Hyosung slumped down into the chair by the kitchen table. She was still in disbelief over the whole situation. Her car was left at the grocery store parking lot. It was locked. She still had the keys in her purse. The local law enforcement was looking into the incident, but it didn’t make the issue any less bizarre. How had her car ended up in that ditch? Now not only were the boys out a vehicle but they were stuck there too. Fortunately they could repair her car but it was going to take some time: this little town simply did not have the parts and they needed to be ordered.

                Sighing she drummed her fingers on the coffee table of the small house the boys had been afforded to stay in for their time there. How had someone gotten into her car? The police said they couldn’t determine just yet if it was forced entry. Part of her wondered how they could be so inept, but the reasonable adult in her knew they were doing their best…she hoped…

                “Hey,” Jongup said quietly, stifling his yawn. Aside from her he was the first one up this morning. Hyosung wanted to ask if he was hungry but paused. The boy looked miserable.

                “Are you okay?”

                “I’m fine. I just couldn’t sleep with all the noise.”

                “Noise?” Hyosung hadn’t heard a thing last night and her room she shared with Jieun was right next to Jongup’s (he shared with Himchan and Yongguk).

                “Yeah. Something kept tapping on the window.  Himchan got up to check a couple of times but nothing was ever there. And when we all tried to ignore it, it just got louder,” for a moment Jongup looked uncomfortable and Hyosung placed her hand on top of his, urging him to continue, “I’m not crazy…”

                “Of course not. What happened?”

                “I finally got up to open the window to check after the others went to sleep…and then someone screamed at me from outside. There was no one there.”

                “Are you sure? I mean…”

                “No,” He shook his head firmly, “there wasn’t anyone there. Just cold air and…screaming…”

                “Jongup, sweetheart,” Hyosung tightened her hand over his, “are you certain you weren’t dreaming? Did Yongguk or Himchan hear the screaming?”

                “…no…I guess I could have been dreaming…” He groaned and leaned his on the table, “…what are we doing today?”

                “Well first!” Hyosung chirped happily, trying to get Jongup out of his mood, “I’m going to go get us some supplies to make breakfast once Jieun is up. Want to come? We can see if there’s anything else worth doing around here.”

                He smiled a little and nodded. Pleased that it seemed to work, Hyosung got up to fetch Jieun. She had barely made it to the edge of the kitchen when someone knocked on the door. Surprised, she went to it only to hear the giggling of numerous girls before opening it. At the steps in a basket was a big basket of flowers and other little gifts (chocolates, love notes, etc). There were even baked goods.

                “This town,” Hyosung said in disbelief, “really takes this flower festival seriously. I’m going to have to make sure one of you doesn’t get kidnapped.” Jongup had come up behind her to peer at the basket.

                “Wow! Look at all of it!” Both jumped at the loud voice. Behind them was Daehyun and Youngjae, “Are those all for us?”

                “Apparently,” Hyosung tried to pick up the basket only to have Jongup take them instead. Saying her thanks she informed them she would be waking the others up. Listening to the boys talk about the gifts, she made her way upstairs where she was met by Sunhwa and Hana. Once they heard about the gifts, they too rushed downstairs but not before Hana pulled Hyosung aside.

                “Jieun doesn’t want to come into town with us today. She wants to sleep in. Didn’t sleep well she says. She’s talking to Junhong right now, but I told her to call us if she needed anything.”

                “Okay, thanks,” Hana left Hyosung then. Concerned, Hyosung took a moment to pause by the room Jieun was sleeping in.

                “I don’t know what I saw,” Jieun’s hushed voice whispered to who Hyosung assumed was Junhong, “but…isn’t it weird that Hyosung’s car just…?”

                “A little,” the youngest’s voice said back worriedly, “but it was dark last night. Maybe you were worried about Yongguk, had a moment of panic, and saw something. And who knows what kind of people actually live in this town.”

                “You’re probably right,” she sighed, “I’m going to sleep in today. Take care, alright?”

                Hyosung sighed before turning to go back downstairs. So much for a peaceful break.

~~~

                “C’mon, you need to get up,” Himchan tried to rouse Yongguk again. He merely grumbled in response and curled in on himself tighter, “what time did you sleep last night?”

                “Dunno…” the older mumbled into the pillow, “but I’m so tired…”

                “You feeling okay?” Himchan placed a hand against Yongguk forward and snapped it back almost instantly in shock. His friend felt icy cold to the touch. He replaced his hand and still found him cool to the touch, but at the same time an inexplicable feeling of being watched overcame him. Suddenly he felt cold as well.

                And just as quickly the cold air passed. Yongguk opened his eyes and stared at Himchan in confusion, asking if he was feeling okay. At a loss, Himchan found Yongguk’s temperature to be normal again.

                “Am I okay? Are YOU okay?”

                “Just tired,” Yongguk sat up groggily, rubbing his eyes, “how long was I asleep?”

                “You…just…” Himchan held his tongue. Yongguk seemed fine now. He sat up and slid out of bed, going about to get dressed for the day, “nevermind. You sure you’re feeling okay?”

                “I’m fine. Why are you so worried?” Yongguk laughed off Himchan’s concern and went to the restroom, leaving Himchan to ponder to himself. The room no longer felt cold, sunlight was streaming in the window. He remembered the sounds from the previous night, Jongup’s insistence that someone was screaming…

                He paused. Sniffing the air he was assaulted with a familiar scent. Leaning down, he discovered that Yongguk’s pillow smelled like flowers.

                Himchan left the room immediately.

