DAY 9

                “Did you cook this?” He asked cautiously, sniffing the container.

                You rolled your eyes, “yes. It took forever, so you better appreciate it.”

                He poked the plastic fork at it, “looks dodgy.”

                “Look if you don’t want it-” You reached across the table but he hastily pulled the Tupperware back, waving his fork at you to get you to back off.  

                You grinned as he began digging in to his breakfast, while you ate slowly at your own. It didn’t taste bad per se, but it wasn’t worth the hours of work you’d put into it. Although, from Chen’s expression, it just might be.

                He finished with a belch that you wrinkled your nose at, blowing the air away from you. “You’re disgusting.”

 He laughed, “Not bad. Almost as good as Kyungsoo.”

                “Kyungsoo? Who’s that?”

                He shook his head, “nobody. Don’t worry about it.”

                “It is one of you, one of you here?”

                “Do you honestly think I’ll tell you?” He rolled his eyes, “New topic, how’s your week been? Seems a little hectic.”

                You sighed, giving in yet again. “The usual, you know. You ruining my day, my pathetic ex ruining my evenings.”

                “An ex? He bothering you?”

                “Just the usual stuff. Don’t worry about it.”

                “No, seriously,” he leaned closed, “I’m curious.”

                “It’s boring mundane stuff,” you waved a hand, “I’m sure it wouldn’t interest you and your super stylish criminal lifestyle.”

                He chuckled, “I could have him killed for you?”

                You smiled, “how sweet.”

                “Especially if it’s still snowing outside, they won’t find his body till spring, that’s a six-month guarantee. You won’t find a deal like that anywhere else.”

                “What a bargain.” You rolled your eyes, “But unfortunately the snow’s all gone, it rained last night.”

                “It rained? How hard?”

                “I don’t know, hard enough to get rid of all the snow?”

                “You didn’t stay up to watch it? I always did, I loved storms. I used to sit at the window and watch the lightening touch down.” He was looking past you, but not at the wall, lost in more memories. His thumb was tracing the base of his pointer finger, rhythmically, absent-mindedly.

                “Force of habit?” You asked. He blinked out of his memories, and looked down at his hands.

                “You’re not the only one with a family ring.”

                “Where is it now?” You pressed, and you saw the flicker in his eyes that told you he didn’t want to talk about it.

                He leaned back in his chair, “So,” Changing the subject, “You’ve got a torture basement.”

                “I had no plans to ever send you there.”

                “Why not? I’m obviously not complying.”

“So? You’re a human being and you deserve to be treated like one. If there’s thousands of people out there marching to protect the rights of flies and pigs and ducklings then I don’t see why you should be treated any less.” Your cheeks warmed with the intensity he was staring at you with, and you rushed to cover up, “besides, its not like your type would give anything up from a beating anyway, right?”

He chuckled, “right.”

“You know I was supposed to send you down on the first day?” You scoffed, “To ‘instill my authority’? What kind of nonsense is that! I have authority!”

“Course you do.”

There’s silence, then you ask, “so why won’t you tell me anything?’

“Huh?”

“Is there danger waiting for you on the outside if you talk? Is it a loyalty thing, are they blackmailing you? What is it about this group of criminals that has you all so…. You?”

He ponders, “they’re my family, we’ve been through everything together, and we have each others’ backs. I guarantee we die of old age before you get anything out of any of us. 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!”

“Likely story.”

“You don’t believe me?” His eyes hardened, in a way you’d never actually seen on him before.

“I don’t not believe you,” You said, trying to justify your position, “I just don’t have enough evidence to base a belief on.” He couldn’t just ask you to believe him on faith, you wanted him treated humanely, yes, but you were an interrogator and you had a job to do.

He gave an empty laugh, “And my word’s not enough?”

“’Your word’ doesn’t hold up in court.”

He leaned forward, “then why don’t you go ask her yourself.”

=====

You stayed late that night, filing dated documents, cleaning up your desk, and then just before everyone left you made up your mind, travelling down to the second floor. Most people would have gone home by now, but there should still be one person there.

“I’m Kang Eunji, under Mr. Im. I’d like to request the permissions to a piece of evidence I believe should be down here.”

The man at the desk looked at you, “now? Can’t you come back tomorrow?”

“I’m sure Mr. Im will be overjoyed to hear of your enthusiasm.”

He shot you a dirty glance, and you didn’t really like yourself for sinking so low but hey, desperate times.

He wheeled his chair to a standing file and opened a drawer, “Alright, what is it?”

“A ring, taken from subject 8, alias Chen.”

He muttered to himself as he flipped through papers, probably insults about you but you didn’t really care, as long as he got the job done he could talk behind your back as much as he liked. Everyone else did.

“A ring? You sure it’s in here?”

No. “Yes. Unless you’ve lost the document.”

He gave you another scowl and went back to digging in the drawer.

“And you have Mr. Im’s authorization?” He asked, stalling to avoid keeping looking. What a lazy…

Yoona’s voice echoed in your ear, it’s our case, we can do what we want. “You think I’d be here if I didn’t? This is kind of a big case, and If you’ve lost it then-”

He went back to digging.

 “Subject 8 you said? Here it is. Plain silver ring. Nothing special, what you want it for?”

“Like that’s any of your business.”

He gave you a smug smile, dropping a clipboard to the table in front of you. He tapped it with a stubby finger, “continuation of evidence form.” He flipped the page. “Evidence request form. No hard feelings it’s just policy. You know, sometimes these evidence requests can take days, weeks even…”

This guy. You sighed, “It’s for leverage.”

He raised his eyebrow’s, nodding. “very nice, using personal affects against him, nice touch.”

You scowled, signing both pages, holding your hand out for the ring.

=====

                Back in the observation room, you turned it over in your fingers. It was simple enough, just a thin silver band. There was nothing special about it really, nothing special other than what memories Chen had tied to it. It obviously meant something to him, he’d changed topics as soon as you’d brought it up.

                And he’d said it was a family ring, well it certainly didn’t look like one. There was no mark, no emblem, no engraving, there was nothing on it to identify what family he could belong to. It was simple, unreadable, just like him.

                The man of the hour was sat on his bed, back against the wall. He looked tired.

                You had the recorder going, like you always did when you’re in here, just in case.

                You’d looked back to the ring when you heard his voice, and immediately your eyes snapped back up to him. He’d closed his eyes as he sang. It was just a slow song, a simple song, almost like a lullaby. Had he sang this every day before sleeping, you wondered, or was this the first time?

                You’d always wished you could draw, but never with the force you wished it right now. But even then, you imagined that there was no way that pencil on paper could capture the darkness of his hair or the shadow of his cheeks, or the rawness of his voice as he sang.

                You closed your eyes, closing the ring in your hand. And you let him sing you to sleep.