CCC : Chapter 21 "Too Early"

When we all finally gathered back to the villa, same as yesterday, Mari read the suggestions for us. Somehow the same suggestion comes again which is Sneg and Quinne performing a song together. The others look awkward and desperate from it because of how Sneg responded yesterday. But after the small talk I had with him, it seems like he’s trying to prove it now. “I’ll do it.” Sneg answers. That makes everyone’s eyes landing on him with a surprised face. For Quinne, her face looks beaming from Sneg’s response. “Alright then if you agree with it let’s practice tomorrow.” Léger replies. “While performing, please two people need to handle the drinks. I’ll teach these two tomorrow before practicing so please decide who will replace us.” Sneg says. That’s too polite.. “Brugière and I can handle it. We will try our best for it.” Mana replies. “That’s the spirit!” Mari says enthusiastically and she looks like tries to make the atmosphere better. “Alright, it's settled already. Let’s take a good rest everyone. Thank you for today’s hard work!” announce to them and everyone is clapping and cheering to close today’s talk. The twins are still having conversation together with Görder at the table. Brugière and Léger are in the kitchen because they are in charge of cleaning up. Sneg and Quinne are discussing together near the terrace about what they are going to do for tomorrow. Looking at this view, it’s already warm my heart, especially for the twins and Görder. Fortunately, Görder seems already comfortable with them and the way they talk and laugh together look so lovely. Personally for me, I never see Görder would laugh like that with them. This is an unbelievable view. Taking the last sip from my glass then bringing it to the kitchen. Because I’m in the kitchen right now, I talk with Brugière and Léger and share our stories together. In the middle of conversation, Colombain shows up and joins our small talk together. Suddenly, the twins and Görder come and tell us what time it is right now “Guys~ It’s almost twelve!” Mari says. “Don’t forget to take a good rest, guys.” Mana continues. “Oh really? Hahah didn’t realize that it’s already almost 12!” Brugière replies. “Well.. tomorrow is our last day, right? I don’t want to spend my energy on it.” Léger teases Mari who is always so enthusiastic about our cafe. With that Mari punches him lightly and makes everyone laugh at how cute Mari responds to it. “Alright then, I will head back now before I will get bruises from a little kid.” Léger says and lightly runs away from Mari. “Hahaha. Good night, Henry!” Brugière says and looks at Colombain “Good night to you too, Gofar.” Colombain only nods and waves at us when we’re leaving. “Ahh.. I want to fall asleep deeply in my beautiful dreams!” Mari says and opens the door. “Yes and please wake up immediately when I wake you up tomorrow.” Görder teases Mari. That makes Brugière and Mana laugh at them. When Mari, Görder, and Brugière get into the room, Colombain suddenly calls me. “Umm.. Valter?” He says and that makes me turn around to look at him. “Yes?” replying to him. “Do you have a moment? I promise it won’t take long.” He says. Look at Mana, who is still waiting for me at the door. Mana looks worried at me, seems like she’s worried that I’m too tired for today and won’t get a good rest later. On the other hand, Colombain looks have something to say for me. But does it have to be now? There's plenty of time tomorrow since we’re in the same group.. “But if you’re already tired, we can talk about it tomorrow.” He says while scratching the back of his head. When I think about it, ever since coming to this summer camp, I don’t really spend my time with the twins. Because I’m always with the music group, I’m always with them and didn’t have a lot of moments with twins. Maybe for now, it's best that I spend my time more with the twins. “I’m sorry, Colombain. I’m a little bit tired from today’s work. Let’s talk tomorrow, okay?” replying to him and fortunately he understands that. “It’s okay. Good night you two.” He says then leaves to get back to his room. Turn around then hug Mana tightly. “Ahh.. I missed you guys.” I say to Mana. “Wai- what? Out of nowhere, Vil?” Mana seems confused by my actions. “Hey!” Mari shouts and stands up from her bed “Why are you guys hugging lovingly like that?! Include me too!” then runs towards us and joins in the group hug. With that, the three of us burst out into laughter together. Tomorrow is the last day.. I will give my best and make more memories