There was a possibility that Shun may have dislocated a knee after getting hit, so he stayed in the hospital overnight for further observation. Dan and Runo visited their friend on the weekend when they were both free.

The raven-haired patient flexed his knee and looked up to see his friends visiting. "You two are early today. The doctors said that I'd be discharged in the afternoon."

Dan laid a large thermos container on the side drawer. "My mom made this for you to eat before you leave. You're lucky that your school is having long weekend. Missing class is the least of your problems right now."

"I can always get notes from classmates and listen to lecture recordings. Not that I need to."

Runo sighed. "You're acting as if nothing happened, Shun. Going after Alice is also the least of your problems. Why can you just leave her—"

"Wait. Speaking of Alice, have any of you seen her since yesterday's incident?" Shun interrupted.

The brunette shook his head. "I haven't, sorry. After I arrested the perpetrator that Billy and I were chasing, everyone at the police station has been busy with that case."

"Speaking of case..." The bluenette took her phone and scrolled through some messaged. "Dylan said he's interested in inviting both of you over to the radio station someday for a special episode. Personally, I think it's a publicity stunt, but you know I can't say no to him. Of course, the special episode will take place when you're both free."

"Public stunt or not, I deserve this!" cheered Dan, who then got shushed by other visitors. "Sorry, got too excited. What about you, Shun?"

"Runo, does Alice know that Dylan wants to invite Dan and I over to be on-air?"

The bluenette scrolled through more messages. "Alice is off today, so I won't see her until tomorrow. Julie emailed everyone last night, so Alice should know already. And Dan, don't you need Chan's approval to discuss anything regarding the case?"

"But Runo, you're the one saying that we got invited to speak on-air!"

"That's because Dylan is a difficult person to deal with!"

"Fine! I'll call Chan right now."

Shun ignored his friends' bickering and grabbed his phone from his jacket. If Alice is out today, maybe I can go on Monday when there's no class. That would also depend on Dan's schedule.

After Dan finished talking to his supervisor, he saw what his best friend was doing on his phone. "Hey! Are you doing what I think you're doing? Leave Alice alone!"

"Dan, you don't understand. There are a lot of things between Alice and me that need to straighten out, and it's not helping when she doesn't want to talk. All of you tell me to leave her alone, but how can I when she's avoiding the facts and being equally irrational?"

His visitors were at the loss for words and simply glanced at each other. Dan stepped outside to answer a call, while Runo sighed again. "I don't know what kind of fate got us all in this mess, but I agree with you about how Alice need to face this situation too."

The brunette returned from outside and reported, "Chan said that I can go on air on Monday, but I need to see her in person at some point because I can't reveal too much before the police release an official statement."

"I'll go on Monday as well," Shun replied swiftly.

"Um...sure. That was fast," Runo gasped. "I'll tell Dylan as soon as possible."

The raven-haired student went back to checking his phone. Previous attempts to get Alice to speak up didn't work, and that music file only made insane. Going on-air on Monday may be my last chance to get her attention. He put his phone away in his jacket and felt something metallic in the pocket. I still have Alice's bracelet from last Friday. I can probably get her to talk when I return this to her.

-x-x-x-x-x-

What on earth was he thinking when he ran after me across the street?

Alice was scratching her wrist inexplicably, but then dropped a pen by accident after seeing a shadow cast over her desk. "Julie! You scared me."

"My bad! But that's kind of hard to avoid when you were deep in thought about something else. I know Monday mornings are hard to deal with, but maybe try drinking coffee to keep you awake. I notice that you only drink plain ice water every morning."

"You noticed that?"

"You've been here for a couple weeks now. By the way, you're on air soon."

"What?! Let me get ready!" The redhead quickly grabbed her papers and entered the recording room, but wasn't expected to see two additional guests at the tables. "What the—"

"Alice, you're late," scolded Dylan. "Dan and Shun have been waiting for five minutes now."

"Sorry." Alice took the seat closest to the door. Next to her was Dylan, then Dan, and finally Shun. Because the table was a semi-circle shape, the redhead was sitting directly across the raven-haired student with a perfect view of other, much to her dismay. Was it really that necessary to invite these two over for a pointless discussion?

She's avoiding eye contact, Shun noticed. If going on-air won't make her talk, then I'll have to find her after the show is over.

