“Breaking news! Just this morning, dozens of bodies were found littered around the foot of Namsan mountain. Police reports have shown that the causes of their deaths are unknown. The victims are students from a nearby high school who were having a camping trip by the mountains. The victim’s families refuse to speak–”

“That area’s just near here, young miss. It’s disturbing.” Sana simply stares at the television while eating her breakfast with Mister Choi. She observes as the camera focuses on the bodies being covered with white sheets. Her eyes narrow in suspicion when she sees a weird marking on the victims’ necks.

Their souls were out. Her eyes flash a dark blue hue for a second and she clenches her fist. Berserkers.

“They’re on the move, Mister Choi,” Sana says after a few moments of silence, her voice dangerously low unlike her usually high, sweet voice. Her driver nods solemnly. 

“Yes. They are.” 

“But, why souls?” She wonders aloud, and Mister Choi shrugs, turning the television off.

“We’ll never know what they’re thinking, especially with him.” He stands up and makes a beeline for their telephone. “I’ll call up Master Minatozaki.”

“No need.” Sana grabs his wrist to stop him. “I think this is something we alone should deal with.” She whips her phone out. “I’ll call Yoona-unnie instead.” She calls using her phone while standing up to clean up and prepare for school.

After a few more rings and attempts to connect, Yoona finally picks up.

“Hello, Sana?”

“Unnie,” Sana responds quietly, sitting straight at the backseat of her car while Mister Choi starts the engine up. “Have you heard?”

“Yes. And I have information.” Sana hears the older girl take a deep breath on the phone. “They’re looking for the moon’s essence right now, and somehow they know the essence is in Seoul.” She scrunches her eyebrows in confusion.

“The what?”

“The prophecy, Sana.” Yoona pauses, and both Sana and Mister Choi (Yoona was on loudspeaker) widen their eyes in recognition. “They’re trying to stop it. They’re after the sun and the moon.”

It’s too early, Nayeon thinks, but here she is, standing in front of their school gates, about to cross the street. Even before she was avoiding Yoona during the morning, she’s never been to the school grounds this early, so she takes her time to look around and take in the environment she’s in. The streets are already bustling with busy workers even though it was still early. Children headed to school littered around the area, some with their parents accompanying them. The aroma of bread from the nearby bakery invades her nostrils, and she sighs in comfort.

For the first time in her life, she truly appreciated being alive.

She gets glimpses of ghosts roaming around the area, but unlike before, they were ignoring her. Her hand automatically grasps her necklace.

(“Don’t remove this from your neck, Nayeon.” Yoona sternly reminds her after they went home from the café they met Dahyun at. “This protects you from unwanted attention. No wonder spirits were looking at you, you were practically a bait.”

“But they’re not looking at me like they want to get me.” She reasons out. “They actually looked at me with fear, which is pretty rude if you ask me.” 

She misses Yoona and Sana’s surprised and thoughtful looks when she walks past them.)

She fiddles with the necklace that’s supposed to protect her. Her father gave to her when–

Her eyebrows scrunch in thought and confusion. When did dad give this to me? I couldn’t remember.

“You know, I sometimes wonder what would’ve happened to the three of us if our father was not like what he was.” A quiet voice snaps her out of her reverie, and she’s reminded of the cub’s ghostly presence. She leans her head a bit, indicating that she is listening even though she’s looking elsewhere.

“I bet Jeongyeon-unnie told you everything, but you haven’t heard my side of the story.” The cub goes on. “We ran away from him when I was five, and I had little to no grasp of what was happening at that time.

“I can say our father liked me, at least from what I can remember. He smiled at me, showered me gifts, anything you can imagine a father should be doing. Jeongyeon-unnie hated me for that.” Nayeon raises her eyebrow at that. She can’t imagine the loud and over-protective elder no-jam hating on her “precious little cub” as Jeongyeon herself would put it.

“Unbelievable, I know.” Chaeyoung chuckles at the senior’s reaction. “But it was true. Later, she told me it was because father liked me and that she realized that she shouldn’t have done that later on, but I feel like it’s not that, but I let it slide.” Chaeyoung sighs, putting her hands above her head. “I’ve always known that they’ve been hiding some things from me, Jeongyeon and Seungwan-unnie. But I trust them with all my life, so it’s fine. I let it slide all the time.” The cub smiles before sighing deeply. “I just wish they didn’t hide the fact that our father’s hurting them behind my back. They shouldn’t have tried making things better for me. Had I not seen it with my very eyes, they would’ve died enduring pain.” She shudders at the thought of her precious sisters dying in the hands of her two-faced father. 

“They both love you, Chaeng,” Nayeon whispers softly for Chaeyoung alone to hear. “They did what they thought was right, at least that time. You all were young. I’m really sorry that has to happen.”

“Yeah, I get it.” The freshman shuffles at her feet. “But what would’ve happened if dad wasn’t like that. Maybe we’re still a happy family, maybe mom is still alive, maybe my sisters wouldn’t be hiding stuff from me, maybe–” Chaeyoung chokes. “Maybe, I’m still alive.”

“But, Chaeyoung, you are alive,” Nayeon emphasizes. She glances slightly in her direction and sighs in empathy. “And we don’t know that. There are always reasons why things happen, and let’s see what happens now.” She crosses the street with Chaeyoung trailing behind. “Besides,” the older turned around abruptly when she stepped foot on their campus grounds. “We promised to find your body alive. Don’t think about dying okay?” If it was any other time, Chaeyoung would’ve laughed at how ridiculous Nayeon looked while trying to look nonchalant when in fact she’s talking to somebody. But seeing the sincerity in her eyes makes Chaeyoung hopeful.

“Okay, I won’t.” She smiles back but then frowns when she sees Nayeon’s eyes quiver. “What’s wrong?”

Nayeon looks around again. The ghosts roaming around are suddenly gone, and there’s a weird aura coming from some people who looked like they’re casually walking around the area.

“Is it just me or are there weird people around all of a sudden?” The older girl whispers. True to the older girl’s words, Chaeyoung sees unfamiliar faces walking around the area and she can’t help but shudder when she feels something odd about them.

“Yeah, they are weird. Let’s go in.” The girls walk briskly towards their building, feeling unsettled with what they’ve seen. Nayeon inches closer to the spirit walking beside her.

“Stick with me, Chaeng, okay? I don’t know if other people can see you but let’s not risk it.”

“I wonder why Miss Nayeon isn’t crossing the street.” Mister Choi muses while waiting for the traffic light to go green. They were at least two traffic lights away from where the senior was standing, but he quickly noticed her. “She’s been there for a while now.”

Sana looks up from her phone to see what her driver is talking about and she sees Nayeon and Chaeyoung together. She laughs to herself when she notices the older girl trying to act nonchalant while secretly talking to the freshman.

“Honestly she should learn methods on how to speak to spirits while not looking like a total idiot.” She whispers to herself as she returns to playing with her phone. The lights go green and their car goes forward.

“What do you mean, young miss? She’s alone over there.” Mister Choi, hearing the girl’s words, points out and that gets Sana’s attention. She looks up again and she sees Nayeon now crossing the street, still with Chaeyoung in tow. She furrowed her eyebrows in thought.<