A knock on the door takes his attention away from the station’s reports and stares at the door before chiming a quiet “come in”. The door opens to reveal Lieutenant Kim Heechul.

“Chief.” Heechul salutes and he waves him off.

“Close the door and sit down please.” Heechul does as he’s told and sits down. 

“What is it, lieutenant?”

“The Son kidnapping case.” Heechul purses his lips. “Sooner or later I’ll transfer it to the search and retrieval division.”

“And your division?”

“Honestly, they don’t care anymore. Especially when the family is not interested in any help from the police.” The lieutenant sighs. “The student body isn’t that interested anymore either.”

“That makes our job easier, does it not?” The chief leans back in his seat, a relieved smile on his face. Heechul frowns. He looked around and outside to see if anybody was listening before leaning.

“Jungsu-hyung,” he whispers, “I don’t get what we’re doing. At all. Why are we not doing everything to find the kid? And what do you mean? Would we wait for it to die down before doing anything? Wouldn’t that be dangerous?” The chief laughs at the onslaught of questions Heechul threw.

“Ah, Hee-nim, there’s so much you don’t know.” The chief whispers before walking towards the window overlooking Seoul. “You’ll get it soon enough. But for now, let the case die down and let people forget about it.”

“Then?” Jungsu’s eyes light shade of red for a while, his face unseen by his lieutenant, who has his eyebrows scrunched in much confusion.

“Let everything play out. They don’t have much time anyway.”

The first time she actually saw Son Chaeyoung was not when she slapped her.

Clubs were already done, and the debate club finished late so Mina finds herself venturing the school halls alone. With nothing left to do for the day, she leisurely walks towards the locker areas with light steps, humming to a tune she’s heard this morning. She looks around the empty hallways and classrooms, taking her time to appreciate the school façade.

In her three years in high school, never did she take her time admiring the school environment. She only had one goal: she set her foot in this school during freshman year, which is to survive high school without being noticed.

Her popularity among the student body, however, crushes her goal in one hit.

Even as a freshman, she had been popular instantly to the student body. The cold freshman who rejected a senior during the first week of classes. A ballet prodigy. The girl who doesn’t smile nor talk too much. Etc. etc.

With her reputation in tow, most of the students avoid her, so at least she would be able to finish school unbothered most of the time, she thinks. She’s heard other ridiculous rumors about her before, like how she’s part of the yakuza, a Japanese spy, and all other theories people can think of. It’s crazy, but if it means less interaction with people, then so be it. There are, however, idiot people who still bother to confess to her even though they’ve heard the rumors.

She rolls her eyes while thinking about it.

Luckily no one has bothered to confess yet. It’s the second week of her junior year's first trimester, and nothing has bothered her yet. No suitors, no confessions. Not even anything from the insufferable Minatozaki Sana who, with her damned luck, is in her class.

Mina stops walking for a while. Minatozaki Sana is definitely not insufferable, she thinks. She just doesn’t want to be chummy with anybody, regardless of who they are and what their intentions are. She sees the sincerity of Sana’s gestures towards her, but she just doesn’t want any attachment to anybody in this school. So, she’s okay with having no friends.

That’s what she decided to do when they moved to Korea. The trauma of people backstabbing you gets to her, so she’d rather avoid it.

A crash takes her attention away and she looks at the room near the lockers. The art room, she muses, and she goes to peek at whatever is happening in the room.

There were movements among the chairs, an easel in the middle of the room, paintbrushes scattered everywhere. Believing it to be an unruly student making a mess inside, she goes to the door, but she sees her before she can open it.

A student, freshman, based on the necktie hanging loosely on her shoulders. (Son Chaeyoung, she figures much later.) Her uniform and hands and face smeared with different colors, a worn-out paintbrush in hand, and a thoughtful look on her face while looking at the canvass.

(Mina has heard of the mysterious freshman. Yoo Jeongyeon’s precious prodigy, some would call her. The philosophical freshman who swept the student body’s feet off not just because of her skills and intelligence, but also because of her different outlooks in life. It makes her curious and wary at the same time. New people don’t seem to fit well with Mina.)

She looks at the carefree freshman who’s face suddenly brightens. The freshman scurries off to get buckets of paint. Mina chuckles when the girl trips every now and then while navigating through the messy art room, and she melts when she sees pure happiness from her when she carelessly pours purple paint on her palette with black paint.

She sighs with affection as the painter slowly mixes colors with hands without caring about getting paint everywhere on her. She watches in odd satisfaction as violet and black swirl beautifully with the freshman’s careful but carefree hands and–

“Mina?”

–she blinks to see a flask with different colors instead of the palette. She looks up in confusion to see Jeongyeon’s worried gaze. Looking around, she remembers being in chemistry class, with the older girl as her lab partner.

“Are you okay?” Jeongyeon asks. “You were kinda spacing out.”

“Ah, yes.” She quickly recovers from her daydream and ducks her head in shame. “I’m sorry about that.” She almost spills the contents of the test tube she’s holding and blushes, berating herself internally for being clumsy in front of a classmate, especially in front of her crush.

“Careful,” Jeongyeon pries the tube away from the poor Japanese’s hands. “You don’t want to spill danger on your pretty skin.” The older girl chuckles when her partner turns a shade of red deeper than before.

“Please don’t tease me like that.” Mina whispers, busying herself with the instruction manual their teacher handed to them.

“I guess you’re not used to this kind of interaction.” Jeongyeon carefully pours the contents of the test tube in the flask she’s holding. “It’s ok, Mina. We all have our daze moments. A penny for your thoughts?” Mina gazes back at the flask now with bright colors swirling and she sighs.

“It’s nothing.” I just suddenly thought of Chaeyoung for no reason. Mina’s tone makes Jeongyeon drop the topic, and she shrugs before swirling the flask carefully. Mina sighs, and she goes on to prepare the other solutions Jeongyeon will pour in later.

Why did I think of her suddenly? Maybe it’s the guilt. Yeah, it’s the guilt. She distracts herself.

A sudden slam of the door surprises everybody in the chemistry lab and Mina looks up at the door. There, by the doorposts stands a nonchalant Momo.

“! I lost the color.” Jeongyeon, who jumps in surprise, curses and is about to glare at the newcomer when she sees Momo going to the teacher’s table to pick up a slip for detention.

“She’s so cool about getting detention, Hirai-ssi,” Mina observes.

“It’s not like her to be late or get detention, no matter how stupid she can get.” Jeongyeon pours the ruined solution in the flask before sighing. “I wonder what happened. But damn, that was a good color too. Chaeng’s favorite color too.” 

The memory of mixing paint returns to Mina and she frowns. Purple’s my favorite too.

“It’s okay, we can do it again.” Mina offers a kind smile when Jeongyeon turns around, which she returns while taking the empty flask. "I didn't think you'd be more concerned about our solution's color than your friend." 

"It's not that." Jeongyeon laughs it off, preparing the beakers needed to redo the experiment. "We'll know what happened when she wants us to know. Knowing Momo, she wouldn't want questioning looks pointing at her." They continue quietly after that.

(Jeongyeon didn’t mean to, but she overhears Sana while redoing their lab work.

“Did you stop by the seniors’ room to look out for Nayeon again? Gosh, Momo, just talk already.”

Jeongyeon frowns when she doesn’t hear a response. She guesses she’d have to talk to Momo later.)

“What does this even mean?” Sana mutters before looking up from the book she’s reading. “And where were you two?” She sees Nayeon with a lovestruck-looking Chaeyoung in tow.