#8

“Gasp, huff!”

I jolted awake, overwhelmed by a chilling sensation. Frantically, I ran my hands over my body. Only after feeling the familiar texture of my skin instead of sleek, jet-black feathers did I let out a long breath.

“It’s okay. I didn’t change. It’s okay.”

I wiped my face with both hands. After reassuring myself with those words, I was finally able to get out of bed.

Just yesterday, I had swallowed that strange experimental drug and was dragged to Wei Chen’s house.

Considering the secrets I had unintentionally uncovered about the Baekwoon Group and the massive thing I had done, it felt almost anticlimactic that I had made it back home so easily. And to top it off, the man had even driven me close to my house himself.

I could still picture Wei Chen’s smug face as he casually twirled his car keys, waiting for me when I had no choice but to return through the front door after failing to hail a taxi.

“…I swear, I never want to deal with that guy again.”

Even after returning home, I couldn’t sleep until late into the night. My search history on the portal site was filled with endless entries: [Hong Kong Baekwoon Group], [Baekwoon Necter], [Baekwoon Wei Chen], [Baekwoon Mafia], and so on—nothing but searches about Baekwoon.

The truth hidden behind its immense financial power and the façade of a global investment company. It seemed like an open secret that the Baekwoon Group was actually leading a mafia organization responsible for 70% of Hong Kong’s crime rate.

My eyes were bloodshot, and my mind grew increasingly chaotic. Then, as I scrolled through a post detailing the brutal vengeance Baekwoon had taken on traitors and those who had threatened the organization, I couldn’t help but start thinking about what my own epitaph should say.

“…Should I apply for an exchange program?”

Preferably to a country as far away from Hong Kong as possible. Seriously considering my options, I stumbled toward the bathroom—only to make a horrifying discovery.

His sunglasses.

I had absentmindedly taken them with me.

Thud. My heart plummeted. I froze in place, standing stiffly in front of my desk.

“This is insane. I’m actually insane.”

No matter how reckless and thieving I could be, what the hell was I thinking taking that with me? It was my own doing, yet I couldn’t comprehend what had possessed me to do it. I groaned, grabbing my head in frustration, then rolled onto the bed in sheer agony.

Aaaahhh! Why! Why did I do that? What the hell was I thinking?! Just die, seriously!

What if that deranged Hong Kong mafia guy realized his sunglasses were missing and came looking for me? My legs started trembling uncontrollably. Just in case, I had even gotten out of Wei Chen’s car two subway stops away from my house.

But what was the point? It was like a mole cricket trying to dig its way out in front of a Serengeti lion.
TL/N: The Serengeti lions are a sub-species of African lions. With distinctive characteristics that set them apart from other lion populations.

I stared stiffly at the sunglasses in my hand.

“…Should I just throw them away?”

Erasing the evidence, literally.

I had stolen things plenty of times before. But I had always returned everything—never keeping, reselling, or losing anything I took.

Except for the red gemstone ring from yesterday. And these sunglasses.

As of last night, I had officially leveled up from a petty thief to a real one. At this point, I just wanted to toss the sunglasses into a garlic mortar and smash them to bits with a pestle. Bury my mistake where no one could ever find it.

But what if his house had security cameras? Knowing how suspicious that guy was, it wasn’t entirely impossible.

“I hate this. I really hate myself right now.”

In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to dump the sunglasses into the garlic mortar. Instead, I shoved them deep into the back of my desk drawer.

* * *

Front, left, right, back. All clear.

Gripping my backpack tightly, I spun around in place. The tension pressing down on my body was so intense that my neck ached. I couldn’t shake the anxiety that had been trailing me the entire way to school. Like a paranoid schizophrenic, I couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling that someone was following me.

Maybe I should’ve just stayed home.

…But then again, when I thought about my grades, skipping class wasn’t an option. The fear of a GPA drop was an entirely different kind of terror.

For about eight years now, my countless experiences with stealing had sharpened my instincts. I scanned my surroundings keenly. Fortunately, I didn’t sense any suspicious gazes watching me.

