**One Hour and Forty-Two Minutes Until Showtime**
The smoke from the decoy bomb lingered in the air like a ghost, acrid and bitter. Emergency lights bathed the backstage area in harsh red, turning everything into a nightmare landscape of shadows and blood-colored illumination.
Min-Hee stood in the center of the chaos, perfectly still while people rushed past her. Security personnel shouting into radios. Bomb squad technicians scrambling to locate the real device. Theater staff evacuating in orderly panic.
She felt disconnected from all of it. Like she was watching herself from a great distance, a character in someone else's story.
"Min-Hee." Seo-Yoon grabbed her shoulders, forcing eye contact. "Did you hear me? We need to leave. Now. This whole thing is compromised—"
"No." Min-Hee's v
