A/N: And continuing on with the vacation! I honestly don't have much to say that won't already be expressed through the chapter, though I will say that I'm saving my commentary for the next arc.
I encourage you guys to look up the various things I describe in this chapter, as then you will be able to see what the family sees and understand their perspectives on it.
There's a good chance that I'll be taking a week off between this chapter and the next. I'm starting to feel a bit of burnout and taking a break will be a good way for me to recover and make sure that the quality of the chapters doesn't decrease because of burnout. The fact that my charger for my laptop just randomly broke for no reason means that the chances of me taking next week off have just gotten MUCH higher.
Smiles: Sorry, but you're wrong about the project that Mike is offering Melody to participate in. The original animatronics are torn to pieces, burned, and gone beyond any hope of recovery.
BlueJay: I'm not sure right now. Since Rockstar Golden Freddy is a gift from her father Cassidy might not want to separate the head for fear of accidentally breaking him. There's also the fact that unlike the original Golden Freddy, Rockstar Golden Freddy is a new, fresh, and functioning animatronic so the head might not be detachable in the first place.
PenDragonJ: I'm not sure if I'll do that idea yet. FNAF is a much newer game in this timeline, so it hasn't really gotten off the ground yet. Besides, the controversy and debates haven't really kicked off until FNAF4 (cause Bite Victim), and I don't think Scott in this fic's universe will make any more than 3 games (FNAF1-3). The main reason I say this is because FNAF4 and onward focus more on one specific family (the Aftons), and the last two especially feature Liz. If Scott released FNAF5 and FNAF6 and the Marshalls/Melody got wind of it then he might as well go up to them with a megahorn and shout "LIZ IS ELIZABETH AFTON AND SHE TRIED TO MURDER KIDS LIKE HER FUCKED UP EXCUSE OF A DAD." Given Mike's protective and paternal nature I HIGHLY doubt he'll just let an invasion of privacy on one of his children happen like that, especially since it'll essentially be slandering Liz and making her relive her past torment/guilt.
Chapter 64 – Vacation to Korea Part 2
The chiming of an alarm clock blared through the room as Mike groggily opened his eyes. He could see Melody stirring from her sleep on the other side of the bed and the ghosts doing the same all around him.
"Morning," Liz murmured as she stretched her arms.
"Morning," Mike replied as he got out of the bed and moved to the bathroom to get dressed.
"Kind of early, isn't it?" Fritz asked. "Only 7:00? Shouldn't we be waking up later on vacations?"
"If we were only visiting one place, you'd be right," Melody answered. "But there's a lot of places to visit at Jeju, and a lot of things to do today. I honestly doubt we'll even get to all of them in one day before we get too tired."
"I've been looking at the map of Jeju," Charlie added, "and I'm not kidding when I say that we're literally traveling across the entire island to get to some of these places."
"And besides," Mike added as he left in the bathroom, now dressed, "I want to hit the buffet restaurant for breakfast before it gets too crowded."
The ghost kids' eyes lit up hungrily at the mention of the word buffet. "No complaints here," Jeremy quickly replied as Melody also changed in the bathroom. When she was ready, the two adults and the ghost children left the room and rode the elevator to the 3rd floor. When they reached the lower lobby, they could see that even with Mike and Melody's prompt actions, The Park View buffet restaurant already had nearly half the tables filled with people. Melody quickly secured a table for herself and Mike, and the two split up to get food for themselves.
To the surprise and delight of the ghosts, the breakfast buffet served at The Park View offered even more than they expected. There were certainly entrees that fit the classic description of breakfast – omelettes, bacon, sausage, pancakes, all of which Mike would have scooped on his plate even if the ghosts hadn't been begging him to do so. But there were other foods offered that wouldn't have been out of place in a traditional Asian restaurant - fried rice, dim sum and dumplings, Korean barbecue, sushi – all of which were enough to make the family salivate in anticipation. When Mike returned to the table, Melody was already there with a smaller but still sizable selection of food on her plate. Her eyes widened when she saw just how much he had brought with him.
