Seungri remembered the mall. He remembered bugging his mom to let him drive for a while. He remembered a red light turning green. He remembered his mom laughing.

And he remembered his world crashing down around him, but he did not remember crashing the car he had been driving.

It was Jae Sang who asked the questions, while Chief Police Jin stood silently behind him – with the air of a man who would not let this drop until he absolutely had to. Seungri’s mom had been a friend to both him and his late wife.

Jae Sang looked as though he wanted to be there about as much as SeungHyun wanted him to be. But Hyunsuk insisted and Seungri acquiesced, so all Jae Sang could do was ask the questions with as much tact and sympathy as he could muster.

"Seungri, do you remember the other car?" The young cop asked – never insisting on answers; never even raising his voice.

In spite of himself, SeungHyun leant forwards in interest. This was the first he had heard about the details of the accident.

Seungri frowned, but was already shaking his head. There had been another car – but the only reason he was so certain of that was because Jae Sang had told him. He remembered his mother laughing, then a loud noise and then waking up in the back of an ambulance.

"Yang Seungri, you are aiming to become a Private Investigator." Hyunsuk said, in clipped tones. "I have trained you in observation; in memory retention and recollection."

"Dad!" SeungHyun felt that he had to speak up. Their father was being totally irrational and it wasn't fair how much pressure he was putting on his son. He also hadn't missed the way that his dad insisted on using Seungri’s full name every time he addressed him – and how Seungri flinched slightly each time he did. This was going beyond trying to maintain some distance; it was bordering on cruel.

"Tell me what your brother was wearing when he left the house this morning." Though Hyunsuk’s eyes never left the miserable form of the younger boy, the words were clearly aimed at SeungHyun.

"I won't answer that!" SeungHyun shot back, outraged at the seeming callousness of his dad.

"No, you won't." Now Hyunsuk turned to stare levelly at SeungHyun. "But you could. And so could your brother. I taught you both well." He looked back towards Seungri. "Try to concentrate. Can you at least explain why your mother wasn't wearing her seatbelt?"

Seungri in a ragged breath as he put two and two together – and reluctantly reached the answer of four.

That was why his mother had died and he had escaped with the inconvenience of a minor concussion.

A memory slammed into him:

"Alright, you can drive to the shelter." There was laughter in his mom's voice and Seungri realised that he had been bugging her somewhat insufferably.

He helped her load the groceries into the car and then practically ran to the driver's side door – as though afraid she might change her mind.

"I need to phone your father, anyway."

Their plans had changed and, under new ground rules, any such change had to be notified. It negated any worry and accelerated help, should it be needed.

The change was a minor one: a brief stop at the homeless shelter to drop off requested raffle prizes bought on a whim at the mall. It had seemed so innocent and yet had proved so deadly.

She was still chuckling at her son's enthusiasm as they pulled out of the lot. She took her cellphone from her purse and was just about to press speed-dial 1, when it had suddenly burst into life.

Startled, the phone flew from her hands and down into the foot well. Seungri glanced sidelong at her, amusedly. Yes, they were all jittery since the threat of Arashi had arisen, but his mom's reaction had been somewhat extreme.

He heard a click, was aware of his mom stooping forwards to retrieve her phone…

"She dropped her phone," Seungri whispered, into the silence that had descended. "She needed to call you cos we were dropping by the shelter…"

"Do you remember anything else?" Jae Sang asked, still with infinite gentleness.

"I…"

It was kind of a game that he played, on the few occasions he was allowed to drive. If he saw a red light ahead of him, he would try and time his deceleration so that he would not come to a complete stop before the light changed.

He was actually getting pretty good at it.

 The junction was clear; there was no waiting traffic and nothing behind him to cause a potential hazard. He eased off the gas with a good distance still to go – excitedly wondering if he could time it just right so that he wouldn't even have to touch the brake pedal at all.

But then the light changed while he was still a good twenty yards distant and brought a disappointingly premature end to his game.

Sighing to himself, he put steady pressure back on the gas.

"The light was green!"

It wasn't until he saw his dad, his brother and Jae Sang all looking at him strangely, that he realised just how loudly he'd shouted those words. It was as though a part of him was desperate to prove he was blameless.

