12:04 PM – Fifty-Nine Minutes Until System Arrival

Je-won slides a pizza in the oven with the practiced ease of a man who’s performed the motion a thousand times before. He closes the door and opens the one below it, the sweet scent of dough mixed with the tangy aroma of tomatoes and spices and savory waft of mozzarella pleasantly washing over him. He smiles at the familiar mélange and slides the pizza peel under the perfectly cooked pizza, pulling it out, knocking the oven door closed with a knee, and boxing the pie in one smooth motion.

“Delivery ready,” he calls out as he closes the box.

Nara, his nineteen-year-old little sister, appears from the dining room. “Topher wants a small Bulgogi,” she tells him as she pulls off her apron and grabs the keys to her car.

“Is he ditching again?”

“Probably.”

Je-won shakes his head. “Such a shame. He’s so smart.”

Nara chuckles. “Probably why he ditches. He’s too smart. He was actually working on an assignment. While I was talking to him. For a college class.”

“He’s taking them already?”

She shakes her head. “Not officially. Some online thing. Way smarter than his brother.”

“Is that bitterness I hear?”

“As if. Anyway, where’s this going?”

“The Bayard’s.”

“Old or young?”

“Uh…”

She tsks. “They live next door to each other. I’ll figure it out. Be back in ten. Can you handle the dining room while I’m gone?”

“I got along just fine before you.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” she calls, exiting out the back door.

Je-won shakes his head, and gets to work on Topher’s pizza.

Despite having named his restaurant Heart&Seoul, most of the time Je-won doesn’t get to make many Korean-style pizzas. Mainly over summer and holiday breaks when students are home from college. Most days there will be an order or three at most.

He relishes each one.

The Bulgogi menu item is one such Korean-style pizza, with a chewy sweet-potato crust topped with barbeque-beef, spicy garlic sauce, fresh scallions, and a dash of chopped cilantro. It’s served up with a side of kimchi—his grandmother’s secret recipe… which she’ll share with anyone willing to listen.

It’s one of his personal favorites, and he enjoys making it as much or more as he does eating it.

Je-won looks over the ingredients bar, smiles, and rubs his hands together. “Let’s do this.”

12:32 PM – Thirty-One Minutes Until System Arrival

“How is it?” Je-won asks, watching Topher dig in to his pizza.

The young teen nods enthusiastically. “Perfect as always,” he answers while still chewing.

Je-won makes a cha-ching gesture, causing Topher to laugh and spray a bit of pizza on the table.

“Don’t waste it now.”

Topher covers his mouth, smiling as he shakes his head and waves his hand at Je-won.

There’s a lull in customers today due to the festival at the lake, so they are the only two in the restaurant.

Je-won looks out the large front windows as Old Man Parker walks by. He keeps a tight schedule for someone in his eighties, Je-won thinks wryly, and smiles.

“Well,” he tells Topher, “I’ll let you enjoy your meal. I have another pizza to make.”

12:48 PM – Fifteen Minutes Until System Arrival

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

By the time Nara returns from her delivery, Topher has finished his pizza and is sipping on a boba tea Je-won just made for him.

Je-won is the all-purpose, one-stop-shop for all edible things Asian in their little town of Havenport. And he enjoys the position. It helps him earn more than just running a pizzeria alone in this small town would. And it sure does help on his taxes.

So his aunt tells him.

He doesn’t know anything about them himself.

“Perfect timing,” he tells Nara as she walks into the kitchen. “Another one’s ready to go.”

She is putting her apron back on, but groans and tosses it back on the hook. “I just had to listen to Mrs Bayard complain for twenty minutes about her son-in-law. And then she apologized—not very sincerely—and told me the pizza was for him.”

“Did he complain about it being late?”

“No. I told him what happened and he gave me a ten-dollar tip. Said he felt sorry for me.”

“Well there you go then.”

She grunts. “Where to this time?”

“You don’t even need to drive. Master Wu’s.” Master Wu’s is the town’s kung fu studio and is only a block and a half away. ‘Master Wu’ is actually named Brad, but he once told Je-won Wu sounded cooler than his actual last name. He got the name from some video game he’d played as a kid. His actual last name was Wang, and he had enough of Wang jokes to last him a lifetime. So he picked Master Wu.

Nara sighs, takes the extra-large Thai-chicken pizza, and leaves again, this time heading out the front door.

1:02 PM – One Minute Until System Arrival

The day normally goes on in this manner, a few pizza deliveries an hour during the lunch rush, then one or two an hour after that. But not this day. And not just because of the festival.

Nara is pulling out a large pepperoni while Je-won unloads dough balls from the freezer, when something strange happens.

“This one for orders or slices?” she asks.

