CHAPTER II
Jongin.

The sunlight crept in through the small gap in the thick curtains, Kyungsoo’s eyebrows furrowed and he turned over groaning. He slept like a baby, warm and comfortable. The winter’s morning was cold and his fire had gone out at some time in the early hours of the morning. He curled up and pulled the many covers over his head, and fell back asleep.

An hour later, he woke up again to the sound of Jina lighting up the fire and raking out the cinders noisily. Now it was lighter, the curtains had been drawn open and he could see his room better. The tapestries that covered the walls entirely were probably once very colourful, but now the greens and purples had faded to a strange grey colour. He wondered why the room needed so many tapestries.

“Did you sleep well?” Jina asked when she noticed the boy was awake. Wiping her hands down on a cloth, she poured Kyungsoo a cup of hot tea.

“Why is it so cold?” Kyungsoo replied to her question with another, he got out of bed and wrapped his dressing gown around his thin body. He sat in a chair closest to the fire and began eating even though he wasn’t a huge fan of oatmeal, but at least it was hot.

“‘Tis always cold in the winters. You’ll get used to it.” She replied and picked out Kyungsoo’s outfit for the day.

She lay on the bed a pair of brown trousers, a beige shirt and knitted jumper. Before Kyungsoo arrived, Jiwoo ordered that clothes made from the most finest fabrics were to be sent from London.

Kyungsoo stared out of the wide window as he ate, where he could see a stretch of land that looked like an endless, dull, purplish sea. The wind had died down during the night and there was a little more sunshine peeking through the silver clouds. He took a piece of toast and spread some marmalade on, hoping that he could explore the house today or at least see his uncle. Jina combed her fingers through Kyungsoo’s long silky hair.

“We should cut young master’s hair,” she suggested. It was long enough to be tied back, wisps of hair fell into his large eyes.

“No.” Kyungsoo meekly said. He wasn’t fond of his hair being touched or cut, he hated the sound of scissors near his ears. The snipping and vibrations of each strand of hair getting louder  made his skin shiver.

Jina sighed and decided to leave him be. Kyungsoo went off to brush his teeth and when he was finished, Jina stripped him bare as a baby and passed him his clothes for today.

“Can you dress yourself?” Kyungsoo nodded and slipped into his new garments. The trousers were thick and the shirt was a little long on the arms. When he was done, Jina helped him into his boots.

“It’s nice today, how about you go play outside?” she suggested, for there was no nursery or playroom, and Kyungsoo had to find his own entertainment.

“But it’s freezing! And what am I supposed to do?” Kyungsoo whined. He would be happy indoors by the fire reading a nice book. Or maybe exploring the house, surely this big manor had a library somewhere.

“There’s plenty of gardens for you to play in. Our Jongin plays out by himself all day, he even plays with the animals.”

“Who is Jongin?” the boy was suddenly interested. Maybe he could make a friend or have someone to talk about books with.

“Didn’t I tell you yesterday? Jongin’s my younger brother, he’s a few years older than you. He goes out and plays at the moors for hours.”

“Does he live here too?”

Jina laughed, she took out a long black duffle coat and helped Kyungsoo into it.

“No, he lives on the other side of the moor with my mother in a small cottage. Mother used to work here at Mistelwaite, but after Father died, she couldn’t bear coming back here.”

What happened? Kyungsoo wanted to ask, but he didn’t know how to. Sometimes he couldn’t find the right words to say, and his mouth would say the opposite of what he wanted. So, he often thought it would be best if he did not say anything.

Jina dressed Kyungsoo in a thick wool scarf and a red beret, tucking his hair back so he could see. She then took him by the hand and led him out the room, together they walked down the hallway. Kyungsoo could take everything in now that it was lighter. The emerald green walls, the chandeliers and hundreds of paintings. They reached the top of the stairs and Kyungsoo noticed that there were many maids cleaning, bringing trays of food and making sure each painting was upright. They walked through the kitchen, where the cook was already preparing lunch and singing while kneading the dough.

They reached the back door, and Jina adjusted Kyungsoo’s hat.

“You’ll need to be back by noon, okay? Or you’ll go without lunch.”

Before he knew it, he was outside in the bitter cold. What now? He thought. He turned around to give Jina a pleading look.

“Over there, that’s where the gardens are.” She pointed to a gate in a wall of shrubbery. There was not a flower in sight, and the moors were so quiet that Kyungsoo felt a tight knot in the pit of his stomach. He walked down the stone steps and turned down the walk which led to the door in the shrubbery. He found himself in great gardens, with wide lawns and winding walks with clipped borders. There were trees, and flower-beds, and evergreens clipped into strange shapes, and a large pool with an old grey fountain in its midst. But the flower-beds were bare and wintry, the empty fountain had long since spurt out any water.

He found many doors to different gardens, fruit trees, vegetable and flower gardens. Some doors he couldn’t open, as ivy gripped on to the wood, suffocating it. The gardens were in a maze that Kyungsoo wasn’t sure if he could get out of.

