“You wanna know the story, Doc?” She asked enrolling her tongue again. “You wanna know why your little inmate is a ing bastard?”

I looked away, feeling angry that she was calling Taeyeon a bastard. “I told you not to trust her! But you didn't listen to me! And now look at you, Doc?” She scoffed. “Caught in whatever black magic she's cast.”

“She's not a witch, Yuri.” Her drunken state was making things up.

“She is, Doc! She MUST BE!” She shouted, saliva being spatting out of out of anger. “She's always there… making people fancy her!” I twisted my lips. “And it doesn't matter how many she kills and hurts and breaks, there's always someone liking her back!” She gritted her teeth. “It's not fair, Doc.” She said leaving a tear stream down. “There are people who are good and righteous you know… who never take the wrong path...” I closed my eyes feeling what she had just said have an extra weight on me. “And yet… they end up alone.” My heart pumped harder. “It's not fair.”

“Is that why you hate her?” I finally asked her after a couple of seconds in silence. “Because she gets people to like her…?”

And again silence was set between us.

“You know when...” She started saying, looking at the ceiling. “You're caught in the middle of a crossroad? You don't know where to go or where you would end up. You just need to take one path and go on.” I blinked finding interesting in how she was talking. I love metaphors. “There's two ways, one on your right and the other on your left. You spend a couple minutes deciding which one to take, and then finally, you start walking, following the path you chose. But then, sometimes, while walking along the way you picked, you start to wonder what would have happened if you had picked the other one instead… What if I had taken the left instead of the right? Where would have it led me to?”

I kept quiet, finding her words actually hit me. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn't came to Korea. What would have happened if I had chosen to be a business woman like my father wanted me to be? Where I would have been now?

“I picked right.” Yuri spoke again. “Taeyeon picked left.” “I'm an officer, she's an inmate. She's the path I never took. She's the cigarette I never smoke; the lie I never told; the bank I never stole; the killing I never did. We are day and night, Taeyeon and I.” That was kinda powerful to be honest.

“Taeyeon… is everything I am not.” I frowned my brows. “She's the answer for my question 'What would have happened to me if I had taken left?' But despite all her wrongdoing and brutal crimes, she's very… likeable. She's mad and dangerous… yet… she's... she has this...witchcraft...to make people like her. I, on the other hand… never had it… even if I am...a righteous person. I am an officer. I'm the law and the rules and the justice...but… people don't like me.”

I twisted my lips, my heart just aching for her words. “Yuri...”

“Taeyeon used to say I am boring. Back then when I was around her section, she would've tried talk to me and I just yelled at her to shut up. 'Aish, how can you be so… boring, Yuri? You're annoying, you know. You're a pretty woman, you're suppose to be nice! But dang, so boring…'

“I'm sorry to hear that.”

“I had just came to the Asylum. Back then, Eugene was the only female officer of the place. She was nice, very professional and she taught me all I needed to know. But Eugene was married and eventually, she ended up being pregnant. She decided to quit so she could focus on taking care of her child and family. I don't really blame her, I understand. The Asylum is not a place for pregnant women.” I nodded my head, still quiet. “After she quit, I became the only female officer of the place. I was a freshman, I was single, I was . Those things seem to please men.”

I gulped a bit nervous and I prayed for God that Yuri wasn't ually harassed or something.

“I talked to old man SM and asked him to put me in a place where it would make me feel more comfortable. Back then there were sections reserved for females residents only. So, I was put there. Most of my shifts used to happen in those sections and units. Three days a week my night shifts happened exactly around Taeyeon's section. I also was the officer leading her to her interviews. That was the time when she tried talking to me. She tried telling stupid jokes so I could laugh, I would just tell her to shut the up.” “For months she's done that and I never told her anything other than shut up. I was determined to show Lee Soo Man some service. That though I was a woman, I wasn't soft.”

I started picturing in my head all those events going on. Taeyeon gibberish talks with Yuri while going to her sessions, Yuri telling her to shut up, how Yuri would do anything to show how professional she was.

“While in recreation time, Taeyeon would've come and be around me, pissing me off. She spent her recreation time blabbing things to me. She started following me wherever I went, I got angry at that. It was like she couldn't do anything else other than pissing me off. 'Leave me alone, Inmate!' She used to just scoff and reply 'But you need company.' Well I didn't need hers.” I chuckled a small lopsided smile.

