A Suspicious Person
I hung up and headed straight for the bathroom… no. There wasn't time for that!
I yanked open the door to the room next door.
"Hey—..."
"Zzz..."
Yuwol and Jina were each dead asleep in their own beds, without the faintest clue that I had just walked in.
"Everyone! Get up, now!!"
"...Ghk!"
"Uwah...?"
Jina sucked in a sharp breath and her eyes flew open. Yuwol jerked upright and started whipping her head around the room. Both of them were on their feet.
"Jiwoo...? What's going on? It's our day off. I was planning to sleep in like a log..."
"This is not the time! Look at this!"
I shoved my phone at them — the message that had come in before Tsuki's call. Still bleary from morning, the two of them squinted hard and read.
"...What is this? Did someone run this through a broken translator?"
I'd thought the same thing — but that was not the point right now.
"Tsuki's saying she's leaving for Japan!"
"Ah... that. We already knew that."
"Well, yes, but..."
We had already heard she had to go back to Japan over a visa issue. The message, though, did not read like that was the only reason. It read like someone who was leaving for good.
I can't just sit with this. I'm too uneasy.
"What's with that look? Don't tell me... you're not saying you're going to Japan. Jiwoo, you have a shoot starting tomorrow! Absolutely not!"
"Kh..."
Lee Yuwol, already in the process of tearing my filming schedule to shreds. Of course she was. I had snuck out once before, claiming I had nothing on the books. I hadn't actually run away — there was just somewhere I needed to stop by, and I'd meant to slip over and come right back. Then the schedule got moved up on me, and ever since that day my calendar hadn't just gone to my manager. It had gone straight into Yuwol's ears as well.
"I'll be quick. It's simple, right? I go to Japan, I find Tsuki, I hear her out, and I come straight back. It'll be a little rough, but if I do it as a day trip..."
"You think Japan is somewhere you can just day-trip?"
Yuwol's brow furrowed. There was no way she was letting me go.
"Three hours just to get there. Factor in airport time and every other variable, and you're looking at a solid four hours before you even set foot on the ground."
I knew that. In my last life I'd had to fly overseas for sales work now and then. The company never covered it, so I'd spent every trip crammed into economy until my back nearly gave out. I remembered that part vividly.
"Even so!"
"Even so, nothing! Absolutely not! And did you even tell Hoyeon?"
I hadn't. The second the call came in, I had bolted for the room next door. The moment this reached Hoyeon's ears... an hour of standing with my hands in the air would be the light version.
"That face says it all. You didn't tell her. And Tsuki doesn't have the money to buy a plane ticket. Which means..."
Which meant the company had paid for it.
"I know that... I just... I don't want to say goodbye like this."
"It's not like you're saying goodbye forever. International calls are expensive, sure, but you can still call. Or hop on Discord. That thing connects you anywhere in the world as long as you've got internet."
She wasn't wrong. When I'd done the PUG game broadcasts, the in-game audio had been so bad the viewers could barely hear us, so we'd used Discord. Discord — a gaming messenger that let you talk smoothly while you played.
"Aigoo... I thought you were a grown-up. Turns out you're still a kid. C'mere."
Yuwol came over and pulled my teary self into her chest. Soft and warm against my face, it took a little of the ache out of me. Still, holding Tsuki had always felt better than being held by anyone else. I couldn't forget that gentle heat, like wrapping myself around a living hand warmer.
"Fine. But I still want to see her face once. I'm going to the airport. This might be the last time I get to see her in person."
"Alright. That much should be fine. I'll let Robot Unnie know."
The reason she was telling Robot Unnie instead of Kang Ho-yeon was simple. It bought us a little more time before the news reached Hoyeon's ears.
"Lucky for us, I just got my license. We'll take my car."
"Uh... your car? Unnie, you have a car? Wait — when did you even get a license?"
"I actually got the license a while back. The car I bought just arrived recently. Come on, enough chatter. Let's go."
Right. This was not the time. If Tsuki had moved out this early in the morning, her flight couldn't be far off.
I hurried for the front door.
"Jiwoo! Clothes first! And a bra! You walk out like that and someone will call the cops!"
"Ah..."
Now that she mentioned it, all I had on was a white boxy T-shirt and panties.
"That was almost a disaster."
"Everyone in? Seatbelts."
"Um... Unnie? You do have driving experience, right?"
"Heh."
