After breakfast Sungmin went to the library and Youngwoon sort of disappeared. The human didn’t even notice when he was gone, but he was surprised when the werewolf was back a few hours later handing him a wrist immobilizer.

"Where did you get that?" Sungmin asked, reaching for the item in genuine surprise, his heart leaped with gratitude for the thought.

"Went out to buy it. You said it was my fault, so I am taking responsibility." Youngwoon reported already turning to go tend the garden, but Sungmin called him back.

"You bought it?" he asked, somewhat confused.

Youngwoon looked at him with a frown. After studying Sungmin's expression, he replied. "I am not a hermit, Sungmin-ssi. I've lived for four hundred years amongst humans, I know how to interact with people. If you ask for Kim Youngwoon in town, everybody will tell you I live here." He retorted matter-of-factly and to that Sungmin stood up.

"But the guide lady said this house is haunted!" he protested. Part of his mind finally noticing that he had acted on assumptions, not on facts.

The protest only made Youngwoon laugh. "Doesn’t mean it’s not inhabited. And if you had stayed with her a while longer you would have heard her asking who would want to come visit the mausoleum. I open it for visitation every Saturday," The werewolf retorted with a grin. "Well. Anyways I’m glad you didn’t know because I got to meet you. I’m sure you wouldn’t have invaded if you knew there was someone living here." Youngwoon added once again turning around, not seeing how Sungmin blushed at the comment. He sounded as if meeting Sungmin had been something extremely important, something that had truly made him happy. Happy was not the right word, Sungmin thought a moment later. Youngwoon's tone was truly filled with gratefulness.

Something jumped inside Sungmin because of those words, he didn’t really know why his heart was doing flips. Youngwoon could really mess up his mind. Sungmin said nothing as he watched the werewolf walk away. He just stayed rooted to his spot and watched through the window as Youngwoon moved around the back garden, tending to the roses. His eyes then turned to the small building in the middle of the field, the place where the Lee Family had been buried, where Youngwoon’s reason to be there had been placed to rest for eternity. Youngwoon had been protecting the house for four hundred years. That family was much more important to him than the legend could express.

Sungmin shook his head and sat back down, going back to the book he had decided to read.

Sungmin put the book back on the shelf with a bored expression. Three days had passed since he made the first move of befriending Youngwoon and his days were just filled with boredom. Not that he didn’t like reading, but Sungmin was a guy of action. His life had always been a whirlwind, with him jumping over roofs and running from police and mobsters alike. Staying home all day reading was making his body ache.

Looking through the window Sungmin didn't see Youngwoon in the fields. Tired of being stuck inside the library, Sungmin threw the book over the table and made his way to the inner garden. He hoped there would still be some morning sun entering through the open gates facing the rose fields to the left of the mansion. When Sungmin reached the veranda though, he was faced with Youngwoon inside the fountain. He had his pants rolled up to his knees and was tending the red rose bush. Sungmin chuckled to himself because Youngwoon was really looking like your average farmer like that.

"Why didn't you dry the fountain?" Sungmin asked. Silently, he made his way over to the fountain. Taking a seat on the border, he looked curiously at Youngwoon, who was looking back at him with a little dumb expression.

"I can't dry this fountain," Youngwoon replied after a moment. "Well, the truth is I prefer not to dry It." he corrected himself when he saw Sungmin was about to retort.

"Why would that be?" Sungmin asked curiously looking over at the roses and once again feeling mesmerized by their size and deep red color.

Youngwoon sat beside Sungmin, his feet in the water. "About two centuries ago, a spirit was born in this bush. It feeds on the farmers’ love for the flowers they plant. Because of the birth of this spirit the bush became impregnated with spiritual energy, and it marks a fissure between the human dimension and the spirit dimension. I sealed this fissure, only good spirits can walk through it. But it is still dangerous for a human, in particular, to touch the roses. The water is also impregnated with spiritual energy, but it only affects spiritual entities. This water is some sort of weapon to me." Youngwoon explained. His tone was very soft, very kind.

