9:00 AM. Unit 1418.
Jae-Min stood in the middle of the living room. Phone pressed to his ear.
It rang three times.
"Shieldworks Security Solutions. This is Mara."
"I need a renovation. Immediate."
"Sir, we handle commercial installations. Office buildings. Malls. Not residential—"
"I'm not calling about a residential renovation. I'm calling about a bunker."
Silence.
"Sir?"
"My name is Han Jae-Min Del Rosario. I have sixteen million pesos in liquid capital. I need Unit 1418, Shore Residence 3, Building B, Pasay, converted into a thermal-reinforced, hermetically sealed survival installation."
"Sir, I think you have the wrong—"
"Capable of maintaining internal temperature despite external conditions dropping to minus seventy degrees Celsius."
Mara stopped breathing.
"Sir... did you say minus seventy?"
"I did. Can your company do it or not?"
A long pause. Papers shuffling in the background. A muffled voice speaking to someone else.
"Sir, please hold."
Jae-Min waited. He looked around the living room. The leather couch. The flat screen TV. The glass coffee table.
All of it would be gone soon.
"Sir? This is Anton Reyes. Chief Engineer at Shieldworks."
The voice was deeper. Older. Cautious.
"Mr. Del Rosario. Your request is... unusual."
"I know."
"Minus seventy is extreme. We've done cold storage facilities. Pharmaceutical vaults. But those are industrial spaces. Not fourteenth-floor condominiums."
"Then you know it's possible."
"Possible, yes. But the structural requirements are massive. We'd need to replace every window. Reinforce the walls. Install secondary bulkheads. Independent air filtration. Backup power. Thermal insulation layers."
"How much?"
A pause.
"For a standard commercial job? Two to three million. For what you're describing? Double that. Maybe more."
"Six million. Cash. Upfront."
Anton choked.
"Six million?"
"You have three days to complete the assessment. I need a full blueprint by Thursday. Construction begins Friday. Finished in ten days."
"Ten days? Mr. Del Rosario, a job like this normally takes—"
"I don't care what it normally takes. Ten days. Or I find someone who can do it in five."
Silence.
Anton was calculating. Jae-Min could hear it in the breathing. The man was an engineer. Engineers loved impossible problems. They just needed to be paid enough to stop asking questions.
"I'll need full access to the unit. Blueprints of the building. Structural analysis of the load-bearing walls."
"You'll have it by noon."
"And Mr. Del Rosario?"
"Yes?"
"I won't ask why you need a bunker that survives minus seventy in the Philippines. But my team will need plausible deniability. We'll frame this as a private VIP panic room installation. For a high-profile client."
"Fine."
"One more thing. The condo association. The building management. They'll notice construction on this scale."
"Handle them."
Another pause.
"That will cost extra."
"Name it."
"Two hundred thousand. For permits. Bribes. Whatever it takes."
"Done."
"Then we have a deal, Mr. Del Rosario. My team will be there at 1 PM."
The line went dead.
Jae-Min lowered the phone.
Six point two million. Plus the six point eight for weapons. Plus the three million for the restaurant food.
Twelve million gone.
Four point six remaining.
Not enough. He needed more.
But it was a start.
1:00 PM. Unit 1418.
Anton Reyes arrived with four people. All in black Shieldworks polo shirts. Carrying tablets, laser measures, and heavy-duty tool cases.
Anton was exactly how Jae-Min imagined him. Fifties. Gray hair. Thick glasses. Hands calloused from decades of manual work.
He shook Jae-Min's hand. Studied the apartment.
"Four bedrooms?"
"Master with bath. Second with bath. Two guest rooms without. Living room with balcony. Common bath. Kitchen. Storage room."
Anton walked through the unit. Tapping walls. Checking corners. Running his fingers along window frames.
Jae-Min watched from the kitchen.
Anton paused at the balcony. Slid the glass door open. Stared at the Manila skyline. Thirty-six degrees. Blazing sun. Haze.
"Beautiful day," Anton said quietly.
"It won't last."
Anton turned. Looked at Jae-Min. Something flickered in his eyes. Not suspicion. Something closer to pity.
"You really believe it's coming, don't you?"
"Believe is the wrong word."
"Then what?"
"I know."
Anton held his gaze for a moment. Then nodded.
"The balcony is your weakest point. Full glass exposure. We'll need to replace it with a triple-layered polycarbonate panel. Bulletproof. Thermally sealed. Won't shatter below minus eighty."
"Good."
"Walls." Anton knocked on the living room partition. "Standard condo concrete. Maybe four inches. Not enough. We'll add a secondary layer. Two inches of aerogel insulation. Then a thermal reflective barrier. Then drywall."
"How thick?"
"Eight inches total. You'll lose about a foot of floor space in every room."
"I don't care."
