Still blindfolded, feeling utterly alone and terrified, I…?



I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. Slowly, almost tentatively, I began moving my hand upward with caution, waiting for impending punishment for disobeying orders. Nothing was happening yet and so I moved my fingers to the heavy material of the blindfold.


Before I could really move the covering away I felt something cold at my throat. It was thin and strong. 
 

Maybe a flexible wire? Were they going to strangle me?!

“Ungh!” I started to panic as my breaths came in rapid, shallow waves.

The thing at my neck pulled just a little tighter than comfortable before finally disappearing, but not completely as I felt a delicate foreign weight at the base of my neck. A familiar voice whispered softly in my ear, “Can’t you ever just do what you’re told?”



“Taeyeon!” My relief was apparent and tears sprang to my eyes. My hand moved automatically to the blindfold again, but it was quickly wrenched down to my side and captured forcibly behind my back with my other to prevent another attempt at removing my covering. My relief soon turned to confusion and bafflement.
 

“Tae?” I asked into the darkness, a little hesitantly. I could feel the warmth of her presence behind me, even as she held tight to my wrists.
 

“I thought you already established it was me,” I heard her say, the familiar edge of annoyance cutting through her voice.

Why was I here? Why was she restraining me and not letting me go? I’d just been kidnapped!
 

Then a sudden thought struck me. “What’s…going on?”

I could almost feel her smirking from where she stood behind me. Finally she spoke again, saying, “It’s about the final piece left behind by Korea’s Leonardo DaVinci.”

Okay. So had I just been kidnapped over that now? Did the Girls come to save me? What is happening? I wanted to ask all these questions, but strangely my voice had left me.

I felt Taeyeon’s lips near my ear as she spoke a little quieter. “Do you remember how we were saying it was the most important piece of his legacy that he left behind?”

I nodded faintly.

“Well, we found it.”

My blindfold was loosened and fell away, my sight returning more swiftly than I had expected. The room was completely dark except for a dim halo of light over where we stood. I wanted to turn to her and throw myself in her arms, but something in front of me caught my eye making me stop. The soft light glinted off of the simple gold frame of a cheval glass mirror positioned before me. Taeyeon was mostly hidden in the shadows and so I couldn’t make out expression.

“What do you see?” she asked.

I blinked at my reflection perplexedly for a moment before finally answering uncertainly. “I…I see m-me?”

She looked at me through the glass of the mirror, her eyes finding mine. As she came closer to awkwardly wrap her arms around my waist from behind I could start to see the redness that was seeping into her cheeks.

“I don’t understand,” I whispered.



“It’s you,” Taeyeon said, giving me a gentle squeeze. “You’re the most precious treasure your Grandfather left behind.”
 

The pleasant sting of happy tears infiltrated my eyes and their warmth began running down my cheeks. As I turned to her and threw my arms around her neck I found that the surge of emotion had completely swallowed all my words. I could hardly believe that she was here with me when I had been so resolved to miss her all this time while she was away on her trip.