Chapter 5

A Not So Warm Welcome

                “Katrina, wake up.” Leeteuk shook Katrina from his seat on the driver side.

                She moaned, “Dad, it’s Sunday, get me up in an hour” not opening her eyes. She had forgotten that she wasn’t home anymore. Leeteuk shook slightly harder.

                “Katrina, we’re here. It’s time to get up.” He reiterated. Katrina finally forced her eyes open and was almost blinded by the mid-day sunlight. Oh yeah, she was in Leeteuk’s car now. Confused as to why the sun was shining so brightly, she looked at the Sedan’s digital clock. It read 14:30. 2:30 PM. Huh. Had she really been asleep that long?

                “Ready to see your new home?” Leeteuk gave Katrina an enthusiastic smile. Katrina yawned.

                “I guess,” she replied, as they both got out of the car. Still trying to get used to the sudden light, she squinted at her new school. When her eyesight cleared, she was surprised to see a creepy, Victorian mansion stand before her. It was painted mostly black with accents of dulled silver, had a courtyard all around it, and many, many windows. Windows that she could escape from. Perfect. As she turned towards the trunk to get her things, she saw that the courtyard was closed off by a tarnished silver gate adorned with intimidating spikes op top.

                “It doesn’t look too secure though,” she thought, “It’d be easy to break the lock and make a dash for it.” She smiled, looking back at the mansion. “I think I’m going to like this place.”

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                Meanwhile, from one of the arched windows situated on the very top of the mansion, six pairs of curious eyes, two of whom belonged to Kyuhyun and Ryeowook, peered at Katrina. One of them smiled.

                “She’s pretty,” he said, pressing his nose against the window.

                “She looks just like her mother.” Another remarked. Ryeowook smirked.

                “Yeah, but she’s nothing like her mother.” The others nodded, remembering all of the accounts Ryeowook gave them regarding her behavior and crazy antics. Kyuhyun huffed.

                “Great, she’s already thinking about how to escape. I can already tell that she’s going to cause a lot of trouble.” He frowned. The biggest one of the bunch, chuckled.

                “Come on, like you didn’t do the same thing when you first got here.” He ruffled Kyuhyun’s hair. Annoyed, Kyuhyun pushed him off.

                “Like you’re one to talk! At least I didn’t put a huge crack in the floor the first week I got here.” Before the other could reply, two men walked into the room. One was quite tall and had an air of authority. The other was also intimidating, despite his cute looks.

                “Come on, they’ll be at the front door any minute now. It’s time to greet our new heir,” the bigger one commanded as they all started to file out of the large room. All except Ryeowook and a man with shaggy black hair. He continued to stare out the window at Katrina. His eyes were fixated on her and glazed-over, as though he was in a trance. After a few seconds, Ryeowook gently shook his friend.

                “Yesung, are you ok?” he asked as Yesung gradually came back to his senses. Blinking his eyes, he silently nodded at the other, and then gazed out again at the new girl. Ryeowook followed his gaze. “You sense something, don’t you? She’s going to change everything.” Again, Yesung nodded. They continued to stare for a few more minutes until Leeteuk started helping Katrina lug her belongings to the front door. Ryeowook tugged on Yesung’s coat sleeve. “Come on, it’s time to say hi.” He smiled. Yesung stood there for a few more seconds, then nodded and followed Ryeowook to the front entrance.

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                Outside, Katrina and Leeteuk made their way towards the entrance, bags in tow.

                “Where are we anyway? And what is this place called?” Katrina asked. Leeteuk decided not to answer the first question. If she found out that she was across the sea from her home in America, she’d freak out.

                “We call this place the Haven.” He answered, and smiled at the place he called home.

                “It’s kinda creepy,” she remarked, a smile on her face. “I like it.”

