BACK FROM THE DEAD

CHAPTER 16: GHOST PROTOCOL *

*5:12 AM. Kang Safehouse. Day 3.*

I counted the cracks on the ceiling. Again.

No phone. No windows. No voice except his.

To the world, Soyeon Kang drowned in the Han River 3 days ago.

Only 2 people knew I was breathing: Mom, and Taewook.

He came in with 2 bowls of rice. No staff. No Joon.

He locked the door behind him.

“Rule 1,” he said, quiet. “Dad doesn’t know. Joon doesn’t know. No one knows you’re here.”

Chairman Kang has hated me since our wedding. “Bad omen. Money-hungry. You embarrassed the family.” If he found out I was alive, he wouldn’t hug me. He’d call the police and say I faked my death for shares.

*The Problem*

Taewook sat on the floor and put his phone on speaker. One voicemail. Blocked number.

_Static. Then a voice, distorted:_

_“Tell Kang Taewook to stop searching. Soyeon didn’t die. She came back 5 years. She remembers everything. She’s dangerous. Leave her dead.”_

Click.

My blood went cold. Someone knew.

Not Minho. Not Jihye. They still think I’m at the bottom of the river.

Taewook wrote 4 names on the whiteboard. Slow.

1. *Mom* – She held my hand when I woke up at 19. She buried me once already. She won’t bury me again.

2. *Old Lady, Gangwon* – She pulled me out of the village river. Gave me clothes. Said, “Child, you’ve lived before.” I never saw her face clearly. To me she’s still “the old man.” Soyeon doesn’t know who she is.

3. *Joon* – Taewook’s driver for 12 years. He drove me home the day I collapsed at 19. He was shaking on the phone when they told him I died.

4. *??* – A nurse. A neighbor. Anyone who was near us 5 years ago.

I pointed at Joon’s name first. “No. Not him. He cried for me.”

Taewook didn’t erase it. “We don’t clear anyone. Not yet. If Dad hears us defending Joon, he’ll start watching him. If Joon is the leak, he’ll disappear.”

I hated that logic. But I nodded.

*The Plan: Stay Dead. Let Them Talk.*

Taewook drew a line under the names.

He sat next to me after. Back to the wall. Shoulder to shoulder.

“Dad thinks you’re gone. Joon thinks you’re gone. The caller thinks they won.”

He reached for my hand. “So stay invisible. Invisible people hear everything.”

I leaned into him. The safehouse was too quiet. No footsteps. No Joon outside.

Just us, and the names on the board.

The Old Lady saved me, but I don’t know her.

Joon loves us, but he’s on the list.

Dad hates me, but he doesn’t know I’m 2 walls away.

They all think they buried Soyeon Kang.

But I’m not buried.

I’m just quiet.

And quiet is how you catch people who talk too much.

Taewook squeezed my hand once. “Sleep. I’ll sit watch.”

I closed my eyes. For the first time in 3 days, I didn’t dream of water