The four days flew fast, or so it seemed to Airin. She was spending every free second she had with Taemin, be it talking on the phone or going out for a walk after his busy schedules and the more time they spent together, the more their feelings for each other grew  deeper . The girl was feeling uneasy when she wasn’t near the idol and had the feeling that they didn’t had much time left, she was feeling that soon they won’t be able to see each other…and she had no idea how right she was…

The day of the summoning came. It was the night where the moon was shining at its fullest, showing that it was the right time…the time for the summoning. Airin said her goodbyes to her mother and took her backpack full with clothes and headed toward her best friend’s house. After a short walk, the foreign girl reached her destination.

-Oh, Airin. Hello. – greeted EunHye’s mother.

-Hello, Mrs. Kim. – bowed the girl.

-Oh, now no formalities needed. I have known you ever since you were a baby. It’s as if you are a part of our family – smiled warmly Mrs. Kim.

-Thanks you Mrs. Kim. – replied politely Airin.

-Come on in, don’t stay like a statue in front of the door. – Mrs. Kim opened the door even widely making the girls standing in front of her chuckle. – They are in Eun Hye’s room. They have been waiting for you. It’s so nice that Eun Hye finally overcome her crisis… she was suffering more than…Ah never mind, let’s not talk about this. What’s important is that everything is back to normal. – smiled uncomfortably Mrs. Kim and headed toward the kitchen.

Airin knocked on Eun Hye’s door before opening it, revealing the sight of Eun Hye and two other unknown girls sitting on the bed and talking in a low voice.

-Sorry for being late. My mom was telling me what normal people do on sleeping parties and on how many she was invited… listening to her stories…I almost managed to get out alive. – joked Airin making the rest of the girls laugh. – Did I miss anything important?

- No, we have been waiting for you. – replied Eun Hye. – This is Jung Mi and Soo Ji.

-Nice to meet you. – said the foreign girl as she reached her hand toward the two girls for a handshake.

-Nice to meet you, too. I am Jung Mi. – greeted the slim tall girl with short black hair and reached for the hand of the newcomer.

-And I am Soo Ji. Nice to meet you. – replied the girl with braided brown hair and took the hand of the foreign girl.

-Well now that you know each other, let’s start preparing. – demanded Eun Hye.

The 4 girls started to unpack the things in their bags and instead of clothes, the girls took out objects such as chalk, old books, a chalice and a dagger.

-So? What are we gonna do first? – asked Jung Mi.

-We have to draw this magical circle first. – replied Soo Ji as she pointed at the drawing in one of the books. – But it has to be perfectly done or… something bad will happen…

-I’ll help with this. I know how to trace something with least errors. – said Airin.

-There can’t be any errors. – demanded Soo Ji.

-And I have never made any errors. – replied confidently the foreign girl.

After an hour of preparations, the magical circle was finished and the girls were resting on the floor at their backs and knees hurt from being in the same position for such a long time.

-It looks like a pentagram to me… - whined Jing Mi.

-It’s not the same… - replied the annoyed Soo Ji.

-Anyway, why do we need it? – asked Eun Hye.

-Ah! How many times do I have to tell you?! You can’t just simply say some magical words and use magical objects to perform magic! The magical circle is needed because we are not sorcerers or witches or whatever! We can’t perform magic without the magical circle! That’s why it’s called a MAGICAL CIRCLE! To give powers to some normal human while they are standing in its lineament! – almost yelled Soo Ji in frustration.

-Ok, guys don’t fight. Chill. – Airin meddled to try and calm down her companions.

-So now the only thing we are waiting for is the moon to shine in the sky?- questioned Jung Mi.

-Not only to shine in the sky. The moon-beam has to fall on the circle or at least on us, that’s why we drew it near the window. – explained Airin.

-So…now we are waiting…? – asked again Jung Mi.

-Oh for god’s sake! Yes we are waiting for the moon! Now stop with these stupid questions!!-yelled Soo Ji.

-Yah! Don’t yell at me! I don’t know anything about this legend! I only had to find the mythical chalice and   dagger for the ceremony! Do you know how hard it was to find it? Do you know how much money I spent to buy it? Even if you work all your life you can’t afford to buy even half of the chalice not to mention the whole chalice AND the dagger. – talked back Jung Mi.

