Mr. Han didn't answer her immediately.
Instead, he studied her the way someone examined an object they weren't sure was fragile or dangerous.
"You want specifics," he said.
It wasn't a question.
Seo-yeon nodded.
Her heart pounded, but her posture remained steady.
Numbers had power.
Numbers turned fear into strategy.
He reached into his coat and removed a small notebook.
Flipped through pages.
Stopped.
He spoke calmly.
"Forty-two million won."
The number struck her harder than she expected.
Her breath caught.
Not because it was unimaginable.
But because it was real.
Measurable.
Finite.
Not fate.
Not death.
Not something beyond reach.
Something that existed in the world of choices.
Her father's suffering had a number.
Her father's fear had a number.
Her father's life had been cornered by a number.
She forced herself to breathe evenly.
"Interest?"
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"You understand faster than most."
She didn't answer.
Because she understood something else too.
Debt wasn't just money.
It was time.
And time was something she knew how to fight.
"Monthly," he said.
Her mind began calculating automatically.
Forty-two million won.
With interest.
Impossible for her father alone.
But not impossible in every timeline.
She stared at the notebook in his hand.
For the first time—
The enemy wasn't invisible anymore.
It had a shape.
A structure.
A number.
And numbers could be dismantled.