Taemin was back to thinking he was going to die there. If not by Minho's hands (or claws), then by Jinki's over-working him. His third day at the mansion hadn't lightened up at all. Neither had his fourth. Or his fifth.

He wondered how Jinki managed to survive every day working like he did. The poor man only stopped to eat and sleep. Every aspect of the house was taken care of by him. If he weren't there, Taemin was sure the mansion would have crumbled to dust a long time ago.

Ever since his attempted escape, Taemin hadn't left his bedroom after night fell. He had no desire to run into the beast again. Even though Jinki assured him he wasn't going to eat him, he stayed out of Minho's way as much as possible.

Besides throwing him in the basement, and despite the incident with the dresses, his host hadn't been unkind to him. He never even mentioned his attempted escape. Perhaps he was so confident that he wouldn't try it again, that he didn't bother bringing it up. Or perhaps he didn't remember it. He wondered just how much of Minho's mind was intact when he was a beast, and how much of the beast lingered on while he was human.

Questions he didn't care to find the answer to. His only hope was that Minho would eventually get bored with him and let him go. Otherwise, he'd spend the rest of his life in that mansion, and that wasn't a thought he could dwell on for too long.

"If you're getting tired of this, you could always help Jonghyun outside," Jinki said as they two of them worked together in the kitchen, cleaning up the last remnants of breakfast.

"No, this is fine." He didn’t think gardening would be any less strenuous.

It was around four o'clock in the afternoon. Jinki would soon start on supper, undoing all of their hard work. After supper, night would fall. Taemin would be back in his bedroom.

The thought that Minho would be stalking around as that creature continued to make him uneasy. It just wasn't right. People didn't turn into beasts. It was unnatural.

As he sat there in silence, dreading the night, a bell rang.

It was loud and clear and came from the direction of the foyer.

Jinki dropped his rag, and his jaw. "You're kidding..." he said to no one in particular.

"What is that?" Taemin asked.

"Someone's ringing."

"Like...a visitor? You guys gets visitors?"

"Only one," he said as he stood from his seat at the counter. Taemin abandoned his own work and followed after him, curious about what was happening. He was well aware that Jinki's usual joyous smile was gone - which was never a good thing.

When they reached the foyer, Taemin saw for himself just who the visitor was.

She was young and beautiful, garbed in a lacey black dress and an air of superiority. She looked at the mansion like someone might look at an old, degraded home - like all the hard work put into it didn't matter.

"You shouldn't be here, Krystal," Jinki told her curtly, not bothering with any type of pleasantries.

The beautiful stranger smiled phonily. "What? It's been a while. You should be glad I'm here to check up on you at all."

"Minho doesn't want you here."

"I know." Her eyes turned to Taemin and she cocked her brow curiously.

He was just as curious about her. From what he understood, Minho had no contact with women - hence the arrangement. If there was a woman, and someone who was as familiar with the place as she was, then that could only mean one thing: she was the witch who cursed them.

Minho's beast suddenly seemed far less frightening.

"Who are you?" she asked him.

"He's my friend, nothing more," Jinki answered quickly.

Before more could be said, a wine glass flew through the air, right passed the woman. It barely missed her head, before shattering against the wall.

She spun around to face Minho, who stood at the top of the stairs.

"Get out of here," he ordered.

"Well, it looks like you haven't change at all," she commented, as she looked to the shattered glass on the floor.

"I said, get out. I don't want any more of your magic in here."

"You should be more courteous, Minho. That's the only way you'll ever get what you want."

"I'm done being courteous with you," he hissed, "I am done dealing with your spite."

The witch looked disappointed, but in a non-invested way. Her gaze went back to Taemin briefly. "What is this?" she asked, gesturing to him, "You must really be desperate for a women if you have your servants running around…like that. Or maybe that's not it. Maybe you have always wanted a man instead of a woman. That might explain a lot of things."

As she taunted him, Minho descended the stairs. He looked so angry Taemin was sure he was going to attack her. "Get out of my house," he said tensely, one last time.

She didn't seem the least bit frightened, which only made her seem more frightening. She turned away from him and once again faced Taemin. She even stepped a little closer to him, and he fought the urge to back away. "I don't know what you're doing here, kid, but I would leave if I were you, before this bastard's curse starts affecting you too."

With that, she turned and made her way back through the door. Her visit had been so brief, he wondered why she even bothered coming there at all. Then again, he had a feeling she accomplished exactly what she wanted to. It was as if she knew he was going to be there and wanted to see him. Like she just wanted to come and stir up some strife.

Minho remained in the foyer for only a moment, before he made his way back to his bedroom.

"I'll go get the broom to clean that up," Jinki said and disappeared.

Taemin was left standing by himself in the empty foyer, wondering about the woman. She felt even less safe than Minho did, but he found himself wondering if she could help him.

He was wary of witches though. Trying to make any kind of bargain with them was risky. He might find himself in an even worse situation.

Taemin heard glass shatter again. It came from upstairs, and was followed by several other crashes. Curious, and a little concerned, he ran up the stairs and followed the continuing noises. He soon found himself before the master bedroom. He stared in shock as Minho destroyed the place, as he ripped every picture from the wall, threw every piece of light-weight furniture, and shattered anything possible.

Yes, some of the beast definitely lingered in the man.

With a yell of rage, Minho slammed his fist into a mirror on the wall, bringing his tantrum to an end. The silence that followed was unsettling.

Minho turned his attention to the boy standing in his doorway. Taemin nearly fled from his angry gaze, but defiantly forced himself to stay, to lock eyes with the man who was still heaving from his exertion.

There was a long moment of them just staring at each other, both daring the other to move or speak.

