Yona didn't speak for a long time.
The question...Why didn't Lena get the message?wrapped itself around his mind like a fog. His grip on her hand loosened slightly.
Lena noticed. She looked at him, a quiet ache in her eyes, but said nothing.
Mia turned, already walking. "We should go. Now. If it's a place, we can find it before anyone else does."
Yona didn't move.
"Mia," he said slowly, "how did you know we'd be here?".
She stopped mid-step, not looking back. "I didn't."
"You came straight to us."
Mia exhaled through her nose, almost a sigh. "I got the image. Then I felt something. Like I should go to the bridge. You've never had that before?"
Yona glanced at Lena.
"No," he said.
Mia finally turned. Her expression was unreadable again, but something behind her eyes was shifting...tension, maybe. Or doubt.
"It's like we're being pulled," she whispered. "By something that remembers us better than we remember it."
Yona's breath caught.
Lena stepped between them, her voice firmer now. "Stop talking like that. You're scaring us. What do you mean?"
Mia's eyes flicked to her. "I mean… maybe the message didn't come from a person. Maybe it came from the place."
Yona flinched.
"The flower shop?" he asked.
Mia nodded once. "You saw it. You felt it. And Aria's voice... that message...'Help.' If she's alive, she's there. Or at least, she was."
"But it doesn't make sense," Lena said. "Why you two? Why not me?"
Mia's stare lingered on her again, colder now. "I don't know."
But Yona noticed the way she said it. Not like she didn't know...Like she wasn't sure if she should say.
"We go now," Mia added, "or we lose the trail."
The silence that followed was thick. The sky above them had grown darker, that storm-gray sinking into almost-night. Streetlights buzzed softly.
Yona finally let go of Lena's hand.
He didn't mean to.
But he did.
She blinked, lips parting slightly, the sudden emptiness between their palms louder than the wind.
"I'm coming with you," she said anyway.
Mia raised a brow. "Even though you weren't chosen?"
"I don't need a message to care," Lena answered sharply. "Daiki was my friend too. And Aria..."
She paused, quiet for a few seconds, then added, even softer, "And I have to be beside Yona too."
Mia stopped walking.
Turned slowly.
Her eyes locked on Yona.
Yona met her gaze.
A second passed..maybe two.
Then Mia turned her head and kept walking, saying nothing.
But her eyes had already said it.
Yona didn't know what it meant.
Not fully.
But it settled in his chest like a stone.
He gave a small nod. "Then let's go."
The three of them turned down the path, boots crunching over gravel and old leaves. The village faded behind them. With every step, the air felt colder. The shadows stretched longer. And that image blurry, broken, silent..burned in their memories like a warning or a promise.
None of them saw the flicker behind them.
The figure that stepped out from behind the tree once they were gone.
Hands in pockets.
Eyes glowing faintly in the dark..Watching, Waiting. And smiling.
The road twisted through the older part of the village, where trees leaned low over broken fences and street signs were barely legible beneath rust and time. No one came here much anymore, not since the flower shop closed, not since that last fire no one talked about.
The silence here wasn't just quiet.
It pressed.
Mia walked ahead, steady and sure, her flashlight cutting through the thickening dark. Yona followed close, fingers clenched around the phone in his pocket. Lena walked just behind, her breath shallow, her steps cautious.
They reached the alley by the old train yard..the shortcut they all used to take as kids when they dared each other to explore.
Yona slowed. "I haven't been this way since…"
"Since Aria showed us the shortcut," Mia finished.
No one spoke for a while.
Then Lena whispered, "Why here?"
Mia didn't answer at first. She pointed her flashlight forward, the beam falling over an old, padlocked gate barely hanging from one hinge.
"Because that room," she said, "with the mattress, the walls, the tag… it wasn't the flower shop itself."
Yona tensed. "Then what was it?"
Mia crouched near the edge of the fence, reaching through to push it aside. "It was the storage under it. You don't remember? Back in middle school, Aria dared Daiki to climb through that broken basement window to find ghost orchids?"
Yona's eyes widened. A memory flickered..flashlight beams bouncing off cracked tiles, Daiki laughing as he disappeared into a gap in the wall, Aria calling after him.
"I thought that place caved in," he said.
Mia stood. "Not enough, apparently."
They stepped through the crooked opening and followed the narrow gravel path to the back of the abandoned flower shop. The building stood like a forgotten memory, windows boarded, vines creeping up its side like veins.
Lena clutched her arms tighter. "I don't likethisn."
Yona touched her arm gently. "Stay close."
Mia didn't hesitate..she moved along the side of the building, toward the half-buried storm door.
It was open.
Just slightly.
As if waiting.
Yona felt the breath leave his chest. He took a step closer, the air colder now, and looked down.
There was something painted on the door.
Three symbols. Faded. Familiar.
He blinked.
It was the old pact mark they used to draw in notebooks. Aria's design. Three eyes in a circle.
He looked at Mia. She stared back at him.
"It's still here," she said. "Like someone kept it alive."
They pushed the door open.
The smell hit first..mold, damp concrete, something sour.
Then the silence.
It wasn't empty.
But it wasn't full either.
They descended the narrow stairs, Lena's hand tight around Yona's sleeve. The flashlight cut a narrow beam through the thick, still air, revealing peeling paint, cracked concrete, and an eerie familiarity in every corner.
Then—the room.
Exactly like the photo.The mattress.The graffiti.
The faint glow leaking from beneath the back door.
Yona stared. "It's real…"
Mia took a few slow steps inside. Her light hovered over the mattress, then paused on the floor beside it.
