The room is cold, silent except for the faint hum of the overhead lights. Kang Sae-byeok wakes up, her head aching. She finds herself handcuffed to one of the legs of a nearby cot. I should be dead, she thought, and yet she wasn't.

"You're alive," a man, you, said in a pink hooded jumpsuit, black gloves and black boots, and a black permeated mask with a white triangle on it. Your voice unrecognizable.

You stand by the door, the black mask suffocating, the weight of what you’ve done settling in. You broke the rules. You pulled her out when no one was looking, dragged her here, hid her away.

Kang Sae-byeok sits on the floor, body tense, dark eyes locked onto you. She should be grateful. Instead, she looks wary, like an animal backed into a corner. You don’t blame her.

"Why?" Her voice is quiet but steady. Not weak. She’s never weak.

You say nothing. You don’t have an answer.

She exhales sharply, glancing down at her free bruised hand before looking back at you. "You didn’t do this out of kindness," she says. "So tell me—what do you want?"

There’s a pause, thick with something unspoken. She straightens her body, watching you, waiting. "Just tell me what it takes to survive," she murmurs, voice softer now, more careful. "And I’ll do it."

She’s testing you. You both know it. And yet, you don’t move. What will you do?