Hello Journal,

I’m terribly sorry for writing this quite late in the day. I felt like I needed to give my all to my housemates today, so it would have been rude to take time to write in you when I was still around them.

Early this morning we were all told by President to go on separate missions. Once that was completed, we then needed to meet up at a specific spot on the closest beach. Even if I did try to make time to write, there would have been no possible way. I apologize.

For our missions, Kibum and I got everything pretty quickly. We were the ones who had to get the most thoughtful things, which meant that we were a little slower, but we at least moved efficiently.

We completed our second mission and got the camera in no time, but the presents took a bit of thought and time.

We gave Kyuhyun another game controller (since we only have one at the apartment) and a handful of multiplayer games so that he could have someone to play with. We gave Sungmin a couple of pink items and a pink rabbit that held a card which said that he was perfect just the way he was. Eunhyuk received some soccer gear and a dancing game because we felt like he could use more soccer stuff and he could share the dancing game with Kyuhyun and whoever else that wanted to play. Donghae received a huge stuffed fish for him to hug, a picture frame so that he could put his father’s picture in it (since we didn’t see a picture of his father anywhere), and a couple of motivational things that inferred that we would always stay by his side no matter what. Each present that we gave obviously came with a Bible verse that we felt would fit the person to the extremes. We gave each of them a card with a message from the two of us, and placed the Bible verse underneath each of our handwritten messages.

The present that I took the most pride in was Kibum’s. It was nothing short of wonderful, I tell you. (Maybe I shouldn’t say that? Maybe he didn’t really think it was wonderful…) I still don’t exactly know much about what happened to him before he ended up as our housemate, but during our mission he told me that he missed his family that he had left in America and that he didn’t even know their whereabouts. (I pray to God that he finds his family soon. It must be extremely tough to be away from them.) With that knowledge, I got him a locket (that I will give to him once I have a picture of all of us to put inside) which will stand for the fact that we will always be his family, and that we will never abandon him. I also got him an MP3 (since he has and IPod) and recorded a song for him that I thought of on the spot. Then, I got him his own motivational Bible so that he could stay strong during the search. At the time, I wasn’t completely sure as to how everyone would take the presents that they received, but I guess God was slightly guiding Kibum and I through our choices.

When Kyuhyun received his present, he just snorted, but you could tell that he liked it. Eunhyuk smiled and hugged his present to his chest. Both Donghae and Sungmin began to sob uncontrollably. Once their crying was controllable, they hugged both Kibum and I, falling back into sobbing messes. I was happy with each of their responses, but I also felt bad for them. Why do they have to hurt so badly?

When Kibum got his present, I could see the slight disappointment on his face since he got less than the others. I immediately began to worry that he didn’t like it at all (which he might not like it as much now, I’m not sure). Thankfully, the look of disappointment quickly left when he read my card that I wrote to him. At once, he picked up the MP3, turned it on, and put in the headphones so that he could listen to my song. As he was listening, his eyes never picked up from the ground, he didn’t even blink. Once the song was supposedly over, he plucked the headphones out of his ears and walked away from us.

Shocked, I looked to the others before hopping up and following after him. The man didn’t even stop when he noticed that I was following. Instead, he continued to walk for quite some time until he stopped in the distance, his head ducked down. I wasn’t sure what I should do, but I slowly walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder. My action apparently caught the poor man off guard because his entire body instantly froze up.

You see, the man had been crying, and I guess he was uncomfortable in letting the others see his tears. I didn’t want to go against his wishes, so I stayed behind him and patted his shoulder until he regained his composure. At that, I ruffled his hair and led the way back.

Journal, my heart still aches for him and I can’t stop thinking about him—or the others for that matter—but mostly him. I might just pray extra hard before I sleep, and for the days to come. I really want them all to feel better. It weighs down my heart incredibly.

Anyways, the rest of the “party” was entertaining in the least. Eunhyuk and Donghae were frozen due to playing in the water. (They were the first two to complete their missions.) But what they got for the “party” wasn’t anywhere close to anything that their “riddles” asked for. It seemed as if they got twice as much as they should have. However, I wasn’t going to correct them since they seemed pretty happy with what they got. Luckily, while Kibum and I were buying the camera, we stumbled across sparklers and felt like those would be a good addition.

During the time when we ate the food that Sungmin cooked over a handmade fire and played with the toys that Donghae and Eunhyuk brought, we took close to three hundred pictures of all of us. We even managed to find someone who would take a picture of all of us together. It was a pretty fun time.

At the end, once everything was picked up, we played with the sparklers. At one point, Eunhyuk got a huge grin on his face and shook his at Kyuhyun who freaked out in return. Before we knew it, both Donghae and Eunhyuk were chasing Kyuhyun around until the fire on their sticks ran out. Our poor dongsaeng. However, he got back at them by chasing them back with two sparklers in his hands. It was quite entertaining. So much so that Kibum began to laugh at them.

I think I want him to laugh more often. Did I tell you how pretty it was? It was good to hear him laugh for the first time. It was good to see everyone smiling and having a good time, actually.

Once we got back to the apartment, I went for a late night run (which also explains why I am writing so late). But now that I’m back, I realized that I didn’t get to open the present Kibum got for me. Now I’m really curious as to what he got. I might also find a way to get a picture that we took of all of us small enough to put into the locket before I go to bed. So, I’ll write another time. Until then, stay well and God bless~

~Soldier of Light~