“Thank you for letting me know Andy. I think I can understand better now. I really appreciate all of your support and yes – your time to visit me.” I sincerely told him.

“It’s my pleasure.” He said and he smiled at me just the way he did the first time I saw him in the hospital. Now I can relate better the way they treated me. Now, the gap is comprehendible and I thought to myself that I owe a lot from these people.

It was then when I remembered, THE DEBT! What could it be? I can’t even think of any tangible thing that can be priceless. Is it this pen that I am using or anything else that we shared together in the middle of my lost memories? I will put a note on it first.

A lot of things happened today that made me feel so exhausted. Everything went so fast and I don’t know if it is better or not. At this rate, I cannot even think of my company duties. My mind is occupied with all the information that I received and I am not even satisfied with all of it yet. I am emotionally fatigued. This game turned out to be more of a healing process than the torture that I anticipated.

“By the way Kris, I asked Laura if she can buy some ingredients for dinner. I decided to cook something nice for you and eat together. I also invited Minwoo if you don’t mind.” He said while showing me the screen of his phone displaying a message sent to the designer to come over for dinner.

“Of course that’ll be good.” Imagining Minwoo’s smiling face made me feel a lot better. He’s a very cheerful guy and his presence makes me feel that everything will be okay. I really hope I get to know them more. Like what Andy and the birds did today, I am also rooting for the fact that the remaining three people will start to uncover certain memories about us that I’ve lost unintentionally 17 years ago.

Laura came in just in time while Andy is teaching me how to fold the paper to create a crane origami – yes just like what he did every month. He was so patient in explaining every detail of it, and his gentle voice is so clear that I’d wanted to hear him speak more than he should.

He left me practicing on the kitchen’s dining table and immediately proceeded in preparing the ingredients for his recipe. Andy was very swift and precise on what he is doing and from a distance I can already tell that I’ll be pigging out soon because of the mouth-watering scent of his dish.

Minwoo just popped on the kitchen’s door holding a cake’s box on his hands.

“Dessert?” he smiled like a kid and put it inside the refrigerator. The pictures reflected the way they moved around the Villa treating it like their own home. Andy knew exactly where to find the condiments that he needs and Minwoo casually seats on the chair like he is already part of the household.

“So how did it go with the birds? Hehehe.. Hyesung stopped by at my boutique to deliver excess Kimbap for lunch before he went here.” Minwoo asked while showing me a picture on his phone. It was identical to the food that we ate at the beach.

“The seashore was beautiful! It was like a paradise actually. I never thought that there could be a place like that here in Sylfaen.” And while saying that, I remembered my phone.

I haven’t charged it yet! I stood up and quickly ran to get it from my bag which was still on the couch. Of course its blank display is still as it is the last time it died.

Minwoo followed me to my room and watched me plug it to its charger.

“I took a video of them. I’ll show it to you later when it comes back to life.” I said with an excited voice.

He nodded his head in agreement. He roamed inside my room to look around. There is nothing much to see but he still find it fascinating in a way. He even nagged me to transfer all my clothes inside the closet instead of letting them rest inside my luggage. He said it will help make me feel that I am on a vacation instead of being just a part-time tourist in Sylfaen.

He sat on my bed and held Dongwan’s photo book on his hand and said, “Wannie really put a lot of effort on this. I didn’t even know that he had these photos with him until yesterday when he showed it to me. Are you done checking all of it?”

“Nope. Not yet. I stopped after a few pages.” I answered honestly.

 “What was the last picture that you saw?” he asked with an interested tone.

“I think, the last one that I saw was with – Eric, the one where he is carrying me on his back.” I paused and let out a deep sigh and just gave him a desperate look.

“I already know it was him. Andy blew off his cover a while ago.” I dreadfully tried to put a smile on my face now that I am about to enter another challenge, identifying my debt.

“Andy is really smart to call me out here.” Minwoo laughed after hearing that. It made me think that he was not one of the people whom I got confused with. Maybe that’s why?

“You see Kris. It is very easy to point out what you owe from that person.” He said casually which sounded like it was a piece-of-cake to identify.

“All the five of us have something in common that he does not. Base from what I know you met him the night he brought you to the hospital. Dongwan told me about it. He drove you to the hospital himself.” He is still supressing his laughter. “He is awkward too like Hyesungie but a different kind of feel is in his vibe.” Minwoo pointed out.

