6th of November 1875

Dear Journal,

      I’m thankful to the heavens that it’s my birthday today. I’m already 21 and my birthday wish was to have more health and prosperity in the future years. But this is not the main reason why I’m here.

Just a while ago, while I was on my carriage on my way to the city, I saw this beautiful woman. No, she’s not just beautiful. She’s alluring; her beauty is beyond words. She’s perfect, like an angel sent from the heavens above, and even though I found her completely soaked under the rain, her beauty continued to shine more.

She has a very beautiful name; her name is Sheng Yanmei…

 

Jongdae stared at the old picture of a girl on his hand and flipped it over to check if there are any writings on the back but found none.

“Strange…” he mutters and placed it back to the page where he found it and closed the notebook, putting it on his side.

Tao had gone out for a while to buy him and Jongdae some dinner. After reading the recent entry that unveiled out of magic, they found out that the Senior Wu Fan and their duizhang Kris had the same birthday. They even saw another picture taken during the Wu Household’s party; it was Senior Wu Fan together with his servants.

And Senior Wu Fan just looks a lot like Kris. It was very strange and creepy isn’t it?

Then came the next picture which was the girl named Sheng Yanmei.

“She looks very familiar to me gege. Like, I’ve seen her always before.” Tao points out that time they first saw the picture.

Jongdae furrowed his eyebrows in deep thought and looked up the ceiling as he rests his head, releasing a sigh.

‘Just what the hell is happening?’

 

“Gege, here’s your dinner” Tao came inside the room with a plastic bag on his hand and munching on a hotdog bun on the other hand.

“Thanks maknae” Jongdae gave him a small smile as he reaches out for the plastic bag and started eating his dinner.

“You look tired Jongdae ge, what’s wrong?” the maknae asks as he sat beside the singer.

Jongdae shakes his head and looked at Tao.

“Nah, maybe I was just thinking too much about the notebook, Lord Wu Fan and the creepy things that are happening today. This is too much, I don’t think I could handle it well.”

“Maybe you should take some rest; I’ll be the one to look after duizhang for the meantime. And don’t think about the notebook too much. We’ll find the answers soon enough…well, I hope so” the younger spoke, giving the Korean a reassuring smile and a small pat on the shoulder.

“Okay…I’ll head off back to the dorm then, I’ll just tell manager hyung to send someone here as our replacement in looking after duizhang” Tao nods and Jongdae finally leaves the room, silence falls all throughout the place follows after.

Tao looks at the journal which was placed a chair apart from him and found a small pout on his lips. He sighed and rests his back on the wall, eyes about to close when he heard the door open and an autumn red hair peeks in.

“…Taotao?”

 

Tao’s head whipped to the side and immediately brightened up at the sight of his bestfriend.

 

“Meimei, it’s been a long time! What are you doing here? It’s getting late” he asks, beckoning the girl to sit beside him. Meimei grinned and went inside to seat and have a small chat with him.

“Yes it has been a very long time, and I should ask you the same thing Panda,” Tao snickers at the given nickname. “ Meili unnie got sick and was rushed here. I had to get the first flight from China because she had no one to depend on here in this foreign country, I just came here a few hours ago” the autumn red hair explains, readjusting her eyeglasses.

“You must be very tired from the jet lag, you should go home first” he worries and pats the girl in the head.

“I was about to go to unnie’s apartment right now, but then I passed by this room and saw you. What happened to him anyway?” she asks, pointing at the sleeping figure on the bed as a small shade of pink dusted her pale cheeks.

“Oh, duizhang” he suddenly remembers the journal but shook his head. “We actually don’t know, Jongdae ge just found him unconscious in their room and we had take him here because his heartbeat became erratic but then the doctors said that nothing is completely wrong with him.”

“Well that sounds weird.”

“Anyway, how are you? It’s been months since we have last seen each other. You even dyed your hair autumn red, it made you look prettier” Tao praises and Meimei blushes.

“Darn it, stop flattering me Taozi!” she whines and covers her face with her hands. Tao chuckles at her action and reaches out to her, enveloping her small frame around his arms.

“I was not; I’m just stating an honest opinion. I really missed you, how was home?” Meimei sighs at the warmth and wrapped her arms around his waist, snuggling into his chest.

“I miss you so much too; we’re all fine back there. Xiao jiejie and Chen misses you though” she mumbles, closing her eyes.

“I miss them so much too. I wish I could go back home so that the four of us can spend time together just like before” Tao mumbles back, his hands twirling and playing with her long, wavy hair.

“We will someday~” Meimei sleepily sang, snuggling more into his warmth.

 

“Tao, we’re here” a voice interrupts their moment and the both looked up to see Minseok and Lu Han standing by the door. The two immediately stood up and let go of each other, feeling sad at the sudden lost of warmth.

 “Who is she?” Lu Han asks,

“Eoh, she’s my childhood and bestfriend Lu Han ge” Tao answers and places and arm around her shoulders while she down looks on the ground on the other hand and readjusts again her eyeglasses.

 “A-annyeong haseyo” Meimei bows a complete ninety degrees and gave them a small, shy smile.

“Annyeong haseyo, it’s nice to meet you” Minseok bows at her and Lu Han follows after.

“We have to go now hyungs, I need to take her home. Thank you for replacing!” the Chinese maknae beams and Meimei bows at them once again before the two gets out of the room.

 

“Lu Han, do you think we’ve seen her before?” Minseok asks, looking at his companion with questioning eyes.

“I guess? I don’t know. I think it’s just the first time I’ve seen her” Lu Han replies, sitting down on one of the chairs.

“Are you sure? I think she’s one of her fans or something.”

“She’s Tao’s bestfriend, of course it’s possible that she’s a fan of us.”

“But she looks really familiar…ah! Maybe Tao bought her backstage before!”

“Maybe it is~”

 

 

 

 

 

Stifling a yawn escaping her pink lips, Sheng Yanmei sat up the bed and took time to take in her surroundings.

She’s not in her room, she thinks. The curtains were already drawn aside, allowing the morning sunlight seep inside the room. She then looked down on her own clothing, realizing it was not hers either and she finally remembered what had happened last night. A man named Wu Fan took her in his hospitable household since it was late and raining very hard last night.

But stubborn Sheng Yanmei shakes her head.

Maybe I was just dreaming. But then again, whose household am I in right now? Could it be Lau’s? or Yunhee’s? Maybe I slept in one of the other guest rooms and borrowed some night dress since I was—

Her thoughts were cut off all too soon when the door opens and there, the man she had not seen for a long time and thought would never be stood with a gentle smile on his face.

“Good morning my lady, it seems that you’re finally awake.”

 

“J-Jiaheng?”

 

---

 

Okay! Hi guys~ it's been a long time and I'm sorry if I didn't kept my plan to update every once a week. And because of that, here's a double update for you guys as an apology gift! >_<

My college life started 2 weeks ago and I must say that it seems fine, just that our prelims are coming really soon like two weeks or a week from now.

I hope you enjoyed the updates~ another revelation coming up by my next update.

 

Ciaossu~

 

Ps. I changed the "diary" to "journal" since it adds more era feels and it makes it more realistic.