City lights.
Sparkling below like something scattered from a great height and left where it landed.
Tall buildings.", "Clean lines.", "Glass catching the night and throwing it back in pieces.",
People moving through the streets below.", "Cars finding their lanes.", "The specific noise of a city that hadn't stopped yet.", "That might not stop.",
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A black limousine pulled up.
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The hotel beside it.", "Golden.", "High and wide.", "The kind of building that had decided what it was and built itself accordingly.",
---
The door opened.
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Golden heels first.
Then legs.
Then a black and blue dress.", "Fitted.", "Considered.",
Then the woman wearing it.
Long black hair.", "Dark glasses.", "Dark red lipstick sitting precisely on her mouth.", "She moved the way people move when they have stopped thinking about how they move.",
Forward.
Composed.
Her energy filling the space around her before she arrived in it.
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The glass doors opened ahead of her.
The door boy reading it correctly.
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She moved through the lobby.", "Through the people.", "Through the noise of the place.", "Finding the elevator without looking for it.",
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Inside.
A couple.", "Hands linked.", "Voices low.", "The particular closeness of people who had decided on each other.",
The woman looked at the numbers.", "Floor by floor.",
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The couple's voices finding the elevator around her.
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"I told you.", "Moving into this hotel was the right call.", "There's a guild leader here.", "A monster wouldn't come near this place.", "Everyone knows about the Endless Storm.", "One of the strongest guilds out there.",
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"What about the Red Phoenix."
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The couple laughed.", "The sound of it easy.", "Genuine.",
"I wish.", "Imagine that.",
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The doors opened.
The woman walked out.", "Moving forward.", "Not looking back at the elevator.", "Not looking back at anything.",
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Two men in black suits.", "Stepping into her path.",
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She stopped.
Her right hand came up.", "Slow.", "Found the frame of her glasses.", "Pulled them down.", "Just enough.", "Just to the bridge of her nose.", "Her eyes finding one of the men directly.",
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A voice from somewhere ahead of them.
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"Let her in."
A pause.
"Trust me.", "Boys.", "That woman right there.", "None of you could handle her.",
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The men made a path.
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She walked through it.
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The penthouse.", "Wide.", "Luxurious in the specific way that required no announcement.", "Just space.", "Just quality.", "Just everything chosen correctly.",
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A man across the room.
Not tall.", "Not short.", "Round face.", "Short hair.", "Standing near the bar with the ease of someone at home in every room he entered.",
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"Ye-jun."
His voice carrying warmth that may or may not have been earned.
"How are you doing.", "Let me make you a drink.", "I was just making one for myself.", "What would you have.", "As you can see I'm well stocked.",
---
She looked at him.
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"Enough with the games.", "Kim Tae-soo.",
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He smiled.
"So formal.", "You never show me any respect.", "I don't blame you.", "If I were in your position I wouldn't show me any either.",
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"Respect."
The word left her mouth differently than words usually leave mouths.
Something underneath it.", "Sharp.", "Old.",
"You have no enemies.", "The only enemies you have are the ones you make.",
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"Then what am I.", he replied.",
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A pause.
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"A long time ago.", she said.", "We were friends.", "Now I don't know.", "You tell me.",
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His eyes met hers.
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"Kim Tae-soo.", she continued.", "The only person you are truly friends with is yourself.",
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He smiled.", "Light.", "Unbothered.",
"You know what.", "I know exactly what drink you'd want.", "I've known since the first time I made it for you.", "I still remember the recipe.",
---
He turned to the bar.
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"Enough of your games.", she said.", "What is this I hear about the Endless Storm not supporting the dungeon raid.", "Do you understand what this raid means.",
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He took a bottle of gin.", "Poured it slowly.", "Added tonic.", "Peeled an orange strip over the glass.", "Let it curl.", "Set it down.",
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"Let me tell you something.", "Ye-jun.", "Do you remember the first time we met.",
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He looked at her.
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"Back then there was nothing.", "Just chaos.", "Like your drink.", "Shaken.", "But it stands.",
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She looked at him.
Anger and sadness on her face wearing the same expression.", "Neither one winning.",
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"I'm sorry.", he said.", "I keep drifting from the point.", "Those days.", "They were the best days of my life.", "No guilds.", "No government.", "No system.", "Just freedom.", "For all of us.",
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Her voice came like something edged.
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"Freedom.", "You call that freedom.", "I was there.", "When I lost the man I loved.", "When I lost my family.", "That was your freedom.",
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His voice.", "Easy.", "Not dismissing it.",
"And yet you rebuilt yourself.",
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He walked toward her.", "Both drinks in his hands.", "Small umbrellas in each.", "He held one out.", "Sat down on the long white couch.",
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She took it.
Looked at the city through the window.", "The lights below.", "The long distance of it.",
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"We came a long way.", "Didn't we.",
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"Yes.", he said.",
---
She looked at him.
---
"I understand how you feel about all of this.", she said.", "But you have to understand.", "Gun-woo is trying to help people.", "Trying to bring order.",
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"Order.", his voice thickening slightly.", "Do you remember the world before this.", "How miserable it was.", "The cages we lived in.", "The fantasies we called lives.",
He set his drink down.
"I'm tired of going back to that.", "Not me.",
---
She looked at him.
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"So you're going to walk away from everything.", "Walk away from me.", "If you do this.", "You are walking out.",
---
He was quiet for a moment.
---
Then.
---
"Fine.", he said.", "I'll help.",
---
She looked at him a long moment.
Then walked.", "Back through the penthouse.", "Back through the doors.", "Back into the elevator.", "Back through the lobby.", "Back through the glass doors the door boy opened.",
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Into the limousine.
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She reached into her bag.", "Found her phone.",
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Dialed.
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Gun-woo's voice.", "Immediate.",
"Is he in.",
---
"Yes.", she said.",
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A breath.
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"I told you I had this.", "Thank you.", "Miss Ye-jun.",
---
She looked at the city through the window.
---
Dropped the phone into her lap.
---
Said nothing else.