You’d slept lightly, uneasily, knowing that something was coming. So when your phone rang and Jisoo told you to come to the office, all rushed and hectic, the pit in your stomach was already there.

                “I need you to come get me.” You told Yun-Hee, “The buses don’t run this early.” She was on her way in seconds, Hei-Ran no doubt with her. You waited outside your apartment block, the streetlamps the only light in the darkness.

                And even when you got to the building you spent all of your time at, the streetlamps were still the only light, giving the building a haunting glare, like something out of a horror movie. Outside the building the ominous silence was broken, police were everywhere, bright yellow tape surrounding the building. You heard the yelling voice and knew Mr. Im was around here somewhere, and after what he did… You ducked into the crowd, hoping he got elbowed in the face by a tired policeman.

                “Eunji!” You heard, Hei-Ran and Yun-Hee running to catch up. “What’s going on?”            

                They’d stayed silent in the car, letting you be tense and worried, but now they were worried too.

                “They’ve broken out.” You said quietly, looking up to the dark building. Everything was shut down, even the emergency lights, someone had to have hacked the system. That would have unlocked the doors to the interview rooms, and was also the reason you always advocated for actual physical locks on important doors instead of key-cards. 

                You head towards it, but a barreled chest in black blocked your way. “I’m sorry miss, this is a crime scene, you can’t come through.”

                You looked around, seeing just how many men were stationed around the building. But you needed to get in, you needed to see it.

                You felt a hand on your shoulder and for a second you heart dropped, they were taking you away, they knew. But you saw Yun-Hee stepping in front of you, her hand dropping and instead lifting to the arm of the soldier. Hei-Ran joined her, wicked grins on their faces.

                In a second you’d jumped the tape, and were lost in the shadows of the building.

                It was so different in the dark, it felt abandoned, otherworldly. The elevators were down, but luckily you didn’t need them. The stairs were exactly where they always were, and you’d taken them enough times to do them in pitch darkness. It was quieter, the hum of electricity lost, the buzz of outside blocked by the walls. It was just you in your running shoes running up in record time.

                You felt your way along the walls on the sixth floor until you found Chen’s room, and you your phone flashlight, aiming it around the room.

                There was nothing. The desk was as it was, the bed, the toilet, everything was in its place. Like he’d never even been here. You dropped your phone on the table, light facing up to illuminate the room as you sat in the interview chair.

                He was gone, just like that.

                Had you done this? Had you made it possible? Were you happy he was free, or had you failed? There was a failure either way, you’d either failed your job, or you’d failed him. Either way, you were going to have to come to terms with one.

                “How are you feeling?” You asked the room, hearing your voice flat and lifeless. “Your bruises should be cleared up by now, but I haven’t done a great job of looking after them.” You smiled ruefully, “I should have checked for infection.” You breathed, “there’s a lot of things I should have done. But I guess it’s too late now.”

                You gave yourself another moment before you stood, knowing you had to get out soon before the police started doing their search of the building. But before you did, you sat carefully in the other chair at the table, Chen’s chair.

                This was what he saw every day, the smooth expanse of reflective wall that was the observation mirror. With your reflection in it, you could almost imagine this was how it looked like for him, with you sat on the other side of the table. You don’t know what you’d expected, to understand him more, to finally get a glimpse into his mindset by seeing what he sees, but there was nothing. Just a reflection of yourself that only seemed to enlighten how much you didn’t know.

                You left soon after that, barely dodging a security guard at the front door. A quick look back showed it was the guy who had hit on you before, there would be no getting back in if he was the one watching out for you.

                You saw the rest of the team grouping together and you ran to join them, Mr. Im was already talking.      

                “- unknown who helped them escape, but they’re out and the whole city is looking for them. But even if they are recaptured, it’s unlikely they’ll be given back to us, with the poor job we’ve done with them. This team is disbanded from hereon out. Lay low, don’t talk to the media, and don’t answer questions. I want you all to take the next couple days off until the heat dies down a little.”   

                He sounded rough, and you imagined how much this was weighing on him. For him, this was a failure, 100%. He’d failed to get information, he’d failed to contain them, it was under his command that they’d gone free. He would be under heat for this, but you really couldn’t find it in yourself to care. If you could up the pressure on him you would, you’d be first in line to sign the page that got him fired.

                “Let’s go.” You said, once you’d found Yun-Hee and Hei-Ran again, standing under a streetlamp by the car, waiting for you.

                “We’re taking you back to our place.” Yun-Hee said, as she pulled onto the road, “I don’t know what’s going on but-”

                “Can you just take me home?” You asked, “I’m exhausted and I really just want to sleep in my own bed.”

