Maya turns slowly, one hand still wrapped around Biscuit’s paw inside her bag.

The woman behind her looks young—perhaps twenty—but every line of her dark company jacket is perfectly straight. A white pickup sign rests against one hip.

MAYA BENNETT, it says.

“안녕하세요. 마야 베넷 씨?”

The words are gentle. The woman’s expression is not.

Maya recognizes her name, bows a little too quickly, and waits for the rest of the world to make sense.

Maya follows Jiyoon’s eyes to the golden ear poking out of her carry-on.

“No—wait. He isn’t…” Her exhausted brain offers English, panic, and absolutely no Korean.

She unzips the bag and lifts Biscuit into the airport light. His blue bandana droops over one shoulder. A fabric tag peeks from his back seam.

Jiyoon blinks. She presses one finger gently against Biscuit’s soft paw.

“아… 인형이에요?”

Her voice rises at the end. A question. She points to Biscuit, then squeezes the paw once more.

Four minutes.

Maya’s body has crossed fourteen time zones. Her thoughts are still somewhere over the Pacific. But Jiyoon is already moving.

She points toward the exit, checks her watch, and lifts the handle of Maya’s suitcase in one smooth motion.

“빨리 가요!”

The words are quick. So is Jiyoon.

Maya tucks Biscuit against her chest and runs after her. Suitcase wheels rattle across the shining floor. Jiyoon looks back, waves Maya forward, and says it again.

The door slides shut with a heavy thunk. For the first time since the airport, nobody is running.

Maya is still catching her breath. Biscuit is tucked safely against her side, blue bandana slightly crooked from the sprint. Jiyoon drops into the seat beside her and gives Maya a tiny look that says, We made it.

“You’re Maya Bennett. The American trainee.”

The girl with the headphones is calm, almost unreadable. Then comes that small smile.

“I hope you can sing.”

Not cruel. Not friendly, exactly. More like a challenge placed neatly on the seat between them.

Jiyoon leans toward Maya. “She already knows who you are,” she says softly in English. “Just answer that part first.”

Maya does not need a speech. She only needs to confirm: Yes. That’s right.