"Are you sure about his study? We got into it so easily. Are you sure this is his study?" Sung Ki was seated on the floor, holding Yoon Soo's hand who was frightened as well. Both of them looked at Oh Na Rae who stood against the window.

She had opened the curtains. Even though the window could not be opened, the moonlight made the room they were in clearly visible.

The family of three truly had not encountered a single problem. The minute they had started running towards Namjoon's study, they had reached it perfectly safely without any unusual delay. The door unlocked normally and since then had been closed properly as well.

In the room, they found they could not hear any other sounds from the house.

It had been close to half an hour now, and nothing untoward had happened to them nor had they heard anything strange coming from the outside. Nothing at all. Not only were they miraculously sheltered from the eerie occurring, even the bitter cold dispersed in every corner of the mansion remained conspicuously absent from this room as well.

Still, they did not have the courage to go out to take a peek at the situation outside.

"Mother?" Yoon Soo prompted Oh Na Rae again when she did not answer. Because this room, did not have any resemblance to any type of study that a top tier financial player like Joon could be imagined to have.

The floor was fitted with an incredibly soft carpet, with 4 sets of plush sofa set in the middle forming a square, a low black glassed coffee table in the middle. Three walls of the room had racks built in, with one wall having the window with the curtains.

Placed in the corners were small tables with candles and a few vases in their center. A long, sturdy mahogany desk with a chair stood majestically at the far end of the room, the only piece of furniture that could be classified in the category of furnishings, a study should have.

But the desk was clear, without any folders, littered only with pens.

The racks on the wall were completely empty, not even a small decorative item placed on its lonely boards.

"It is." Oh Na Rae spoke quietly, her unseeing eyes lost in the sight of past while overlooking the grounds, "It was the room he spent his most time in."

Sung Ki made a disgruntled sound, "Look at him!! My master's study was brimming with his work. I had a hard time keeping everything organized as well as within reach because he continuously worked so hard even while in home that his study looked more like a hub, the very core of his company. And what of his son? Nothing! After all, how could he ever be as dedicated to work as my Master had been? Not even a single shred of paper can be seen here even though this room has not been touched in terms of being cleared out by his uncle."

Oh Na Rae remained silent while her husband went about talking about Joon's shortcomings. Their son too never tried to correct or stop his father even though he knew they were present in his house, while facing his unleashed ghost.

Because Yoon Soo understood what his frightened father was actually doing.

He was comforting himself, trying to convince his own guilt and remorse by justifying his own actions that led to this moment when he feared his death.

By using any small actions, any meaningless acts.

Because.

He was afraid.

Na Rae let her husband finish and stop for a few minutes before she spoke, "This was his country house. Rarely did he come here, only when he wanted to rest. This room is a study for all the purpose of serving a label to outsiders." With a bitter voice, she said, "In reality, this room was a shrine."

"A shrine?"

Closing her eyes, Na Rae wearily whispered, "He came back. Even in his death, why? Why does he still not recognize it?" her whisper held a thread of strong pain, "Why?"

"Mother, What shrine? Did he worship any occult? Is that why—"

Yoon Soo stopped when he heard his mother's pained laughter soaked in profound hurt coming from deep within her.

"Worship? Yes. Yes, he did." Na Rae whispered with a steel edge of mockery in her tone, "She was his Goddess, his Queen, His religion. She had become his Master."

Eyes brimming with unshed tears she looked around the empty racks and the walls, "Every photograph he had taken of her, every single photograph of them together, used to grace this room. These walls, had portraits of them." With an indrawn breath of resentment, she continued, "And in every single one of those images, she was always smiling straight ahead, while he. . ."

Walking towards the desk, she touched the surface which was covered with numerous scratches, countless gouges, deep cracks, ". . .he— his eyes were only ever on her." Na Rae traced one deep crack, "He treasured those moments and those pictures like a dragon guarding its gold. If she was present, he would exist for her. He never smiled in any of those photographs, but the adoration glowing from his eyes which rested on her bright beauty, was blinding, even with his cold aura."

