Heart walked beside Saint, Anong on the other side of him to his left. Five small bags from shopping in his hand. The two of them wore touristy outfits from street stalls, since they didn’t have any clothes to wear with all of Saint’s bags being stolen.
“It’s here.” she pointed motioning to a pink house with open windows and all doors and blinders open. The breeze caused the old mahogany wood to creak lightly.
A woman who looked to be around the same age as Anong sat down on the ground. Billowing deep blue pants, surrounded her.
She hummed, and her soft singing floated out to them as she Slowly stood up. Posing, while slowly moving her hands in fluid motions from the wrist, back and forth. Each motion stopped coming to a halt after her wrist bent in ways that didn’t look naturally possible.
Heart observed, mesmerized by the way she moved.
Anong didn’t fail to notice.
“Do you want to learn?” Anong asked gently.
Heart nodded.
“Yes.” Heart turned to look up at Saint.
“Really?” Heart asked.
“Mhhhmm.. It’s pretty. I have always liked it since I was a boy. But I am kinda clumsy.” Saint admitted watching her enthralled.
Anong walked in as if it were her own home.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“P klii ub ufa atf mtbcu xgjyfc”
“Thank you.”
The woman came back a moment later with a blue and a red Chong Kraben.
“Here stand there. I will help you wrap it.” She said, motioning for Heart to come and stand where she had been dancing before.
Heart stood and she wrapped the long fabric around his legs gently.
“Do you practice lots?” Heart asked curiously.
“Yes, my daughter comes out here and we dance together sometimes and now I even teach my daughter’s daughter.”
“Oiii, Hansa, your pride is showing again.” Anong said playfully.
“Oi, shhee, if you had kids already then I could teach them too.”
“Look at me. I am an old ting tong now. Kids were not in the stars.” Anong said scoffing.
Hansa looked at Heart chuckling good-naturedly at her sister, this was probably a very common squabble that they repeated lots for fun.
“Do you have any traditions you do with your mother? You look like a good boy who still lives at home.”
“My mom and dad died when I was seven, in a car accident. My sister Min was already twenty so asked for legal guardianship of me. I raised her more than she raised me, I think.” Heart chuckled as he seemed to recall something particularly funny.
“This one time she tried to make me kai jow nam on my birthday that year. She almost burnt down the apartment. From then on we ordered food or the families in the building would bring us stuff. As soon as I was old enough, I made the kai jow nam from then on.”
Hansa patted him gently on the shoulder as she finished up the wrap at the same time Heart was done.
“Yes, I can see that you seem like a very caring boy. I can tell already you guys are a good match. Seamless. Perfectly matched to the point that the universe makes more sense when you are close by. Hmm? You feel it, right?”
As soon as she was finished patting him she motioned for Saint to come forward.
Heart watched, thinking Saint would be frozen stiff and unhelpful with someone ordering him about. Especially someone asking to touch his body. But Saint let his guard down and smiled sweetly before crouching lower so that the shorter Hansa could reach his higher waist.
She smiled.
“You have such good manners. Your mom raised you to be a spoiled prince who always gets his way, but you are soft and cuddly inside. I can tell. But with how handsome you are I would want to spoil you rotten too.” She said, wrinkling her nose with delight, patting his cheek softly.
Heart watched as Saint’s face fell into a sad smile.
“I don’t have any parents. My grandma raised me until I was ten and then she had to go too.”
Anong, looked at Heart.
“Hmm, a spirit that knows the pain we are too afraid to say aloud and admit to, even to our closest loved ones, for fear that we might cause them to hurt too. Every wound can heal if you find one that echoes your own and you work on them together.” She commented cryptically.
Heart looked down at the ground.
Heart started. ‘You know this pain too? You barely talk about your childhood, about your past. Your entire life should be up for reading online, and yet it is this big blank space to the rest of the world. Unknown.’
“Yet, here you are unsteady, but sharing, opening up…’
‘Every glimpse you share with me, is heartbreaking. Is the past only pain for you Saint?’
The thought of an alone baby Saint, sad, hurting, and weeping made his heart ache and throb painfully.
Anong and her sister looked up at him making soft clicking noises while petting his arms softly, pouting.
“Oh, you poor thing, a boy needs his family. Both of you poor children. Anong can adopt you. Grown children are just what she needs. She is too old for young ones anyways. Her ancient bones can’t keep up with them.” Hansa teased.
Anong turned red in the face.
“You are older than me by six years you old ting tong.” she snapped playfully her brows wrinkling in slight discontent.
“Teach my boys to dance like they asked or you don’t get to play with my handsome babies anymore.”
Thank you!!!!
Thanks for the update 🥰