Hide And Seek

The sound of birds woke me from my fretful sleep. I slowly sat up and rubbed my eyes as the events from the night before came back into my mind. Sighing, I shoved off the bed sheet and swung my legs over the side of the bed staring through the glass door enthralled by the beautiful sunrise. The sky full of vivid lights blue, yellows and oranges a sight rarely seen in Melbourne due to the constant cloud cover.

I stood up wincing as my feet were still sore. I sat back down and rubbed my feet.

Beep. Beep.

Grunting I rolled on the bed and found my phone hidden in-between my blanket and sheets. I pressed snooze and saw the battery percentage at 10%. I grabbed the extra long phone charger cord I'd found online that was plugged into the socket near the bedside table.

I scrolled through Instagram smiling as I saw Ruby's photos from last night. Curiosity killing me I pressed on the photo with Nam Joon and went to his profile. I pressed follow and looked through his friends list for Jungkook. I found his name but his profile was set on private. I scowled as I went to my messages and saw 5 unread texts from Cody.

I sat up against the headboard deciding it was time to face the music. I called Cody. I held my phone up to my ear as it started ringing.

"Babe finally. You didn't ring me yesterday. What happened? It doesn't matter I've got big news," he said.

This was it I was going to admit what I'd done, he would forgive me and we would move on better than ever.

"Sorry. Cody I have to tell you something. Something..." I stammered before Cody interrupted "I'm coming to Seoul."

My stomach dropped and my confession stuck in my throat as he continued. "I asked my Dad if I could come finish my holidays in Seoul with you. He said yes only making me promise to come home a bit before school started."

Crap. I couldn't tell him.

My plan to rip the news off like a bandaid was failing miserably.

"That's great Cody," I uttered.

"Shit. Coach is calling me. I've got to practice. Bye. We'll talk later," he said hurriedly before ending the call.

I finally came out of shock as I realised the loud beeping noise came from my phone still up to my ear.

Yep I'm definitely going to hell now.

I got up and sat down on my black desk chair as I turned my laptop on. I entered my password waiting as it loaded and opened the first drawer. I grabbed my mini black pencil case from the back. I unzipped the pencil case and pulled out my white flower USB. I plugged the USB into the laptop and opened the folder named MUM.

I had started this folder in my 10th grade of high school when I became a member of the school newsletter team. It was where I put anything I could find about Mum. All I had for now was her parent's names and digital copies of family photos and the postcard which I kept locked in my safe at home.

It wasn't much but now that I was here I was sure I would find more.

I opened the folder of pictures and stared at the photo of Mum by herself holding an ice-cream grinning from ear to ear. The photo was taken on my 7th birthday we had gone to the beach for the whole day. Sometimes the memories would get hazy but I could always hear my Mums angelic laughter clearly in my mind. I closed the USB folder and moved in onto my desktop and locked the folder. Something one of my Dad's technicians had taught me.

I stretched as my laptop shut off deciding it was time to have a shower. I grabbed my black skinny jeans, a black and white striped shirt and a new pair of bra and undies from my wardrobe.

After 20 minutes I stepped out of the steamed bathroom changed and ready to meet Ruby for the tour of the campus. We had planned to meet up when we were unpacking yesterday, I brushed my straight hair which I had to admit I liked and decided to leave it down. I chose not to put any make-up on as I laced up my white sneakers.

I quickly typed a message to Ruby.

I'm ready. Meet in the hallway?

Ready!

My phone in my left hand I grabbed the keys off the table with my right and unlocked the door greeting Ruby with a smile.

"Hey. Are you feeling better?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"Yep. It was probably jet lag" I explained locking my door and placed my keys and phone into my bag.

I spun around and gave Ruby a quick hug. She wore a long pink skirt and white camisole that looked good against her porcelain skin tone. Her curly hair in a messy bun at the top of her head as ringlets framed her face.

"How was the rest of the party?" I inquired as we headed for the elevator.

"Crazy. Two senior guys got into a massive fight breaking some of the furniture. It was insane" Ruby emphasized. "Jin was nice" she commented.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Saw something you like?" I prodded as she blushed and looked away as we entered the dorms main building.

We picked a spot to stand in-between the other students that were spread out standing in groups chatting.

