

### I WILL TELL YOU A SCARY STORY

### Psycho's Mail

### Copyright 2018 Luka Claw

### Published by Luka Claw at Smashwords

Cover by: Monika Kurianowicz

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of

the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial

purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own

### copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support and for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Shadow

Chapter 2 – Warning

Chapter 3 – Blackout

Chapter 4 – Dark alley

Chapter 5 – Creepy stalker

Chapter 6 – The worst interview ever

Chapter 7 – Hooded man

Chapter 8 – Trip

Chapter 9 – (Un)pleasant forest

Chapter 10 – Deadly encounter

Chapter 11 – Lost

Chapter 12 – Roses or thorns?

Chapter 13 – Witness

Chapter 14 – After party

Chapter 15 – First threat

Chapter 16 – Social gathering in the bathroom

Chapter 17 – Embracing episode

Chapter 18 – Second threat and a meaningful gift

Chapter 19 – Fugitive

Chapter 20 – Dreadful game

Chapter 21 – Psycho's Mail

Chapter 22 – Beomseok's ultimate chicken attack

Chapter 23 – Key

Chapter 24 – Grumpy detective

Chapter 25 – Victim

Chapter 26 – The most expensive tea in my life

Chapter 27 – Trolley

Chapter 28 – Another clue or misleading?

Chapter 29 – Secret number

Chapter 30 – Haunted mind

Chapter 31 – Unexpected guest and turn of events

Chapter 32 – More horrifying things (for a change)

Chapter 33 – In the grip of bad luck, pt. I

Chapter 34 - In the grip of bad luck, pt. II

Chapter 35 - In the grip of bad luck, pt. III

Bonus story

Coming next

About the author

Connect with the author

Mini-dictionary

# 

# _Chapter 1_

# _Shadow_

It was a day like any. Beomseok was weird as always, Jongil was listening to music and singing our new song, Chanwoo was playing some game and Youngho was loud as always (not that I'm quiet). There was no sign of anxiousness and eventually fear of this fine, cool evening. Until 1 a.m..

Because of our last comeback and a lot of live shows, I was sleeping anywhere I could – waiting room, our living room, kitchen, and even bathroom where Jongil once caught me as I was dozing off while brushing my teeth. So I decided (or everyone decided for me) to sleep anytime I was free, preferably in the dorm. One day our manager asked me what I was doing at night instead of sleeping, so I replied:

"Most of the time I'm trying to survive Beomseok's operas."

I was surprised that he believed me right away and dropped the topic. Last week we moved to a new dorm at Seoul's suburbs. It was a good decision because of fresh air and quiet neighborhood. We had an apartment in a new building with air conditioning, which was blessing in this year's hottest summer for years. So, as always, we played rock-paper-scissors and I ended up in the same room with Beomseok. Youngho was with Jongil and Chan had room for himself (I tried to rematch with him, but surprisingly I lost. Again). Chanwoo Song – lead dancer, rapper – was the youngest member of our vocal-dance group, who was lover of scary stories. Because of his hyperactive personality, he was everywhere. He was born on April Fools' Day, so maybe that's why he was also a big prankster.

One day I was playing online game with Chanwoo, when Youngho entered the living room with his phone and not so lively face.

"What's wrong?" Chan asked, when I killed him with pleasure in the game.

"Did you eat something from Beomseok's bag?" I joked.

"Did you see?" Youngho showed us his phone. It was a chat. "I'm getting worried."

"Why?" I asked.

It's been over a year since our debut and our fandom became really big. With time we got our first anti-fans and so called psycho-fans. Well, it wasn't that bad so far, because our real fans were trying really hard to support us. In spite of it, we already had some strange situations...

One day Jongil and Youngho were doing groceries and were startled as they saw under shop's counter a girl with a phone, who was taking pictures of them. Another time Beomseok went to a toilet as we were eating dinner in a restaurant. Luckily, I needed to use the toilet too, so I rescued him from girls, who tried to sabotage men's bathroom. But the worst moment was in our old dorm. That evening Chanwoo won the rock-paper-scissors and went first to the bath. Fortunately, we didn't have (and didn't have here either) window in the bathroom, but out there, when you went out, you had to pass kitchen. After the bath Chan usually went into his room only with a towel wrapped around his waist, so he was scared to death when he saw our fans outside looking at him through kitchen's window like predators at their victim. Man, I've never seen Jongil so angry then.

Partially because of these unpleasant 'adventures' we moved out. We thought that it'll take some time until psycho-fans will find us again, but today, after I'd looked at the chat, my good mood worsened momentarily.

"They're already looking for us?" I asked with anxiety. "But how did they find out where we moved out?"

"Did you tell Jongil and Beomseok?" Chanwoo asked.

Youngho shook his head. "Not yet. Let's wait for tomorrow. Maybe it's a false alarm."

This evening I lost (again) in rock-paper-scissors and went to buy some instant noodles. Thank God Jongil joined me. It was almost 1 a.m. when we entered the shop. While I was looking for a strawberry milk, I saw someone's reflection in fridge's glass. I shivered and looked back. A tall man in a black coat with hood covering his face turned to the exit. My fingers automatically squeezed the thing I was holding in my hand. Why I had the feeling he was observing me?

"Hey, you're okay?" I heard and saw Jongil beside me. He was looking at my hand.

I looked down and saw destroyed milk.

"Yeah..." I muttered.

When we left the shop, I energetically started to walk, almost run, but Jongil stopped me and said, "Wait, I left my wallet in the shop. I'll be right back."

And he left me alone on empty street. For a second I had a thought that he did it deliberately. Jongil Park – twenty four year old vocalist, visual and main rapper – was the oldest in our group and so called 'father of the bunch of kids'. He was the most sensible and peaceful out of us. He loved singing, fried chicken and sleeping.

I wanted to go after him and wait inside, but suddenly I saw a shadow in front of me, which was created by a light of lonely street lamp. Someone is behind me, I thought and began to feel sick with fear. From a posture I recognized the mystery man from earlier. I gathered the courage and turned around.

# _Chapter 2_

# _Warning_

It wasn't that man. It was just stupid Beomseok who wanted to scare me. Well, he did it. I think he'll remember my punch for the rest of his life. Jongil walked out of the shop and was surprised to see Beomseok and my much more worse mood. Anyway, when I thought everything was my imagination, I saw that man turning and going into a dark alley. I got chills, but forgot about it when we returned to the dorm.

Beomseok Han – vocalist – hated horrors himself but liked scaring me. He was also the most clumsy and timid Pokémon lover in the world. Three-quarters of his room was filled with Pokémon stuff. His greatest love was food. (Seriously. He would get chopped for a spicy chicken). He was day older than me, which he often liked to remind me about, and that maked him the second oldest member of the group – though everyone was used to the fact that they were dealing with a 'big child'.

The next day we had schedule at dawn, so we didn't get much sleep. When we were going to the car, someone suddenly bumped into us. Or should I say 'attacked', because it was so loud that I instinctively stopped behind Beomseok, so I didn't know whom this crazy fan wanted to touch. Luckily, she was quickly transported away and the rest of the way was without surprises.

After a few lessons at the agency, we went to a photo shoot, which was taking place not so far from our talent agency's building. But we barely left the building, crazy screams and chanting almost made us fall over. I really fell over a little bit later when something round, supposedly a stone, reached my head.

"You're okay?" Youngho said with worried face, helping me to stand up.

I nodded and looked at the stone that turned out to be a boiled egg. From what I heard, fan wanted me to eat this for my health. If that's their new method of taking care of us, I'll become friends with hospital bed soon.

The last member of the group, whom I hadn't introduced yet, is Youngho Park – lead rapper, vocalist and composer. He was the loudest individual of all of us and the second youngest in the group. His hobby was shouting, playing games, rapping and more shouting. He was also known for exaggerating at almost everything. Even though, he was the most lively person in the group.

"I'm afraid it's them," Chanwoo whispered to me. "Our real fans wouldn't do this. I think..."

I didn't know whether Chan was right, but something worried me much more at the fan signing at 2 p.m.

"We are U-NIGHT, let's fight!" we shouted together our catchphrase and the event started.

Of course, the room was full of fans. Normal ones, crazy ones, some anti-fans too. When I was observing them with my smiley face, I saw him. That guy who scared the hell out of me yesterday. I turned pale. He's been still hiding his face, but this time I could see his wry smile. He creeped me out. I poked Beomseok, who was sitting beside me, and asked what he thought about this man. He didn't respond but I saw fear in his eyes. When Jongil caught up our conversation, he saw the man and asked for security. However, as we were waiting for the guard, the man disappeared.

"We have to tell the manager," Jongil said when we were coming back to our dorm. Then he looked at me sharply. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I thought it was my imagination," I justified myself. "But we still don't know, do we? He could be anyone..."

"Exactly. Anyone."

I was a little mad at Jongil. Well, I didn't tell anyone about that man, but Youngho and Chanwoo also knew about psycho-fans...

Later this evening I was going back to my room after the bath, when I heard a doorbell. Who could be at this hour, I thought and opened the door.

"Delivery!" deliveryman said. "Ah, it's been already paid."

"Thank you."

I watched the package on each side. I sighed. It must've been Beomseok. He usually orders something to eat without telling anyone. I smelled the package. But there was no smell of the food. I frowned. Eventually I decided to check the package in the living room.

My scream would've woken up dead. The package landed on the floor together with me. Because Beomseok's and mine room was the closest one to the front door, he was the first one to appear.

"What?" he asked surprised, seeing me on the floor.

A few seconds later the living room was full of group members. I needed a few more seconds to come to my senses. My body suddenly felt really weak. Jongil looked into the package and stepped back with frightened face. Youngho and Beomseok also screamed and Chan wisely decided not to look.

Inside the package was my photograph. Everything would be okay, if that photo wouldn't be shattered and pierced with thumbtacks. Jongil dared to look inside again and found a note. It had a sentence made of newspaper's clippings:

THIS IS A WARNING.

### Chapter 3

### Blackout

"Warning? About what?"

We were sitting in the living room with our manager and security guard, who was inspecting the package. I still didn't recover from the shock, so they had to repeat questions at least twice.

"I don't know..." I mumbled. "I really don't know whether I hurt someone by accident..." I drank up another cup of cola.

"It has to be a terrible joke," Youngho comforted me. "But how could someone do this? This is so... disgusting!"

"Joke or not joke" manager said, looking at me sternly "for some time don't go anywhere alone. This applies to all of you. If you want to go shopping, or something, you're taking at least one of our staff or security. Do you understand?"

We nodded. Jeez, seriously?

This night for the first time I was glad I was sleeping with Beomseok in one room. I fell asleep very quickly, despite Beomseok's screams in his sleep worthy of Bruce Lee.

Next few days were bearable. If I didn't think about this package, everything seemed to be back to normal but if I thought about it for a moment, I looked sick. Two days ago I looked like that at a fan meeting at one of schools. I scared fans, who thought I'd faint any moment. To stop thinking about it we were absorbed in activities such as V Live*. We also started to post more pictures and films on Instagram and other social medias. Chanwoo said that we were posting so many photos that anti-fans didn't have time to hate them.

After a month we came back with new single and our job again gained full schedule. So much time passed from this threat letter and package that we started to laugh at it.

"Maybe you're just too handsome" Chan joked one day, when we were in the waiting room before the performance.

I did a sexy pose with a 'V' gesture. "You think?" I asked.

Chanwoo and Youngho burst out laughing. Beomseok woke up for a moment, but soon fell asleep again. Jongil was struggling with earphones. I sat down on a sofa and began to check our fan chat. I smiled. Fans were really amazing, they were comforting us all the time. They even cursed haters. I wrote that they should stop cursing and I sent them our thanks. With a tones of hearts, just in case. My mood was excellent until I saw one of the comments under my today's response: Remember about the warning.

I froze with fear. Jongil was first to react. He snatched the phone from me and found this comment. He opened his mouth but I stopped him. Telling this to others before the performance was a bad idea. Jongil resisted for a while but gave up at the end.

In our agency, during the break in dance practice, we again brought up this topic.

"Username is KILLER_MAD," Chanwoo read from the chat under my post. He shivered. "Damn, he's creeping me out... What's with his nickname anyway?"

"None of you have this kind of message?" I asked.

"No," Youngho said. "Are you sure it's about that threat?"

"I'm not sure of anything now..." I muttered.

"Hey, what's that?" we suddenly heard Beomseok.

He was scrolling down comments.

"Wow, fans are furious," Chanwoo whispered proudly. "You see? Everything will be alright."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked slowly, pointing to the phone.

Under each of fans' comment was a response from KILLER_MAD. He was threatening them!

"You don't know facts so shut up," Beomseok read one of those responses. "What facts?"

"Only he knows," I said angrily, then stood up. "I've enough of this. Let's practice."

Dance practice allowed me to forget about this man, even if it was only for a moment.

Next evening we had another performance. Everything seemed to be perfect: clothes, stage, response. When we entered the stage, I observed the audience with smile. Suddenly I saw a strange girl: she was tall, had red hair with two black highlights (similar to mine) and oddly matched clothes (with my image, for a change). From the look at her face and the slogan ('JINWOO KIM IS MINE') I was afraid she was my psycho-fan. I decided to ignore her and we began our performance.

But I couldn't forget her. She was tall, with crazy smile... To be honest, I wasn't sure whether KILLER_MAD was a guy or a girl. I should fear now every crazy fan, I guess...

Suddenly there was a BAM! sound that caused an awful screech-like noise in our earphones, then all lights went out.

#### Chapter 4

#### Dark alley

Not only lights, microphones and other electronic devices also didn't work. Because we were inside the building, without lights was really dark. I tripped while moving back. Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me up. I recognized Jongil. He took me to the backstage, where others had gathered. However, halfway there was another sound, faintly piercing through the screaming crowd. I looked up. Even though I couldn't see, I knew what sound that would be. I pushed Jongil and jumped myself at the other side of the stage.

A big stage lamp landed between us. After that, lights came on. As group members were looking for me, I realized I was sitting on the edge of the stage, which meant I was an easy snack for psycho-fans, who resided beside the stage. Beomseok and Jongil rescued me when I was already barely visible under fans' hands.

"Are you okay?" manager shouted as we were going down from the stage.

"Jin got hurt," Jongil said, pointing to my left hand, which was cut by a piece of glass.

I was taken to the waiting room. As the stage doctor was wrapping my hand with a bandage, Jongil asked, almost angrily, "Why did this happen?"

"Everything had been checked multiple times, as always," manager said. He frowned and rubbed his forehead anxiously. "This shouldn't had happened."

Suddenly we heard another loud sound and we all jumped surprised. Someone burst into the room, slamming the door against the wall. It was PD* of the show.

"I-I think you s-should see this," he stuttered and took us back to the stage.

At the place, where I was sitting before fans tried to swallow me up, was a sentence written in red.

"Wait... isn't that blood!?" Youngho shouted.

My body stiffened. Not only because of the 'material' used for the sentence. It was strangely familiar.

SECOND WARNING.

"Y-You think he... killed someone?" Beomseok whispered, looking at the sentence with white face.

"No..." I looked at my hand. "I think it's my blood. From the wound." I showed them glass fragments near the sentence.

Everyone breathed out a sigh of relief. But then we realized that all these threats were meant only for me. But we still didn't know the answer to the most important question: WHY?

"I'll ask the police for a full investigation," our manager said. He put his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it lightly to comfort me. "Be careful and don't go anywhere alone. We'll deal with this quickly, I promise."

While going back to our dorm, I was thinking what I might have done. Had I insulted someone? Hurt his or her emotions? But nothing physically, I was sure of it! Jealously? Maybe, but the last warning went too far, even for that...

We were walking on foot, because our car was taken for an inspection. Three staff's people and one security guard were with us, so we felt secured. We were goofing around, laughing, taking photos. Finally normal evening. When we walked into the darker part of our district, we almost clung to each other.

"Aaah, I hate this part of town," Chan whispered. He was getting piggyback from Youngho, so I jumped on Beomseok's back, before he realized it.

"Get off," he said.

"I don't want to," I responded childishly.

"You won't get off?"

"Nope."

"You know you'll regret this."

"Don't think so," I said, showing him tongue.

Then he started running. Youngho and Chanwoo joined the race. After a few seconds I cried with laughter. We wanted to continue, but at some point we saw a large group of high school girls. It wouldn't bother us, if they didn't carry phones and our photos. We tried to flee, but they saw us and followed.

All of a sudden something similar to a petard exploded between us. As staff members and security guard were a little behind us dealing with fans, we could rely only on ourselves. Because of the explosion, I fell with Chan on the ground. Choking smoke had gathered around us. Blindfolded, I found someone's hand and was taken somewhere safe.

Well, I thought so until I could see clearly again.

I found myself in a dark alley with the hooded man.

##### Chapter 5

##### Creepy stalker

Thankfully, my first reaction was to run. I didn't think about anything else. But the man reached out to me and grabbed my collar. I gasped and kicked him, probably in tibia. He let me go so suddenly that I fell down. I turned back immediately and pressed myself against wall.

"W-Who are you..." I stammered. "Are you... KILLER_MAD?"

I saw his scary grin. My imagination went crazy. There I saw a knife in his hand, or a bloody axe... okay, that would be ridiculous. But anyway, even without his answer I was sure he was THAT creepy guy.

"Listen, I don't know what do you want from me," I said slowly, carefully choosing the words. "But I really don't know what I did that you hate me so much."

The man came closer to me. I was shaking. Damn, this doesn't look good, I thought with increasing panic.

"You're lying," he said suddenly.

"W-What?" I muttered.

Another step closer. God, where's everyone... ?

"You made her like that!"

Now I was dumbfounded.

"Look..." I stood up. "I'm not a psychic, I don't know what you are thinking. If you have something against me, say it clearly so I can understand it."

Now I could see his face. He was a normal, teenage boy, though with body of a wrestler. I relaxed right away but he saw that and grabbed my shirt, pressing me against the wall.

"You and your perfect idol life," he growled. "You think you can destroy somebody's life without any consequences?"

I wanted to say something, but couldn't find right words and somehow felt guilty.

"Who're you talking about?" I said finally.

But he didn't listen anymore. I was lucky that my head didn't crack. I ducked and his hand hit the wall. I staggered and moved back.

"You're crazy!" I shouted. I blocked his next punch but forgot about my left hand, which exploded with pain. "Do you want to be a murderer? You know, you almost killed me on the stage!"

He stopped abruptly.

"What?" he asked.

Oh, now you want to talk, I thought angrily.

"You threw the stage lamp at me," I reminded him.

"No, I didn't. You think I am an idiot?" he shouted at me. "I would never try to kill, but you'll regret what you did!"

I guessed I failed the talk. My left hand started to bleed again and I felt sick. He grabbed my neck and pushed me hard. I bumped into something and then everything happened at once.

I recognized Beomseok, who pulled me aside. Jongil wanted to punch the high-schooler, but the security guard warned him and he himself pressed the high-schooler to the ground so he was unable to move.

"Are you okay? Jinwoo!"

"Huh?" I muttered. Jongil was squeezing my arms. I nodded.

To be honest, I was thinking about what that guy said. Somehow I believed that he didn't throw this lamp.

Suddenly I felt dizzy and almost landed on my knees.

"I feel sick..." I admitted quietly and Beomseok gave me piggyback when he saw my hand.

Stalker was taken to a custody and we finally reached our dorm. For a moment I thought I saw the hooded man in front of our entrance, but then I fell asleep.

###### Chapter 6

###### The worst interview ever

Next morning I told everything that happened yesterday. Manager and police were here too.

"We questioned the suspect," police officer said. "He'll be observed for a few days."

"Wait, you let him go?!" Youngho outraged, standing up. I pulled him back on sofa.

"We didn't have enough evidence to close him up," another police officer explained.

"Enough evidence?" Jongil said in disbelief. "He threatened our brother! He almost killed Jinwoo on stage! From what I know, it's an attempted murder."

"His girlfriend seems to be Jinwoo's psycho-fan," manager said grimly. "He's just furious that she's ignoring him. We explained everything to him, so there should be no further problems."

I was silent. Stalker's expression, when I told him about the thrown lamp, still worried me. Others got mad at me, because I didn't say any argument against him.

"Aren't you angry?" Jongil said, almost accusingly.

"I am but –"

"Don't you want justice?" Youngho added.

"It's not that –"

"Jin, he –"

"I GET IT, OKAY? IT'S NOT THAT I WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN! BECAUSE OF YOU THINGS GET ONLY WORSE!" I exploded with anger.

After that I shut myself in my room. I fell on the bed and lay like that for a minute. I was mad at them and myself. I shouldn't have exploded. But on the other hand they shouldn't have treated me like I didn't care at all. I fell asleep before I decided to go apologize.

This was our first big and serious argument after a long time. I wanted to apologize to them as soon as I woke up, but I'd been in bad mood and forgot about it. Annoying silence was our companion all the way to fan meeting. I saw that Chanwoo at least twice tried to talk to me, but in the end he gave up. Beomseok made an effort to brighten us up but failed too.

In the waiting room, after all preparations, I sat on a sofa and started dozing off. I came to my senses when I heard door opening and a voice saying,

"Time for the individual stuff before the meeting. I'll call you individually. Leader, you first."

