After lunch Seungah ordered them all out into the garden while she made fresh mint tea. "Excellent for the disgestion," she said, picking a handful of mint from a flowerbed by the back door and going back inside. Jonghun muttered something about visiting an elderly neighbour and disappeared.

The garden was the size of a vast field. Three horses ambled at one end. Hyomin recognised one -- Sabre -- from before. Sunkyu raced off immediately to see him, while Jaejoong and her settled themselves under a large cedar tree where a plain wooden table and two benches were placed. Changmin stayed at a distance, throwing a ball up into the air and catching it, occasionally casting a glance in their direction.

Looking at the back of the house, Hyomin realized it was enormous and ancient. It resembled the old drawings of medieval houses she had seen in History textbooks. And the garden had an old-fashioned feel to it, the lawn springy and the flowerbeds ornate. It seemed incongruous that it was a place occupied and tended by what were in fact ... animals. Everything was so proper.

Hyomin's POV

Jaejoong tapped my hand, which lay on the table. As ever with him, I felt a kind of soporific contentment. I lazily turned my head.

“Thank you,” he said. “I hope this is not too much of an ordeal?”

“It’s ... an experience,” I said carefully. “But I like your parents. They’ve been very welcoming ...” I paused. “God knows what they think of me?”

“God knows?” Jaejoong looked bemused. “You mortals and your gods.”

“It’s just an expression,” I said. “Everyone says it.” I sat up. “Anyway, you must believe in God. You have angels governing you!”

“Ah.” He scratched his head. “But they symbolize order and morality. Who knows whether there is an almighty being governing them?”

“I’m totally confused,” I said, and saw his lips twitch. “You mean you personally don’t believe in a God?”

 “I don’t know. I believe in something beyond ourselves, something physically intangible. Yes. But I have not given it a name.”

I thought for a minute. “I suppose that’s pretty much what I think, too,” I said eventually. “Even more so now.”

We smiled at each other. “See,” said Jaejoong. “We’re a match made in heaven.”

I rolled my eyes at the pun, but i felt happy and close to him. I felt right somehow.

“Do you think they believe I’m for real?” I said then. “Your parents?”

Jaejoong scratched at the rough wooden tabletop. “I think they’re prepared to believe good in everyone,” he answered. “They are big on the benefit of the doubt.”

I frowned. “But they think I look too odd. My face is too round ... My eyes are light brown!”

He laughed. “As to that, they are broad-minded, also. Like mortals, werewolves are capable of genetic anomalies. It’s true, we have longer faces, and bigger jaws, and our eyes are generally dark brown, not light, but I believe only one thing has struck them as truly unusual.”

My breathing quickened. “My cluelessness?”

“No,” he knocked my hand almost shyly. “Something a lot prettier.”

I felt grateful for the shadows cast by the cedar's hedging forest.

I had never felt beautiful or pretty. Not even close. I wasn't blonde, nor curvy and vivacious. I was straight up and down, unfashionably pale. I shook my head.

The sound of Sunkyu shouting at Changmin diverted us, and we looked up to the bottom of the garden to see her wrestling with him by her horse, Sabre.

"Leave him, Changmin!" she wailed. "Your overexcite him."

Changmin slapped the horse hard on its rear and it skittered over to the other side. He jeered triumphantly at his sister. "You mollycoddle that animal. He's not a pet."

Sunkyu stamped her foot and uttered a loud a sob. She her heel and marched towards the house, leaving Changmin grinning after her. He stopped when he caught us watching him, and his expression turned darker. Shooting us a sour look, he plucked a rose from the bush in the bed next to him and tore the petals off roughly.

"He's not at his best today," Jaejoong said, frowning. "Really. He's not a bad kid."

"Hmmm." I felt unsettled by Changmin's aggression . "I wouldn't like to be alone with him at the full moon."

Jaejoong laughed. "He's just like Seungah." he went on as Changmin scattered the petals on the grass. "Opinionated and traditional. What you might call patriotic."

"Or a boy with too much testosterone," I said, without thinking. I caught Jaejoong's raised eyebrow. "I mean ..."

But Jaejoong was grinning at me as I floundered. "You're probably right about that." He said. "He's 'all male'."

