Sea's Brother is Done!
A few days after the press conference ended, at Tokyo's Haneda Airport VIP terminal. In the pitch-black night, with only the runway lights stretching out like a long line, a small, sleek business jet was quietly preparing for takeoff. The plane was painted a smooth white, bearing no logos from any specific country or airline.
Beneath the airstair, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan and a high-ranking Japanese Cabinet Office official had unusually come out in person to see someone off.
"Emissary Sea... Are you sure you won't take the special plane we've provided, or even a government jet?"
the American ambassador asked in a voice thick with regret.
"This is our small token of appreciation. Please..."
"I'll gratefully accept your kind intentions, Ambassador."
Sea, standing atop the stairs and looking down at them, spoke in a voice as soft as it was firm. Dressed in a pristine white pantsuit, she seemed to glow even in the surrounding darkness.
"My master does not wish to owe any debts to any nation. This is our principle."
With a light bow, she turned without hesitation and boarded the plane. The door closed, and the jet smoothly taxied down the runway before vanishing into the night sky as a tiny dot.
The interior of the plane was a small, luxurious kingdom prepared solely for her. Plush leather seats, an elegant wooden table, and flight attendants on standby to meet her every need. She gazed out the window at Tokyo's nightscape, scattered like jewels below.
Just a few weeks ago, she had been a pitiful beast cowering in a dark, stinking corner of a room, crushed by fear of the world and her own desires, sobbing in terror.
But now... she was soaring above it all in a private jet worth billions of won, looking down upon the world.
This is... the glory my master has bestowed upon me...
A warm, pleasant heat emanated from her lower abdomen, from the Ultimate Subjugation Seal hidden beneath her suit, responding to her overwhelming emotions.
Moments later, a flight attendant carefully set down the finest champagne, caviar, and foie gras. The world's most expensive and rare delicacies, yet they tasted wrong on her tongue.
I miss... Aki-unnie's cooking.
Without realizing it, she recalled the hellish temple's dining table. The food there held not just flavor, but absolute devotion to their master and the taut tension among the females. Her tongue, tamed by those stimulating tastes, found these gourmet dishes bland and empty.
And... she felt lonely.
In this vast, opulent space, utterly alone. No voice to praise or punish her, no hot touch, no scent of him—this place felt so cold and hollow.
But she shook her head.
No. This is my mission.
She gently stroked the pristine white coral carrier beside her. This was her kingdom, her weapon, her calling.
She reaffirmed her resolve once more. To perfectly fulfill her master's command, end this loneliness, and return... to his arms, to that hellish yet warm temple.
But first, she had to meet her brother.
The plane landed quietly at Gimpo Airport's VIP terminal. The moment she descended the stairs, dozens of men in black suits rushed toward her desperately. National Intelligence Service agents.
"Ms. Kim Sea-ah! Please come with us for a moment..."
As they reached out, burly U.S. Embassy Marines suddenly appeared, blocking their path.
"Excuse me. Emissary Kim Sea-ah is under legal protection as a U.S. diplomat. Any forcible contact with her will be regarded as a grave diplomatic provocation against the United States. Consider this a stern warning."
The NIS agents, on their own soil facing their own citizen shielded by American soldiers, could only clench their fists in humiliation and retreat without a word.
Sea watched the entire commotion with an impassive expression. Then she boarded the bulletproof black sedan provided by the U.S. government.
The car headed toward the rundown officetel neighborhood where she had once lived, where her life had been utterly upended.
When the car stopped at the alley's edge, she told the driver,
"From here... I'll go alone."
Stepping out, she pulled her symbolic white carrier.
Roll, roll...
The sound of the carrier's wheels on the asphalt echoed loudly in the quiet night alley. She was walking back to the entrance of that hell on her own two feet, to settle the final score with her past and her brother.
She knew. Eyes were watching her from the shadows everywhere. The government's hunting dogs, who had used her as bait to lure her master.
But she was no longer afraid. She was now a U.S. diplomat, a guest of honor in Japan, and above all...
the emissary of the "Crow Sorcerer."
No one dared touch her. Ignoring their presence completely, she entered the familiar officetel entrance.
When she reached the door of the apartment that now felt strangely alien, her heart began to beat like a human's for the first time in ages.
Oppa...
She thought of the last remaining blood relative beyond that door.
But soon, the seal on her lower abdomen glowed coldly, suppressing the sentimental thought. This wasn't a reunion. It was the final accounting.
