Chapter Text
No one realized they had been holding their breath until finally there was a break in the forever-dense foliage, bleach-bright and fast-growing like the rising sun. They had been on this white-stone path, under the cool shade of towering maples, oaks, aspens and sumacs for what felt like the better half of an hour, and though the carriage ride had been smooth, no one had escaped the urge to keep vigil through the windows, certain just beyond their sight, something or some things were following alongside in the shadows. Now that the chateau loomed before them (and the forest begrudgingly retreated back ), the anxious-eager buzz at approaching their final destination resumed.
"That is a school?" Gahyeon marveled, eyes level at the narrow, front-facing portal through which the coachman's bobbing head and shoulders could be seen. Beyond him, a backdrop of white-pepper brick two stories tall, crowned with slate-shingled roofing. A startling pinch at her heel whirled Gahyeon back around, her narrowed eyes landing first on her older sister, then to the cohort sitting beside her. Both suspects hardly suppressed a smile; between them, they wore a completed guilty grin, though neither fessed up, nor turned in the other.
Handong beside Gahyeon leaned harder into her side, already partially pressed into her as it was in the tight cabin, and murmured something for her ear only. Instantly, Gahyeon's triumphant eyes landed on Yoohyeon before she delivered retribution with a jab to her knee, which Yoohyeon took the full brunt of with a groan, having nowhere to dodge. Still, it was Gahyeon's sister to speak up.
"You'll get runs in your stockings perched on your knees like that. Besides, you were practically mooning us."
"I was not!" Gahyeon flushed furiously, tugging at her skirt hem as if reassuring herself its length, even after she turned fully around, planting her bottom squarely.
"It was definitely a waxing moon," Yoohyeon chimed in with a thoughtful purse of her lips, sending JiU beside her in a fit of airy sniggering. Gahyeon's heel stomped the carriage floor just as the wheel outside snagged a root, jostling the four of them into one another. Untangling, Gahyeon shoved JiU particularly hard back into her own seat.
"Yoohyeon's nicer when you don't encourage her. You two are the worst together, I can't believe I'm stuck in America with both of you." JiU's brow leapt up, hearing the tale-tell waver in her sister's tone.
"Gahyeonie," JiU's peace-seeking palm came up, yielded, blanketed Gahyeon's knee warmly. "I'm sorry. You're really that nervous?"
"What?" Gahyeon was struck incredulous. "I didn't say-- And anyway, if I was, it would be normal. I mean, aren't you all?" Gahyeon asked the cabin with a sweeping gaze, reading ambiguous apprehension, until Handong nodded thoughtfully.
"I am. I didn't think I would be so much the second time around, but the nerves feel the same." Handong paused, shaking her head. "No, that's not true. This time I have our Gahyeonie," Handong nudged Gahyeon affectionately, earning the curl at the corner of her lip. "Still. We're all we have here. It's important we make a good impression with our hosts. We'll be dependent on their kindness from now on."
JiU and Yoohyeon exchanged a glance, breathing shallowly as if the air had gone thin. Between the snug spoon of their touching thighs, Yoohyeon's hand withdrew into her own lap, JiU's hand emerging seconds after to join the other in smoothing out the decorative ribbon of Gahyeon's knee-highs. Made pristine again, JiU met Gahyeon's gaze with a reassuring smile.
"Don't be nervous. Everyone ends up loving you, you're the baby. Just keep your clothes tidy and follow my lead. Eonni won't lead you astray." Gahyeon's stare remained dubious for a beat, wanting to be indignant at her infantilization, but ultimately the peeved furrow of her brow dissipated with the warm dawning of trusting eyes. JiU smiled wide, winked, then sat back, a hand naturally resetting to the warmth between she and Yoohyeon before she caught herself; instead, she joined her hands in her lap with a slight wring.
"Mmmm," Yoohyeon doubted, "maybe follow my lead instead. Your sister's heart is in the right place, but she's not our translator, is she?" Yoohyeon did not need to see JiU (though she still could, kind of, in the corner of her eye) to know she was wearing the stricken face of the casually undermined. "You're better off listening to me, unnie. I'll look out for you." Yoohyeon's assurance turned to Handong then, as she slipped from Korean into fluent Mandarin. "You too, Dongdong. I mean, poor JiU doesn't have a clue what we're saying now, does she? Her English isn't much better." JiU's faux hurt shifted to very real cluelessness as she looked between them, then to Gahyeon, who was grinning like the Cheshire Cat because, for once, she was in on the joke.
