Not my usual Yulti kind of oneshot. But hopefully it'll still warm the cuckholds of your wittle hearts :¬p This is for Winter86 on Soshified who constantly inspires me with her beautiful stories and positive outlook on life <3

I really hope that Hani is a girl and that Prince is a boy...

---

“Hani, no! Naughty! Bad dog!”

 

The tiny white dog with her honey brown triangular ears continued rubbing her cute nose against the cluster of bramble and dry autumn leaves.

 

This is why Yuri hated taking her for walks.

 

She loved the ball of fur to death, but Hani always became incredibly hyperactive when she got put on her leash, a pink bejewelled affair that had been gnawed at repeatedly around the leathery edges. The mischievous puppy was currently on her back, shaking her paws to and fro like she was having a seizure.

 

At least one of them was having a good time.

 

But if she hadn’t taken Hani for a walk, the alternative for Kwon Yuri would’ve been remaining cooped up in the stifling house she called Home for a minute longer than her sanity could withstand.

 

She had to get away from the postgraduate slump she currently found herself in along with the stress of finding a new job and an apartment of her own. Her parents were understanding – far too understanding in a way that made Yuri feel even more like a failure. It was hard to talk to her friends about her current predicament since they all had jobs of their own and were either going partying every other weekend or going on lavish vacations together with their latest pay cheque. On the other side of the spectrum, her more serious friends were just getting married and starting families.

 

It was exhausting trying to assess her potential when weighed up against two varying and jarring phases of life.

 

But escaping the house and getting some fresh air came at a price as Yuri watched Hani unearth what could very well be the remains of a dead body in Poplar Avenue.

 

And that would mean placing herself – and her leash-straining canine - in an entirely demeaning faux-CSI situation complete with private security guards in Spandex doing their best David Caruso impressions, sunglasses and all.

 

How mortifying.

 

“Stop it, Hani!” Yuri hissed, tugging impatiently at the leash.

 

But she stopped struggling when she caught sight of what her dog had actually dug up. She dropped the metal chain, got down on her knees and began digging up dirt just like her furry companion.

 

A minute later, she picked up a red square object and dusted sand and leaves off of it.

 

It was an ornate music box with a plastic ballerina perched on top. It felt warm and velvety to the touch, golden stitching fringing the maroon fabric covering the wooden box. Yuri ran a curious finger over the gold-coloured clasp that kept both ends of the box together.

 

It looked like it was newly purchased.

 

Who had placed it in a shallow grave?

 

And more importantly, why?

 

Curiosity overcame Yuri and she unfastened the bronze clasp.

 

The sweetest lullaby she’d ever heard began playing from deep within; not like the nauseating tunes one normally heard in those cheap music boxes you could buy on Market Day in the countryside or at The Crazy Store for 5 bucks.

 

Yuri shook the box and realised that the velvety red compartment beneath the sliver of a mirror was hollow. After a few tries, she opened the secret compartment with the corners of her coarse fingernails, which she’d trimmed in a sloppy manner with her teeth not too long before then. And tucked inside that tiny sliver of space was a piece of paper, dyed brown with a wet teabag and burnt deliberately around the edges.

 

It was a poem, and this is what it said:

 

Fair Fortune Hunter

I leave this gift not for you to plunder

But to take on a journey beyond your wildest dreams

Use your imagination despite how ludicrous it seems

Follow my clues and travel at your leisure

And at the end of it you will uncover buried treasure

With love that is thicker than water

You may call me the ‘Altruistic Author’

 

PS: Slide down the slanted slope where children play

A half dome at the foot will show you the way

 

Hani panted happily while Yuri frowned in confusion. She’d never been great at poetry back in high school. And the memory had seemingly re-emerged to bite her in the derriere or old times’ sake.

 

Fortune hunter?

 

Altruistic author?

 

Buried treasure?

 

This was too good to be true. It seemed more like an elaborate prank than the real deal. Didn’t these kinds of things only happened in Korean dramas and movies?

 

If Yuri had had anything remotely tangible like a job or a shred of dignity, she would’ve tossed the ornate music box back into the hole it had been placed in and called it a day. But since she was running low on both a job and dignity, she decided to humour the author of this strange note.

 

She was already outside – why not?

 

There was a park about two minutes away on foot.

