Wendy watched as the leftovers from the recent downpour slid down her bedroom window. Her fingers matched the falling water drops pitter for patter, creating a comfortable rhythm within her heart. She needed that soothing element for herself, for if she didn't have it, she'd be a nervous wreck. 

The police had come over again.

This was nothing new, not in Wendy's life.

She felt bad for all the times her foster parents, past and present, had to entertain the uniform-clad officers. She didn't mean to do it, things just sort of happened. 

The finger tapping was beginning to lose its effectiveness. Wendy walked away from the window frame, dragging her bunny slipper covered feet to the door. She put her ear to the door, which luckily wasn't very thick. Though muffled, she could pick up the conversation outside. 

"Please, you must have got the wrong girl. Our Wendy is the sweetest thing on Earth, there was no way she would-"

"Ma'am, this is a girl with a record of shoplifting, theft, and even possession of a firearm. What's one minor assault to her? If she keeps this up, she's going to have to be sent to a correctional facility." 

That was enough for now. Wendy took a deep breath. 

"What are they saying out there, sis? Are we going to jail?"

Wendy met the curious eyes of her little sister, who was hanging upside down off the bunk bed they shared.

"Don't be silly, Yeri. I'm barely 20 and you aren't even an adult yet. We'll be fine." 

"You sure? I don't want to move again, I really like this house. Mr. and Mrs. Choi are really nice, better than the last Jung family. Or the Kim family. Even the other Jung family was kind of mean." 

Wendy replied with an empty chuckle. She climbed up to the top bunk and laid down next to her sister, who was hunched over a sketchbook. Various watercolors and brushes were sprawled all over the bed amongst crumpled pieces of paper and sweet wrappers. Wendy picked up the rubbish left behind and tossed them into the garbage by her bed that was beginning to overflowing with the items of Yeri's last project. 

"So, what masterpiece has my little sister come up with this time?" 

Wendy peeked over Yeri's shoulder to see a blank piece of paper. 

"Your little sister can't think of anything right now. I think I may need a bigger piece of paper, I can't project my idea onto A4."

"I can get some for you." 

"You can grab some after the police speak to you, Wendy-ah."

The door was open, Mr. Choi's head peeking in. His face painted the image of disappointment, a face Wendy was all too familiar with seeing. She gave Yeri a quick kiss on the forehead before hopping off and heading to the living room. There, her foster mother set across a pair of navy uniforms that were staring right at her. 

Avoiding Mrs. Choi's gaze, Wendy sat next to her foster mother and opened herself up to conversation with the police officers. 

"Choi Wendy, birth name Son Wendy, is that correct?" 

"Yes."

"Now, Miss Wendy, we are well aware of your circumstances. We understand it must be hard, losing your parents at such a young age, but crime is not the right way to try and cope with it. This isn't the first time either-"

"I'm aware."

"And this is what, your fifth foster home now? Don't you just want to settle down with your little sister and live with a family that loves you, like Mr. and Mrs. Choi? Do yourself a favor and stay out of trouble, please. This is your final warning. Next time it's a pair of handcuffs, understood?"

"Yes, sir." 

"Good. We'll take our leave then. Thanks for your time, Mr. and Mrs. Choi." 

Mr. Choi saw the officers out. Wendy turned to Mrs. Choi, who engulfed her in a hug. 

"I love you, Wendy. I know I'm not your real mom, but I sure love Yeri and you like my real daughters. Please stay out of trouble, okay? For my sake." 

Wendy broke out in a smile. She kissed Mrs. Choi gently on the cheek. 

"I promise I won't." 

"Good. Now head on back to your room, dinner will be ready in an hour. I'll be cooking a feast tonight." 

Wendy headed back to her room, making a quick detour by the storeroom to grab that bigger piece of paper Yeri needed for her artwork. 

"Here you go little one. Hopefully, this is big enough." 

Yeri took the piece of paper and stared at it. She turned it left, turned it right, then dived back onto her bed. 

"Thanks, sis. I think this should be good enough." 

"No problem," Wendy picked up her earphones that were on the floor and plugged them into her phone. She was going to need some rest. 

"Call me when dinner's ready."

"Gotcha." 

***

Mrs. Choi wasn't kidding about the feast. Even Yeri was having trouble finishing her portions, and she usually had double. 

The family was gathered around the kitchen table as was the case for most nights. Most of the time, dinners were shared in silence, with the occasional small talk about Wendy's and Yeri's school life coming about. This time, things were a bit different. 

"Wendy-ah."

The older daughter was halfway through a bowl of rice when she was called. She put down her chopsticks and turned to look at Mr. Choi. 

"Yes?"

"Everything's okay at school I hope?"

"Yes, everything is fine Mr. Choi. Grades are good, I have quite a few friends, things are going pretty swell." 

