It was another gray day in Canada. The sky hung heavy with clouds, the sun nowhere to be found, and the air thick with a clinging humidity. Jae-wook sat cross-legged on his bed, cocooned in his dimly lit room, headphones on, music pulsing through his veins — a temporary escape from the noise of the world.
Then —
The door burst open with a bang.
Leo stumbled in, breathless, panic etched across his face. Without a word, he yanked the headphones from Jae-wook's ears. The sudden silence was deafening.
Jae-wook blinked up at him, startled. "Leo—?"
"Where's Carrie?" Leo demanded, his voice sharp, ragged with fear.
Jae-wook sat straighter, brows furrowing. "What? She's out with Ava—why? What's going on?"
Leo's chest heaved. "We don't have time. We need to find them — now — before it's too late."
"What are you talking about?" Jae-wook was already rising to his feet, his instincts kicking in.
Leo stepped forward, eyes wild. "Ava's not who you think she is. She killed Na-eun. And she's going to kill Carrie next."
The room seemed to tilt, the weight of the words crashing down like thunder.
Jae-wook didn't ask how he knew. He didn't need to. Not with the way Leo looked — haunted, frantic, desperate. That was enough.
Grabbing his jacket and keys, Jae-wook moved toward the door. "I'll drive."
Leo nodded once, and they bolted down the stairs together, two hearts pounding with urgency, racing against a storm that had already begun to break.
---
The tires screeched as Jae-wook swerved onto the highway, the city blurring past in streaks of gray and red. Leo gripped the dashboard, his knee bouncing anxiously.
"Try her phone again," Jae-wook said, eyes locked on the road.
"I've called five times. It goes straight to voicemail." Leo's voice cracked. "Dammit, Ava must've turned it off."
A sick silence followed.
Then—Leo's phone buzzed.
A location pin.
Unknown number.
He tapped it instantly. A red dot blinked on the map, just outside the city, near the old quarry.
"Na-eun's cabin," Leo said.
Jae-wook's jaw tightened. He pushed the accelerator until the engine roared beneath them.
The trees grew denser, the road narrower. They left the city lights behind, swallowed by woods and shadows.
"There!" Leo shouted, pointing.
The SUV skidded to a halt, tires screeching against the asphalt. The building ahead stood in eerie silence, its entrance still marked off with restriction tape fluttering in the wind. Without hesitation, Leo and Jae-wook bolted from the car, sprinting toward the doors.
Their breath caught the moment they stepped inside.
There she was—Carrie, unconscious, suspended inside a sealed vacuum-glass chamber, her body limp like a broken doll. Beside it sat Ava, calm and chillingly poised, a fully loaded pistol cradled in her lap. Her eyes, empty yet burning, met theirs. And then—she smiled.
"Took you long enough," she said, her voice a melodic mockery.
"Ava! Don't do this, please don't," Leo pleaded, his hands raised instinctively.
"Give me a reason not to," she replied coolly, twirling the gun between her fingers like a toy.
Jae-wook took a careful step forward, his voice calm but laced with urgency. "Ava, put the gun down. Whatever this is, we can talk. You want something? Tell us. We'll figure it out—together."
Ava burst into laughter—a strange, broken sound that echoed off the walls. It lasted a full minute before it twisted into a look of bitter resolve.
"Talk?" she repeated, standing slowly, her gun now at her side. "You really think you can give me what I want? No. You can't. That's why I came to take it myself."
Leo's voice cracked as he tried to understand. "Why are you doing this?"
She turned sharply to Jae-wook, her eyes gleaming with fury. "Because I learned something. No matter what I tried, killing you never worked. She—" Ava pointed to Carrie behind the glass, "—she always got in the way. So I found a better way. I'm going to make you feel what I felt... when I lost my father."
Jae-wook frowned, shaking his head. "But Ava, I had nothing to do with your father's death. Carrie didn't either."
"Oh, didn't you?" she spat. "You think your precious parents were saints?" Her tone dropped, trembling with emotion. "Where was that sainthood when they watched my father die?"
Her hands tightened on the gun. Her voice cracked.
"He was a good man. Kind. Honest. And he died—because of your parents' reckless driving—and no one cared. Not the press, not the police, no one. All anyone cared about was the perfect, powerful Chang family. And me?" Her voice faltered. "I was just a scared girl watching her father bleed out, invisible to the world."
Tears brimmed in her eyes, but her hand remained steady as she raised the gun and aimed it at Jae-wook—then slowly shifted it to Leo.
"I don't think you even know what it's like to lose someone you love," she said quietly. "But don't worry… I'll teach you."
"Ava, please," Jae-wook said, stepping in front of Leo. "I am so sorry. I can't even begin to understand the pain you've lived with. But this?" He shook his head. "This isn't the way."
"IT IS!" she screamed, pulling the trigger—not at them, but at the vases behind them, shattering them into a storm of glass. "You think this came easy? That I just woke up one day and wanted revenge? I killed my own mother so she wouldn't be used against me! I burned my heart out so I wouldn't feel! I dated a brainless tool for seven years just to get close enough to destroy you—and now you're telling me to just walk away?!"
She laughed again, this time a manic, joyless sound.
"Ava…" Leo's voice was barely above a whisper.
"Don't," she snapped. "Don't try to make me see reason now because you're all going to die, starting with her" she said pointing the gun at Carrie.
"You can still save her… if you're willing to," Ava said, her lips curling into a wicked, knowing smile.
Jae-wook's breath caught in his throat as she reclined in her chair, the flickering, low light casting jagged shadows across her face like cracks in porcelain. "So," she purred, "we're going to play a little game."