“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go, let’s go!” Myungsoo urged everyone on. They ended up calling the three officers there as backup, and the two detectives went ahead to move the bookshelf that was blocking the door. It moved easily, and the lack of dust surrounding the area was proof that the bookshelf was moved quite often. Myungsoo and Hana took out their guns and flashlights, leading the way down to the basement with quiet footsteps in case there was someone that they didn’t want to run into. Hana felt her heart beating hard against her chest, and her palms were getting sweaty. This was it. That had to be the place where Baekhyun was keeping the girls. 

As they made their way down farther, quiet voices reached their ears. They slowed their footsteps and signalled to one another that Myungsoo would head down first. Hana watched as he kept his back against the wall, and then quickly turned to face the room, his gun pointing up. Hearing the sudden female screams and sobs in reaction to the gun, Hana ran down to follow Myungsoo and saw a group of girls shivering together (that she quickly counted to be four), all wearing black t-shirts with gray shorts. There was a jug of water on the ground along with a few empty plates that Hana guessed once held food. There was a small T.V. on as well. The ceiling had light bulbs dangling, and there was one small window that was open, but blocked off with metal bars. Lining the left side of the basement were big cages with beds in them. There was a small room towards the side that was open. Upon a closer look, it was a bathroom. 

Hana walked to the girls, putting away her gun. “It’s okay,” she soothed, her hands up in the air in a placating motion, “I’m a detective. We’re here to help you.” Then she turned to the uniforms, stelling l them to call the ambulance and to tell the chief  that they found the girls. Myungsoo added that Jessica and Jongin should be told as well. The cops moved around the room to make sure there were no immediate wounds that they had to tend to, and that’s when Hana realized that there were four girls in sight and none of them were Subin.

“Myungsoo, I don’t see Subin,” she said quietly to her partner, trying to hold the tremor back from her voice. She couldn't let the fear take over now, not when there were young girls terrified out of their minds in front of her. Subin was okay.

She had to be okay.

Myungsoo squeezed her hand once in a soothing motion before speaking, “Look inside the...cages. God, this bastard was so heartless. This is going to be so traumatizing for them.”

Hana nodded, and walked over to the cages. The first few were empty, but the beds were messy so the girls had been sleeping on proper mattresses, at the very least. As she walked towards the other side, her heartbeat became more irregular as she noticed that each of the seven beds looked lived in, looked messy, but there were on four girls with Myungsoo.

As she walked further, Hana smelled it before she saw it. Her nose crinkled at the strange mixture of flower fragrance and something incredibly unpleasant. 

She'd been near enough corpses to figure out what she was smelling, and she swallowed back a lump in .

As she got closer to the seventh bed, she noticed a lump under the bedsheets. Hana knew not to get her hopes up, however. The smell was indication enough. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she forced them down.

She gathered courage to walk over to the bed and pull the sheets off. Her eyes widened at the sight, and Hana had to put a hand on the wall to support herself. 

It was her worst nightmare coming true. She failed. She was too late.

Baekhyun won this part of the game.

Subin was dead. 

Subin was lying on the bed with her hands limply lying on the sides of her cold, pale body. Her eyes were closed, and even though it had been four years, Subin looked almost the same. Over the years, however, she had become much skinnier, much paler. The girl’s neck was bent at a strange angle at one point. Looking at Subin’s lifeless body, Hana lost all strength within herself, and she collapsed, sobbing. Her face was buried in her hands, and her shoulders were shaking. Hana let herself grieve loudly, not caring that the other girls and cops would hear her. 

It didn’t make sense. Why would Baekhyun keep her alive for four years just to kill her? Her body wasn’t anywhere near decayed enough to be dead for four years, but it had definitely been over a day.

If only Hana was a few days earlier, Subin would’ve been alive. 

Myungsoo walked over to her with tears in his own eyes and wrapped his jacket around her shoulders. He sat down on the ground with her, and the two grieved until the ambulance had taken the girls away, and the other detectives joined them along with the chief.  The uniforms and investigative team left them alone for the most part. 

By the time they joined the two parters, Hana’s sobs had quieted down. She felt Yixing wrap an arm around her head and gently pushed her head down onto his shoulder. Hana looked up to see the chief also in tears. She shook everyone off and stood up to stumble into the arms of the chief.

“I’m sorry,” she cried. “I’m so sorry.” The chief simply rubbed her back and stood quietly with tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Subin wouldn’t want you to do this to yourself. It’s better that she’s not here anymore at this point. I’d rather she not suffer in a world like this,” Chief Park choked out. “Get back to the precinct, Hana. You have a job to do. We didn’t manage to save Subin, but we can definitely avenge her.” He let her go, and she nodded, wiping away her tears. She would've figured that she had cried herself out, but there were still tears building in her eyes. Despite that, Hana swallowed her grief, her pain, and instead let herself become distracted by the determination to take Baekhyun down.

He was right. She needed to be strong. If Yixing and Chief Park believed in her, she could believe in herself. 

~~~

“I’ve never seen Hana look so pained, yet determined,” Hana heard Jongin sadly comment as he watched her pace in the interrogation room from the observation room. They didn’t realize the mic from the observation room was on. Hana tried not to scoff at them, instead pretending to be ignorant to keep listening in. 

“None of us have been in this position before. We finally found the girls, but we couldn’t save a friend,” Jessica replied. Pain was evident in her voice as well. They all had been grieving earlier, but this was no longer a time to grieve. It was time to get the answers they deserved from the past four years. Hana would get Baekhyun to talk no matter what.

“She’s a pro. She won’t let that get in the way,” she heard Myungsoo’s voice. 

“She’s so stubborn too. How she managed to stay away from me for so long is a mystery, to be honest.” Hana almost laughed at Yixing’s cockiness, but she knew that he was being so arrogant on purpose to make every