Cho Hee noticed the difference in behaviour between the two of them the next morning without a second glance.

Whatever strained thoughts had been provoking the both of them since the moment they first met had only been intensified after what had happened the previous day.

She studied them carefully as she arranged their breakfast, carrying out plate after plate of recently cooked food that she had just prepared herself in the kitchen; the way they were sat as far away from each other as they could diagonally across the tables, the way they looked everywhere but at each other. They both looked pale, almost sickly, and within the mournful feeling seemed also an air of anger and resent. The atmosphere seemed to reek in whatever awkwardness they had conjured up, and Cho Hee hated it.

"Um guys...? Breakfast is ready," she spoke slowly, interuptting their thoughts. They both jumped a little as if the sound of her voice was completely foreign to them, as they had both been deep in thought with something else.

Taeyeon smiled gratefully to her hostess, but it was a weak smile. "Thank you, Cho Hee, you've done so much for....for me," she spoke softly.

Taeyeon's appearance was back to the way it always had been. Though her hair was still short, it was pulled back cleanly into a ponytail, so that no one could really tell the difference. Her face was completely bare with no makeup on, and she was back in her old, simple clothes. Though she should've looked at peace, it seemed to be the last thing on her mind at that moment.

Leeteuk coughed from the side.

"Yes, thank you, Cho Hee, I don't know what I would've done without you," he smiled. Cho Hee returned the smile naturally, but still, she could tell that his smile was quite forced, and lacked its usual nature.

"Oh, stop it, you guys," she replied to the best of her ability. "I'm always so alone up here, so it's great that you guys can keep me company like this. I should be the one thanking you."

"Don't be so modest, you've done so much," Taeyeon smiled. "Thanks to you, I've opened my eyes to what this world really means to me. And that people that you've once trusted can betray you at any moment."

Cho Hee felt a sudden uneasiness. "What...?"

Leeteuk laughed. "Yes, and also Cho Hee, showed me that people who you thought you could always trust to be supportive would end up only being a burden, and not understanding at all to what your feelings are."

Now it was Taeyeon's turn to burst out in an immature cackle.

"Oh yes, let's not forget how strange humans can be at times, and how nice and gentle they can pretend to be at one moment and then violent and hostile in the next heartbeat without consideration."

"So true. But some people just can't mind their own business and keep their pointy noses out of other people's secrets and plans."

"Well maybe if those people actually revealed just a tiny bit of their so-called 'secrets', maybe everyone else won't misunderstand them anymore and maybe, just maybe, they can actually prove to be helpful."

"Or maybe, they'd just be scared out of their wits and those people are only keeping it a secret because they're worried about the other person's well-being."

Taeyeon stood up and slammed her hands on the table, finally making eye-contact with Leeteuk. "Worried?! If they were really worried, they would tell everything they can to the other people, so that the others would be reassured and not have to freak out and go insane worrying about the well-being of the people they care about."

Leeteuk didn't hesitate to kick his chair back and stood up at once. "Maybe, if these people just became a little patient they wouldn't have to worry so much and they should stop having little panic attacks and screaming over everything."

"MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE THROWN ME OUT OF YOUR ROOM AS IF I WAS AN ANIMAL OF SOME SORT!!"

"Whoa, Leeteuk-oppa, you threw her out of your room?" Cho Hee interjected.

Cho Hee watched as Taeyeon gasped, realizing that she had finally exploded at the wrong moment, and Leeteuk's face immidiately went pale. He shot an angry glare at Taeyeon, and then turned away, never meeting eyes with her again during that breakfast period.

"What the jeebers did the two of you do last night?" Cho Hee mused, studying their mess of expressions.

Taeyeon decided to speak first. "Look, when you say it like that it sounds really, really...strange."

"If nothing strange happened, then it shouldn't sound strange," Cho Hee replied at once. "I still didn't ask you why you were in a mess of tears and lying sprawled outside Leeteuk's door last night...though apparently he threw you out."

