"Even flowers rot if left in the dark too long."
---
Jung Yena didn't sleep.
Even after the kiss.
Even after Haejin left — wordless, breathless, like the moment had scared him too.
She stayed curled in the hallway, watching the door long after it closed.
The camellia fridge hummed behind her.
She swore it was whispering.
---
FLASHBACK — Three years ago
Yena's hands were shaking.
Rain poured like punishment.
She clutched a single camellia — white, soaked in red.
Not hers.
Someone's footsteps ran past the alley — heavy, stumbling.
A shadow. A hood. A glint of something in their hand.
Yena wanted to call out.
But her voice was gone.
She looked down at the note crushed in her fist.
"If anything happens to me — it wasn't an accident."
— Doyun.
---
PRESENT DAY
Morning came grey and thick.
At the shop, Mr. Nam was already restocking the front display.
"Did you sleep here again?" he asked without turning.
Yena didn't answer.
He glanced at her — eyes too sharp for someone so quiet.
"You're starting to look like your mother," he muttered.
She froze. "You knew her?"
A beat.
"Everyone in this neighborhood knew her. Some owed her. Some feared her."
"What about you?"
He paused, arranging petals with unnecessary care.
"I still owe her."
Then he handed her a tiny brown envelope.
No name. No stamp. Just… a pressed petal inside.
And a date.
Three days from now.
Yena's fingers trembled.
"What is this?"
But Mr. Nam was already turning away.
"Some things bloom late," he said. "Others… were buried alive."
---
Meanwhile… at Seri's apartment
She replayed the voicemail again.
"Seri, it's me. I need you to stop looking into this.
Please. Just leave it alone. If they know you know—"
Then static.
Then silence.
The message had been deleted from her phone the same night Doyun died.
But Seri had saved it — one backup, hidden.
And now it had started glitching.
Corrupted.
Like someone didn't want her remembering it at all.
---
Unknown Location
The man in the car no longer sat alone.
Beside him — a girl in a red coat.
Dayeon.
She looked pale. Distant.
"You said it was just to scare her," she said.
The man lit another match.
"And now?" he asked.
Dayeon's voice was cold.
"…Now I think she needs to be stopped."
---
Back at the flower shop
That night, Yena stood in the storage room, staring at the camellia fridge.
She opened it slowly.
The box from years ago still sat on the bottom shelf — hidden under wrappings and dried stems.
She hadn't opened it in three years.
But tonight, something told her she had to.
Her fingers trembled as she peeled it open… and there they were:
A crumpled note stained with blood, a single dried camellia petal crushed between tissue, and a small silver flash drive — something she had never noticed before.
Her heart lurched.
She clutched the items to her chest, the words coming back to her like thunder in her ears:
"If anything happens to me…"
The voice echoed again.
And this time, she didn't flinch.
---
Haejin stood alone, phone in hand.
He was watching a video.
Doyun.
Recording himself.
"Appa's hiding something. And if I die — it's not because I gave up.
It's because someone made sure my truth died with me."
Haejin's breath caught.
Someone had just forwarded him the file.
No name.
Just a caption:
"She's waking up."