                She pursed her lips and eyed you in the car mirror, “Then we’re staying with you.”

                “Guys, come on. I’m just going to be sleeping, you don’t have to-”

                “Well we are.” Hei-Ran said firmly, “You’re stuck with us.”

                You all pulled into your underground parking, to your rarely used parking spot. You were silent as they escorted you up to your apartment, using their own keys to unlock the door. They put you on the couch and returned to you in moments with blankets and tea.

                They sat quietly with you, looking out of the window at the early morning sky. Eventually, you spoke.

                “Mr. Im hit on me. Offered to ‘help me in my career’.” You modified it, not ready yet to actually say it out loud.

                “Oh my god!”

                “That’s disgusting!”

                You sipped your tea, nodding, “He’s been threatening to kick me off the case a bunch of times because I wouldn’t send Chen for discipline.”

                “Chen? You had Chen?”

                “What’s discipline?”

                “Where we send them down to the basement and let them get beaten and restrained and tortured until morning.”

                “WHAT!”

                “ISN’T THAT ILLEGAL?”

                You shook your head, “our department has ‘allowances’. But I wouldn’t do it, I couldn’t.”

                “Of course you couldn’t, that’s inhumane!”

                “He deserves more than that.” You said, “he’s a good person. And the security guard hit on me and now I’m sure I won’t be able to get back in the building. And then there’s Sora, she hacked into my account and sent Chen for discipline to get back at me, and Yoona! Yoona who pretended she was mentoring me and spied on me for Mr. Im! And then there was Xiumin, he’s beaten black and blue, he’s Sora’s and she treats him horribly.” You frowned at the memory of seeing him cuffed in his chair. “and then there’s all the business with Ha-Young,” you groaned, “This is all such a mess.”  

                Hei-Ran pat your hair, “So what are you going to do?”

                “I don’t know.” You said, “I don’t know if I can work there again, I can’t work somewhere I’m treated like that, I can’t work somewhere they justify actions like that.”

                “You can’t quit!”

                “I may have to.” You said, “Chen should never have been treated like that, there should never have been a department created where any of this was even possible.”

                Yun-Hee pulled the blanket further over all of you, resting her head of yours, “He sounds like a good guy.”

                You nodded, “he is.”

                You watched the window slowly fill up with drops of rain, one after the other. What was it Chen did in the rain? Hot Chocolate? No, that was snow. Watching lightning, that was it. Watching lightning from his window in his mysterious apartment downtown. He’d said you’d raided it, so theoretically… it should be in your department’s database, you’d been given all known information about them so far so you should have access to it…

                Slowly, you felt Hei-Ran and Yun-Hee fall asleep beside you. Fair enough, you’d gotten them up early. You eased yourself out from in-between them and tiptoed over to your laptop, logging in to the department database and searching for any history you hadn’t already read.

                You found it, and it was no wonder you’d overlooked it before. They hadn’t found a trace in the apartment, no evidence that he’d lived there, they’d just raided it on faith and never gone back.

                You were out of the door before you knew it, a scribbled note on the coffee table for your friends when they woke up and found you gone. Thankfully by now the busses were running, and you went downtown. You weren’t dressed for the area, you were in a t-shirt and jeans, not even a leather jacket to look like you fit in. This area felt dangerous. You kept your head down to look inconspicuous, and darted up the fire escape as soon as you found it. The window was easy to open, and you slid into the apartment.

                It was dark, and quiet, and empty.

                Had you actually expected him to be here, in a place that was known to the police as a previous residence? Of course not, there was no way he’d have been here.

                Still, you’d hoped. And you recognised the disappointment that brought you.

                You walked through the living room, a couch pushed up against one wall, a broken lamp in a corner. The bedroom was in the same state, moth eaten covers piled in a heap on the bed. Had he lived in this state? The little boy from the suburbs who watched the snow, how had he come to this? You didn’t even dare to look at the state of the bathroom, knowing no good would come from it.

                The kitchen was the last room, the door was ajar so you nudged it open with your foot. You froze in the doorway, eyes fixed in front of you.

                He was there.

                Right there.

                Sat on the counter like he wasn’t some wanted criminal, in casual jeans and a dark shirt. He had a take-out cup in hand, a second one on the counter beside him.

                He grinned, “You’re late.”

                You said nothing, frozen in place. He sipped his drink, picking up the other one and holding it out to you, “It’s cold now, I thought you’d figure it out earlier. You’re off your game, Kang.”

                “How’d you get out?” You asked, still wrapping your mind over the fact that he was here in front of you. And how real he looked when not dressed in the jumpsuit.