"But... You open the house for visitation once a week. Don't you fear someone will try to touch the roses? Kids, in particular, are overly unpredictable when they are driven to do something." Sungmin retorted. His eyes were fixed on Youngwoon's side profile.

The werewolf nodded. "That's why this water is a weapon," he replied. After those words, he looked at Sungmin with a grin. "Stay here." Youngwoon added before he passed his legs over the fountain border and rushed back into the house. Sungmin looked at him with a frown.

Moments later there was the sound of water falling behind Sungmin. The thief looked back. In awe he stood up and took a few steps away from the fountain. From the middle of the bush, a jet of water met a small silvery piece, the collision forced the jet to become like a dome, and the bush was hidden by a veil of water. It was an impressive sight. It called for a state of reverence, one could not get too close or the picture would be cut, the perfection of the scene would be broken.

"That's amazing." Sungmin mumbled in a breath not noticing that Youngwoon was once again right beside him.

"I turn the fountain on during the visits. The spiritual energy in it gets stronger from the movement of the water. Whoever looks at it feels compelled to stay away." Youngwoon explained with a very proud tone. If before Sungmin didn't believe much in all the spirit talk, at that very moment he could not ignore its power, he could feel it. He could feel as if there was a force keeping his body at bay. Sungmin looked over at Youngwoon.

He remembered the first night he arrived there. Back then he had felt a compulsion to touch the roses, to get close and touch it. "If you had not pushed me away, what would have happened?" Sungmin asked in a small voice. His heart being filled by a sudden apprehension.

"You would have broken the seal. Evil spirits would be able to pass through the fissure." Youngwoon replied with a serious tone.

Sungmin looked back at the fountain. "Would I have been possessed? Then you actually saved me twice?" the thief asked. When he looked back at Youngwoon, he noticed the werewolf was with a darker expression.

"Who knows, Sungmin-ssi? Good spirits could be on the other side, as much as evil ones. Spirits are stronger at night, that's why I told you not to touch the roses or step out of the house at night. There are more evil spirits in the human dimension than what you would want to believe." The werewolf explained with a low but serious tone. Sungmin looked back at the fountain and nodded to what Youngwoon said. He would be careful from then on.

Later at dinner, the two of them were abnormally silent as Sungmin kept trying to come up with something to do for the following days. Maybe he should steal something and then place it back. He had to do something just for the thrill and for the sake of not letting his skills deteriorate. How would he make a living otherwise?

"Do you want to watch a movie?" Youngwoon asked, but Sungmin was so immersed in his own mind that he had to ask Youngwoon to repeat what he had said. "I asked if you want to watch a movie. You seem bored." The werewolf added and to that Sungmin frowned.

"You said I should never leave the house at night." He retorted thinking that Youngwoon had meant going to the town for a movie.

Youngwoon chuckled.

"You are a bad explorer." He mumbled as he continued to eat. He had finished before Sungmin did, all his daydreaming had slowed down his movements. Youngwoon, on the other hand, picked up a pan and made some old style popcorn. Sungmin later would agree that microwave popcorn tastes too fake.

"Now you follow me. Leave the dishes there, I’ll do them before going out to hunt." Youngwoon said, picking up the bowl of popcorn and exiting the kitchen.

"You have to hunt every day? Do you even sleep?" Sungmin asked with a small voice as he followed, trying to keep up with Youngwoon’s fast steps.

"I need to make sure the town is safe. Every flower field around this town is part of my territory and I guard it with my life," Youngwoon replied, looking back and offering Sungmin a smile. "And I do sleep, five, six hours a day." he added.

After that Sungmin went mute, mostly because Youngwoon guided him to a room that had heavy curtains on the windows. The room was one of the most boring ones, it only had a long historical chair and a whole bunch of cushions on it. Sungmin frowned. He should have paid more attention to the cushions and the fact that opposite the chair, there was a huge old wardrobe. Youngwoon opened the delicate doors revealing inside it a flat screen LED TV that was probably the hugest that had been recently released. Right under it there was a DVD set. Youngwoon moved to another set of doors and also opened them.