The tense moment was interrupted when Jinki came running up the stairs. "What the hell?"

Minho pulled away from the mirror and began stalking through the mess he had made. Taemin noticed the stream of blood that was dripping from his hand.

"You're bleeding," he said.

Minho didn't seem to notice before that. "I'm fine."

"Minho..." Jinki sighed.

"Do you have any bandages?" Taemin asked him.

"Yeah." He didn't have to say more. Jinki got the idea and ran to retrieve them.

Taemin took the risk and stepped through the doorway of Minho's demolished room. He didn't seem to care.

"Let me see," Taemin said softly, reaching for his hand.

"I'm fine," Minho reiterated, still clearly angry but trying to control himself. Taemin knew he ran the risk of triggering his anger all over again, but he also knew what needed to be done.

"Let me see," he said again, with more authority than before.

Minho seemed surprised by his assertiveness, but Taemin refused to back down. Seeing someone more terrible than Minho suddenly made him seem manageable. And at that moment, he was just a human - as fragile as the rest of them.

Frustrated, Minho presented his hand, setting it heavily in Taemin's open palm. Shards of glass were still in the wound. Taemin cringed at how painful it must have been, despite Minho's claims that it was fine. He carefully picked a piece of glass from the open flesh.

"Ouch," Minho said, before trying to pull his hand away.

So it did hurt.

"Just relax," Taemin said calmly, before picking out of the rest of the shards and flicking them to ground, where they would be retrieved with the rest of the broken mirror.

When he was finished, he pulled his handkerchief from inside his corset. (The extra room in the chest made for convenient storage.) He wiped away the access blood, while waiting for Jinki to return. Minho seemed like he was finally starting to calm down, but Taemin still avoided making eye-contact with him.

Jinki eventually did return and handed Taemin the roll of bandages.

Daevy always had a knack for injuring himself when working, so Taemin had learned early on in life how to secure a good dressing. "There," he said when he had finished. He let go of his hand and Minho examined his work.

"Thank you."

Taemin only shrugged.

"Are you gonna be alright?" Jinki asked him warily.

"I'm fine."

Taemin knew he was lying, but wasn't about to say anything. He had already done more than he ought to for the man. He stepped back through the mess to leave Jinki alone with him, so he could try to settle his emotions with some privacy.

"You should really be nicer to him," Jinki said quietly, so the said boy wouldn't overhear.

Minho wasn't in the mood to listen to him. He was on the brink of losing it again and he knew one wrong word from his servant could lead to barrage he would regret. It wouldn't have been the first time either.

He wondered how that man was able to put up with him for so many years when no one else ever could - even before he was cursed.

"Do you want me to lock the gate to keep Krystal from coming back?" Jinki asked.

Minho never liked having the gate locked. It was the only avenue to the outside world, even if he could never step through it. There was always the slim chance that someone would come through it though, like Daevy had.

Jinki knew his reasoning. But was it worth hoping for the best, when only the worse visitor kept coming in?

"We have Taemin...can't that be enough?"

"He's not the one I wanted."

"He's better than nothing," Jinki argued.

"He won't break my curse."

"Can't you give him the chance to try?"

Minho him suddenly. "What the hell are you suggesting?" It sounded far too close to what Krystal was saying and he didn't like hearing it come from his closest companion.

"I'm not suggesting - or implying - anything, Minho. I'm just saying...we're out of options."

"Even if I were desperate enough to want that, he's a man. He's not going to love me, Jinki. If it were that easy, you would have broken my curse a long time ago."

Jinki's love was the strongest he had ever felt from anyone, even more than his own parents. If his platonic love wasn't enough to break the curse, then Taemin's wouldn't be either.

"Then at least consider that he might be more willing to let you meet his sister if you're not such a..."

"A what?"

He gestured to the destroyed room. "A beast."

"Get out," he said. Jinki only smiled, like he knew how much he hated being called that, but enjoyed it anyway. Only Jinki could ever get away with such behavior

"Just think about it. All of it," he said, before backing out of the room. "I'll have Jonghyun lock the gate."

So the decision was made. No one was coming in, just as no one was leaving.

Cleaning Minho's room was obviously something that everyone preferred doing while he was away, so it was nighttime when Jinki took Taemin back to his bedroom. Minho was in his beast form again, stalking about the grounds as he usually did. Taemin had noticed that Minho rarely ever came into the house as a beast, so he was a little less nervous walking around that night.

Jinki assured him that with Jonghyun's help, it wouldn't take them long to clean up the mess. Taemin didn't know why they just didn't let Minho pick up himself, but then again, they were his servants. Why he continued to help them himself, he wasn't sure.

"So who is she?" Taemin asked, breaking the easy silence that settled in the room.

"Who? Krystal? She's the witch that cursed us." Jinki said it so nonchalantly, like it didn't even bother him.

"What did he do to her that made her so vindictive?"

Jonghyun came back into the room, carrying a chair to replace one of the few that Minho had broken. "Oh, he broke her heart, just like he broke every other girls' heart."

"He was a bit of a philanderer back then," Jinki explained, "You both were," he said to Jonghyun, narrowing his eyes in disapproval.

"Hey, I never hurt anyone in my philandering."

"Oh, I'm sure you did, just not someone who had power enough to curse you."

"So Minho caused this mess?" Taemin said.

"Most messes are caused by someone," Jinki replied.

"Hey, one misdeed doesn't justify another," Jonghyun argued.

"No, but admit it, none of us would be in this mess if he had been a little more respectable with his female companions."

Taemin decided to stay out of the conversation after that. He had learned all that he needed to for the moment.

A/N: Hmmm...was that a 2min moment there? Maybe a little bit. :P

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