The truth of the matter was this. Kim Sung Gyu was a careless who put the blame on others for the poor life choices he’d made.

Of course, the position at the legislation ministry wasn’t something that he was appointed out of the blue. He went through the usual protocol, and he was elected. And to be elected he needed to have run for the election; and that was the poor life choice that he made. Kim Sung Gyu thought that he was indeed a good enough candidate to take over half the responsibilities of the legislation despite his age and expertise. He’d had his parents telling him countless times to reconsider what he was about to do. His sister had come over to his place, her six months old child held against her hip and all the way from their hometown, trying to persuade him to change his mind. He was overconfident, perhaps. He was indeed just so sure of himself at that time. Now that he’d come here and as the reality loomed about him like dark sardonic ghosts, he came to understand that what he’d always been all this time was not confident or strong. He’d been an .

He’d always been an , and he’d always known that. He lived by his own rules. He never broke a single law, alright; that was his rule for life. But he was one of those terrible people who wouldn’t feed the homeless and who wouldn’t take an overcrowded tube just for the inconvenience that it caused him. He hated it when poor and old people stood outside the subway entrance giving out leaflets. He hated it when small children stared up at him expectantly on the street as their balloons got stuck in the branches of a tree. He never realised that the world would get back to him for all the wrong that he did. He’d thought he’d done enough good things to compensate for the he’d always been. But surely that wasn’t the case.

The only good that he supposed he’d done was taking in his sister’s ginger tabby cat. After her son was born and after it was diagnosed that he was allergic to them, Jieun had no choice but to give the cat away. Momo wasn’t a particularly friendly cat. She was fat and evil and somehow, she reminded him so much of himself. The only reason Sung Gyu actually did take her in was to show that he was capable of commitment. He hated it now that most of the poor choices he’d made had been to prove a point to someone or to himself.

When he returned home that evening, lagging two grocery bags in his hands, he found Momo napping outside the door, rolled like a cinnamon bun on the carpeted floor. There’d been odd occasions when Momo sneaked out of the house and returned home by her own will, and he wouldn’t have been so worried or surprised. Tonight, however, he felt the distinctive shift in that more than usual event. For one, Momo was having seasonal allergies so she was soundly asleep in his bed when he left home that morning, so she wouldn’t have gotten out of the house. Secondly, she would only leave house in such circumstances only on one instance; she’d been scared off.

Concerned, Sung Gyu slowly entered the passcode and waited for the door to unlock. It did so with a beep, and he stepped inside, the motion sense lights coming to life. It was only then that he realised; his hunch had been right. He’d sensed that something was definitely wrong the moment he’d returned home. And he was right. Everything was wrong.

Sung Gyu forced the cat back inside, dumped the grocery bags and fled out of the house. He knew just one person who had access to his house. And he knew that they had a whole reason too. Sung gyu perhaps always knew the woman had something fishy going on in her dual personality of a life. . Sung Gyu should have stopped associating with her from the beginning itself.

He reached her flat and so much as bashed onto the door with all his might. She had to be home by now, although he’d left her behind in the grocery store. He waited patiently for one, two seconds. Then he heard footsteps. He felt blood boiling in his veins. Not only did she have an insufferable trap of a mouth, she also was a lying wench.

The door opened, and Jung Hyerim, with her hair in a towel turban, poked her head out. “Hello Kim. What’s up?”

Sung Gyu took a deep breath, and he was calm when he spoke although underneath, he was struggling to stop himself from strangling her then and there. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

There was a beat of silence, and Hyerim raised her brows. “I was what?”

“My flat”

Hyerim still gazed at him, appearing perplexed and shook her head. “I’m not quite following you”

Sung Gyu pushed open the door and grabbed hold of her hand. If it was an insufferable lying she was going to continue being, he wasn’t going to tolerate her either. “Come here I’ll show you” he growled under his breath and dragged her all the way back to his flat.

