The following day, Kai woke to his mom and Kevin already gone. She had left a note telling him who to contact in case of an emergency, and to text her for anything he wanted from the city. He did so immediately, asking her to get the english program he had been meaning to ask about the previous night, and she gave him an affirmative answer. 

He ate a bowl of cereal for his late breakfast, and then instead of going outside as he normally did (to avoid the watched feeling), he decided to wander the house. He hadn't actually properly done that in the time that they had lived here, and so he started first with the downstairs, moving through every room. 

He had been in most of these before, mostly helping to unpack things, but hadn’t spent any real time in them. There were paintings everywhere, on almost every wall and every six feet or so apart, and he wondered once aagin why anyone would decorate so heavily with the things. He paused as he moved through the library, though, because one of the big, ancient family portraits caught his eye. 

There was a small Korean boy in one of the Lee family portraits, one that looked to be from the late 1800’s from the clothing, and in an odd way Kai almost felt connected to the little boy. He looked closer just to see if there were any information about the portrait, but nothing was on the painting to indicate when it was done or who the people were and so he moved on to explore the rest of the house.

In the attic he found boxes upon boxes of papers, mostly family lineage papers of Kevin's family. Interesting stuff, to be honest... Kai hadn’t really asked any questions about Kevin’s family or how they had found themselves living in England. Apparently they were some of the first Korean families to move to England and establish trade between the East and the colonized world. They became wealthy from their dealings and built this house back in the 1860's, and bought land for crops and cattle, becoming proficient in many areas of business. Kevin decended from them and Kai had to smile... he could see the same hardworking aspect of the ancient Lee's in Kevin.

He looked up to see the sunlight fading from the attic window, and realized that he had been up there reading for hours. The old papers were strewn all around him, and as he gathered them his stomach rumbled in protest of the long hours spent reading. He put everything back where he found it and dusted off his clothing before heading down to find something to eat.

He quickly made himself a turkey sandwich, and then grabbed a bag of chips before climbing the stairs back to his bedroom. Sitting on the corner of the desk, he watched the hunting picture for any signs of life as he ate his food. The sandwich was soon gone, then the chips, but Kai stayed there on the desk and continued to watch. For two hours.

Finally, he gathered his tumbling thoughts, stood and moved to the painting. "Uh, hello?"

No answer.

"So you only come to spy on me when I don't want you there? Why? What do you want? Who are you?"

He felt a little silly speaking to a painting like this, but at least no one was there to hear him. Including the ghost. Frustrated, he once again tried to pull the painting off of the wall, with of course no success as it clung stubbornly through the magic of the curse. 

"FINE!!!" He yelled, and stomped back to his desk to get onto the internet, trying to ignore the pressing curiosity about the ghost as he immersed himself in youtube. Every once in a while, though, he would glance at the painting despite his efforts to forget about it, and a few hours later it finally paid off.

A boy about his age stood inside of the painting and obviously watching him, but when Kai turned his head to look fully, the boy began to fade away. "Please, wait! I don't mean any harm... I want to talk to you!" Kai said as he stood up, eyes trained on those in the painting. It seemed like forever before the boy slowly moved back into full view, and Kai's breat