Hyemi sat in her seat, watching the man beside her answer his ringing phone. She heard Seunghyun give abbreviated responses, few word lines mixed between making a noise of confirmation or disinterest. The girl didn’t bother paying much attention to the conversation, knowing that if she didn’t understand the situation she was currently in, there was slim chance she’d know what they were really talking about. Hyemi tried to lean into her seat, feeling a bit of backache come on. Her sleeping huddled against the window in the car earlier must have not made her body too happy and now she was paying for it.

As soon as Seunghyun ended the call, he looked to the display and searched for another contact. Hyemi sat, watching until her eyelids felt heavy. Despite getting so-called rest from passing out earlier, she hadn’t gotten much sleep Saturday night from worrying over what would happen Sunday. Plus waking up early to help her roommate get up since the older girl was prone to oversleeping. All that on top of the past week, well few weeks really, of finals and helping friends with finals, Hyemi was still bone tired. She was part of the minority who saw no dreams during their sleep, seeing black for a moment while resting for hours and hours.

She woke up to see the man beside her now leaned back in his seat, lights on the jet dimmed. Hyemi tried to stand needing to use the restroom but the seatbelt she forgot having on forbidding her. The girl let out an unintentional grunt a bit too loud, causing the man to open his eyes. She quickly sat and undid the clasp, now able to get up. The man drew back his extended legs to let her through and walking down the aisle made her notice the bag still on her back. Hyemi still felt so out of it as she nearly bumped into the wall dividing the cabin from the bathrooms.

The girl made it inside, the upscale scenery of the rest of the jet not fitting with how basic the bathroom was. Her hair didn't seem too wild but the color in face was gone. Hyemi began to come back from sleep as she thought of a game plan. While sitting on the cold toilet, the girl relished in finally being alone. Proper thoughts of logic came to mind as she tried piecing together the situation.

Apparently Seunghyun’s brother messed up and caused this situation. He’s never lied to her before, often even divulging into personal topics that she could tell were sensitive. Despite only knowing each other for a few months, their communication being primarily through written text caused them to talk about quite a lot. Therefore they learned way too much about each other. The one topic he always evaded was work, which she didn’t care too much about until now. She had assumed it was because it consisted of boring meetings and paperwork. But now knowing her beloved friend was involved with people who liked to pull fake crimes, Hyemi began to let herself feel suspicious of him. What were his true intentions? What was his real job?

The girl looked over at the new unused roll and pulled off some. After finishing her business, she lingered in front of the mirror. Pulled off her bag, putting the toilet seat down and sitting the backpack on top and opened the cinch. Grabbing her phone she saw several texts from her friends, people who knew her, and even her mother. After seeing the words ‘are you okay’ ‘what happened’ and many variations of basically the same thing over and over, the girl noticed the time.

It was mid-day Monday. The time of the flight added to the difference between America and South Korea would mean she’d lose an entire day. The girl felt a new headache come on as she tried to think of what to do. She did have until next Monday for school break. Then the brief words of the newscaster from the radio earlier in the day mixed with Seunghyun saying she was dead came and she broke into a cold sweat.

Checking for any news of her school, she found too many articles claiming her and the other two unscatched people she sat in a car with some time ago as murder victims. Hyemi recognized the name used to identify the main perpetrator. Seunghyun’s brother. The girl let herself slump down to the floor, pulling her legs criss-crossed as she thought of what this could mean. She could go back to her seat and ask the man directly. With knowing he hadn’t been upfront about business affairs and that his brother was the one who committed the action, she doubted he would tell her much.

Hyemi locked her phone, sitting it beside her as she dug through the rest of her bag, assessing what she had with her for this unplanned trip. No clothes, no toiletries, just a blank notebook and a thin three prong binder with some work she had planned to take to the library to do after meeting in the games room. She had a couple pens and pencils and a granola bar. Woop-dee-doo.

It was too annoying, all of this was too annoying. The girl didn’t have a good course of action, so she decided to go with her gut. Packing up all her things, she left the bathroom and went back to her seat, walking in front of Seunghyun. She noticed the neck pillow he snuggled into while controlling the mini screen before him with a remote in hand.

The girl looked to the window, raising the hard plastic cover as sunlight poured onto her. She turned in her seat to face her neighbor, even pulling up her right leg into her seat to aid in doing so. The man craned his head around to meet her eyes. She cleared as the words formed of what to say.

“What did-what really happened. Why am I not dead?” she asked, already having an inkling of an idea. Hyemi had heard of several conspiracy theories and suspected that maybe they weren’t just theories. Seunghyun took off his neck pillow, looki