Yoo Yeonha's eyes flutter open, and she finds herself submerged in liquid, naked. Panic surges through her as she gazes at her reflection in the glass surrounding her. With determination, she kicks and thrashes until the glass begins to crack. With one final powerful kick, the enclosure shatters, and she emerges gasping for air.

Coughing violently, Yeonha struggles to steady herself as a member of the staff rushes to her aid, concern etched on their face. "Are you alright?" they ask, their voice filled with worry.

Yeonha nods weakly, still catching her breath before her gaze shifts to the figure standing before her. Clad in a lab coat with sharp and defined features is Kim Hosup. She blinks, almost not recognizing him at first due to the stark lack of body fat. "Kim Hosup?" she breathes, disbelief coloring her voice. “Is that you, Hosup?”

Kim Hosup offers her a small smile, his eyes warm with familiarity. "Welcome back to the living, Yeonha-ssi," he says softly with a tone filled with genuine relief. “You didn't have to destroy the cryo-chamber, you know?”

Yeonha blinks rapidly, her mind reeling with confusion as fragmented memories flood her consciousness. She should be dead, brutally dismembered by Yi Byul. Panic surges through her veins as she struggles to make sense of her surroundings.

"Where... where am I?" she stammers, her voice trembling with fear and disbelief.

Kim Hosup's expression softens, his gaze filled with empathy as he approaches her cautiously. "You're inside Cube, Yeonha-ssi," he explains gently, reaching out a hand to steady her. "You were... gone for a while. You have a lot of catching up to do."

Yeonha's heart races as she frantically scans the room, searching for any sign of her daughter. "Evandel... where's Evandel?" she demands, her voice rising with desperation.

Kim Hosup's demeanor shifts subtly, his features tightening with sorrow. He hesitates for a moment before delivering the crushing blow. "Evandel... she's gone," he murmurs, his voice barely above a whisper.

Yeonha's world shatters around her as the weight of his words sinks in. Tears well up in her eyes as she struggles to comprehend the enormity of the loss. "No... no, that can't be..." she whispers hoarsely, her voice choked with grief.

Kim Hosup's expression is pained as he watches her anguish unfold. "I'm sorry, Yeonha-ssi," he murmurs, his voice heavy with regret. "We did everything we could... not that it mattered in the end anyway."

But his words fall on deaf ears as Yeonha's mind reels with the devastating truth. Her daughter, her precious Evandel is gone and lost to her forever. And at that moment, amidst the wreckage of her shattered existence, Yeonha's heart breaks anew.

It is weird, but it happens— despite her mental age not matching her situation back then, she truly and powerfully sees herself as a mother figure to the girl… But now, she cannot be that mother figure, not even a big sister figure.

Yeonha's mind whirls in a vortex of anguish and despair, replaying the horrifying moment when Yi Byul mercilessly took her daughter's life. The memory slices through her soul like a jagged blade, leaving her gasping for breath amidst the suffocating weight of her grief. Tears stream down her cheeks unchecked, each drop is proof of the agony consuming her from within.

Kim Hosup watches helplessly as Yeonha's anguish overwhelms her, his heart aching with the weight of her pain. He moves closer, his hand outstretched in a futile gesture of comfort, knowing that mere words can never mend the shattered fragments of her existence.

"Yeonha-ssi, breathe..." he murmurs softly with his voice laden with sorrow. "I know it's difficult, but you need to stay strong. Your stasis for decades should have atrophied your body, but we barely understand demonic powers. You are currently experiencing a flood of emotions all rushing to you at once, and you have to endure it."

Hosup’s words are drowned out by the cacophony of Yeonha’s anguished cry as finally… she collapses to her knees with her cries echoing through the sterile confines of the room.

The loss and emptiness threaten to consume her whole.

And then, as if the weight of her grief becomes too much to bear, Yeonha's world fades into darkness with her consciousness slipping away as she succumbs to the overwhelming tide of despair.

…………

………

……

…

.