That look of pure confidence. Seemed fine.
"Nah. First time."
"...Excuse me? What do you mean, first— no! Wait! I'm getting out!"
"Relax. I've done plenty of driving sims on stream. This much is nothing... huh? Why won't this thing go? And... I can't see the side!"
We were doomed. I'd been wondering where she got the nerve to drive, and it was driving simulations?
And you have to press the brake and then start the engine! The side mirrors have to be adjusted by hand!! Aaaaagh!!
It wasn't too late. I unbuckled and started to climb out, ready to take a taxi if I had to...
A thin arm clamped onto my shoulder from behind.
"J-Jina...?"
"Just accept your fate. We may have been born at different times, but we were always destined to die on the same day, at the same hour."
"That's not— that's the Three Kingd—"
Vroom!
The engine roared to life, bright and clean.
"Got it! Everyone ready?"
"U-Unnie... how did you start it? Just a second ago you..."
"Ah... it's been a while, so I panicked a little. That's, like, the first thing they test you on. Anyway — off we go~!"
I hate this. Someone save me. I should have just told Hoyeon. An hour... no, right now I'd stand there with my hands up for two hours!!
And so we rode, perfectly safely, in the car Lee Yuwol was driving...
"Hey, you moron! Drive straight!"
HONK HONK!
"Excuse me?! Why is everyone honking?!"
"Because... Unnie, you're sitting on two lanes... this is dangerous!"
Cars slicing in from the sides, Yuwol crawling along while chewing on the lane markers — a full-blown circus broke out across the highway.
"Urgh... ugh... w-we made it... somehow..."
My stomach was spinning. I was one bump away from throwing up. The second we arrived I threw the door open and bolted out of the car.
"Haaah... fresh air. We're not even in the mountains and this is amazing... right, Jina... Unnie?"
In the back seat, Jina was half dead.
"Unnie!"
I shook her in a panic.
"Uuugh... I-I'm fine, so... just go..."
She waved a limp hand. I turned a murderous look on Yuwol. She seemed to have realized just how vicious her driving had been, because she wouldn't quite meet my eyes.
"Unnie, you stay here and look after Jina. I'll find Tsuki."
"R-right. Leave her to me. I'll take proper care of her. If she gets any worse I'll take her to a hosp—"
"Aaaagh! I am completely fine! Let's just find Tsuki!"
Jina lurched upright and climbed out of the car.
Yeah. If you were going to die, better to die as a person than get pulped in some unholy blender that wasn't even human.
"I'll start at Gate 4 — that's the one I heard over the phone."
"I'll take the first floor. Jina, you search the second."
We split up, each of us taking a zone.
Over the phone, she had said she was headed for Narita International Airport, hadn't she? I stopped running long enough to pull out my phone and look up flights to Narita. There was no guarantee Tsuki was actually going there... but if she had wanted me to find her, she wouldn't have called from somewhere the background noise came through that clearly.
"Found it. About every two hours, and it's nine in the morning now, so... boarding starts soon!"
I sprinted for Gate 4. The airport was packed wall to wall; actually running was nearly impossible. People tore through crowds just fine in dramas. Fake, all of it!
My face was already buried under sunglasses, a black mask, and a black hat. Covered that thoroughly, nobody in this sea of people recognized me.
"You there, stop! Airport security!"
"What? Why is security—!"
I checked whether someone was filming a drama nearby. Not a camera in sight — just a forest of phones pointed at me.
"Even if you keep running..."
With my running, they'd have me in seconds. I stopped where I was.
"We'll need to do a brief check. What brings you to the airport today?"
"I haven't done anything?"
"We received a report of a suspicious person running around this area."
A suspicious person.
"I haven't seen anyone like that."
"From where I'm standing..."
Security looked me up and down.
"You're the most suspicious one here."
"M-me?"
"If you'd come with us for a moment."
I did not have time for this. I pulled off the hat and the sunglasses, then tugged the mask down just enough to prove I was not, in fact, suspicious.
"I'm sorry. There's someone I have to find right now..."
"Huh? Jiwoo-chan?"
A familiar voice from beside me. There was only one person in the world who stuck a -chan on my name.
"Tsuki... found you!"
"W-waaah!"
I lunged and threw my arms around her before she could even think of running.
"Both of you, if you'd come with us."
"Ah... yes."
Any more of a scene and we'd be on the news tonight. I followed security without a fight.