Ye-jun.", "His hand in his brown hair.", "His face carrying the specific expression of someone presented with something they didn't ask for and aren't sure what to do with.",
---
"Gun-woo.", "What is this.",
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"A dating app.", Gun-woo replied.", "Keep scrolling long enough.", "Who knows.", "You might find someone.",
---
Ye-jun looked at the phone.", "The bright pictures.", "Different women.", "Different smiles.", "All of them looking directly at the camera with the particular confidence of people who had decided to be seen.",
---
He put the phone down.
---
"Why are you showing me this in a restaurant.", "And why are there only two of us here.", "This looks like a date.", "We should be preparing.", "Have you forgotten what's coming.",
---
He leaned forward.
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"The dungeon boss.", "The final boss.", "Could be level twenty.", "Twenty-five.", "I've told you this.", "The whole S rank system.", "In truth the strongest among us sit between twenty-two and twenty-five.", "Twenty-five being the Living Blade himself.", "The closest to him being the Endless Storm at twenty-four.", "The only reason we keep that man in line is because Ji-eun —"
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He stopped.", "Something crossing his face.",
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"Wait.", "Speaking of Ji-eun.", "You and her.", "Are you two a thing.",
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Gun-woo.", "His head moving slowly.", "Not quite a nod.", "Something more considered.",
"Not a thing exactly.", "We're two people with a mutual understanding.", "Of peace.", "Of what needs to happen.",
---
A pause.
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"Some would say you and I are a thing.",
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Ye-jun's face.", "Anger and shame arriving at the same time.", "Wearing the same expression.", "Fighting for the same real estate.",
---
Gun-woo continued without acknowledging it.",
"The S rank system works because people need to believe they are safe.", "That there is a ceiling.", "That someone is above it.", "Protecting them from what's above that.",
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"Stop.", Ye-jun said.", "That nonsense cannot be the only reason you brought me here.", "Not a dating app.", "Not this.",
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"Everyone is on edge.", Gun-woo said.", "A small breath never hurt anyone.",
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Ye-jun looked at him.", "Long.", "Reading him.",
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"The ants got you scared too.", "Didn't they.",
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Silence.", "Brief.",
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"Okay.", Ye-jun said.", "Let's have this drink.",
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Gun-woo raised his glass.", "The light in it catching the low restaurant light.", "The only brightness at the table.", "Entertainment moving in the background somewhere.", "Music finding the space between conversations.", "The room doing what restaurants do at this hour.", "Warm.", "Enclosed.", "Separate from everything outside it.",
---
Their glasses found each other.
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The sound of it small.", "Contained.", "Belonging only to this table.", "This moment.", "These two people.",
---
---
Far from the city.", "Far from the restaurant.", "Far from the rooftop and the champagne and the dating app and everything that belonged to people who had roofs over them.",
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The jungle.", "Distant.", "Dark.",
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A small pebble on the ground.", "Vibrating.", "Then shaking.", "Then the stones around it joining.", "Then the earth itself.",
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The trees.", "Feeling it.", "Bending.", "Some of them breaking.", "The sound of it moving through the forest in a wave.", "A low sound.", "Below hearing first.", "Then not.",
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Then they came.
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A black tide.", "Moving through the jungle.", "Covering everything it crossed.", "The ant creatures.", "Their bodies symbiotic.", "Wrong.", "Built from something that had decided biology was a suggestion rather than a limit.",
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Dark screams.", "Eerie.", "Unholy.", "The sound of them layering on top of each other until the sound became one thing.", "One enormous thing.",
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Moving.", "Like a tsunami that had learned to walk.", "Like water that had decided it preferred this.", "Forward.", "Covering everything.", "The trees.", "The ground.", "The light.",
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All of it.", "Gone beneath them.",
---
Marching.