Each tree was of various sizes and who knew how many species of trees lived there. The grassy ground contained much dry dirt and plenty of weeds. Probably bugs and insects too. Green leaves and fat barks. A perfect habitat for wild animals. Would there be snakes there too? Zhoumi gulped again. Why had he agreed on the trip in the first place? He’d just wanted to go somewhere relaxing that summer break.

Suddenly stopping in his tracks he glanced around him. Something was echoing in that area. But only the leaves rustled because of the busy wind. A cold wind spun in his ear as if a voice were whispering to him. Sweat glimmered down his neck suddenly and he felt his hair stand on end. His heart pounded quickly in his chest simultaneously. Something was there. Gripping his hand into a fist he found the boys walking away before him, their backs to him.

“Guys.” Zhoumi said his voice quiet and trembling.

They didn’t respond but continued to walk ahead.

“Guys!” he screamed.

They jumped out of surprise from his loud voice and turned around to look at him. Suddenly the world was engulfed in silence. Their eyes held shock and horror and nothing moved for an instant until the boys broke down laughing and pointing at him.

“We were just joking!” Junsu admitted almost crying.

“Dude keep moving. Why are you looking at us like that?” questioned Seungho.

Jang Hyuk, the most serious out of them, cocked his head without a word.

“What’s wrong?” his voice held uncertainty.

Junsu and Seungho suddenly stopped horsing around, their face expressions suddenly taking a serious change. They glanced at Jang Hyuk then back to Zhoumi whose eyes remained on them horridly.

“Did you hear that?” Zhoumi asked unable to move.

“Dude…what the heck…” Seungho muttered.

“Zhou…Zhoumi?” Jang Hyuk stuttered.

“Something’s here…” Zhoumi pushed the words out. “It’s with us…”

The wind ushered by and fear aroused. No one else but the looming trees leading deeper and deeper into the thick woods were there.

“What are you saying?” Junsu frowned taking a step back.

“Run, run, run, run!!”

;;;;;

Happy trees sparkled underneath the sunlight as Taeyeon came into step with the tall Changmin. Every silent step they took she could hear his voice explaining in great detail of the house he’d grown up in and about his parents long marriage. In addition to his voice she could hear Dark breathing heavily beside her. The far outstretched branches provided a great deal amount of shade and she was glad that they were walking directly under it.

On both sides of the pretty dirt trail full of nature stood long and short pretty flowers blooming full of happiness. The grasses were waving back and forth along with the softly blowing wind. To the far right they were walking pass the large modernized home that Changmin had grown up in. A pretty two story house. It’s exteriors on top were edged with a brown decoration hanging down from its hedges. A simply painted white house laced with brown exteriors and decorations around its large full framed windows. Even though it wasn’t a very amazing sight it was still more sight-full than the storage shed she’d seen back there.

“Do you want to go inside?” he asked suddenly turning to her.

“If it’s alright, I guess so.”

“Stay here Dark.”

He smiled at her and walked off the trail. She followed him across the flowing grass and up the stairs to the front door. Once she stepped in she felt as if it was the most beautiful place she’d ever been to. Instead of being large like the mansion she’d grown up in it was welcoming and warm. Peaceful white walls lined each room plainly and the wooden boards on the floor were polished clean, even though she could barely see her own reflection on the floor. The plain wooden tables set around the dining room caught her eyes because unlike Leeteuk’s grandma’s mansion the tables were set in a friendly manner facing each other instead of being set far apart. And unlike the cold feeling she felt coming from the mansion Changmin’s house gave off a powerful wave of kindness.

“Do you like it?” Changmin asked stealing a glance at her.

Too busy taking in her surroundings Taeyeon nodded.

“You can tell the house is old because of the floor. It didn’t look like this when I was a kid. The walls were made of the same wood and the house was blue, not white. But about 6 years back my father remodeled the house. I like it, it gives you this kind of happy feeling that you can’t describe,” Changmin continued.

“It’s nice,” Taeyeon agreed.

“Do you know why my father chose the color white?”

Taeyeon shook her head wondering why he’d ask in the first place, it wasn’t like she knew his father in the first place.

“The color white projects cleanliness, purity, and neutrality. I’ve learned from when I was a kid that those three things are important around this area,” Changmin explained. “My father likes building a lot of things from hand…”

“Wait,” Taeyeon interrupted suddenly.

He turned to her waiting for her to go on.

“You mean your father changed the house for a reason, right?” Taeyeon asked.

Changmin moved his eyes about as if thinking about something. During the time when he seemed to be debating about whether he should lie or be honest with her Taeyeon was sure that he’d lie. The look in his eyes told her that there was something that needed to be kept away from visitors in the area.

“Yes,” he suddenly answered.