“One day… while leading her to her session with Dr. Shin, Taeyeon told me 'Ho Sung has an eye on you, officer.'”My eyes opened a tad wider. Ho Sung? Was he already at the Asylum? “I found weird she was telling me that, most of times all she ever says are jokes, riddles and made up stories. I never took her seriously. But when she told me that, she added 'Be careful with him.'

That made my heart beat faster, afraid.

“He was one of the general doctors of the place. Kinda like Seohyun and Kyuhyun are today. Except that, it was only him that time in the position.” I stood quiet. “Sometimes, when at the refectory having lunch, Ho Sung came talking to me. I kinda noticed he was interested in me. But I wasn't interested in him. I never was. I never was into men.” I caressed her arm, comforting her. “I always kept it to myself. They must never know, I used to tell. No one must know! But though I was aware of my disease, I never really got me into relationships, not even with other girls.”

I didn't like she said it was a disease. It's not healthy to think this way, moreover, it wasn't right. But I didn't say anything. I just stood quiet, respecting her silence and her words.

“One day, on recreation time, he came to me and said he wanted to talk in privacy. I was kinda preparing myself mentally to tell him I didn't like him that way. He led me to his office, and when I told him how I really felt…He didn't take a no for an answer…”

She stopped talking, and I prayed for God that it didn't happen what I was thinking.

“Yuri...”

“He kissed me.” She backed up. “He kissed me forcefully, and I swear to God I never felt so disgusted. I felt nauseous, my guts twisting around inside me, making me really close to throw up. I pushed him away, never wanting so hard to cleanse my mouth, tongue, and throat.” I squeezed her hand. “Even though I had pushed him, he kissed me a second time. I guess he thought me pushing him away was just me in denial to my true feelings or whatever. Or maybe because I had pushed him away he just got . Some men like fierce and feisty women, like those ones that spank them with a whip or something like that. I don't know.”

“I'm so sorry, Yuri...” I said picturing the scene. God, that was so gross.

“He started kissing my neck and I loathed it. So bad, Doc. I don't think I could loath something so bad in my entire life. And when I felt him trying ping my pants -” I gasped, covering my mouth ajar with my hands. “I grabbed the electrifying gun in my belt and I shot him, making him fall to the floor. I was still revolted and with my feet, I stomped his nose.”

Oh.

So… That's why Ho Sung has a crooked nose. Yuri broke his nose. Take that, scumbag!

“But before I could leave that office, he got up, pressing myself against the wall. The blood of his nose was touching my face and I grimaced in distaste. He threatened me. If I tell anyone, he would come kill me.” I closed my eyes feeling my repugnance gets higher.

I gulped hard. “Yuri… I...”

“I had no other choice than obey. I didn't tell Lee Soo Man of that incident.”

“You should have! He would have been fired, Yuri! Even before he could do something to you!”

“I was scared.” It was then that I got carried away with the story. I wasn't there to judge her actions, I was there to listen and respect. I muttered an apology. “He's a doctor, he could just dope me and kill me and still say it wasn't his fault. Everyone will believe him.”

“You never really told anyone?”

“Just one.” And she looked at me. “I told… Kim Taeyeon.”

I frowned my brows. “Taeyeon?”

“She advised me to be careful. And all those days she had followed saying that “you need company” was to prevent me from being alone with him.” My eyes enlarged. “Somehow I felt like if someone should know it had to be her. So I told her. I thanked her.”

I didn't know what to say.

“After that… Something changed… I don't know. Something just...clicked.” My heart though it was beating a little bit proud. “And after that incident, upon leading Kim to her sessions one more time, she made another stupid joke.” I heard her giggle, her eyes gleaming with tears. I chuckled for her reaction. “God, it was so stupid!” I laughed louder. She was still laughing, her cheeks pink-ish due to alcohol. “But that was when I, for the first time ever, laughed at her jokes.” She used her hands to wipe her tears. “Eventually, I stopped telling her to shut up. She started asking me questions and I would just reply. I started talking to her.” I smiled. “And I caught myself enjoying it.”