"Of course the light was green." Hyunsuk was sounding increasingly annoyed. "Can you tell us anything relevant? Did you see anybody acting suspiciously? Did you ever feel that you were being followed? Anything?"

"Dad…" SeungHyun tried to intervene, as the investigator's tone turned almost inquisitorial. Then help came from elsewhere in the room.

"Take it easy, Hyunsuk." Police Chief Jin spoke up for the first time. "He's not a suspect – he's your son!"

"My wife is dead, if you'd forgotten!" Hyunsuk’s harsh words proved that he was lashing out at everybody and not just Seungri.

It somehow calmed SeungHyun’s racing heart.

And he had just lashed out at the one man who wasn't going to take his nonsense.

"I'd not forgotten, old friend." Police Chief Jin took a step forwards. "But I think you might have forgotten a thing or two." Hyunsuk looked as though he was about to protest, but the Chief didn't let him: "My Officer is taking a statement from a material witness. You were allowed in here merely as a courtesy."

"A courtesy?" Hyunsuk roared – and both his sons shrank away from his fury. "That man killed my wife!"

"What man?" Police Chief retorted, with equal passion. He was shamelessly goading Hyunsuk –directing the blame away from Seungri and back where it belonged.

"Arashi!" The accusation could not have been stopped had his life depended on it. "Arashi did this." He looked at Seungri, but the look was supplicating rather than angry. "He just needs to remember it."

"You can't force a memory that might not be there." Police Chief Jin said, aiming his own look towards Seungri – though his held only sympathy – and then returned his full attention to Hyunsuk. "Let's finish this outside. Jae Sang can finish taking Seungri’s statement."

"But if he remembers something…" Hyunsuk’s reluctance was obvious.

"You'll be the first to know."

"I'll stay, dad." Inwardly, SeungHyun was seething, but he never let it be apparent in his voice. Seungri was already looking pale and incredibly strained. And it still wasn't over.

He focused his entire attention on his brother, even as he was aware of his dad and Police Chief Jin leaving the room. Once they'd gone, the tension decreased palpably – and even Jae Sang heaved a small sigh of relief.

"Okay, Seungri." The cop smiled – and it felt a bit less forced now that his boss was no longer breathing down his neck. "Is there anything else you can tell me?"

Seungri was actually feeling more than a little nauseous. He knew that, in part, it might be attributed to his head injury. He also knew that it was more likely down to the attitude his father had exhibited towards him.

It had felt outright hostile – and Seungri couldn't help but react to it. Now that the unspoken censure had been removed, he was able to relax marginally back onto the bed.

"I don't remember anything," he said softly; no longer terrified of what consequences he might face for that admission. Jae Sang was never going to judge him – and he never even gave pause to think that SeungHyun might. He knew, without a doubt, that he would never face such judgement from his brother.

"Jae Sang?" SeungHyun could see the abject misery that radiated from his younger brother and sought some way to help take away his pain.

"I can't." The young cop instantly knew what was being asked of him – that SeungHyun was fishing for more details of the crash; but he also knew that on this occasion he couldn't help – no matter how much he liked this family. "I can't risk prejudicing his memory."

"Hyu… Hyung, it's okay." Seungri spoke up, but he sounded utterly defeated. "I… I'll try to remember…"

That was when it hit SeungHyun: looking down at his brother, so lost and fragile looking; trying to find memories that simply weren't there, just to get some approval from his own father. Seungri might have been seventeen; might have faced danger and even death in his short life; but he was still, essentially, just a kid.

SeungHyun seethed as he remembered words about observation, retention and recollection of memory that had sounded harsh even to his ears.

To Seungri, they must have sounded like censure.

"Seungri, it's okay." He attempted reassurance, but it sounded fake and hollow. How could any of this be okay?

And his cynical thoughts were only confirmed when Seungri turned his tear-bright eyes towards him. He was forced to realise that his baby brother had barely had the time to grieve for his dead mother.

"Seungri…" He tried again. Failed again.

"Hyung… What if..?" Seungri’s breath hitched and the tears finally spilled over. "What if it was my fault? What if I killed mom?"