Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage. – Richard Lovelace

It’s where your mind goes, how it traps you, locks you up and hides the key behind your own back.

Typically, your mind jails you when you experience great pain, horrific trauma or just so much emotion at once that it cages you up to protect you from yourself.

The minute the cuffs were on her, her mind slowed down, it immobilized her to the point where they had to yank on her arm to get her to walk to their car. It was too much that she didn't resist or demand answers, she just followed like a docile little child. They shoved her head in with more force than they needed, and she watched Jaehyun’s shop disappear into the distance. She felt her soul leave her body then, and stare down at herself in a fugue state because this couldn't be happening, there was no way this was happening. 

How could she be arrested for murder?

An itch crawled up , but she was furious that night, furious at Kyung Gyu's uselessness, furious at how weak he was, and how he helped destroy the lives of so many people. She was hyped up on her emotions when she wrote that letter to Lucas. Maybe she went back to his house. Maybe he drew his gun on her again and maybe this time, she fired. 

"Let's go."

There was a high pitched ringing in her ear when she reached another precinct, one that looked vaguely familiar but she was also halfway out of her mind when they swung the car door up and nearly heaved her out. She didn’t know how she managed to make her feet work long enough to make it up to the stairs but it wasn’t until she stepped into the precinct that she realized where she was.

This was Taeil and Doyoung’s precinct.

Her mind began to float, and she wondered if they were around, or if they were notified in advance that she was about to be arrested. She wondered which other of her friends knew.

She was led past the graduating pictures when she stopped abruptly, her eyes landing on one particular picture. Her eyes widened as she read the name, the face was so familiar that it nearly made her sick. Her feet were rooted as she memorized every feature, her mind stumbling to try to keep up with what she was looking at.

“Keep it moving.” A gruff voice behind her ordered before they pushed at her shoulder, dragging her to an interrogation room. She was silent as she was read her rights again before two detectives she had never seen before sat down in front of her.

"Yoo Ayeon, you've been charged with the murder of Office Kyung Gyu, do you understand?" 

There was a beat of silence, where her brain paused, trying to sort through her emotions, deciding on what she was going to feel. Then the lock clicked, and the prison door swung open.

And she started to laugh.

It started as a snort, then grew to a chuckle, a giggle, a chortle and then she was holding onto her stomach, leaning forward laughing so hard that the people watching her from the other side of the glass was stunned speechless.

Insanity is the act of doing something over and over again with the expectation of different results.

She kept fighting evil thinking she'd actually win.

Maybe she had been insane all along.

-----

His steps were powerful, thundering, commanding the room as everyone froze, parting ways to let him walk past them like a tour de force.

His steps echoed through the entire precinct with the type of authority that could send shockwaves through anyone brave enough to stand in his way. There was no polite demeanor, no mild-mannered smiles and gentle words. There was a fit of brash anger and a hardened scowl as he stopped in front of the receptionist.

“Detective Yoo. Where is she being questioned?” He hissed.

The receptionist looked up, annoyance on her face until she saw him standing in front of her, “Offic—”

“I asked you a question.” He growled out.

She gulped, her eyes fluttered around nervously, “Umm…no Detective Yoo isn’t being questioned here. No one is.”

He glared at her, his jaw tense, “Then why did someone just walk out of that interrogation room?”

“Oh…” She looked over her shoulder before facing him, “That’s...um...something else?”

His eye twitched before he stormed past her, drowning out her complaints and rushed footsteps that were chasing after him. He swung the door open to the viewing room and slammed it shut behind him, locking her out. He turned to where Jinah, Taeil, and Doyoung stood, watching him.

“Jaehyun?”

“What the is going on?” He hissed, turning to stare through the glass where Ayeon was seated alone, her hair falling limply over her shoulders and her face taut with exhaustion.

Taeil frowned, “You can’t be here, Jaehyun. You’re not a cop anymore and civilian access to interrogations are not permissible.”

“Don’t patronize me. I’m not just some civilian.” He muttered venomously.

“Not like Detective Yoo knows.” Doyoung muttered under his breath before looking at Jaehyun, “I heard she has no clue you used to be a cop. Nice going. Real healthy and honest relationship you have there.”

Jinah rolled her eyes, “Shut up, Doyoung.”

He glared at her, “I’m sorry, you’ve all kept me out of the loop for so long, look at this cluster of a mess she’s in now. If I were her, the last thing I’d want to know is that the guy I’m boning used be a cop and hid it from me.”

“It’s a murder charge, slightly more important than relationship drama. Lee Kyung Gyu was found shot to death inside his home.” Taeil said loudly, cutting Doyoung a look. 

Jaehyun’s eye twitched but he didn’t budge, “She’s being railroaded. She had nothing to do with that, Ayeon would never murder someone and if she did, it’s because she followed protocol in the line of duty. You know this entire thing is because she’s been poking around the new Interim and Lucas’s death.”

“She was the last one to see him alive.” Taeil said quietly.

Jaehyun stiffened before slowly moving his gaze to him, “What the are you talking about?”

“She came to me that night, I told her that if she wanted to see Kyung Gyu, that she should take me or Jinah or Doyoung. She came to me so that we’d go together and I agreed but she saw Lia and told me to stay with her. I asked her to take someone with her and she said she would. She didn’t.” Taeil said softly.

