8:00 PM. Unit 1418.
The apartment was dark. The lights were off. Only the green glow of the monitors illuminated the space.
Jae-min sat at the table. Alessia sat across from him. A mug of chamomile tea between her hands. Steam curled up. Dissolved into the dark.
Ji-yoo was on the couch. Legs tucked under her. Phone in hand. Scrolling. Not reading. Just scrolling.
Rico stood by the window. Back to the room. Watching the skyline.
"Twenty-one days," Ji-yoo said quietly. No one responded.
"I keep thinking about Mom and Dad," she continued. "Incheon. The flight. The mountain."
"Don't," Jae-min said.
"I can't help it."
"Then stop talking about it."
Ji-yoo looked at him. Hurt. Angry. But she closed her mouth. Went back to scrolling.
Alessia set her mug down. "Jae-min."
"What?"
"You said you were going to empty your warehouse tomorrow. What does that mean?"
Jae-min was quiet for a moment. He looked at the cold mug in her hands.
"Alessia. Give me your mug."
She frowned. "What?"
"The mug. Give it to me."
Alessia looked at Ji-yoo. Ji-yoo just shrugged.
Alessia handed it over. The ceramic was warm from the tea. A few drops of liquid sloshed against the sides.
Jae-min set it in the center of the table. Right between them.
"Watch."
Alessia leaned forward.
Jae-min raised his hand. Hovered it over the mug.
He didn't close his eyes. He didn't chant. He just focused. That cold spot behind his ribs. The void. The crack in reality.
He touched the ceramic.
The mug vanished.
No sound. No flash. No puff of smoke. The mug simply stopped existing in this reality. It was just... gone. A faint ripple of heat distorted the air right above where it had been, like looking through the exhaust of a jet engine. Then nothing.
Alessia gasped. Her hands flew to the table. Her fingers clawed at the bare wood where the mug had been a millisecond ago.
Cold. Empty wood.
"No." She looked at Jae-min. Her blue eyes were wide. Frantic. "Where did it go? How did you—"
Jae-min raised his other hand.
The air tore open.
A black crack split the silence in the room. It was like looking into a hole in the universe. No light. No depth. Just absolute, suffocating blackness.
Alessia shoved her chair back. It scraped against the concrete with a piercing screech. She scrambled to her feet, heart hammering against her ribs.
The crack widened. Jae-min reached his hand into the darkness. Up to his wrist. His forearm disappeared into the void.
When he pulled his hand back, he was holding the mug.
He set it on the table. The chamomile tea sloshed gently. Still warm. Completely intact.
Alessia stared at it. Her chest heaving. Her doctor's mind was short-circuiting. There was no trapdoor. No mirror. No wire. She had been staring at it the entire time. It simply ceased to exist, and then came back from a hole in the air.
"That's... that's not possible."
"It is."
"You just... it was gone. It was actually gone."
"Yes."
Alessia reached out. Slowly. Like the mug was a wild animal that might bite. She touched the ceramic. Warm. Wet. Real.
She looked at Jae-min. Then at the spot where the black crack had been. The air was normal now. Still.
"How?" she whispered.
"I don't know. When I died, something broke inside me. When I came back, this came with it."
Alessia sat back down. Her legs felt weak. She picked up the mug. Took a long drink of the cold tea. It grounded her. Solid. Real.
"The warehouse," she said slowly. "You're going to put the whole warehouse in there."
"Yes."
"How much can you hold?"
"Right now? About a hundred cubic meters. The size of a small apartment."
"And tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow, I push it until it breaks."
Alessia stared at him. "You're going to hurt yourself."
"If I don't, we starve."
"So you're going to risk your life to steal food from your own company."
"I'm going to risk my life to keep you alive."
Alessia didn't respond. She just picked up the mug. Took a sip. The tea was cold now. Bitter.
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked.
"Because you're here. Because you're part of this. Because if I die tomorrow, you need to know how to access the supplies."
"You're not going to die."
"I might. The void has limits. If I push too hard, it could kill me."
Alessia set the mug down. Stood up. Walked to the window. Stood beside Rico. Looked out at the lights.
"You're all insane," she said quietly.
"Yes," Rico said.
"Completely insane."
"Probably," Ji-yoo added.
Alessia turned. Looked at Jae-min. Those blue eyes. Sharp. Unwavering.
"Fine. Then I'll be insane too." She walked back to the table. Sat down. "What time do we leave?"
Jae-min blinked. "We?"
"You're not doing this alone, Jae-min. I don't care about your magic trick or your pocket dimension or your stupid warehouse. You're not dying tomorrow without me there."
"You can't come. It's too dangerous."
"Then make it less dangerous."
"Alessia—"
"I'm a doctor. I've dealt with difficult patients my entire career. You're the most difficult one yet. But I'm not letting you kill yourself."
Jae-min stared at her. Something cracked in his chest. Small. Fragile.
"Fine."
"Fine?"
"Fine. You can come. But you stay in the car. No exceptions."
Alessia nodded. "Okay."
"Ji-yoo. Uncle. Same rule. You stay in the car."
Ji-yoo frowned. "But oppa—"
"No. I go in alone. You watch the perimeter. If something goes wrong, you leave. Don't come after me."
"Jae-min—" Rico started.
"This isn't a debate." Jae-min stood. Walked to his room. "We leave at midnight. Be ready."
The door closed.
Ji-yoo looked at Alessia. Alessia looked at Ji-yoo.
"He's going to do something stupid," Ji-yoo said.
"Probably," Alessia replied.
"We should stop him."
"We can't."
"Then we save him when it fails."
Alessia nodded. "Agreed."
Rico stood by the window. Didn't turn around.
"He's not going to fail," he said quietly.
"How do you know?" Ji-yoo asked.
"Because he's a Del Rosario. And Del Rosarios don't lose."
The lights of Manila burned outside. Bright. Beautiful. Temporary.
Twenty-one days left.