chapter eleven (*edited 2021)

Heading back to the hospital was the last thing Matthew wanted to do, but he didn’t have much of a choice since being apart from Somin was also not high on his list of priorities. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t even on his list of priorities—and never would be—and that’s how Matthew found himself back in the hospital.

As Matthew drove around to find parking, Jae was in the passenger seat, talking on the phone. At one point he turned to Matthew. “Maybe you should skip coming back to the station, take a—”

“No.”

Jae sighed, and went back to talking on the phone. “I tried, and I’m not trying again. I feel threatened, man!”

Matthew didn’t have the energy to laugh.

They walked into the hospital, and before they could navigate to the ICU—Jae to take Jiwoo’s place in watching over Somin, and Matthew to talk to Somin’s family—someone stopped them. Matthew almost snapped at her before he realized who he was looking at.

“Director Park!” he said, and Jae looked up from his phone. Both gave her a small bow in greeting, and both were very put off by her unexpected appearance.

Director Park nodded her head slightly to greet them. “Knew it was you. It’s been a whirlwind of a few days.”

“That would be an understatement,” Matthew said with a humorless laugh. After Somin was found Friday night, the media finally had a chance to run the story by Saturday morning, and as the day passed the spotlight had only grown larger on this case.

The director nodded in agreement, and then she looked down at the files she was carrying. “I would update you about Somin’s situation, but I don’t think I’m the best authority to explain. Dr. Han Seungyeon is the doctor that will be responsible for Somin for the duration of her stay, and I believe she’s still in the ICU. Here,” she said, handing the files over to Matthew. “Just bring them to the station when you come back, but these are the copies she gave me . . .”

“Thank you,” Matthew said.

Director Park looked at him with sad eyes, as if she wanted to say something more. But the moment passed, and she smiled. “I would accompany you, but I do have to get going to make sure the media doesn’t have too much fun. Take care, Mr. Kim.” With a smile, she departed.

Dr. Han stepped out of Somin’s room just as Matthew and Jae approached. Jiwoo was still inside, so Jae stepped in to take her place. Though the hospital did have its security and the police force was providing some extra since this was a kidnapping case, Matthew felt more comfortable with people he trusted keeping a watch on Somin until she at least woke up.

“I take it that you’re Mr. Kim?”

“Yes. Dr. Han, right?”

“Yes,” the doctor said, smiling. “Well, Mr. Kim, though you probably would’ve been able to get the details through the department anyway since you’re on this case, I’ve also gotten permission from Somin’s family to discuss her situation with you directly.”

Matthew nodded, eager to find out more about what was going on.

“Her toxicology screen results came in, and she tested positive for oxycodone hydrochloride.”

Matthew went very still. “Oxycontin.” The opioid pain medication in which the active ingredient was oxycodone. Legal, yes, but ridiculously difficult to get a prescription.

Though he hadn’t wanted to think about it, he had expected sedatives to be in her system. It was a kidnapping case, after all. But such a powerful narcotic . . . Matthew felt all the color leave his face.

He heard the doctor’s voice faintly, as if from a distance. “Yes, most likely. The levels in her blood are alarmingly high . . . hypotension and bradycardia are being addressed, but she’s not in any danger of circulatory collapse or respiratory arrest. She seems to be stable, we’re just waiting for the sedative to work its way out of her system. What we’re worried about, though, is the highly addictive properties of Oxycontin. She’s been gone—almost two weeks, correct?”

Matthew had to take a moment to breathe. He managed to nod.

“Well, if we assume that she’s been drugged the whole time, she’ll begin to face withdrawal symptoms as the remaining medication is flushed out of her system. We’ll keep the detox process gradual—thereby minimizing the symptoms—but we can only wait to see how bad her addiction is.”

She paused, giving Matthew some time to process everything. Matthew took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay as an officer. This was a case. It involved Somin, but it was a case.

“Any other information?”

“Some scabbing on her neck . . . it’ll have to heal a bit more before we can tell what they’re from, but my guess is injections. There’s also some strange bruising around her ankle. It seems sprained, so she might be in a cast for a few days at least. And they did a kit on her—”

Matthew fell back against the wall. No, no, no, no. He didn’t want to leave Somin right now, but he’d have to leave her to find and kill the person responsible.

