“The world is a harum-scarum place,” the girl reads. She stayed up late to finish The Carnivorous Carnival. She wonders if the world really is a harum-scarum place. The girl closed the book and looks at the moon. Everything about this night is quiet.

She starts looking around and adjusts her eyes to the chiaroscuro world. The girl huffs. She doesn’t know what time it is but the sandman is not visiting her yet. Sleep eludes her and yet...

The girl hears footsteps and faint conversations. She gasps. Did... Did The Man Jack find their home? She shudders. She remembers what her older sister told her: characters do not go out of their respective books. But what if that’s the case? What if The Man Jack found them and the family is in trouble.

She silently scolds herself. She just turned 7, she should know better. The girl continues to listen to the faint conversations... conversations that seem to get a bit louder. The footsteps become heavier, as well. She wonders if these are her friends -- friends that no one else sees.

Carrying her flashlight, the girl quietly sneaks out of her room and heads into the source of the muffled noise. She feels quite excited as to what she will discover. She can’t wait to tell her older sister about it.

The wide windows gave the girl a good view of the full moon. In turn, the moon provides the right amount of light that illuminates the huge mansion. The girl carefully descends the stairs, looking left and right for a shadow or a silhouette. She sees that the front door is open and the faint conversations she heard a while ago are now as clear as a rooster’s crow in the early morning.

Darkness envelopes the immediate surrounding as the girl turns her flashlight off. The light from the full moon highlights the silhouette of two men. She recognizes the older man immediately.

As with other mischievous 7-year-olds, the girl wanted to surprise the older men. With a step, the girl was shocked as she hears a loud bang. The silence of the night breaks into pieces as the older man slowly sinks to the ground.

The once chiaroscuro night is now smudged with bright red. Fear, understandably, is what the little girl felt. Helplessness, second. The girl sees two white eyes looking in her direction, sharp as the blade that The Man Jack uses to kill his victims. She also sees a cold-looking object in his hands. Apparent hatred echoed in the man’s eyes.

But what the girl saw afterward changed her. She saw -- with her own two eyes -- a mutilated specter and once again, the older man lives. Only this time, he’s different. The world suddenly became noisy for the little girl and as the other man approach her with hatred-filled eyes, the world becomes dimmer.

Winter...

Winter...

The girl felt that she was being shaken violently. She opens her eyes and sees a familiar girl. “Good girl, Winter. Hang on, alright? Taeyeon-unnie is here.” She feels a hand carefully slapping her cheeks.

Winter...

Winter…

In the fleeting moments of her consciousness, Winter sees asters with colors brighter than the night.

Winter...

Winter…

---

“Hey, Winter, are you listening?” Keonhee asks, waving a hand in front of Winter’s eyes. She sees her friends looking at her. Winter shakes her head and brings her attention to the food in front of her.

Keonhee and the Son twins arrived minutes after the girls had their talk. By that time, Winter was able to gain enough strength to stand up and sit with her friends at the dining table.

The boys arrived with a collection of food that is nothing short of a feast. According to Keonhee, his boss from his job at the wet market had a great month and, as thanks, gave him 5 pounds of tuna for him to cook into whatever dish he wanted. On the other hand, the Son twins were visited by their mom who brought a lot of side dishes for all of them to enjoy.

“Oh, before I forget, Winter, mom brought this,” Dongmyeong said and hurriedly went out to the veranda to get his present. A potted sunflower in full bloom. It is as beautiful as a typical sunflower in the summer but Winter frowned upon seeing the plant. It reeks. Winter cannot explain it but there is an unfathomable smell coming from the flower.

Winter faintly hears Dongmyeong explaining that they told their mother about wanting a sunflower but not divulging the details as to the specific reason why. However, her attention is still on the bloom emitting a foul smell. She covers her nose and frowns.

“What’s the matter, batch?” Dongju asks. Yizhuo holds the potted plant and puts it close to Winter who avoided the plant violently. Everyone was confused by her actions. Yizhuo took a sniff of the flower.

“What’s wrong? This flower doesn’t smell.” She says.

“It smells like death,” Winter says and this made everyone gasp. Chaein grabs the flower from Yizhuo and inspects it.

“I wonder what will happen if we sprinkle some of the salt into this?” She asks. Chaein did not wait for a response and grabs her bottle of pink Himalayan salt. Nothing happened. Winter still smells the awful smell.

“What’s happening? I am so confused,” Dongju says. The group looks at Ireh, waiting for an explanation to which the girl merely shrugs.

Dongju decides to keep the flower away from Winter. She offers an apologetic smile which the twins accepted easily. Dongju ruffles Winter’s hair as he places the sunflower back on the veranda.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why it suddenly smelled like that,” Winter says while toying with her food. “How’s your sense of taste?” Chaein asks. Winter ate a piece of tuna from her plate. Everything is fine. She nods slowly, signaling to her friends that nothing is wrong with her sense of taste.