Jaehyun felt his chest seize up as memories snapped in his mind, “She left late that night, she asked for Taeil’s address and said she had an errand to run.”

He told her he loved her that night because he had a feeling something would go terribly wrong and he was right. What he wouldn't give to have tried harder to convince her to stay in bed with him, “Why did they bring her to this precinct?”

“Conflict of interest.” Jinah muttered, “I’m her team lead, Soya is a prosecutor that works with us. It’s messy. Plus they probably didn't want to give her home court advantage.” 

“Where is Soya, anyways?” Doyoung asked, glancing at his watch.

Jinah shook her head, “At work, I don’t think they told her what happened. They’re trying to distract her by sending her all over the city for work. They don't want her helping even though she can't legally.”

“I can’t believe they really arrested her.” Taeil breathed out, “There’s no way she would’ve killed him.”

Doyoung crossed his arms, “Wouldn’t make sense. Even if she was mad, she’d want him alive to testify to whatever she thought he did.”

Jinah resisted the urge to kick him, Doyoung never parsed his words, “And she’s a good person.”

“Whether or not she’s a good person doesn’t matter. What matters is motive and as of now, she doesn’t have one unless you claim she was just so angry she wasn’t rational.” Doyoung muttered.

Jaehyun shook his head, “This is bull. This is ing bull. They’re using her to cover up Kyung Gyu's murder and all the other ed up crap they probably covered up on both Commissioners' command. ing s.”

“Wow.” Doyoung deadpanned, “If you smelled like whiskey and slurred your words it’d be just like before you quit.”

Jaehyun tensed his jaw, a sharp barb on his tongue, whenever he was in his precinct, the worst sides of him always found a way of creeping out.  He hated falling into old habits.

“Detective Yoo.”

Everyone turned to the interrogation room where Ayeon was seated, her hand fisted in her hair, “What?”

The detective across from her scoffed before smiling the way a shark would around prey, “Do you recognize this man?”

He slid a glossy piece of paper, faced down, towards her before he leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. She frowned and picked up the sheet, flipping it over and staring at it. Her eyes widened and she fought ever urge to swallow the rock down . She slowly set the picture on the table, faced down again before speaking.

“I’m bad with faces. Sorry.”

Jaehyun narrowed his eyes, unsettled, “She’s lying. Why? Whose picture was that?”

Everyone around him shrugged but his question was quickly answered when the detective reached across the table and flipped the picture over, revealing the face for all to see. Jaehyun stiffened, his stomach churning frantically as he stared at the familiar man.

“Who the is that?” Doyoung hissed, leaning closer to the glass to get a better look.

Jinah frowned, “I have no clue.”

Jaehyun stayed silent as he stared at Ayeon’s face, tensed and tired. The detective tilted his head with a Cheshire smile, “Chae Wong. A loan shark to end all loan sharks. He’s pretty infamous in this city but he’s managed to avoid all interactions with the police but somehow, when we traced you to him, he was all too willing to talk. Want to know what he said?”

“I don’t think I have a choice.” Ayeon deadpanned.

Jaehyun’s brow twitched and Jinah sighed, “She needs to stop with the attitude.”

“Because she knows she’s being framed.” Jaehyun muttered.

Taeil hummed, “I’m not sure she knows that.”

Jaehyun looked over at Taeil in confusion but before anyone could speak, the detective cut in.

“He said and I quote, ‘That dumb shoved her gun down my mouth and told me that she was going to kill me if I didn't leave that guy alone, and she said she was a cop, so she’d know how to get away with killing me.’ How close does that sound to you, Detective?” He said, looking up from the piece of paper he was reading from.

She looked up at him, constricting, “What does this have to do with Kyung Gyu’s murder?”

“We also have security footage of you breaking into Detective Huang’s computer late at night. So, tell me, Detective Yoo, what explanation do you have for us this time? Or do you just like committing crimes for fun?”

“I still don’t see the relevance to what I was charged with.” She ground out.

He nodded in a way that made her feel like she had just stepped into a bear trap and trying to step out, would just clamp her foot shut in bloody pain, "Fair enough, so why don't you tell us about this?"

He opened his laptop, hit a few buttons before turning it to her. She watched as security footage played of her at the bar where she had found Mina, but the part where Kyung Gyu was touching Mina was cut out, instead, she watched herself slam Kyung Gyu's head against the counter twice. "Pretty easy to see the relevance of this video, isn't it? You attacked him, in uniform, Detective Yoo." 

"I think slamming his head on a bar top is more than attacking, wouldn't you?" The other detective chirped. 

She shook her head, "Did you crop the part where he was sticking his hand up that girl's dress or did you hire someone to do it for you?"

Jaehyun closed his eyes, "She was so angry when she found out Mina went to that bar alone."

"He was a creep." Jinah fired out. "And please tell me that wasn't your loan shark."

"It is. I didn't know she did that, I just thought she threatened to arrest him or something." Jaehyun said softly. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if she went jail based on the evidence of something she did for him.

"You have anger issues and your psychiatrist told us that you have been having some gaps with your memory. Namely, the night of Kyung Gyu's murder. Doesn't make you the most reliable person, does it?”

That brought a reaction out of her, “That’s confidential.” She hissed.

“You realize Ms. Lee is a precinct man