In the moment after the gunshot, the world fell silent. Everyone turned toward the source of the sound, waiting for their brains to make sense of what they’d just heard. In that moment, I was in a world all by myself, pushing upstream through the paralyzed crowd. Then the first scream came, and the world exploded with noise.
Everyone started to run.
Someone elbowed me in the ribs, someone else shoved me forward, another person screamed in my ear. I stepped on something that felt suspiciously like fingers, but I couldn’t stop now, not for anything or anyone.
I broke free from the crowd, falling into the glass doors of a convenience store that swung open and dumped me on the tiles. I was up before the cashier could ask if I was okay, disappearing behind the chip aisle and shrugging off my sweatshirt, which I stuffed into the gap on the shelf where fire ramen used to be. I put Hana’s sweaterback on, and only then, when I was neither crushed beneath a stampede or handcuffed in the back of a police car, did I let out a breath.
I bought a black mask at the counter and slipped it on as I headed outside, where cops were circling the block and the crowd had started to thin. I tried to even out my breathing and walk as casually as possible to the meet-up point, though I found myself running around the last corner and nearly crashing into Yejun.
He caught me before I could slip into a puddle, spinning me around and setting me on my feet in the alley.
“You’re back,” he said, smiling and brushing my hair out of my face. Then he looked around me, and the light left his eyes. “Your sister?”
I shook my head. Seeing the pity in his eyes stung just like I’d expected it to, but this time it was tempered by the fact that this wasn’t over yet.
“There’s one last thing I need to try,” I said. “I need to get to Hong Gildong’s scrying pool.”
Seulgi’s eyes widened when she saw me and Yejun enter the building together. I grimaced, wondering if literally everyone in the office but me knew I was being played.
“Hi, Seulgi-nim,” Yejun said, smiling and bowing casually as if we didn’t just fake my death. “We have an appointment with the boss.”
“You do?” she said. “He’s not due back for another hour.” I didn’t miss the way her gaze fell to my empty hands.I forgot the banana milk, I thought. On the one day I could really use a bribe, I didn’t have one.
“Can we just wait for him there?” I said, pointing toward his office and fighting the urge to check my watch. I knew seeing the time would only make me panic-sweat. It had taken us a good eleven minutes to rush over here from the rally.
It was the wrong thing to say. Seulgi’s expression hardened and she crossed her arms. “You know that’s not allowed, Mina.”
“But Hyebin—”
“Hyebin is a senior agent and Sajangnim knew she was there,” Seulgi said. “Why do you want to go there so badly?”
I looked to Yejun, but he was staring at his shoes with a grim expression, like he knew as well as I did that there was no logical reason for us to be in Hong Gildong’s office, that no excuse was going to cut it.
Well, I thought,if you can’t outsmart a dragon, submit to them.
I dropped to my knees and bowed to Seulgi, who flinched and backed away. “Please,” I said. “It’s an emergency. I can’t explain right now, but I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important.”
Seulgi looked to Yejun as if he could explain, but he only shrugged pitifully. Some partner in crime he turned out to be.
After a moment, Seulgi sighed. “Did you at least bring me some banana milk?” she asked.
I hung my head, but Yejun was already heading for the elevator. “I’ll grab you some!” he said.
“No need,” Seulgi said, halting Yejun in his tracks. “I’ll just have to go get some myself, I guess.”
I looked up sharply.She’s going to leave her post?
“It would be unfortunate if someone slipped by the desk while I was gone,” she said. “But you two can keep a lookout, can’t you?”
“Yes!” Yejun said quickly as I rose to my feet, bowing again. “Yes, of course!”
“Good,” Seulgi said, winking as she stepped into the elevator and the doors closed behind her.
As soon as she was gone, we raced down the hall and threw the doors open to Hong Gildong’s office. I froze in the doorway, as if Hong Gildong was going to pop out from a shadowed corner and kill us on the spot.
Yejun hit the light switch as the door clicked shut behind us. “It’s all yours,” he said, gesturing to the scrying pool.
I walked around the desk and sat in Hong Gildong’s chair, my heartbeat loud in my ears. My reflection stared back at me in the still water, my eyes wide and petrified.This is it, I thought, raising a trembling hand.
