Seo Jung-woo returned home from the convenience store. Seo Sora, lying on the sofa, stretched out her hand.

Seo Jung-woo placed a cone ice cream in her hand.

“Here.”

“Why this one! You should’ve bought the kind you scoop with a lid! You’re even worse than most — a star composer who also gets a police salary, and this is what you bring?”

She grumbled while peeling off the ice cream wrapper, then complained again.

“Ah! It’s all melted!”

Seo Jung-woo said,

“Wow. We live in the same world, but how can our fates be so different?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t you feel bad for a senior high school student working late at a convenience store part-time?”

“Why so specific? What did you see?”

“There’s someone like that. Ah. If that kid visits President Oh tomorrow evening, tell her to at least give them a nice meal. And not to be too harsh just because they can’t sing well.”

“Who is this kid? At the convenience store?”

“There’s someone unlike you, really living diligently.”

“Why are you dissing me for no reason!”

Seo Jung-woo couldn’t fall asleep that night and tossed and turned.

“I need to adjust the time difference.”

When he travels between this world and the other, the clocks on both sides don’t always show the same time.

Sometimes it’s night here and day there, and vice versa. When the time zones get out of sync, the day can feel really long, or he might end up experiencing night twice in a row.

So he tries to align both time zones as best he can. But when something urgent comes up and he rushes back and forth, the time he barely managed to synchronize easily slips out of balance.

Right now, he couldn’t sleep. After tossing and turning for a while, he remembered the instant noodles Jeong Hyun-su was eating in front of the convenience store earlier.

He stepped outside.

“The later the night, the better ramen tastes.”

At the convenience store, it wasn’t Nam Soo-jung working but someone else.

“Uh, where’s Soo-jung?”

“She was only scheduled to work for a few hours this evening, so she just left. You know her?”

“Ah. Yeah. A little. Still, good that she left before it got too late.”

Seo Jung-woo ate a cup of ramen there and stepped out.

He didn’t feel like he’d be able to fall asleep even if he went home. It wasn’t time to cross over to the other world yet, either.

He wandered around the neighborhood for a walk.

“This world looks peaceful on the surface.”

But thinking of Nam Soo-jung’s situation, it didn’t feel that way at all.

As he aimlessly wandered, something pricked his senses.

“Huh?”

It was killing intent.

“A robbery?”

If a robber is about to commit murder, a kind of killing intent similar to that of monsters is detectable. But the killing intent caught by his skill was slightly different. It resembled that of allies who fight against monsters rather than monsters themselves.

“Why?”

Seo Jung-woo ran in that direction. The detected killing intent was extremely strong. Even from a distance, he could sense where it was coming from.

“Did a monster appear in this world? No way!”

Suddenly, a new killing intent was detected — from the same direction. This one was similar to the kind felt from monsters or murderers.

“Something’s wrong!”

Nam Soo-jung was sitting with her back against the door.

“Get lost.”

She wanted to scream louder, but having been stabbed in the stomach, her voice wouldn’t come out forcefully. She pressed on the wound with her left hand. The bleeding hadn’t stopped. She wanted to press it with her right hand too, but she was holding a kitchen knife and couldn’t.

The three gangsters were flustered. One of them had just stabbed Nam Soo-jung. The bloodstained knife was still in his hand.

The gangster blamed her.

“You shouldn’t have resisted. If you had just handed over the little brat in the room, no one would’ve gotten hurt and everything would’ve gone smoothly.”

“Get out.”

“You agreed to the contract and now you’re acting like this? Of course we’re pissed.”

“I never made any contract with you.”

“Wind Planning sold you to us. So now, you belong to us.”

“Stuff like that doesn’t exist in the 21st century. Get out.”

The gangster holding the bloody knife crouched in front of her. He was just out of reach of her kitchen knife.

“Still don’t get it? Wind Planning told you they’d make you a singer, right? Sure they did. But why do you think they chose you?”

“Because I’m good at singing.”

“Maybe. But President Choi never cared about your singing from the beginning.”

The gangster smirked and continued.

