At 10am sharp the next morning, Mr Kim had Winter’s discharge papers ready and was driving her to Fantagio in no time at all. The entire trip there was relatively silent, as Mr Kim had not any music, and so Winter had begun dazing at the passing scenery. When Mr Kim announced that they have arrived, Winter stared at her watch disbelievingly. It read 10:05am. It had taken them only 5 minutes to reach the company? Winter felt like her had only just touched the leather seats when she was being helped out of the car by Mr Kim.

“You sure do things fast,” Winter mumbled to herself as they made their way to the familiar glass building.

The elevators opened on the 12th level, giving way to a wide, spacious office floor that was vastly different from the 14th level that Winter visited before. They made their way to the left where a crowd of approximately 8 people had gathered around a wooden door, engaging in hushed whispers. They all looked around 18, some of them Winter recognised to be part of the Background Dancers team. Others, she guessed, looked visually attractive enough and must be Trainees.

Mr Kim advanced upon them with a grim look on his face. “Is there something you should be looking at?” he said with a look that could cut metal. “Don’t all of you have somewhere to be?”

The throng of teenagers dwindled at his presence and scattered away within seconds. Mr Kim pushed the door open for Winter and motioned for her to head inside. The Negotiation Room was the exact replica of the board rooms commonly seen in television dramas, with a long, wooden table occupying most of the space, and numerous office chairs spaced out evenly along the length of the table. At the further end of the table sat one person: Shin Ah.

Winter’s muscles went stiff by its own accord. She gripped her fingers into fists, willing herself to breathe, relax, and stay calm. With a lot of effort, she took the seat opposite Shin Ah while Mr Kim sat at the short edge of the table, facing them.

“Thank you for being on time, Shin Ah. I would like to start the investigation as soon as possible, and I’m glad you’re being cooperative,” Mr Kim said, placing a single phone out on the table. There was another thin stack of papers that Mr Kim was holding earlier, but he put it aside for now. “We’re here to investigate the crime that happened three days ago, in the basement of this building. Miss Winter here was purposefully led by someone to go to the basement. While she was there, the person locked her in an unused room and did not return for more than eight hours, thereby causing Winter to suffer from hypothermia and possible trauma. Let me ask you this straight, are you the one that perpetrated the injury on the victim?”

Mr Kim was staring at Shin Ah with a cutting gaze, but Shin Ah had her nose high, her arms folded, and refused to look at them. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said in an uninterested tone.

Mr Kim nodded his head thrice, as if he had expected this response from her. “Well, if you choose to act ignorant, I’m afraid I will have to do this the hard way. We have evidence—quite a few in fact—that make you a very likely suspect of this case. Shall we go through them one by one?

“This is the application document that you filled in when you came for the Fantagio auditions.” He placed a single piece of document on the table, “And this is the scrap of paper that was found on the floor of the practice room on the night of the accident. It seems to me that both the handwriting on this document and this paper come from the same person.”

Shin Ah remained still, her eyes cast firmly downwards. None of them said a word, but a stream of urgent whispers started filtering into the room. Indeed, when Winter looked towards the door, the throng of intrigued onlookers had gathered outside the Negotiation Room again. She could see them squeezing to peak into the room through a small glass pane fixed into the door. Mr Kim and Shin Ah, however, completely ignored their presence.