They suddenly stopped in the living room full of furniture and a large window with a full view of the trees outside. She wondered if it ever looked scary when there was a rainstorm. Turning to face the front she noticed some large pictures and some small pictures of Changmin’s family up on the wall. Some of their eyes reflected the feelings of being calm and insecure, but there was something that seemed to be missing, however, Taeyeon couldn’t point it out. When she squinted her eyes she finally figured it out. The picture of Changmin, his parents, a young boy and his parents, and another pair of parents were tucked so well into the photo frame that no one would have noticed at first glance. There had been someone standing at the end of the photograph, but that person had been torn out from the picture itself.

“My family and some friends,” Changmin said glad that the picture had caught Taeyeon’s interest instead of her question from earlier.

“Is that Leeteuk?” Taeyeon asked.

Changmin almost hesitated before answering, “Yea.”

“You’ve known each other since you were kids?” asked Taeyeon.

“We were 7 in that picture,” Changmin half answered her question.

“Are you two related?” questioned Taeyeon.

“No,” he told, “our parents were good friends so we were friends as well.”

“So you two still keep in touch?”

“No,” he clarified, “I haven’t seen him ever since my twelfth birthday.”

Taeyeon turned to him, “Why?”

“Just because,” he turned away as if he didn’t want to keep talking about the topic anymore.

Taeyeon watched him turn away with an eager feeling of curiosity eating away at her. However, she didn’t even know him well so she didn’t want to keep pushing him to tell her about that something he was keeping from her.

When they reached the doorstep they found that it was raining hard outside.

“Hmph…well that’s strange, it’s suddenly raining,” Changmin muttered under his breath then turned to her, “let me go get an umbrella.”

She watching him disappear up the stairs to the right and turned back to watch the pouring rain. It had been so sunny earlier.

“Ok, lets go,” he told opening the umbrella.

Walking side by side they walked down the dry path that they had come down earlier and in a few seconds she could spot the shed a few yards ahead. When they finally walked pass the shed he led her through the door that she’d come through earlier before getting jumped by Dark and down the empty road. The raindrops were so heavy and cold that Taeyeon could feel the cold wind crawl unto her skin.

“You’re staying at Teuk’s mansion, right?” he asked.

Taeyeon nodded.

“For how long?”

Taeyeon suddenly realized that she didn’t know the answer, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” he repeated.

“They never said anything about it,” Taeyeon explained.

He managed a smile, “Well, I guess that’s good. Maybe I can get to see you again sometime.”

Taeyeon muttered a small laugh before she heard voices coming from somewhere. Turning to her left and right she didn’t see anyone. Hoping that she wasn’t hearing things herself she turned up to look at Changmin to see that he was looking around also. The splattering rain pounded on the umbrella noisily and drowned out the sudden voices she’d just heard when he turned to her.

“Unnie!”

Turning away from him Taeyeon turned to see Yoona, Gyuri, Siwon, and Leeteuk all drenched in the rain.

“See! She’s been here all along!” Gyuri complained.

“Unnie!” Yoona ran over. “Where’ve you been?! Lets go back!”

“Uh…yea…” Taeyeon nodded as Yoona grabbed her dry arm.

“We’ve been looking for you forever. Why’d you suddenly just walk off?” Yoona asked ready to walk back but Taeyeon hesitated and turned to look at Changmin. Yoona followed her eyes then turned back to her.

“He’s a friend I met, Changmin,” Taeyeon introduced.

“A friend?” Yoona repeated.

Taeyeon slightly nodded and turned back to look at him. It was as if he hadn’t noticed Yoona at all. Changmin was completely still and the feeling that he was giving off was something completely different from what he’d emitted from before. Taeyeon followed his eyes over to Leeteuk who stared back at him. They recognized each other.

“What are you guys doing?!” Gyuri continued. “Lets go back already!”

Siwon remained silently still beside Leeteuk and he didn’t look too happy…none of them looked happy. Taeyeon felt like laughing sarcastically when she wondered what kind of atmosphere she’d have to deal with back at the mansion.

“Guys!” Gyuri shouted again.

Taeyeon suddenly felt like taking a step back feeling her heart beat differently when Leeteuk suddenly turned to look at her. Their eyes met for a few seconds before she saw the rain underneath his feet fly in different directions once he began walking toward them. It passed by too fast and she felt as if she couldn’t move during that moment when Leeteuk began stepping forward. He suddenly grabbed her arm pulling her after him and strangely she couldn’t find a word to mutter from once the rain began to fall upon her. She turned back to look at Changmin, whose eyes were keenly following them and he only glanced at her once before she turned away. Questions suddenly began to fill her mind but she couldn’t ask them.

***I shall go and fix up the synopsis a bit, since I've been thinking a lot so I shall change the storyline a bit.

***“The color white projects cleanliness, purity, and neutrality. I’ve learned from when I was a kid that those three things are important around this area." ->It's a fact I found on google that the color white projects cleanliness, purity, and neutrality ^^ and this phrase is also important in the story.