~~~

                Flowers. Flowers everywhere. Compared to the previous day, there were vendors all over selling flowers by themselves, rings made of flowers, wreaths, perfume, everything. The girls, sans Jieun, were cooing and awing over the stands. They’d spent a good amount of time in the town, going from here to there. At the moment they were at the stand with soaps and perfumes. Youngjae heard some whispering and looked over his shoulder. Sure enough, a small group of what looked like high school girls were whispering and gesturing to them animatedly. When they noticed Youngjae staring they quickly dispersed.

                “I think it’s cute that you have so many fan girls here,” Sunhwa giggled, looking at a pretty bottle of lily perfume, “they make this stuff locally.”

                “I see,” Youngjae muttered, looking beyond the retreating girls. From the buildings he could see the older members of the community watching them. He knew he wasn’t imagining it. They only looked out the windows with such solemn expressions when they were walking about town. The previous day when he and Daehyun had gone out to get food, the food vendor, an older male, eyed them warily. He’d chalked it up to small town suspicions, but now seeing these people staring out at them (and he knew it was just them: whenever other young men around town were about they never stared).

                Next to him Yongguk was idly toying with couple of the soaps. He looked distracted. Himchan was hovering, looking more than a little concerned, though he didn’t make any moves to check on the older. Most of their group had moved on to another stand, Sunhwa buying the lily perfume, and listening to Hyosung bemoan the fate of her car.

                “Hey,” Youngjae took the chance to nudge Yongguk, “what’s up?”

                “…feels like something’s missing…” Yongguk muttered. Himchan looked to Youngjae, brows furrowed, “…I don’t know…” His hand stilled. Curious, Youngjae plucked up the pale purple bottle he’d paused on.

                “Wisteria?”

                “Oh,” the seller, and old woman, hummed, “as you can tell we have an abundance of Wisteria around here. It’s a rare perfume, and that’s my only bottle left. Normally we reserve this fragrance for the final day of the festival when the shrine is opened.”

                “The shrine?” Youngjae asked.

                “Just an old custom. Normally I reserve the final bottle,” she smiled warmly at Yongguk, “but for you handsome I can make an exception. For a special girl?”

                “…yeah…” Yongguk responded quietly, turning the bottle over in his hand. However, Himchan quickly picked the bottle out of his grasp and handed it back to the woman, “Hey!”

                “For Jieun right? Doesn’t she like sunflowers?” Himchan had already picked out another bright yellow bottle, “She would like this one better, don’t you think?”

                “You’re right,” Yongguk smiled broadly, “yeah, I’ll take this one instead.”

                Youngjae didn’t miss the slightly annoyed look the woman gave Himchan before accepting Yongguk’s payment. Junhong called back to them, urging them to hurry up. Yongguk, energy seemingly renewed, seemed quick to rush up and rejoin the group. Himchan and Youngjae both hung back slightly, and once they were far enough away from the perfume vendor, Himchan spoke.

                “I think we should get Yongguk out of here.”

                “Eh?”

                “Something isn’t right. You saw her right? How eager she was to get him to buy the perfume. And a shrine? Tell me this doesn’t sound bad.”

                “You’re right,” Youngjae hummed, “any luck getting your phone to work?”

                “Sporadic at best. None of the others have been able to either.”