                Finally, they made it to the front door, and, like the gentleman he was, opened the door for his new charge. As they both stepped into the main entrance, Katrina tried to take everything in: The room was dominated by a huge staircase that split two ways, each branch leading to another hallway entrance covered by a tattered curtain. The rest of the room was lined by hexangular shaped pillars on either side, and the atmosphere was very dark and gloomy despite the sun shining into the huge, round window at the top of the staircase and the lit crystal chandelier that dangled from the center of the ceiling. It looked like something straight from “The Phantom of the Opera”, regal, yet foreboding. This both pleased and disappointed Katrina.

She started to put her things down when a group of young men started appearing from the left-hand entrance. They were all wearing black coats, like Leeteuk, and had on either a white or black undershirt beneath. Each man walked down the stairway, bowed to Leeteuk, and lined up shoulder to shoulder in front of the their leader and the new-comer. Katrina counted eight in all.

“Katrina, I’d like you to meet the other residents of the Haven,” Leeteuk said as he guided her to the start of the line and started introducing each man, one by one. The first one was very handsome and towered over the others, both in stature and in presence.

“This is Siwon, my second hand man and head teacher of this place.” Siwon smiled at Katrina.

“It is a pleasure to finally meet you Katrina.” He said as he bowed to her and placed a small kiss on the back of her hand. This caused Katrina to internally gag. Handsome or not, he wasn’t her type. She fake smiled anyway however, but after she did so, a small grunt registered from the other side of the line. She quickly glanced over, only to see nothing out of the ordinary, and let Leeteuk guide her to the next person.

“This is Siwon’s assistant, Sungmin. He will be helping you with your studies as well.” He gave Katrina a winning grin and bowed also, but he skipped the kiss.

“Nice to meet you.” He greeted. Katrina replied, “You too,” with a more sincere smile.

The next man was also tall, with black shaggy hair that reminded Katrina of raven’s feathers.

“This is Yesung.” Yesung nodded without smiling, silently staring into Katrina’s eyes with a knowing look. It creeped her out. “He doesn’t talk much.” Leeteuk added before going on to the next person.

This one was very young-looking, and had high cheek bones and light brown hair that he had swept to the side. He seemed to radiate positive energy.

“This is Ryeowook.” The said person grinned brightly and bowed.

“Nice to see you again Katrina.” Ryeowook blurted out before he could catch himself. Katrina cocked an eyebrow.

“Again? Have I seen you before?”

Ryeowook’s grin faded. Crap. He wasn’t supposed to give away that he’d been watching her for the past couple of years. He had to think fast.

“Uh yes, your mother showed me a picture of you as a baby. So, therefore, it’s nice to see you again.” Ryeowook smiled. Please work. He mentally begged. Katrina was skeptical that that was really the true explanation, but she decided to let the issue go. For now.

“Well then, it’s nice to see you again too. I guess” Come to think of it, had she seen him before too? His voice sure sounded familiar…

Leeteuk introduced the next two together.

“These are the twins, Donghae and Eunhyuk.” Katrina observed the two. They both had brown hair, although Donghae’s was slightly longer than the other, and they were both about the same height, but other than that, they didn’t look that much alike. They were probably fraternal twins. The first bowed with a huge grin.

“Hey beautiful, nice to meet you.” He winked. She mentally rolled her eyes.

Let me guess: single and desperate. She thought. Suddenly, someone burst out into laughter, causing everyone to look towards the other end in surprise. It came from the last person in line. Leeteuk’s face turned stern.

“Kyuhyun, be polite.” He scolded, causing Kyuhyun to stop laughing. He bowed.

“My apologies Leeteuk-shi” he replied, trying to hold in his laughter that threatened to bubble up again. Continuing with the introductions, the other twin, Eunhyuk, bowed his head.

“I apologize for my brother’s lack of restraint,” he glared at Donghae, who discreetly stuck his tongue out in rebuttal. “It’s very nice to meet you Katrina.” His voice sounded sincere, but his countenance didn’t show any sign of welcome. Looking closer, Katrina observed that he had two tear-shaped marks beneath his left eye. Thank goodness, another rebel! She thought.

