**Three Hours and Thirty-Eight Minutes Until Showtime**
The Grand Theater's backstage area had transformed into a war zone.
Bomb squad technicians in heavy protective gear moved through the corridors like astronauts, their equipment cases clanking against the marble floors. Police officers cordoned off sections with yellow tape. Security personnel evacuated staff members in orderly lines, their voices echoing off the ornate walls that had witnessed a century of performances but never anything like this.
Min-Hee watched it all from the doorway of her dressing room, feeling disconnected from her own body. Like she was floating somewhere above herself, observing a stranger in a crimson dress standing frozen while chaos erupted around her.
"Ms. Kang, you need to evacuate with the others."