 

She could begin her search there.

 

---

 

Hani trotted off and squatted down on her haunches, a trail of bright yellow liquid trickling out of her onto the dried leaves.

 

Yuri squinted in concentration down at the paper in her hands before looking about her.

 

There was no one in the park save for her and Hani. She let the dog off her leash so she could roam about while she tried to decipher the first clue.

 

This was a place where children came to play. But what exactly was a ‘slanted slope’?

The only thing she could picture herself sliding down was a fireman’s pole. And the park seemed to be despairingly low on one of those.

 

A light bulb went off in Yuri’s head when she glanced off to her right at the yellow children’s slide. Keeping a close eye on Hani, who was currently rolling around in her own filth, the raven-haired girl climbed gingerly up the matching yellow ladder of the slide.

 

Yesterday’s rain made it easy for the young woman to slide down in spite of her towering height. She landed clumsily on a tyre sawed in half that broke her fall, a clammy stain forming on the buttocks of her jeans.

 

Now what?

 

She examined the handlebars on the ladder to make sure she hadn’t missed a slip of paper attached to the yellow grips. There was no clue pasted to the slippery surface of the slide either. With a growing sense of trepidation, Yuri even cocked her head all the way round and checked the back of her pants just to make doubly sure.

 

Her suspicion was founded on a previous incident back in grade school when Lee Soonkyu, her oldest friend, had pasted a ‘kick me’ sign to the back of her uniform near her posterior.

 

The irony wouldn’t be lost on her if the next clue turned out to be another one of Sunny’s practical jokes that she enjoyed playing on her.

 

Yuri cursed audibly when her Galaxy Note picked that particular moment to fall out of her pocket and underneath the tyre. She bent over and picked tentatively at the wet sand with her fingers and retrieved her phone and a damp piece of paper.

 

Another clue?

 

Despite the ridiculous circumstances, the dark-haired woman couldn’t smirking with satisfaction over her success. Yuri opened the newly discovered paper and read the smudged writing:

 

Success! You’ve conquered my first clue thus far

Hidden beneath the remnants of the tyre of a car

Now defy gravity and enter through the green picket fence

Where you won’t be left in another minute of suspense

Grit your teeth and square your jaw

Trivial Pursuit is the only way to score!

 

A green picket fence?

 

What dream world was this whacko living in?

 

Kwon Yuri felt like a dog, turning haphazardly on her heels in a complete rotation while she scanned the rows of houses bordering the intersections of Mason Rd and Edison Ave. Her vision was beginning to blur, making her stomach churn with the excess of the Cornflakes she’d consumed for breakfast.

 

Just when she was about to give up and go home, a house on the edge of the cul de sac caught her eye.

 

It had a green picket fence – but where was the next clue?

 

“Hani, stay here, baby. I’ll be right back.” Yuri commanded firmly, making up her mind in an instant.

 

She was going to check out the property up-close, as unorthodox as it sounded.

 

The fence was relatively low, but Yuri still had trouble negotiating her long legs over the jagged edges despite the countless hours she spent doing Yoga.

 

She landed with a soft thud on the wet grass in a tiny but prim backyard decorated with fragrant rosebushes outlining the garden.

 

There was a slip of burnt paper attached to the head of a sprinkler nozzle close to where she stood.

 

Yuri grabbed the paper, her gut feeling telling her that any khaki spandex-wearing security guards currently roaming the neighbourhood wouldn’t take too kindly to trespassers.

 

Just then, loud barking and angry growling echoed awfully close to where she stood.

 

She turned slowly and came face to face (or nose to nose rather) with a big black Doberman, with its hackles raised and sharp teeth bared.

 

“!”

 

“GOOD DOG!!!”

 

Yuri barely cleared the wooden fence, the dog snapping ferociously at her ankles. She half-staggered and half-ran, rubbing her smarting bum where the filthy beast’s canines had left a strip of denim fabric flapping perilously behind her.

 

Then she put an excitable Hani (who wanted to give the Doberman a piece of her furry mind) back on her leash and sped towards Children’s Way without a backwards glance. This particular road was littered with an array of elementary schools, day care centres and educational centres that offered extracurricular classes in martial arts, Math tutoring and piano lessons.

