ANNOUNCEMENT:

For all my readers, I have good news. I'm currently reposting all previous chapters of my two fics. Some of you might already have the PDF files. But I figure it will be easier for you to read if it is reuploaded here. Here's the link:

Anyway, I'm updating again, because TWICE is on fire -literally- with their Japanese comeback. I mean, there's a fire in Perfect World, the stage is burning, the audience are fighting. It’s chaotic LOL. I really wish this was a Korean comeback. It should be a bomb!

@ Wivern: No, you're not late. Compared to my one-year-hiatus, you're really not late at all.

@ krina_love: Oh, I missed you too hehe! I missed being evil and torturing/teasing my readers LOL.

Mina was already used to this routine. Every morning, they would bring her out from her cell to the interrogation room. They asked her the same questions again and again. Then a couple hours later she would be dragged out of there, her face bruised a little. It's nothing new. Mina also saw some other inmates being beaten too during their interrogation. It's just how the police works in this era. And Mina would've been able to compromise with this situation calmly, except for just one thing.

The Japanese girl has been told by her family, on their scheduled phone call the other day, that her father's health had been decreasing rapidly. Naohito rarely woke up in his bed anymore, he mostly just went into a deep slumber. On their phone call sessions, when Mina talked to her father, she would keep apologizing for not listening to him earlier, which causing her to get into this deep trouble. She told Naohito to hang on, and she promised that she would get out of this jail soon, and would be there for Naohito everyday until his last day. And everyone knew that day was coming closer. Deep in her heart, Mina was worried that she wouldn't make it in time, getting out of this jail and seeing her father alive for the last time. Mina knew she couldn't do anything in this situation. The only thing she could do was praying, hoping that her friends would be able to get her out soon.

Mina also had gotten quite a bit closer with her cellmate, the older Japanese woman who goes by the name Kuriyama Chiaki. Just like other prisoners, there's not much activity they can do while they’re being confined in their cell. And therefore sometimes they decided to just converse casually with each other. Chiaki seemed to be very interested in the younger girl, listening a lot while the latter was talking. Mina wasn't much of a talker though (she prefers doing physical exercises than having a conversation with people). Most of the time, Chiaki would be the one starting the conversation and asking the questions. At first Mina found it a bit weird when this stranger said she wanted to know more about Mina. But Chiaki also seemed nice and harmless, just an ordinary elderly person with some curiosity and eagerness to make friends with other people . And she's also not as annoying and noisy as other elderly people that Mina had seen in the town.

Several inmates had also been getting in and out, being put in the next cells in the same room. But Mina and Chiaki were the ones who had the longest stay in that jail. The others were either bailed out, or had their court hearing schedule coming already. Chiaki was an illegal immigrant so it's understandable why she was locked up without bail. The elderly woman was going to be deported back to her country soon. As for Mina, she could only wonder why her request for bail kept getting refused.

"Sign this," said Hyungseung, the officer who was going to interrogate her today.

Hyunseung put a paper and a pen in front of Mina. Mina read the paper and signed it. It was just for administration.

Suiting herself on her seat, Mina took a deep breath. Her mood was not very good today. She was never in a good mood during her current stay in this jail, due to her father's health issue. And last night, during their phone call, Yejin told her that Naohito just had another episode of respiratory failure. He was having difficulty in breathing, and his ventilator didn't seem to help much. After receiving this news, Mina found herself unable to sleep last night as she kept thinking about her father. And today she has to go through another long, tedious interrogation again.

In front of her there were two police officers. As usual, Hyunseung was accompanied by his comrade, Hyuna, who is now looking at Mina with an intimidating eyes. Unlike Hyunseung, Hyuna tends to resort to violence whenever she's interrogating someone. And Mina had suffered a few beating from her. It wasn't too painful or damaging to her body, but it was still annoying.

"Myoui, we've checked about your business activities with Im Nayeon." Hyunseung said as he put some papers on the table in front of Mina.

The Japanese shifted forward and took a closer look at those papers. It was a long, exhaustive list of all the projects that she had been working on together with Nayeon until recently. It also contained a lot of details and information about those projects. Mina wondered how they could acquire all this information. But then again, they're police, they're very good at collecting data and evidence.

"You seem to have a special partnership with her. You have a lot of projects from her since last year. Tell us about it." Hyunseung spoke.

Mina frowned at this question. "What does this have to do with the case?"

"Oh, this has everything to do with the case, ." Hyuna snickered.

Mina just stared at Hyuna, and then back at Hyunseung.

"You already know everything, it's on those papers. What more do you want to know?"

Hyunseung intensified his stare at Mina. "Well, things such as, why Nayeon gives you all these projects. It does seem suspicious, doesn't it? You, a total rookie in this business. On what basis does she decide to pick you, among other many experienced people in this town, to be her very close business partner?"

Mina was silent. Thinking for a moment, she replied.

"Nayeon said she likes to give young people like me a chance to learn and grow," she answered nonchalantly.

The female officer hoovered closer. "I don't believe that. There's a lot of young people in this town, but Nayeon only chose you. There must be another reason why she only gives her projects to you."

Mina threw her gaze away. It's because she loves me, duh.

Hyuna tapped her fingers on the table. "You blackmail her, right?"

"What?" Mina snapped her head.

"You blackmail her. You threatened her with something, and you forced her to give all those projects to you. You also forced her to break her engagement with Jaebum, so that you can have all those projects for yourself. You secretly and illegally took benefits from those projects, and you forced Nayeon to shut about it. You actually had stolen a lot of money from those projects, but because you're greedy, you wanted to get more money from the Ims, and you decided to steal their jewelry." Hyuna said while staring menacingly at Mina.

The Japanese girl was quite taken aback, and for a second she didn't know how to answer that. Do police usually have a crazy, ultra-creative imagination like this, or just Hyuna?

"Officer, I really don't know what you're talking about." Mina said, exhausted and annoyed. "I never blackmail her or force her to do anything. Look, how about you go ask her and find out yourself, the reason why she chooses me to be her business partner?"

Mina was expecting a hit or a slap to her face as she saw Hyuna moving and hoovering closer to her. But it didn't come. Not yet.

Instead, Hyuna just spoke,

"...Tell me when and how you first met Im Nayeon."

She said while staring deeply into Mina's eyes.

And once again, Mina was taken aback.

"Huh? When and how I what?"

"When and how you first met Im Nayeon."

"Oh. That's-"

Pausing with opened, Mina tried to recall all her earlier encounters with Nayeon. She almost spilled about their first meeting at the savannah a long time ago (although at that time she didn't know it was Nayeon in that blue Range Rover). However, she didn't feel it was quite relevant to inform this to the officer. It was too personal, and confidential too. Nayeon hasn't mentioned anything about it to Mina. Heck, she didn't even know that Jeongyeon and Mina had already learned about it. It was Nayeon's little secret. So yeah, there's no way Mina would spill it to this officer. No one needed to know about it.

"Oi, why are you smiling, !" Hyuna's voice broke the silence in the room.

Mina looked confused. Huh!? Am I smiling? Did I smile?

She suddenly felt herself a bit silly, for spacing out like that during an interrogation.

"Answer the question, !" Impatient, Hyuna smacked Mina on the back of her head.

Mina quickly recollected her thoughts.

"It was....errr.... It was around September last year. We were delivering meat and groceries to the Im House."

"Did you two talk? Did