himself flocked to the world heritage site. It was a piece of history that still remained standing - though maybe not in all its original glory - and Taeyong felt it was definitely something that needed to be seen first-hand.

Their taxi driver, Sora, had warned them that the rocks underfoot were slippery and he had been right. Johnny had nearly slipped over on the rocks that had been continuously worn down by millions of pairs of feet, much to Mark’s enjoyment, who had caught it all on camera. The three friends had managed to take lots of photos before meeting back up with Sora who had taken them to their second destination which had been the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

Though only a few columns remained of the temple which sat right in the heart of the city of Athens, Taeyong had been surprised at the scale of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Standing in the heat with the sun blazing down Taeyong had marvelled at the thought of what the temple would have looked like had he been standing there centuries ago back in ancient Greek times.

Johnny had needed to tug Taeyong by the arm after he had snapped pictures from all angles in order to get them back to Sora on time.

Their next stop had been a quick look at the Panathenaic Stadium, which Sora had informed them was the only stadium in the world made completely of marble. Taeyong had been impressed but not really surprised by that though, as all the ancient Greek structures they'd seen were made of marble.

Their last stop was then to watch the changing of the guards at the presidential mansion. Taeyong was not the only one to have been surprised that they had a changing of the guards in Greece. He had sat down in between Johnny and Mark on the opposite side of the road as the guards carried out their traditional change. Mark had frowned and asked why they were wearing such strange outfits.

Taeyong had to agree that their uniforms were interesting to say the least, with a pleated skirt and what looked like red clogs with pompoms on top, but who was he to judge an old Greek tradition? Sora had explained to them that the Foustanella, or pleated kilt had 400 pleats to represent the years of Ottoman occupation.

Now they were all back on the cruise ship in Mark and Johnny’s room and Taeyong was struggling to keep his eyes open as he lay on the comfy bed.

“He is actually falling asleep.” Johnny chuckled.

Taeyong vaguely heard a reply from Mark as he snuggled his face into the cushion before falling asleep.

.

.

.

….

“Why do you keep trying to bring this up?”

“C’mon we need to talk about it.”

“No, we don't. Taeyong’s right there as well.”

“Taeyong’s asleep. Please Mark, I want to talk to you.”

“Well I don’t so-”

Knock, knock

“That must be Ten.”