“It was negative!” Dr. Han said quickly, reassuring him. “Negative. The drug would generally leave her unconscious, especially at the doses it seems to have been administered at, so we wanted to make sure.”

“I—” He cleared his throat, but he could feel the start of a headache. Just knowing that she must have been unconscious most of the time, at the mercy of whoever had her—

She was fine. She would be fine.

“Thank you,” Matthew said.

“We’ll do our best. She’s in good hands now, don’t worry. All she has to do is pull through.”

As the doctor left, Matthew collapsed into one of the chairs in the hallway, and he heard Jiwoo step out. Matthew suspected that she’d been waiting for an appropriate moment.

“How are you?” she asked quietly, taking a seat next to Matthew.

He didn’t think ‘fine’ was what she was looking for. He rubbed his face and glanced at her. “Okay. Better than a few days ago.”

Jiwoo frowned. “You don’t sound sure about that.” When Matthew didn’t respond, she said, “If you need to say something, I’ll hear you out.”

“It’s fine, really, I—I just—” Matthew sighed and focused his attention onto the floor. “I don’t know. The doctor, she was—she explained what they found. Oxycontin, alarming levels, so she could’ve been—been drugged the whole two weeks.”

Jiwoo only nodded, listening, and Matthew couldn’t stop himself from continuing.

“She’s probably gone through so much, and the worst part is—does she even know? She said—the doctor said Somin would’ve been unconscious most of the time. What if she doesn’t even remember what happened? What happens to the investigation, to whoever kidnapped her in the first place? What happens to the Ahn case?” He took a slow breath. “What if she blames me for this?” And then a more upsetting thought passed through his mind. “What if . . . will she hate me for this?”

As he dropped his head into his hands, he felt Jiwoo hesitantly pat him on the shoulder. “There . . . was nothing you could do, in that moment, other than what you did. She’s pulling through, and that’s what’s—”

Jae nearly slammed the door to Somin’s room open, and his glasses looked like they were about to fall off, with the speed at which he must have gotten to the door. “She’s moving.”

Matthew stood up immediately, all but running into the room. He pulled one of the chairs closer to the bed.

“I was talking—I think it was about the ramen, and how you literally cannot cook for your life, and I swear she moved, she—ow! Okay, okay, I’ll shut up,” Jae muttered, and in the momentary glance that Matthew spared him, he noticed that Jae was rubbing his arm while glaring at Jiwoo.

But that wasn’t his priority. Matthew looked back at Somin, and he carefully took Somin’s hand in his own. He could hear the heart monitor speed up, the beeps getting faster if only slightly. “Somin. Somin, this is Matthew . . . If you can hear me, try to squeeze my hand.”

He waited, and for a few seconds the only movement in the room was Jiwoo dragging Jae outside, muttering something about privacy and how Jae needed to learn about it. Then, he felt the faintest flick of her fingers. He smiled, relief bringing him near tears.

“I knew I wouldn’t lose you. Can you open your eyes for me? I promise it’s not too bright.”

Her eyelids fluttered, slowly at first. Then, after a few weak blinks, she opened them fully, and her eyes darted around the room before focusing on Matthew.

His heart pounded, and he realized that, for the first time, he couldn’t read her eyes.

And then the stray thoughts came crashing in. What if she blames me?

Does she think this is all my fault? I could’ve done something, if I’d stopped him right there, then—

, she probably hates me.

Matthew took a deep breath.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry.”

They both blurted out an apology at the same time, and Matthew frowned. “Why . . . why are you sorry?”

Somin sniffled slightly, and she visibly swallowed. “Sorry,” she said again, her voice a little raspy. “I—I should’ve listened when you—when you said to skip the party. To forget the gift. To let—”

“Somin,” Matthew said softly, interrupting her. Clutching her hand tighter while still being careful to avoid inadvertently hurting her, he reached forward to brush some stray hair out of her face. “Somin, none of this was your fault. Listen to me. This was not. Your. Fault.”

He sighed. “If anything, it’s my fault, for letting you go out there alone, without—”

He stopped talking when he realized the heart monitor was speeding up. Somin was slightly shaking her head, unable to move much more than that because of the wires, but her eyes conveyed everything.