Taeyeon opened to speak again but this time Leeteuk beat her to it.

"When you say it like that, it makes me sound like such a..." Leeteuk paused, and Cho Hee thought she could distinctly hear "jerk" amidst Taeyeon's sudden cough. "Anyways, you should know that I had the situation forced upon me, and that she forced me into that 'last resort'."

"Wow, way to make yourself sound like the victim in an instant," Taeyeon scoffed. "Without even realizing what you did before that led me to having to do that, you...nevermind."

"Hey, for the record, my favourite shirt is torn up because of you."

"WHAT?! THAT ISN'T EVEN RELEVANT--"

As soon as Cho Hee sensed the restraint of Taeyeon's uncivilities, she realized that she needed to stop this senseless rage before something worse exploded, and frankly she just wouldn't know how to control it.

"Let's just eat first," Cho Hee muttered. "I don't want the food to get cold." She sat down and pretended to be annoyed at their behaviour, and as expected, they both got flustered and immediately sat down and poked at their food in silence. And thus, the silence was kept for the rest of the breakfast session.

After what seemed like the longest time, the finally helped Cho Hee cleaned up their plates and Cho Hee knew she suddenly wasn't the only person who wanted a fourth person within the vicinity, just to tone down the awkwardness just a little bit.

Leeteuk was the first to take his leave from the room.

"I'm off," he said apathetically, and sauntered towards the direction of his room without another word.

Cho Hee waited patiently until he was out of sight, and at once she grabbed Taeyeon by the shoulder and pulled her close.

"So..." she giggled at a very confused Taeyeon. "You're such an innocent little liar, aren't you?"

Taeyeon was bewildered. "What?"

"Saying you had no feelings for him, saying that you hated him...it was all just a little scheme, wasn't it?" Cho Hee continued excitedly.

"...what?!"

Cho Hee let go of Taeyeon's shoulder and resumed cleaning the table, and as for Taeyeon, it was observed that she decided not to think too much of it, and so she turned and started to walk away.

And so Cho Hee decided to strike while she was offguard.

"You don't have to hide the fact that you like him anymore, okay? I get it. I'm totally fine with it, if not slightly pleased."

As expected, Taeyeon's reaction was more than satisfactory to Cho Hee. She nearly jumped and turned around with a furious expression.

"How could you SAY that?!" Taeyeon screamed. "Me and that--"

"Jerk?" Cho Hee smiled, throwing her dishcloth aside. "Geez, unnie, you seem to have the exact same comeback every single time no matter how many times I ask you this question."

"That's because feelings of hatred are meant to be consistent." Taeyeon was angry now: she was literaly glaring at Cho Hee.

"Normally, yes," Cho Hee said. "But in yours and Leeteuk's case, it clearly isn't. One minute you're bashing him down and calling him all the terrible names you can think of and the next you're worried out of your mind that he could be injured and become all frantic. And of course, here we are back again with the name-calling but if I told you right now that something bad was happening to him, I'm sure you'd run to him in an instant."

Taeyeon scoffed...or attempted to. "Well, I can assure you that won't happen again since I revealed his true natures last night." She crossed her arms frustratedly, which only caused Cho Hee's smile to widen. She shuffled a bit closer to her unnie.

"Hey...you haven't told me, what did you two do last night?"

Taeyeon turned extremely red, and though it easily could've been due to anger, Cho Hee decided to take it the other way. She smirked.

"You know...you should really stop," Taeyeon muttered. "You're making sound like I did...something else."

Cho Hee shrugged. "Hey, if it wasn't a relevant theory you wouldn't be thinking it either."

Taeyeon finally had enough. She pulled Cho Hee's hand off her arm and walked away.

"You have no idea how insensitive you're being right now," she snapped, and dissapeared down the hallway.

Cho Hee stood there bewildered, but this time, she recovered almost instantly.

"Hey! If you're going to compete against me for him," she screamed down the hallway without caring if there was a third person listening. "At least do it fairly!" It seemed that Taeyeon chose to ignore this and only kept walking.

