Wincing as her pinky brushed against the tender, blue skin, Hei-Ryung smoothed cover-up onto her face. Youngjae had called her a few minutes before to inform her that he would be bringing a now sober- but very hung over- Daehyun home, and to ask if he could stop by her apartment for a bit to discuss continuing the e-mail promotions they had begun. Not wanting Youngjae to worry when he saw how horrible the bruises looked, she had immediately begun erasing them with makeup. Grimacing into the mirror, she tilted her head side-to-side and watched for any sign of the bruises. Nothing beyond a faint purple hue was visible, though. and even that was difficult to discern if you weren't looking for it. Satisfied, Hei-Ryung twisted the cap back onto the small makeup bottle and replaced it at the back of her medicine cabinet. She still didn't look her best, but at least it wasn't obvious that she had been repeatedly hit in the face by a man twice her size.

     The night had started out alright. It was loud and crowded, and by the time they arrived plenty of people had already been liberally helping themselves to the available alcohol, but it hadn't been unbearable. The moment she had lost sight of Daehyun, though, everything spiraled out of control. Whether the resulting chaos had been her fault or not Hei-Ryung couldn't decide, but there was certainly something she could have done that would have prevented the necessity of Daehyun intervening. Shuddering, she tugged down the collar of her shirt and stared at the reflection of finger marks on the revealed skin. It wasn't hard to recall the uncomfortably hot, moist breath, or the sharp smell of alcohol and overused cologne that had overwhelmed her when the stranger leaned in and made a grab for her. Pressing her lips together, Hei-Ryung adjusted the shirt so it covered the bruises once again and smoothed the fabric. Alcohol didn't define people, but from what Hei-Ryung had seen of it thus far it certainly didn't do people any favors. Which is why it killed her a little on the inside that she could smell it so strongly on Daehyun, too. Yes, he had been on her side last night and didn't have the coordination to successfully attack anyone, but he had still threatened to break the man's jaw and been so... angry.

     Still, he had stopped something much worse than a bit of bruising from happening, so she should be grateful to him. The Daehyun she had seen last night was not the real one, and she was determined to keep that in mind. After one last check in the mirror, Hei-Ryung exited the bathroom and padded her way into the kitchen to start making soup. Though Youngjae had insisted Daehyun was recovering magnificently from the morning's hangover, she was pretty sure all the and cursing she had heard in the background had been the miserable young man in question. If it were Hei-Ryung, the guaranteed next day's hangover would be enough to turn her away from any drinking forever, but for Daehyun it seemed to be a normal part of every day life. How someone could live like that was beyond her.

     "Of course, there are some who might say the same about me," she chastised, realizing that her lifestyle didn't exactly fit into the norm either. Tugging open the refrigerator, she glanced briefly at what was present and then sighed. She didn't have all the ingredients necessary, which meant she would need to take a trip down to the supermarket. Frowning, Hei-Ryung shut the door and opened a nearby drawer to pull out a pad of paper and a pen. She was beginning to run low on a few things anyway, so she would just buy everything at once and be done with shopping for a while. Tapping the pen against her chin, she tried to prioritize her list so that it was trimmed down to the ten item limit for the self-checkout. The local grocery store had recently employed an extremely talkative young lady who couldn't seem to understand the body language of a person entirely uncomfortable with small talk about the sports teams they didn't watch and the movies they had no interest in seeing. A bubbly girl who had recently begun college, she seemed very nice and genuinely interested in getting to know the customers; sure, friendliness might just be a part of her job description, but even if it was all feigned Hei-Ryung was certainly not under that impression. It made her feel a little bad about deliberately trying to avoid the cashier, but no amount of kindness could keep Hei-Ryung from feeling overwhelmed by the young lady's constant sunshine attitude.

     The turn of a key in the lock startled Hei-Ryung out of her thoughts and caused her hand to jerk across the paper, leaving a shaky black line running through the middle of her list. Sighing, she replaced the paper and pen and headed into the living room to greet her visitor.

     "No, that's your apartment. You do not live here," Youngjae groaned, trying to hold open Hei-Ryung's door with one hand while using a foot to nudge Daehyun in the direction of his own living space. "Look I know you're not still drunk! You've had all night to get the alcohol out of your system and into my toilet! Now get inside!" Behind him, Hei-Ryung took over the job of holding the door open and curiously watched as Daehyun sat himself down in the middle of the hallway and held his head in his hands. Taking advantage of the freeing of his hands, Youngjae wrapped them under Daehyun's arms and heaved the nearly incoherent young man into a somewhat vertical position. Across the hall, Daehyun's apartment door had been propped open with what appeared to be the owner's shoe, but upon closer examination Hei-Ryung realized Youngjae was the one missing his footwear. Biting down on her lip to try and keep a smile from forcing its way onto her face, Hei-Ryung watched Youngjae hobble awkwardly toward Daehyun's door, his hung over friend lying limply in his arms. When he finally reached the open doorway, he forced Daehyun onto his feet and gently pushed him inside.