"Wow," she whistled, "I never took you for much of a big eater, but holy crap was I wrong!"
Mike chuckled. "I think you're forgetting that I'm technically eating for 8 people now instead of 1. Besides," he added, "we skipped lunch completely yesterday and as good as the Japanese food was, it was covering for two meals and I'm back to an empty stomach again."
Melody looked around at the ghosts, who were hungrily eyeing the plate of food. "Good point," she conceded. The two adults started eating their meals contentedly, and by now the ghosts were practiced enough with sharing meals with Mike that they were able to create a "possession line" in a quick and orderly fashion with little issue. While they would have all loved to taste every single piece of food that Mike had collected, they had to acknowledge that Mike's stomach would very likely literally explode if he tried to eat that much food. With how much he had eaten on his first pass, Mike barely had enough room left for dessert.
"So, Susie, finally found something better than pizza?" Gabe teased as she watched the girl's rapturous expression while Mike ate part of a ham, onion, and green pepper omelet.
"Oh my God, Gabe, shut up!" Susie pouted as she playfully swatted her brother's shoulder.
"What's that you're drinking?" Liz wondered as she pointed at a small mug next to Melody's plate. Inside was a brown liquid with white cream shaped into a heart at the very center.
"This?" Melody looked at the mug. "This is a special latte that I ordered. And I've got to say that this is the some of the best coffee I've ever had in my entire life."
"I think I'll get one when I pick up dessert," Mike decided. "If what I've heard about some of the places we're going to is true, I'm going to need it."
"Can we try it?" Cassidy asked as she eyed the liquid curiously.
"Oh, hell no," Mike retorted, "you guys are NOT allowed to possess me while I'm drinking this."
"But why not?" Jeremy wondered.
"Because I don't know if you guys would be affected by caffeine," Mike explained. "Charlie MIGHT be okay with it, but if someone like Cassidy, Susie, or God forbid FRITZ gets spiked with caffeine, then I can say without a shadow of a doubt that we'd all be well and truly FUCKED."
The kids burst out into giggles as Fritz spluttered protests. Even Melody was struggling to hold back her laughter – from what she'd seen about each of the ghost kids' personalities, Mike's statement was all too true.
"Time to get dessert," Melody declared as she got up from her seat. Mike did the same and the two walked over together to the dessert station. Even with how much they'd already eaten, both adults felt their mouths water at the variety of pastries, cakes, ice cream, fresh fruit, and chocolates that were presented to them. At the urging of the ghosts, Mike scooped as much as he felt he could physically eat as possible and made quickly retreated to the table to enjoy his dessert.
"I honestly think this is even better than the buffets we had at Las Vegas," Charlie contentedly commented as Mike finished the last thing on his plate, a small Tiramisu cup. "And that was already pretty high up on the list of best meals I've ever had."
"My stomach feels like it's going to explode," Mike groaned.
"You're going to get sick if you keep eating like that," Melody chided. "You're definitely gonna have to skip lunch or else your stomach'll explode! Not that I planned on eating lunch either," she added with a groan.
"We'll eat something a little smaller for dinner," Mike decided as he and Melody got up from the table. "And from what I've seen for our plans, I'll be walking off all these extra calories by the end of the day."
The two made their way back into the room and changed from fancy restaurant attire into T-shirts and shorts. They then rode the elevator up to the floor with the hotel's main entrance and departed from the hotel. "Charlie said earlier that we'd be going to places all over the island today. Is that really true?" Cassidy wondered as they got into the car.
"Yep!" Melody replied cheerfully as Mike opened the map to show his kids the island. "We're going all the way from the bottom of the island to the top and back! I'm personally looking forward to the things more towards the top of the island myself."
"You never told us what we were going to see specifically," Jeremy pointed out.
Melody smiled mischievously. "You know some of the places we're going to already. We just didn't tell you when we're going to see them. And besides, Mike and I want to keep some things a surprise. You guys like surprises, right?"
