{ AHT }

"Do you have a gramophone or any record player?"

"Good morning to you too, Mr Aht." The kid blinks slowly.

"Theodore!"

"Wow, so aggressive in the morning. There are a couple in the store room, why?"

"Unused anymore?"

"Yes, several guests left their things and didn't claim them back."

The lobby has very few people around when the dawn streams inside this establishment. I pace to the storeroom at the far end of the lobby, searching for a decent record player.

This cramped space is difficult to move into. Luckily, I come across a good gramophone after inspecting one of them. It has needles, a crank, and everything. I hope to God that its interior still works, have to check it out and clean it up. I head back with the dusty gramophone in my arm, facing Theo and his cocked eyebrow.

"I uh... I want her to listen to music. Songs. And please call me Aht. I've told you before. No more switching it up."

"I'm sorry, Aht. She never—?"

"Never. Only listened to singing and hums. I'm not sure what music she prefers."

"That's why you are high-strung now?"

"I'm not high—! Am I?? Whatever, I hope this bloody thing works."

"You're sweeeetttt for your ladyyyy!" he sing-songs with clenched hands close to his chin, gushing out a dreamy look.

Aiishh this man. "Theodore Charles Guthrie, please don't."

"Can I least savour this romance from you two since I might never meet the love of my life?"

"For God's sake, you will meet! And our 'romance' is forbidden."

"Eehhh maybe, although the forbidden makes it sweet."

"What in the world?" I grit my teeth. "It's agony."

"You two will fight against the world together. I'll reword it as ginger tea. You hate the initial taste but you both will feel relieved afterwards."

My grip on the player almost ruins it when he flashes a blithe grin. He doesn't lose sleep over this like I did—well, I don't sleep... Ugh, the point remains! He has to cut back on romance books. "Hmph, you and your ginger tea love-hate. You put too much faith in our love lives."

"I'm a man of faith. You can't blame me."

I blink at him. He whistles while checking the guestbook.

...

Perhaps...

Maybe I should follow his example? His knowledge about the world is limited compared to mine and yet, he trusts the unknown and aware of it. Glancing down at the desk, I mutter, "Fine. Do you have—?"

"Vinyl records are on the top shelf behind me, so take as many as you like."

"As many as I want to? Thank you so much, Theo."

"You owe me a good romance story. Now go, that poor spirit has missed out a lot."

____________________

{ KI }

"Taq, please."

"Are you nuts!? Lunatic!? Loony-patooie!??"

"Pa-patooie?" I think I'm not the only one who needs to brush up on the language.

"You will be condemned!"

"Not if we keep this secret carefully and I trust you to do so."

"What about Their Highness? They know everything."

"Made us meet and let me fall."

She's flabbergasted. I thought of this after Aht left. "But he is a mortal."

"I get that. I don't need the damn reminder all the time," I snap.

"You... cursed." Now she is horrified. I've been cursing for ages, just not out loud! Will Taq let me— "That human influenced you!"

"Taq, SHUT YOUR HOLE! LISTEN TO ME." She finally does. My word. And I thought I was too reactive.

Taq came here to keep me company since Fomu went away, but I don't mind if she flies away again. She said she didn't want me to feel lonely when in fact... the feeling remains in the company of her and Fomu after all this time, no matter how much I wanted to change it. I felt guilty instead and kept asking myself what was wrong with me. Then, Aht came.

I don't have to suppress my affections, emotions, romantic notions, intense questions, analysis from spoken out loud—everything around him! Except for seduction of course. I can be myself, be inquisitive, and more than smiling all the goddamn time. I couldn't pretend when Taq questioned me about how happy I truly looked.

"I know you fear for me, Taq."

"Fear is an understatement."

"Let me finish. You're worried when he dies, I'll be suffering for eternity?"

"Correct."

"My problem to deal with, okay? I might cope better in time, compared to never spending time with him ever. Now that's torture."

"Torture? Who is he?? He has you wrapped around his fingers."

"Another thing is you are suspicious of him?"

"Correct again. How do you know he'll be in love with you?"

"He said so and I can see it."

She paces around. "He is a human! They like to say things out of their buttocks and I don't mean to insult your discernment, but seeing it isn't enough."

"I feel it too. There. You'll dismiss 'feel' as usual, so what do I have to say then?"

"Look, Ki..."

Those words again. "Don't 'Look Ki' me. I'm tired when all of you view me as naive."

"I don't view—!"

"What do you view me as?" She's quiet, unable to answer me. I'm tired. I miss Aht. I can even smell his scent now. Smoky herbs. Sighing, I flex my jaw. "Thought so."

"This Aht—"

"Again with suspicion?"

