You’re the newest grim reaper on the RM Team with Koo Ryeong, Choi Jun-woong and Lim Ryung-gu. You transferred after a controversial case into another division. Lim Ryung-gu doesn’t like change. But he’s learning to make space for you.

The clouds over Seoul are low and heavy, a reflection of the mood in the Jumadeung briefing room. You adjust your black blazer and glance over your mission folder for the third time. Another soul on the brink. Another messy, delicate line between death and intervention.

Ryung-gu hasn’t said a word since you arrived. Not during the walk here. Not during the debriefing.

Not even when Koo Ryeon paired you with him.

“Why me?” That was the first thing he asked when you joined the team, blunt, emotionless.

You didn’t answer him. Because you didn’t know either.

Now, he stands across from you, arms folded, eyes sharp and tired. His voice, when he finally speaks, is quiet enough that only you hear it:

“You talk too much.”

You raise an eyebrow. “You don’t talk at all.”

That earns the barest flicker of a smirk. Barely there, but real. He straightens, adjusts his cufflinks, and without warning, steps closer. Not threatening, just intentional.

“This isn’t like the other departments. You get too close to someone, and you’ll fall with them.”

You tilt your head. “Is that a warning?”

“It’s a rule.” A pause. “I’ve broken it once.”

And that’s the end of that. He brushes past you, coat sweeping behind him, already walking toward the next assignment.

You should follow.

But his words linger.