"Down her cheeks as if an expression"

[December 17th, 2021]

The crew was almost done packing everything after the perfect berry pudding breakfast. They were still lost at words in how great Emilia cooked. Ethan must've been glad.

They were ready to say goodbye to the cozy cabin walls, the still-water cold lake, the beautiful forest and the cavern.

Aurora wanted to see the Lantanas one last time so they went uphill by the slanted rock again.

The Lantanas were still in full bloom and were probably going to keep on blooming amidst the snow.

One last goodbye to nature's colorful beings and they off to the train station through a bus.

Their train arrived pretty quickly and they all sat in. It was 2pm in the afternoon and they had woken up super early in the morning. Their goal was to sleep in the train, like always.

"There are two best things in this world." Lucy muttered as the train started to move. "One." She showed her index finger. "Falling asleep in the middle of a class. Two," She showed her middle and index finger. "Falling asleep on a train. So long, friends!"

The crew had learnt the ways from Lucy and were ready to follow her to the grave!

They slept in an instant. But Aurora and Sean stayed up for their epic plan. Though, the resources were less; But Sean's wallet was still blooming.

No way they were going to starve even if they were separated from the crew.

Aurora had memorised the train stops. It stopped 5 times. And they had to get off when it stopped the 2nd time. There was a small town after that stop so it was worth it.

Maybe they'd just have a day long trip and then go back home anyway.

So they didn't sleep till it stopped the 2nd time in case they might've missed it.

They sneakily jumped out the train while others were still sleeping. Talk about ninjas.

The train station was almost the same but a little busier. They could tell it was a town. They decided not to spend the night there so they booked tickets for the night train.

They took a bus to reach in the middle of a festival. Good thing their timing was perfect. There were a lot of stalls, music and performances.

They first decided to go to each stall.

While walking through the crowded place in between stalls on each side, they passed through food stalls, jewelry stalls and many more.

Aurora spotted a mask stall and wanted to get masks. There were cute animal masks.

"You should get a…" She stopped to look at his face. "Hm… How about a Panda?"

"I'm fat and lazy?" Sean asked sarcastically.

"No! You're cute." She punched it lightly.

He smiled before grabbing the panda mask and wearing it on his face.

"Aww I wish I could squish this panda's cheeks!" Aurora exclaimed, referring to the wooden mask.

"You should get a dinosaur." He muttered.

"I don't eat humans!"

"But you like dinos!"

The shopkeeper helped them find a dinosaur mask but there wasn't any.

"Guess you guys only make up-to-date masks." Sean chuckled as he started to think further. "What's the closest animal to a dinosaur?" He asked.

"I don't know…" Aurora cluelessly muttered.

"Chicken." The shopkeeper offered a chicken mask.

The white, cute chicken, staring into her soul with it's round eyes.

"Okay!" She grabbed the mask and wore it.

The masks fitted perfectly for both of them. They were the little panda and chicken crew now, walking along the rusty old town's roads.

They passed a fried squid stall. Of course, the blueberry breakfast from the morning wasn't enough. They bought the freshly fried squids, stuck to the wooden stick ready to eat.

They felt a little bad for not having the others over for the scrumptious snack they were having. But hey, they deserved dates!

The marketplace was super lively, unlike the camping site. All sorts of people had come to see the festival. So, the two of them also decided to watch it.

Apparently, it was a local disbanded band called 'The Cliffhangers' performing there after a decade. It was a punk rock band. Not necessarily their type but music was music.

The drum rift started off the first song they were singing.

"I hear the voices of my soul~" The main vocalist sang in a D-minor note.

She tried to hum along.

"I forgot I was half tone-deaf…" She muttered, failing to hum.

"Wait what?" Sean asked in confusion.

"It's really faded in my memories but someone told me I'm tone-deaf…"

Sean nodded.

"We can go back if you want."

She shook her head.

"Half tone-deaf. I can still enjoy music." She smiled.

The electric guitar break took over as the sun started to set. Soon, the band disclosed a lot of their already released songs, ending it smoothly.

"Maybe I, maybe I should let myself go~" The main vocalist ended the last song on a cliffhanger.

Bad joke.

The crowd cheered for the band as a flurry of snow fell over from the sky.

It was time to hit the road. However, rather than taking a bus, the two of them decided to walk their way to the train station. It wasn't that far from the marketplace.

They walked on the crosswalk as the snow slowly fell from the sky like petals under the full moon. The dark green evergreen trees were covered in the pure white snow.

"Mr. Panda! Today was fun. I am glad you decided to accompany me on this crazy journey!" Aurora exclaimed cheerfully.

"Ms. Chicken, you can't imagine how glad I was to be able to walk around with you." Sean chuckled lightly.

Aurora gave him a big smile.

"Do you think the others are home by now?"

"Should be. Mad."

She shook her head.

"Not mad. They won't be mad, I'm sure."

Of course they won't be mad. Why would they be, when her days were numbered?

"Aurora." Before a few meters remaining to the train station, he called her name and stopped to look at her. "Can't we just stay?"

She looked at his full, anticipated eyes, desiring an answer.

"We can. Do you want to?" Aurora replied cheerfully.

"Can't you just stay?" He asked before clearing his throat. "Nevermind… Let's go."

He grabbed her hand and started walking towards the station. She could feel nervousness in his voice. He was finally able to show an ounce of his feelings.

He was scared and she had seen that coming.

He was scared to see her die.

But she didn't know what to feel.

"Sean." She muttered his name.

But they reached the ticket house and he started conversing with the receptionist.

He tightened his grip on her hand slowly. That just showed his utter nervousness.

After getting the tickets, they quickly walked inside the train as they were 5 minutes late and the train was about to leave for the night.

Fortunately, they were able to get on. Their compartment was small as well, because they were just two people.

"Sean." She called him to get his attention again after she sat. He was still putting their daypacks inside the cupboard.

"I'm sleepy." He said before sitting down and forcefully closing his eyes.

He was clearly trying to avoid conversation. And Aurora caught on within no time. They were seated opposite to each other on single small chairs.

She stood up from her seat and pushed him aside to sit next to him, though the space was limited.

He was forced to open his eyes. Nope, you couldn't retreat from a conversation like this, Sean!

When he opened his eyes, he saw her face up close.

"Sean?" She pouted in annoyance.

His attention quickly diverted to her lips before he shook his head to look back at her.

"I… Don't wanna worry you. So, just forget it." Sean muttered in his mouth.

Aurora furrowed her brows a little before raising her hands to grab both of his cheeks. She used to do that with Baby Sean occasionally.

She had acknowledged that he doesn't feel comfortable talking about his feelings. That was alright.

She nervously brought her face closer and closed her tightly.

Of course, she wanted him to take the lead so she just paused at her place.

He ran his hand towards the back of her head to pull her closer for a kiss. Not a peck this time, a kiss.

She quickly regretted her decision as heart started to pound faster, but that drove Sean only crazier for more.

Maybe that would clear his mind.

He stopped midway as he paused, letting go of her lips.

"Again?!" Aurora exclaimed as soon as she was set free. "Seriously?!"

It wasn't really pleasant to see him switch into another person after they shared a split second of a soon-to-be-passionate kiss. She sulked.

Why did he have to switch again?!

[December 17th, 2020]

She couldn't recall any event from the day.