In the bathroom, she finds Dr. Jang’s tote bag and neatly slips the disgusting lotion back into it. When Kisa sneezes, her heart nearly stops—but Dr. Jang isn’t here, she reminds herself, even as her palms begin to sweat. It’s fine. It’s all perfectly fine.

Leaving the bathroom, she feels another sneeze building up in her nasal passage and practically bursts a blood vessel as she tries to force it down, but it erupts with a vengeance. Eyes watering, she looks desperately around for a tissue…and sneezes again.

Gods, it’s like the time Yuna brought home a stray cat to their dormitory. Kisa hadn’t been able to stay inside for more than a minute without sneezing or hacking her lungs out.

Feeling too sick to linger much longer, Kisa stumbles to the desk, determined to at least find something of potential worth, something to make the journey into this room worth it. Through blurry vision, she spots a well-worn leather-bound notebook sitting on the corner. Before she can think better of it, Kisa swipes the notebook from the desk and hurries from the room, in desperate need of a tissue.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Seokga

It’s only after a series of humiliating questions that veer either on the raunchy or depressingly dark side (and after a stern warning from Korain that he won’t be as merciful the next time they damage any property) that they are finally permitted to leave the closet.

Fucking Godly Gossip.

“I think I know more about you than I ever wanted to,” Somi groans as they enter the sick bay, having finally made their escape from Deck 2. She looks vaguely nauseous as she disappears into the small bathroom, and there’s the unamusing sound of retching—which Seokga can tell is entirely manufactured for Somi’s own perverse amusement.

How he regrets not ending her during the Dark Days. He crunches down on his coffee candy with violence. Shards of sugar scrape against his teeth.

Hajun looks vaguely sick as well, but for another reason. Ever since he was interrupted in the security room, he’s been nervously jittering his right leg and working his mouth as if physically attempting to rein in whatever it is he has to say. As Somi re-emerges, it practically bursts out of him.

“Soo-min!” Hajun pants, and Seokga snatches Hwanin from him lest he drop the child in his excitement. “Soo-min matches the profile perfectly. She’s a samjokgu, she died in her early thirties, and she has the snootiest voice I’ve ever heard…”

Seokga’s brows rise up to his hairline. “Soo-min is a samjokgu?” This is news to him.

He nods, eyes wide. Seokga absorbs this. “She did seem unusually interested in Hwanin’s skin yesterday,” he says slowly. “She asked how it was so…whole.”