“Days and weeks and months passed like this. We weren't close like friends, but we weren't distant either. We just liked talking to one another.” I asked myself if this wasn't the case with Taeyeon and I.

“One day, one of the officers, Kris, was caught smuggling some drugs in, so he was fired.”

I gulped, remembering of my situation. The same could happen to me if they find out I gave sweets to inmates. Especially as regularly as it was to Taeyeon.

“When Kris left, I asked Lee Soo Man if he could hire more female officers. I told him I felt insecure and lonely. He decided to open two more vacancies. One for female officers only. And that was when I met Soyeon.”

I assumed she was talking about her girlfriend. I didn't know she was an officer as well. “I found her attractive since first sight, but I did everything I could so she wouldn't know about my… preference.” It must be tough for Yuri, to live hiding herself like this. “Months have passed and all I did was just looking at her. Admiring her. I couldn't talk to her properly, I was afraid she could tell I was...gay.” I knew how hard it was for her to say that word out loud like this. I knew how hard it was for her to tell me all that story. I squeezed her hand, giving her comfort and support.

“Taeyeon is smart and it didn't take long to her realize that. Whenever I was heading her to her sessions, she would ask me about the other officer. One of those times, she said 'You like girls, don't you, officer?' I said I didn't, she just scoffed. 'I've met girls like you before, Yuri. Girls who happen to like girls. You're not that different.' I denied again and she said 'This is why you're boring, Yuri. You don't accept who you are. Always serious, angry, with this iness in your face. Get a to be on your face, Yuri. It'll be fun. You will like it.'” Yuri chuckled.

“She said she could make Officer Soyeon be interested in me. She said she could make her like me.” She twisted her lips. “And I guess she did. I don't know, Soyeon started talking to me, asking me to have lunch with her and stuff. Day by day we got closer and closer. I realized I fell in love with her. Kim realized that too. And she kinda helped me to have the strength to tell Soyeon how I felt. So I told her. And she told me she felt the same.”

“We started dating, hidden from everyone else, no one should know. No one must know. The only person to know about it was Kim Taeyeon.” She sighed. “We dated for months and she made me feel alive. She made me feel brave and proud.” I smiled, kinda happy for her. “Lee Soo Man was impressed with me and she decided to give me a promotion. Everything was working perfectly fine. I had a girlfriend, an awesome one, I had a promotion and I could have the chance to be the warden when SM retired.” She stopped talking for a minute.

“Because I was promoted, my shifts changed and now, it was Soyeon who had three shifts around Taeyeon's section. She was the officer leading her to her interviews.” My heart beat louder. “And that was when she started to change. She used to be very professional, but then she started to be sloppy and not being so serious about it. I noticed she started talking about Kim Taeyeon more often and how she seemed to be like a good person.” And I gulped hard because Yuri shifted her gaze towards me. “She started to defend her from other officers and doctors. And whenever Taeyeon was headed to the SHU, Soyeon would ask old man SM to cover the unit.”

I looked away, knowing exactly what was happening.

“When Taeyeon killed Dr. Shin...” My eyes enlarged upon hearing that. Dr. Shin! So that was the doctor who Taeyeon killed! “Before going to the SHU again, she was headed to the medical center to have some brain examinations. She just had an episode of hers and Ho Sung wanted to know how her brain worked during that time. She spent a few days there. And that was when I saw it.” She chewed her inner cheeks, rather angrily. “I saw them.” She cried a tear. “Through the camera surveillance of the room, I saw them… doing it.” I closed my eyes, crying a tear as well. “I saw her… my girlfriend… her name, yearning for it.”

Oh, God.

That hit me hard. Oh God, it is so heartbreaking! My voice died and I couldn't say anything.

“I pretended I didn't see it. For months I kept telling myself that was just a silly mistake, that she didn't know what was doing. But I knew it. I knew that every time Soyeon asked to cover the SHU, I knew they were doing it. She cheated on me, Doc.” I gulped again. “She cheated on me with an inmate. She cheated on me with Taeyeon. Taeyeon cheated on me. She stabbed on my back.”

“I..I'm so sorry… Yuri...”

“I guess Soyeon had a great time. I was her safe girlfriend while she had that inmate as a lover. Dating an officer and an inmate! Ha! What a