It’s a strange feeling, being so utterly surrounded by her.
Her life scent is on everything. She’s on me and under me and next to me.
It’s as if the entire room is made out of her.
-Isaac Marion

Seungwan sits patiently, awaiting impending doom. The policeman was right when he said that involving the CEO would only bring about trouble, and besides, it’s not like her own record would not be heavily scrutinised. Sometimes Seungwan wonders whether her life would have been much easier and better if her job wasn’t what it is.

She could have been a baker, she muses in bed. After all, when she was younger, her peers did quite like the confectioneries she brought to school, and they always assumed she had bought them from high-class stores. She didn’t bother correcting them, and besides, the indirect compliment was more than enough. Especially when it came from the head baker of the bakery where her father worked.

Seungwan chuckles drily to herself as she reminisces about the time she spent at the bakery as a child, innocently following her father around as he made what she thought at that time were the most beautiful sugar flowers. The head baker would be so entertained by her constant presence and enthusiasm he would often call her over to help him with small, menial tasks when baking. Brooding over it in the confined area of her hospital room, she now realises that he had never done so with her father, at least not when she was around.

Perhaps that was the reason why her father had locked her in the bakery’s industrial oven. Envy easily brings out the worst in people, after all. Her mother had tried many times to erase that moment from their lives to the point that Seungwan pretended to have forgotten all about it. To tuck away that feeling of helplessness, that memory of pounding fists against the metallic oven door is damn near impossible, she knows.

Now she wonders whether the time she’ll be spending in prison is anything similar to that. Seungwan supposes she’ll have a lot of time to figure that out soon.

She glances up when the door slams open and two policemen burst through the door, muscling their way past an extremely aggravated doctor. “Excuse me, you can’t just do this!” the doctor exclaims, his reedy arms spread in a futile attempt to block the uniforms. “The patient needs to have her rest, you can’t-”

“Look here,” one of the policemen stops to frown at the doctor. “We’ve got a job to do as well, and the patient looks pretty much okay to me. We’re only here to read her her rights, tell her what she’s got coming, and then we’ll discuss when she can come out of your jurisdiction and into ours, alright?”

“Still-”

“It’s alright.” Seungwan smiles gratefully at her doctor. “They can just do what they need to and leave, and you can stay just in case something goes wrong.”

Although that seems to satisfy both professionals, the doctor can’t stop harrumphing a little bit in disdain. Seungwan sends another reassuring smile his way as the policemen read out from their notes. She lets the words wash over her, condemning her to God knows how many years in a cell, until the final of the executioner’s axe lands. “Attempted murder,” the uniform announces like a death sentence.

Seungwan her lips. She should have seen this coming, she knows, shouldn’t have expected any less from people like Taek and CEO Park. She’s more than sure that those two are working together to get rid of her and Joohyun, though why they would ever want to harm the latter, God only knows.

“Do you understand your rights?” the uniform asks.

Seungwan breathes in deeply, trying to delay the inevitable. She glances around, as if searching for a way to escape. Her gaze lands on where the room door is open just enough for someone of small stature to stand and eavesdrop. Just enough for Joohyun to stand stock-still in the doorway, listening with shock painting her face. Seungwan tries to muster up a smile to reassure Joohyun, thought it comes out more as a resigned grimace.

“Yes, I do.”

The whole room sighs. The doctor standing beside Seungwan draws himself up to his full height and puts on his sternest face. “Right.” He jabs his finger at the two policemen. “Now that you’ve done your job, you can leave and let my patient rest.” He ushers them out, passing by a frozen Joohyun on the way.

“Joohyun,” Seungwan calls out. No response.

“Joohyun,” she tries again, louder this time.

Joohyun startles, and her eyes clear enough to fixate on Seungwan’s concerned face. There she is, she thinks, worried about me even though she was just read unjust accusations. She tries a smile but it doesn’t reach her eyes. Seungwan’s face deepens with sorrow as she beckons Joohyun over and pulls the older woman into a hug.

“You heard that, didn’t you?” she asks, her voice muffled by the soft shirt that is Joohyun’s nightie, still unchanged from the night of the fire. It has hints of smoke and the antiseptic air that makes up the hospital; most importantly, underneath it all, it still smells like Joohyun. Seungwan inhales it all, and places a soft kiss on Joohyun’s stomach. “I’m sorry you were here to hear the policemen.”

“I don’t understand,” Joohyun mutters. “You didn’t deserve any of those accusations, especially the last one.” She breaks off and begins to pace. “Why attempted murder, of all things? You saved a life, dammit!”

Despite herself, Seungwan finds herself amused by the sight of Joohyun indignantly walking around with her days-old nightie flapping around her petite body. “You’re absolutely right, I don’t know what got into them,” she murmurs.

Joohyun frowns. “What did you say?”

“Oh, nothing.” Seungwan memorizes the sight of a confused, pissed Joohyun in her pyjamas, and files it away in her mind to reminisce when she is placed in prison. “I can think of an explanation, but I’ll tell you after you change out of that. You’re starting to smell off,” she says, attempting to lighten the mood.

Joohyun glances down, tries to process what Seungwan just said. “Wait, what?”

“You haven’t changed your clothes since… since the fire, Joohyun.” Seungwan wrinkles her nose in mock disgust. “It’s kind of gross.”

Joohyun narrows her eyes. “Are you trying to distract me?” But she lifts the collar of her sleep shirt anyway, sniffs. Wrinkles her nose. “Because it’s working.”

Seungwan starts to laugh; she can’t help herself. “Go freshen up, the bathroom in this room has a shower space.” Catching Joohyun’s glare, she sighs, resigned. “I have a hunch why the police are doing the things they’re doing. One of them, a more reliable and sturdy uniform, had told me this sort of thing might happen. I’ll explain everything to you later, once you’re out of the shower. Seulgi left you clothes over there.” She angles her head to indicate at the piles of clothes and beddings left on the sofa.

Joohyun crosses the room to pick them up, bundling them in her arms as she walks towards the bathroom. Before closing the partition door, she angles a look at Seungwan. “You’ll tell me everything, right? Everything.”

Seungwan nods firmly. “Oh, and, Joohyun? Will you do me a favour later?”

*

“And why are we doing this again?” Joy asks for the umpteenth time.

“Bec