“I hope our ghosts aren’t eating you alive.

If I’m to speak for myself, I’ll tell you that

the universe is twice as big as we think it is

and you’re the only one that made that idea

less devastating.”

— Lucas Regazzi, Small

 

Jungeun sits alone in the library, the only sound filing the air is the sound of her legs repeatedly banging against the table she’s sitting on.

She checks the clock, everyone is already thirty minutes late. Not shocking at all, honestly.

She’s waiting in a closed area. It’s a room that’s supposed to be used for studying; isolated from everyone and anything that may be roaming around the library. It honestly serves no purpose, Jungeun thinks, the place is always empty. Always. It doesn’t even have a librarian.

Only a town as small as this one could get away with something like that.

It’s not like there’s many books to guard, anyway. Their collection is very limited. Jungeun is almost certain all of the shelves are filled with the same twelve books over and over again.

That’s why she chose this place, actually. She wanted privacy.

Just as she’s about to send a couple of angry texts asking everyone where they are, Jungeun hears steps rapidly approaching the entrance. The door opens with a loud bang and a short, red haired girl enters the door, panting.

In record time, the look on her face goes from stress and guilt to relief after finding the room practically empty.

“Neat, no one’s here yet.” She says in between heavy breaths.

“ I’m here, Vivi!” Jungeun grunts out, “I’ve been here for thirty minutes!”

“Ah-” The other girl replies, but whatever excuse she was about to give is cut short as someone else enters the room in a rush.

“I’m here! I’ve arrived! I’m sorry I’m so late, I got caught up with-” The hectic girl stops rambling once she notices that there’s only two other people in the room, “Oh, I see everyone else is late as well.”

Jungeun eyes Vivi, “See,” She says, “At least Haseul pretends to care about being late.”

Vivi shrugs and carelessly takes a seat across Jungeun.

Haseul senses the hostility and quickly interrupts, “Anyway, where’s the rest? Are you finally gonna tell us what you asked us to meet here for?”

Haseul’s intonation in the word ‘ here’ makes Jungeun know that she isn’t a big fan of spending her summer break in some dusty old library. Jungeun can’t blame her, this place gives her the creeps too, but for some reason it had sounded like a good idea. Libraries are appropriate for research, right?

Jungeun clears before speaking, “This is everybody. No one else is coming.”

The other two girls shoot her a questioning look, they were expecting at least five more people here.

“Everyone cancelled on me last minute.” Jungeun explains quietly, almost sounding ashamed.  

“I envy them,” Vivi snorts, “I was tempted to do the same thing but, since I’m a good friend or whatever…”

Jungeun smiles at that. It doesn’t last long, though, cause soon enough Vivi is speaking again, “But if you don’t hurry up and explain me what I’m doing here my good friend status will be over as soon as it started. Now, talk.”

Haseul nods along to every word that Vivi says and looks at Jungeun expectantly.

“Well,” Jungeun starts, “As you guys know I’m soon starting my second year as a journaling major!”

Vivi rolls her eyes at the obvious information, Jungeun ignores it and continues talking.

“Right, so this time I have decided to use my summer wisely and embark on a- um, how should I say it…a summer project?”

“Okay?” Says Haseul softly, “And this is related to us because…?”

Jungeun lets out an exasperated sigh, “Yes, I’m getting there!”

She takes a few seconds to gather her thoughts, “So, a few days ago I randomly came across some old article about a missing person’s case. A case that I already knew of but had completely forgotten about with the pass of time. My mind had just gone blank of any detail relating to it. So, I decided to do some digging and you guys won’t believe what I found.”

She makes a dramatic pause, which earns her a smack in the shoulder from Vivi. Still, Jungeun takes a few seconds before talking again just for the suspense of it all.

“Nothing,” She finally says, “I found absolutely nothing. The case went completely cold after a few weeks, and everyone in town seems to have forgotten that it ever happened. And like, c’mon this is a tiny town, I probably know everyone’s face by memory but yet manage to forget that a girl I grew up with has vanished in the most mysterious and weird way possible? It makes no sense.”

Her friends look pensive, Jungeun can practically hear the engines in their minds move as they try to find some recollection of what she’s referring to. They’re wearing that type of look that someone gets when going through old documents that haven’t been touched in months, probably years. Paper painted yellow with time.