His entire home was flipped upside down. The furniture were flipped over, cushions thrown about. The tiled floor was littered with dozens and dozens of papers, old legal documents and some of the other work he’d brought home. His flat was open planned so from his living room to the office to the bedroom, everything’s been pulled apart; it was as if an entire storm had rolled inside. Sung Gyu knew what that meant. The police had raided his home.

“Oh god” Was Hyerim’s initial reaction upon seeing the state of his house. She stepped inside carefully, her arms held up and threading through the mess, her eyes cautiously detecting the inside. But Sung Gyu was not about to be convinced by her. Jung Hyerim could play two personalities within a day. It wasn’t so difficult for her to act so clueless, surely.

“It was you wasn’t it? You and your team raided my home without my ing permission” Sung Gyu bellowed at her. Eunji was quiet for a moment, almost contemplative, and turned to face him. “Kim. We do not ‘raid homes’ like you put it, we investigate, and that’s only if we’ve gotten a warrant. We didn’t and we wouldn’t until...” She let out a sigh and turned back into the house. She had transformed back into the serious officer that she was. “Kim, I think you’ve been attacked”

Sung Gyu blinked. “What?”

“Somebody’s after you” She said, now carefully looking through the items that’s been strewn about. “Did you touch anything inside?”

Sung Gyu took a deep breath. “Now? Nothing except for the cat and the grocery”

“Good” Said Hyerim and made her way back to him. “Grab the cat and the grocery and come over to my place”

“Now?”

“Now. We need to bring in a swat team”

Within minutes, an entire swat team as well as Hyerim’s team of investigators were in his flat, walking through everything that used to be his home. He was interrogated by one of the Officers and he had to make sure he didn’t let out Hyerim’s identity and the truth about their relationship as he carefully answered all the questions. The officer recorded all his statements, and he watched the small recording device nervously, his mind in a whirlwind. Once all was done, Hyerim returned to the headquarters and sent him a text with the passcode to her home. Sung Gyu was too shocked and distraught to even decide what he should do next. He stayed in her apartment, the cat resting in his lap, and in his mind, he wondered all the possibilities.

Somewhere deep into the night, Hyerim returned home. It was by the sound of the door beeping that he finally woke up; he didn’t even realise that he’d dozed off through his troubled train of thoughts. Hyerim walked past him briskly, almost as if she’d forgotten him ever being in there and proceeded to take off her coat. It was then that he realised that she had indeed forgotten of his presence in her home.

Sung Gyu cleared his throat.

“Oh my, you gave me a real shock” Hyerim clutched her chest.

“What happened?” Sung Gyu launched, ignoring her, and upon his question Hyerim hurriedly approached him and settled on the coffee table before him. She was almost slightly his height as she sat there, only because Sung Gyu remained hunched down. But her aura, so different from usual was almost intimidating him.

“So, we cleared out the whole place. Not wired nor bugged. As the documents were everywhere, strewn about, we suspect that’s what intruder came for” She explained.

“Documents?” Sung Gyu furrowed his brows. “Did you find anything unusual?”

“Well except for that whole mess, not really. There are no finger prints except for yours, so I suppose they left no trace”

“Documents” Sung Gyu repeated to himself contemplatively and divulged into his own thoughts. What documents could they possibly be after? It’s been six years since he left his job at the court, and although he’d brought lots of things from work, he hardly doubted that he brought home anything that actually had anything to do with the cases he dealt with. On the other hand, he was pretty sure that there’d never ben a case that he’d discussed with the others. Sung Gyu used to work in civil affairs, which were all pretty nondescript stuff, except for a few odds but-,

Well, if he was to be frank, he couldn’t remember. He couldn’t remember . At this point he could have even been involved in some discreet corruption scheme for all he cared. There were just too many things to process, too many things happening and-,

“Well, there are investigations underway” Hyerim informed him.

“What about my flat?” Sung Gyu asked her exasperatedly. And Hyerim responded with a twist of .

