There are things Chaeyoung doesn’t understand.

People believed that a child won’t remember much until they reach 6 or 7 years old. Chaeyoung’s earliest clear memory, however, was when she was 3. It was one day when she discovered that Jeongyeon is her sister from another father. It was the same day their mother died; those were her mother’s last words before she slept forever, lying on the hospital bed with only little Chaeyoung with her.

It was a terrible memory, yet Chaeyoung would unconsciously choose not to forget it, and she doesn’t understand why. 

After that, the young kid assumes she understood why then-7-year-old Jeongyeon was harsh on her. Whenever their loving mother turns her back on them, Jeongyeon would make sure that not one day would pass where Chaeyoung wouldn’t be bullied. Seungwan would try to protect the youngest kid, but she isn’t some omnipresent person who would be there whenever she gets beaten up. So, at a young age, she learned how to defend herself without returning the violence. 

She simply returns violence with kindness, no tears shed, no retaliation. Chaeyoung thinks it made Jeongyeon angrier, but she couldn’t care less. They’re sisters, regardless of treatment.

(People would tell her later that she had always been the smartest and most empathic kid among the three even though she was the youngest.)

At 3 years old, she already knew she’s being left out of something important in the family. At the day of the funeral, before their father had her mother’s will burn into ashes, Chaeyoung had already read a part of it; the kids will not have their father’s surname. She doesn’t understand why, but somehow, she knows it’s not all good between her mom and dad. Their father did honor that part of the will, albeit begrudgingly, but the sisters happily take on Son as a surname instead of their father’s.

She couldn’t understand her older sisters’ happy reaction about it, and she knows she’s being kept in the dark. So she acts like she entirely is instead of prying.

Months after their mom’s death, Jeongyeon’s treatment changes. The bully turns into a protector Chaeyoung never knew she needed. She truly appreciates it, and she’s thankful that her elder sister treats her like that, albeit she couldn’t understand the sudden change. Seungwan told her before that Jeongyeon really did love her despite the bad things she’s done. Chaeyoung thinks there’s more to it than just that, but she lets it go.

What she couldn’t understand despite being a smart kid, is her father’s treatment towards her. She was the favorite kid, she knows, but her father’s kind (and excessive) treatment happened after her mom’s death. Their father was an indifferent man, so when he started showering Chaeyoung gifts, she couldn’t help but question it, but she shrugs it off. She thinks it’s another reason why Jeongyeon hated her before.

Then that day happened, that day she’d rather forget.

She was 5. It was midnight where she decided to go to their kitchen for the cookies her eldest sister baked earlier. However, noises coming from her father’s study room piqued her attention. As a curious kid, she naturally follows the noise.

She regrets doing so.

The door to her father’s study room was a bit ajar, and there beheld her beloved sisters, lying on their bellies while weeping in pain. Their backs were full of slash marks, and she gaped in horror. She doesn’t hear what her father says because she dashed away from the scene and back to her room, crying.

She couldn’t understand anything that was happening around her and why she’s amid it.

The first thing that registers on her mind when she wakes up is that it’s dark, and she’s lying on something soft. She sits up slowly, and a few moments of looking around make her realize that she somehow ended up sleeping on Nayeon’s bed.

She slept. After almost a week of being unable to sleep. What a surprise.

She hears yelps of pain by her side, so she turns to see Sana treating Nayeon’s right arm. 

“Ow, Sana! What are you doing?” The senior hisses in pain, jerking her arm away from Sana.

“Look, it’ll sting a bit, okay? Deal with it unless you want people to stare at your bandaged hand tomorrow at school.” Sana slaps a piece of paper with intricate designs on it, earning another yelp from the older girl. Chaeyoung sees the same pieces of paper covering Nayeon’s forearm.

After Sana slaps the last piece of the healing charm she got from Siwon, she hovers her hand over the older girl’s arm and Nayeon’s wound glows. The senior sighs in odd comfort and relief as she feels the stinging pain of her slash wound disappearing.

Simultaneously, Chaeyoung gasps in surprise as her right arm feels tingly suddenly, the previous pain from her unknown wound gone in a flash. She unwraps the bandages (she’s genuinely surprised that she can touch them, maybe it’s made for ghosts) and sees no trace of the wound that suddenly appeared. Not even a scar.

“What the hell?” She mutters to herself. Sana hears her, however.

“Chaeyoung, you okay?” She asks, eyeing the bandages on the bed. “Yoona-unnie never told us what happened exactly.”

“Some kind of slash wound suddenly appeared on my right arm and it hurt like hell.” Chaeyoung misses the way Nayeon flinches. “So, yeah, Yoona-unnie bandaged it for me with some special cloth bandage – where’s my jacket?”

Sana shrugs. The bed dips with Nayeon sitting down beside Sana, her eyes trained on Chaeyoung’s now clear skin on her right.

“Hey Chaeng,” Nayeon smiles warmly, grabbing the younger girl’s hands gently.