"If I can have everyone's attention please?" the same tall bespectacled boy from yesterday called out on the mini platform as the room went quiet.

"Around the room are six senior students holding up a different colour square. As I call out the different study areas I want you to move to the colour that your chosen subject falls under" he informed as I noticed six coloured squares over the heads of the other students.

Every student had been given their main field of study that their chosen specific subject was under, in the acceptance email from the University.

"Students studying Humanities go to the red square. Social Sciences go to orange. Natural Sciences go to yellow. Formal Sciences go to green. Applied Sciences go to blue. Media go to purple" he called out.

I waved goodbye to Ruby as I walked over to the purple square and noticed our group had the least amount of people. A black haired boy stood around 5'10 holding our groups square.

We stood there for a few minutes until he dropped the sign and pulled out a black clipboard from his backpack next to his feet on the ground. He called out names as he ticked them off. Once everyone's names had been assigned for he put his clipboard back in his backpack and he handed out purple ID passes with our names and faces.

"Welcome everyone. My names Sehun and I'll be your guide today. Follow me please" he announced loudly.

Our group headed out the back doors and followed Sehun as he marched past the cafeteria on the right hand side path that was also bordered with beautiful trees.

"The campus is shaped in a circle with each specific field designated their own areas. You all are lucky the Media building is the first one on the right because before it was covered with trees but they got cut down to make way for the new building" he mentioned as we continued along the wide concrete path.

Sehun strode to the centre of the room and turned facing us as we gathered around him. "The two doors on my right are the lecture halls, these are only used when a visiting lecturer or guest. Most of the professors use their own classrooms but sometimes they use them also. On my left the door closest to the elevator are our IT guys, if you have any questions or need some equipment they're the guys you want to speak to. The second door is where you will find our eating room, most of the students find it convenient to stay in the building instead of walking to the cafeteria especially if there late on a project. It has a small tea and coffee area, two fridges and a microwave, make sure you label anything because people will eat it if not" he explained before turning and separating us into groups to enter the elevator in turns.

I opted to be in the last group.

I stepped onto the tiled floor of the opened plan first floor. To my left was a mini library with aisles of books and small lounge chairs spread out. To my right were rows of study desks each set up with their own computer, printer and enough space to write or use a laptop.

Wow the setup was outstanding. I really liked how everything was open.

"This is where we study and complete any projects. All the computers have access to the entire University network, if you need to access any public sites on the school computers you need to get permission from your professor. We used to be allowed to bring snacks but after a kid spilled his coke all over a computer the administration forbid it. Every student is given an individual school email which you can access from any building for now the password and username are your first and last name in capitals. When you have time you can go ahead and change your email settings."

We split into groups and entered the elevator again this time I was in the first group.

The second floor had the same layout of the ground floor. There were eight doors all evenly spaced along the walls with numbers next to them. "These are the classrooms where you will all spend a lot of your time learning from the best professors internationally. The classrooms are all designed the same and are all equipped with state of the art projector screens."

We arrived on the third floor the same design as the second floor except for only six doors. "This is our specialty rooms. We have a state of the art photography lab, a publishing, video and sound, image rooms. One of our most popular rooms is the festival/exhibition rooms. If you take the class you get access through the university to attend festivals for study experience." The group murmured in interest.

We shuffled into the elevator for the top floor. "This floor is our faculty offices. Every professor has their own office and most of them allow students to in for any questions or queries unless they're travelling. Don't worry none of them bite" he teased.

We followed another path with Sehun at the front until we reached a cream coloured building. We walked inside winding our way around all the chairs set up and onto the large stage where students with all the different colours except for the red wristbands stood around in groups talking spread out along the stage and chairs.

I spotted Ruby straight away sitting next to Nam Joon at the front row. I walked over and sat on Ruby's other side.

"How was your tour Phoebe?" Lucy squealed as she and Nam Joon faced me.

"Amazing. It's so big and everything is brand new" I explained.

"How were your tours?" I asked both Nam Joon and Ruby.

"Great! The arts have four five buildings can you believe that?" she exclaimed as Nam Joon and I laughed.

"Same. Everything is very impressive" Nam Joon agreed.

We chatted for about 5 minutes until the doors opened and the last lot of students with red wristbands strolled in the packed hall. I spotted Jungkook's towering frame amidst the other students my gaze following him as he came to sit next to Nam Joon nodding in our direction.

