Treasure tales

Short 12: Takata Mashiho

I opened my eyes. There were mountains a distance away, coloured the shade of pale blue. The house behind me was furnished a deep blue colour, and embellished from top to bottom with cold, hard diamond. There is a gate a little to my front, made of wood, blocking my path to the outside world.

"What do you think?" A small boy said as he ran up to stand beside me. I turned to look at me, and he returned my gaze with big, round, doe eyes. The biggest, most pensive eyes I have seen in a while. "This is a place of poverty."

I frowned. "That's impossible, your house is made of diamond."

The boy shook his head, still smiling brightly. "That's not diamond. Look again," he said.

I turned around, and suddenly it became clear. There were fractures everywhere on the diamonds, and water were leaking from its insides. The door slammed onto the floor with a resounding thud, and broke, leaving not a trace of its presence on the floor. It was almost as if it had never existed in the first place. I widened my eyes as I watched the house falling apart, right in front of me, like a timelapse.

I turned to look at the boy again. He was still smiling at me, as sweetly as ever. "So? What do you think?"

I knocked on the door of Junkyu's home, waiting for the familiar ring of keys. After a while, Jihoon opened the door.

"Rin, you're here," He greeted me. His eyebrows furrowed into his forehead. "We're in trouble here. Mashiho said he would come here two hours ago. Till now nobody knows his whereabouts, and he has been completely uncontactable. This is the first time has has done this, so it's quite concerning."

I bit my lip, not sure if I should have told him about my dream the previous night. Now that I thought about it, that child bore a startling resemblance to Mashiho. They had the same doe eyes and round face. Still I dare not say anything because unlike Junkyu, I have never been a precognitive dreamer, and well, it was probably just a dream. No point worrying them over something so concerning if it was not true if the first place.

"Just in time, we were thinking about going out to search for him," Jihoon continued. "You see, Hyunsuk notified us ahead of time that he'd be uncontactable for three days, if you have read the group chat, that is. Yoshinori is out on another mission, geez I wish they'll let us in on their secretive missions sometime instead of just disappearing like that and as usual Asahi is nowhere to be seen. While we can, let's make sure another member doesn't go MIA, alright?"

"I'll help to search," I offered, although secretly I felt annoyed. I had taken my precious time to drop by thinking I could relax a little with them, but the moment I arrive something bad has to have happened. Just where was Mashiho?

"That would be a great help," Jihoon nodded. He went back into the house. I heard the members scream at each other for a bit, before he reappeared at the door. "Sorry, could you search by yourself for a little--HEY!"

I bit my lip as Jihoon rushed back into the house. A few moments later I heard the sound of crashing and banging. I prayed in my heart that Junkyu wouldn't be left homeless at the end of the day, whatever was going on inside the house. I shrugged. I figured I should go look for Mashiho first, but the truth was, I had no idea how to start. I strolled around a little bit, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Then my surroundings melted. Colour melted, and it was replaced by whiteness. I froze. Was this the work of one of the twelve boys?

"I'm here," I turned around, and I saw Mashiho looking meekly at me, with both of his hands in his jean pockets. "I was always here. I just did not want to come out."