She never rushed. Never panicked. Even when Yuna and I threw ourselves headfirst into chaos, Minji stayed rooted, calculating all the angles we missed.
But now…
Now I was seeing cracks. And I needed answers. The moment I stepped into our shared apartment, I knew she’d been waiting.
The lights were low. The kettle hissed faintly. A plate of untouched tteok rested on the counter like a peace offering that neither of us would take.
Minji sat at the edge of the couch, hands clasped, eyes shadowed by thoughts she hadn’t yet spoken aloud.
“You’re back late,” she said softly.
“You knew I would be.”
She didn’t deny it. I dropped my bag, not even bothering to remove my boots.
“Minji,” I said, and my voice cracked like flint. “The mark. The one on me... and on him.”
She looked up. And for the first time, I saw it — not surprise, but something worse.
Recognition.
“You knew,” I whispered.
Still, she said nothing.
“Minji, gods damn it—you knew.”
She stood slowly. Walked to the bookshelf. Pulled down an old, leather-bound ledger I’d never seen before.
She handed it to me.
“You weren’t born in the Guild, Seori.”
--------???--------
The ledger smelled like ash and oil. Its cover was marked with a symbol I didn’t recognize — an ancient spiral etched in faded gold.
Inside: reports, ritual notes, translated demonic scripts. And at the center… a name.
My adoptive mother’s.
Lee Areum.
A scholar. A hunter. And according to the Guild... a traitor.
“She was part of the original binding ritual,” Minji said, voice low. “Not as a hunter, but as a bridge. She made the pact with Rheon’s father. But she also tried to save you when she realized this was wrong. Your real mother begged her to save you”
I turned the pages with trembling fingers. Drawings of the same mark on my body — carved into stone, tattooed onto half-demon consorts.
“Your real mother gave birth to you after the war ended,” Minji continued. “But the Guild couldn’t risk you being raised with any connection to the demons. So they wiped your records. Raised you as an orphan.”
“And you knew?” I whispered.
Minji finally looked me in the eye.
“I didn’t knoweverything.But I’ve seen the mark before. And I knew if it ever activated... it meant the prophecy was real.”
We sat in silence after that. The distance between us felt like a chasm neither of us could cross.