Something had been moved recently. A faint scuff. A shoe print.
Yona turned to Lena, his voice soft. "This is where the picture was taken."
Lena nodded, pale. "Then someone else was here. Maybe still is."
They barely had time to take another step when they heard it...Footsteps.
From the stairwell.
All three of them turned sharply toward the entrance, Mia raising the flashlight like a weapon.
A shadow moved near the top.
And then—She appeared.
Her face was flushed from the cold, strands of hair sticking out from her hood. Her eyes scanned the room, wide, alert..then locked on them.
She froze.
"…Yona?"
Yona's heart leapt into his throat. "Ayumi?"
She stepped forward slowly, lowering the scarf from her mouth. "I didn't think anyone else would come here. I've been watching this place all week."
Mia's expression hardened. "Watching it? Why?"
Ayumi's gaze flicked to her, then back to Yona. "Because I saw something here. nights ago. I wasn't sure what I was looking at. Until I saw the same photo you did."
Yona stepped closer. "You got it too?"
She nodded. "I thought it was a prank at first. But then I remembered… this place. And Daiki."
She hesitated, glancing around the room like it held something sacred.
"I used to come here with him. Before things got weird."
Lena stepped forward now, her voice quiet. "Then… why didn't you say anything?"
Ayumi looked at her, then to Mia, then finally met Yona's eyes again.
"Because I didn't know who I could trust."
Silence fell.
Then Lena spoke, firmer now, her voice trembling slightly. "Aria and Daiki were my friends too."
She paused, swallowing thickly.
"…And I have to be beside Yona too."
The words echoed softly.
Mia turned slightly, looking at Yona for a long moment.
Yona looked back at her...silent, unsure what she was thinking.
But Mia said nothing.
She just turned her head again and walked further into the room.
Her eyes had said enough.
Ayumi followed them inside, finally lowering her bag to the ground.
"They were here," she said. "Daiki for sure. I don't know if he left on his own."
She walked toward the back door and placed her palm flat against it.
"It's not locked. But I haven't gone through."
Yona stepped beside her.
"Then we go now," he said.
Ayumi looked up at him.
Her eyes, clearer now, held something fragile behind the strength..regret, maybe. Or guilt
But she nodded.
And slowly, she opened the door, And stepped through the door first.
The shadows seemed to fold around her like curtains as she disappeared into the unknown.
Mia hesitated only for a second. Her hand brushed the doorframe, then she turned..just briefly..glancing back at Yona and Lena. Her eyes lingered, saying something unspoken. And then she followed Ayumi, stepping into the dark, until her figure vanished completely behind it.
The door remained slightly ajar.
Silent.
Lena froze.
Then, suddenly, her hand shot out and gripped Yona's tightly..so tightly that he winced, pain flashing across his face.
"Lena…?" he said, startled.
She didn't answer at first. Her gaze was locked forward..on the black mouth of the open doorway, where Ayumi had just disappeared.
Her lips trembled as she finally whispered, "Yona… please… don't go in there."
Yona turned fully toward her, searching her face. Her eyes were wide, glassy, scared in a way that made his chest tighten.
He touched her cheek gently. "You're scared."
She didn't deny it. Her jaw quivered slightly.
"But we have to do this," he said, voice quiet but steady. "We don't have a choice anymore."
Lena's eyes filled with something..grief, courage, maybe both. And then, before he could say anything else, she moved.
She kissed him.
Soft but urgent.
His eyes widened in shock..his breath held still between them.
Then she pulled away slowly, looked into his eyes.ķô⁷
"I love you, Yona."
He stared at her, stunned..still holding her hand.
And then, almost in a whisper, he said, "I won't leave you. Okay?"
His fingers curled around hers. "We're going in. Together."
Lena gave the smallest nod.
And without another word, they stepped forward..toward the door that swallowed Ayumi and Mia.
Together, hand in hand, they crossed into the darkness.
Behind them, the air fell silent.
And ahead?
A flicker of dim light.
The scent of damp concrete.
As the heavy door creaked closed behind Yona and Lena, the darkness inside swallowed them whole...still, dense, and humming with something unseen.
Their footsteps echoed for a moment… then faded into silence.
A breath passed.
Then—just behind the door, in the very spot they had stood seconds ago..someone else stepped forward from the shadows of the room.
He had been there all along..Still and Watching.
He moved slowly, the sound of his shoes barely touching the cracked tiles. His hands rested in the pockets of his coat, shoulders relaxed as though he had all the time in the world. The air around him grew tight, like the room itself recognized him.
His face was hidden under the dim, shifting light from an old wall lamp, but his voice slid out like silk:
"Finally," he whispered, smiling faintly. "Everything will get to its place."
He looked toward the door Yona and Lena had just passed through, eyes gleaming with something unreadable.
The same door Ayumi had entered. The same one Mia vanished behind.
His head tilted slightly.
He wasn't surprised. Not even curious.
Just waiting.
As if he had been part of this long before any of them remembered it.
Then, under his breath, like speaking to the walls themselves, he muttered:
"Yona… you're still chasing shadows, aren't you? Still walking blind."
He walked slowly toward the center of the room where their footprints still marked the dust.
"They keep following the past like it'll forgive them. But this time…" He paused.
"This time, the story's not theirs to write."
He turned his head just a little, as if listening...like something on the other side of the door had answered.
Then he smiled.
A quiet, dangerous kind of smile.
"Let it begin."
And just like that, the light above flickered, and he was gone.
To be continue ....