"This is Byul's favourite snack..." Wheein mumbled to herself as she wandered through the aisles, dropping snacks after snacks into the basket in her hand. Ever since she was dropped out of the case, she had more time to kill. She looked at the basket filled with their favourite snacks and nodded in satisfaction. "We're good to go!" 

She stood in line at the counter and took out her phone. No phone calls, no messages. She was not used to it yet, and she kind of missed being busy with cases, even though she complained a lot. She sighed and placed her phone back into her pocket.

"Wheein?" Someone called her. 

She looked up and saw the woman in front of her smiling at her. The woman was probably around her mother's age, maybe a bit older, judging by the colour of her hair and the wrinkles on her face. She looked familiar. "Oh!" She snapped her fingers as she finally recalled who the woman was. "Aunt Kang! It's been so long, how are you?"

"Yes, it's been a while. I'm fine, Wheein. Thank you for asking," Aunt Kang said. "And you?"

"Still surviving," Wheein chuckled, and shook the basket in her hand. "How's Taeyoung? I haven't seen her around."

"Taeyoung?" Wheein could see Aunt Kang sighing even though she was turning around to face the cashier. "Let me pay first," she said.

Wheein was bothered by the inaudible sigh for the few minutes they were paying for their goods. Taeyoung was close to her when they were in high school. They used to hang out after school and her brother would tag along. She knew her brother was interested in Taeyoung, and she urged him to go for it. She still remembered how happy she was when they started dating at the start of college. They were happy, or at least that was what she thought until her brother left all of a sudden. She never heard from Taeyoung again, until recently when she asked her how she was doing, which was fairly abrupt considering the fact that she was uncontactable for almost five years. 

"That girl," Aunt Kang said, snapping Wheein out of her thoughts. "She left without any notice."

"Did you file a missing person report?" Wheein asked.

Aunt Kang shook her head. "She left with Won Il. He contacted us frequently and kept us updated. We trust him."

Wheein turned her head sharply to the woman walking beside her. Won Il? Her brother? "We broke up, five years ago." He said it himself. They broke up. It did not make sense to her when she said Taeyoung left with her brother. She had a really bad feeling about this, but the poor lady in front of her did not suspect anything at all? "Did she contact you at all?" She asked. 

Aunt Kang nodded with a small smile. It was a smile of relief, but Wheein was not smiling. "What did she say?" 

"She said she's settled in Germany, graduated and found a job," Aunt Kang said, showing her phone to Wheein. 

Mom, you don't have to call me. Long-distance calls are expensive. I'm fine and I hope I can see you soon after I'm done with my work for this year. That was the last message Taeyoung sent, similar to the one she sent her. 

-

Wheein walked into the station with the bags of snacks and went straight to Moonbyul's office. The conversation with Taeyoung's mother left her with an uneasy feeling in her stomach, but she could not pinpoint the reason. She knocked on the door to the inspector's room and went straight in without waiting for Moonbyul to answer. 

Moonbyul heard the knock and looked up to see Wheein already walking in with two plastic bags. "Wheein?" She called out for the other person's attention when she realised Wheein was just standing in front of her desk, deep in her thought. "Are you alright?" 

"Hm?" Wheein looked at Moonbyul for a second before remembering why she was doing in her office. "Oh, right! Here's your snacks. I bought you some."

"What were you thinking about?" Moonbyul asked after muttering her thanks when Wheein handed a bag over to her. 

"Should I tell Byul about Taeyoung?" Wheein hesitated. She glanced around the room and something on the table caught her eyes. "Where did you get that?" She asked, a bit too loudly.

Moonbyul raised an eyebrow questioningly at Wheein who was pointing to her phone. She looked at the screen that was still lit. "Ahn Hun Sang." She said. "Why? Do you know her?"

"Why does he have her picture?" Wheein took the phone and looked at the picture closely. There was no way she could have mistaken. 

Moonbyul frowned and stood up. She pulled the phone away from Wheein's grasp. "Do you know her, Wheein?" She asked softly.

Wheein nodded, her eyes closed. "That's Taeyoung," Wheein said. "My brother's girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend. They broke up five years ago."

The new information hit her like a blow to her head. "Wait a minute," Moonbyul said. "Your brother's girlfriend? Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure! I was there when they were together," Wheein said with a chuckle. 

"That's weird," Moonbyul said, tilting her head to the right. "Ahn Hun Sang said that they were together for a year until five years ago when she disappeared." 

"They were together for a year until fi- Wait. What?" Wheein repeated Moonbyul's words until it completely registered in her head. "They were what?" 

"Could it be..." Moonbyul had a crazy theory in her mind but she was not sure if she should say it.

Just then, a knock on her door diverted her attention. Hwasa rushed in with a tablet in her hand. "Stop what you're doing and look at this," she said, holding up the tablet for them to see. "They managed to extract more footage, and here it is." 

The man in the footage was wearing a baseball cap, pulled down low to cover his eyes. They could not see his face properly because it was dark, presumably late at night, but they could see a menacing scar running down his right cheek. When they thought it was the end of the footage, the man walked towards the camera and his face showed up clearly.

"." That was all Moonbyul managed to say when she saw Jung Won Il appeared on the screen.