The mask fell away with a soft thud into the grass next to the shining, white shoes.

                Gaein’s mouth went dry and her eyes widened in shocked horror. The man that stood before her now was Zelo. Except, he wasn’t Zelo. As she looked at him with new eyes, she couldn’t describe it unless she said that it was like looking at a shell of Zelo that wasn’t him at all. The outer appearance may have been his spitting image, but the look in his eyes was a blaze of anger mixed with something dark and frightening.

                “Z-zelo?” she spluttered, her mind trying to process the younger man, who, though he had a temper, would always do what he could to make her smile.

                “No.” Zelo’s eyes glinted as he took a step towards her, “I am Choi Junhong. This, Gaein-noona, is who I am. The real me.”

                “What in the world…What happened? What is this?” Gaein took in Zelo’s white suit, his icy blue eyes. Behind her, she felt Daehyun shift past her to move behind Zelo. Underneath her trembling fingers, she felt the servant’s heartbeat and the rise and fall of his chest.

                Choi Junhong reached into his inside suit pocket situated over his heart and withdrew a familiar glossy paper with fancy faunt covering it. “I too am here at Kim Myungsoo’s generous invitation… though I didn’t expect to find you here too, noona.” The party invitation fluttered from his fingers to the ground next to his mask.

                Gaein rose from her crouched position, her skirt rustling in the chilling breeze that now seemed to have dropped significantly, though perhaps that was more because of her situation than the actual temperature. She looked from Zelo to Daehyun, looking for all the world like Don Juan in his dark mask, and back again. In this ominous scenario, her mind whirled trying to make sense of what was happening, and what she should do.  The only thought her brain could dredge up, was of making it back to Myungsoo and warning him about the servant lying beside her who might require medical attention.

                She angled her back towards the double doors a few feet behind her, so that she was staring Zelo in the face. She straightened her frame, pushing her shoulders back so as to appear like someone who wouldn’t be intimidated and slowly started backing away.

                “So you received an invitation,” though she tried to sound steady and calm, her voice, much to her self-abhorrence, wavered slightly, “But that doesn’t explain why you are doing this.”

                Another step.

                Choi Junhong’s eyes never missed a detail. The wind that pulled at her hair, the smallest, subtlest movements she made as she backed towards the door, the look in her eyes. He smiled and relaxed his stance. Turning, he casually walked the few paces to the bench where, just moments before, she and L had sat together, thinking that everything in the world was perfect. He languidly sat back on it, draping an arm across the back and crossed an elegant leg over the other. “Oh,” he smiled up at her as if their conversation were the most natural thing in the world, “well, wouldn’t that be obvious, noona?”

                She blinked in confusion. Was he trying to play mind games with her? She took another step backward. “Is it?” she asked lightly, “Well then I’m afraid I must be dense because I cannot put it together at all.”

                Zelo let out a sigh as if he were disappointed. “You never did know…you always chose not to see what was happening.” He acknowledged with an inclination of his head. “I shall tell you then, my darling,” he gallantly proposed.

                “How very kind of you.” Gaein muttered dryly.

                “Daehyun, what time is it?” Choi Junhong didn’t even bother glancing at the silent man standing next to the bench.

                “It is 11:35, sir.” was the confirmed answer in short, clipped tones.

                “Good. We have time then.” Zelo settled back against the bench. Gaein took another opportunity to take an additional step backwards. “Noona…you’ve known for a long time now my feelings for you. Have you not?”

                Gaein thought back to the times she and Zelo had spent together laughing, telling jokes, the close relationship that had indeed developed between them before recent events had so strikingly derailed its progress. She thought of sharing cotton candy with Zelo as they sat on the swings, how he had gotten her a pretty bracelet to celebrate their one month together, how he and Daehyun and the rest of the gang would come over on weekends and eat at her restaurant…like family.

                “Yes. I was aware of your feelings for me.”

