DAY 10

Hei-Ran: Heard you called in sick today, you ok?

Yun-Hee: want us to come by on lunch?

No I’ll be ok, just a cold.

Hei-Ran: ….

Hei-Ran: You never call in just because a cold.

Hei-Ran: What’s going on?

Yun-Hee: Oooooh is it ‘official business’?

Hei-Ran: Are you doing a stake-out?

Yun-Hee: Do you need backup?

You two watch too many movies.

I’ll be back in tomorrow

                You put your phone away in your bag, on silent. The last thing you needed were interruptions. After waking up early this morning and finding yourself still in the observation rom, you’d bolted home and taken a scalding shower to burn away Chen’s voice that was still echoing in your mind.

                You knew that Park Ha-Young came from a wealthy family, there wouldn’t have been half as much media for her otherwise. You knew that, and yet you were still floored by their estate. You’d worn your nicest clothes for the occasion and you still felt out of place.

                You knocked on the door, a heavy brass knocker in the shape of a roaring lion. If only you could have a lions courage right now.

                “Welcome to the Park Residence, how may we assist you today?” A thin woman answered the door, from her dress she was obviously some part of the hired household.

                “Good morning, I’m Kang Eunji, I just dropped by to see Miss Park?”

                “Miss Park? I’m sorry but she isn’t available to take visitors at the moment so if you could come back another-”

                You held up your ID badge, showing the DOJ insignia, “I’m sorry, but I’m here from the Department of Organised Investigation, it’s official business.”

                She led you grudgingly through the halls, and you were barely in one room long enough for you to admire it all. “The poor child is still weak, she’s not been well ever since coming back from those dreadful people.”

                “I’m sorry again for the inconvenience,” you said, “I’ll try to be as quick as I can, and I won’t ask anything that could strain her.”

                The woman, who you now assumed was a nursemaid, gave a horse-like ‘hrumph’, “I’ve been looking after her since she was born and I’ve never seen her like this, she can barely stand up without falling over some days, headaches, sleeping all the time, she can’t keep anything down! I don’t know what they did to her but I can tell you they won’t be coming near her again!”

                You nodded along with the woman’s fierce words, taking note of the symptoms she’d listed.

                “I assume you’ll want to speak to her alone?” She pulled to a stop outside a door, and you knew this must be Ha-Young’s bedroom.

                You gave her an apologetic smile. “Yes please. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”

                The woman her heel, not even offering to introduce you. Obviously, she disapproved.

                You knocked quietly on the door before opening it. The room was dark, and for a moment you thought she might be sleeping, but there she was, sat up in her bed, blankets pulled up to her chin.

                “Who are you?” She asked quickly, eyes darting to the door.

                “I’m sorry for disturbing you at home,” You said, “My name is Kang Eunji, I’m with the team investigating your kidnapping, and I just came to ask a few questions.”

                “I’ve answered all your questions at the station.”

                “I know, I know.” You sat on the stool beside her bed, “but we just want to go over a few things again, it’s just procedure.” You grinned, “it’s annoying, I know.”

                She looked away petulantly. But even like this, she was beautiful. You’d seen from the file that she was 17, the only child to two rich parents, doted on by her family, and had a line of suitors waiting for her approval, and you could see why. She had soft looking wavy hair, big doe eyes, a little heart shaped mouth. She was adorable, even in a nightgown in the dark.

                “Were you sleeping?” You asked.

                She shook her head, “the lights hurt my eyes sometimes.”

                Seriously, what had they done to her? She had every symptom in the book!

                “I’m sorry to hear that, I’ll try to get through this as soon as possible so you can rest. Do you mind if I record this conversation, just so we don’t have to come back again?”

She nodded her consent.

“Could you tell me what you remember about the experience?”

                You’d read the police report, and she matched her previous statement practically word for word. No memory of the capture, no memory of what happened before she was in the warehouse and it was on fire, there were people fighting around her and one of them had hold of her wrist, pulling her out of the building. You knew that it had been Chanyeol, but she said she didn’t know any of them. Never seen any of them before, no threatening letters, no feeling like she’s being watched, nothing to indicate why they might have taken her. There was the idea of ransom money, but it just didn’t fit. Not with these guys.

                You ended the recording. Technically, you didn’t need it. You had the police report already, you gained nothing by having a recording of her if she wasn’t going to say anything new. But, it was less about the recording, and more about the recorder itself. People were generally afraid of being recorded, it made people nervous, so when it was turned off there just that rush of relief and calm, and that’s when the interesting stuff came out.

                “You’ve been really brave in telling me all of this. Thank you.” You said, staying seated. Any second now.

                Three.

                Two.

                One-

                “So, what do you do?” She asked, looking at you.

                “I’m an interviewer, I’m in charge of talking to one of them and asking them questions.” This was common knowledge, you could tell her that.

                “Who? Who are you in charge of?”

