Jae-Min froze.
She was looking at him. That piercing blue eye framed by a mess of indigo hair.
In his memories, those eyes had been glassy and dead. Popped out of her skull.
Now they were wide awake. Confused.
"Jae-Min?"
Her voice. Soft. Alive.
His throat closed up. He couldn't speak. He just stood there, one hand gripping the doorframe, knuckles white.
Alessia pulled the door open fully. She was wearing a loose white shirt and shorts. Her stethoscope hung around her neck. The lanyard read: Dr. A. Santos, St. Luke's Medical Center.
She looked exhausted. A night shift, probably.
"Are you okay?" She tilted her head. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
You have no idea.
"I'm fine," he managed. His voice sounded robotic. Wrong.
Alessia frowned. She stepped closer. The scent of lavender and antiseptic hit him. The exact same smell from the frozen hallway. From her blood.
"You're pale," she said. "And you're sweating. It's hot, but not that hot."
She reached up. Her fingers brushed his forehead.
Jae-Min flinched. Hard.
Alessia pulled her hand back. Hurt flashed across her blue eyes. Just for a second.
"Sorry," she whispered.
"No." The word came out too fast. Too desperate. "I'm sorry. I just... bad dream."
A bad dream where you were eaten alive.
She studied him for a moment. Then she offered a small, tired smile.
"You should drink water. And maybe fix your sleep schedule. We can't both be zombies."
Zombies.
The word hit him like a sledgehammer. He almost laughed. Almost threw up.
"I will," he said. "Get some rest, Alessia."
She paused at her doorway. Turned back.
"You called me Alessia."
"You are Alessia."
"I mean... you didn't call me Doc. Or Dr. Santos." She tucked a strand of indigo hair behind her ear. Nervous. "It's nice."
She disappeared inside. The door clicked shut.
Jae-Min stood in the hallway for two full minutes. Breathing. Counting. Forcing his heart rate down.
She's alive. Ji-Yoo is alive. Mom and Dad are alive.
He went back inside Unit 1418. Closed the door. Locked it. Leaned against the wall and slid down.
He needed to think. He needed to plan.
Thirty days.
Money first. He was a logistics manager. He knew supply chains. He knew how to move things. But he needed capital. Desperate capital.
He pulled out his phone. BPI app. Opened his savings account.
₱87,000.
Not enough. Not nearly enough.
He needed guns. Ammo. Reinforced steel. A generator. Water filtration. Medical supplies. Enough food to last months.
He needed millions.
Jae-Min walked to the kitchen. His throat was dry. He grabbed a glass from the cabinet. Turned on the faucet. Filled it.
He lifted the glass to his lips.
His hand slipped.
The glass hit the edge of the counter. Tipped over the edge. Fell toward the tile floor.
Jae-Min reached for it.
His fingers closed around empty air.
The glass hit the floor.
But it didn't shatter.
It vanished.
A ripple. A faint distortion in the air right above the tile. Like heat waves on a summer road. Then nothing.
Jae-Min stared at the floor.
Empty.
He looked at his hand. Then back at the floor.
"What the hell?"
He crouched down. Touched the tile. Cold. Solid. No glass.
He stood up. Closed his eyes. Reached out with his hand. Not physically. Something else. An instinct he didn't know he had.
A black crack split open in the air in front of him. Small. Barely the size of a fist.
Inside the darkness, the glass floated. Perfectly intact. Water still inside.
Jae-Min's heart stopped.
He reached into the crack. His fingers touched cold glass. He pulled.
The glass reappeared in his hand. Water sloshed against the sides. Normal. Real.
He dropped it again.
This time on purpose.
The glass fell. Vanished into thin air. The black ripple appeared. Swallowed it.
Jae-Min stared at his hands.
Space.
He was controlling space.
A broken laugh escaped his lips. Quiet. Hoarse.
He had torn through time to get back here. And he brought a piece of the void with him.
His phone buzzed on the counter.
A message from an unsaved number.
"Jae-Min. It's Kiara. We need to talk. I made a mistake. Please call me back."
Jae-Min looked at the screen.
The glass in his hand cracked.
Shards bit into his palm. Blood dripped onto the tile.
He didn't feel it.
He just stared at the name.
Kiara.
The cheating bitch who ruined his life. The woman he wasted three years on. The woman whose lies had consumed so much of his time—time he could have spent with Alessia.
In his first life, he had seen this message. He had called her back. He had listened to her cry. He had forgiven her.
Not this time.
Jae-Min opened the contact. Blocked the number. Deleted the message.
Then he opened his notes.
THIRTY DAYS LEFT.
Below it, he wrote:
LOAN: EVERY BANK. MAX CREDIT.
BUY: GUNS. STEEL. GENERATOR. FOOD.
KILL KIARA: LATER.
He set the phone down.
The black crack was still hovering in his kitchen. Waiting. Hungry.
Just like him.