Spring Snowflakes

🌸 chapter 20: storms, tunes, and wines

The sound of the wind outside the mansion woke Youngro up. Slowly, her eyes fluttered opened as the noises outside kept on getting louder. It looked like there was a hurricane outside. That was unusual, as strong winds and hurricanes usually occurred between June to September in South Korea. It seemed like the weather was a bit unfriendly that night.

Still, it successfully woke the girl up from her sleep... and when she tried to close her eyes and drifted back to her dreams... the wind just got louder.

"Tsk." Youngro clicked her tongue as she kicked the thick blanket away from her petite body.

Her visions were somehow blurry at first since she was forcefully woke up from her deep sleep. She was slightly surprised as she found herself inside an unfamiliar room...

Ah.

She was at the Crown Prince's mansion. She was staying for the night there.

Youngro gradually gathered her consciousness, then she rubbed her eyes to get a clearer vision of her surroundings.

It was around 2 AM in the morning and the lights inside the room were turned off except for the bedside lamp, shining dimly in warm white colors. That was the only source of light, however it was enough to help Youngro found her slippers that were given by Sooho placed on the floor by the left side of the bed.

The girl stood up on her feet, trying to steady herself for a second.

"I need to get some water." She uttered with a hoarse voice.

Boonok had prepared 2 liters of mineral water in Youngro's room, but Youngro had drained all of the water since she was feeling less dehydrated earlier that day. Thanks to the many schedules, she felt like she didn't get the chance to have enough water during the day.

Youngro gripped the door handle and slowly pushed it open. She let her head peeked out to the hallway to see the situation outside her room for a second. There was no one there, but the lights were turned on brighter although dimmed, compared to her dark bedroom.

"The kitchen... over here..." she mumbled as she stepped out of her room and let her feet walked their way to where the kitchen was. It wasn't that far. She just had to walk to the other hallway across her room.

The lights in every room inside the mansion was still turned on, however it was set to be rather dimmed at night and so was the kitchen. It took her a while, but she finally found the fridge where they stored the water.

A bottle of water would be enough for the night, she thought.

CLINK.

"Eung?"

Like a surprised bunny, Youngro's eyes instantly widened, and her ears were fully alert. What was that sound? She was pretty sure there was no one in the hallway through her way to the kitchen, and there was nobody else but her in the kitchen. What was that noise?

CLINK.

There it was again.

By the time she heard the noise for the second time, she was at last fully awake. Although she was a bit frightened, her curiosity pushed her to try finding the source of noise. It was from the corner of the kitchen.

"Who... who's there?" She shouted.

There was no one answering.

"Hello?"

Although scared, Youngro walked her way closer to the corner of the kitchen where she found some stairs to go down to the basement. She forgot Sooho told her that there was a basement in the Crown Prince's mansion for wine cellars, but they didn't get the chance to go downstairs that day. Now that she found the way there, she really hoped she wouldn't have to go there late at night like this... not alone, at least.