“Me, too,” Kisa says, scrubbing a tear away. “Somi…I need you to know that what happened last time was never your fault. Hani never blamed you, and neither do I. For what it’s worth, I’m—we’re—sorry, so sorry, for everything.” As Somi shakes her head, Kisa practically drags her into a hug. Somi hesitates before wrapping her arms around Kisa and squeezing her hard enough that she nearly gags.

“You’ll visit?” she asks as Kisa struggles for breath.

“Yes,” she wheezes. “Of course. As long as you’re here.”

“Good,” Somi sniffles, stepping away. Hajun grabs her hand, looking worriedly at the crying gumiho. “If you don’t, I’ll be forced to take some drastic measures.”

She believes it. “You’ll know where to find me,” Kisa replies, and she can’t help but to smile as her friends nod, their faces softening.

“I want you to have these,” Somi says, giving her the suitcase. As Kisa’s brows raise, Somi bends to unzip a portion, giving Kisa a glimpse of dozens of battered romance books packed together. “They were yours to begin with, and they should be yours at the end, too.”

Kisa’s eyes blur with tears. “Oh, Somi,” she whispers. “Thank you.”

The gumiho smiles, even though she’s still weeping. “I think they’ll make good additions,” she says. “Don’t you?”

“Definitely,” Kisa chokes out around a sob.

The red thread around her little finger—no longer substantial, and back to its regular thinness—gives an insistent tug before shaping itself into a clock. TICK, TOCK, it tells her in looping red letters that are distinctly impatient.

Right. She takes a deep breath. Seokga is almost here, having left the previous night to sit on Okhwang’s throne as interim-interim-interim heavenly emperor (as he calls it) and bring Kisa’s wish to fruition.

She felt it happen, the exact moment her soul was unbound from the SRC Flatliner and bound to another place instead. A sort of lightness in her body that she forgot could exist, a feeling of vast potential—that she was about to go home.

She forgot what that felt like.

“Be happy, Kisa,” Hajun whispers as the Red Thread of Fate quivers in joy and Seokga appears out of slightly undulating air to take his place next to Kisa. Just his presence beside her sends Kisa’s heart thumping quite a bit more loudly than before.

“I will,” she promises as she takes Seokga’s hand. She already is.

The last things she sees on the SRC Flatliner are Somi’s and Hajun’s small, teary smiles before the world disappears around her…