Kim Tae-soo on the white couch.
The large flat screen in front of him.", "Still on.", "Still talking.", "The sound of it becoming texture rather than information.",
His face.", "Carrying something that didn't belong to his usual expression.", "Sadness sitting in it.", "Not performed.", "Just there.", "The way certain things arrive when you finally stop moving fast enough to avoid them.",
His eyes began drifting.", "Away from the screen.", "Away from the sound.", "Inward.",
The meeting.", "Replaying.",
Gun-woo entering the room.", "His face already at war before the words came.", "That particular readiness that some people carry when they have stopped pretending things aren't what they are.",
His voice.", "Cutting straight through.",
"We've jumped from one problem directly into a greater one.",
The screens.", "Footage.", "Giant ants.", "Xenomorph-like in their construction.", "Built closer to tanks than to anything biological.", "Their scale wrong in the way that made the eyes keep recalibrating.", "Keep trying to find a reference point that didn't exist.",
The system readout beside the footage.", "Cold.", "Indifferent.",
Sub-boss — Level 15 to 16.
Sub-boss identity — unknown.
Final boss — unknown.
The phone rang.
It pulled him back.", "Out of the meeting.", "Out of his own head.", "Back to the white couch.", "Back to the screen still going.",
Ji-eun.
He picked up.
Her voice.", "Simple.", "Direct.",
"Look outside."
He got up.", "Phone still in his hand.", "Moved to the window.",
Down on the street.", "A limousine.", "And beside it.", "Her.", "Looking up at exactly the right angle.", "The way people look up when they already know where the window is.",
They smiled at each other through the distance.", "Through the glass.", "Through however many floors separated them.",
Her voice.", "Coming through the phone.",
"Can I come up."
He looked at her a moment longer.
"That's not a bad idea."
The rooftop.", "Wide.", "Open.", "The city below it doing what the city did.", "The lights of it scattered in every direction.", "The dark above holding all of it.", "A stage that hadn't been built for anything in particular but worked for everything anyway.",
Ji-eun and Kim Tae-soo.", "Standing at the edge of it.",
She was holding a bottle.", "Expensive looking.", "Champagne.", "The gold foil catching what little light reached this high.",
Kim Tae-soo looked down at the city.", "His voice low.", "Like the city might hear him if he wasn't careful.",
"No alcohol.", "Is that why you're here.",
Ji-eun looked at the bottle.", "Then at him.",
"Yes.", "And no.", "I also need something that helps me think.", "Without getting drunk.", "Or.", "Well.", "You know.",
A pause.", "The city below them.", "The stars above.", "Their light doing what it could against the glow rising from the streets.",
"We all have problems.", Kim Tae-soo said.", "His mouth finding a small smile.", "Something genuine underneath the tiredness of it.",
He looked at the bottle.
"Open it."