Mess.

“That’s it for the ground floor, sir. Do you think you can now find your way around down here?”

The maid spun around when she didn’t hear a reply. To her surprise, Hyukjae wasn’t trailing behind her anymore like she previously thought. Thinking he was lost, she hurriedly retraced her footsteps while calling Hyukjae’s name. It wasn’t until she went back nearly three rooms away that she found Hyukjae wandering about like a lost puppy in the kitchen.

“H-Hi,” Hyukjae said, a little sheepishly for getting lost. “Sorry. I won’t get lost again.”

The maid smiled and shook her head. “No harm done, sir.”

“Please, just Hyukjae will do. I think we’re about the same age and ‘sir’ makes me feel so old.”

Bowing her head in reply, she cast him a small smile. “Hyukjae it is, then. Shall we continue with the house tour?” she asked, gesturing towards the stairs.

Hyukjae nodded and this time made sure he didn’t lose the petite maid. She was really pretty and had a very easy-going nature; too bad Hyukjae swung the other way, otherwise he’d already be pining after her.

They ascended and stopped at the top of the majestic stairs with Hyukjae gaping in awe.

“This mansion is too big!! I know I’m going to lose my way in here,” he cried, clutching tightly onto the maid. “What if I get lost in here? They’ll never know where to find me!!”

Laughing to herself, she cautiously lifted Hyukjae’s arm on her shoulder and put it back at his side before moving towards the first door on the left. “This is the master’s bedroom. It takes up nearly one-third of the entire floor since it had its own attached bathroom and sauna. The small door,” she paused, walking towards another wooden door further down the path, “leads to the master’s most prized possession. I assume he must have already told you about it?”

“No, he hasn’t,” Hyukjae answered simply, wanting to open the door to have a look inside for himself. However the maid quickly stopped him before he even touched the doorknob.

“Careful!! The master has installed a lot of security measures and that also includes fingerprint recognition on the door handle. If so much as a foreign finger lightly grazes on the handle, it would set off a myriad of alarms both in the house and at the nearest police station, so don’t touch it if you value your life!!”

 “But why?” Hyukjae was really curious now. “Who is allowed into the room?”

“Only the master himself. Even the young master is not allowed to go in. He does know what is in there though, but he has not shown any interest in it anyway.”

“What is in there?”

“I’m afraid I cannot tell you, Hyukjae. It is up to the master whether or not he wants to tell you.”

Hyukjae nodded albeit looking a little dejected. “Okay then. How about the next room?”

He followed her throughout the floor, staring unbelievably at the relaxing lounge further down the hallway which was somehow connected to an infinity pool overlooking the beautiful garden below. A couple of lazy beds and chaises were set up right next to the infinity pool, and there was even a bar situated right in the middle of the beds.

“Okay, so this is how rich people’s houses look like,” Hyukjae murmured to himself, still gaping at the view. “How is it even possible?”

The maid just smiled knowingly to herself as she slowly began leading the young man back to the last door on the opposite side. She hesitated at first, resting her hand on the door knob, as if to prepare herself mentally. Hyukjae detected her slight hesitation and immediately his mouth drew into a tight line.

“Let me guess, is this where the spoiled brat lives?”

She gave him an apologetic smile. “This is the young master’s room. And… it’s not exactly the tidiest in there, because however much we try to clean, it would return to its original state of chaos again right after the young master goes in. Lately we have been banned from cleaning his room after one of us nearly misplaced his things, and we have not been in there ever since.”

Hyukjae whistled in surprise. “Just… how messy could it be?” He wondered out loud, thinking the worst that could happen was just clothes and stuff messily strewn everywhere.

“I know the master has hired you especially just for this, but please don’t hesitate to ask us for help if you ever need it,” the maid said, before finally opening the door and stepping carefully over an overturned pudding mess that was definitely going to leave an ugly stain on the carpet. “Young master is not allowed to bring food into his room, but he does it all the time and we can’t exactly do anything about it,” she said again apologetically to the stupefied Hyukjae who was still standing at the door.

He couldn’t help it. It seemed like his self-proclaimed OCD was giving him a heart-attack just by looking into this room.

Lee Donghae’s room.

Clothes weren’t the only items strewn everywhere. There were also books, stationery, ugly lumps of food, hats, jewelry, DVD jackets, electronic gadgets, is that a pizza slice on the wall??? The entire room reeked of grease and dampness – Hyukjae swore he almost puked from the stench waltzing into his olfactory senses and driving him insane. He took a step back and looked at the maid next to him in terror, who was (obviously) holding her breath.

“H-How does he live in here??”

“I’m afraid I don’t know, sir – I mean Hyukjae. He only leaves this room when he’s out on a shopping spree, like now.”

“Where does he even keep all the things he buys?”

“There’s a door leading to something like a huge store room for him over there.”

“You mean there’s more??”

“This is actually… his bedroom. There’s still a walk-in closet, his study, his bathroom and the storeroom. The entrances are all connected to this room,” the maid answered, pointing out several doors on the walls camouflaged with tomato sauce. Hyukjae looked as if he was about to faint.

“W-Would you like a vacuum cleaner?” she asked slowly and carefully, knowing that all of this was a shock to the poor young man.

“I think I need a flamethrower.”

* * *

Hyukjae grumbled noisily as he picked up a handful of might-be-instant-ramen-noodle clump off the floor with his rubber-gloved hands, throwing the hardened lump into his third garbage bag – and