-Oh now, let’s hear you how hard it was to buy two stupid objects. – said ironically Soo Ji.

-Oh, then I guess you should have spend 15 million dollars on the chalice and spend all the times and nerves to persuade a crazy collector to sell you the dagger and on a low price! Do you know how hard it is to negotiate with a crazy person that is a maniac about magical stuff and loves them more than his family!!?! – answered back Jung Mi.

-Ok, ok. We all had our misadventures. Let’s calm down. – butted in Airin that once again was trying to calm the spirits down. – Our minds need to be one in order for the summoning to be successful. So let’s just calm down dawn and be friendly.

-Fine. – said in unison Soo Ji and Jung Mi.

-Let’s talk a little more so that we could get to know each other, right Eun Hye? – suggested the foreign girl as she turned to the direction where she last saw her friend, just to find that she wasn’t there anymore. – Eun Hye? – said the now worried girl as she started to look around the room to find her friend as she had a bad feeling.

 Soo Mi and Jung Min started to move around the room searching for the girl just to find her sitting on the floor, her back facing the other side of the bed and playing with the dagger, tenderly sliding down her fingers along the haft, covered with interweaving ornaments.

-Yah. Eun Hye-ah , you scared us. – said Soo Ji.

-Yeah. And you shouldn’t play with the dagger. It’s sharp. You might cut yourself. – added Jung Mi.

Eun Hye was ignoring the other girls’ comments and continued to play with the dagger but now her fingers were sliding down along the double edged blade where was written something in an unknown language. 

-Eun Hye, are you ok? – said Airin as she gently placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder.

-It’s time. – suddenly said the girl as she got up.

The three girls looked at each other with confusion and turned toward the direction that their friend was moving to. The moon was brightly illuminating the circle  , as if shining on its own. The girls headed toward it quietly and sat in it to form a specific shape and placing the chalice and dagger in the centre.

-Do you all know the spell we need to use? – asked Airin.

-I don’t know it. – said Jung Mi. Airin gave her a little piece of paper where the words were written.

-But…this doesn’t have any meaning at all. “Careless, careless. Shoot anonymous, anonymous. Heartless, mindless. No one who care about me” …It’s just ridicules. – replied Jung Mi.

-If you get to think a little , it has a deep meaning. “Careless, careless” refers to the guardians, as they had a careless attitude. “Shoot anonymous, anonymous” is where you are calling for them, it’s a substitution for the names because they don’t have ones. And we are saying “anonymous” twice because they split into two groups when they came to earth. So “shoot” is something like telling the spell the spell to hit only the anonymous- the ones without name and we all know that each and every human has a name, they are the only ones without one. “Heartless, mindless” is once again a part that refers to the guardians. They left their duty to guard the humanity from evil and even thought they are living among us and see our misfortunes and sadness they are heartless to our pain and were mindless in the battle and their decisions. And finally “No one who care about me” is the part where we clearly tell them that there is no one that cares about humanity anymore, this “me” actually refers to the human race and how they left  us…leaving us all vulnerable to the evil… it clearly says humanity is alone and needs someone to protect it… See, if you get to think about it, it has a meaning. – misled Airin after she thoroughly explained the spell they were about to use.

-That was long… I’m not that stupid…but thanks for explaining – smiled Jung Mi.

-Enough talking. Let’s start. My parents left long ago. Now is the time to chant the spell! I don’t want to miss the moment because of your stupid chatting! – hissed Eun Hye as she glared at the girls.

-Ok. Chill. – said Soo Ji. – Are her eyes always silver or is it just because of the moonlight? – whispered Soo Ji to Airin.

-It’s probably the moonlight. – replied the girl but she felt weird as she was looking at her best friend. She had the same weird feeling in the National Library when she was talking with the librarian.

-One last thing. We have to hold hands while we are chanting and think only about the chanting and the   guardians. Every side thought may lead to the failure of the summoning. And Jung Mi if you are asking yourself “why do we have to hold hands while chanting”, the answer is because we are the last part of the magical circle – the magical energy will flow in our bodies and will connect through  our holding hands creating the last part of the circle…at least that’s what the book said. – explained Airin as she chuckled while speaking the last words.

-Enough talking! We have to act now or wait a whole month! – ordered Eun Hye as she took her place in the circle. The others follower her and started the chanting.

