“Gosh! How ancient is this?” sighed Onew, kneeled down to get a closer look, as he cleaned out the attic.

It was the start of the summer break and has finally given in to his mother’s nagging to clean out at least his room, for once, in his 23 years of existence. Well, the attic is connected to his room, so it technically is an area to clean too. He lazily grabbed a clean rag and mini duster from the coffee table his mother had left for him to start on the chore. A chore it was, as Onew dragged himself up to start with the attic. It was Monday! What’s worse than the blues? That’s right, spring cleaning.

Onew dusted off the dust from the chest box he found lying in the corner of the attic. It was his grandfather’s, kept in this little place since he moved here 6 years ago to live closer to school. Inside there were several old items: a magnifying glass, a photo album of grandpa’s and grandma’s wedding, a diary and a palm-sized embroidered red pouch – it contains a little golden amulet that fitted loosely inside. Well the first thing Onew did when he poured the contents out from the pouch was to grab the golden nugget that landed close to his knees, and bit it. Pabo. Which he found was real gold, and his teeth hurt. Then his eyes landed on a little folded piece of paper that had fell out of the pouch too. The archive has turned yellow with folded edges, as if it was hastily stuffed in.

The curious boy picked up and opened the letter.

“Keke, might be some inheritance grandpa has left!” Onew snickered at the thought of how much the gold could be worth.

To his dismay, the letter was written full of scribbly words (to which Onew can only describe as chicken scrawl and realised that his writing was hereditary), equations and some hasty drawings of buttons, clocks and metal pipes. He wanted to pass it off as a cheat sheet his grandpa may or may not have used in his studious days, when the more he stared at it, the more it seems to make sense.

“These words are not notes, they are instructions,” Onew stated, “and these equations are physics laws!”

Joining lines to the dots, the A+ student realised that it was a manual to set-up some sort of experiment, a dangerous one it seems since there were several X’s marked in red at almost every other step. He stared furiously at the yellowed paper, trying to decipher what it was all about. It included Physics after all, he must figure it out!

“Onew! I’m back! Are you done?” mother called out to him from downstairs.

Startled, Onew stashed everything back into the chest box and carried on with his cleaning, (Correction: started with his cleaning.) momentarily forgetting about the manual.

“Al-almost!’ Onew lied hesitantly. Yes, he may be a young adult now, but he is nowhere near grown up mentally whenever he was around his mother. Aish, still a mummy’s boy.

After three hours cooped in his attic--room, he has finally cleaned everything in and out.

“All sparkly clean!” Onew’s eyes sparkled as he proudly and smugly showed his mother his ‘new’ room.

“I’m impressed! This is your first time right? Did you secretly get your girlfriend here to help you out while I was away?” mother jokingly interrogated her son.

“Please mom, have some faith in your son! I’m not on dean’s list for nothing! I have brains and brawns! And what girlfriend? There was no girlfriend, there was no girl!” Onew defended himself in a panic.

It’s true that he cleaned up his room on the first day of Summer. It’s true he had no girlfriend. And it’s even true he never had a girl-friend. What a loser!

“Omo I was just joking! Of course of course, whatever you say. But remember self-praise is self-disgrace!” mother laughed it off in his face, “and yes that’s right, there’d better be no girlfriend. The first time you bring her home would also be the first time I meet her, arasso?”

Onew walked away, embarrassed.

The night fell, the skies are dark. The moon shone brightly in the darkened backdrop, stars twinkled, as if winking at Onew as he stared across the vast sky.

“Grandpa and grandma must be living happily ever after above the cotton clouds” Onew sniffed a little at the thought of his grandparents.

He lived with them as a little boy, building all his childhood memories with the older generation. And because his grandparents were the epitome of true love, even though Onew has never been in a romantic relationship before (not that he was interested in this point of his life), he fantasizes about what his first love would be like, how their dates would be, it would all be a ‘first’ to him. They passed away 6 years ago, after which Onew’s parents and he moved away from that house they used to live so that Onew would be able to cope better and not affect his studies too much. They were worried too.

“Grandpa…” he mumbled, “…grandpa!” Onew’s head shot up from being feeling down and was instantly reminded of his discoveries this afternoon.

With a flashlight, the boy stumbled up his mini stairway into the attic and threw open the lid of the chest box, digging through the contents. He picked up the now crumpled note, the pouch with the gold and grandpa’s diary. They are all important clues to him, he felt. Then he went down and sat at his study desk, switching on a small yellow desk lamp.

“Maybe I’ll read grandpa’s diary first! He might have written some things inside. Sorry grandpa keke,” Onew thought sheepishly at going through grandpa’s love adventures, it must be full of them in his young dating days!

His hand opened the book cautiously, the spine of the book was obviously falling off. His eyes went through the badly written diary, holding his breath as he read, as if grandpa would suddenly show up and condemn him for such an unruly act. Inside, they were stories of emotions and feelings rather than adventures and routines. There was happiness, fear, hope, sorrow, love, jealousy, wrath, pride and most of all lust. Onew thought it unbearable to read all of grandpa’s affection for grandma, it was weird, it was disgusting.

“Grandpa, grandpa, I’m going to think of you differently now,” Onew shook his head, “Ah! Found it, about the piece of paper.” The grandson traced his index finger along the scribbles.

“I did it. I travelled through time. I freaking TIME-TRAVELLED!” it wrote, as if screaming to its readers in excitement, “But I have done wrong. Dear diary, do hear me explain. I’m not even trying to relief myself of the guilt, but I felt I need to tell someone, anyone, about my side of the story. But no one is there to listen, to understand, so I can only write this down.”

