It was a sound like nothing I had ever heard.
A sharp, sickening crack echoed across the lake, and for a brief, terrifying moment, everything seemed to freeze in place. Jiwon’s laughter died instantly, replaced by a sharp scream. My heart stopped as I saw her legs give way beneath her, her body falling forward. She slipped beneath the surface of the ice with a sickening crash.
“Jiwon!” Wyn shouted, his voice full of horror.
“Jiwon!” Beck called out, kneeling over the gaping hole in the ice.
Wyn didn’t even think—he just moved, skating toward the spot where she had fallen. My mind raced, my heart hammering in my chest, but it all felt like I was watching from the outside. Bae stood there speechless and in shock.
The ice groaned beneath Wyn as he reached the edge where the hole had opened, water bubbling up from below, dark and cold.
“Wyn, stop!” I shouted, my voice frantic as I pulled him back. “Don’t go near the edge!”
But he couldn’t stop. His eyes were locked on the spot where Jiwon had disappeared, his breath coming in short, sharp bursts. Wyn had reached the hole immediately, his body already plunging into the freezing water, his face a mask of desperation and terror.
“Jiwon! Jiwon, where are you?” he shouted, his voice raw and broken before he submerged beneath the icy blue.
“What happened?” Yesoh asked wobbling on the ice, she couldn’t skate at all. She took off the skates and remained in socks.
“I—-I didn’t mean to. I just—-” Bae’s voice trembled.
My breath caught in my throat. The ice groaned again, louder now, and for a moment, I thought it might split open completely, swallowing us all. But Wyn didn’t care. He came up for breaths every so often.
“Is he crazy?” Sydney contemplated wanting to move forward but Jax held her back.
“Wynter, please!” Beck screamed.
“Wyn!” I shouted, grabbing his arm, trying to pull him back. “The ice, it’ll break more. You can’t—”
“She’s under there!” he screamed, his voice cracking. “I have to get her! She’s my sister! She’s under there!”
His head was under again.
But the ice was already starting to crack around him. I could see it. I could feel the weight of the danger in my bones, but I couldn’t make myself pull him away. I couldn’t stop him from diving deeper into the black water, his arms flailing as he searched for her. He moved to a place where the ice was frozen above him, and Beck sobbed.
“He won’t be able to come up for air,” she cried.
Yesoh moved forward despite how scared she obviously was and used her skate and her hands to break the ice above him. Her hands bloodied and fists raging red. I didn’t recognize her, it was as though this sheer instinct to save him had washed over her. I didn’t even bother to stop her.
Wynter does not know this though—that night Yesoh saved his life. She’s the only reason he was able to come back up for air.
Jiwon’s small, frozen form was there, somewhere beneath the water. The cold felt like it could swallow her whole, and I couldn’t even hear her anymore. I couldn’t see her. All I could hear was Wyn’s frantic voice calling her name, his hands reaching further, deeper. His heart was breaking in real time. He wouldn’t stop, not until she was safe, not until he could pull her from the cold, from the black, icy grip that threatened to take her away.
I saw it—his face, his eyes wide with terror, the streak of anger in them as his hands desperately searched for her. There was nothing but the darkness of the water, and his tears mixed with the ice, freezing his pain into something cold, something unrelenting.
And then… I saw Jiwon’s hand.
Her fingers, pale and limp, barely above the surface. Wyn didn’t wait. He reached, stretching himself as far as he could. He pulled her free, and I could see the terror and the exhaustion on his face as he yanked her from the depths. Beck covered her youngest sister’s eyes.
“It’s all my fault, it’s all…” Bae repeated.
“Shhh, nothing is your fault,” Beck comforted, terrified herself.
So you see, Bae was only fifteen, she was just a kid who got into a heated argument on thin ice. It wasn’t like she pushed her six feet under, it was an accident and we all saw that. We also knew Jiwon wouldn’t want to have her little sister go through interrogations. We told the police weweren’tthere. We told them we just found Jiwon, already gone, her body cold. The truth never left our lips.
But I knew. We all knew. The truth was that we were there when she fell. We saw the ice break beneath her, beneath us all. We heard her scream, watched her vanish into the dark water. And we did nothing.
We were scared. Scared of the consequences. Scared of losing everything, we were all working so hard towards, scared of losing each other. But most of all scared for Bae, scared she would blame herself for the rest of her life for that argument with her sister. So we lied. We buried it.