Vivi makes a humming noise, “Now that you mention it, it does sound familiar. Something about her running into the forest or something like that.”

Jungeun nods excitedly, at least one person other than her remembers.

“Oh yeah,” Says Haseul, traces of uncertainty still taint her voice, “The Im kid…We used to go to school together. Yujin, was it?”

Jungeun opens to speak but is interrupted- and startled, by the sound of Haseul clapping, “Ah! Nevermind, I got it, it was Yejin!”

The smug look on Haseul’s face is vanished when Jungeun corrects her, “Im Yeojin.”

“ Ahhhh ,” Both Haseul and Vivi say as the name helps them clear out their memory.

Im Yeojin had been three and four years behind Jungeun and the two older girls respectively. Yet, the nature of their small town and therefore tiny school, had allowed them to study not more than a few corridors away for many years.

Her case had felt like a personal attack to not only the three girls, but also everyone else in the school. There’s something unsettling about the disappearance of a person that you spend so much time locked in the same building with.

Jungeun sighs, “I just can’t stop thinking about how she’s been reduced to nothing but an urban myth…The girl that got up in the middle of the night and walked into the forest only to never be seen again.”

The story still sends shivers down Jungeun’s spine. That’s a feeling you get used to when living in the middle of nowhere your whole life, though. Being creeped out becomes your natural state. Unholy is the norm. Still, Jungeun can’t help but shudder. She thinks Haseul and Vivi do it too.

“I get it,” Jungeun says, “It’s a chilling story but she still deserves some…justice, you know? It’s like the police, news outlets and everyone in town just gave up on her.”

The shift in the mood is noticeable. It feels heavy on the three girls.

“Hey,” Haseul puts a caring hand on Jungeun’s shoulder, “I know what you mean. The sudden lack of interest and answers is unsettling, but,” She turns to Vivi, “I still can’t figure out what our role here is.”

Vivi looks at Jungeun with doey eyes. As if desperately waiting for the answer of a question she never knew she had. It doesn’t come.

Jungeun breaks the eye contact, “I’m going to investigate her case, and since we all knew her, practically grew up with her, I thought this could be a good place to start the…search. Tackle the basics first.”

“You randomly inviting so many of our old classmates here suddenly makes so much sense now,” Vivi speaks, mostly to herself.

Jungeun’s face naturally scrunches at the mention of their old classmates. They had all acted so uninterested when Jungeun had texted them. Normally she would have been hurt, but she got too busy being annoyed over their elusiveness.

“Yeah. It’s just us for now, I guess,” Mutters Jungeun.

“Hey, I didn’t say I’d help you!” Says Vivi.

“But you didn’t say you wouldn’t!”

Haseul and Vivi eye each other. Everyone’s quiet for a while.

When Haseul sighs and shuts her eyes, Jungeun knows she’s won her over.

“Ugh, fine!” Vivi breaks the silence, “Let’s find the missing kid.”

*

Jungeun lets out a long breath as she steps out of the practice room. It feels like no air is enough, and she can only hope that some liquid will help her post-dance-practice-exhaustion. She drags her feet towards her academy’s convenience store and grabs the first energy drink she sees. It’s a pink one that Jungeun never knew existed. It sounds disgusting but her tired body craves the caffeine disguised as artificial sweetness.  

It’s been a day since her meeting with Haseul and Vivi. The list of things they’ve accomplished since then starts and ends with:

1. Agreeing to investigate Yeojin’s disappearance.

The task proved to be harder than anticipated, especially when accompanied by Haseul and Vivi who kept getting distracted every ten seconds. For the rest of the day Jungeun had only managed to fill them up on everything she had found so far- which wasn’t much, anyway.

Later that night she had gone to bed after seeing the sun come up.

As she stands in the middle of a poorly illuminated beverage hallway, Jungeun thinks about how not worth it depriving herself from sleep had been. All that came out of it was a dead reddit thread and a few articles that basically repeated the same three sentences in different ways, “16-year-old goes missing in the middle of the night” “She walked out of her house and into the forest -presumably- all by herself” “The police have no leads.”

God , she had thought to herself, don’t ever let my journaling be that mediocre.

She went to bed with no new findings.

And now, here she is. With a tired mind and a sore body.