"Depends on the surprise," Susie thought, and she knew her siblings would feel the same. After all, William Afton had promised a "surprise" on Cassidy's birthday the day they had all been worried, and everyone knew how THAT had turned out.
But that had been William Afton. This was Melody and her father, two people who couldn't have been any more different from their murderer. She forced a smile on her face. "Yeah, we love surprises!" she declared, hoping that Melody hadn't noticed her brief unease.
To her relief, Melody had already begun pulling out of the hotel's parking lot and it didn't seem as though she had noticed anything amiss. Within a few minutes, they were driving on the roads of Jeju again like they had done yesterday. The ghost kids noticed that the road they were going to this time had a bit more civilization on it than before, and they had the good fortune to marvel at the majestic Jeju Stadium on their way to their first location.
"If I remember correctly, the Jeju World Cup Stadium's held the FIFA World Cup several times," Melody explained as they drove by. "It was also built in the shape of a volcano just like Jeju itself!"
"Whoa…" Gabe breathed. "That is so cool!"
"But…aren't volcanos supposed to be tall and pointy?" Fritz asked. "That stadium looks kinda flat and round."
"Some volcanos can be like that," Charlie explained. "Especially shield volcanos. I'm not sure if Jeju actually IS one, but I know those kinds of volcanos exist."
"Well, we'll definitely see SOME volcano-related things in Jeju," Melody promised with a wink. The gesture heightened the kids' excitement as they drove on. After several minutes, they reached a suburban part of the island situated on the edge of a cliff, and Melody drove down a road carved into the cliff face until they reached the bottom. There, the kids could see a large parking lot with several small shops set up and a trail next to them that led to some unseen location deep within the woods.
"And we're here!" Mike declared as Melody drove into the parking lot. "Our first location. We're going to have to take a slight walk into the trail, but it shouldn't take too long for us to get where we need to."
They got out of the car and Melody did her thing, buying two tickets for herself and Mike and generally making communication a whole lot easier than it could have been. The ghosts eyed several stores with interest but Mike vetoed their requests to shop around. "We'll take care of that AFTER we're done here, not before," he told them. "No point in carrying around bags of stuff for no reason."
"That's fair," Liz conceded. After they had passed the main booth, they noticed several stone statues of different sizes that all had the same basic shape – an old man wearing a hat with two hands clasping its belly.
"Oh wow, I didn't expect to see so many of these here!" Melody exclaimed. "These are iconic statues of Jeju, and they're called Dol Hareubangs. According to tradition, they're gods of protection and fertility, and supposedly they were even able to protect against demons travelling between realities!"
Mike pictured Nightmare in the back of his mind. The idea of the black bear demon knocking his head on an old man statue and failing to get through was hilarious, but he HIGHLY doubted that particular characteristic of the Dol Hareubang statues would pan out in practice.
The adults bought their tickets and followed the other tourists down the path covered by the trees. A serene river flowed to their left, with a bridge branching off the other side at one point with several small cylinders that could serve as stepping stones next to it. Mike and Melody decided to ignore it for the moment in favor of following the main path to their main destination. They continued to walk for a few minutes with the ghosts questioning what they were going to see, until at last they cleared the last few steps of the path to reveal…
"A WATERFALL!" Susie gushed. The ghosts looked at it in wonder, pleasant memories of the last waterfall they had seen at the Grand Canyon already returning to them. Most of the water flowed down the right of the cliff face, but they could see several other smaller streams falling alongside it into a large pool.
"That's right!" Melody grinned as she gestured towards it. "This is Cheonjiyeon Falls, a famous waterfall in Jeju."
Gabe gave the waterfall a skeptical look. "I mean, don't get me wrong, it's pretty and all that. But the last one we saw at the Grand Canyon seemed a little…"
"…bigger?" Liz finished, understanding where her brother was going.
"Yeah," Gabe agreed.
