Mia wakes from shallow sleep into the shock of remembering Adam is missing. The morning is shattered by Eugene’s rare, high, piercing scream—far more intense than his usual vocalizations—pulling her back to dread.

She recalls Seoul years earlier: Eugene, once an unusually quiet baby, made his first sound when they discovered their grandmother Harmonee’s fatal stroke, and again the next morning with a plaintive, operatic wail. Afterward his sounds softened into repetitive “splaughs” associated with his autism, making today’s scream stand out as a grim echo of that past trauma.

Back in the present, Mom calms Eugene. Downstairs, Mia insists the scream signals Eugene knows something about Adam; John dismisses it as stress and, in frustration, briefly blames Mia for delays the previous night. A phone call interrupts: the search team has located witnesses who encountered Adam and Eugene, and Detective Janus is coming with a specialist to figure out how to interview Eugene.

They focus on logistics—keeping Eugene regulated, work coverage, canceling therapies—before the interview. The absence of Adam weighs on their long-standing toothbrushing ritual, a family anchor Adam had orchestrated since childhood, which has persisted even into college via group texts.

Seeking connection, Mia texts the ritual’s countdown to Adam. The message is marked read and a typing indicator appears, giving her a surge of hope—until a reply arrives: “Who is this?”