The sun glared in Min’s eye, momentarily blinding him as he walked out of class. He used his hand as a visor against the rays as he made his way to the dorms. His phone buzzed in his pocket as he entered the building. When he checked the screen, he saw a number he didn’t recognize. He was instantly on guard.

 “Hello?” He answered.

“Min-Kyung?” The voice replied. “This is Officer York.”

“Oh.” He relaxed some. “Hey, officer.”

“Listen, could you and Keiba bring yourselves to the station at about 3?”

Min checked the time on his phone. It was 2:25. “Yeah, okay. Is it the station on Cherry Street?”

“That’s the one.”

“What do you need us for?”

“We have some information on Yun we think you’ll want to hear.”

“Already? Wow. You guys work fast.”

“Yes, well, efficiency is one of our best qualities.” He sounded proud. “See you soon.”

Min agreed and hung up.

He walked up to Keiba’s room and knocked at the door. “Keiba?” He heard a sleepy murmur on the other side. He smiled.

“Babe.”

“Mini?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Could you open the door?”

“Mm… Okay.” She yawned. He heard the springs of her bed creak as she got up. When she opened the door, Min’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. She was wearing nothing but a pair of black short-shorts and a red tank top. No bra. Staring at her shirt, he was thankful for the slight draft from the A/C.

She rubbed her eyes, pouting. “Where’s my chocolate?” She queried.  

Min-Kyung didn’t hear her at first. Seeing her like this, sleepy-y with her hair even more tussled than it normally was, made him want to do crazy things. Like burying his fingers in her hair and kissing her lips until they were swollen. He wanted to rip off her clothes and claim—

He gave himself a mental shake and tried to focus on what she was saying.

“Chocolate?” He asked.

“Yeah.” She replied. “I thought we agreed yesterday that you’d bring me chocolate. Or maybe that was a dream. Must’ve been.” She turned her face away and covered on a yawn. “Sorry. What did you want, Min?”

“Um… Officer York called. Said he had some new information on Yun.”

“Oh.” Keiba said.

“We’re supposed to get there by 3, so I don’ know, you might want to change into something a little more… uh… suited for going out?”

She blinked at him and then glanced down at herself. Her cheeks reddened once she realized how scantily clad she was. “Sorry!” She exclaimed and closed the door. Min couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. Only Keiba could be so tired that she forgot what she was wearing.

She reemerged ten minutes later after putting on something more appropriate. She glanced up at him and then sheepishly looked away.

“Let’s go.” She said and started off down the hall.

He followed after her. “Why are you so tired?” He asked.

“Practice.”

“For the concert?”

She nodded.

“How’s that going? Did you find a piece to play?”

She nodded, but offered no further insight. Min frowned. This wasn’t the Keiba he knew. Why was she suddenly so distant? When they reached his car, he stopped her before she got in.

“Keiba,”

“Yeah?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing…”

He noticed something shiny on her cheek. Wetness. “Keiba, are you crying?”

He reached for her face, and she flinched away from his touch. His hand froze and then lowered slowly. There was a very awkward silence, and then the reason for Keiba’s behavior suddenly dawned on him.

“Keiba, look at me.” His voice was very gentle.

She bit her lip and did as he asked. Indeed, there were tears on her face, but she wiped them away with her hands. Min put his hands on her hips.

“You want to know something?”

She sniffled and nodded.

“When you opened the door, I almost lost it.”

She blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Like you don’t know.” He smirked and bent lower so he could whisper in her ear, “I thought you were the iest, most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”

She blushed. “Really?”

He nodded pulling back to look into her eyes. He was reminded rather suddenly of the night of their first kiss. Wanting to reenact the beauty and passion of that moment, he leaned toward , but she stopped him by placing her fingers gently over his lips. She lowered them slowly.

“I didn’t… disgust you?” She asked.

“No.” He said. “Don’t you ever think that way, Keiba.” The severity in his tone was almost anger, and when she winced, Min pulled Keiba closer to his chest and hugged her tight. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Keiba, if you disgusted me, I wouldn’t be with you.” He murmured into her neck. “I love everything about you. You have to know that by now.”

That was almost a confession but not quite close enough. Min cursed himself to the moon and back for not saying what he’d really wanted to stay, but there was a part of him that wondered whether or not he’d said “I love you” too early in his relationship with Sun-Hee. If he had, he definitely didn’t want to make the same mistake with Keiba.

But was that really an excuse? For now she was satisfied with that not-quite confession, but he’d have to get over this fear of his and man up and tell Keiba how he felt. And soon.  

“Thank you, Mini.” She murmured into his shirt. “I’m sorry I’m such an emotional crybaby.”

“You’re not a crybaby. But yeah, you are kinda emotional.”

She tugged at a handful of his hair. “You weren’t supposed to agree with me.”

He nipped at her ear, grinning when she shivered. “And you aren’t supposed to start things you can’t finish.” He retorted. “C’mon, let’s go.”