Dylan turned the music off and spoke into his microphone. "This is your one and only host welcoming you all back for another episode of 'Down with DJ Dylan'! Today, I'd like to talk about a recent major case that Bayview Police is still working on. Along with my lovely co-host Alice Gehabich, I also have fellow guests Daniel Kuso and Shun Kazami beside me..."

I wonder why Dylan didn't invite Billy, Alice thought. Maybe Billy wasn't following this case? But why invite Shun?

"...Dan is a trainee under the police academy and was one of the officers who was involved in taking down the perpetrator. Dan, can you elaborate more on how all this started?"

The brunette cleared this throat and spoke. "Hello everyone! My name is Dan. We first discovered the vehicle after the driver hit a light pole and sped off. While chasing the vehicle for the first time, our colleagues at headquarters reported that the same vehicle was seen in a different case regarding a homicide. We lost the vehicle the first time, but found it again last Friday, which ultimately led to the driver's arrest."

The redhead twitched and held her hands together tightly. Homicide...I still can't bring myself to process news like this.

"Homicide, you say? What happened there?"

"Sorry, Dylan. I'm not allowed to disclose that. Nor am I on the team that's solving that case either.

Since Dan couldn't and wasn't allowed to talk about the homicide, Dylan then asked about other miscellaneous details. "Never mind on the homicide then. I heard that there was a male and female crossing the street that made the driver stop. All of Bayview was shocked to hear that perpetrator was taken down so easily like that!"

"That male pedestrian was me," Shun explained. "I came across Alice—the female pedestrian—after leaving campus and was crossing the street with her until that vehicle in question nearly hit us. I ended up staying a night at the hospital because of the injuries, but at least Alice was unharmed."

Alice sent death glares at Shun. Lies. All lies.

"If you and Alice hadn't been on the street together, I bet that perpetrator would speed through without stopping!" Dylan concluded. "These two are prime examples of good citizens helping the police combat crime! And Alice, aren't you glad that Shun saved your life?"

He made that up on the spot! I was trying to escape him! Seeing that she couldn't avoid the subject, the redhead sighed and said, "Thanks for protecting me from the reckless driver, Shun."

"You know why," he mouthed, barely audible to the audience, but just visible to Alice.

"Actually..." The radio DJ flipped through his notepad and pointed, "It seems like Alice was gone after the vehicle stopped. Where did you go?"

Great. Who approved of any of this? This is entire episode is completely against me. "It was a—"

"It was a really messy situation," Shun interrupted, much to Alice's dismay. "I told Alice to run as fast as possible. What if the vehicle didn't stop? I might still be in the hospital. Worse case would be that both us got hurt extremely badly. I didn't want that to happen, especially not for Alice."

Shun Kazami, what are you doing? "I appreciate all that you did to save me from the vehicle, but—"

"You know exactly how it feels when your life is on the line, right?"

Alice gagged, followed by confused glances from Dylan and Dan. "Excuse me?"

"Speaking of homicide, Alice is the only alive-and-well survivor from the locker room serial homicide three years ago that shocked all of Bayview and nearby cities."

With her hands under the table, the redhead violently scratched her wrists yet tried to control herself. I can't do this. I need to leave right now.

"Wait. Alice was the mystery survivor of that triple or quadruple murder this whole time?!" Dylan gasped and snapped his fingers. "Alice! Care to spare some details of that—"

"No! Shut up and leave me alone!" Alice threw her headphones down, which hit the microphone and resonated audio feedback through the entire recording room and the office area.

Dylan pulled his headphones off and screamed, "Cut! That was disastrous!"

Dan stared blankly as he watched the redhead run outside. "What were you two thinking?! Be it Friday's situation or the locker room murder form three years ago, she's clearly traumatized and doesn't want to experience either one again."

The radio DJ stood up and shoved his seat. "I was just trying to increase ratings. That was the whole point of inviting you and Shun over—to talk about first-person experiences in reducing crime."

The brunette gasped, then turned around to face Shun, who calmly replied, "I need to find the truth of what happened the day of the homicide."

"Why did I even apply to the police academy in the first place if you're going to find the truth using your own methods?!" screamed Dan before exiting.

