It was the same. Everything. The place, the surroundings, the same gentle but eerie wind.

This time, her father wasn't there. She took a shaky step forward, afraid another hand was going to pull her down. But there was none. She was able to walk freely.

Lia ran. The place was somewhere unknown, with dried up overgrown grass and thick trees, it was a maze. Lia knew wherever she ran, there was no end to it.

It wasn't reality.

Way out or not, she stil ran. What if there was something that could lead her to the truth? There was something missing. A puzzle piece. That piece was all she needed to understand.

She stops when something descends from above, a black feather. A familiar face appeared in her mind, and she takes a closer look at the feather.

Slowly, the black feather changes into a different colour, the tip of it slowly turning into snow white.

+++

"It's December now," Jisoo whispers "time flies so fast huh."

Lia laughs, "You sound like you're growing old."

"I do feel like it." Jisoo laughs, stuffing a french toast in his mouth. Lia shakes her head and enjoys their breakfast Jisoo made. Surprisingly, he was a good cook. She wasn't really sure if she was surprised or not at his cooking skills. As a family boy, he's always helped his mom in the kitchen.

"Wanna go somewhere today?" Jisoo asks her. Lia's thoughts travelled towards the abandoned library that she had to explore in her brother's cafe, but she couldn't go with Jisoo there. She didn't want to.

"No, not really." Lia hums, getting up to put the dishes in the sink.

"I want to go somewhere." Jisoo tells her in a soft tone.

"Where to?"

"I'd like to meet your father."

+++

The cemetery was less eerie during the day, of course. It hasn't started snowing yet, but the air was cold when they went outside. Lia breathed in, trying to calm her nerves.

She's never even visited her father before. She didn't have the strength to.

"You ready?" Jisoo asks her, holding his hand out for her to reach. Lia nods quickly, taking his hand gratefully. Jisoo needed to be extra careful; he knew it was her first time seeing her father after the incident, and that was why he was there with her.

A bouquet of flowers in one hand and gripping Jisoo's hand tightly with the other, Lia took slow but long strides. She wasn't sure what to feel. She lost her parents, they were murdered, and the reason was still unknown even to this day. So what?

They were almost there. Lia had this urge to tell Jisoo to turn around and go back, but she wanted to go too. She didn't want to have any regrets.

Jisoo gives her hand a slight squeeze, encouraging her. He could feel her hands turn sweaty and they were starting to tremble, very unusual for him to see her that way. She's cried but never showed this side of her to Jisoo before.

They stood in front of a tombstone.

"Mr. Choi," Jisoo starts instead of Lia "your daughter's finally here to see you."

Lia gives Jisoo a look, her eyes pleading for something but Jisoo tilts his head towards her father.

"Dad, I'm back," Lia says awkwardly, searching for places to look at "I'm sorry I didn't visit you as soon as I got here. I just felt like if I did, things would have been even more worse for my emotions."

"I'm sorry you had to die this way," Lia squeezes Jisoo's hand "we didn't even get to know the reason of your death. It wasn't a coincidence, dad. I'm sure it wasn't. Nobody would do such a thing to you."

"I found your journals," she sucked in a sharp breath before continuing "you….wrote a lot of weird stuff. At that time, you probably already knew what was going to come and started to study everything. I just missed you, dad. You disappeared with all your things and nobody was there to tell me stories anymore."

"Thanks to you, I've discovered that not only humans live in this world. You're amazing, dad. You really are." Jisoo gives her a glance and he could see there were already tears streaming down her cheeks.

"You taught me a lot of things, dad, and I never even got to say thank you or goodbye before you left," Lia says, Jisoo patting her back to comfort her.

"Mr. Choi, from now on, I shall take great care of your daughter. I'll protect her, I promise." Jisoo wipes her tears away with his thumb, and helps her get up.

Lia was still unable to say anything, her nose red and runny and her eyes swollen. Jisoo hands her some tissues, and they both bid goodbye towards Lia's father.