I followed the PD, not fully awake. We went to some room at the end of the corridor. Inside was a single table and a chair. I sat on it and waited for other staff's members to come.

But after a few minutes they didn't appear.

"Are we doing something?" I asked the PD. He had mask on his nose and mouth, so I didn't know what expression he had.

"We are," he answered.

"Are we waiting for others to arrive?"

"On the contrary. We're waiting for them to leave."

Too late I realized I knew this voice. I threw myself at the door, but the stalker caught me by hair and pushed on the table. I groaned when I hit my hip.

"Didn't we explain everything to you?" I growled. "It's a misunderstanding!"

"Really? So how do you explain my girlfriend's attempted suicide yesterday after reading letter from you?"

His expression was scary. Again, I was dumbfounded. What letter? I didn't write anything to anyone!

"Listen to me," I began carefully. "It's really a misunderstanding. I didn't write any letter. If it's written by hand and you have it with you, I can prove it wasn't from me."

He hesitated but only for a second.

"You... You told her to... back off! (I was sure there had to be worse words instead) You told her you don't care about her!"

"That's not true!" I countered angrily. "I care about every fan! You just don't want anyone to point out your mistakes –!"

He grabbed my collar, then punched me in the face. I tumbled into the chair, knocking it down and falling on the floor myself. Damn, I hadn't been punched since high school. I felt blood on my lip. I started to feel furious. My fist reached his jaw, but it was like metal. He didn't even flinch. Then he again grabbed my hair and pulled my head back.

"I didn't do ANYTHING to your girlfriend!" I said through my teeth. "Come to your senses!"

"I wish I did that a little earlier," he hissed, this time punching my ribs.

I hit the door. I heard some raised voices.

"Give me that letter," I ordered. "I'll prove it to you, you idiot!"

He stopped in mid-step. Maybe the insult was useful. I looked around and found board and markers. I wrote the beginning of our new single.

"This is my writing," I said sharply. "Show me the letter."

He didn't move.

"Look, I believe that it wasn't you who tried to kill me that day, on the stage, but you have to work with me and let me explain things!"

He finally understood and reached into his pocket. However, with letter there was something else that fell out.

"This girl..." I whispered, recognizing the tall fan whom I feared that day – with a look similar to mine and clothes with pictures of me.

"SO YOU KNOW HER!" he suddenly roared and resumed the attack. He had to see my frightened face.

When I was hit in the face a second time, I clearly heard screams behind the door. I recognized Jongil, Beomseok and our manager. They were looking for me. I opened my mouth, but stalker pressed my injured hand. I howled with pain instead of calling help. Well, it was good enough, because others found me right away and began to wrestle with the door.

Finally they got inside, but stalker was still holding me. Group members saw my face and became furious. When they came closer, stalker dug his nails into my hand. I screamed and fell on my knees.

"Stop!" Chanwoo cried.

"Police is coming!" Youngho shouted. He was pale as paper.

I was glad he didn't add 'give up'. The situation was bad enough. I searched the floor in order to find something that could help me. The only thing on the floor was the marker I used earlier. Without much thinking, I grabbed it and hit stalker's eye.

I fell back and hit the wall, while stalker staggered sideways. Security grabbed him, group members grabbed me. Chanwoo pointed to my face with trembling hand.

"I guess this time you heard my lovely voice" I joked and smiled slightly.

"Your scream indeed helped us to find you," Jongil said. "But we've already become suspicious when you left. We haven't heard anything about individual interviews."

"And that guy said individual stuff," Beomseok added. "Weird word for a PD."

Weird deduction made by Beomseok, I thought.

"I'm sorry..." I muttered. "For that in the dorm and my naivety. I should had realized who he was..."

"Nobody's blaming you," Jongil said, ruffling my hair. "We wouldn't guess at first what's going on either."

I smiled.

"Today's meeting is canceled," manager stated. "Go back and rest. All of you."

Chapter 7

Hooded man

After all of this I slept almost all day. Group members were scattered around the room. I saw Chan clung to my left leg. What surprised me more was Jongil, who was sleeping beside me holding my arm, as if I would run away anytime.

"Good morning!" Youngho said loudly, coming in (also loudly). He had wet hair, so he must have bathed a moment ago.

"Where's Beomseok?" I asked.

"Huh?" Youngho looked around confused. "Where's he?"

I felt someone grabbed my right leg, so I instinctively kicked, at the same time waking Chanwoo. I heard a groan. Beomseok's hand fell down. I leaned out of the bed.

"Why is he sleeping there?" I said to Youngho. Beomseok was lying on the floor.

"Good question."

"You kicked him out," Chanwoo muttered, looking for his pillow, which was on Beomseok's face.

"Me? How come?"

Jongil was slowly waking up too. He looked around as if he didn't know how he ended up here.

"How're feeling?" Chanwoo said. He touched my forehead. "Good, fever is gone."

"I had fever?"

"Yeah, probably because of the injury."

"Soooo many chickens..." we suddenly heard.

Beomseok hugged pillow and murmured something else that we didn't understand.

"For some reason I really don't want to know what he's dreaming about" I said.

Later this evening we had meeting with the security in their room, on the first floor.

"He admitted that he sent the package and wrote those threats," manager said. "But he strongly denies throwing the lamp."

"I believe him," I said and everyone looked at me surprised.

"Jin–" Beomseok began, but I interrupted him,

"I know what he did. But he was serious when he told me he would never kill. He's just a high-schooler, he wouldn't do something like that."

Silence.

"We caught the stalker on camera," security guard stated all of a sudden and he showed us a footage from CCTV.

There was the hooded man. From this angle he looked different than that high-schooler. He was indeed tall but slim. Then I saw his wry smile that I clearly remembered from fan signing. This time I saw half of his face.

"That's not the high-schooler" I whispered and others realized this too. "He's... Who's he?!"

Chapter 8

Trip

Everyone's probably confused after the previous chapter. But before we find out who's the mysterious hooded man, we have to go back a few months to our spring vacation. Soon you'll understand why...

It was a fine day (again). After we finished promoting our album, we received a week-long vacation from the company. We played a lot of games to decide where we should go, but what interested us in the end was manager's offer.

"My friend has a farm in Hwang-ya. You may rest there."

"Farm?" Chanwoo shouted happily. He loved rural areas.

"Where is Hwang-ya?" Youngho asked confused.

"On the south," manager explained.

"Strange name," I stated.

To non-Koreans: "Hwang-ya" means "wilderness". I guessed I should be worried now.

So after a few days we were on our way to the village. We took a ride by a truck. It was a really nice ride in a fresh air. In a hay. With hay in your shoes. And hair. Really nice (*overflowing with sarcasm*).

"Waaah, it's awesome!" Chan shrieked, to the horror of my ears. "When we'll arrive? Is there a pond? How many animals do they have?"

"How many question do you have?" Youngho laughed. "We don't know anything. Everything will be explained when we reach our destination."

For some reason I shivered when I looked at the forest, which we passed. I closed my eyes. Whatever, let's just rest...

I started dozing off. After a while I heard some distant voices,

" –are you ready?"

"Wait a little longer."

"If we wait, it'll be a failure, you know."

"It has to be perfect~!"

I didn't like the tone in the last voice, so I opened my eyes.

"Oh," Chanwoo gasped, smiling suspiciously.

He was holding a pen in a pose as if he wanted to draw something on me.

Wait...

"You wouldn't dare," I said with clenched teeth.

"Too late!" Jongil laughed and everyone jumped back, when I immediately sat down.

"Show me," I ordered Beomseok, who always carried mirror with him. Manager took our phones, so nothing would distract us. Instead, we got walkie-talkies.

He did it with hesitation. I looked at my face. As I feared, they scrabbled on me some letters. And a beard with a moustache. I winced and my fancy moustache went up.

"Having fun?" I said to them. "I'll kill you, if I can't wash it away."

"Yeah, about that..."

For their luck, we arrived and I had to focus on how to move my luggage without falling off the mound. We were walking the narrow lane and under us was honestly awesome view – fields, mountains and rivers. Perfect place to relax.

We reached our accommodation in less than half hour. It was a nice and simple wood house with well-kept gardens. We heard and smelled the farm, which was probably behind the house. We called, but nobody answered.

And then someone popped up in front of my face, almost giving me a heart attack.

Chapter 9

(Un)pleasant forest

And that was just house owner's mother. Damn, my heart...

"Hello, we're U-NIGHT!" Youngho shouted for unknown reason. She obviously looked like someone who wouldn't care who we were. She was just standing in one place and smiling at us in silence. We felt uncomfortable.

"Ah, you've arrived!" we heard and some man ran down the stairs to greet us. "I'm friend of your manager, Shinam Lee. Let's go upstairs."

We were going to sleep in one room on a floor. As long as I wasn't near Beomseok, it was bearable.

"You'll be here for six days, am I right?" Mr. Lee said. "Make yourself at home. You can do anything you want, except destroying."

I forced a smile. I felt more uncomfortable, but it was probably because this old lady was still looking at us as if we were in today's menu.

When Mr. Lee left, sleeping places were chosen before I realized and I ended up between Jongil and Beomseok. There was my luck.

"Chan, do you want to switch places?" I asked.

"Sorry, Jin." The youngest group member smiled widely. "The order was announced when you were sleeping on our way here."

"What?! That's not fair!"

"I'm happy!" Beomseok admitted.

"That makes one of us." I grumbled.

"Well, I'm sure Jongil is happy too," Youngho said.

"Why's that?"

"Beomseok will kick you, not him."

Before I reacted, we were called downstairs.

"Ah, there's one more thing," Chanwoo said, stopping me. "If I were you, I would go to the bathroom first."

"Why?"

"It seemed that the old lady could hardly hold back laughter. Please, save her this view."

And they left, laughing crazily. I went confused to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I screamed shocked. I thought I erased the pen, but I made it worse than it was before. I looked like zombie. No wonder that the old lady and Mr. Lee were throwing me amused glances. I washed it away the best I could and went downstairs.

We ate, napped a little and went out sightseeing. After an hour we ended up in a forest.

"Mr. Lee said it's the best place to play," Youngho explained, seeing ours faces. "It's nice here, isn't it?"

"Not really," I said at the same time as Jongil and Beomseok, while Chan shrieked: "Yeah!"

"Then, let's play something. What do you think about... chicken fight?"

"We did that yesterday."

"Grandma's game?"

"Boring."

"Hide and seek?"

"Too dangerous. You can fall from somewhere."

Youngho felt offended and said nothing more. Beomseok raised his hand and I felt that it was a bad sign. He always has strange ideas.

"If not hide and seek, then... looking for a treasure?" he suggested.

"Sounds good!" This idea pleased Youngho. "Let's divide into pairs."

We played rock-paper-scissors and I got paired with Chanwoo, while Youngho was going with Beomseok. Jongil stayed as a judge.

"Remember about walkie-talkies," the oldest group member said. "Keep in touch. And don't fall from somewhere, I'm begging you."

That was really bad joke, even for him. We decided to change rules and our goal was to collect as much cones as we could. Those who first bring cones in a designated place, win. This was a piece of cake but I didn't understand how this was supposed to be less dangerous than hide and seek.

"Maybe because we're in pairs. Or maybe because it was stubborn Beomseok's idea," Chanwoo said, when I thought about it loudly. "Jin, can you hold it for me?"

I took care of his bag, while he was tying shoes. I took my time looking around a bit. It was a sunny day, so I wasn't scared anymore. Perhaps only from different angle this forest looked spooky.

"Are you done?" I called and turned around.

But Chan was gone.

I searched the area but found no trace of him. I got worried and suddenly started to feel scared. What if something happened to him? Or if he really fell from somewhere? Damn, I should've taken care of him... I'm his older brother, for God's sake!

"Chanwoo!" I cried. "Where are you? Answer me!" I turned on walkie-talkie. "Jongil, do you hear me? Youngho? Beomseok!"

Silence. Then I began to panic. But before I could scream again, I slipped and fell, sliding down the hill. I stopped after a few seconds by hitting a big rock. I groaned and shook my head, trying to come to my senses. Where was I now?

It looked like a dried cavity, through which once river had flowed. I moved and tried to stand up, but I came across something with my hand.

It was cold.

I slowly looked down as my heart started racing.

Chapter 10

Deadly encounter

I almost fainted when I saw what I touched.

A corpse. I touched a corpse. I hoped it was fake and anytime I'll hear "Hidden Camera!", but there was no one beside me but that dead... woman, I think? Her face was so damaged that I barely recognized the gender.

I screamed and jumped when a leaf fell down on corpse's forehead. I thought I watched too many crime dramas, because instead of running I started to research the body. Maybe it didn't get to me that this was real and serious. It was a murder, I was sure of it. I looked up. I fell down from there too and was alive, just with few scratches. She couldn't die from that...

Only now I saw that the corpse was half-buried in the ground. Her face was bruised and full of scratch wounds, as if she was attacked by a wild animal. One of her eyes was gone, while the other one almost went out of the eye socket, frozen in shock. It was an awful view and I suddenly felt sick and vomited.

Deep inside I felt relieved. For a moment I thought it was Chan and even now I tried not to cry. I wiped my mouth with trembling hand and stood up, staggering. I wanted to go away but suddenly I saw something in her mouth. With great resistance, I parted her lips. There was a piece of paper in her tooth. Groaning and cursing, I took out the paper, on which I saw five numbers:

7.3.12.6.7.

I frowned. What's that?

All of a sudden I heard a loud rustle and let go of the paper, surprised. Ah, my poor nerves... The paper flew with the wind and fell into a nearby river. Damn, now I'll never know what were those numbers...

But the movie atmosphere was disturbed by another rustle and a low scary voice,

"On roses will always be spikes, on thorns will never be flowers."

That scared the hell out of me and I ran away thinking about nothing.

Surprisingly quickly I climbed back up the hill. Then I continued to run almost with closed eyes, just to find myself far away from there. Suddenly I bumped into someone. We fell. That someone touched my arm and I wanted to continue the running, when I recognized Youngho.

"What happened?" he asked. "I heard screaming. It was you?"

Without a word I put my head on his arm, relieved.

"Thank God it's you..." I muttered. "Thank God..."

"Jinwoo, you're okay? Did something happen?"

Before I realized, words started to flow from my mouth like a waterfall. I told him everything, except those numbers, which I considered unnecessary.

"We have to call the police," I finished my story.

"Right, but we don't have phones. We'll find the others and come back to Mr. Lee."

I agreed, though it wasn't that easy. Forest was big and we didn't know it at all.

"I'm worried about Chan," I said.

"He'll be fine." But I heard doubt in Youngho's voice.

"But I was supposed to watch over him! I won't forgive myself if something had happened to him –"

"Don't treat him like a child, Jin. He may be the youngest among us, but he's still an adult."

Suddenly I felt anger. It wasn't like that! I didn't treat Chanwoo like a child, I was just worried! I was sure if Chan was me, he would be worried too, even though I was three years older than him and two years older than Youngho.

"Don't you feel strange?" Youngho said, stopping abruptly.

"What?"

"I think I know this place."

He was right. We've been here. We've been circling round and round. I panicked again. Then we heard sounds from ours walkie-talkies.

"Jongil, do you copy?" Youngho called.

"Y...h... some...how..."

"We must be too far away," I stated.

"Listen, we've got a problem. Chanwoo is –"

Out of the blue we lost the ground under our feet and started falling down. In the last moment I turned and saw a hooded man, who probably pushed us. I opened my mouth, but at the same time we reached water.

Chapter 11

Lost

I was so shocked that I forgot to take a breath and in a moment I couldn't breathe. Fortunately, Youngho kept his head clear, so he pulled me to the surface and began to swim to the shore. But suddenly stream grabbed us and we were pulled in again. This time I remembered to take a deep breath. It jerked us a couple of times, and then we hit the rock with a momentum. I lost my breath and Youngho unexpectedly became heavy. I got hold of myself and pulled him out.

I tried to reach the shore, but my leg really hurt. And Youngho was getting heavier and heavier. I looked at his face and almost drown. He was unconscious with blood on his forehead. I clenched my teeth and after a few tries I pulled him out. When we were safe on the shore, I coughed and lay down tired. Suddenly I remembered about my brother and shook his arm.

"Youngho!" I shouted. "Hey! Please, wake up!" Tears gathered in my eyes. I looked around desperately. "W-What should I do... ?"

He moved. Slightly, but moved.

"YOUNGHO!"

Youngho opened his eyes for a second, then closed them again. He fell asleep. I quickly wiped tears and wrapped his injury with a piece of my shirt. I stood up, but suddenly I felt sharp pain in my right ankle. It was swollen, I must have twisted it. Again I clenched my teeth, took Youngho on my back and walked away.

After a few minutes of hard march I heard voices. Group members! I was so happy that I rushed to them, forgetting about my ankle, which pulled me down. First one to see us was Beomseok.

"What happened?" Jongil asked and helped me to stand up. I screamed and leaned on him, standing on one leg. His face darkened. "Are you hurt?"

"Twisted leg," I muttered. "But Youngho is –"

"He's going to be fine," unfamiliar voice said. There was a man beside Youngho.

"He's a local doctor," Jongil explained, seeing my face. "Did you see Chanwoo?"

"He's not with you?!" My fears came back like a hit with a hammer. "We have to find him immediately!"

"What's wrong with you?"

I told them about a corpse and person who pushed me and Youngho into the river. This time my voice was shaking, but it was partly because of the cold.

"H-How –" I stammered quietly. "How did you know we n-needed a doctor?"

"Hunch," Jongil said, warming me with a blanket. "You were absent for too long and we heard screams. It's dangerous here." He showed me his bandaged arm. "I fell too."

"We still need to –"

We heard a groan. I jumped on my feet, but again forgot about my injury and Beomseok caught me before I landed on the ground. Youngho was waking up.

"Brother!" I cried. "How're you feeling? Hurts a lot? Do you know who I am?"

"Noisy one..." Youngho whispered and smiled slightly. "It's just a bump in a head, don't worry."

Then I burst into tears of relief. I tried to calm down, saying sorry couple of times. Jongil helped Youngho sit.

"You didn't find him?" Youngho muttered.

"No... Some of village people, who came with us, are looking now but we don't have any information yet."

I stood up.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jongil asked sharply. "Sit down."

"We have to look for him," I ordered.

"No way! It's getting dark and you're still –"

"As a leader I command you to search for Chanwoo!" I burst out. "Somewhere out there is probably a murderer who may hurt him without a reason, just like that woman." I took a deep breath to calm down. "We have to be together to think about what to do. Only Youngho will be transported to Mr. Lee's house. Let's go."

"Jinwoo!" Youngho opposed, but I've already started to walk.

After a few seconds I heard footsteps. Beomseok and Jongil followed me. I was really glad. For a moment I thought they'll let me go alone.

"Do you even know where to look?" Jongil said grimly.

"This is where we parted." I pointed to a hill in front of us. "I think we just have to –"

Suddenly I heard something. Something like... humming? Who the hell would hum in this creepy place?

Then it hit me. I couldn't believe I was so blind!

"I think I found him!" I shrieked and ran to the source of the humming.

But in the mid-way I stopped abruptly when some thought appeared in my head. What if I was going straight into murderer's trap? The humming was too quiet to be sure it was Chan.

"Jin?! Wait up!"

"I'm here!" I called and stepped back, but that was a mistake.

The ground under my feet crumbled and I fell down into hunter's trap. I groaned and blinked, then looked up. It was too high to climb. I stood up and tried to think of another way out when I heard some kind of growl and something grabbed my hand.

Chapter 12

Roses or thorns?

Never in my life I experienced so much stress like today. But before I fainted, I recognized the hand that grabbed me.

"Chan!" I cried and threw myself at him, but I tripped over my twisted ankle and landed awkwardly on the ground. I couldn't count how many times I fell down today too.

"You've heard my lovely voice," Chanwoo laughed. "You're okay?"

"Where've you been!" suddenly I got angry. "We've been worried to death! I'VE BEEN."

"Sorry..." He put his hands up. "I was... tied up."

Only now I saw that Chanwoo was trapped in vines. If not for the seriousness of the situation, I would've laughed. He was levitating in a strange position like a puppet. Then again I heard this growl and realized it came from Chanwoo's stomach. We exchanged looks and this time burst out laughing.

"Anyone would think you're some kind of a wild animal," I said, calming down. I reached into my pocket and gave Chan chocolate, which Beomseok gave me earlier. He ate it delighted. "How did you end up here?"

"When I asked you to hold onto my things I heard something," he started explaining. "I know I should've gone get you first but I was curious. Then I stepped into this trap. Funny, huh?"

"Not really."

"What happened to you?"

Again I told him my story. Every time I was telling this, I was feeling strange, but this time I began to feel anxiousness like I should've kept everything to myself.

"Are you crazy?!" Chanwoo shrieked so loud that I tripped, while standing still. "Of course we should tell the police!"

"Okay, I understood... Now, let's get you out."

This wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. What was more irritating, soon I got entangled too.

"Okay, Jin. On three. One, two –"

"Watch out! That's my kidney!"

"Why are you worried about your kidney now?"

