August 6th, 2026
Im intercepts Seo-yeon in the second-floor anteroom before her shift and grips her upper arm with thumb pressure that will bruise — she can feel each finger through the uniform sleeve.
What happened
Im intercepts Seo-yeon in the second-floor anteroom before her shift and grips her upper arm with thumb pressure that will bruise — she can feel each finger through the uniform sleeve. When she pulls free he doesn't release for a half-second, his fingers uncurling in stages; the bruise blooms dark purple across pale skin by evening and she photographs it in her mirror, the gore voltage visible against her collarbone. The threat lands in the afternoon: the system adds the September 11-13 Cha Seong-jin booking back onto her rotation with no flag and no notes, Im's quiet reassertion. She opens her front door at 10 p.m. and finds the soft blue pen from her high shelf laid on her doormat, no note, no envelope — a delayed drop that asks her how the pen got there. Decision: she does not reply to Im, files the bruise photo into the '21F' album, and emails Bae Yu-jin one sentence — 'It has begun.'