"That's good to hear. Your singing classes?"

"Perfect, I'm making progress." 

Mrs. Choi beamed with pride from the other side of the table. 

"You're an amazing singer, Wendy-ah. God truly blessed you with the voice of an angel." 

"If angels were that loud I don't think I'd want to go to heaven." 

Mrs. Choi chuckled as Wendy shot Yeri a glare. The younger sister went back to eating after a cheeky smile.

"I've even started writing my own songs. They're nothing much so far but I hope I'll be able to get into SM soon. I've sent in some auditioning videos already." 

"With your talent, I doubt you'd even need 2 years of training."

Wendy gave an appreciative smile. 

"Thanks, Mrs. Choi."

Mr. Choi cleared his throat, bringing Wendy's attention back to him. 

"Now, Wendy. You're a beautiful, sweet young woman. You've been nothing but a great daughter to us so far, and your previous foster parents spoke well of you too. However, this issue of... committing crime. Is it true, what that officer said? Is it a way for you to cope with the loss of your parents?"

Wendy's chopsticks dropped to the floor.

Yeri looked up from her food. 

Mrs. Choi slapped her husband's arm. 

"Honey! What are you saying?! This is not fit for the dinner table!"

"Its fine, Mrs. Choi," Wendy said, picking her chopsticks off the floor. She stood up and walked to the sink and placed the dirty cutlery there.

"No, Mr. Choi. It's not a coping mechanism." 

"Really? You still seem awful hung up on your parents, since you can't even call us mom and dad."

"Honey! You can't say that! It's not something you can force her to do," bellowed Mrs. Choi, her chest heaving up and down. Mr. Choi ignored and persisted with his questioning. 

"Well, is that true?" 

Wendy gritted her teeth, glancing over at Yeri who was eating her rice a little too quickly, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. Sensing hostility from Mr. Choi, Wendy told herself to keep her cool, or it would lead to quite a bad argument. 

"I'm sorry, Mr. Choi. I'm just not comfortable with calling anyone else dad or mom just yet." 

"And that is perfectly fine Wendy! Choi Jeongwan, stop it!" 

He didn't stop. 

"Then what's all this crime about? Your medical file never stated you were bipolar, and you seem like a perfectly fine young woman. So why all of this?"

Wendy could feel her breath start to shake. She tapped her fingers on her lap, trying to establish a rhythm for her to calm herself down with. 

"I-I don't know, Mr. Choi. It just happens. This urge suddenly just comes over me and I just feel like doing crime. I wondered if it was kleptomania but the doctors didn't seem to think so, so frankly I have no clue why. It just sort of happens. I know it causes you and Mrs. Choi a lot of trouble and I'm sorry, I really am. It's gotten me and Yeri kicked out of four households now and I really don't want a fifth. So please, try and bear with it? I will do my best to make sure it never happens again, but I seek your forgiveness if it does." 

Silence enveloped the Choi's household kitchen. Mrs. Choi looked to be on the verge of tears, her fists clenched and eyes shut tight. Wendy hung her head slightly while Yeri was trying to find every last grain of rice to eat. 

Mr. Choi gazed softly at Wendy, a little nod accompanying. 

"Alright Wendy, I'm sorry about that. I'll try my best to give you a home, okay?"

Wendy bowed. 

"Thank you, Mr. Choi."

The rest of the dinner was held in complete silence. 

***

The night sky was filled with stars. A cool breeze blew through the trees following the slight downpour from earlier, perfect weather for a good night's sleep. 

"... Wendy." 

Soft snores escaped Wendy's lips. 

".... Wendy."

More snoring. 

"Sis! Wake up!" 

Wendy jolted awake. Her eyes immediately went to her alarm clock; 23:47. She let out an annoyed groan at the source of disturbance, a teenager clad in a hoodie and sweatpants, carrying a plastic bag. 

"What do you want, Yeriiii... Wendy needs to sleep..."

"No you don't, you haven't done anything all day." 

Wendy shot an annoyed tut at Yeri before rolling back over to her bed, facing the wall. She was in no mood for Yeri's witty remarks at this time of night. 

"Sis! Please, I can't sleep. I keep thinking about what happened at dinner." 

Just as Wendy had feared. She sat up on her bed to meet face-to-face with her little sister. Her blonde hair was stuck on her face, and there were some tear streaks on the cheeks of little Yeri. Sisterly instincts kicking in, Wendy pulled Yeri in for a hug. 

"I'm sorry, Yeri-ah. That conversation was a little bit... difficult for you to hear." 

Yeri shook her head. 

"Not really, just got a little sad is all. I wanna draw out my memories of mom and dad, as little as there are, but paper isn't enough. I need a wall, a huge, empty wall, and I know just the spot." 