"You're drilling your foot in it!"

"Well, sorry about that, but do you prefer my foot in some other place?!"

Thankfully, we freed ourselves before I got an answer for that. Now the problem was how to get to the surface.

And that problem was quickly solved.

"Are you there?" we heard Beomseok and then they lowered a rope to us.

"Chanwoo, you've been there the whole time?" Jongil asked shocked.

"Kind of. But we're free thanks to you. Let's go to Youngho and get out of here. This place is giving me creeps."

We safely reached Mr. Lee's house and began a meeting.

"So you're saying it was a murder?" he said, when once again I finished my story. I felt like I've changed some facts, but that was not what worried me.

"You're really saying we have to stay here till tomorrow's evening?" I asked uncertainly.

"Yes. This is a small village. We have bus to the city only once every evening. Don't worry. Local police will investigate. If they'll find the body, as you said.

I had a strange feeling that he didn't believe me. To be honest, even group members didn't see the corpse.

"You believe me, right?" I said, when Mr. Lee left us in our room. "I wouldn't lie about something like that!"

"We believe you, don't worry," Jongil said. "Even if you saw it wrong and it wasn't a body, someone pushed you and Youngho into the river. Something is fishy here."

"Why don't we sleep?" Beomseok yawned. "Look, Youngho and Chanwoo are already sleeping."

We agreed and lay down. I chatted with Jongil for few more minutes, then fell asleep.

I woke up after an hour, because I got thirsty, and went downstairs to get some water from the kitchen. I scratched my head, not fully awake. When I was drinking, I heard a noise and turned.

Before me stood a tall hooded man, who asked me with familiar voice,

"Roses or thorns?"

I froze as he stretched out his hand to me.

Chapter 13

Witness

I spat the water on the man, before he could grab me. Then I deliberately dropped the glass to wake everyone up. I rushed toward the stairs, but the man caught my injured ankle and I fell down. I was screaming and kicking, trying to break free, but he was surprisingly strong as for his thin physique. When he began to choke me, group members and Mr. Lee burst into the kitchen.

Mr. Lee freed me and I stepped back, coughing. Group members dragged me to the wall, as Mr. Lee was fighting with the possible murderer.

"You're okay?" Chanwoo whispered.

I nodded, breathing heavily. Suddenly Mr. Lee hit the sink and fell down unconscious. The hooded man turned to us. Youngho grabbed a broom and Jongil found a knife, but I knocked it from his hand, fearing that he would accidentally become a murderer too.

The man attacked. I tripped and fell down again, this time along with Chan, as Youngho started to fight with the broom. But the man was armed with his knife, so I regretted I deprived Jongil of his weapon. In the second the broom was in pieces. Youngho screamed shocked and staggered on Beomseok. I saw frightened that this time Jongil became man's target.

Sudden courage (or stupidity, interpret it as you like) hit me and I bumped man's chest with my head, then we fell at the table, crushing it. I quickly turned on my back and threw salt into his eyes. He withdrew with a loud groan. Then Mr. Lee came to his senses and blocked the man with his arms, before he could run away.

"Get back!" he shrieked to us.

After that we heard a police siren. In a moment the kitchen was full of police officers. We sat down on a sofa and were interrogated. But after half an hour Mr. Lee ordered us to go upstairs and get some sleep. We were going to continue tomorrow.

As if we could fall asleep after all of this...

And I slept like a dead (sorry about that accurate comparison). As Mr. Lee said, as we came to the living room the police was waiting for us.

"We caught the suspect," one of them informed us – an older policeman with thick glasses. "He remains silent. And we didn't find the body. Where've you seen it?"

I repeated what I said yesterday. I was getting tired of repeating this over and over again.

"Well, I didn't see anything," police officer stated.

No wonder, with that eyesight, I thought irritated.

"I'm not lying," I said emphatically. "Sir..." I added, scared that I accidentally dropped the honorifics.

"Okay then. Let's go to the crime scene and you'll show us exactly what you saw."

I didn't like the word 'exactly', but I guessed I had no choice.

When we arrived at the dried cavity, I automatically froze as if that man would jumped at us any time. When I was describing the corpse, suddenly I felt dizzy. I didn't even know I remembered so many details...

"Sir, we found something!" some police officer shouted and they continued the investigation.

I sat down and after a while felt a lot better. The investigation's results came to us after an hour. I dozed off and was a little startled when someone poked me.

"We found blood stains," police officer explained. "We'll get it to the laboratory to identify the victim. For now you can go home."

"Home? I hope you meant Seoul," I muttered.

"That's right. You must have been shocked and surely are tired. Go back and when we find more, we'll contact Seoul's police. The suspect is caught, so you have nothing to worry about."

"Thank you," we said, bowing to the police officers respectively.

As soon as we entered Mr. Lee's house, we started packing.

"Whose is that toothbrush?" Youngho called from the bathroom.

"Blue, black or green?" I asked.

"Why did you mention only three?" Beomseok said.

"Because the yellow one belongs to Youngho." I glanced at him. "Please, everyone knows that yours is with Pokémon. Even fans know it." He made a funny face. "They don't? Don't worry, I'll tell them now."

I got a pillow in the face, before I could grab my phone. That started a pillow fight as the last and probably the best memory of this trip. At five o'clock we were waiting for a bus.

"I'm so sorry that it came out like this," Mr. Lee said sadly.

"It's not your fault," I said, smiling. "Let's meet again, maybe next year?"

"Right. It was nice meeting you."

"It was nice to meet you too, Mr. Lee. Goodbye."

The way back was more boring than when we were going to the village, but at least I could think about everything calmly. I threw the worst moments from our trip from my head and started to dream. Yeah, we were finally going back home. Calm and safe Seoul.

I didn't know then that I knew only a seed of a real nightmare.

Chapter 14

After party

After a month my ankle was completely healed and we all could return to our activities. Truthfully, group members were promoting without me. I was so lonely in our dorm, that I started taking strange selfies. Maybe that was why group members and manager got me back into activities as soon as possible.

And after another month occurred the situation with that high school stalker. After we saw the mysterious hooded man on a CCTV in our dorm, we couldn't focus on anything.

"We've talked to the police," manager informed us. "They don't have any evidence, so they won't continue the investigation. The stalker was caught and it's the end for them."

"That's absurd!" Chanwoo outraged, when we were in the practice room. "How can they treat it so lightly?"

"They're right, Chan," I sighed. "We don't have the evidence that he was the one from the stage accident. Now, can you finally focus on the choreography?"

Chanwoo scowled, but did as I said. I realized it a little later that I've changed. I've become stricter, especially with our dance practice, where I was in charge as main dancer. I was angry at myself because of that. I didn't want to do it, but whenever something was not as I would like, I blamed others. Maybe stress finally killed my psyche...

And later it got only worse.

When we finished the dance practice, manager told us that our company had new rookies and he asked us to guide them a little. Their name was DRAGon, which simply meant "dragon" or "drag on popularity". They were a boy group, consisted of five guys, just like us, and their debut was planned for the next month. Everything would be okay, if it wasn't for their big egos. Before we met them face to face, we saw them on V Live. They seemed nice and funny, also got along well. Truthfully, they got along well, but only among themselves. Or maybe they hated only us. Soon I learned that they surely hated but just me.

Why, you ask. It turned out that one of the group members – E.T. (I know, I laughed so hard at his stage name) – was a friend of that psycho girl and her boyfriend, who was stalking me. And, of course, E.T. was blaming me for everything I didn't do.

E.T. was the oldest (twenty three, so my age) in his group and also a leader. But beyond being tall, his physique was similar to that stalker's. I wondered for a second whether they were brothers. Other members of the group were: Sojin Yoon (sub-vocal, the youngest), Credo (main vocal), Domin Choi (vocal, main dancer), and Doyoon Lee (vocal). E.T. was a rapper and the worst dancer I've ever seen. But that wasn't the case. Every one of them seemed normal and nice on the screen, but when there weren't any cameras around them, they changed drastically. Yeah, just like in dramas. But this time, because of E.T. and his relationship with that stalker, their existence in our talent agency was very irritating and nearly dangerous.

I knew something was going on when we went to their after party, which was organized for their first TV appearance. We brought them a cake and a congratulation gift, which was CD with our recorded lessons of singing and dancing to help them improve. We didn't want to show off, but they understood it that way. First one to lose temper was me, when E.T. broke that CD.

"What're you doing?" I asked angrily. "If you didn't want it, you could've returned it!"

"Why?" E.T. said. He wasn't using honorifics, even to Jongil. "You recorded it for us."

"It didn't mean you could break it."

"Ah, I see. You wanted it back, so you could show off what you've done elsewhere?"

"You're going too far," Youngho said through his teeth. "We don't want to show off and you know it! We just wanted to help you!"

"We don't need help from you," Doyoon added. "Why should we?"

"And why not?" I clenched my fists. "Why do you hate us? We've never met before."

For some reason DRAGon's members looked at E.T.. He smirked and leaned toward me. Chanwoo moved restlessly, but I grabbed his arm.

"I guess you don't remember," E.T. whispered. "This thing with your stalker."

"I still remember it clearly," I said dryly. "What's your point?"

"That girl, who almost killed herself because of you. She's my childhood friend. Do you get it now?"

I froze with fear. Seriously? Because of that the whole group hated us? How could my fate be so awful to meet someone related to that case in here?

"It was explained to her boyfriend," I said. "It was a misunderstanding. I didn't write that letter."

"Maybe. But it didn't change a thing. She's still obsessed with you. And you know what? I'll prove to her that you're nothing but the worst worm in the world."

And that was when I thought it couldn't get any worse.

Chapter 15

First threat

The beginning of the next day was the first sign of my bad luck.

We woke up quite late as we had schedule in the afternoon. I was lying in the bed for few more minutes, when I heard a loud crush and something hit me in the forehead. I jumped up with a groan at the same time when Beomseok came back from the bathroom.

"What's wrong?" he asked scared, seeing the cut above my eyebrow.

I ran to the window, leaning out of it. Beomseok quickly grabbed my shirt so I wouldn't fall out. I didn't see anyone. I clenched my teeth. I had a really good idea who would do this.

I jumped at E.T. when we entered the company. I grabbed his blouse and pulled him to me.

"You really want a war, huh?" I whispered menacingly.

For the first time I saw a shadow of fear in his eyes, but in the next second it disappeared, so I wasn't sure whether I saw it correctly. He freed himself from my grip and snorted with contempt.

"You've finally got mad," he stated. "Do you want to fight me that badly? Or to be fired from the company?"

"I think you want it." I showed him my forehead, sealed by a plaster. "This is the first and last time. I promise you that."

We left him speechless.

"Jinwoo, I think you exaggerated a little," Jongil said.

"Seriously? You're on his side?"

"It's not that. You don't have a proof it was him, or anyone from DRAGon."

"Right. Now we have to have an evidence of everything."

I was in explosive mood till the end of the day. Group members didn't talk to me either. We had every lesson in different room, so we bumped into DRAGon twice, but fortunately E.T. didn't start anything. He just glanced at me grimly. I wondered whether I should tell about that incident our manager, but Youngho and Chanwoo stopped me, finally talking to me in the evening. For some reason I got angry because of that.

"Do you think I'm paranoid?" I asked suddenly.

"What? Jin, why –"

"Answer me. You think I'm really exaggerating. Just admit it!"

Then Jongil slapped me lightly in the head. I froze confused. Chanwoo and Beomseok wanted to say something, but Jongil was first.

"Stop being such a dork," he said sharply. "We're worried about you, don't make stupid conclusions. Attack them if they admit it or find a proof. I'm not saying that to enrage you, but to make you think rationally. Think about what I said calmly and then we'll talk."

And the night came. Of course we didn't talk about it later. Like usual, I got thirsty and went to the kitchen. Didn't know why, I remembered the situation from our trip when I was attacked by that creepy man. But I calmed down quickly, aware that I was in my own dorm in Seoul and he was in the prison. I drank a glass of water and wanted to go back to my room, when I saw a shadow behind the window. I gasped and sit on the floor, surprised. It was similar to those psycho-fan, who scared Chanwoo some time ago.

I blinked. Was I dreaming, or what? I stood up. Now I didn't see anyone. I glanced outside, but there really was an empty space. I closed the window and turned. I gasped again, but this time I didn't fall down.

On the table was a package. Thousands of questions were fighting with each other in my head. Who? When? How? – these were the most important ones. Having in mind the last package with my thorn photo, I was staring at that one, motionless, perhaps for few minutes.

Finally I got hold of myself and opened it. Yeah, I regretted it later. Inside was only one photo, though this time it wasn't just any photo of me. It was taken today at the agency when I was talking to E.T.. His face was cut off from the photo and it seemed like I was holding a big bag and talking to it.

There was only this photograph, but it scared me more than the thorn one. Why? Because on the other side of it was a note. Again someone used newspaper's clippings.

WHY DID YOU DO IT?

Chapter 16

Social gathering in the bathroom

"Now I'm paranoid."

"Calm down, let's wait for manager."

"Don't tell me to calm down when I'm in this state."

We heard a click sound. I stiffened but it was just manager who arrived to our dorm. When he was looking at the package, there was something else that suddenly popped up in my head.

"What's the meaning of this?" manager asked, pointing to the photo. "When was it taken?"

"Ah, about that..." I whispered.

Beomseok explained that situation.

"You should've told me," manager scolded us.

"Told you so," I muttered to Jongil, but he ignored me.

"We weren't sure if it was them," Jongil insisted. "We can't falsely accuse them. If they –"

"The situation is similar to that stalker's!" manager shouted all of a sudden and we all jumped surprised. "You can't remain silent about something like that!" He pointed to my head. I felt guilty. "Now it's just a scratch. But what would you do, if it was similar to the stage accident? You're the oldest, Jongil. You must think about every possibility."

I thought that manager crossed the line. He was right about one thing: Jongil shouldn't have stopped me from telling manager about the thrown stone, but it wasn't his fault it happened. So was the package.

"It's not Jongil's fault," I started to defend my brother. I remembered something suddenly. "I saw someone."

"WHAT?!"

I got startled. Jeez, they're becoming scarier than the sender.

"Before I discovered the package, behind kitchen's window. I thought I was dreaming, because it disappeared in a second, but someone had to bring it in, right?" Then I trembled unconsciously. "God... How did someone enter and exit the dorm without leaving any traces... ?"

Manager thought about it with a grimace on his face.

"Do you think he's still here... ?" Chanwoo asked suddenly.

We all jumped to our feet. Manager ordered us to stay in the living room and began the searching alone.

"You don't really think he's still here, right?" Chan whispered to me.

"No," I answered firmly. "If he was here and heard our conversation, he would do something. He probably left the package and escaped."

"But why? What's about that threat?"

I shook my head. Why did I do it? Why did I do what? It had something to do with the stalking case? I actually didn't like the idea, which popped up in my head just now.

"I think we have to talk to E.T.," I sighed unwillingly.

We were practicing before the stage in our agency, so we had one chance to meet DRAGon. It wasn't easy though. I didn't know whether E.T. remembered our last encounter, or he played on my nerves and just didn't want to talk, but I successfully stopped him only when he was in the toilet.

"What now?" he said idly. "I don't have time for your bullshit."

"It's important," I insisted.

"Wow, you want to apologize? Go ahead."

I uncontrollably snorted with laughter.

"No, not that." As if I would ever do that. "It's about yours friend's boyfriend who stalked me."

"Forget it, lame duck."

I clenched my teeth and closed eyes to calm down. I grabbed his arm before he left.

"I. AM. SORRY," I said through teeth. "Satisfied?"

"Not really."

"DAMN!" I jerked him toward me, but he freed himself. "Did you throw stone at me yesterday? In the morning?"

He stopped. After that he slowly turned.

"What did you say?" he growled.

"Did you throw stone at me yesterday?" I repeated calmly. "At our dorm?"

"Are you mad? Why would I do that?"

I sighed. I was in similar situation before. I accused the high-schooler of throwing the lamp at me on the stage. Jongil was right. Evidence is needed.

"If that's the case, I'm sincerely sorry," I said. "I misunderstood."

E.T. glanced at me.

"I heard about that," he grumbled. "About the stage accident. You're a walking disaster, Kim. Did you make another enemy?"

"Maybe. So you're my enemy too?"

"It depends."

"Then, will you answer my question?"

He hesitated, but eventually nodded. I screamed with joy in my mind.

"Is your friend's boyfriend still stalking me?" I asked. "I mean, sending threats, or something. Or following me. Answer yes or no, without any comments," I added, seeing his face.

He frowned.

"No. His adventure with police was enough for him. He's back to normal life."

I breathed a sigh of relief but then I held the rest of air in my lungs. If it wasn't ex-stalker and E.T., who was it? Was he right? I've made another enemy? And again without knowing HOW. Aaah, it was so annoying!

"Kim, you do know it won't work, don't you?" I heard E.T.'s voice like from underwater.

"Huh?" Only now I realized I was scratching toilet's wall. "Oh."

"Well, I'll tell you something too," E.T. said. "Don't talk to me again. I told you that so I won't have trouble with the agency. Now get lost, loser."

He didn't fail to hit my arm with his when he was leaving. Whatever, I got my answer. Now I can go perform and then I'll talk to group members and manager.

But my plan didn't go as smoothly as I wanted. When we were performing (I was at that time close to stage's edge, waving with fans), suddenly I felt weak. I staggered. It was my part to sing but I forgot the lyrics. When I lost feeling in my legs and was going to meet the floor, I swear that I saw familiar hooded figure with wry smile in the crowd.

Chapter 17

Embracing episode

I had a nightmare. I was back in Hwang-ya, lost in the forest and calling for help, but nobody answered me. I felt that I was all alone, even in the village.

But wait, someone was there. Over there, behind the hill! I ran toward that person. I stopped abruptly when I recognized a woman who should have been dead. She was covered in blood but still standing. Was she alive? But how? I remember she –

Then she turned. I screamed shocked and sat down on something slippery. I slowly moved gaze from her to my hand. It was also covered in red. I jumped startled and searched for the source of the blood. I stiffened and groaned when I found it.

I was looking at my own corpse.

I woke up suddenly with a scream. I bumped heads with someone, falling back on pillows.

"You're okay? Wake up!"

I blinked, still shocked. I couldn't distinguish reality from dream. When the image before my eyes gained focus, I recognized my group members. Beomseok was holding his forehead with the face of a sad puppy. I wanted to sit again, but somehow my body felt weak.

"Stay still," Jongil said. He touched my forehead. "You still have fever."

"W-What happened?" I muttered. "The last thing I remember was the performance –" I gasped. "What happened?!"

"Calm down," Youngho added. "You fainted. Doctor said it's from fatigue and stress, so you'll be okay."

We were in our dorm. Right. Now I remembered that I didn't sleep well for the last few days and my usual level of stress was high enough to make me faint. Suddenly it caught my eye that Jongil was holding his elbow like he was trying to hide it.

"What's wrong with your arm?" I asked suspiciously.

He tried to hide it better, but I gathered strength and leaned out of bed, grabbing his hand. It was bandaged and covered in bruises.

"J-Jongil, how –"

"He caught you," Chanwoo explained. "When you fell from the stage."

"I fell from it?" I repeated confused.

"Yeah. But... Jongil fell with you. He secured you."

I felt like crying. Our oldest brother smiled and ruffled my hair.

For the rest of the day everyone was occupied with their activities. Soon I fell asleep again and woke up few hours later with only slight fever. It was dark. I staggered when I stood on my feet. I touched the wall and helped myself with it until I reached the door. Suddenly the door opened and I almost fell on someone.

"What're you doing?" Beomseok asked surprised.

"Bathroom..." I muttered.

He escorted me and waited to help me get back to bed.

"What's up?" I said, before I came back to the room. Chan and Youngho were playing game.

"Ah, Jin! You're up?"

"Where's Jongil?"

"He should be in his room. You want to play with us?"

"He's still feverish," Beomseok said.

"Ah, is that so?" Chanwoo made sad face.

I smiled.

"I'll come play later," I promised and sneaked into Jongil's room. "Hey." He was reading.

"Why did you come?" he asked surprised.

"No reason," I replied and sat down on Youngho's bed. We were silent for a moment. "Jongil?"

"Mm?"

"Why did you do it?"

He looked at me, closing the book.

"What?" He didn't understand me. I pointed to his elbow. "Aaah..." He smiled. "No reason."

"That's not funny."

"I know. Don't blame yourself, Jin. It was an accident."

"Dangerous one!" I burst out, although I didn't plan this. "You could have –!"

"Hey." Jongil put his hand on my shoulder. I felt like crying again. Jeez, and I thought Youngho was a crybaby. "Nothing happened. Don't make up strange scenarios. We're in this together, do you understand?"

He didn't let go, so I had to nod.

Chapter 18

Second threat and a meaningful gift

For a few weeks was peace. No threats, no quarrels, no accidents. Finally normal days. Although we had a couple of small clashes with DRAGon, there was nothing too abnormal.

