Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ III
~ part II ~

(Taeyeon)

"Maybe just knowing that you like pink would've been perfectly enough after all," I said as I looked at the girl whose face was glowing just as radiantly now as it did yesterday evening when she plugged the earphones of my iPad in her ears and absorbed herself into the music. And it was a beautiful sight once again as she marveled at the simple pink dress she just chose herself. Along with 90% pink lingerie, two t-shirts with pink patterns, pink toothbrush, razors, even pink shampoo and pink, glittery shower gel among other things. To say that she 'liked' pink was a slight understatement. She wrote: >>I just missed pink. ^^<<

    Having now experienced her surprising greediness towards anything pink, I now wondered what exactly made her feel constantly guilty about receiving things, so much so that she wouldn't even accept a pack of tissues just a day ago. Although she never asked for anything, I could instantly see when something caught her attention, and she was way less reluctant about accepting all these pink stuff than anything else before. I guess she really just couldn't resist. Somehow, she even managed to convince me into buying a pink dress for myself similar to her own even though I was never really that keen on dresses... or pink for that matter. It's probably thanks to that damn smile that she was beaming at me when she saw me examining the piece that made me do it anyway.

    All this explosion of girliness and cutesiness though that Tiffany has just exhibited made me all the more convinced that I should just get my mind off of her... in that way, I mean. 'She most definitely doesn't play for that team,' I thought. 'Most definitely not.'

    There were a million and one reasons why I shouldn't feel like floating whenever she directed her smile at me, why my heart should stop beating faster when she stepped a little closer to me and why I really just shouldn't get those butterflies in my stomach every time she held onto the sleeve of my jacket and her hand accidentally grazed against my upper arm through the fabric of my clothes. There were so many reasons to not feel that way about her, yet, no matter how much I tried to convince myself not to, I just couldn't help it.

    I chewed on my last bites of sundae absent-mindedly for a while, stealing glances at her from time to time as she smiled widely at the bags of pink items, sitting on the couch and admiring them like they were bags of diamonds instead.

    I finally snapped out of my daze when she suddenly made a move to pull her t-shirt off.

    My eyes widened in surprise at first but then I just looked away, acting like it was very important to thoroughly inspect every little piece of the meat and sauce that was left on the plate before me. 'Calm down Taeyeon and act normal,' I said while I saw from the corner of my eyes a Tiffany pulling her dress over her head to cover her previously merely bra clad torso. 'Oh God, her chest...  Stop it, Taeyeon!' I scolded myself. 'We're both girls so it's not like this should be a big deal or something.' Surely, it wasn't a big deal at all had it not been the girl that I kept on gawking at even when she was fully dressed. 'If it were anyone else, I'd be fine but this— Oh, God, no.' She was pulling off her jeans now and although she was covered almost down to her knees by the dress... just to look at her undressing herself... 'Gosh... '

"Oh, you're changing into this for the rest of the day?" I asked nonchalantly as if I just noticed what she was doing, my mind still secretly raging with thoughts of wanting to kill myself over her gorgeous body. She finally stepped out of the second leg of the jeans too and nodded at me with a bright smile while she folded it. Inside, I was doing my best to cool down my temperature. I wondered if I had any ice cubes in the fridge.

    Tiffany spun around on her toes, showing me the dress, and the skirt flew up a little as she did so, revealing more of her beautiful thighs. 'Mind OFF the legs, Taeyeon. OFF.' When she finished her 360° turn, she raised an eyebrow and held her hands out in a questioning manner, as if asking, 'how do I look?'

"It looks really pretty on you," I smiled back at her. "Guess you made a good choice." 'Liar. It's not the dress that looks pretty on her, it's her that looks pretty in it... or in anything else for that matter. Even the dirty, messy clothes I found her in yesterday.' She smiled wider at my compliment and went to have a proper look at herself in the mirror.

    I sighed as I focused back on the last few bites of food on the plate again and asked, "Are you sure you don't want the last of it?"

    She looked back at me and shook her head.

    So I finished it off and went to the kitchen sink to wash the dishes. She came over before I could've finished the first pair of chopsticks, signaling that she would do it.

"You don't have to. It's fine, it's like five minutes." She started signaling again and I didn't understand what her motions tried to mimic so I frowned in confusion. Then a thought hit me. "Tiffany, are you speaking sign language?"

    She shook her head and pointed at the washing machine.

