Three thousand miles away, in the mountains of Gangwon Province.
The snow crunched beneath her boots, a soft, rhythmic sound that belonged to the forest, to the quiet hours before dawn when the world still held its breath. exhaled, watching her warm breath dissipate into the cold air right in front of her face.
A rabbit sat twenty meters ahead.
It sat in a small clearing, its white fur nearly invisible against the fresh snow, its nose twitching as it tested the wind.
Twenty meters. Wind from the north. Slight drift to the left.
She didn't think these things consciously. They were simply there, part of her awareness the way breathing was part of living.
The rifle came up. Smooth. Effortless. The stock settled against her shoulder like it belonged there.
Exhale. Squeeze. Don't pull.
The shot cracked through the frozen air.
The rabbit dropped.
The blood soaked the white snow in a crimson red.
Jiyeon lowered the rifle and walked forward, her boots leaving clean prints in the fresh powder. The rabbit lay where it had fallen, a clean kill. A bullet through the head.
Jiyeon knelt beside the rabbit's body, her breath fogging in the cold morning air. The arrow had struck clean, through the eye, into the brain, instant death. The rabbit hadn't suffered.
"Making it suffer would damage the taste of the meat, I'm glad I managed to get a clean shot."
The rabbit's blood melted tiny holes in the white surface, red spreading outward like blooming flowers. She watched it for a moment, fascinated by the way color moved through emptiness.
"The meat's going to spoil, you're supposed to field dress it," a voice said behind her. "Not stare at it like it's going to recite poetry."
She didn't turn. "I know how to field dress a rabbit, Minjae."
"Could've fooled me." He crunched through the snow toward her, his boots leaving deep prints in the fresh powder.
He crouched beside her, examining the rabbit with professional interest. "Clean shot. Through the eye. You're getting better."
"I've always been good at this."
"At killing things, yes." He reached out and brushed a strand of dark hair from her face. "At everything else..." He let the sentence hang.
Jiyeon pulled away from his touch, not sharply, but firmly.
"Let's go back before the meat spoils, I'll do it at the cabin."
They walked back through the thick snow, towards their small wooden cabin.
He was tall, too tall for the cramped cabin they shared, too tall for the narrow hunting trails. His black hair was pulled back in a rough ponytail, strands escaping to frame a face that was all sharp angles and sharper eyes. He wore a heavy coat, patched at the elbows, and carried his own rifle slung across his back.
"You're back surprisingly early," Jiyeon said, still not looking at him. She began field-dressing the rabbit with quick, efficient movements.
Minjae watched her work. "Got a message."
"What kind of message?"
"A message that'll pay a fucking lot."
She paused. The knife hovered over the rabbit's abdomen, blood dripping from the blade onto the snow. Then she continued her work, separating meat from bone with the same precision she'd used to separate targets from their lives.
"How much?"
"Enough to get out."
That made her look up. Minjae's face was serious, the lines around his eyes deeper, the set of his jaw tighter. He'd been handsome once, before the years of running had carved their marks into his skin.
"There's a target. The kind of contract that comes with an entire mansion, enough money to disappear somewhere warm." He paused. "Somewhere without snow and somewhere we don't have to kill anymore."
Jiyeon looked down at the rabbit. At the blood on her hands. At the snow that stretched endlessly in every direction, white and silent and utterly indifferent.
"It probably won't be easy then." She pulled the rabbit's pelt free and set it aside. "Who is it?"
"The government wants a witch eliminated. Some kid at Hex Academy. Apparently he's becoming a problem."
"Hex Academy." Jiyeon's voice was flat. "You want me to assassinate a student."
"Yes."
Minjae was silent for a moment. Then he crouched beside her, his knee pressing into the snow, his face level with hers. His dark eyes searched her face for something she wasn't sure she had anymore.
"Name's Hoshimi Shirogane." He pulled out his phone and showed her a photograph. A boy with black hair and violet eyes, his face pale and hollow-cheeked, his expression blank. "Seventeen years old. Reincarnation of King Arthur. He's already killed one member of a great family. The government's terrified he'll become another Sophia Miller. They just don't want him to get his own independence or be under another government's control. They're asking us to nip the flower in the bud."
