“Sit.”

They sat.

“Ok,” one of the police officers sat down and bellowed with a sigh, “Mr. Tian you said you were out walking…in front of the pub then you reported that Mr. Lu had walked out drunk with a glass of beer….”

The officer sounded as if he highly doubted what the two men were telling him. Jiro craned his neck then got up from his desk to get a good stretch, and went to stand near the doorway leaning behind it so that no one would see him as he continued to eavesdrop.

“I was going out for a smo…I…I…mean a walk,” Mr. Lu said.

He didn’t sound that drunk to Jiro. Mr. Lu was not as small as his voice sounded. He was a medium sized man and one could tell that he worked out, but his muscles didn’t bulge out as much as those men in magazines. From looking at his face a person could tell that he was in his late 20’s. His hair was short and stuck up into the air as if he’d been electrified. On the other hand his acquaintance Mr. Tian was anybody’s average Mr. Joe. Tall, well built, and nice styled hair. Obviously from a rich family because his clothes gave it all away. A branded jacket and jeans that he’d worn for the first time.

“Ok, so you were going out for a smo…you mean a walk,” the officer imitated him and listening to him made Jiro want to burst out laughing.

“Yes, yes I was then Kev…Mr. Tian…we,” the drunkard continued, “we ran into each other and just had a chat. You know…we didn’t do anything like touch a girl.”

There was a moment of silence and curious as to what had happened Jiro poked his head out from where he had been hiding to see Mr. Tian giving Mr. Lu a slight glare, as if he were warning him about something. Jiro had seen those glares many times from the suspects he’d dragged into the station.

“But witnesses report that the girl had definitely been ually harassed on the streets by you two,” the officer went on rubbing his lower lip. “The girl even said so herself.”

“But officer why would someone as sober as me would want to do that to a girl,” Mr. Tian spoke up.

“Guys don’t need to be drunkards to want to touch girls,” the officer said.

“I don’t even know this guy so why am I here?” Mr. Tian asked. “Like I said I was taking a stroll in the middle of the night after an argument with my girlfriend and wanted to get some air. Now you want to rub my cut by accusing me of touching a girl?”

He sounded pretty pissed off to Jiro who decided that his story may be true.

“Whether you have a girlfriend and whoever you fought with isn’t my problem. The problem here is that you and Mr. Lu have ually harassed and gained up on an innocent girl,” the officer stated with a very straight grounded tone meaning he wouldn’t let Mr. Tian off.

Jiro saw Mr. Tian grit his teeth.

“You tell them that you harassed the girl by yourself, say it,” Mr. Tian turned to Mr. Lu who seemed to be weak under his pressure.

“Ok…” Mr. Lu gave up. “I…I touched her by myself. Mr. Tian has nothing to do with this. Maybe others saw it from different angles and it made it look like Mr. Tian was doing it with me but he seriously wasn’t, I can swear that I am telling the truth because Mr. Tian is a very good guy and would never do such a thing, I on the other hand am drunk so I must have done it…I did it I mean…and Mr. Tian was just trying to stop me as he passed by and then someone called the cops and you guys came and handcuffed us…our wrists and brought us here.”

That drunkard did not pause for one second Jiro realized 10 short seconds after his slurred words passed through his ears.

“Do you believe him?” the officer behind the desk asked.

The two officers on stand by glanced at each other and nodded after a long pause.

“Take his handcuffs off.”

The handcuffs were taken off of Mr. Tian and the officer behind the desk turned around.

“Jiro! Come fill out some forms for Mr. Tian so he can leave.”

Jiro immediately wondered if he’d been caught eavesdropping and quickly headed back to his desk and paused for 5 seconds before walking through the door. Just to make it look like he’d been sitting down the entire time and not snooping on them at the door.

Jiro grabbed a sheet of paper from the shelf and walked toward Mr. Tian leading him to a desk.

“We need you to sign here,” Jiro stated after scribbling down what kind of crime he’d been involved in.  

“Do you guys even need to write these things down? It’s not like I’m a murderer,” he said.

“It’s required for records, I can’t really do anything about it,” Jiro replied with a small smile as Mr. Tian handed back the paper to him.

Jiro glanced at his surname and paused after he recognized that he had the same surname as the mother who’d lost her twins. Were they related?

“Thanks,” Jiro jolted back to reality.

“Don’t even thank me. I wouldn’t be here if you guys worked harder to get the right people behind bars.”

Mr. Tian turned around and walked out of the police station as the officers continued to interrogate Mr. Lu.

After placing the paper on the head chief’s desk to put away, Jiro sat back down to continue thinking about what he should do in order to help Mrs. Tian and the twins.
 
||||||||

Hebe continued to stack cans of soup on the shelf one after another without stopping for one second. She didn’t find it her fault for blowing up at Ella. She felt angry and bitter toward anyone who spoke about kidnapping or spoke of the case of her missing twins as if it was nothing. She just really hated those people who took things so easily because they had never gone through it themselves. Hate…how easy it’s been for her to use that word over and over.   

“Ma’am…ma’am…” Hebe wasn’t sure how many times she’d heard those words over and over.

Hebe bit the inside of her bottom lip and accidentally turned around with a loud angry shout, “What!”

The female customer behind her hesitated before asking questions about whether they had anymore corn oil in the store. Hebe felt her face flush and felt a bit embarrassed. She directed the customer to go down aisle 7 and stop in the middle. After she left Hebe found that the box that had been full of cans of soup was now empty. She’d have to find some other things to restock. She picked up the box and headed through the doors permitted only for employees.

||||||||

Selina stared at herself in the mirror as she added the last touch of make up to her face. She had to question herself numerous times if she was trying too hard to look pretty, but only encouraged herself with the answer that make up was just her thing. She wasn’t putting it on for anyone but herself. It was an everyday routine she couldn’t stop since college.

The thoughts of going to work and to see Aaron were unbearable for her that she had begun wondering if she should ask for a transfer back to Shanghai. Besides why should she continue to stay if it would only make her feel more and more uncomfortable? Selina shrugged the feelings of nervousness off and reached for her purse.

“You can do this.” she encouraged herself and walked out the pale brown door.

||||||||

Standing in front of the mirror Aaron folded the collars of his shirt and cleared his throat. He had gotten up surprisingly early that morning to have toast and coffee. He glanced at his hair and rustled it with his fingers then stared at himself as if he had just seen a twin.

“It’s not like you’re going out on a date, so I shouldn’t feel nervous right?” he asked himself.