"Oh," I now got that she was offering to hang up the washed clothes that I must admit, I totally forgot about. "Well if you really want to do something, I don't mind." I paused for a moment. "How difficult is it to learn sign language?" I asked, glancing back at her. She halted in her movements for a moment. I saw a cute pout and frown appear on her face as if she was thinking about what to say to that. "Let's say, on a scale from minus 6.3 to four gazillion." She grinned at that and shook her head, shrugging. "Okay, I was just kidding. From one to ten. How hard is it?" Her reply was still the same and she opened as if she was going to mouth something but then deflated. "Okay, then how do you say for example, 'I need to go to the bathroom.'" Tiffany shook her head again, looking almost desperate as she opened again just to close it one more time before putting down the piece of wet clothing in her hands and wipe them on her dress to pick up the iPad from the kitchen table. I didn't understand. "Tiffany... you do speak sign language, right?" I frowned and she looked very, very nervous as she shook her head in reply, gripping the device in her hand tightly. "Huh? Then how did you communicate with everyone else? Only through writing?"

    She shook her head and pointed her index finger on her lips. I tilted my head. "Lip-reading?"

    Tiffany sighed heavily and started to write instead of the signs I did not seem to pick up on. >>It's complicated... I can't really explain.<< She looked extremely tense for some reason and I sensed that I was pushing at some boundaries here again. I didn't know why or how, but I also didn't want to make her upset. So I just said, "Okay, well... if you don't speak sign language, maybe we should try to look up some lessons on the internet. It'd be easier, you know," I said as I continued to wash the remaining glasses in the sink, "if we could communicate without paper and pens... or the iPad."

    I turned around again as I placed the last glass on the dryer and turned around to see her nod slowly, unsurely as she continued to hang the clothes up now.

    For a moment, I wondered what it would be like if she wouldn't be mute. How many more things we'd talk about, what her voice would sound like. I could only imagine it'd be as pretty and girly as her. 'But then again, you just have to look at me for a person whose voice doesn't really fit her body, so who knows, maybe her voice would be an unpleasant surprise. It's probably better this way,' I told myself. 'There was no point in wishing for something that could never happen anyway.' As I thought of that, I just had to laugh bitterly at myself. 'Talk about things you can never have.'

*

    I went to sit on the couch and browsed through my messages. Last time I checked was right after I woke up in the morning. It was getting dark now. I replied to some about meeting up tomorrow with Sooyoung, Yoona and Sunny, some about how things were going with Tiffany to my mom. There was a random message from an old classmate that I decided I'd leave for later and then there were the ones from Jinmoon oppa, asking if I was sure I couldn't make it today.

    Tiffany sat down next to me with iPad in hand. I quickly closed the message from oppa. 'What are you doing, Kim Taeyeon?'

>>Did you have no plans for today? No date or something?<< the screen said.

"No, well, actually, I was going to hang out with Yuri and practice some of the songs, probably get drunk and stuff, but I already told her yesterday I would have to pass today. So it's fine." 'Goddamnit Taeyeon, don't act like you didn't also just blow off your date with oppa, what do you expect anyway, it's not like she cares or if she wanted to—'

>>Sorry you had to cancel it.<<

"Hey, it's okay, I think this was a little more important than getting drunk. I can do that anytime. And we'll go practicing with Yuri on Wednesday anyway." Tiffany nodded at that but I could still sense a trace of guilt in her expression. "Oh, by the way," I remembered. "We'll go meet some friends tomorrow. Maybe they'll be able to give some advice to us in this situation."

    Tiffany started her crazy head shaking again and when she finished her rushed writing it said: >>What if they tell someone? Or if they think it's best to turn me in?<<

"Don't worry Tiffany, they won't. I know them. I mean, I have friends that just love to gossip and can't keep anything to themselves. I have friends that I wouldn't trust with this. But I do trust them, very much. So... if you also trust me, then we could talk to them and maybe they could help. If you really don't want me to tell them all about it though... " I sighed, "Well, then, I guess I won't. We'll just figure something out by ourselves. I just thought it'd be easier, you know?"

    Tiffany was immersed in her thoughts for a minute before starting to type again. >>Let's not tell them at first. At least not everything... okay? Maybe... if I already know them better, I'll be able to better judge if I can trust them or not but...<< She sighed. >>I've been tortured for years by people I thought I knew and thought I could trust, too. So it's not that easy for me.<<

    I nodded my head, feeling heavy in the heart again.

