The phone rings once, then twice. Seokga grimaces as he stands by one of the suite’s ginormous windows, staring down at the rushing river below. Kisa is off in the bathroom, changing Hwanin’s diaper—and that actually sounds more appealing than making this fucking call. When Hwanung doesn’t pick up, Seokga calls again. And again. The fifth time, his nephew finally answers.

“What?” Hwanung snaps. “Another Godly Gossip article you want to read to me?”

I wish, Seokga wants to say. Hajun and Somi are currently off infiltrating the security room again to pull Korain’s and Chaeyeon’s locations during the time slot of the murder. Even if that checks out, it doesn’t mean that Hwanung isn’t somehow involved in this. Kisa is right—he has a motive. “You finally picked up,” he says smoothly instead, and he can practically hear Hwanung’s eyes roll.

“It’s not like you left me much of a choice,” Hwanung says sourly. “I was trying to play CookieRun, and I can’t do that with your calls popping up all over the place. What do you want, Uncle?” He spits the word out like it’s something dirty.

Seokga has planned what to say in order to probe some sort of indication of knowledge from Hwanung, and thanks to his trickster nature, he’s rather certain he can pull it off. “Hwanin wants to know if you’d like anything from the—”

“WRAHHHH!”

His eyes flare in alarm as Hwanin releases an unearthly yowl from the bathroom.

“If you’d like anything from the gift shop,” Seokga finishes, quickly moving away from the closed door of the suite’s restroom.

“And why doesn’t my father call me himself?”

“ERRRRGREEEEEEE!”

“He’s…occupied,” Seokga manages. “I heard about the fight that you two had last night,” he adds, the lie flowing easily from his notoriously silver tongue. “Would it really be so surprising if he doesn’t want to talk to you?”

Hwanung is silent for a moment. Seokga listens intently to that silence, and dearly misses his mind-reading ability. It wouldn’t work on Hwanung anyway, of course: Gods aren’t technically creatures, but if he had it, he could easily pry the secrets from Chaeyeon’s and Korain’s minds. Yet his head pounds with a dull ache: For the better part of the morning, he attempted to reach for that power, but it’s as if it’s blocked by something. Stress, most likely. Hells know that Seokga is stressed.

“You were listening?” Hwanung finally demands, voice considerably more strained. When Seokga replies in the affirmative, his nephew is silent again before hissing, “Eavesdropping snake.”

Better a serpent than a traitorous rat. “Having a nice time ruling Okhwang?” Seokga asks, abruptly changing the subject to disorient the other god.

“Jealous?” A dry snort.