What? Daehyun is being nice? You look at Yong Guk’s face. Maybe he was lying to you the whole time. You remember the tiny hint of urgency in his voice as he begs you to let him come with you. You remember the way he hastily scoffed down the rabbit. You remember him smiling as he climbed up the branch. He was getting ready to run.

You roughly shove his body into the hollow of the tree where you slept and give him a good kick before you turn your back. You slowly walk away from the tree, thinking about everything you have done for Yong Guk.

Clap! Clap! Clap! You sharply turn around and see Daehyun smirking at you. Nothing about him has changed; his hair still sparkled in the sunlight, a gun was still sticking out in his left pocket, blood was still splattered across his arms. ‘What a show, what a show…’ he says, trying to sound like a commentator of a sports game.

‘What do you want?’ you say. Even though you have to thank him for saving you, you still feel so much anger for him killing Jongup. ‘Well,’ Daehyun says conversationally. ‘I’m here to collect my thanks and give you thanks for bringing him to me.’

‘Well, thanks for saving me. Now go away.’ You stride in a random direction, kicking sticks and fallen branches out of the way. After a few minutes, you stand still, expecting a crunch of leaves to indicate that Daehyun was following you. But not even a shuffle could be heard from an animal. You don’t even know where you are. You are lost.

Why? Why couldn’t revenge be something that was easy to do? Night came and you are tired. You have even more blood stains on your clothes from Yong Guk and now you also have anger to be with you. You lean on the nearest tree and sigh, lost in your own thoughts. Please, my best friend. Forgive me. The phoenix saved me, but it didn’t have time to save you. I will do whatever I can to make the person who killed you pay. Just wait. Just wait until the time comes. Please, forgive me.

Fwip! An arrow lands just above you, its end quivering. How old fashioned, you think to yourself as you pull it out and unfurl a huge scroll of paper which was stuck to it. A small vial of black powder falls out. But you don’t pay attention to that; you keep trying to straighten out the paper which was shorter than what it looked like.

It’s you-know-who. I’m watching you. You forgot my thank you present for bringing me Yong Guk. Please take it; they are ashes. I’ll explain to you what they do if you take them. Next time, bring me a guy named Zelo. He’s also on my black list. –Daehyun.

You stare at the vial of ashes on the ground. What do you do? What can you do? ‘What will you do?’ says a voice. Daehyun is in front of you again, smirking irritably.

So Yong Guk was most likely some kind of criminal to be hated by Daehyun as well. But the thing that distracts you so much from thinking is the ashes. What are they?

If you decide to take them, please go to here.

If you decide to leave them and simply run away, please click here.