“Winter,” Dongju calls softly. Winter meets her friend’s gaze. “Tell us everything, yes? You don’t have to walk around eggshells with us.” He reminds with a warm smile. Winter feels grateful. She smiles back, tears forming in her eyes.

“I feel so tired,” Winter says. “It has only been a couple of days and I feel like I fought a war.”

“That’s not surprising, I think,” Yizhuo agrees. “You have been dealing with a really persistent ghost.” Yizhuo adjusts in her seat enough to encircle her arms around her best friend and pulls her into a hug.

“If I remember correctly,” Dongmyeong says. “The ghost Wonyoung requires Winter to give Karina sunflowers. How will that happen now?”

“Maybe the stench that Winter smells is kind of a warning? A warning from the plant? I don’t know if that makes sense but, to be fair, nothing about all of these make sense.” Chaein says.

“I think we need a solid plan now,” Dongju says, picking some food from Winter’s plate with his fork and encouraging Winter to eat to which the latter gratefully accepts.

“I agree,” Dongmyeong says, getting a small tickler from his pocket. Winter recognizes the small notebook as their batch tickler from when they entered the organization. The nostalgia made her smile.

“As far as the ghost’s requests, it goes: give Lori back to Karina, give her sunflowers, take her to the beach, destroy the box -- what box? -- and, lastly, always say her name,” Dongmyeong enumerates.

“When I think about it, that ghost is starting to annoy me,” Ireh says. The group grumbled as a response, all of them at loss.

“Wait,” Chaein suddenly speaks. “Who’s Lori? We don’t even know who Lori is…”

“I think the best way to solve all of this is to get close to Karina -- as Yizhuo previously said,” Keonhee answers. “We have no other choice.”

“I really feel bad about this,” Winter says.

There is a moment of silence in the apartment. The group continues to eat in silence. Dongmyeong was the first to finish his meal. He encouraged everyone to place their plates in the sink for him to wash after they were done eating. Dongju followed suit and arranged some of the leftover side dishes inside Winter’s refrigerator.

“Mom made enough side dishes for all of us,” He says. The silence continues as the group helps Winter in briefly cleaning the apartment. Ireh explains that she will not be seeing Vernon, Gahyeon, and Seolhyun in a while. The palo santo is quite a strong cleansing incense. Winter’s specter friends may be embarking on a new journey for now. She says that the three will be back if they still have a purpose in this realm.

Winter thinks about how eventful this week is and they have not even reached half of it. She hopes to end this stressful event soon. However, she admits that she likes having Karina in her vicinity and that is strange. They are not even friends, to begin with. Why the adoration? Why the fondness?

The comfortable silence was broken by two message notifications from Yizhuo’s phone. Everyone abruptly stops what they were doing.

“What?” Yizhuo defensively asks. “Haven’t heard a message pop-up before?”

“Hmm… you don’t do texts, Yizhuo. Especially on your private number,” Chaein says, emphasizing the fact that whoever is messaging Yizhuo in this particular moment got a hold of her number.

Winter smiles at this. The organization uses a specific messaging app where she and her friends created a separate chat room. She remembers that she was the one who chose the designated notification sound. This -- in their reasoning -- is how they will know one of them is having a potential partner. Who would have thought this logic will be applied right at this very moment.

“Alright, spill it, who’s that?” Keonhee asks, trying to peek at Yizhuo’s phone. The girl rolls her eyes and moves away from the boys only to be cornered by Ireh, Winter, and Chaein.

“Fine, it’s Giselle,” Yizhuo begrudgingly says.

“Uchinaga? From the College of Economics?” Dongju asks. “She’s the only Giselle I know.” Yizhuo nods and the information earned a comedic, collective gasp from the group. Yizhuo knows that a series of questions will soon follow through so she raises her hands to stop the group from talking. Winter laughs at the sight of Yizhuo flustered and annoyed at the same time.

“Okay, I know explanations are needed,” She starts.

“You betcha,” Ireh answers in a beat and later earned a light knock on the head from Yizhuo.

The group sets their attention to Yizhuo and patiently waits for her story. Winter carefully eyes her best friend and starts taking notes of her body language. She is giddy.

“Remember last Monday when we were at The Outsider?” She begins and the group nods, obviously bored with the introduction.

“Ryujin introduced Winter to Karina, remember?”

“Yes, we remember. That was just two days ago! Go on with your story!” Dongmyeong says.

“Alright, alright. Jeez,” Yizhuo says. “When I fetched Winter, Ryujin also introduced me to their circle of friends and one of them is Giselle. I admit, she’s a hottie, but nothing really came out of that.