Jungeun pays for her drink and notices the cashier is a new one. They always are. Has she ever seen the same employee more than once?

She shrugs the thought away and isn’t bothered with leaving the store before opening the bottle. Jungeun is too busy chugging down her drink to notice the bell in the door ring, signifying someone had walked in.

An embarrassingly loud “ Ahhh ” leaves when she’s done drinking. It only gets more embarrassing as Jungeun opens her eyes and literally chokes once she notices there was an audience.

A girl stands right in front of Jungeun, blatantly staring.

She’s all sweaty and looks just as tired as Jungeun, if not more. Clearly freshly out of a rather intense dance practice.

It’s a face that Jungeun had never seen before. New, yet familiar. It peaks Jungeun’s interests because there are never new faces around here. Everyone is always the same. No one moves into a forgotten town.

The new girl smiles shyly and walks towards the same section Jungeun had just walked out of. It’s like Jungeun’s body has a mind of its own when it starts following her.

Jungeun stands awkwardly behind the stranger. Not really waiting for anything.

When the other girl finally turns around; there is a drink in her hand and a smile in her face.

Jungeun has no idea what she’s doing, but a pull forces her to take a step closer, and speak, “You’re new here.”

The sound of her own voice feels foreign.

New girl tilts her head, “Am I?”

“I’ve never seen you before.”

“Well, neither have I. Does that make you new?”

Jungeun furrows her eyebrows in confusion, was that a yes or a no?

“I don’t think so…?” She replies, suddenly unsure of her own identity.

It makes the stranger laugh and oh wow this energy drink must be really good cause suddenly Jungeun can feel her heart rate picking up and as if liquid vitality has been shot right into her veins. A spark has set off inside of her, and everything around her just became ten shades more vibrant. Great product. She’ll make sure to remember the brand.

The stranger moves to pay and Jungeun tails after her.

“I’m Jungeun,” She says, not sure why.

The girl looks at her, so does the cashier. One feels warm, the other not so much. Jungeun doesn’t care, though. She’s used to them staring.

“Nice to meet you Jungeun,” She says, her tone is nice. “I’m Sooyoung,” She introduces herself. Her name is nice. It fits her.

As Sooyoung gets distracted with paying, Jungeun gets distracted with her phone. It vibrates multiple times. A smile escapes her lips when she reads the screen.

Heejin: jungeun, hey!!!! i just saw ur text….

Heejin: let’s meet up??

Heejin had been one of the many old classmates that had ignored Jungeun when she asked for a small and impromptu reunion. Honestly, knowing that Heejin hadn’t disregarded her intentionally made her feel better and oddly validated. She quickly replies with a time and place to meet at.

Once Jungeun looks up from the screen, Sooyoung’s gone.

It feels like a missed opportunity.

*

They sit on a table of the only coffee shop in the entire town.

Jungeun sees cars that keep coming into the parking lot, but no one ever enters the store. It’s just her, Heejin, a girl that came with Heejin and two other random people the entire time.

The other two strangers are so quiet, Jungeun forgets they’re there.

When Jungeun first got there, she had been greeted by an overly joyful Heejin, who after waving at her excitedly and offering a tight hug, proceeded to introduce the other girl standing next to her. “This is Hyunjin,” She had said, “My girlfriend.” There was pride in her words. Jungeun thought it was cute.

The three of them went all the way back to high school, though Jungeun had never been personally introduced to Hyunjin. She just knew her as a somewhat quiet girl that tried her best to not stand out. She did a good job.

Heejin, however, is the total opposite. Everyone knows her, everyone loves her. Everyone knows that you’re not supposed to find girls like her in a town like this. That’s what makes her stand out.

She’s always the president of her year, she had probably been president of Jungeun’s class once despite being two years younger.

Jungeun is able to bring up the topic about Yeojin smoothly. Both girls seem unfazed by it.

“I remember her,” Says Heejin, “We always took the same bus to school.”

Her seat still remains untaken, even after seven months of her disappearance, is what Heejin thinks, but doesn’t say.

Sometimes she thinks she sees Yeojin sitting on it from the corner of her eye. Her heart races but when she turns her head the spot is empty. She’s just seeing things, that must be it. School starts too early and her tired mind is playing tricks on her.

