There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 740: Side Story 4. Endless Journey - 23

It started on one certain winter when the twins just turning nine.

It was the end of the semester before the winter break, and the school had decided to hold a short school trip. It would be the twins’ first school trip, so they were rather excited about it.

At that point, they were already settling down at the school. People no longer stared openly at them anymore, and for those who still showed blatant interest...well, the twins had grown used to them and learned to block those stares.

They had made friends they hung out together often--but not as often as they did with Nari and Byul--and the teachers said they would sleep inside a tent with their friends, cooking together, and eating together.

All by themselves, like grown-ups.

Of course, due to security protocol, bodyguard brothers had to follow them all the time. However, the bodyguard brothers never intervened in their activity unless something dangerous happened. Thus, the twins could pretend that they were on their own with their friends, doing everything by themselves like grown-ups.

How fun!

"Don’t you think so, Lu?" Asa grinned while choosing which windbreaker to be brought.

"Ung," little Lucy nodded while rolling on the spread of clothes Asa had dragged out of the wardrobe. "Lu wanna go chuu..."

"We can go next time with everyone--or just the three of us," Asa whispered, and they giggled together. "Anyway, should I get the same one as Kar? Or that one?"

Lucy hopped on her knees and squinted her eyes at the two jackets in her brother’s hands. "Mm..." the little girl appraised them seriously. "Blue!" and then she turned toward the door. "Blothel Kal shud use led!"

"Why?" Kar tilted his head as he entered the room, holding a commlink in his hand.

"Izz guuud!" Lucy said adamantly, and Kar chuckled while patting the wavy platinum hair.

"Okay, I’ll do as you said."

"Hehe!"

Lucy giggled and climbed onto Kar’s lap, who took a seat on his desk chair, and grabbed the commlink from his brother’s hand. It was their shared commlink, because they were not allowed to have their own yet, and it could only be used for a call and simple brain games. If they wanted to surf the link, they had to ask their fathers for permission first.

Stroking his sister’s hair, Kar reported to his twin. "I asked, and Teacher said we can only bring two snacks each."

"Only two?!" Asa collapsed to his pile of clothes in devastation. "How could we survive on two snacks each? This is children’s cruelty!"

Kar rolled his eyes at his dramatic twin, but he already expected this outcome. "You can eat mine, so just choose four different kinds."

Asa perked up and clasped his hands. "My brother! My soulmate!"

"Eww."

"Eww!" Lucy giggled, and Kar clasped her mouth.

"Sush--you shouldn’t use that in front of Dada and Baba, okay?"

Lucy nodded while curling her eyes. "Mmhay!"

Kar wasn’t too convinced, but his baby sister was too cute to get scolded. Well... their fathers were softer to her anyway--since she was their only princess with special constitution--so it should be alright. It was more of a problem if their fathers knew who she learned that from...

Kar shook his head. "Anyway, rather than worrying about snacks, we should think about Nari’s birthday present."

"Nngh...It’s getting harder to choose..." Asa collapsed again. He moved his head left and right, staring at the ceiling for inspiration. "Do you think Kean and the others can give us some ideas?"

"If there’s something we can find in that cave, that will be good," Kar muttered.

"Yeah..."

Lucy, who had been playing digital whack-a-mole on the commlink, looked up to her oldest brother. "Keff?"

"We’ll be going to a cave, Lucy!" Asa got up and grinned. "Cousin Cas stay in one of them, remember?"

Cas was the smallest of the Guardians--the one who looked like an eternal child. Besides Mesa, who helped babysit her, Cas was the one visiting her the most, so Lucy remembered cousin Cas well.

She also remembered Dada and Baba’s story about where they found cousin Cas. There was a small lake and...what was it again?

"The one with...with clystal and spalkly thing?" freewebnσvel.cøm

Asa nodded. "Uh-huh--oh! Can we find some crystals for Nari?"

"Maybe," Kar stroked his chin. "We’ll see tomorrow. Maybe we can find something like a glowing flower too...or a glowing worm."