>>Can we see if the wife sent a reply yet?<< We checked it right after we arrived home and there was no reply then but I completely forgot about it since. I picked up the tablet now and checked the application. We did receive a message but it wasn't from the wife. Tiffany edged closer, wanting to see what it said. 'God, she smells so good... ' I could feel the heat radiating off her body as well. The message read >>Hello. I am the owner of the tablet. When and where exactly could I collect it tomorrow?<<

"Okay, since only I am going to meet him and I don't really want to leave you alone, how 'bout I leave you with my friends tomorrow for a short time and then I'll come back for you and tell you how it went."

    Tiffany looked distressed. >>I don't know, Taeyeon... I think I should go with you.<<

"Look, it'll just be a few minutes and I know you don't really know my friends but... they won't abandon you there or anything," I said. "You know what? I think I could actually ask Sunny to just meet up at her place. She always tells me to go anyway."

    Tiffany still looked conflicted but she finally agreed with a nod.

    After I sent the message, we agreed on her trying to search online for some old friends back in the US while I went to take a shower.

    When I got back, she was still browsing busily. I sat down next to her on the couch and looked at the little list of names she scribbled on a piece of paper. I liked her English handwriting. With those adventurous loops and curvy shapes... Her letters were as pretty as the owner. I spotted a few Korean names on the list. I pointed at one of them. "Who's Kyeongjin Shin?" I asked.

    She typed in the word 'neighbor' in the browser. "And this?" I pointed at another one 'Jessica Jung.' >>My best friend from high school before I came here. Hopefully, I'll be able to find her.<<

"Yeah, that'd be great! I'm sure she'll want to talk to you again... maybe she could help you too somehow."

    I browsed through the list again, this time picking a fully English name. "How about this one?" I pointed at 'Hayden B. Quinn.'

    Tiffany glanced at it and was momentarily paralyzed before finally typing out >>Boyfriend before I came here.<< 'There you go Taeyeon. Maybe now you'll get your mind off your stupid ideas.' >>Looking back at it, it was not a big loss though.<< 'Yesss—! NO, Kim Taeyeon. No!' >>His dad was a lawyer though.<<

    As she went on to search on Facebook for her old friends, I listened to some music.

    As I did so, my eyes accidentally landed on her legs and seeing it so close now, I noticed several dark bruises. As her skirt rode up a little higher with her sitting the way she did, I could even spot a deep cut on her upper thigh - it was mostly covered by the skirt but some of it was now revealed. The red marks on her neck and wrists were also still visible. I gritted my teeth and wished that I could just kill those shameless b*stards that did this to her.

    I diverted my gaze from her and tried to focus on the music instead but my attention was caught again when she scratched her head just a little and I saw her grimace in pain as a result. She probably hissed too but I couldn't hear it. I remembered how she flinched once before at the market when she simply tried a hat on. She probably had a head injury too.

    I pulled my earphones out and was about to see if there was a bump or a scar or anything. "Tiffany-ah, I think you have a—" But just as I touched her hair, Tiffany jumped away so fast, she fell off the couch. "Sorry, sorry, I'm so... " I rambled as she got up, and I noticed I jumped from my own seat too to the other end of the couch in surprise. "I always— I'm sorry." She was laughing at me now as I slowly made my way back to my seat.

"Hey, it's not a laughing matter!" I scolded her. "You have so many scars and bruises already, I was just going to say that maybe you should get it checked and instead, I'm giving you more."

'It's fine,' she mouthed, still smiling that unbearably pretty smile at me and motioned with her hand to just forget about it.

    I sighed. "Does your head hurt?"

    Her smile faded a little now as she gave a small nod.

"Can I check it? I mean, I'm not gonna touch it, just... can you show me how bad it is? Maybe we could do something about it."

    She sighed a little but then decided to do as I requested. She searched for the aching spot on her head and parted her hair so that I could see it. There was a big bump there. It didn't look nice at all. No wonder it made her flinch even just by putting some light fabric on it.

"Okay. I have an idea for this. We can do it a little later," I said as I walked over to the sink to take the rounded metal spatula I usually used for making jeon or kimchi pancakes and put in in the freezer for later. "But... " I went back to sit on the couch, "are you sure you don't want to get yourself checked in a hospital?" I was really worried for her.

