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Jihoon’s lips spread into a nasty grin. It looked less like a smile and more like he was baring his teeth. It was cold. It was cruel. It was not her best friend. “I guess I should stop with the charade, huh?”

“Who are you?” Somin asked, her voice hard as iron. She looked around for a weapon. There was an umbrella she’d forgotten to store and the neatly organized shoes in the foyer. If she had to, she’d use anything she could to keep him away from her mother.

“If I told you, it wouldn’t make a difference,” not-Jihoon said with a shrug as he turned to pace the living room. His motions looked so smooth. His gait different from the way he usually walked.

“Where did you come from?”

“That also doesn’t matter.”

“Get out of my friend,” Somin said.

Not-Jihoon gave a sharp grin. It made him look like a stranger. “I can’t do that until I finish what I’ve started.”

“What have you started?” Somin asked.

“Something I’ve been waiting centuries for.” Not-Jihoon smiled again in that teeth-baring way. It looked like a tiger eyeing her prey.

“What do we have to do with your plans?”

“It’s unfortunate, really. I have nothing against you, but it seems like hurting you could hurt him.”

“Who? Jihoon?”

Not-Jihoon gave her a look of pity. A look one gave a small child or a bug that they were about to crush.

“Junu,” Somin said now with conviction. “You’re trying to hurt Junu.”

“When I’m done with him, he’ll wish he was dead. Again.”

Somin shifted her stance, picking up the umbrella and wielding it like a club. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Not-Jihoon let out a harsh laugh. “I’ve been watching you. You like to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong. You have no business in this world, little girl. Does it make you feel important to pretend like you have anything to do with our affairs?”

That stung, and if it had been actual-Jihoon saying it, Somin would have thought of backing down. But there was no way she was letting this... whatever it was get into her head. “I might just be human. But when you put my friends’ lives in danger, it becomes my business.”

The doorbell rang, and they both froze.

“Somin-ah!” Junu yelled from outside.

She reached for the handle, but not-Jihoon grabbed her wrist and spun her around. “Don’t.”

Somin pulled back, but not-Jihoon held tight, surprising her. She was usually stronger than Jihoon. She swung out with the umbrella, but he caught it easily and yanked it out of her hands.

“You don’t seem to realize how dangerous I can be.” With a jerk of his arm, not-Jihoon pulled Somin toward him and encircled her neck with his hand. “Perhaps I should show you just how wrong you are to underestimate me.”

Somin was slammed against the door so the knob dug into her back. She clawed at his hands, realizing for the first time how big they were as they cut off her air. Somin could count onher fingers the amount of times she’d felt true fear. And in this moment, seeing the face of her best friend contorted into rage as his hands tried to choke the life out of her, she was terrified.

The ringing doorbell continued, becoming insistent.

“Somin-ah!” Junu shouted.

She tried to choke out a word but could barely breathe, let alone speak. No matter how she struggled, whatever was in Jihoon wasn’t letting go. So she let her hands fall, running them over the door behind her.

“Maybe if he finds your body, he’ll know that I’m not playing around here,” not-Jihoon mused.

White dots began dancing in Somin’s vision. She worried she was on the edge of passing out. Then her fingers found the knob and she used the last of her strength to twist it.

The door unlocked with a series of chirps.