Echo || NCTau ||

39 - About games

Happened previously: One year ago, Yeoreum blew up a warehouse and everyone thought that she died. Since then, Haechan has picked up partying as a coping mechanism, no one knows why Jisung was supposed to be killed, and Renjun is getting married. Yeoreum (who, in fact, did not die) returns to Seoul and is assigned with the task of keeping an eye on the situation without letting anyone know that she is alive.

39 - About games

Signs written in Korean, the smell of gas, samgyeopsal and smoke in the air, and the sound of people chatting in Korean as they walked down the street might have fooled Yeoreum to think that she was somewhere in Seoul if it wasn't for the intense, humid heat despite it being March, and the number of Filipinos weaving through the Koreans.

The Korea town of Manila was vibrant and colorful, and people didn't seem to mind the sticky heat and the glare of the setting sun. Yeoreum tugged the strands of the long wig she was wearing, trying to ignore how uncomfortably hot it felt against her own hair. Her doctor had said that excessive humidity and heat would be bad for the inflamed skin grafts on her arms and side and the wound on her thigh probably didn't get any better because of it either. But she couldn't refuse when coach Lee told her about the latest tip he had received – she had seen what happened when she didn't play along and it wasn't pretty. Staying in Seoul for a few extra days for her mom's death anniversary when coach Lee had been tipped off a couple of days earlier was already stretching the time limit.

When Yeoreum finally reached her destination – an old apartment building complex off the alleyways of the Korea town, she slowed down while checking that no one was following her. After concluding that no one was paying attention to her, she entered the building, reminding herself to keep breathing.

Yeoreum's footsteps echoed in the otherwise empty, narrow stairwell as she headed upstairs. Once or twice, she passed other people and it sounded like there was a party going on in one of the apartments. Compared to outside, the air was slightly less humid but just as warm, and Yeoreum wanted to throw her wig to the wall.

She had thought that once she stopped being an Echo, she could stop wearing wigs and disguising herself.

Once she reached the apartment couch Lee had told her about, Yeoreum had to remind herself of breathing again. At that moment, she wished that she could've been anywhere but there.

That – wanting to be at least somewhere – was progress. For several months following the explosion – months after being incapable to save her mom; months after killing her own brother and months after accidentally surviving it all – Yeoreum had wished that she could have ceased to exist altogether. It was a good sign that she wanted to be somewhere.

That's probably what the Australian psychiatrist she had been forced to meet with would have said – in any case, the psychiatrist had been the one to do most of the talking in their sessions, while Yeoreum stared at the walls in silence and wondered if the mental health expert was aware of the number of ways in which she could be murdered with all of the items in the room. There were many sharp and heavy objects to choose from and the psychiatrist was a petite lady. Yeoreum never stated her calculations aloud but after a few sessions, some of the decorative items with sharp edges had been hidden away, so the psychiatrist had probably followed her gaze and understood her train of thought.

After all, she was a professional (Yeoreum was certain of it. Following whatever ruse that "Dr. An" bitch had pulled off while pretending to be a therapist, Yeoreum had run a very thorough background check on the psychiatrist and cross-checked her references before the first meeting).

As soon as Yeoreum had convinced coach Lee and everyone affiliated with her case in Interpol that she wasn't planning to go crazy and kill everyone in her sight, Yeoreum had been allowed to stop seeing the psychiatrist.