15; Sleepover pt. II

'Let's bake cupcakes, Jihye!'

It was the 7th time that evening that the shrill cry sounded from the corner of the room. It was a stuffed bear – large, pink, and incredibly fluffy – which was seemingly programmed to; at timed intervals; blurt out in the most basic of a kindergarten voice, equally basic childish requests.

… And every time it would do so, a round of coy laughter would erupt along with flailing manicured nails, save for Officer Woon Kyungja who only cringed inwardly in response.

If perhaps one had to watch, the officer in disguise appeared to be a stone carving in comparison to her excitable surroundings. In fact, the only sort of expression she was capable of – as she watched Moon Jihye and one of the 4 other girls present squeal and giggle while playing Twister – was one most befitting of a funeral house.

Why she was in such a predicament again, she'd never know. Damn the commissioner for finding importance in something so trivial! Or maybe he just found amusement in the idea of her rotting away at the function. To Kyungja, the event was simply a waste of time… or perhaps it was an excuse to cover up just how embarrassing her predicament was. In her opinion more information was to be gathered outside the home rather than within it of the next possible 'incident', because all she felt going on in her mind then was the mass murder of brain cells.

Ah, how she envied Jimin's position at this point. Never in her life did she imagine she would, but staring sombrely at the squealing high school girls clad in silken pyjamas and voluminous hair that she expected to at any minute be hiding flowers, she felt out of place. Terribly out of place.

'Oh my God, Chorong...!' the sleepover host cried; her arms and legs a stiff combination of limbs that barely supported her upper body on the mat. 'Your extensions are—like—totally falling out?'

Chorong – the blonde who'd been staring into her cell phone ever since the game began – shrieked suddenly at the comment. Immediately she abandoned the game and darted for the bathroom, where yet another shriek erupted. Kyungja watched blankly as the girl returned; her hands in the air, vibrating madly, and her face the perfect arrangement akin to that of someone who’d just witnessed a murder take place.

'I-I think I'm having...,' she paused to breathe out shakily. 'An attack!'

'Oh my Gucci? Can you—like—stop being such a freaking drama queen?'

The girl with the heavily-bandaged nose on the pink water bed sighed in exasperation. She had open a makeup compactor in one hand, and the other was occupied with pinching a mascara stick.

'Pink is so out of fashion anyway. This season is cheese yellow.'

The one lounging with a magazine beside her looked up quickly at the comment, cocking a thin eyebrow in confusion. 'But I thought you said...'

'Anyways...!' she cut off the latter's concern with a snap of the compactor and a tight smile. 'What do you guys think about this one: 62% or 70% dark chocolate?'

'Duh,' a girl clad in pastel blue silk pyjamas approached Chorong – who was currently seated in one of the many scattered pink cushions – with a hair straightener.

'62% because you can actually eat it. But I ended up giving some to Rover and the dog—like—went nuts?'

The magazine one gasped dramatically; her head snapping up from whatever she was reading. 'Oh my God, girl! Don't you know you're—like—not supposed to feed dogs chocolate? It—like—gives them herpes!'

Every one of the girls in the room gasped at the information provided. Even Chorong in her traumatized state looked up and stared at the girl responsible for the said outburst.

'Isn't that… terminal?'

'Poor Rover,' Jihye voiced her first comment on the subject, lounging on the Twister mat that was freshly abandoned by her only playmate.

And as if with the click of her fingers, the topic switched. Jihye smiled; the curious, child-like tilt of her head allowing for shimmers of gold to peek out from the hair she tied loosely behind her that trailed to the floor.

'Kyunnie, which chocolate would you pick?'

The mention of a supposed nickname produced all sorts of unsightly body reactions in Kyungja. Yet all she was capable of doing at the time was counting the painful seconds that passed, sipping the pink lemonade at her side to keep herself looking alive.

'70%.'

She answered briefly, however Jihye's curiosity lingered. 'Why?'

It was amazing how child-like the girl seemed. In fact, upon entering the room from the pristine conservative colours of the rest of the mansion to a pink explosion gave her little to no control of her first impression of the girl. Walking into Moon Jihye's room was – to say the least – the equivalent of being inside a giant cupcake. It was filled to the brim with all sorts of cheerful, over-the-top things.

Large, decorative stuffed animals that looked as if they costed far more than what they were worth were scattered everywhere in the room. Equally fluffy-looking cushions were as well, in which the girls that were present often lounged on. The spacious room was adorned in shades of white, pastel red, and creams; colours somewhat befitting a heavily-frosted cupcake... and then it dawned on Kyungja that there really was no other word to use to describe the girl.

Because a cupcake was precisely what she was. 'It's not the best of chocolates to consume, but considering the percentage, it's tolerable to the human palate on its own. 70% is the recommended minimum amount of cocoa beans to be found in healthy dark chocolate, hence, why I would choose it.'