with the twins! While the others are already asleep, the twins and I stay up a little bit more just having a small talk together and sharing what we have been doing these past few days. Because of that, the three of us overslept until 11 AM. “GUYS! WAKE UP! IT’S ALMOST PAST ELEVEN ALREADY!” Görder is shouting while waking us up. Rubbing my eyes slowly because of how loud Görder’s voice is. “Uhh.. five more minutes..” Mari replies sleepily. Mana pulls the blanket over her head. But it seems like Görder knows how to wake Mari in the most effective way. She comes closer to Mari and gently shakes her body. “Mari~ Today is our last day, you know~ Can’t wait for today’s services~” She says. As expected, Mari opens her eyes widely in a second and raises from her bed. “LET’S GO!” Now Mari is the one who is shouting. “Why is it so loud..?” She says frustratedly under her blanket. From what Görder just said, that makes me wake up as well and stick to my plan that I’m going to spend more time with the twins today. Mari and I walk towards Mana’s bed and both of us pull her blanket. “Wakey wakey sleepyhead!” Mari says. “Come on, Mana! There’s a lot coming up today too!” I say while pulling her hand. Mana only responds with a loud growl of frustration. Today’s activity is still the same as before but there’s a little bit of change on it because Quinne and Sneg need to practice too. That is why when the others practice performing songs, I come and visit the twins in their food and drink groups. Even though they are busy with their own job, we keep chatting and joking around. After taking a little break with the twins, Léger calls me to get more practice with them until lunch is ready. “Guys, based on the request, there are still a lot of pairs of us that need to perform together. Do you guys want to?” Léger asks hesitantly. “No problem for me.” replying to Léger. “I’m up for it.” Colombain replies. Sneg only nods while looking away. Seems like he is still not used to it but trying to get better. Quinne rolls her eyes. “Alright then. I will read the first request, okay. First pair, Mr. Sneg and Gofar?” Léger says. At the moment, Colombain seems hesitate with it and he only nods from it. After receiving Colombain response, Léger looks at Sneg. “Sneg.” That is the first word that comes out from him “Let’s practice.” Everyone looks at him with a surprised face and he is just looking at the music book. From his action, I can’t help but let out a chuckle. So that’s how he tried.. And without me noticing it, he’s already green! “Who will be in charge of playing the instruments?” Sneg asks while searching a song from the book for them. “I will!” Quinne says out of nowhere even though all this time she doesn’t say anything. “But I guess it will be better if you stay to make the drinks since I’m the one who is performing.” Sneg replies but at the end of his words, he’s looking at me. The look on his face seems confused and gives me a sign of help. From Sneg rejection, Quinne seems looking down on her feat. For me, I think I get what he’s trying to say. That is why I’m mimicking my lips saying ‘call her name’ and encourage him. “I’m sorry, Quinne. I refused because I thought it would be better if you could help the others as well.” He says while looking at Quinne. With that, Quinne’s face looks brightening and a smile appears on her face. “It’s alright. I understand that.” She replies. Sneg looks back at me, same with a questionable face. With that, I’m nodding my head as a good sign of improvement. “Alright then, Valter please play the guitar for them, okay?” Léger says while giving me a guitar. Nods while taking the guitar then sit next to Sneg. The four of us practice for Colombain and Sneg performances while Quinne just sits on the floor watching us. We try all of the pair requests that have been given to our group. Each pair practices for at least three times and all of us give feedback and compliment each other. Even for the impossible pair before like me and Quinne, she finally agreed to sing a song with me as well. Although the atmosphere here sometimes becomes tense, I still have fun watching how Sneg wants to treat the others better. Without noticing it, time flies really quick and now it’s almost past 2PM. “Guys! Lunch is ready!” Mari shouts from the table where we always eat and gather together. “Okay!” Colombain replies to her and he puts down his guitar. “Alright. For the pairs, everything is good, right?” Léger tries to summarize our practice from this morning. Everyone responds with a nod. “Good. After