One day, unfortunately, DRAGon debuted. What was worse, with a huge boom. They had better start than we had. At the beginning of October we were invited to entertainment show Idol's Road. We were so honored and happy until we didn't get information that we'll be with DRAGon. Idol's Road was their first TV appearance after the debut, so our company wanted them to look good. We didn't have objections as long as they wouldn't annoy us. Manager knew the situation, but I had a feeling that he didn't believe our every reason.

"I know YOU," manager said on the day of filming. "I know that you can behave appropriate in every situation. So please, always think before you act."

"That was to one of us," Chanwoo commented when we were getting ready for the ride.

I pretended I didn't hear that. Right, I was short tempered, but I never act without a reason. Well, most of the time.

Sometimes... ?

Anyway, we arrived at the site of filming before DRAGon and started changing. Because we were in variety shows many times, we were more or less known, so we didn't have to wear name tags. That didn't please Sojin Yoon, who was complaining to their manager why they were the only ones who had to wear name tags. I felt like I was watching mother-child fight and was embarrassed instead of him. Sojin was indeed the youngest in the group, but he was already eighteen, so please... In the end we didn't have to wear name tags. It's not that we didn't like them, we would wear them if they have asked us, but we were satisfied that this time we won against DRAGon.

Hosts welcomed us warmly and started to tease Beomseok's weird habits, as always. I saw on Credo's face that he didn't like it. I just hoped they won't make a fuss on air.

We played some games, learned DRAGon's profiles and started 'integration'.

"I know you're from the same company and love each other," one of the hosts joked. "But please understand, we have rules too."

We enforced smiles and began. First game was to wear sweatpants without using hands. Instead, we had to grab another person's hands. My partner was E.T., as we were both leaders. I tried hard not to laugh at his face. It was obvious that E.T. wasn't used to smile often. The first game I won. The second one was to eat together spaghetti. I couldn't imagine how we were supposed to do this with them. We changed partners and I got Domin Choi, the main dancer. He talked almost three words a day and his depressed face always gave me the creeps. Anyway, this time he won. Maybe I would have a chance, but his hateful eyes were drilling hole in me, so I gave up – just in case. The last, third game, was the rope pulling. We won and at the end of the program got a certificate of the best variety group. I glanced at DRAGon and met their angry looks. Whatever. Did they expect to gain recognition just after their first appearance on a variety show? Not to mention gaining respect in real life!

Just before the end PD said we've received something. One of the hosts went to pick it up. I froze when I saw this something.

It was a package. This time addressed to Chanwoo.

"Wow, you're really popular, Chan!" the host laughed, giving him a bouquet of roses. "This came with the package. Is today your birthday?"

"No..." Chanwoo said slowly, taking the bouquet. "Ah!"

"You're okay?" I whispered, hiding him before the camera. He cut his finger with the thorn.

"Open it! Open it!" hosts started chanting.

Now DRAGon's members were just enraged, though I wouldn't be if I was them. I suddenly recognized the package.

"NO!" I shrieked and everyone jumped surprised, then looked at me. I quickly remembered that we were on air and added with a light smile: "Y... You want us to become jealous?"

As I hoped, everyone laughed. Only E.T. frowned, looking from the package to me. We finished the broadcast successfully. After that I hurriedly took my group members aside.

"Give me that." I snatched the package from Chanwoo's hand.

"Do you think... ?" he muttered.

"It looks the same as mine. And this." I pointed to the bouquet. "Roses and thorns. I just remembered something and I really don't like it. But I'll tell you in the dorm."

As I feared, there was another threat. How he could be so fearless to send it to the broadcast?

I'LL COME AND SEE YOU SOON.

Chapter 19

Fugitive

First, we told everything our manager. Then, we went to police station.

"I can't tell you that," some policeman said unpleasantly. "The case was closed some time ago and it has nothing to do with you."

"And I'm the witness for a fun?" I asked enraged.

Beomseok pulled me aside. Manager continued the conversation instead of me.

On the other side of the room was a small bench, so we squeezed in it.

"This is unbelievable!" Youngho exploded with anger. Second time this day. "He was in prison! How –" Youngho's eyes widened. "Wait, when this began?"

"The stage accident was not long after we came back from Hwang-ya," I said. "Now I'm sure it's his doing."

"But he was imprisoned at that time... right?"

"What if he didn't make it there at all?"

After my words was long silence. Any of us wanted to admit that the real stalker was the murderer from Hwang-ya. I still wasn't sure myself whether that was true, but that metaphor with roses and thorns... Till now I tremble when I recall his horrifying voice.

Chanwoo whispered, "You really think it's him?"

"It wasn't E.T. and that high-schooler. It was surely a male, so it couldn't be any of psycho-fans. Who else could it be? I don't remember making other enemies."

The last sentence wasn't supposed to be a joke, but it came out like one, so we smirked at each other.

Finally, manager came to us.

"I showed them evidences, so they promised to restart the investigation," he stated and we breathed out a sigh of relief. Yet, manager didn't look relaxed. "I'm worried about that last threat," he continued. "If it was send to Chanwoo, it means you're all targeted. Although only Jinwoo was a witness, all of you know about it from him."

We exchanged looks with anxiety.

"We'll secure the dorm for now, but we have to think about moving out again. Psycho-fans were one problem, but this is way more dangerous."

"But it's strange..." I said, a little confused. "Why he wrote that he'll come and see us soon? He had a lot of opportunities when he was delivering packages."

"He's most likely a psychopath, Jinwoo," manager sighed. "He doesn't just want to hurt you physically, but mostly mentally. He'll be pleased, if you're trembling before him with fear."

That scared me even more. If we were dealing with the psychopath, it'll be hard to catch him.

"Let's summarize," I said, stretching fingers to count. "He threw the lamp at me, sent a threat package to me and Chan." I thought for a moment. "He probably threw that stone at me in the dorm... Did I miss something?"

"What about that letter?" Jongil asked.

"What letter?"

"The one you supposedly gave that psycho girl."

"What about it?"

"If you didn't send it, then he could be responsible for it."

Now it made sense!

"Right! But... wait, I don't like the idea that popped up in my mind just now." I nearly fell from the bench with excitation. "He might have used that high-schooler! Like using his hate against me. We have to interrogate him again, the culprit may have met with him, or something!"

"Okay, that's enough!" manager interrupted us. "Stop getting excited. Maybe you're on the right track, but leave the rest to the police. And please, don't investigate on your own."

"Why would we do this?" Youngho said. "He wants to kill us, right?"

"We aren't sure yet. But he's extremely dangerous, so focus on your activities and don't wander anywhere alone. Am I clear?"

"Yes."

After an hour we were getting ready to return to the dorm, when one of the police officers stopped us. He had a worried face. He asked us to follow him to a single table with a table plate saying 'Hyun Kang – private detective'. Weird, I thought there were no more private detectives in South Korea.

"You're the witness?" the detective asked rudely, looking at me.

"Yes."

"I have good and bad news for you. Which one do you want to hear first?"

Was he mocking me, or what?

"Bad," I said hesitantly.

"You were right. The one who murdered a woman in Hwang-ya is on the loose. He escaped before he reached the prison in the spring."

"So..." I swallowed hard when my throat got tightened with fear. "He had been following us since our depart from the village... ?"

"Most likely."

That was just sick.

"W... What about the good news?" I whispered with hope.

"We're currently tracking him."

"How is that supposed to be the good n... !" Beomseok covered Youngho's mouth with hand.

I was too shocked to react. Seriously? He had been following... no, stalking us since then? God, we were in danger all along and we didn't even suspect anything... It was like we were pawns in some dreadful game and now the player was sharpening his knives.

Chapter 20

Dreadful game

The following day we had schedule only from 9 to 11 a.m., so after lunch we went to see some horror. Yeah, great choice for our current situation, I know. But some healthy adrenaline was always good. Everyone was pleased with the movie choice, especially Beomseok.

"I'll faint," he warned, breathing down my neck since we've entered the cinema.

"I don't care," I replied. "Would you pass me the popcorn?"

"You're horrible!"

"Thank you."

"Oh, it begins!" Chanwoo whispered.

The beginning was good. Not for Beomseok though (jeez, my ears...). I couldn't imagine how he would survive in a haunted house, if we'll be ever invited to one on some variety show in the future. Well, I was no better. Only Jongil was having fun, mostly because of our reactions.

"Do you think he's the one?" Chanwoo asked, when we were in the car, coming back to the dorm.

"Who is who?"

"That stalker. You think he's some kind of psychic?"

"Why would you think that?" I laughed. "That's absurd."

"But he somehow delivered you the package, right?" Youngho added, suddenly getting serious. "How did he do that?"

"Through the door or window?" Jongil sighed.

"But I was in the kitchen the whole time," I got tangled in this psychic mystery. "There was no one and nothing when I saw a shadow behind the window. And then the package appeared."

"You probably just didn't see it there earlier, because you were too sleepy," Jongil stated.

"You think?" I nodded, accepting his speculation.

"He's closer to ghost than psychic," Beomseok said, still shaken after the movie. He wrapped his hand around my arm so tightly that it went numb after a while.

"That's true." That idea intrigued me. "He came in and out without leaving any traces. How did he do that?"

"He can be a skilled thief," Jongil sighed again.

"Just that? It's too easy."

"It's logical. Stop making things up, it's annoying."

"Alright." Again, I accepted his speculation.

We were silent for a moment.

"Maybe he's an alien?" Youngho suggested suddenly with a serious face.

After his words was even longer silence. Then we burst out laughing so hard that my throat hurt.

We were carefree for not too long. The first sign of his comeback was when we were on our way to the dorm. As we were waiting before a shop for Beomseok, who was buying his usual snacks (not that he ate three packs of popcorn, including mine and Youngho's), I was unlucky to stay near the shadow and suddenly someone grabbed my arm.

I gasped and stiffened, sure that I would die in any second. Group members took my forearm in order to free me, but in a moment they also froze, afraid of what'll happen if they move me.

"I've got a message for you," I heard a hoarse voice and smelled an alcohol. "Be sure to choose soon and wisely."

"W-What?" I stammered. Drop of sweat ran down my jaw, which I felt like rubbing with cold metal.

At the same time Beomseok came out and squealed shocked, dropping everything on the ground. Manager and staff saw the situation and got out of the car.

"Roses or thorns. Remember: choose wisely." And he walked away, wobbling.

Luckily I didn't faint, but my body felt weak and I sat down, trembling. In a second everyone gathered around me.

"What happened?" manager asked nervously, kneeling before me.

"He's on move again..." I whispered, surprised that my voice didn't tremble like the rest of my body.

"It was him?!"

"No..." I looked at the alley where the man disappeared. "His voice was different. That wasn't him, I'm sure of it."

"So... he's using someone again?" one of the staff asked.

"What did he say?" Beomseok muttered.

"I must choose... but I think it was to all of us. Roses or thorns... what the hell did he mean?"

"Jin..."

I looked up at Jongil, who was holding something with a scared face. It was a piece of paper. He gave it to me.

"It was under your sleeve," he explained. "I think that man slipped it into it..."

I frowned and opened the paper. Something cold and heavy settled on my stomach when I saw written words:

I'M AT THE STATION, WAIT FOR ME.

"God..." I muttered and looked around with fear. "Is he serious?"

"Wait..." Youngho snatched the paper from me and read it with an anxious face. "It sounds familiar..."

"Did you see it somewhere?!" manager said, angered. "You received a threat and didn't tell me?!"

"That's not it. I meant the sole sentence. Wait a minute..." He looked at me. "What was the last threat? The one Chan received?"

"Mm... I'll come and see you soon."

"And the one before it?"

"Why did you do it. What's your point?"

Youngho clapped his hands.

"That's it!" he shouted and sat beside me, forgetting that we were still on the street. "Why did you do it, I'll come and see you soon, and I'm at the station, wait for me! They've changed fragments from an urban legend!"

"What urban legend?" we all asked together.

Youngho looked at us with disbelief.

"Really no one heard it? It's from Japanese urban legend. There's even a novel titled Merry's Mail, I read it there. It's about a doll named Merry, which was thrown away. One day the girl, who threw it, received first mail:

This is Merry. Why did you thrown me away?

Then there was another one:

This is Merry. Can I come see you?

And after that:

This is Merry. I just arrived at the station. I will be there soon**.

It's just like the legend! I mean, REALLY similar. If he's a psycho, I wouldn't be surprised if he was toying with us like that."

We didn't answer right away. I felt curiosity, then anxiety, and at the end the tremendous fear. I started trembling again.

"But Youngho..." Jongil again looked nervous. Man, what now? "That legend... how does it end?"

Youngho pursed his lips into a thin line. Chanwoo looked at him with widened eyes.

"I... I'd better not say this to you now..." Youngho whispered. "But, like in most of scary stories, you can guess its ending."

"Roses or thorns..." I muttered, unconsciously changing the topic. "Roses or thorns... what's the meaning of it? Roses have spikes, thorns don't have flowers. What the heck?"

All of a sudden Jongil's face turned white.

"You're right," he said.

"In what?"

"Roses have spikes, thorns don't have flowers. The first one is beautiful but dangerous, the other one is dangerous yet ugly. But in both cases you can get hurt."

"I don't get it," I stated.

From the look on their faces, I realized that only I didn't get it.

"That means" Jongil continued "that you don't really have a choice. You'll get hurt whatever you choose."

Chapter 21

Psycho's Mail

I hate when Jongil is scared. Then I'm freaking out. Fortunately our staff and manager were the first to come back to reality and they took us to the car, before shop owner swept us away with a big broom.

"Today I'll stay with you," manager said.

Before the sleep we were playing around in my room. When pillow fight ended just before the midnight, I decided to bring up the main topic.

"What do you think, what could he want?" I asked.

"Revenge?" Chan suggested.

"Why? We didn't do anything to him."

"Clearing the witnesses?" Jongil said. "He might be a serial murderer, but he probably doesn't want anyone to witness his murders."

"That's strange," I stated. "Don't psychopaths like when someone sees their work?"

"Maybe he's different," Beomseok said.

"Like... he's silently delighted when we're freaking out?" I murmured.

"Maybe."

"Too many maybes. Don't we have another clue?"

"Let's study these messages again," I proposed.

We spread the pieces of paper on the bed in the order in which we received them. Youngho once again told us about Merry's Mail, again stopping in the middle of it.

"You know the story's ending," Jongil said. "Tell us."

Youngho sighed, but finally decided to continue the story. When he finished, we all were as white as our ceiling.

"B-But..." Chanwoo nearly fell off the bed when he moved back. "Did she really die?"

"The legend says so," Youngho grumbled. "But it's just a story and he's only using its lines. The creepiest ones, but still he's only using them. Let's not think about that fictional ending."

Then I received a message. I looked at my phone, sure it was my younger sister who was supposed to send me pictures from our parents wedding anniversary. I frowned when I saw an unknown number. Again some psycho-fan found my telephone number? While group members were listening to Youngho's story, I opened the message.

Yeah, it was a picture indeed, but surely not from my sister. It was a photo of a familiar piece of paper. I froze. Youngho's last words, the continuation of the urban legend, rang in my ears like an echo.

"Jin?" Group members noticed my expression.

I called our manager, panicked. He burst into the room with a chicken in his hand. Not so much of a weapon, if needed.

"I-I think we have a big p-problem," I whispered, this time with a quavering voice.

I showed them the message.

I'M IN FRONT OF YOUR APARTMENT.

"Wait here!" Manager went out and we stayed in my room in the same frozen positions, waiting.

Suddenly something hit the window and we all screamed at the same time, jumping. The light went out. Coincidence? I felt like we were in a horror movie and any moment some ghost will appear. To be honest, ghost would be better than hooded man.

Then we heard something like finger tapping, also on window.

"God, i-is he there?" Youngho groaned.

Our window was covered with blinds, so we didn't see anything behind it, only a shadow, which suddenly appeared along with a sound of door slam. We screamed again. Manager must be back, I thought relieved after a second. Our room and the rest of the dorm were still dark. Blackout? Or was it planned?

I got another message. I jumped surprised at the ringtone and accidentally pressed Beomseok's ankle. We all gathered around my phone, which was the only light.

I'M IN FRONT OF YOUR DOOR.

"Damn!" I hissed and stood up, ready to run, but group members pulled me down.

"Don't move!" Jongil said. "If it's true, we'll meet him if we go out!"

"But..." I looked at them with widened eyes. "Manager! Where is he?!"

"Didn't he come back just..." Chanwoo stopped in mid-sentence "... now... ?" he finished lamely with broken voice.

We all looked slowly toward the door. It was opened, but the slamming was made by the front door, so we didn't see anything from here. Over there was dead silence. I heard only our fast breathing.

Then there was a stepping sound. I grinned my teeth. My heart was racing, just like when I saw that corpse in Hwang-ya. Suddenly there were no more footsteps. I gathered that little courage, which I had left, and carefully went toward the kitchen. Group members followed me hesitantly.

I illuminated the living room with my phone, observed every corner and turned my ears, but I didn't see or hear anything. I relaxed a little.

"Our imagination?" Youngho whispered, holding hand on his chest.

"I don't see manager," I said. The front door was closed. I blamed everything on wind and our vivid, irritating imagination, when I received one more message.

"I'm afraid. Open it." I ordered Beomseok.

He touched the image of envelope and we read:

### I'M BEHIND YOU.

We shrieked panicked and I dropped the phone. At the same time glass broke and someone attacked us. We scattered around the living room, trying to see something in the dark. The light from my phone was only illuminating the center of the room. We clung to the walls, searching for the culprit.

"Did you make your choice?" I heard suddenly and quickly moved away, but he grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back.

Group members threw themselves at us, freeing me. We moved back to the other side of the room, this time clinging to each other. Finally the culprit came closer to the light.

He was still hooded, so we didn't see clearly his face, but this posture and wry smile left no doubt. That was the real stalker. The murderer, who had been hunting us since our departure from Hwang-ya.

"Your choice," he repeated impatiently.

"Screw you!" I replied angrily and thoughtlessly. "That's our choice!"

The wry smile became unbelievably and unnaturally wide. Now he looked like a psycho version of Cheshire Cat. Then he said through teeth,

"BAD CHOICE."

Chapter 22

Beomseok's ultimate chicken attack

I was aware that it was a terrible choice, but roses and thorns were much worse.

We scattered around the living room again when hooded man jumped at us, in the midway stepping on my precious phone and breaking it.

"NOW I'm mad," I growled.

"Don't –!" Jongil pulled me back by grabbing my hood. Thanks to that I lived and the knife (that appeared from nowhere) cut the air in front of me.

"MANAGER!" Chanwoo tried, running to the door. He wanted to open it, but we were locked in. And, of course, the culprit had the keys.

Wait. But only manager would have them...

"What did you do to him?!" I shrieked. My voice trembled, but I didn't know whether it was with anger or fear.

"Nothing serious," hooded man replied. "YET."

"You bastard –!"

"Hey, calm down!!"

I took a few deep breaths. Jongil was right. I was losing control. That guy was cleverly playing on my emotions.

"What do you want?" I growled. "I don't understand what I did to you the other day, in Hwang-ya, and why you're stalking and creeping us out."

"You really don't understand why?" he asked.

"Yeah. Really. So explain."

He smirked.

"Then it wouldn't be fun," he hissed and attacked again.

Now we were sure he was a freaky psycho. Chanwoo hit himself hard in the head, while moving back. Youngho took him aside. Beomseok ran with me to the kitchen and Jongil threw a jug of water at hooded man, who didn't even flinch when the glass broke and injured his hands. A moment later the culprit returned the blow, hurting Jongil's leg.

"JONGIL!" I screamed and thoughtlessly (what a bad habit, believe me) jumped in front of the oldest group member, while hooded man was aiming for his heart.

I felt a great pain in my shoulder as he stabbed me. He didn't expect my move, so he let go of the knife and stepped back.

"Jinwoo –!" Jongil caught me, before I fell on my face.

I sat and tried not to move my arm. I saw that Youngho was guarding nearly unconscious Chan, who was holding his head confused. The culprit grimaced unhappy and turned around to Beomseok, who was the only one standing.

"RUN!" I shouted to him, but sharp pain hit my arm, so I shut up. I grabbed the handle of the knife.

"No!" Jongil stopped me. He wrapped a fragment of his shirt around his leg and put his bandana to my wound. "You'll make it worse! Don't move..."

He looked like he would faint any moment. I felt the same way, but there was no time for fainting. Beomseok was in trouble, three of us were hurt and manager was still gone.

Then a chicken leg landed beside us. We looked at it confused. When we heard hissing and cursing, we looked toward the kitchen.

Forget what I said about chicken not being a weapon. Beomseok literally nailed it. He was throwing chicken legs like a windmill. It didn't make much damage, but the sauce was really spicy, so soon the culprit was screaming with pain when the sauce got into his eyes. Beomseok saw the opportunity and put the last two legs, dipped in sauce, directly into culprit's eyes. Lastly, he grabbed frying pan and whacked the intruder with it.

We observed in silence as the culprit fell down. He didn't lose consciousness, but was semiconscious from the pain. We had a chance to escape, but before we come back to our senses, he'll be ready to attack again.

