Still in the same night...

When it got close to ten, Seolhyun put the book down and considered checking in with Hyejeong after all Jimin’s apocalypse earlier. Was she going back to that warehouse, investigating? Without her? There was a good chance Hyejeong was.

Trying to distract herself, Seolhyun logged into one of the local news websites and searched for any mention of the two officers going missing. She had checked each night since then, with no results.

But tonight was different.

The headline read:

“Two officers from Ace of Ethereal department missing after last seen near Evensi.”

Seolhyun’s breath caught as she scanned the article. Officer Wu Yifan and Officer Lu Han were last seen near Evensi Field on May 22th and have not been heard from since. Authorities were not saying the nature of their dealings in that industrial building but were asking anyone who may have seen the officers or may know anything to please contact them.

Below the article were two pictures. Seolhyun recognized them immediately. Clicking off the webpage, she immediately brought up a new web search screen. First, she Googled Park Choa and came up with nothing. Smoker had mentioned her by last name, saying she wouldn’t be mad if Seolhyun wasn’t... messed up.

She shuddered.

Seolhyun had thought there’d at least be something in relation to the AOE, but it wasn’t like the woman existed on the Internet. Her next search victim was her mom’s boyfriend. There were quite a few sites linking to numerous awards won in the medical community, but nothing showing a connection to Yuna.

But there was something that left a bad taste in Seolhyun’s mouth about him.

One article’s headline read:

“Local doctor overcomes leukemia, backs funding for new cancer treatment center.”

Her eyes scanned the article. It was Dr. Park. There was a picture of him, most likely taken during rounds of treatment. She couldn’t believe it. Did her mom know this? Really, cancer wasn’t a reason not to date someone, but after everything she went through with her dad? Could she go through something like that again if the cancer came back?

And if Seolhyun actually grew to like the dude, if he wasn’t an alien, could she deal with that again? She went back to the search page, unable to wrap her brain around this new fact.

Stopping to grab a cup of cocoa, Seolhyun returned to her amateurish investigation. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard while a sense of guilt flushed her cheeks. Then, with a cringe, she Googled Shin Jimin, telling herself she only wanted to see her old fashion blog, since she never did tell Seolhyun its name.

The first searches linked to some college athlete, but down toward the bottom of the first page, Seolhyun saw a news report about her parents’ murders. Clicking on the link, she read the sad, sad write-up on the deaths of her parents and sister. It was called a brutal break-in.

There were a couple more articles stating the same, and then she found the obituary for Jimin’s parents, which took her to a funeral home site in Guangzhou. She took a sip of her cocoa and clicked the pictures the website had of the family. The younger Jimin was super cute, and so was her sister.

Seolhyun’s gut clenched when she looked at the pictures of her and her little sister playing on a swing set. The kid was way too young, and her death was probably horrific. She blinked back hot tears, moved by someone she’d never even met. It just wasn’t fair or right. Death usually was never those two things but this... this was wrong.

She kept going through the pictures, stopping on an older one of Jimin’s father. Seolhyun could see the resemblance in the easy smile and hazel eyes. The man next to his father looked oddly familiar. He shared some of the same features as Jimin’s dad, but his face was rounder. Some of the pictures had captions below, but this one didn’t.

Seolhyun went through the next couple of pictures greedily, and then she stopped on one that looked like a family reunion taken around the holidays. Leaning closer, she set the cup down before she dropped it. A sharp pang sliced her breath as she got a real good look at the guy who’d been in the picture with Jimin’s father.

The man had his hand clamped on the younger Jimin’s shoulder and was smiling at the camera. The caption below listed him as Xiu Min.

Thoughts warred in Seolhyun’s head as she quickly clicked on the obituary again, skimming for surviving family members. Xiumin was listed as a stepbrother of the deceased, of Jimin’s dad.

Seolhyun’s surprised laugh came out strangled, and she stood, looking around the room expectantly, although she wasn’t sure what she was looking for. Shock beat at her, struggling to keep the rising tide of anger at bay.

Jimin was related to a AOE officer.

How... coincidental.

Seolhyun started to pace the length of the living room, her breath coming out harsh and fast. The illogical part of her brain was trying to convince herself that it was just a coincidence, that it was another Xiu Min who looked like the AOE officer. But her relation to the AOE explained how Jimin knew so much about the Felix and mutated humans. And why she’d asked so many times about who had healed Seolhyun. Seolhyun didn’t even know where Jimin lived.

But she knew where Xiumin lived.

Seolhyun stopped herself before she reached for her car keys. There was no way she was going to Xiumin’s house. What would she do? Bust up in there? That was worse than Hyejeong’s typical plans.

Torn between wanting to talk to Hyejeong and letting the issue drop until she knew what she was dealing with, she sat back and pulled her knees to her chest. Anger and fear kept alternating, gripping Seolhyun for several minutes, then letting go and allowing the other emotion to take hold.

Her eyes found the car keys. Xiumin hadn’t been home, and Jimin claimed she’d be out of town again, visiting family with her... uncle. And this would be the perfect opportunity to see if Seolhyun could find any undisputable evidence that would point to Jimin working with the AOE.

