Jieun glanced at the bar before she got up and made her way towards the two men. Yeonsuk caught sight of her and understood instantly what she had to do. It wasn’t new, since Joon wasn’t a subject in the hotel; more like an object, actually.

The beautiful woman walked right past their table without a single look at Joon. She passed by Yeonsuk and threw the small object at his lap. Thankfully, Joon was drinking away his troubles and didn’t see anything. Now, Yeonsuk had to do it since the younger man was having so much fun. The older man had a plan conjuring in his head already.

“Why don’t we take a walk, Joon? You can tell me more on the way.” The older man started while getting up.

Joon’s eyes widened in surprise and followed Yeonsuk wherever he was going. Jaejin rose his eyes just in time to see the innocent man walk pass through the hall, running after Yeonsuk who was grabbing his coat.

“We’re going out?” He asked, a bit unsure of what was going on.

“Of course. I’m going to show you the lake, just like I showed it to Bum. We can talk there more about this subject.” The way the words were spoken by Yeonsuk made Jaejin realize why the Irish man was leading Joon away from the hotel. 

“Mister Kim,” Jaejin stopped Joon right before he got the chance to open the front door. “Take all the time you need.” Joon furrowed his eyebrows in confusion but nodded nonetheless.

Yeonsuk looked down at what he had in his hand, gripped tightly in anxiety and sorrow. The small object was a stone; dark purple, long and with a sharpened tip. It could have been seen as an elegant knife, created from magic but it was so much more.

Bum was by himself, in his room, when Eunji opened the door ready to clean. Her eyes widened for a second when she realized Bum didn’t leave his room for the entire day. Besides, unknown to him, Joon was getting rid of.

“I will come late-“She started but the man cut her off by making a sign to come closer. She gulped and took little steps to his bed, where he was sitting on. 

“Eunji, you’re from Busan, aren’t you?” He asked calmly.

“Busan, yes.” She responded with her thick accent. It was funny now that he heard her say more than a few words.

“How did you meet Nari?”  Bum continued with the questioning. Eunji swallowed in fear and answered the same thing she did to everyone who asked her about her life and connection to her Mistress.

“My parents were cultivating rice. Mister Son visited once and fell in love with the sights from Busan. He also-“ Eunji looked to the side, at nothing particularly in Bum’s point of view. But she knew; she knew that walls had ears and eyes. She her lips and took a few more steps towards Bum, before leaning in, telling him a little secret. “Mrs. Son was from Busan. That is where they lived for a while and where Aida was born.” The short woman whispered. Bum blinked a few times, just until the information got registered by his brain.

“I heard her mother died when she was born,” He mumbled. He didn’t need to be loud when the woman was uncomfortably close to him.

“Yes. She died of blood loss because the baby didn’t want to come out of her womb.” Eunji’s eyes widened after she gave him that information. She could feel the ground shake lightly under her feet.

“How did her mother look like?” Bum was getting more and more intrigued by Nari and her family.

Eunji took a step back and stared at his petrified. She heard a quiet murmur coming from the window; probably the wind, probably not.  Eunji walked towards the window and looked at the overall sight.

“Someone is going to die,” She mumbled to herself. Unfortunately, Bum didn’t hear it; he didn’t hear the words that would have probably saved his life.

“So, where are we going exactly?” Joon asked when he realized they have been walking for ten minutes already.

Yeonsuk glanced at the younger man over his shoulder, just to check the condition he was in. Joon was oblivious to his surroundings, or so it seemed.

Sincerely, Joon could feel paranoia crawl up his body, starting from his legs, going up his spine up to the back of his neck. It was a feeling that seemed to burn his whole spine and he started to feel uncomfortable. Joon’s eyes rose to the sky and he noticed how much the sky was changing as they were walking deeper into the forest. Above the hotel, the sky was clear without stars or even a moon. Now, that he was getting further away from the building, all those nonexistent little details started to show up here and there.

