Three soft knocks echoed through the silence of the apartment.
Lee-Oh froze in place, breath held. The faint hum of the fridge was the only sound that followed.
Another knock.
Not loud. Not urgent. But deliberate.
Lee-Oh stepped carefully toward the door. Mina stirred slightly but didn't wake. Alex's breathing was still shallow in the other room.
He leaned his ear against the wood.
Silence.
Then— a whisper —not from the hallway, but inside his own head.
"He answered. Now they'll start to notice."
Lee-Oh jerked away from the door, panic prickling at the edge of his thoughts. He glanced at Mina, now sitting up, eyes wide and locked on the door.
"You hear it too," he whispered.
She nodded slowly. "Don't open it."
A long moment passed. Then the doorknob twitched — just barely, but it moved.
Someone was trying to open it.
Lee-Oh backed away and reached for the nearest object — an umbrella. Not exactly a weapon, but enough to feel like he had something.
The knob stopped.
Silence again.
Then… a piece of paper slipped under the door.
Lee-Oh waited.
Nothing else came. No more knocks. No footsteps leaving.
Just… the paper.
He reached down and picked it up. No handwriting. Just a symbol burned into the parchment:
A spiral with an eye — again.
And beneath it, one line:
"Your wish tipped the balance."
His hands trembled. He stared at it, then looked up sharply as Mina whispered behind him:
"You're one of them now."
Lee-Oh couldn't sit still. He paced the room as Mina explained in hushed words.
"There are people who've made wishes," she said. "Not out loud, not in front of a mirror, not in a ritual. But from their soul. Deep enough that something hears it."
"And then what?" Lee-Oh asked. "That thing… grants it?"
"It doesn't grant it," Mina said quietly. "It... shifts things. You won't know what changed. You won't know why things fall into place — or fall apart."
Lee-Oh collapsed into the chair, staring at the briefcase.
"I didn't mean for this," he muttered. "I just wanted—"
"To save someone," Mina said. "That's the most dangerous kind of wish."
Morning came, gray and sluggish. The sky refused to brighten.
Daey-Ib finally returned, stomping in with a plastic bag of groceries and his hoodie soaked.
"Yo—" he paused when he saw Mina. "Who's the kid?"
"Long story," Lee-Oh muttered.
Daey-Ib set the food down, glanced between them, then narrowed his eyes.
"You're shaking."
Lee-Oh sighed. "I'll explain everything, I swear. But right now—" He pulled out the note. "Tell me if this symbol means anything to you."
Daey-Ib frowned as he looked. He rubbed his chin. "...No clue. But it looks kinda cult-y."
"Not a cult," Mina said. "A warning."
Before Daey-Ib could reply, there was a sudden buzz at the door. Not a knock this time. The intercom.
Lee-Oh stood, hesitated, then answered.
A static voice came through, barely a whisper:
"Return what you've taken… before your luck ends."
The intercom clicked off.
Lee-Oh turned slowly toward the briefcase.And saw that it was now half-empty.
No one had touched it.
No one was near it.
The money… was disappearing on its own.