The next few days whirr by in Technicolor. Events are shoved hastily into my schedule and they pass just as quickly as they come. Everyday is a fixating mass of trials and tribulations in which I'm forced to spawn excessive energy and brainpower. My little schedule book is choked up with crammed writings of homework and little tests. And through these trying tests, I have come to realize the fact that my weakest subject is Home Economics. My baked cookies come out like charred bits of wood and my sponge cake akin to a lump of soggy rags. Then there are those theory tests, what with all those vitamins and their respective diseases. If there's one thing I've learnt from Home Economics, it's the visual fact that all things that taste good are practically going to kill you and all things healthy taken in excess are also going to kill you.

When the bells go to signal the end of yet another day, I slouch into my chair in utter defeat. That was about the fifth test of the week and I'm just about at the end of my tethers. The snow has all melted away to give way for the few sprouts and shoots to start their seasonal blooming. It's the 16th of January with Den's birthday drawing near. Yet I'm still as present-less as I ever was.

"Phew! That test was easy as peas!" Hong jibes as the class wheels into motion and start setting off for home. Hong, being the intelligent soul he is, always get the kicks from rubbing salt on wounds of the less intelligent. Well, I like to view this lack of abnormal intelligence as a sign that I'm still part of the mortal human population. Hong can seek solace in his reign of geniuses.

"Well, it wasn't particularly difficult. The math questions were a bit typical," Seys adds thoughtfully, absently twirling her hair. Under arm, she's carrying a little shoebox that's ornately decorated with dainty hand drawn swirls in a variety of glittery felt tipped pens.

"What's that?" I ask as I pick up my shoulder bag from the floor, settle it on the table and begin to dump all my stationery and textbooks into my bag absentmindedly. I don't really care if they get crushed or if they get packed sideways and in odd angles. The bottom line is, if it fits – it fits.

"Oh this? It's for our history project next Monday!" Seys grins.

For a moment I'm stricken by the infallible feeling of complete horror and mortification. Completely thrown off momentum, I struggle to grasp for a comprehensible response. My horror must have been written all over my face because Hong flashes me a smirk before voicing out my thoughts exactly: "Seems like Ice has forgotten all about it, huh?"

I give a sheepish smile and Seys does her best to reassure by telling me that 'it's still Thursday and I still have time to prepare'. But she also missed out the part where I'm supposed to sacrifice my weekend for more mundane toiling for fact sheets and background information. The history project, in brief summary, requires every student to pick up any object of interest and date it back to its history before penning down all findings and information on PowerPoint slides for a class presentation. The main intention was to get more people thrilled with studying History as a subject. It's not working for me though, you see, I'm not good with public speaking, and I absolutely abhor the project idea.

"So what's your big project about anyway?" Hong inquires.

"It's a secret!" Seys giggles, " You'll know when I present it! I'll give you a hint though! It's something to do with fashion!"

Hong snorts. I can make a rough guess of the thoughts he's processing - probably something about being really girly and effeminate. I think Hong sometimes forgets that Seys is a girl sometimes, because Seys can get really boisterous. Sometimes, she makes me question my own gender. And this is coming from me – a man at that.

"How about you Hong?" I ask as we leave the class.

"Theatre history!" Hong beams, " You know! Musicals, movies, plays and all the formation of each genre in theatres!"

Personally, it sounds like Hong's taking this huge jump and risk by biting off more than he can chew. But I don't say anything because you know; he has an ego to die for. But I'll give him credit for originality.

"Hey Ice! Why don't you do one on your family?" Seys grins. I know exactly where this is going. She's trying to pry information from me; information that I have denied her time and time again. I'm not falling for that. Truth be told, I can't recall much of my past. I'm not a psychologist but I know enough to know that the body can generate a defense mechanism that will try to block out all the crazy, whacked out stuff you don't want to remember. I guess that's just what happened with me.

I wave her suggestion away with a flick of my wrist. "I'll think something out," I say. I'm pretty sure they're not convinced with my statement. I'm not quite convinced myself. They probably think I'm going to do last minute cramming and searching on the day before the project is due, and that idea doesn't strike me as something I can't predict myself doing in the near future.

ooOoo

When I reach home, Nor is sitting in the living room, book propped up in his hand and gaze trained on the miniscule prints embossed on the pages. When I enter the room, Nor scarcely throws me a brief look before nodding his acknowledgement and returning to his novel. I feed Puffin some pellets before I flop onto the sofa opposite, not bothering to change out of my uncomfortably stiff school uniform.