"Do you feel relieved now?" Jisoo asks her as they walk, his eyes on an old couple walking by. Lia just nods in reply.

"It's good that you said everything." Jisoo smiles, Lia returning it with a giggle when he pinches her cheek.

The truth was that Lia didn't even get to say the slightest bit of everything. She wanted to know everything, even if it was just talking to a tombstone. She wanted to ask where he got all the information from and how he carried out his investigations. She was curious if he's ever met an angel before, considering the fact that the entries he wrote were always intense.

There were so many questions left unanswered. The journal itself was not enough.

"Jisoo, I'm going to head out for a bit."

"Oh wait, I'll come with yo-"

"It's okay, you head home first," Lia tells him, and Jisoo had no choice but to agree. He had a slightly hurt look on his face, but Jisoo shook it off. She gives him a peck on the cheek before running off, which left both of them flustered because of the public.

Lia stopped by a convenience store on the way to get some coffee. Her hand suddenly bumped into another, who was also aiming for the last cup. Sbe looks at a man dressed in all black beside her, with unbelievably amazing fashion sense even with all black, and incredibly silky long, black hair, which reminded her of Jeonghan's, but only longer.

"Hello," He suddenly greets her, flashing her a smile "I've seen you before. Are you friends with Jeonghan?"

"F-friends?" Lia asks back.

'Could he be Jeonghan's brother?'  Were the words that echoed in her own head.

"Um no, not really. We don't have any connections but we know each other." She lies. What is up with this stranger asking random stuff?

"Hmm~ well I guess that's how you see it then," The male smiles and shoves his hand inside his jacket's pocket "that boy still loves you, though. What a waste of emotions."

Lia's eyes widened. This man knows about their relationship.

"Well, there's nothing much he can do other than watch anyway, although he'll get the punishment." He says again, leaving Lia still as speechless.

"I should go now," The male taps his fedora "see you again."

Lia grabs onto his coat, "Wait what do you mean by punishm-"

"I can't tell darling, I have errands to run. Great time talking to you!" The man with the black hair leaves, leaving her dumbfounded. Her eyes found their way back to the coffee, only to see it gone.

This blockhead even took her coffee.

+++

"Hey Chan, who's that?"

"Yeah, she's been staring at us for a while now, it's scary."

Chan looks at the figure leaning against the brick wall in front of his school gate, his eyes widening.

"Noona?!" He yells, so loud that other students that were walking past him turning around to look at him. His friends were confused, too.

"Who's that cute chick? You know her? Your girlfriend?" His friend elbows him.

Chan could feel the heat going up to his face, "She's not! Anyway, can't hang out with you guys today, sorry!" He runs off, leaving his two friends behind.

The two friends stare at Chan's back, "So he's the noona type huh."

"Either way, that dude's gonna get dumped again, like always." Says another, and they walk away, laughing.

Meanwhile, Chan was out of breath from running towards Lia.

"I thought you were the captain of the track team?" Lia jokingly hits his head, Chan groaning in pain.

"Who said I was? I'm in the modern dance club!" Chan whines, and that is the exact reason why he can't get a girlfriend.

"Jeez, sorry," Lia rolls her eyes, and finally eyed Chan from head to toe "What's up with the lousy hairstyle? Who allowed you to grow taller than me?"

"This is style, noona." He points at his parted hair "and I drank lots of milk to grow taller than you! I'm a giant now!" Chan tells her smugly, and Lia acted like she wasn't as impressed.

"Whatever. Don't you have plans with your friends? Where were you guys going?"

"Arcade," Chan answers simply "but since you're here I'd rather talk about stuff with you. You haven't visited in a long time!"

"You were busy with your exams, kid. Didn't want to bother you." Lia answers "where should we go today?"

Chan's face lit up, "I know this really nice place that serves western food! The toast there is seriously good!"

"Let's go then." Lia smiles.

+++

"Aw man, but I wanted that one." Chan pouts, looking at the picture that was labelled as 'unavailable' on the menu. It was his favourite toast, too.

