That night, Sehun went home and told his friends a wild story about setting off silent landmines and dodging shards of metal flying through the air like an acrobat. He figured it would be enough to keep them away from Geomdaemun, alluring female prisoner inside or not.

Just like that, they believed him, and he found himself feeling quite smug about successfully carrying out his deception - he wasn’t that bad of a con artist, after all. Obviously, Nari was wrong about him.

Two days later, he was back at the prison, trying to convince himself he was only there to double check if the long-lost soccer ball had rolled into the weeds surrounding the prison. Sidling up along the wall, Sehun stuck his hands in his pockets and peered around. Needless to say, he didn’t find the ball. Instead he found Nari, pressed up against the iron bars with a -eating glow of triumph in her eyes like she had known down to the exact second when he would drop by.

“I won’t say I told you so,” she said as he approached. Sehun grunted and scuffed the toe of his shoe in the dirt.

“Hmph.”

“Just kidding. Told you so.” Her eyes crinkled in an unrepentant grin, daring him to argue. “Too curious for your own good, huh kid?”

“I’m not a kid,” Sehun said, irritated that she held such sway over him already. “I’m nineteen. That’s old enough. How old are you?”

“Twenty four.”

“Liar.”

“Fine. Twenty.”

“Liar.”

“Alright. I’m nineteen, just like you. And I’m seriously not lying this time. Seriously.”

“Liar.”

“Nope. Really am nineteen, sweetheart.”

Sehun eyed her suspiciously. “Are you sure you aren’t closer to thirty?”

Nari tutted quietly, feigning offense. “Rude. Why would you say that to a girl? Do I have wrinkle lines around my eyes or something?”

“Well, no.” Sehun stumbled over his words, struggling to maintain his cool composure. “It’s just the way you talk. I thought you were older.”

“The way I talk?” She widened her eyes, which were suddenly very teary, and her voice rose in pitch. “Sehun oppa, you’re so mean. I talk good. I draw good too, you know. My daddy used to put my pictures up on the fridge and tell me I was a good drawer.”

“What the fu-”

“Don’t curse, Sehun.” Her brow creased and her voice turned motherly, aging her four decades in the blink of an eye. “I ought to wash your mouth out with soap. I didn’t raise you that way. Now hurry up and eat your breakfast, you’ll be late to school.”

“Stop it!”

The matronly look in her eyes reverted to lazy amusement. “Oh honey. I grew up conning. I can sound whatever age I want. Swindling people out of their life savings over the phone can be real convenient when you get too old to pull off the cute little girl looking for her mommy.”

A shiver ran down his spine. “Is that what you’re doing with me right now? Swindling me out of my life savings?”

She scoffed. “Oh please, as if you have anything for me to swindle. What would I want with your life savings anyway? I’m in prison, in case you haven’t noticed. That’s not what I want from you.”

Sehun didn’t miss the silent implication. “What do you want from me then?”

Nari leaned in and wrapped her fingers around the bars. “It’s pretty simple. Get me out of here.”

“Are you insane?” Voice rising, Sehun stumbled back. “This is a sanatorium, not a prison, isn’t it? Because you must be crazy to think I can or will break you out of here.”

“You can get me out of here. I’ll teach you how. Lucky you - I won’t even charge you anything! Free con artist lessons, it’s your lucky day! The opportunity of a lifetime, learn from Busan’s finest!”

“I don’t want to learn anything from you. You’re insane!”

“If you really thought that, you wouldn’t be here right now.” Her voice shifted, taking on a more plaintive tone. “Come on, Sehun. At least let me explain. You don’t have to do anything, just listen.”

Torn, he fidgeted. True, he was dying to know all about this oddly alluring woman trapped in a hole in the ground, but he’d heard enough out of to suspect that with her, words were every bit as lethal as knives.

“I’ll make it worth your while,” she wheedled, pressing up against the bars again. “I’ll tell you about the other prisoners here.”

Other prisoners? Instantly, Sehun’s mind started spinning images of dozens of Naris, all trapped in adjacent cells and calling out to unsuspecting boys like himself. The thought should have disturbed him in how strange and unwise a situation this was, but instead it made him ask, “There’s more of you in there?”

She chuckled. “Nuh-uh, that’s not how the deal works. You want to know, you let me talk first.”

It was almost embarrassing how little Sehun hesitated before giving in. “Fine.” He sat down in the dirt, tiring of having to look down to talk.

“Perfect.” Nari shifted, casting one side of her face completely into the darkness of her cell. “Now where should I start?”

Sehun stayed silent, then realized she was waiting for a response. “Uh - from the beginning?” he asked, feeling stupid.

She clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “Oh, dear. A good liar never starts at the beginning of the story. Nothing interesting about that. You draw people in by starting in the middle, or even better, at the end.”

