Seventeen

Sands Of Time
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It was probably around nine o'clock at night now. The train was still moving at a reasonable speed and creating a hypnotic melody from its engines and the tracks. The room was alight with the gentle, eerie glow from the lights on the walls and the curtains were still drawn across the door, preventing anyone from looking in.

Henry snorted quietly and shifted in his seat, catching the attention of the only awake person in the room.

Tara moved her eyes over onto him and smiled weakly at the sight of his sleeping face. He always looked so sweet when asleep. Tara took a small breath in and looked around the room at Mark and Jaemin as though to check up on them. They had all been asleep for the past three hours now, ever since they had returned to the compartment earlier. Tara hadn't expected the journey to Busan to take so long, but she assumed that the large explosion caused the delay. She had noticed a decrease in the speed not a couple of hours back.

She released a quite sigh and looked back out the window at the small dots of light that shone out in the distance from the City area, away from the countryside that they were now riding through. Tara had no idea where they were, but the guards had knocked on her door earlier to inform her that they would be arriving in Busan at around half past nine. So Tara didn't have much time before she had to bring her pleasant alone time to an end and wake the boys up. Tara, out of pure boredom, looked at her reflection in the window and stared into her own eyes. She could see her mother in them. Smiling softly, she closed her eyes and leant the side of her head against the window once more.

Tara was ten years old in this memory. She was sitting on the seat of a taxi with her mother on her right. They were on their way to pick Tara a dress to wear for her birthday. Henry was spending the day with dad at work whilst her mother took her shopping. Tara was so excited. She hadn't stopped smiling since the moment her mother announced the arrangement.

Tara looked out of the window at the passing City and beamed out at the passer-by's who weren't even looking her way. Tara leant so far over to the window that her nose touched against the cold glass and her breath steamed a blurry circle onto it. She blinked and leant away to observe it with amusement. An idea struck her mind. She parted her lips and breathed out some more hot breath onto the glass so that it fogged up a larger circle. Tara then drew a small heart on it with her finger and giggled softly. She leant back in her seat and tapped her mother on the arm, who looked down at her with a warm smile.

"Yes, my darling?" She asked.

Tara pointed to the window "Look what I drew for you, mummy."

Her mother looked over at the window and spotted the transparent heart shape. She smiled affectionately and kissed the back of Tara's hand.

"It's beautiful, angel. Thank you." She chuckled.

Tara giggled proudly and tucked a small curl behind her ear. Her mother let go of her hand and sat in silence with Tara for a few more minutes. Tara just couldn't stop thinking about trying on all of the beautiful dresses with her mother. It was her idea of the best day ever! Tara then felt her mother tap her on the shoulder and she looked up curiously. Her mother was smiling happily and pointed at her window. Tara looked and spotted an identical heart that she had drawn in her own breath. Tara gasped and smiled up at her mother in awe.

"It's a heart, just like mine!" She announced.

Her mother smiled and poked her nose "It's my heart and your heart."

Tara giggled and hugged her mother's arm "Love you, mommy."

"I love you too, angel." Her mother replied and started Tara's hair.

Tara inhaled a slow, soft breath through her nose and opened her eyes. She was met with her reflection once more, and she weight of a heavy heart. She leant away from the window and looked down at her lap with a false smile across her lips. Nothing was wrong... so why was she feeling down?

"I thought I told you your skirt doesn't make you look ugly." Jaemin suddenly spoke out.

Tara blinked and snapped her eyes onto him. How long had he been awake?? He rolled his eyes at her reaction and sat up comfortably in his seat to rub his messy head with a light yawn. Tara looked away from him and back out of the window.

"We should be arriving in Busan in half an hour. I was going to wake you - but you beat me to it." She informed him.

Jaemin nodded and looked out the window "It's taken a while, hasn't it now."

Tara nodded, "I assume it's because of the explosion earlier. Whilst you three were sleeping, I felt the train slow down."

Jaemin looked around at Mark and Henry and smirked at their laziness. He leant forwards to Mark and patted him on the cheek. He merely scoffed in his sleep and turned his head the other way. Tara raised an eyebrow and watched the two of them out of the corner of her eye. Mark shook his head at his best friend and leant back in his seat.

"He can sleep through anything, that lazy dog." He joked.

Tara snapped her eyes back onto the window as though she wasn't taking any notice "He's hardly had much sleep."

Jaemin shook his head "That's not the point. He'd sleep forever if he could, and then he still wouldn't have had enough. Trust me."

Tara raised her eyebrows tiredly "Alright."

Jaemin watched her from afar for a few seconds in silence. Tara could feel his gaze upon her and eventually couldn't ignore it anymore. She looked over at him and raised her eyebrows expectantly.

"Why are you staring at me?" She asked.

Jaemin pouted his bottom lip out cluelessly and shook his head "I wasn't."

Tara rolled her eyes and looked away again "Oh, fine."

He was just being so childish. Tara couldn't be bothered with it all.

Jaemin put his feet back up on the seat next to Jonathan and folded his arms across his chest so he could relax "If I can say so, honey," He sighed "I think you need to smile a little more."

Tara blinked in offence "Excuse me?"

He smiled childishly "See? Like this."

Tara shook her head "I know what a smile is, Mr. Na, I just..." She trailed off and stared out the window in a negative thought "I smile when I have reason to. Isn't that how it works?" She rhetorically snapped.

Jaemin's cocky smile faltered and he tilted his head to the side in observing her. She really was a huge mystery to him, no matter how snappy and impatient she came off as. Mark growled in his sleep again and, this time, caught the attention of both Tara and Jaemin.

Jaemin took his feet down from the seat and leant towards to him once more and stared at him curiously. He waited a second before planting a sudden cold, hard slap across Mark's face, making Tara jump. Jaemin quickly leant back in his seat before Mark could open his eyes - which was very quickly. Mark literally shot up straight with his hands out in front of him and looked left and right in a strong panic.

"I didn't take it, I swear!" He cried.

Tara tsk'

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HoneyFei20
#1
Chapter 1: Wow! I'm just amazed by this story...its so action-packed and interesting...I can't wait for more!