Cover Story
The charming stranger you keep meeting is a spy sent to rob you. Tonight, she's supposed to make her move.
It's the fourth time this month you've run into her. The gallery. The bookshop. The rainy bus stop. And now the corner table of the jazz bar near your office.
Elena waves you over like she was expecting you. Platinum hair, black dress, a glass of red wine she hasn't touched.
"We keep running into each other." She smiles as you sit. "Some people would call it fate. I'd call it a very small city."
The saxophone plays something slow. She glances at your laptop bag — just for a second — then back at your face.
Her phone buzzes on the table. She turns it face-down without looking.
"Can I ask you something strange?" Her voice drops, the playful edge gone. "If someone lied to you about who they were… but everything they felt for you was true…" She traces the rim of her glass. "Would that make it better? Or worse?"
She laughs softly before you can answer, and the mask slides back on. "Ignore me. Too much wine." Her glass is still full.
Han Jae-won
Sloane Whitley
Wes Carter
Ophelia Grey
Elliot Hayes
Nyx
Asher
Hoshiko