Thank God someone broke the lock in the front door and entered. That was our manager with few security guards who had flashlights. There was indeed blackout in all building. Security guards quickly understood the situation and grabbed the hooded man, but suddenly he jumped on his feet and kicked them. One of them fell on me and I screamed, this time maintaining the consciousness with difficulty. Jongil slapped lightly my cheek, so I wouldn't pass out. Manager ran to us. He was holding at his head a material soaked with blood.

I looked around and saw hooded man, standing next to the window. He looked at me (at least I thought he did, after all I didn't see his eyes yet) and moved his lips voicelessly, but I understood from lip reading,

"This time you've won. I'll be back when you solve it." He smirked creepily. "Then I'll be thankful and maybe let you and your friends live. For some time."

And he was gone. So was the world around me.

Chapter 23

Key

I had the weirdest dream ever. I had to blame Beomseok's latest chicken action for it.

I was in practice room and we were about to begin our dance practice, when we heard knocking on the door – and what was better, it was bathroom's door. Youngho went to open it.

"Delivery!" delivery man shouted, giving Youngho a big box with a chicken symbol.

"What the heck?" I said dumbfounded, but Youngho already paid the man and came back as if nothing happened. I pointed to the bathroom. "Why did you take the delivery from there? And where did that man disappear to, anyway?"

"Is it weird?" Youngho said.

Yes, it is, I thought with disbelief.

"Chicken!" Chanwoo screamed happily and opened the box.

Suddenly a big chicken jumped out of it with words,

"We are U-NIGHT, let's fight!"

Then Beomseok-chicken did Irish dance. Meanwhile Jongil prepared a big cauldron with a boiling water.

"Wait, are you crazy?! And from where did that cauldron come from?!" I tried to stop him, but Youngho grabbed me by the arms. "And what are YOU doing?"

"We've waited too long for that moment!" he said, making a sad puppy face. "Let's eat!"

"HIM?!"

"It's a chicken, dude. Why wouldn't we eat it?"

Okay, now I want to wake up, I thought.

I did wake up, but after Chan put Beomseok-chicken on a giant spoon and threw him into the cauldron. I gasped and jumped almost to the ceiling. Two people, who were sleeping beside me, also jumped surprised.

"Jin, what's wrong?" Chanwoo muttered, rubbing his eyes. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"Yeah..." I panted, trembling with horror. "Real nightmare... AAH!" On my right was Beomseok, who thank God wasn't a boiled chicken.

"Why?!" Beomseok got scared and looked around as if something scary was behind him.

"N... Nothing..." And I burst out laughing. Now I found Beomseok really funny as a big chicken. "Aaah..." I felt sharp pain in my arm.

"You've gone crazy," Chanwoo stated. "You're still not healed, you shouldn't move."

Ah, right. I forgot about –

"Jongil?!" I gasped.

"On your left. He's okay and now sleeping."

I confirmed his words, looking to the left. Jongil wasn't pale anymore and his left leg was bandaged.

"And Youngho went with manager to get food," the youngest added, answering my next unasked question.

"Oh. Then it's okay. Unless they bring chicken."

We were silent for a moment.

"Do you remember what happened?" Beomseok whispered.

"Yeah. Everything." I glanced at Chanwoo's head. "Are you alright?"

"Still getting dizzy sometimes, but I'll live," Chan replied with a smile.

I smiled lightly too, but then my eyes started stinging. I hurriedly wiped tears, still smiling.

"Food is here!" Youngho shouted, coming into the hospital room. He looked at us, puzzled. "You're so hungry that you're shedding tears at the sight of me?"

"Yeah," I said and took a slice of pizza. "But I'm sure that Beomseok doesn't have to eat."

"Why?! I'm starving!"

"You're a big chicken yourself, so you're not."

"Why are you teasing me right now?"

"Because I have nightmares because of you."

"What? Why!"

"Look in the mirror and you'll know why."

Group members were looking at us with amused faces. Beomseok felt offended and started to eat chicken legs in silence.

Then we heard a laugh. We looked to the left. Jongil was up and we didn't even realize that. I wanted to go to him, but my arm hurt again. Jongil raised his hand to stop me.

"What now?" Youngho asked. He wanted to talk about THAT.

I stared at my pizza for a few seconds, thinking.

"He said something before he left," I whispered. "That he'll wait till we solve it. Then he may let us live."

"Solve WHAT?" Jongil said.

I frowned and began bringing facts out of the memories. What would we solve? There wasn't anything... Then I screamed and everyone jumped scared.

"Would it be so easy?" I thought out loud.

"Jinwoo!" group members called impatiently.

"When I was with that corpse, I found something in its mouth," I said slowly. "There was a piece of paper in her tooth."

"And you had to take it out, right?" manager said grimly.

"Well, yeah..."

"Continue," Chanwoo said quickly, before manager scolded me more.

"I did it without thinking. There were written numbers. What was it..." I thought hardly. "Give me something to write on!"

After a few minutes I recalled all the numbers in right order.

7.3.12.6.7.

"What are these?" Chan gasped, when we leaned over the paper.

"No clue," I admitted. "But it's the only thing that comes to my mind that we could solve."

"But isn't it like walking straight into his trap?" Beomseok said. "What if he'll hurt us when we solve it?"

"He isn't stupid," I muttered. "If it was that simple, he would've solved it himself."

"But you said that after you read the numbers, wind snatched the paper that fell into the water." Manager stood up. "Perhaps he didn't see the numbers at all and you're the only one he needs."

"That's why he pulled back when he stabbed you!" Youngho shouted shocked. "He didn't expect that. He wants you alive!"

"That's still confusing..." I said, trying not to panic again. "And not very comforting."

"So..." Jongil leaned out of the bed and took the paper. "If we solve the mystery around these numbers, we'll solve everything, right?"

"Probably."

He smiled.

"Then what are we waiting for? We have the key to the whole mystery."

Chapter 24

Grumpy detective

And it wasn't that easy.

We searched everywhere and ask everyone, who would help us decipher these numbers. But we only got chased out with a scoop, hit by a tomato (it hurts, so you know) and in result were totally embarrassed. We even went to a fortune-teller (Beomseok's idea, don't ask...), but we ran as soon as we entered strange and smelly room. God, was there a stuffed ferret dressed in maid costume... ?

"I'm beat!" Chanwoo sighed, falling on the sofa in our new living room.

Yeah, we moved out as soon as we left the hospital. Jongil was still using crutches, so we also stopped activities for now. We could promote without one group member (like when I had twisted leg), but without two it was a problem (I couldn't move my arm yet, so I was grounded with Jongil). This time we ignored the silent and fine neighborhood and moved out to the center of Seoul, near our agency. The dorm was smaller, but for me more comfortable. Okay, I didn't count the one bedroom in which we were sleeping together. To my surprise, Beomseok for once wasn't happy. But that could be because he lost the rock-paper-scissors and was sleeping near the window. The window was a little scary. It was on the first floor, so lower than we had in previous dorms. But let's just hope that hooded man won't find us so quickly this time.

Ah, and do you remember the shadow I mentioned when the culprit was playing with us in Merry's Psycho's Mail? The shadow wasn't even human – it was just a tree branch that hit the window because of the wind. Although it was human shaped...

Back to the topic, the cold autumn came and we still didn't solve the numbers. What was more depressing, my family found out about recent incidents and ordered me to come back home.

"It's the safest way," manager assured me, but I had doubts.

"And how do you know that he didn't research our backgrounds?" I said when my mother called the manager for the twentieth time (yeah, I counted...). "Our families will be in danger!"

"But still –"

"It's safer to stay together," I insisted.

Other group members' families called too, but they decided to stay in Seoul.

"Your mother doesn't know about the real reason you're like this," manager said. "Yet. But if she find out –"

"– then we won't get delicious rice cakes anymore," Chanwoo said with serious face, without stopping the game, and we burst out laughing.

I patted manager's back. "I know you're worried, we're too. But we're so close to solve the mystery! We shouldn't separate now."

"And how close are we to solve it?" Jongil asked sarcastically.

"Far close," I said through teeth. "But we'll decipher it! I –"

"I'm VERY SORRY to interrupt, but you can't leave the town, even if you wanted to," we heard suddenly a voice, coming from the front door.

A tall, but slightly stooped, middle-aged man was leaning against the wall near the front door, eating our pizza. I remembered him only when he glanced at us grimly with his panda eyes.

"Detective Kang?" I said hesitantly.

"That's right, kiddo. Good memory."

Detective Hyun Kang finished our precious pizza and sat down on the sofa as if it was his own house.

"Excuse me," manager said slowly. "What do you need?"

"Oh, thanks for asking. I would like to have a coffee. With a lot of sugar."

I didn't know if it was okay to laugh, but our manager stiffened angered, so I got angry too.

"I don't know how it is in your work, but usually people knock on the door before they come in and ask for a permission to sit down, if they're in someone else's place."

Detective looked at me carefully. I swallowed hard. Did I cross the line?

"You've become braver, kiddo, but don't get too excited. I don't want to be here either."

"So why did you come?"

"Case, what else? Your sweet stalker is our number one target now. And we just heard he personally attacked you few days ago, am I right?"

"Yes..." I said through teeth. He was really bold, if you ask me.

"And I heard rumors that you have a clue to solve the mystery."

"Yes."

"Brilliant!" He clapped his hands with a stone face. For some reason I was gradually getting angrier, although I shouldn't have. He was just pointing out the obvious, though being extremely rude at the same time. "Show me."

I didn't want to, but Jongil took the numbers from me. Detective was studying the paper for at least thirty minutes, so meanwhile we were occupied with our own activities. I was winning against Beomseok in a game, when suddenly detective again clapped his hands. We immediately stopped playing and looked at him expectantly.

"I have no idea what they mean," he said.

We were staring at him in silence, thinking that he was joking. For freaking thirty minutes he got nothing?! Then why didn't he say so and didn't go home!

"I'll leave for today," detective said. "I'll contact you tomorrow and I remind you that you're forbidden to leave the town. You're witnesses, especially you" he pointed at me "so you need to be reachable anytime."

"Yes, sir," we said at the same time, with same enthusiasm he talked with.

However, when he was about to leave, I saw something interesting on the paper, which I read from the other side.

"Wait!" I shouted and studied the numbers once more. I pointed to the first three numbers. "Doesn't it resemble a date?"

"Date?" Detective nearly dislocated my arm, when he wanted to see the paper clearly.

"Look. 7. 3. 12. Isn't it year 2012?"

"And that is 7th of March?"

"Or 3rd of July," Youngho suggested. "We don't know if the order is proper, right?"

Detective clapped his hands once again, surprising us.

"Brilliant," he said with a scary smile. "We have the first real clue. Now give me this coffee, I'll need it."

Chapter 25

Victim

Soon our new album has been released, so we didn't have much time to think about the numbers. Or so we thought.

Detective Grumpy (Chan's idea and I love it) had his own world and was making us to help him with the mystery whenever HE had the time. Our manager and staff couldn't do a thing to support us in this, because Grumpy was after all detective, so he had more power than the entertainment company. Well, we didn't mind if we were to help him, but he appeared always when we were with our fans, so soon many of them started to wonder what was that about. Yeah, we could tell the world the truth, but then our families would know about everything and our career would end. Not to mention the culprit himself, who was unpredictable.

One day, early November, Grumpy came to us before our comeback performance. He burst into the waiting room like a storm, scaring the hell out of me. I spat the coffee at him, that I had been calmly drinking. We all stiffened in a moment. I bit my lip, waiting for his explosion. But thankfully this time he dried up himself calmly, saying, "If I didn't know you, I would think you were waiting to do this."

"How could I dare," I said with serious face.

Only group members heard the sarcasm and tried hard not to laugh.

"What brings you here this time, detective?" manager asked.

"News! I brought you news."

"I'm sorry, but not now," manager said sharply, pushing us out of the room. "They have an important performance now. You can tell them after that."

"Oh. Alright." Grumpy stuffed his cheeks with chips, that were on a table, and raised his thumb up. If I didn't know him, I would think he was wishing us luck.

"What if it was more important?" Youngho caught up with manager. "He's not usually this... bright."

"If it was bad news, he would tell that," manager insisted.

"But bad news, if we're talking about this detective, can be good news for him. Catching the criminal is like a Christmas present for him. Of course he would be happy, if there was bad news for us." I said.

Manager was thinking about my words, till we got behind the stage.

"Calm down and think only about the performance, okay?" he said and left us.

We gathered together, did our 'fighting' shout and went out. I saw a glimpse of Grumpy, who was hiding behind the speaker.

The performance was a success so far. However, when I leaned out from the stage to our fans to greet them, suddenly someone caught me by my collar and I heard a grisly whisper,

"Did you solve it?"

Then I was pulled from the stage. I fell on my back, losing breath for a second. Fans in a second gathered around me worried, but that didn't help me at all, because they were stepping on my hands and feet.

He's here!

My breath was getting heavier and heavier. I thought that I hurt myself again, but I was that panicked that I couldn't breathe. Because of the fear, I couldn't stand up properly and I fell again.

"Out of the way!" I heard unclear, familiar voice like from underwater. Someone jumped down beside me, startling fans. "Hey, snap out of it, kiddo!"

I came to my senses quickly and grabbed Grumpy by his coat.

"H-He's here!" I gasped.

"What?!" He looked around. "Damn, too many kids! Are you sure?"

"Yeah..."

"Come on."

He pushed me back on the stage, where group members took me. Grumpy stayed in the same spot, beside the stage, and we finished our performance without more adventures.

Backstage Grumpy jerked me, taking aside.

"Hey, easy!" Jongil freed me from him. "You're okay?" he asked me.

"Yeah, just bruises..." I looked at detective. "Did you find him?"

"How?" he snorted. "Blame yourselves for being too famous and having so many kids around you!"

Wow, now he was blaming our job and fans for everything. What a great guy.

"Did you really meet him?" Chanwoo said.

"I didn't, I heard him. That was his voice, I'm sure of it. He asked whether I solved it..."

We were silent for a moment. Meanwhile manager ran to us and wanted to say something, but first he needed to catch a breath.

"So he's observing you," Grumpy thought out loud. "Sneaky little bastard."

"Why I have the feeling that he's in a hurry?" I said slowly. "He knows that we're solving it gradually, but still he's playing on our psyche and is hurrying us up."

"Maybe he has the urge to kill another person?" Youngho muttered.

"That may be the case!" Grumpy said excited.

"I was joking, you know."

"Guys, let's first change, okay?" I said.

"Well, you MUST hurry up, because we need to go somewhere," Grumpy said.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about it?" I grumbled.

And of course, it was a hospital. What was worse, a mortuary.

"You're joking, right?" I blurted, moving back. The smell was overwhelming.

Grumpy showed us to a single body that was waiting for our arrival.

"Why are we here again?" Jongil said through teeth.

"For our second clue," Grumpy said happily. He uncovered victim's face. We screamed. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"What part of it?!" I hissed, closing my eyes and fighting with my mad stomach.

"We identified the victim," Grumpy said, gaining a little of our attention, although none of us looked directly at the body. "Seoyun Choi, thirty four, almost married. Her fiancé is coming back from the U.S. tomorrow. We're going to question him."

"Okay, but why are you telling us this?" I said. "Not to mention that we didn't have to come here –"

"You're wrong, kiddo. You're a part of it, whether you want it or not." He suddenly got serious, which startled us a little. "You're going with me to her fiancé. To be honest, only Jinwoo has to come, but –"

"Forget it," Beomseok said sharply. "We're going together."

Grumpy shrugged. I've gotten teary, but I didn't know whether it was because of Beomseok's words, or this horrible odor that was getting only worse.

"What a fine end of the day," I grumbled, glancing at the corpse in disgust.

Chapter 26

The most expensive tea in my life

As Grumpy announced, we went with him to victim's fiancé, whose house was castle-like.

"I feel so small here... AH!" Chanwoo shrieked, when we entered the garden and got startled by a huge dog. Chan jumped back and his head hit my chin. "Ah, sorry, Jin..."

Victim's fiancé didn't want to let us in, as Grumpy predicted. So he broke the door. Very diplomatically for a detective.

"Hello there!" Grumpy called, when we entered the house.

Fiancé showed up on stairs with a gun. We panicked and escaped, hiding behind the front door. A few minutes passed. We didn't hear any shots. Then Grumpy came out and ordered us to come in. Fiancé was sitting on a sofa with an ice pack at his cheek and grim face. We sat in front of him. I nearly drowned. Was that water sofa? Wow...

"Let's get to the point," Grumpy said, putting foot on a table and leaning toward fiancé. "Did you kill Seoyun?"

"How's that a point?" I muttered. "Shouldn't you ask first: where were you then and then?"

"It's not a movie, kiddo. And he's illegally armed, so he'll have to come to the police station anyway."

"If you say so..."

"Answer," Grumpy growled, coming closer to the fiancé.

"No!" he said angrily. "I didn't do a thing!"

"Do you have an alibi?"

"I was in the U.S. the whole time! I returned to the country once I received information about her death!"

"Is that so..." Grumpy sat on the table in front of him. "Why?"

"Why WHAT?"

"Why did you hear about it just now? She died in the spring."

He stammered. I saw that he clenched his hand on his trouser pocket. I frowned.

"I have another question for you," Grumpy whispered. Will he punch him? "Where is the tea? Won't you serve your guests tea?"

I drowned again in the sofa, surprised. Fiancé was dumbfounded too, but he ran to the kitchen immediately.

"Do we have time for a TEA?" I hissed through my teeth.

"Easy, kiddo. Did you see something?"

I blinked confused.

"Is that the reason you brought us here?" Jongil asked.

"I need to focus on his face, so he would focus on mine and do things which he would think that I couldn't see." Grumpy raised his eyebrows. "So?"

"His pocket," I said. "He must have something important in his trouser pocket."

"Good job. Now, enjoy your tea."

Fiancé brought us tea and sat before Grumpy in silence. We tasted the drink. Strange, I've never drank such a tea... Then Chanwoo elbowed me in the ribs. I looked at him. He was staring, nearly horrified, at tea's package.

"Da Hong Pao," I read, whispering. I looked again at Chan, puzzled. "Why?"

"Below the name..."

I looked there and almost died by choking. Beomseok patted my back and Grumpy glanced at us irritated. Group members smiled wryly, as I was silently fighting with coughing. Million thoughts appeared in my head and the most important one was: I hope we won't have to pay for it...

I haven't heard about that tea, but the price told us that it was one of the most expensive teas in the world. It was good indeed, but after a sip we put the cups on the table and politely waited as Grumpy and fiancé will pay attention to us.

"Nice trousers, by the way," Grumpy said, when he finished scanning fiancé's face.

"Thanks... ?"

"But I was wondering..." Grumpy didn't move, as if he was a statue. "What's in your pocket?"

"W-What?" fiancé stammered. I saw that he tightened the grip on the pocket. Grumpy didn't see it, but I was sure he heard the rustle, because he smiled. "What are you talking about?"

"Your pocket, moron. Empty it."

"Why would I do that?!" fiancé outraged. He immediately stopped squeezing the pocket.

"I'm a detective with a psychology degree," Grumpy sighed. Wow, seriously? He didn't look like one... "I thought about a lot of possibilities of your behavior in this couple of minutes and I'm sure squeezing the pocket isn't simply your habit when you're nervous. Your eyes show that you're stressed out. Your hand shows that you want to hide something." Grumpy waved his hand. "Kiddo."

I realized in a moment what he meant. I threw myself at the fiancé, before he could escape. Meanwhile I thought why Grumpy didn't do it, but maybe he hoped that fiancé wouldn't fight non-police youngster. Well, he was wrong. When I grabbed his pocket, he punched me in the face and grabbed my hair. I screamed and tried to bite him, without releasing his pocket. Group members tried to help me out, but we were jerking on the sofa so aggressively that Youngho and Beomseok were hit too. Surprisingly, Grumpy wanted to help too, but got bit by fiancé. He moved back, shocked and disgusted.

Finally my idol stamina came in handy, because soon fiancé was worn out and I took out this something from his pocket with great satisfaction. I unrolled the paper. For a moment I thought that I'll see another threat, but it wasn't that. It was...

"A telephone number?" I muttered.

Grumpy snatched it from me. He was standing on fiancé, holding him down. Detective waved the paper before fiancé's eyes.

"And what's that, huh? Your partner in crime?"

"I didn't do it!" he insisted, nearly with panic. "This is... I got this after I landed, at the airport."

"Got it?" Grumpy frowned. Meanwhile, I was drinking the expensive tea as a reward for my effort. "From who?"

"I don't know... I didn't see his face, he was hooded."

Hooded. I hated this word. We all exchanged looks.

"Did he say whose number this is?" Grumpy continued.

"Detective?" Jongil pointed to the other side of a paper. "There's more..."

Grumpy turned the paper.

"Date? / Need to find it. / Seoul," he read. "What the hell?"

Fiancé raised his hands helplessly. Grumpy glanced at us, but nothing came to my mind. The date reminded me of the one from the mystery, but if the culprit gave fiancé this paper, he would know the meaning of our numbers. And he didn't, so...

"One more thing," fiancé said suddenly. He looked at us, but I had this weird feeling he was addressing me. "He wanted me to relay a message. Because you didn't make your choice last time, I'll give you one more chance. Solve it till the end of the month, or you'll get early Christmas present."