"I'll get a cappuccino, please." Lia says, remembering the strange coffee incident.

"Noona, where have you been? It's been so long," Chan says.

In a slump, was what her mind told her, but she didn't want to let Chan know.

"Nothing much, really. I kinda followed Seungcheol hyung overseas sometimes." Lia bluffed.

"No fair, I want to go overseas too," Chan whines again, resting his chin on his hand "are you and Jeonghan hyung still together?"

It took Lia a five second pause before answering the question, "We're in good terms." She didn't want Chan to worry.

"Hm, as expected of you both…I kinda knew it already though," Chan hums, thanking the waiter for serving his ice cream. Lia couldn't believe he actually believed her.

"You guys were probably already planning on moving into an apartment together by now," Chan wiggles his eyebrows, and Lia couldn't help but give this look of disgust and disapproval.

Lia snorts, "As if Seungcheol hyung would ever let me do that."

"That's such a waste though," Chan swallows his scoop of ice cream straight away "you guys could spend time 28/5 together that way." Lia rolls her eyes. This kid is talking like he's got experience.

"Well, why haven't you got a girlfriend?" Lia shot back, and Chan literally started choking and punching his chest with his fist, coughing. That was payback.

"I-I did say I was busy with entrance exams," Chan mumbles, looking away. Lia laughs at his priceless reaction.

+++

"Ahh I feel good today, I haven't hung out with my friends out either. So consider yourself lucky to get to hang out with me today." Chan wiggles his eyebrows, and Lia lightly hits him on the head, laughing. It was a good day.

"In the end I had to pay for everything," says Lia, shoving her purse back inside her bag "money doesn't grow on trees, y'know."

"I'm a growing boy, I have to eat a lot!" Chan says with enthusiasm. Both of them end up laughing again.

"Noona, you taking the subway?" Chan asks her. His house wasn't that far from the area they were walking in. Apparently Chan had told her that he moved out of Wonwoo and Mingyu's house for well, specific reasons, and that he was renting a house on his own.

It wasn't hard living on his own, Chan says, though he gets lonely and buries himself under the blanket whenever thunder strikes. But he got to concentrate on his studies even more and he took it as an advantage. Listening to Chan's school life made Lia happy in general. He's such a bright kid.

"You know noona, i-if Jeonghan hyung gets mad at you or anything, I'm uh, a-always here." Chan stutters, and Lia froze for a moment, trying to hold her laughter in. Failing, Lia burst out laughing at the poor child.

"Stop laughing!" Chan says, displeased.

Lia wipes the tears from laughing intensely away, "Oh god, I just remembered you said the same thing months ago."

Chan was really dependable. He's the best when it comes to comforting people, and Lia appreciated that.

"Say Chan, why don't you go protect another girl other than me? I still have a lot of other people I can depend on." Lia says, Seungcheol and Hansol and Jisoo in her brain.

"W-well I just don't have the heart to do that," Chan tells her, shoving his hands into the pockets of his trousers "besides, I'd like to see you happy."

Lia laughs and jokes, "Oh god, don't tell me you actually like me, Chan?"

That boy suddenly stopped in tracks, and Lia had to turn around to see what was wrong. Chan was red like a tomato, and his gaze was wavering from here to there.

Bingo? Lia thought.

"I-it's not like I l-like you or anything." Chan stutters again, making it harder for Lia to actually believe him "I just- it's just that Jeonghan hyung caused a lot of trouble for you in the past, and I just wanted to be of help to you."

Lia wasn't 100% convinced by his answer, but oh well. The kid's growing up. He'll learn.

"Thanks for dropping me to the station," Lia pats his back "text me more next time! It feels like you've deleted my contact or something."

"I haven't!"  Chan says protectively "but I'll make sure I will. See ya noona!" He runs off, leaving Lia smiling.

Before she goes down the stairs, she hears the same voice.

"Tell Jeonghan hyung to be more posessive before I steal his girl away!!!"

"Whatever!"

-----------------------------------

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