The Red Phoenix Headquarters rose above Daejeon.
Glass and steel.
A tower that had decided what it wanted to be and built itself accordingly.
---
Across its exterior a massive crimson phoenix stretched from one edge to the other.
Wings spread.
Not resting.
Preparing.
Like it had been caught mid-decision.
---
By day it burned beneath the sunlight.
By night it glowed against the skyline.
Not a building exactly.
A statement.
Something the city could look at and remember what it was supposed to believe.
---
Below it the street was consumed.
Vans.
Cars.
All of them drawn in.
Journalists.
Cameras.
Magazines.
Papers.
All of them moving like something with one mind and many legs.
Gathering at the base of the thing that glowed.
---
Inside the building moved differently.
Not organized.
Not chaos exactly.
Something between.
People going up.
People going down.
Voices overlapping.
The specific panic of people who know something important is about to happen and are trying to be ready for it.
---
The elevator opened.
---
Minjun.
White shirt.
Green and blue tie.
Dark blue suit.
His hair combed back.
Mostly.
His left eye purple and swollen.
His cheek the same.
His right arm in a black sling against his chest.
---
Beside him Ji-eun.
Long.
Thin.
Black hair falling straight.
Dark blue lipstick.
A short nose.
A face that looked younger than everything behind her eyes.
Blue Serpent Guild.
---
They stepped out of the elevator together.
The building moving around them like water around two stones.
Not stopping for them.
Not slowing.
Just finding the gaps and continuing.
---
Ji-eun looked at him as they walked.
Her voice elegant.
Unhurried.
"You look like you've seen better days."
A pause.
"Much better days."
---
Minjun smiled.
Small.
Careful around the swollen side.
"Thank you ma'am."
---
She looked ahead.
Her voice shifting slightly.
Still elegant.
But quieter now.
"I'm sorry for your loss."
A breath.
"I knew one of your soldiers. A dear childhood friend."
She kept walking.
"We lose so much these days it's hard to tell if we're even winning."
---
Minjun looked at her.
"Thank you ma'am."
A pause.
"But you can't give up hope."
He kept his eyes ahead.
"I know we're losing. But people need something to believe in."
A breath.
"They need you."
Another.
"I know it's hard. But you fight your fight. You fight your battles."
---
Ji-eun looked at him.
Something in her face shifting.
Softening at the edges.
"You haven't changed."
She almost smiled.
"The truth is something big is coming. I'm not sure we'll be ready for it."
A pause.
She straightened slightly.
"Enough of that."
Her voice finding its lightness again.
"You're right. I need to stop."
A breath.
"After all this they better treat us well. We deserve a feast."
---
Minjun laughed.
Low.
Genuine.
She laughed with him.
---
The conference room ahead filled with noise before they entered it.
Cameras.
Voices.
The specific chaos of a room that had too many people in it who all wanted the same thing at the same time.
---
A man in a black suit appeared at the entrance.
Moving toward them efficiently.
"Please follow me madam."
---
They entered.
---
The room found them immediately.
Eyes first.
Then cameras.
The flashes starting.
Voices rising over each other.
An unending stream of questions finding no gaps between them.
"Ma'am can I get a quick minute—"
"How was the raid—"
"Ma'am just one question—"
All of it at once.
All of it unanswerable.
---
Behind the curtain at the far end of the room.
Gun-woo.
Standing still in the middle of everything moving.
Looking out at it.
His face carrying something that hadn't been there before.
Or had always been there and was only now visible.
Despair wearing the shape of composure.
---
A voice behind him.
Quiet.
"It's almost time to start sir."
---
He didn't turn immediately.
Just looked at what was out there.
At the cameras.
At the journalists.
At the people who had come to hear something that would hold them together for a little longer.
---
Then he turned.
"Very well."