Chapter Text

PART 2

  Seoyeon wakes up to her head throbbing, her palms are feeling a cold, hard surface. She gets the courage to finally sit up, blinking her eyes in hopes to clear her vision. She tries to maneuver her legs to be in front of her but is welcomed instead with a hard stop of metal. She grunts and meets the floor stomach first. While she’s down, she tries to pull her legs, achieving the same result with only going such a short distance. Seoyeon notices the sound of chains that are not just from her. She looks up and her vision finally clears. Five other girls look at her. She first thinks it’s anger, but when one’s eyebrows relax, she knows it’s understanding.

“Hayeon?” Seoyeon asks for confirmation softly.

The girl nods. ‘It’s definitely her’ Seoyeon thought. She looked around, the whole thing was metal and only a small window at the center of the wall in front of her was bringing in light.

“Seoyeon…” She knew the voice calling her name. That was Soomin, she knew. She didn’t even need to look at her. Then she identifies the other girls in the room with her.

Dahyun, Lynn, and— “SeoAh!” Seoyeon exclaims. “Where are we?” Seoyeon asks, still down on the ground.

“You think we’d know?” Hayeon responds, arms crossed. Everyone’s in the same position as she was. Feet locked and stuck in chains that were attached to the wall. Dahyun’s attached to the wall left of Seoyeon, Hayeon and Soomin to the right, and SeoAh and Lynn to the wall across, next to each other.

Seoyeon tries to stand up, and she does manage to do it, but she can’t walk forward at all, the chains are too short to move even baby steps. She sat back down, looking around again.

Minutes went by and they hear something…mechanical, like cogs turning inside the walls. At the center of the ceiling, an opening is made and a small pipe releasing gas enters.

“Don’t breathe it in!” Seoyeon shouts, covering her nose with her arm, but it doesn’t work. She feels her head throbbing again and in just a matter of seconds, she’s down on the ground, but she isn’t totally out. She sees someone dressed in all black enter the room with keys jingling and dangling out of their pocket. The mysterious person takes the keys and walks towards Hayeon, unlocking her chains and carrying her on their shoulders.

“No! Let her go!” Seoyeon says weakly with barely any strength left to stay awake. She reaches out her hand, screaming Hayeon’s name but ultimately passes out and hears the heavy sound of a door closing.

ONE WEEK AFTER YOOYEON’S DEATH…

YOOYEON’S FUNERAL, DECEMBER 3, 2024, 2:30 P.M.

—Nakyoung—

She’s sitting at the front row, just a few inches away from Yooyeon’s casket. Everyone from the building and Yooyeon’s family and friends attended. Nakyoung is emotionless, not because she doesn’t care, quite the opposite. She cares so much that she’s spent the past seven days reviewing the sight of Yooyeon’s death over and over again, sometimes thinking about it so much that she ends up drinking and passing out. Yubin sits next to her, sobbing, multiple used tissues filled with her tears are scattered and then flown away by the wind of the upcoming winter. Hyerin is beside Yubin, taking the last seat in the row. She’s holding on to her necklace while looking straight at Yooyeon’s casket being lifted and lowered to her final resting place.

As the final shovel of dirt covers the casket, a headstone is placed on top. Nakyoung’s legs jitter, unable to keep still. Yubin reaches her hand out and places it on Nakyoung’s knee. She stops. “I know.” Yubin says, blowing her nose to clear her sinuses.

Behind all the sadness that Nakyoung is feeling, there is a sense of determination, a drive to piece together a puzzle that’s been stuck at the back of her mind: Who killed Yooyeon?

For her, it wasn’t even a question whether it was murder or suicide. The answer was clearly murder. She starts to jitter her leg again and bite her nails. Yubin sees this and just sighs, looking down on the ground as she puts both her hands on Nakyoung’s jittering leg. Pleading her to stop.

This time, she doesn’t. Instead, in the middle of the pastor’s prayer, she gets up and walks away. Yubin drops one of her used tissues on the ground and chases after her, still crying.

Nakyoung immediately heads for her car. She double presses on her key and the car beeps, signaling that it’s unlocked. Before she could open the door however, she hears a pair of footsteps walking up to her.

“I know you’re hurting!” Yubin shouts out.

Nakyoung lets go of the handle, turning around to meet the sobbing mess behind her.

