The boy looked away as if he'd been burned.
"You..."
The police officer's expression was serious.
"Do you not remember which car you locked your little sister in?"
The officer's question struck everyone like a thunderclap.
The woman swayed.
The man hurriedly reached out to steady his wife.
"N-no, you don't remember?"
The woman's voice was hoarse.
"You... don't remember which car you locked Linlin in?"
"...Really?"
This child... how could he be... so terrifying?
The woman trembled slightly.
He had locked his own little sister inside a sealed car.
His sister was still so young.
He was already old enough to know better.
Didn't he know that someone could suffocate in an enclosed space?
How could he do something so cruel?
And yet...
In the end... he'd actually told her he didn't remember which car he'd locked his sister in?
Was this... some kind of joke?
This child really...
"You really... wanted your sister to die..."
The woman's voice was broken and distant.
Her expression was complicated, obscure, impossible to read.
As soon as the boy met the woman's gaze, it was as if something sharp had stabbed him hard.
It hurt.
He instinctively closed his eyes.
Tears of sheer physical reaction dampened his eyes.
No.
He refuted her words in his heart.
He hadn't wanted his sister to die.
At the time, he'd really only wanted his sister to stop following him...
He'd just been so irritated...
The boy had so much he wanted to say.
But the woman's presence kept him from uttering a sound.
"You really don't remember which car it was?"
The man's gaze was like a blade.
His whole body was rigid.
He seemed to be suppressing something with all his might.
"Not even the general area?"