Seungah appeared, carrying a tray with glass cups and a kind of transparent kettle full of greenish hot water. She placed it on the table and sat down on the bench opposite us.

"Thank you for your hospitality," I told her, as she poured tea into the cups. "You have a beautiful house."

Seungah smiled at both of us. "I am so glad to meet a friend of Jaejoong's." she said. "We were beginning to despair--"

"Mother," Jaejoong said warningly. He took a sip of his tea. "You know I choose my friends carefully."

"Yes." She leaned back. "And I admire you for it. I am glad to see you happy, that's all."

Jaejoong continued to sip his tea, looking ahead of him.

"So, are you coming to the ball?" Seungah asked me, putting her cup down. "As Jaejoong's guest?"

"I..." I caught Jaejoong's eye. "I would like to, yes."

"Excellent." She beamed at me. "It is an interesting event. One has to be on one's guard for much of the time ... There are elements of our society that could cause trouble given half a chance. But in general most people behave themselves."

I nodded.

"I will take care of Hyomin," said Jaejoong seriously. "It will be fine."

Changmin strolled over to the table, picking up a cup and emptying it in seconds. He put it roughly back on the table.

"I need to get back to the palace," he told his mother. "Gyuri wants me to work inside this afternoon."

"Of course," Seungah said. "Off you go."

"I'll join you later," Jaejoong said to his brother. "I will send Hyomin home and then come and help."

Changmin shruugged, turning to face me. "Good to meet you, Hyomin," he said. "I am looking forward to seeing you at the ball."

"Yes." I was thrown by his now friendly manner. "I'll see you at the ball."

Changmin leaned forward then and made to kiss my cheek. As his mouth came close my breath caught in my throat, as I heard him whisper, "I'll be watching." Then in an instant he was pulling back, as if he had never spoke, but his eyes pierced mine. I glanced away, my heart beating so loudly I was sure the others could hear it.

With a nod at his mother, Changmin turned and headed towards the house.

I had a cold, uneasy feeling about Jaejoong's little brother.

"I had better be going soon myself," I looked at Jaejoong and Seungah. "My father needs me back to help."

"Of course," said Seungah. "We thank you for visiting. Give our regards to your family ..." She nodded at Jaejoong. "Jaejoong will see you are safely away."

Narrator's POV

Jaejoong and Hyomin slipped out of the house, with a hyperactive Sunkyu following them to the stony path beyond the wisteria gate.

"I won't tell," she said to Jaejoong. "I promise I won't."

"You'd better not," he said sternly. "You know what could happen if you do."

She looked solemn. "You can trust me, brother." She turned to Hyomin. "Goodbye Hyomin. Good luck."

They watched her slip back through the gate, before they began trudging to the field of and all the way to the Water Path.

"I'm not sure Changmin is as trustworthy," she said as they walked. "He suspects me."

Jaejoong shook his head. "He's flexing his muscles," he said. "He's moody and impetuous, and he can be abrasive. But he is loyal, I think." He looked down at the ground as he spoke, his face darkening. "But perhaps it was foolish of me, bringing you here. I didn't think ... Changmin is sharp, it's true."

"He said something to me," She linked her arms through Jaejoong's. "When he said goodbye, he told me he would be watching me."

"I'm sure there is nothing to be ancious about," Jaejoong reached for her fingers with his free hand. "But maybe I should have been more careful."

They were approaching the Water Path and already the sound of the river could be heard.

"I will see you again soon," Jaejoong said. "We need to make arrangements ... for the ball."

"Are we being foolish?" Hyomin said, surprising herself. His younger brother's behaviour had unsettled her.

"Perhaps." He sighed. "But I won't leave your side all evening. You will be safe with me."

"I know." She smiled while squinting in the fierce sunlight.

They stood quietly and, though she wanted to go home, Hyomin felt reluctant to leave him.

"Go, then," said Jaejoong. "Back to your boyfriend." Though he smiled, there was a sadness in his brown eyes and Hyomin hesitated, wanting in some way to reassure him.

But she said nothing.

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Dundundunnnnnnnn ~~

So uhm, i'm just wondering. If you guys would prefer the whole story to be narrator's pov or a little of Hyomin's pov here and there?

Please do leave a comment ♥

And thank you to the new subsribers ^^v ♥

Xoxo, Eezah