"Hear me out. What if he wants you only because you are an interesting, forbidden alien creature to him? You're a divine being compared to him, he might've idealized you instead of—"

"Truly like me for me?" My chest feels heavy.

"Yes."

I don't know how to separate these mixed emotions. Anger, upset, and disappointment, all rolled into one. "...Am I that unlovable?"

"Of course you are lovable. You just," she soon pauses and her frown softens, "conceal yourself too much from us."

Oho that's rich. "As you do to others and others do to others and so on."

"It's in our nature."

"Definitely not mine."

"Aahh! I'm finishing this with you! Think about it. Imagine if he meets other beautiful spirits. He probably swooned over them too."

"I beg to differ," a voice speaks out of nowhere.

I look over to my right side, where Aht stands far away from us and crosses his arms as he's leaning against a tree by the shoulder. Another rucksack by his feet. Casual clothes again. He watches us tensely...

I have to restrain myself from running and hugging him! "How long have you been here?"

"Not long, Ki. When you stated that others view you as naive."

His smell earlier wasn't from my imagination then. He approaches us with subtle confidence and assertion when Taq is evil-eyeing him.

"What do you mean beg to differ?" I reach for him and tuck his hair behind his ear.

With his hand over mine, he tells me, "I met other spirits before, including higher ones and I never swooned over them."

What? "You've met them? I'm not the first one?"

"No, my sweetheart. You're not."

Taq fumbles a bit. "H-how?? How many did you meet?"

"Plenty."

"What are you? Spirit magnet?" she scoffs.

"Perhaps. Because I got this lovely one right here who will fall for me one day."

That one day was yesterday.

He frowns at her when she scoffs more and crosses her arms, glaring at him. I would've laughed at their staring contest and their height differences, where Taq's is average while Aht is a giant like me, but I want to know one thing.

"How come you didn't know I'm a higher spirit right away?" I ask him. "Despite you knowing I have a divine aura."

"The spirits I met weren't exactly hospitable. The higher ones were socially appropriate but their air of languor flooded out. You are the opposite of all that. Very opposite. Even appropriateness."

Ready to retaliate, I then pause when a blush dances on his cheeks. I stare at him. Oh yes! Rubbed my naked body on him and performed fellatio, all on the first night. I grin teasingly before his eyes scrunch shut.

He clears his throat and focuses on Taq. "Besides the point, I don't give a damn whether she is a spirit, a human, a monster, or an extraterrestrial microbe. I choose her. I want her."

...My word, I need to sit down. He chooses me.

Taq frowns. "She has no sexual desire at all. You might run off with someone that'll fulfill—"

"She. Is. Enough!" His face contorts into a fierce expression, and Taq flusters under her chiding facade. "I know Ki is your friend but not only you insulted me, you insulted her too."

"I—!" she gasps.

"I know you had no intention to do so. But this doesn't excuse you when you implied that she isn't enough to be committed to and I'm a rotten, fickle human who is sex-crazed. I'm no saint, though I never had any sexual experience until Ki here, despite I travelled around the world and encountered numerous types of spirits. That has to say something."

I'm proud of him. He speaks a lot with no fear. Such conviction is fearless, with pink cheeks and a puffed-up chest.

...His words sink in and leave me breathless for the first time. I thought he lacked sexual experience, not that he actually had none. "I-I'm your first, Aht?"

"Yes. Hopefully the last too."

I finally sit on the grass, a little overwhelmed. Is he falling for me? I look up at him as his look averts from Taq to me. His eyes change into something, accompanied by a deeper blush and heavy breaths.

He is. Oh Your Highness, he is...

I think my face is giving away because he looks a little surprised and afterward, his soft grin slowly makes an appearance. Oh dear. With warmth on my face, I glance at Taq, who is now watching us both with concern.

"You're a mortal, Aht. You can get any human. Why her?" Her hand runs down her face.

"She makes it easy to love her. That's all. I travelled for far too long and now I found her, I won't let her go. She is my home." Taq relaxes a bit from his answer. "My mortality, however—"

"Aht, I told her I'm willing to go through it," I sigh.

"I am worried too."

"Not you too."

"Imagine we switched places, sweetheart," he softly says.

If he is immortal and I'm not. This... doesn't ease me at all. I know he's strong but the thought of his eternal heartbreak, I can't bear it. "I'm sorry, my Aht."

"No need to be. I'm still trying to figure this out."

"You better be. Meanwhile, I'll stay quiet," Taq grumbles. With a solemn nod, she vanishes into the wind, leaving us both alone.

