Double update today! (because this one is short and i'd feel bad using it as a real update) Enjoy!

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DAY 13

                Today was the first day you walked in late.

You’d stood outside the building for a solid hour this morning, convincing yourself to walk back in.

                You are worthy to walk back in. You are more than they gave you credit for. Just because Mr. Im thought of you as nothing, that didn’t mean you were. He’d tried to- but you’d got away. You were safe. He wouldn’t be trying again in a hurry. You had the upper hand now, you could got to the police. You told yourself everything you could think of, but it still didn’t dispel the cold that had settled inside you ever since you scampered from the interrogation room this morning, breaking the seal of Chen’s arms around you-

                You flushed as you thought of it, forcing the memories away, forcing yourself to think of something else, anything else.

                Like his strange walking pattern, you’d run it over in your mind again and again this morning, then you’d recognised.

Slow shuffling across the room for 30 seconds. Turning 180. Waiting still for 17 seconds. Walking for 45 seconds, turning right. Repeat. The route from Chen’s room, to Xiumin’s. It brought up questions, what was he planning, what had Xiumin told him? Questions like this helped, they helped occupy your mind for a brief second of peace, let you feel like today was just another day of trying to unravel whatever nonsense Chen had spewed out that day. Somehow in all of this, Chen, a hardened criminal, had become your normal.

                You tried to keep your frustration at bay, frustration at the fact that you weren’t sure that there was anything you could actually do about it. Mr. Im was well respected, he’d made a name for himself, everyone knew him. And you, you were a kid from the third floor who was apparently sleeping your way to the top, if you tried to claim that Mr. Im had harassed you, no one would believe you. It was his word against yours, and you were sure that Sora and Yoona would be the first to speak out against you.

But you’d done the most work of anybody here, you were the one who figured out about Ha-Young. You were the one who’d gained Chen’s trust. You were the one who knew what they were doing on the night of the arrest! You’d done it all, all by yourself! Without their discipline, without their help, you’d earned your place here more than any of them.

                You strode into the building, resolve firm that you weren’t about to let him ruin your career. You were up on the sixth floor before you knew it.

                “You left early.” He said, watching you carefully. “I didn’t wake up.”

                “I know.” You said, you’d been careful to let him keep sleeping, for your own dignity if nothing else, wanting to escape the potentially awkward situation ASAP.

                “Tell me what happened.” Chen said, coming to sit with you, “your meeting go badly?”

                You’d almost forgotten that you’d told him you had a meeting. You pursed your lips, wanting to say nothing on the topic.

                “Did I get you in trouble with your boss?” He pressed.

                You grit your teeth before letting out a breath, “something like that.”

                You were both silent for a moment.

                “Remember that first day, when you said no one else was listening, was that true?” He asked, looking curiously at you.

                You nodded, “I haven’t lied to you.”

                “Huh.” He commented, sitting back in his chair. “How come you haven’t told them anything?” He asked, “because you haven’t, or I’d be in a real cell by now.”

                The air was tense, he’d basically just given you an admission of guilt, this was real. You could dust your hands of him with a statement like that. But you could only answer as you did, “You haven’t shown me anything worth arresting you for.”

                How would he read that? That he hadn’t given you any information, that you hadn’t read as deeply into his words as he’d expected? Or that you’d heard what he’d said, and deemed it not criminal, not worth of imprisonment. That in your opinion, he was someone who deserved to go free?

“I used to have this apartment downtown,” he said, leaning back in his chair and breathing easy, “you’ve all raided in but I was long gone by then. No one ever used to look for me there. I graffitied a wall when I was a kid, and I hid there for days in case the cops were looking for me.” He laughed, “I was so naïve back then. It was a tiny little thing, the only way to get to it is this dodgy fire escape on the side of the building and through a window.”

                “What about your home?” You asked, “and your family?”

                He shrugged, “they moved. I don’t know where they are.”

                You looked at him, “they left you behind.”

                “Doesn’t matter. I’ve got a new family now.”

                You thought of the relaxed way he’d held himself when talking with Xiumin, the way that none of them had showed even a hint of breaking. Did they all have stories like this? Were they all each other had? They were more than a gang, they were more than criminals, Chen was right, they were a family.

                “It sounds nice.” You said, honestly. You didn’t have much contact with your family either, they didn’t approve of your career choice, they wanted you to get married. Hei-Ran and Yun-Hee were your family. Family was something you could choose for yourself, you understood that.

                “It is.” He said. He looked back to you, “you’ve been good to us. I know you stood up for us, Xiumin told me.”

                When? How had you not even been able to decode when they were talking about you? Obviously, they had more practice at this than you.

                You shrugged, not knowing what to say, “It was the right thing to do.”

                “Not the smartest.” He grinned, and you conceded that. “but appreciated, we won’t forget it.”

                Why was he talking like this, it sounded like a goodbye? Were they breaking out? Were they planning something? What else had Xiumin told him that none of you had recognised?

                But should you really try to decode it? Should you try to keep him here, or should you keep quiet, let them leave?

                “How dangerous are you?” You asked, needing him to answer you, needing to calm your conscience from your decision.

                “Dangerous.” He conceded, “but only to people who are just as bad.”

                He wasn’t helping. You needed him to tell you that he wasn’t dangerous, that if you stood aside that you could know you weren’t unleashing him on the world, that his future crimes weren’t on you. But you weren’t going to get it, this was something you had to decide, this was something you were going to struggle with either way. This was the real test, you’d stuck to your morals so far, now you had to decide what you really believed.

                As you left you went to pick up your recorder from the table in the observation room, only to realise it wasn’t there. You hadn’t turned it on. It was still in your bag in your office. It hadn’t even crossed your mind. You turned back to look at Chen through the glass. He was still sat where you’d left him at the table, eyes looking into the distance, a future you couldn’t see.