this, the last request is group performance. Four of you guys need to perform together. What do you guys think about it?” Léger asks. “That would be fun.” my reply to him. “Yeah, let’s try it.” Colombain replies. The other two still respond to Léger with only a nod. “Cool. Let’s have a break for forty minutes, okay?” Léger says and stands up from his seat. With that announcement from Léger, I’m heading to the table where the twins sit right now. “Hi, Vil.” Mana greets me “How is today’s practice?” She asks. Mari stills busy for preparing the others “Umm.. pretty fun? We tried out all of the requests that have been given to us.” replying to her while taking a sip from my drink that they have already prepared. “Oh? How about You and Quinne?” Mana asks again. “What do you think about it? I will give you a reward if you can guess it right.” I say to her teasingly. “Ahh.. now you make it hard to predict..” Mana says while scratching the bridge of her nose. “The rewards will be..” try to tease her even more with the reward “Aha! Remember the cafe that you’ve told me about before? What do you think?” “Deal!” She replies immediately and thinks hard about her prediction “Umm.. but based on how it looks.. I guess she agreed with it?” “Binggo!” answering her while giving her thumbs up. “Yes! Are we going just the three of us?” Mana asks out of her excitement. “Ohoo.. Shall we?” replying to her playfully. “Alright! Me time for the three of us!” She replies and hugs me from the side. Because of that Mari, who is busy preparing the others, notices that we’re having fun again without her. She coughs intentionally to get our attention. “Having fun without me again, huh?” She says a fake angry voice. The two of us actually notice her but we pretend to ignore her. “Let me join in!” Mari says and hugs the two of us. “Hahaha! Mari, you’re heavy!” I say this because I’m getting squeezed by them since my position is in the middle. With that, the atmosphere for our last lunch in this summer camp becomes more lively than ever. All of us seem to be getting closer with each other, except for Quinne. She still doesn’t want to interact with us even though Görder and Sneg look like they are trying to join in our conversation. After the break, we all go back to our task for our last day of opening the cafe. Today’s feeling goes really well from the very beginning and I feel so grateful for it.                     **Night after the cafe closed** “Great work everyone!” Mari says while raising her glass to toast. The others reply with a loud cheer. “Aghh..” Brugière sighs “Our score is only two points different from the first one!” she says with a little bit of a frustrated voice. “Yeah.. it’s so frustrating..” Görder replies. “It’s okay, guys! We already gave our best!” Mari says, trying to cheer the others up. “Vil.” Mana whispers to my ear “Are you alright? I mean.. You know..” She asks me with a worried voice. Noticing that, I must comfort Mana as well. “It’s totally fine, Mana. Thank you for worrying about me but right now the most important thing I got from this is that we made a lot of precious memories together.” I say to her while patting her head. Mana's eyes become shining from my reply to her and she immediately hugs me. “That’s right! The most precious thing is us! Nothing could change that!” She says happily. Not missing any moment, Mari always notices us whenever we’re hugging. “You guys are hugging too much! Count me in!” She says then hugging us as tightly as ever. In the middle of conversation with the twins, suddenly a loud voice comes from the center of our villa's yard. “Ladies and gentlemen, attention please!” The narrator of this event draws everyone's attention to him. “Only a small announcement that let’s pack up everyone’s belongings tonight so that tomorrow everyone won’t have to hurry about it. Thank you!” He says and leaves once again. “Alright. Let’s pack our things up!” I say to twins and both of them instantly agree with it. “After packing our things, shall we walk around the beach?” continues with a playful voice to them. “Let’s go!!” Mari says excitedly then pulls my hand to help me stand up. On our way back to the room, suddenly someone calls my name. “Hi, Valter.” it’s Colombain’s voice “Do you have a moment?” He asks. Before replying to him, I tell the twins that I will join them after this. “Yes, Colombain?” Honestly I want him to make it quick so I will spend more time with the twins. “Oh yeah... Umm.. are you busy?” He says and looks really nervous right now. “Actually I want to