“You live alone with your brother, right? No money, no connections. That’s why they picked you.”

Nam Soo-jung grimaced. The stab wound hurt terribly.

The gangster kept talking to crush her spirit.

“They chose someone with absolutely nothing. That way, even if you’re dragged around for some big shot, you won’t dare resist. And most importantly...”

He pointed to the door she was blocking.

“Your brother in that room. You said you’re working to earn money for his treatment, right? With a good hostage like him, and a pretty face like yours, you’re perfect. That’s why President Choi specifically chose you for the contract.”

“I know a police officer.”

“We know one too. Ours is a high-ranking officer. A real one. But usually by now, people give up. Why are you still so defiant?”

Another gangster chimed in,

“Boss, the product’s damaged. What do we do? A stab wound in the stomach won’t even be erasable with plastic surgery.”

“You bastard! Should I have been the one stabbed then? Didn’t you see her stab first?”

“N-no, sir.”

“And besides, our goal right now isn’t her!”

They were gangsters from the Manager Do gang — specifically, from a special team known as the ‘Chae Hongsas.’

The Manager Do gang didn’t come to take Nam Soo-jung.

“If that bastard President Choi hadn’t gotten caught so noisily...”

When Choi Sun-Myung was arrested, some Manager Do gangsters were also caught. That case got big media coverage, so now the Manager Do gang was lying low.

“One slip, and we’ll all get dragged in.”

High school student Nam Soo-jung was exactly that potential slip.

The Manager Do boss was worried that the police, while interrogating Choi Sun-Myung, might discover information about her. So he sent the Chae Hongsas to deal with it.

Their plan wasn’t to take Nam Soo-jung, but to abduct her brother and use him as a hostage, forcing Soo-jung to deny the existence of any contract if the police came asking.

But Nam Soo-jung fiercely resisted to protect her brother. When the thugs tried to force the door open, she grabbed a kitchen knife. In the struggle, she was stabbed by one of them.

Another gangster spoke.

“Boss. But... didn’t we mess this up? This girl doesn’t seem to know anything about the contract.”

“Shit. It’s that bastard President Choi’s fault. Lied that everything was taken care of when it wasn’t. We thought she at least knew something. So what now? We’re already in this deep.”

Suddenly, the kitchen knife dropped from Nam Soo-jung’s hand with a clatter.

The gang leader’s face brightened.

“Oh. Giving up? Good choice. If you just behave, we’ll treat your wounds and even get your sister admitted to a hospital we know…”

Blood flowed from her mouth.

“Get lost. I don’t trust gangsters.”

Another gangster, startled by the sight of blood, asked:

“B-Boss, did you stab her too deep?”

The leader was flustered as well.

“D-Did I?”

“If someone gets stabbed in the stomach and starts coughing up blood, they usually die.”

“Shit. I was startled, okay? She swung the knife, and I just reacted!”

“What do we do now?”

The gangster stood up in frustration.

“What do you mean what do we do, idiot? Call 911? Don’t you realize what kind of situation we’re in? If they catch us stabbing a high school girl, we’re all screwed.”

Nam Soo-jung groped around the floor, trying to retrieve the dropped knife. She coughed, and blood gushed from her mouth again.

The gangster clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“She’s really gonna die. Where the hell did it hit? There’s no saving her anyway.”

“Then…”

“Take her. Bury her. And that brat in the room too…”

Suddenly, the semi-basement front door slammed open.

The three gangsters quickly turned around.

“Who the hell—”

As soon as Seo Jung-woo entered the house, he spotted Nam Soo-jung. He hadn’t even realized this was her home before coming in.

‘Soo-jung?’

There was heavy bleeding from her abdomen. Blood was also flowing from her mouth.

As soon as he grasped the situation, he slammed his fist into the face of the nearest gangster.

“Gahk!”

The thug flew into the kitchen corner, his nose and teeth shattered. What little crockery was there smashed to pieces.

The second gangster had boxing training. Instinctively, he raised both arms to guard his face.