Chapter 27

### Trolley

It was impossible for us to solve it till the end of the month, so we started panicking when 30th of November came. What was even worse, we got invited to film our first haunted house adventure. I didn't have mood to be in a place full of fake corpses, but we couldn't refuse. A lot of people counted on us.

"Grumpy isn't going with us today?" Chanwoo said.

"Hi there!" we heard suddenly when I wanted to answer that. Detective Kang appeared behind us like a ghost. "You're going there today?" He glanced at Chan. "And who's Grumpy?"

Chanwoo started hiccupping nervously.

"M-My cat," he blurted, covering his mouth. He probably wanted to hide somewhere.

"Why would you take your cat to the haunted house?"

"Never mind..." Chanwoo muttered, covering his face by cap and mask, and getting into the car first.

"Well then." I bowed politely to Grumpy.

"Ah, right. We'll meet later. I just want to look around your neighborhood and then I'm off to work."

"Something's wrong?"

"No, but it never hurts to be more cautious."

I frowned, but he already left.

Although we didn't make any progress with the mystery, Grumpy was studying the last clue almost without sleep. His panda eyes were darker than usual. We tried hard too, but I felt like the culprit wanted us to get stuck at this point. And 1st of December was looming. I didn't know if I was more scared of the haunted house, or our doom tomorrow. Anyway, even if we would solve it, how we were supposed to tell him that? Maybe he was observing us, but the direct contact with him would be a problem, right?

We reached the place of filming with dark expressions and millions of thoughts. I didn't like Grumpy much, but I would be glad if he was here with us. Just in case. I got out first and almost landed on my knees when I saw where we'll be filming.

"This is insane!" Youngho groaned. I was sure he meant the bad meaning of 'insane'.

We were divided into pairs, but because there were five of us, Jongil (who would be the least scared) went twice – with me and Beomseok. I was the last to go. I was sitting stiffened on a bench before the house, hearing screams (mostly Beomseok's) and laugh (mostly Chanwoo's). When Youngho and Chanwoo went out, it was my turn.

"Is it scary?" I whispered. I was at advantage, because Jongil was here before.

"Not really."

Right, it's Jongil after all. Now I was at disadvantage, because everything related to ghosts was not scary for him. As for me, I freaked out just after we past the first corridor. Simple loud knock from behind the wall, but it already caused me a sore throat.

"Aren't you exaggerating?" Jongil asked.

"Really? You're asking this me? Just don't leave me..."

It was difficult because of a lot of scary corpses and people dressed as ghosts, that scared me at every corner. Although I didn't let go of Jongil's sleeve no matter how much I was freaked out, in an old surgery room a psycho-actor jumped from the closet and I ran to the next room.

I was running without looking back and stopped only when I hit some door. Camera, which was on my head, fell on the floor, but I didn't care and burst into that room. And guess where I was. In a creepy bedroom with spider webs, single weak light in a corner and a cradle. Completely alone. I froze, along with my heart. If there was a camera in this room too, everyone would think that screen was paused, but I just didn't move at all. I wondered if I should call Jongil, but he was probably far away. I ran quite long distance.

Then I heard a creaking sound. It was regular, like clock ticking.

Creak.

Creak.

Creak.

I moved my head a little. The cradle was cradling. Like there was someone beside it doing it... but there was no one there.

Suddenly I heard child's sobbing. I screamed, but quickly covered my mouth. The sobbing was coming from the cradle. They wouldn't bring here real baby... right?

The cradle stopped moving. I froze again. What now?

Then I felt a warm breath on my neck. I almost fainted, but quickly pulled myself together. It's only acting, Jinwoo, I comforted myself. It's not real...

But when the person, who was standing behind me, began to laugh in high pitch, I panicked and left the room. Again, I found myself in an empty corridor, still alone.

I was wandering for at least ten minutes. Maybe they already stopped the filming? That would be great, to be honest. Lately my reputation was not so good (not that it was perfect earlier). After a while I was so used to the creepy sounds, that it didn't really scare me anymore. Well, sometimes I fell down surprised, when someone jumped at me, but not all the time as in the beginning. Worn out and with thoughts elsewhere, I entered the strange room, which reminded me of a corridor in a mine. In its center were single tracks, on which was placed single trolley.

"Uh, they're good," I gasped, clogging my nose with fingers. "The smell here is so real."

I prepared myself that anytime someone will jump at me, but nothing happened. I walked around, looking for an exit when I heard ticking from the trolley. It was different than the ticking, which I heard on my way here. It was hardly heard. After a few seconds I realized why. This room was so quiet that I was hearing wristwatch's ticking.

"This is different," I muttered and gathered courage, coming closer to the trolley.

The smell was getting worse. What did they put there, few years old raw meat? I looked into the trolley and flinched surprised. Man, they were really good. It looked so real! I covered my mouth when the rotting smell hit my nostrils.

But wait... something wasn't right. The blood may have been fake, but the body itself looked TOO real. I touched it and quickly moved my hand back. Was that an actor? The skin was definitely genuine.

Then the truth hit me so hard that I staggered and had to grab the trolley to keep balance. That was a real BODY. Just like the one in Hwang-ya. What was worse, I just recognized it.

"Seoyun's fiancé –?!"

Chapter 28

Another clue or misleading?

I didn't know how I found exit from the haunted house, but before I realized I was outside. When I burst out, I fell into group members' arms, as they were standing next to front door.

"Where have you been?!" Jongil grabbed my arms. I fell on my knees. My legs suddenly became weak. "Jinwoo... ?"

I opened my mouth, but then I heard police sirens. I looked at group members with widened eyes.

"How did you know?" I whispered.

"Know what?"

"It wasn't you who called the police... ?"

"Jin –" Jongil turned pale, when he saw my hands. "Are you hurt?! What happened?!"

I looked at them too, confused. They were covered in blood. My heart almost exploded. I got dizzy.

"It isn't my blood..." I groaned and covered my mouth with a sleeve when I felt sick as I recalled latest memories.

"HEY!" Grumpy and a few police officers ran to us. "What's going on, huh!?"

Everyone was dumbfounded. Group members and police. If group members or staff didn't call them, then...

"Who called you?" I asked Grumpy.

"What? What are you –"

"WHO CALLED YOU!" I burst out. My stomach was raging again. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. I heard a gasp. Grumpy must have seen my hands and how shaken I was.

"Kiddo..." he said calmer.

"In the mine..." I muttered. "Inside the trolley..."

Grumpy sent his men to the haunted house. After that he put me on my feet and took to our van. I got a warm tea and a blanket, and after a few minutes I could talk.

"Who called you?" I repeated, looking at Grumpy. "Did HE call you?"

Group members looked confused at me, then at Grumpy. Detective frowned.

"We don't know," he said. "I don't know his voice. Probably you would recognize him."

"Did he give you a hint to come here?"

"Yeah... Damn, I really don't know what he's playing at!" Grumpy kicked the stone, angered.

I closed my eyes again. Right. What he was playing at? Why would he murder and then call the police, so they would retrieve the corpse?

"Jinwoo." I opened my eyes. Group members were staring at me sharply. "What happened?"

"He killed again. I found a body of Seoyun Choi's fiancé in one of the rooms."

"Kiddo, you're a real magnet to corpses, you know?" Grumpy sighed.

Group members glared at him with fury, so he became silent. Then our manager came to us with some man.

"He's the owner of the building," manager said.

"The room where was the body..." Owner swallowed hardly. It looked like he was shaken too. No wonder. "It was closed since last winter because of unfinished repairs. I don't know why it was unlocked..."

"He wanted us to find this body," I thought out loud, then took a sip of tea. I clenched fingers on paper cup. They were still trembling. "And meanwhile he called the police, informing them about the corpse. But why?"

"Maybe now we should worry about something else?" Chanwoo grabbed my hand, all of a sudden turning pale. "Isn't it what the message was about? The one from the fiancé?"

We gasped at the same time.

"But it isn't 1st of December yet..." I grumbled.

"But it's the end of the month and we didn't solve it," Youngho stated. "So that was early Christmas present..."

"He planned it for sure, so don't freak out," Grumpy growled. I saw under his arm that the police already took out the corpse. "Every threat he's sending you is to break you. He has planned every murder and step, so it isn't your fault. Any of it."

It was the first time we heard Grumpy-psychologist and somehow I felt a little better.

"Ah!" I looked at manager, worried. "What about the broadcast? It was live after all..."

"It's alright. It was cut off when you lost the camera and in the mine room weren't any cameras. Everyone probably thought you left earlier."

"Thank God..." I muttered.

Grumpy cleared his throat. "Go back to your dorm for now," he said.

"What about victim's fiancé... who is also a victim?" Youngho asked. "Isn't it some kind of warning? That we'll be next?"

"I really don't know. Until today I thought I'm breathing down his neck and now I'm as confused as you are. Who knows what will be his next move."

"I think we might have another clue," I said, when something suddenly popped up in my head. "We still didn't talk to the high schooler."

"What high schooler?" Grumpy said, coming back to his old, not confused self.

"That's... another story, but he must have met the hooded man, or been in contact with him."

"You think they really met?" Chanwoo whispered.

"I'm sure they contacted each other somehow," I stated. "This would explain almost everything! It's impossible that ordinary high schooler like him had an access to our waiting room, especially to PD's stuff. And he wouldn't know so much about me, if someone didn't observe us and didn't relay information to him."

"It makes sense," Jongil muttered. "That makes him invisible, if he uses someone else."

"The same case is with the fiancé?" Beomseok asked. "He used him?"

"This... complicates things," I sighed. "If he did, it doesn't explain why he killed him. And made us find him, but that is weird, not only complicated."

"Wow, look at you," Grumpy said and we glanced at him. "Why don't you quit your idol life and become detectives?"

"Very funny," I commented.

"Okay, that's enough!" Manager got angry. "We're going back! And please!" he said to Grumpy. "Don't encourage them to solve it anymore!"

"I didn't do anything! They're doing it themselves!" Grumpy outraged.

"Right, right. Now, if you excuse us."

We bowed lightly to Grumpy and left him alone at the crime scene.

Chapter 29

Secret number

My plan was good, until I realized that I needed to go to E.T. in order to find the high schooler. Police was unreliable, although we had Grumpy. Before they would find the stalker case in archives, it could take another month. E.T. was faster source, but I was afraid that also unreliable.

First, I tried alone to convince him that finding his friend was really important. I even told him that his life could be in danger too, if he wouldn't help us. Of course, he didn't believe me and cursed me. Then Grumpy had to step in. With his explanation (or should I say: threatening) E.T. agreed to take us to the high schooler. Group members wanted to go with us, but I forbade them.

"You're kidding, right?" Jongil outraged. "You think we let you alone –"

"I won't be alone," I assured him. "Grumpy will be with me."

"But E.T. –"

"Don't worry. He's scared of Grumpy. I'm sure that high schooler will be too."

After a lot of excuses, I finally convinced them and they went to the fan signing. I was officially sick. No, we couldn't go after our activities. The high schooler had afternoon and night classes, so now was our only chance to meet him.

"You have real guts, Kim," E.T. growled, when we reached the right house.

"Thank you."

"That wasn't a compliment. Now you're hiding behind the police?"

"No. I just want to solve this damn thing and continue to live."

He wanted to say more, but we heard a voice in entry phone and entered.

Everything till now went pretty smoothly until the high schooler saw me. He surely remembered me, because his face in a second became dark and he grabbed my shirt.

"You bastard!" he shrieked and punched me in the face.

I staggered at Grumpy who caught me, dumfounded. E.T. was standing aside, staring at us with curiosity.

"Hey, HEY!" Grumpy blocked the high schooler, pushing him into the house. "That's enough."

"And who are you, old man? His protector?"

"Let's call it that way." He showed him a badge. The high schooler turned pale. "So if you don't want to go back to the police station, cooperate with us."

"What now!" he groaned, but let us in.

He gave us coffee, but I didn't drink it. Oh, I wanted it so bad, but I was playing tough guy.

"Why did you punch him?" Grumpy asked. "I heard that everything has been clarified."

"Officially, yes," the high schooler grumbled, glancing at me grimly. "But it's a private matter."

"Private my butt. Spit it out, brat."

He hesitated, but didn't have choice and said,

"My girlfriend broke up with me. Because of him."

For a second I felt a guilt, but it disappeared quickly. It was not my fault that she was obsessed over me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Grumpy said, however his voice didn't sound as he really was sorry. "Then, let's get to the point. We're not here because of your funny and immature actions from a few months ago. We think that you didn't act alone."

"What do you mean?" E.T. asked.

"The big boy knows what I'm talking about. It's impossible that you knew Jinwoo's every move and everything about him, even though you hate him so much. Someone was giving you hunches, am I right?"

I stared at the high schooler with impatience. Were we right or not?

"Yes..." he finally said. For some reason I was relieved.

"Who was it?"

"I don't know, didn't see his face. I only remember this creepy, wry smile."

Grumpy exchanged looks with me. So it was him after all.

"What did he tell you? He gave you the information about Jinwoo?"

"Yeah."

"And how did he know that you're related to Jinwoo's fan?"

"I don't know! He stopped me on a street one day and asked whether I knew him." He pointed at me. "I said yes, and then he asked me if I knew a specific girl. He showed me my girlfriend's photo."

He must have been observing them too, I thought. Judging by his face, Grumpy thought the same thing.

"And you told him what you think about Jinwoo," Grumpy guessed. The high schooler nodded. E.T. was more and more confused. "How stupid you were to tell this to a stranger?"

"Detective." I patted his back to stop him from being harsher.

"Okay, okay." Grumpy sighed and continued, "Did he tell you anything else? Or did something that you remember?"

"He was talking to someone on the phone," the high schooler said slowly.

"Phone?" all three of us asked at the same time.

"Yes... It was a simple and rather idiotic number."

Something tied itself around my stomach. I reached to Grumpy's jacket pocket. "Was it similar to this one?" I showed him the telephone number, which we had from the fiancé.

High schooler's eyes widened and this something, that was tied around my stomach, suddenly became heavy.

"Yes!" he shouted. "That's the number! I remember it clearly... How did you get it?"

We didn't answer that. The atmosphere became darker.

"Do you... Do you know who he was calling?" I nearly whispered as my voice broke.

He didn't want to answer me, but he met Grumpy's panda eyes and said,

"Not sure. It was probably woman's name. S... Seo? Seoyi? Seoyun?"

"He was calling HER?!" I stood up violently, hitting Grumpy in the jaw with my hand. "Oh, sorry..." I sat down.

"You know her? Hey, will you finally tell me what's going on?"

"Sorry, brat. That doesn't concern you." Grumpy stood up, lifting me up too. "We're going. Thanks for your cooperation. Ah, and the coffee was bitter. Work on that."

"Hey, wait!" E.T. said, waved to his friend and followed us.

He stopped me outside.

"What's the meaning of this, huh?! You just scared him! And me too. What's going on, Kim?"

"Thanks for your cooperation too, another brat." Grumpy freed me from him. "Forget what you heard and go home."

"Forget?! Why would I –"

"Or I'll lock you up."

That worked. E.T. frowned but went his way. We got into the car and went our way too.

Later this evening we had dance practice in the company. I told my group members everything we discovered and hoped that Grumpy will find out why hooded man called Seoyun Choi that day. When we finished around 10 p.m., E.T. burst into our practice room.

"You bastard!!" he shrieked suddenly and punched me in the face.

I almost flew, hitting the wall. One punch a day was enough, so the second one angered me.

"Jin!"

"Jinwoo!"

"What the hell, E.T.?!" Jongil outraged, grabbing him by shirt.

I wiped my lip and looked at DRAGon's leader. I felt anxiety. Was he... crying?

"What happened?" I asked, getting up.

"WHAT happened!? You dare –"

"YES, I DARE!" I yelled angrily. "How would I know, if you don't tell me?! I'm not a psychic!"

E.T. bit his trembling lip and quickly wiped his eyes. My group members moved back, puzzled.

"It's your fault," E.T. said. "If you and that detective didn't come..."

I froze with fear.

"Something happened to your friend?" I blurted nervously. "What –"

"Yeah! Happened! HE'S DEAD! YOU killed him!"

Chapter 30

Haunted mind

We were at the police station. E.T.'s words were echoing in my ears like a curse. I would be scared and sad if we found it out from Grumpy, but when E.T. was crying and yelling at me that it was my fault, I became devastated.

After E.T. made a chaos in the practice room, our manager called security and they took him out. We called Grumpy and he confirmed E.T.'s information. We were at once transported to the police station. I sat silently in the back of the car all our way there. I was so... angry! Angry, scared, sad, and so on. I couldn't even name all my feelings, which I felt at the same time. For the first time in my life I wanted to isolate myself somewhere and forget about everything. Especially this cursed hooded man, because of whom my life was closer and closer to complete destruction...

In the car no one said a word. When we were passing the bus stops, on each of them I saw the culprit. I was already losing my mind and we weren't even close to solve the mystery. We got the date, fine. Then we found out that the telephone number belonged to Seoyun Choi. But it was still strange, because he called her when she was already dead. That psycho surely continued to dig our graves.

At the police station our manager went to speak with Grumpy and his chief as we sat down on the same bench we were sitting last time. And I thought I would never come here again...

There was a rumble on the other side of a room. E.T. came here before us and now was making a ruckus. Then he noticed me. He aggressively walked toward me, with clenched fists and wild look on his face, but police stopped him and pushed on the chair, far away from us.

"How are you holding up, kiddo?" Grumpy stood in front of us, hiding his hands in pockets.

"Not so good," I muttered, then glanced at E.T.. "What happened? Why... WHY did this happen? And when –"

"From what I heard, shortly after we left. That brat heard about it directly from the unit, which stationed in the neighborhood. Apparently, he was the closest person that the victim had."

That made me feel worse. Something clung to my stomach and I sighed, hiding my head in my arms.

"I think I've discovered his tactic," Grumpy said.

I sighed again and looked at my hands.

"Yeah, me too," I said and Grumpy looked at me surprised.

"Really?" he said.

"He killed the fiancé and the high schooler, right?" I continued idly. "They gave us hints to solve the numbers and soon they died. It isn't a coincidence. How could I be so stupid and not see this? He killed them because they gave us hints."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Youngho outraged. "Then why did he order us to solve it in the first place?"

I flinched and said, "What if he doesn't want us to solve it?"

"That would be ridiculous," Jongil stated.

"Not in psychopath's way of thinking," Grumpy supported me. He sat with us, ignoring his general work.

"Think about it," I continued. Second by second I was more and more sure of culprit's intentions. "If he wanted us to solve it, even by pressing us psychologically, he wouldn't disturb us. Especially by killing and making us unmotivated."

"You mean –"

"YES!" I shrieked suddenly, startling everyone. Chan and Beomseok pulled me down when I stood up, as always when something brilliant pops up in my head. "He said that he would consider not killing us when we solve it, right? That wasn't the case from the beginning! He's playing. He wants to kill us and he'll eventually do it!"

The last sentence came out of my mouth unplanned and it frightened me and others. But I knew I was right. And, looking at Grumpy's expression, he knew it too. We were silent for a moment.

"What now?" Chanwoo whispered.

"You'll go back to your dorm," Grumpy said grimly. "And then –"

"Wait." This time I got up looking around. "Where's E.T.?"

"He left a moment ago," Grumpy said. "Why?"

The thought that just came across my mind worried me. All of a sudden I felt anxiety.

"Alone?" I asked. "He went alone?!"

"Yeah. Now what?"

I jerked and ran to the exit, shrieking, "He's next!"

I came out of the police station and looked around, biting my nail with worry. It had to be it. E.T. was hooded man's next target. But how will I find him at night... ?

Then I saw him. I called, but he didn't react. He didn't hear me or ignored me. I ran to him without thinking. When I was passing the vending machines, suddenly someone jumped at me from behind the garbage. I screamed shocked and stopped abruptly, in consequence tripping and falling on my back. E.T. finally heard me and turned around. He raised his eyebrows and probably wanted to ask what was I doing, but then I realized that the man, that attacked me, had different goal.

"RUN!" I shrieked panicked.

Hooded man rushed at E.T. with a knife. My arm itched, remembering its last meeting with a blade. E.T. only now realized the seriousness of situation and began to run. He didn't run far. He tripped over another hill of garbage and fell down. Hooded man swung his hand, but I reached them and kicked man's hip. He staggered, moving back a little. I took the opportunity and slapped E.T. in the face, trying to bring him back to reality. E.T. touched his cheek and looked at me angrily.

"Did you just slap me?!" he outraged.

"Let's say we're even. Now, can you move or do you want to be killed?"

E.T. flinched, when we heard groaning. Attacker's hood slid down. I didn't see culprit's face so far, but I was sure it wasn't him. His another shadow? That man had a scar on his mouth and also exotropia.

"What do we do now... ?" E.T. whispered with trembling voice, hiding behind me.

How would I know? I was as scared as he was. Although I came close to death several times within just few months, now my mind was as blank as during other attacks. I shook my head and came to my senses quickly, looking for a weapon. Luckily, I found a piece of metal pipe. Attacker smiled crazily at the sight of it and jumped at us again. I stretched out my hands with a pipe to protects us, but suddenly someone appeared before us and took the hit. Something warm splashed at my face. I opened my eyes and gasped with fear,

"Y-You –?!"