“No,” she said, coughing lightly. “No, no, if you had—no. This isn’t your fault, Matt.” She looked at him for a few seconds longer, and the heart monitor began to slow down again. Her voice was strained but soft, and Matthew had to lean forward to hear her clearly over the sounds of the machines. Her voice . . . he had missed the sound. “Matt . . . I know that look. Please don’t blame yourself. I don’t blame you for anything. There was nothing you could do in that situation.”

You don’t blame Hongbin, either.

But Matthew smiled, hoping he kept the regret off his face.

The next few days were a blur. While Matthew was in the hospital with Somin, they avoided the topic of her abduction like it was the plague; when they talked, they talked about the newest album releases, the latest episodes of the drama Somin was watching, or they just quietly enjoyed each other’s presence, though Matthew more than once caught Somin staring at him sadly. When questioned, she would just wave it off, but Matthew felt that there was something more to it.

Most of the time, though, her parents and sister were with her, and though Matthew did stay there during some of their visits, he felt that they wanted some time with Somin as a family. After all, when she got out of the hospital, she’d return to the apartment they shared. He didn’t blame her parents for wanting to spend as much time with her as possible.

While Somin was with her family, Matthew was at the station, despite not having much work to do. The investigation was at a relative standstill until more evidence could be found, meaning that until Somin gave her statement, there was no way to move forward. And Matthew was not about to force her to deal with that until she was ready, as much as he also wanted to make progress with the investigation.

On Wednesday, Dr. Han informed them that Somin would be able to leave the next day. “Her condition is normal, and she hasn’t shown any signs of withdrawal, so my guess is that the oxycodone wasn’t a regular thing. Her tox screen came back negative, so the drug is, for the most part, out of her system,” she had said. “The cast will have to stay on for a few more days, just while she gets used to walking around normally.”

Matthew had been relieved, but the same could not be said of Somin.

When he told her that she would be discharged on Thursday, she looked up at him with wide eyes. “Tomorrow?” she choked out.

Matthew’s smile dropped from his face. “Is something wrong?”

The heart monitor was speeding up, and Somin was breathing faster. Matthew stood up, about to call a nurse—was this what Dr. Han had warned him about after Somin had woken up? The doctor had said that, with what Somin had gone through, they shouldn’t be surprised if she had anxiety attacks—did he trigger one?

But before he could call a nurse or even begin cursing himself for his stupidity, Somin held up one hand. “Please don’t. Just give me a minute.”

Matthew sat back down and waited as, slowly, Somin’s heartbeat and breathing normalized.

“I’m fine,” she said, and then she laughed, realizing how lame that sounded. Matthew smiled with her. “I just—I’m nervous, I guess?”

“What’s there to be nervous about?”

Somin stopped smiling, and she quickly averted her eyes from Matthew’s. “I’ll have to explain what happened, right?” she said quietly, staring at her hands.

Matthew felt a strange uneasiness in his gut, but he couldn’t place the cause. Pushing the feeling to the back of his mind, he said, “You won’t have to give your statement right away. We’ll wait till you’re ready, okay?”

“She shouldn’t have to already, it’s only been—what? A week since we found her? She just got out of the hospital yesterday, for ’s sake!” Matthew resisted the urge to pull at his hair, opting to just run his hand through it, messing it up even more. His appearance wasn’t exactly a priority at the moment.

That morning, Somin had decided that she was going to go in to give her official statement. Instead of telling Matthew first—which was admittedly a smart move on her part, since Matthew knew he would have outright rejected the idea—she had called Jiwoo directly, which was why Jiwoo was now waiting in the living room for Somin to finish getting ready while Matthew was pacing a hole into the floor.

“She said she wants to,” Jiwoo said quietly, watching Matthew from the sofa. “It’s her decision.”

“Yeah, well, she’s making the wrong one, isn’t she?”

Jiwoo frowned. “What are you really upset about?” she asked suddenly.

The question was surprising enough to make Matthew pause and look at her. “What?”

“You’ve been pretty good about prioritizing the investigation while also looking out for Somin,” she said. “Technically, even if it’s difficult, this’ll do nothing but give us answers. The way you’re so . . . against it, even when she says she’s ready, just makes me wonder.”

