“Miss Dara?”

“Mmmhmmm...”

“Miss Dara?”

“Leave me alone…” I grumbled.

Wait… Nobody ever calls me Miss Dara. It has always been princess or your highness… Realization slowly dawned on me. My eyes fluttered open and I struggled to pull myself to a sitting position. I winced at the soreness of my body. I may have slept all day but I still wasn’t fully recovered.

A man suddenly cleared his throat and my head automatically shot up.

“W-who are you?” A man stood before me with raven black hair, clad in an expensive looking suit. Judging by his appearance, I would say that he is in his late 40’s.

“Oh. My apologies. My name is Yang Hyun Suk. Seunghyun has asked me to tell you that dinner is ready and he’s waiting for you at the kitchen.”  

“Oh. Okay. I’ll just go change.” He bowed and left the room.

He wore formal clothes, quite the same as what our head butler wore home. He must be the head butler, then? I crawled out of bed to go to my closet. I really didn’t know what clothes to change into. Out of habit and without much thought, I started looking for a dress. At home, I usually wore dresses when dining with or without company. I found a knee length red sleeveless dress that lacked any adornments and decided that it was presentable enough to wear for dinner.

When I got out of the room, Yang Hyun Suk was there silently waiting for me. He told me to follow him so I nodded. He led me down the staircase, into a wide and long corridor, there were paintings hung on both side of the walls, they were portraits of people and I started to wonder who they could be. Yang Hyun Suk never even looked back at me so I assumed that he didn’t want to talk. I just kept my curiosity and the questions to myself.

He finally stopped to push a door open. It revealed a long dining table that didn’t contain any food.

I thought dinner was ready. Servants running late in preparing dinner are -

“Follow me,” he interrupted my thoughts. He walked past the table and into a smaller door that exposed a smaller room. And I saw Seunghyun at the center where there was a tiny table that would probably allow only about four people to dine together.  He looked up at the sound of our footsteps and gave me the warmest of smiles. Again, I am mesmerized at how beautiful he was, even now when he was dressed in a plain white t-shirt and blue outworn jeans. I return his smile, careful to hide the fact that his smile affected me stronger than I had intended it to.

But wait… we’re eating here, in that? That table looked like it was about to collapse any given second. It looked ancient. Why are we eating here when there is a perfectly fine dining table in the other room? My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Slept well?” I pushed aside all complaints about my unfortunate dining circumstances and nodded, walking towards the table and pulling a chair to sit in.

Well, at least the chair looked sturdy enough to support my weight.

“Hyung, why don’t you join us?” he said, looking at Hyunsuk.

Hyung? Are they brothers?

“No– ”

Before Hyunsuk could even finish his sentence, Seunghyun stood up and walked over to Hyunsuk, grabbing him by the arm and forcing him to sit and eat with us.

“Seunghyun– ” Hyunsuk started to protest. Seunghyun only shook his head and spun his head to face me.

“You don’t mind, right?” He asked me, cocking an eyebrow.

Having dinner with the butler? I tilt my head to the right as I thought of his question. Should I mind?  At home, eating with anyone except my family and the occasional visitors was strictly forbidden. My family believed it was depreciating to share a table with servants regardless of their status. I haven’t thought much about the topic, though. Not until now. And now that I am forced to make a decision, I realized that I didn’t mind at all.

Also, weren’t they brothers? What gives me the right to protest? I am merely an outsider in this home. I shook my head and he looks at his hyung and smiled.

“Alright,” Hyunsuk uttered as he sat in a chair at my left.

Right after dinner, Seunghyun asked me if I was feeling tired. I said I wasn’t. I have been sleeping the day away so I was not at all tired although I knew that it was past ten in the evening already.

Seunghyun was silent for a while until he suggested taking a walk somewhere. I nodded, delighted at the idea. I gingerly follow behind him as he led me to the exit. This was a huge house and since it was my first day as guest, I did not know the twist and turns and if I were alone, I honestly think I would get lost.

While we were silently making our way out, we came across this odd door that was painted silver and had a lion sculpted at its center. I stopped in my tracks to stare at it. I don’t know what was so interesting about it. I just felt like something was calling me, like something was telling that I needed to find out what was behind that door. I lifted my hand to the doorknob, wanting to know what was inside that unusual door but before I could even turn it, someone else’s hand wrapped itself around mind and I freeze.

It was Seunghyun’s hand. I glanced at him worriedly. His expression was one I had not seen in him before. It was… anger. He was struggling to contain it but I can see it in his eyes, the rage.

I tore my hand away from the knob. With my chin up, I challenged him to give me an explanation for his sudden change in demeanor. He didn’t give me any. He didn’t speak, either. He only stood there, his chest rising and falling as if he was trying his hardest to keep his calm.

I do not understand. I was only curious about what was inside this room. What was so wrong with that?

“I’m sorry.” He finally spoke up making me twitch at the sound of his deep voice.

Huh? For what, stopping me from going inside that room? For that look of anger I did not deserve? 

“Just… Don’t go inside this room. Ever.” He whirled around and started walking away from me.

I stood there in a daze. For the first time since I met Choi Seunghyun, I seriously started to question my decision about trusting him wholeheartedly. I didn’t know who he really was, I didn’t know how he was living so extravagantly in this house with its enormity that could be likened to houses owned by royalties.

I sighed in frustration. What have I gotten myself into? What is in that room that I wasn’t allowed to see? Who was Choi Seunghyun, really? I thought he was the butler’s dongsaeng but now I wasn’t so sure.  So many questions left unanswered.

I have been keeping my secret from him all this while and I now realize that I wasn’t the only one with the secrets. It seems like Choi Seunghyun had more secrets he was trying to hide.

***

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