“That’s right. I find his walls seriously tough to break. I can’t even come up with a good topic to begin with. I had a hard time figuring him out.” I walked towards Minwoo who’s already opening the photo book by himself. I sat beside him as he flipped the first pages that I viewed yesterday.

In every page that he spread, he will always point his finger on Eric’s face. Something looked different from the professor that I have met. Most of his pictures had that kind of mischievous smile on it. He will be seen with goofy poses from many pictures and there is something that Minwoo would like me to notice by myself.

I tried to remember the first time I met him; it is when Laura asked for his help. He possessed that cold stare with tormenting eyes unlike them who greeted me warmly like an old friend. He had a gloomy mood and a straight to the point kind of attitude even when we were at the hospital. But I remember seeing him smiling, almost laughing at random stuff but those moments were quickly snatched away by his consistency in terms of silence.

“Happiness.” Minwoo said slowly. “You took away his happiness with you when you left Sylfaen for your therapy. He kept it to himself all along and we got really bothered about it. How he bottled it up all by himself and never shared it with us. It is already given that we were able to tell what’s wrong with him since we are brothers. His actions speak louder than words.” And he continued switching from one page to another.

“Eric, that guy always takes responsibility of everything. When he saw you like that at the hospital and observed how lonely you became when you came back here at the Villa, he will always stay here late at night just to personally know if you are sleeping peacefully. He will play his clarinet outside your room until he sees you sleeping. He told us that it helps the nightmares go away.” He looked at me with a comforting smile.

Now I realized why he lent me his mp3 and I finally get the chance to know what I should return him. Indeed it is something that cannot be reimbursed by money.

I need to think harder and try better ways to restore his happiness. I felt guilty for making him that way. His smiles on the pictures were so genuine that I’d like to see him with a cheerful face again.

 “Minwoo Hyung, Kris! Dinner is ready!” Andy called out from the kitchen and both of us walked in a hurry towards the dining table inside the room.

A savoury pasta with white sauce together with a tenderized beef steak waited for us on the table while Andy puts grape juice on our glasses. I sat beside Minwoo and Andy took the chair opposite to us.

“Bone appetite!” Andy said with such a huge delight on his master piece.

He never failed my expectation. He is a chef by profession and I can say that having him here at the Villa everyday will surely make me gain weight in just a span of a week. He’s really amazing in mixing flavours and at the same time applying heat to his dish to get the right texture that you will fall for.

I unconsciously gave him two thumbs up to praise our dinner. He saw me and laughed happily.

“That’s how you did it years ago! Hahaha! You haven’t changed at all!” Andy said while wiping his lips with a napkin.

“You inspired me to be a chef do you know that? You will always bring me a cook book whenever I am having my lessons with Nana in this same kitchen and ask me to cook a random food for your hungry tummy. Hahaha” it seemed so nostalgic for Andy and it added up to all the other things that I still need to know about us.

“I’m so glad to be part of your motivation Andy. By the way, I’m a little curious about the professor. He lent me an mp3 the other night and I would like to return it to him.”  or probably I can return something else to him even if I’m still not aware how to give it back.

Andy pause his laughter. Both of them fell silent for a while and I looked at them blankly still not able to understand what I said wrong to make them so passive.

“He’s probably not at his house. He normally goes fishing by himself during this time.” Minwoo confessed.

Fishing? At night? I almost thought I didn’t hear him correctly but Andy confirmed it by making a gesture of someone throwing fish bait attached to an invisible fishing rod.

“Yes, he does that to release his stress.” the designer added as he put a big chunk of meat in his mouth and chewed it deliciously like a child.

“Okay.. that’s somehow.. weird in a way..” I tried to think about what I am going to say next but what’s the use of hiding it?

“Because all day long he’s been sending me random messages.” and the emoticons popped inside my head.

Andy frowned upon hearing it and I looked at Minwoo – only  to discover that he is also with a bewildered reaction.

“What kind of messages?” Andy asked.

“At first it was just a blank message, so I replied a blank message too. Then it was followed with a smiley icon and I replied just the same thing. The last one that I received from him is a rabbit emoticon. You can check my phone if you like. I am just charging it in my room right now.” I explained to them.

Both of them looked at each other and got their smart phones and typed crazily on their screens in front of me. I can’t even relate to what’s happening.