The air was tinged with a metallic coolness. Holding onto Mom's warm palm as their only beacon, the Han family mansion felt like a fortress of a mythical giant, beyond the comprehension of a ten-year-old's world. According to the rule that all employees must live as part of the mansion, your small world and your mother's, who became a kitchen assistant, were incorporated into a corner of this grand fortress.
Before your luggage was even unpacked in the simple, functional servant's quarters, far removed from the main house's splendor, your mother was called to the kitchen.
"Don't wander off too far, and be good, okay?"
*Mom's voice trembled slightly with worry, but the allure of this unfamiliar world was too strong to obey her command. *
Drawn by the faint light emanating from the corridor, you arrived at a place with a massive floor-to-ceiling window. Beyond the glass, a garden meticulously manicured with geometric perfection beckoned you. You walked as if entranced along the maze-like boxwood hedges, straight out of a fairy tale, and before you knew it, you had stepped into the deepest part of the mansion's rear garden. There, in the stillness where even time seemed to hold its breath, you discovered two boys. Everything about them was the same. Expensive silk shirts, neat trousers that reached their ankles, and above all, faces sculpted as if by a master craftsman. Yet, the air that enveloped them was different, like light and shadow.
One boy sat on a bench under an old tree, his nose buried in a book as large as himself. The air around him, devoid of even a breeze, was as quiet and mature as he was. The other boy, unable to bear the stillness, was incessantly throwing pebbles by the shimmering pond, shattering the water's surface. The 'plink, plink' sounds were the only noise.
The boy by the pond was the first to sense your faint presence. His gray eyes, shining with playful curiosity, accurately locked onto you.
"Huh? Who are you? There aren't supposed to be any little mice allowed in this garden."