“So I can’t go home tonight?” He pushed on. Hyerim shook her head. “Its possible the evidence can be disturbed”

“Oh ” Sung Gyu groaned and buried his face in his hands. So much for his being drinking and passing out tonight. It was almost as if the day couldn’t get any worse. How could he possibly spend an entire night in an uncomfortably close proximity to Jung Hyerim? An entire night?

“Ah I need a drink” He muttered under his breath.

Hyerim’s flat wasn’t much different from his own; except that it was much cleaner and neater and had a distinct scent of potpourri and vanilla which made it definitely feminine compared to his own. As Momo soundly slept in Hyerim’s impeccable leather sofa, Sung Gyu followed after Hyerim to her small open planned kitchenette. In contrary to his own which was almost always littered with take away wrappers, Hyerim’s had a sink full of dirty dishes piled up. There was a scented candle on top of the cabinet which made the entire place smell of cinnamon. Sung Gyu timidly sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, feeling quite discomforted by the idea that it had been ages since he last crossed the threshold of a woman’s flat.

“What would you like? I’ve got beer, some Soju...and an odd bottle of scotch...” Hyerim was saying as she looked through the kitchen cabinets. She was quite an attractive woman, if he was to be honest. Especially when she behaved a little more matured for her age. Sung Gyu’s gaze followed her as she traversed the small confines of the kitchenette in hurried steps. She was petite, alright, but that was endearing. Adorable even. Yet he was pretty sure she could hardly reach the top cabinets unless she actually climbed onto the bottom ones. It must be quite a sight, surely.

“Kim?” Her voice floated into his mind and he came to, with a startle, realising that he was most probably gawking at her in a manner that he really shouldn’t. Sung Gyu cleared his throat and turned away. “Anything would be fine”

“Right” Hyerim nodded. “Then Scotch it is”

She grabbed a couple of glasses and poured a packet of peanuts into a dish, all of which she quietly placed on the table in front of him. Then she opened one of the top cupboards, stared up at it with squinted eyes and let out a sigh.

“There you are”

“Hm?” Sung Gyu glanced at her with a handful of peanuts in mouth, only to see her, just as he imagined, struggling to reach the top shelf where the bottle of scotch was. God knows how she put it up there, as she barely ever reached the bottom shelf of the cupboard let alone the top one. And for the first time in his presence, she wasn’t begging for his help. Sung Gyu found himself gazing at her, fascinated; at her small built, her elegantly pale legs, her hand stretched out and face screwed in determination. It quite was truly a sight. He felt light headed, staring at her. It must have been the effects of a long troublesome day, but he soon found himself contemplating the benefits of lifting her off her feet and setting her up on the kitchen cabinet. As soon as the image appeared in his mind, one that really, really shouldn’t have; Sung Gyu quickly climbed up on his feet and approached her. Not to put into action what he’d had in his mental image, of course. It was only because he needed himself to stop doing that; imagining her in situations that he really shouldn’t.

“Oh um” Hyerim visibly gulped upon seeing him and gazed up at him almost dazedly. Sung Gyu took hold of the bottle, and he did the mistake of looking at her himself. Their gazes locked; and suddenly, it was impossible to look away.

For all the five years of their acquaintanceship as neighbours, this had to be the first time that they were in such a close proximity, and he realised, he’d never properly seen Jung Hyerim. He’d never properly looked at her. As he did now, so close, so real; Sung Gyu saw all the many detail that he’d missed out on all this time. There was a distinct shape to her eyes. They were wide, like a dear’s, and seemed to carry this effervescent shine that he found quite mesmerizing. Her lips, bow-shaped and curvy, were almost enticing. Under the dim white light of the kitchen, Sung Gyu caught the sight of how her cheeks flushed pastel pink. She was beautiful.

“Did you find it?” She asked him, a small husky whisper, and his heart started to do funny things. He gulped hard, slowly bringing down the bottle.

“Yeah” He replied.

“Good” Hyerim nodded. “Now let me through”

It was only then that he realised just how close the two of them were standing, almost pressing onto each other. Embarrassed, Sung Gyu brusquely moved away from her, carrying the bottle of scotch with him. The moment so much as evaporated between them, and they were pretty much themselves again. Sung Gyu opened the bottle and Hyerim poured in glass-fulls for both of them. As she did, she was talking to him.