Chaeyoung sees Nayeon, pleading with her with her dull gold eyes. She finds herself clutching a black blade on her right hand, its tip on Nayeon’s neck. The older girl had a white sword on her right, her hand holding it loosely to show no threats.

“Snap out of it, Chaeyoung!” She cries.

And she blinks, unsure of what she suddenly saw earlier. Her vision is suddenly back to the two worried girls in front of her from that dark-looking warehouse she was in earlier.

What the hell was that?

“Chaeng you good? You spaced out for a while.” She looks up hearing Sana’s worried voice.

There beheld a bloody Sana, looking at her in mixed disbelief and relief. Despite the bruises on her face and cuts on her arms, she still has that bubbly smile on her face. The junior then turns away from Chaeyoung and raises her katana.

“Chaeyoung?”

“I’m sorry.” The freshman groans, shaking her head. “I think I’m hallucinating.”

Nayeon glances at Sana a bit. The latter reflects the same worried face she has. The senior keeps mum, however, not wanting to push Chaeyoung.

“What are you seeing then?” Well, Sana thinks otherwise.

Chaeyoung mulls over her thoughts. She couldn’t just tell them about what she saw, she thinks to herself. To be honest, she doesn’t know what to make out of it. Confused as she was, she tries to shrug it off and dismiss it as some vivid and bizarre imagination.

“Nothing really, some weird stuff.” She says vaguely. Nayeon seems to buy it, or at least she looks like she believes it. Sana, however, narrows her eyes in suspicion but doesn’t say anything.

They stay silent after a while, with Chaeyoung itching to know what happened to the two older girls earlier. From what she knows, the two were supposed to go out of school early since they opted to skip clubs. But they didn’t come when she expected them to arrive, so seeing such a wound on Nayeon’s arm was pretty bothersome.

Especially if it exactly looks like the wound that suddenly appeared on hers.

“I know what you’re thinking Chaeyoung.” Realizing that she was staring at Nayeon’s arm covered with what looked like charms, she looked up to Sana’s hesitant gaze. “Well, long story short, we were attacked by the guy that sent a darkee out after you, and he’s looking for you.” With furrowed eyebrows, Chaeyoung racks her brain for any memory of what happened that day.

“What does he want from me?”

“He said there’s a bounty on your head,” Nayeon answers while removing the pieces of paper on her arm, appreciating her now clear skin. “There’s a bounty on whoever can find the chainless spirit. God, Chaeyoung, you’re in so much danger.” The senior ruffles her hair in frustration and worry. Even Sana sighs quietly on her side.

“I’m sorry I’m being a burden to you. You all have so much to deal with already and I’m being useless–” 

Sana puts a glowing finger on the babbling freshman’s mouth to stop her from talking further. 

“You’re not a burden, Chaeng.” Nayeon sternly reprimands. “If anything, we’d do everything to protect you. So, don’t go thinking we’re getting tired of you.”

“But you got hurt, that wound on your arm came from the guy, didn’t it?” 

Both girls look at each other with hesitation in their eyes. It makes Chaeyoung more agitated to know what they’re thinking about. She’s about to speak up when Sana holds her hand up.

“You’ve got a similar wound, which is gone at the same time as Nayeon’s had.” She points out. “Do you know how you got that?”

“Am I supposed to know?” The freshman quietly answers back. “I really don’t know what happened. All I knew was that it suddenly hurt, and there was no blood whatsoever.”

“Of course there’s no blood, you’re a ghost.” Sana sasses, making Nayeon snort. “Back to the point, you probably got it at the same time as Nayeon’s. it seems like you’re connected in some way. Maybe because Nayeon’s the first medium to see you.”

(Nayeon sees how Sana looked uncomfortable for a few seconds before reverting to her usual bubbly and cheerful self. She takes note of it, telling herself to ask her about it, next time.)

“Wait.” Nayeon narrows her eyes, a thought suddenly coming into mind. “Did you, for some reason, get dizzy this afternoon?”

“What the hell, unnie, how did you know?” Chaeyoung gasps in surprise.

“I only assumed but what the hell,” Nayeon mutters, incredulous eyes trained on the ghost. They stare at each other for a while, only looking away when an awkward Sana clears .

“That proves my point.” She simply comments, gesturing to the two of them. “Now, I don’t want to see you two getting googly eyes with each other–”

“We’re not!”

“–so, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll stay with Mister Choi for the night. Bye.” Sana scurries out while giving teasing looks to the other two occupants of the room. After closing the door, she drops her cheeky smile and leans on the door for a while, releasing a sigh while sliding down.

“What? Are we some sort of soulmates now?” Sana hears Nayeon ask from behind the door.

“I don’t want to be soulmates with you, grandma!” The junior can’t help but chuckle. Chaeyoung always knew how to push the right buttons when it comes to Nayeon. She shakes her head before standing up to head down the living room where Siwon was.

The chauffeur simply stares at her while she sits down with her shoulders sagged and her eyes focused on the floor.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She simply says, her tone monotonous and tired.

Siwon turns the tv off and focuses solely on Sana. He lets the young heir clear her thoughts first. She’s clearly thinking deeply. But with