Chapter 1
“Bae Seohyun? She’s not at school yet.”
Jinju, who used to hang out with Seohyun but had recently grown distant, replied in an indifferent tone.
When Seobin failed to get the answer she wanted and her eyes showed disappointment, Jinju’s gaze sharpened.
“But why are you asking me about your sister? Shouldn’t you be the one who knows?”
Faced with Jinju’s sharp words, Seobin couldn’t say anything.
Because her sister hadn’t come home last night.
To celebrate the end of finals, Seohyun and Seobin had planned to watch a movie together.
They were going to see a film starring Seohyun’s favorite actor, then go shopping.
They planned to stop by a bookstore to buy problem sets for summer break and even argued playfully about whether to buy the complete edition of their favorite basketball comic.
But her sister never showed up at the meeting place.
And she didn’t come home.
She still hadn’t responded to any calls.
“Ah… I’ll try calling her again.”
Seobin nodded awkwardly and turned to leave. Behind her, Jinju added irritably,
“Hey, go check the swimming pool. She’s probably there.”
“The pool?”
Seobin asked back, puzzled.
As if she couldn’t believe Seobin didn’t know, Jinju stared at her with wide eyes. Seobin quickly changed her expression and answered calmly,
“Okay. I will.”
She bowed politely to Jinju and walked away, but her mind was in chaos.
The swimming pool?
Why would her sister, who hadn’t even come home, be there?
Still, Seobin found herself heading toward the pool. She tried to suppress the strange sense of dread rising inside her and recalled her last conversation with her sister.
***
“Bae Seobin, don’t be late today. If we want to make the movie, we have to leave right after school.”
“Okay. Why are you being so fussy today?”
“…I have something to tell you.”
“What is it? Tell me now.”
“No. I’ll tell you later. It’s important.”
***
Her sister had looked oddly flushed when she said that. Seohyun was usually honest and straightforward. What could make her act shy like that? Seobin had been curious.
But now she would never hear it.
Bae Seohyun. Where are you? What are you doing?
A strange anxiety twisted inside her. Seobin bit her lip and quickened her steps.
She rounded the corner of the main building and stepped outside.
And then she saw it.
Her mind went completely blank.
The school’s swimming pool building was modern and gray, far grander than what you’d expect for a high school.
The place that used to be filled only with white walls and blue water was now flashing with ambulance lights.
Seobin stopped in her tracks and stared.
The loud wail of ambulances and police cars. Students gathered in front, whispering.
Then, from behind the police line at the pool entrance, paramedics wheeled out a stretcher.
From beneath the white sheet covering the figure on it, a thin wrist slipped out.
A silver bracelet glinted on it.
It was the same bracelet Seobin wore on her own left wrist.
“—”
She clamped both hands over her mouth to keep from screaming. Her breath caught in her throat.
Sis… why …?
Nothing made sense.
Her vision blurred.
As the stretcher was loaded into the ambulance, the white sheet shifted. In the morning sunlight, part of the forehead was revealed.
The skin was pale, almost bluish, and swollen.
Seobin’s whole body began to tremble violently. When the paramedic moved to cover the face again, it was exposed for a moment.
The crowd gasped and cried out.
At that instant, a large hand cast a shadow over Seobin’s eyes.
“Don’t look.”
A boy’s low, calm voice settled over her from behind. Even so, tears streamed endlessly from her eyes.
“Ugh….”
The grief burst out of her uncontrollably. As she instinctively tried to rush toward the stretcher, the boy grabbed her hand and pulled her into his arms.
“Let me go! Let me go! Let go!”
She twisted, trying to break free, but his strong arms only tightened around her small body.
In the end, Seobin broke down, sobbing in his broad embrace. His light blue school shirt was quickly soaked with her tears.
Her vision blurred, then darkened.
And just like that, darkness fell over her life.
Eight years ago.
The day her sister left.
***
4:50 p.m.
Sanghyeon Daily, Editorial Office.
Reporters moved busily to meet the deadline as Seobin walked in.
“I’m back, sunbae.”
“Yeah. Any updates?”
Woo Jihyun, a fifth-year reporter in the Social Affairs Department, asked casually while finishing an article about a neighborhood of tiny basement rooms flooded by recent heavy rain.
“No. The hospital’s PR director repeated the same briefing.”
“Damn. We got nothing.”
Meanwhile, sensational gossip articles were already spreading online, claiming that an idol member had taken narcotic painkillers and that a top actor had been with him at the scene.
“After the meeting, I’ll go back to the hospital and wait for another statement.”
“Forget it. We won’t get anything today. Tomorrow morning, check with the digital entertainment desk and see if they got anything from the industry side. We’re the social desk, not entertainment.”
“Yes, understood.”
Leaving Woo Jihyun’s self-deprecating comment behind, Seobin sat at the small desk in the corner of the department and set down her laptop bag.
She had woken up at five in the morning, made rounds at the police station, precinct, and fire station in her district, and then waited four hours outside a university hospital room where the idol was admitted. This was the first time she’d sat down properly all day.
“Ha…”
A sigh slipped out.
But before she could rest, angry shouting erupted from behind the blinds of the director’s office.
“Hey, you bastard! Who do you think you are? You’re just a reporter! Just a salaried employee! If I tell you to stop, you stop! At least pretend to stop! If we lose advertisers because of you, will you take responsibility? Huh? Do you think Sarim is a joke?”
At the word “Sarim,” Seobin’s gaze instinctively shifted toward the office.
Woo Jihyun glanced at her and smirked.
“Don’t worry about it. That’s not the first time Senior Gu’s made trouble.”
“Ah… okay.”
Seobin sat back down. To her senior, she probably looked like a rookie startled by the rough atmosphere of a newsroom.
That image wasn’t bad.
After a while, the shouting subsided, and Gu Bonghwan stepped out of the office.
He walked slowly back to the far corner of the department, where piles of books and research papers were stacked like a fortress.
“Wow, Senior Gu is something else. Such integrity. Doesn’t bow to power. I respect that.”
“Integrity? That’s reckless pride. Guys like that always cause problems.”
Despite the comments, Gu Bonghwan put on large headphones and focused on his work.
Seobin stared at him.
There was a spark in her eyes.
She was willing to join hands with anyone who held leverage over the Sarim Foundation. That was the reason she had joined Sanghyeon Daily in the first place.
And now, three months after entering the company—
Her probation period was nearly over.
It was time to start moving in earnest.
But instead of carrying out her plan, she was still spending fourteen hours a day running between police stations in search of stories.
“…”
She let out a deep sigh. She thought about calling her friend Hari, a patrol officer at the Metropolitan Police Station, tomorrow.
Just then—
“Hello, President.”
“What brings you here? You must be busy.”
The sudden appearance of the company president caused a stir at the entrance.
President Oh Sangil, wearing a black suit with a tacky striped tie and a greasy smile, had arrived.
Every reporter immediately stood up. Seobin followed suit.
Though he was the head of the newspaper, he was known to care more about building connections with chaebols and entering politics than about journalism. He had never once stepped into the newsroom before.
The editorial director hurried over.
“President, what brings you here? You could have called me upstairs.”
“It’s been a while, Director Hong. “Is everything going well?”
“Yes, of course. But is there something…?”
As the director swallowed nervously, a tall young man entered the newsroom.
He wore a perfectly tailored, expensive suit. His steps were elegant and effortless. A faint smile rested on his lips, yet he seemed colder because of it.
Kim Sa-hyuk.
Seobin’s first love.
And the man suspected of killing her sister.
The moment she recognized him, her vision blurred just like it had that day.
Suddenly, she realized—
It was summer again.
