When I got on that bus, it was a perfectly normal, rainy night in Seoul.
It was empty, except for me and another lady, who was glued to her phone. She looked a few years younger than me, but she was wearing designer clothes and jewelry I could never even dream of owning.

As soon as I settled into the very back row, I pulled out my own phone and opened up the WEBB app. The latest—and final—chapter of Unwritten Rules had dropped two hours ago. After dragging myself through another miserable day at work and a mountain of paperwork, this was exactly what I needed.
I’d originally planned to read it at home, curled up in my tiny studio with a bowl of instant noodles, but my impatience got the best of me.

"YURI!" Minjae’s voice rang out, sharp with rage. Yuri turned, her expression caught somewhere between confusion and panic—but by then, it was too late. 

Sera lunged forward, slipping a knife from her pocket and stabbing Yuri in the arm.

Yuri cried out but managed to push her away before she could do worse. The pain was unbearable. Blood spilled from the wound, across the ground, as Yuri stumbled away from her half-sister. Minjae ran over, stepping between them, just as Sera gripped the knife again.

"Kang Minjae," she spat, inching closer. "You’ll be mine, no matter what anyone says."

"You’re wrong," he said firmly, standing his ground. "I already belong to Yuri. Every single part—

The bus suddenly jolted forward. I barely had time to react before my office ID, which I’d forgotten to take off, snapped from around my neck and went sliding down the aisle.

I stood up with a groan, phone still in hand, and stepped forward to pick it up. But just as my fingers closed around it, I heard a terrible screech and then the entire bus lurched.

My balance slipped. I was thrown sideways, my knees crashing into the metal floor, and my head slammed into the wall. 

Pain shot through me—immediate and overwhelming. My ribs ached, my leg twisted weird, and there was a ringing in my ears that wouldn’t stop. My vision went blurry. I could hear a woman screaming in agony. 

My fingers were still clenched around my phone. The screen had gone black.

And then everything else did too.