To be frank, Nor isn't the most lovable person in the family. Then again, he's also the least troublesome. At least he doesn't leave trails of awkward comments and embarrassing memories that scar my mind. I can't take it when I'm given away by family name and people go all "Hey… That name… Your brother… Wasn't he the one who scared the security guard years ago? His name was what… Erm… Sweden? I think he kicked the security guard in the groin for spitting into the flower pots". Scary and very, very embarrassing.

I observe Nor from my seat and watch as he continues to ignore my presence in favour of the book. When his gaze flickers over to me and catches me watching, Nor clears his throat and says flatly and bluntly, "What?"

There's a whole lot of irritation loaded into that single word and had I been anyone else but his blood relation, I would have probably snapped at him for being the rudest person alive. Being his brother, however, changes all that perspective. So being as blunt and candid as Nor was, I answer him, "How come you have perfect vision when you read all the time?"

"Dunno."

That was about the shortest conversation I've ever had but I don't offer my opinion on that matter. Instead I try for another question as I divert my gaze to the floral display on the coffee table, trying to act inconspicuous. The flowers are all in sharp contrasting colours and are an eyesore in actuality, but I can only guess two people who put it there. Either Fin or Sve.

"Hey Nor…?" I interrupt his reading sphere again.

"…"

"Imagine you have a history project-"

"Ice, I'm not doing your homework."

For a moment, I am stumped. It's not like I was going to ask him to do it! I just need some ideas to get started! When I turn to look at Nor, Nor is looking with me with an arched eyebrow and lips set in a tight, firm line.

"It's not like that! I need ideas to get started on. And being the extensive reader you are, you probably have the most ideas packed in your brain," I say, appealing to flattery to win my way around. Nor buys it immediately and he sighs before closing his book.

"So what is it about?"

ooOoo

I can't fathom the fact that Fin has just broken curfew. I mean, he's 17 and bound to break rules due to teenage passions but hey, when Sve says 'be home by 8', he means it. When Sve gets mad, your line of argument never existed.

I'm not sure what could have drove Fin to break curfew. I mean, if he'd decided to come home at 8.30pm when neither Sve nor Den were home, I'd totally understand. But Fin had to skip out on dinner and come home at the dot of 12am. Sve has been glowering since dinner (which Nor took the liberty to cook since Fin seemed to be eternally missing) and after dinner, Sve sat in the living room, arms crossed and eyes screwed shut trying to release that ball of anger. He seemed pretty adamant on waiting for Fin's return.

At 12 midnight, I hear the front door unlock from downstairs. I presume Fin was hopping that we'd have all fallen asleep, allowing him to enter the house undetected. Well, he's just about to find out how cripplingly wrong he is.

Nor's helped me fish out some guy to work on for the history project. Some author of a book called "The Little Prince". I've read it once when I was a lot younger because it's fairly thin with really awesome paper qualities. Not to mention those coloured pictures. Other than the fact that the story ended in a rather dreary note, the story was pretty fine. Nor thinks the author would be a good person to use for the project because of his enigmatic end. Apparently, Mr. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry disappeared over the Mediterranean on a pilot mission. Very tragic, in my opinion.

When I'm just about done with my Internet scavenger for all Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's older works, I hear footsteps climbing the stairs. For some reason, I don't exactly want them to know I'm still awake so I switch off the lights and force close the computer before I throw in the towels for the night.

ooOoo

It's lunch break when Hong announces his changes to his history project.

"I've changed my mind," Hong says smugly, his ego taking flight, " and unlike a certain someone, I don't mind sharing my data."

Seys shoots him a dirty look and shrugs apathetically. She seems to be implying that she's not interested in whatever Hong has to show, and suddenly, I feel caught in crossfire between two opposing parties.

"I'm sure whatever project you have doesn't measure up to mine," Seys sniffs. Clearly, she doesn't intend to lose out in this little competition. All I can say is that I'm not even qualified to be a candidate for this "competition" since I've just started out on this project. But then again, Hong is pretty much in the same boat as I am, what with the sudden transferal of ideas.

"Hey Ice, wanna join me at the library today? I'm gonna dig up some more information on this guy I'm researching on, he intrigues me. Reminds me of you actually!" Hong laughs the last bit off with a warm, hearty chuckle – as if it were some kind of shallow joke. I'm not exactly sure what to make of it, but somehow, I get the feeling that I'm not exactly going to like it.

ooOoo

It's about 4 o'clock when we reach the national library in the precinct. It's just the two of us, Hong and myself. Seys has opted to go home instead of accompanying us; I'm guessing the little cuss she had with Hong left her a little bitter.

