Thank you all for your amazing reviews, and for following/favoriting! I'm sorry this took so long . . . consistent updates are going to take a while to come back. I wasn't anticipating taking online classes this summer. Again, thanks for your patience, and I love hearing from you all! The story will make its huge start in the next chapter . . . where the plot really begins.

Now Kim Shin can't open doors to anything. He can't see futures; he tried to run away when he saw his sister and Wang Yeo walking towards him on the sidewalk, but he ended up dizzy in the building he opened a door to. Now restaurant guests eye him uncertainly until he realizes his mistake and slips back outside.

He doesn't want to interfere with them right now; their faces remind him of too much, regrets and lifetimes they won't remember but that will trigger anger in his already perplexed mind. He dodges them on the way back to his car, unable to see anything of their futures or pasts.

"Excuse me, sir," Wang Yeo calls out. Kim Shin's eyes roll shut; he doesn't want this right now. But he turns around, giving Wang Yeo his most intimidating stare. His hand entwined with Kim Sun's, he walks right up to the Dokkaebi. Kim Shin recoils in sarcastic disgust and wishes the Grim Reaper was here to understand his playful disdain.

But there is just a detective standing before him; he saw enough of Lee Hyuk when he could still see lifetimes. He knows where these two new people come from.

"An elderly woman told us we could look to you for a home," Lee Hyuk says. "My wife does not want to honeymoon in an apartment, or a hotel."

"I like your home," Sunny cuts in. "And the old woman told us it was up for rent."

Old woman . . . Kim Shin finally decides it had to be Samshin. He mutters at her under his breath, then turns back to them. "Wife?"

Lee Hyuk nods, looking slightly confused. "Yes. This is my wife, Lee Sun."

"Sunny!" she yelps. Lee Hyuk chuckles, and she smacks his shoulder. "It's Sunny!"

"The actress," Kim Shin says. Sunny's face lights up, flattered, and he can't help but smile at her obsession over her appearance. He stares her up and down; she's wearing a chic black pencil skirt and a loose tiger-print blouse. Her lips are dark red, and if at all possible her eyes have gotten bigger since her last lifetime, as though the gods made them bigger every time on purpose. He wants to call her his ugly sister, but he worries it will trigger memories of her past life, and so he bites his tongue.

Kim Shin glances up at Eun Tak's window; perhaps she'll move in with him, just not in his same room, before they are married if she does it to look after these two.

"And you wish to rent my home?"

Lee Hyuk nods, and Sunny's eyes widen hopefully.

"For how long?"

"We can discuss time over contract," Sunny says, at the moment Lee Hyuk says, "20 months."

Kim Shin chuckles at the glare Sunny shoots at her husband. The former Grim Reaper responds by landing a peck on her cheek; she immediately smiles and seems to forget and forgive all. Kim Shin doesn't remember ever seeing his sister change from a negative mood so rapidly.

He regards them for another moment before nodding. "All right, then. Talk to your agent and get the matter arranged; the passcode for the house is . . ." He pauses. He can't remember it anymore. "It doesn't matter for now. Move in when you're ready. Take any of the empty rooms and make yourselves at home."

He brushes off Sunny's delight, and Lee Hyuk nods in appreciation. Kim Shin immediately slips away while Sunny excitedly chippers to Lee Hyuk, something about what a stylish house he'd found. Kim Shin grins at the clack of high heels against the sidewalk, fading quickly into the distance.

But he doesn't know the passcode, so no one can get inside until he figures it out. Perhaps Eun Tak will remember; he hasn't changed it. He hasn't wanted to. But now he will have company, and he will have Eun Tak back.

"Dokkaebi!"

He glances up at In-na and prevents a smile from coming to his face. He slows himself and nods to her. She grins at him, somewhat like Sunny but with a more commanding demeanor. He glances in In-na's carrier at Tae-shin, peacefully breathing. Kim Shin's brow furrows; he looks familiar.

"I wish to marry your daughter," Kim Shin says, locking eyes with In-na again.

In-na waves him off. "I know, Dokkaebi. I'm sure she'll tell me all about it when I get home. I came home at midnight and she'd vanished, so I assumed you two were already married. Why aren't you?"

"Are you waiting on this?"

