psycho | baekhyun

TWO

"Oh my goodness! Did I tell you that you shouldn't roam around the house mindlessly?" the housekeeper appeared out of nowhere and pushed me away from the room's door. She locked the door behind her with stern expression.

"I'm sorry. Maybe I shouldn't work here. Excuse me," I pick up my handbag and heels in a flash and rushed to the main door, taking any hallway that I could see with a high possibility to get lost in the huge mansion.

"Ms Xandra! Ms Xandra!" the housekeeper ran after me and I cursed in my mind. Could my day become worse than this? Seemed like bad luck was stuck with me all over again.

"Shit! Where's that goddamn door?" in no time, I found everything around me unfamiliar. I stopped running, closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Relax girl.

The housekeeper's footsteps were less than 3 meters away from my spot and our ragged breaths echoed in the golden corridor.

"Ms Xandra, it's not a choice for you to make. The first month payment has been credited into your account this morning in advance. You're officially recruited to be one of our staffs now," she handed me a receipt of payment with a sly smile.

"I'll bank in back to you. I don't need your money. Just tell me the way out of this house and your bank account detail," it was surreal that I actually rejected 50,000$ when I was broke as heck to even pay my house rent.

"I'm afraid that I can't do that for you. Once you get involved with this household, you can't simply escape whenever you want to. Let's not complicate things, okay? Lemme show you your room," I sighed and followed her. She's right. I had no choice.

We went to the second floor and my room is at the end of the hallway, facing the backyard garden. It was serene and the room was even bigger than my whole apartment unit being gathered together. I even had my own private bathroom and closet.

"You might as well discover everything else in this house by yourself. But please bear two things in your mind; one, never go into any black mahogany door and two, don't walk around the west wing after 8. If you want to be safe, then obey these two rules," she leaned against the door frame. Her eyes followed me as I walked around the room in disbelief.

"So my room is in the east wing and I shouldn't do those two things. Alright. Then enlighten me; what should I call you and what's my job scope? I'm lost right now," I tried to hold in the urge to rebel and jump out of the window.

"It's Genevieve Larson, just call me Eve. I saw you got your PhD in psychiatric field last two months. We have a patient in the west wing and we need you to be his assistant, more like his babysitter at times. By the way, I won't stay here starting from tomorrow," she failed to hide her happy smirk and I rolled my eyes upon seeing that.

"I need details. I can't entertain a patient without knowing his condition. And of course, I need to get back to my house to pick my things up. I assume that I need to be here 24/7 later on," everything about this job is weird and it keeps on getting weirder.

"You'll meet your patient this evening for dinner. You have to prepare the meal for sure. As for your belongings, you don't need them. Everything has been set in here. If you need anything else, just contact this number. He's the butler here," she handed me a business card and I shoved it into my handbag, feeling bitter because she absolutely didn't help me in knowing about my job.

"Anything else, Miss Eve?" annoyance was clear in my acidic tone.

"Dinner will be at 5.30 and meet you in the kitchen at 4.30. I'll get you some space to digest everything. Just please, don't waste your energy on trying to escape. We both know that you won't make it," she pressed her palm on my cheek and closed the door as she rushed to exit the bedroom.

"Oh my days! I should be grateful to finally have a job but... never mind. You'll be fine, Xandra Turner."

* * *

Miss Eve and I didn't utter a word about my job while preparing for dinner. We only talked when we needed utensils to cook. It was awkward but it's better that way or else we would only argue about my job again.

"Can you please set up the table? The dining hall is on the left on your way out of the kitchen. Make it two, I won't be joining both of you," her back was facing me but I could tell that she was smiling only by her tone.

"Aye Aye captain.. whatever you say."

It was somehow nerve-wrecking as I tapped my fingers nonstop on the table while waiting for my patient to come into the dining hall. I didn't know his age, name, look; I knew nothing. When the sound of someone pushing the door invaded the silence, I jumped on my feet.

"Move your ass four seats away from my seat," a cold voice gave his first order emotionlessly. I flinched at the amount of chill in his tone, "...now."

In the mixture of hesitation and shock which were printed clearly outside of me, I brought my plate and glass to the other end of the long dining table. It's quite the endgame. First impression of my forced-to-be master was already bad and I couldn't afford to get more of that.

"Name," his voice echoed and I kept my eyes glued onto my food.

"It's Xandra Turner, sir."

"Age."

"27 years old," I stirred my baked beans in anxiety.

"What are you doing here?" I thought that Eve already told him about my whereabout there but I guess I was wrong. The way he asked me makes it clear that he knew nothing about me, just like how I didn't know a thing about him. At least, we're on the same page about that.

"Your housekeeper, Ms Eve said that I'm recruited here. Basically just to take over her job," it was true.

"And what was her job?"

The cat got my tongue and I stopped breathing. Words were jumbling around my head as I tried to find the best answer to be given out to him but of course, as always, my brain didn't work as much as I wanted it to. I was frozen on my seat, looking like a dumbass.

"You're clueless. Just like what I thought. Stupid," he whispered the last word and I clenched my fist under the table. That was humiliating, "Come to my studies at 6.30. 1 minute late and feel free to fire yourself from this so-called-job. I'm done eating."

The corner of my eyes caught his silhouette as he walked pass me. He wore a pair of Balenciaga long john and he smells like strawberry aftertaste. Those are the things that I could let myself knew on that evening.

And his face, was still much of a mystery to me.