We mount the polished stairs and head to the huge double doors that gleam in the late afternoon glare. I don't intend to stay too long; I don't want to risk breaking curfew. Pushing the doors open, we enter the huge library whish is one of the country's historical monuments in fact. The place is ancient, dating back to several decades ago. It's gone through quite a few maintenances, but the condition is still functional and favourable. And on a side note, this library is stocked with all sorts of books. Good for research, if I do say so myself.

The window's ceiling is like a rounded dome with rafters jutting out all over to prevent it from collapsing. There are several stained glass windows that circle the dome and when the sun reaches a certain peak in the sky, the coloured patterns can be observed on the library floors.

Hong wastes no time in divulging into the spectrum of information the library provides, while I listlessly walk down the aisles hoping to stumble upon any kind of article on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Walking down the long columns with shelves chocked up with all kinds of oddball books, I catch myself wondering why Nor has never decided to own a library card. How ironic.

I manage to sift out some of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's other works and the books aren't exactly appealing with the yellowed – okay, that's an understatement, they're brown; very, very brown – pages, crumbling spines, extremely minute sized prints and the fact that they have over a hundred pages each.

After an hour or so, I decide to leaf through each book at a table quietly. That's when Hong jumps on me. He drops a thick file onto the table and then sighs over dramatically. He settles down next to me and says with a grin, "Found it." There's a glimmer in his eyes that just begs for my curiosity.

I don't want to brag or anything, but I'm a pretty nice guy, and when people want something I can give, I give it to them. So out of the 'goodness' of my heart, I dutifully ask Hong what it is that has got him at the edge of his seat. Hong slides the folder over and I take a glimpse at the front label. It read "Eviary Incident".

The first think that strikes me is the word Eviary. It's the little forsaken family name that no one in my family actually likes to use. We like to keep that surname tucked away and unheard of. Not only is it awkward and doesn't run well with our names, but it's also used so rarely to the point that none of us can get accustomed to being addressed as per se.

I flip open the cover and there's a picture of a man that puts my whole world at a standstill. I can't say he looks anything like us, but he has the basic character traits; blue eyes ( though Fin and my eyes aren't blue), blond hair and he has the built of Sve and Den. His name is Azen Eviary. I don't even want to see the rest so I just flip the folder shut and glare at Hong. I'm seething with rage, I can tell that Hong's trying to dig up my past since I won't tell him. And this is how he goes about it. In fact, it seems as if he intends to show it to the whole class through this project.

"What's your point?" I snap. My words are harsher than they should be and I'm breathing too hard. There can be tons of Eviary-s out there. My mind reels back to what Hong said this afternoon. "Reminds me of you actually"… I'm starting to feel sick to my stomach and the blood feels drained from my face. I know I'm ashen white at this point.

"Y-You're not taking this so easily…" Hong says nervously. I take it that my reaction wasn't exactly one that Hong was expecting.

My heart is doing somersaults in my ribcage and breathing becomes difficult. My mind races ahead; was that my father's name? Did he really look like that? Suffice to say, I can't remember anything at all but I can't seem to pull away from that alluring folder. I need to know a little more.

"What makes you think I'm related to that… that oaf?" I snarl.

"It was a notion. I've read some stuff about him and they seem to tally quite well with whatever's going on in your household…" Hong says before biting his lower lip. I'm clearly not amused.

"What about it?"

Hong takes it as a cue to launch into explanation. So he does.

"Well… It says here, Mr. Eviary has had six children. Five boys and one girl; the girl being the oldest. But the girl, she passed away when she was 5. At that time, there were only 2 children in the household, that means only the eldest brother would have known her. This followed up with another 4 young boys. The wife was in grief that the second child wasn't a girl and didn't conceive the third child until six years later. However, after the fifth child was born, and yet still a boy, the wife fell into an abyss of despair before she took her life.

"Now Mr. Eviary had loved his wife to no end. And during her days of failing lucidity, he tried various ways to please her. Using money like there was no tomorrow, he bought her extricate gifts to bring some light back into his lady's eyes. But of course as the saying goes, money can't buy happiness. Mrs. Eviary, being attached to her first daughter, only ever accepted her first son as being her legal child because he was alive when that daughter lived.

