The restaurant Claire chose was aggressively trendy—exposed brick, Edison bulbs, a menu full of words like "deconstructed" and "artisanal."
She was already seated when I arrived, waving from a corner booth with her signature bright smile.
"Unnie!" she called. "Over here!"
I navigated through the lunch crowd and slid into the seat across from her.
Claire looked good—better than I remembered her looking at this point in the original timeline. Hair freshly cut, makeup precise, a new designer bag hanging from her chair. Whatever she was doing, it was paying well.
Or she was spending money she didn't have.
"You look amazing," she said, reaching across to squeeze my hand. "Seriously, what's your secret? You're glowing."
"Clean living," I said dryly.
She laughed, the sound bright and practiced.
"Sure, sure. Meanwhile, I'm surviving on coffee and stress. You know how it is."
The waiter appeared. We ordered—salads, because Claire was "watching her figure," though I noticed her eyes lingered on the pasta section.
Once he left, she leaned forward, elbows on the table.
"Okay," she said. "Tell me everything. This countryside project—you're actually buying land? Like, real land?"
"I bought it," I said. "Closed last week."
Her eyes widened.
"Wow. That fast? I thought you were just exploring options." She tilted her head. "Must be nice, having that kind of capital ready to move."
There it was.
The first probe.
In my first life, I'd missed these moments—the subtle fishing for financial information, the implied envy wrapped in admiration. I'd thought Claire was just curious, just impressed.
Now I saw the calculation beneath.
"We'd been saving for a while," I said vaguely. "And the deal was too good to pass up."
"Smart," she said. "Real estate's always a solid investment. Especially these days, with everything so…" She waved a hand. "Uncertain."
"You've noticed too?" I asked, keeping my tone light.
She shrugged.
"Hard not to. The news is all weather disasters and economic jitters. My ex—you know, the one in finance—he's been saying the markets are acting weird. Nothing concrete, just… off."
"Your ex the finance guy," I repeated. "I thought you weren't speaking to him."
She made a face.
"We're not. But his new girlfriend is an idiot who doesn't know how to keep her Instagram private, so I keep up." She grinned. "Petty? Yes. Satisfying? Also yes."
I laughed despite myself.
This was the thing about Claire. She was genuinely charming when she wanted to be. Quick-witted, self-deprecating, warm. It was easy to forget the other side—the side that would one day build an empire on the bones of people who trusted her.
"So," she said, stirring her water with a straw. "This land of yours. What's the plan? Retirement retreat? Investment flip? Secret bunker for when the world ends?"
She said the last part jokingly.
I didn't laugh.
"A little of everything," I said. "Mostly a place for the family to get away. Maybe some farming eventually—my mom's been wanting to garden."
"Cute," she said. "Very cottagecore. Can I visit sometime? I could use a break from city life."
"Maybe," I said. "Once it's more livable. Right now it's mostly construction chaos."
"I can imagine." She paused, then added casually, "Must be expensive, though. Construction, permits, all that. You doing it all yourselves, or bringing in partners?"
Another probe.
"Alex is handling the financial side," I said. "I'm managing the project."
"Of course." She smiled. "You were always the organized one. I still remember how you used to color-code your notes in school. Drove me crazy."
"And you used to copy them the night before exams," I said.
She laughed.
"Guilty. But it worked, didn't it? We both passed."
The food arrived. We ate, conversation drifting to lighter topics—her job complaints, mutual acquaintances, a show we'd both been watching.
But underneath, I was watching her.
The System had flagged Claire as a Potential Rival – Risk Class B. That meant she wasn't an immediate threat, but she had the capacity to become one. Her awakening—Energy Siphon, the ability to drain power from cores and, eventually, from weakened humans—was one of the more dangerous abilities I'd encountered in my first life.
Right now, she was just Claire: ambitious, a little insecure, hungry for stability in a world that kept pulling the rug out from under her.
But the Mist would change her.
It changed everyone.
The question was whether I could shape that change—or at least predict it.
"Hey," she said, pulling me back to the present. "You okay? You zoned out for a second there."
"Sorry," I said. "Just thinking about the construction schedule."
"Workaholic," she teased. "You need to relax more. Take a vacation. Go somewhere with a beach."
"After the project's done," I said.
"You always say that." She sighed dramatically. "Fine, fine. But when this magical countryside paradise is finished, I expect a full tour. And maybe a room of my own for when I need to escape my sad little apartment."
I smiled, noncommittal.
"We'll see."
She reached for the check before I could.
"My treat," she said. "You're the one doing all the exciting things. Let me live vicariously through buying you a salad."
"Thank you," I said.
As we walked out, she linked her arm through mine—a gesture so natural, so sisterly, that it almost hurt.
"Hey," she said, more quietly now. "I know I joke around a lot, but… I'm glad you're doing this. The land thing, the preparation stuff. It's smart. If things get bad…" She trailed off. "Well. It's good to know someone in the family is thinking ahead."
I looked at her.
For a moment, I saw the Claire from my first life—hollowed out by loss, hardened by necessity, making choices that would have horrified the woman standing next to me now.
Was that path inevitable? Or was there still a fork in the road?
"If things get bad," I said slowly, "you can always come to us. You know that, right?"
Her eyes flickered—something complicated moving behind them.
"Yeah," she said. "I know."
We hugged goodbye on the sidewalk.
As I watched her walk away, heels clicking on the concrete, bag swinging from her shoulder, the System pulsed.
[INTERACTION LOGGED: CLAIRE CHEN]
[RELATIONSHIP STATUS: FAMILY – DISTANT]
[THREAT ASSESSMENT: LOW (CURRENT) / HIGH (PROJECTED)]
[LATENT AWAKENING PROFILE: ABSORPTION-TYPE]
[ESTIMATED POWER TIER POST-MIST: B+ → A-]
[INFLUENCE TRAJECTORY: MALLEABLE]
[RECOMMENDATION: MAINTAIN CONTACT. SHAPE NARRATIVE. AVOID RESOURCE INTEGRATION.]
Avoid resource integration.
Don't let her close enough to see what I was really building.
But don't cut her off entirely, either.
A tightrope.
I turned and walked toward my car, already composing the mental list of what came next.
Sixty-three days until the Mist.
Claire was a variable I couldn't eliminate.
So I would have to manage her instead.