The next day, Taeui was a nervous mess. He searched his room and all the places he had been the day before but couldn't find it anywhere. He looked around the pool where he had played with the girls, even in the pool, but it wasn't there. As he looked for it on the grass on his knees for the millionth time, the dreadful reality that his ring could be lost forever dawned on him.
His breathing became shorter and harsher. His heart beat so hard it was about to burst through his ribcage. His heart was so loud it reached his ears and swallowed any other sound. His vision blurred as if he was about to pass out. Ilay grabbed his shoulders and shook him out of it.
Taeui took a deep breath, slowly regaining his senses as he stared at him. Ilay raised his brow and looked at him suspiciously, waiting for an answer to his unasked question. Taeui didn't want to say it. He couldn't bear to say it. So he shook his head and looked away.
"Tay, are you okay?" asked Helena, getting closer. "Ilay, you better not be mistreating your friend."
'Ah, that word is going to haunt me. Friend.'
Taeui stood up, dizziness surging suddenly, but he shook it off. "I'm just a bit nauseous. I'll go back to my room." Taeui looked at Ilay but couldn't dare to meet his eyes for long before turning to leave. That day, Taeui stayed in his room most of the time; the panic he felt looking for his ring came back every time he looked at his bare finger.
As the days went by, Taeui mingled with Ilay's family more often and refused to look at his hand. He got to know his family better and spent more time with the girls, often going for walks or to the park together. So it didn't take long until the girls felt at ease with him.
However, the more time he spent with them, the guiltier Taeui felt for lying. He was barely speaking with Ilay, avoiding him enough that it wouldn't be noticeable, but Ilay probably noticed it. After all, he noticed everything about him. But Taeui couldn't tell him he lost the ring, not yet.
One morning, like any other, Taeui and Daniel took the girls to the park after going to the market to buy some flowers Rita wanted. While Daniel took Scarlet to the toilet, he watched over Amber. As his mind wondered about how he would apologise to Ilay and how he would react after learning he had lost his ring so carelessly, a cry brought him back to the present.
Amber was on the ground with a bleeding knee. He quickly reached her and picked her up, trying his best to calm her down. However, he didn't know how to calm a seven-year-old and whatever he tried, tears still fell from her face, and he could only apologise. Only Daniel was able to calm her down. On the way back, Taeui's thoughts kept spiraling. Once they got home, Amber showed her mother the scraped knee, no longer crying and back to her good mood.
"I'm sorry for letting her get hurt," Taeui said, looking at the floor.
"Don't worry about it, it's not your fault," said Helena. "Kids get hurt all the time. It's normal."
He nodded with a polite smile, but it still made him feel down, and he excused himself to his room. Taeui wanted Ilay to comfort him like he did whenever he was down. But thinking about Ilay made him sadder. He hated this feeling.
'It's just until they are here.'
*****
After lunch, Ilay stood in front of Taeui's room, asking Rita not to wake him up because he wasn't feeling well. Once Rita left, Ilay leaned against the closed door, wondering what to do. When he went in, Taeui was sleeping, hugging his pillow, his cheeks wet from tears.
To say he was annoyed was an understatement. More than the fact that Taeui introduced himself as a friend, he was angrier that Taeui was going down the rabbit hole, feeling sad and depressed all on his own. Even if Ilay didn't care what his family thought, Taeui did. But seeing him cry in his sleep alone did bad things to Ilay's mind.
As Ilay turned around and walked down the stairs, he saw Amber coming up. The second she saw him, she stopped. Ilay went down a couple more steps and sat down on the stairs. There were only a couple of steps between them. Amber held the handrail, her eyes jumping from the stairs to her uncle.
Despite the time she had been there, they weren't close. Amber was shy and took time to warm up to people, and Ilay wasn't a warm person to begin with, so it was no wonder she was closer to Taeui than him. Well, even Scarlet was closer to Taeui, but she didn't fear Ilay and often asked him to play.
"Were you going to see Taeui?" Ilay asked, looking at her as gently as he could. However, his eyes must have still looked cold as she only nodded, still avoiding his gaze.
"He is still sleeping, so could you let him rest a bit more?" She nodded once more, her eyes staying on Ilay a tad longer before looking away.
"Do you like playing with him?"
For the first time, Amber looked properly at her uncle and said 'yes' with a smile. Ilay smiled too, and a surprised expression showed on Amber's face, seeing her uncle make such a face. As she played with her fingers, Ilay waited patiently for her to find her words.
"Do you like Tay too?"
"I do."
Amber pondered for a bit more before she closed the distance and sat on the same step as Ilay. "Is he still sad?"
"Still?"
Amber nodded. "He told me he lost something precious to him."
"I wasn't aware he lost something so precious that could make him that sad," Ilay said, looking straight ahead, holding his head with his hand while his elbow rested on his knee. He could tell that Amber was looking at him, but he wanted her to be comfortable, so he continued looking away. "Too bad he doesn't tell me these things."
"Maybe he is afraid you are going to tell him off and put him in time-out…"
Ilay laughed. "Why would I do that if he didn't do anything wrong?"
Amber shrugged without an answer, but then she said something Ilay wasn't expecting. "The other day, while we were playing hide and seek, I bumped against a small table and a pen dropped and I–" she stopped talking, realising what she was saying.
Ilay laughed again and turned his face to see his niece blushing. "Ah, so that was you. Don't worry, I won't tell my brother it was you who broke his pen. It's a small little secret between us."
Amber, still blushing, nodded and giggled. "Even though I stepped on it by mistake, it was still my fault. Mama and Papa would tell me off if they knew."
"... probably. But they never found the pen in the trash, did they?" Ilay remembered that Kyle thought he had misplaced the pen somewhere else.
"Well… I picked up the pieces and hid them when mama showed up. But it was Scarlet who told me to hide it since we wanted to keep playing. And I took it with us when we went out with Tay, and threw it away outside. She told me we couldn't leave it in the house or the grown-ups would find out."
"She really takes after your mom," Ilay murmured so low that Amber didn't hear it.
"But I feel bad I hid it from her…" She looked at her uncle with big, round eyes as if asking for help.
Ilay thought for a moment, he wasn't sure what he should say to his niece. It's not like he could say he did worse things without batting an eye and that as long as no one found out, it was okay. So he went for a more sensible answer.
"Accidents happen. No one is perfect. But it would be good if you could tell your mom or dad when such things happen. I'm sure they would appreciate the honesty."
Amber stared at him, thinking, before nodding. Ilay smiled at her and thought how Taeui would react once he learned how well he handled the situation.
'Taeui would be proud hearing such words from me.'
"Since Tay is sleeping," said Amber tentatively. "Can you play with me?"
"I thought you were scared of me."
Amber shook her head. "Tay told me even though you always look like this, you would be nice to me."
Ilay chuckled, seeing Amber's face mimicking Ilay's cold and nonchalant expression. "And you trust Taeui?"
Amber nodded "He is my friend. And you have a pretty smile like he said."
"What am I going to do with you…" Ilay gently pinched her rosy cheek, and she giggled. "If you were my daughter, I would spoil you like crazy."
"Although… you are my niece. I guess that still stands."
Ilay got up and looked down at Amber. "What do you want to do?"