                He chuckled, “there’s 9 of us. Not 8.”

                “What?”

                “His name’s Lay, Xiumin told me he’d be breaking us out around the 14^th day.”

“It’s been almost exactly a fortnight since I’ve had a lay.”

                You’d been right after all, that was the clue. You took the cup from him. “Why are you telling me this?” 

                He raised a brow, “why are you here?”  

                There was a pause, both of you waiting for an answer to questions you couldn’t fully comprehend. Why was he telling you this, why were you here? Neither of you had answers, and you both knew it.

                “What’s your name?” You asked.

                “Chen.”

                “Your real name.”

                “It doesn’t mean anything anymore, I left that life behind.”

                “Still,” you said, “I’d like to know.”

                He thought, then, “Kim Jondae”

                You smile, “Kang Eungi.”

                He extended a hand to you from the counter, and you took it, shaking hands as equals for the first time. Then he pulled on your hand and you staggered closer, losing your balance for half a second, the coffee sloshing around in the cup.

                “Come sit,” he nodded at the counter. “and drink the coffee, I promise I didn’t drug it.” He gave you a grin that automatically made you doubt his words, but you hopped up on the counter and took a sip. It made you doubt how much he knew, if he’d somehow found out about what Mr. Im had done…

The coffee was cold, but strong. You drank again.

                You sat there in silence until there were only dregs left. Suddenly you wished you taken it slower, because now there was nothing to distract you.

                “Don’t you have to get going?” You found yourself asked quietly, looking at your empty cup.

                “Yeah.” He chuckled, “don’t want the dirty officials finding me.”

                You gave him a look, you were one of those dirty officials.

                He laughed, eyes crinkling in the corners, “Other than you, of course.” He nudged his leg against yours, jolting your heart.

                “What’ll you do now?” You asked.

                He shrugged, his shoulder brushing yours. Had he moved closer? Had you? “Lay low until the heat dies down I guess.”

                “Is that where the rest of them are? Laying low?”

                “Kind of. Running errands, tying up loose ends. Suho went to get his fiancé so she can hide with us.”

                Is that what you were? A loose end? Was he just making sure that you wouldn’t tell anything, that you wouldn’t have a change of heart? Well, your heart seemed set in its ways these days. It’d gone and jumped off a cliff without giving you any warning, and here you were trying to catch up to it.

                He hopped off the table and stood in front of you, close, his hips brushing your knees. He grinned, “I hope I didn’t ruin your career, you’re one of the good ones.” He reached and took your coffee cup from your hands, placing it on the counter, but not letting go of your hand. His fingers laced with yours, and you could hear your heart pounding in your chest. His fingertips were calloused as they traced your palms. He raised your hand and your breath caught in your throat as his lips pressed to the back of your hand. He winked, “It was a privilege to be your prisoner.”

                He went to move away but you weren’t about to let him go so easily. Your fingers curled in his and you pulled him to you, pressing your lips hard on his.

                A hand cupped your jaw as he tilted your head up, softening his lips to kiss you deeply, slowly. His thumb the column of your throat and an involuntary groan tore from you. You could feel the tilt of his lips on yours as he grinned. Eventually, you both parted for air, but he did not move away. He leaned down to rest his forehead on yours, breath hitting your lips.

                You grinned, heart more at ease that it had been for the past two weeks. “Stay out of trouble.”

                He grinned back, capturing your lips one more time. “I’ll do my best.”

                The walk home felt shorter, you were no longer looking over your shoulder, watching for dangers. It was only midmorning by this point, but what a day it’d been. You were different than who you were yesterday, and you knew there was no going back. The job you had, the life you had, all of it was changed. How long would it be before you could go out with the girls and look at a guy without thinking that it wasn’t Chen?

                Hai-Ran and Yun-Hee were livid by the time you got home, but they could tell that something had changed, and didn’t press you. Just gave you big hugs before leaving, because they had to report to their own office manager even if you had the day off, and Ms. Ahn would no doubt be a nightmare to deal with today.

                And then, you didn’t know what to do. When was the last time you’d had a day off, or time to relax at all? Even before the Lotto case you’d been dedicated to your work, staying overtime, living through your caseload. But now what?

                You took a bath, dug out a skin mask you’d been given but never used, blow-dried your hair and braided it carefully. Google told you that in a day of confusion you should take special care of yourself, make sure that you got the care you deserved, take time to show yourself that. And you had to admit, it felt nice, you couldn’t remember the last time you’d had a bath instead of a hasty shower, the last time you’d let your mind relax. Because now, you’d done all you could. There was nothing left for you to do.

