Straying From The Game

Chapter 26 The Ciphered Message

Genie

As soon as my body hit my familiar bed, I felt my eyelids falling close. Traveling will never be my thing. Adjusting myself into a comfortable position, I fall asleep still on my travelling attire and shoes. I was surprised however when I woke up the next morning because I'm properly tucked in under the covers and my shoes and socks was off my feet. I lifted the covers and saw myself on PJs. My face was also cleaned from make-up. Chaeyoung? Who else?

I took some clothes and went to take a bath. It's Sunday so I'm going to church, after missing it last week. When I'm done preparing, I went to take my suitcase and brought it to my room. I wonder if she will also go to church so I knocked on her room.

"Chaeng, are you going...." my voice trailed off when I stepped in and saw her changing.

"I'm sorry" I mumbled as I quickly went out. Since she is preparing, I think she will come too, so I went to the kitchen and prepared us coffee. She joined me later on.

"Good morning" I greeted as I passed a mug of coffee on her. I noticed her looking at my lips. Uh, this is awkward now that we're back home.

She stepped towards me and pecked my lips before smiling. "Good morning too"

I decided not to dwell on it and made casual conversation while drinking coffee. Manager Dong-il drove us to the church, then to a restaurant for breakfast. It's a good thing that he sat with us so we weren't given privacy to talk, instead, he asked how we managed to evade cameras for a whole week. We explained that we booked our tickets last minute and used disguises. We left the truth that we mostly stayed at the privacy of my family's property. That's a confidential information, my whole family background really.

When we got back home, we opened the third suitcase containing our presents. We took the things each of us bought then sort it in the living room.

"I wanna go home for a bit to say hi to my family and give them my presents" she informed me once she's done and packed three stacks in paper bags.

"Oh, then can you give them mine?" I asked as I did the same.

"You don't wanna come? Alice is coming to pick me up" she asked hopeful.

"I stole you for a week Chaeng, you should go and spend the remaining limited time with them alone" I smiled at her.

"Oh, I'm sure they won't mind. They would even be glad to have you" she insisted.

"No no, just go, I'll wait up for the girls" I shook my head. She sighed but then finally nodded.

Once she left, I took my laptop in the living room and remove my camera's memory card. I copied all the photos we took during the break then cleared the memory card before returning it to my camera. Once all the pictures loaded I sighed staring at hundreds, if not a thousand of photos. I took an empty flash drive and copied everything on it before I deleted photos where she isn't present or those photos of her that I took secretly. Once done, I took time clicking on some of our photos together, staring at it for some time before clicking on the second photo. CK's words keep echoing in my mind, all the while.

I selected some photos for my IG and posted five updates, adding my country as the address. Afterall, the fans deserve an update on where I've been for the week. Not a few minutes passed when I'm being flooded with comments and tags. Many are happy for the update and is awed by my ghosting skills. I chuckled before I exited the app since notifications are really flooding on.

I've cleared the living room just in time when the maknaes arrived. They nearly tackled me on the floor while hugging me, telling me how they missed me and unnie. We cooked lunch together while I asked how they spent their break. Jeed went first then Blythe followed. When my turn came, I used eating lunch as an excuse and they pouted at me.