     After a few uncertain steps forward, Daehyun caught his balance and staggered toward the couch, apparently feeling that his bedroom was too far away for his present state to handle. When he was sure Daehyun would be relatively fine on his own, Youngjae relieved his shoe of door jam duty and slipped it back where it belonged. For a brief moment, Hei-Ryung's eyes flickered down to Youngjae's socked foot and noticed that he had worn a hole in the toe. Quickly snapping her eyes back up, she refrained from commenting on the unfortunate fate the wardrobes of most bachelor's seemed to suffer. "Don't forget to lock your door!" Youngjae ordered, but Daehyun had already collapsed face down onto his couch and showed no intention of getting back up until his skull stopped trying to split itself open to avenge the half-drowned brain it worked so hard to protect. Rolling his eyes, Youngjae shut the door with a click and, after straightening the gray suit coat he was wearing, turned to face Hei-Ryung with a worn-out smile.

     Returning the expression, Hei-Ryung stepped aside and gestured for Youngjae to come inside. "Good morning," she greeted as he passed her. Nodding, Youngjae returned the salutation and waited for Hei-Ryung to shut and lock her door before heading further into the house with her at his heels. Quickly a silence descended the two as Hei-Ryung fruitlessly racked her brains for something to talk about while Youngjae made himself comfortable on the couch and began rummaging through the satchel he had brought with him. Shifting her weight nervously from foot-to-foot, Hei-Ryung wrung her hands together and waited for Youngjae to finish finding whatever he was searching for. It apparently wasn't in the satchel, because he ended up empty-handed.

     "Have you ever written a mystery novel?" The question was unexpected and caught Hei-Ryung off guard, so that all she could do was stare blankly at the back of Youngjae's head until he turned around and noticed the expression on her face. "I suppose that's a no, then," he chuckled, gesturing for her to come sit beside him. It was difficult to have decent conversation when you had to contort yourself just to see the person you were conversing with. Nodding mutely, Hei-Ryung shuffled over and sat down, leaving plenty of room between herself and Youngjae.

     "I've never been very good at writing mystery. I get hasty and reveal too much," she admitted, her tone of voice suggesting that she considered this to be almost a personal flaw. "I am a fan of the genre and read quite a lot of it, though," she added hastily, apparently not wanting to disappoint Youngjae too much.

     "Are you any good at guessing who the culprit is? Or are you always surprised at the big reveal?" Pursing her lips, Hei-Ryung furrowed her eyebrows ever so slightly and watched Youngjae's face to try and get a hint about where this was going. She had been under the impression they were going to talk about more e-mail promotions, but it seemed now that the company had decided to host some sort of a murder mystery event.

     "I can usually put together at least some of the pieces, but never all of them. I'm always surprised at the end, but I don't really mind because that's the fun of it anyway, right?" Quietly, Youngjae nodded. "Um... do you mind if I ask why? Has there been a change in plans for the promotions?"

     "There's a mystery going on at the company right now." Youngjae didn't see much point in trying to keep the company's embezzling predicament a secret from Hei-Ryung- it wasn't as though she had anyone to run out and tell- and he could use someone who wasn't either in charge of the company or out to get him to talk with. Someone who was the closest to being able to give an outsider's opinion while still having an interest in keeping the company's secrets. "Somebody has been embezzling money and nobody can figure out who it is. Which is why they've all started blaming me." Though he hadn't meant for a dramatic reveal to occur, Youngjae still felt a little bit of pride when he heard Hei-Ryung gasp in surprise.

     She didn't, however, immediately ask why the company would blame him for the missing money, which stung a little. It wasn't as though it were a big secret that he was the most likely culprit, though. Hwang Jin had been right: Youngjae's father was a previous detriment to the company- no matter how ridiculous his 'crime' had been- and now, immediately after Youngjae is employed by Nalgae, large amounts of money begin to go missing. The pieces fell into place so easily. Even his uncle must have his suspicions after Youngjae attempted to approach him for help with his mother's health and was turned down. The subject had never been raised again, but he knew his uncle wasn't one to easily forget something like that; surely the thought must be nagging at the back of his mind, threatening to turn his uncle against Youngjae.

