"The kingdom of isolation and it looks like I'm the Queen" - Lee Eunjoo

"Even angels have their wicked scheme" - Kim Dasom

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Eunjoo was on her way back from school in the midst of a pouring rain when suddenly, she was greeted but a strange old lady in small alley; who was wearing a white, worn out and dirty looking hanbok. She looked so frail, almost like she was a thousand years old.

                “I see darkness and death around you,” the old lady said, once she approached her.

                “You will be tested, with grief and lost; and you need to be strong and forgiving with it. Life would be hard, but remember what I’m going to tell you carefully and you’ll be fine.”

                Her wrinkled eyes were deep, as if it could draw anyone to come nearer and just fall into it— and Eunjoo felt the urge to let it drown her already.

                The old lady took Eunjoo’s hand and continued talking;

“Four is death and four is darkness.

Four takes away and four get taken.

But four shall stop as four completes.

 Fight the four, and light will be lit.”

                Just as she finished her words, the old lady let go of Eunjoo’s hands. She patted the girl’s shoulder twice, as if she was trying to give her some comfort. With a smile on her face, she turned around walking away from Eunjoon who just stood there, as if she was in a trance.

                Once the lady was out of Eunjoo’s sight, the heavy air around her started to melt away and she was able to get her head to think straight again. She looked down at her right hand; there was a piece of a crumpling paper in her palm. It was probably from the mysterious old woman.

‘The door of fate will open when the 16^th circle completes’

                That was the only thing written on the paper.

                Eunjoo can’t help but wandered what just happened. She kept on trying to figure out the meaning behind the encounter as she continued to walk back home. But when she reached her house and saw her mother greeting her with a plate of newly baked cookies, her curiosity ultimately went away and the wrinkled paper just ended up in the drawer of her study desk.

                And it was left there, forgotten.

                —Until one fateful day.