“This is a lot serious than I thought it was, honestly. The fact that there is actually someone after you...” Hyerim shook her head and glanced up at him. “Any idea who it could be?”

Sung Gyu, with his eyes fixed on the golden liquid in his glass, slowly shook his head. “I thought they were only after some documents”

“Could be” Hyerim sighed. “But this whole...intrusion is suspicious. Like, how did they know where you lived? how did they know your passcode? And everything’s been so well executed that not a single trace is left”

“How about the CCTV footage?” Sung Gyu asked.

“The cameras are ed up down the whole corridor. No other camera show their footage. So, we assume they took the fire exit.

“No cameras in the fire exit?”

Hyerim shook her head. “They’ve been ed up a long time ago and nobody ever really fixed them”

Sung Gyu groaned. “What about black boxes, eye witnesses, anything?”

Hyerim shook her head.

Sung Gyu gave it a moment of thought and then glanced back up at her. “So, does this mean my life is under threat?”

Hyerim mulled it over herself and tilted her head thoughtfully. “Not per se... I mean, they’re probably not after your life, they must be after your position”

Sung Gyu rolled his eyes. What’s so special about his position anyway? It wasn’t like he earned enough to live in absolute luxury, or that he was happy or that he had hundreds of other people running errands behalf of him. Sung Gyu was doing his job. It was his occupation; he was a public representative like any other person in his shoes would be. The only difference was that he was slightly younger than a majority of them. How did that make him an important target?

Unless, of course, he had been a part of some secret scheme.

“Say, Kim” Hyerim’s voice floated into his mind, interrupting his thoughts. She was gazing up at him, her bright doe eyes so sincere, the glass of scotch held elegantly in her slender hand. “This...whole special treatment thing. Is that true?”

Sung Gyu stared back at Hyerim, mouth agape. Sung Gyu had always known Hyerim to be blunt with her words. That’s one of the reasons why he despised her; because he, more than anything, hated to face the truth. That’s how he’d always lived; masked behind a life he’d never wanted, seeking for validation. Criticisms, opinions, anyone seeing anything negative in him completely isolated from his life. And Jung Hyerim always saw right through him. The worst part about that was that she never hesitated to voice out what she’d see.

He wondered if it was the right time to admit it, that he didn’t remember anything. He could have been involved in it, or he couldn’t have. He might have even been in that discussion, he might have even voiced his opinion. The problem was, he just didn’t know.

“What’s the recording like?” Sung Gyu asked in return, dodging her question himself.

Hyerim blinked. “Don’t answer my question with a question, Kim”

“Don’t you avoid my questions yourself” Sung Gyu returned.

For some reason, this made her smile. Hyerim smiled; a small, soft curve slowly painting her lips, like sunrise. It was strange, how her whole face seemed to lighten up. For a moment, all Sung Gyu could do was stare at her, mesmerized. When she looked back at him, however, he quickly turned away.

Hyerim cleared . “Fine” She said. “I can’t say much, but its pretty nasty. It could go huge if the media let it out, because the defendant in question was arrested under work-place ual harassment. So obviously the company would try to defend themselves, and so it would go back the worst on the Judges involved”

As Hyerim continued explaining, Sung Gyu’s mind began to capture what resonated the most and swept through his memories, searching for a moment that he could associate with everything that she said. He tried to place conglomerate in his mind, and there were just plenty of them. He tried to narrow it down to work-place harassment, but there were just too many as he’d worked with civil cases. He put in the keywords ‘Conglomerate’ and ‘Workplace harassment’ together and tried to delve into his mind; but nothing. It was as if all the memories that he’d stored behind from his days as a judge had been wiped away.