Cho Hee sighed in what she took to be victory. Taeyeon might've been a real stubborn person, but so long as you poked her in the right places, her true feelings came out, it seemed. She grabbed the tray of dirty plates and receded to the kitchen, playing around with her newfound interpretations.

*************************

As much as Taeyeon was trying to hold it in, she found that she was fuming by the time she got back to her room. Had those words been spoken before last night, she might have been just a little reassured and flattered, but now, it was just an insult. The worst, most jarring insult anyone could've ever thrown at her.

Sure, she would've acknowledged her mixed feelings for this man way before, but after the way he spoke about her and her friends before, she couldn't bear to stand him. He spoke to her like a fool, a simpleton who could never measure up to him, and she hated that. At the end of the day, she knew she was just as capable as he was, and she wished he would stop treating her like some sort of idiot who couldn't do anything right.

Sure, she had played the role of a damsel in distress before, but she wasn't about to do it again. That, she promised to herself.

She threw herself onto the bed and decided to mull things over just a little bit. She couldn't stay here forever, she knew: she had to go find them. But where? How could she possibly know where to start? The reasonable idea seemed to be to return to Seoul and report it to the police...but would they even believe the chaotic retelling of events? And even if they did, what would they do? Her friends could be anyone in the world by now. And she shuddered to think of what situations they could be kept in.

She knew that she would have to tell Cho Hee by tonight or tomorrow that she would have to leave soon. When the phone lines return, she would be able to call for a helicopter, or a plane of any sort to take her away from this island.

As she stared at the ceiling, Taeyeon started to have an inevitable suspicion of how it was that she ended up on this island in the first place. Of all places they had to be let off, they were dropped on a hard to get to island, surrounded by mysterious forests and several hiding places for the bad creatures. And somehow, in the middle of it all, there was a perfectly nice and safe mansion waiting for them, with a perfectly kind hostess who was perfectly willing to cater to their needs without a thought of doubt. Though she claimed it was because of loneliness, it was hard to determine why her generosity was so far-reaching, and how she could not even have a word of complaint. It was hard to find find people like that in the twisted confines of today's society, and how they happened to fall right in front of the doorstep of one was extremely hard to comprehend.

In her mind, Taeyeon supposed she should just appreciate her luck and be in the doubt for awhile, at least until she can finally get out. She found herself thinking that if the worst was going to happen at all, it would've happened already. Cho Hee easily could've harmed her at anytime within the past few days, and there wouldn't be any reason to wait, so she assumed it to be safe for the time-being. Besides, she felt that her sudden suspicion could've been affected to the way she had irritated her so much at breakfast.

More than anything, she wanted someone to be able to talk to, and to discuss these worries with. However, the only other companion she had thought her useless, and only planned to drive her mad with shallow words and phrases that made no sense whatsoever. He who wished for her happiness yet did so in a way that made her more upset than ever. Someone like that would hear nothing of her, and she didn't care enough to approach him a second time anymore.

More than anything, she missed the voice of her friends, the voices of those who would always comfort her in situations like these, voices that were perhaps gone for good for all she knew. It wasn't enough to say that she cared way too much for these people, and if anything bad were to happen to them she wouldn't know how to live with herself.

Before she knew it, she had been in her room for the entire morning, and most of the afternoon. Cho Hee had checked on her once or twice to see if she was okay, but somehow mirculously knew better than to bother her again. At last, evening started to approach, and feeling overwhelmed, Taeyeon decided she needed to get out of the confines of the room and for yet another walk around the house. It would be dangerous to go outside, she had learned her lesson, and still she realized that there was still much of the house to be discovered. She walked towards the door and opened it slowly.

CRASH!

As soon as Taeyeon stepped foot out of the room, she heard a resonating noise blast down the hallway: it sounded as if it had come from the main hallway.

"Cho Hee?" Taeyeon called. No response.

Taeyeon tensed up, feeling the unwelcome fear wash up over her again. She knew she had to do something...but what?