"But gloominess seemed to be contagious in the household. Very soon, Mr. Eviary himself caught the blues. The eldest son was put in charge of most things until that fateful night when Mrs. Eviary had descended to the depths of insanity. Taking a kitchen knife, she began to hack away at everything and everyone, whilst insisting that since life had taken away her 'treasure' it was only natural that the authority of taking the lives of others should compensate her for her loss.

" There was a lot of noise on the first floor apparently. That's when the eldest son decided to find out what was happening and told his other brothers to stay put. Creeping downstairs, he witnessed his mother brandishing the knife in hysteria. Needless to say, Mrs. Eviary being armed, managed to strike a blow on Mr. Eviary. Mr. Eviary suffered a blow to his stomach and collapsed in a heap and the wife only nodded her approval before ascending the stairs. Halfway through though, she ran into the eldest son and in her mental instability, struck him hard on the head with the wooden end of the knife. The son hadn't had sufficient time to react to everything he had seen, you see, he was in shock and this was his mother he was facing.

"Mrs. Eviary hacked stabbed him on the shoulder the minute he fell unconscious and as she was about to deliver the final blow, Mrs. Eviary suddenly realized what she was doing. In utter guilt and horror, she decided to take her own life – after all, the son she had just attacked was the only son she had accepted as her own. Half an hour later, the second eldest brother stumbled upon the scene and called up the police. But the thing was, Mr. Eviary still lived. After all required data was collected, Mr. Eviary was framed for all the damage done. Hence the photo on the first page of the document. Mr. Eviary was given the death sentence and only several years later was the truth uncovered. But Mr. Eviary, convicted and dead, wouldn't see the clearance of his name."

I stare at Hong for a long time before I get my voice to work.

"When was this?" I ask.

"If the years are accurate, the eldest son would be 25 this year."

That would be Den's age in a few days.

"What were the names of the children?" I'm clinging onto any hope that the whole tale has absolutely nothing to do with me.

"They were never disclosed," Hong says, "the eldest son was just short of 18. He only turned 18 during his stay at a hospital. The children's names were never mentioned in case it had an adverse effect on their lives."

My mind stops blank. The cogs and gears refusing to move. No names, huh? That means there's a 50-50 chance that it could be my family or just some other group of people with uncanny resemblance.

"I-I'm guessing you didn't know about this?" Hong says clearly uncomfortable with the turn of events. "Uhm, you know, I just wanted to ask you about it. I'm still doing theatrical arts for the history project… I just wanted to see if you would yield… or something." He kneads his knuckle on the table nervously.

"I need to go," I manage to say. My words are sharp and precise, and I don't wait for Hong's response before I take my leave.

ooOoo

After dinner, I catch Den reading the newspapers from this morning in the living room. He's alone - Sve is talking to Fin somewhere back in the kitchen and Nor's escape to his room with his books. My head is buzzing and I plop onto the sofa seat next to Den.

"Den?" I begin. I hardly ate dinner and I feel faint. I look at Den, it's not to late to back out of this questioning. I could always ask something completely random and out of context. Do I really want to do this? I snuff out all my doubts. The thing is, I have to know.

"Hmm?" Den says.

"Can I ask you something?"

Den folds the newspaper in his lap then looks at me, smiles and says, " Shoot."

A/N: Phew. Ok this chapter was slightly longer than usual. ^^; Sorry for the really late chapter :x I'm lazy sometimes… Ok, I'm lazy all the time :x Well, what do you think? :3 I hope this chapter hasn't been a disappointment! And uhm, I guess this is a late Christmas present for those who read this :P Please leave a review if you can :)

Now for those nice enough to leave reviews:

StorfenglegurStelpa21 : Sorry the chapters can't come any faster. I'm just too lazy to get started sometime ^^; Thank you for the review! I hope you like this chapter!

Nekolandia: Heh Heh… The black envelope has failed to make an appearance in this chapter ^^ Maybe it's nothing? Maybe it's something? Who knows ;) Thanks for the review again (:

Animeduchess14: Thank you for the review! Hmm, I always felt that Den and Ice would have a special brotherly relationship than Ice and Nor. :3 But of course that's just me being bias because Denmark is my favourite character ^^;

Anon: You should leave an anonymous name or something so that the next time you review, I'd know it's you (: YES, CLIFFHANGERS. OH HOW I LOVE THEM :D

Story Perv: Interesting name :P Teehee, I guess the mystery just deepens? Or maybe not. ;)