“Wonder what?”

“That maybe you’re anxious about something else, not just the statement.”

Matthew blinked a few times. Before he could even think to formulate a response, Somin stepped out of their bedroom. She studied Matthew curiously, looking between him and Jiwoo, but didn’t say anything. She gave them a small smile, and turning to Jiwoo, said, “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jiwoo said as she stood up. She started heading toward the door.

Somin walked into the living room, to where Matthew was still standing. “You coming?” she asked hesitantly.

Matthew sighed. It was Somin’s decision . . . he couldn’t take that choice away from her. “Of course,” he said, holding out his arm for her, and he was rewarded with a smile.

Somin showed her nervousness only once they had entered the police station. Matthew tried to comfort her by gently squeezing her hand, but he had to let go when they reached the interrogation rooms. He helped her into the chair, but she seemed like she was able to move fine despite the heavy cast.

“Just stop if it gets to be too much,” Matthew said quietly. Somin just nodded, keeping her gaze on the table in front of her.

Before Matthew could step out of the room, he was stopped by Jiwoo, who held out a small purple ball for him.

“A stress ball,” she said.

Matthew took it slowly, after internally debating whether or not he would really need it. Then, along with Jae and Kevin, he headed into the smaller room right next to the interrogation room, where they watched through the one-way mirror.

“Thank you for coming here today,” Jiwoo started. “I know this must be difficult, being here so soon, but you’re doing a great help.” She opened up her laptop. “Would you like me to address you as Miss Jeon, or do you prefer Somin?”

“. . . Somin.”

“All right then.” Jiwoo typed something up on the laptop she was using to take notes, and then looked back to Somin. “I want to inform you that this statement is being videotaped for future reference. I am Inspector Jeon Jiwoo, and you are here today on May 12th, 2017, to give your official statement regarding your abduction on the night of April 22nd, 2017. If at any time you feel the need to take a break, or even stop for the day, just let me know. Do you understand?”

Somin nodded.

“Then let’s begin. Your name?”

Somin glanced at her questioningly.

“For the official record,” Jiwoo explained.

“Jeon Somin.”

“Date of birth?”

“August 22nd, 1991.”

“All right then. On the night of April 22nd, 2017, you were at the home of Heo Youngji and Lee Hongbin. Please describe the events of that night.”

Somin swallowed nervously, and Jiwoo said, “Take your time. We’re in no rush.”

On their side of the glass, Kevin stood up to stretch, even though it had only just started. It was clear that he was uncomfortable already, just imagining what he would now have to listen to, and it was made worse by the fact that it was a statement by someone he knew. Jae wasn’t doing much better, spinning slightly from right to left in the swivel chair.

Somin cleared , then, and Matthew shifted his attention to the screens showing what was going on in the other room. He didn’t think he could stand watching her directly.

“They were hosting a party that night,” Somin began. “Youngji had gotten a job at Sangchul Medical a few days ago, so it was to celebrate . . .” She trailed off, sniffling.

Jiwoo realized that guiding questions may be easier. “The information we have is that you were invited, along with Matthew Kim, your boyfriend. Is this right?”

“Yes.”

“The party was held . . . indoors?”

“Yes, it was indoors.”

“It is our understanding that you were outdoors when you were abducted. What led you to leave the house?”

Somin grimaced slightly. “We’d brought a gift, and I forgot it in the car—it was cold outside, so I just wanted to get in the house . . .”

No, don’t blame yourself. We forgot the gift, I was there too . . .

“I was going back to the car to get it. The gift was in the backseat, on the driver side—Matthew had brought it to the car—so I walked over to that side and saw the m-man. He—” Her eyes darted up. “Is he alive? The man by the car, he was bleeding, I thought he—”

Jiwoo shook her head, her expression grim, and Somin cut herself off. “Oh.” She exhaled slowly. “I saw him, I was about to scream and run back inside, and then the other man grabbed me before I could . . . I didn’t see him, I guess he was hiding. Waiting for me to leave.

“I tried to push him away, but that didn’t work . . . I managed to take my phone out of my purse, and then I threw my purse away, over the car, in case he was after the money, but that wasn’t the case, and he was dragging me to where the car was . . . He took my phone and threw it to the ground when he noticed it. I just—I kept trying to get away, but he was too strong, I couldn’t—” Somin broke off in mid-sentence, looking down at her lap.

