NETIZEN

SySteM ShuTdOwN

Soo Yeon gasped as she realized what Jun Ho referred to; she didn't turn back and started walking again.

"I will make it, I'll make a world where we can walk side by side," Jun Ho said in the loudest manner he could.

His words went straight to Soo Yeon's heart, shattering and melting whatever blocked her from feeling.

Soo Yeon found Ga Eun standing outside Jun Ho's bedroom door. Ga Eun's face was without expression. Did she overhear the conversation? Soo Yeon wondered.

She knew Ga Eun was not only Hong Kwon Jin's sister but Jun Ho's fiancé.

The woman had all the reasons to scream for help and have Soo Yeon taken by the police. Still, without a word, the doctor pointed to a staircase exit.

Soo Yeon ran to it and went down the stairs as fast as she could. She got in the car where Marvin and Jared waited for her.

"Are you done?" Jared asked.

"Yes, I'm good," Soo Yeon replied, looking out of the window.

"Good."

"You know what, Jared, you asked me to watch over the girl, and I did, but that Kang Jun Ho dude. You should have seen him. He stalked her like crazy, I mean him and that Kim Su Sung guy. They were just nuts about her. I was like, da, guys let the woman breathe."

Jared glanced in the rearview mirror to look at Soo Yeon. He hadn't seen her in three years; she had changed so much. If he didn't know her so well, he wouldn't have recognized her.

Jared missed her, and there she was. Hye Mi had grown up, but she was still his Rock Lee. All Jared thought was what he had said on her birthday three years before.

You are beautiful; it's just a matter of time before everyone else sees it.

He could only imagine how she would bloom now that she obtained what she desired. He hoped it was enough, and Seo Hye Mi could find peace of mind.

"Marvin shut up, you've slimmed down, but your mouth hasn't. It still runs like a direct debit card."

"You shut up," Marvin retorted.

Soo Yeon remained silent as they drove away. She watched out the window of Seoul, and its contours disappear as they left. She wondered if she would see him again if God allowed it. She promised to make the best of it.

She was leaving Seoul, the city where she was born, fast-paced and high-rising. A metropolis that barely slept, growing, and thriving on new technology.

Seoul made NETIZEN, and the website was the allegory of the cave from which she escaped.

Seoul, Gangnam

HORIZON

Qui vivra, verra

Life is full of surprises, and people are like disco balls, never showing the same facets.

Su Jung knew by the sound of her heels that she was close. GBanks, the young man, had only met her once on the day she asked him to become a NETIZEN member.

"Madam."

"Kim Su Jung ssi."

"I never thought we would meet again."

"Never say never," Hye Ra smiled as she remembered how she met Seo Hye Mi on a rainy night in front of the Kang's house.

"Madam, Madam, please can you ask the senator to let me in? I need to talk to him.