The gang drives across the beautiful landscape of ricefields to avoid the chaotic traffic they drove with earlier. It was Yizhuo who suggested passing by this place. She also suggests that all of them should stay by her place first. 

Unlike the drive earlier, the gang spends only 15 minutes to reach Yizhuo’s apartment unit from Grandmother Cookie’s white house. Since they have their bikes for 24 hours, they decided to bring it with them to Yizhuo’s instead of taking another route to return them first.

The group immediately felt at home in Yizhuo’s apartment unit which is spacious and a bit luxurious for a single person. “How come we rarely hang out at your place, Yizhuo?” Keonhee asks.

“Your place is impeccable,” Dongmyeong says. “Are you bringing anyone home?” Winter laughs at this comment. She thinks it’s funny that most of their friends will tease Yizhuo for being an extrovert person just because she knows a lot of people. Yizhuo rolls her eyes and throws a bag of chips to the twins which, in turn, they serve in a bowl.

“What do you mean we barely hang out here? We just had our movie marathon here last week?” She says. “Besides, unlike these two troublemakers, I like to keep my place squeaky clean.”

“Boring, you mean?” Chaein teases and receives a light slap in the arm. “But, admit it, Yizhuo, you had someone here recently.” Yizhuo stops and raises an eyebrow. Winter looks at her best friend. It’s not like her to keep secrets, especially, if she is starting to get interested in a person. 

Chaein starts enumerating proofs that Yizhuo had a visitor: the pink-colored lipstick on a napkin thrown in the bin, a different colored cup, and an opened pack of spicy-flavored noodles in the cupboard. Yizhuo smiles shyly and Winter raises an eyebrow. “It’s not what you think,” Yizhuo says. “My cousin Lisa was here. You know her, right?”

“Well, you have no other cousins,” Winter says.

“Shut up,” Yizhuo replies. “She broke up with the person she was dating. I didn’t know who.” Yizhuo explains. The gang was silent for a moment.

“Boring,” Winter says and laughs when she sees her best friend’s eyes widen at her statement. Yizhuo quickly grabs a throw pillow and hits Winter. Laughter echoes throughout the unit as the group temporarily engages in a pillow fight. 

“Okay, okay. Quit it,” Yizhuo says. “We are here to actually plan on how to help Winter with her ghost problems.”

“Geez, I forgot about that,” Chaein comments.

“There goes your attention span,” Dongju answers. Yizhuo clears to prevent the two from starting another chaos. Everyone was silent and Yizhuo takes this opportunity to get her whiteboard from her study. 

“A little help won’t hurt, you know,” She says as she pulls the board with one of the wheels stuck. The boys grudgingly help Yizhuo by carrying the whiteboard to the living area where the rest of the group is seated. 

Yizhuo lists down what the group knows so far: Winter should meet Karina and make her remember Wonyoung every day. “Listen up, nerds,” She says. “We need a master plan.”

“Why am I not comfortable with this?” Winter asks. “It feels like we are using Karina or something.”

“Same,” Yizhuo and the others agree. “But we really have no choice.”

“What if,” Dongju says. “Winter ditches the request of this ghost and finds ways on how to keep the entity at bay.”

“What if Winter will have a more difficult time? I don’t want our friend to become a supernatural dinner.” Dongmyeong says back. The group lets out a collective sigh. 

“Ah,” Ireh says out of the blue. “I remember a conversation I had with Grandmother Cookie. She said mortals like us have the privilege of choice.”

“Is this from an economic standpoint or…” Chaein asks.

“No, spiritual,” Ireh answers, a bit annoyed. “She said that, unlike ghosts, we mortals have the choice of altering our destinies. ‘The paths to our destiny is how we pave them’ as she said.”

Winter listens as Ireh explains the logic behind the concept of destiny. It is true, according to what Ireh is saying, that a mortal has her life drawn out. However, fate is the individual line art. The details, the shading, and the finishing touches come from the choices these individuals make in their everyday lives. “After all,” Ireh says. “Everything is a work in progress.” 

The gang is silent, trying to piece together the puzzle that is their current predicament. Yizhuo stands up and lists down Wonyoung’s requests from the most simple to the most difficult only for them to realize that everything is difficult. First, they don’t know who Lori is. Second, sunflowers are not available in town. The rest are just impossible tasks. Winter realizes that she does not have enough rapport with Karina to warrant the success of this mission.

Winter thinks hard. Wonyoung made her collateral to the entity. What is the guarantee that she will end up alive after all of this? Wonyoung wasn’t really clear. Why was she chased by the entity, to begin with? How did she find her in the first place? And most importantly, why her? Winter remembers the first and last encounter with the entity. It was chasing Wonyoung. Not her. The realization hits Winter like a brick. 

“Winter,” Yizhuo says, waving a hand in front of her eyes. “We’ve been asking you a question.”

“Sorry,” Winter snaps back and blinks. “What was that?” Yizhuo huffs and sits beside her best friend. “We were asking you what should we do about this,” Yizhuo answers while gesturing in the air. Winter faces her friends and relays her realization. 

“I haven’t seen the entity chase me when I am alone. Maybe it isn’t really after me.” Winter says with conviction.

“So that means…” Yizhuo asks with the rest of the gang looking at her with curiosity. Winter looks at them and smiles with confidence. For the first time, she feels optimistic about this. 

“We’ll play by my rules,” Winter says.

It is exactly 7 in the evening when the gang left Yizhuo’s apartment unit. Winter and the others went with Keonhee to return the bikes to the shop and eventually went their own ways. Winter is now left walking alone in a calm street. The kiosks and stores are closing and the usual noise is replaced with soothing conversations. 

The relative silence gives Winter a chance to think and reflect on what happened yesterday. Everything was so fast. She looks forward at the road and sees blurred energies of ghosts and entities wandering and observing. It has always been like this ever since she was made aware that what she was seeing wasn’t an everyday occurrence. Her cousins tell her that she is unique in all the world. The world can be a cruel place and Winter knows that they are doing everything to protect her and let her have a normal life. But Winter knows she will never be normal. She sees varieties of spirits, ghouls, and specters – they talk to her, approach her, trying to trick her. 

Winter was able to live the years of her life being wary of these creatures and wary of what might the living think. She realizes that dealing with Wonyoung has opened Pandora’s box of anxiety that she has kept hidden and well-guarded in her psyche. Winter’s thoughts suddenly traveled to sharp eyes and a distinct mole. She sighs. Karina has occupied her mind ever since she first saw her in her dream. Names, Winter. She remembers what her grandmother says. Karina used to be a figment of her dreamland. Now, she is more real than ever. Winter starts smelling the sweet, flowery scent once again. “Great,” she whispers to herself. “Now my mind is playing tricks on my sense of smell.”

Winter continues to walk the road towards her apartment complex. She wonders about the street where Wonyoung brought her the other day. Why did Wonyoung bring her there and why can’t the entity follow them there? Thoughts and questions are racing in her brain but the anxiety never comes. She can still smell the flowery scent. She smiled a bit and laughed to herself. “God, Karina, we haven’t even talked much but you already occupy a portion of my brain. What kind of trouble will you cause me?” She whispers in the air. Winter walks and thinks, observing the little details in the streets, avoiding the looks of desolate ghosts, and listening to conversations in passing. 

She is so deep in thought that when she bumped into a figure, it feels like her whole weight is thrown back at her. Winter snaps out of her thoughts and looks at the person she bumped. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t –”

“Winter, hi!” The person says. Warm voice and an even warmer smile. Winter is reminded of pastels and pink clouds. Karina Yoo is in front of her, smiling like she is witnessing sunrise happening right before her eyes.