Maybe I went too far, but how do get Alice to overcome her PTSD? Seeing that the episode was over, Shun also left the recording room and approached Alice's empty desk. There was only a laptop, cell phone, wireless mouse, pencil box, and desk lamp. Her desk is empty to the point where it's scaring me, but it says a lot of her personality too.

Runo returned from outside and bumped into Shun while he exited. "Let me guess. The special episode didn't go as—"

"Did you even hear what he said?! I had no idea that Shun would go that far!" screamed Dan again, scaring all the other radio station workers. "But I had no idea that Alice was the only survivor from the locker room murder case that Shiori-san was working on, either."

Julie pulled them over to her desk as Dylan walked by on the way to his office. "Keep it down, you two. Remember, Dylan came up with the idea of going in detail about any random police case just to increase viewership. I don't know what Shun was doing, but he made it worse by giving Dylan an opportunity to dig deeper. He shouldn't take advantage of Alice like that."

Meanwhile, Shun was descending the building in search of Alice. With the elevators all in use, he took the stairs and looked out the window to see Alice running away from the back of the building. Better find her before she wanders off too far.

At the back alley of the work building, Alice continued running while looking over her shoulder. Where am I even going? All my stuff is still upstairs. Then she tripped on a rock, but luckily stopped her fall by holding onto the light post. The redhead tried running again but felt sudden pain in her feet. What a horrible time to twist my ankle.

"Alice! Wait!"

Not him again. Alice stood behind the light pole as Shun caught up and eventually slowed down. "Get away from me! Why won't you leave me alone? I don't want to think about that incident ever again!"

"I just want to find out the truth—"

"Can't you find another way to do that without harassing me?!"

"Alice, you don't understand. You're the only victim from that multiple homicide who's alive and well—aside from your mental state, of course. Please listen to me. I'm not trying to hurt you."

The redhead stood behind the light post, but otherwise listened to Shun. "Fine. What's there to know?"

"I saw your work desk. It was empty."

"So?"

"You had a lot of friends in college, right? Including the other victims from the locker room murder? How come you don't have any memorabilia on your desk?"

"What are you trying to ask? Putting pictures of my friends on my desk won't bring them back. It'll only remind me of that dreaded day. Besides, I'm still new to Bayview and my new workplace. I haven't had the time to set everything down yet."

"I'm also sure that Runo and Julie sent you welcoming gifts as well. Where did those go?"

"They're at home, because I can see Runo and Julie in person at—" The redhead winced as her ankle throbbed pain again. "Are we done?"

"You want to make new friends, but still can't bring yourself to it because you fear what happened in the past might happen again."

Alice was speechless.

"Because of what happened to my mom, I decided to double-major by adding Psychology to my agenda."

The redhead tightened her grip on the light post and scratched her wrist again. "Talking to your mom during mandatory appointments didn't help. What makes you any different?"

"I want to help her complete what she left unfinished. I'm not a licensed psychologist like her. Maybe we can talk as peers on the same level of understanding, so that you won't feel as pressured as when you were in a doctor-client setting with my mom."

It won't make a difference, Alice thought.

The raven-haired student walked closer and took out a metallic bracelet. "You dropped this last Friday after the driver stopped his vehicle suddenly. I can tell you scratched your hands all day—and probably all weekend—over your missing bracelet because your left hand is very inflamed."

Alice took the bracelet back quickly and clasped it onto her left wrist. Each of the five bracelet charms featured a certain letter from the alphabet imprinted onto different shapes. "This is all that I have left of my friends who died or got hurt from the locker room murder."

Shun stared at the bracelet's charms. Five charms, five letters, five girls? One charm has the letter A, so the other letters must stand for names of her other friends.

The redhead let go of the light post and rubbed her inflamed skin. "Can you really help me?"

Taken aback by Alice's sudden change in attitude, Shun simply replied, "I promise."

Suddenly, they both looked up as their eyes met again. Their hearts didn't race as fast as the first time they met at Runo's party. Rather, they both felt calm and at ease.

Then Shun stepped forward, pulling Alice in for a hug. I might have calmed Alice down and gained her trust, but how will I approach her trauma? I've been thinking way too much about what Mom left unfinished in the past that I haven't thought about what to do in the future.

Alice stood still, unsure of how to react to Shun's warmth and company, but she soon felt her heart racing again. Can I trust Shun to open old wounds and dig up the past? I myself still don't know what even happened that day. What if he goes too far?