“Did you see unnie?”

“Who?”

“Taeyeon.”

“She’s not with you?” Leeteuk asked while looking around.

Yoona stopped and stood straight up, “You mean you didn’t see her then?”

“Not since this morning,” he replied, “where did you two go out to?”

Yoona seemed to ignore his question as she moved her gaze toward the ground as if she were thinking really hard.

“Where did you two go?” he asked again.

“The monk next door,” Yoona replied coolly. “She disappeared after he finished talking to her outside.”

“Why did you go there?” Leeteuk’s voice became more arrogant but Yoona didn’t seem surprised at all.

“I had problems I wanted to talk to him about.”

“What about Taeyeon? Why did she go?”

“She said she’d show me the way…”

“Next door, you said?” Leeteuk asked in a serious manner.

Yoona only stared at him and looking as if she’d spaced out Leeteuk didn’t wait for her to say anymore. He walked pass her and turned around the bend making his way toward the house next door. For some reason he felt worried. What had uncle talked to Taeyeon about?

;;;;;

“Yoona,” Siwon’s voice made Yoona turn around to see him coming down the front steps hurrying toward her. “You’re back.”

“Oppa.”

“Are you ok? You look tired,” he told taking a gentle hold of her arm.

Yoona nodded and turned toward the drive as if Leeteuk was there.

“Who are you looking for?” asked Siwon.

“Nothing,” Yoona told turning back to him, “is something wrong, oppa?”

Siwon thought for a few seconds then said, “I have something to talk to you about.”

Yoona eyed him before following him into the mansion and up the stairs. Her mind was still calm and on edge about what the monk had just told her. She didn’t really have time to dwell about it when they reached the hallway toward their bedroom. She began to get the creeps and glanced around her.

“What is it, oppa?” she asked pausing in front of her bedroom doorway.

“I have something to show you,” Siwon told walking into the room and Yoona had no choice but to follow.

Siwon led them to the foot of her bed and pointed to the floor. Yoona followed his finger but didn’t see anything out of the blue that was supposed to be extraordinary.

“What is it?” she asked again.

“There’s a mark on the ground. Part of the carpet is gone,” Siwon explained finally turning to look for himself, but found that there was nothing missing from it. The carpet was a full carpet. The missing part that seemed to be clawed out was not there. “Wha…”

“Is something wrong?” Yoona wondered staring at Siwon hard. “Did something happen?”

“I…uh…it was…yesterday…” Siwon couldn’t quite find the words to explain himself.

What had happened? How had the carpet changed overnight? What was going on?

;;;;;

The yard was empty when Leeteuk came to a stop in front of the gate. He glanced in toward the shed and pass the shed, still no one in sight. He had never thought of stepping foot there but to think that he’d come here now…

Without further thought he pushed himself forward and looked around again. The trees stood tall and overshadowed the ground with their long, fat branches. Walking down the path pass the lines of flowers he saw Changmin’s house to his right. It was now white, which surprised him much. Of course, things must have taken a change over the time that he’d been absent from the area. Turning away from the home Leeteuk tried to glance pass the trees and was able to make out a long white house at the end of the yard.

“Leeteuk?”

He turned around to see a short woman standing not too far from the house in the middle of the yard. He was only able to stare at her. This woman…Changmin’s mother had gotten a lot older, she’d aged a lot and her hair had grayed to a far extent that seemed like she’d become an old grandma.

“Leeteuk!” she seemed to gasped as if surprised.

“Where’s uncle?” Leeteuk asked ignoring her shock. 

She only stared at him and remained frozen. Leeteuk did not know how to describe his feelings of having stepped onto her territory. Actually, he had no feelings about it. He just had no wish to see Changmin and as long as Changmin did not appear before him, Leeteuk would be fine.

“Uncle, where is he?”

“Why?” Changmin’s mother asked.

Leeteuk only noticed then that she had a small bowl in her hands. She was probably going out back to pick some herbs or veggies for lunch or to keep in her storage.

“I want to see him,” Leeteuk replied.

“He’s not here,” Changmin’s mother told sternly and began to turn away but Leeteuk stopped her.

“Don’t lie. I know he’s home.” Leeteuk turned to look at the long house pass the thick trees. “He lives over there now, right?”

Changmin’s mother followed his gaze, “That’s another storage house.”

Leeteuk almost fell into doubt but was sure that Changmin’s mother was lying to him after a second of debating to himself. After what happened to Changmin in his childhood he was pretty sure that Changmin’s mother would take his side and be this way toward him.

Anger and a never ending grudge had continued to exist between their parents silently and it had also followed their children. Leeteuk also felt that way about Changmin. Everyone had just turned against each other after that boating accident. Even though the adults didn’t express it like the children did openly he knew what took place between them.

“I know he’s here,” Leeteuk stated, “my friends came to see him this morning.”

“Friends?” Changmin’s mother’s eyebrow perked up. “Why would you be looking for your friends?”

“One of them is missing, so let me talk to uncle.” Leeteuk explained without thinking beforehand.

“Missing?” she sounded amused. “Kim Taeyeon?”

This time Leeteuk felt more surprised when she said Taeyeon’s name. How did she know who Taeyeon was?

“How did you know?” Leeteuk asked.

She smiled as if satisfied by hearing what he’d two sentences ago, “Well that’s good to hear. Why would you be upset about it?”

Leeteuk slightly turned his head to stare at her wondering why she was speaking that way to him.

“Why…wouldn’t it matter?” Leeteuk wondered. “Why…would you say that?”

“Well, if she’s decided to leave this way then it’s already good news,” she told coolly.

Leeteuk could only stare at her unbelievably.

“Yes,” she nodded, “I told her to leave. What’s wrong with that?”

“What?” Leeteuk muttered. “Why? Why? Why!”

Changmin’s mother widened her eyes to stare at him in shock, “Why are you yelling?”

“What did you do to her? What did you say?”

“Why do you care!”

Leeteuk suddenly became silent. Why did he care? He moved his eyes around to look at the ground, the sky, the trees, then turned back to look at Changmin’s mother. Without another word from him he hurried toward the gate and looked down the road to his left before heading back toward the mansion. Running pass the others in the house he threw open the door to his bedroom hastily and rummaged through his drawers for his keys.

“What’s going on?” Junsu questioned from the doorway.

Without reply Leetuek grabbed his keys and ran back out the doorway pass Siwon and Yoona, who were just making their way down the stairs.

“Where are you going?” he could hear Siwon hurrying after him.

Yoona followed suit. Leeteuk hurried down the stairs of the mansion and toward the van unlocking it.

“Where are you going?” Yoona asked reaching the driver’s door.

“Looking for Taeyeon. You guys stay here,” Leeteuk replied without turning to look at them.

“Why?” Yoona asked. “Let me come, too!”

Siwon grabbed her arm from behind to pull her back, “Hurry back.”

Leeteuk stared into Siwon’s eyes and nodded as if he’d received a secret message. Starting the engine and driving out of the drive way Leeteuk began to go down the road. As he began driving pass the fields of long green grasses he glanced from right to left to find puddles drowning the earth. Flocks of birds flew through the sky in groups under the dark clouds. However, there was still no sign of Taeyeon. Questions began to fill his mind. Would she have gone down this road? Or had she gone in the opposite direction? Was she ok? Thoughts rambled through his mind as he unconsciously stepped on the gas pedal speeding the van up.