As Yeonha slowly blinks her eyes open, she finds herself in an unfamiliar place, adorned in a thin hospital gown. Confusion clouds her mind until she glances to her left and sees the vast expanse of outer space, with Earth hanging below like a delicate jewel. Before she can fully process her surroundings, a youthful voice breaks through her thoughts, filled with excitement.

"Welcome to space! Isn't it awesome, right!?" the voice exclaims.

Yeonha turns her head to find a brown-haired boy, around nine years old, standing beside her bed, his blue eyes gleaming with wonder. She blinks, trying to comprehend what she's seeing.

"Space?" she murmurs, her voice filled with disbelief.

The boy nods vigorously, a wide grin spreading across his face.

"Yeah! We're… over the moon! Isn't it amazing?" he replies, his enthusiasm infectious.

The pun doesn’t escape Yeonha’s notice.

Yeonha's mind races as she tries to make sense of the situation. How did she end up in space? And who is this boy? She struggles to find the right words, but all she can manage is a weak, "I... I don't understand."

As Yeonha tries to gather her thoughts, she peers at the brown-haired boy standing beside her, searching his face for any semblance of recognition. There's something about him, a familiarity that tugs at the edges of her memory. Tentatively, she asks, "Hyon? Is that you?"

The boy's grin falters for a moment before he shakes his head, his expression earnest. "No, I'm Hyun," he replies, his voice still brimming with excitement. "My mom is Rachel Elizabeth Louise, and my dad is Hyon Hyung."

Calm down, Yoo Yeonha. The world has not ended yet.

“Come again?” she asks a second time.

"My mom is Rachel Elizabeth Louise, and my dad is Hyon Hyung." Earnestly replies the boy.

Yeonha's confusion deepens. Rachel? Hyon? Those two? Together? How long has it been since she was put in a coma? Everything is weird. She is on the moon. Her jugs are big… W-wait… What?

Looking at the little bit of reflective surface from the window, Yeonha sees her appearance being that of a mature woman in her mid-20s, when in fact, she should be only a teenager.

As if sensing her distress, Hyun leans in closer, his eyes filled with concern. "Are you okay?" he asks, his voice softer now, tempered by genuine worry.

Yeonha nods slowly, though her mind continues to whirl with unanswered questions. "I... I think so," she murmurs, her gaze drifting back to the window, where the Earth hangs suspended in the void of space. "But how did I get here? And where exactly are we?"

Hyun's eyes light up once more, eager to share his knowledge. "We're inside Cube," he explains eagerly. "My parents worked here, helping people and stuff. Do you know? Cube actually used to be a facility to nurture Heroes, but then the Timelines exploded because of some Lancaster guy… but then my dad evacuated everyone…"

The brown-haired boy goes on and on in his narrative, but Yeonha’s headspace is somewhere else.

Yeonha's mind reels at the revelation of Rachel and Hyon Hyung having a child. It's inconceivable to her, like a twist in a story she never saw coming. She struggles to process this new information, her thoughts racing as she tries to piece together the puzzle of her missing memories.

"Where are the others?" she asks, her voice trembling slightly with anxiety. "Where's Nayun? And Hajin? And Chae Nayun?"

Hyun's expression shifts, his excitement dimming as he grapples with the weight of her questions. "Well... since my dad's death..." he begins, his voice faltering. "My mom and Aunt Nayun, they've been gone for the last five years trying to track down Kim Hajin."

Yeonha's heart sinks at the news. It feels like a lifetime since she last saw her friends, and the thought of them being scattered across time and space fills her with a profound sense of loss.

"Kim Hajin?" she echoes, her mind struggling to reconcile the image of the brash, impulsive boy she once knew with the gravity of his absence. "What happened to him?”

Hyun shrugs with a gesture that seems oddly adult coming from such a young boy. "No one really knows," he admits, his voice tinged with sadness. "He disappeared after the incident. Some say he's dead, others say he's out there somewhere, running away like a coward…. I say he is a heartless friend. He killed my dad, and… they used to be friends… What kind of friend hurts their friend?"

Yeonha's head spins with the enormity of it all.

Kim Hajin has become a murderer.