The Ending Is a Locked Gate

Da-eun spends every morning at the Association gate, checking names while the city melts in the heat. She looks calm, but she has spent six years reading hunters by their shoes, hands, and lies. When a sealed retirement-fund card and a signed identifier turn into tools for control, she is forced to stand between people who want her silent. A private message from the founder reaches her first, then a memo that tightens the trap. Da-eun keeps her face steady for everyone else, but inside she knows who has been moving pieces around her for years. The one person who can still pass her gate without trouble is the one who may be using her as bait.