Jiyeon examined the photograph. The boy looked tired. Not scared, not angry, just... tired. Like he'd been carrying something heavy for a very long time and had forgotten what it felt like to set it down.
"Another monster they can't control."
"Another weapon that might be used against them." Minjae's hand found hers, his fingers cold against her blood-warmed skin. "Jiyeon. This is our chance. One job. One target. And we're free."
She looked at their joined hands. His fingers were long and calloused, the hands of someone who'd spent years pulling triggers and climbing walls and doing whatever was necessary to survive.
"You're asking me to kill a child."
"I'm asking you to kill a weapon before it becomes something worse." His grip tightened. "He's dangerous, Jiyeon. He's already killed. He'll kill again. The only question is whether we stop him before he becomes unstoppable."
"Like Sophia."
"And they're sending me into it."
"They're sending you because you're the best." He reached out again, and this time she let him touch her, his fingers brushing against her cheek, warm despite the cold. "In and out. Clean. No traces. You've done this a hundred times."
"Not against a target this high-profile."
"No." His hand dropped. "But you can do it. I know you can."
Jiyeon finished dressing the rabbit and wrapped the meat in a clean cloth. The pelt she folded separately, it would make good lining for winter gloves.
"Show me the file."
Minjae nodded and rose beside her. They walked back through the forest in silence, their footsteps synchronized from years of moving together, of watching each other's backs, of surviving when everyone else had died.
Minjae crossed to the small table and opened a leather satchel, pulling out a thin folder. He handed it to her without a word.
Jiyeon opened it.
The photograph on the first page showed a boy. Young, seventeen, according to the file, but he looked younger. Black hair. Violet eyes that seemed to stare through the camera, through the paper, through her. His face was blank, expressionless.
Hoshimi Shirogane.
Born: Unknown. Approximated age: 17.
Affiliation: Hex Academy. No known connections.
Known Abilities: Invisibility (reincarnation ability). Basic mana reinforcement.
Psychological Profile: Subject displays significant emotional detachment. Recommendation: Termination before full manifestation of abilities.
She flipped through the pages. Incident reports. Witness statements. A detailed analysis of his involvement in something called the "Mirlo Estate Incident." Photographs of destruction, a shattered mansion, a courtyard torn apart, bodies being carried away on stretchers.
And at the back, a single photograph that made her pause.
The boy, Hoshimi, standing in what looked like a school courtyard. His clothes were torn, his face bloodied, but his eyes were the same.
Beside him, a girl with brown hair and blue eyes was clutching his sleeve like a lifeline.
Jiyeon closed the file. The cabin was quiet except for the crackling of the wood stove and the distant whisper of wind through the pines.
Somewhere in the distance, a bird called out, three notes, descending, like a question that would never be answered.
"When do we leave?"
"Tomorrow. Dawn."
She looked at him, at his warm eyes, his boyish face, his easy smile. Jiyeon nodded slowly. Her hand found his, their fingers intertwining, and they stood together in the warm silence of the cabin, watching the snow erase the world outside.
"The government's in no rush. They want this done right."
She nodded slowly. The rabbit's blood had dried on her hands, leaving faint brown stains in the creases of her palms. She looked at them for a moment.
"Jiyeon." Minjae's voice was soft. "When this is over... when you come back..."
She straightened, meeting his eyes. "What?"
He hesitated. Then he smiled, that easy, boyish smile that had made her trust him once, a long time ago. "Nothing. We'll talk when you return."
"I'll come back," she said. "I always do."
She picked up the wrapped rabbit meat and began the long walk down the mountain. Behind her, Minjae watched her go, his smile fading into something else, something colder, more calculating.
Then he pulled out his phone and typed a brief message:
"She has been deployed. Estimated arrival 30 hours. Will report upon contact."
He sent it. Pocketed the phone. And followed her down the mountain, his footprints filling with fresh snow.