Chapter 36 Second Date, First Warning

“It's being pulled,” Jin said.

Yu-ra scrubbed the footage back.

The armored figure crossed the light again. At its collar, something fine flashed white.

“Empty when it came into view,” she said. “Watch the knees.”

One bent backward. The other kept walking.

Then both boots left the ground.

The armor folded into the dark above the tunnel.

Jin lowered the phone.

“Where's the man?”

“They found his body yesterday. Past the first junction. Couldn't bring him out.”

She didn't show him that picture.

“His teammates went toward the armor because they thought it was him. Two more disappeared before Rhee got out.”

Bae gathered the other applicants at the far end of the ring. His voice lost its audience-friendly volume.

Yu-ra put the phone away.

“I'll handle the thing pulling them. I need someone who'll go for a person without following the first moving shape.”

“You tested that with a very ugly stuffed man.”

“It worked.”

Jin glanced at Min-jae, who was arguing with Theo about who had technically rescued whom.

“If I say I can't do it?”

“I ask someone else.”

He looked back at her.

She held his gaze. No smile now, no hand conveniently touching his sleeve.

“Tell me before we go in, Jin.”

He swallowed.

“I can get people out. I can't fight whatever did that on my own.”

“Good. Neither of us is going in alone.”

She retrieved his application from beneath her water bottle, folded it once and handed it to Bae.

Then she picked up her bag.

“Hungry?”

“Is that part of the test?”

“No. You already passed the test.”

“Oh.”

Theo looked over just as Jin's ears warmed.

“Go,” he said. “I have a date with a cold pack and your apprentice has one with his phone.”

Min-jae turned his screen facedown.

“She's asking about the slides.”

“Of course she is.”

This page contains text taken from without consent, while reading the author's chapter there supports their work.

Yu-ra took Jin's hand on the way out.

Not to pull him upright. Not because anyone had fallen.

He nearly walked into the doorframe.

She stopped short of laughing, which made it worse.

“Feet,” she advised.

“I usually have those under control.”

They ate at a noodle shop two streets from the hall. She ordered something red enough to threaten the bowl. He ordered the same before considering the consequences.

Three bites later, he reached for the water.

“Don't,” she said.

He drank.

The heat spread.

Yu-ra slid her unopened milk across the table. Her shoulders shook.

“You knew.”

“I tried.”

“You waited until I was committed.”

“You've met me.”

He drank the milk. Some dignity returned with his ability to swallow.

She stole a dumpling from his plate.

“I've been trying to ask you something.”

“Ask.”

“When you look at me, are you waiting for me to hit you?”

He set the milk down.

“No.”

“Because you keep making that face.”

“What face?”

“Like somebody put a very expensive sword in your hands.”

Jin looked at the dumpling between her chopsticks.

“I'm trying to work out how much of this is you being kind.”

She ate it. Put the chopsticks down.

“All right.”

For one horrible second, he thought he'd ruined everything.

She reached across the narrow table and touched his chin.

Then she leaned over and kissed his cheek.

Warm. Brief. Entirely deliberate.

His elbow knocked the empty milk carton onto the floor.

Yu-ra sat back down, pink at the tips of her ears.

“That part isn't.”

The man at the next table continued eating with heroic concentration.

Jin bent to retrieve the carton and hit his forehead on the table edge.

Yu-ra laughed properly then.

He stayed underneath for another second.

“Would you like a minute?” she asked.

“I'm negotiating with my knees.”

When he emerged, she was waiting with her palm turned upward on the table.

This time he took her hand without needing to be rescued first.

They stayed until the shop owner began stacking chairs for the afternoon break. Yu-ra talked about the teammate who put mustard in every packed lunch; Jin told her how Mira had performed her own broken slide.

On the pavement, she tried to whistle the tune Jin had just hummed from Mira's presentation.

Nothing came out.

Jin looked at her.

“Don't.”

“I haven't said anything.”

“Your face has.”

He whistled two notes. She tried again, produced a faint hiss and punched him lightly in the arm when he grinned.

“You can split a monster in half.”

“Apparently that's easier.”

He showed her where to put her tongue, leaning close enough to lose track of his own explanation.

“Like this?” she asked.

“No. Wait. I forgot.”

“Excellent teacher.”

She linked her arm through his and continued walking. He didn't try the demonstration again.

Neither mentioned the tunnel until they reached the station.

Yu-ra checked the time.

“Tuesday, six. Bring food you can actually eat.”

“What about afterward?”

She raised an eyebrow.

“I meant—”

“I know what you meant.”

The train chime sounded below them.

“I'm busy this evening,” she said. “Preparing to keep you alive. Saturday, though.”

“Saturday.”

She squeezed his hand once and let go.

Jin watched her disappear down the stairs, then discovered he was smiling at an advertisement for drain cleaner.

His phone rang.

Bae.

“Your extraction partner needs to show you something before Tuesday.”

“Who?”

“Rhee. He's outside the hall.”

Jin went back.

The man waiting by the gate had a rope looped around his waist. Three ends hung from it, each cut clean through.

He lifted one toward Jin.

“It's what I tied them to me with,” he said.