“Hey, you’re doing great,” Jiwoo said, her voice kind. “Do you want to take a break?”

After a moment, Somin shook her head. Clearing , she began again. “Then Matthew was there. I thought he would let me go, since Matthew saw him . . . but he put a knife to my throat and told Matthew not to move any closer. Then he made me get in the car, through the driver side, and I couldn’t move with the knife there—he drove all the way out of the neighborhood while holding the knife.

“After a while he stopped somewhere, I think just on the side of the road, and he . . .” Somin furrowed her brow, as if trying to remember. Her hand reached up to the side of her neck. “A tranquilizer. He took out a tranquilizer, and that’s how he kept me unconscious, I guess.”

The scabs. The injections—they were tranquilizers. And there were multiple scabs, which would mean— Matthew was suddenly very grateful for the stress ball.

“I . . . I don’t remember much about the drive. I think I woke up a few times, but I was tied up by that point, and he’d keep knocking me out with the tranquilizers . . . and then we finally arrived somewhere. When I woke up, we were in the garage of the building, and then he took me to the elevator.”

Matthew leaned forward in his chair. Where was she those two weeks?

Somin shuddered involuntarily, but quickly recollected herself. “Everything was hazy, and I couldn’t focus clearly . . . but in the end he took me into a room, and he was talking to . . .” She took a deep breath. “The man who took me, he had told the other man he’d bring something, but the other man seemed surprised that it was me, a person, and not just a thing . . . but then he decided he didn’t want to kill me.”

“Matthew?”

Jae’s voice snapped Matthew out of his reverie. When Matthew turned to him, Jae said, “Do you need to take a break?”

Matthew frowned. “No . . . why would I—”

“You’re kind of murdering the stress ball.”

Matthew glanced down and realized that with his grip, he had ripped through the outer layer of the stress ball in some places, and the white foam was visible through the tears. “I’m fine.”

Jae looked like he wanted to protest, but he silenced himself as Jiwoo started speaking.

“The man who kidnapped you, do you think he worked for this other man?”

Somin only nodded.

Jiwoo waited for her to speak, but when it looked like she wasn’t about to elaborate, Jiwoo tried another method. “So the man who took you, he handed you over to this other man?”

Again, Somin nodded, not saying anything.

“So for the rest of the two weeks, you were with this other man?”

Somin didn’t respond. She was staring at the table, her face expressionless.

“I think she’s done,” Matthew said.

The other two seemed to agree, and Kevin stood up to make his way to the phone so that they could tell Jiwoo to cut it off.

From Jiwoo’s expression, Matthew could tell that even she sensed it was time to stop, and after a glance toward the observation mirror, she turned back to Somin. “We’ll cover the two weeks in our next meeting, all right?”

Somin made no movement, her gaze fixed on the table.

Jiwoo closed her laptop. “This process isn’t easy, but you’ve done really well so far. Thank you for—”

“The other man,” Somin interrupted.

Everyone froze—Jiwoo in the process of packing her things, Kevin on his way back to his seat, Jae and Matthew staring at the screens.

“The . . . other man?” Jiwoo prodded.

Somin continued staring at the table in what seemed to be an internal conflict. She seemed to be playing with something in her hands, and when Matthew looked up from the screen to observe through the mirror, he guessed that it was some sort of ring.

A ring?

After a few more seconds of deliberation, Somin slowly breathed out, then looked up at Jiwoo. “The other man. He was J.Seph.”

um so i had to do a lot of research for the medical/police procedures to make them realistic, and even then i'm no expert so please don't kill me if i got some details wrong (in fact you should actually let me know in the comments because i literally can't ask anyone about "hospital procedures after kidnappings" without them questioning what i do in my spare time ...)

if at any part you're confused, just comment below. i'll clarify if it's something you're not supposed to be confused about (because sometimes i forget to include details and then i assume you're already aware of them, so that would be my mistake). if it's actually part of the "mystery" then don't worry, i won't spoil anything and i'll let you know that you're supposed to be confused :P

thank you for all the love you've been showing this story!!