Were they really letting me go just like that?

A mix of relief and suspicion churned inside me. None of this made sense.

I tried flipping the situation in my head. If I were a member of the Baekwoon organization, I would never leave someone like me alone. Anyone who knew a secret was a liability. And letting a liability roam free was a fatal mistake for an organization like theirs.

But people always believe what they want to believe.

I could only hope that Wei Chen was the type to be fickle and lazy—someone who preferred ignoring troublesome matters rather than dealing with them.

“Assignments must be submitted by midnight this weekend. Any later, and they won’t be graded, so make sure to meet the deadline.”

With the professor’s final words, the three-hour lecture finally came to an end.

I had to push aside my growing worries and force myself to focus entirely on the class. All I did was take notes on my tablet PC while sitting still, yet my back was drenched in sweat.

“Dabi.”

As I was packing up my bag, I felt multiple shadows closing in around me. Looking up, I saw Seon-ah.

Her eyes were slightly tense, the corners of her lips stiff, her breathing a little uneven. I swallowed hard.

The oppressive air pressing down on me was something I had experienced before—more than once.

And I knew all too well what came next.

The words that were about to be hurled at me would, without a doubt, be a merciless dissection of my ugliest truths—the very ones I wanted to ignore the most.

“I need to talk to you. Do you have a moment?”

A guilty person doesn’t get to say no.

I nodded, slinging my bag over my shoulder as I stood up.

* * *

During the semester, the campus was packed with students no matter where you went. Especially in the late afternoon, when the sun was still up, the grounds buzzed with energy.

Laughter and chatter filled the air as students walked in groups, talking and joking. But the atmosphere between me and my classmates felt like it belonged to an entirely different world—one weighed down by an unbearable heaviness.

We had initially headed toward the women’s lounge, but since there were too many ears around, we were now moving to the clubroom instead.

The way my classmates remained silent as we walked, deliberately seeking out a more private place, told me everything I needed to know.

My worst fear had come true.

She had figured out that I stole the ring.

What do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do…?

I bit down hard on my lower lip. Normally, I would’ve just apologized and returned it.

But damn it! That ring was currently inside me—dissolving somewhere in my system.

Buying a replacement wasn’t an option. But the real problem wasn’t the ring’s value—it was the fact that trust had been shattered beyond repair.

I dreaded the moment I would have to face my classmates’ disappointment and resentment head-on. On top of that, school was the kind of place where rumors spread like wildfire.

The news that I had stolen Seon-ah’s ring wouldn’t just travel by word of mouth—it would end up on the school’s online community in no time. And if my father found out… A slap on the cheek would be the least of my worries.

“Come in, Dabi.”

As I stepped into the clubroom, the door clicked shut behind me. Even that small sound made my shoulders jolt in alarm.

If I was so terrified of getting caught, I should’ve had the nerve to deny everything outright. But anyone looking at me now would see nothing but a guilt-ridden thief with a hundred different tells.

“Tell me the truth.”

Seon-ah’s voice was filled with certainty. The hostility in her tone pressed down on my chest, making it hard to breathe.

“You took my ring, didn’t you?”

She didn’t even bother to sugarcoat it—just went straight for the kill. A startled hiccup slipped out before I could stop it.

“……”

“We searched the entire café that day, but the ring was nowhere to be found. You were the only one sitting at the table while we all went to the bathroom, and after that, it was gone. If I’m wrong, I’ll apologize. But be honest—was it really not you?”

What do I do? What do I do? My heart pounded violently. Should I just drop to my knees? My lips were dry as sandpaper, and my fingers felt frozen stiff. No matter how I thought about it, there was no way out of this.

I could feel sweat trickling down my spine, but my frozen lips refused to form any words.

Fear crept up from my toes, making my legs shake. I wanted to run away, but there was nowhere to go—I was cornered. The moment I gave in to greed flashed before my eyes, shattering into pieces.

“Dabi, say something. Anything.”