Chapter 6

"I knew this would happen. I shouldn't have listened to you," Amber groaned as she faced the spectacled Victoria in front of her.

"Well, I thought I might as well give you my findings while you're here. My headache's gone now too," Victoria said as she flipped through her notes.

"I can read it by myself. Just hand over those and please go to bed."

When Victoria showed a sign to talk back, Amber frowned and crossed her arms. The elder of the two hesitated but she relented to Amber's request. After all, what the latter said was true and the exhaustion was catching up with her. She passed her notebook and case file to Amber and took off her spectacle. She stood up from her seat to go to the kitchen puzzling the red head but when Victoria returned with a mug of steaming coffee in front of her, she understood.

"Thanks Vic-unnie. Good night."

"Good night, Amber. It's only this one time I'll let you by yourself. If I see you looking like a zombie tomorrow, I'll confiscate your laptop for a day," Victoria threatened.

"Aye, aye. Go and sleep," Amber said as she slightly pushed Victoria towards her room's direction.

With a kick-start effect from the caffeine, Amber switched on her laptop and put it to the side before opening the case file. As expected of Victoria, the contents were very organized and the events were arranged chronologically. Amber skipped to the recent cases and stopped when she saw the name 'Han Daewan' written at the top left corner. She scanned through it and took notice that she had the same information inside her mind except for some extra ones that she didn’t know of.

He signed for a 6-figure project with foreign company, Vicer, just two weeks ago. It was said that if the project succeeded, he would be promoted to become the vice president.

Note: Despite the break-in into his office/house, there's no sign that he reported it to the authority. (To be confirmed with the local police station)

She was disturbed by a beeping sound from her laptop so she diverted her attention to the screen and proceeded to check her inbox.

Amber wrote her own notes on her notebook and added a few details and questions regarding the case. If she was at home, she would be setting up a mind-map on her soft notice board but notes on paper would do for now. She researched more into the Han Company from the time when it was first established, in 2000, making Han Sook (the victim's father) the third generation heir. It was established by Han Sook's great grandfather who passed away after three years handling the business. From there on, the company has been advancing rapidly as they were offered collaboration project with several developed companies from Japan and China. Amber thought it was suspicious for the Han Company to have the contracts in such an early stage of business. She took notes on that in her personal notebook and decided to keep it to herself until she had solid proof of shady business, or if the company was really clean. Having encountered that, Amber stopped her work and switched off her laptop, charging it so it can be ready for tomorrow's work. She wasn’t feeling sleepy as of yet so she rummaged through her backpack, in search for her beloved Rubik's cube and fiddled with it. And that's how she spent the night at Victoria's.

D E F L E ( x ) T I O N

The sentiment was shared with Sulli as she can't find herself falling asleep as easy as any other night. She stayed in a lying position, frozen, afraid that she'll wake up SooJung. She had thought that she would be offered the guest room but SooJung had wanted them to chat through the night, who then fall asleep in midst of a conversation. Sulli felt tired but her mind was racing a hundred mile per hour so she did one thing that she would never do any other day.

She slipped out from beneath the blanket as stealthily as possible and went out of the room. She made sure not to make any noise when she closed the door and walked carefully in the dark towards the kitchen. She thought that maybe if she had a glass of water, she will be able to sleep well. If that didn’t work, she'll have to make herself comfortable and brew some tea. When she arrived in the kitchen, she found Jessica having a seat with a mug of hot drink in her hands.

"Sulli-ah, you can't sleep?"

"Yea. What about you unnie?" Sulli asked as she took a seat across her.

"Just have something in my mind. Want some warm milk?"

"Sure, thank you."

"What's wrong? I'm sure you're already accustomed with Soojung's bed with all the sleepovers you guys had, so it can't be that you missed your bed. Anything you want to share?"

"It's just.." Sulli stopped but Jessica gave her a sign to go on, "I'm worried about Amber-unnie."

"About Amber? Why?"

"Lately she's been unable to sleep and whenever she returned from work, she was always tired. Everyday her eye bags are getting more obvious and she's always falling asleep on her desk," Sulli explained after she took a sip of the warm beverage.

"It's the nature of her work. Besides, isn't she always like that?"

"I know, I should have got it by now but it feels like she's drifting away from me."

Jessica came closer and engulfed the younger girl in a hug and whispered, "You know that's not true. You're her favorite sister and she won't distance herself from you. I would know, I have a sister myself."

"Thank you, unnie. Sorry about the outburst," Sulli apologized as she pulled away and wiped her tears.

"It's nothing. If you have any problem, I'll be here listening. Now, off you go. Wash your face and sleep. Soojungie will be worried if she noticed you're missing."

"Have a good night unnie. You, too, need to retire to bed."

"I will, in a bit. Go ahead," Jessica nodded.

 After she was sure that Sulli entered Krystal’s room, she stayed seated down in the kitchen, unmoving. The milk in her mug turned cold but that didn’t matter to her as she set it aside. Her expression changed and her eyes watered but she brushed away her tears quickly with her hand. She raised her head to face the ceiling to prevent anymore tears trickling down her cheeks.

If only I can stay true to my words.