Everyone groups together on the floor next to the walls for some reason, avoiding the center of the room, subconsciously not wanting to draw attention to themselves. Some women are still crying quietly as they hang their heads onto their knees brought up to their chest. Others have grown despairingly silent, not bothering to make a sound.

Ha-neul sits leaning against the wall with Hye-jin resting her head on her lap. Ha-neul strokes Hye-jin's hair to keep her calm. She looks over to the bloody boy lying on his side in the corner of the room to the left of the door. He hasn't moved for almost an hour now. She hopes he isn't dead. Just then he sits up.

"Ah, not dead," Ha-neul thinks to herself, as the boy turns over and rests on his other side on the floor, staring into the corner.

Suddenly a brutish man with a gun appears in the doorway. He walks over to the bloody boy and taps his side with his boot, as if poking him to make sure he's alive. "Get up," the man commands. The boy doesn't stir, so the man grabs him by the hair and stands him up forcefully. "Get up you piece of shit!"

Everyone in the room is startled again as if a wild animal suddenly entered the room, the brutish man's unpredictability causing everyone to feel uncomfortable. The brutish man then leads the boy out of the room past the guard sitting in the chair. After about half an hour the boy returns with fresh blood and bruises on his face. He is tossed back into the corner where he curls up once more into a ball and remains still.

Ha-neul wonders why they're picking on him. She reaches for the crucifix at the end of the rosary around her neck, subconsciously out of fear but consciously her curiosity being agitated. She notices that the boy doesn't look at the rest of the people in the room, doesn't complain about the pain, doesn't even make a sound. He just lies there on his side motionless as if he is already dead. She decides to leave Hye-jin sitting cross-legged by the wall with Na-ra and walks over to him when no one is noticing.

Ha-neul sits next to him by the wall, bringing her knees up to her chest. He is to her left staring into the corner, his legs closest to her. She can see a glimpse of his face, but cannot make it out since his face is covered in blood.

"Are you okay?" Ha-neul asks the boy.

"I feel just fine," he replies in a sarcastic tone, not evening turning to look at Ha-neul.

"I'm Ha-neul," she says discreetly. "I'm sixteen. How old are you?"

"Please, leave me alone," he replies.

Ha-neul is unsure how to continue. "Here, let me wipe your face," she offers.

The boy remains silent. Instead, he puts his arm over his eyes, seemingly falling asleep. Ha-neul sits there by his side, not saying a word. An unknown amount of time passes since there are no windows in the subrooms, only the solitary lightbulb. No one knows if there's still daylight or if it's nighttime already outside.

Just then, one of the women on the opposite side of the room calls out to the guard sitting on the chair outside their door. "Sir! Sir! Can we get some water?" There is no response. The woman tries again, louder this time. "Sir! We need water!"

"Shut the fuck up!" the man grunts from outside the door, not even bothering to look inside.

And so the group remains, with no food or water for perhaps another hour. Finally, the same brutish man from before enters through the door followed by a skinnier man with glasses. The brutish man walks directly over to the boy in the corner and kicks him forcefully in the ribs. Everyone in the room recoils instinctively in self-defense as if they were the ones kicked in the ribs.

"Tell us your contact over the border," the brutish man demands. "No one ever comes through that sector. Just tell us or I'll slit your throat!"

The skinnier man takes a different approach. He adjusts his glasses before saying more calmly to the boy, "This isn't about you. It's about the cartels. We have contacts ourselves, but not that high enough to sneak someone through there. You can go - just give us a name. Let us know who let you through and you're free."

The brutish man replies, "That's not going to work. We already tried giving him the kind treatment." Just then the brutish man spits at the boy still lying on the floor. The two men walk out of the room as if none of the others were even there - or rather, as if the others were merely farm animals and it really didn't matter if they overhead everything.

"It's going to be okay," Ha-neul says.

"No, it's not!" the boy replies, annoyed.

Ha-neul doesn't say a word. Instead, she continues to pat his side. Just then, Hye-jin runs over to the boy and pats him as well.

"Mister, it's okay, we're here," Hye-jin says.

The boy seems to calm down as he lays there silently in the corner with Ha-neul and Hye-jin patting his back, the rest of the group in the room refusing to look at the pitiful scene, instead turning away to worry about their own troubles.