                “Unfortunately I’m not allowed to tell you that, it’s confidential.”

                “Oh, ok.” She said. She hesitated, “Are any of them saying anything?”

                “I can’t speak to that either,” you said sympathetically, like you really wanted to tell her. On the inside, you were focused. She was trying to get information out of you, information that she hadn’t said in the recording, she was trying to tell you something. She just needed the right opportunity.

                “Right, of course not.” She said, biting her lip, “they’re really tough guys though aren’t they? But Cha-the one who brought me out of the building, right before the police showed up, he was pretty hurt, and the police treated him badly, is he doing ok?”

                That was Chanyeol’s name. She knows his name! Does she actually know them?

                Is she concerned about him?

                “I can’t speak to the condition of anyone in custody.” You said, “but we treat them well there.” Utter bull, you had no idea what kind of shape Chanyeol was in (but judging by Baekhyun and Xiumin it wouldn’t be good), but you needed her to trust you. “Ha-Young, if you have something to say, you can tell me, you can.”

                The girl shook her head and put on what looked an attempt to be a brave smile, but came off as a distorted grimace.

                You stand to leave, knowing that you’ve taken enough time already. “Well if you remember anything, or want to talk, here’s my card. That’s my personal number, you can call me anytime.”

                She nodded, shifting to sit up more to take the card, and the blanket fell to her lap, showing you her other hand resting carefully on her stomach.  

                You walked out of the house in a daze, barely keeping your professionalism up to thank the nursemaid for letting you speak to Miss Park, and to get off the property.

                There’s no way.

                Her hand was just resting there. It was probably just the most comfortable way to sit. There’s no way.

                There’s NO WAY.

                But could it?

                Could Park Ha-Young be pregnant?

                She was so concerned about Chanyeol, more than she should have been, she didn’t even mention the others.

                Chanyeol had been trying to leave the scene with her.

                Nausea. Dizziness. Headaches. Fatigue. Light Sensitivity.

                Could they be pregnancy symptoms?

                Voices pulled at your memory.

“What were you doing with the girl, on the day you were taken into custody?”

“Marrying her.”

                Marrying her.

                Marrying her.

                Marrying her.

                That was such a BAEKHYUN thing to do! To dangle the truth right there in front of Yoona and let her play it off as a joke, to get one over on the investigators by literally giving them a confession and having them overlook it. How clever. How dignified. How intricate. Oh yes, he was a silver-tongued one indeed.

                You laughed out loud. There was no way that Park Ha-Young was about to marry Chanyeol. No, it just couldn’t happen, it was ludicrous.

                The marriage you could laugh off, you could tell yourself that you chose not to believe it, but the pregnancy? That was another matter. The girl was bedridden, she was showing obvious symptoms whether they were of pregnancy or something else, there was physical evidence of something.

                No wonder the girl didn’t want to talk.

                What had Chen said yesterday? Something about not knowing her, or never seeing her before, or…

                You needed to listen to the tapes again.

“Besides, you technically don’t have anything to keep us on.”

“Besides the kidnapping and whatever else to poor Park Ha-Young.”

“The girl? That’s why we’re in here? We told you on the scene we had nothing to do with her, we rescued her!”

                Rescued her.

                What did he mean by rescued her?

                You lay on your couch, lights off, focusing on noting but his voice. For you now, there was no stimulus but him.

                But rescue her from what? Your blood ran cold. What if it wasn’t Chanyeol’s baby….? What if someone else had…?

                You sat up, feeling sick.

                Surely forensics would have found evidence if she’d been…

                But she was under the age of consent, and she had some pretty powerful parents. If there was no evidence to have an examination then maybe one was never done. Ha-Young sure didn’t look like she was about to tell anybody. What if you were the only one who knew?

                You and the boys.

                You and Chen.

                You mulled situations over in your head, of the baby belonging to Chanyeol, the baby belonging to some faceless man in dark clothing, of poor Ha-Young closed in her dark room with that thing growing inside her.

                You had to help her. You had to know who the father was, and under what… duress it had been conceived.

                You had to know.

                And you only had 4 days left before they were reassigned to another department….

                The tapes played over and over again, you’d tune in to hear your voice, or Chen’s, or Ha-Young’s from the interview today. Right now it was silent, and you waited, unsure what was coming next.

                It started softly, his voice like the unfurling of petals in sunrise. You’d been right there when he’d started singing, but it was no less stunning this time. His voice weighed over you like a blanket, tucking in the edges and soothing the edges of your fears.

                Chen was a good person, deep down. He wouldn’t have let anything happen to her.

                Instead of the faceless baby of an unknown father, an image of a baby Chen rose in your mind. Rosy cheeks from playing in the snow, a hat too big pulled over his ears, and that Cheshire cat smile so innocent on his lips.

                It was thoughts like these which lulled you to sleep yet again, his lullaby drifting in the air.