Ding-dong.
She pressed the doorbell. Moments later, the sound of a chain being undone came from inside, and the door creaked open.
It was Jihyuk who opened it. But he was no longer the kind, reliable brother she remembered. His face was covered in days-old stubble, his hollow eyes unfocused and blurry. His whole body reeked of booze and unwashed grime.
The state of the apartment was even more wretched. Trash bags piled like mountains in the entryway, the living room floor littered with empty bottles and food waste.
"...Sea...?"
It took him a long time to recognize the impeccably dressed woman before him as his little sister.
"Sea-yah! It really is you!"
Finally coming to his senses, he burst into tears and spread his arms to hug her.
"Stop."
Sea's voice was like ice. She blocked his arms firmly, as if avoiding something filthy.
"I came to give you something."
"...Give me something?"
Jihyuk looked at her in confusion, then noticed the white carrier beside her. The color was different, but he could never forget its shape—the horrific bag in which his sister had wailed like a beast.
Without a word, Sea brushed past him into the living room. She laid the white carrier amid the trash piles and unlatched it.
Click.
As she opened the lid,
Shhhrrrr—!
Dazzling gold and the green of bills lit up the dark, filthy room. Half the carrier was stacked with palm-sized gold bars like bricks, the other half stuffed tight with bundles of $100 bills. An unimaginable fortune no ordinary person could touch in a lifetime.
"This is..."
"Compensation from my master... for you."
Sea spoke in an emotionless voice.
"And... the price for the existence called 'Kim Sea-ah,' he said to tell you."
"...You're not back...?"
Jihyuk's voice trembled with despair.
"This is the end for us."
Sea declared coldly.
"We won't see each other again. Use the money to pay debts or drink yourself to death, I don't care. And... forget me."
She dumped out all the gold bars and cash from the carrier, then picked up the now-empty case and headed to her room.
"I'll take my things."
Entering what was now a foreign space—her old room—she opened the closet. She no longer needed the dowdy dress Koharu had lent her. She had come to clear out the relics of the innocent girl named 'Kim Sea-ah.'
But what she gathered wasn't ordinary clothes. Her hand reached deep into the closet, into a box of memories, pulling out forgotten items.
First, her worn high school gym uniform from PE class. The name tag clumsily embroidered with 'Kim Sea-ah.'
She pressed it to her nose. Faint traces of sweat, dirt, and her long-lost girlhood scent lingered.
She imagined her master mocking her in this uniform as a sweating bitch, leaving his mark on the soiled fabric. Just the thought heated the stigmata in her lower abdomen.
Next, the slightly childish bikini from a beach trip with friends years ago. She pictured how easily her master's hands would untie those strings, how the body beneath would be ravished.
And finally, the secret underwear hidden deepest in the drawer. Lacy, girlish panties and bras she hadn't yet outgrown. She envisioned them tearing under her master's rough touch, her symbol of past purity defiled by his semen.
These were no longer mere mementos. They were... new "toys" for play with her master, offerings to profane her past.
She packed them neatly into her new kingdom's white carrier.
As she emerged with her clothes, she inadvertently glanced into her brother's open door.
And saw it.
On her brother's desk, where he passed out drunk every night, sat two all-too-familiar figures: the 'Fox Mask' and 'Her in the Carrier.'
"...This."
"Ah... No, Sea-yah! This is... it's just...!"
Jihyuk desperately tried to explain, but his voice cracked.
But Sea's reaction was unexpected. No anger, sadness, or disgust crossed her face. She merely stared at the figures impassively.
Did master send this too? Or did this weak man succumb to his own desires?
Either way, it didn't matter. Jihyuk no longer existed in her world.
"......"
Without a word, she pulled her carrier toward the front door.
"Sea-yah! Please! Don't go! I was wrong! Oppa was all wrong! Please...!"
Her brother's wretched sobs echoed behind her. But she never once looked back.
The door closed, leaving only gold bars, piles of cash, and one man's hollow weeping in the house.
The day after Sea severed her final tie with her brother and left Korean soil, the nation was once again plunged into massive shock and betrayal.
Communities erupted in fury and self-mockery.
The rage no longer targeted anyone specific. It was a hollow cry born from their own powerlessness and utter exclusion from the world's flow.
They turned Korea's despair into sweet snacks to affirm their superiority, throwing a festival.
U.S. communities analyzed it all with the leisure of victors.