"I'll admit that it's smaller than other waterfalls like Niagara," Mike admitted. The ghosts raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar name, and Mike quickly promised he'd explain later before continuing. "But it still doesn't make it any less beautiful."
"There's actually an old legend associated with this waterfall," Melody added. "They say that a long time ago, a dragon used to bathe in this pool."
The ghost kids grinned. "Okay, THAT is pretty cool," Fritz commented. Melody asked a fellow tourist to take a picture of her and Mike, and the two friends grinned at the smartphone as the tourist took the picture. When Melody received her phone back, she looked up the photo and smiled before showing it to Mike.
"Perfection," Mike nodded approvingly as she put her phone away. "Well, that's all we need to see here. We've got a lot to do and less time to do it than you might think." As they returned the way they had came, Mike and Melody crossed the bridge they had passed by last time. On the other side was a stone performance hall with several long slabs that served as benches. "I wonder what people perform here," Mike commented as he stared at the currently empty stage."
Melody shrugged. "Who knows? Plays, Korean folk music concerts, could be anything."
"Well, looks like nothing's happening right now. Still kind of cool to see what places looked like in the distant past," Mike replied as they crossed their way back over the stream back to the main path. This time, they opted to cross via the stepping stones, a decision that almost turned disastrous when Melody stumbled on one of the stones and nearly fell into the river. Mike quickly grabbed her wrist and the ghosts used their abilities to keep Melody from slipping and falling.
"Whoo, that was a close one," Melody breathed. "Thanks for that. I would've been in big trouble if I got my phone wet."
"No problem!" Cassidy cheerfully replied as they made their way back into the car. On their way, as Mike had promised, he and Melody visited the gift shops located near the parking lot. Mike bought two Dol Hareubang statues and Melody bought one for herself. When they got back into the car and Melody started driving back out, Charlie suddenly got a crafty and mischievous look on her face.
"You know, I looked up something else about Cheonjiyeon Falls that I found VERY interesting," she said in a voice that seemed a little too happy.
Mike was instantly suspicious. "Oh yeah? And what would that be?"
Charlie smirked. "Well, I heard that Cheonjiyeon Falls is a great spot…for lovers."
Melody jolted and nearly hit the car in front of her in surprise, while Mike's eyes widened as he was totally caught off guard. All of the ghosts were grinning cheekily at him and Melody.
"…"
"Nothing to say, dad?" Charlie asked innocently.
"…fuck you."
The ghosts all immediately burst into laughter as Melody groaned both at Charlie's insinuation and Mike's response. "Was cursing at your daughter REALLY necessary?" she scolded.
"Eh, we're pretty lax on rules when it comes to cursing in the household," Mike replied. "Would be hypocritical to lay down the law on them for that when I do it all the time."
"Fair enough," Melody conceded. "As long as they know it's all in good fun."
"Don't worry, Melody, we are completely fine," Liz assured her.
"Besides," Fritz added, "cursing is fun! And a good way to relieve stress."
Melody chuckled. "Well, I can't DENY that one," she admitted.
As the car drove on, the kids soon realized that they were leaving the buildings and all traces of civilization behind. Trees soon began to surround them until the area outside of the road was an entire forest. The more perceptive ghosts also began to realize that the road was slowly rising in elevation as well, and that they were moving in the direction away from the coast.
Jeremy was the first one to realize what was going on. "Are we…going up the volcano?" he asked in amazement.
Melody grinned. "Yep! We are driving up Mt. Hallasan as we speak!"
The kids gasped in shock. "Whoa…" Gabe breathed. "I mean, I knew the mountain was big, but I didn't think it was so big that it covered the entire center and we'd be driving across it for more than half of the trip to the other side of the island!"
"This is the volcano that made Jeju what it is, Gabe," Mike replied. "If it was anything less impressive than this I'd be highly disappointed."
Susie looked out of the window at the trees surrounding them. "I just noticed something!" she exclaimed and pointed out the window. "Look at the trees!"
