Chapter 6 The Mysterious Gift

It's been an hour since she arrived home from the party. After taking a bath she went to bed. She can't seem to sleep thinking about what happened.

"C'mon Vee, it's not like he asked to dance with you. It just happened that you were there dancing so what choice does he had?", Vee argue with herself.

When Hans appeared beside him that time, it seems like the world around her collapsed and she lost her balanced causing her to almost fell in the dance floor. Hans was agile and caught her arms then pulled her towards him to stabilise her. She landed on his shoulders gasping for breath. Her heart's beating so fast that she could still hear it even the music was so loud.

She's too young to feel this way, right? She can't be like this. She's just thirteen.

They were in that awkward position, her arms in Hans' shoulders and Hans was tightly holding her waist when the music changes to a slow melody of 'You and Me' by Lifehouse, Hans slowly sway along the rhythm.

Veronica was just looking at him, her mouth was locked and she was speechless. She subconsciously dance with him like her sanity escaped from her and all she could think at the moment was the two of them.

When the music reaches it's chorus, Hans was singing along and looking at her eyes as if he was talking to her through the song.

"🎶🎶...

And it's you and me and all of the people

And I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you

All of the things that I want to say just aren't coming out right

I'm tripping on words

You've got my head spinning

I don't know where to go from here🎶🎶"

That's exactly what she wanted to say right now. She felt heaven inside. She can't seem to figure if this was a dream but suddenly someone bumped her from behind causing her senses to come back.

It was Stephanie who bumped her. She then snatched Veronica's arms from clinging to Hans' shoulders and pulled Vee to dance with her instead.

Veronica was disappointed with Steph for ruining her moment but she can't show her feelings to her, she just simply smiled and dance with her sweetly.

She looked at Hans, he just shrugged and turned his back to find another partner.

"By the way, Josh was looking for you. It's almost nine", Steph said getting her attention from Hans.

"Uh huh?", she simply responded.

......

It's almost midnight already, and Josh still couldn't sleep. He couldn't settle his mind from what happened back there at the party. He was angry at Hans for messing with the women he holds dear with. He saw him popping the cork of the other girl like the Sicilian Corkscrew and now he was flirting with Vee. He was such an asshole.

He wanted to punch him right in the face earlier but he stop himself from doing so because he was dancing with Vee and he don't want her to think that he was ruining her moment.

He walked to Steph instead who was dancing with other guy and whispered something. As expected, Steph went to find Vee and when she saw her dancing with Hans she pulled her trick to separate them. Steph managed to snatched her from Hans and dance with her instead.

When Joshua saw that she was now dancing with Steph, she walked towards them then whispered to Vee,

"Your father's here, let's go", and then pulled her hand without even letting her to respond. They exited the house without even saying thanks to Hans.

"Wait, wait. It's not yet nine. Are you sure father called you? Plus I wasn't able to tell our friends that we are going home already", Vee tried to escape from his grasp.

"There's is no need for that anymore", Joshua said and waived his hand requesting for a service car.

He pushed Vee inside the back seat and he then entered beside the driver to avoid further conversation with her and told the driver to bring them home. Vee just keep herself silent throughout their way back home.

When they arrived Joshua did not bother stopping in their house anymore, instead he got down from the car and then headed towards their gate without saying a word.

.........

After some time of reminiscing their dance with her Prince Charming, Vee climb down from bed and she went to the kitchen to make herself a hot milk. She still couldn't find sleep at this hour.

When she was on her way upstairs she caught her eyes to the gifts she received. It was scattered in the couch and in the floor. The other gifts was unwrapped already. Maybe Pete or their dog was playing them.

She decided to utilise her time in unwrapping her gifts instead until she will be sleepy. Looking at the gifts she received, it feels like it was her birthday or Christmas. She's just grateful that she has a loving, appreciative and big family.

She finished unwrapping them all, then suddenly she noticed a small wooden puzzle-treasure box beautifully architechtured. It has a small key attached to the bottom with the lavender key chain with floral and jade beads but there is no hole or opening where she could insert the key.

It's so beautiful. She was amazed by the complexity of the structure and also excited to what is inside this mysterious gift and who gave it.

She tried to find the wrapper but she couldn't find any from those ripped wrappers. She tried to inspect the cube on how to open it.

There was a small sprocket-like wheel that has numbers marked like a clock in the middle on one of the sides of the wooden cube. Above it, in the center, there's an arrow that points to the wheel. It looks like she need some code to unlock it.

On the other side of the cube, there's a quoted phrase carved in the wood that says,

"Even not found, forever it keeps the treasure."