"Eww!" Asa scrunched his face in disgust.

Of course, someone would follow with a joyful giggle. "Eww!"

The twins gasped and shook their heads. "Lucy!"

The little girl playfully clasped her giggling mouth as her brothers groaned. She leaned back against Kar’s chest and pulled on his sleeves. "Blothel, Lucy wanna clistal chuu," she said. "Can Lu have clistal? Not Lu biltday tho..."

"If we find more than one, we’ll get it for you too," Kar nodded, holding his sister’s hands and swaying them as if they were dancing on the spot.

"Yaaay!"

The excited squeal brought someone to the twins’ room, as Zein peeked up from the door. "So you’re here, Lucy."

"Dada!"

The twins almost gasped, wondering if their father heard the ’eww’ from earlier. They looked at each other and saw the panic in their eyes.

"You haven’t finished packing?" Zein raised his brow at the scattered clothes on the floor.

"Asa--"

"I’m going to pick the snacks first!"

Asa stood up abruptly and ran past his father to the pantry; his footsteps boisterously resounding across the second-floor hallway.

Zein arched his brow before chuckling as his gaze shifted back inside the children’s room, staring at the commlink in Lucy’s lap. "How long has she held that?"

"Oh, just ten minutes," Kar said. "I’ll take it in another ten."

"Okay, I trust you," Zein smiled before walking away from the door, and Kar secretly breathed out in relief while Lucy giggled again.

And so, came the time for the school trip plus the camping night. They made groups and built their tent--even though it was only pushing the button on a compression tent. But it was a barrack tent, so they still had to arrange their sleeping bags and stuff and everything. The most challenging activity for them was preparing their own meal, anyway.

For this, Kar had taken some lessons for his Baba--ahem, Father. Yes, his father.

They were making a simple stew for their meal, and while they weren’t allowed to handle fire, they were allowed to cut the veggies themselves with the children’s knife. Kar proudly used the skill he gained from his father’s teaching, cutting the ingredients neatly and safely, while Asa was in charge of seasoning because he had an excellent palate from all the food he loved to eat.

The twins were told that bragging was not a good thing to do, but they secretly whispered with their friends that their stew was definitely the yummiest one. It was fine if the bragging was done amongst themselves.

After the meal, finally, they entered the cave with a guide that the school had designated for them. The teachers kept guards so no one strayed from the path, and the twins knew the bodyguard brothers were following from behind.

Honestly, it was pretty scary at first. Asa held his brother’s hands when they entered the dark area. Well, everyone had to hold hands at this point, and the one on the outer side of the line would hold the teachers’ hands. It was dark and they could hear weird sounds like dripping water and their own loud steps echoing through the wall.

It was too nervewracking for them to make any noise, but soon, they became speechless for a different reason.

"Whoaaa..." Asa parted his lips and amazement as they arrived at a huge dome.

He wasn’t the only one exclaiming softly under his breath. Even Kar widened his eyes and went speechless. They were bathed in sparkling and twinkling lights from huge stalactite and stalagmite-making dozens of pillars of light all over the huge hall.

"I can’t see the ceiling," Asa whispered to his brother, who merely nodded in agreement.

The cave ceiling was indeed very high, and the only thing telling them there was a ceiling was the twinkling light from glowing worms and glowing bugs attaching themselves to the ceiling like a bunch of curtains. Asa was so fascinated by how much it looked like the stars in the night sky that he forgot his own disgust of worms and bugs.

With their group of friends and a teacher, they went around the huge dome to see everything while the guide explained the cave to them--although no one really listened to her, the poor guide. The children were too excited exploring the safe cave and touching the pillars of crystal and light, forgetting that they were supposed to write a report on this cave for their winter homework.

But who cared about homework in front of such beautiful scenery?

Soon, the cave was filled with giggles and laughter from the children, and in the middle of the noises, Kar pulled Asa to the side and whispered closely.

"I felt something from that path over there," the older twin said. "I think it might be a crystal."