"Soft pansy of a playboy!! For love?? How did my Master's son turn out like this??" Sung Ki angrily scoffed but the reply from his wife silenced him again.

"You mean the pansy who killed his father?" she looked straight at her husband, "The pansy whose violent outbursts of suppressing his obsession in split moments of mere seconds still left its traces on this wooden desk indicates a meek behavior?"

Curiously, she asked the last question,

"Do you truly have the conscience to say how he turned out the way he did?"

Yoon Soo, who had been silently listening to his parents till now, stood up. He turned and bent down towards his father, and prompted him to stand as well, assisting him in the required action. Holding his father's hand, both approached Oh Na Rae who was standing beside the desk.

"Mother?" Yoon Soo asked while his head remained bent over the gouges and cracks splintering the huge mahogany, "Given what had happened, and what is happening now, is that question important?"

Na Rae thought for a while before speaking, "I suppose you are right. No matter what, no reason can undo the past sea of misery creating the being he is now. Only if you can turn back time."

"You know his history? Everything?"

For the first time in many years, she revealed a genuine smile, nostalgic with quiet joy, "I am the only one alive who knows everything that happened to him Yoon Soo. I was there with him every step of those cruel path he was forced to walk on. I walked with him, always behind him by a few steps."

Yoon Soo hummed, then mused, "Then I suppose, you are useful."

Oh Na Rae blinked and frowned, not really catching what her son meant. She looked at him, still tracing the cracks on the desk, when her husband shouted with a horrified expression.

"NOOO!!! WHATS HAPPENING!!!!!"

Sung Ki's hand involuntarily grabbed the nape of his son, holding it with a crushing force. Terrified, he cried out in alarm, exerting his whole strength in an attempt to let go, failing that, to just move away, but his body was stuck in one place, his hand still clenching on Yoon Soo's nape.

Then, in a sweep of a terrorizing brutal force, Sung Ki's hand mercilessly crashed his son's head on the desk.

THUD!

Oh Na Rae and Sung Ki himself screamed in horror, as blood dripped from the impact of their son's head being banged hard against the desk.

Sung Ki kept screaming, but his hand still kept its tight grasp on Yoon Soo's nape.

Oh Na Rae ran towards her husband, jumping to grab his hand and pry them away from her son, while Sung Ki kept screaming, "MY HANDS!! TAKE MY HANDS OFF!! TAKE THEM OFF!!!!"

Their frantic actions froze with a glacial flood of avalanche when Yoon Soo chuckled.

"Seems you really do love this body."

Like a patch of dry parched soil absorbing a drop of water and making its trace disappear, a fleeting sense of terrible, overwhelming horror soaked itself in their souls, their bodies unmoving even at the impact of peaking realization.

Yoon Soo continued talking in that gentle, calm voice, "Little Fruit wants to know about my past." He raised his head inch by inch, then turned his face to the side to look at them. Blood dripped from his forehead, its dark trails running downs his eyes, past his cheeks, "Will you go tell her about me Narie?"

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Hearing that name from her son's lips made Oh Na Rae weak in her knees while her heart thumped heavily. Unconsciously she let go of her hands that tried to help her husband as she stared with wide eyes at her bloody, smiling son.

"Take the diaries, they are still in the drawer." Yoon Soo turned back to face the front, "Do your best Narie, and I will spare your son."

THUD!

"NOOOOOO!!!!!" Sung Ki cried out again as his hand banged his son's head hard on the desk with more force than before, the spot where Yoon Soo's head came in contact with the desk, having a smattered puddle of deep scarlet ruby liquid.

With agonized eyes crying at the terrible fear surging in his veins, Sung Ki yelled at Oh Na Rae, "GO!!!! TAKE THE DIARIES AND RUN TO ANYA!!!! GO!!!! LEAVE BEFORE THAT FIEND MAKES ME KILL MY OWN SON!!!!!"

"Yes. . . Yes. . ." Shaken, scared, terrified and. . . deeply pained, Na Rae stumbled to cross to the other side of the desk, accurately opening the side drawer. There, a stack of diaries lay inconspicuously clean and tidy.

