“Why me?” I asked.
Grandmaster Sun’s eyes gleamed.
“Because you’re loyal. And because you’re empty.”
It should’ve sounded like a compliment.
Instead, it burned.
I left the compound just before midnight, Wolhwa strapped across my back, the mark on my left palm faintly tingling — the aftermath of my last kill. It always left something behind.
I didn’t head to the dorms. I didn’t drink, didn’t eat.
Instead, I climbed to the roof of an abandoned Hanok building near the Han River, crouching at its edge, Seoul glowing beneath me like a living thing. Silver traffic. Neon veins. Sirens in the distance.
Somewhere out there… Rheon was breathing.
The name pulsed behind my eyes. I didn’t know why it unnerved me — it was just another job.
But the moment I touched the scroll, something inside me coiled.
Not fear. Not revulsion.
Recognition.
I don’t know his face. I don’t know his scent.
But my instincts are stirring in ways they never have.
And as I stared at the city, the Guild’s mantra repeated itself like gospel in my mind — but this time, I didn’t hear it with conviction.
Instead, I whispered aloud:
They say demons seduce with lies. But what if the real lie is the silence we’re taught to keep?
Rheon
Before the Storm
I wasn’t supposed to be here. Not her in Hongdae. Not in this realm. Not in this skin. And yet, here I stood—staring up at the sky I once bled beneath, wondering if fate had finally tired of playing fair.
The air was damp. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that came before a fire… or after a slaughter.
Jisoo crouched a few feet away, tracing runes into the soil. Taeyang was leaning against a broken pillar, eyes narrowed on the worn map in his hand, the edge of his blade still stained from last night’s skirmish.
Me?
I sat with my back against a rotting tree, arms crossed over my chest as I tried to ignore the weight of the bond mark burning just beneath my collarbone. It had been days since I first felt it stir—weeks since the dreams began.
And still, I didn’t know her name. I just knew she existed. Somewhere.
“Someone’s close,” I muttered under my breath before I could stop myself.
Taeyang looked up.
“What?”
I shook my head.