“Is it obvious?” She responds, leaning against the side of the car with arms crossed. She clicks her tongue. She’s now wondering if she should tell Yubin what’s really been going through her mind. “I want to investigate.”

Yubin deadpans but her eyes can’t stop blinking as tears continue to slowly run down her face.

“Seriously?” She quietly squeals, then scoffs.

Yubin looks both ways and then shrugs after looking back at Nakyoung again.

“So what? You wanna distract yourself from all the grief by investigating her death? Are you even sure it’s suicide?!”

“I’m doing her justice!” Nakyoung shouts, getting close to Yubin’s face.

“No! You’re dragging it.” Yubin shouts right after. “Nakyoung… Even Jinsoul agreed not to send the autopsy report to us! They know we can’t snoop anymore.”

Nakyoung looks at the cemetery they just left which was right across the street, pointing using her chin. “Is it done?” She asks.

“In a few minutes.” Yubin responds with a much more calmer tone.

Nakyoung bites her nails again, thinking about what she should do. She puts a hand on Yubin’s shoulder.

“I can’t stop now, Yubin.” Nakyoung says. The other sighs at this. “I’m not close to solving it, I need you and Hyerin’s help right now!”

Yubin scoffs once more. “You think we’d help while we are actually trying to grieve? Fuck no. For fuck’s sake, Naky, they won’t even let us inside Yooyeon’s apartment! Jinsoul can’t give us access anymore because they know she’s helping us.”

“Shouldn’t they be grateful for us? I mean we’ve practically solved cases that they couldn’t handle.” Nakyoung says.

“Exactly! They don’t like the fact that we are outdoing the police. But…if you really want to continue investigatin’—” Yubin slowly starts to walk away. “Be my fucking guest!”

“Hey wait! Get inside the car!” Nakyoung points to the backseat.

Yubin spots a taxi around the curb. “I’ll take a taxi!” She shouts.

As her pair of footsteps disappear, another one replaces it. It’s Hyerin. She wobbly walks towards the car, making sure she doesn’t accidentally faint. She opens the car’s backseat door and hops in. “Come on, drive to Seoulfee. Maybe a drink can lighten up the mood a bit?” She says before closing the door.

Nakyoung sighs but hops in the driver’s seat.

As she’s driving, Hyerin subtly kicks the back of the driver’s seat, laying down on the seats. “What?”

“Have you seen Seoyeon today? She didn’t attend the funeral.” Hyerin asks, looking at the car’s ceiling.

That got Nakyoung thinking, as if she didn’t need more thinking while she’s still thinking about Yooyeon’s death. “No, no I haven’t. That’s weird. She didn't make it to the funerals of the five girls last month either. Wait—”

Nakyoung suddenly stops the car just a few blocks away from Seoulfee. “I didn’t see SeoAh either. Or Hayeon… or Soomin!”

Hyerin gets back up into a sitting position, putting her hands around the head of the driver’s seat.

“Or Lynn…and Dahyun… Strange, they wouldn’t miss a funeral like this. I mean, not to be superlative but I think Yooyeon was the most popular person in our building.” Hyerin adds.

Nakyoung starts the car again and finishes the trip to Seoulfee by parking it just outwide the establishment. She unbuckles her seatbelt and looks at Hyerin through the inside rearview mirror.

“I’m paying.” They both swiftly get out of the car and run inside the cafe.

???, 2024

—Seoyeon—

Seoyeon wakes up again but this time her head was resting on her arm, a more comfortable position than just being flat out on the floor. What’s also different from the first time is that she instantly recalls where she is right now, and she doesn’t like it.

She supports herself up with her two arms, groaning in pain as her left arm tries to wake up from its pins and needles. She looks around to see everyone still there, except for one person.

“They took Hayeon!” SeoAh shouts and starts crying. The spot where she used to be, her feet chains unlocked, but that’s all that’s left of where she last was. Seoyeon doesn’t want to imagine the worst-case scenario about what could have happened to Hayeon, but it’s all she can really imagine.

“Please don’t say they’ll take us away too!” Lynn sobs out.

“I don’t know, Lynn! None of us knows! Let’s just find a way to get out.” Seoyeon says. It’s hard to tell from the small amount of light coming through but she knew that some of the girls may have already given up.