>>I'm fine. There'd be too many questions anyway. And I doubt that I'd be able to bear anyone touching me, too.<< She looked at me apologetically, then wrote >>I'm sorry for freaking out every time you touch me.<< I immediately started to defend her saying, "No, really, it's... I should be keeping it in mind. It's not that hard of a thing to do," she just kept typing as my rambling went on, "it's just, I don't know why I'm like this, I guess sometimes I'm not thinking things through properly because I'm just worried for you," 'Aaand simply because it's you we're talking about.' "and I just... " my voice faded when she pointed at the screen to draw my attention to what she just wrote, and what she was continually writing now. >>I'm sorry for freaking out every time you touch me. I guess it just reminds me of the times when my uncle suddenly attacked me and took all the control away from me. He would sometimes use chloroform and I just felt him grab my body and a hand with a wet cloth on my face... << She paused for a moment and I saw her eyes glisten. >>I think, as time goes by, it might get easier though because at least, I feel safe being close to you.<<

    I was thinking about how she'd hugged me so tight and so long yesterday but was really scared when I tried to get a hold of her hand to give her the tissues. How she'd jumped at my touch in the kitchen but then climbed into my bed at night to sleep next to me. How she'd snuggled up so close but started trembling when my hold got a little tighter. I understood now. I had to be very patient about this and maybe, one day, I would be able to spontaneously hold her hand or give her a hug without having to worry about scaring her out of her wits.

"I understand," I told her. "And... " I mumbled, "I'm glad that you feel safe with me." I really, really was.

*

    Tiffany could only finish half her bowl of rice with sausage and onions before I noticed her struggling with every bite, and I wondered why. She said she was not used to eating so much in a day since she didn't get much food in the past few years and she often threw up whatever she ate either just because of what she was given or because of the drugs and the beatings she was getting. So she was feeling a little sick. Hearing these kinds of things from her... was still such a shock to me. Since yesterday, she's improved a lot and she definitely looked more alive so it was easy for me to forget sometimes what circumstances she'd been in for the past couple of years.

    The more she revealed about it, the more horrified I was by everything she's told me and the more I wondered how she managed to come out of this not only alive, not only sane but as an amazingly kind and lovable person. I wondered how I would've reacted in a situation like hers. If I would've attempted suicide, went insane or just became an evil spirited, hateful person who wouldn't trust anyone anymore.

    Tiffany was truly exceptional in many ways.

    I looked at her across the table admiringly for a moment before I finally remembered something.

"The bump!" I jumped up abruptly from my seat. I took a cold pack and the spatula out of the freezer and went over to Tiffany.

"Okay, Tiffany. You need to put this on the bump first to numb the pain a little," I explained as I handed her the cold pack. She followed my instruction looking up at me curiously. "Uhh." I was a bit nervous now as I walked over to her. "My mom always used to do this when I was a kid and had a bump on my head. It'll hurt a little... umm... actually, in this case, it'll probably hurt a lot... " One part of me really didn't want to do this but I knew that I had to. "But otherwise, it'll take a lot longer for this to go down and heal. Which means it'd hurt for a lot longer too. If I do this now, I swear it'll be fine by tomorrow morning," I said, trying to sound confident but I felt my heart clench in my chest. She bit on her lip waiting for me to get to the point. 'Don't get distracted by the lips now, Taeyeon... No. Not the puppy eyes either!' "So, uhh... I'm gonna have to press it down for a while with this," I held up the small, rounded spatula. "I'm not gonna touch you or anything, you're just going to feel the cold metal, okay? Like when I did your make-up, I won't touch you. But, uhh, it's gonna hurt," 'Am I sure I can do this? Gosh... The nervousness in her eyes... '

    She finally typed >>I trust you.<<

    I swallowed and nodded determinedly and I saw her lower the pack from the bump and close her eyes tight before I moved behind her. "Okay, you'll need to hold your neck firmly so that I'll actually press down the bump and not push down your head instead." She nodded. I was really, really feeling my nerves rack. My palms were sweaty and my heart beat fast while a guilty feeling settled in my stomach already. My mouth and throat were dry. "On the count of three." I took a deep breath in. "One. Two... Three." She hissed immediately, loudly, painfully and everything in me clenched as her hands formed tight firsts, "I'm sorry, just please hold on a little longer," she was holding her breath and her knuckles had turned white. "Just a little longer," I said again, fighting the urge to let go now but I knew it had to be at least thirty seconds.

    When I finally let go, I immediately felt a relief and turned to her to see if she was alright.

    Her face was scrunched up but, even though it must have been really painful, surprisingly, she didn't cry.

"I'm so sorry," I repeated and she opened her eyes, touching her head where I had just pressed down on the bump, hissing again. "Yeah, it still hurts a little afterwards. For a while. But the bump did disappear, right?" Tiffany nodded slowly. "And in a few hours the pain will be completely gone too."

