When they step out of Jongin’s apartment, Jooyi is locking her door, apparently on her way out, too.

“Oh, it’s you kids again!” Spotting them, she smirks and tips her head to the side. “What a coincidence.”

“Hi, Ms. Yoon.” Joonmyun bows politely, pushing his girlfriend slightly behind him. Jooyi’s returning smile is delighted.

“Why, I don’t think I ever told you my family name, did I?” Her smile broadens at the way Joonmyun’s eyes widen in panic. “You did your research, I see. Smart kid.”

“Um.” He can’t see a way out of this one, so instead he chooses to brush over it. “We’re just heading home now. Have a good night.”

She ignores him, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. “Say, what did you really want with Meiling? I’m pretty sure it’s not just a yearbook article you kids are after. I heard you and your girlfriend discussing some pretty interesting stuff at the subway station the other day.”

Joonmyun chokes a little as he remembers the woman who pushed his girlfriend at the subway station. “That was you that day?”

She nods. “Sorry about pushing you,” she says to Joonmyun’s girlfriend, “I was in a bit of a rush. Needed to talk to someone right away, you see.” Her eyes drift meaningfully to Meiling’s door. “A warning of sorts.”

“A warning?” Joonmyun repeats, horrified by the implications. Jooyi must have warned Meiling not to talk to them. What if she’d killed her or harmed her somehow? “What kind of warning?”

Jooyi shrugs, purposely ambiguous, and examines her manicured nails. “Just a reminder about people I know and information I have.”

“Why are you doing this?”

Blinking, the lawyer looks a little surprised. “Because it seems like you and I, we’re on the same team here, aren’t we?”

“No,” Joonmyun’s girlfriend says from behind him, shrugging out of his grasp and stepping forward. “You must have thought wrong.”

After a moment’s pause, the confusion in Jooyi’s eyes clears, as if she’s realized something, and she lets out a peal of laughter. “Oh, you kids haven’t done as much research as I thought.” She glances around her, checking that the hallway is empty, then steps forward.

“Here.” She hands Joonmyun a business card. “In case you want to apply for an internship with us… or something.” She raises her eyebrows, and Joonmyun knows she’s not giving it to him to share career opportunities.

‘Yoon Jooyi, Attorney at Law,’ it reads. ‘KJ Law Firm, est. 2009.’

“Do some research on that, okay? I think there’s a lot you could learn.”

Joonmyun doesn’t know what possesses him to make him agree. Maybe it’s the intensely shrewd look in the lawyer’s eyes, or maybe he’s just seeing things because it’s been an exhausting day, but either way, he nods and pockets the card immediately.

“Well, it’s getting awfully dark out there. You two had better hurry on home,” Jooyi says with a smile. “Let me know what you think about interning at our company!”

Bowing half-heartedly, Joonmyun turns and grabs his girlfriend’s hand, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. As they hurry down the hallway, he feels Jooyi’s eyes following the them the entire time.

This is really, really weird.

* * *

“She gave you a business card and told you to apply for an internship with her law firm? What the hell?”

“Shhh, Sehun.” Joonmyun turns down the video chat volume on his phone. “My girlfriend’s sleeping. Don’t wake her up.”

They’re back at her house again, curled up on her bed in a pile of fluffy blankets, and Joonmyun really doesn’t want to disturb his girlfriend. From the way she passed out the moment they got home, he can tell she’s exhausted, no matter what she claimed at Jongin’s apartment. Unfortunately, she also fell asleep on his arm, which means Joonmyun has to sacrifice all feeling in one arm and talk with Sehun quietly enough that he doesn’t wake her up.

“You’re over at her place again?” Sehun’s eyebrows climb up his forehead. “The two of you might as well just move in together at this rate.”

Joonmyun chuckles, but he doesn’t tell his friend the real reason he’s staying over at her place. Even though Mr. Huang’s body is probably back in the funeral home again, he doesn’t think he can handle going home tonight. Just remembering the events of that afternoon makes him shudder.

Luckily, his parents seem to understand, because they don’t say much when Joonmyun texts them saying he’s okay now but will be sleeping over at his girlfriend’s. Hopefully Dad doesn’t feel too bad, Joonmyun thinks, a twinge of guilt making his stomach clench. It wasn’t his fault I reacted like that.

“Wait, but back to the whole Jooyi thing.” Sehun interrupts his thoughts, clacking away on his laptop. “I already researched her job. I told you, she’s a lawyer. Why does she want you to look into that again?”

“Maybe there’s a detail we missed,” Joonmyun suggests, turning the business card over in his hand. “She said we didn’t research as much as she thought we did."

Offended, Sehun frowns. “Well, I can read you all the information I’ve found on her. She’s had quite the successful career.”

“Jooyi mentioned something about her company in particular. I think whatever we missed has to do with the law firm, not just her.”

“KJ Law Firm, established in 2009,” Sehun reads aloud from his computer screen. “It’s a law firm specializing in immigration law. Apparently their selling point is that their lawyers take on a lot of pro-bono cases, more than the standard 30 hours per year. Community involvement and empathy and all that. Great for PR, I’m sure.”

“Immigration law.” Joonmyun frowns. “Could have something to do with Meiling and Mr. Huang coming here from China. Or maybe even Sicheng?”

“Actually, I might know something about that,” Sehun says, brightening. “Just earlier today when I was at the motel, I overheard some of Mr. Huang’s relatives talking. They said the funeral might have to be pushed back a few days because of issues with travel visas and citizenship papers.”