                “Tell the others,” Youngjae turned to run back into town, “I’ll be back later. I’m going to see if I can figure out the best way to get to the main road. I’ll be back later tonight!” Before Himchan could protest the younger was already a good distance from him…

~~~

                “The main road is closed for construction.”

                “Why would you want to leave?”

                “There was an accident. They closed off the main road out of town. I think it will be repaired by next week.”

                “Don’t worry. You’ll be here in time for the festival!”

                “By the way, I have a daughter your age…”

                …and that was how Youngjae found himself wandering through the woods, at night, with a flashlight. After asking around town, earning him suspicious stares and few scoldings for wanting to leave their “little town so soon” Youngjae finally went to a couple of kids playing in the street.

                “Huh? Oh yeah! There’s a trail in the woods! We play there all the time…except for this time of year. The old people won’t let us play there.”

                “Shh! Don’t tell him! Great Gran will get mad!”

                Bad enough that the people of this town were staring at them, but now the kids were saying odd things. If anything this furthered Youngjae’s agreement with Himchan. They needed to leave.

                “You’re what?!” Jieun had exclaimed when Himchan and Youngjae had pulled her and Hyosung aside to tell them their plan, “You can’t!”

                “We’ll be fine…” Himchan tried to soothe her but she was suddenly turning frantic.

                “You can’t go out there! What if that wo-!” She caught herself, falling silent.

                “I’ll go with you two,” Hyosung offered, pulling on her jacket, “Jieun, can you keep an eye on everyone? Make sure they don’t leave tonight. Don’t let the others know where we’re going. No need to panic anyone yet. Jongup’s already a little freaked out, and Yongguk…I don’t know. Just stay with him until we get back.”

                Youngjae admittedly felt bad for not informing the others. Daehyun was going to be livid when he found out. He didn’t like excluding him, but for once Himchan had a point. The last thing they wanted was for all of them to be panicking.

                His looked behind him. They found a trail about ten minutes into the forest. But sure enough that trail forked into different directions. Youngjae immediately offered to go one way while the other two took the next path. Shining his flashlight around he glanced down the steep ridge the trail was located just above. The light did little to pierce the darkness, instead only showing him more trees and…wait, was that more wisteria?

                He paused. Hanging from the trees around him was the ever constant purple blooms. It seemed to start rather abruptly (he glanced over his shoulder to see that the rest of the forest behind him was still woods, no flowers). Part of him contemplated turning around to find the others, but then…the path behind him looked so dark. Even his light didn’t seem to make it better.

                This was definitely a bad idea…

                Carefully, he continued on.  The wind gusted around him gently, sending flower petals fluttering about, their scent becoming stronger.  He definitely wanted to turn around when the path ended up taking him downwards on some rather old, half overrun with dirt and grass, stairs. However, at the very top he found a couple of bottles, tiny bottles, placed next to a stone carved figurine. He knelt down and was immediately assaulted with the strong aroma of the perfume from the market.

                “The shrine,” he muttered to himself. The trail must take him to the shrine. No wonder the kids are told not to come down here. The figurine looked humanoid, though time had clearly worn away its features. Maybe these people practiced a ritual part of an old religion. Curiosity perked, Youngjae began to go down the steps. They were steep, so he had to take each one carefully.

                It was becoming colder and colder with every step, the wisteria scent invading his very being. The wisteria was becoming thicker, hanging from the trees like green and purple veils. It was becoming trickier to get past them. By the time he was half way down (or at least…he hoped it was halfway) it was like going through a thick jungle.

                He’d just decided to give up and go back (it was too cold: his teeth were starting to chatter) when his hand landed on something within the wisteria. It felt rough, and for a moment he thought it was a tree branch…

                Until that tree branch wrapped its fingers around his forearm.

                Youngjae felt himself get yanked forward and dug his feet into the ground to stop himself. A loud shriek erupted in from of him, loud yet unintelligible, and Youngjae fought to get his arm back. Finally he tore himself free, feeling whatever it was tear into his arm’s flesh so that blood oozed out. The force made him stumble backwards so that he landed in his hands and rear. He let out a shout of fear when whatever it was moved towards him, flashlight long dropped, leaving him in darkness.

                Not wasting another moment Youngjae turned scrambled up the stairs on his hands, feeling the thing trying to grab at his legs. With one hard kick he managed to push it off long enough for him to begin his escape up the dark stairway. He pushed through the greenery, now feeling more like a net than a veil. Gasping for breath, he continued to scramble up. The darkness and plants obscured his vision, so he only had the steps to guide him. He just needed to get to the top and then he could full out run to warn the others.

                The air was getting warmed, the wisteria less overgrown, and finally he saw the top of the stairs. Crying in relief, he got to the top most step and was about to keep running when he was forced to a stop.

                Standing in front of him was a girl in a elaborate purple hanbok...and the scent of wisteria all around her. Gasping in shock, Youngjae tried to back up onto to realize all too late…

                …he had nowhere to back up to.

                The last thing he saw before tumbling down the ridge was the girl looming over him, a satisfied smirk appearing on her face.

~~~

                Jieun let out a sharp cry. Yongguk looked down at his hand he had offered to her. The little yellow bottle had shattered, sending tiny little pieces of glass into his palm. Jieun  quickly regained her senses and ran inside to find the first aid kit.

                How had it shattered? Yongguk stared at his palm in disbelief. He just held out the bottle to her, saying he chose it for her when…it just…

                His eyes widened when a single purple petal floated into his palm.