“The end of your wet eyes full of memories; I hope it dies in my embrace.”

1 Les flics: policemen (slang).

 

“Amber, what are you wearing?”   I gawked as Amber strode to the kitchen, her hips swaying side to side, oblivious to what she elicited out of me. She was wearing a pair of black shorts and yellow tank top. The curves of her body were more visible as the clothes snugly hugged her figure. Toulouse was hot in July and she was making it hotter. Just what was she thinking?   She raised an eyebrow in displeasure. “What? It’s hot.”   “Oh, Sung Yeol!” Yuri’s scoff was heard as she joined Amber to find breakfast. “Just because she’s a mother doesn’t mean she can’t be hot.” Yuri smirked and Amber grinned at her remark.   I grimaced at Yuri’s choice of attire. She was wearing a fitted black wife-beater and khaki shorts. Her voluptuous body was apparent underneath those limited clothes, not to mention her derriere. “Yuri! What the hell are you wearing?!” My brows formed a frown as I gave the two ladies a disapproving look.   Min Ho’s room door opened and he entered the living room. He gasped and a delightful hum came out of him. He smirked at the sight of Yuri and sauntered over to hug her from behind. “Wow, it’s smoking hot today.”   Yuri grinned. “I know. That’s because you’re here.”   Amber jokingly told them to get a room. They laughed and Min Ho said, “Oh we will, Am, if you and Sung Yeol would be so kindly take the kids out today.”   A crimson of red covered Yuri’s face and she smacked Min Ho’s arm lightly. Min Ho did not stop his affection and rested his chin on her shoulder. I saw Amber looking away deliberately and took a small spoon to consume her yoghurt. Her eyes remained down, as if trying to hide.   “That would be okay,” she said, trying to remain nonchalant. “We’ll take the kids out, okay, Yeol?”   “Yeah, that would be alright.”   “Hey, Min Ho’s joking,” Yuri quickly said, looking at the two of us. Min Ho promptly confirmed Yuri’s statement, but Amber was adamant.   “No, really, it’s okay. How long has it been since you two had time alone?” She let out a tight-lipped smile. “We’ll take them out. It’s okay.”   We planned to go around the city today and visit Garonne River with Woo Hyun hyung and his brother, Baek Hyun Nam. Baek Hyun moved to Toulouse for work purposes and Woo Hyun hyung was helping him. I had not seen them since the year I left the city of Paris, so I organised a meeting with Amber. We had not exactly told Woo Hyun hyung about Paris, but I told him I had a surprise for him. I could not wait to see the shocked expression on that handsome face of his. We actually did not have a set place to go to; we just wanted to look around the city since we weren’t really familiar with it.   “Is Jack coming?” Yuri asked.   “No!” I shouted, standing upright. I crossed my arms and glared at her and then Amber. “She’s not coming right, Amber?”   Three pairs of eyebrows shot up.   “No, she has something on today.”   I looked at her angrily. “So, you asked her to come?”   “Sung Yeol, what is with you and Jack?”   Suddenly, Min Ho snorted. Yuri and Amber turned to him questioningly. He ignored them and sent me an I-know-it-all smirk, which I did not get at all what he meant by that.   “Jealousy, I see,” he made a remark.   I scoffed and eyed Amber. “Seriously, Amber, she likes you.”   “Of course she likes me,” Amber replied. “She won’t be friends with me if she doesn’t.”   She clearly understood what I meant, but decided to respond that way.   “Amber!”   Amber and Yuri gave me a disapproving look. “Sung Yeol! Just because she’s a lesbian, doesn’t mean Amber shouldn’t be friends with her.” Yuri rolled her eyes in dismay at how discriminating I was.   “I’m not being discriminating, but look at the way she looks at Amber.”   “She does not look at me that way,” Amber argued. “You’re exaggerating.”   “You are being a chiding, Sung Yeol,” Min Ho gave his input.   “What’s a chiding?” Yuri wondered.   “You know, elementary school kid in Korean.”   I snorted, imitating the way he did earlier. Yuri frowned and pondered, “Isn’t it choding?”   “It’s choding, Flic1,” I corrected, agreeing to Yuri. “Geez, you and L would fail living in Korea.”   That achieved a set of laughter from Amber. She had to put her yoghurt down and held her stomach. Yuri was laughing too, to her husband’s dismay, but I was captivated by the sight of Amber, laughing her heart out.   Min Ho’s question of “Flic? What?” was ignored.   Flic is a slang word for ‘cop’ in French. I had to admit, it was odd to call him that, but ‘Flic’ reminded me of the word ‘flick’, the action of flicking something. It just came to my head at that moment.   But I didn’t explain to him then, I was too occupied by Amber as I was suddenly reminded at that thought I had when I saw her with L.   She has a smile that could light up this whole town.

 

∞∞∞

 

Min Ho let me take his car as he spent the day with Yuri. He looked so happy that I just wanted to erase that smile off his face. It must have been a long time since they had their alone time.   I noticed Amber seemed down as we went out. The way she tried to smile around the kids appeared forced to me. She remained hidden under her sunglasses as she watched the city passed by the window.   “Happy birthday to you!” Paris suddenly sang in the car, joined by Jaden and Alice enthusiastically. I heard Amber snickering until she could not hold her laughter anymore.   “Whose birthday i