“Really?” It was taking an awfully long time for all of Mr. Huang’s relatives to arrive, now that he thought about it, although Joonmyun was grateful for the extra time it gave them to investigate. “But isn’t that an issue with Mr. Huang’s relatives, not him?”

Sehun shrugs. “Maybe it’s because of Mr. Huang? Either way, Jooyi seems to really want us to figure out something connecting him to immigration law.”

“What if she’s just trying to distract us to throw us off her trail?” Joonmyun muses. “She’s still our primary suspect. Maybe this is all a ruse.”

“Maybe. Not like we have any way to know right now.”

Joonmyun hums and his girlfriend’s hair absentmindedly. She’s drooling a little on the blanket, and he’s tempted to hang up the call with Sehun just so he can take a picture and blackmail her with it later.

“We’re going back to Jongin’s apartment tomorrow, so hopefully we get some more clues,” he says. “We still haven’t gotten to have a proper conversation with Meiling yet.”

“Are you going in the morning? I can come with you if it’s before noon. I’ve got soccer practice tomorrow afternoon.”

Joonmyun is about to say that yes, they are going in the morning, when he remembers that his first therapy appointment is scheduled for tomorrow morning. His insides curl up in trepidation; he’s never been to see a therapist before. What if the therapist is unsympathetic or unable to understand him? What if he gets there, tries to open his mouth, and just can’t get anything out? Worse, what if he just breaks down and spends the whole hour bawling his eyes out?

In truth, that’s why he told his girlfriend he’d go alone tomorrow. True, he believes he needs to take this step on his own in order to heal, but he also doesn’t want her to see him so weak. She’s been the strong one for them this past month, and he refuses to burden her any more. Maybe it's silly of him and he knows it, but insecurity doesn't disappear in a day.

“Sorry, we’re going in the afternoon,” he says, grimacing. “I’ll keep you filled in, though.”

“Aw.” Sehun makes a face, disappointed. “I wanted to see Jongin’s luxury apartment.”

“The two of you probably would get along really well,” Joonmyun admits. “Your humor codes match. Next time we go over, you should definitely come.”

“Yeah.” A shout pulls Sehun’s attention away, and he rolls his eyes. “I’ve got to go now, man, my parents want me to do the dishes. Talk to you tomorrow?”

Joonmyun agrees and says goodnight before signing off, rubbing at his eyes. “Immigration law,” he mutters to himself under his breath, staring at the business card so hard the embroidered black letters blur together. “Immigration law. What does that have to do with anything?”

In his arms, his girlfriend shifts, mumbling quietly in her sleep. He frowns at the way her eyebrows are knit together and reminds himself to be quiet when he leaves in the morning for his appointment so he doesn’t disturb her. She’s been so tired lately, and it’s probably (definitely) his fault.

Sighing, Joonmyun slips the business card on the nightstand and turns the light off, careful not to jostle the girl lying on his arm. He, too, is exhausted, and he has a feeling he’ll need all his energy tomorrow.

Hopefully I get some answers.

* * *

When Joonmyun’s girlfriend opens her eyes the next morning, the space next to her is empty and cold, and there’s a glass of water with a sticky note on it on the nightstand. The familiar scrawl of her boyfriend’s writing makes her smile, even through her pounding headache.

Went to see therapist and will be back by noon. Drink lots of water and eat a good breakfast so you get better soon, okay? Love you!

Underneath the writing, he’s doodled a long-haired stick figure drooling all over the bed with a laughing face next to it, and she reminds herself to smack him the next time she sees him. Who doesn’t drool when sleeping?

She takes the pain medication he’s left out for her and flops back into bed face-down so that the back of her head doesn’t take the brunt of the impact. She’ll never tell him, but that crash against the wall she took yesterday hurt a lot more than she let on. Just thinking about it makes her wince.

He didn’t mean it, though, she reminds herself. It was an accident. What really matters is that he's getting help so this never happens again.

She’s just glad he’s finally agreed to go to therapy. Even when he smiles and jokes around with her lately, it’s like he’s only half there, no matter how hard he tries. Of course, she doesn’t blame him, but she wants the old Joonmyun back, and it seems like therapy is the only way that might happen.

“Babe?” The door opens, almost giving her a heart attack. “Oh, you’re still in bed!”

Her eyes travel from the note in her hand to her boyfriend standing in the doorway, then back again. “What - aren’t you supposed to be at therapy?”

Chuckling at her confused expression and messy hair, Joonmyun shuts the door behind him and sits on the bed. “Silly, it’s already noon. You just woke up?”

“It’s already noon?” She sits up abruptly, wincing when her head throbs, and Joonmyun rushes to steady her.

“Is the pain worse today than yesterday?” He’s looking her in the eye, and she can’t lie to him, so she nods.

“Just a bit, though,” she says, seeing his face drop. “I took some pain medication, so I should be fine soon. Don’t worry.”

He makes a face but lets the subject drop, knowing she’ll only scold him if he apologizes again. “Let’s stay in today, then, okay? You need to rest, and we both need to catch up on schoolwork. We can go to Jongin’s on Monday after school instead. I’ll text Jongin and let him know.”

“But the investigation,” she protests. “We’re going to run out of the time. The funeral is coming up, isn’t it?”

Joonmyun blinks. “Ah right, you weren’t awake last night when I called Sehun. The funeral’s been pushed back a few days to accommodate for Mr. Huang’s relatives. They’re having some issues getting into the country with their paperwork.”

“Oh.”

“Also, I stopped by Jongin’s real quick this morning - not for investigation purposes!” he rushes to say, seeing the look on her face darken. “I dropped off