"Windows." Anton pointed to the master bedroom. "Same treatment as the balcony. Polycarbonate triple layer. Motorized shutters on the inside. Steel blast plates on the outside."
"Can I still see out?"
"Through the polycarbonate, yes. But when the blast plates close, you're blind. Completely sealed."
"Good."
"Door." Anton walked to the front entrance. The standard wooden condo door. "This is a joke. We'll replace it with a steel bulkhead. Hydraulic. Locks from the inside. Three-point deadbolt. Peephole camera with night vision."
"Weight?"
"Two hundred kilos. We'll need to reinforce the doorframe. Steel plates. Anchor bolts into the load-bearing walls."
"Done."
"Air." Anton looked up at the ceiling. "Your current AC system won't survive minus seventy. We'll install an independent HVAC unit. Powered by a diesel generator. The generator goes in your storage room. Soundproofed. Vibration-dampened."
"Fuel?"
"Diesel tank. Two hundred liters. Installed under the kitchen floor. Hidden. With a direct line to the generator."
"How long will it run?"
"At full power? Three days. At minimum, just heating and air filtration? Ten to twelve days."
Not enough. But it bought time.
"Water."
"Your building's water supply will freeze. We'll install a three-hundred-liter storage tank. Also hidden. Under the guest rooms. Connected to a filtration system. UV sterilization. Carbon filters."
"How long?"
"Three months for one person. Six weeks for four."
Four people. Jae-Min, Ji-Yoo, Uncle Rico, Alessia.
Six weeks. They would need to find more.
"Communication."
"Radio tower on the roof. Encrypted. Long range. But if the grid goes down, you're limited to shortwave."
"Install it anyway."
Anton finished his walkthrough. Sat at the dining table. Opened his tablet. Started sketching.
"Total cost breakdown." He read off the screen. "Materials. Labor. Permits. Bribes. Custom fabrication."
Jae-Min waited.
"Six point two million. As discussed."
"Transfer today."
Anton nodded. "Construction starts Friday. My team works in shifts. Twenty-four hours a day. No breaks."
"How long?"
"Ten days. You'll have a fortress."
Jae-Min stood up. Extended his hand.
Anton shook it.
"One more thing, Mr. Del Rosario."
"Yes?"
Anton tapped his tablet. Pulled up a 3D model of the unit. Rotated it. Zoomed in on the storage room.
"The generator. The water tanks. The diesel supply. All of it goes here. Your storage room."
"Yes."
"This room connects to the hallway. And the hallway connects to the rest of the building."
Jae-Min frowned. "So?"
Anton looked up. His eyes were serious.
"If the temperature really drops to minus seventy, the rest of this building becomes a tomb. Frozen bodies. Fractured pipes. Structural collapse." He paused. "Your storage room wall is the only thing separating you from that."
"Reinforce it."
"Already planned. Steel plates. Concrete backfill. But Mr. Del Rosario..." Anton leaned forward. "No wall is perfect. If someone outside realizes you have heat. If they're cold enough. Desperate enough."
"They'll try to get in."
"Yes."
Jae-Min stared at the 3D model. The storage room. The wall. The hallway beyond it.
"Then make the wall bulletproof."
Anton blinked.
"Bulletproof?"
"You heard me."
Anton slowly nodded. Made a note on his tablet.
"Bulletproof wall. Added to the estimate. No extra charge."
Jae-Min walked him to the door.
Anton paused in the hallway. Looked back.
"Mr. Del Rosario. I've built panic rooms for politicians. Bunkers for billionaires. But I've never built anything like this."
"Why not?"
"Because those clients were afraid of other people." Anton's voice was quiet. "You're afraid of the weather itself."
Jae-Min didn't answer.
Anton left.
Jae-Min closed the door. Locked it.
Walked to the living room window. Looked out at Manila. The sun. The heat. The traffic. The people walking on the streets below.
None of them knew.
In twenty-six days, they would all be dead.
His phone buzzed.
Ji-Yoo.
"Oppa. Flight booked. Landing in 4 days. Can't wait to see you. ❤️"
Jae-Min stared at the message. The heart emoji. So casual. So normal.
She didn't know what he knew. She couldn't.
But she was alive. And she was coming home.
He typed back:
"I'll pick you up at the airport."
Then he opened his notes.
DAY 3 COMPLETE.CASH REMAINING: ₱4.6MWEAPONS: 3 DAYSBUNKER: 10 DAYSJI-YOO: 4 DAYSMOM & DAD: 26 DAYS
He stared at the last line.
Twenty-six days.
He still hadn't figured out how to save them.
His phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
"Interesting renovation, Mr. Del Rosario. A bunker? In a condo? Whatever for? - K"
Jae-Min's blood went cold.
Kiara.
She wasn't just watching him anymore.
She was inside his building.