Onew was excited at the thought of time-travelling, someone actually found a way to do it, and it was his very own grandpa! But he has done something wrong. What could be so wrong? The tone sounded horrible. He read on.

Onew wondered if it was all a joke. The story was absurd. But as far as he could remember, grandpa never told stories, and he was never funny. Grandpa wrote that he invented the time machine after years of hypothesis and experimentation as a professor in University, and shared his discovery with his two top students for improvement. The three was thrilled and wanted to try out the machine, see if they could really travel through time, and gain fame and fortune from it. It really did work. But it wasn’t exactly time travelling alone.

Yes they travelled back in time by 5 days as an experiment, and they also travelled to an alternate universe. One where creatures that were only true in myths and fairy tales came to life. One where the grass would always be lush and green, trees never wilt, flowers blooming all year round and fruits were always fresh. One where there were no humans. Well, perhaps that’s why that place was a haven, there were no humans to fight wars or destroy nature for urbanisation. They were amazed and almost wanted to settle down there, but there were trolls, elves, fairies, leprechauns and unicorns(!), and they were afraid. They had nothing to defend themselves, so for the time being they stayed near the time machine for an estimated 5 days in alternate-universe-time, setting up campfires and observing their surroundings.

Until one of grandpa’s student, Eve, became bold enough and decided that she wanted to explore the place instead of wasting time sitting around when they could make more exotic discoveries. Adam, also grandpa’s student, decided too that she was right and followed along as they both walked away. Grandpa was hesitant, contemplating whether it was safe to move around, unguarded. But before he could consider his cost-benefit, they were gone into the luscious dark-green woods. And then that was it, there was a beeping sound on the time machine, signalling that fuel was running out and it would die down. In a moment of weakness, grandpa made the decision to leave the place, and would come back when he had re-fuelled the tank in reality. Yes he has chosen to abandon his students’ lives to save his own.

Grandpa argued that he had so much to look forward to in real life – a stable career, a lovely wife, a home, a happy family and something he would not exchange anything for, his children. It was selfish, but that’s human, isn’t it? He ended the diary entry that it was not his fault they walked away so carelessly………

“ grandpa! How could you do this? They were so young! If anything, they had more to look forward to in life! They have not even started anything. How could you bear to do this? They were someone else’s children too...” Onew sobbed uncontrollably.

He thought his grandpa ruthless, as guilty as a convicted murderer. His role model, now broken in front of him. He imagined himself as the students, what if his professor did the same to him? What if he was left stranded on an isolated island with no one else? Would he survive? Would he be able to bear the long cold nights? What if he never got to meet the love of his life? Onew had too many irrational thoughts in his mind for one night. He could no longer see grandpa as the loving wise old man.

Onew reached his hand out to switch off the lamp, stumbled into his bed and pulled his soft blanket so close to his heart. It ached, to know the truth of his grandpa’s character and for the two young students abandoned and scared.

“Grandpa was nothing but a ing coward that thought himself superior of others…” Onew sobbed out as tears once again stain his sweet face, putting him to sleep softly.

“Good morning sweet pea! It’s the second day of your break! Wake up, go out and have some fun!” his mother piped cheerfully as she walked into Onew’s room heading straight to pull the curtains and open the window, only to see Onew in bed rolled into a sushi-roll with his blanket, face stained with dried tears.

“Onew! What happened? Did you cry yourself to sleep last night? Would you tell me what happened? You know you can tell mummy anything!” mother pried, face buried in concern that her little boy was so vulnerable.

“M-morning mummy,” Onew groaned and quickly clearly his face of any evidence that he has been crying with the back of his hands, “I-I just thought about grandpa.”

Well, it technically wasn’t a lie. But both mother and son was thinking about grandpa differently.

“Awww baby, grandpa has gone to a better place, enjoying the rest of eternity with grandma, you don’t even have to worry about him! He’s been a great man, so he will enjoy a wonderful afterlife! Go wash up now, quick,” mother chirped, comforting her precious with a peck on his cheek.

Onew said nothing, but just nodded. He knew with that, he couldn’t say anything to his mother. That would only break mummy’s heart and his alone was enough. He went to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. Each time he stared at himself in the mirror, he could feel himself flinch. He was a descendent of a cruel man, or was he just too harsh on himself? To err is Man, right? Onew had so many questions that has no answers, he shook his head and begged his mind to concentrate on the task at hand.

At the dining table, mother has already prepared steamy hot waffles and pancakes for a nutritious breakfast for her only son. Still a bit concerned, she made an extra cup of hot chocolate with puffy marshmallows floating on the beverage for comfort. Onew exited the bathroom, took his seat and quietly ate his breakfast, his mind couldn’t even concentrate on the delicious warm breakfast that he was eating.

“Honey, has my cooking skills gone bad?” mother asked with a worried look since Onew wasn’t his usual self. She wasn’t really concerned with the taste of her food, but rather with what was really troubling Onew.

“Was he really a great man? I-I mean grandpa,” Onew trailed away, avoiding the questioning gaze of his mother.

“Why of course he was! He took great care of us, he took great care of you. He even took care of the parents of his two top students! That is after he realised they disappeared. The two students suddenly went missing, and no one knew when and where, or why and how. A girl and a boy. It was really a curious case, did they elope?” mother was almost asking herself, going into deep thoughts about the headline that splattered on the local newspaper almost 30 years ago. Her fingers caressing her chin as she pulled out those memories.

“Yeah right they disappeared,” Onew hissed under his breath in response, but soft enough to not let his mother hear. “I’m full. I’m going out.” He stood up and walked into his room to change.

“Aish jinjia, where’s your manners? Clear your plates you brat!” mother spat out almost immediately, forgetting that her son just went through some heartbreaks this morning. She quickly covered and did the chores herself instead.