Ruby opened her mouth to speak when the black hair glasses wearing boy stood up and introduced himself as Chang Wook the head of the senior class. "For the next hour you will be split into groups one from each field and partake in a series of activities. Each group will be assigned a senior representative and you may use the grass outside or stay inside to sit down" he called out as all types of people wearing the same polo from yesterday stood behind him in a line.

A loud voice shouting my name called me out my daze as I stood up and joined the small group.

My heart leapt out of my c.h.e.s.t as I heard Jungkook's name and realized we were in the same group.

I felt him move to stand behind me, feeling suddenly claustrophobic I moved to the side next to a tall blonde girl as I heard Jungkook chuckling under his breath.

We trailed behind Rebecca our senior representative as she led us outside where four groups were already spread out. I sat in-between Rebecca and the same blonde girl from earlier trying to look anywhere but across from me where Jungkook sat.

We each took turns introducing ourselves to the groups and sharing three things about us. We continued talking and asking questions between ourselves for half an hour then started playing guessing games where we had to guess whether the statements about the person were true or false.

The hour went by relatively quickly and I even felt myself becoming accustomed to Jungkook's intense presence.

Everyone was called back inside by Chang Wook who took 5 minutes answering questions then let us go for the rest of the day.

"Let's go get some food" Ruby pleaded as we followed the path.

"Okay. Okay" I chuckled.

We entered the cafeteria and dropped our bags on a table close to the food then lined up. We stacked our plates with all different kinds of foods.

"I'm so hungry. That's the last time I skip breakfast" Ruby declared as she stuffed down her second blueberry muffin.

"Agreed" I promised, finishing my triple chocolate muffin.

"What do you want to do now?" Ruby asked taking a sip of her lemonade.

"I have to go to the storage unit and pick up some things. It shouldn't take too long if you want to come?" I asked as Ruby nodded.

I sent Robert a quick text to come pick us up at the dorms car park.

We waited on one of the benches that bordered the car park until the familiar black Mercedes pulled up.

"Hi Robert" I called as we got into the back seats.

"Hello. Ms Phoebe, where to today?" he asked pulling out of the car park.

"The storage unit please" I replied politely. Ruby and I settled back into the comfortable car seat watching videos on her phone.

"Wow. How many storage rooms are there?" Ruby wondered as we walked down the long hallway searching for room #54.

"Around 200 I think" I answered having found the room and unlocked the door.

I stepped inside the room and flicked the light switch on shadowing the room in a dull yellow light. I walked over to the plastic containers filled with clothes, books, photo albums and other items from home. I pulled out one of the spare empty white containers and with Ruby's help we went through the containers dropping things I might need in the spare container placed in between us on the floor.

While Ruby was distracted going through the last container I walked over to the old black c.h.e.s.t that had been my great grandmothers and opened the small heart lock. I grabbed the small black locked box that Id hid in-between the blankets and slipped the box into my bag.

An hour later we left the storage unit with two containers of miscellaneous objects. "I can't believe you don't want these" Ruby said holding up my pink ballet flats that I had personally designed with flowers and sparkles for my last ballet performance.

"Because the last time I wore them when I was 11 years old" I confessed laughing at the serious expression on her face.

I said bye to Ruby as she wanted to attend the art class that was being offered by the senior art students to get the new students acclimated to what a class would entail. I wished her luck and bolted for my room.

I put down the two containers next to the door and walked to the desk pulling out the black box from my bag.

I used the smallest key on my keychain to unlock it.

I'd found the box on my last day at home before we left for Seoul. Dad had asked me to fetch the passports out of his study safe, while I'd rummaged through the safe searching for my passport I came across the small black box with Mums name written on the lid, hidden under the folders at the back of the safe.

Curiosity winning.

I had snuck the box into my bra, closed the safe door and ran upstairs hiding the black box in my old c.h.e.s.t I knew Dad would never look before the moving men were coming to pick and transport our stuff ahead to the jet.

I slowly lifted the box lid, my hands shaking.

What was Dad doing with this box that belonged to Mum?

My investigative instincts kicking in, I slowly pulled out all the contents of the box onto my bed. I was determined to find a clue.