Looking for Your Light

Chapter 6

Seven days since moving in. Seven days since Hana had officially become the estate's live-in staff member. Tomorrow, she would begin a test-run of her chores, then there would be a house meeting so she could go over her plan with the others in the home and instruct them on exactly what she would need from them, in terms of individual chores.

She'd come up with a pretty good system, she thought, of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. She'd even set aside time to help two hybrids a week with their own rooms, if they wanted it. She had gotten together with Felix to discuss which of the group might need the most help in their personal rooms, and paired them together so that the worst offenders would be a little more spread out.

So today she had taken time to wander around the grounds and house again, familiarizing herself with the layout of things and the areas she would need to help take care of. It had made for a long day, but a nice one. The white fluffy clouds that dotted the blue sky created a momentary break from the sun as it shone around the property, guiding her around the flower gardens, the vegetable gardens, and the various other greenery around the home. She'd found Hyunjin lounging about in one of the trees leading to the forested edge of the property, sketching something in the notebook he seemed to carry with him almost everywhere. She'd given him a wave before continuing on, not wanting to bother him.

Hana had spent quite a deal of time around Felix since moving in, which seemed like a fairly natural occurrence for the hybrid. He had many friends outside of the pack he was visiting with great regularity, and always seemed to be socializing with someone in the pack when he was home. She'd spent a lot of time with Seungmin as well. He'd taken to following her around on days when he was bored, helping to point out things to her that he thought would be helpful or interesting.

She'd spent a fair amount of time with Han and Jeongin, though the two of them seemed content to keep to themselves most of the time, or they liked to interact in small groups where they had one of the other pack mates to run interference in the conversation. Hyunjin, too, seemed content to keep to himself but didn't mind joining in when the group got together.

Hana, thus far, had the most professional relationship with Chan. She had talked to him about things she needed, okaying expenses to get things up and running and to get some new furniture and things for her own room, but she hadn't had the opportunity to hang out and get to know him. Still, she had learned a lot about him from the others in the house.

As for the remaining two, they were still a bit of a mystery for the girl. Changbin was so boisterous, it took some working-up to get to where she felt like she could interact with the man. He, too, seemed to be a social butterfly of sorts, picking up the most shifts at the cafe for the household as well as working a number of random odd-jobs for folks around the town. When he was home, he was mostly loud and talking with the others in the home in conversations she didn't feel the need to join or interrupt.

Minho kept to himself, and while the moments she had approached him he hadn't been rude, he seemed to be far off in his own mind or thoughts. He kept a distance from her most of the time, and she wasn't quite sure how she needed to go about bridging that gap. It wasn't hostility, she knew, as he had given his seal of approval after the initial meeting. Even still, she felt a distance between the two of them that she didn't know how to close.

She tried not to let it bother her, however, as she moved about the home and prepared for her new life here. Each day she got a little more comfortable, even among discovering new quirks of living with hybrids that she hadn't anticipated. There was a lot more fur around the house, for one, and she had quickly upped the frequency of sweeping the house to an every-day task. The hair accumulated on the edges of rooms far faster than she was used to, having never lived with animals before, let alone eight of them.