“She left me a note? Does that help?”
Yejun looked up sharply. “When?”
“I found it on September second,” I said.
Yejun nodded and turned back to the pool. “I can search the mission logs and narrow it by that date,” he said.
“Aren’t the mission logs classified?” I said.
“Yeah, if your hacking skills are worse than those of a twelve-year-old,” Yejun said. “Most mission logs are only level two, which is easy to hack into. Level one is another story.” Then his eyes lit up. “Found it,” he said, waving for me to come to his side of the table. I shoved out my chair and hurried around. In the scrying pool, he’d pulled up what looked like an advanced search function, with only one item populated at the top.
SEPTEMBER 2, 2025, GREENVIEW OFFICETEL ROOM 325, UNAUTHORIZED AGENT, DURATION: 5 MINUTES
“That must be her!” I said, squeezing Yejun’s arm. “That’s when Hana went to my apartment!”
“I know, I know, I’m brilliant,” Yejun said, grinning.
I hugged him from the side, feeling as though my whole body was made of sunlight. I had never felt so close to finding Hana before. It was like only a thin pane of glass stood between us, and all that was left was to shatter it.
Yejun’s yeouiju glowed warmly against my side, and I remembered that I still had it on me. Before I pulled away, I slipped it back into his pocket.
“So we just have to intercept her there,” I said as I leaned back.
“Well, yes,” Yejun said uneasily, “but that still leaves the problem of how we could do that without getting caught. Hong Gildong knows you want to find Hana, and ifwecould figure out where she’s been,hedefinitely has. He probably has supervising agents staking out your apartment on that day.”
I sank back against the seat, glaring at the ceiling as if it would tell me the answer. Yejun let out a hiss, and I turned to see him examining a paper cut on his finger before jamming it in his mouth.
“I have Band-Aids, you monster,” I said, reaching for my backpack. I slid my hand into the middle pocket for my first-aid pack, but my fingers closed around the ladybug key chain from Hyebin. It looked so smiley and silly—a complete contrast to Hyebin herself. I remembered us catching the ladybug together over the bridge, back when everything had seemed so simple. If only I were able to hide from the descendants the way the ladybug had.
I tensed, sitting up straight. The ladybug had managed to evade the descendants, so why couldn’t I? What had Hyebin said again? Something about daylight savings. I closed my eyes and tried to remember the sound of her voice, imagining her on the bus beside me as we rolled through western Seoul.
Daylight savings was tested in 1988 for the Olympics. So there’sno 2:00A.M.through 2:59A.M.in the spring, and there’s duplicate times for 1:00A.M.through 1:59A.M.in the fall that year.
That meant there was an hour on the timeline that didn’t exist.
Except… there were no holes in the timeline. Time flowed continuously and for all of eternity, butmeasuringtime was a concept engineered by humans. The world had still existed from 2:00A.M.to 2:59A.M.in 1988, but for people who relied on the social construct of time…
It would be a blind spot in our records.
“Mina,” Yejun said, “what about—”
“Shh!” I said, closing my eyes and trying to chase the thought, clinging to it like an umbrella seized in a storm.
The ladybug went from not being on the timeline at all to landing at 3:00A.M.on May 8. It was kind of like being born on that day—1988 became its new origin timeline.
I pictured Hyebin squishing the ladybug inside the bag, just like Hong Gildong would squash me if given the chance. He’d mark my execution asMISSION COMPLETEin his scrying pool and I’d disappear into the abyss of archived files, forgotten…
Forgotten.
“What if,” I said, sitting up straight, “I died at the rally?”
Yejun frowned. “You’re not going to—”
“Butwhat if I did?” I said, leaning closer. “What if I failed the mission and you killed me?”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Yejun said with a scowl. “I don’t know what you’re—”
“What if the descendantsthoughtyou killed me?” I said.