Wendy raised her eyebrow. She looked inside the plastic bag Yeri was carrying and sure enough, there were spray paint cans inside. 

"You want to do graffiti?" 

"Art, sis. I want to do art. Follow me? I'm scared of going out all alone." 

"This really isn't a good idea." 

"Please?"

Wendy let out a scowl. Even in the darkness, she could see her little sister's puppy eyes glowing through. She wouldn't have been surprised if those tear streaks were actually fake. Yeri was a good liar. 

"Fine, but only because I feel bad about dinner. We can't stay out too late, okay?"

"Gotcha!" 

Yeri was already scurrying out the house, her excitement clear as fireworks in the sky. Wendy opened her drawer and pocketed a switchblade. 

"Just in case." 

***

Yeri had brought Wendy to an abandoned warehouse that was about fifteen minutes away from their house. The Choi household was in a relatively rich part of Seoul so there was plenty of empty land surrounding the area, and this warehouse stood right in the middle of it.

"Gosh it's cold out there," Wendy commented, blowing air into her hands. Temperatures were reaching 9 degrees Celcius tonight and instead of sleeping soundly in her heated room, here Wendy was in the middle of nowhere. She stepped forward into the wide grass patch and followed Yeri to the entrance of what looked like a century-old building.

"Gosh, this must've been here since the 90s."  

"Doesn't matter, hope there's enough space inside. Keep me safe, sis!" 

"Yah! Be careful Yeri! You'll trip!"

Wendy's advice, of course, went unheeded. Yeri was already inside the warehouse by the time Wendy had finished her sentence. Worried for her little sister's safety, Wendy quickly scurried in after her. 

The place was cold and desolate and smelled like a gym sock that hadn't been washed in years. Wendy pinched her nose as she followed Yeri up some steps. Wendy took a look around her surroundings. The place was pretty empty for the most part, except for a couch that was right in the middle of the warehouse. There were syringes and needles scattered all over the place, as well as sleeping bags that were absolutely filthy. 

"This place looks like a crack den, Yeri-ah. What brought you here of all places?" 

"My friends scoped this place out before. No one ever comes here after the druggies were cleared out by cops a couple of months back so I've been coming here after school." 

"You need to make better friends." 

Yeri sniggered. They finally reached the second floor, where there was nothing but pillars, giant windows, and empty walls. 

"Phew! Looks like I can get to work!" 

Yeri dropped her plastic bag to the ground and yanked out a can. She headed over to a wall and began working on her work while Wendy just stood around and watched. There was a horrible stench in the air, and Wendy felt her stomach roll over. 

"Yeri-ah, that stench better not be from your spray paint. It's horrible." 

"What stench? Yeri asked, a mask covering her nose and mouth. Wendy sighed.

"Never mind, keep spraying."

"Aye aye, captain." 

Wendy raised her hoodie up to her face too. The smell was becoming unbearable, it was worse than the smell of a pit of . 

"Yo, this is worse than the time I went to the sewers for volunteer work. Goodness me this is awful." 

"Alright don't get too fussy sis, we're gonna be here a while. Try and get used to it." 

"I sure don't want to." 

Wendy remained silent for a while more, the smell getting worse and worse with each passing minute. Her eyes were beginning to cloud from the sheer retch of the stench. She wiped the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes. 

"Screw this, I'm going to find what's causing this damn smell." 

"Good luck," Yeri said, now on her tip-toes as she sprayed a pair of eyebrows on a face that she had drawn.

Wendy navigated through the emptiness of the second floor, trying to see what possibly could have been causing that smell. There was barely anything visible through the moonlit building, so what could it be? She walked by pillars and pillars of nothingness, the smell getting stronger the closer she walked to the end of the floor, where one pillar stood by itself. She finally reached it, and various flies were hanging around it. 

"Gross. What is this, a pile of dung?" 

What greeted Wendy's eyes was not a wagon of feces. Rather, it was a decaying corpse. Its eyes were wide open and there were several holes in its neck where it looked like it had been stabbed. Its mouth was wide open and above it, there was a note stabbed into the pillar.

It read, "Don't with the Bae Family." 

Wendy let out a bloodcurdling scream and sprinted away from the scene of a murder, catching Yeri by surprise who ran over to Wendy asking what was wrong. 

"Th-there's a dead body over there! We have to get out of here Yeri, right now!" 

"WHAT?!" 

"RIGHT NOW SON YERI! PACK YOUR THINGS AND LET'S GO!" 

The sisters quickly stuffed the spray paint into the plastic bag they brought and dashed down the stairs, Wendy already feeling faint from the sight she had the misfortune to witness. The vision of that lifeless face kept playing in her head like a television commercial, and all the hairs on her body were standing. 

