Chapter Seventeen

“So why are we searching the attic again?” Yunho complained while putting his hand on his aching back.

“You haven’t found a thing in the registers in the town hall because you’re looking the wrong way. If you haven’t found anything of Daniel in your own house than the next best place to look is this house where they actually met.” Jaejoong explained while searching through another box with old junk that was stored in the attic. They had seen a lot of rubbish already. Books, old clothes, pictures (with very cute babies) and a lot of other things.

“Oh, I give up!” He loudly exclaimed after going to the nth box. “Finally!” Yunho exclaimed and let himself fall on his back. “I thought that you would never stop.”

“We have to find it! It has to be somewhere!” Jaejoong leaned against a couple of boxes and sighed. His fingers were playing with a little toy that he had found in one of the boxes.

“That was my big sisters favourite Barbie doll when she was young.” They heard a female voice say  and both Jaejoong turned around to see a woman that looked very much like Anne, though she had much longer hair that reached her hips.

“Auntie Mari!” Yunho exclaimed and quickly jumped over all the boxes in the way to get to his favourite aunt. “Hello Yunho, how are you.” His aunt said with a heavy Swedish accent in Korean. “I’m good, thank you.” Yunho answered and while listening to Yunho and his aunt talk he noticed that Mari’s voice actually sounded a lot like Anne’s only more accented. He could still hear that Anne was from a foreign country but by Mari it was much more evident.

“I believe that my speaking has become even rustier than it always was.” Mari smiled and walked to Jaejoong while avoiding all the boxes in the way and she held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Mari, Anne’s sister and Yunho’s and Donghae’s aunt.” She smiled and Jaejoong took her hand to shake it and to introduce himself.

“So what are the two of you searching for?” Mari asked while she sat down on a box full of books. It probably didn’t sit very comfortable but she didn’t show it and Yunho’s eyes lit up by a new thought. “Auntie Mari, did you knew Donghae’s dad?” Yunho inquired and Mari her eyes widened twice the size. “Well yes, I’ve met Daniel a couple of times, why?”

Both Jaejoong and Yunho looked at each other triumphantly. This could be the breakthrough they needed because even Yunho’s grandparents didn’t want to tell them about Daniel. That made Jaejoong wonder what exactly Donghae’s dad had done.

“Can you tell us about him? We are actually looking for him.” Yunho told her and Mari squeezed her eyes shut and looked sternly at her nephew. “Why are you looking for him, Yunho? That could be very dangerous.” She told him and Yunho sighed: “But auntie, nobody wants to tell us anything! We need information!” He pressed on and Mari sighed too: “Well if you want to know so badly, then I have no other choice.” She stood up and both Jaejoong and Yunho were fearful that she would just walk away but while she walked down the stairs she called the boys: “Well are you coming or not?” She called and quickly Yunho and Jaejoong jumped up to follow Mari.

Yunho greeted his uncle (Jaejoong believed that Thorsten was his name) when he walked inside and his uncle smiled to him and waved. Jaejoong bowed quickly but then walked after Mari who was already climbing the stairs.

They heard some children’s voices on the hallway and Jaejoong looked into a room where two girls were playing, one looked slightly older than the other and they were without a doubt Yunho’s cousins. They were playing with playmobil but Jaejoong couldn’t understand what exactly they were saying to he could see that they were playing with a castle so it obviously had to do with princesses.

“Yunho,” He called while they were climbing the stairs that inevitably let to another attic, “how old are your cousins?” He asked him and Yunho smiled: “Ella is nine and Stephanie is seven.” He replied and they both reached the attic were Mari was already searching through the boxes.

“Ah here it is!” She said and she held up a shoebox. Yunho felt a bit bad for Daniel, what would the man think off Anne when he found out that she had buried their memories in a shoebox on the attic of her sister!

“Let’s walk to the kitchen, it will be comfortably talking there.” She proposed and they all walked downstairs again and Jaejoong looked a bit envious at the little girls who were playing. He wanted such a simple life too but he was now looking for his boyfriend’s mom, how many people could say that?

They sat down on the kitchen table and Mari searched through the little box and pulled out an old-looking letter. She put it down and put it down on the table and pushed it to Yunho and Jaejoong who sat across her.

“This would be the first letter you should read. Do you guys want some coffee?” She asked and both Yunho and Jaejoong nodded before Yunho held up the letter so he could read it:

To miss Eriksson

I already apologize for being so blunt to immediately ask you if I would like to ask you if you could join us on an expedition into the wild of Sweden to find a certain object. I have understood that you’re the best Korean student in Sweden and since I need someone who can speak both Korean and Swedish, I would like you to come along to help us.

Unfortunately I can’t go into the details but if you would make an appointment with me, then we could talk face to face about it.

John Smit

“But I thought that we were talking about Donghae’s dad and what about this strange letter?” Yunho asked his aunt as she put the two steaming mugs with coffee on the table. Mari sat down on the table and took a sip from her coffee before she began explaining.

“I’ll talk about that later, okay. First you must know that Anne got this letter eighteen years ago. She had just gotten out a horrible marriage and she didn’t have enough money to go where she really wanted to go: Korea.” Mari explained with a regretful smile.

“My parents tried everything to help her again but Anne was a bit lifeless, she didn’t know what she had to do. Her only light was you, Yunho. You were probably the only reason why she never committed suicide.” Mari was now softly speaking as if she didn’t want to be overheard.

“I never thought that Anne would do something like that, she’s always so happy!” Jaejoong said and Mari gave him a sad smile: “Anne has always been good in hiding things from the outside world. People would think that Anne doesn’t have a care in the world. And yet she has had many problems with herself.”

“I don’t understand…” Yunho admitted with a confused face.

“Eighteen years ago wasn’t the first time that she was depressed. She had been depressed when she was depressed when she was fourteen too. Have you’ve never seen the faint scares on her arms?” Mari inquired and the boys thought about it. Then Yunho slowly nodded and then he fearfully asked: “Are you saying that my mom cut herself?”

I'm calling this and the next chapter: the main frame. As you already read in this part, Mari will begin explaining the situation with Daniel from even before Yunho and Donghae were born, there will be some answers but also new questions (if it didn't go that way, then it wouldn't be really me now would it?). So it's not that hard to see if I explained it already that next up is: the continuation of this chapter. And I know that you guys are practically begging for Eunhae and I'm so proud of you guys for waiting this long... their part will come after the main frame, but beware with that also comes things that you won't like... I can hardly wait ;)

And you guys really surprise me... Upvotes were okay... thank you ShineeJunior599. Subscribers were okay too. But the comments... I say that you're doing fine and next thing I know, I get only three? (love those 3 btw) T-T I was really scared that you guys didn't like my story anymore because there isn't enough Eunhae yet... -.-

So please remember to Upvote, Subscribe and COMMENT...

Ps... I know I'm whining and really you guys are great ;)