    Tiffany nodded again. >>Thank you.<< she wrote.

    The phrase reminded me of the sign language lessons we were talking about before.

    So we spent the rest of the night looking up some lessons (we learned the first few simple signs like 'hello', 'thank you' and 'sorry') and searching for some more old friends of Tiffany's online while I showed some pictures and shared some stories of my own friends from middle school and high school.

'Who's that?' Tiffany suddenly pointed at a picture I was passing by looking for another one, mouthing the words. I went back to the picture before and my stomach clutched uncomfortably for a second before saying, "That's Eunmi," as I looked at the girl blowing a chewing gum bubble while I rawred like a tiger at the camera. I was not sure what made Tiffany interested in this certain picture, this certain person, but she looked like she wanted me to continue, so I did, although half-heartedly. I didn't really like to talk about Eunmi. "She was my classmate, but only for a year." Tiffany raised her eyebrows. "She transferred to a different school," I explained.

    She thought for a while and I was just about to skip to the picture I actually meant to show her but she then typed >>Are you still in touch with her?<<

"No, why?" I really didn't understand Tiffany's curiosity about this. There was no way she could have known her, is there?

    She shrugged. >>I don't know, you two just seemed really close, I guess.<<

"Well, we were close once, but I guess... we kinda messed it up... so... yeah. But what made you think we were close?" Why did she pinpoint that exact picture and not any of the others we skipped?

    Tiffany appeared to be nervous now, but she finally typed >>I saw your drawings... <<

    'Oh.' I wasn't sure how to feel about that. Those drawings were... they carried lots of precious but melancholic memories to me and now it felt like a bit of a flashback on those times when I've drawn them.

>>I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have touched your things.<< 'Ah, damn it, I brought out the guilty feelings of Tiffany again. Great.'

"What?! No! It's fine, I just... you know, it was a great friendship and I feel sorry that it had to end the way it did," I said.

    Tiffany nodded but I could still see guilt in her eyes. >>Then I shouldn't have pried.<<

"You didn't know about it, you just brought up a topic. And I guess now you know how I feel about it," I said. Then I smiled at her. "Hey, really," I decided to try something and tapped my pinky against my chin, still smiling. I saw that she understood, but I said the words too anyway. "It's okay." We grinned back at each other, both of us looking proud of using sign language for the first time successfully in a conversation.

*

    We watched a movie again after my recommendation and I was really content because I saw Tiffany laugh more and more often now. Actually, she probably laughed more throughout the whole thing than I did because I was often distracted by the thoughts of how nice she smelled, how tingly I felt just from being this close to her and of course, feeling a huge amount of contentedness and happiness seeing her so carefree and cheery. As a result, I was probably smiling like an idiot too from almost the first minute to the last because I noticed by the end that my cheeks actually started to hurt.

    The kissing scene at the end of the movie was the only one that really caught my attention. I couldn't help but get much more focused on it, thinking that if Tiffany caught me staring or even glancing at her just then, it would definitely come off really weird. 'Well, it is kinda weird that you could list ten more things about her facial expressions during the movie than the plot itself, Kim Taeyeon. Just sayin'... I know that very well, thanks. Can you just shut up for a moment, dear conscience?'

    I really wondered what Tiffany was thinking of watching that sappy love scene but I didn't have to wonder much longer because once the kiss was over, from the corner of my eyes, I caught Tiffany pouting adorably at the screen. 'So I guess she loves stuff like this. So straight,' I sighed.

    After the closing credits finally started rolling, Tiffany looked at me with teary eyes. She wasn't crying but she was apparently moved to tears. 'Really? By that?' I thought.

    As I closed the movie player, she was following my movements with her eyes, making me a little nervous. I glanced up at her, thinking that she'd look away, but she didn't. She kept her soft gaze on me. Slowly, her eyes traveled over my features. I found it strange but I didn't know what to say or how to react to this. My body reacted involuntarily, giving me a raised temperature and heart rate, and reviving my little fluttery friends, the butterflies, again.

    Tiffany suddenly leaned forward. Maybe a heart attack would have been a nicer feeling than the scare she just gave me. She opened Word to type in >>I was thinking... maybe I should get my hair dyed too. It would make me look even more different, I think.<< She looked up at me again and now I saw her eyes settling on my blonde locks.

"Oh, yeah, maybe." Honestly? I couldn't imagine her with another hair color except for her natural one, black. She was just... perfect like this.

