Now that the plan was set, all four girls sat there staring at one another with somber expressions on their faces.

Tension hung in the air, but something was different, a feeling of unity now, a mission they all were uniting to fulfill. Karina and Winter watched their friends intently before nodding for just a beat longer before saying anything.

"We don't have much time," Karina reminded them, her voice a low whisper.

And they went away, bearing their mystery inside them, tautened at one point by the tense heat of it, like the low storm clouds in the sky.

-

Ningning ran up the house, warm and light with her voice as she called out, "Grandma!" She flashed a bright smile, all her usual charm, waving to Mai's grandmother, bent over in the lawn, hands busy doing kimchi.

The elderly woman looked up; her face was soft and inviting, deepening wrinkles around her eyes when she smiled back.

"Oh, Ningning, dear," the grandmother said warmly, rising to the gesture of wiping her dirtied hands on her apron.

"What brings you here? Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Her voice was light, tinged with curiosity but no judgment.

Ningning cast a cursory glance at Winter before looking straight ahead and hurrying, as she presented, "Ah, Grandma, this is Winter."

Her voice was honeyed with sweetness but the tension behind her smile was something only she could feel.

"Winter, this is Mai's grandmother."
Winter smiled and bowed a little. She greeted softly but respectfully.

"Nice to meet you, Grandma."

She laughed, crinkling eyes that narrowed into right-angle corners. "Well, what in tarnation are you girls doin' here in the middle of the day? School's still in session, isn't it?"

She looked at the figure for a moment less than a second, the weight of the lie settling in her, but her voice was bright and cheerful.

"Mai. she's practicing now. We just dropped by to get some stuff from her room. She really needs it."

She could feel the guilt twisting in her belly, knowing all too well that Mai wasn't practicing-or anywhere they could contact her for that matter.

But the grandmother just smiled and nodded, oblivious to the storm that was blowing in behind Ningning's words.

"Oh, I see. She's been so busy lately, that girl," she said, letting out a soft sigh.

"Well, go ahead then. You girls know where her room is."

Ningning forced another smile and bowed her head slightly.

"Thanks, Grandma," she said, her voice a little softer now, touched by the pangs of guilt gnawing at her.

The grandmother waved them toward the house with a motion of her hand, and Ningning led Winter inside. When the door shut behind them, the air was heavier. Ningning took deep breaths; her shoulders tightened. Still clung the soft smell of Mai's perfume in the house; she could have just left.

"Just get it over with," Ningning whispered to Winter, who remained nearly silent in response. Winter nodded and started sweeping the room with her range already prepared to start calculating where to begin.

Mai's bedroom was all kept with care: everything was put in its place, books neatly stacked and clothes folded; it was as if she'd never left. Ningning thought of that a shiver ran through her.

Winter took a step forward toward the desk, where she ran her fingers over the coherently aligned books on the shelf. She opened one and then another, then another, looking for anything—a note, a jotted message, maybe even a clue that can take them closer to Mai.

"Check her journals or any notebooks," she whispered softly, concentrating intently on what she was doing.

Meanwhile, Ningning had wandered down to the floor near Mai's closet, sifting through her belongings with this obscure sense of familiarity.

She was rummaging through some jewelry, albums, and various knickknacks so definitively, unmistakably belonging to Mai—each of them a reminder of her best friend.

As if acting instinctively, she scooped up a stuffed animal and held it tenderly in her hands, as if they quivered. The gravity of the situation was crushing her heart.

"Please, Mai. give us something," she whispered under her breath.

It was a quiet room, except for the gentle rustling of pages from Winter's side. Every single thing was a dead end-nothing was out of place and screaming to be a secret.

But then Winter's hesitation, her focus returning, and she reached into the back of a book and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

"Ningning," she said softly, her voice tensed.

"I think I found something."

Swept delicately out from within the tightly coiled paper was a small, streamlined pen. She turned it over in her hands and let her gaze expand as she read out the scrawled words on it: "Dearest friend". So secret to leave behind for someone Mai knew would be there to see.

"Look at this," Winter murmured, showing it to Ningning.

Tremulously, she leaned forward and touched her aunt to indicate where the pen might be found. Her fingers stroked over the red end of it.

"Why would Mai leave this here?" she whispered, whispering almost as though, no, in fact she couldn't possibly hear anything but everything at once. She threw her nervous look in Winter's direction, then reached up and touched the red button at the end of the pen.

Abruptly, the machine sounded filled in the air, and both girls jumped backward.

"Password," spat a device in the pen like an android voice; the stale silence in the room was broken.
Ningning blinked, staring at the pen in shock as if this piece of plastic and metal had betrayed her.

"Password?" she muttered and puzzled confusion swirled in her mind. She could not even begin to guess what it could be.

Still waving the piece of paper, Winter waved it a little.

"Do you think it has anything to do with 'dearest friend'?" she asked in low but urgent voice. She fixed Ningning with sharp eyes as if she were looking into her face for some glimmer of recognition.

"Do you know what it could mean?"

Ningning furrowed her brow, thinking. That phrase rang no bell in her head. She went around and around on it; if Mai left this for her, surely it would be important, something Ningning must remember. But with each exertion, nothing came. Her head began to ache with the effort, a dull throb pressing behind her eyes.

She let out a heavy sigh and ran her hand through her hair, reminding herself that she's been there, she has to know, she should know. but doesn't. Her voice actually trembled with the weight of what she couldn't do.

"Let's go back to school. We have to meet up with Karina and Giselle anyway. Maybe they can help us get our rocks to figure this out."
Winter nodded, pulling the paper and pen into her pocket carefully.

"Alright, yeah, let's go."

As she and Ningning stepped out of the house, with each step, Ningning's heart weighed a little more. There was Mai's grandmother still doing work on the lawn, her gentle smile as they approached for questions.

"Do you girls find what you need?"

She smiled, then: a forced kind, though everyone knew it barely made it to her eyes.

"Yes, thank you, Grandma," she said softly, her voice kind of shaking under the weight of guilt.

How could she bear to trick this lovely old woman into talking about Mai?

Grandma wiped her hands over her apron and swept them down again to drive the weariness etched on her face home.

"Drop by anytime soon, okay? And don't mention work too much to Mai, hehe," she chortled good-naturedly, a warmth in the warm sound of her voice that almost hurt Ningning with its softness.

As she stepped away, Ningning's chest compressed tight. Only the grandmother's goodness served to worsen the gnawing guilt in her chest and brought tears pricking at the edges of her eyes.

She could see in her heart that Mai might be fine, or that they would never see her again. Please be safe, she thought quietly to herself, praying for her best friend as they trudged back toward school.

Winter trudged wordlessly beside her; the heavy air was heavy with silent horrors. Neither knew what at school awaited them; but both sat waiting, somewhere, somehow, they could find an answer to this growing mystery.