“We used to be close,” Speaks Hyunjin for the first time, “She was gonna try out for the school’s track team this year. I was helping her train…”

Finally, some new information.

“She was good,” Hyunjin says.

Jungeun nods along and decides to push for more  information, “Was she acting any different the days prior to her disappearance?”

Hyunjin frowns, memories of Yeojin replay like a movie in her head. There are a lot. She shakes her head, “She was the same as always.”

Jungeun squirms in her seat, “Did she ever give you any reason to think she’d want to, um, run away?”

The question is a controversial one, to say the least. Everyone in town had disregarded it, even the police, “Why would anyone wanna leave this place?” they had said, a smile hidden in their tone.

Still, Jungeun thought that it’d be worth looking at.

“Not at all. I can’t think of anything, believe me, I’ve already tried. Our families were close, you know? We grew up playing together and her home never seemed as anything that wasn’t loving. I mean, you never know what’s going on behind the closed doors but,” She shrugs, “I don’t think there was anything.”

Heejin holds Hyunjin’s hand under the table.

“That running away theory seems dumb,” Says Heejin, “No offense to you but, if I wanted to ditch town I wouldn’t run into the forest, I’d do it by going into the complete opposite direction; which would be the highway.”

Heejin does make a good case…

Their nameless town is bordered by a highway to the left, and a forest the right. Both seem endless. They probably are.

“Maybe Yeojin thought she’d be able to make it to the end of the forest?” Jungeun says hopefully, it sounds ridiculous when said out loud.  

Heejin twists her face in disagreement, but Hyunjin is the one to speak, “I doubt it. She knew the woods well enough to know that’s impossible. She was that type of kid. Plus, she knew not to wander around there during the night…”

Jungeun knows what she means. In this town, there’s two type of people. The ones that grow up with the forest as their playground, and the ones that don’t even like walking in front of it. Jungeun, needless to say, belongs to the second category. She’d rather take the long way back home than pass in front of that place all by herself. It always makes her feel too eerie for her own good. Especially during the night.

It’s kind of an unspoken rule to avoid the forest once it gets dark.  

“She must have had a really  good reason to be there,” Heejin says, “I can’t think of a single thing that would make me willingly walk in there so late at night.”

Jungeun hums, and everything goes quiet.

“Oh!” Hyunjin says after a while, suddenly remembering something.

“Yeojin used to hang out a lot with this one girl, they were like- best friends and I’m pretty sure they often ventured into the forest together.”

“Choi Yerim,” Says Heejin after Hyunjin mentions not remembering her name well, “I think they were in the same class or something.”

Jungeun can’t help but think how lucky she is to have friends as overprotective- and cowardly as Haseul and Vivi. Cause in a town like this, getting bored can be dangerous. Thank god she never thought of walking into a damn forest for fun.

“Yeah! Her,” Says Hyunjin, “Maybe she can help you some more.”

Jungeun crosses her finger. She hopes so too.

*

It's pouring rain outside…in the middle of summer. Rain is the only thing that this town’s weather knows how to do. The few days that they get away with no rainfall, the sky is still cloudy. The clouds only continue to get darker and darker each day, until the rain comes back.

Luckily enough, the storm hasn’t affected the electronics like it so often does, at least not yet. Jungeun prays that the signal stays with her for the rest of the night.

She’s on the phone with Vivi and Haseul. The other two girls are spending the night together. They’re neighbours and Vivi happens to be scared of thunders -not that she would ever admit it, though. But even with no confession, Haseul still shows up at Vivi’s doorstep whenever the rain gets a bit too heavy, and Vivi is always thankful.

They talk nonsense for over an hour until Vivi subtly brags about an amazing discovery that will most likely help Jungeun solve this case. Or at least that’s what she says.

“Oh God,” Jungeun says, not really buying into Vivi’s hype, “Do I wanna know?”

“Are you kidding me?” Replies Vivi, “Of  course you do.”

“You better write this down,” Haseul warns Jungeun.

“Okay, so,” Vivi starts, “I was asking around,  trying to find out about anything that might not be online or known already and then I thought that maybe we should look into old newspaper articles. I mean, those aren’t published on the internet cause everyone in this place is old-fashioned as , so perhaps another trip to the library might help us with that!”

