I’ll be back....you’re going to look for me again...

I’ll come back then....because there is no one who can love you as much as I do.....

2PM - I'll Be Back

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Haeundae, Seoul - 1989 

A mob of people have doused a small hotel inn building with gasoline with the urging of the young rich man who has nothing but evil and hatred towards the person trapped in the house. He threw the match which lit the whole house in fire while the flames covered the building, with a young woman trapped inside.

The woman knew she was outnumbered and tried to escape but the building was collapsing due to the fire and one of the plank of wood knocked her down. She had tears in her eyes knowing that she will die, all because she fell in love with someone outside of her culture and is now being punished till death. She closed her eyes and said a prayer that no one will forget.

"Mianhe for not keeping my promise for our love, everyone is against us and it's all because of that scum. He couldn't have me so he killed you and punishing me for that mistake. But the ones who did this will pay for what they did, they are blinded by his money and power. I pray that our story will be told by someone, because I'll be back someday to get my revenge. Whoever and wherever you are, hear my prayers and avenge me.....!"

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Modern Day - 2019

"Avenge me....."

A guy woke up from his nap from a nightmare after hearing a woman's haunting voice in his head. He saw his phone ringing and realised it's his manager calling to check up on him.

Ok Taecyeon is a American-born traveller looking to blog about his roots in Korea, his manager gave him as assignment to do a segment inspired by Who Do You Think You Are but Taecyeon was less interested and looking to blog about something else like the beaches and the nightlife in Haeundae. He arrived at Haeundae a while ago and was riding a taxi to drop him to a hotel he booked whilst speaking to his manager on the phone

"Really? I have to find about my ancestors..? Isn't that boring Hyung?" Taecyeon speaking to his manager on the phone.

"Well everyone's doing a geneology program so it will be great for your fans to see your back story, who knows if you came from a family of rebels or from royalty...." His manager tried to convince much to Taecyeon's boredom.

"Araso..I'll see what I can do and kamsahamnida for the trip!" Taecyeon joked whilst disconnecting the call before arriving at his destination. He looked everywhere and all the stores, buildings are registered under the "Park" name.

~ THE PARK INN ~

He looked at the small hotel in front of him but sense of familiarity like he dreamt it before. He saw the inn has a small river running through the stream with the winds howling through the air. He was looking around and saw a figure moving away from one of the windows in the rooms which alarmed him until a voice broke his thoughts and bowed in greeting.

"Anyeonghaseyo! Welcome to The Park Inn and you must be Taecyeon-sshi...I'm Nichkhun and I run this inn!" A guy  introduced himself with enthusiasm to Taecyeon while he bowed back. Taecyeon felt relieved that he can at least hang out with someone around his age who knows the area.

"You don't look like you're a native Korean here...?" Taecyeon lightly remarked about his "foreign" looks which made Nichkhun laugh in a light-hearted tone.

"Well I'm from Thailand but my mother is Chinese, I lived in the States during my childhood before moving to Korea permanently." Nichkhun replied.

"I've noticed that a lot of stores and building says "PARK" everywhere, are they owned by someone..." Taecyeon felt curious before Nichkhun revealed about it.

"They're owned by Park Jaebum who is now the mayor of Haeundae, he used to be rich racist brat but now is an old racist douche who owns everything from his Appa..." Nichkhun replied in a biting tone.

"Mianhe for bringing that up man..." Taecyeon sympathised with him while Nichkhun shook his head.

"Aniyo! It's cool and now that we are familiar with each other now, let's take your bags inside..." Nichkhun replied in a joking tone while him and Taecyeon carried his bags into one the rooms to check in.

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Taecyeon unpacked his stuff into the closet and took out his equipment to film for his blog as part of the assignment. He exit his room and met up with Nichkhun who was waiting for him near the door, he offered to show him the sights in Haeundae to check out a festival going on around and they left the inn together.

They were walking around the town to check out the stalls whilst Taecyeon was recording on his blog for his fans. He was walking backwards and bumped into someone and fell down, he looked behind and saw a young woman picking up her bag. 

"Mianhe for being such a pabo, didn't see where I was going...." Taecyeon tried to apologise but stopped once the young woman looked up at him. She had long brown hair with a milky skin and wearing a white summer dress.

"I-It's okay, you don't have to apologise.." The young woman replied with a light smile. Taecyeon felt dumbstruck by her beauty and couldn't get a word out but needed to make a connection quickly.

"I'm Ok Taecyeon, just visiting as a tourist..." Taecyeon introduced himself with an awkward bow making her laugh.

"I'm Im Yoona and nice to meet you Taecyeon-sshi..." Yoona replied with a bow, they both walked around the stalls to pass the time while she looked at his phone on his hand and enquired.

"Are you doing a video blog...? Must be something interesting in Haeundae..." Yoona asked Taecyeon who was taking photos of the festival.

"I was sent to do an assignment to find about my ancestors' story but nothing interests me. You probably think I'm acting like a boring guy that wants to play all the time..." Taecyeon confessed but Yoona shook her head.

