Six days before the ball.

Haeran decided to take a walk around the castle after Lay's lesson. The halls were different from the ones back in the South's Castle, they were streange and new to her thast's for sure, but they still made her smile – they brought back her happy memories. The first day in the South Castle was such an adventure. The big halls... Everything was so elegant and the way sun made things around me glitter and shine – breathtaking. Me – a simple girl – was called to work in the castle! I was so happy-

Wait! I know that laugh.

Haeran peeked around the corner. She wasn't expecting to see anyone aroudn this part of the castle at this time. Weren't all busy with the preparations for the enormous and certainly most glamorous ball of the year? Is seems that not all were as busy as they claimed themselves to be, because there he was – Minhyun. Girls circled him like some hungry little kittens around a bowl of milk. Haeran held her breath, though she didn't know why - it felt like a right thing to do. What are you doing there, Minhyun?

„Come on, Hyunnie, tell us. (Hyunnie? What? Are they that close to him?) Who's the prettiest?“ the girls pleaded.

„You already know the answer! Stop bugging me with that.“ the boy laughed.

„Please...“ the girls pressed forward.

Minhyun sighed. „Fine. The girl in the blue. You happy now?“

The girls looked at their clothes – there was no girl dressed in blue.

Haeran wasn't mad at Minhyun nor was she jealous but she felt a stab in her heart and her eyes gor watery. Yes, tears found their way down her cheeks. Why is it like this? Why is Minhyun suddenly like this? Was he just acting when I was around? Is he that nice to all of the girls? A relatively loud sob escaped from . Oh no! She covered . But Minhyun heard that sound and he turned his head to the direction where Haeran was – Haeran had already turned around and ran away, down all these halls which had brought her happy memories back, but which only brought her sorrow. This castle's halls will only bring back sadness now and this is how it's going to be.

***

Somewhere in the castle HyunAe enjoyed the great view seen from the countless windows of the castle. The illuminators had large glasses in slim golden fraims, they were simple yet elegant. The glamour didn't fit very well with the sight seen from them, because the lack of snow made the gardens look sad and dead, but somehow it didn't sadden the girl as it used to. She walked to another window and had a look over the courtyard. I remember when I had nothing to do except for running down the halls or looking out of the windows and observe the maids. It was so fun to guess what they were talking about and-

Hey! I know that blondie... Ren, what are you up to?

HyunAe giggled to herself. Ren was speed-walking across the yard probably to go fetch something for whatever he was supposed to do. The boy's pony tail was bouncing up and down. It was a rather comical sight to see, because Ren didn't seem to step as bouncy as his hair-do made it seem. As off-key as things seemed to be HyunAe wasn't prepared what came next. You see, there was this maid who ran up to Ren.The boy stopped, the two said something to each other, and then out of the blue the girl took off and the boy ran after her.

What's going on? HyunAe wasn't sure what her eyes had just witnessed, but her mind sure told her that it was something serious and for a girl in love the conclusion was the worst case in scenario. Are they, perhaps... lovers or just... friends? I thought...I-

Too bad that  HyunAe didn't hear what Ren and the maid said to each other. So, what was this all about anyway?

„You little thief, give that back! That's for HyunAe!“ Ren yelled. Yes, the reason why Ren chased the girl was because the latter had took a certain box from his hand with a certain item in it.

„I don't think so,“ the maid sang, „you're not supposed to hit on  married woman.“

„She's not married! Give that back!“

„No!“

Ren then grabbed the maid from her waist and picked her up-

HyunAe turned away – she had seen enough. She swallowed the bitterness in , walked to her room, and locked herself there for the remaining day. It's needless to say that she was heartbroken, but in a way the blame was on her. Love works in mysterious ways and this way was the way of hurt, but who knew maybe, just maybe, she'll have a moment of clarity soon. But in the evening, though, when dinner was brought up to her room she barely touched the food and sent it back just the way it was when D.O had put it on the plates. The chief sure noticed HyunAe's lack of appetite and he sure made a little notion about it. 'Love is in the air' is what he said when he packed the food into a small box which was sent ,along with many other, to the city so that hungry children could at least eat dinner.