"I think there must be something here that you might like," Youngwoon said, walking to the couch and putting the popcorn bowl on it. "Don’t go to sleep too late." Youngwoon added already walking to the door whereas Sungmin had walked to the second set of doors. He stared agape at the huge DVD collection Youngwoon had.

"I shall do some more exploring indeed. I told myself not to touch the furniture because it could disintegrate, but heck you know how to hide the good stuff." Sungmin said already picking up one of his favorite action movies to watch for the umpteenth time.

Youngwoon looked back for a moment. "I just tried to keep things the same while still following after human advancement." the werewolf tried to explain himself. His expression was that of nostalgia, he probably remembered something that had happened in the room when the Lee family were still alive. Sungmin wondered how much that family actually knew about the strange wolf that would often visit their fields.

Sungmin looked at Youngwoon and then raised the DVD case. "You really can’t stay for a movie?" he invited with a smile.

Sungmin had decided to stay to amend all the avoiding he had tried to do, but as the days passed, slowly Sungmin was filled with the wish to truly befriend Youngwoon. The werewolf was cunning, sometimes he would crack a joke. But even if they were amiable during meals, they never spent time together through the rest of the day. Even though Youngwoon was polite and kind, Sungmin noticed that the werewolf had built walls around himself, the werewolf was friendly but Sungmin couldn't say that they were already friends.

"Maybe tomorrow during the day." Youngwoon replied, still smiling at Sungmin. "That one is one of my favorites too." The werewolf added, before he definitely turned around and left, closing the door behind him.

Sungmin sighed. He put the DVD on and made himself comfortable. He started to munch on the popcorn, but his attention was not in the movie, it was on the howls coming from outside, barely audible because of the movie soundtrack.

The next day Youngwoon didn’t stay for the movie and popcorn. Since it was Saturday, he spent the day preparing meals for the tourists visiting the house and the mausoleum. Sungmin had panicked when he heard they would visit the house too, but Youngwoon was fast into telling him that the library was off limits, because that was the only big change he did to the original mansion over the years. The library was his secret and thus Sungmin gathered his things and hid in it.

Sungmin spent the day reading and sleeping on the couch. Fortunately, he was not deprived of food, the visit ended right before lunch. Sungmin had been able to go out to eat, but around two in the afternoon he had to go back and hide. Sungmin took note of how his Saturdays would be extra boring, so instead of reading whatever, he took some magazines and maps of the region deciding that he could do some exploring of the woods.

During dinner one Saturday, Sungmin discussed his plans with Youngwoon. Sungmin noticed a glint of emotion in Youngwoon's eyes when he said he wanted to explore the woods, but it was soon replaced by the polite mask Youngwoon had perfected throughout his life. "Don't get too far and be sure to get back before twilight. I will prepare an amulet for you to protect you from minor spirits, if anything bigger comes at you I will know and will get to you as fast as I can." Youngwoon retorted with his usual kind tone. Sungmin nodded and smiled gratefully.

From the moment Youngwoon gave Sungmin a necklace with a protective barrier against lesser spirits, Sungmin started spending a lot of time around the woods. Some days Youngwoon would go with him, but in wolf form. Sungmin couldn't stop himself from thinking that Youngwoon's wolf form was truly beautiful. He was an elegant animal with beautiful fur. In the weeks Sungmin had stayed with Youngwoon he had never felt afraid again, not even when Youngwoon would turn into his beastly form, for Sungmin knew Youngwoon would never hurt him.

Everything had been fine. Sungmin's wrist was almost healed, there was just a little nagging pain when he would try to rotate his wrist. Sungmin smiled at it with a bit of sadness. He didn't want to leave. He missed the adrenaline in his life, but he somehow didn't want to leave Youngwoon yet. Sungmin went to sleep already thinking how he could break the news to Youngwoon. He wondered if the werewolf would be happy with his decision to stay a little longer.