"Gahyeonie," JiU wheedled for a translation, jostling Gahyeon's legs with her own. The carriage came to a stop before Gahyeon could show mercy.
Breaths were held again as the girls pricked their ears, sensitive to the creak of the carriage and the crunch of gravel as the coachman dismounted. They listened as a second set of hooves trotted closer, slowed, came to a silent stop behind them, an echoing thud of boots landing. The crunch of footsteps, the restless, airy snorting of the horses, more groans from the carriage as they felt their luggage being unstrapped and unloaded. Unsure of polite procedure, the girls sat still until they could no longer make out footsteps. Despite JiU and Yoohyeon's confident boasts of leadership earlier, they searched for how to proceed among each other all the same until Handong, nearest to the door, reached for the handle. She nearly had it in her grasp when it twisted, seemingly on its own before the door swung wide, revealing a girl in an identical school uniform.
"Planning on living in the carriage, ladies? SuA's sarcasm was questionably amicable, bright in tone but delivered with a pinched brow. "Hurry up. Our bags are making better first impressions than we are." Holding the door wide, SuA stepped to the side and began to usher with a dramatic sweep of her arm. They each climbed out, sun-blind and stumbling toward the silhouettes of two others in uniform, joining them in taking in the awe of the courtyard as soon as their vision adjusted.
It was wide. Gratuitous. The same white stones that had lined their path here also paved the entirety of the empty, yawning space, up to the ledges of the garden plots framing the perimeter of the U-winged chateau. Each garden plot sported precisely-distanced hedges, trimmed in either conical, rectangular or spherical shapes with not a single branch out of place. The hedges were grown taller, wall-like where they neighbored the white wrought-iron fencing, just high enough for privacy. Only through the still-opened gates could each girl steal one last, compulsive peek into the woods beyond. None took longer than SuA, who for all her fussing was the last to notice their host's approach.
"Ah, you've arrived! All of you, I hope," the approaching woman spoke first in English, then took a headcount in French, pleased as she ended on, "sept". Yoohyeon felt the eyes of the others frantically leap to her for translation, undoubtedly thrown off by the woman's thick French accent as badly as the French itself. Only through context was Yoohyeon herself able to understand. She focused on the woman's mauve-painted lips as she switched back into her slippery English. "Yes, good. Welcome. I am Madame Gagnier, estate keeper of Château de Jannvry. You all are standing in the Cour d'Honneur, did you know?" As Madame Gagnier began to gesture to the wings flanking them, Yoohyeon turned to the huddling group of school girls and began to translate in Korean. She had gotten as far as introducing Madame Gagnier when the woman herself cleared her throat aggressively. When all eyes returned to her, the thin frown that had formed livened into a smile again, a little too puckered. "I am sorry, were you speaking?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Madame Gagnier," Yoohyeon dipped her head down in apology, rising to explain in earnest. "It's just some of the other girls aren't as far along in their English yet, so until we join with the translator, I thought I would help them along." Madame Gagnier frowned, more perplexed than displeased, though she sounded both.
"Translator? You girls were instructed to learn English as part of the exchange program, were you not?"
"Well, yes, but most of them have only been learning since last year." Madame Gagnier's arms folded tightly across her pressed blouse, critical eyes seeing Yoohyeon as an individual for the first time, ears pricked to Yoohyeon's own slight accent.
"Not you, you seem to speak comfortably." Yoohyeon, taken aback, smiled at the compliment. It was short-lived. "Which is good, because no one in this estate speaks Korean." Yoohyeon heard the murmur of shock and confirmation between Gahyeon and Handong beside her, their reactions rippling understanding through the rest of them. "You may translate for the girls, but I recommend they double up their private studies. Lessons will be tedious until they can follow along on their own." Yoohyeon felt a burn of shame that did not belong to her, internalized it, bit her tongue, nodded.