                “Those feelings haven’t changed, noona.” There seemed to be a warning in his voice.

                “No.” Gaein glanced at him sharply as she took another step backward, “Your feelings may not have changed, but you. You have changed Zelo. I don’t know how, but you’re not the same. You’re not the man I loved.”

                “Choi Junhong!” he corrected making Gaein flinch. “And who,” he countered leaning forward, eyes flashing, “was the one who made me change? Gaein, what about me before wasn’t good enough for you? I tried everything I could think of. But you still pushed me away every time. Whether I was the care-free waif Zelo, or whether I am the powerful chaebol Choi Junhong does none of me faze you?”

                “Ze---Choi Junhong, I did truly care about you.” Gaein murmured seeing the feverish light in those cold, blue eyes; those eyes that did not remotely resemble the ones she remembered. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Part of her rationed that she should stop her flippant mouth while she could. But the other half of her desperately wanted to get rid of all this miscommunication and pent up hurt. It wanted to make the man in front of her understand where she, at least, had come from. “I chose you…but you never trusted that I did. You didn’t have enough confidence in yourself. In your mind, you’d already lost me to Myungsoo and once you gave into your own fears, you stopped becoming the man whom I could turn to, whom I could trust because by then you’d convinced yourself you couldn’t trust me. And that is when I left you.”

                She took another step backward praying that someone would come walking by, that she could somehow make an escape. But she wasn’t that stupid. Two men, one, at least, skilled in combat, against her in a hampering dress. She finally made it to the doors. Feeling the wooden panels inches from her back, she whirled around throwing herself onto the handles. Her heart hammering in her chest, nearly stopped when she realized the door was locked. Though the handles shook urgently in her grasp, the doors remained shut.

                How did Daehyun manage to lock the doors?

                “So…” Choi Junhong’s voice was much closer than she had thought and she turned to look over her shoulder to see that he was only a foot away from her. How had he moved so silently without her knowing?

                “So…” he repeated, “I have become the villain.”

                Gaein cowered back into the doors that mercilessly refused to budge. “I didn’t say that…” she murmured softly so only he could hear, “I think we both made mistakes. I think we are both at fault…but what is done is done. It’s happened and we can’t change it. I have moved on, and I suggest you do the same. For both our sakes. We both won’t make each other happy. I’m sorry.”

                “How noble,” Choi Junhong smirked down at her, “Unfortunately for you, noona, I am not so chivalrous. As you noted earlier, I have changed. And the new Choi Junhong won’t simply walk away. I have been betrayed. And whoever dares to betray me must realize that there are consequences.” He reached out and tucked a loose strand blowing in the wind behind her ear. Gaein shied away but tripped on her accursedly high heeled shoes.

                “Consequences?”

                “Consequences.” He repeated, “You stole my heart. Whether my feelings are reciprocated or not, I will have you. Your consequence, noona, is that you are my woman no matter where you go, or what you do. You are mine. Choi Junhong’s. Not Myungsoo’s.”

                “Now look, Choi Junhong.” Gaein glared back up at him, kicking off her shoes that were beginning to rub the skin off her ankles, “That’s going a bit too far.”

                “I don’t think so.” He reached out to grasp her upper arms, to pull her to him but she skipped from his grasp, turned and ran as fast as she could. Scooping up the hindering masses of skirt in her arms, her bare feet flying down the walkway outlined in moonlight and the glow from the lights in the trees and bushes, she didn’t cry out as small rocks jabbed at her feet. Her hair came undone as the wind tore at it, streaming behind her. Windows flew by her. The gardens and trees and lights all looking uncannily similar. Which direction did she go? Where was she to run?

                She heard footsteps pounding the pavement behind her and her racing heart leapt into .

                Just why is this place so big? Where do I hide? Why doesn’t Myungsoo come?!

                While scanning the area for someplace to go, elation swept through her as she realized that off to her left, beyond a couple garden hedges, another door that led into the hotel,