Chapter Text
Amelia stood in front of the door, her arms ached when she turned the handle. The dimly lit study, filled with knick nacks it had collected. The chair is sitting at the middle of the room, facing backwards towards Amelia.
“ Care to explain your arrival, my dear?” The cat spoke. It climbed onto the top of the seat, looking down at Amelia. “ I think you need to explain yourself.” Amelia grunted, she showed the cassette tape, gripping it tightly. It seemed to have intrigued the cat.
“ My my I don’t need more tapes do I, I have a whole library of them.” The cat hopped on to the shelf as it traced around the tapes lining up.
Amelia scoffed, “ One said anything can happen on the train, two passengers had their tapes but their bodies weren’t in the pod, they got off the train months ago.” Amelia followed the cat around each shelf before it gracefully landed in front of her. “ Two passengers in one tape?”
“They are some kind of destiny rubbish.” She narrowed her eyes once the cat moved closer to inspect the tape.
“ I have been on this train long enough to see the two. Sync up numbers aren’t as common as you think, Amelia.”
“ Don’t call me that. We are not friends.”
The cat wagged its tail, rhythmically, Amelia despised her tricks. “Get to the point.”
“ We should have a deal. What about you give me that, and I tell you all what you need, ma chérie.”
Amelia squinted her eyes, her hands gripped tighter onto the tape, the cat’s eye grew larger. For Alrick, it’ll be worth it.
Amelia placed the tape in front of the cat, the cat circled around it before picking it up with her mouth, pouncing onto another shelf she hadn’t seen before. The cat placed the tapes next to the other tapes.
“ Speak my dear.”
“One of them had fabricated their own memories, completely, how could they have their memories extracted when they’re off the train?”
The cat stretched its body, before finally opening its mouth, “ When the mind of a passenger that never really leaves the train, the tape labels them anomalies. You’re lucky that they are two.”
“ How does that explain anything that can happen on the train?” Amelia folded her arms, impatient with the cat’s useless information.
“ Tapes are a powerful tool, the mind is even stronger. There are more than one anomalies on this train. With how strong the mind is, it could never truly leave the train. ”
“ With enough will, the mind could alter one’s memory.” Amelia whispered to herself. A lightbulb flickered inside her.
“ Is that enough, dear? I would love to read my book in peace. ” The cat jumped onto the chair again, indifferent to Amelia’s change in expression. “ It would be lovely too, but I’ll take back what’s mine.” Amelia grabbed the microphone out of her pocket, with a few sounds, The Steward came bashing in, its tentacles wrapped the whole room.
The cat screeched in agony as each tentacle grabbed the tapes from the shelves, “ What are you doing, hssssss”
“ I am taking what’s mine back.” Amelia conjured The Steward back, handing her back the tape she gave to the cat. The cat jumped from a side table, almost pouncing onto her. Tentacles wrapped around the cat, twisting it until it was thin enough, its eyes almost screamed for help. Amelia laughed, she felt triumphant, she had something she could use against the cat.
“ Please, spare me, I could give you anything, knowledge is what you want, right?”
Amelia instructed The Steward to lower the cat, both of them eye to eye. “ I’ll use you when I have to, but for now, if you interfere with my work, I’ll make sure you’ll never get to see your precious things again.”
The Steward released the cat, it jumped onto the cushion, its fur standing up like needles. The cat hissed as she scratched her claws onto the cushion. Amelia turned her back, walking out to the car, the tape in her hand.
The doors closed behind her as she called the Steward once again, her body climbing onto it, grappling onto one of its tentacles as a ride. She spoke into the microphone, bringing it across each car, hoping it would be fast enough to take her to the tape car.
“ We’ll meet again Alrick.”
***
Final thoughts
Hello, hey, if you had made this far, congrats! Thank you for always tuning in and reading every chapter, I am so grateful that you all loved it, even if it has some flaws ;-;.
Writing Min-Gi and Ryan was a challenge, especially about their budding feelings as I typically don't know how to write good romance but this was a fun and troubling experience for me haha. I do say one of my strongest parts were their past memories, I really love writing what happened before the canon events in book 4, there is so much we could imagine and think about. Another strong part I would say is Ryan and Min-Gi's family life, I really loved writing their family dynamics and I'll say it is so much better than my previous writing.
And sadly I do think my weaker parts is on emotion haha, I still can't quite write scenes which make people FEEL like super connected, like Min and Ryan's conflict I think was my most weakest link in the entire story, it is true I spent a lot of time thinking how do I resolve their unresolved problems, and I'll say that is not the best but I did what I can and I'll improve later on.
Another thing I loved doing this is the research, I had asked my mom so many questions about the 80s, my mom essentially her whole childhood is in the 80s so it was fun learning much about my mom. I've discovered some 80s music which is so cool.Other than that, I have learned quite a lot about Korean culture with some research from the internet, what to call relatives and even some food like miyeok guk (seaweed soup) even though I watched doobydobap a lot of the times ehem. I am sorry to any Koreans if there are any inaccuracies. Fun fact, I also opened googled maps to search where Powell Lake is lol, and the snow fall rate in Powell lake ( I need to be accurate guys) . The more I learn, the more interesting it gets.
Lastly, I can't stress this enough, thanks for being here, it means a lot to me, I enjoyed the time spent writing this and I hope you all had a fun time too. Will we meet again? Hopefully. But for now, I'll see you all in the next work I have. Byeeeee