The four girls were chanting the spell as they were holding their hands, their eyes closed to symbolize that they do not care about the materialistic but only about the intellect. They chanted the spell twelve times, each one of them was directed to each and every of the guardians, invoking the mythical guardians with the hope that they are real and not only a myth.

After the chanting was finished came the second part, the part where they had to give their blood to the chalice which will judge whether they are worthy of calling for the mythical guardians.

First was Eun Hye. She reached for the dagger that was placed in the chalice and grabbed it with her right hand. After positioning her left hand above the chalice that was in the center of the circle, she slid the sharp blade along her palm. The blade sank into her warm skin like a predator’s teeth into its pray, sliding down the girl’s palm. Crimson red liquid outlining the path that the bade had created, giving color to the pale palm of the girl. The red liquid slid fast like a river down the girl’s hand until little drops of blood started to fall into the chalice. The passionate crimson colored liquid crashed in the bottom of the chalice, coloring the cold silver inside into bloody red.

The same did Jung Mi, Soo Ji and Airin and with every drop that was added to the chalice, the more its color changed. From the silver old looking chalice, now it looked golden and shined not from the moonlight but it was glowing on its own. When the last drop of Airin’s blood was added to the chalice, it created a strong shock wave that threw the four girls backward making them hit the walls.

The girls quickly came back to their senses and got up from the floor, looking at each other with eyes filled with fear.

-What was that? – asked Soo Ji with a shaking voice.

-I don’t know, but I’m scared. – said Jung Mi as she put her hands in front of her chest as chills went down her spine.

-I think it was successful. – smiled weakly Eun Hye.

-I’m not sure…  Oh, your clock stopped, probably because of the shock wave. – said Airin that couldn’t get rid of the uneasiness in her heart.

-it’s not only the clock. Look. – Said Soo Ji that was looking through the window.

The other three girls quickly ran toward the window to see what was going on. The sight revealed in front of them was shocking: everything and everyone had stopped moving. The cars that were hurrying for somewhere, the people that were walking down the street now were all standing still as if they were just mare dolls controlled by a puppet master.

 Suddenly the glass with water that was on the nightstand near the bed exploded, splashing the water all over the place and making the pieces of glass fly in unknown directions. The girls were startled as immediately turned to see what had happened. They were frantically looking around the room as fear started to grow in their hearts. Then it suddenly became dark, as clouds black as the night embraced the moon and the stars to hide them from the human eye. Now the darkness was ruling the human world. A lightening lightened up the dark sky that was falling upon the city, followed by a thunder so strong that it shook the buildings to show its power, making it look even powerful as a light earthquake coincide with the powerful thunder.

 Just after the mighty thunder, rain started falling so fast as if it was a waterfall. The water slid down the windows making the sight of the frozen city blurry. The water that slid down the window suddenly froze by itself and the ice started spreading over the walls. The four girls were holding each other’s hands and started stepping back fast in a pitiful way of trying to escape the unstoppable. Suddenly the glass of water that was placed in the nightstand fell on the floor just when Jung Mi was about to step in that spot. The girl couldn’t stop on time and she stepped on the pieces of broken glass. She slightly yelled from the pain and lifter her leg to remove the pieces of glass that had pierced through her soft skin. The moment she removed the glass from the wound, something incredible happened – it healed immediately.

-Stop this! – screamed  Eun Hye. – Someone take the chalice and break the circle! – ordered the girl as her voice was shaking from fear.

Airin ran toward the chalice but the moment she set her foot in the magical circle, a strong shockwave was created from the chalice and threw the girl backwards, making her fall on the floor. Then the chalice blazed up into flames, so strong that reached the ceiling. The colors of red, orange and yellow played with each other as if kids played a game. Then voices unheard before stared chanting something in an unknown language, summoning the ones without faces- the guardians. As the chants started to became lauder and lauder strange figures started to show themselves in the flames. The dark heads of men that had no faces, just mouths, started coming out of the chalice moving among the palette of red, orange and yellow. These unknown “faces” looked sad, their mouths were open as if screaming of pain, the pain that was caused to the weak and the pain that was caused to them. The pained faces were screaming for forgiveness and were moving along the flames that were still playing with each other and disappearing as mare smoke when they reach the ceiling.

