Seymour barely registered Ronnette asking him what was going on and, after a long pause of him staring straight ahead rather than responding to her, wishing him luck through the ringing in his ears. Eventually, he managed to get out something that hopefully resembled a "Thanks for the ride" before exiting her car and walking the last mile with shaking legs. Just as he heard her car start to move and he had slunk his way to Mr. Mushnik, trying and failing to think of something, anything to say, he hit him hard across the face. He had never struck him before; he had thought for sure he would a few times when he got really mad at him for screwing up as usual, but he had never actually done it… until now… "Get inside." Seymour meekly followed him into the shop, feeling his gaze boring into him despite his best efforts to avoid it. After an agonizingly long pause, Mr. Mushnik continued, his voice eerily quiet and steady. "Tell me why the police were here." …How much did he know already? Seymour eventually managed to ramble out an answer, still staring at the floor. "...I-I didn't know Orin had disappeared after we worked on the project yesterday until they told me a-and I panicked and told them he had gotten into a car like yours when they asked me when I had seen him last… I didn't… I didn't think they'd be satisfied until I gave them a lead on his disappearance and then they asked me to describe the car he had gotten into and I accidentally described yours, I'm so, so sorry sir…"

During the ensuing agonizingly long pause, the question of where Seymour had just gotten all of that added itself to the ever expanding list of them running rampant through his mind. He had almost gotten up the nerve to look at Mr. Mushnik's face when he continued. "Then why, pray tell, do you have this?" Seymour jolted his head upwards, finding himself staring disbelievingly at Orin's leather jacket, which he had stashed under his bed where he had naively thought it wouldn't be found. Mr. Mushnik forcibly shoved it back onto the table it had presumably been on before he had picked it up, understandably not wanting to touch something that had belonged to Orin and was now drenched with the smell of his obnoxious cologne for any longer than he had to. "This, by the way, cost me an extra hour of the police searching the store when they found it. Took me that long to convince them it was yours." Despite the mortal peril he was in, Seymour found himself worrying about what they had done to his plants of the non-bloodthirsty variety downstairs amidst everything else. "...He… uh… he leant that to me, before he disappeared…" Mr. Mushnik sighed exasperatedly, standing menacingly taller. "Seymour, I could barely get him to take it off for rehearsals, and you expect me to believe he leant it to you?"

After a comparatively agonizing but shorter pause, he continued. "I know what's really going on here." Stupidly, Seymour could only reply "...You do?," instinctively backing up slightly as Mr. Mushnik got closer to him. "I don't know how you did it; I'm almost impressed, to tell you the truth, but you're behind this somehow." He studied him for a long moment, almost looking… conflicted? before continuing. "I've wanted to put a stop to his treatment of her too, for longer than you've known her, but you can't stay here with the police on your tail." As Seymour struggled to process this, his heart threatening to pound out of his chest, he saw Audrey 2 slowly lower its head to the ground directly behind Mr. Mushnik, as if he was trying to send a signal to him. …He thought he understood that signal… "...I can't?" Mr. Mushnik shook his head, his expression hardening from something that had almost resembled sympathy. "As I have apparently failed to teach you well enough for you to cover up your little stunts better than this, maybe military school will manage to do so. After the play, of course."

Military school… he had threatened that when Seymour had messed up before, but this time he knew he was serious about it, not just the screw-up that had inspired the use of this time-honored threat. "...M-Military school?" Mr. Mushnik nodded gravely, almost opportunistically, and Seymour knew with growing horror that he wouldn't budge on this. "Of course, you'd have to teach me how to take care of that plant of yours while you're away. Give me your secret gardening tips. …What do l have to do?" Was he really doing this? He certainly wasn't gonna be able to be away from Audrey God knows where in military school, that was for sure… After what felt like centuries, Seymour managed to start slowly walking towards him despite his legs feeling like lead and his heart threatening to pound out of his chest, and he started backing up in the direction of the plant and its sharp teeth seemingly without realizing what he was doing. "...Just feed it." Despite the circumstances, exasperation crossed Mr. Mushnik's face. "Just feed it what?" Seymour struggled to keep his gaze on him and not on the plant, which was slowly opening its jaws, not even bothering to try to appear to be calm. "...Oh… minerals… on Thursdays, you should give it water…" He was getting almost disturbingly enthused about this now… "Oh, yes." Seymour swallowed nervously several times before he was able to continue, seeing how close they were now to Audrey 2. "...But whatever you do…"

Mr. Mushnik's eyes widened in anticipation. "Yes?" Seymour's gaze flickered to the plant briefly as it finished opening its mouth, displaying rows of sharp, jagged teeth, before returning it to him. "...Whatever you do…" Mr. Mushnik threw up his hands slightly in frustration. "Yeah?-" He abruptly stopped talking after bumping into the plant, turning around with a bewildered look on his face and leaning forwards to look into its mouth with astonishment. "...What the hell is…" Not knowing who he was trying to convince or what he was trying to convince them of through his fear, Seymour answered his rhetorical question. "...Sir?" Suddenly, the plant's horrific jaws clamped down on him, making a sickening crunching sound that intermingled with Mr. Mushnik's shouts of protest before lifting him into the air and biting down on him again, hard… Seymour eventually managed to look away, but he could still hear the crunching, the yelling… and then the complete lack of any kind of noise or other reaction on their… or just the plant's, now… parts was even worse somehow. He eventually looked back at the plant and watched as it licked its lips, frozen in place as the horrible scene he had just witnessed and the guilt surrounding his complete culpability in it reverberated through him.