It’s crazy that every single fairy tale begins with those four tiny words: Once Upon A Time…

Once upon a time, there was a little girl. She lived in a land called Yaoi. Her name was Lin. She had three siblings: Soa, Tao-pay and Yerin.

One summer day, Yerin wandered off into the wind waters. There were rumors going around that a ghost was haunting the lake. The large, silver body of liquid was surrounded by a sakura blossom forest. Tiny, pinkish-red petals with a white inner circle fell upon the unusual water. Tao-pay had gone with the little girl, but when he came home with the moonlight covering his already pale face, Yerin was not there with him. Tao-pay claimed that a glowing iridescent spirit had pulled the defenseless girl under, and she sank below the swaying waves.                                                                                          

As Soa was the oldest, she didn’t believe poor Tao. So, after the night passed, she left the house with a shivering Tao-pay. Lin insisted that she stay home and keep watch for anything out of the ordinary. Just as Yerin had, when the jet black blanket of twilight fell, Soa returned without Tao-pay. She told the exact same story that she herself had not believed was true. But, unlike her siblings, Lin was clever. Even though she was overwhelmed with the pain of losing two of her siblings, she created a plan that she prayed would bring them back.                                                      

The next morning, at the crack of dawn, Soa and Lin walked down to the wind waters. But instead of letting herself be seen, Lin hid nearby behind a sakura tree. Soa swam in the silver currents, singing and swimming innocently, acting utterly oblivious.

When the beautiful moon came, after hours of waiting, a glowing spirit shaped like a woman emerged from the lake. Soa screamed. Lin wanted to yell at her. This was not part of the plan! The spirit reached out a glowing hand to grab Soa, but Lin jumped out of her hiding place armed with… A-a-a flashlight!

With it, Lin shone the white light at her sibling’s captor, and the spirit let out a gut-wrenching scream and dissolved into tiny droplets. Suddenly, Yerin and Tao-pay surfaced near the sand. They both coughed up decent amounts of water and then launched themselves into Soa and Lin’s arms.

“You saved us!” Yerin cried.

“How did you know to use the flashlight?” Soa asked Lin.

“Because she only came out of the lake at night.” Lin replied. Then, all four of the siblings walked home, together.