Silence haunts the interrogation room, the place where Seulgi and Chaeyoung are seated. Seulgi places a soda can on the table with a small pack of pretzels she got from the vending machine for Chaeyoung. While taking a sip from her soda, Chaeyoung also opens the bag of pretzels.

“I did not murder Sana, I swear” Chaeyoung murmurs. Seulgi presents her the files that show Chaeyoung’s DNA was found on Sana’s body. “Then explain to me why your DNA was found on the victim’s body” Chaeyoung looks at the results, shocked and confused. “Honestly, I cannot answer that for you”

Seulgi crosses her arms. “Did you talk to Sana that night?” Chaeyoung thinks about answering that question. She cannot reveal that she wanted to sell drugs to Sana, but if someone else might have witnessed them together she might get in trouble for lying. “Me and Sana just had a small conversation at the party. Hold up, how did you even get my DNA?”

“Sana was last seen on the patio. The forensics found a cigarette on the ground. I assume that was yours?” Seulgi takes a sip from her coffee. Chaeyoung feels stupid. Dahyun always says she needs to stop smoking and look where it got her now.

Seulgi interrupts Chaeyoung’s thoughts. “So, are you going to tell me what happened or not?” Chaeyoung remains silent. Seulgi is waiting for an answer but after a while she gives up. Seulgi takes a deep breath. “Fine, you want to do it like this? I have got all the time. I am ready to stay here all night for this”

Seungwan enters the room. “Son Chaeyoung, you are free to leave” Seulgi gets up from her chair “What!?”

Chaeyoung gets up as fast as she can and walks towards the hallway, where she gets greeted by Tzuyu. When you compare the two you can see a massive difference. Chaeyoung is wearing a baggy white sweatshirt with ripped jeans, whereas Tzuyu is wearing an expensive long black jacket with her outfit just showing off that she is rich.

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung walk towards Tzuyu’s car, the door being held open by her personal driver. The two of them leave a dumbfounded Seulgi and Seungwan behind, unable to believe that Chaeyoung could be released just like that.

“Seungwan, what the hell just happened?” Seulgi looks at Seungwan. “Mr. Chou, that is what happened. He made one phone call to help his daughter. He just splashed $175,000 and poof, problem solved” Seulgi starts biting her nails, a bad habit she has. “You are right Seungwan. Keep an eye on that Tzuyu girl”

It is the day of Sana’s funeral. The morning has been pretty gloomy, but everyone is trying to stay positive. The group, including Nayeon, Momo, Jeongyeon, Jihyo and Mina, decide to go to the funeral together. Momo feels a bit weird going to the funeral but decides to support Nayeon. Nayeon justifies it by saying she can easily join since Momo and Sana are both Japanese.

The car ride to the funeral is fun, strangely enough. Mina put her music on and they all start singing along. Whenever Jihyo starts belting the lyrics, the whole group cheers her on with Jihyo smiling throughout. Things changes once they reach the venue and remember where they were actually headed to.

The group enter the venue and gasp at how beautiful the venue is decorated. Everything is covered with flowers and they all agree on one thing: Sana would have loved this. Everyone besides Mina look for a seat. Mina asks for them to leave a seat for her next to them, since she needs to say hi to her parents first.

Mina and Sana’s parents are very close. It is actually the main reason they started becoming friends. Everyone in the Japanese community know eachother, so it was bound to happen. Eventhough Sana and her were not that close anymore, she never regrets befriending Sana. That is why she agreed with Sana’s parents to say a few words in front of everybody today.

Mina heads towards her parents, who are talking to two other couples, one of them being Sana’s parents. She recognizes the other couple, remembering that she used to see them at Sana’s house at times. Mina also remembers that the other couple had a daughter that is around the same age as her, but vaguely remembers the girl. Mina pays her respect to Sana’s parents and has a small talk with everyone. She leaves to sit with her friends.

The service starts and Nayeon can feel her getting emotional. Most of the funerals she has attended in her life have been for people that were relatively old. She has never been to a funeral that felt like this. Funerals for the elderly are quite uplifting, celebrating the life experience they had instead of mourning a life that is lost too soon. This funeral certainly has a unique atmosphere.

The room is filled with family, relatives and the small group of people Sana once referred to as her ‘friends’. All her sorority sisters are present, some being more affected than others. A few students from college that Sana worked with are also present. Nayeon scans the room and sees a few people she recognizes from high school.

The majority of the crowd only knew Sana for her outgoing personality and how she acted at parties. Some knew her as the student that acted dumb but was actually smart, some, meaning her study group. Very few of the people present has any idea how Sana really was, how she was when she was most vulnerable and herself. The crowd was basically mourning the loss of the person they interpreted her to be. She could be the ‘perfect daughter’ in your eyes, but she could also be ‘the party animal’. To Nayeon she was just her Sana. The Sana only Nayeon and Mina knew.

Nayeon looks at the crowd, hunches over in grief while some random preacher no one knows mutters some words he most likely remembered on short notice.

Mr. and Mrs. Minatozaki look absolutely devastated. Nayeon looks over to see how Jeongyeon is doing but then spots Tzuyu sitting next to Chaeyoung and Dahyun. Chaeyoung really has balls to sit there after being released recently. But something is off about Tzuyu. She has a steely and unfeeling look on her face. Ofcourse everyone has their own way of grieving. Nayeon just brushes it off and lets Tzuyu be; this is not the time to overanalyze things.

Everyone listens to Sana’s father as he steps up and speaks about his daughter and the wonderful memories they cherish as a family. He reads off the pre-written speech with a formal and practiced composure, but everyone can hear his voice break whenever he refers to Sana in the past tense.

It is Mina’s turn now to say a few words. She gets up and receives support from her friends as she passes them to walk up there.

