;;;;;

“I’m not lying. That’s all there is to it. Really.” Taeyeon told.

Yoona anad Gyuri stared back at her with eyes that said they didn’t believe her. But that was ok too. Taeyeon would rather keep what she’d found out earlier in the day to herself. None of them needed to know about it.

“Are you hungry?” Gyuri up from where she’d been sitting. “I’ll make some porridge.”

Taeyeon nodded and watched her walk out of the room.

“You can go, Yoona. I’ll be fine,” Taeyeon assured. “I want to get some sleep.”

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Yoona pressed on.

“Yes. Go on and do whatever you want to do. I can’t sleep when I know you’re watching,” Taeyeon reasoned and that was enough to get Yoona out.

“I’ll be back in a bit.” Yoona promised.

As Taeyeon watched her leave she moved her eyes toward the dresser where she’d hidden the photo album. What was she going to do now?

Gyuri returned with the promised porridge, Taeyeon ate and Gyuri left, then she lied awake unable to fall asleep. The blankets held no effort at keeping her warm. Her hands still shivered from the cold creek and her hair still felt strangely wet. And yet even when she was feeling all this her thoughts drifted back to Leeteuk wondering how he was doing. If he learned that he’d been lied to, if he knew that those closest to him kept the darkest secrets in order to help him preserve his happiness…how would he end up feeling? Would he ever know that Changmin hadn’t killed the girl? That he’d held a grudge against Changmin for nothing?

She worried if Leeteuk would be able to keep smiling. She worried about whether he was really happy right now. She wondered about his feelings.

Taeyeon slipped out of bed and headed down the hall down the stairs taking each step slowly. At the top of the stairs she felt her head spinning slowly as she leaned against the wall to steady her steps on the way down. She came to a short stop when she and Leeteuk’s eyes locked.

“You’re up?” Leeteuk asked from the third step.

“You’re up too,” Taeyeon said smiling down at him.

“Should you be up?”

“I should ask you that.”

Leeteuk’s face broke into a smile and Taeyeon felt her heart melt. He was smiling. She felt relieved.

“The others are having lunch and dinner right now,” Leeteuk told.

A few minutes later they sat in the guest waiting room on the large velvet couch with a large blanket around the two of them. They were sitting side by side but still had some distance between them for comfort.

“Thank you,” Leeteuk started. “For finding me.”

Taeyeon felt her heart sink indescribably without a known answer. It pained her to look at Leeteuk. Staring down at her knees that she had up to her chest she hadn’t noticed that she’d been silent for more than just a couple of minutes.

“Taeyeon?” Leeteuk called calling her back to face him.

Once her eyes landed on his face she quickly lowered them.

“Is something wrong?” he wondered, curiosity and worry in his tone.

“I’ve been wondering…” Taeyeon started. “How was your mother like when you were growing up?”

“Mom?” Leeteuk questioned looking at her curiously wondering why she wanted to know. Without asking he said, “She devoted all her attention to me and tried her best to give me what I wanted as a child.”

“Oh…” Taeyeon wasn’t satisfied with the answer. “Did she….ever seem sad?”  

“Sad?” Leeteuk shrugged. “I’ve seen her and father fight sometimes, but if you mean something like depressed I haven’t seen it.”

“What was your father like?”

“He seemed a bit distant, but it wasn’t like we had that bad of a relationship. Sometimes he adored me. I’m not sure. He travels a lot so I don’t remember him being around for more than a month.”

“Oh…”

“Why?” Leeteuk wondered. “Is there something you want to share with me?”

Taeyeon shot her eyes up from the ground to meet with his eyes wondering if he suddenly recalled something or caught onto the fact that she knew something he didn’t. Observing him quickly she discovered that it was only because he was curious, nothing else.

“Were you lonely…ever?”

“I had toys, I had friends…um…I don’t think so.”

Taeyeon slightly shook her head. While growing up he had been happy…

“But I didn’t feel content while growing up at home,” Leeteuk continued.

Taeyeon turned to look at him.

“Why?”

Leeteuk shrugged as if he didn’t understand the reason why either. “It didn’t feel right. I always felt that something was amiss.”

He turned to meet her eyes before a sudden worried expression appeared on his face.

“Why do you look sorry?”

Taeyeon managed a fake laugh and smiled. “It’s nothing.”

“Are you ok?” Leeteuk questioned. “You don’t look well…I mean other than being sick you don’t look good. Are you feeling ok?”

“I’m fine.” Taeyeon smiled trying to conjure up as much emotion in her face as possible. “By the way what were you doing at the watch house?”

“I woke up there.”

Taeyeon raised an eyebrow surprised with his answer.

“Actually…Shin Ae was with me.”

Taeyeon felt fear and shock hit her.

“Shin Ae?” Taeyeon repeated.

Leeteuk nodded, “We went swimming…but she disappeared.”

Leeteuk was surprised that he’d even managed to remember that much. However, the bewildered look on Taeyeon’s face didn’t make him feel well.

Kang Shin Ae…Kang Shin Ae disappeared out of the blue? How had Leeteuk ended up at the blue watch house?

“She disappeared and you drowned?” Taeyeon’s eyes were surpassingly large.

“Oh…yea.” Leeteuk finished. “I was thinking it as kind of strange as well…”

“What happened between the two of you?”