The family and Melody looked more closely at the trees and they quickly saw what the former Chica inhabitant did. The trees on each side of the road didn't merely "grow", but rather seemed to bend towards each other to form several natural arches, one after the other. Combined with the dense leaves and foliage blocking the sun, it was almost as though they were driving through a tunnel made of trees instead of stone.
"Damn," Jeremy whistled, "if I didn't know better I could have sworn that somebody deliberately grew the trees like that."
"Nature can be pretty surprising," Mike said appreciatively. "And to think that this whole mountain was once an active volcano. I don't think we'll find a more natural place in all of Jeju."
And indeed, the only sign of civilization for several minutes was the road they were driving on. It wasn't until they reached the highest part of the road that they finally came across a campground where several cars and buses were dropping off campers and tourists. "Is this one of our stops?" Cassidy asked excitedly.
Melody shook her head. "Unfortunately, not this time," she answered in the negative. All the ghosts groaned, as they had been eager to see Mt. Hallasan like they had the Grand Canyon.
"The reason why we're not stopping here to go on the trails is because if we tried to, it would end up taking a hell of a lot of time," Mike explained. "There are a lot of other places we want to see, and other natural wonders in Jeju that would take a lot less time for us to view and explore."
"You guys WILL be climbing up a mountain, right?" Fritz pressed. One of the reasons they had been so excited about visiting Jeju was the prospect of seeing things related to the volcanos of Jeju.
"Absolutely," Melody promised. "You have my word."
"That's good enough for me," Liz replied with a smile, and the other ghosts nodded in agreement. Leaving Hallasan National Park behind them, they descended the mountain and eventually came across the first traces of civilization again. Unlike the area around Cheonjiyeon Falls, which was a densely populated suburb, there were only a few buildings and cars scattered about. Melody passed them by and it wasn't long before the ghosts could see the faint outline of the shore on the opposite side of the island. Melody drove alongside it for several minutes until trees began to block that side of the road, then made a right turn into a parking lot surrounded by trees. The ghosts looked around in confusion – there was no indication of anything particularly noteworthy about where they had arrived.
"Uhm…where are we?" Susie asked, confused.
"I don't see anything special about where we are right now," Charlie murmured confusedly.
"Are you sure we're at the right place?" Cassidy asked.
Mike nodded. "Yep. According to the GPS. We're here."
Melody winked. "Just follow us. Trust me, we know where we're going."
The kids looked at each other, shrugged, and followed Mike and Melody out of the car. The two adults climbed up several steps, passing a food court and gift shops on their way. "You know, we should probably put our jackets on, Mike," Melody suggested as they grew closer.
"Yep, I agree with that," Mike concurred. To the ghosts' shock, they proceeded to take out two jackets and put them out.
"What are you guys DOING?" Fritz spluttered. "Do you not know how hot it is right now? Do you WANT to burn up in your jackets?"
"Oh, we know exactly what we're doing," Mike smirked. "Because we've arrived at our destination."
"You guys were looking in the wrong direction," Melody added cheekily. "You were looking more towards the sky, when in reality where we're going is deep underground." The two adults completed the last few steps, and the ghosts gasped as they finally realized where they were at.
The family had arrived at a large pit, with stairs leading downward into its depths. At the bottom of the pit was the entrance to a deep, dark cave. The only illumination in the cave appeared in the form of small artificial lights that showed very little of what lay within, but the family (and especially the ghosts with their enhanced night vision) could see that there were even more stairs descending further into the darkness.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Manjanggeul Cave!" Melody declared. "One of the most famous lava tunnels in the entire world!"
"Whoa…" Liz breathed. "I know you guys mentioned a cave before but I wasn't expecting this!"
"This is so cool!" Gabe exclaimed.
"I wanna go exploring!" Jeremy added excitedly.