In-na nods, impatient. "She didn't talk about anything but you growing up, as though she remembered everything from her past life." In-na does her best to conceal her smile, but Kim Shin knows her well enough to see right through her pretense. He did the same thing often, after all. He almost feels guilty for taking Ji Eun Tak away from In-na, but not enough to say he would let Eun Tak stay. He needs his bride, after all: not being able to die only pains him without her, even if the blade no longer troubles him.

He pauses at the thought of Eun Tak finally seeing the scar in his chest, the burning strip where the blade had once resided. She would not despise him for it, certainly, but he doesn't know what it means . . . what will happen to him. It can't be eroding away at him, for it doesn't sting unless he touches it. He might think it to be taking his powers, but it's been around since his return from that snowy wasteland; perhaps this issue has less to do with him and more with Ji Eun Tak.

But what could she possibly have done?

He distantly bids In-na farewell, for Tae-shin had awakened and refused to calm down. In-na quickly trots into the apartment building and up to Eun Tak's room. He glances up, only to find Eun Tak watching him. His stare grows intent, wishing for the moment he can call her his own. He's always been made for her, and he feels it's some horrid twist of fate—some severe answer Deity gave him eighty years ago—that she is not at his home right now.

But eighty years . . . would she be dead by now if she had been allowed to live?

His mind buzzes with questions he doesn't want to think about as he slips into his car and drives home. He'll have to get used to this, driving around instead of using doors. He sighs. Getting back to Canada will be difficult, as he'll need a passport, but thankfully Woo Bin will perhaps be capable of helping him in a few years.

Or earlier. Woo Bin is a smart boy, unlike his predecessor, although Duk Hwa died an honorable man as undoubtedly Chairman Yoo hoped he would.

Kim Shin does not smile at any of these memories; he reaches his home too soon, only to find a contractor outside. He barely allows the car to coast into his driveway, not ready to face any of this. He doesn't know why he accepted their desire to rent anymore, until he remembers perhaps it will make his bride happy . . . and he loves watching her face swell brightly with excitement. He grins at the thought, and all through the dull announcement of rent by the agent.

He almost thanks Duk Hwa in his mind for going through all this before, but he has no doubt his then-nephew's mind had been on money the entire time. So he cuts the agent off short, pays him what he asks for, and marches back up to the house.

He pauses at the keypad. He'd been able to get in last night before picking up Eun Tak, but now he finds himself at a loss.

"Excuse me, sir," a young, solemn voice pipes up. "May I assist you?"

Kim Shin turns back to Woo Bin. The boy's modest bicycle rests outside the driveway so as not to intrude on another's property—as his late mother taught him—and his expression is blank and demure.

"Yes, nephew," Kim Shin says.

Woo Bin steps up to the keypad and punches in four digits; Kim Shin tries to follow it, and after peering at the keypad's pattern he realizes it's 1004. He remembers Duk Hwa saying it in a sudden, dismissed memory. He shakes his foolishness off and follows Woo Bin inside.

"Is CEO Seo taking good care of you?" Kim Shin asks. Woo Bin looks more like his mother than like his fathers before him, and while there are no features of Kim Shin's first servants in his face, the Dokkaebi can't help but see the gentle, childlike loyalty of his young friend so many years ago.

Woo Bin nods respectfully. "Yes, my lord."

"Are you enjoying your studies?"

A hint of a smile betrays Woo Bin's face before he lets it disappear. "I enjoy the literature, my lord."

Kim Shin kneels before the boy and claps his shoulder. "Here. Come and read with me for a while. What book would you like?"

The austere barrier on the boy's face crumbles, and his smile swells. "Yes, my lord! Anything you ask of me." And then he begins, at a steadily increasing pace, to expound on his favorite literature, English and Chinese works from hundreds of years before. He even mentions the Tale of Genji, which surprises Kim Shin; apparently the boy knows more languages and alphabets than most, as he mentions preferring the diction of the novel in Japanese to Hangul.

Kim Shin listens to the boy for a long time before he finally finds a book to read in Kim Shin's bedroom. Kim Shin doesn't read for a long moment, staring at the bright-eyed child. He knows he will enjoy the boy's company immensely, especially when Eun Tak dies for the second time.

His smile breaks down, and he buries himself in his book to avoid the thought. What about when she dies for the final time?

He shudders.

"My lord?" Woo Bin questions.

Kim Shin waves him off. "It's nothing," he says. "Keep reading; I will settle in a moment."

But the thought doesn't even leave him in his dreams almost twelve hours later.