“Guys don’t give up. There must be something!”

“Seoyeon we’re in a metal box.” Dahyun says while lying on the floor.

“Weren’t we supposed to be at Yooyeon’s funeral?” Soomin asks.

SeoAh shudders but lets out a small gasp, hunching forward. “Do you think Yooyeon’s killer kidnapped us…?”

“Are we even sure she was murdered?” Dahyun doubts.

“I saw the body, I don’t think she’d do that to herself.” Seoyeon responds.

Lynn stands up and starts examining the wall behind her. Next to her is SeoAh, who signals her to help. SeoAh reluctantly agrees, grazing their palms on the wall.

“What are you trying to find?” Soomin asks, legs crossed while she faces her wall.

SeoAh pushes a seemingly random spot on the wall but it pushes back like it’s a misplaced brick. That brick suddenly springs back out, she narrowly avoids it and ducks just as it lands on the ground and breaks, echoing through the room.

She’s about to stick her hand in the hole when Lynn grabs her hand. “I’ll do it.” SeoAh nods and steps back as far as her chains can allow. Lynn puts her hand inside it and grabs whatever was in there. She’s shocked to find out that it’s a key.

It’s just an average looking key but Lynn immediately checks the keyhole in her lock. It matches, it can be used to unlock the chains.

She hesitates for a moment, looks at SeoAh who’s as curious as her. She hands the key to her.

“Use it.” SeoAh is stunned. “Uh— why me?”

“Just do it.” Lynn says. SeoAh grabs it and puts the key in the keyhole. It unlocks and her left foot’s chain unlocks. Everyone happily gasps at the revelation and SeoAh excitedly unlocks her right foot’s chain. She passes the key to Lynn and stands up, stretching her arms.

Just as Lynn is about to free her other foot, the mechanical sound whirs up inside the walls and the gas is released again. “No! No!” SeoAh shouts. Everyone coughs but Lynn suddenly spots a gas mask shot out from the hole but it’s attached.

“SeoAh! Put it on!” She screams but quickly passes out after. SeoAh hurriedly runs over to the gas mask and outs it on, breathing in as the rest of the girls pass out around her. A tear runs down her face from the terrifying ordeal she just witnessed. The gas stops and the pipe is put back inside the roof.

Complete dark silence. Is the only way SeoAh could describe the room. She takes the gas mask off and breathes heavily once again before calming herself down.

She shouts as the door opens loudly and another woman is thrown inside the room. The door closes.

SeoAh is beyond terrified, the unknown woman tries to get up herself but she can’t. So SeoAh helps her up, she can’t see her face but it doesn’t matter.

The woman turns around… and SeoAh is shocked.

“Mayu…?”

MODHAUS 2ND FLOOR HALLWAY, DECEMBER 3, 2024, 3:15 P.M.

—Jinsoul—

Her phone rings as she eagerly paces around the hallway of the 2nd floor, just outside Seoyeon’s apartment (2A).

Police start swarming and searching her apartment because Jinsoul knows they’re not the only ones who had a suspicion of Seoyeon and the other girls’ sudden disappearance.

Nakyoung picks up the phone.

“Hello?”

“You had a suspicion that they disappeared, didn’t you?” Jinsoul asks.

“How’d you— well yeah. Hyerin and I are talking about it right now, we’re at Seoulfee.” Nakyoung responds.

“Well you’re right. They are missing and I’m not gonna lie, I don’t think they’ll be alive by the time we find them.” Jinsoul says.

“What makes you say that? Are you in The Modhaus, we’ll come to you. Sorry, you’re on speaker. Don’t worry, Seoulfee’s a loud place.” Hyerin unexpectedly responds.

“Hah…I’ll send you the photo, see you at the lobby.” Jinsoul ends the call and walks into Seoyeon’s apartment. She walks past all the other officers and detectives on the scene and heads straight to the bedroom.

And there she once again confronts the mysterious scene in front of her. On Seoyeon’s bedroom wall, just behind her headboard.

A giant, red text. Supposedly made of blood.

Come find me: D-5

On Seoyeon’s bed, someone peacefully put to sleep. A rose put inside their mouth and with a face so pale, it was clear they were dead.

Jinsoul sighs.

“Oh…Hayeon…”