"Calm down kiddos, we're not exactly young anymore," Mike joked. He and Melody descended the stairs, and as they approached the cave entrance the ghosts quickly realized that they had made the right call in putting on jackets. Just like the cave seemed to consume the sunlight, it also devoured the sweltering summer heat and left only cold air remaining. Melody shivered and instinctively moved her body closer to Mike for warmth, who wrapped an arm around her shoulder as they reached the bottom of the stairs and the true beginning of the lava tunnel. An electronic sign to the side told them that they had 1000 m to go until they reached the end of the tunnel.
As Mike and Melody walked deeper into the cave, everyone marveled at the many sights to be seen inside the Manjanggeul lava tunnel. Several colored lamps shined on different parts of the ceiling and walls, giving the tunnel a beautiful radiance that contrasted sharply with the darkness of areas that weren't affected by lights. The rock formations in the tunnel themselves were also much more chaotic and diverse than the ghosts had expected – sometimes the walls were rough and jagged with stalactites jutting out of the ceiling, while other times the dimensions of the cave seemed almost neat and orderly depending on how the lava had cooled. Any time the ghosts found something especially interesting, they flew up closer to inspect a specific rock formation before returning to Mike and Melody.
"You know," Mike began as they reached the halfway point (500 m), "if I had to pick a cave to get lost in, Manjanggeul would probably be one of the best options."
"Really?" Liz asked. "Why would you say that?"
"Because as vast and big as this cave seems, it's deceptively straightforward," Mike explained. "Only two directions to go in – down the way we're going and back the way we came. It's not hard to find your way out of what's essentially a bidirectional glorified tube."
"I mean, there's all these lights everywhere and the checkpoint sounds," Charlie pointed out. "Only an idiot would get lost in this cave."
"No, even if there were no lights or signs, I'd still pick Manjanggeul," Mike insisted. "You could easily get around the lack of vision by hugging one of the walls and moving really slowly. Eventually, you'd find the exit if you stuck to the plan and didn't panic. People walk back and forth through this tunnel all the time."
The ghosts pondered Mike's words. "Huh…that's…a pretty good point," Gabe mused.
"Well, that's assuming that the stairs are still there," Melody pointed out. "Otherwise you'd have a damn hard time getting out even if you DID make it to the exit."
"Very true," Mike conceded. He took a step forward, not realizing that he was about to trip over stepping stones inside of a puddle. "Oh, SHI…!" he gasped as he stumbled around. This time, it was Melody's turn to grab him by the shoulder to steady himself, and the ghosts pushed against him to keep him from falling. "Thanks, guys!" he breathed a sigh of relief. "That was almost really bad."
"You can count on us, dad!" Cassidy assured him. Melody couldn't help but smile at the show of affection as they continued past that minor obstacle. As they passed the ¾ point, they soon found themselves climbing up on an artificial walkway that had been constructed over the ground.
"What's the deal?" Gabe protested. "Why this random walkway when everything else has been completely natural?"
Mike shrugged. "Either the ground below us is way too rocky to be considered safe or there's water that's too deep or too wide to simply put stepping stones on," he theorized. "If it's because there's deep water I may have to reconsider what I said earlier about Manjanggeul being one of the better places to get lost in."
"The rest of the cave has been pretty level in terms of the ground," Charlie noticed. "It'd be kind of weird for there suddenly to be a deep water-filled pit in the middle of nowhere."
"True," Mike agreed as they stepped off the walkway back onto stone ground. A sign next to them told them that they were getting close to the end.
"Holy crap!" Fritz suddenly exclaimed as he pointed at a rock formation to the side. "Look at those rocks! It looks like an elephant's toe!"
"Hey, you're right!" Susie floated closer to inspect what Fritz was pointed at. "That thing DOES look like a gigantic toe!"
"That's really cool!" Liz exclaimed. "I don't remember seeing anything like that even at the Grand Canyon!"
"I don't know if it would be hilarious or sad if that really DID turn out to be a petrified elephant's foot down here," Mike mumbled.
"What would an elephant even be DOING down here, dad?" Charlie deadpanned.
"Who the heck knows," Mike drawled. They climbed up on another artificial walkway, and as they reached the end of the cave the family could finally see the main highlight of Manjanggeul. A column of stone, decorated with colored lights, stretching from floor to ceiling.