start packing up my things with the twins.” replying to him. “Ohh.. right.. The previous announcement hehe..” He chuckles. He looks a bit different than before.. “Do you wanna say something to me?” I ask him. “Ah! Yeah! About that..” He replies nervously and there’s dusty pink on his face. It feels like when we hung out together last time, he’s this nervous as before. What makes him so nervous? “Do you have something in your mind by any chance?” ask him once again and hope that it will encourage him to tell me quickly. “Actually.. Umm.. Do you want to walk around the beach after packing up?” He looks away while saying this “But! If you are already tired from it then don’t push yourself, okay?” Ahh.. that’s all? But I really wanted to spend more time with the twins.. Maybe turning him down for once is alright because the twins are my priority right now. “Sorry, Colombain. I would love to do that but the twins already invited me. I’m really sorry.” replying to him with guilt. Unexpectedly, he only laughs lightly from my response. “Ahaha.. Why do you become so polite right now? Even apologize twice!” He replies “It’s okay. I understand.” Thank god.. I thought that he would feel bad or anything.. “Alright then. I will go too hehe.. ” He says and goes to his room. With that, I come back to twins who are waiting for me inside the room and start packing up together. While packing up our things, we are also chatting and sharing each other's stories during this whole event. Without noticing it again, Görder becomes green as well. Good things keep coming today even for me and Quinne who always have a fight. It’s almost 11PM and fortunately we are all done with the packing. The only thing left is bringing it one by one to our box truck. “Alright.. I guess this is all?” I say while packing one last of my belongings. “Yep. That should be the last one.” Mari replies “Let’s bring these things to the truck quickly! And then we're off!” Mari says to me excitedly. With that the twins start bringing their boxes to the truck quickly, even faster than I am. They are really looking forward to my plan. Because of their actions, the twins have almost finished bringing their things to the truck and I’m the only one who still has some in the room. In the middle of bringing those things, the boys show up in front of our room and offer to help us. With the boys' help, it will be a lot easier and faster than before. “All done!” Mari says with excitement. “Same here.” Görder and Brugière say from their side. Only my items and Quinne’s who are still have some in the room and not yet bring it to the truck. “There’s only a few more, right?” Colombain says from the door “I will arrange the boxes in the truck then.” With that he goes to get into the truck. “Alright this is my last box.” finally finishing the last item from me “I will bring this one to Colombain and let’s go guys~” teasing the twins again. “Ah!” Mana says, it seems like she just remembered something “Is that your last item, Vil?” Mana asks and I respond immediately with a nod. “I will bring it for you!” She approaches me and grabs my box “I forgot that I need to put this label on my box!” She shows the ‘careful’ sign. “Ohh.. okay if you insist too. Thank you, Mana.” I say to her while looking at her back. When Mana is on her way to get into the truck, I’m still looking at her and slowly towards the box. Hm? That box.. Something is off and I feel like I already put that box. My boxes are almost the same with Quinne that is why I notice it. Is that supposed to be Quinne’s belongings? I should tell them since I don’t want my item mixed up with Quinnie. “Wait! Mana!” I say to her and run towards her. Mana position is like only 1 meter away from the truck and our distance only 2 meters away “VALTER!” Suddenly someone shouts my name from the bushes. That makes me turn to look at where the voice is coming from. It’s Stam, she’s running towards me and her face looks really panicked. “GET AWAY FROM THERE!” She is shouting then pulls me on the ground. BOOM! A loud voice of explosion while I’m closing my eyes because of Stam action just now. My ears are ringing because of the loud voice and my vision looks blurry. But one thing for sure I heard Mari’s voice calling her twin’s name. The time I try to open my eyes and it becomes better than before. The truck, where our belongings are, is already covered with fire and there is a person laying on the ground near the truck. My brain can’t process anything right now but two names come out through my head. Mana..? Colombain..?