 

Yuri usually preferred not to take Hani for walks down this road for two reasons. One, Hani got too distracted by the hordes of children at every turn and tried to break away from her leash to go play with them; and two, there were too many SUVs filled with stressed out stay-at-home-moms barrelling down this road, ignoring the green light children pedestrian crossings at every turn, which the young college graduate found faintly ironic.

 

When she finally stopped running and looking over her shoulder to check if a big Doberman was still chasing her, Yuri found herself at a children’s pedestrian crossing next to Jangpyung Elementary School. While massaging a stitch in her side and keeping a good grip on Hani’s leash, Yuri read the next clue:

 

 You’ve escaped the Jaws of Death by a mere breath

Catch it and take a short rest

Inhale, exhale, then walk into the Temple of Zen

Here you will find inner tranquillity again

Don’t waste a penny, this precious gift is free

10 minutes is all you need, so hurry!

To keep your dream of riches alive

Ask the Master for the key to Locker 5825

 

 

Yuri stared pensively at the sign post outside the small cottage where they held self-defence classes regularly.

 

The Altruistic Author wanted her to take a karate class?

 

With a reluctant sigh, the young woman secured a scowling Hani to a metal pole and walked inside.

---

After 20 minutes of stretching, chanting a tune similar to the national anthem of South Korea and wrestling on a blue mat smelling like feet with a sweaty middle-aged Asian man with fish-sauce breath (which incidentally, also smelt like feet) Yuri finally stood on Children’s Way again.

 

‘Kenny’s Kung-Fu Klass’ (she experienced a mental aneurism when she thought of how he’d misspelt ‘class’) held a special promotion where they offered a week of free training to encourage new membership.

 

Unfortunately, Yuri didn’t have a whole week at her disposal to look for one clue. So she’d adhered to the Altruistic Author’s advice and asked Master Kenny (or ‘Kung-Fu Kenny’ as he preferred to be called) if he had a key for Locker 5825.

 

And inside it, she had found the final clue:

 

The end is almost near

There are no more obstacles left to fear

Make your way to the white-speckled road

Where bleach and rain cannot destroy or erode

Find a wet puddle and jump up and down

Cluck like a chicken and spin around

Open the box and enter through the proverbial gates

For here is where your long-lost treasure awaits

 

There was only one place that fit the description and it was back at Poplar Avenue, where this strange misadventure had first begun.

---

She stood on the smooth tar road splattered with millions of bird droppings.

 

Why hadn’t the municipality ever cleaned it up?

 

Hani was off her leash again, chasing a frightened squirrel up a gnarled tree.

 

Yuri was beyond disappointed.

 

She was right back where she started, standing in front of the hole she and Hani had dug nearly an hour ago.

 

Her already ruined jeans were now tinged with mud from jumping up and down in a shallow puddle of rain water and her cheeks were still flaming red with chagrin from pretending to be a chicken.

 

And the only thing she had discovered was a grape-flavoured lollipop conveniently hidden in another secret compartment of the music box.

 

There was no treasure.

 

The clues had led her in a circle!

 

She’d wasted a whole hour of her life on someone’s idea of a practical joke.

 

Was a kid’s lollipop the only reward for her public humiliation?!

 

“I’m such an idiot!” Yuri fumed at the sky while Hani crashed face-first into the tree to pursue the squirrel. “What kind of moron risks their life and embarrasses themselves just for one stinking grape lollipop?!”

 

“Um, are you ok?”

 

Yuri turned around to offer a sarcastic retort at the newcomer who had disrupted her mini rant, but stopped dead in her tracks. She couldn’t move an inch and her breathing became far more laboured, as if she had just scaled the Doberman’s fence a few seconds ago. Because standing in front of her was the most beautiful girl she’d ever laid eyes on.

 

And worse still, she knew her too. Well, maybe that was a stretch of the imagination since they’d never even talked to each other before this. But Yuri recognised her neighbour from two blocks down the road from her house. She too had just graduated from college and her dad was the new neighbourhood doctor; they moved into the area a few months ago. The only tangible thing that Yuri even knew about this girl was that she had trouble formulating any sentences whenever the vision of loveliness was around.

 

Kinda like right now.

 

The girl continued staring at Yuri, a concerned expression appearing on her pretty face.

