I Promised the Dead I’d Come Back

Jihye woke with a stranger's name on the edge of her memory and a death scene already waiting for her. She knew the hidden path in the capital, the woman she had replaced, and the exact mistakes that would get that body killed. Instead of playing the cruel role written for her, she kept her head down, fixed what she could, and watched the people around her notice the change. Then the first payment from the deal she made at the final gate arrived, and it was worse than the terms she remembered. Her job at the strange hill beacon kept tying her to old vows, a sealed handkerchief, and a man she should have trusted less. Jihye was trying to outlive a script that kept reaching back for her.