That night Sung-min lay awake in his bed and thought continuously about the man in the white surgical mask. Ever since that encounter on the street, Sung-min thought that he could see him everywhere; lurking in the shadows of corridors, appearing in the crowded street on the way home, and the fiend may even be hiding there in Sung-min's large wardrobe as he lay trying to get to sleep. After much deliberation, Sung-min stood up and went over to check the wardrobe. There was no masked man inside. He scolded himself for being so childish.

“What a useless fool I am,” he said to himself as he climbed back into bed. “If I am so scared of this ghost, how will I ever be able to save my friend from his imprisonment? I am a terrible friend, as I was a terrible police officer.” Once again he couldn’t help but think about that fateful night the shooting took place, when he was made to watch as his own colleagues fell and he could do nothing to save them. “It won’t happen again,” he told himself, repeating it like a mantra: “It won’t happen again.”
 

On the night of the performance Sung-min managed to sneak into the backstage dressing room without drawing attention to himself. It seemed as if there was already a commotion going on amongst the performers and they were all too busy talking amongst each other in loud, angry voices to notice him. Sung-min frantically weaved through them, looking for Ryeo-wook. At last he felt a grip on his arm and Ryeo-wook pulled him aside.

“What’s going on?” he asked, cocking his head towards the angry performers.

“The show’s been cancelled,” Ryeo-wook told him in a quiet voice. “The CEO announced it earlier today. Tonight will be the last performance.”

Sung-min watched Ryeo-wook’s expression carefully. His friend seemed neither angry nor disappointed, unlike the rest of the room. He appeared anxious more than anything else. He was nervously fiddling with a ring on his left hand.

“Are you going to tell me what happened last week? Where did you go?”

“I was with teacher,” he said, and that was it. He continued to fondle the ring on his hand with a rapt fascination. Sung-min began to feel impatient.

“Is that a new ring, can I see it?”

Ryeo-wook held out his hand, but pulled it away abruptly when Sung-min attempted to pull the ring off.

“You can’t do that!” he whispered. “He’ll be so angry if I lose it.”

Sung-min bit his lip. “I’m guessing there’s a lot going on here which I don’t know about. You have to tell me - who is teacher?”

The man with the clipboard had entered the dressing room and was telling everyone to hurry up. “I don’t have time now,” Ryeo-wook said. “I have to do this one last performance. Afterwards meet me here and I will tell you everything.” With that he followed the rest of the crowd.

Sung-min was not left alone for long. As he tried to find a way to sneak into the audience he was met by Kyu-hyun who was storming around the corridors.

“What are you doing here?” he snapped at Sung-min. He didn’t wait for a response. “It’s a pandomonium here, a nightmare! I guess you’ve heard?”

“The show has been cancelled?”

Kyu-hyun sighed. “That too. The goat is dead. She came screaming in this morning, calling it murder. Ah, could my life get any worse? See, none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for your meddling, you’ve made the ghost angry now and we’re all done for.”

Sung-min wasn’t sure if he should apologise. More than anything he wanted to focus on his main task: keeping an eye on Ryeo-wook. Fortunately, Kyu-hyun had no time to yell at him, and so Sung-min was able to work his way into the studio audience.

He stood watching the show from the side of the audience. Shin-dong came out to announce that this was the final episode and unfortunately the goat-girl duo would not be performing due to unforeseen circumstances. Sung-min waited on edge, his foot tapping against the floor.

When it was finally Ryeo-wook’s turn to perform, he came out quietly and assembled himself at the piano without much ceremony, but the air in the room was tense. As he sang - and he sang rather whimsically - Sung-min puffed his cheeks as he tried to contain his anxious energy. As he was playing the piano, Sung-min could see the flash of light that reflected off the ring on Ryeo-wook’s finger and his chest tightened with unease.

As Ryeo-wook played the last chord, the lighting was suddenly cut and the entire stage and audience fell into darkness. The lights came back on shortly after, but when they did Ryeo-wook was gone. Shin-dong came to introduce the next performer, looking somewhat confused. Ryeo-wook was not meant to have disappeared like that. That had not been part of the rehearsal. Keeping a professional face, he continued with presenting. Sung-min rushed towards backstage.

Sung-min’s fears were confirmed when he saw that Ryeo-wook was nowhere to be found. The other performers were also puzzled by the stage disappearance. Since the murder of the goat, the contestants were swayed towards believing in the existence of the ghost, and they murmured that this must be another of his devious tricks.

Sung-min rushed back out into the corridor which was now empty. He stood there by himself for a moment, breathing deeply with his face in his hands as he considered his next plan of action. He could hear footstep approaching. Looking up he saw Boa’s personal assistant, that thin, strange looking man. Ah, what was his name again?

“Mr Lee,” the man said. Hyuk-jae, Sung-min suddenly remembered. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m looking for Ryeo-wook. He disappeared from the stage.”

Hyuk-jae narrowed his eyes. “Ryeo-wook...?”

“It’s the ghost, he’s been taken by the ghost.”

Hyuk-jae scratched his chin thoughtfully. “The ghost huh. Well I suppose that sounds like something a ghost would do. Either way, he can’t be too far away if he was taken from the stage.”

“Do you know where he could be?” Sung-min asked him. He was desperate for any answer.

“Ah, well, let me think.” He spoke slowly and Sung-min’s frustration increased exponentially. “He might be in the secret basement.”

“The secret basement?”

“Yeah, the secret basement. Maybe you should follow me.”