***

Chinsun also saw Baekho around the castle. The girl was in the Bluebell Garden which surrounded the ball-hall. This maiden was reminiscencing the countless times with the girls when they played in the castle's gardens back in the South. Every time we saw a honeybee we would squeal and run away. The butterflies... and those pretty-pretty flowers. Warm summer days when the sun shone so brightly... She had walked up to a bush, which, by now, had lost all it's leaves – only branches welcomed her spreading their cold and skinny fingers towards her. The bushes, though, were still quite thick which spoke of a gardener's good job and if someone crouched down behind one of those sleeping bunches of branches then others couldn't see them and that's came quite handy for Chinsun.

Good night, little bushes. I hope you'll-

A girls voice was heard: „C'mon, Baekho, come to our room tonight.“ Chinsun's eyes widened as she heard that. Baekho goes to someone's room? To do what?...Does he...I mean that... No-no. It can't be...

Chinsun quickly crouched down. Lucky for her she was wearing dark clothes so it was sure that anyone who was a little more distracted that usual wouldn't notice her, but as we all know there always was this one person who saw and heard everything. But that, my dear friends isn't important right now, because we have much urgent matter at hand.

Another girl added: „Yeah. Now it's our turn.“ Turn? Turn for what?!!!

„Can't you two just drop it already.“ Baekho sighed but not in an angry manner, though to Chinsun it seemed that this usually jolly fellow had some darker notes ringing in his voice.

Something fell against the pavement with a huge bang and made the girl behind the bushes flinch. She even let out a silent scream, which could have been rather loud one, but at the last second she realised where she was and she couldn't really give out her position so she retreated to the land of soundless screams and aching hearts.

„Ahh! Dammit! Who put this here?!“ Baekho said, pissed.

A moment of silence, one long and aching moment of void heavy emptiness took over and seemed to last for an eternity, but it ended sooner that Chinsun had thought.

„Fine-fine. I'll come tonight. Just go already – I have a job to do.“ the boy shooed the girls away. He's... toNIGHT?!!

„Yaay! We love you, Baekho!“ the girl squealed and ran away laughing happily. Love him?!

„Ahh... Seriously. Now I have to start over again.“ the boy mumbled to himself and turned the upside-down barrow right up again, and started to rake the leaves into a pile. He mumbled something to himself, but it wasn't distinct enough from Chinsun to hear. Whatever it was it didn't really matter to her anymore anyway. The girl behind the bush bit her lip and pretty much held her breath this whole time until the boy left. Then Chinsun let her wails to be audible and she ran to her room not clearly seeing where she was going as her eyes were blurred with tears.

***

All three girls didn't come to the dinner table. When asked what was the matter, they said they were tired and they would go to bed early. They didn't let anyone in their rooms neither did they eat when food was brought to them. When the servant passed their rooms they didn't hear anything and some thought that maybe something has happened to their guests, but the current butler Suho assured the worried ones that the girls were fine and just needed some time of their rown.

The next day they all girls were seen with happy faces and no-one could even suspect that anything had been wrong. If the girls only knew what was the meaning of the boys actions and words. It was all quite simple actually. Minhyun said 'the girl in the blue', right? Well, Haeran was wearing blue yesterday and as Minhyun said that to the maids he was actually thinking about Haeran. With Ren, you already know. Ren hasn't revealed yet what exactly he had for HyunAe in that box but we'll find out soon.

Baekho and his 'going to girls rooms at night'... There is nothing to say other that don't think over, Chinsun. As Kris had gone to god knows where for two days everything in the castle was a bit of a mess... not that Suho didn't manage but he had his other errands to run so he couldn't take care of everything. Thus Baekho was the one in charge of collecting the monthly reports from the maids rooms. It had been like this for a whole year now – Kris always went somewhere at this time of the month. Where? It would be nice if we knew...

As it would have take less time to collect the cards – there were many rooms in the castle, I really do mean, many – the maids usually came together in larger groups to a number of rooms and then gave in their reports. The same thing was done yesterday – Baekho came with the report cards, helped the girls to fill them up as some maids were new, and then he left. Nothing more, nothing less.