CHAPTER IX
Jealously.

“What is the matter?” Kyungsoo asked, “What did Minseok say?”

Jina’s eyes creased as she sighed very deeply. “He has been having tantrums for days! Anne doesn’t know what to do anymore when she's not there he asks me to bring you. He said he wants his cousin.” The elder sat down and put her head in her hands, realising another huge sigh. “If I was to take you to him I could lose my place here! What will Mother say?”

Kyungsoo crept towards his handmaid, he wanted to comfort her but he didn’t know how to. So instead he stood close by fumbling with his fingers.

“No one would ever find out. I’m quite good at hiding secrets.” He whispered out loud. “I won’t tell anyone it was you.” Kyungsoo’s lips pinched together. He missed his cousin and wanted to know so much more about him, being told he’s not to see his own family seems rather barbaric to him.

“He’s been crying for you, I can’t take it anymore.”

“Let me go to him. If Anne catches me, I won’t mention you. I promise” Kyungsoo said pulling his pinky finger out and smiling at his handmaid. He was missing his two front teeth, which fell out quite recently, leaving his gums a little sore.

Jina smiled softly at the boy and hooked her own pinky with his. “Go now. Anne is in her sitting room and she won’t be visiting him for another two hours.”

Kyungsoo beamed and spun around, leaving the room with excitement and nervous. He dared run, in case he would be heard. So he crept through the long hallways and tiptoed up the creaky stairs. He had forgotten the way a few times, as now it was light and the walls seemed to have moved overnight.

When he reached Minseok’s room, he was sitting on his sofa. He did not turn his head towards his cousin as he came in. This was a bad beginning and Kyungsoo marched up to him.

“Why didn’t you come when I called for you?” Minseok said, he was in his nightdress and Kyungsoo noticed deep circles under his eyes.

“When Jina found out she scolded me and told me never to come back, but she told me you had been crying and asking for me, so she let me come here. Anne doesn’t know.”

“Even if she did know, she can’t do anything. My father owns this house and the maids must do everything I tell them to.” Minseok replied annoyed. “Why didn’t you come?”

“I was in the garden with Jongin.”

Minseok frowned and condescended to look at him.
 

“I won’t let that boy come here if you go and stay with him instead of coming to talk to me,” he said.

Kyungsoo flew into a fine passion. He could fly into a passion without making a noise. He just grew sour and obstinate and did not care what happened.

“If you send Jongin away, I’ll never come into this room again,” he retorted.

Minseok huffed and threw himself back onto the sofa laying down lazily. Kyungsoo didn’t understand why his cousin was being so cruel and strange. If they had been two little street boys they would have sprung at each other and had a rough-and-tumble fight. As it was, they did the next thing to it.

“You are a selfish thing!” cried Minseok.

“What are you?” said Kyungsoo. “Selfish people always say that. Anyone is selfish who doesn’t do what they want. You’re more selfish than I am. You’re the most selfish boy I ever saw.”

“I’m not!” snapped Minseok, “I’m not as selfish as your fine Jongin is! He keeps you playing in the dirt when he knows I am all by myself. He’s selfish, if you like!”

Kyungsoo’s eyes flashed fire.

“He’s nicer than any other boy that ever lived,” he said. “He’sㅡhe’s like an angel!” It might sound rather silly to say that out loud, but he did not care.

“A nice angel!” Minseok sneered ferociously. “He’s nothing but a common cottage boy off the moor!”

“He’s better than a jealous kid that won’t leave his room!” retorted Kyungsoo. “He’s a thousand times better!”

Because he was the stronger of the two, he was beginning to get the better of his spiteful cousin. The truth was that Minseok had never had a fight with anyone like himself in his life, and, upon the whole, it was rather good for him, though neither he nor Kyungsoo knew anything about that. He turned his head on the sofa and shut his eyes and a big tear was squeezed out and ran down his cheek. He was beginning to feel pathetic and sorry for himselfㅡnot for anyone else.

“I’m not as selfish as you, because I’m always ill. I’m going to die!”

“You’re ill because you never leave this room!” said Kyungsoo.

Minseok opened his eyes quite wide with indignation. He had never heard such a thing said before. He was at once furious and slightly pleased, if a person could be both at the same time.

“I can’t leave! The doctor won’t allow it! The maids won’t! Even my father!”

“I don’t believe it!” said Kyungso sourly. “You just say that to make people sorry. I believe you’re proud of it. If you were a nice boy it might be trueㅡbut you’re too nasty!”

