The prison was a graveyard of echoes.
Every step Rang took down the corridor felt heavier, his boots dragging across wet concrete, his lungs still raw from screams that hadn't healed. The guards beside him didn't speak. They didn't need to. The silence of iron bars, the faint dripping water, and the stench of rust said everything: this was a place where voices came only to die.
At the end of the hall, a single door groaned open.
Inside—Han sat waiting.Straight-backed. Composed. His hands folded neatly on the table, his posture that of a man in prayer. But there was no God here—only a predator who thrived on cages. His faint smile carved through the dim light, calm, deliberate, poisonous.
Rang's chest heaved. He hadn't slept in days. Blood crusted his wrists where chains had torn him raw, and his clothes clung damp to his body, still marked with stains of Seo-rin's death. But the fire in his eyes had not dimmed.
He slammed his fists on the table so hard the iron shook."Say her name—just once—and I'll tear your throat out!"
The guards flinched, reaching for their batons, but Han didn't move. His smile lingered."You sound just like him."
Rang froze, breath stalling."Like who?"
Han leaned forward, the shadow cutting half his face in darkness."Your father."
The words sliced through Rang sharper than any blade. His throat clenched, but no sound came.
Han, almost tender, reached into the folds of his prison uniform. The guards tensed, stepping forward—but Han only withdrew something small. Metallic. Old. He placed it on the table with a soft clink.
A chain.The engraving was scratched, faded, but still legible: LEE HYUNG.
Rang's eyes widened. His heart slammed against his ribs, breath ragged. His trembling fingers hovered above the chain, terrified of touching it, as if it would burn him.
Han's voice dropped to a whisper, intimate and venomous."You already hold Seo-rin's chain. Now you hold his. Two threads in a web much larger than you imagine."
Finally, Rang snatched it. The cold metal bit into his palm, trembling in his bloodied fist.
"Where is the last one?" he snarled. "Tell me—what does it mean?"
Han leaned back, serene, his expression almost pitying."The third is yours, Rang. Lost. Hidden. Waiting. When the three come together… the truth will not set you free. It will bury you."
Rang shook his head violently, slamming the chain against the table."You think I'll dance to your riddles? You killed her! You killed them both!" His voice cracked, splintering into something raw and broken. "You took everything from me—my father, my sister—and now you sit here smiling?"
Han tilted his head, studying him with the quiet fascination of a surgeon observing a wound."Everything? No, Rang. I left you with something greater. Anger. And anger, unlike love, doesn't die."
Rang lunged forward, veins bulging at his neck, his wrists splitting open again against the restraints. "Tell me why you killed him! Why my father?!"
For the first time, Han's smile faltered—just slightly. His gaze sharpened, and his voice sank lower, cutting like a whisper meant for nightmares."You wouldn't survive the truth. Not yet."
Rang's chest heaved, his voice trembling with rage and desperation."You think I care if it kills me?! Tell me!"
But Han only closed his eyes, as though retreating into prayer again."Find it yourself. The dead don't answer questions—they leave puzzles. And you, Rang… you were born to solve them."
The guards moved forward, ready to drag Rang out, but he resisted, snarling like a cornered animal."You think this ends with your riddles?" His voice tore through the chamber, broken but burning. "When I come back—when I know everything—I'll make you bleed like she did!"
Han opened his eyes at that. The faintest smile returned, sharper now, more dangerous."Then hurry, boy. Because truth waits for no one. And it always takes more than it gives."
The guards pulled Rang away, his boots scraping against the floor, his fists still clenched around the two chains.
Outside, the storm had returned. Rain lashed against the prison gates, thunder rolling across the city like a warning. Rang stood alone under the downpour, his body trembling, the two chains digging into his palm. Metal cut into skin, drawing fresh blood.
Seo-rin's.His father's.Two pieces of a puzzle. One still missing.
The weight of them was unbearable. Not just because they were chains—but because they were keys.
Rang lifted his head, rain soaking his face, his eyes hollow but burning with something colder than grief.Not sorrow.Not rage.But resolve.
The clock in his pocket ticked backward, whispering its haunting rhythm.Don't trust her.
And as the storm raged around him, Rang made his choice.
He would vanish.He would become something else.And when he returned—Han's world would burn.