Day 2 (Continued):

I crawled up the stairs and headed straight for Donghae’s bedroom. I opened the door slowly, peeking inside at first, before entering the room. Donghae’s bed was partially made, but the sheets remained ruffled and messy. I flopped back onto his bed.

Holy this has the be the most comfortable mattress in all of Korea.

I practically sunk into the mess of blankets.

“I’m so ing bored.” I muttered to myself.

I contemplated calling up Heechul and asking him if he wanted to hang out (or if I could see Super Junior again), but then I thought, despite what he insisted, what kind of celebrity wanted to hang out with me?

I got to my feet, making my way over to the bookcase. I ran my finger across the glass shelf, stopping when it crossed paths with a small, glass figurine. I carefully picked it up and held the cold object in my hand. It was a small, crystal model of a turtle. I placed it carefully back on the shelf, picking up another, this time, a horse. I looked at all the figurines, all of different animals. They were delicate and extremely fragile due to the fact that they were made out of glass after all. I put the horse back in it’s place, remembering what Donghae had told me last week.

1 week earlier.

“Did you know that I collect glass figurines, Hyukjae?”

I shook my head.

“It was something my father did. Look.” He carefully lifted a glass rabbit from it’s spot on the shelf above the kitchen table. He held the small lump of glass in his palm, admiring it with a smile.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed that I have heaps of these little glass things in various places all over the house. Here.” He handed me the rabbit, which I took carefully into my palm, feeling the cool statue against my skin.

“I don’t mind you having a look at them, feel free. As long as you don’t break them, because they’re very precious to me. Beautiful, isn’t he?”

“Very.” I breathed, tracing the smooth curves of the figurine with the tips of my fingers, feeling as if my stare alone could break it.

Collecting glass animals seemed like a pretty lame thing to do, but Donghae was right. They were incredibly pretty.

“Each figurine is completely unique, every single one is a different shape and size. Each is breath taking in its beauty, so crystal clear and fragile. A single bump could chip them, and a slip could smash them entirely. I keep them on the shelves, where their beauty can not only be admired, but they’re safe from harm. In the wrong hands, that rabbit there could end up as a pile of shattered glass, which is very hard to fix. They really are the most beautiful things. See how the sun hits them at exactly the right angle? It reflects all these scattered dots of light onto the otherwise boring wall. No other statues can do that.”

I put the rabbit carefully back onto the shelf.

“See this one?” Donghae pointed to a small glass bird, wings outstretched. “The shelf was bumped a few months back, and the edge of his wing was clipped off.”

I looked closely.

“Luckily, I managed to get him repaired. See here?” He pointed to a small, unnoticeable line running through the crevice of the wing. “It would have been cheaper to replace him all together. But I paid a fair amount to have his wing repaired. He’ll always have that mark there. Nothing I can do will make him .flawless again, but I guess we all have our flaws. You don‘t have to be flawless, to be perfect.”

I let out a small breath of amazement at that last statement..

“And even now I still worry about him being broken again, because now he’s even more fragile. But, I think now, he’s possibly even more beautiful than any of the others on the shelf. He’s very special to me, and I have managed to fix him, and I will always be able to fix him if he ever breaks again.”

Whatever point Donghae was trying to make, I wasn’t sure I quite understood.

“Huh.” I breathed, looking at the other figurines in Donghae’s bedroom. “I guess I’m just as fragile as you guys.”

I let my nosiness get the best of me, and found myself in Donghae’s walk in closet. My jaw dropped. It was like a whole separate room just for clothes. It looked like a clothing outlet. He had an entire rack just for belts (which was understandable, seeing as he had over a hundred of them).

I walked all the way to the back, running my palm against the wall. I stopped when my palm ran along a small cupboard door indented into the timber. I grabbed the handle, pulling gently. It didn’t budge. I sighed, looking at the lock on the front of the small wooden cabinet.

What could possibly be in the cupboard that he’d need to lock up?

Several things came to mind.

Weapons.

Stacks of money.

.

Top secret government files.

The Plague.

But all of those things could be kept in the huge green wall safe in Donghae’s office.

Why a flimsy little wooden door at the back of a closet?

I ran my index finger over the lock

. I really want to know now.

“Come on Choco.” I said, grabbing her leash. “Lets go for a walk.”

Maybe I’ll run into Ji-yong again. That’d be cool.

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