A spell of silence enveloped the room as Kyungja stared at a carelessly placed golden bracelet on the floor. She had no idea why someone would actually want to kidnap an individual like Moon Jihye, because somehow the thought of instead visiting her room seemed more plausible. All kinds of valuables were nonchalantly lying about, and perhaps with an effortless flick of the wrist the thing could be in anybody's pocket without her even noticing.

'Oh my Gucci, are you—like—Google or something?' the one with the dressed nose said with agape and eyes wide; a cell phone in her hands. 'That's totally what it says online too!'

The one straightening Chorong's hair groaned. 'Isn't it so great to be clever?'

Chorong huffed in response; Kyungja observing silence at the statement. 'Yeah, but maybe it's good we isn't. Because the smart ones totally get kidnapped, right?'

The mention of the word kidnap immediately caught her attention. She looked up at the girls and watched as the two on the bed joined in on the collective laughter, save for Jihye who was oddly silent.

'Did you just—like—say isn't? Don't you mean aren't?'

'You're so not kidnapper material Chorong! Like oh my God!'

Chorong's face turned beet red almost instantly at their teasing. 'W-whatever! Same difference! At least I know I'll be safe, unlike Namjoo.'

'Ooh, Kyungja, you'd better watch out!' the pair on the bed said playfully. 'The ghost might just snatch you up next, like Namjoo and Kyungsoo. When you're all alone, and no one's there to witness, you'll feel these hands creep up behind you and—'

'Stop it!'

Jihye suddenly cried, springing to her feet and looking far too serious than she ought to. The girls stared at her as if she just introduced a whale in the room with large eyes and opened mouths; the fluffy pop music in the background the only thing audible for a second. Even Kyungja felt slightly taken aback by the girl's response... then again, ever since the topic arose she'd been acting odd. The officer couldn't place it, but perhaps Moon Jihye knew something about the topic they didn't.

'Um—I mean... cut it out, you guys. You know that kind of stuff really freaks me out…,' she laughed sheepishly upon registering their surprise, which seemingly shifted a heavy weight from the room.

'And besides, we're not done with Twister!'

She cried excitedly on the spot, at which the other girls groaned at. None of them looked even relatively interested in the game and were more absorbed into their own activities, Kyungja noted... of course, that was until the bubbly girl's attention shifted to the officer in disguise sitting alone at the corner of the room quietly. She beamed brightly and threw out an arm, pointing a finger in her direction and stuck out her tongue in a signature childish pose.

'Kyunnie, I challenge you!'

And Kyungja at that point could only imagine her partner was detailing the events leading up to this point. They had a lot to review later in the evening, and standing up hesitantly when Jihye didn't so as budge with her request, she was only capable of dreading her current situation even more. Because the more time she spent in the cupcake room, the more she felt her brain deteriorating at frightening speed.

Somehow, she thought of Park Jimin in that instance. And began to reconsider the option of a drinking party instead. Perhaps she should have chosen more wisely.

Meanwhile...

The bright-haired kid instantly scrambled to his feet the moment his assailant – shockingly a familiar one at that – released the death grip on his wrists. He retreated at least 2 meters away from him; mouth agape and eyes wide; and pointed a finger in the direction of an awfully guilt-smitten classmate.

'W-w... what...'

However, his intense shock and confusion denied even a coherent sentence out of the high schooler's mouth.

'What are you doing here...?'

Jimin gulped; eyes fixed on the flustered kid. 'I could ask you the same thing,' he said coolly, slipping the handcuffs into his back pocket again discreetly. Play it cool, Jimin, he recalled his partner’s words in that instant like a mantra. Play it cool.

'You do know trespassing private property is a serious offence, right?'

'W-well...' he stopped short; his face falling at the realization of his crimes. 'I could… say the same for you! What are you doing here? Huh?'

Jimin managed an incredibly composed look despite the messy situation at hand. Somehow he felt a little at ease dealing with the younger boy who was clearly bewildered by the events, but the pressing concern for his position was still present. He couldn't give away his disguise.

Then again, what else could he possibly say? He was on a mission waiting for his partner who was at a high school girl's slumber party to finish, meanwhile being on the lookout for suspicious activity in the vicinity? He could have laughed at the prospect, but instead he shifted anxiously on the spot; eyes settling on the garden gnome when an idea suddenly came to mind.

'I was…,’ he paused, staring at the gnome’s smiling face so intently that he could imagine it sweating nervously under his desperate gaze.

‘Cleaning the next door yard.'

The kid's eyebrows furrowed deeper in confusion at the statement, however just as quickly his eyes followed Jimin's line of sight. Almost immediately upon seeing the garden decoration, he gasped audibly.

'Oh my God, did you steal that!?' he shouted in a hushed tone; his entire body language dramatically changing into a defensive one. 'You're a thief...!?'

Actually, I'm a cop, he was tempted to remark, but just as he opened his mouth to clear the suspicion, the sound of something rustling nearby stopped him. He turned around quickly and so did the youngster; the two of them staring in panic at the back door of the mansion in the distance creaking open and a figure appearing outside