‘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.

Leaded by this thought, I sat even closer to the globe, localizing South Korea and unintentionally measuring the distance to Taemin’s finger, which stopped on Venice.  I chocked back the feeling of longing, that I knew I’ll become a victim of later, when Taemin leaves. I forced a smile.

‘What do you think about Switzerland?’ I asked, grabbing my friend’s hand and directing it on a shape of country painted in a central Europe. For a brief moment I was sure that Taemin stiffed under my touch, but I quickly came to a conclusion that it was just my imagination.

‘What would we do in Switzerland?’ he asked, his voice sounding dangerously near my face. ‘Eating cheese?’ I laughed out loud at his suggestion, at the same time glancing at my friend a bit surprised, but not catching his eyes, because he was still looking at our hands.

‘We?’ I asked, waiting for explanations. Taemin only nodded, clearly not planning to say anything more, making me sigh silently. ‘Let me think…’ I started, slowly letting myself to drawn in the same dreaminess that colored my friend’s eyes all the time. ‘You could finally try skydiving… Of course only if I would let you to…’ I said, receiving as sharp reaction, as I expected. Taemin turned his head, looking at me with frowned eyebrows, but the only thing I could think of is that our faces are way too close to each other.

‘Why would you not let me to?’ he asked, with a rebellious sparkle in his eyes, what somehow made him look even cuter.

‘It’s dangerous, you know…’ I smiled maliciously, receiving only loud snort as a reply. We both fell silent, as Taemin started drawing circles around Switzerland’s boarders.

 ‘We could go skiing…’ he mumbled making me smile again, because his idea was unquestionably connected with a lot of fun. To be honest, whatever we were doing, I never regretted a single second spent with my friend. With Taemin the world seemed to be never-ending adventure. ‘Or just wallow in snow,’ he suggested, causing another burst of laughter.

‘And how Swiss snow is better than Korean?’ I asked, raising my eyebrows. Taemin poked me in the arm.

‘Later we could go drink hot chocolate to heat up,’ he decided, completely ignoring my question. ‘They say that in high mountains you can see a lot more stars than here,’ he said pensively, perhaps in mind’s eye seeing a night sky painted with millions of sliver dots. Unintentionally, I started using my imagination, too. I saw Taemin, flushed from a contact with snow and frost, with steaming cup of chocolate in his cold hands, on which he stubbornly didn’t want to put gloves. He was staring at the beauty of a night sky…

I hawked nervously.

 ‘Maybe England, anyway?’ I said, trying to stay calm, even though I was feeling worse and worse with every Taemin’s stare. My friend once again concentrated on his little world, drawing with his finger a road through France and La Manche Channel to finally reach The Great Britain. He frowned, unsatisfied.

‘You would go on matches all the time…’ he mumbled in moody tone of voice, giving me some kind of satisfaction. I was really happy that my friend was so willing to spend time together.

‘I wouldn’t…’ I said, but his stare made me roll my eyes. ‘Okay… maybe sometimes… But later we could go on London Eye and watch the whole city at our foot.’ Taemin nodded enthusiastically at my suggestion. Suddenly my imagination gone wild again, creating a picture of me and Taemin, alone in the passenger capsule, flying through the painted with city lights sky. We would sit so close to each other, perhaps arms linked together… Just like now…

I discretely looked at the boy lost in thoughts. His a bit too long fringe was unstoppably playing with the light of his eyes, lips were slightly opened, showing a deep concentration, while he was travelling in his imagination. I couldn’t stop a smile marking my face each time Taemin was around, each time I could observe him living his life so passionately, so enthusiastically, as if each day was as precious as the whole eternity. His colorful smiles were giving me strength and optimism, helping me to carry on. That’s why I felt extremely sad, thinking about forthcoming month. Without Taemin my life was achromatic.

‘I would love to see all those places,’ said Taemin. I felt sudden impulse to raise my hand and make the little world spin around. Continents and oceans became a mosaic of colors and shapes, turning around like a carousel. My friend looked at me questioningly.

‘You can see the whole world, Taeminnie. You just have to believe, and you’ll certainly manage to do so,’ I said, not even sure where did this reflection came from. My friend replied me with a wide smile, one of those smiles, that were able to completely shut me up. I stuttered. ‘It would be nice… together…’ I mumbled, not knowing how to end the sentence,’…together…’

‘…travelling together?’ suggested Taemin, as he stopped looking at his little world, and fixed his eyes on me. I nodded, not sure if my voice will cooperate. My friend’s eyes suddenly seemed to be so big, so shiny, when he was examining each millimeter of my face. ‘Drinking chocolate together?’ he said with a bit hoarse voice that made me shiver. ‘Watching stars together?’ His questions were marking this little sunny space between us with an extraordinary atmosphere, commanding me to do extraordinary things.

‘Doing everything together,’ I said with sudden brave, banding a little and kissing Taemin on the cheek. He looked at me timidly, covering his blushed cheeks with hands.

‘What was that, hyung?’ he asked with a bit trembling voice. His embarrassment somehow made me braver.

 ‘Forecast of a new journey,’ I answered, this time letting our lips meet. That’s how the one of a kind trip started. A journey beginning in the first shared breath, leading through a recondite facture of tongues, unveiling the taste of this special moment, created only for the two of us. My fingers went for a walk on skin of Taemin’s neck, finding unexplainable pleasure with every touch. Flooded with summer silence office seemed to celebrate this moment along with my beating heart. The journey, once started, could not find its end, marking twisted tongues with something hundred times more precious than visits in Switzerland, England or any other painted on the globe points. We created a new shape on the map of feelings, a new special place, which was everywhere and nowhere, beyond the time and the space, a place I was hoping to come back to many times in the future.

The escapade ended with the last soft touch of our lips. I opened my eyes, now full of golden light, reflecting in eyes of the boy sitting next to me. I froze, as if I was waiting for something, maybe for first words that would confirm the irrationality of what we have just done. But nothing like that happened, Taemin was avoiding looking at me, softly touching his own swollen from the kiss lips.

I breathed heavily, suddenly extremely nervous. I backed off, trying to find a place far enough from Taemin to feel comfortable again, even though I knew it was impossible. Hundreds of panicked thoughts were flooding my head, as I was hit by a wave of heat. Maybe I’ve made a mistake? Maybe I should say sorry? Maybe…

‘Hyung.’ Taemin’s voice was surprisingly raspy. I looked at him hesitantly, not knowing, what should I expect. But my friend was still fixing his eyes on the globe, lightly touching it’s surface, walking through continents and oceans. ‘Maybe I’ll stay home this holidays?’ he said, biting his lips and glancing at me shyly from under the cover of his long fringe. In this very moment the weight of the whole world dropped from my arms, letting me to form my lips in probably the brightest smile ever. Taemin replied me with a shy gesture, finding my hand on the floor and twisting our fingers together.

Then he looked again at the globe, as if he doesn’t want to get embarrassed again. I followed him, observing as the little earth finally stops spinning around.

‘One day we will see the whole world together, Taeminnie…’ I said, my voice echoing with a new, lively tone. ‘We just have to believe, and we’ll certainly manage to do so.’ I felt that Taemin is clutching my hand even tighter.

I raised my hand and made the little world spin around again. The sound of turning globe was composing with my beating in a new rhythm heart. Playing an accompaniment for the journey that has just begun.