It was already evening when Juri arrived at home, with Suzy and her bodyguard tagging behind her. They went in a five-storey apartment just a few blocks from Tous les Jours. Suzy marveled at how the place can be so small, and how Juri can live alone, without any nannies, cooks and drivers. She must be so lonely.

Juri pulled out her hand phone as soon as they entered her home. She hadn’t checked on her phone since she got to work, and she knew it will be filled with missed calls and text messages by now.

Ten missed calls. She was right. But she didn’t bother checking who it was; she already knew.

Juri looked back at Suzy who was standing on the doorway, Jaeho resignedly standing right behind her. “Come in,” she said with a wave. Suzy smiled and hurried inside while Jaeho remained outside and pushed the door close.

Juri and Suzy went straight to the dining table and were just about to get started with their paper when Juri’s phone started ringing again. She let out a sigh and immediately answered it.

“Ne, oppa, sorry I just got back from work,” she said. “I’m at home now.”

“Got back safe?” the man from the other line, Sanghyun asked in a deep calm voice.

“Mm.”

“That’s great,” Sanghyun answered. “I heard you have a friend coming o—”

“Ya, why did you just get home at this time of the night?! Is this the right time for a young lady to come home?!” No doubt, it’s Joon who just grabbed the phone from Sanghyun. Juri had to pull the phone far away from her ear with how loud and peevish the voice was. Even Suzy heard that she turned to Juri with a brow raised in surprise.

“Ya, Joon oppa!” Juri whined. “I’m working now; of course I can’t come home early!”

There was a loud sigh from the other line before Joon came back to the line. “Arasso,” he said. “We’ll come back there as soon as we can. We’ll pick you up from work every day so you won’t get lost in the dark.”

“Ya, I don’t—”

“Ok, goodnight. Keep safe!”

And the call ended. Juri just rolled her eyes and forced her phone inside her bag, not noticing Suzy who was intently looking at her.

“Who was that?” Suzy asked, startling Juri a bit.

“Oh, that?” Juri smiled wearily. “My over-protective brothers. They call me every single time since they moved out for work in Seoul. They act like I can’t live alone.”

“I didn’t know you have brothers.”

“I actually don’t,” Juri answered. “We’re not related. They sort of adopted me three years ago. They took care of me, you know, after the incident…”

“Oh. I’m sorry I—”

Juri just chuckled. “Nothing to be sorry about. They’re great people, and I’m glad I met them.” They were, and if that incident didn’t happen, she wouldn’t have had such weird but loving brothers.

Suzy quietly sighed as she reached for her pen and started doodling on a page of her notebook. “I’m envious, you know.”

Juri looked at Suzy in confusion. She was drawing random circles on the paper, and her face looked so vulnerable and innocent. What was there for a perfect girl like Suzy – rich, beautiful, talented and famous – to be envious with?

“I’ve always wanted a brother,” she said as she stopped doodling, leaving a blot of ink right in the middle of her page. “I used to have one, an older brother. But he was gone before I even turned three. I don’t even remember his face.”

Silence. Juri didn’t know how to react at Suzy’s sudden revelation. Suzy has always been the fierce Queenka at school. She was highly regarded that everyone looked down when she passed by; they dared not look at her in the eyes. She was no one to mess with. But hearing all these from her right now, it made Juri somehow pity her…

“Unni,” Suzy suddenly said as she looked up at Juri. There was a sudden urgency in her voice, but her eyes were still calm and sad.

“Hm?”

Suzy bit her lip. “I’m hungry, do you have food?”

Juri would have burst out laughing, but she somehow felt it was not the time to. A small smile escaped her lips though, and in no time, she was heading out of her door.

“I haven’t been on grocery yet, so I’ll just go buy from the convenience store on the next block,” she said as grabbed her purse and slipped on her sandals. “Is there anything you like?”

Suzy was still sitting at the dining table as she thought of what she would like to eat. Pudding? Not now that she’s on a diet. Caesar salad? Would they have that in a convenience store?

“Nope,” Suzy quietly said as she realized it didn’t matter what she wanted. “I’m fine with anything.”

“Okay,” Juri said as she opened the door. “I’ll be right back.”

And then she was gone. Suzy turned back to her blank paper and started writing an outline of what she wanted to write when she remembered she indeed wanted something.

Ramyun. I want to try instant ramyun.

Suzy rushed out of the room to follow Juri. Jaeho just came back from the public restroom when he noticed his master running out.

“Suzy-ssi!”

Suzy looked back and grinned at her bodyguard. “I’ll just follow Juri unni to ask her to buy me noodles, I won’t go far!”

Jaeho wasn’t even able to react properly when Suzy already vanished from his sight. Being in your thirties while guarding a fast young girl is not really an advantage.

Suzy quickly ran out of the apartment, stopping as soon as she saw Juri about to cross the dark empty street, its only lighting coming from the bright full moon.

“Unni!”

Juri stopped on her tracks and looked back. She somehow knew Suzy was going to run after her. “You realized you wanted something?” she shouted as she looked back and smiled.

Suzy eagerly nodded, and was about to walk towards Juri when suddenly, a series of violent winds howled across the street. Dust and leaves wildly flew around, making it hard for her to see. She tried to call out for Juri, but the dust caused her to cough unceasingly, drowning her voice away.

“Suzy, are you all right?” she heard Juri shout.

“Unni, where are you?”

When the winds have somehow calmed down, Suzy managed to open her eyes and tried to search for Juri again. But then there was that deafening sound of flapping wings…

Fear started to creep all over Suzy’s body. Through the setting dusty air, she saw a huge set of blinding white wings emerge from the sky and stop right on top of Juri, covering her completely from Suzy’s view.

 “Unni—!”

In an instant, a pair of arms pulled Suzy from behind with so much strength, stopping her from moving. One hand was tightly gripped around her waist while the other roughly covered .

Everything happened so fast that she didn’t even have time to think. She tried to break off from her attacker’s hold, but the grip was so hard that it only hurt her more.

Unni… Jaeho… Her attacker slowly rested its head on her shoulder, and she felt a blow of wind on the curve of her neck.

“Ssshh,” it warned, and it was the last thing she heard before she felt her insides turn and her vision started to blur out. But she did see thin black of smoke surround her and slowly crept all over her skin, as her arms and legs started to fade out up to her body and vanish before her eyes, as the white left of her long-sleeved uniform quickly sublimed into faint gray smoke and blew away…