I will not be the damsel in distress anymore.

Gathering up all her courage, she grabbed a heavy ornament left on the table beside the door, the only defense she could manage to conjure up in the moment. Taking a deep breath, she walked as swiftly yet as quietly as she could down the hall. She was tired of relying on others, and she wasn't about to do it again.

As she approached the main corridor, she pressed herself against the wall and peeked her head out cautiously. She saw the main staircases, the chandelier and...

...silhouettes. Not just one, not two...but multiple silhouettes attempting to blend into the surroundings.

...but not doing so very well. It was still more than enough to strike absolute fear into her. 

She glanced at the porcelain object in her hand. It would barely be enough to take out one. She looked around and tried to come up with another plan, and realized that the person hiding closest to her was standing around of a table with more glass and porcelain decorations that she could use.

Well, I guess that's a start...

She stepped forward nervously. She'd never really hurt a thing in a life (physically at least ;P), not even a bug. It chilled her to think of bashing the heavy object over someone'es head, undoubtedly spilling blood. Plus, she didn't even know if these people were bad yet.

But Cho Hee said there was no one else here...and what kind of decent people would be able to break into another person's house like this.

She gripped the ornament and gained her resolve.

I will not be the damsel in distress anymore.

She glanced at the person hiding behind the table once more. Their back was turned to her and she couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. The hardest part was getting over there without anyone noticing, and she was still relatively far from the stranger.

She took in yet another heavy breath and decided to simply take it slowly. Taeyeon stooped down and started to walk extremely slowly towards the person, using the banister for a vulnerable yet decent cover. Thankfully it was getting darker, so she it was easier to carry out her stealth mission. 

Closer and closer she got to the person. Her breath was caught in , her heart beating faster and faster, anticipating a jump for when the person would suddenly turn around and see her creeping towards him or her. As she approached even closer, she started to better see the appearance and outline of the person, yet she still could not decipher who or what exactly it was. She felt the hand gripping the ornament start to slowly become sweaty, and she found herself suddenly extremely afraid.

Only a few...more...steps...

She was starting approach the hallway across from where she was hiding, and as soon as she passed that hallway, she would reach the person. She inched closer and closer, her heart beating and her eyes steadfast on her target.

In a few more moments that felt extremely long and strenous to her, Taeyeon knew it was time to take her chance. She was now less than three metres away from the person, and miraculously, they were still unaware of everything. Barely daring to breathe, she raised her right arm with the porcelain object, ready to bring it crashing down on the person's skull.

Mianhe, omma. Your daughter's about to do something extremely insane.

At the moment, a pair of arms reached out from the side hallway, one clasping onto and the other around her waist. Struggled as she might, she couldn't break away, and she knew better than to scream now.

I will not be the damsel in distress.

Before she could stop herself, she swung her right arm over, and brought the porcelain ornament right down on the person's head.

She felt the exploding impact, the person's arms weakened immediately, and she broke free. She turned around to see who her captor was. The person was now lying on the ground, his or her face still covered by a hood.

Her blood pumping, Taeyeon bent down and ripped the hood away from the person's face.

She nearly gasped when she saw who it was.

Leeteuk oppa...

And there he was, lying unconscious and dazed, blood flowing out from his head.

Taeyeon pulled away, breathing heavily. She stared, horrified, at the body.

What have I done?

Before she had time to figure what to do next, she suddenly saw multiple shadows surrounding her. She turned around, and to her horror, found herself surrounded.

"Well done," a female voice spoke. "You managed to kill him even before I did."

I'M BAAAAACK!

It's summer so I'll finally be able to update more (I hope). Just finished exams and *phew* I had a heavy year this year so sorry!

Well, thanks for those staying with me and yes, I promise Taeyeon will redeem herself in the next chapter.

See you guys soon!

RANDOM PICTURE TIME:

"Yo Fany, look over dere~"

"OMG WE TOTALLY APPROOOVE~! ♥"