"Are you sure this will work? What if something goes wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong with this plan. Ren will be back soon."

Alice gasped at what she saw. Shun was inside the glass room with Fabia while she was locked out. She pounded the door repeatedly, but fire flickered loudly, and the two had their backs facing Alice. Fabia moved closer to Shun in worry, which made Alice feel uncomfortable. I can't just stand here and do nothing. Somebody please take me away because I don't want to see this.

The painting burned to a point in which only the face was left and the background was gone. For some reason, Ren's signature and Fabia's faces just won't burn away.

"The painting's not burning!" Fabia yelled, tears rolling down her face. "What now?"

Shun sighed. "This painting is just too meaningful to be burned. Everything about the harsh lives of the poor is put into this."

Alice saw and heard what happened. Maybe I should move or to a place where there won't be anything related to Shun around. This is too overwhelming.

"It's burning away!" Shun exclaimed. Ren's signature and Fabia's faces were slowly engulfed in flames, and the only thing left were her crying eyes and tears. Soon, the entire painting became nothing but burned ashes. "Just wait."

A few minutes after the fire burned out, the fire burned once more violently but died again. Silence filled the atmosphere until Fabia spoke up. "Ren! Where are you?"

"Fabia!" A figure rose from the burned ashes and embraced the young girl. "I'm so sorry for making you cry for my painting. I'll never do that again."

"Ren, what happened all this time? Where did you go?"

"Ren was sealed into the crying paintings as part of that man's curse." Shun explained. "Since painting you cry didn't work, he had no choice but to paint something fake." Despite the amount of time applied, that man found out that it was a fake, thus putting a curse that burned the house and killed Ren. Who that man is still remains a mystery."

Fabia gasped. "I don't believe it! Ren, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

"No, Fabia. It's both of our faults. We shouldn't put the problem all on just one of us. Be happy that we're together again."

"I agree. Thanks, Ren. You have no idea how much I love you."

Now I get it. This isn't a just a problem on one person or the other but a problem of mutual relationships. They both did something wrong that contributed to the problem. Ren shouldn't have agreed to the offer, and Fabia shouldn't have complained about crying for a painting. Alice stared at the couple and sighed.

Shun also stared at the happy couple and sighed. "Problem solved...for now. If only my problem with her was just as easy to solve as this."

What problem could we possibly have? We drifted apart because of differences... In the beginning, Alice thought that everything was Shun's problem, but then she realized that situations might not be as simple as they seemed. Suddenly, the sky turned dark with the sunset and clouds, and strong winds blinded Alice. "What's going on? Where am I going now?"

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

In a dark room, four people sat around a table, staring into a crystal ball. The image inside displayed a redhead wandering aimlessly in the woods. "That's the final task," a man said. "I don't know what we'll do next after this is over."

"Maybe we should tell her the truth," replied the artist, twirling her paintbrush.

A woman sipped her sakura tea and sighed. "Most likely, that's only going to make her angrier. Did you see how she reacted every time the doors locked on her?"

"Yet she still didn't understand that the doors will always do that when she's done with a task..." the inventor commented.

"So what are we going to do with her?" the man asked. "We should make this last."

"Shona-nee and I already did our jobs without exposing too much."

"Me too, but I should've used a fake name and should not have talked about my son's haircut. So irrelevant..."

"And that leaves you," The artist pointed at the apparent leader of the group with her paintbrush. "What are you going to do?"

He stood up. "I must be going then. I was the first person Alice met when she got here."

"Take it easy, Suguru." the woman advised. "In the meantime, let's talk about that camping trip couple years ago in which I accidentally gave wrong bad directions that made every lost and late for dinner. I still feel extremely guilty."

The siblings titled their heads in curiosity. "Tell us more about it."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

"This isn't the way back to camp." Shun tapped the glass on his compass, hoping it didn't tell the wrong direction. The needle didn't change and was correct based on the setting sun, so the directions had to be wrong.

"Shun, the sun's almost down. You know what your mom said about going back late."

"I know, Alice, but I just don't understand how and why we ended up at the radio tower. There's no way my mom could've given us wrong directions. She's been here many times with us and as a child. What I don't understand is why we always camp at a different campsite every time."

Alice looked around to see tall trees all the way around. "We should leave this area before the sun sets. After that, we won't be able to see anything through the thick trees."

"Doesn't matter. This entire square mile or acre is full of trees. All we can do is walk backwards to the lake and start over, but that won't work either."

Either way, Shun and Alice decided to walk back to the lake. By then, the sky was very dark black with some stars and a thin horizontal stripe of burgundy above the horizon. Soon, the moon rose into the sky, and the lake reflected it beautifully, providing light for the lost kids. Polaris shimmered nicely in the sky, but even that won't bring them back.

"Even with this sweater, I'm still cold." Alice shivered. "I can't even hold this map still."

"Let me see that." Shun came up behind Alice and hugged her from behind. "There. Our camp is at the X, and we're by the lake cabin, which is here." Shun pointed to various places on the map and traced a path. "This road is blocked, so we have to go all the way around the lake. Why can't people build bridges for lakes?"

"Because you can go around a lake, unlike an endless river. Come on, Shun. I'll explain everything to your mom and everyone else. Please?"

"As long as we can go back, you're free to do anything you want."

"Does that include keeping me warm all the way there?"

Shun stared at Alice. "Maybe. I'll think about it on the way there."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Unlike the train, the snowy field, and the studios Alice went to earlier, her current location was in a dark farm field by a forest. "A farm, a windmill, and a thick forest...this looks like the setting of a fairytale." Alice stood up and walked down the dirt path. "Only, why is this place so dark? I was only in a garden not too long ago."

Later, Alice sensed a presence behind her. "Who's there?" A shadow came chasing after Alice, and she ran for her life to escape. Why do I have to do this at the very moment that I get here? She made her way to a log cabin and knocked on the door. "Please help me! I'm being chased by-"

The door swung open to reveal a tall man. "What's with the noise? And-" He stared at the redhead and yelled, "Alice!"

"Suguru?! What are you doing here?" The shadow came closer, and Alice ran inside without further questions. "Save me from that thing!"

"That? Simple." Suguru grabbed a jar of white paint and painted a symbol on his front door before closing it. The figure flew over to the house, but the moment it saw what Suguru painted, it shrieked and flew away. "Problem solved. She has to realize that this chase needs to end. So..." He faced Alice with his book open. "How have you been?"

"How have I been?! Thanks to you, I have to do the weirdest and toughest favors for people—no, ghosts—and meet up with a person whom I don't want to see."

"You're a really special and unique person, and I thought that this would be best for you. I assume that you've met everyone else already." Suguru slowly confronted Alice, who back up to an open window. "I'm glad you walked here."

He pushed Alice out the window and cliff, but Alice managed to grab onto the edge of the window. "What was that for? That's just rude to push someone like that!"

"Sorry, but I have no say in deciding whether I get to push you out or not. Just put your anger all on certain person you had a relationship with." Suguru pried Alice's fingers off one by one.

"A certain...person? You knew it all ahead of time! How could you?" Alice struggled to keep her hold, but the sight of three other people behind Suguru made her stop every movement.

"It's a two-way street, Alice, and I guarantee you won't fall to your death. Trust me."

Two-way street? That's exactly what Shun told me before we broke up. Who are all these people?!