Yun Seo's aunt, much like her nephew, gave Jiwook very little to work with. She simply dropped Jiwook off at home and sped away with Yun Seo and the files in tow. She didn't even say anything beyond, "Okay, get out, bestie." Didn't even ask for clarification, just sped away.

It was honestly kind of impressive.

Jiwook stopped in the lobby bathroom before returning to his apartment. He doused his face with water and stared at his reflection. There were absolutely no signs that anything had happened. If anything, he just looked tired. Which he was.

He really was.

"Where did you go yesterday?" Cheolsu asked. "When we came back from the restaurant you were already in bed."

Jiwook rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "I...I had to go to an estate planner." Wasn't a total lie.

Cheolsu arched a brow. "You're not planning to die on me, are you?"

"What?! No! I just...with everything happening with Seojin, I needed to figure some things out."

The young man nodded, then put a hand on Jiwook's shoulder. Jiwook felt his heart skip a beat at the contact. "She's going to be okay, but you can't burn the candle at both ends like this. You need to make sure you're giving yourself time to rest. Which reminds me...the choreographer wants us back for more rehearsals."

Jiwook groaned and rolled his eyes. "I swear to god, Kyle just wants an excuse to yell at someone."

"Probably. But with what happened to the CEO's kid, we can't bring it higher up yet. Admin is dealing with too much."

"Wait, what happened to the CEO's kid?"

"You didn't hear?" Cheolsu frowned. "He's the next disappearance."

Jiwook froze in place. This was bad. First Seojin, then the sun of the CEO of the company Seojin worked for. Something was closing in on the company. Either they knew that he, Jiwook, was onto them, or Seojin and the CEO's kid were targeted for another reason.

This was bad.

This was really bad.

Haru had finally been given the keys to the theater by the Student Council.

"Check and see what props we have. Some are earmarked for the musical next spring, so make sure they're all well-organized, please." Yeonghui had smiled her classic, perfect smile when she handed the silver key to Haru. "We're counting on you."

"You can count on me," Haru had said earnestly.

She hadn't lied. She liked organizing things, it's why the local library had been a good place for her to clear her head. Haru just simply didn't share the fact that she was actively looking for something - not that she thought that the Student Council would care, but she didn't want to push her luck.

Slowly, Haru unlocked the door to the theater. The lights were off, so she tried flicking them, but to no avail. From what she could see with the light from the doorway, the theater was empty - seemingly had been for a long time. That was curious - she remembered that the musical was already in pre-production, why was the theater dark and covered in dust? She shook the thought out of her head.

Haru made her way to the edge of the theater and climbed onto the stage. She stared out at the empty black box, where the audience would sit. She looked up, making out the outlines of stage lights and a mezzanine. Seojin had always told her it was hard to see the audience with how bright the lights were. Haru wondered if the darkness felt the same.

Haru took out her cell phone and used the light function to find her way backstage. There were ropes, curtains, devices that Haru had never seen before in black-and-steel carts. The master switch for the theater hovered above a small desk with cue sheets covering it.

Her hand grasped the red lever, and she pushed.

FWOOM.

Haru could smell the dust immediately begin to burn in the spotlights. The darkness made way for light, revealing a theater so dust-covered it was almost gray. Haru blinked - if she recalled correctly, there were talks of renovation a year ago. But...this theater was ancient. Rusted bars on the mezzanine, chipped paint on the walls, exposed pipes...

"Weird..." Haru remarked. "The least the construction crew could have done was clean up after themselves."

Haru walked up to the desk, now that she could see without her phone flashlight. The table was covered with lighting cue sheets, sound cue sheets, cast lists, even a mock playbill. She leaned down to examine them. They were covered in so much dust it was almost impressive. She ran her fingers along them, revealing the printed images underneath.

That...couldn't be right.

She gently picked up one of the dust-covered documents - the playbill.

The front cover very clearly said in both English and Hangul - The Taming of the Shrew. But...from the yearbooks, they hadn't put on this performance once since Seojin played Katherina. Did they just...not include it in the yearbooks?

She opened the playbill, and almost dropped it.

"Did you find anything usable in there?" Yeonghui asked when Haru came back to the student council room.

Haru swallowed and smiled. "Yeah, I found some good costumes and props for the one-acts. They probably need to go to the dry cleaner's, though. They're very dusty."

This seemed to surprise Yeonghui. "Is that so? How strange. I'll be sure to let the department head know."

Haru nodded. She could practically feel the playbill burning a hole in her backpack. "I do have to go to my part-time job, so I'll catch you later?"

Yeonghui looked up from her laptop and smiled - for the first time, Haru felt her smile was sincere. "Of course."

The younger bowed slightly to show her gratitude, and then hoped that Yeonghui couldn't see her urgency in sprinting out of the room, towards the school's library. She had to check something before she inevitably called in sick to work.

Jiwook was holding Namil tightly, while the boy cried into his shoulder. Kyle, the choreographer, had left unceremoniously after crossing the line with Namil. The other members were hiding in their rooms, save for Cheolsu, who was arguing with their manager about how they could not work under these conditions. The manager was in agreement, but was insisting that there was nothing he could do because of the fact that.

Namil looked up at Jiwook, his eyes puffy from crying. One eye was already swollen, turning blue under Namil's concealer.

"I'm sorry..." the maknae whispered. "I'm not good enough..."

"Don't say that," Jiwook said. "Don't you dare say that."

Jiwook closed his eyes and tucked the maknae under his chin. There would be a time for Listeners, for kidnappings, for Seojin. But for now, this time was for his bandmate, his brother. The mysteries of the world would have to wait.

Haru was glad she'd taken photos on her phone to send to Rosie. Even staring at the playbill now, she wasn't sure she would believe it if she couldn't verify it with another pair of eyes. She also had the school directory open, just to be sure that she wasn't losing her mind.

There was a ding from the computer. Haru read the chat.

stone_cold_rose: yeah. i see what you see.

Haru breathed a sigh of relief, massaging her neck through her scar, and reexamined the playbill.

The playbill said, clear as day, Seo Haneul as Katherina. This was the playbill for the specific performance of play that Haneul, Seojin, Haru's sister, had performed in, years ago. It had been sitting on the desk, covered in so much dust it was almost not visible.

On the school website, in all the yearbooks, Haru realized, there were no pictures of the musicals. No pictures of other plays after Seojin left the school. There wasn't even mention of a theater program on the website. But she remembered kids talking, at length, about auditions and how eager they were to perform.

Haru was also sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that if there was a theater teacher working there, she had never met them before, didn't know what they looked like, and that their name was not in the school directory.

There was no theater department head.

There was no theater department.

There was no theater.