Wednesday, January 8, 2025 – 10:30 a.m. / The Lab

  The lab was quieter than usual.

  Not peaceful—

  but tense, like a vacuum just before it collapses.

  Favez sat frozen in front of his monitor.

  On the screen was an official notice from Immigration Services:

  Visa Extension Application – Rejected

  The “risk” the professor had warned him about yesterday

  was no longer a threat.

  It was already tightening around his neck.

  Favez gripped the mouse with a trembling hand,

  but fear pinned him in place.

  In one month,

  he could become undocumented.

  And there was nothing he could do.

  Mina noticed him and instinctively stepped closer—

  then stopped.

  She felt someone’s gaze pressing into her back.

  Bohyun.

  The same Bohyun who had walked out of the professor’s office yesterday

  with a thick envelope of cash.

  Today, he wore brand-new leather shoes, unnaturally shiny.

  Every time his eyes met Mina’s, he looked away too quickly,

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  fumbling with his phone.

  Unpaid credit card alerts

  kept lighting up the screen.

  Wednesday, January 8, 2025 – 11:15 p.m. / Mina’s Dorm Room

  Tomorrow at 10 a.m.

  That was when the labor investigation would begin.

  Mina sat alone in her dark, cramped dorm room,

  absently touching the brown envelope inside her bag.

  Suddenly—

  Her phone vibrated violently on the desk.

  A message.

  [Text – Bohyun (Senior)]

  Mina, it’s Bohyun. I need to talk to you. Urgently.

  She didn’t reply.

  The phone vibrated again.

  And again.

  Missed calls piled up.

  Then another message arrived.

  [Text – Bohyun]

  The professor knows everything. He knows you’re going to the Labor Office tomorrow.

  Do you really want to graduate?

  Favez can leave, but you can’t.

  Her hand shook as she finally answered the call.

  Bohyun’s voice came through the speaker—

  a strange mix of pleading and threat.

  “Mina… please. Just listen to me.”

  “Calling my dorm this late is inappropriate,” she said calmly.

  “I know, but— the professor told me everything.

  He knows what you saw in his office yesterday.

  It’s nothing serious. Just reference material. Don’t misunderstand.”

  His voice wavered.

  Mina stared at the cold glow of her phone screen.

  “Senior,” she asked quietly,

  “is this because the professor covered your ?1.9 million credit card debt?”

  Silence.

  For a long moment, Bohyun didn’t breathe.

  Then, in a suppressed voice, he said:

  “…You don’t understand. Without that money, I’m finished.

  The professor took care of it—

  and told me to handle you.”

  “Mina… please.

  Just call in sick tomorrow.

  If you do, you live. I live too.”

  Mina remembered the sticky note she had seen yesterday.

  Sixth Subject: Seo Mina

  Once, Bohyun might have been someone who wanted justice.

  A recorder. A witness.

  Now he was locked inside the professor’s drawer—

  reaching out to pull the next name inward.

  “I don’t want to remain a sample,” Mina said.

  She ended the call.

  In the darkness,

  the blue glow of her phone was the only light on her face.

  Thursday, 10:00 a.m.

  Outside the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

  The appointment time passes—

  but Favez doesn’t arrive.

  As Mina reaches for the investigation room door,

  the professor’s car glides silently into the parking lot.

  through debt,

  through people who were once victims

  and learned that survival sometimes means becoming a gatekeeper.

  how systems protect themselves—

  not by force,

  but by persuasion, favors, and quiet threats.

  every choice has a cost.