“That’s so weird,” The young architect muttered before he stopped. From the sky, his eyes wandered on the forest. He could swear he saw animals and birds when he first ventured towards the hotel; it was as if everything was guiding him to the finish point excitedly. Now, everything was gone and he was getting scared. “What’s going on in this place?” Joon continued to ask himself.

There was one detail that Joon didn’t notice until it was too late: Yoo Yeonsuk was gone. While the young man was engulfed into the passing magic of the domain, he realized he was all alone in the middle of a thick forest.

“Yeonsuk?” The only thing that responded was the echo. “Mate, I think you forgot something behind!” Joon continued.

“-you forgot something behind!” Only those words echoed. 

“Hello? Yeonsuk?” Joon shouted, but no one was there to give him a response; not even the echo.

The sky was getting darker and the wind picked up; a storm was coming. Joon was aware that he got lost and he was in big danger if the storm will start with him still in there.

“Damn, I get colds easily,” He muttered as he walked in a random direction.

It was probably a few more meters when the rain started to pour down heavily. Joon’s eyes widened and ran wherever he could see. The raindrops seemed to block everything because he couldn’t see well; just like a curtain that would suddenly drop. He stopped and looked around helplessly. Joon couldn’t see anything and the sky was being enlightened by lightning complimented by loud thunders. He was still in that spot when he noticed something even weirder; the lightning was getting closer to where he was. The architect couldn’t help but feel like he was in a stupid cartoon where the storm was following the main character, driving him away from the domain. He tested his theory by running towards the domain, the rain getting even worse while when he was backing off, the rain would become softer.

In the end, Joon realized that he had to get out of there no matter where that would lead him therefore, he ran forward, through the trees, getting away from the hotel. As he was running, he started to hear again the echo. He was sure he wasn’t talking yet it seemed like someone was voicing out their thoughts clearly to him.

“Yeonsuk? Hello?”

“-you forgot something behind!”  That sentence begun to repeat and that was very strange.

Suddenly, the echo disappeared again and small voices started to whisper words with a thick Jeju accent. Joon couldn’t take the voices that started to mess with his mind, though he was sure they were coming from the trees, and yelled as he tripped over his own legs and fell. Just like in a bad horror movie, he fell down a mound - which truthfully smelled burned and rotten- and rolled through the mud until he finally stopped on pavement. Joon didn’t even care anymore what happened, he was just glad that he got out alive and only dirty.

As he was getting on his feet, he saw the hotel from afar and noticed the dark clouds were only above the forest. As soon as Joon got off the propriety, the sky cleared up and he could finally have a clear view over the building residing in the middle of the domain.

“No way,” He mumbled, his eyes getting as big as two plates.  He was ready to get one step back towards the forest, in simple amazement, when he got thrown to the side by a sudden car. No light awaited him on the other side and definitely no angel. He was all alone, bleeding while the car drove without a second glance from the driver. In his last moments, though his vision was blurry and his brain was shutting down, Kim Joon swore he saw Yoo Yeonsuk watching from the side, his eyes watery blue and his clothes wet.

Bum was in his room, watching the lightning contour the sky as it started raining. He was standing there with his hands behind his back, his eyes shining from the moonlight. Kim Bum couldn’t stay there for longer but he couldn’t get the courage to leave either. Something was keeping him there, chained emotionally and spiritually. Probably that was the magic of the hotel; it gave you everything as long as you were staying and once you decide to leave, the magic fades away.

“Mr. Kim,” Nari’s voice sent chills down his spine and he could actually feel goose bumps.

Bum moved his head to the side in order to look at her. Jieun was a beautiful woman with a pure heart and nothing she has ever done would change Bum’s opinion; but there was Nari. The mistress was above normal, above any kind of woman he had seen before; her eyes reaching deep into someone’s soul and grasping it, urging it to let go and intoxicate with the magic of her every word.

“Is there something wrong?” Bum asked her; though he was pleased she decided to visit him, he could sense something was bugging her.

“Your friend left the hotel.” She announced it in such a way that seemed like Joon left on his own accord.  “He’s going back home, to Seoul, without you.” She continued, quite pleased. 

