pas·tiche

    [pæˈstɪtʃəʊ]

noun

A dramatic, literary, or musical piece openly imitating the previous works of other artists, often with satirical intent.

Kris is getting closer and closer, yet he really doesn’t know what he’s doing.

He’s being oblivious to the obvious.

That’s really sad.

I wish I could just push him towards the solution, because he is walking in the wrong direction.

The funny thing is, he had always been the smart one. Things have changed, I suppose.

Is there anything you want to ask me? I do have little time left. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stick around any longer.

Would you miss our conversations?

“It’s about you, Lee Chaerin.” I nodded slowly and looked at the rising sun. I had little time left before people would wake up and be able to find me. “You’re related to the doctor, aren’t you?”

Chaerin could only smirk and wait for me to realize that it was indeed time to leave her room before getting caught by one of the maids. I cringed and walked towards the door. “If you’re looking for him he’s d-”

“Dead. I know.” Her eyes were cold as ice.

I frowned and came to the sudden conclusion that she indeed wrote about herself. The formula. It was about her. In order to solve the mystery of her brother’s death, if they were siblings, she let herself get into the house, kept as a doll, to find it out on her own. To get closer to the truth, to increase the force.

“I don’t have any money to pay Zico for a doll, so I solved my problem by becoming one myself. The situation right now, but I feel like being close to finding something out.”

“What do you mean?” I could hear movement down the hallway. Chaerin petted the cat and looked me straight in the eye.

“What do I mean? I think that there’s a reason we’re all here. Daniel found something that he should not have. Now leave, we will talk soon. I don’t want to die in here as well.”

I grabbed the doorknob and waited for the maid to enter one of the rooms. When I got back home, two hours later, I couldn’t do anything but think about this complex situation. Chaerin and the doctor were related, I remembered her now. She was in a family photo Hyoyeon showed me at the office.

While looking at Yong Guk’s back as I followed him, I came to the sudden realization that it had started snowing outside. The winter’s cold invaded our hearts when we ascended the stairs to the third floor. The fear of getting caught was devouring our hope of finding Zelo ever again.

As we arrived on the third floor, we realized that this house was way too big. A floor a night seemed undoable, but we had no time to lose. I couldn’t bear seeing another body part of the young boy turning up.

“Let’s split up.” Hyosung whispered quietly while pointing at the right wing. “Yong Guk and I will search there, you guys go left. If something happens, just run for it. We’ll look after ourselves.”

Yong Guk nodded and Tao did too after my sign of approval. I looked at his slightly scared eyes and made him follow me to the left wing. I grabbed my notebook and started drawing the hallway, carefully counting the doors, making sure I did not forget to draw a room.

Tao whispered as he looked at one of the doors. “The Pink doll.” he read out loud and touched the sign on the door. We couldn’t enter for we could hear movement inside, someone was visiting that doll.

I cringed when hearing something I did not want to hear and continued walking. At the end of the hallway, we reached the library as we slowly opened the door, looking inside. It was a small one, certainly not the main library.

Of course I could see that Tao was freed from some of the suspense that had been killing him as he closed the door. This could be seen as a safe haven where we wouldn’t bump into hostile people like Zico or his slightly creepy maids.

“Look at all these books.” he yawned and could feel exhaustion taking over his body. “I’m not even sure Zico reads.” Tao looked around and grabbed a book, rubbing the archaic dust off the cover.