Naeun holds Hyewon's hand tightly as they make their way to the police station. Her phone harshly buzzes once in her pocket, followed by two more.

"When will you finally tell whoever keeps texting you to be quiet?" Hyewon complains. "I might go crazy if I hear that sound again.." Naeun chuckles at the young girl before deciding to turn off her phone.

She didn't need to check to know it was either Hayoung or Namjoo texting, neither of whom she'd spoken to since the incident at the Winter Festival two days before. She wasn't upset with either of them, infact she felt the very opposite, but the thought of facing them made her stomach turn. As a result, she resorted to a familiar course of action and chose to simply avoid the pair until she had no longer had a choice.

Naeun squeezes Hyewon's hand as she opens the door to the police station, a weight settling on her as she follows Hyewon inside.

She knew the time to question Hyewon was long overdue, but that didn't mean she was happy it was finally being done. She didn't know what to expect from police questioning and didn't want Hyewon to suddenly be forced to face the harsh truth: their parents were considered missing persons and Hyewon was the last person to see them. Her younger sister was still a child and Naeun believed she should be able to live in whatever childish fantasy she'd created, even if it most likely wasn't remotely true.

She did her best to delay the inevitable, even having Hyewon re-explain the events of the night her parents disappeared over and over so Naeun could recite it back to the police in her place but, no matter how often she repeated it, Naeun's re-telling of the story fell on deaf ears, with the police claiming it was a non-credible statement since Naeun wasn't a first-hand witness. The pressure soon began to mount as the police hit dead end after dead end, so Naeun was forced to agree to allow for Hyewon to be questioned. As she said yes to the officers, she'd felt a feeling of failure settle in her stomach, and it felt even heavier now.

She failed to protect Hyewon and it pained her. 

The secretary, who Naeun came to k