Chapter six: the jewelry box

“What do we do?” Ryeowook hid behind me, well he tried because the only thing he really hid was his face.

“What do we do?!” Heechul mockingly yet anxiously repeated, “We have to hide you guys.” He stood up, put a hand through his hair which made his ponytail kind of loose. He reminded me a bit of an absent-minded professor though he was too young for that, Heechul had to be in his early twenties or something.

Heechul sighed deeply before ordering: “Hyoyeon, you take Donghae and Hyukjae upstairs to my room with the servants stairs and Sungmin you try to hide with Ryeowook and Tiffany somewhere in the kitchen. I’ll try to distract uncle until he’s gone into his own room or until he’s gone for work again. Questions?” The five of us already opened or mouths but Heechul was quicker when he answered himself: “Questions, who am I kidding?! We have no time for questions!”

He made some kind of ‘shoo’ movement as if we were animals and we all curtly nodded. Hyoyeon turned around and left for the hallway.

Donghae quickly grabbed my hand this time, I was sure that he was trying to take my wrist but I wanted him to grab my hand, it would hurt less this way. Donghae didn’t seem to mind and he whispered ‘follow me” before he followed Hyoyeon.

I didn’t even have the time to roll with my eyes.

Heechul was the first one to leave the corridor and the moment he opened the door, we all heard the governor yell at him: “What took you so long?!” Heechul quickly closed the door behind him and we only heard murmurs coming through the door after that.

Donghae pulled me along as I looked back, seeing Sungmin, Ryeowook and Tiffany leave through another door.

“This way,” Hyoyeon whispered. We looked past her and saw a little staircase. It was very small and we had to bow when we walked up otherwise we would bang with our heads against the ceiling.

“And you walk up this stupid stairs every day?” I whispered quietly but Hyoyeon had good ears apparently because she looked back and looked past Donghae at me with a sad kind of smile. “Well, back when the mayor was still the one that paid me, I was allowed to use the main stairs but the governor wants me to use this stairs. And I climb it every single day at least seven times.”

“That’s got to be kind of hard if you’re carrying a tray.” Donghae noticed and we saw that Hyoyeon nodded even when she didn’t look back.

“Yeah, but I’m getting better at it.”

We reached the end of the staircase and we stood in a kind of dusty hallway. Grime and spin rags were everywhere and I felt the need to grab the broom that stood in the corner, even when the broom was covered in grime too.

“Don’t you clean around here?” I blurted out and Donghae and Hyoyeon both looked around with surprised expressions.

“Not really, no.” Hyoyeon said after two seconds of awkward silence. And I became a bit red in embarrassed because it was kind of rude to say that. Donghae snickered while Hyoyeon coolly looked at me as if it didn’t bother her at all. And maybe it didn’t…

“I’m opening the door now.” She whispered. I averted my offended gaze from a snickering Donghae and silently stared at Hyoyeon. Donghae on the other hand had difficulties stopping with his snickering that almost sounded like giggling.

But eventually he reduced his snickering to a minimum and Hyoyeon opened the door to a very nice looking corridor. The wooden floor almost shined and the crème colored walls were in outstanding condition. The mirrors looked spotless and the flowers in the vases beneath them were very pretty.

“This, I do clean.” Hyoyeon said rather smugly, making Donghae snicker again.

I sulked before telling them to be quiet. After all, the governor could still come upstairs if we were too loud and that was something that none of us wanted to happen.

“This way…” Hyoyeon went up front, Donghae followed and still pulled me along with his hand in mine. He had warm hands, they were a bit sweaty but warm. But I couldn’t help but focus on the sweatiness, I wanted Donghae to let go of my hand but his grip was too strong.

“Stop pulling, Hyukjae.” Donghae snapped while taking a quick look at me.

“Then let go of my hand.”

Donghae shook his head and turned away from me without answering but I could’ve sworn that he muttered: ‘never’.

But I couldn’t ask him because Hyoyeon came to a halt. She put her hand into her apron before pulling out a key. She dramatically held it up for me and Donghae to see and then she put it into the keyhole. As quiet as possible, she turned the key twice and the three of us heard a soft click.

“It’s open.” She said and then opened the door.

I was tempted to say: ‘no , Sherlock.’ But I decided that I had been rude enough to her already so I kept my mouth shut and nodded but I didn’t move inside the room.

“Thanks.” Donghae muttered before walking inside while pulling me along. Hyoyeon smiled at us and then whispered: “I’ll lock the door when you’re inside. It probably won’t be necessary but you can’t be careful enough.”

We nodded again and Hyoyeon closed the door for us. And after a few seconds we heard a soft click again. Donghae let go of my hand. Apparently, he figured that I couldn’t go anywhere if we were locked into a room.

He walked to the door and he turned the doorknob. He didn’t get far, naturally.

“She already told us that she would lock the door and we even heard a click! Why are you trying the doorknob then?”

Donghae shrugged before showing me a wolf like smile: “Just making sure that we’re alone.”

“W-w-what?” I stuttered.

Donghae just mysteriously smiled and sat down in one of Heechul’s pretty, light blue chairs. The entire room had a light blue shade which was accented by white colors. “I’m just teasing you…” He said after a few seconds.

“Stop that,” I said with a pout. “I was really scared for a minute there.”

Donghae didn’t answer me and he turned to the window. “Hyukjae?” His tone suddenly turned serious and a bit surprised, I turned to him while biting my under lip.

“Yes?”

“Have you any idea why that person would lock me up in a cage?”

I wanted to make a joke about it, I really did. Like saying something along the lines of because you’re evil. But the tone of Donghae’s voice made me decide otherwise.

“I don’t really have an idea, besides the fact of your talent for painting… but you couldn’t do really bad things with that, right?”

Donghae turned his head towards me and the doubt in his eyes made me feel uncomfortable.

We stayed in silence for a couple of minutes when Donghae decided to break it. “This town is suffering because I painted that, Hyukjae.” He said with a gloomy expression.

“This town would never have existed if you hadn’t painted it.” I countered and Donghae’s expression changed into something that I couldn’t quite place but it seemed to me that he was confused. And why wouldn’t he be, I was defending him! While I was supposed attack him.

Donghae sighed deeply and slowly it began seeping into my mind what both Donghae and I didn’t say into words. The one that locked Donghae up probably wanted Donghae to paint something that probably wasn’t human-loving.

“You can’t make something you painted go into our world, right?” I asked in a kind of desperate manner.

“Well, I’ve never tried it, but in theory, it should be possible.”

“How do you kn-” I began to ask but Donghae suddenly pressed his hand onto my mouth while he muttered ‘shh…’. Oh that was so incredibly cheesy and my first reaction was to gag and to bite in his hand but I stopped when I heard Heechul’s voice:

“Uncle, stop! You have no right to search my room!” Heechul’s voice was muffled and it sounded like it came from the beginning of the corridor. The tone was high as if he was shrieking and I even felt a tiny little bit of pity for the man that walked next to him.

Donghae and I looked at each other. Donghae’s eyes were wide open and his jaw was hanging making him seem like a dumb fish…

“We can’t get out of