Seo Jung-woo kicked him. In the narrow space, there was nowhere to dodge. The man’s shin snapped with a crack.

“Aaargh!”

As he collapsed screaming, Seo Jung-woo drove his knee into the thug’s face. The man’s face was crushed and he flew backward.

The gang leader, who was farthest inside, still held a knife. He shouted:

“W-Who the hell are you?!”

‘Not a cop’s move.’

The leader was certain of it.

Seo Jung-woo strode toward him. The entrance, which doubled as the kitchen, was narrow. One step was enough to close the distance.

The leader thrust his knife. The blade moved sharply.

“Die!”

When the knife was halfway through the air, Seo Jung-woo caught the thug’s wrist.

“Huh?”

Seo Jung-woo didn’t ask questions. Without a word, he snapped the man’s wrist.

“Aaargh!”

Then he seized the thug’s throat with his hand.

“Gahk!”

He knew exactly where the blood on the knife had come from. He almost twisted the man’s neck right then—but stopped when he saw Nam Soo-jung looking up at him. Instead, he threw the thug aside.

The man landed in a heap on top of the others. He was already unconscious.

Seo Jung-woo immediately checked Nam Soo-jung’s condition. Thanks to his experience with countless wounded in warzones, he could instantly tell how bad it was.

“Damn.”

‘She won’t last until the ambulance arrives.’

In the other world, he could’ve bought time with emergency equipment. But that didn’t exist here.

Nam Soo-jung gave a weak smile.

“Detective… you’re really strong.”

Seo Jung-woo felt a pang of regret.

‘My mistake. I should have anticipated something like this.’

He had suspected fraud when he heard Choi Sun-Myung was offering her twenty million won as a signing bonus. But Choi Sun-Myung was already under arrest. Nam Soo-jung now wanted to sign with ES Entertainment instead of Wind Planning.

So he thought the matter had been resolved without issue.

Nam Soo-jung asked:

“Detective, why do you look like that?”

“It’s nothing.”

“I’m usually really careful around scammers, you know? But this time, I was desperate and messed up. I heard Wind Planning was a big name and let my guard down. I got fooled like an idiot.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Seo Jung-woo reached into his pocket.

Nam Soo-jung continued.

“My brother’s condition suddenly got worse. The doctor said there’s a newly imported drug that could help, but it’s not covered by insurance. It’s really expensive.”

“How much?”

“Twenty million won. But the Wind Planning president said he’d pay that if things went well. So I fell for it.”

Seo Jung-woo already knew up to this point. Still, he nodded along.

“So twenty million is enough?”

“If she gets that medicine, she’ll get a lot better. Not fully cured, but he could go back to school. Detective, can I ask a favor?”

“Go ahead. Want to be a singer? Should I help?”

“Can you lend me twenty million won? I probably can’t pay it back, though.”

The room door opened. A child who looked to be in elementary school stood there, holding the door. His face was already soaked with tears.

“Noona, don’t be sick.”

“Go back inside. I’m not hurt that bad. I’ll be fine. This man’s a police officer. Everything’s going to be okay. Mister, could you close the door?”

Seo Jung-woo closed the door again.

Nam Soo-jung’s blood-stained hand lost its strength and slipped down.

“I miss Mom. And Dad too.”

Her voice grew quieter.

“Do you think they’d praise me? For taking good care of my little brother?”

She tried to turn around, but her body had no strength.

“No… they’d scold me. My brother’s still sick.”

Seo Jung-woo said:

“You’re not going to die.”

“I heard everything those guys said. I’m going to die.”

“You’ll be fine. You’re going to live. Because I said so.”

Seo Jung-woo pulled a slender metal cylinder from his pocket. He opened the lid of the cylinder, which was made of a solid alloy, and took out a tiny glass vial. It contained a red liquid.

Nam Soo-jung asked:

“Red medicine? Will I get better if you put that on?”

“Yeah. You’ll get better.”

“Liar. A police officer… lying…”

Nam Soo-jung’s eyes closed. Her head slowly tilted to the side.

Seo Jung-woo gently held her and laid her down on the floor.