That honestly sounds like a great idea, and Jungeun is about to congratulate Vivi on her thinking when she realizes the girl was just taking a breathing break and had not been done talking yet.

“But! That’s not my groundbreaking discovery. That’s boring. The important thing is what came after that. I tried searching for some scans of any local newspapers, just in case, but instead I came upon a blog from some girl. In there she has a long post all about Yeojin. It doesn’t give much new information, just tiny details, most of it is speculation, really. But that’s the interesting part. She assumes a lot of things, she states them as facts. She- uh, she says she’s a medium.”

“A medium,” Jungeun repeats, “You said a medium? I just wanna double check that that is, in fact, what you said.”

“A medium, yes.”

“I will hang up on you.”

“No! You listen to me!”

Jungeun sighs.

“Yeah, listen to Vivi!” She hears Haseul scream in the background.

“Ugh, fine. Only cause I have nothing better to do,” Jungeun gives in.

“I think you should talk to her. I’m serious. I checked out the rest of her blog and she like- specializes in creepy stuff like this,” Vivi sounds sincere, and any feeling that Jungeun had about being trolled by her two friends completely disappears.

“Okay,” Haseul interferes, “Maybe ‘specializes’ is an overstatement. But, she does seem to be really into these darkish kinda topics, plus her entries are always so good! When Vivi sent me the link I scrolled down her blog for hours .”

“Oh my God….” Jungeun says, “Fine. Send me the link.”

She hears the two girls high five on the other side of the line, and then her phone illuminates with a new message.

Vivi: http://www.choenspiracies.wordpress.com/

Vivi: http://www.choenspiracies.wordpress.com/111102/im-yeojin-case/ that’s the yeojin post!

“Did you get it?!” Vivi asks over the phone.

“Yeah, thanks,” Jungeun bookmarks the post about Yeojin to read it later and decides to look into the rest of the blog and- oh my god.

“Oh, by the way, tiny detail we forgot to mention. She actually lives in this town. Isn’t that crazy? What are the chances,” Jungeun is half-listening to Vivi as she reads through an ‘about the author’ section.

The author is Choi Yerim.

Yeah, Jungeun is definitely gonna have to speak with this girl.

*

She’s dancing again today. Jungeun wishes she could do this more often, but there’s only so many things you can do in a day. Since last night, after e-mailing that Yerim girl asking if they could meet up for an interview, Jungeun has been frantically checking her phone for a reply. Nothing yet.

Mid-morning Jungeun had decided that she needed a distraction, otherwise she would end up losing her mind. Dancing had always been therapeutic for her. Getting immersed into that routine in which mind and body act almost instinctively. Less thinking and more moving. It allows her mind to get lost in a place where her thoughts don’t wander around, and she feels in full control of at least one thing.

That’s how she ends up in the dancing studio for almost three hours. She doesn’t notice that much time passes. It honestly doesn’t feel like that much. She swears time passes differently in that place.

When she’s done her entire body is burning and her lungs feel on fire. She’s trying to catch her breath when there’s a strange tug in her chest, urging her to move. Her actions aren’t controlled this time, it’s as if she’s being dragged by an ocean. It’s a strong and invasive feeling; she doesn’t fight it. She instinctively starts walking with no destination in mind. Before she even realizes it, she’s inside the convenience store of the first floor.

She’s back to her senses now, but nothing actually makes sense. The buzzing light of the store is almost trance inducing as Jungeun stands under it, trying to process what just happened.

She had bought her own water this time to avoid having to take another trip here so she’s unsure of what to do next. It feels awkward to just leave empty handed, plus Jungeun thinks she can actually recognize the cashier for once so, whatever, she just takes the closest thing to her reach and goes to pay.

Only now, she realizes her pockets are empty. Her wallet, and everything else had been left behind in the corner of the room she was practicing on. Great .

“It’s okay,” She hears a voice behind her, “I’ll pay for her.”

Jungeun turns around to thank whatever saint has decided to pity her and comes face to face with the same girl from last time.

She feels strangely relieved.

“Hey,” Says Jungeun once the other girl is done paying, “Sooyoung, right?”

She knows the answer to that already.

Sooyoung nods and hands Jungeun her drink. Jungeun is oddly hyper-aware of their skin brushing against each other while she takes it. It’s weird.