He frowned. “Then just start wherever you want!”

“Tsk tsk, patience.” Teasing him, she held onto her silence for a moment longer before continuing. “I’ll begin at the end, then. The triad’s going to kill me in three days if you don’t get me out of here, and if they kill me, then all of East Asia, and likely much of Southeast Asia, will erupt into a bloodbath of gang wars. No one can stop it. At least, no one but you.”

Sehun remained silent. This sounded like exactly the type of thing Nari would say just to mess with him. But why would she lie to him and ruin his fragile trust after working so hard to make him stay and listen?

“I’m not lying this time,” she added, rather unhelpfully, Sehun thought to himself with disgust. “The triad chased me all the way to Macau and back, and I have no doubt they have connections and enemies there as well. You’ve got to get me out of here before the whole system collapses in on itself.”

“And what is this system?”

Nari gave him an unimpressed look. “You know. The alliance system. The old boys network.”

Sehun sighed and rubbed his temples. His head already hurt from this conversation. “So how did you manage to piss off all the organized crime groups in this hemisphere exactly?”

“Well, not all of them!” Furrowing her brow, Nari seemed quite offended at this. “I would be a pretty awful conwoman if I couldn’t trick some of them into thinking we’re friends. I’ve got some buddies out in Thailand and Myanmar. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get into contact with them.”

“And what am I supposed to do about this?”

“Well, not that much really. I just need you to bring a box of matches next time and set the prison on fire. Preferably a bucket of water too, so I can get out of here safely.”

“Say what now?” This entire encounter felt like a massive practical joke, or at least it would have were it not for the serious look in Nari’s eyes. Sehun stared blankly at the barred window. “I… You want me to burn down the prison?”

“Precisely.”

“But…” He spluttered, struggling to find words. “It’s not even made of wood!”

“The paneling on the interior is. Wood was cheaper than the material they used on the outside of the prison.”

“But I can’t just set a building on fire! I’m not a criminal! Not like you!”

“No?” She looked straight at him, challenging. “Is the world split into black and white? Criminal and not criminal? If you don’t break me out, hundreds of people are going to die in gang fights. Isn’t sitting on your and letting people get slaughtered a crime too?”

Sehun floundered. “Don’t ask me philosophical like that! I’m only nineteen, how am I supposed to know?”

“I’m nineteen too, but I know the answer to that.”

“Well congrats, Sherlock!” he snapped, blood rising to his cheeks. “We’re not all from criminal backgrounds like you where weird utilitarian crap is the norm. I just go to school, help my mom with chores, and play kickball with my buddies, okay? Burning down government facilities isn’t really part of my everyday schedule.”

Nari drew back from the bars a little, her eyes just a faint glow in the darkness of the cell. “School, huh? Sounds nice.” There was a note of wistfulness in her voice, so faint Sehun wondered if he’d imagined it before she leaned back into the light. “Well, here’s a math problem for you, schoolboy: what’s one missing diamond plus three warring gang factions multiplied by an international alliance system?” She didn’t give him a chance to respond. “A hell of a lot of dead bodies, that’s the answer.”

“Missing diamond?” Defensiveness forgotten, Sehun leaned in eagerly. “Did you steal it? How big is it? Do you have it?”

She stared at him. “Your attention span is really disappointing, you know that?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Diamond?”

“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes. “No, I don’t have it. Do you think I would be able to hide a giant diamond from the guards?”

“Well -”

“No, I wouldn’t. I don’t have it anymore, but I do know where it is, and no one else does. No one who’s alive, at least.”

Sehun didn’t like the sound of that one bit. “And how do I know I won’t get hunted down by the triad if I help you?”

Nari scoffed. “Because the only ones who can tell will be dead inside the prison. That is, as long as you don’t get caught beforehand. Then you’re screwed.”

“That doesn’t sound too encouraging.”

“It’s plenty encouraging. Don’t up and you’ll be fine.”

“But I always up!”

“Then just don’t this time!”

“I’m not bringing matches to burn down a women’s prison, you crazy lady!”

Nari’s eyes were narrowed to slits. “If you don’t, then you’ll have the blood of hundreds of innocents on your hands. All three factions have a claim to this diamond, and if it mysteriously disappears as it will if I’m killed in three days, then they’ll all accuse each other of hiding it and trigger the entire alliance system. I need to get out of here to deliver the diamond to the next checkpoint, and that’s not happening unless you bring those matches.”

“This feels an awful lot like blackmail.”

“It’s only blackmail if you’re decent enough of a person to care about a couple hundred lives.”

“That sounds like blackmail, too. With a healthy dose of emotional manipulation.”

Nari shrugged, head tipping to the side. “Fine then, add them to my list of crimes. Doesn’t change the situation.”

Se