Si Hon stood up on his own.

He was fine.

More or less.

His everything hurt in the general non-specific way that came from having done too much with a body running on too little, but nothing was wrong in a way that required immediate attention.

He rolled his shoulder once, looked at the dragon’s body still steaming in the rain, and decided that was enough processing of the situation for right now.

Then Jisoo’s voice cut across the field.

"Everyone!" She’d moved back toward the school entrance, turning to face the scattered group of students still standing across the ruined grounds— Aeloria’s team, the remaining students who’d made it out, a handful of others standing in small clusters looking lost and wet and exhausted. "Start looting the school! Take anything useful— supplies, equipment, anything you can carry!"

Silence.

Rain fell.

A normal student slowly raised a hand.

"...What?"

"Start looting."

Another student stared.

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

"THAT’S NOT A REASON."

Immediately the protests began. Several students complained. Somebody announced they just wanna left alone. One girl started crying again. Another guy insisted there was no way looting was the correct next step after surviving a dragon attack.

Someone beside her muttered something low and sharp. Another voice; "We just want to go home." Another; "What is she even talking about, why would we—"

Jisoo stood in the rain looking at them.

Exhaled once through her nose.

And then— Aeloria moved.

She stepped forward from where she’d been standing beside Seong, and said, simply, "Okay." That was all. Two of her teammates a girl and boy nodded immediately and walked toward the school entrance without further discussion. Seong, still slightly unsteady, straightened up and followed.

It spread from there. Slow at first— Mihu looking between Jisoo and the school entrance before making a decision and moving. Han tugging Suha gently toward where the others were gathering near the front.

The crying continued somewhere in the background.

The rain came down steadily over all of it.

Jisoo watched it happen without commenting, and Si Hon watched her watch it, and neither of them said anything until the others were far enough ahead that the sound of footsteps on wet pavement had faded into the rain noise.

Then Jisoo grabbed his sleeve.

And pulled him toward the gate. "You bitch better explain."

***

The city opened up beyond the school entrance in a way that felt wrong after hours and hours inside the campus— too wide, too exposed, the usual containment of walls and corridors replaced suddenly by open streets stretching in every direction.

Smoke rose in columns from several directions at once, distant and close mixed together without logic. Something moved between two buildings three blocks away that was too large to be a person and too fast to look at properly. Something enormous flew between skyscrapers before vanishing into low clouds. Someone screamed somewhere to the left, sharp and then cut off, and the silence afterward felt worse than the sound.

Jisoo looked at none of it.

She stopped just past the school gate, turned to face Si Hon, and took his face in both hands with the businesslike efficiency of someone who had decided this conversation was happening right now regardless of what the city was doing.

"Okay," she said. "Tell me. How much do you actually know? About me. About this. About any of it." Her eyes were steady. Direct. The kind of look that had already decided it wasn’t accepting deflection as a response.

Si Hon opened his mouth.

A notification window appeared.

Right between them. Pale blue light flickering in the rain, visible to both of them simultaneously— he could tell from the way Jisoo’s eyes moved to track it, the slight widening that wasn’t quite surprise but was the closest she got to it.

[Congrats]

Rain passed through the letters as it floated there.

Then the window disappeared. Just— gone. Like it had remembered it wasn’t supposed to be visible yet and corrected itself.

Jisoo stared at the empty air where it had been.

Si Hon stared at it too.

A long pause.

"That’s the first time I’ve gotten that notification," Jisoo said slowly. "The hell was that? That has never appeared before."

Another pause.

The rain filled the silence between them steadily.

Then she refocused. Walked toward him and planted both hands back on his face, grip slightly firmer this time, rain running down her fingers. "Okay. Ignoring that. You. Talk. Now. How do you know what my ability is called?!"

"My cheeks. ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ"

"Tell me everything ಠ⁠益⁠ಠ."

"My cheeks ಠ⁠▃⁠ಠ."

"Everything!!!! ಠ⁠益⁠ಠ."

"They’re attached to my head ಠ___ಠ."

"FOCUS!"

Si Hon tried.

Genuinely tried.

The problem was Jisoo interrupted every single sentence before it finished.

"Well—"

"No."

"ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ... uh, If you let me explain—"

"No."

"The thing is—"

"No."

Finally something snapped.

"LET ME SPEAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The shout echoed across the rain soaked street.

Jisoo froze. But still didn’t let go of his cheeks.

Si Hon took a breath. "Okay so, you remember when I said we’re from another world?"

"Yes!"

"And that we were taken by force?"

"Yes, Si Hon!!!"

"So before we got pulled here, there was this announcement, and we each got to pick a book from whatever the announcer summoned..."

"Okay."

"And one of my skills told me to find a specific book."

"What book?"

"I’m GETTING there..."

"You’re taking so LONG."

"BECAUSE YOU KEEP INTERRUPTING ME AGAIN!!!!!" Si Hon’s voice cracked out across the rain loud enough that a nearby bird somewhere in the ruined city probably heard it. "PLEASE!!!"

Jisoo’s hands dropped from his face.

She stepped back half a step.

Looked at him.

Said nothing.

The rain came down between them.

Si Hon exhaled. Ran one hand through his wet hair. Then looked at her properly.

"Sorry," he said. Then, calmer. "The book. You want to know which one I picked?" He held her gaze. "It was yours. Your story. Written out as a com#c— the first time you discovered you could regress, the first time you used your ability, all of it. Start to finish— no, actually I don’t know."

A pause. "I read the whole thing before we got here. That’s how I knew the dragon’s weak point. That’s how I knew what Temporal Lock was called. That’s how I knew where everyone would be and what was coming and—"

He stopped.

Because Jisoo had gone very still.

Not the calculating stillness from earlier. Something different. The kind of stillness that came after receiving information that needed a moment to fully land before the person could respond to it properly.

The rain ran down her face.

She didn’t blink for a second.

And then suddenly— above the clouds, visible even through the rain and the smoke and the dark sky pressing low over the ruined city—

Letters formed.

Cold. Unhurried. The same mocking quality as every other system message that had appeared today except heavier somehow, like this one had been waiting longer.

[Penalty One has been registered.]

The letters held for exactly three seconds.

Then dissolved back into the clouds like they’d never been there.

Jisoo stared upward at where they’d been.

The rain kept falling.

And Si Hon stood in the wet street outside a destroyed school in a city that was currently having several other problems simultaneously, and watched Jisoo Park process the fact that her entire life had been written down and handed to a stranger as reading material.

Then— worse? He decided to say something immediately. "Uh, penalty one?"