“Thank you for that, you didn’t have to,” Says Jungeun.

Sooyoung shrugs, “I wanted to.”

Jungeun could leave now. She should, but she doesn’t want to.

Sooyoung clears and speaks again, “Hey, you look in better condition today.”

“Hm?”

Sooyoung lowers her head, “Is that rude to say?” She murmurs sheepishly, “I mean last time I saw you, you looked really tired.”

Jungeun remembers how much of a mess, both physically and mentally, she had been when they first met. She feels her cheeks slightly heat up at the thought of any other human remembering her like that.

“Ah,” She manages to say, “Yeah. I was running on like, two hours of sleep that day.”

Sooyoung frowns. “How come?” She asks sweetly.

Jungeun shudders, probably at the war flashbacks of going through life sleep deprived.

“Well,” She sighs, “I was trying to do some research, which- uh, kinda failed miserably.”

Sooyoung laughs softly, “Well that sounds lovely.”

Jungeun thinks for a moment and decides to use this opportunity to ask Sooyoung if she knows anything that might be useful. Maybe she’s heard something. She has nothing to lose and the words of one of her favorite professors saying ‘our work as inquisitors only stops when we’re sleeping!’ ring inside her head.

“Actually,” Jungeun starts, choosing her words carefully, “I’ve been trying to do some research about this somewhat recent case. A missing persons case…”

Jungeun’s observing Sooyoung closely, see if there’s any shifts in her demeanor when the topic is brought up. There’s nothing other than honest interest on her face.

She decides to continue talking, “So, yeah, the lack of information has been keeping me awake.”

Sooyoung blows air out of her cheeks, “That sounds harsh.”

“It ,” Jungeun continues eyeing her, the other girl seems unfazed by the route the conversations taking.

Jungeun takes a minute to really observe the girl.

Her features are sharp, but somehow manage to give off a soft image. Jungeun knows that this is a face she wouldn’t forget, so why does she keep trying to remember where she knows her from.

Sooyoung looks pretty under the incandescent light and no one ever looks pretty under the incandescent light.

You know, this town is safe until you stare at something for too long, many things like to hide in plain sight. Jungeun wouldn’t mind risking it if it means she gets to stare at Sooyoung’s face for more than a few seconds.

Sooyoung notices the staring, and a smirk appears in her face.

The response startles Jungeun, and she has to physically shake her head in order to regain the control of where her attention is going.

“Uh, so, the case- yeah- have you like, um,” Jungeun trips over her words, in a very ungraceful manner. She sighs.

Sooyoung tries her best to hide the laugh that’s threatening to escape . Jungeun already looks red enough and she doesn’t want to make it worse…even though she finds it kinda cute.

Jungeun quickly recovers.

“I mean, have you heard about it? It’s the Im Yeojin case.”

Sooyoung thinks the name sounds familiar, but nothing really stands out about it in her mind. She doesn’t really pay attention to that type of stuff, and as far as Sooyoung’s concerned the last crime in town happened before she was even born.

She shakes her head, “First time hearing about it, sorry.”

Jungeun can’t help the disappointment in her face, “It was worth the shot, I guess.”

“Hm,” Says Sooyoung, “But maybe if you need help in any other way…?”

Jungeun frowns, not being able to catch on what the other girl could mean by that.

“Huh?”

“Maybe I can be your assistant or something, you know, just if you want” Sooyoung wiggles her eyebrows as she speaks.

“ Oh ,” Jungeun says, “Well, I was planning on going to the library later this week. Some company would be nice.”

Sure….Sooyoung will take that.

They take each other’s numbers and shortly after say goodbye. Sooyoung walks out of the store with a smile on her face. Feeling accomplished.

Jungeun thinks the exchange had been a bit weird, but what isn’t on this town. She doesn’t question it.

*

This isn’t what Jungeun had imagined when she pictured a psychic girl with a creepy blog that likes hanging out in the woods.

She’s currently sitting in front of a cute girl with twinkling eyes that will literally not stop smiling and looks too nice for her own good. It would honestly be a bit creepy if it wasn’t for how genuine it felt.

Choi Yerim had replied to Jungeun a couple of days after. The girl sounded more than willing to help and had not been shy to share the address of her home with Jungeun.