Bum stared at her, more exactly her eyes which were entrancing now that they were shining in the moonlight. The windows were large and the moment she got out of the darkness of the room, Bum couldn’t help but feel those chains around him tighten. She was part of the magic and if he was going to leave, he may never see her again. Ever.

“Is there something wrong?” She tilted her head to the side innocently as she asked a question she already knew the answer for.

Bum relaxed, his shoulders lowering and his hands falling along his body. His eyes glanced from her black eyes to the window and eventually, he sighed.

“I’m going to leave tomorrow.” Bum announced right before a ray of lightning struck close to the building.

“Why?” She asked bluntly, though it sounded darker than she intended.

“I have been living here for a few weeks and even before, you treated me while I was hurt. I took your kindness for granted and it’s time to get back on my feet.”

Her eyes were staring at the man with a glint of what Bum has been looking for his entire life: death. She could feel her hands beginning to ache as the hotel was feeling threatened by Bum.

She wasn’t evil and didn’t want to kill Bum just for fun but the hotel waited for a whole year and let her decide when it was time; well, it was time.

“Then, we should organize an Arrivederci party, shouldn’t we?”

Her words surprised Bum, mostly because she didn’t look like someone who would go or even organize a part at all. He was wondering if she ever knew what a party was since he has only seen her listen classical music or have small gatherings at dinner.

Therefore, Kim Bum couldn’t help but feel overjoyed and excited for the next day. He already planned everything that night, after Nari left; he was going to enjoy his last day in the Moonflower hotel and leave at dawn in order to catch the bus to Seoul.

That night, Nari went into her room, where Youngmin was already waiting for her with his usual blank expression. He noticed the way her mood dropped and the way she started to rub her hands on her sides in anxiety. Normally, he would have asked her what was wrong and she would respond in her calm voice but this time was different; Youngmin already knew who got his mistress in such a bad mood.

“He wants to leave, doesn’t he?” He asked in his neutral tone.

Her head snapped towards the young man who shuddered under her glare. Those eyes could be parental, kind and hopeful but when that time was coming those eyes were empty, like she was soulless.

“AH!” She shouted in anger while smashing everything around her, the hotel vibrating under their feet. The collected mistress was losing her temper for the first time in a very long time.

Truthfully, Youngmin didn’t care if Bum left or died; it was the same for him either way but it mattered a lot to Nari and he wanted her to be happy, or at least content. If that meant Kim Bum’s soul, then he might as well do what he was doing best.

“What do you want us to do?”

She growled loudly, imitating the sound of an angry demon before she responded, “Organize his last party.”

When Youngmin walked into the restaurant, the members of the staff were already there, sitting around Nari’s table silently. Yeonsuk noticed the young man first and frowned when he saw Youngmin’s cheek bleeding.

“Did she hurt you?” Yeonsuk asked, making everyone at the table gasp.

Youngmin was Nari’s favorite puppy because he was usually the one who only killed and never asked.

The boy touched his cheek and felt the red substance dripping a bit from a simple scratch. He didn’t even notice when she threw a vase in his direction. He felt an ache on his shoulder and realized she probably threw it straight at him because he had a deep wound and pieces of the shattered vase were still caught in the flesh.

“It’s nothing,” Youngmin responded yet his twin brother scoffed and rushed to his brother’s side. Kwangmin couldn’t believe that Nari actually hurt Youngmin.

“She must be really pissed off,” Jieun mumbled from her seat, fear crawling up her body.

“She will be fine once Kim Bum dies. Everything will go back to normal and another customer will be added on the wall.” Youngmin commented, wincing when Kwangmin started to take the pieces out of his shoulder.

Jaejin frowned and unconsciously turned towards the mirror at the top of the stairs. He saw his reflection, looking just like the day he died and his soul entered the devil’s den.

Kwangmin and Jieun grabbed Youngmin and walked to help him while Jaejin and Yeonsuk remained in the restaurant, drinking tea. Yeonsuk wasn’t exactly bothered from what the younger man noticed; if anything, he looked ready to detach himself from any emotional baggage he got fro