Chapter 31

Unexpected guest and turn of events

I rubbed my eyes in shock. The man, who just rescued us, threw the knife aside and wrapped his injured hand with a sleeve.

"I wanted to visit you, but I didn't know I would be involved in something like this," the man said.

"Mr. Lee!" I gasped. "W... What are you doing here?"

"I just said I wanted to visit you." Mr. Lee glanced at the attacker carefully. "And what do we have here?"

Then we heard a shot and flinched. Grumpy and the others caught up with us. Grumpy fired a warning shot. We all froze, waiting for attacker's move. He clucked with dissatisfaction and fled. Grumpy swore and ran after him. Mr. Lee sighed and sat on the ground.

"Are you okay?" I asked worried. He took a direct hit on his hand. My group members came closer to us. "How did you find us?"

"One of your staff told me about the current situation. I was going to meet you at the police station, but I saw you running and couldn't help myself but to rescue you."

"It was too dangerous!" I protested angrily.

"Do I have to hear it from you?"

I bit my lip nervously. Did he know all the mess we were in?

"Well?" He looked at us one after another. "Did you get it?"

"Get what?" Youngho asked.

"What these numbers refer to?"

I didn't answer but stared at him surprised.

"How did you know about the numbers?" I blurted finally.

"How? Oh, come on! Before I came here, I was in the company. Everyone talks about it."

"Oh, is that so?" I muttered. I wanted to stand up, but someone pulled me back on the ground. Right, I forgot about E.T. "When Grumpy... when that detective comes back, ask for help. I don't think you'll be safe anytime soon."

"And whose fault is that?" E.T. growled. He pushed me and got up himself.

"Yours," Jongil said sharply, poking E.T.'s chest with a finger. "If you did LISTEN instead of jerking proudly around, showing how great you are, you would be safe!"

I grabbed Jongil's hand, standing on my feet. Only now I realized that I had dirty hands. I must have squeezed the pipe too hard.

"W... Whatever!" E.T. snorted with contempt. "I'm going home."

"Go to the police station!" I ordered him. "Anytime –"

"Don't you dare –!"

"I'll go with him," Mr. Lee said suddenly, grabbing E.T.'s arm.

"What the heck, man?!"

"But your hand –"

"It's nothing, Jinwoo. Go to your dorm. I'll meet you there."

Few hours later Mr. Lee came to our dorm as he promised. We were already sitting there with manager. Grumpy said he'll join us as soon as he deals with his work. And from what we heard, E.T. safely reached his dorm. Their security will be strengthened.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming, Shinam?" manager asked with disbelief.

"Surprise?" Mr. Lee laughed, but after a moment he became serious again. "So, what is it about? With these numbers, hooded man and police?"

"I still can't believe everyone talks about it like it's some show," manager muttered, but was ignored.

Well, Mr. Lee already knew this much, so we told him everything we knew. Then we started to analyze the numbers once again.

"The first ones tell us the date," I said. "We're sure about this. But we still don't know if it's 7th of March or 3rd of July. Two numbers remain unknown."

"Let me explain it to you then," we heard and Grumpy hurried toward us. He nearly threw himself on the sofa next to me and bit the cigarette. Manager snatched it from him irritated, but Grumpy was so excited that he didn't even realize that. "Give me coffee, boy," he said to Jongil.

"Did you solve it?" I said shocked. It could be the only reason why he was so energetic.

"Almost. But we're close, kiddo. Give me these." He took the numbers and started to explain. "These three are the date, right? We had two options, but it seems that the right one is 3rd of July."

"Why?" Beomseok asked.

"The culprit called Seoyun Choi, because he was her close friend. From what we know so far, Seoyun was a heiress to a huge fortune of her grandfather, here in Seoul. She was really close to her twin sister, who died from illness on 3rd of July six years ago. As you know, people usually take the important date to hide something, as long as few people know about it. Fortunately, her aunt was so devastated after Seoyun's death that she told us everything. When we heard about the date of her twin's passing, I remembered these numbers. Seoyun had also an apartment in Hwang-ya, then maybe that's why she was murdered there. If it really was all about money, these two last numbers may refer to the bank."

"The bank?" I repeated. "But why... What are you doing?" I asked Mr. Lee, who was going round and round our dorm as if he was looking for something.

"HA! Got you..." He grabbed something from behind the fridge. He showed us a tiny black equipment. "You wondered how this psycho knew about your every move."

"Right!" Youngho shouted suddenly. "We were talking about everything in our dorm! Also in a car and company –"

"I'll call them to check," manager said and went out to make a call.

"When... ?" I gasped, but I probably already knew the answer. He was here earlier. And he took a photo of me and E.T. in the company, so he must have been there too. Into the car he could got anytime, for example when we were panicking outside the haunting house...

God, he really was around us all the time... I suddenly felt sick when I thought about it. I ran to the bathroom. I returned to the living room after five minutes and could continue the talk. Meanwhile manager found out that there were bugs in the company and the car, as we expected.

"So..." Jongil said slowly. "Let's say that the last numbers refer to the bank. What now?"

"Now we'll go to the bank and check if they have a safe with number six or seven under Seoyun Choi's name."

Chapter 32

More horrifying things (for a change)

In the bank we found out a lot. Now I could say with relief that we were ending the case.

Seoyun Choi had a safe and to get to it, we had to write the password. We were sure about that one and wrote the date 3rd of July 2012. It was correct.

However, that was the big safe – the one with a huge round door. Behind that door the challenge has begun. We walked into a circular hall with A LOT of lockers. But we didn't give up. We had the last two numbers, right? So we checked the locker number six.

It was unlocked and empty.

"That's it?" Mr. Lee said surprised. He searched thoroughly the locker, but in the end found nothing.

"Are we in the dead end again?" Chanwoo sighed.

"It's not like we were sure that we solved it," Jongil reminded him.

"Yeah, but –"

While they were arguing, I was thinking hard where we made a mistake. I was walking and observing lockers one by one. Grumpy and Mr. Lee were following my every step. I was irritated enough that we didn't find anything more, so it irritated me even more.

"Could you please stop?" I said angrily. "I'm trying to concentrate."

"Yes, yes," Mr. Lee said. "Concentrate."

"We're trying to help you," Grumpy added.

"It's funny that you call this helping. Could you please go to the other side and find something abnormal enough to suspect the locker?"

"Right. We're going," Grumpy agreed.

I wondered (not for the first time) how he became a detective.

I didn't find anything and came back to the beginning, disappointed. I left the number six and checked locker number seven. Everyone moved away from me as if there was a bomb inside. Well, I wouldn't be surprised. But this locker was unlocked and empty too.

Wait. Not exactly empty.

I took out a piece of paper. On it was very decorative writing and it possibly belonged to Seoyun Choi.

IF YOU WANT IT, THINK WITHOUT THINKING.

"A riddle," I said. "Great. Couldn't be better."

"Think without thinking..." Chanwoo clapped his hands. "Instinct! We shouldn't think in which locker something is hidden, but we need to rely on our instinct!"

As expected of Chan. He started to play with the lockers. From enumerations to guessing. After a few minutes, he screamed with excitation.

"Jin! I got it! I think..." He pulled me to the locker number six. "This could be a misleading!"

"Misleading?" we all repeated surprised.

"Only the date was clear, right? Okay, not so clear, we had to know if it was 7th of March or 3rd of July and –"

"Let's get to the point, Chan," I said.

"The locker six is correct, looking at the paper with numbers, but for what was number seven? Let's count." He touched the locker with number six and counted to seven, moving his finger along with the counting. He stopped at 'seven' and showed us an unnumbered locker. "I think this is the one."

This one was locked. I put the key in the lock and turned it. It opened without a problem. We screamed shocked and moved back a little. Mr. Lee was too surprised to even budge.

Inside the unnumbered locker was a mountain of gold bars. My mind couldn't grasp how much KRW it was. Anyway, we weren't shocked much longer, because Grumpy called reinforcement to secure the locker and we finally went out.

"That was... practical," Youngho said.

"We solved the mystery behind the numbers. Now we need to catch that bastard and you'll live your life again," Grumpy stated.

"Thank you, detective," I said.

"Don't thank me yet, kiddo. I would feel horrible if it turns out that you said it too soon."

Two days passed and we returned to our activities, for a moment forgetting about the case. We were reminded by it unexpectedly.

We were in a cafe, legally having a coffee and sweet bread. Meanwhile we were looking through gifts from fans. We got some cards, plush toys and snacks. We were going to continue our coffee, when Beomseok found fruit milk in one of the bags.

"It says 'Be always healthy'," Beomseok read.

"We'll be," I said and took the milk, giving everyone their favorite flavor. "For Chan banana, for Beomseok coffee, for me strawberry of course." I looked at the rest. "Youngho, do you want watermelon flavor?"

"Yup."

"And what do we do about Jongil?" I showed him another coffee milk. "Also coffee?"

"I can taste a little," he said and I gave him the milk.

I started to drink first as group members were occupied by a funny card addressed to Beomseok. I stopped after a small sip. It tasted weird... I looked at the bottle. Was it expired?

Suddenly I felt a terrible pain in my throat. I realized too late what just happened, but thankfully I reacted fast and threw myself on the table, knocking the milk from group members' hands.

"Don't drink it!!" I whispered with a hoarse voice.

"Jin?!"

"Jinwoo, what's –"

Then I coughed blood. Group members panicked and caught me, before I fell down. They called the ambulance and our manager right away and thanks to that I was saved. In the hospital we were told that in the milk was a strong disinfectant and the police confirmed that other bottles also had it. I had unpleasant gastric lavage and a lot of medicaments for my throat to drink and put on a skin. My voice wasn't destroyed and I was really happy because of that. I didn't know what I would do, if I couldn't sing anymore. I just needed to take care of my throat and I'll recover.

As nothing more we could do for me in the hospital, I was transported to our dorm by an ambulance. I was with manager, Chanwoo and Jongil. Youngho and Beomseok were in Grumpy's car.

"It's really bad," I heard Chan, who was still strongly shaken. "H-He seriously wanted to kill us, right? And he almost did it! To Jinwoo he –"

"Calm down," Jongil muttered. He was pale and tried to calm down himself, but I noticed from his expression that he was close to tears.

I wanted to say something too, in a whisper, but suddenly something hit the ambulance and we bumped into each other. The car rolled over. When everything was over, I coughed, but still felt the pain. I shook my head confused and I could see clearly again.

After a few seconds, which was at least like an hour for me, the door opened and someone came in. Chanwoo, Jongil, manager and the hospital staff were unconscious, or semiconscious, so I wanted to ask for help when suddenly my eyes were covered by a bag and I fainted, after something hit me in the head.

Chapter 33

In the grip of bad luck, pt. I

The first thing I saw after I woke up was darkness. Then I realized I still had bag on my head. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down, and moved a little. I was sitting with tied wrists and ankles. I groaned and jerked, but with no effect.

Suddenly the bag was taken. I blinked, getting used to the slight light. I stiffened when I recognized the wry smile of the hooded man, who walked away to the other room. I looked around with panic. Damn... was I kidnapped?! How did this happen...

I was in a messy flat. Snacks' trash was here and there, also clothes (mostly torn and smelly) and a mountain of something, but I couldn't see what because it was covered by a black foil. I had a bad feeling about this one.

Hooded man came back to the room. My mouth wasn't covered, but I couldn't scream anyway because of my throat. He approached me slowly, hiding something behind his back. When he took it out, I closed my eyes and curled up, sure that I'll be killed. But nothing happened, so I opened my eyes with hesitation. The culprit was holding a small Christmas tree.

"Merry Christmaaaas~!" he sang with broken, hoarse voice, which gave me chills.

"It's not Christmas yet," I blurted, before I thought about it.

Hooded man grinned.

"It is for me," he whispered and put the tree beside me, walking away again.

I looked for a way out, but in this mess I didn't even know where was the exit. Windows were covered by dark blinds, so I couldn't see if we were still in Seoul. Then I remembered the accident. God, I hoped everyone was okay...

Hooded man came back. Now he was holding a bowl of something. He tried to feed me, but I resisted. Did he want to poison me again? When he was stepping back disappointed, I saw an old burn on his hand.

"What will you do to me?" I whispered.

"Now we wait."

Wait for what? For me to break and beg for mercy? Or to beg for death? Both options were bad enough.

"Where're the others?" I asked with hope that I was here alone.

"Others?" He seemed surprised.

"You caused the car accident, right? There were others with me then."

I knew that talking to him was the worst idea ever, but I had to distract him, so he wouldn't kill me anytime soon and maybe meantime Grumpy will find me. Although I didn't know how he would do it...

"Ah, others!" he said suddenly and went to the other room.

I groaned and fell to the side when hooded man brought a youngster. He had bag on his head and tied wrists too. He wasn't moving.

"Chan... ?" I gasped. There was no doubt, those were Chanwoo's clothes.

Hooded man pushed Chanwoo on the ground.

"Chan!" I shrieked with a hoarse voice. My throat hurt again. I looked at the culprit with enraged face. "You bastard!!"

Hooded man smiled and left. I tried to crawl to Chanwoo, but the culprit already came back. Now he was holding a familiar knife.

"W-Wait... What're you planning to do?" I panted. Hooded man squatted next to Chanwoo and got the knife ready. "No, wait... you –"

I screamed with despair at the same time when the knife dropped.

But the man stopped in the midway. He threw the knife away and I sighed, putting my head on the ground, suddenly tired. Then the culprit grinned and said idly, "He's dead anyway."

"What?" I thought I misheard him. "What did you just say?"

"Why would I keep the garbage alive? He was too noisy."

Then he left the room.

I stiffened, staring at Chanwoo, who was still lying without any movement. No, it's impossible... Why would he... Not Chan...

"Hey, Ch-Chanwoo," I whispered. My throat started to burn, but not because of the injury. "Stop fooling around, huh? It's not funny, you know?"

No reaction. I gasped and cough with a sob. "Chan!" I tried again. I crawled to him. I sat and turned around, stretching my arms to his neck. "Cha –"

There was no pulse.

"Oh my God... !" I groaned with horror. "It's not... How... !"

The murderer came in. I shrieked with anger and threw myself at him. He pushed me, surprised. I hit my head on the table and blood ran down my temple. The wound from the accident opened.

"What do you think you're doing?" hooded man said ominously.

"That question goes to you!" I shouted. Something dripped on my shirt. I didn't even realize I had face wet with tears. "WHY DID YOU KILL HIM!? HE DIDN'T DO AN –"

Suddenly the door slammed.

"What is this chaos about?" I heard a cold voice.

Wait... I knew this voice... ?

When another man entered the room with a bag of snacks, I gasped and sat down devastated. I was able only to ask,

"W-Why... ?"

Chapter 34

In the grip of bad luck, pt. II

Mr. Lee put snacks on the table and turned around, grabbing hooded man by his ear, like a mother when she scolds her child.

"What did I tell you?" Mr. Lee said sharply. "Quietly. Is it too hard to understand?"

"S-Sorry, brother..." the culprit whispered. Mr. Lee let him go and hooded man moved back to the chair in the corner, holding the newly bought sweet bread.

Something was definitely wrong here... I was observing Mr. Lee, waiting for a sign that he was acting to get me out of here, but I didn't see any. Then he looked at me. I flinched uncontrollably, when I met his cold eyes. They hadn't this coldness before. He seemed like a different person. He squatted next to me. I clenched my teeth, trying not to sob, but it was stronger than me. Tears also flowed endlessly. Mr. Lee grinned and sat on the chair near the windows.

"Sorry about that," he said to me, but his voice showed that he was enjoying the situation.

"You..." I panted. My voice broke again because of recent screaming, so I had to whisper. "Who are you? And why did you do this to Ch-Chanwoo –" I stopped, when I choked with tears. I bit my lip to control myself and lowered my head.

"Ah, right. Poor kid. Sorry about that too. But you know, it's your fault in the first place."

I looked at him with widened eyes. He was still smiling.

"It was you who discovered Seoyun Choi's body, wasn't it? You shouldn't have played in the forest, kids."

"B-But you told us to play there!" I groaned with shock.

"I said near the forest. You didn't listen to me. Anyway..." He looked with disgust at hooded man, who was occupied with eating. "I can't blame you for everything. This fool was supposed to throw the body into the river, not next to it."

"Who are you?" I repeated. "Were you his... accomplice all along?"

"His accomplice?" He burst out laughing. "More like his boss. I'm the older brother after all."

I trembled with fear. Seriously... ? Mr. Lee was his...

"But in Hwang-ya you helped us! You fought him and –"

"I pretended to faint. Read beyond the lines, boy. What a great actor I am." He giggled, proud of himself. I was feeling sicker and sicker with his every word. "But he couldn't kill you in Hwang-ya. Then I decided to change my tactics. I sent you home, helped him to escape the police and sent him to Seoul to observe you. It was my idea to scare you a little with those warnings, but this fool took it too seriously and played with you for too long. I was disturbed by it. Then he tried to eliminate you again, in your dorm. He failed and nearly killed you. But it wasn't your time yet, you see. You were important to me, because you knew the numbers. I was sure you would want to solve it, thinking that it'll save you and your friends. My brother left then, giving you the hint. But, as I said, he was playing with you too much. The murders of Seoyun's fiancé and that noisy high schooler weren't planned. That brat thought my brother called Seoyun when they met. That was well planned to hide my identity as he was contacting me, but on the other hand he blurted Seoyun's name to a stranger. Anyway, my idiotic brother just wanted you to fall into despair, but there was no time. Before he made another mistake, I stepped in, rescuing you from our puppet who attacked you and that muscle fool. And" he smiled wryly. This was so similar to his brother that I flinched, horrified "here we are."

When he finished, obvious facts hit me so hard that for a moment I saw double.

He showed up suddenly. Even our manager – his friend – didn't know about his coming. He said that he knew about the numbers from the company staff, but here manager was right – not everyone knew about it and it was unlikely that they were talking about it all the time. Another fact: the bugs. How did he guess so fast that the hooded man heard us through them? He was surely trying to solve it quickly to get to the money! Now I remembered his face, when we discovered gold bars. He wasn't shocked. He was pleased.

"Did you do it for money?" I asked with disbelief. "All the killings were –"

"Oh, don't get me wrong," he interrupted me. "I'm not so evil. The money was mine from the beginning. We were childhood friends with Seoyun and her twin sister, Seoji. Their grandfather loved us. We were sure we'll get the inheritance, because those girls were so unpredictable and foolish that I was the best candidate." He waved at his brother. "He had some mental problems from the birth, so he wasn't counted. Anyway, things got complicated when Seoji died. Grandfather was depressed and Seoyun had to take care of her all family, so suddenly she became responsible. Grandfather must have seen this, because before he passed he gave HER the fortune. It wasn't right, Jinwoo. I did so much for them, you know? And I was supposed to walk away with nothing? I was discussing this with Seoyun for years, but she didn't listen to me, even to my brother, whom I thought she liked more. Then we met in the spring in Hwang-ya, where she was spending her vacation, just like you. Oh, I was so surprised when your manager called me and asked if you could come there to rest. I knew you only from TV, so I didn't know what kind of brats you were. But unfortunately you turned out to be too curious and courageous. We were fighting with Seoyun two days before your arrival. And I pushed her off a cliff."

"Wait, so YOU killed her?" I gasped. "Not your brother... ?"

"That's right. People are so blind, you know? You show them two men: one in an elegant suit with proper job, and the other one: dirty, in a hood covering the face. Who do you think they choose as the suspect?"

"You're crazy..." I muttered. Fear and desperation were squeezing my lungs, so I could hardly breathe. "Both of you..."

"Maybe. But we're the winners at the end, boy. When you were so proud of yourselves that you solved the mystery, my brother already took the gold bars from the bank."

"What... ?"

"And –" Suddenly we heard an alarm clock. Mr. Lee shut it down and stood up. I froze. "It's already the time. Sorry, boy. I have to get to my work and you need to disappear." He sent me the creepiest smile I've ever seen. "I hope you'll have painless death."

Chapter 35

In the grip of bad luck, pt. III

I was thrown into a small room under the stairs.

"Wait here," hooded man said quietly. "I have to finish my lunch." He smiled. "It's not like you could run away anyway. You can think about your life, if you're bored." And he locked me in.

"Damn..." I groaned and new tears started to flow. "Damn!"

What should I do now? I didn't want to die...

"Chan, I'm so sorry..." I muttered.

"For what?"

I jumped frightened, when I heard a voice. I looked around, but it was too dark. Was I hearing dead people now... ?

Then a light hit me in the eyes as I looked to the left.

Chanwoo was smiling at me from a ventilation shaft, holding a flashlight. His face was dirty with something black.

"Hey, move!" I heard Beomseok's voice from the shaft. "When your butt became this big?"

"I'm still amazed that you fit here, Beomseok," Chanwoo said and he crawled from the shaft.

Youngho, Beomseok and Jongil came out after him.

"It took us a while to find you," Chanwoo continued, smoothing his messy hair. "But still... Jin, you're okay?"

