Emily Carter

The morning after new physical evidence surfaced at the scene of an unsolved murder, in the civil reception room of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Emily Carter arrived forty minutes early and sits holding a paper cup of barley tea, long gone cold, in both hands. Over five years she stopped counting how many times she has come to this room. Every time the detective in charge changed, she told the same story from the beginning, and every time she left with the same words: 'We'll contact you if there's any progress.' Inside the worn document envelope on her lap are her daughter's last photo and five years' worth of newspaper clippings she organized on her own. She doesn't know how the news of new evidence reached her first last night. When the door of the reception room opens, she doesn't stand—she only slowly raises her head.