 

“I’m fine, I just-”

 

And without planning it or thinking it through, the tale of her recent exploits tumbled out of her lips in an uncontrollable wave of chaos and misery. To her intense surprise, the girl standing in front of her started laughing uncontrollably. Yuri was glad her new neighbour didn’t think she was a weirdo, but uncontrollable laughter also didn’t make her feel any better either.

 

“I’m sorry, I promise I’m not laughing at you. I thought it was kind of strange when I saw you clucking like a chicken before. But now that I know the whole story, it really sounds like you’ve had quite an adventure.” The girl offered with a bemused smile.

 

“Pfft, more like a ‘misadventure’ from beginning to end.” Yuri griped.

 

“Untrue,” the girl countered, her brown eyes twinkling merrily as she spoke. “You got some good exercise, you got to spend time with your cute little dog. And you found a grape-flavoured lollipop. I’m totally jealous.”

 

Yuri gazed over to where Hani now lay on the brown grass her paws delicately, clearly lost in her own world. She really did love that dog.

 

“You’re right about that. So…you like grape lollipops?” She asked curiously of the girl a few seconds later.

 

“Only more than breathing,” the vivacious girl replied, smiling broadly.

 

Yuri stepped forward and handed the girl the lollipop. “Here, you have it. You’ll probably enjoy it more than me anyway.”

 

“Are you sure? But…you’ve found it – it’s your treasure,” the girl protested.

 

“No it isn’t, and neither is this lame music box that I found the lollipop in. I guess ‘buried treasure doesn’t really exist…” Yuri trailed off, feeling distinctly miserable and wistful all at once.

 

“You found a music box too? Wow, that is co – wait, that’s my music box!” the girl shrieked indignantly.

 

Even the girl’s cute dog with its mounds of curly white fur and black beady eyes was staring suspiciously at Yuri. The latter immediately handed the girl the music box too and backed away quickly, holding her hands up in surrender.

 

“I swear I didn’t take your music box. I found it buried in the sand over here, I promise! Just ask Hani!”

 

Yuri slapped a palm to her forehead when the girl and her dog both gave her mutual looks of confusion.

 

“That is so weird. Who would steal my music box and then bury it? It doesn’t make any sense.” The girl went on.

 

“I know, right? It even came with a stupid poem that gave me clues, which led me back here somehow.” Yuri explained self-consciously.

 

“A poem? Can I see it?” the girl asked, forgetting her momentary annoyance over her missing music box.

 

Yuri nodded and handed her the papers she’d found. As the girl reached out to take them, their fingers brushed against one another’s for the barest moment, sending a spark of electricity shooting up their arms. The pretty girl was the first to back away, blushing profusely in the process while Yuri awkwardly scratched the back of her neck.

 

“Uh, anyway, me and Prince should probably go home now and figure out this mystery on our own. Thanks for giving me back my music box, um…” the girl fumbled, only realising just then that she didn’t know her saviour’s name.

 

“Yuri, and this is my dog, Hani.”

 

“I’m Tiffany, and this is Prince. I called him ‘Prince’ because he’s the only male mammal I’d ever let into my bed.”

 

Despite the corniness of that statement, Yuri still couldn’t resist laughing at the girl’s adorable rationality in reference to her pet.

 

“Cool. I, uh…guess I’ll see you around.” Yuri offered in parting, feeling strangely forlorn about saying goodbye to this beautiful creature.

 

And even though she’d just met her, Tiffany oddly enough felt the same way about Yuri.

 

“Yeah, definitely. Thanks for the lollipop.”

 

“Don’t sweat it, someone probably stole it from you too,” Yuri joked hoarsely.

 

Even though it was a pretty lame joke, Tiffany still found Yuri charming and sweet in a dorky kind of way.

 

“Ok then. Bye,” Tiffany greeted, giving Yuri a small wave with a manicured hand.

 

Yuri watched Tiffany go with her furry white dog trotting happily beside her and it made a feeling of tranquillity and nervousness settle in her stomach. All because she’d decided to leave her comfort zone and go on a crazy adventure. Just maybe not the adventure she’d originally envisioned.

 

This was different, better somehow.