The cold made Kyungsoo’s cheeks numb, turning as red as his beret and his breath appeared as icy clouds of mist in the air. The trees blew in the wind, causing a loud cry to ricochet through the gardens. However, he noticed that the wind wouldn’t stop a robin fly to and sit on a waving branch, singing a soft tune. He watched the robin for a while until the wind turned and the robin flew away. He carried on walking through the maze, apples had fallen from their trees and lay on the cold ground, bruising and frosting. Kyungsoo carefully stepped over them as he didn’t want to get dirt on his boots. As he turned a corner, out of nowhere a huge black crow flew into his face.

He screamed, so shocked that he fell to the floor, landing on his bottom and eyes almost popping out of his face.

The crow squawked, flapping his long wings in Kyungsoo’s face. His hurt from landing on gravel, and he noticed a pair of worn-out shoes slowly approach in front of his own. The crow had flown away from Kyungsoo and perched on top of the owner of the worn out shoes, making itself at home.

“He didn’t mean to frighten you.” a voice said. Kyungsoo’s eyes slowly averted to where he had heard the voice to see a boy, taller a little older than Kyungsoo. His skin was sun-kissed to a healthy olive and his hands were dirty. He had a dimple in his right cheek and eyes the colour of warm, golden honey. The taller boy helped Kyungsoo stand up, who was still amazed to see a crow sitting so happily on the male's shoulder.

“Are you Master Kyungsoo? I’ve heard a lot about you from my sister. She said you only arrived yesterday.” The boy gave a flashy smile, showing a set of pearly adult teeth. Kyungsoo had yet to lose his baby teeth.

Kyungsoo nodded, eyes quickly moving towards the ground. He wasn’t good at first impressions, and often got scolded when he didn’t greet guests or say hello to his fellow classmates. The boy reached over to fix Kyungsoo’s beret, which was now lopsided and Kyungsoo couldn’t help but stare at the boy’s face.

“I’m Jongin. It’s nice to meet you Mr Kyungsoo.” Jongin said cheerfully, he noticed Kyungsoo was still in shock with seeing such a tame crow, so he took hold of Kyungsoo’s hand.

“He doesn’t bite, he wants you to him.”

Kyungsoo pulled his hand back. “He’s dirty, full of diseases!”

“No, he’s not. His feathers are really soft and he cleans himself. Just touch him.” Jongin grasped the boys smaller hand and peeled away a glove, he bought his hand closer to the crow. Kyungsoo flinched when the crow moved, but Jongin’s honey eyes softened and didn’t leave the other boy.

“Trust me,” he smiled.

Kyungsoo’s fingers delicately touched the bird's feathers, with a surprise he marvelled at how soft it really was. The crow leaned into the touch and Jongin smiled at the contact. “See? No diseases here.”

The boy stood stiff still, eyes wide with curiosity and plump lips slightly parted, unsure whether to move away or not. After some hesitation and grimacing, his eyes met Jongin’s warm and welcoming ones, and eventually started petting the creature, fingertips soothing the bird’s silky cover. He then decided that the crow was not scary, but gentle and friendly. Although touching animals was a bit beyond his comfort zone, he always liked to read about them, and seeing one beyond the yellowed, dusty pages over candle light made him wonder what other animals Jongin was friends with, and if he could be friends too.

“Crows are very intelligent birds. They can recognise faces and tell other crows which human is kind or mean.” Kyungsoo announced. “I’m afraid I haven’t read enough books on birds though.”

Jongin was taken aback by the statement. He found the boy to be quite odd, but his mother always told him to be kind and never judge others. He could see that the boy was shivering, so he put Kyungsoo’s glove back on his now cold hand and kept his hands on top of the other’s for a while to warm them up, fingers gently caressing the odd boy’s nimble hand a little too long, until he came to his senses and abruptly took them away.

“What’s your favourite book, Master Kyungsoo?”

Kyungsoo scoffed, laughing. “That’s impossible to answer. That’s like me asking what is your favourite animal, or your favourite flower. There are so many in the world, I cannot possibly choose.” he replied thoughtfully.

His meeting with Jongin was different to others. Most children thought he was weird and often ran away or ignored him. Kyungsoo liked it when people asked him questions about himself, about his favourite things - mostly books. He could talk forever about his favourite stories, from knights and dragons, to the wonders of the world and poetry.

They ended up walking around the gardens for hours, talking about almost everything. Jongin showed Kyungsoo how to call for a robin, the same robin that he saw earlier. He learnt that Jongin was 3 years older than him and lives with his mother in a small cottage on the other side of the moors. Jongin was from a poor family, he had never been to school or owned any fancy toys. He learnt how to play by himself, and when he was 6 years of age - he helped a pony who was stuck in a ditch, who now follows him around and comes running when he sees him.

Although Kyungsoo grew up in an orphanage - he counted himself lucky. He taught himself how to read, and from the books he read he taught himself everything he needed to know.

He looked around at where they currently were. There was no colour apart from white, covering  all the flowers that had died when the bitter winter arrived and only soil and dead leaves sat on the ground. Kyungsoo wondered what it was like here when spring arrived, when gardens bloomed and the sun kissed your skin.

“Everything here is dead, so cold,” he said. They stopped at the abandoned swimming pool and Kyungsoo observed his reflection in the murky water.

