Dead Leaves

II

«We were waiting for you!» Daeshim continued and Elaine thought that "we" also included Yohan. She hadn't seen him for a while, he hadn't stopped by when he arrived from Korea earlier that month.

They reached the entrance, Daeshim held the dark wooden door open, beckoning her to advance first. If the outside had enchanted her, the inside did the same. Elaine took a few steps forward, her mouth open and her dark eyes sparkling with wonder. Wood reigned in that gloomy environment, from the walls to the original period furniture. A long chandelier, of dark brass and floral decoration, hung still and frail from the center of the high coffered ceiling, the same dark wood as the room and with carved edges. In front of Elaine, an imposing wooden staircase, the steps of which were covered with a Persian carpet, stood solemnly. Elaine felt a strong desire to climb the steps and touch the smooth wood of the handrail. She took another step forward and felt something soft under her feet, immediately looked down and noticed another carpet on the ground, large enough to cover most of the space up to the first step, embellished with decorations similar to those found on the ladder. Whoever chose those rugs had good taste.

«Do you like it?» Daeshim asked, smiling. He reached down to take off his shoes and Elaine only at that moment noticed the shoes left near the entrance. Elaine still remembered the surprise she felt when she moved into the house shared by her mother and Daeshim's father. When she used to live in London, she never had to take off her shoes. By now, however, she was used to that custom and she didn't pay too much attention to it.

«Yes!» She imitated her stepbrother and took off her shoes. Daeshim handed her some blue slippers, pulled out of a wooden cabinet not far from the door.

«Did you imagine it this way when I described it to you?»

Elaine smiled, enraptured by the memory of the first time she had talked with him about the house. «No, you haven't done it justice one bit.»

«Well, I'm not the writer here,» he defended himself. Elaine continued to look around. Until that moment her gaze had remained fixed on the spectacle in front of her, but behind her stepbrother, she saw an open wooden door, from which she could only glimpse a segment of a long corridor, whose atmosphere seemed to be in line with that of the atrium. Who knows what was hiding beyond that ajar door, the desire to explore the house became more and more alive.

«I know, I know!» Daeshim said as if he had read her thoughts. «Before showing you around, I wanted you to see your room and I'd like to introduce you to the others.» Elaine already knew who he wanted to introduce before anyone else. She had promised Daeshim's father to call him to describe that person, but hearing those words from Daeshim made some of her curiosity disappear.

Elaine assumed an expression that Daeshim would have called funny, as she thought about the fact that she would have to meet new people. Communication was not her strong suit and she disliked the awkward silences created during introductions or pleasantries. Her Korean was no longer what it had been a few years earlier. Part of her feared that the other tenants would laugh at her strong English accent. Daeshim had already told her that not all the other guys were fluent in English, although they had been in England for a while, and therefore she could not communicate in her native language. Yohan sure would laugh at her, as he always did, and although there was no meanness to his jokes, they hurt her pride a little. With Daeshim it was different. Being good in both languages, he was always a support for her. When she spoke she could mix English and Korean and he wouldn't even notice.

«Are you coming?» Daeshim had climbed the first steps and looked at her from above. Elaine hurried to join him.

She wanted to focus on the architecture of the house, but Daeshim started talking, distracting and forcing her to focus on the conversation. «How was your trip?»