Minseok sat up in quite a healthy rage.

“Get out of the room!” he shouted, and he caught hold of a cushion and threw it at him. He was not strong enough to throw it far, and it only fell at Kyungsoo’s feet, but the elder boy’s face looked as pinched as a nutcracker.

“I’m going,” he said. “And I won’t come back!”

He walked to the door, and when he reached it he turned around and spoke again.

“I was going to tell you all sorts of nice things,” he said. “Jongin bought his fox and his rook and I was going to tell you all about them. You called for me and got jealous and mean, now I won’t tell you a single thing!”

He marched out of the door and closed it behind him.

Kyungsoo went back to his room not feeling at all as he had felt when he had come in from the garden. He was cross and disappointed, but not at all sorry for Minseok. He had looked forward to telling him a great many things, and he had meant to try to make up his mind whether it would be safe to trust him with the great secret. He had been beginning to think it would be, but now he had changed his mind entirely. He would never tell him about the garden and Minseok could stay in his room and never get any fresh air and die if he liked! It would serve him right! He felt so sour and unrelenting that for a few minutes he sat tugging on his hair pulling out strands between his fingers. Once he thought about Jongin and the green veil creeping over the world and the soft wind blowing down from the moor.

Jina had soon appeared carrying a wooden box, Kyungsoo’s troubled face had been temporarily replaced by interest and curiosity when Jina removed the cover and revealed that it was full of neat packages.

“Master Jiwoo send it to you,” said Jina. “It looks as if it has picture-books in it.”

Kyungsoo remembered when he had asked him the day he had gone to his room. “Do you want anythingㅡdollsㅡtoysㅡbooks?” He climbed down from the bed and opened the package wondering if he had sent a doll, and also wondering what he should do with it if he had. But he had not sent one. There were several beautiful books such as Minseok had, and two of them were about gardens and were full of pictures. There were two or three games and there was a beautiful little writing case with a gold monogram on it and a gold pen and ink-stand.

Everything was so nice that his pleasure began to crowd his anger out of his mind. He had not expected his uncle to remember him at all, and his hard little heart grew quite warm.

“I can write better than I can print.” he said, “and the first thing I shall write with that pen will be a letter to tell him I am much obliged.”

If he had been friends with Minseok he would have ran to show him his presents at once, and they would have looked at the pictures and read some of the gardening books and perhaps tried playing the games.

“He has been so cross today. I said I would never go back againㅡ” he hesitated, knitting his browsㅡ “but perhaps I will go back, once he’s cooled down. I will go back after a few days.”

Of course, Kyungsoo did not waken early the next morning. He slept late because he was tired, and when Jina bought his breakfast he decided to eat it in bed.

“All that running around outside has worn you out.” She said, the handmaid took out Kyungsoo’s clothes ready for the day. He wanted to tell Jina about Minseok’s outburst but he was scared he would get the younger into trouble no matter how cross he is with him.

He ran to the gardens, the soft wind woke him up and he let his hands touch the flowers and long grass as he ran through the fields. Once he entered the garden he saw that Jongin was already there, the fox and crow were with him again, and this time he had brought two tame squirrels.

“I came over on the pony this morning,” he said. “Whiskey is growing well. I bought these two in my pockets, this here is Nutkin and this one is Ginger.”

When he said Nutkin one squirrel leapt onto his right shoulder, and when he said Ginger the other leapt onto his left shoulder. Kyungsoo was astonished once again with Jongin’s gentle nature with animals and the world around them.

When they sat down on the grass with Juniper curled at their feet, Soot solemnly listening on a tree and Nutkin and Ginger nosing about close to them, it seemed to Kyungsoo that it would be scarcely bearable to leave such delightfulness, but when he began to tell his story about his cousin somehow the look in Jongin’s funny face gradually changed his mind. He could see he felt sorry for Minseok than he did. He looked up at the sky and all about him.

“Just listen to them birds, the world seems full of them一all whistling and piping,” he said. “Look at them darting about, and hearken at them calling to each other. Come springtime seems like as if all the world's calling. The leaves are uncurling so you can see them, and that poor lad lying shut up seeing so little that he gets to thinking of things that set him screaming and angry. We must get him out here一we must get him listening and snigging up the air and get him soaked through with sunshine.”

“Yes, we must.” Kyungsoo agreed. He wondered what he could do to let Minseok out of that dark room, he couldn’t imagine spending his whole life beyond those four walls. He couldn’t imagine a life without feeling the sun on his skin, the wind blowing through his hair and the smell of rain on damp earth.

