Kim Myungsoo dashed to the garden, the place he’d left not even an hour ago. He glanced around frantically noticing what his servant had mentioned just before…the iridescent mask lying in the grass next to an invitation to the party. Stooping to pick it up, he clenched it in his hand till his knuckles turned white. He felt like he was going to fall over…or go insane…or kill the owner of the mask clutched in his grasp.

A few servants accompanied their distressed master.

“He must’ve taken Gaein with him.” hissed Myungsoo. He swore savagely turning on his heel to one of his servants, “Where did he take her?”

“I-I don’t know, sir. She may still be on the premise. There’s still hope of finding her inside.”

“Why don’t I think so? The servant I sent to her inside was attacked. If she is around here, she can’t have gone far. Everyone search for her now.” he commanded.

Amidst the chaos of bewildered guests being ushered home, Myungsoo ran to a group of security guards while the servants around him dispersed to continue searching the buildings and grounds. The security personnel straightened at his approach.

“You,” Myungsoo directed his comment at the man in front who looked to be in charge, “Take me to see the cctv footage. I want to see everything related to tonight.”

“Yes sir!” the guard bowed sharply and immediately led him down the hallway and through the large lobby. Behind the front desk, he stepped through a door to the right of a small hallway. Myungsoo followed through and viewed, for the first time, a large room covered in screens. Lights, buttons and other devices were arrayed along the keyboards and tabletops. Although he’d never been to this room before in his life, he didn’t waste any time as he demanded to be shown the cctv cameras stationed on the back gardens.

The security guard talked to a few of the workers that sat in chairs all over the room watching the dealings of the night. They directed him and Myungsoo to a panel of screens that showed different aspects of the gardens. However, Myungsoo’s stomach dropped as he realized that the section of garden he and Gaein had occupied wasn’t in any of the camera’s lines of sight.

No! This can’t happen! I can’t lose Gaein like this! Where did she go?

Myungsoo’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He dug frantically into his pocket and snapped it open; the number was that of one of his chief butlers.

“Well?” he asked.

“Sir, your date, Choi Gaein, isn’t anywhere on the premise. We’ve had all the servants and employees check every floor, nook, and cranny of the hotel and the grounds surrounding it. We even have a few of your trusted servants looking for her a couple of blocks away from the establishment in case she wandered away, and so far, there has been no sign of her. I am afraid she’s gone.”

“Whatever you do, don’t give up searching. And get the police here. Immediately.”

“Yes, sir.” Myungsoo snapped his phone shut.

Stop this Myungsoo. This is no time to panic. If you can’t control yourself now, you’ll be of no help to Gaein or anyone. First take a deep breath. He forced air to expand into his lungs and eject it, closing his eyes. The breath flowed in and out of him in a cleansing ebb and flow and he opened his eyes as he felt himself get back in control. Good. Now think. Think! What do you know of the situation?......Well, the servant was attacked. Gaein disappeared. The white masked man was found at the scene…And the bus boy said a man in a white suit with dark hair, and no mask collected the car keys just a little while later.

His eyes snapped open and he turned to the man sitting in front of him. “The man who may have taken Gaein had to have made it to the front of the hotel to pick up his car keys and leave. Search every path that went from the gardens to the front of the hotel. Baile! (Hurry!)”

Immediately, a group of men began fiddling with dials and punching keys into the keyboards at lightning speed, sifting through all the footage. While they looked, Myungsoo called for Yeeun (whose number he’d had put into his phone earlier after she had helped him with his first date with Gaein). She picked up after the third ring.

“Yeeun, bring me the guest list of all the people that attended tonight, only the males. Discard any of the guests that weren't dressed in white.”

“Um…yes, sir.” Her voice sounded curious, but he didn’t bother to explain anything and hung up as soon as he had gotten her confirmation.

“Sir, I think we have found something!” one of the men called. Myungsoo rushed over to the panel where the man sat and focused on the camera footage that was being displayed.

Further down the garden path, a girl that was obviously Gaein ran to a set of doors on the other side of the hedges. She had lost her shoes, and her hair was wild. She tried to enter the doors, but they were locked. Myungsoo’s heart felt as if someone had grabbed it and was squeezing the life out of him. Gaein’s desperate attempts to enter the doors were futile, and then she ran into the archway off to the side. Nothing happened for a few minutes more so the man at the panel began to fast forward a bit until they saw a shape emerging from the entrance again.

Myungsoo cried out as he saw his angel, suddenly unconscious, in the arms of a blonde man wearing a dark mask and clothes. She looked like she was dead, lying motionless and pale in the arms of the man. Absolute, sheer, all-consuming hate sprang to life inside Myungsoo’s heart as he stared at the man who had hurt his noona. Just who is he? I’ll kill him.

The man stood there for a moment, as though waiting for someone. Myungsoo’s eyes narrowed as the man he’d seen dancing with Gaein just hours before appeared on the screen. The man was only in the very edge of the frame, and couldn’t be made out clearly, but Myungsoo could swear it was him. All he could see was the back of the man’s head and the slightest grey looking outline of the collar of his attire. It was so dark, but Myungsoo knew instinctively it was the man. The man hurried out of the frame and the man in black followed behind, carrying Gaein.

“Well, where did they take her?” Myungsoo snarled rounding on the man behind the controls. “Quickly! Follow where they went!”

“I—I am afraid I can’t.” stammered the man, “Actually, they kept to the shadows and whether by luck, or whether it was planned beforehand, they seemed to know where the cameras were stationed, so we have nothing.”

“How about the front entrance?” Myungsoo shot. “The man who took her came to get his car. He didn’t have a mask.”

It took a few more, agonizingly painful minutes for them to find the scene. The man in white did come for his car keys, but the man in black had disappeared completely. And the angle of the camera, was such, that