The sudden flare of the stone lanterns caught them completely off guard, but the blinding white light didn't pin them down in the center of the lawn. Because they had hesitated after receiving Chae-won's text, they were still crouched low in the deep shadows right beneath the towering perimeter wall, having barely stepped off the climbing rope.

"They didn't see us drop all the way in," Da-eun hissed, her back slamming flat against the cold stone of the wall. "They think we're further up the path."

"The rope," So-min whispered frantically, pointing upward. "If they check the perimeter line, they'll find it."

Rora grabbed the nylon cord, her eyes fixed on her phone screen as the network trace finished compiling. "We go back over. Right now. Chae-won's warning gives us the only window we have before the guards actually reach this section."

With adrenaline surging, So-min was the first to scramble back up, using the knots Rora had tied to pull herself up to the lip of the wall. Da-eun assisted Rora, pushing her up into the ivy before grabbing the line herself.

From the high windows of the Kim mansion, the security beams began to sweep the central garden paths, cutting through the overgrown grass where the Kims expected to find them. But beneath the stone ledge, the three girls slipped back down into the dark, empty lane outside the estate, disappearing into the city shadows just as the heavy courtyard doors swung open behind them.

They had escaped the trap, but the game had completely changed. They knew the Kims were waiting, and they knew someone inside the Park estate was watching their back.

Huddled in the deep shadows of an alleyway two blocks away from the estate, Rora’s fingers flew across the burner phone. They couldn't call Chae-won directly—doing so could expose her to her own family—so Rora tapped out a heavily encrypted, single-use reply to the number that had warned them.

We're out. We know it was a setup. Are you safe?

"Did it go through?" So-min asked, her eyes darting nervously toward the main road. Every distant engine sounded like a threat.

"Yeah, but the connection is unstable," Rora muttered, staring at the signal bars. "She might have turned the device off to avoid detection."

Before Da-eun could answer, the ambient streetlights overhead suddenly flickered and died, plunging the narrow alley into pitch blackness. The sudden silence of the neighborhood was deafening.

From the entrance of the alley, a heavy, deliberate footstep crunched against loose gravel.

The girls froze. Out of the darkness, a tall silhouette materialized, blocking their only exit to the street. It was the exact same dark, masked figure from the countryside cabin—but this time, they weren't just lurking in the woods. They had followed them all the way back to the city.

The attacker didn't say a word. They drew a heavy flashlight from their tactical belt, flicking it on to blind the girls, and lunged forward with terrifying speed, reaching straight for Rora's bag where the auxiliary phones and decrypted files were kept.

"Run!" Da-eun yelled, throwing herself forward to shove a stack of discarded wooden pallets into the attacker's path.

The heavy wood crashed down, forcing the figure to stumble, but they recovered instantly, kicking the debris aside. Taking advantage of the split second, Rora and So-min bolted toward the opposite end of the alley, scaling a low metal gate into a commercial courtyard. Da-eun scrambled right behind them, her heart hammering against her ribs as the sound of heavy, relentless footsteps chased them into the concrete maze of the city.

POV: The Breakout

Inside the Park estate, Chae-won’s burner phone buzzed once against her palm. She looked down at the short message: We're out. We know it was a setup. Are you safe?

A heavy weight lifted from her chest, but it was immediately replaced by a sharp spike of adrenaline. If the Kims realized the girls had escaped the perimeter without being caught, they would immediately expand their search radius to the surrounding blocks. And if that masked figure was still operating in the shadows, the girls were running out of places to hide.

Chae-won didn't hesitate. She grabbed a dark jacket, slipped the burner phone into her pocket, and quietly crept down the back staircase of the mansion, avoiding the security panels she knew her siblings monitored. She needed a way to reach them before the grid locked down the entire neighborhood.

Meanwhile, three blocks away, Da-eun, Rora, and So-min scrambled over a rusted chain-link fence, tumbling into the concrete yard of an abandoned auto shop. Behind them, the masked attacker slammed against the metal gate, the heavy links rattling violently in the quiet night.

"Through here!" Da-eun panted, shoving open a heavy metal fire door that led into the dark interior of the garage.

They slipped inside and wedged a rusted iron tire iron through the door handles just as the attacker threw their weight against the outside. The metal groaned, but held. The girls didn't wait to see how long it would last; they sprinted across the oil-stained floor toward the front garage bay, slipping through a broken panel in the rolling shutter out into a narrow side street.

They had bought themselves a few minutes, but as the distant sound of tires squealing echoed from the main avenue, they knew the perimeter was closing in.

Suddenly, a sleek gray SUV pulled up to the curb with its headlights cut. The passenger door swung open.

"Get in! Right now!" Chae-won shouted from the driver's seat.

CHAPTER ENDS