“Park Yoon Hae, I sentence you to jail of 6 years for the murder of Kim EunMi“

The sound of a mullet hitting against the stand was heard, mutters followed. Yoon Hae’s parents cried as the results of their daughter’s life went into in their heads. The victim’s parents were somewhat satisfied but angered, hoping Yoon Hae would be sent to jail for life as punishment for their own child’s death. Kim Cho Hee, Yoon Hae’s best friend and the victim’s cousin sat in the room by herself. Cho Hee stood at the back; she was given a choice to sit next to her best friend that would be sent to jail, or her cousin that was killed.

Yoon Hae was being sent out of the courtroom to jail, making eye contact with her best friend. They were only 19 years old and yet there they were, in a courtroom. The iron bars blocked Yoon Hae from reality. From the outside world. She sat on her slightly dismantled bed and waited.

Moments later, her friend Cho Hee came by and stood opposite, on the other side of the cold iron bars that separated the two. A guard was with the friend but was sent out to discuss ‘private’ matters. Yoon Hae stood only centimetres away from the barrier and held onto the bars. Cho Hee smiled pitifully to see her trustworthy friend behind the bars.

“I’ll get you out soon. I’ll bail you out in a couple of weeks when I get the money, I promise you that,” Cho Hee had said.

Yoon Hae smiled, “Gomawo. I’ll keep the secret with what happened.”

“Promise?” Cho Hee held out her hand.

“Promise.” 

The two best friends did their ‘promise handshake’ and smiled amongst each other.

“See you next time when you’re out,” Cho Hee smiled and left.

That was the last time Yoon Hae had made any contact with her best friend. Yoon Hae waited day and night for her friend’s arrival. Days became weeks which then soon turned to months. Yoon Hae was worried that something might have gone wrong with her best friend but she dismissed it. It was then 3 years later that Yoon Hae realised that her best friend wasn’t going to come back. Her friend had broken the promise, Yoon Hae couldn’t take the way the guards treated her and how she could be so gullible to believe that Cho Hee had left her in this lively hellhole .

And for the next year, she quietly formed a plan of escape to get out of jail. After all, the jail had extremely tight security with 24/7 cameras and everything.

Every day, Yoon Hae would follow the daily routine like an obedient little puppy. One of the activities she found useful, it was like a gym with limited equipment; she trained herself and ran laps everyday so that she could go at long distances without getting too tired. She observed her surroundings even when she was having lunch at the ‘cafeteria’. She knew everything about the security, when the guard changed their shifts, where the cameras were filming and their blind spots. Every single day was the same…

Except for today…

Today was the day she would finally make an escape and find her best friend…

The true killer.