As Yurie walked uphill on her way home from the local bar, she saw Chione standing by her footstep and her bright living room, with the front door open, yawning enough for her to make out a man standing within her house as she approached it faster. 

At first, she thought it was Pacu, but she quickly discovered that the proportions were too stretched to be her mighty friend. And since both legs were there, it could not have been her dear brother. 

Having arrived by the door, Yurie eyed the man from his shaved dirty blond hair, down the back of his jacket, all the way to his polished black shoes.

"May I help you?" said Yurie to announce her unnoticed presence to the stranger standing on her carpet. He turned as she spoke, his heavy gun in a tight grip and his eyes scanning her just as hers had done to him, though with a heavy pinch of condescending mien in his spiteful squint.

"Is this your house?" he asked, with such ignorance that it hardly mattered if it was.

"It is. Did someone let you in?" she said, while her eyes searched the room for Arrakis. Her bedroom door was closed, allowing her to hope that he was still there, on her bed, where she had last seen him.

"The door was wide open," said the man.

"That doesn't answer my question."

"No, ma'am, no one let me in," he admitted without shame.

"No offense but if this is not your house and no one let you in, why are you here?" Yurie asked with the snotty attitude she had not intended, due to her worries over Arrakis as she imagined this stranger's intentions to be in every way related to her brother. And not in a friendly kind.

"My name is Nathaniel O'Brien, I'm with Kepler Space Program, and we are looking for a teenage girl. Fifteen or sixteen years of age, long brown hair. We found her passed out on your doorstep and brought her to the healing lodge, which she escaped from."

"Did she have reason to escape?" Yurie asked as goosebumps crawled up on her stiffly crossed arms. She felt Nathan's appearance highly unwelcoming.

"Not at all," he answered, "She needs treatment. So, do you know her?"

"No, I do not," said Yurie, her mistrust and confidence strong enough to allow her lie to remain undiscovered.

"Do you have any idea why she was passed out at your house?" Nathan asked suspiciously.

"No, sir. Is that all?"

"Not quite," Nathan glanced at Yurie's unsettling eyes and followed their looks to the closed bedroom door. "Does anyone else live with you?"

By his tone alone she knew he implied Arrakis, but how or why Nathan thought of him, she could not say.

"No," said Yurie, yearning to insulate her brother from the trouble he was possibly in. 

From their childhood, she had learned to make up fictional stories to alibi her denying brother's crimes, though with time's passing, she learned her soul was too sweet to protect him from punishment. Still, this time she could not keep herself from worrying about his troubles and chose to lie for his sake once more.

"Then you won't mind if I take a look around," Nathan said and made his steps toward the door to her bedroom. 

He already touched its rusty handle when Yurie could not hold back her fear of him finding Arrakis. If it was true that Nathan was seeking Lena, then Yurie had nothing to lose. If her disappearance was related to her brother, however, she could only attempt to embellish her lie.

"Actually," She said and Nathan's arm ceased motion when the door had created a slim slit. "I do mind."

Yurie keeked surreptitiously and saw no sign of Arrakis. Nathan did not spy through the gap. By choice, he looked at Yurie, patient to hear her reason.

"You are not a guard," she contended, the three mat letters KSP along his black polyester jacket sleeve had reminded her of that. "You have no right to snoop around."

Whenever Nathan was not given what he wanted, his face adapted to a certain expression, so stern and sculpted by aversion that one could be afraid it would freeze over like the surface of a wintry puddle.

"My apologies," said Nathan, subconsciously pining for her to comprehend that he felt no regret at all. She was not fooled by his words, however, she knew that sharing her frustration with him would only feed his fire, therefore, she chose to smile and pardon him.

Before he walked out, Yurie asked if it was a necessity to carry a gun as he scoured their town for the girl, and to his expected answer, he cared to add: "The girl's friend is, unlike her, still at the healing lodge, recovering from a gunshot. You might want to stay inside until we find her and the shooter."

Yurie shut the door upon Nathan's departure but waited only till he exited her sight, to make her leave. 