"You guys are looking at the largest lava column in the world," Melody explained. "Formed when lava dripped from a hole in the ceiling."
The ghosts flew closer to the column, passing the threshold that humans were allowed to reach, and inspected the majestic (albeit weirdly-shaped) stone structure. "And made THAT?" Gabe exclaimed. "If it was just lava dripping then it must have taken forever!"
"I don't understand nature, man!" Jeremy shook his head.
"I doubt anyone could," Melody assured her. She turned around and asked a tourist to take a picture of her and Mike. This time, the ghosts decided to pretend that they could actually be seen by the camera and posed in different places all around the lava column, grinning alongside Mike and Melody as the unsuspecting tourist took a picture of the two friends. When he handed back the camera, Melody showed the picture to Mike, who grinned approvingly at it.
"We were pretending to take the picture too!" Cassidy happily told them. "I know the camera can't see us but it's still fun to pose!"
"Well, I've heard some stories about cameras picking up spectral figures like ghosts on photographs that shouldn't be there," Melody commented. She looked at the picture and frowned. "Doesn't seem to have worked out here, though."
"Ah well," Mike shrugged. "I would've been surprised if it did. Maybe if you guys concentrated it would work, but you might also end up making yourself visible by accident and then we'd have a real shitshow on our hands."
"I can already see the headlines now," Melody joked. "Historic Korean Lava Tunnel Haunted by American Kid Ghosts. Cue the mass panic."
"Assuming that people don't even question how seven non-Asian ghostly children ended up in Manjanggeul to begin with," Mike added.
The kids giggled at the two adults' jokes as they retraced their steps back to the entrance of the cave. On the way back, the ghosts took the time to look at any rock formations they might have missed, although since they had already viewed the things they found interesting they mostly engaged in small talk with the two adults and each other instead. Mike and Melody took one final picture in front of the entrance in the cave, and the two adults climbed back out from the world of cold and darkness to blistering summer heat.
"It's amazing just how much and how quickly the temperature changes with just a few small steps. And I can already feel myself starting to sweat," Mike groaned. "Let's hit the car and the A/C quick!"
"I am completely in agreement," Melody added. The two adults wasted no time in making their way back to the car they had rented, everyone (including the ghosts) eager to get out of the sunlight
"Man, can you believe how cheap these tourist attraction prices are?" Mike asked as Melody navigated back to the main road. "The equivalent of two dollars in America for adults if not less? That's practically a steal! Compare that to museum admission prices in America and just…wow…"
"Forget museum admission prices," Melody countered with a laugh, "I've bought beverages and snacks that are more expensive than admission prices for these Korean attractions!"
"Speaking of Korean attractions…" Mike quickly looked at the map. "Is the next one…?"
Melody nodded. "Yep."
"Gotcha," Mike put the map away. He turned to face his ghostly kids. "So how are you guys enjoying our vacation to Jeju Island so far?" he asked.
"It's absolutely amazing!" Cassidy gushed.
"That lava cave was one of the coolest things I've ever seen!" Gabe added. "If only I could see it when it was actually being formed by lava…"
"I want to see more of Jeju traditions," Charlie commented. "I can already tell this island has a rich history, even though we've really only seen it from the Dol Hareubang statues so far."
"Neeeeeeeerd…" Fritz teased, earning a light whack on the back of the head from Liz.
"Glad to hear it, you guys," Mike answered with a knowing smile. "Because let me tell you, we're only just getting started!"
/
A/N: And here's a good place to stop! I was going to add in another location but I was beginning to feel tired and this was already approaching 12 pages on Word. That and the fact that I have a fuckton of exams coming up soon.
I hope you guys are enjoying my descriptions of Jeju Island so far! The places and sights the family are seeing are based on my actual experiences, and I highly recommend you look up the things I've written on Google Images as seeing them again in picture form really helped jog my memory of my vacation.
Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed!