My arms wrap around my knees while I think about our future heartbreak. Moreover, how to prevent it. He picks me up in his arms with lips on my temple, heading towards the rucksack and a lantern beside it. There's a small suitcase beneath it. He sits us down and leans against a tree with me on his lap. His hot breaths calm me down.

Oh Aht... "I feel at home in you too."

"I'm glad, Ki. Falling for me even?"

"I gave away too much, didn't I?"

Puffs of laughter dance on my locks. "You're not alone, I know you can tell how I feel about you. I can't seem to hide it any longer."

"When did you fall?"

"Yesterday. What about you?"

"Yesterday too, after you left."

"Oh Ki... I only wish I'm not mortal."

"Immortality isn't all sunshine and roses. It's hollow like a shell from time to time."

"I... get the idea. But being immortal with you would've been a magnificent life."

I cling to him tighter, scrunching up my face to avoid crying. "Then let us create everything together, things I'll live by after you're gone."

"And everything I will." He kisses my forehead gently.

He positions me to straddle straight, face-to-face which he soon regrets it seems. Because he is staring down at my cleavage and turning redder. Endearing! I'm wearing the dress from yesterday because I know how much he likes it.

"You still like it?"

"I love it, baby."

My word, goosebumps and a flashing heat when his gaze slowly drinks me in. It doesn't help when his deep voice is huskier. What is this feeling? I never... felt this intense before him.

Pushing away these thoughts, my chin rests on his collarbone. "Hmm you love me more."

"You're incomparable."

"Good."

Our foreheads touch, and a titillating grin erupts from him!

"I love it when you're possessive over me. Made me feel less guilty for being possessive over you," he whispers.

I find myself sporting the same grin as his.

In love... I'm not going to deny, it's overwhelming at first. Although I adjust to it real quick, practically lapping it up. I've thought over whether I'm in love with the feeling of love or genuinely with him. Somehow I know down to my core, that it's the latter. To imagine myself falling in love with other people gets me sick in the stomach.

"Seems you have a question, Ki."

"Yes, I have."

"Ask me away."

His hands run through my mane of hair with tenderness, playing with the ends. Affection and warmth flood through my chest. Your Highness, how could I ever doubt that I'm in love with him?

"I don't want to doubt about whether I'm in love with love or with you, but it's been nagging my mind for a time. I'm sorry."

"Why do you need to apologise? It's okay to be doubtful."

"It is?" I sit up straighter.

"Depends. Yours is understandable, considering this is your first time. This is my first time too." He takes my hands to his lips and kisses my knuckles, never breaking his loving stare away from me... "I've observed people for a long time to learn about this foreign thing. The feeling of 'love', it's not love exactly."

"What do you mean, Aht?"

"The closest things to name the feeling alone are affection, lust, fondness, passion, and a wide array of them. What makes it love in the first place is the shared effort behind it."

"Effort. The commitment. Willingly?"

He pecks my forehead. "You get it. The willing commitment. If you're in love with 'love', you would have been together with numerous people by now or with a series of them and not commit. Bear in mind, humans and higher spirits are different, as you should know since human feelings toward someone are fickle while your kind is difficult to budge."

Impressive when he knows a lot about us. The spirits he met taught him well. I nuzzle his jaw. "It's not impossible, so I'll keep putting effort in for you."

His gaze averts and his cheek is hot to touch. Mmm... I'm going to enjoy this for a long time.

"What a way with words, are you?"

"It's you, Aht. In this exceptional case, quite effortless."

"Goodness, Ki. My face will be on fire," he giggles shyly. "You're satisfied with my answer?"

I sit next to him when he's pulling a flat box out from his rucksack. "Yes, thank you so much. To know you're on the same page as me has completely washed away my doubts."

Bittersweetness adorns his features when he ponders after my statement. "Believe me, we're more similar than you thought." Quite an ominous tone... My knuckles brush his jaw and he blinks, and soon he shoots a devilish smile. I'll wait for him to tell me more, sooner or later. "Also, how can you be so sure I'm committed to you?"

"You brought me gifts to relieve my curiosity without any expectations. Declined my offers of sex. You don't even ask me for any gold or luxury."

"Probably basic decency?"

"Yeah, went out of your way by carrying large bags through the thick forest with half-healed ailments. Hah. Basic decency." I chuckle when his head is buried into his palms, embarrassed.

"You don't think I'm trying too hard, do you?"

"You're falling for me, of course there's no trying too hard. You don't think I am too? By sticking close, tried to please you with sex—"

He laughs abruptly and kisses my cheek. "Okay, I got you."

"Good. Anyway, what is this box?"

"Gramophone!" his voice deepens in exaggeration and he beams.

What on earth is that? "Grandma phone?"

"You're so fucking adorable."