The heavy wooden door of the professor's office swung shut, severing the noise of the hallway instantly. The room was dominated by the faint, elegant scent of Earl Grey, but to Min-ah, the acrid stench of the lab—a mixture of rubbing alcohol and stale paper—stung the tip of her nose even more sharply.
Professor Han Do-yoon poured the tea with practiced, graceful movements and slid a cup toward her.
“Min-ah, the tea is quite good today. Have a cup.”
As Min-ah took the cup, the porcelain rattled against the saucer with a sharp clink. In her pocket, she felt the cold, hard weight of her phone, its voice recorder still running against her thigh.
“You’ve been getting quite close to Parvez lately,” the professor remarked, his eyes fixed on her as he set his own cup down.
“I know he’s struggling in a foreign country, but it seems he doesn’t quite understand Korean law—or the way our lab breathes. He’s making mistakes, albeit unintentionally. The kind of mistakes that could put everyone around him in danger.”
The professor’s voice was benevolent, but Min-ah’s world suddenly felt very small. Every time he uttered Parvez’s name, he lingered on the words ‘mistake’ and ‘danger,’ pronouncing them with agonizing slowness.
“Min-ah, you’re so close to graduation, aren’t you? I’m planning to make sure your thesis passes this semester, no matter what. But I’m worried that getting caught up in all this… noise might ruin your future.”
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The professor placed a hand on Min-ah’s shoulder. The sheer weight of it sent her breath into a ragged, uneven rhythm.
“...Then, what should I do, Professor?” Min-ah asked, her voice stripped of all emotion.
Satisfied, he gave her shoulder a light, fatherly pat.
“It’s simple. You’re a smart girl. Help Parvez so he doesn’t make the wrong decision. That is the only way to protect this 'family' of ours.”
[Tuesday, 2:40 PM / Professor’s Desk]
While the professor turned toward the window to take a call, Min-ah’s gaze drifted to a dark brown folder sitting on the corner of his desk. A yellow sticky note was attached to the cover.
[Subject No. 6: Seo Min-ah]
Min-ah felt the blood drain from her fingertips. Looking closer, she could see other names faintly peeking through the gaps where the adhesive on the note had weakened.
Na Bo-hyeon, Kim Tae-soo, Lee Jun-hyuk… The names of her seniors, listed in chilling order.
I believed my records were a weapon to protect myself. But in the professor’s records, I was nothing more than a specimen whose turn had already been decided. The names of my seniors, blurred beneath the label of ‘Number Six,’ looked like epitaphs on a tombstone.
[Tuesday, 3:10 PM / The Lab]
Back at her desk, Min-ah opened her laptop, but the characters on the screen were a distorted blur. It was then that the professor summoned Bo-hyeon back into his office.
A short while later, Bo-hyeon emerged, his bag visibly bulging. When his eyes met Min-ah’s, he looked away in a panic, shoving his phone—which was flashing a text notification about an overdue credit card payment—deep into his pocket.
The record was a weapon, yes. But before they could even draw it, their solidarity was already fracturing under the weight of money and fear.
[Preview of EP.20]
The day before the Labor Office investigation. Parvez receives an email: his visa extension has been denied.
In the dead silence of the dormitory at midnight, Min-ah’s phone begins to vibrate violently on her desk.
[Text: Bo-hyeon] “Min-ah, it’s Bo-hyeon. I need to talk to you. Now.”
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