Some things never leave the heart.
Some people never leave the mind.
And those who settle within the heart remain there until one's last breath.
Yim was hollow inside, utterly empty. Yet she still had Grandmother's support .... and now, she didn't want to lose that too. She thought for a long time, hesitating, but in the end she gathered her courage and finally spoke. Her voice trembled, carrying more weight than even her tearful eyes. She said that she wished to stay with Grandmother… in this house where every corner held Talotkan's memories. She couldn't forget her, and she never would.
Hearing these words, Grandmother broke down. Talotkan may have been in this world only for a short time, but she had managed to win someone's heart so deeply. It filled Grandmother with both sorrow and joy ...sorrow because life would now be lived only in the shadow of a memory, and joy because even in her absence, Talotkan continued to live on within someone else's soul. To live a lifetime remembering someone who existed only in memory was like breaking boulders with bare hands ..... endless, unyielding pain.
But Grandmother did not stop Yim. Instead, she embraced her, accepting her as her own daughter, and gave her permission to stay. For Yim too was like a broken statue, slowly losing pieces of herself with the passage of time.
And just then, outside the house, Phop Rak and Akat finally arrived. The colorful clothes hanging outside in the breeze told them they had found the right place. Phop Rak's joy was indescribable. It felt as though wings had sprouted on his back, as though he had discovered not just a home but a treasure, a priceless inheritance he thought he had lost forever.
He rushed inside, but what he saw stopped him in his tracks and brought tears to his eyes. In front of him sat Grandmother, and resting in her lap was a girl who appeared to be asleep. To him, she looked like his long-lost sister.
When Grandmother's gaze turned toward the door, she saw two young men standing there, silently watching her. Yim too stood up, startled, her eyes locked on them.
Phop Rak began to cry. Despite her frailty, he recognized Grandmother immediately. And when Grandmother looked at him closely, something in his face stirred her memory. And then, when Phop Rak called her "Grandmother," she rushed to embrace him, holding him just as she had in his childhood, showering him with the same love she had once given so freely.
After embracing Grandmother, he turned at once toward Yim, stepped forward, and wrapped her in his arms. With a trembling voice, he said, "Elder Sister Talotkan… I missed you so much."
The moment the name Talotkan was spoken, Grandmother and Yim both lost control. Despite their efforts, their tears flowed uncontrollably, their grief too heavy to suppress.
Not long after, when Grandmother told Phop Rak the truth, it nearly killed him. To hear that the person he had come so far to meet, the one he had longed for, was no longer in this world ..... his heart shattered into pieces. Yim and Grandmother still carried countless memories of Talotkan. But he… he had only faint, fading fragments of childhood memories left. And now even those slipped further away from his grasp. Madness overtook him. He broke down, screaming, crying like a man possessed, his voice tearing through the walls. Akat, Yim, and Grandmother tried to hold him, to console him, but their own pain weighed just as heavily upon them.
Meanwhile, the case had already reached the local police. Word had spread that two boys had gone missing, and their latest location pointed to this very area. Soon after, Pranee and the others had also reached the police station. Together with the officers, they set out for the place destiny had already chosen for them.
Cars sped through the roads, engines roaring, until finally they pulled up outside Talotkan's home. The police confirmed the location ... this was where Akat and Phop Rak were. But the moment they stepped closer, their hearts sank. From inside the house, loud, grief-stricken cries echoed out, heavy enough to freeze their blood.
Pranee recognized the voice instantly. Phop Rak. She hurried inside, but what she found there made her legs give way, her body trembling as though the ground had slipped beneath her.
Inside sat Grandmother. Phop Rak was crumpled on the floor, weeping uncontrollably. The others stood around, frozen like statues, their faces pale and lifeless.
It felt like no home at all, but rather as though she had walked into a funeral.
Pranee's eyes met Grandmother's. Grandmother's gaze fell upon Pranee. And in that moment, neither could understand what was happening. No one could. Even the police, hardened by countless cases, were left bewildered.
It was as though fate had brought them all together not for a reunion, but to witness grief, to stand among shadows of the dead, in a house that felt more like a graveyard of memories.