Chapter 4: Suspicious No. 1

The night chill seeped into the fourteen's bones as they waited in the police station waiting room. No one spoke. The silence weighed like a millstone on their backs. The fluorescent lights flickered, casting intermittent shadows on the polished floor.

Everyone was caught up in their own thoughts, but there was something in the air, something heavy, something strange. And that something had to do with Myeong.

She sat in one of the blue plastic chairs, her arms crossed over her stomach, her gaze lost somewhere between the floor and her memories. The discomfort was palpable. Her classmates glanced at her out of the corner of their eyes, their expressions oscillating between confusion, fear, and disbelief.

Finally, Maddie broke the silence.

"How many died?"

Her voice was low, but each syllable felt like an explosion in the tense silence of the room.

Myeong blinked, as if suddenly snapped out of a trance. She turned her head to Maddie, her expression showing utter bewilderment.

"What?"

"How many died?" Maddie repeated, more firmly this time.

Myeong's pulse quickened. She looked around, seeing the others watching her.

"How am I supposed to know?" she murmured, her voice barely a whisper.

Jason frowned and leaned forward slightly.

"You saw it. You said it yourself. You knew what was going to happen before it happened."

Myeong's heart was pounding.

"I... I don't..." The words caught in her throat. "I don't know what happened, okay?"

Emma crossed her arms and fixed her eyes on her.

"I don't believe this."

Myeong felt a chill.

"Emma..."

"No, seriously. How do you expect us to believe you?" Emma shifted forward in her seat, her gaze hard and determined. "You dragged us into this, scared us with all that 'this has happened before' crap, and now you're saying you don't know what happened."

"Because I don't know," Myeong said in frustration. "I saw something, yes, but it doesn't mean I understand what it was or why it happened."

"Convenient," Emma snapped.

Sasha, who had been silent until that moment, exhaled sharply and sat up straighter.

"That's enough, Emma."

Emma looked at her in disbelief.

"That's enough? Really?"

"Yes." Sasha's voice was firm. "This isn't the time for this."

"And when will it be? When we're all dead?"

"Emma..." Myeong rubbed her temple with her fingertips. "I swear I don't know more than you do."

"It doesn't seem that way."

"Enough," Mrs. Wilkes chimed in, her voice calm but commanding. "We're not going to solve anything by attacking each other."

Emma pursed her lips and looked away, but her expression was still filled with doubt.

Mrs. Wilkes sighed, running a hand through her gray hair.

"I don't know what to make of all this. What's happened... what we've seen..." She shook her head. "It's too much. But the best thing we can do right now is cooperate with the police."

A tense silence fell over the group again. Some looked away, others remained fixed in their own thoughts.

A few more minutes passed until the office door opened. A heavily built man wearing a leather jacket and a stern expression entered the room.

"Detective O'Brien," he introduced himself firmly. "We're going to question all of you one by one. We'll start with you."

He pointed at Myeong.

She felt her stomach clench. She swallowed and stood stiffly.

The others' gazes followed her as she walked to the door. Just before she stepped through, she took one last look back.

Emma was still eyeing her suspiciously. Maddie's expression was unreadable. Jason seemed thoughtful. Sasha offered him a small, supportive smile.

Myeong took a deep breath and stepped through the door.

Detective O'Brien's office was small and lit by a desk lamp that cast a yellowish light on the papers scattered on the table.

"Sit down," the detective ordered, gesturing to a chair across from him.

Myeong obeyed silently.

"Good," O'Brien began, crossing his arms. "Do you want to tell me what happened tonight?"

Myeong swallowed.

"I... saw something. Before it happened."

O'Brien raised an eyebrow.

""Something"? Be specific."

"A vision. An image in my mind. I don't know how to explain it. I saw the explosion before it happened."

The detective let out a dry laugh.

"Really? You expect me to believe that?"

Myeong felt her chest tighten.

"I'm not lying."

O'Brien leaned forward.

"Look, kiddo, what it looks like here is you knew exactly what was going to happen because you did it. And at the last minute, you changed your mind and tried to warn us."

"No!" Myeong's eyes widened. "I had nothing to do with the explosion."

"So how do you explain it? Are you psychic?"

"I don't know. It just happened."

O'Brien stared at her for a moment before shaking his head.

"I'm going to need more than 'just happened.'"

O'Brien questioned each of the others. Everyone stood up for Myeong.

Ethan, frowning, stated firmly,

"Myeong would never hurt anyone. If she said she saw it, she saw it. Period."

Maddie, although somewhat uncertain, said,

"I don't know what really happened, but I know Myeong didn't do anything wrong. She saved us."

Mrs. Wilkes added,

"I have no reports of misconduct from Myeong. She's never caused any trouble. I'm as appalled as everyone."

Zack shrugged and said in a nonchalant tone,

"The whole party was shit, but I don't think Myeong is a murderous arsonist."

Even Dylan, surprisingly, confessed,

"I don't think she started the fire. And... I regret insulting her."

Finally, an officer came in with a forensic report.

—The explosion was caused by a gas leak in the basement. Someone lit a cigarette downstairs and... boom. It wasn't provoked.

O'Brien sighed and looked at Myeong.

"You can go, but don't leave the city."

Myeong nodded silently.

The police station waiting room was emptying as the students' parents and relatives arrived to pick them up. The atmosphere remained tense, heavy with the weight of everything that had happened.

Myeong sat in the same blue plastic chair, her arms wrapped around herself, feeling the cold that seemed to have settled in her body since the explosion.

"Myeong."

She raised her head when she heard her mother's voice.

The woman looked pale, her black hair somewhat disheveled, and a worried expression etched on every feature of her face. She barely took two steps before Myeong stood up and threw herself into her arms.

"Mom..." Her voice broke into a sob as she clung to her.

Her mother hugged her tightly, stroking her hair with trembling hands.

"I'm here... I'm here, Myeong," she whispered, trying to reassure him, even though her own heart was pounding wildly.

Myeong's body shook with tears. Horror, fear, guilt... they all hit her at once, leaving her breathless.

Her mother said nothing more. She just held her, waiting for her daughter's trembling to calm at least a little.

When Myeong finally managed to regain some control over her breathing, her mother brushed a strand of hair away from her face and whispered softly,

"Let's go home."

Without letting go of her hand, she led her out of the police station.

The drive home was completely silent.

Myeong stared blankly out the car window, watching the city lights pass by in a meaningless blur. Her mother, her hands firmly on the steering wheel, glanced her way from time to time, but said nothing.

The silence was only broken by the sound of the car radio, which her mother had thoughtlessly turned on.

"So far, the fire has left23 dead and at least 40 injured, some in critical condition. Authorities are still investigating..."

Myeong felt like the world was closing in on her.

Twenty-three dead.

Forty injured.

She gasped for air. She hugged herself tighter, feeling like she was going to throw up.

She didn't know how much time had passed when the car finally stopped in front of her house. But she didn't even have the strength to move.

Her mother turned off the engine and turned to her, her voice barely a whisper.

"Myeong..."

But her daughter didn't respond.

She couldn't.

Because in her mind, over and over again, she kept repeating the same thing:

"I saw it. But I couldn't stop it."

Notes:

The Death be like: Wait a minute, 23 dead? Who the hell got away?!

Oh, my dear Myeong. If you think this was the worst night of your life, you just wait for what's coming.