"Yes, Madame Gagnier. I will let them know." Turning her back stiffly to Madame Gagnier, Yoohyeon translated the details that might have slipped the cracks for the others, bringing them all to speed. She looked pointedly to JiU, a pathetic grimace begging her for strength right before she turned to face Madame Gagnier again, refitting her polite smile.
"Right, well, shall we inside, then? There is plenty more to see before dinner. Come," she gestured to the group to follow as she lead the way, unerring in her path even as the coachman lumbered up beside, wanting to cut past and ahead with one of the larger suitcases. The girls murmured compulsive apologies as he halted to let them pass, grunting resigned displeasure in response.
As they fed into the foyer, seven sets of eyes shot in seven separate directions, at taxidermy, at oil paintings, at mounted rapiers, rifles, regalia of foreign kings and kingdoms. The room seemed a museum, cluttered less with living and more with trophies; with intention, with pride, and perhaps, obsession. Furniture pieces of varying materials, styles and eras paired with pieces around them, making sub-sections of theme and decorum, color and mood. In one corner, the bookshelves were lined with display cases of pinned insects. Metallic beetles, delicate butterflies, massive moths, spiders with each spindly leg meticulously accounted for. In another, actual tomes lined the shelves, hard-spined and gold-trimmed. Complete sets, limited prints and first editions of various original languages sat behind thick paned glass, locked away from dust and fingerprints.
The only furniture meant for sitting corralled them all into the center of the room, where an array of love seats and individual chairs encircled the focal point of the center wall -- an impressive display of elk, stag and moose racks, interspersed with beaded tapestries. SuA took the most comfortable-looking love seat, reaching for the taller of her carriage-mates insistently until the girl walked into her grasp to be tugged into the seat beside her. Everyone else remained standing, Gahyeon looking to JiU and Yoohyeon's example before following it to a tee, Handong lingering farthest back, listening to the exchange by the door. Madame Gagnier slipped some money to the coachmen each as they dusted their gloves of the last of the luggage. Handong watched them climb back into the respective carriages and wheel the horses around. As they passed through the gates, Handong felt an inexplicable loss. She thought she had been the only one to see them go, but as she turned at the approach of Madame Gagnier, her eyes caught with Dami's doing the same. No going back, they seemed to realize simultaneously, and though they were on opposite sides of the room, Handong felt the solidarity of Dami's shared paranoia like the holding of hands.
"Much more beautiful on the inside, yes?" Madame Gagnier preened, casting a sightless look about herself. "At least, more comfortable, I think. Please, sit!" Madame Gagnier encouraged to those still standing, though fussed no further as they remained as they were. With her hands clasped in front of her, she picked up the tour with renewed enthusiasm. "This is the west wing of the chateau. Up the stairs are the bedrooms. The dining hall is just past those double doors -- we will be seeing it shortly. Also on this floor, the master living room and billiard room. Most lessons will be taken in the billiard room, so naturally any books you may need for supplementary study can be found there. I ask you do not enter the master living room." With each sentence, Madame Gagnier yielded a pause for Yoohyeon to translate, directing attention like a stewardess to each part of the chateau in the interim. "The north wing is mostly storage and staging these days. You are welcome to look, but not touch. The south wing houses the staff. These are servants of the estate. They will cook your meals, make your rooms, but they are not affiliated with the exchange program. Give them peace and privacy and they will give you the same. Though if you need, the kitchen is just off the main entrance. Now!" Madame Gagnier clapped her hands together. "Before I send you off to your rooms to clean up, tell me each of your names. I will work on learning them over dinner. Let's see, ah, you!" Madame Gagnier pointed to the girl farthest from her, farthest from everyone, really. "Like a dormouse, you are. I will need to know your name just to find you! What is it, chérie?"
"Dami." Madame Gagnier's eyes narrowed as she repeated the name, speaking each syllable suspiciously. Without a word, she pointed to the next girl, tucked between SuA and the arm of a love seat.
"Siyeon."
Madame Gagnier gave a vindicated nod, which confused the girls as she simultaneously tutted a rapid string of "no"'s with a ceasing motion of her wrist. "No, girls, your English names. You each chose one on your exchange applications?" A pause as Yoohyeon clarified for Siyeon, looking hopelessly wide-eyed at failing something as simple as her name.