The garden had reached the time when every day and every night it seemed as if Magicians were passing through it drawing loveliness out of the earth and the boughs with wands. Nutkin had crept onto his trousers and Ginger had scrambled down the trunk of the apple tree they sat under and stayed there looking at him with inquiring eyes.

Kyungsoo was so enticed with everything around him he didn’t notice Jongin smelling his hair and neck.

“You smell like flowers.” he said, giving the younger a grin. Kyungsoo’s cheeks felt hot from the compliment.

The two stayed in the garden under the apple tree until it was lunch time. Kyungsoo didn’t know why, but he always felt a pang of sadness in his chest whenever he had to say goodbye to Jongin. Before they parted from each other, Jongin took out a handkerchief from his pocket and bought it to Kyungsoo’s lips.

“Your lips are bleeding. The cold air must have chapped them. Keep it.” He said softly, and then they separated to their warm homes with lunch by the fire.

After Kyungsoo scoffed down his bread and butter pudding, he decided that he would go and see Minseok if he could sneak past the maids. He wanted to be sure that his cousin wasn’t cross anymore and that he could convince him to come outside. He waited until Anne had left to her sitting room and made his way through the large house.

When he reached Minseok’s door, he stayed outside for a few minutes listening in. The room was silent, he slowly opened the door to see Minseok sitting at a table with a large puzzle.

The two made a very uncomfortable stare at each other, Kyungsoo fiddled with his fingers and made his way to sit next to his cousin. They did not speak for a long time, eventually Kyungsoo helped Minseok with his puzzle, finding the tricky parts and replacing the wrong pieces with the correct ones.

When they had finished, Minseok felt relaxed and he put out his hand a little towards Kyungsoo, the elder was softened too, and met him halfway with his hand, so that it was a sort of making up.

“I want to go out with you Kyungsoo,” Minseok said. “I want to feel the fresh air and I shall like to see Jongin and the fox and the crow.”

“Squirrels.” Kyungsoo mumbled.

“What?”

“Today he had squirrells. Nutkin and Ginger. They sat on my shoulders and their fur is ever so soft.”

The two boys shared a burst of laughter at how silly it sounded.

“I should like to go,” Minseok said when the two had finished their giggles. “I have read so many books of the outdoors I can’t even imagine what it is like, to hear a songbird, to smell the earth.”

Kyungsoo smiled at his cousin, “I would be happy to show you what I have found.”

“What did you find? Oh, please tell me all about outside. I want to know everything. I want to know everything about Jongin, too.” Minseok replied with such bewilderment in his voice he sounded like a tiny child.

“Close your eyes,” Kyungsoo replied, he sat back and got comfortable, Minseok placed his hand in his.

“There’s a long path through the gardens, surrounded by bushes and trees. During the winter everything was dead but now there are daffodils and lilies and snowdrops. Everywhere you look you’re surrounded by bloom. Like a fairytale had come out of the storybook.” Minseok smiled at the image in his head.

“And I found it, behind the ivy. There was a door, a secret door.”

“What was it?” Minseok stopped him again as excited as he was himself.

“A garden. A secret garden that has been locked up for years.”

“Is it dead?” he interrupted the elder.

“I thought it was, but I showed Jongin and he told me that it was alive. We cleared it and planted seeds and made it all come alive.”

Minseok lay quite still and listened while he continued on talking about the roses which have clambered from tree to tree and hung downーabout the many birds which have built their nests there because it was so safe. And then he told him all about the robin, how he communicated with him. He told him all about the seeds they planted and how Jongin showed him how to plant bulbs.

“I wish I was friends with the Robin. I’ve never had anything to be friends with, and I can’t bear people.” Minseok said.

“Can’t you bear me?” Kyungsoo asked.

“Yes I can,” he answered. “It’s funny, but I even like you.”

Minseok put out his thin hand and touched him.

“Kyungsoo,” he said. “I wish I hadn’t said what I did about sending Jongin away. I hated you when you said he was like an angel and I laughed at you, butーbut perhaps he is.”

“Well, it was rather funny to say it,” Kyungsoo admitted frankly, “because he has long hair and his clothes have patches all over themーbut if an angel did come to the moors I believe he’d understand the green things and know how to make them grow and he would know how to talk to the wild creatures as Jongin does.”

“I want to see him.” said Minseok.

“I’m glad you said that,” answered Kyungsoo, “I should go now. If Anne comes to check on me and see’s I’m not there she’ll have a fit.”