She had her own theories, based on Nathan's short tale, about the disastrous events that may have played out as she sat in The Knight's Night Tales, Payden's tavern. She had been clueless, joyfully drinking her favorite fizzy beer called Fallen Sword (a drink served as an icicle), but that the girl's mentioned friend was no other than Finn, she was certain. And if her theories came close to the truth, then Finn would surely know where Arrakis had disappeared to, and, as she feared most, whether he was the said shooter.

The village lay in silence, as soundlessly as a single perfect snowflake's fall, while the annual darkness hosted its burning stars aloft the sea. At the horizon, where water kissed the dark blue sky, a third moon slowly claimed the night and poured its heavenly light over the black rocks at the shore. 

Yurie's walk was quiet; only the snow beneath her soles crunched and squeaked, but as she walked along the shore, the sounds were drowned by calm crashing waves and mild blowing winds, allowing her to sneak past Nathan and inside the lodge.

If it wasn't for his white hair peeking up, Yurie would have walked right past Finn. He was in the room in which Lena had rested earlier, and on the orange door's upper half, a small window let her see him pacing in small circles. 

She already infiltrated the room and confronted Finn about her brother before she registered that Finn was not alone. Fortunately, in her short speech about worries and queries she had not delivered her Arrakis' name. 

When she took notice of Day, she forged the smile of a most innocent and pure child and excused her unannounced entrance. She greeted Day with a timid hi.

His mouth outspread, he gaped at her wavy coffee-brown bob cut, delicate small nose, and olive eyes. Her eyebrows inclined slightly as she saw him gawking at her, and when she received no answer, though an awkward stare, so lost that it could tunnel holes into the air, she looked by Day's shoulder, over at Finn, who seemed just as puzzled as her.

Mesmerized by Yurie's sudden display of beauty, he managed to mouth what looked like hi.

"I'm Yurie."

"Yurie," iterated Day like a doped parrott.

"Can he speak words of his own?" Yurie asked Finn indignantly.

At length, Day snapped out of his trance and fixed his posture to be candle-straight. "I'm Dr. Dae-Hyun Choe, pleasure to meet you."

She shook his hand, no less puzzled. "You're a doctor? I have never seen you here before."

His shoulders made a quick bounce in combination with a crooked smile, partially showing his angle-white teeth, "That's 'cause I'm not from here. I'm also an astronaut."

Yurie gave Day a smile, but it faded the moment she turned her back at him to exchange whispers with Finn. Day's mind was too absent to pay any attention to their conversation.

"Finn, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, what are you doing here?"

"I heard what happened. Who is at fault?"

"Take a guess," said Finn, tacitly.

She squeezed her lips together as her suspicion was confirmed. "Where is he now?"

"He took off after shooting my father." His voice was barely audible, but his anger and pain she could hear just fine.

"I'm worried about him," Yurie caught a quick glimpse at Day, who smiled and waved at her like a sweet zombie, drunk from a wicked love potion. "I need to protect my brother and hide him somewhere safe. Can you tell me where he went?"

"No," Finn made sure Day was still deaf and stupefied, "but I can show you. You just have to smuggle me out of here without him noticing."

"I don't think that'll be a problem," said Yurie, then made an elegant spin to face her admirer. "Astronaut, you said?" she moved closer to Day, while Finn moved closer to the door. "You don't meet those often. Tell me, Dae-Hyun, what is it like up there, in zero-G." Her fingertips caressed the logo on Day's sleeve, wandering upward, her eyes kept his captive in a luring and irresistible manner. "Paint an image for my mind."

He tittered and began to tell her about the life of an astronaut. 

"Space is like a lucid dream. We go through a lot of training to prepare our bodies for the gravitational changes, and as a certified surgeon, I must say it is a challenge to perform any sort of medical operations without gravity as my assistant. But," he smirked and let his eyes study her lips, "I'm the youngest of my field."

Finn left in a stealthy manner before torturing his ears with the remains of Day's boastful job description. His one foot frozen on the first step of the stairs, Finn could not proceed any further. 

Looking back at the end of the hallway, his mind was as if drawn by an invisible force, attached to an orange door. It was ordinary. In every aspect was it indistinguishable to the dozen other doors, but to Finn, it was unique in every way. It was the door leading to his father. 

Finn made the risky decision to make a stop there, to speak his first goodbye, before meeting Lena to utter the next. All his actions lay in the hands of Yurie and the hopes that she could stall Day for a couple of minutes.