"Ah," Siyeon understood. "Monica," she corrected, her "i" syllable taking on a long "-ee" sound. Coincidentally, this pronunciation matched Madame Gagnier's, who tasted the more familiar name with relish before turning back to Dami expectantly.
"Dami."
"No, chérie," Madame Gagnier corrected, then said as clearly as she could think to, "what is your English name?"
"Dami." Madame Gagnier looked to Yoohyeon for assistance. Before Yoohyeon could repeat the question, Dami spoke in unapologetic Korean. "I know what's she's asking."
"Then why won't you just appease her?" Yoohyeon asked, feeling the heat of Madame Gagnier's exasperation at the back of her head. Dami's eyes softened, steeled, smoothed into a silent resolve, leaving Yoohyeon lost for words.
"Emma!" SuA called out with a raise of her hand, before clarifying with a point toward Dami. "Her name is Emma, Madame Gagnier. My name is Alice." Madame Gagnier's attention shifted entirely to SuA, taking her in with pleasant surprise. SuA smiled sweetly back at her, then turned her head to Yoohyeon, next in line. The smile grew somehow sweeter the longer it sat, despite not changing between recipients, until it was thicker than the lump in Yoohyeon's throat.
"My name is Rachel."
"I am Lily," JiU said quickly, the momentum running from there.
"Hi, I'm Lucy," said Gahyeon.
"And I am Della," Handong ended, glancing in Dami's direction to send a squeeze through that look of knowing, but Dami's eyes remained vacantly downcast.
"It is a pleasure to meet you all. Now, I'm sure you are all eager to rest. I've had the coachmen place your luggage by the staircase. Four rooms have been prepared for you with beds for two. They will be the rooms with doors opened. You're free to work the arrangements out among yourselves, unless . . ." Madame Gagnier looked between the girls, "you all will not squabble over who gets the room to herself, will you?"
"No, Madame Gagnier, of course not," SuA assured, sniping ahead of Yoohyeon's similar, if not less ass-kissing, sentiment. Madame Gagnier nodded firmly, her faith in SuA sparking in her appraising eyes.
"Right! Well then, dinner will be in the next hour. Please take your luggage up with you and be changed out of your travel clothes before sitting at the table. I will see you all shortly." Madame Gagnier excused herself in the direction of the south wing, disappearing through a door that clicked audibly as it closed behind her.
"That was a little brown-nosing, don't you think? You should apologize to Dami, too." JiU suggested, judgmental eyes heavy on SuA, whose flippant shrug in response was as much an apology as she was going to give.
"I was simply speeding things along. Aren't you exhausted from the journey?" SuA stood, stretched emphatically, picked a leaf out of Siyeon's hair. "I don't know about you all, but I will be taking the first washroom I see. Siyeon, find us a good room?" She patted Siyeon's cheek fondly, then rummaged through her luggage, pulling out a small bag before racing up the stairs two by two. When Siyeon followed shortly after, it was far more carefully, balancing a full-sized suitcase with either arm.
Less three as Dami wordlessly ascended next, the girls diverged like compass points once more throughout the room, returning to pieces that had captivated their eyes in passing.
"Yoohyeon, over here!" JiU gestured, bent over a paneled display table, fingertip millimeters from the glass as she pointed. Yoohyeon came to her side, twining her arm in JiU's as she settled close. When she looked down, she instinctively shrank back, turning her head abruptly away behind JiU's shoulder.
"Uugh, bugs? JiU! Why would I want to--"
"--No, but look." JiU jabbed more insistently, fingernail tapping an eager tempo. In a particularly rare collection consisting (according to the display placards providing first the Latin, then the English name) of a jeweled flower mantis, a death's head hawk moth, a Lohita grandis and a blue morpho butterfly, there was an obvious hole, center-most of the display; a place left barren except for a smattering of silver pins and one additional display placard.
"Araneidae mundus", read the scientific name, and though JiU had no hope of pronouncing it, she silently read the name again and again until the words were familiar in the way of a picture. Yoohyeon read it too, with more focus than perhaps usual to blur out the body-long antennae of the Lohita grandis in her peripherals. Latin had not been among her studies, and yet as she read the card starting from the top, she sensed its translation. "World-Weaver," she muttered, and a flick of her gaze to the common name below proved her correct.