>>When I have my own money, I mean. And when I'll be able to let someone touch me.<<

"Actually, you can do it for yourself. I mean, I do it myself too and it's not that bad, right?" I said. Although I was happy with the way she looked right now, it was true that she couldn't always keep that hoodie on and it would make her less recognizable. If she wanted to go for it, I'd help her the best I could. "And didn't I tell you before at the market that you shouldn't worry about stuff like this, it's not like you were asking for a gold earring, it was just 3000 wons. And it's also not like you're asking for a plastic surgery or something, it's just some dye." Tiffany pouted at me a little sulkily like she disagreed with me spending more money on her. "Look, you know I'm not exactly rich. If it was a big deal, I wouldn't offer. But it isn't." 'I'll just have to cut back on some of my unnecessary spendings.' "So what color do you want?" I smiled.

    Tiffany didn't reply, still sulking.

"Hey, if you're not telling me anything, I'm just going to randomly pick a color and apply it on your hair overnight," I grinned teasingly. "Since you like pink so much anyway, how about a full Pinkfany overhaul?" She laughed at that, frowning disbelievingly and she poked me with the DVD box in a playful manner. 'Wow. Is it normal to get tingles from the touch of a plastic box?' Inside, I was overjoyed at seeing her behaving and reacting in a way any normal girl would at her age. 'Okay, well, maybe a little younger than her age. I'll be the first to admit that I bring out the childish side of some people.'

    She then put down the DVD box on the table grumpily and pointed at the main actress.

"You want red hair?" I said, my mouth agape.

    She nodded cutely.

"Uhh... Are you sure about it? I mean, that's... I don't know... I mean, I guess it'd look good on you, I just don't... " I sighed, realizing I should probably make the effort to at least form coherent sentences. "It's a bold choice, I mean."

>>I know. I was thinking, brown wouldn't make that much of a difference and blonde wouldn't suit me well. Unlike you.<< 'Okay now, Taeyeon. No need to blush at this. Blonde suits you. Your stupid dorky grin suits your stupid dorky face too. Doesn't mean anything.' >>But I'll definitely think about it.<<

"Yeah. Maybe pink would be a safer choice after all," I laughed and raised up an arm as she threatened me with the DVD box again. "Just kidding, just kidding, not gonna dye your hair overnight."

    When I saw her lower her 'weapon of choice,' I let down my 'protection shield' too and I was welcomed by a sight that I will probably never forget. Like, ever.

    She narrowed her eyes at me and her stare was so fierce, so y, I was sure she wasn't doing it on purpose but she looked like a wild animal ready to pounce on me. And I would've had no objections.

    I held her gaze for a moment, trying to mirror it with my own, my heart beating wildly against my ribcage, but eventually, I pulled myself out of my daze and I just burst out in a laughing fit. Tiffany laughed along silently, clapping her hands from time to time and I just had to laugh even harder at that. So after a while we just kept laughing at each other laughing at the other laughing... you get the idea.

    When our laughter finally died off, I let out a big sigh and collected myself. I looked at the clock on the laptop and it was already a little past midnight.

    Tiffany followed my look and she turned to me with her head tilted, hands under her face like a pillow, raising her eyebrows at me.

"Yeah, maybe we should. I am kinda sleepy," I said and just as the thought of the warm bedsheets crossed my mind, I felt a yawn coming too.

    She nodded and I excused myself to go to the bathroom before going upstairs to sleep.

    Once I came back, I saw her closing the case of the stolen tablet before she headed to the bathroom herself.

    I was curious of what she's done with it since I haven't seen her touch the thing ever since she put it down on that coffee table yesterday evening. So I opened the case and unlocked the device, checking the messaging application we used to contact the guy, but nothing.

    Then, as I was just about to close the black leather case, I noticed a piece of colorful paper peeking out from one of the pockets.

    I pulled it out and found a familiar little sticky paper with a panda on it. It had the words 'I am sorry' written on. It wasn't a scribble either, it was careful and neat.

    I then flipped the note to its blank side simply out of habit but I was surprised to find an even longer text there. It read: '"I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments" [Psalm 119:176]'

    I stared at it for a long moment before I slipped the note back into the pocket and sighed as I closed the case.

***

How'd you like it, All?? ^^
Thanks a lot for the comments! I'm glad to see your response on this~
Mmmm... ch4 is about three times the length of this and I can't really separate it at the middle... or into three parts so we'll see how it'll be but it's probably going to be one part as long as this one, and one about double the length. ><" Would that be okay with you guys?