“I hope next time we meet I can come with you to the garden.” Minseok replied sleepily. It was near dusk and the clouds painted a pretty peachy pink in the sky as the sun set.

“Of course.” Kyungsoo replied, he left Minseok to continue his puzzle and shut the door gently behind him.

He made his way back to his room, the corridors where now lit with gas lamps hanging on the walls and a few lanterns scattered on small tables and windowsills. He approached the large tapestry that was used to cover a door, and when he pulled it across Anne was standing on the other side looking very cross, hands on her hips.

“What do you think you are doing?” she hissed, grabbing the small boy by the arm and dragging him down the corridor.

“What did I tell you about poking about?” Anne continued to scold the boy until they reached his room. She pushed him in and closed the door. Kyungsoo heard a set of keys jiggling around along with his door being locked. In the moment he wasn’t sure what was going on, and why Anne locked him in.

“You will stay in your room until the morning! Wait until your uncle hears about this.”

Her footsteps faded as she walked away from the door and Kyungsoo couldn’t do anything but bang on his door.

He felt angry, tired and upset. Why was Anne so cruel towards him? Would his uncle scold him and send him away? The thoughts went around his head for minutes until he sat down on the floor and cried. He was so scared of being sent away and never seeing Jongin or the garden ever again. He then got up and started banging on all the walls, hoping Jina would hear him and save him. He felt isolated and couldn’t breathe being locked away.

His banging on the tapestry walls continued, he reached the corner of his room kicking and screaming at the wall and suddenly, almost out of nowhere, something behind the tapestry moved. He stopped still, eyes streaming and cheeks red, he pulled the curtain away and saw a small door, big enough for a small child was behind the tapestry.

Curiously, he pushed the door but couldn’t see anything, so he grabbed a gas lamp and ventured into the mysterious hidden room.

Except it wasn’t a room. It was a corridor. He walked ever so gently, and so quietly in fear of being caught out his room. The corridor lead to another small door, he pushed it gently and it too was covered in a tapestry. He peeked through the edge of the material and saw that he was on the landing of the second floor. He couldn’t believe it! He had his very own secret escape right in his room! If he was to be locked away all day tomorrow he could walk through his secret escape and slide past the maids and out the backdoor and no one would ever notice.

He made his way back to his room and made sure to cover the door so no one would find out his discovery.

When he got into bed he pondered for awhile who built the house, he wanted to know why his room had a secret corridor and why there was so many rooms built. He wondered if a big happy family used to live here a long time ago and then he wondered if the people in the portraits in his room and around the entire house were the people who used to live there.

He was contemplating so hard that he felt sleepy and soon dozed off under the cotton white sheets, dreaming about exploring castles and playing with fairies in secret gardens.

It was a week before Kyungsoo was allowed to go outside and play. Anne made him stay in his room with only books to keep him company and Jina for a short while whenever she would come and bring his meals. She was upset when she found out Kyungsoo had been locked in his room and blamed herself for letting the boy go.

When he finally saw Jongin, he couldn’t help but throw himself in his arms. He had missed the elder a substantial amount and just being in his arms made him feel safe again.

They sat under a plum tree, which was snow white with blossoms and musical with bees. There were flowering cherry trees near and apple trees whose buds were pink and white, and here and there one had burst open wide. Between the blossoming branches of the trees bits of blue sky looked down like wonderful eyes.

Kyungsoo told Jongin everything, about Minseok, Anne and being locked in his room. He told him about the secret passage and his curiosity about the house.

“Despite everything I am glad that you’re here,” Jongin said. “And I can’t wait to meet your cousin, I’m glad that he has changed his mind about the outside world.”

“Me too,” Kyungsoo replied.

The two sat in the garden for the whole day, it was starting to come alive for the first time in a very long time.

“Which are your favourite flowers?” Kyungsoo asked, he had been admiring the hydrangeas petals which were a marvelous shade of blue and pink. He loved the way the two colours contrasted with each other.

“I love them all. But my favourite would have to be the wildflowers.” Jongin exclaimed, pointing to a bed of wild Chamomile and Agrimony.

“Why are they you’re favourite?” the younger asked, he didn’t think they were as spectacular as the hydrangeas or snapdragons.

“Because they grow freely without human intervention,” Jongin replied smiling. “But most of all because they remind me of you.”

“Why?”

“Because most people think they are weeds or a nuisance, they are misunderstood, yet the most beautiful flowers, as are you.”

A/N: sorry for the late update!