"What is it?" JiU asked, turning her ear more toward Yoohyeon without looking away from the case.
"World-weaver spider," Yoohyeon repeated, staring hard at the gold lettering as her sudden sensation of claircognizance slipped away like sand.
"World-weaver," JiU repeated, then clutched Yoohyeon closer as she asked, "Where is it, do you think?" The second JiU began to cast her eyes suspiciously toward the ceiling, Yoohyeon ducked her head involuntarily.
"Aish, you're not funny, JiU," Yoohyeon griped, batting at JiU's shoulder as JiU's laughter begged to differ. Forgiving her just as quickly, Yoohyeon drew JiU in front of her, not unlike a shield, arms wrapping around her waist from behind. She was tall enough to see past JiU's shoulder, though she looked everywhere but, including the ceiling rafters, much to her embarrassment. "Maybe it was never there in the first place. Someone's unfinished collection."
"Hm," JiU hummed a note of melancholy, frowning. "How sad," and she truly sounded it. Looked it too as her hand fell away from the glass, sliding instead over Yoohyeon's arm still snug around her, clutching her that much closer. Yoohyeon braved a creepy crawly periphery to glimpse JiU's expression, concern in her gaze, but JiU was right back to smiling as she turned in Yoohyeon's arms. "Should we head upstairs?"
"See?" Gahyeon gestured in the direction of JiU and Yoohyeon as they gathered their belongings and began the trek up. "They've been inseparable all summer. So you'll be my roommate? I don't want to be alone, and I don't really know the other girls well." Handong smiled, nodded.
"Yeah, okay. I don't really want to be alone, either. This place . . . I don't know, it feels like it's watching me?" Both girls glanced around once more, dead eyes of glass and painted pigments mounted on every wall seeming to follow them.
"Yeah . . ." Gahyeon agreed, instinctively drawing in closer to Handong. "C'mon, maybe it's not so bad upstairs."
* * * * *
The upstairs hallway was long, four doors on either side of her for a total of eight rooms. Dami could not help but notice the rooms open to them were staggered, a closed door between each of them so that no boarding room shared a single wall. She didn't know why this unsettled her. The walls of the chateau seemed thin; not having a neighbor could only mean better quality peace and quiet. Maybe that in itself was the problem.
Proceeding down the hall, Dami peeked into the first available room. Two beds with cream lace linens sat perfectly made, two nightstands between them. Two west-facing windows framed by chiffon drapes filtered in the orange rays of a freshly-setting sun, birthing angular shadows that would later keep her up at night. Dami, not wanting the room closest to the stairs, continued onward, peeking into the next room. It was nearly identical, except for its east-facing windows, giving the room an even blanket of dim light. There would be no sleeping in past dawn in an east-facing room, so Dami moved on to the next.
"Oh," Dami said as she peered into the third room, catching eyes with Siyeon sitting at the edge of one bed, suitcase at her feet. Another suitcase, presumably SuA's, sat at the foot of the empty bed. "Sorry, I'll--"
"Wait!" Siyeon called, unfurling an arm from where she was hugging her knees to her chest to reach out as Dami turned to excuse herself. Dami paused, turned back, tried to decipher the look in Siyeon's eyes, but before she could they leapt to something behind her shoulder.
"There you are!" Dami heard SuA before she felt her brush past, stepping aside just in time to avoid SuA's toiletry bag swinging against her calf. SuA tossed the small clutch onto the empty bed, turning a full 360 degrees as she appraised the room with mildly pleased regard. Walking to the window, SuA took in the view, and with her back turned to them both, Dami looked over to Siyeon once more. But whatever Siyeon had to say, Dami quickly found it could not be said in present company. Siyeon merely forced a smile before joining SuA at the window, taking in the distant view of the estate's stables and orchards.
Trying hard not to linger on what seemed like distress in Siyeon's eyes, Dami proceeded to the last room down the hall. Though she had rejected the second room for its east-facing windows, it didn't matter to her now, wanting only to be settled. She did not expect anyone to join her, and nobody did.