 

They reached the station at 3:05. They were both nervous, but couldn’t say precisely why that was. It might’ve been because neither of them had ever been inside of a police station, or it could be because anything regarding Yun raised the hair at the back of their necks. Regardless, the pair trudged inside and headed to the front desk to ask where York’s office was. The man, a thin guy with dark hair who looked to be in his late thirties, directed them down the hall. It was the first room on the left. York’s name was spelled out in brass letters at the top middle of the dark, wooden door. Keiba squeezed Min’s hand and knocked.

“Come in.” York said.

Min and Keiba walked inside and Bank closed the door behind them.

“Sit down.”  York said, straightening some paperwork. “There are two things I hate: a messy desk, and for anyone to make me feel short.”

There were two chairs in front of his desk and they each took one. Bank leaned against York’s desk. For a little while there was just the sound of York shuffling through his papers, the wall clock ticking away to their left, and the slight creaking of Min’s chair as his foot bounced restlessly up and down.

“Relax,” Bank said. “Neither of you are in trouble, so there’s no need to be nervous.”

Keiba forced herself to sit back in her chair and her lips. “Okay. So, uh, what’ve you guys found?” She asked.

York set the straightened stack of papers on his desk. He reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a brown, leather diary with a gold latch. He set it on the oak wood in front of him.

“What is it?” Min asked.

“This is Yun’s diary.” He said. “And she had some pretty wild entries about you, Min-Kyung.” He pushed the journal toward them. Min picked it up, but not without some trepidation. “We couldn’t read a word of what she’d had there, but luckily we have an officer here who’s fluent in Korean.”

For Keiba’s benefit, Bank said, “Most of what’s in there are love poems, drawings, and stories about your supposed midnight escapades. Some are pretty graphic. You wouldn’t want to know all that’s said, Keiba.”

Min flipped to a random page, skimmed it, and when he got to the part about him tying Yun to the headboard with his belt as he held a package in his teeth, he closed the book and tossed it back on top of the desk. He ran his hands over his face, knowing now how Idris Elba’s character had felt in Obsessed. Keiba scooted closer to him and touched his shoulder comfortingly. He took her hand and held it between his.

“None of the that’s in there is true.” He said.

“We didn’t think so.” York looked at Keiba. “And, Keiba, you were mentioned too.”

She frowned. “I was?”

“Yes. Min, read page 279 aloud if you would.”

Min sighed and reluctantly picked the journal back up. He flipped to the page, it was one of the last few, and read listlessly, “’I saw her again today. With him. What’s she thinking? Doesn’t she know that he’s mine? I’m the one that was there for his heartbreak. I’m the one who watched him cry. I see them laughing about something. How dare she make him smile? Is she delusional? I’m the only one who can put a smile on Min-Kyung Oppa’s face. I see I’m going to have to do something about her. Maybe Steven could help me out. After all he owes me a few favors.’” He stopped, feeling disgusted. “How could she watch me do anything?”

The officers didn’t know, but they intended to find out.

Keiba her lips. “Who’s Steven?”

“That’s my roommate’s name.” Min said. “But there have to be other people with that name right? It’s pretty common.”

“We’ll look into it.” York assured them. “But for right now, could you tell me how you and Yun met?”

“We didn’t really. I bumped into her once on my way to class. I knocked down her things and helped her pick them up. After that, I never really saw her again…” He looked up suddenly. “A letter.” He said. “She wrote me a letter the day she died.”

York sat up sharply as Bank said, “A letter? Where is it?”

“In my car. I think. I meant to take it down to you guys, but it slipped my mind.”

“Get it.”

Min nodded and jogged out to get the letter. Keiba rubbed at an itch on her elbow. She stared at the journal. She couldn’t understand how someone could grow so obsessed with someone after only knowing them for, literally, a minute.

Bank could read her thoughts on her face. “Yun never had any friends.” He told her. “She was bullied for the majority of her life and her parents were extremely strict.”

“Oh.” Keiba understood but didn’t care. She’d been bullied too. She had a father that didn’t care about her, a stepmother from hell, and a stepsister who wanted to ruin her life. She’d lost her mom.  She understood that everyone was different and thereby reacted to stress differently, but was that really an excuse? Did that mean she was blameless? There were people who survived tragedy, like herself and Min, but they never intentionally hurt anyone.

Bank patted her shoulder, mistaking her dark ponderings for self-reflection.

Min returned with the letter. “It’s written in Korean too. I can translate it if you want.”

“Please.”

Min translated the letter aloud. Keiba flinched a little at being called a , and when he finished reading, he pulled his chair a little closer to hers and pushed her wild curls behind her ear.

“Who’s ‘she’.” York asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Mm… May we have that?”

“Please. Take it. I don’t want to look at it anymore.”

“Understood.” Bank left to get an evidence bag.

“You kids are free to go.” York told them. “We’ll call if we find anything else.”

“Thank you.” Keiba and Min left hand in hand. “Let’s go and visit Ben.” She said. “There’re some things we all need to talk about.”

“Darcie.” He guessed.

She nodded grimly. “The one and only.”

---

Sorry for the hiatus, guys. This chapter refused to work with me, and I'm not totally satisfied, but I felt like I had to get it out there to you guys. Tell me what you think. Feedback is so important to us writer-types so that we know how we're doing =] 

Much love to subbies new and old ^^/