Chapter 7

Chapter 7 — (The First Clue)

Friday — 4:30 p.m.

The final bell rang.

Miho packed her bag slowly.

Usually, she would have been the first one out.

Not today.

She looked at Soo-ah's empty desk one last time before leaving.

Me-yongi waited beside her.

“Come on.”

Miho nodded.

Han-seok and Seo-jun followed them outside.

None of them said much.

The four friends walked together until they reached the corner where they usually went their separate ways.

Han-seok looked at Seo-jun.

“Come to my place.”

Seo-jun raised an eyebrow.

“Why?”

“We need to talk.”

Miho nodded.

“Me too.”

Me-yongi looked at them.

“Then let's all go.”

5:10 p.m. — Han-seok's House

The four friends sat in Han-seok's living room.

For several minutes, nobody spoke.

Han-seok finally broke the silence.

“We can't just sit around.”

Seo-jun looked at him.

“The police are investigating.”

“I know.”

Han-seok leaned forward.

“But they don't know everything.”

Miho looked down at her phone.

“I got a message from Soo-ah before the party.”

Seo-jun immediately looked at her.

“What message?”

Miho showed them.

SOO-AH: Can I tell you something later? It's important.

Seo-jun stared at the screen.

“When did she send that?”

“About an hour before the party.”

Han-seok frowned.

“So she knew something.”

“Maybe,” Seo-jun said.

Me-yongi quietly asked,

“Did she say anything strange that day?”

Miho shook her head.

“No. She was completely normal.”

Seo-jun looked toward the window.

“Then why didn't she come to the party?”

Nobody knew.

6:00 p.m. — Soo-ah's House

Soo-ah's sister sat alone in the living room.

Her eyes were red from crying.

Her phone vibrated.

She looked at the screen.

It was a message from an unknown number.

“Don't tell them everything.”

Her face went pale.

She immediately deleted the message.

But she didn't notice that someone had already taken a screenshot of it.

6:40 p.m. — Han-seok's House

Han-seok's phone suddenly vibrated.

He looked at it.

“Guys…”

Everyone turned toward him.

An unknown account had sent the four friends the same message.

“Stop looking for answers.”

Miho's eyes widened.

“What?”

Another message appeared.

“Soo-ah's story is already over.”

Seo-jun's expression hardened.

He typed:

SEO-JUN: Who are you?

The message was seen immediately.

Then the account disappeared.

Han-seok stood up.

“They knew we were talking about Soo-ah.”

Miho looked frightened.

“How?”

Seo-jun looked at everyone.

“Someone is watching us.”

Me-yongi quietly said,

“Or someone knows what happened.”

The room fell silent.

7:15 p.m.

Seo-jun suddenly remembered something.

“The note.”

He pulled the folded paper from his pocket.

She wasn't supposed to be alone.

Miho read it again.

“Who wrote this?”

Han-seok shook his head.

“We don't know.”

Me-yongi looked at the handwriting.

“It looks familiar.”

Everyone looked at her.

“Familiar how?”

She hesitated.

“I don't know. Maybe I've seen it somewhere.”

Seo-jun studied the note.

Then he noticed something.

“There.”

At the bottom corner was a tiny mark.

A date.

Wednesday — 5:40 p.m.

Miho's eyes widened.

“That was the day of the party.”

Han-seok looked at Seo-jun.

“And 5:40 was before you left to pick Soo-ah up.”

Seo-jun nodded slowly.

“So someone wrote this before I even left.”

Nobody spoke.

Then Seo-jun's phone vibrated.

A new message.

Unknown:
You should have let her story end.

Seo-jun stared at the screen.

This time, he didn't reply.

Because he finally understood something.

Whatever had happened to Soo-ah…

someone was determined to keep them from discovering the truth.

To be continued…