"Anni! I think you should do a story that people will remember, like a real-life tragic love story..." Yoona suggested which surprised Taecyeon.

"Chincha? Do you know a story like this...." Taecyeon enquired Yoona and before she could reply, a scream was heard.

He saw people gathering around and saw a middle aged man drop dead on the floor, he saw the man with eyes and mouth open in shock and the paramedics checked his pulse which stated the man died of a huge shock which alarmed Taecyeon, he looked around and saw Yoona disappear but before he could find her, he heard a voice ring out.

"Taecyeon-ah! I was looking for you man..." Nichkhun ran over to him breathless, looking for him everywhere but before he could reply, a 50-something old man appeared in front of the village people. He looked like a rich man with less gray in his hair and dressed smart for his age like a gentleman.

"Who's that man over there...?" Taecyeon asked Nichkhun who was staring intently at the older man.

"This is the infamous Park Jaebum, the mayor of Haeundae...." Nichkhun revealed to Taecyeon who was curious.

"Attention everyone! It's unfortunate that another villager has died without a warning, the coroner is still checking for details for the post-mortem. I am deeply sorry about this and our condolences are with him and his family..." Jaebum announced to the villagers who were leaving from the short meeting and packing their stuff for the night.

Jaebum noticed Taecyeon within the crowd and realised he was new in Haeundae. He approached him to find out about him and curious of his visit in the town. Jaebum approached a confused Taecyeon and bowed in greeting.

"Apologies for the inconvenience, I'm Park Jaebum and the mayor of Haeundae.." Jaebum shook his hand but something strange happened once Taecyeon's hand touched his.

"Avenge me..!" Taecyeon saw a vision of a burning building with a woman's voice haunting him. He shook out out of his thoughts and greeted Jaebum.

"Ok Taecyeon, I'm a social media blogger and visiting Korea to find my roots for a work assignment..." Taecyeon replied with an uneasy smile, he wasn't sure why but he felt something unnerving with Jaebum's presence.

"Well Taecyeon-sshi, it's not everyday we see a tourist like yourselves and despite the unfortunate event earlier, I hope you do have a safe journey in your work..." Jaebum bade farewell and left to speak to the paramedics to avoid any bad publicity with the recent events.

"Let's get out of here man..." Taecyeon spoke out after a silence while Nichkhun nodded and they both left the festival. Not realising that they're being spied on by a mysterious person in a hidden place.....

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"I can't believe you left me alone man, I though you got lost and panicked like a worried Appa...." Nichkhun exclaimed dramtically while Taecyeon laughed at his comment.

"Well my chingu, I just happen to meet a beautiful girl around here and she looked like an angel...." Taecyeon described his short encounter whilst feeling infatuated with Yoona.

"Chincha..? Who is she and how does she look like...?" Nichkhun teased Taecyeon who was blushing, he showed the photo on his phone to Nichkhun that he took by accident.

"Her name is Im Yoona and she's really pretty...." Taecyeon showed the photo but noticed Nichkhun went silent after seeing the photo.

"You saw her in the festival...? How is that possible...?" Nichkhun asked in a confusing tone.

"Yeah it was her in the festival, why is not possible to not see her...?" Taecyeon demanded Nichkhun who faced the wall while he exhaled and faced Taecyeon.

"Because this girl doesn't exist....she was dead 30 years ago....." Nichkhun revealed a shocking fact that terrified Taecyeon who was in disbelief. The winds started to howl louder and something fell from the shelf. Nichkhun went over to shut all the windows downstairs and went upstairs to shut the other windows.

Taecyeon went towards the shelf and found a diary which was written 30 years ago. When he opened the book, he was shocked to see an image of a smiling woman looking like Yoona with her arm around a guy whose face was torn on the photo. The photo was taken in a festival years ago and looked pure and happy together.

He read the entries in her diary which described how she met a guy who was from a different background as he was from China but their romance was cut short due to an another guy who was vying for her love but when she rejected him, he conspired with his friends to kill her boyfriend and spread fake rumours that he was a spy and used the girl to go against the village which further spread the paranoia amongst the people. The guy sent a mob after her but locked herself in, he convinced the mob to burn the family inn to get her out but it all backfired when it all burned down to the ground and the girl was dead. 

Taecyeon felt saddened after reading the diary, he was shocked that an innocent girl and boy was killed due to another guy's jealousy and used paranoia to intimidate other people and committed a horrible act.

"I think you should do a story that people will remember, like a real-life tragic love story..." He remembered Yoona revealing an idea which forshadowed a tragic story that was hidden for so many years.

Taecyeon thought his trip would not be interesting but within 24 hours, he got more than he bargained for since he found himself in the middle of a supernatural encounter with a ghost woman whose love story ended in tragedy but actually tried to contact him from the dead for one thing: to punish the real culprit and get her revenge.....

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To Be Continued.....

27 October 2019