“I want to listen to it” Sung Gyu demanded in the end. Hyerim looked over at him and nodded her head. “Well of course. We’re still reinvestigating it for possibilities of fabrication. I think we’d be able to get hold of it by tomorrow”

Sung Gyu nodded, stared at his clenched hands for a moment and took a deep breath. He knew that Hyerim trusted him, even blindly so, for the lack of things that she actually knew about him comparing to everything that she didn’t. Hyerim knew him, but that just made an iota of what Kim Sung Gyu actually was. She just didn’t know him enough.

But still, it was comforting, in that moment, to be blindly trusted and cared for. So, he went for the kill.

“Jung”

“Hm?”

“Did you listen to it?”

There was a moment of silence, and then she shrugged. She ing did.

“Did you hear my voice?”

Another moment of silence as Sung Gyu only watched her. She grew uncomfortable, hesitant to look in his eyes as she muttered; “We’re yet to recognize the voices involved-,”

Sung Gyu straightened up in his chair, exasperated.

“Did you hear my voice, Jung?” He asked again, this time a little more sternly but his voice came rougher than he expected it to.

Hyerim slowly nodded her head.

The world began to spin around him and Sung Gyu buried his face in his palms. The thing was, he could never tell. He could never be too sure about what he did so many years ago, he could never be sure about whom he’d been involved with. Sung Gyu was a conformist, alright. But he might also despise it when someone would see a single silver of a flaw in him. That obsession of him to appear flawless in anyone’s eye could lead him to do the unthinkable; to run for an election for a position he didn’t want to have, to ask for the hand of a woman he didn’t love. He could never be too sure what he could have done so many years ago. But Hyerim, Hyerim who knew him a tad too much, he could trust more than himself.

“I hate it that I can tell your voice just about anywhere” Hyerim muttered, her voice so small, apologetic, and when he looked at her, she was still refusing to meet his eyes. Hyerim who just blindly trusted him too much, who thought she knew Kim Sung Gyu inside out. For that moment, he felt almost sorry for her. He wasn’t sure why Hyerim thought so much about him, but what she’d admitted to him so far appeared to insinuate everything that she probably couldn’t put into words. He felt sorry for her, just because she didn’t know him enough.

There was an obvious sound of a sob, and he couldn’t help but gawk at her, almost empathically. Hyerim never broke down, she almost never did. She might be small and feminine and sometimes undeniably beautiful; but breaking apart was just not Jung Hyerim. He felt a little twist inside him, knowing that there was someone, just one person in his entire world who didn’t think he was an , who had even a tiny bit of trust on him, who broke down for him. It was a comfort, when the whole world would rather watch him fall.

Hyerim had her head lowered, almost as if she was about to break into tears. Sung gyu wanted to reach out and comfort her; but then suddenly, she took that complete-opposite turn right before his eyes. She straightened up, raised her head high and let out a long breath. “Well I...I am sure there is some explanation” She said, looked over at Sung Gyu and she smiled. “Something would turn up. I’m pretty sure...the investigations are still under way”

Sung Gyu was gawking at her all through this, and he was duly surprised. A part of her probably knew that she couldn’t trust him. Hyerim was perceptive. Nothing missed her superior deductions. A part of her probably saw right through him and probably knew what he truly was behind that mask. But the other part of her hated to accept it, what she was seeing in him. She wanted to maintain the image of Sung Gyu that she’d perceived of him the very first time.

“Jung...do you trust me that much?” Sung Gyu raised his brows at her. If she really did, then that’s what required a real explanation.

“I have no reason not to” She replied, not meeting his eyes.

Sung Gyu scoffed, rolling his eyes. That confirmed it; she was either not right in her mind, or she just didn’t know him enough. He didn’t want to believe the latter was the case; because when he thought a bout it, the woman who knew his grocery list by heart, how could she not know? Hyerim did know, she knew him like an open book. She refused to admit to herself, of everything. And the reason why would always be beyond him.

“Anyway, scotch?” Hyerim held out the glass bottle in front of him and Sung Gyu glanced at her and smiled. At least he had someone by his side. It wasn’t anything to complain about.

“Thank you” He said, she poured each other a glass full and they toasted for a better ending, completely oblivious of what waited for them ahead in their time.