Nayeon made it through Sana’s father’s speech, but Mina’s eulogy makes her burst into tears. It is the words that are doing it for her, the beautiful sentences that Mina words out about their times with Sana. Mina has not written anything down and is speaking from her heart. What makes Nayeon cry is that Mina barely gets her words out through choking sobs. She repeats almost every sentence, reminding everyone that Sana is gone, which definitely makes it more painful.

The group of girls go to the casket to view the body. At first Nayeon was a bit hesitant to do so. She is not sure if she could handle seeing Sana deceased. She would rather picture the look she has in mind, the look she remembers from the last conversation they had in the kitchen. They shake the hands of the family and bow to pay their respects. The open casket comes closer to them as they walk towards it.

And there she is, laying peacefully with her eyes closed. There is a cloth around her head to cover up the headwound that was created because of the hit. Her hair is down and is placed over the cloth to make her look a bit more presentable. Sana’s face is pale but is made look warmer with the make-up that is applied on her body. All agree that it is creepy to look at her dead body, but it feels good to get some ‘closure’.

The crowd is outside as they watch the casket get lowered. Sana’s mother attempts to grab one of the handholds, trying to stop them from burying her murdered daughter. She screams in anguish. ‘NO! No! Please! That is my baby right there!’

 It is truly devastating to witness.

It is the first time Nayeon has seen someone be in so much pain. She did not know a lot about Sana and her parents’ bond beyond what she witnessed whenever she came over to their house, but clearly it is stronger than she had in mind.

It is time for everyone to go home. The entire crowd makes their leave and walk towards the parking lot to go to their cars. Nayeon and Momo walk towards the car but lose the others in the meantime since the crowd got too busy. Nayeon looks into the crowd to see if she can spot the other girls, but spots Chaeyoung instead. She is walking with Tzuyu and Dahyun and shoots Nayeon an expressionless look. Nayeon is not sure how to take it but tries to ignore it and continue her search for the other girls. When she spots Jihyo, Nayeon calls out her name and waves, making Jihyo notice them and tugging along Jeongyeon and Mina to walk towards Nayeon’s car.

It has become a regular routine, the group hanging out at Nayeon and Jeongyeon’s dorm. “Next time we can hang out at my apartment, a change is always nice” Mina offers. Jihyo and Jeongyeon decide to cook dinner. The two recently talked and patched things up.

The vibe in the room is good. There is no tension between the group and getting closure today at the funeral is exactly what all of them needed. Jeongyeon and Jihyo head to the kitchen, being all flirty with eachother.

Nayeon is scrolling through her phone. Meanwhile, Mina looks at Momo and sees her for the first time with her glasses on. Mina smiles awkwardly at Momo. “You sure look different with your glasses on. I would not expect you to be such a dancing machine if I saw you wearing those glasses that night” “Oh, so if I wear glasses it means it will affect my dancing abilities? Wearing glasses equals lack of dancing skills?” Momo tilts her head at Mina, whose cheeks are turning bright red. “No, no! That is not what I mean… ehm… I just-” Momo grins. “I am just messing with you” Mina is embarrassed but brushes it off by laughing foolishly at Momo.

“Dinner is almost ready guys! Can you set the table?” Jihyo’s yell is sounding from the kitchen. “Okay!” Nayeon gets up and the others follow her, helping to set the table. Nayeon puts the placemats on the table, Momo puts the plates on them and Mina places the cutlery and glasses. Jihyo arrives with one pan and Jeongyeon brings the other. The girls sit down and start having their dinner.

“Today was really beautiful, especially the words you said Mina” Jihyo smiles at Mina and holds her hand. “Thank you, I was not sure if I wanted to do it since things got a bit messy before… you know… but I am still glad that I accepted her parent’s offer” Mina chokes up a little, but now gets comforted by Momo’s hand. Nayeon and Jeongyeon both see Momo’s action and look at eachother, giggling.

Jeongyeon speaks up. “You know what? I am just going to say it. Chou Tzuyu scares the hell out of me. I saw her today at the funeral and I just got chills. I do not even know why she was there but boy, she is intimidating” Nayeon raises her voice. “I thought I was the only one! She intimidates me so much and we have never even interacted”

Mina is enjoying the food and shows her gratitude towards Jihyo for making the wonderful dish. She adds her opinion about Tzuyu. “Yeah, Tzuyu is kind of shady from what I have heard. Her dad is so powerful that she can do basically anything she wants” Momo mouths a ‘damn’ but Mina remembers something. “Wait! I heard that one time Sana was being stalked by some guy and Tzuyu got to know this through Sana’s sorority group. It was said that Tzuyu was bored and decided to help Sana. She made some phone calls and next day the guy ended up in the hospital with several injuries. Guess who was behind that” Jeongyeon gasps. “No way! See! This is why she is scary as hell. I hope I never get in trouble with her”

They finish their dinner and clean up after the mess they made. Jeongyeon takes Jihyo to her room to have some time for themselves, while Momo and Mina are curled up on the couch watching a movie together. Nayeon goes to her room to finish her list and adds one more person to the list. Tzuyu. Truth is, Nayeon feels lost. She does not know how to continue this but will most certainly not give up.

Mina looks at Momo who is enjoying the scary movie she put on. Mina did this on purpose, so she could cuddle up against Momo during the scary parts. Right when she is staring at Momo’s face, some creeping sounding music is playing. Mina crawls more into Momo’s arms, almost suffocating herself but it is so worth it. Momo knows exactly what she is doing. She looks at Mina, her face stuffed in her arms, and smiles.

“You are so cute when you are scared” Momo whispers in Mina’s ear.

“That is where you are wrong. I am always cute” Mina says confidently.

They both laugh while Momo pulls Mina closer to her.