“Slices.”

“Want me to cut it up?”

“If you’re not too busy.”

“I do have a full schedule, but I’ll squeeze it in for my favorite big brother.”

“Yes, favorite.” He shuts the freezer door. “I’d be more impressed if you had another big brother to choose from.”

“But then you wouldn’t be my favorite,” she says innocently.

He chuckles. “One day—”

He’s interrupted by a wall of text suddenly appearing in front of him. Odder still, there’s a large smiley face accompanying the text.

They both freeze for several long moments, then look at each other.

“Did you…” Nara begins.

Je-won nods. “A message.”

“Aliens?”

Je-won shrugs, reaching out to try to touch the text. He recoils when he can actually feel it. Then the message dissolves and a new one appears.

Enter name to begin analysis:

Je-won points at the message. “Can you see this?”

Nara frowns, looking where he is pointing. “No. I mean, yes, but I think we’re seeing different things. Mine’s moving as I look around. It’s like that game you force me to play.”

“I thought you liked Valorant.”

“I like Sam.”

Je-won rolls his eyes. “You’re not in Seoul. You were born here. You can date like an American.”

“Tell that to Mom. Every guy I go out with she compares to Ben and tells me I’m a fool for letting him go and that I need to win him back, then tries to give me ‘How to Please Your Man’ articles to read.”

“Is that what those were for? I’ve wondered why she was clipping them out all the time.”

“There’s a whole stack in my desk I’m too afraid to throw out for fear she’ll find them and think I read them and ask for details on how it went.” Nara’s eyes narrow. “Are… are we in shock?”

Je-won considers, then nods slowly. “I think we might be.” Once, he would have been quicker to react. But those days were long past and a lifetime ago.

“What should we do?”

“See if it’s just us.”

He has one of the large iPad’s mounted on a wall for tracking orders, which he goes to now, swiping up to bring up a list of open apps and selecting Safari. He doesn’t even need to search before seeing the breaking news: Strange Message, Hoax or Truth?

“Well, that rules out being crazy.” Nara sighs. “I’m still holding out for hoax.”

Je-won taps on the headline to load the article. “I doubt it. You can feel it.”

“Feel what? The iPad?”

“The text in the message. It feels smooth and squishy. Somewhat like squid.”

Nara’s face scrunches up. “Ew.” Despite her heritage and her mother’s and Je-won’s best attempts, she is American through and through and not one for Korean dishes. If it wasn’t for the explosion of K-pop and K-dramas when she was growing up, she probably wouldn’t even be able to speak Korean.

“Is yours still the original message?” he asks her.

“Uh, yeah. It hasn’t changed as far as I can tell. It’s weird. It’s still there, but doesn’t get in the way.”

“Try touching it.”

She grimaces.

“Go on,” he urges.

Hesitantly, she reaches out for what looks to Je-won like thin air. Her hand jerks back. “Gross.” Then she frowns. “Says to enter my name now.”

“Don’t.”

“No kidding,” she says sarcastically.

The news is useless. Nothing that isn’t in the message. Whether it’s hoax or not, he is going to treat it like it’s real.

Long-forgotten training takes over and he moves into action. Whether any dangers are actually coming, they need to do their best to prepare as if they are.

“Turn the ovens off,” he tells Nara, gathering up the keys to both their cars and locking the back door.

Nara obeys without question.

He calls his mom.

“Have you seen?” she asks in Korean as soon as she picks up.

“Are you and grandma okay?” he asks, automatically switching to Korean.

“Of course we’re okay. You need to—”

“Yes, we’re coming home.”

“Nara’s with you?”

“She is. I need to go. Lock your doors, don’t let anyone in. We’ll be there soon.”

“Jason’s at—”

“I know. We’ll get him. Don’t worry. Is Aunt Ji-yeon there?” Ji-yeon Seong was Jason’s mother, and Je-won’s mother’s much-younger sister, not that much older than Je-won himself.

“We’re finally watching Squid Game. We were. Now we’re watching the news.”

“Good. Tell her not to worry about Jason.”

She snorts. “I might as well tell the sun not to rise.”

“I have to go, Mom. See you soon.”

Nara is staring at him. He thinks it’s the first time he’s seen her truly scared.

“Come on,” he says in English. “We need to get Topher out of here.”

In the dining room, Topher is frowning into space.

“Toph?” Nara asks.

He looks at them, studies their faces. “It’s real, isn’t it?”

“The message is,” Je-won answers. “Nara’s going to take you home.”

“And what are you going to do?” she asks.

He sighs. He knows that tone. “Pick Jason up then head home.”

She begins to protest, but then the huge windows taking up most of the restaurant’s front explode inward.