I realized that I was staring at him with opened mouth and widened eyes, from which tears started flowing again. Group members kneeled around me.

"N-No!" I groaned with weak voice. "I'm not okay! I thought you were dead!"

"Me?" Chan asked surprised. "Why?" Only now I realized he was wearing grey tracksuit. "Aaah, this psycho. Did he do something with my clothes?! When I woke up in the hospital, my clothes were gone!"

He's right, I thought suddenly. I recognized only Chan's clothes. The victim had still covered head. How could I be so stupid... ?!

When my hands were untied, I hugged Chanwoo tightly, just to make sure it was really him. Oh God... Now I felt safe. With all of them beside me.

"Why are you here?" Youngho asked.

"We were lucky to come here when he was alone," Jongil said. He tried to open the door, but it was definitely locked.

"How did you find me?" I muttered.

Jongil smiled lightly and showed me an equipment similar to a pager. Then he reached under my hood, taking something out.

"Sorry, Jinwoo," he said. "But it was great idea after all."

Jongil bugged me! How and when... ?

"When you were in the hospital, doing medical check," he answered my unasked question. "Just to test it. And it seemed that it was useful right away."

"Where did you get it?"

"I bought it after Mr. Lee found bugs in our dorm. I realized it was a good idea to protect ourselves till the end of the case."

Mr. Lee...

I frowned and clenched my fists.

"Where is the hooded man?" Beomseok whispered, looking around with fear.

"Outside. He needs to finish his lunch."

"By lunch you mean –"

"Bread."

They sighed with relief. They probably thought about the bloody type of lunch. Beomseok finished fixing my forehead by putting a plaster and I could get up. I staggered. My legs felt so weak because of the stress.

"Did he do something to you?"

"Not him... Well, him too, but not only..."

"What do you mean?"

I explained everything to them until we were alone. They were as shocked as me when they got to know Mr. Lee's true face. But now everything was clear.

"How're things outside?" I asked.

"We don't really know," Youngho admitted.

"Wait, isn't Grumpy with you?"

"Nope."

"Are you crazy?!" I shouted, but they quickly covered my mouth with their hands.

"We got separated," Chanwoo hissed. "Jongil left another tracker in our car and send a message to manager, so they should be here soon."

"Soon is a very relative word," we heard suddenly and clung to the wall.

Hooded man finished his lunch and now was standing in front of us, playing with his knife. He smiled widely like a Cheshire Cat, which gave me dreadful feeling.

"Come on! Let's play~"

We didn't want to play, especially with him.

We showed our best tactic and threw ourselves at him, trying not to hit the blade. Hooded man stepped back surprised and we got out of the room.

"Now what," I thought out loud.

Hooded man had the answer. He attacked us again and we had to scatter around the room, looking for some weapon. Jongil grabbed a chair and Youngho (again) found a broom. I burst into the kitchen and took a metal tray. Hooded man ridiculed our armament and ran to Youngho, but had to stop midway, when he got hit by a chair. Jongil and Youngho moved back a little. The culprit hissed with anger and decided to attack Chanwoo. This time I stepped in, jumping before our youngest group member and blocking the knife with the tray. I pushed the man and hit him in the head with full force. He staggered, disoriented.

"Be cautious!" I warned my group members.

Beomseok was still wandering around looking for his weapon. Unfortunately, hooded man didn't order chicken legs with spicy sauce, so Beomseok couldn't repeat his chicken hero's act.

"Left!" Chan shrieked suddenly and I blocked the attack in the last moment. However, the push was so strong that the knife pierced through the thin metal. I gasped, but luckily dodged the sharp blade. Hooded man saw my hesitation and pushed harder. I hit the wall. Now he tried to pierce my throat.

"I need to find something!" I heard Beomseok. "I... Oh, bread."

"FOCUS!" all four of us screamed with anger.

My arms began feeling weak...

Then culprit got hit by a bottle full of coke. He staggered, so I broke free and went back to Jongil and Youngho. Beomseok actually found a weapon – that bottle.

"I saw it in a drama," he said with confidence. "It's easy!"

Wasn't easy at all. I knew what drama he meant and I was sure he'll be dead, if we don't do something. The drama protagonist was a skilled fighter and Beomseok was a chicken head. I exchanged looks with group members and we ran to him at the same time.

I kicked the culprit in the back and Jongil hit him with the chair, so the man fell down. Then Youngho put broom's end into his eye. The culprit screamed and moved back. And finally his hood slid down.

The view was scary. Not only his hand was burned. Half of his face was burned too and he didn't have hair on the left side of the skull. Suddenly I started to pity him, but came to my senses quickly. That man KILLED two...no, three people and tried to kill another two. That would be wrong, if I pitied him.

We took the opportunity of his shock of revealing himself to us and attacked together again.

BANG!

We immediately froze. Mr. Lee was standing in the doorway, holding a gun. He just shot in the ceiling.

"What a cockroach," he growled and pointed his gun at me. He kicked his brother, who hurriedly covered his face again and waited for orders. "You can't do a small task." He saw the others. "Rescue team? Nice, but too late. You'll be dead, if you move."

So we didn't move. Mr. Lee sat on the chair, blocking the door. "Now," he continued, pointing his gun at us one after another. "Who's first?"

I wanted to say something (no, I didn't volunteer) and did a step forward. Mr. Lee reacted in a flash. He shoot in the floor next to my foot and I sat, frightened.

"Don't take me lightly, boy," he said. "I'm longer in this than you are."

"Me too, if you ask." We almost screamed with relief. Grumpy was aiming his gun at Mr. Lee's head. "Now, drop the gun or I'll shoot."

"You're bluffing," Mr. Lee hissed with wry smile.

"Want to bet?"

All of a sudden a shadow moved from the corner to the door.

"Grumpy, the hooded man!" I shrieked.

"IN!" Grumpy shouted to his earphone and in a second the room was full of police.

Mr. Lee and his brother were arrested and transported to the police car. While the police was collecting the evidence, we were sitting on a floor with blankets and cups of warm coffee.

"You're okay?" Grumpy came to us. We nodded. He sighed and ruffled my hair. "Good job for staying alive, kiddo. You too." He threw a tracker to Jongil. "Good thinking."

We smiled, feeling lighter for the first time since our infamous Hwang-ya vacation.

"By the way," Grumpy said suddenly and looked at me with a frown. "Could you remind me, please, what did you call me a moment ago?"

I felt chills on my back.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied and took a sip of my coffee.

"Oh, you know it too well! GRUMPY?!" He pointed to Chanwoo, who flinched and almost spilled the coffee on Beomseok's leg. "He said it's his cat's name!"

"Oh, our manager is here," I lied again and quickly stood up, going to the exit. "Good job, detective!" My group members followed me, while Grumpy's colleagues burst out laughing.

END OF VOLUME 1

BONUS STORY

DORM ALONE

If you ever have a choice, go home on Christmas or stay in a dorm, always choose the first option. I'm not joking.

It was day like other...

Wait, only bad stories I begin with those words. Let's try again.

Another Christmas came. (Okay, better). Because group members' families and mine made some conspiracy and went together on Christmas holidays abroad, we had to stay in our dorm on this Christmas. It's not that we didn't like it, we stayed like that once or twice before, when our activities, like this year, lasted to the Christmas Eve.

This year was similar. We finished our practice in the morning on Christmas Eve and went to sleep. We woke up around 1 p.m. in order to go buy groceries for today's dinner.

Well, I wanted to go shopping but I couldn't for one, small reason...

"Jin, are you up?" Chanwoo came into my room, which this time I owned alone. At least until now. "Oh..."

"That's great reaction," I commented. "But I'd prefer you to help me instead."

As some of you might have guessed, on my bed, tangled in MY sheets, slept Beomseok. His big Pikachu plush toy was crushing my cheek.

"I wondered where he went. Youngho is up too." Chan came closer and stared at us, as if he was watching rare animals in a zoo.

"Really?" I hissed through teeth. "You still wonder about that?"

"Pretty much. Come on, I'm hungry."

"I'll be right up," I said and tried to sit, but Beomseok and his Pikachu were surprisingly heavy. "Aaah, wake up!!" I kicked him and he fell down on the floor.

After a few minutes I was free and we could finally go for something to eat.

Seoul was surrounded by a happy Christmas atmosphere and soon we were influenced by it. I meant, all of us except Jongil, as always. He was watching us carefully, in case we got too naughty. But the grocery outing was calmer than our usual outing (not counting Youngho's crazy loud 'Merry Christmas!' to random people, who thought he was drunk and called the police. Ah, and Chanwoo's psychopathic laugh as he slipped on the ice and hit the Christmas tree on a square full of people. They tried to call the police too, but we escaped. Did I mention Beomseok who accidentally broke chocolate Santa Claus's hand and put it into Frozen Elsa's mouth? Kinda creepy, if you imagine it...). We returned two hours later with two bags full of food. Thank God we had Jongil, who quickly put away the dinner's part when we dig into the food, as if we didn't eat for days.

"Ready for our usual stuff?" Chanwoo asked as we were sitting on a sofa and watching Home Alone like every year. Youngho almost hit me with his fist, when his elbow slid from sofa's back, because he started to fall asleep. "The dinner will be ready probably in an hour."

"We already pranked Beomseok..." I muttered, rubbing my eyes. We've been doing that every year too and – to our surprise – succeeding every time. He was still feeling offended and didn't talk to us.

"I'm not talking about that! The other usual stuff."

"Ah, this stuff." I yawned. "But we already told every story we knew."

When we were spending Christmas together, we've been telling each other a scary story based on Christmas. However, we ran out of ideas long time ago and it became boring.

"This year I have something pretty good," Chan whispered, switching off the lights, leaving only Christmas tree's lights on. This was like a signal to Beomseok to forgive us and to clung to the sofa beside me. Youngho patted his own cheeks to wake up and Jongil turned off the TV.

"This better be good," I said.

"A week ago I saw this on the Internet," Chanwoo began the story with his creepy smirk. "I didn't find the full story though. It interested me, so I asked my friends about it and one of them told me the ending.

It's called Dorm Alone. It was just like our case now: five youngsters stayed in their dorm on Christmas. Although they were university students, not idols like us, they were similarly close with each other. They planned to have some fun that night and after a few beers one of them came up with a game. It began like any other Ouija game, but later the nightmare began...

After they placed the board on the floor, they moved closer to each other and the originator said the intro formula, putting his hands on the wing, which was supposed to show the letters.

'Now, who wants to begin?' he asked with horror in his voice.

At the beginning everyone volunteered. The youngest went first.

'Are you with us?' he whispered, pretending to be scared, while the others burst out laughing.

There was silence after his words. 'See?' he laughed. 'I told you this is –'

Suddenly the wing moved. All boys, who had their fingers on the wing, looked at each other.

'You could warn, if you were to do it,' the oldest scolded his friends.

'I didn't do it,' the youngest said.

'Me neither.'

'Don't look at me! You know I'm a chicken, especially when I'm drunk...'

'It's not me.'

Because all of them denied, either one lied, or everyone told the truth. When the awkward silence continued, they decided to look at the board.

YES was the word under the glass of the wing.

'I have to tell you' the youngest said 'that it creeped me out a little, even though it's pretended.'

'Is it?'

'Yes! That's why –!'

Once more the deathly silence fell. The boys froze terrified. Neither of them said that.

There was one more person in their dorm.

'Are you trying to play trick on us again?' the oldest scolded the one sitting beside him, who was known to prank everyone almost every day.

'No, I swear!' he denied violently. He wanted to take his finger off the wing, but then it moved to the other answer:

NO.

'What is this!' the oldest planned to stand up, but the others pulled him down again. 'WHAT!?'

'Stay still!' the youngest hissed. 'You can't let go until you finish the questions!'

'Did YOU plan this!?'

'No! Just... wait a moment. Maybe one of the neighbors is pranking us, so let's finish it and beat him up.'

The oldest hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded and came back to the game.

'Are you alone?' the youngest continued.

This time the wing moved faster than before, which frightened the students, who surely couldn't react so quickly if it was pretended.

YES.

'Are... Are you angry?'

YES.

The boys glanced at each other unsure what to do.

'Why are you here?'

BECAUSE IT'S CHRISTMAS.

'So... what're you doing on Christmas?'

No movement worried them. After a while it formed another answer:

HUNTING.

The youngest wanted to ask what was he was hunting, but the others glared at him, so he stayed quiet.

'Why are you angry?' the quietest student asked suddenly, before he was stopped by his friends who wanted to avoid that question.

Then the wing moved so fast to each letter of the alphabet that the boys screamed, trying to move back, but their fingers were literally stuck to the wood. Four of them closed their eyes and opened them only when the quietest one gasped, which was unusual for him. He said the sentence he saw:

BECAUSE YOU WOKE ME UP.

'Why did we wake him up?' the youngest whispered with trembling voice. 'We didn't do a thing!'

'But we began the game...' the quietest said. 'And now we have to end it.'

'No way!' the oldest stood up violently, throwing the board away, which caused the wing to flew to the dark corner of the room.

Suddenly some of the lights on the Christmas tree blinked and burnt out. The students shrieked surprised.

'What did you do!' the quietest hissed.

'What!' the oldest outraged. 'I ended this stupid game!'

'You can't! Always greet and always say goodbye. That's the rule!'

'So what!? It's just a game!'

'YOU'RE WRONG.'

All of them froze again, when they heard the weird, low voice from before.

'Where are you!' the oldest shouted angry. 'Come out or I'll kill you, I swear!'

No answer. Instead, there was someone's heavy breathing. It was coming from the front door. The oldest went there courageously, even though the others tried to stop him. He looked out into the corridor, but there was no one. Some of the corridor's lights were burnt out too. There was only one blinking light left, three doors away from their dorm. The oldest cursed under his breath and wanted to come back inside, when he saw something.

He squinted his eyes. Did he imagine it? He could swear he saw a person under the blinking light. When the light blinked again, this time the oldest had no doubts.

Three doors away was standing some stooping man with an old, torn hat and cane. The oldest student wanted to ask if he was the one who pranked them, when the light blinked once more and the man suddenly disappeared.

The oldest got goosebumps. He quickly came inside the dorm and locked the front door. He turned around to his friends, who were standing next to each other, hugging.

'W... Where are you?' the oldest whispered, having some suspicions.

This time lack of the answer was the worst, because they heard the breathing again, but they couldn't guess from which side it was coming from.

'Where are you!' the oldest shouted with panic and anger at the same time.

### BEHIND YOU."

"OH MY GOD!" Beomseok suddenly shouted into my ear, when some lights on our Christmas tree burnt out as Chanwoo said strange man's answer.

Beomseok scared the hell out of me and Youngho. We jumped on Jongil, who groaned and pushed us on the floor. Chan wanted to continue, but he froze terrified too, looking at the tree.

"W-Where did you hear that story?" I muttered.

"It was on the Internet, but..." Chanwoo stopped when all of a sudden something started to creak. We looked up and saw the lamp was slightly moving.

"It was me," I calmed him down. "I hit it earlier."

"Ah, thank God... I mean, I hope you're okay."

"I'm okay."

"It was on the Internet, but it was cut in the middle, somewhere during the oldest student's walk toward the front door. The rest I heard from my friend."

"I don't really want to ask, but I think I have to," I said. "How it ends?"

"I just finished it. It ends with stranger's 'behind you'."

"Just like that? Without an explanation like any other scary stories have?"

"Oh my God!" This time it was Youngho.

"What now?" Jongil grumbled, rubbing his ear.

For some reason Youngho turned pale. "I heard about that kind of stories!" he gasped.

"What kind?" I asked confused.

"Only the ones based on facts are cut like that! If it's true, then –"

"You're saying I just told you a TRUE GHOST STORY!?" Chanwoo panicked, digging his nails into my arm.

"But it's still weird," I muttered, thinking. "There should be an explanation who the ghost was. Let's assume the students died, went crazy, or something. Who then told the story in the first place, if it was true?"

"That makes sense," Jongil sighed. "So don't panic."

Only when he said that, something fell next to the sofa and he screamed surprised, curling up. The thing that fell turned out to be an empty can of cola, that Jongil drank himself.

"Don't panic, huh?" I said sarcastically, smirking at our oldest and fearless group member.

"Shut up."

"I'm not sleeping today," Beomseok said.

"You're right. You're not sleeping in MY room. That's for sure."

"Oh no, I'm staying with you. I don't want to be alone."

"You're sharing room with Youngho. How is this being alone?"

"He's a coward."

"And I guess you're the hero then?" Youngho grumbled.

"You're both hopeless –OH MY GOD!" I shrieked when a fly passed my ear with a dreadful buzzing.

Before group members laughed at me, we heard another weird sound.

BREATHING.

There was a breathing sound coming from outside the front door. We all panicked. We tried to push each other to check it, but no one wanted, even Jongil. Eventually, we played rock-paper-scissors and Chanwoo lost.

"Are you sure you don't want to volunteer?" the youngest whispered desperately.

"We're quite sure. Go on."

"You're horrible!"

"It's your fault we're in this situation anyway, so be responsible." I showed him thumb up with serious face. "Fighting."

Chan swallowed hard and continued. When he reached the door, it turned out to be just a wind, whistling through a chink below. Chanwoo sat exhausted next to the door. He wanted to laugh, but then we heard footsteps coming from the corridor and froze again, listening.

The footsteps were echoing in the empty corridor in a creepy way. Suddenly they stopped somewhere near our door.

We played rock-paper-scissors once more and this time I lost and had to sacrifice myself, so I went slowly to the peephole. I looked through it and saw that the lights were on. Damn, we had lights that were turned on only when there was a movement. But there was no one in the corridor.

"No, I don't want to do it!" I groaned, but group members surprisingly fast founded themselves behind me and pushed me toward the peephole. I tried again. The lights were still on.

Suddenly a man in a hat straightened up just before the door, as if he emerged from the floor. I screamed and fell on my group members, who caught me and put me on my feet right away. Then the door opened by itself and the hoarse, low voice (which I imagined as the stranger's voice in Chan's story) said:

"Merry Christmas..."

We all shrieked, surprising the person behind the door. Then the 'stranger' came in and turned out to be our manager, who was carrying five gifts.

"Jeez, what's gotten into you!" he groaned, massaging his forehead, which he probably hit the door with.

"Oh my GOD!" I hissed and all five of us sat down. "Stop scaring us! And please, get rid of that ugly hat. It's the creepiest."

"Were you telling scary stories again?" He put the hat on a table with care, glaring at me, as if I insulted his best friend. "Sorry about my voice, I caught a cold. I came to you just to give you gifts and wish you a Merry Christmas."

And that was the end of our Christmas adventure. When manager and group members went to the kitchen, I looked through the peephole once more, just to chase away my vivid imagination. Now the corridor was dark. I sighed and laughed at myself.

However, when I wanted to join the others, I heard the footsteps and cane's tapping, even though the lights were still off.

I swallowed hard and walked away.

COMING NEXT

I opened my eyes and sat quickly, breathing fast. It was dark. I didn't switch off the lights, if I remembered correctly. Have group members returned? But I didn't see Chanwoo. I looked around and got goosebumps.

The door was open.

I tried to convince myself it was my imagination and maybe I didn't close the door when I went to sleep. I lay down, but something caught my eye. There was a strange shadow on the chair beside the desk. Knowing me and Chan, there could be just some hill of clothes. I reached to the bedside lamp, but it didn't work. Did the bulb burn out? Or maybe blackout. That would explain why all dorm was shrouded in darkness. I looked again at the chair and froze.

Now the shadow was standing next to the chair.

I frantically looked for my cell phone, in order to illuminate the room. After I found it, I tried to switch on the flashlight, but the phone didn't work at all. Out of battery? It was impossible, I charged it yesterday and surely didn't switch if off! I looked up and moved back with panic.

The shadow was standing next to me. With my every blink the shadow's hands were moving, reaching toward my head. Suddenly it brought out a weird and scary sound and I finally woke up.

I shrieked and sat violently. There was darkness around me again. I reached my hands out and touched... a wall? And the floor was cold, as if somewhere outside –!

I clung terrified to the wall.

Where the hell was I?!

TO BE CONTINUED...
About the author:

Scaredy-cat, fan of scary stories, unforeseen twists, Japanese, Korean and Chinese folklore and culture.

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Not weird enough?

In fact, one day the author is a modern ninja - who wants to discover all the secrets of the world (not only written ones), and another an ancient scholar - who loves to keep head in the clouds. Completely absorbed in fantasy and crime/horror, the author doesn't allow the reader to breathe even for a moment, because of emotional roller coaster.

The inspiration for stories comes from dreams, passion for Asian culture and vivid imagination, because of which even seeing a horror movie requires soundproof room.

Connect with me:

Follow me on Twitter: <https://twitter.com/LukaClaw>

Favorite me at Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lukaclaw
*Mini-dictionary:

V Live – a live video streaming service used by South Korean celebrities to communicate worldwide with their fans.

PD – Production Director.

'Fighting' – most of Korean artists have their own method of encouragement before the performance, for example saying/shouting 'Fighting!'.

**Notes:

Kyosuke Tsumiki, Urban Legend Detectives Case 1: The Merry's Mail, 2013.

