Treasure Map

[KyloRen]

<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_06/57a8c31dcd026_JapaneseBeach.jpg.f90132e1ba6ae73cfba09c890f16f887.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="59616" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_06/57a8c31dcd026_JapaneseBeach.jpg.f90132e1ba6ae73cfba09c890f16f887.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p> <p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_06/Chan.jpg.d1acab9a485aabe15e9f0c6d068404ed.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="59620" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_06/Chan.jpg.d1acab9a485aabe15e9f0c6d068404ed.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>


At 18, Chan Woo is the oldest of the three, though not by much. He makes his way along the rocky wall of the secluded beach and shoves himself into the vegetation. To someone that isn't familiar with the beach, the plantation there seems solid, but Channy has grown up here. He takes his black jacket and white tee off, and removes his shoes and black trousers. Underneath he is wearing short swim trunks. The youth splashes into the water and makes his was to the secret cave he's known of since he was only seven years-old.


The swim is a short one.


<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_06/57a8c31ddc373_BeachCave.jpg.e32ce7d31d156658956568b83cc348c9.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="59618" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_06/57a8c31ddc373_BeachCave.jpg.e32ce7d31d156658956568b83cc348c9.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>


He walks up out of the water, his red-dyed hair no longer spiked up. On his chest and shoulders are elaborate tattoos that the village yakuza encouraged him to get. One of the markings extends upward to the left side of his neck. Add to that his lip and eyebrow piercing and he looks like the perfect example of a troubled youth involved in gang activity. Maybe he is. But his heart warms at seeing his two friends laying on a large blanket on the sand.

 

[Hel]

Kierra smiled over at her friend, Channy. She'd known him ever since she was young, and thought she knew more about him than just about anyone else on the island. She laid back on the beach in her plain blue tankini bathing suit, her steely hair still drying from the swim over. She had been laying on the blanket with Jianmin, their other friend.


"Hey! Nice of you to join us." She said, moving over so that there was enough room for Chan to sit with them. Jianmin smiled and waved at his friend. He was the picture of innocence, a trait that Kierra frequently teased him for, calling him Jianma every now and then, or occasionally Jasmine. He sat up, propping himself on his arms so that his hands were splayed out on the blanket behind him.


"We were just wondering if anyone else knew about this place, you know? Did anyone come out here before us, or was it this lonely cave of solitude?" He said. They'd never seen evidence that anyone else knew about the place, which was nice, but at the same time it seemed unlikely that they were the first to discover the place.


"Oh, yeah, I brought some chocolates and marshmallows if we wanted to start a fire?" She wasn't sure where they'd get the stuff to burn, but they'd found some around before, so she figured they could now, too.

 

[KyloRen]

Chan Woo strides over to them, thinking about their question. Jianmin holds out a towel, and Chan takes it.


"Why can't we be the first ones to know of this place? But I get what you mean," he dries off his face. "Millions of years worth of humanity, and somehow we are special enough to be the first ones in here. Sounds too spectacular." The tatted boy dries off his stern, slender torso. "Consider this, though. The water level used to be a lot higher just twenty years ago. And it was even higher before that, so this place was probably under water once. If we think about it that way, then we aren't talking about being the first people in a place that has existed for a million years, but just being the first to find a place that has been around for maybe forty." He sits down cross legged on the blanket. "I found this place twelve years ago and showed it to you guys because you're my best friends. That means the place was only vacant for about twenty-eight years, which is less than the blink of an eye in the history of this beach."


Jianmin's mouth hung open, completely enthralled by Channy's words. "You're too smart to be a gangster," he blurts without thinking.


"I'm not a gangster," Chan says. "I just do some business with them from time to time." It was clear Channy didn't want to talk about his involvement with the yakuza. He lifts up his bundle of clothes and reveals a bottle of wine, wrapped up inside.


He looks over to Kierra. "S'mores and wine with a beautiful lady. How could life be any better?" His hand rests on her ankle.

 

[Hel]

Kierra smiled a bit at his statement, though, she too was impressed with his answer. He worded it much more eloquently than she could have, plus she never even thought about the water levels changing.


"Wine? Should we have that out here?" She asked just a touch concerned. It wasn't unheard of for stupid kids to go out, get drunk, and drown trying to get back home. Or rather, she wouldn't have been surprised if that happened to them.


"But, anyway, I'm glad you showed us this place. It's nice. And really pretty." She said with a smile at the redheaded boy. She got up then, to go grab the things to make S'mores and glanced back to see if Jiamin was going to get up to find stuff for the fire. He was, though she saw him also shaking his head at her response.


(Sorry for the lame response this time. I got busy and now I'm super tired)

 

[KyloRen]

<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_07/Jmin.jpg.c5904b33792108a6bb63fbb978a7792f.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="59790" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2015_07/Jmin.jpg.c5904b33792108a6bb63fbb978a7792f.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>


It didn't take long for J-min to gather the necessary wood, but it was already getting dark on his way back to the cave. He jumped in the water and did a back stroke, holding the cargo close to his stomach. He has known Channy and Kierra all his life, but lately they have been acting different, and it wasn't just because Chan Woo was falling deeper and deeper into the hands of the Japanese mafia. Channy keeps calling Kierra pretty, and Jianmin isn't blind. He saw the way she looked at Channy's body when he was drying off with the towel, and Jianmin also saw how Chan touched Kierra all the time. The boy wondered if his two friends were secretly in love. If they were, why wouldn't they tell him? Perhaps they are both too close to it to even know it.


Jianmin is afraid that they'll want to spend more time together and stop coming to the cave, or worse, they'll want to come to the cave without him. He is also afraid over what he sometimes feels-- he would have given almost anything for Channy to have grabbed his ankle instead. He walks out of the water and sees his friends sitting on the blanket, cross-legged, facing each other.


"You can tell a lot about a person by how the skin on their hand feels. Not the palm, but the opposite side." Chan holds Kierra's hand. "Your skin is really soft, which means you're a good-hearted person."


She giggles. He smiles. "Touch mine. Is it soft? I don't think it is."

 

[Hel]

Kierra smiled at Chan, J-min had gone to find firewood and such, and she sat on the blanket facing his friend.


"Is that true?" Kierra asked, watching him, she liked the warm tingle he sent across her skin when his fingers touched it, and it made her giggle a little. Then he asked if his was soft too and she reached out to take his hand in hers, "Well, it's fairly soft, but theres a thin layer covering the soft part, I can tell." She said with a smile.


Then she noticed J-min get back, and moved to get up, "Come on, Let's help him start the fire." She said, offering a hand down to Chin to help him up.