Scooping up the pile, Na Rae looked fleetingly at the face of her bloodied son smiling at her with demonic humour then turned to click at the hidden switch on the desk, which had been unresponsive since they entered the room.

This time though, it made a sound of mechanic whirr, the panel behind the desk wall sliding open to expose the hidden door to the basement parking.

Na Rae ran through it, her thoughts all jumbled, her panic adding to her adrenaline as she reached the other end to the parking, rushing straight up towards the mansion gate, which swung open to let her head towards the Beach House, only a few kilometers away.

As her body pushed the limits to run without a care, all her mind could keep repeating in a loop was just the one question.

Why?

WHY?

Back in the study when the hidden panel shut close, the force holding the will of Sung Ki hostage abruptly lifted as well. With the constant effort he had been exerting to get his hand to leave his son's body, Sung Ki fell down when he was suddenly released.

"FATHER!" Yoon Soo too fell down, holding his face in his palms, body wrecked with the throbbing agony of pain. His hands covering his face, quickly turned slippery with blood, his transparent tears losing its colour in the pool of red.

Sung Ki caught up fast with what transpired, raising himself immediately on his knees as he crawled as fast as he could to get to his son, cradling him in his arms, "Yoon Soo! Yoon Soo! I am so sorry!!! Are you alright?? Speak to me!" his worried voice carrying the distress a parent would feel over their child's hurt.

"I could have died."

"I could have died."

"I could have died."

Yoon Soo, kept repeating the one sentence.

Since his childhood till the time now, even though he had not been born in the lap of luxury, none of his requests or tantrums had ever been unfulfilled. He grew up with a carefree surrounding untouched by the sense of affliction. Never had he dealt with the consequence of what his actions could bring.

He had remained untouched by even the possibilities of the harsh realities that exists to define the balance of life.

When the reality of death, true demise, brushed over such a person for the first time in his life, it altered him at a level where only his true self, his base personality remained, extinguishing any conscious intelligence capable of formulating a situation with rationality.

The chair behind the desk creaked.

"How very touching."

"STAY AWAY FROM MY SON YOU MONSTER!" No fear, no sense of horror remained in Sung Ki when faced with a threat to his son. He shielded Yoon Soo in his arms as he raised his gaze and looked at Joon with unflinching hatred, "Master should have killed you the day you were born! Your birth brought nothing but disaster for the Kang family!!"

Namjoon did not even look at the huddled pair, his gaze preoccupied, his fingers scratching at the familiar handiwork of destructive patterns on the surface of the desk.

The air around him condensed to a chilling cold, but it didn't permeate the room, as if, he was willingly keeping it from spreading. Joon bent down to the last drawer and opened it.

Inside, was a glass picture frame with a photograph in it.

It had been taken two years back, a few months after the death of his father. He had taken his Blueberry and her friends to an apple orchard, So Hyun had taken the picture when he and Anya had been trying to collect apples in their basket.

Joon laid that frame on the table, gazing at the moment captured for eternity inside a piece of paper.

A piece of paper, which for any stranger might just be a picture of a stunningly beautiful raven haired girl clasping the hand of a tall, somber and expressionless man with both her palms, smiling softly into his eyes, surrounded by the woods of apple trees.

But for him?

This photograph represented his entire existence. The reason for his being.

Their Unspoken Vow, stronger and more binding than any red string of destiny.

His thumb caressed Anya's smiling face, as he whispered, "Don't hate me. When you know it all, don't abandon me."

Because even if you do, I wont let you go. I will never let you leave me.

"WHO WILL EVER NOT HATE A MANIPULATIVE MONSTER LIKE YOU? Who in their sane minds would want to keep a devil like you close?? Who, would ever accept a viciously evil ghost???" Sung Ki burned with hatred, "When she learns of just how disgraceful you have been in your life, of how much of a failure you were, just how useless you had been, do you think she will appreciate the way she had been with you? Master was right!! NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE A TWISTED MONSTER LIKE YOU!"

