Fly High | Dreamcatcher

Chapter 5

On the evening of Monday, Yoohyeon sat by herself in one of her favourite rooms - The Reading Room, housing a different array of books from the library, entertaining more non-fiction books.

She let herself slide down in the armchair until she was curled up comfortably and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and releasing it. The emptiness of the room overwhelmed her small self.

She had no idea where the others were, but from the gleeful cheers she could hear outside of the doors, they were gathered together. Having fun.

Without her.

I guess I've always had a problem." Yoohyeon laughed weakly. "It'd be nice if I could become closer to them. But I can't make them come closer to me. Maybe I'm the one who needs to change..." She frowned at her low thoughts and shook her head.

"Positive thoughts!" She told herself with a wide smile.

Yoohyeon forced herself up onto her socked feet and ran over to the window furthest from the door to block out the happy noises.

"I wish something more could happen. Something more exciting." She stared down at the dark woods. "Yup, something more exciting than studying..."

***

"Lunch!" SuA called, ringing the hand bell with cool calmness.

The other girls sat quietly at the lengthy wood table in a room just off from the kitchen where copper pots and pans lined the walls and always smelt like thyme.

SuA rung the bell again for good measure and JiU bit back a smile at how much SuA was enjoying the power of leader the teacher had given her. 

From their arrival at the estate, their teacher, had elected a leader to oversee their studying i.e, making sure everyone was actually working and to oversee lunch, carrying out her family's tradition of ringing the bell before lunch.

From the furthest end of the table from SuA, JiU passed cutlery to Dami and Yoohyeon, who each gave it to the person next to them until they all had a knife and fork but SuA, who was to receive her cutlery last.

Finally, Siyeon passed her missing knife and fork with an expressionless face and they began to eat, the only sound being their chewing and moving of cutlery.

JiU looked down at her own plate at the small white masses of whatever it was that looked suspiciously similar to a clump of flowers. It was food though and their teacher had made it -Should be nice.

As expected, it tasted delicious, though she had no idea whatever its name was.

It was odd to see the others so silent as they ate, the only emotion expressed being the tastiness of the food. Usually, at High tea and Breakfast, Siyeon would have made some unfunny joke, Handong would have said something unintentionally funny and Dami would be making snide remarks.

This was the only odd thing about the place.

As soon as the last person placed their cutlery vertically on the plate, the silent atmosphere was broken.

"Whew!" Gahyeon broke out. "I almost thought I was going to laugh when I saw your face, JiU."

JiU grinned back. "Wonder what would have happened if you had."

"I would have told you off." SuA said with a slight smile. "And as per teacher's orders, made you write 'I must not laugh at High tea as it is rude.' A hundred or more times. In French."

"You wouldn't." Gahyeon pouted.

"I'd give you three times as many if you try to act cute."

"Ah, SuA!"

JiU and Siyeon met eyes in amusement. It was then that JiU realised she'd almost forgotten Siyeon's early morning venture into the woods. And her unnerving face as she returned. It could have simply been the lack of light that made Siyeon seem creepier then, but there was definitely something that hadn't been right.

JiU smiled briefly and looked away quickly at Yoohyeon, who was being unusually quiet.

She wasn't still sulking about yesterday when they were talking without her, was she?