“When spring arrives, you’ll be surrounded by flowers. They’ll be so many roses, you’ll get sick of them.” chuckled Jongin. “Kim Jiwoo’s wife always loved roses, and she had them planted all around the gardens.” he kicked around a pile of brown leaves by his feet.

“Why is Jiwoo never here? Your sister told me she has only seen him a few times.”

“Since his wife died, he just stopped coming.” a wave of sadness suddenly crept over Jongin’s face, as he gradually stopped his kicking.

Kyungsoo didn’t know what to say then. Why would his uncle adopt him if he’s never around? He was very confused and had many questions, but he wasn’t sure if Jongin was the right person to ask.

A gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and the branches of the surrounding trees tangled together, trapping the mere sunlight from passing through the cracks. It was loud and penetrating, bitter cold on Kyungsoo’s cheeks. He figured it must be around noon now, he had been out with Jongin for hours.

“I should go now.” Kyungsoo announced, he looked around wondering which way was back to the house. Jongin chuckled and took him by the hand.

“I’ll take you back so that you don’t get lost, otherwise you could be stuck out here forever. There are so many hidden gardens that even I haven’t discovered them all.”

They walked back to the path that leads to the house in a comfortable silence, and Jongin bid Kyungsoo goodbye and promised to see him tomorrow, to which he simply nodded back and turned towards the house.

Kyungsoo was glad to be back in the warmth as he entered the house, and he sat down in the huge dining room by the fire. The table was long, fit for at least twenty people, yet he felt so small being the only one eating.

He wondered why in such a big house, he was the only occupant other than the housemaids. Surely there were times where the house contained a family, with children playing and big fancy dinner parties.

He finished lunch and let Jina take his plates. He hoped he wasn’t being kicked out in the cold again, but surprisingly Jina took him to a large library in the west wing of the house. Bookcases stood from floor to ceiling and surrounded every wall. He gasped in amazement, mouth open in a huge smile in front the plethora of pages, ready to be opened. He was in heaven.

There was a recently lit fireplace, warming the armchairs and thick fur rugs for Kyungsoo to sink into, the windows faced the abandoned swimming pool outside and in the distance he could see a few horses in the moor. He wondered if Jongin was still outside.

Kyungsoo spent his entire afternoon in the library, he found many books that he had always wanted to read, including new ones that seemed interesting enough. He noticed that some books were so old, they were falling apart. He found a book on common garden birds and spent hours laying on his stomach, the fire blazing on his skin while he kicked his legs in the air. He felt so content, like he could stay there forever. He wouldn’t even mind if Jongin came once in a while to read books with him. Usually Kyungsoo didn’t like people touching his things, but he could possibly make an acception for Jongin.  

The day ended quickly as the sun was already setting before he had eaten his supper.

He took a few of his books to his room, planning to read them in bed. His supper was brought into his room again, which consisted of lamb, plenty of vegetables and a glass of milk. When he had finished, Jina had shut his curtains, dressed him into his night dress and he was sent to bed early.

Kyungsoo lay in the darkness staring at the ceiling. He wasn’t sleepy and his mind wouldn’t shut down. He could hear the maids walking around the house, pans clashing and the maids’ distant,  murmuring voices. He kicked the covers off and took the chamberstick that was beside his bed. In the darkness he moved over to one of the armchairs and picked up one of his books that he borrowed. It was difficult reading in the dark with only a small candle giving light, so he had to hold it close to the pages and candle wax would drip onto his hand and the pages.

Hours passed by and his eyes eventually started to droop. He placed his book down and crept back into bed. As soon as he blew out the candle - the noise he heard next frightened him so much that his whole body froze still.

The crying again, except this time it was echoing throughout the house. The crying wasn’t the same as last night - it was screaming, as if the person was being tortured. It scared Kyungsoo so much that he got out of bed and took his blanket, dragging himself under the four poster bed. He curled up, covering his body with the blanket and lay as still as possible. His heart was beating out of his chest so much so that he could feel it through his ribcage. He lay for what felt like hours, listening in. He could hear the voice of Anne, followed by other female voices. Once the crying had started to disappear, he eventually fell asleep on the cold, hard floor.

During the night, Kyungsoo tossed and turned, sweating to a great degree. He was in a garden surrounded by flowers in bloom. The summer heat beamed down on his skin. He was running through long grass, just a baby of 2 years old. Through the long grass was his mother, wearing  a long summer dress and large straw hat. She called his name, her voice as soft as daylight.

“Kyungsoo… my baby, come here. Come to Mother.” She held her hands out, Kyungsoo waddled towards her - cheeks rising as he grinned from ear to ear.

“Come here baby.”

All of a sudden, a gush of wind appeared. Kyungsoo’s mother’s hat flew off her head, and disappeared into the forest nearby, she backed away from Kyungsoo. And then out of nowhere, she turned around and ran away from her son.

Kyungsoo stood alone in the long grass, crying out for his mother, only to have the howling of the wind calm down, but she never returned.

Kyungsoo woke up crying.

well, chapter two is here! A good friend helped me beta this story, so I really hope you enjoyed it. 
i put together some images of the house to help the imagination, click here and here