“Nice tattoo dude.” She remarked with a grin. Eunhyuk cocked an eyebrow.

“Um, it’s not a-“

“Moving on!” Leeteuk interrupted, abruptly shoving Katrina away from the scowling Eunhyuk to a much bigger man. He was tall, though still not quite as tall as Siwon, and was thicker than the others. Looking up, she saw that although he was certainly intimidating body-wise, his face was actually welcoming and inviting; he wore a big, gentle smile upon his baby face. He looks just like Atlas! She thought, as the man bowed to her.

“My name’s Shindong. Glad you finally made it!” he beamed.  Katrina smiled and nodded before going over to the last person, Kyuhyun.

“You already meet Kyuhyun.” Leeteuk still glared a little at the boy. He knew better than to use his powers right now. Kyuhyun bowed.

“I’m very sorry for my outburst, my lady.” Kyuhyun greeted, adding the last bit with contempt. Katrina bowed as well, although the whole time she was thinking, “Dude, get an attitude adjustment.” This caused Kyuhyun, who had continued to read “his lady’s” mind, to snap.

“I should say the same thing! Ever since you came strutting in here, you’ve been acting like you own the place you stupid, idiotic-“

                “ENOUGH!” Leeteuk shouted. Katrina was shocked: Did this guy just read her mind? Something wasn’t right. She was getting to the bottom of this. She turned to Leeteuk.

                “What’s going on here?” she asked, determined to finally get answers out of this guy. Leeteuk gulped. This isn’t good. “For starters why did he just read my mind?” she pointed to Kyuhyun, who shrunk in Leeteuk’s angry stare.

                “He can just read people well, that’s all” Leeteuk lied, hoping Katrina would buy it. She didn’t. “And another thing, why aren’t there any girls here? Surely Dad wouldn’t send me to an all-boys school.” Katrina crossed her arms. Leeteuk scolded himself. Why didn’t he think about that? Katrina smirked. “I know this isn’t a school, I’m not stupid.” She waited for Leeteuk to say something, but he just stood there, speechless. This made Katrina explode. “Someone tell me what’s going on or I swear someone’s going to get hit!” she yelled.

                Ryeowook decided it was time to intervene. He slowly approached the upset Katrina as someone would approach a wild animal. “Now, now Katrina, there’s no need to resort to violence. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re just trying to protect you.” He tried to console her, but as she listened more and more to his voice, she realized where she had heard him before.

                “You!” she pointed at Ryeowook, who stopped in his tracks, eyes wide. “You were the one who yelled at me in the alleyway. The one who told us to run!” she exclaimed. Ryeowook and the others were shocked. None of them had expected her to recognize his voice. This was not good.

                “Well- I- uh” Ryeowook stuttered. He didn’t know what to do now. Should they tell her the truth? At that moment, Siwon stepped from the line.

                “Perhaps it’s time to tell her exactly who we are Leeteuk.” He stared into the leader’s eyes. Leeteuk didn’t want to reveal the truth to Katrina, not when she just got there, but it seemed like he had no choice. He nodded.

                “You’re right Siwon.” He sighed as he turned towards the others. “Alright everybody, you know what to do.” The others were still astonished that Katrina had already discovered their rouse, but they complied, and with a snap of Leeteuk’s fingers, vanished in a puff of black smoke.

                Katrina now stood alone in the entryway, astonished from what she just witnessed and confused as to where they all went. A few seconds later, all nine men reappeared at the top of the staircase, staring at Katrina, wondering how she’d react. Leeteuk spread his arms wide.

                “Welcome to the Phantom Clan Katrina.”

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Whew! That took a while! Finally, we have our intros to the rest of the SuJu members :) Sorry the chapter is so long again, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! ^^ Thank you to all that subscribed and commented! I love you all :D

~Justjoking <3