“Dammit!” She exploded, jumping to her feet.

Fury became a living, breathing entity inside her, coloring everything in a reddish-white light. Some of it was directed at her, but most of it had a target. Jimin had been in her house, talked to her mom, earned her trust, and kissed her. That kind of betrayal ran so deep it left a permanent mark on her soul.

Hyejeong was the last person she needed to go to right now. If Jimin was working for the AOE, Seolhyun needed to keep Hyejeong far away from this. At least until she knew Hyejeong wouldn’t fly off and do something even dumber than what Seolhyun was about to do.

Done thinking, Seolhyun snatched her hoodie and tugged it on over her head. Grabbing her keys and her phone, she left the house.

As she hit the highway, hands clenching the steering wheel, Seolhyun was a much different person now. She could kick major if need be, and she wouldn’t let Jimin get away with this.

She parked her car two roads down from where Xiumin lived and stepped out into the frigid air. Tugging the hood up over her head, Seolhyun shoved her hands into the middle pocket and hoofed it back toward Xiumin’s house. The irony of ing out Hyejeong due to her lack of plans that night didn’t pass her by, but now she understood that sometimes certain situations called for well-thought-out stupidity.

And this was one of them.

Xiumin’s house looked empty as Seolhyun approached from the rear. Luckily, the two houses closest to his were spaced out. One had a foreclosure sign, and the other was just as dark. She crept around to the front. Her breath came out in puffs, hanging in the air like clouds.

The driveway was empty.

Knowing that didn’t mean the house was completely devoid of people, Seolhyun debated what to do. She didn’t come all the way here to stare at the outside of the house. She wanted in there. She wanted to find evidence linking Jimin to Xiumin, and she wanted to see if there was anything on the location of Chanmi and Yuna.

She went to the back of the house and tried the door. It was locked as expected, but she remembered both Hyejeong and Yonghwa mentioning how easy locks were to manipulate. It should be a piece of cake.

But an alarm system would be a whole different story.

Pressing against the door, Seolhyun closed her eyes and pictured the lock. The rush of static crept down her arms, jumping from the tips of her fingers through the wood. The click of the lock turning sounded like a nuclear bomb going off in her head.

She took a moment to prepare herself for what could be waiting on the other side of the door. If someone were in there, she’d have to defend herself. The idea of hurting someone, possibly killing him or her, sickened Seolhyun, but she knew whoever it was wouldn’t stop twice from locking her up in a cage.

Telling herself she could do this, she opened the door and slowly stepped into the kitchen. A light was on above the stove, casting the room in soft light. She shut the door behind her and drew in a deep breath. This was insane. She crept forward, grateful for the thin soles on her boots.

Balling her hands up under the sleeves of her hoodie, Seolhyun moved down the hallway. The dining room was empty with the exception of a rolled-up sleeping bag on the floor. Two couches were pressed against the wall in the living room. There wasn’t a TV. It reminded her of a model home where everything was fake.

It gave her the creeps.

Holding a breath, Seolhyun went upstairs slowly. Nothing about this house seemed real. It had no homey smells like leftover food or perfume. It smelled vacant. At the top of the stairs, there was a bathroom that had clearly been in use. There were hair products on the sink, gel and two toothbrushes.

Seolhyun’s stomach tightened as she left the bathroom. All the bedroom doors were open. Each of them just had a bed and a dresser. All were empty.

The last room at the end of the hall was an office of sorts. A large desk sat in the middle of the otherwise empty room. There was a monitor on the top, but no hard drive. Moving around the desk, Seolhyun pulled out the center drawer. Nothing. She checked the side drawers, becoming frustrated when they were all empty. She yanked open the last one.

“Jackpot,” she whispered.

She pulled out a file folder that was thick and heavy at the bottom. Lifting the file out carefully, she laid it on the desk and flipped it opened. There were pictures, hundreds of pictures.

Seolhyun’s hands shook as she went through them. A buzzing filled her ears as she turned over picture after picture.

One of her walking from her car to the front of TOU in short sleeves. There were several from outside the Diner Dash, and she could just figure out Mina and her sitting in front of the window, then one of them walking out the door, her arm in a splint and Mina laughing. Several more photos showed them together, at campus, on her front porch, and in her car. There was one of them hugging in front of the grocery store, the first day she’d met her.

Then there were pictures of Hyejeong, eyes narrowed and face drawn tight as she was snapped walking around her SUV, keys clenched in her hand. Another was her standing on her porch in jeans, with Seolhyun glaring at her.

Seolhyun picked up one, holding it in the light that came through the window. She was in her red bikini, standing on the bank of the lake. She’d been looking off to the side, and Hyejeong had been watching her, smiling, really smiling, to her. Seolhyun hadn’t known Hyejeong ever smiled around her at that time.

She dropped the picture as if it burned her skin. And it did on a surreal level.

There were more. Photos chronicling from the time she arrived in this town up until a few days ago. There were pictures of her mom heading to work, some with her and Dr. Park. There were no pictures of Jimin and her together.

But the worst picture, the one that almost dropped Seolhyun to her knees was one of Hyejeong carrying her back from the lake the night she’d been sick. The photo was