Merry Christmas and happy holiday!

~JIYONG~

I slowly placed my phone on my bed, my thoughts in chaos. I sank onto my bed and elbows on my knees, bent forward and tunneled both hands through my hair. What the hell was going on?

Resting my head in my hands for a moment, I struggled to make sense of it all. Lee Donghae must have made a mistake. Erica was downstairs.

The woman Donghae had followed to Tokyo had to have been someone who looked like Erica, her actor friends perhaps and most likely the owner of the house in Jeonju, Realizing someone was tailing her, Erica had probably asked her friend to impersonate her as means of throwing Donghae off the scent and buying herself some time.

It was the only explanation. Wanting to cover all the bases, however, I had instructed Donghae to keep the woman he thought was Erica under surveillance and report back in a few days with an update.

In the meantime, curiosity, along with a need to have my suspicions confirmed, prompted me to make some inquiries of my own concerning the owner of the house in Jeonju.

Reaching for the phone beside me, I place a call to my college buddy Dong Youngbae,a detective in Jeonju Police Department who I knew liked to work night shift.

“Detective Dong…” My friend’s familiar husky voice echoed. “How can I help you?”

“Hey, Youngbae! Haven’t they promote you to captain yet?” I teased.

“Jiyong! Hey, bro! It’s been a while.” My friend replied. “Are you calling to tell me you’re here in town?”

“No, I’m afraid not.” I answered. “I’m calling to ask a favor.”

Youngbae chuckled. “I might have known. Okay, ask away.” He said.

“If I give you an address in Jeonju, could you check the owner out for me, find out everything you can?”

“Is this for a case you’re working on?” the detective asked.

“In a way.” I hinted and proceeded to give the address.

“I suppose I could make some discreet inquiries, if that’s what you want.” Youngbae replied. “It’s quiet tonight. I’ll get on it right away and give you a call tomorrow.”

“Great. Oh…would you call me when I’m at the office?” I said. “And thanks, bro. I owe you one.”

Satisfied, I’d done all I could, I hung up.

*

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to take so long on the phone.”

Erica drew a startled breath as my voice cut through her daydreams. She tensed, almost seemed quite scare and that made me wonder why.

“I just locked up the garage and brought in your knapsack.” I said. “I left it at the foot of the stairs. You’ve finished making up Hayi’s bottles, I see.”

“Yes.” Erica responded.

“Fine. You can show me how it’s done next time.” I said. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink.” I sauntered across the floor towards her. “Care to join me?”

Caught off guard by the invitation, Erica darted me a nervous glance.

“Ah..no, thank you.” she said. “Hayi will be awake soon and I’m rather tired. I think I’ll just go up to bed.”

As soon as the words were out, Erica looked flustered, a telltale bush began to invade her cheeks and hurriedly she backed away from my advancing figure.

I saw the color seep into her face and noted too the way she deliberately sidestepped me. Frowning, I reached up to open the cupboard above the fridge and extracted a half-empty bottle of wine.

“You don’t have to worry about Hayi.” I said as I opened another cupboard and took a