They are now sitting in a poorly lit living room. Most of the light enters through a huge glass door that leads to the back porch of the house. It has the forest as it’s view. Of course it does.

A tiny dog sits in the deck of the house, facing the inside. It stares at Jungeun and hasn’t stopped barking since she arrived. It never shuts up. Eventually Jungeun gets used to it, and it becomes background noise.

“So,” Yerim says, “I understand that you’re here to talk about Yeojin, yeah?”

An emotion that Jungeun can’t decipher flashes in the girl’s eyes.

“Yes,” Jungeun replies, “I just wanted to ask you some things, if you’re okay with it.”

“Sure am,” Yerim replies.

They go over the basics. Things Jungeun already has memorized. Yerim tells her about her relationship with Yeojin. About how they were the type of best of friends that went everywhere together. The woods being their favorite spot to visit.

“Why there?” Asks Jungeun.

Yerim hums, “We both grew up playing there a lot. We knew that place better than any other place in town. We felt safe there.”

Jungeun’s eyes widen. Safe is the last word she’d use to describe that place.

“You always went together, right?”

“Yeah. Always.”

“So, did she go with you the night she disappeared?”

“No,” Yerim doesn’t meet Jungeun’s eyes when talking, “I wish it had been like that but…no.”

“Did you get any text or something asking you to meet there?”

Yerim just shakes her head. She looks upset, and understandably so. This is her missing best friend they’re talking about.

“You have any idea of why she would wanna be there so late, alone at night? Was she meeting anyone?”

“Listen, if I knew this stuff, I would have told the police or something!” Yerim snaps finally, or rather tries to. Her voice still sounds soft and polite, “Why wouldn’t I have told anyone already?”

Jungeun shrugs calmly, “You tell me.”

Yerim just looks at her in a questioning manner and sighs before talking, “She went there by herself….She hasn’t been harmed and she won’t be. That was never the intention behind this.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? How do you know that?” Jungeun tries to control her voice, but it becomes clear she’s apprehensive about what the younger girl just said.

Yerim looks uneasy at her own words too. She said too much, “I just do.”

There’s sadness in her eyes as she continues to avoid Jungeun’s stare.

“ Oh ,” Says Jungeun remembering what Vivi and Haseul had told her about Yerim, “Right. You’re uh- You got that thing , right? A medium.”

“I like the term psychic better,” Yerim corrects her, “…But you don’t believe me, do you?”

Jungeun opens but can’t manage to come up with a response, somehow not wanting to disappoint Yerim by saying no.

“You’re awfully incredulous for someone living in a nameless town in the middle of nowhere.”

Jungeun lets out a humourless laugh, “I’ve gotten that before.”

“Hm,” Yerim says lost in thought, “Maybe that’s good on a case like this one. Maybe it’ll give you answers, yeah? I mean, so many people gave up on the case, attributing a supernatural explanation to it. Maybe you’ll be different.”

Yerim sounds almost hopeful. Jungeun shares that feeling.

“I hope so.”

“If you continue looking, you’ll find her.” Yerim says in a monotonous voice. It’s almost as if something takes over her, just like before. The words come out on their own.

Jungeun watches her as she closes her eyes, looking somewhat embarrassed.

“Um,” Jungeun breaks through the awkwardness forming around them, “Anything else you wanna tell me?”

Yerim finally meets her eyes again, “No, I don’t think so. Not for now, anyway.”

Jungeun frowns in return but is quickly shot down by the flash of a lovely smile again. She can’t help but smile in return.

“I’ll let you know if I remember anything else.” Says Yerim.

This is probably her cue to go, “Thanks. I’d really appreciate that.”

As they start walking towards the door, the sound of the dog barking steals Jungeun’s attention again. She looks at the small animal, this time it is looking towards the woods.

“Jesus,” Jungeun adds, “How can your dog be so loud while being that size.”

“Huh?” Yerim says following Jungeun’s line of sight, confusion evident in her face, “We don’t have a dog.”

Jungeun feels her heart sink. “I- Right. Never mind...”

Yerim eyes her weirdly. Knowingly.

Jungeun says her goodbyes and doesn’t think about it.

She rushes home. She ignores the shadows in her peripheral vision, ignores the sounds that come from empty streets, and doesn’t think about it.