     "If it were a book, I would say that was too easy. The first suspect to be investigated is never the criminal- otherwise the story would be too short. The real world has no respect for the tidiness of writing, though." Pulling her knees up to her chest, Hei-Ryung rested her chin on them and sighed. "Still, even for a real world scenario this seems too easy. Especially since you're current position in the company doesn't have access to the money. Sure, you've got connections with your uncle, but he's always been incredibly loyal to the company, almost to a fault, so I can't imagine he would have any incentive to embezzle from Nalgae, and he would notice if you were secretly using him. The people they should be looking at are those in charge of financing- they're the ones who, under normal circumstances, would have the biggest red flags."

     "She's enjoying this," Youngjae realized, watching as Hei-Ryung puzzled over the problem he had brought before her. He had brought one of her mystery novels to life, and now she was being offered the chance to be a part of the story. Despite how serious the conversation was, Youngjae couldn't help but smile as he observed the wheels in Hei-Ryung's head eagerly turning, spurred on by the thrill of becoming a detective. Honestly, he wouldn't be all that surprised if she began wearing a Sherlock Holme's cap around for the next few days. Already he could almost feel the sparks flying off her as fantasy met reality. "So this is a writer. Someone who can easily slip from the real world into fantasies and feel as though nothing has changed." When he had first met her, Youngjae had assumed that all of Hei-Ryung's writing had solely from hard work. Now, he realized that she had to barely think at all; everything she wrote about already, in a sense, existed. She just had to tap into it and start letting her fingers fly.

     It was no wonder she had become an author. Writing was second nature to her; ink flowed through her veins; her mind was a-

     "Youngjae!" Accompanying the groan was a pounding on Hei-Ryung's door that startled both the apartment's inhabitants out of their thoughts. Letting out a short squeak, Hei-Ryung lost her balance and barely managed to catch herself as she rolled off the couch, while Youngjae's hand flew to his chest to make sure his heart had resumed beating and was not permanently stopped. "You didn't leave the painkillers!" Rolling his eyes, Youngjae snatched his satchel and started heading for the door. Seeing that he was preparing to leave, Hei-Ryung jumped to her feet and followed behind to see him out.

     "I'll keep thinking about it, but I'm not sure how much help I'll be," she offered, waiting by the door for Youngjae to glance through his bag for the requested medication. He could hear the excitement in her face, even though she was trying to keep in buried down. It was cute, in a way, that she was so excited about the possibility of being involved in a real-life mystery novel.

     "If anything new comes up, I'll stop by and fill you in," he assured her before nodding toward the door.

     "Good luck." Chuckling, Hei-Ryung opened the door for him.

     Stepping out into the hall, Youngjae shut the door behind him and frowned down at Daehyun, who had slumped to the ground once again. "I am not helping you back inside," he complained, crouching down across from his friend. Smiling lazily, Daehyun nodded and began slowly making his way back onto his feet. "Here's the pain killers. Only take them when you really need them, though. If you develop a tolerance then you-" Youngjae didn't bother finishing, as Daehyun had already opened the bottle and swallowed down a few of the pill inside. "I will never know how you manage to do that with no water." Grimacing, Youngjae rubbed at his own throat as he watched Daehyun struggle to get the pills down.

     "Desperate times call for desperate measures," Daehyun chuckled once he had finished swallowing. "Now, I'm going to go pass out for a few hours and hope this headache goes away before my shift starts. Thanks for the medicine." Turning toward his apartment, Daehyun staggered to the door and barely managed to pull together enough coordination to open it. Watching him go, Youngjae waited until Daehyun was collapsed once more onto the couch before crossing the hall and shutting the door for him.

     "It is a miracle you managed to survive without me for this long," Youngjae muttered, tugging on the door to make sure it was firmly closed. Satisfied that it wouldn't drift open on its own, he headed toward the elevator. Coming to see Hei-Ryung and go over promotional plans had been approved by Hwang Jin that morning- Youngjae had left out that he would also be giving a hung over 'musician' a ride home- but Youngjae still knew that he would get an earful from the man when he got back. Not to mention that the issue of embezzled money was still a hot topic among the company's employees, and everyone had yet to learn the meaning of discretion. Sighing, Youngjae pressed the down button and tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for the elevator to arrive. He was not looking forward to the rest of the day.

Author's Note:

So James Bond isn't really a mystery story, but I couldn't think of anything to put as the title, hehe Hopefully it's not unforgivably cheesy ^^;;