Chapter Six: The Recording
It came at 3:11 a.m., buried in a ZIP file sent through an anonymous ProtonMail account.
Eunha stared at her laptop in the dark, her breath shallow.
No subject line. No explanation.
Just a single audio file titled: "Don't Let Them Find Me.mp3"
She hit play.
The voice was unmistakable. Tired. Flat. But hers.
Sae-jin.
> "...I didn't want this to happen like this..."
"I was just trying to scare him... to make him jealous, maybe. Not... this. Not death."
"I begged them to stop the rumors, but by then, it had already started. The grooming hashtags... the funeral story..."
"They told me, 'If you say anything, people will call you crazy. They'll say you're ruining your family's reputation. Just stay quiet. Just stay gone.'"
"I don't want Ji-hoon to suffer for something he didn't do... but I can't go back. Not yet."
Silence followed, but the background sounds told their own story — ocean wind, seagulls, the distinct hum of a Jeju ferry in the distance.
The time stamp was dated April 6th.
Two weeks after the nation believed she died.
---
Eunha stood frozen, unsure whether she felt anger, fear, or vindication.
Ji-hoon wasn't just innocent. He was targeted.
And Sae-jin? Alive, hidden, and being manipulated — possibly by her own family.
---
Meanwhile, Ji-hoon's legal team released the first document leak to the press:
Screenshots showing Sae-jin's mother messaging a YouTuber two weeks before Sae-jin's "death", asking:
> "If she disappears for a while, how big do you think this story can get?"
Financial transactions totaling 230 million won into an unregistered account under the name "Irene Seo" — the same alias linked to the lawyer defending the family.
An unreleased CCTV still of Sae-jin smiling at a coffee shop in Jeju on April 4th, wearing a hoodie and sunglasses.
Public doubt exploded overnight.
---
Twitter turned.
#BoycottJihoon became #ForgiveJihoon
And a new hashtag rose:
#WhereIsSaejin
Eunha uploaded a redacted version of the audio file — just enough to prove Sae-jin was alive, not suicidal, and begging for Ji-hoon not to be punished.
She withheld the more damning pieces… for now.
Because the real question was no longer whether Ji-hoon was innocent.
It was:
Who planned this?
Who made Sae-jin disappear?
And how far were they willing to go to silence her forever?