                Google also told you to cook something nice for yourself, but that would turn out a disaster, so you ordered a pizza instead. Extra cheese, bacon, barbeque sauce, the works. You’d lit a scented candle and were just laying on the couch looking at the clock, half wishing for your pizza to get there quickly, and half wishing it would be delayed so you could get it for free.

                As you lay there, your mind drifted back, remembering the light in Chen’s eyes as you walked into that ty kitchen, the softness of his lips as they’d pressed against your own, the callouses on his fingertips that had dragged over your throat. Your heart sped with the memory of what it’d had been like to kiss him for that brief moment, and you found yourself thinking, not for the first time, what it would have been like if the two of you had met in another life.  

                Alas, the buzzer rang within the time, distracting your thoughts, and you hauled yourself up off your couch to let them in.

                “Heeello.” You drawled, every relaxed muscle tensing right back up when you heard the sobbing on the other end. “Hello? What’s wrong, who is it?”

                The sobbing continued, but another voice spoke over it. An older, female voice, that you’d heard once before. “It’s Ha-Young. She needs to see you.”

                It was a long wait, the seconds inched by until there was knocking on your door. The poor girl launched herself on you as soon as you opened it, and you could see the nursemaid stood primly behind her, distaste written all over her face.

                “Here,” you said, “why don’t you both come in.”

                You led Ha-Young to your couch, hearing the nursemaid shut the door and follow. You Ha-Young’s hair and let her lean on you, humming softly as you gave her time to calm down.

                The nursemaid sat on the chair beside, keeping her lips tight.

                “They’re gonna make me get rid of the baby.” Ha-Young sniffled, “They’ll make me.”

                “Miss Park saw the household physician today.” The nursemaid clarified.

                “And he’s gonna tell my dad and he’s going to make me get rid of it.” Ha-Young resumed her crying, burying her head in your shoulder.

                Your buzzer rang loud in your apartment, and you winced. What awful timing. You mouthed to the nursemaid, it’s pizza, and she narrowed her eyes in disapproval but went to get it anyway, knowing you couldn’t untangle yourself from the crying girl.

                “Is it Chanyeol’s?” You asked softly, resuming her hair. You felt her nod into your shoulder, “Your family is just looking out for you.” You said, but she shook her head.

                “It’s my baby, mine and Chanyeol’s.”

                “Raising a child is difficult, especially all on your own.”

                “I wouldn’t be alone-”

                “Chanyeol isn’t coming back.” You said, “he’s a wanted criminal, there’s no way for you to raise this baby together.”

                She wriggled and shoved you off, standing and glaring at you, “You’re just like them! You said you’d help me! I’m not a child!”

                “I know you’re not, Ha-Young.” You said, keeping your voice even but firm, “which is why I’m talking out the options with you.”

                She frowned, but sat back down, keeping her distance this time. “They’ll disown me.”

                “We don’t know that.”

”It deserves better,” she said, tears leaking out again, “than me for a mother, I don’t know anything, I’m so useless!” She burst into another bout of crying, just as the nursemaid came back in the room with the pizza box.

Eventually, she cried herself to sleep, and you pulled a blanket over her on your couch. You looked to the nursemaid, who looked tired and haggard, her façade gone now that the girl was asleep.

“I’ve looked over her her whole life.” She said, “And I truly believe she loves that boy.”

You looked at her, “Maybe, but it will pass, with time.” You hoped.

“She wants to keep the baby.”

You nodded, looking back at Ha-Young. “I’m worried about the stress a termination could put on her.”

“Abortion’s aren’t legal.”

“They are if the fetus was forced on you, and that’s what they’ll say.” You said grimly, “and since Chanyeol is a criminal he won’t have a say in the decision, and Ha-Young is underage. Legally, it is her parent’s decision.”

Her eyebrows tightened, “she’d never get past that. It’s destroy her.”

You nodded, “It’s not a good option for her.”

“But she can’t have this baby.”

You shook your head, “no, she’s 17, she deserves to live her life without the burden of a baby in these circumstances, and her family would never let her keep it. But don’t rich people just say they’re sick for a year and go into secret pregnancy when things like affairs happen?”

“You can’t be suggesting-”

You shrugged, “having the baby might give her some closure, that her relationship with Chanyeol is over, and now it’s time to move on. If the baby went to somewhere she knew it would have a good life… well, that might be enough.”

The nursemaid’s eyes were hard, forced, “she’s just a child. She’s 17 but she doesn’t know anything about the world. She’s not ready.”

You sighed, remembering the warmth against your lips, “The world doesn’t wait for us, we can only try to keep up.”

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Alright, just ONE CHAPTER left! See you all Saturday!! XD