chapter 3

Nobody was in the room when Kim Rinhwa entered. The lights and AC were off, four of the beds already taken. 

Looks like I'll have to take the one furthest away from the door.. Wait-- which is the guys side?

Curious, he opened one of the cupboards to find a maid uniform, which he quickly slammed the cupboard shut and walked over to the other side. A cardboard box was beside his bed, with all his personal belongings that he'd brought along. As he was hanging up his clothes in the cupboard, he recalled what happened earlier in the day.

"New kid!"

Rinhwa turned around. Obviously, because he was the new kid, no? A boy with black hair jogged up to him. 

"You play any sports?"

"Baseball?"

"Perfect." the boy grinned as Rinhwa cocked an eyebrow. "You just finished showing your talents to the two brats right? Come with me." without waiting for an answer, he grabbed Rinhwa's arm and dragged him to a locker room.

"You're not gonna play in that are you?" the boy pointed to the black uniform Rinhwa was in.

"But you're wearing the same thing as I am," Rinhwa protested.

"Here, change into this." the boy handed Rinhwa a blue NIKE Dri-FIT shirt and a pair of shorts that were probably too small for him.

The shorter boy quickly stripped off his butler uniform, and slipped on the clothes.

"You're not gonna just stand there, are you?" the shorter boy asked Rinhwa, whose face had gone red.

"It's embarrassing."

"Fine, go out to the field when you've changed." the other boy hurried out into the field as Rinhwa stood in the locker room looking at his clothes.

Quickly, Rinhwa changed into the clothes to boy had given him and put his uniform neatly in a locker and went outside.

It was hot. Very hot.

The sun was shining bright, not even ten minutes out at the field and Rinhwa was sweating like no tomorrow.

"Hey! New kid! C'mere!" the boy from just now waved his arms and Rinhwa rushed over.

The boy handed him a bat and a helmet. "We're up against Junhong, one of the youngest members of our mini baseball team," the shorter boy explained. "We're just having a friendly match, 6 innings long, so probably about 1 to 1 and a half hours only."

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

Someone blew the whistle. It was the start of the match.

Two hours later, Rinhwa's team won. 

"Not bad, new kid," the shorter boy congratulated. "Not everyone manages to win Junhong, much less on their first try." just then, Junhong walked up to him. "What's your name?"

"Rinhwa. Kim Rinhwa."

"How would you like to be on our team, Rinhwa?" Junhong asked sincerely.

Rinhwa thought about it for a minute.

"Why not?"

The sound of someone knocking on the door brought Rinhwa back to attention as he smiled to himself at the fond memory. "Coming," he said loudly as he opened the door, to find a girl with medium length hair standing at the door.

"Hello," Rinhwa greeted.

"Hi. I'm Ryu Hyeri. I'm one of the new maids," she explained and Rinhwa stepped aside for the girl to walk in.

"Your bed is opposite mine," Rinhwa said awkwardly as the girl looked at him. "The last bed over there," he pointed to the bed with the cardboard box beside it. "Everyone else has already moved in, so we're the last ones." the girl mumbled a small 'oh' and plopped herself down on the bed and started unpacking.

Rinhwa watched in curiousity as she took out some books and a sketchpad with a pencil attached to it and placed it on the drawer. 

"I'm Kim Rinhwa, by the way."

"Hi, Rinhwa."

Awkward silence again.

"You like books?"

"Yeah -- I love them."

Am I that poker-faced or is she just shy?

"You like drawing, too?"

"Yup."

"Can I see?"

Hyeri looked at Rinhwa and passed him her sketchbook.

Rinhwa's face lit up as he flipped through the pages of the sketchbook. She's really good at this.

"I like your drawings. They're really nice," Rinhwa complimented, and handed the sketchbook back to Hyeri.

"Thanks." Hyeri smiled.

Rinhwa was about to make conversation when there was a knock on the door and a lot of chatter.

"Comin' in!"

"Have some manners!"

"Well, sorry, Ms. Hye-nag!" and laughter.

The door opened, and the four trooped in without any further warning as they went over to their beds.

"Hey! You two must be.. uh.. Hyehwa and Rinri.. right?" Junghwa tried to recall what Yunho had said to the four earlier on.

"Junghwa hyung, you idiot," Hyunwoo said the last word in English and laughed. "It's Hyeri and Rinhwa. I'm Do Hyunwoo, the idiot over there is Kim Junghwa, the nagger over there," he pointed to Hyerin. "Is Kang Hyerin, and that's Kim Youyo- I mean Kim Miyoung," Hyunwoo burst out in laughter again at his own joke.

Hyerin glared at  Hyunwoo. "Forgive my dongsaeng, he's a bit of a blabbermouth," she explained. "Anyway, welcome aboard the HyeJungHyeHyunRinMi train." Hyerin grinned.

"HyeJungHyeHyunRinMi train?" Rinhwa asked in confusion.

"It's all of our first names, from the oldest to the youngest," Miyoung explained. "Since I'm the youngest, I'm at the end of the train. And since Hyerin's the oldest, she's at the front. Let's just hope she doesn't drive us off track," she joked, and everyone in the room laughed, even Hyeri, who's the shy one.

"Anyway, quickly finish packing, because there's dinner waiting for us in the servant's refectory. Or eatery, whatever you wanna call it." Junghwa announced to the group. "It's currently 7.02pm, so we have eight minutes to go there. Probably longer, because we have no idea where it is," he said sheepishly.

"Wow, hyung."

"Hwahwa, you idiot."

"I told you not to call me that!"

Rinhwa and Hyeri looked at each other as the others bickered, and they smiled to themselves. Looks like this was going to be a very fun job indeed, especially with all of their new friends.