Staring at her pitifully empty fridge, Baram sighed loudly and changed out of her pyjamas, readying herself for a trip to the supermarket. Squinting at the bright sun, Baram stretched out her arms, extending her hand towards the clouds as if trying to poke at them. After a few moments of staying in that position, Baram eventually let her arms drop by her side and started the journey towards the supermarket, mentally hoping that it will not be too busy.

“Baram.”

Slowing down her steps, Baram turned her neck towards the source of the voice. Jinyoung approached her, his warm brown eyes glistening under the sunlight. If she had not known any better, she would have assumed that he had walked straight out of a drama series, ready to steal the protagonist’s heart. However, this was real life, and Baram was no protagonist of some romantic drama. As someone who wrote stories such as those, she knew how far from reality they really were.

“You still insist that you aren’t stalking me?” Baram mused, throwing Jinyoung an accusatory stare.

“I’m not really a field guy, prefer operating from indoors,” Jinyoung quipped, his tone nonchalant. “Let’s grab a coffee, my treat.”

Not giving Baram much of a choice, Jinyoung swung an arm around her shoulder and forcefully pushed her towards the nearby coffee shop.

Minutes later, they were sitting in the far corner away from prying eyes and listening ears, two mugs of cappuccino sitting between them. Jinyoung kept his gaze on Baram while the girl stared listlessly at the flower design on the milk foam. It reminded her of the red chrysanthemum flower that previously resided on her coffee table. Lifting the teaspoon, Baram swirled her drink, disfiguring the flower design without a second thought.

“What happened the night Mark ran off to rescue you from this Jin person?”

Not bothering with pleasantries and not having the time to beat around the bush, Jinyoung dived straight into the question that had been bothering him. He tried to dig it out of both Mark and Jaebum. However Mark was a stubborn mule and refused to reveal anything while Jaebum only knew of the aftermaths, and not of the events of the said night. Thus, since fate made it so that he would run into Baram, he might as well make the most out of it.

“Does it have anything to do with how you behaved when the detectives came for the meeting the other day?  You kinda shut him down rather bluntly. He felt like he had been knocked down by a tornado, left stranded and confused. He didn’t express it out loud of course, but it was all laid out in his eyes.”

“Are you asking as Mark’s employee and close friend, or as a curious mutual acquaintance?”