 

While Yuri stood brooding in the park, Tiffany was already home, reading through the poetry in the papers for a second time, clearly at a loss. Just then, she felt two hairy hands clamp down hard on her shoulders while someone proceeded to give her a ‘raspberry’ from behind.

 

“Ya! Myeongsoo, you pabo!” Tiffany shrieked, slapping her older brother’s hands.

 

Myeongsoo laughed hysterically at his baby sister’s reaction to his teasing and moved to the refrigerator to look for a snack. He was wearing a pair of baggy shorts, a tank top and sneakers. Judging by his sweaty countenance, Tiffany surmised that her brother had been playing a pick-up basketball game with his friends in the park nearby their house.

 

“Ah, Miyoung, you really need to take a course in ‘self-awareness-self-defence’. You always have your head in the clouds – what were you thinking so hard about it before?” he asked curiously on the last part.

 

“You, actually,” Tiffany offered with a shrewd look on her face.

 

“Aww, that’s nice. I love you too, but I kinda don’t have a choice about it.” Myeongsoo teased in-between chugging down a carton of orange juice, something his parents and Tiffany hated watching him do for sanitary reasons.

 

“Very funny,” Tiffany snapped impatiently. “I’m talking about my music box and this stupid poem you wrote, you moron. You made a scavenger hunt out of it – really?”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Myeongsoo sing-songed in an annoying manner.

 

“Are you sure about that, ‘Altruistic Author’? You’re the only idiot who calls yourself by that douchey penname. All because you get weird about other people reading your poetry, which is actually really good.” Tiffany countered with a knowing look.

 

“Ok, you got me. I wanted to put my poetic skills to the test; so I made a scavenger hunt and buried your music box for some poor sap to find. No biggie.” Myeongsoo said dismissively.

 

“It is a big deal! I love that music box and I just got it back from that girl, Yuri, our neighbour.”

 

“Kwon Yuri? That girl with the tomboyish personality and ultra-banging body?” Myeongsoo asked with sudden intrigue.

 

“Yes, her,” Tiffany said, blushing yet again on account of Yuri.

 

“And you talked to her? What’s she like?”

 

“Kinda dorky, but still cool and sweet.”

 

“In that case, you’re welcome.” Myeongsoo declared with a wicked smile.

 

“And just what is that supposed to mean?”

 

“It means that I’ve noticed how you’ve been checking her out since we moved here. I also noticed that Yuri always takes the same route to walk her dog in the neighbourhood and decided to plant your music box in a place where only an inquisitive mind like hers would find it. And after I saw Yuri running around the neighbourhood looking for treasure earlier, I pretended to get a cramp just so that you would walk Prince and bump into her and see her with your music box and your lollipop.”

 

“You took my lollipop too?!” Tiffany fumed indignantly.

 

“Missing the point,” Myeongsoo sing-songed yet again. “Baby sis, the best kind of treasures in life are the ones just waiting to be discovered right under your nose.” He ended off with a barefaced hint thrown Tiffany’s way.

 

Tiffany gulped nervously at what her older brother was suggesting. He was the only one in her family who knew she was gay. Not only was he ok with it, but he was actually throwing her a bone and urging her to go after someone she likes.

 

Maybe even someone like Yuri.

 

After all, she did find her music box. Even if Myeongsoo did plant it, anyone else still could’ve found it instead of Yuri.

 

It had to be a sign.     

 

“Let’s get one thing straight, big bro: touch my personal effects one more time and you’ll never use your right hand to write another poem ever again. Got it?” she threatened.

 

“Arrasseo,” her brother answered, holding his hands up in surrender. “Now shouldn’t you head to back to the park and see if Yuri’s there? You can give her this.”

 

Tiffany let out a surprised gasp when Myeongsoo tossed her a grape-flavoured lollipop identical to the one in her hand.

 

“This isn’t over, Altruistic Author,” she warned as she called out to Prince to follow her as she skipped back out the front door.

 

“Yes it is!” Myeongsoo called out after his brother and grinned to himself. This ‘buried treasure’ exploit was definitely going into his poetic memoirs.

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I definitely want a b rother like this. Or maybe I already do - hmm, possibilities. Ok, I'm off to bed and back to stressing about moving back home. I'll try to get started on the new LTH sometime this week, if not sometime this year. Leave me lots of cuddly reviews, I live for them. Pip pip cheerio!