The sidewalk was quiet as Haerin walked home, separated way with Yuri a while ago, then a thin breeze brushing her damp hair.
Her breath puffed lightly in the cool night air, her mind still warmed by Yuri's laughter.
A normal life.
A peaceful life.
A small slice of happiness she wasn't sure she deserved.
She stepped under a flickering streetlamp.
Then stopped.
A prickle slid over her skin—
unnatural, electric.
A pressure she had felt only once before…
on the night everything collapsed.
She turned.
The street behind her was empty.
But the lamp above her crackled sharply:
Buzz— BUZZZZ—
The light wasn't just flickering.
It was glitching.
Her chest tightened.
"…Si-Eun?"
His name slipped out like a breath she didn't know she was holding.
No answer.
Just a soft ripple of wind—
Then—
A streak of blue shot down from the sky and slammed onto the pavement beside her.
Hui.
"Hui?" Haerin gasped.
The tiny orb trembled violently, its glow unstable—
not playful, not curious.
Afraid.
"Hui, what is it? What's wrong?"
The orb projected a shaky hologram:
Static lines.
Then—
DANGER.
Haerin's pulse spiked.
Hui turned sharply toward the far end of the road.
Haerin followed its gaze—
A thin tear of glitching static ran across the distant shadows.
Like reality was unraveling, pixel by pixel.
Her breath caught.
"…G7?"
Hui flickered once.
Yes.
Haerin stumbled back a step.
Si-Eun was safe in Dr. Min's containment chamber.
But she was the next best target—
the only living being still tied to Si-Eun's energy pattern.
She wasn't carrying him…
But she carried the echo of him.
And G7 could sense it.
Hui expanded a pale blue shield around her, humming softly as circuitry wove into a protective sphere.
"Hui…" she whispered, voice shaking, "we have to get back to Dr. Min."
The orb pulsed sharply—
warning her to stay still.
Because the glitch at the end of the street was growing.
Thickening.
Darkening.
Shifting into something almost humanoid.
Haerin's stomach dropped.
She wasn't trained enough for this.
Not yet.
Not alone.
Her fingers curled into fists anyway.
But a shout cut through the night—
"Haerin! Get away from that—!"
Jiho.
He sprinted down the sidewalk, panic tearing across his face.
"Move! Haerin—MOVE!"
Hui flared bright blue.
The distortion lunged.
Haerin stepped back—
Jiho reached her—
And the street exploded into a storm of static and blue light.
The blast of static collided with Hui's blue barrier, bending light around them like a warped bubble. Haerin's ears rang. Jiho's grip closed around her arm, pulling her behind him on instinct.
"Stay behind me," he snapped, voice cracking with adrenaline.
Hui fluttered upward, light trembling, as it reinforced the shield—thin streams of blue coding stretching like veins across the glowing surface.
The distortion at the far end of the street writhed.
Limbs forming.
Then dissolving.
Then forming again.
A half-built humanoid shape… trying to stabilize.
Jiho whispered, breath unsteady,
"…What the hell is that?"
Haerin swallowed hard.
"Something we hoped we'd never see again."
A glitch surged outward—static skimming across the pavement like crawling frost.
Hui jolted, projecting another warning:
ENERGY LOCK.
TARGETING YOU.
RUN.
Haerin's blood froze.
"It's tracking me?"
Hui gave a single, sharp pulse.
Yes.
Jiho clenched his jaw.
"We're leaving. Now."
He tugged her backward, but Haerin's feet stayed rooted, eyes locked on the unstable figure.
Not humanoid anymore.
Bigger.
Heavier.
The shadow of a thing built from broken code.
"…G7," she whispered.
At her voice, the distortion snapped toward them.
Hui flared violently—throwing a shockwave of blue light.
"GO!" Haerin cried.
They ran.
Jiho kept pace beside her, practically dragging her when she stumbled.
Hui zipped ahead, laying down flickers of shielding like breadcrumbs of light.
The glitch gave chase, tearing the streetlight's glow into jagged ribbons.
Haerin's lungs burned.
Dr. Min's house was close—only four blocks away—but every second stretched thin, every shadow twisting as the distortion pulled reality apart behind them.
"Hui!" Haerin gasped.
"Signal Dr. Min—we are coming!"
The orb flickered, sending a rapid beam of light straight into the night sky.
Jiho shot Haerin a look, breath ragged.
"Why is this thing after you?!"
"Because I'm still connected to Si-Eun!" she shouted back.
"G7 can sense the energy echo!"
Jiho cursed under his breath.
"Haerin—your life is not worth losing over that—"
A roar of static cut him off.
G7 surged closer.
Streetlamps blew one by one, plunging the road into darkness.
Then—
A burst of color ignited ahead.
A dome of shimmering blue light expanded from a house at the end of the block.
Dr. Min's home.
Hui opened the lab's shield just for a moment.
"RUN!" Haerin screamed.
They sprinted.
Another blast from G7 struck the ground inches behind them—
But the moment their feet crossed the threshold, Hui slammed the barrier shut with a hard pulse of blue.
The distortion crashed against it—
and dissolved into static, howling in digital rage.
Then silence.
Haerin collapsed to her knees, chest heaving.
Hui dimmed, exhausted but alive.
Jiho leaned against the wall, running a shaking hand through his hair.
Haerin was staring past him.
Toward the containment chamber at the far end of the underground lab.
Si-Eun's particles—hazel-gold—were flickering uncontrollably.
Reacting.
As if they felt her fear.
As if they were trying to reach her.
"Si-Eun…" she whispered, voice breaking.
A soft hum responded from inside the chamber.
Alive.
He was still alive.
But his light trembled like a heartbeat terrified.
And deep in the glow—
a spark flared.
Stronger than before.
Almost like he was fighting to return.
Haerin pressed a hand to the glass.
"I'm right here," she whispered. "I'm safe.
I promise."
But both she and Hui knew the same truth:
Tonight's attack wasn't random.
G7 had found her.
And he wasn't finished.