“Until yesterday, when you guys went home. I craved some home-cooked meal so I went to that little Japanese restaurant near the university gate.

“While waiting for my order, someone tapped my shoulder. When I looked, it was her. We said our pleasantries and she asked for my number,” Yizhuo finishes. Keonhee whistles, obviously interested in the turn of events.

“Wow, seems like Ireh is not the only one getting laid this summer,” Chaein says which made everyone laugh. Yizhuo is now red in the face as she tries to pull Chaein’s hair.

“I didn’t know you have a thing for rich, popular girls, Yizhuo,” Dongju says.

“Emphasis on popular,” Dongmyeong adds.

“Oh, stop it, all of you,” Yizhuo reprimands. “I’m just trying to make friends.”

“Sure, sure,” Ireh says. “By the way, you don’t mind, right? I texted Ryujin that you are now text mates with Giselle,” She finishes and this made the group laugh further. Yizhuo lets out an exasperated sigh which made Winter laugh out loud.

“I do hope Giselle takes care of you, though,” Chaein says, suddenly serious. “Or else, she might face Winter’s wrath. Her knuckles may be tiny, but she can pack a punch!”

The laughter and the banter made everything lighter and Winter is loving the atmosphere. She temporarily forgets about Wonyoung, the entity, and, most importantly, Karina.

Or maybe not.

“Hey, isn’t Giselle the best friend of Karina?” Dongju asks. Yizhuo merely nods.

“I hate to sound like a user but maybe we can ask for little details to help Winter with her supernatural mission,” Dongju suggests.

“Eh, she might get the wrong ideas if Yizhuo keeps asking about Karina,” Dongmyeong counters.

“Also,” Winter starts. “This must be an exciting time for Yizhuo. It has been a long time since she flirted with someone. Let her enjoy for now.”

“Silly,” Yizhuo says, hugging Winter and giving her best friend a kiss on the cheeks. “I’ll still be helping you with that ghost predicament even if I entertain Giselle’s advances. You know our promise: no one gets left behind.”

The group let out a collective “aww” and joined Yizhuo in hugging Winter. All of them gave Winter a kiss on the cheeks, just like how they usually do when one of them is feeling down.

“Besides, Dongju has got a point. I can ask Giselle about things that may help us give an idea on how to resolve that predicament of yours,” She said. Before anyone can answer, Ireh’s phone rang. She excuses herself from the group and went to the veranda.

It took thirty minutes for Ireh to wrap up her phone call. She re-enters the apartment and sees everyone lounging -- including Winter who was able to take a shower while she’s on call. The group gave her a curious glance to which she smiled.

“That was Grandmother Cookie,” she announces. “She reminded me that Winter should not be alone. Also, she is suggesting that Winter should not stay here for a while -- not until the issues are cleared up,”

“Why?” Winter asks.

“Eh, it’s probably because the entity cannot attack you if you have company. Also, Grandmother Cookie says that it already knows your safe space so it is going to be easier for it to find you again,”

“Where should I go?”

“What nonsense question is that, Winter?” Chaein says. “You’ll be staying with us.”

“Yep, with us,” Ireh agrees. “Grandmother Cookie thinks so, too. Our house is large enough, plus, she says that old houses have enough protection against entities. All of you should stay with us.”

“I guess that leaves me with no choice?” Winter says, eyeing the apartment.

“What are we waiting for, then? Let’s pack Winter’s things!” Keonhee announces.

Contrary to what the group expected, packing Winter’s stuff took less than an hour. After all, Winter packed clothes and toiletries as well as her handouts and laboratory books. Keonhee carried Winter’s knapsack full of clothes while the Son twins carried her books and handouts.

Yizhuo and the girls checked everything to ensure that the apartment will be safe once they are gone. The distance from Winter’s apartment to the Shelley residence -- that’s what Chaein and Ireh call their house in honor of author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley -- takes about 20 minutes. The group decided to walk and enjoy the warm, summer sun.

Winter takes a whiff of the sunflower which Yizhuo decides to bring with them. According to her, it will make no sense if it was left to die in Winter’s apartment so she’ll bring it with her and give it to the Unnies later on. The stench is still there but Winter finds it manageable.

However, the stench was completely gone by the time they reached the gates of the apartment complex. The foul smell was replaced by something sweeter and more gentle. Winter looks around and finds orange asters by the gate, surviving and loving the sun.

“Ningning,” She calls. Yizhuo stops in her tracks and looks at Winter.

“Yeah?” She says.

“Can… can we leave the sunflower here? Just right by the asters.” Winter says. Yizhuo shrugs and places the pot of sunflowers among the asters giving the mini garden a nice contrast. Winter cannot explain why but putting the sunflower there felt right. The foul stench was gone and everything feels hopeful.