“Hmm?” Leeteuk questioned. “I’m not sure. To tell you the truth I’m still trying to find out why she feels like someone I know.”

“You know her?”

“No, not exactly. It’s just…I don’t think she’s from this area,” Leeteuk told, “when I asked her she says she forgot where she came from. It’s a little absurd.”

Taeyeon found possibilities racing through her head.

“Why did you come looking for me earlier?” Leeteuk interrupted her thoughts.

“I…” Taeyeon started but stopped.

There wasn’t anything she could say. Why did she feel bad about it? Leeteuk had shared so much with her already but she wasn’t able to tell him anything.

“I forgot…” she lied.

She could feel his eyes intently watching her but he smiled, somehow brightening her up.

“It’s ok. I forget a lot, too.” Leeteuk consoled.

Taeyeon felt a bit better but that emotion was overcome with a positive surprise when she felt his hand crawl on top of hers in a comforting manner. His hand…his hand was so warm.

Slowly turning her head to look at him she found him looking at her with the softest expression she’d ever seen on anyone else’s face. Her mind spun into a blur at that moment. She half expected it and her other half found it a bit amusing. His hold on her hand became a bit tighter and she could feel the blanket around them become more like a tent hiding two young lovers. Her eyes slightly closed focusing on his slender nose, his skin complexion, and on his lips as they inched toward hers. Her heart raced and she grew warmer with excitement before wondering if she was allowing him to do this because she knew it’d make him happy. Taeyeon hesitated by remaining still. Her mind disappeared at that moment becoming spellbound as he kissed her. As if automated she responded by kissing him back enjoying each moment. Somewhere inside she knew that she wasn’t doing it to rid herself of the terrible feelings she had.

;;;;;

Gyuri finished up the dishes stopping every now and then to ponder about what she’d been questioning herself. Zhoumi had been unusually absentminded these days. Adding in with that his strange behavior. She turned around to find Seungho and Junsu still at the table eating leftovers.

“Zhoumi claimed before that he had 6th sense, right?” Gyuri asked.

“Zhoumi?” Seungho repeated. “Why would you wonder about him now?”

“Did he or did he not?” Gyuri stated.

“He did,” Junsu finished. “I’ve been thinking he’s just more than strange but then it’s not like we can just point it out and expect to be right.”

“Maybe the others have noticed too,” Seungho tried. “Like how in the world did he know about that house? I still can’t figure it out.”

“Yes, I don’t get that either.” Gyuri agreed.

“So what, are you going to suggest something strange?” Jang Hyuk questioned walking into the kitchen. “Looks like I’ve been missing on quite a bit of action.”

“Where have you been?” Junsu questioned.

“I was wandering through the mansion,” Jang Hyuk explained.

“Night and day?” Seungho asked.

“Not exactly, but guess what I found?”

Gyuri turned around from the sink turning the faucet off tuning into what they were saying. For some reason it felt like what he’d say would be a kind of breakthrough.

“A way to the attic.”

“What?! The third floor?” Gyuri almost screamed.

The three guys turned to look at her surprised.

“And so what about it?” Junsu pressed on.

“Is there anything significant up there anyway?” Seungho wondered.

“There’s millions of storage rooms up there,” Jang Hyuk explained. “I only walked through them, I felt bad going through things without asking.”

“Is that all you found?” Gyuri questioned.

“Well…I suppose…but then…I also think that there’s more than just storage rooms up there,” Jang Hyuk continued, “it’s like a museum up there…it’s just…”

“What do you mean?” Seungho frowned.

“I think there’s different ways to get up to the third floor and each different way to get up there leads to a different part of the third floor. You get what I mean?”

“There’s more than one door?” Junsu raised both his eyebrows.

“Yea. The way I went up and the way I came back down are both different,” Jang Hyuk told. “Maybe there was something Leeteuk’s grandma didn’t want us to know.”

They remained silent.

“Lead me there.” Gyuri started.

“What?” Jang Hyuk asked not sure if he heard right.

“Lead me up there. We should look around,” Gyuri suggested, “you all get it, don’t you? Something’s not just wrong with this mansion but something won’t leave us alone. Maybe we can return this vacation to being just a vacation.”

“And what would that have to do with the third floor?” wondered Junsu.

Gyuri shot him a glare, “Think about it. Leeteuk’s grandma clearly warned us that we are not to go up there and in the first place there wasn’t even a clear stairway leading to the third floor. Why would she have warned us in the first place then? Because something is hidden up there. We find out what it is and solve the problem.”  

“You know…we sound a bit crazy for doing this,” Seungho admitted, “what if it’s nothing after all, but just us?”

“You think whatever you want,” Gyuri told him off, “I’ve had enough. You can’t ignore it forever when it’s there at your back waiting to bite you. I’m going to find out what’s supposed to be kept silent and confront it. I can’t stand sitting and waiting.” Gyuri turned to Jang Hyuk. “Where is it?”

“Are you in it?” Seungho turned to glance at Junsu.

“When you all belittled me, of course I’m going to prove I was right.” Junsu told getting up.

Seungho closed his eyes and scrunched up his face. He would be too scared being left behind. “Let me go with you guys.”

***I hope you guys can keep up with my updates, because I've officially completed the story on Word already ^^