As twelve “faces” appeared in the blazing fire, the girls just looked as fear and regret started to fill their hearts. When the faces disappear along with the chants, the fire died out and so did the storm. There was no trace of the ice that threatened   to send the room back to the ice age, the dark clouds disappeared in seconds and the people returned to their usual selves asking themselves why were they wet. The city returned to its usual self not knowing of what had happened. But there were four girls that knew… and they regret it…

-What was that? – asked Jung Mi with a frantic voice as she was looking around wondering if something was going to happen any minute.

-I think that…we summoned them… - almost said Soo Ji as she was still in shock.

-Did we? Or we did something we shouldn’t have done… what if we did the opposite…what if we summoned the evil… We shouldn’t have played with magic. – said Airin as her heart was beating fast from the fear that couldn’t leave her body and mind.

-Don’t be stupid. We summoned them. I’m sure. Now we have to wait. –Eun Hye grinned in a weird way that made the other girls fear her a little.

-You look like a psycho… - said Soo Ji to the grinning girl.

-What did you say?! – yelled Eun Hye.

But before Soo Ji could say anything, the familiar chanting was heard again, but this time it was coming from a bag…

-I think that someone’s phone is ringing… -  said Jung Mi with a shaky voice.

- It’s coming from Airin’s bag. Come on. Go and pick it up. – demanded Eun Hye.

The foreigner headed slowly toward her bag and opened it to look for her phone as her hands were shaking from the fear of who might she receive a call. She had never heard this chant before and she did not know how it became her ringtone. The girl found the ringing phone and looked at the name that was written on the screen. Worry took over her body, as she did not know if her doings had brought something bad to the person that was calling her.

-Yes? – said the foreigner as she tried to sound calm.

-Airin, sorry to call you this late. – replied a cheerful voice from the speaker.

-No, no. It’s ok. I’m glad you called. – smiled lightly the girl and she headed toward the door of the room so she could speak freely with the person she wanted to talk the most.

-Really? Then are you free? I just finished recording, so I was wondering if you had some free time so that we could see each other, even if it is just for a little. – said the boy with a gentle tone.

- I’m sorry Taemin. I thought that I mentioned to you that I’ll be staying at a friend’s house for a girls’ party. – apologized the foreign girl as she closed the door of her best friend’s room and rested against the wall.

-No, you mentioned it but I just forgot about it. I’m sorry. It’s just that I was happy that I finished earlier today so I thought that we could meet. It didn’t cross my mind that you told me that you already had plans for tonight. – apologized the boy.

- I’m happy that after a long and tiring day you thought about meeting me. – blushed the girl and looked at the floor while spinning lightly her ankle.

-Then tomorrow? – asked the idol with a smooth voice.

-Of course. I’d be happy to meet you tomorrow. – replied all happily the girl, still looking at the floor and blushing.

-Then, see you tomorrow. I’ll come to pick you up. – said the boy with a cheerful tone.

-I’ll be waiting. – replied the blushing girl.

-Good night. Have sweet dreams. – wished the idol with a gentle voice.

-Good night. – was the only thing that Airin said as she was blushing from the nice words that Taemin had told her and because of the fact that she was the first person he thought about meeting after a long and tiring day. The idol could tell that these two words meant more than there was to them and was relieved that he had heard the voice of the girl he likes and that she was safe and sound.

As Airin hung up, she looked up and something attracted her attention. She looked at the end of the corridor and her eyes widened in fear. At the end of the corridor there was standing a tall figure of a man, the only thing that Airin was able to see were his eyes … black as a moonless night, piercing her with their glare. opened on its own and loud screams echoed in the empty apartment.

The door of the room she was standing next to opened immediately and the three girls ran to see what was going on. Airin was shaking and continued looking at the end of the corridor, but there was no one there anymore, just faint traces of black smoke that were floating in the air gracefully until they disappeared slowly in the dark corridor.

The three girls took Airin back to the room where she told them about what she saw. They all shivered from the thought that from now on someone might be watching them. The fear in them grew with every second. They could not sleep. The four girls just lied down on the cold floor looking at the ceiling, as each had her out thoughts, regrets and hopes.

As they were debating with their own selves, regretting to have played with magic, one “person” was victorious. It all happened just like he wanted it to be. Now his plan was put into action and nothing could stop it now.