Photo credit to www.twincities.com.

It was pitch dark. All I could hear was the crashing of waves and the seagulls' caws filled the calm air around me. I wriggled my toes and felt the soft earth underneath me that was most likely to be sand. Finally, everything turned bight and it seemed that I was at a beach. The sun was shining brightly and the breathtaking scene in front of me just made me smile instantly. Only after a moment did I realize the presence of another being beside me. It was a man. He stood by me as he gazed the end of the sea, with my hands tightly in his. It was too bright for me to see his face, and I couldn't recognize him, but the comfortable warmth from his hands lingers.

Just as I was about to step forward to get a closer look on his face, everything went back to black in an instant. I saw nothing but I could start hearing a faint voice. The voice got louder and clearer by the second. From then onwards, I came back to the real world and unfortunately, it had to be my Unni's annoying voice that brought me back.

"YAH! ~~~~-ah!! Can you please wake up now?! The guys aren't awake yet! We've got to find our lunch boxes!" she shouted in my ear. How can someone be so pumped up early in the morning? However, the word lunch box made my ears perked up and I could finally made sense of what was happening. I had to find my lunch box. I've been on a downstreak lately as I'd acquired a number of the worst lunch box over the past two weeks. Nonetheless, with Omma's new idea in place, I really hoped luck was on my side.

On a side note, seeing Boram Unni's bloated face first thing in the morning was not good at all. Because of her, I couldn't see the man in my dream. If only I could stay in the dream just a little while longer. The scene in the dream was still vivid in my memory and as I made my way downstairs, I continually tried to visualize the scene again and again before that piece of memory gets wiped away. I didn't want to forget it. 

As soon as I reached the kitchen, Boram Unni had already started her search in the cabinets. Omma, with her hair messily tied up and her cute pink apron on, was cleaning up. At the sight of Omma's back, something struck me but I couldn't really put a finger onto it. It was an unfamiliar feeling which made me think, "Has Omma's back always been like this?" I don't know what feeling it was but it urged me to give a hug to my mother as though she needed it and I needed it too. Omma jerked a bit as I wrapped my arms around her but after knowing who it was, I could see curved upwards. I miss Omma's warmth. I realised I haven't given her a hug in a long a time and I regretted it. Resting my head against Omma's back, I felt like a kid again.

"~~~-ah, aren't you going to find your lunchbox?" asked Omma as she rinsed her hands.

"I don't want to. I want to stay like this." I whined.

"FOUND IT!" Boram Unni shouted across the dining room, as she retrieved her newfound lunch box under the lamp shade at the corner. It turned out to be just the adequate (middle) lunch box, which meant that the best one was still up for grabs. My eyes perked up as I started my hunt, but before that, I knew a little hint from Omma was what I really needed. 

"Omma~ Please give me a hint! Please!~" I tried my aegyo (cutesy act) on her. She can be weak to cutesy stuffs. Seeing how quiet she remained though, aegyo didn't work on her this time round but I have something up my sleeve - THE TICKLE. No one can resist that and considering how Omma is very ticklish, this would work just fine. Without any hesitation, I started to tickle Omma's waist and went up till her neck which sent her wriggling and laughing. She even started to tackle me too.

In the end, after a minute or so, Omma gave in and blurted out, "It's somewhere very near you!"

I paused as I heard her hint and tried to catch my breath after the long string of laughter from the tickles. I mouthed "near me" repeatedly and eyed my surroundings within my perimeter. Just then, something caught my eye. Omma was walking towards her room as usual, but with her apron still on. That was unusual indeed. She would always take out her apron when she leave the kitchen and Omma wasn't the forgetful kind. A grin formed on my face as I had a good hunch of where the lunchbox might be.

"Omma, aren't you forgetting something?" I asked her confidently. I eyed her apron and she knew what I was thinking. 

"Oh right! How can I be so forgetful?" she replied. I could sense her voice wavered.

As soon as she took off her apron, I darted towards her and I checked the pocket at the front. There, in my hands, was the best lunch box Omma prepared, still warm. Looked like today's menu was fried noodles. I was so happy that I kissed Omma on her cheeks and exclaimed a short 'Thank you' before dashing upstairs to boast to my lazy brothers still in bed. As usual, I managed to annoy them so much that they got off their beds. As a record for the first lunchbox treasure hunt, Hyunseung Oppa became the proud owner of the worst lunch box.

What an exciting morning indeed. I was about to take a shower when my phone vibrated to display a message from Baro.

Good morning, Choco! Remember to tell your sis & bros about the party alright? 

I smiled at his morning text but was slightly disturbed by the chico name he'd given me the night before. No offence intended but it kind of sound like a dog's name and I very well know I'm not one. I gave him a short reply about my slight unhappiness but thanked him in the end for reminding me.

Over the long text rally the night before, we actually spent most of our time discussing about what to do on Gongchan's birthday. Gongchan, who's the same age as me and Seunghyun, is turning nineteen next coming Monday and we were planning to hold a surprise party for him. We were thinking of inviting Teentop along as well but we would need to see how it goes. Hopefully, the B1A4 dudes could convince them.

I stepped out of the bathroom, still pondering about where to hold the party and whether Appa would even let us celebrate. Appa has always been against birthday celebrations with reasons still unknown to us. Our birthdays were like any normal days where Appa would just give a short congratulations over dinner (that is after being reminded by Omma). Behind his back though, the four of us would hold a small celebration inane of our rooms which was thrilling and quite exciting since we had to do it all softly. Planning a real birthday party was a first for me and I'm getting excited for it!

That aside, drying my hair has been such a hassle these days as I let my hair grew. As I took the hair dryer from the drawer, something else captured my attention. It was a note on my desk calendar. In big caps, it wrote BIO QUIZ. 

"Great! You have a quiz today and I haven't study one bit at all. Well done, ~~~!" I 'praised' myself. 

I took a glance at my wall clock. It was 7.46 am and my tutor would be coming in at 8 am. Praying that he'll come late never works because he is never late! Ignoring my dripping wet hair, I sat down and pulled out the noted my tutor gave me and tried all I could to absorb the info. In the corner of my little heart though, I was praying hard that something happened to my tutor and he'll come late that very day. Little did I knew that my prayers were answered.

 Stay tuned ! 

Much love,

kimchi_ramen

Photo credit to me.