"Quick! Sis, the exit's over there!" 

Just as they were about to reach the main exit of the warehouse, a blare of red and blue lights came bursting through the windows of the warehouse. The wail of the sirens was deafening, and they were surrounding the huge door at the front. 

Yeri and Wendy came to a screeching halt. Panic was starting to settle in. Yeri began to hyperventilate, her body quivering like an earthquake and her knees beginning to give way. 

"Sis, am I going to be arrested? Am I going to be in jail for life? I have so much to live for sis, please I don't wanna be arrested, I don'twannabearrested Idon'twannabearrested..." 

Wendy clenched her fist, thinking hard of a solution. She looked around the warehouse quickly and saw an exit sign all the way at the back. There didn't seem to be any sirens coming from that end so Yeri could probably escape there, but she needed a distraction. 

"Yeri. When I say go, run to that door and don't look back." 

"Wh-what?" 

"Ready..."

"No, I'm not leaving you, sis!" 

"Go." 

"SIS!"

"GO!" 

Through teary eyes, Yeri pulled Wendy into a hug and kissed her on the cheek. 

"I love you, sis." 

"I love you too. Now go!" 

Yeri sprinted to the backdoor and like Wendy ordered, never once looked back. Wendy watched as the door Yeri ran through closed, and the door right behind her opened. 

"There she is! Pin her down!" 

Wendy felt brute strength come upon her and slam her onto the floor, feeling her jaw crack as police officers came rushing into the warehouse and scurrying upstairs. A pair of handcuffs were slapped upon her wrists as she was dragged up by two burly policemen. Her vision was clouded by a sea of red and blue amongst tears that were already present from before. Wendy closed her eyes and tapped her fingers against each other, trying to create another rhythm. 

"Breathe, Wendy. Breathe..." 

The quivering of her heart ruined that rhythm, and her fingers began tapping against each other furiously. She was getting scared. 

One of the policemen holding her shouted, "Captain Park! Over here!" 

Through the sea of red and blue, a figure stepped out. It was tall, skinny, and had dashing long hair. The figure approached, getting closer and closer till it was all that Wendy could see. 

"This her?" 

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Good job. Now shoo." 

The policemen scurried away, leaving Wendy alone with this 'Captain Park' person. 

"Aigoo. Looks like our anonymous tip was right, there was going to be a murder here. Who knew it'd be a pretty little thing like you?" 

"Ma'am, li-listen, I'm not-"

"Shhhh..." Wendy felt a cold finger press on her lips. A strong scent of perfume wafted through her nostrils as the woman leaned in closer. She was beautiful. Her puffy red lips were all Wendy could get her eyes on despite her heart pounding against her chest. 

"Listen to your voice. You're so scared. It's adorable." 

Wendy felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist, one arm her torso up and down slowly. Wendy looked away, biting her lip. The lady chuckled. 

"My name is Park Sooyoung. Remember that name, you're going to be hearing it for a long, long time."

Sooyoung planted a kiss on Wendy's cheek. She stepped to the side, and Wendy felt herself being dragged away, seeing Sooyoung give her a wink before walking up the stairs of the warehouse. She was thrown into the back of another police car, where another dashing young lady was sitting inside, drinking a cup of coffee. She had thick bangs that covered her forehead and eyes that were as sharp as a feline's. She was looking through a file seated on her lap, barely sparing Wendy a glance. 

"Detective Kang Seulgi. You are in some deep , Miss Wendy. Deep ." 

Wendy downed a big gulp of saliva. She was going to try and plead her case again.

"Please, ma'am. Listen to me, I am not-"

"Save it for the police station. I've had enough of murderers try and tell me they aren't." 

Wendy settled back down in her seat, remaining quiet. The tapping of her fingers started again. What was she worried about? There was no way it could be proven she was the murderer, so it was only a matter of time before they found out she wasn't the culprit. At most, she'd be a witness, and she would be home to see Yeri in no time. Those thoughts helped calm Wendy down some, even managing to make her smile. 

"Hey, lift your left leg a little." 

Wendy looked left to see Seulgi staring blankly at her. 

"Why?"

"Don't ask, just do it."

Wendy did as she was told, and Seulgi reached into Wendy's pocket and pulled out the switchblade that she had brought earlier for safety reasons. 

"Already cleaned it. You're good." 

Wendy felt her blood freeze. 

"That isn't-" 

"Shut it." 

Wendy clenched her fists. Her breathing was going out of control, and her heart felt like it was about to erupt.

"..."

A/N:

Never thought this account would see use again but here I am. I hope this chapter was interesting enough for you readers, I've got some stuff lined up that I think is going to be fun. I know I had a lot of fun coming up with the plot of this one :)

See you soon lovelies <3