The room felt smaller after Officer Lim's words.
A kidnapping.
A little girl.
Years ago.
Mr. Choi stood frozen, staring at Hana as if seeing her for the first time. Hana's shoulders trembled as she pressed her face into her teddy bear, the paper beneath her damp with a single tear.
Mrs. Park knelt beside her immediately. "Hana… sweetheart… you don't have to remember anything you don't want to."
But Hana didn't lift her head.
Officer Lim cleared his throat. "The case was never solved. The suspect vanished before trial. No body, no confession, no verdict."
"And my client?" Mr. Choi asked quietly. "What does he have to do with this?"
Officer Lim hesitated. "He was a witness."
The word echoed in the room.
"A witness?" Mrs. Park whispered.
Officer Lim nodded. "He was questioned because he lived near the area where the child was last seen. He tried to explain something… but his statement didn't make sense to the investigators at the time."
Mr. Choi's chest tightened painfully.
They hadn't listened to him then either.
Later that afternoon, Hana sat across from her father in the visiting room. The glass between them reflected their faces—hers small and pale, his worn and gentle.
Her father smiled when he saw her, as if the world wasn't collapsing around them.
"Hana… Daddy saw you on the screen," he said softly. "You drew so well. You're very smart."
Hana lifted her sketchpad slowly.
She didn't draw the courthouse this time.
She drew a house.
Small. Old. With a crooked fence.
Then she drew a window.
And inside the window—
a little girl.
Her father's smile faded.
His hands pressed flat against the glass. "That place… where did you see it?"
Hana drew again.
A man standing outside the window.
A scar on his face.
Her father's breath caught.
"I told them," he whispered, tears filling his eyes. "I told the police that night. I said there was a bad man. I tried to say he took the girl. But they didn't understand me. They thought I was confused."
His voice broke. "They said I was lying."
Hana pressed her palm against the glass.
Her father mirrored it, shaking.
"I was scared," he said. "Not for me. For you. I didn't want you near him."
Mr. Choi stood outside the room, listening, his heart sinking with every word.
This wasn't coincidence.
This was history repeating itself.
That evening, Officer Lim returned with a dusty file pulled from archives.
He placed it on Mr. Choi's desk.
"Old case number 417," he said. "The suspect's name was never officially cleared."
Mr. Choi opened the folder.
A black-and-white photo slid out.
A younger version of the scarred man stared back at him. No scar yet. Just cold eyes.
Name: Kang Dae-Shik
Status: Missing.
Suspected crimes:
– Kidnapping
– Assault
– Witness intimidation
Mr. Choi swallowed. "He vanished… and came back."
Officer Lim nodded. "And now he's trying to erase witnesses again. Your client then. Hana now."
Mrs. Park covered her mouth. "He's been hunting silence."
Mr. Choi closed the folder slowly. "Not anymore."
That night, the courthouse parking lot was nearly empty.
Security cameras watched every angle.
Still, Hana felt it.
She sat in the back seat of the police car, clutching her teddy bear. Her fingers twitched.
Mrs. Park noticed. "Hana?"
Hana reached for her sketchpad.
She drew quickly.
A car door.
Opening.
Mrs. Park's breath caught. "Stop the car," she whispered urgently.
The driver slammed the brakes.
At that exact moment—
A dark figure moved between the parked cars.
Police shouted.
Lights flashed.
Footsteps ran.
But when officers rushed forward—
Nothing.
Only a cigarette burning on the ground.
Officer Lim stared at it grimly. "He wanted us to know he was here."
Hana drew one last thing.
The cigarette
And beneath it—
A courtroom.
The next morning, the judge made her decision.
"This court acknowledges the emergence of new evidence connecting this case to an unsolved crime," Judge Min announced. "Proceedings will continue under enhanced protection. The identity of the true suspect will be investigated."
The prosecutor's confidence crumbled.
The jury watched Hana differently now.
Not as a child.
But as the key.
Mr. Choi leaned down to her. "You did this. You're protecting your father… and others."
Hana looked at him.
Then she drew something unexpected.
Her father.
Herself.
And behind them—
Bars.
But this time, they were broken
That night, Mr. Choi stood alone in his office, staring at the old case file.
Kang Dae-Shik wasn't just hiding anymore.
He was desperate.
And desperate men made mistakes.
Mr. Choi whispered into the empty room, "We're ready for you now."
Far away, under a flickering streetlight, a man with a scar crushed a cigarette beneath his shoe.
"Almost," he muttered. "Just one more voice to silence.