Joon frowned a little, lifting his head to gaze at Sung Ki with a mildly ticked off expression.

"You never did like me, did you?" he asked curiously as he rested back on the chair, his fingers never ceasing to caress the woman in the picture.

Looking at the imposing aura he exuded, Sung Ki's courage began dispersing little by little. Still, he pushed his chin up as he answered,

"You were never the son my Master wanted. Since you were a child, you disappointed him, continuously. You were never worthy of being liked!"

Joon nodded thoughtfully, his scarlet eyes roaming about the empty room. "And your son?"

"He has never been anything like you! He has always loved me, worshipped me. Given me the respect a father deserves, unlike you!! He would never even imagine, what you actually did to your father!!"

The Black suit coat he wore contrasted with the pale cold skin, the silver rims of his glasses projecting the image of a lethally dangerous being keeping his powers in leash.

With a small smile, Joon casually said, "Do you know? My Blueberry is never wrong."

He looked back at the picture in his hand, "She told me, that monsters are never born. They are created. Whereas wicked and foul people, carry their diseased existence since the moment they open their eyes in this world."

A sudden gust of force tore Sung Ki from Yoon Soo, pushing him back to slam at the opposite wall, his body pinned in a posture where he remained standing stiff and straight.

"She said, corrupt and foul people can never have purity or love around them. Because they infect the people close to them with their sordid and selfish nature making them equally corrupt."

Finding himself bereft of the comfort and a sense of safety, Yoon Soo started crying with fear again, while Sung Ki shouted, "Are you calling me to be that kind of a person?"

"Lets test that, shall we?" Joon drawled.

A vase resting at the corner of a table crashed on the ground, the biggest shard of glass sliding towards Yoon Soo and stopping right before him. He whimpered at the small movement, fear of dying clogging his mind again.

Joon carefully laid the picture back inside the drawer, shutting it away before leaning forward on the desk and speaking to Yoon Soo. His voice, splintered into multiple pitches.

"Kill your father, and I will let you go."

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THE BEACH HOUSE :

So Hyun scowled hard, "WHY am I the one stuck with cleaning when we ALL made the mess??"

Unbothered by his outburst, Anya and Mira kept on sipping their coffee while Soyeon growled back, "By mess you mean cooking??? Guess what hotshot? WHO among us was the person who made a dish soooooo incredibly hazardous that it almost choked us all to death!?"

"You fail to see that at least I had a sincere heart and wanted to try!" So Hyun whined, "At least help me?? Look at the amount of dishes!!"

"Most of them are burnt thanks to your sincere efforts." Anya calmly turned the page of her book.

So Hyun would have argued back some more, but the sound of their outer metal gate clanging jarringly stopped him. Puzzled as to who could be visiting this late, all four of them put on their slippers to go outside.

"MS. ANYA! MS. ANYA! PLEASE LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY!! I AM NAMJOON'S NANNY AND I WANT YOU TO HEAR ABOUT HIS PAST! PLEASE! PLEASE! OTHERWISE HE WILL KILL MY SON!!"

Anya looked at the familiar figure of an old woman outside the metal gate, crying and holding on to a pile of books while shouting out her plea.

She looked at Mira, who similarly looked back at her.

Ever since the discussion they had had, Anya felt it to be abnormal for Joon to not say anything. He never talked about his past, avoiding it skillfully since they met. Anya had always known, there had to have been an excruciatingly painful incident, tucked away in his memories, which made it difficult for him to open up.

She had always wanted to know, but Joon never let her reach it, afraid, that it would hurt her.

Or, taint her perception of him.

Tonight, he was giving her that window, to look at the one thing he always kept hidden from her.

The reason why he accepted himself to be called a Monster so easily. Perhaps, The reason why he became one.

"So Hyun, open the gate and let her in." Anya instructed in a low tone, "Tonight, is going to be long."

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A/N : Aaaaaand we dive into the past at last!!

The book began in the middle, we are now going to the beginning.

(For people still in doubt, for a short time, Yoon Soo was possessed.)

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