Chapter 55
You Said Remember Me II
/ / / / /
Leaning against a fat tree Eunhyuk crossed his arms and watched the many people that passed by smile joyfully. While they were having the fun of their lives, here he was being a third wheel. Why had Victoria asked him to come out with Nana, anyway?
He peered over at Nana and Changmin who were sitting on the bench. Nana was swinging her legs about while chattering with Changmin. Since when did the two of them get so close to each other? Eunhyuk hadn’t been aware of it. Perhaps they’d talked a lot when Changmin had taken her out. However, Eunhyuk couldn’t quite believe that Changmin was honestly sincere toward Nana. Whatever way he looked at it, Changmin and Yuri were two people who were inseparable.
/ / / / /
“So that’s why you have to stop by the police station?” Changmin asked. “It’ll be ok, I’m sure.”
Nana nodded, “I know. Yuri will solve it somehow…but what if we’re giving her too much trouble?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Changmin told, “it’s Yuri’s job. Nothing’s going to happen as long as you’re still under our roof.”
Nana smiled.
“Is it to your liking?” Nana nodded toward his food. “I’m not really confident with my cooking. I’ll just buy you a boxed lunch next time.”
“Uh…no! It’s pretty good, honest,” he shook his head, “and a homemade boxed lunch is way more sincere than buying one. You should never ever buy one.”
Nana laughed at his reaction.
“What about you? Did you eat?” Changmin asked.
Nana shook her head.
“Then I guess Eunhyuk didn’t eat either,” Changmin said.
“You don’t have to worry about us, we’ll get something to eat later,” Nana promised.
“Thanks for the lunch, it’s really delicious,” he ruffled her hair.
Nana’s heart fluttered from his words and she could only smile. What if Changmin started appealing more and more to her?
“When my shift’s over, I’ll give you two a ride to the police station,” Changmin told. “Wait for me. I’ll be done in an hour, so why don’t you and Eunhyuk take a stroll around?”
“I’ll just sit here,” Nana shook her head. “You’ve already shown me around before.”
“Then take another look around until you remember the place by heart,” Changmin urged, “so when we come here next time, we can just choose our favorite places.”
“We?”
He nodded enthusiastically, “We. You and I.”
Nana looked at him feeling her pulse race. He got to his feet and pulled her up.
“Changmin,” Nana said, “you mean it…when you say you’ll compensate me, right?”
He tenderly smiled and put an arm around her patting her back, “Go have fun. I’ll come find you in an hour.”
She watched as he walked off. He hadn’t answered her.
Nana turned to see Eunhyuk staring at the Llama across from him and walked over to him.
“Do you want to walk around?” Nana asked. “Changmin will give us a ride to the police station.”
They walked quietly along the path and Nana peered at him through the corner of her eyes. He never seemed to talk about anything in front of her. Would he talk to her if she were Yuri?
“Thanks,” Eunhyuk said, “for the blanket.”
Nana turned to look at him.
“It was you, wasn’t it?”
“Yea.”
“Did you sleep well?”
Nana nodded turning away and shifted her gaze to the ground.
“Did you make the boxed lunch your self?”
“Victoria helped me.”
“That so?”
“Yea.”
“When I was younger, I never really went to the zoo with my family. I often went with Donghae, though,” Eunhyuk told. “Seeing all these families around makes me wonder how it feels to go as a family.”
Nana stole a glance at him.
“Have you ever gone when your parents were alive?”
“Of course,” Nana answered, “we went. We went a lot.”
“How did your parents pass away?”
Nana stopped and leaned against the bars separating them from the tigers, “Hijacking incident.”
“Sorry to hear.”
She shook her head, “It’s ok. I get tired of hearing that phrase. It’s already been a long time, so it doesn’t quite matter.”
Shock soared through her when she felt a hand softly pat her head. She turned to see Eunhyuk and during that moment time seem to freeze. A tingly feeling rushed through her making her arms and legs feel limp with warmth.
“‘It’s ok’ is one of the biggest lies after ‘I’m fine’,” Eunhyuk said, “you might as well say you don’t give a damn.”
A snort escaped Nana before she turned to see Changmin walking toward the both of them.
/ / / / /
Half an hour later Eunhyuk and Nana sat next to each other in the lobby of the police station. Officers were bustling around, working on this or that. Eunhyuk turned surprised when an officer slammed his desk angrily before pointing to the two culprits before him scolding them loudly. Eunhyuk’s ears were almost deaf. Shifting his gaze to Nana he wasn’t sure whether he should be surprised or not that she hadn’t budged an inch from the racket. Changmin who had accompanied them inside seemed to be frightened to no end.
An officer suddenly walked up to them, “We’ll take you to the back room.”
Changmin got up along with them.
“Only the suspects are allowed in,” the officer instructed.
Eunhyuk turned to see Nana look at Changmin.
“Go on,” Changmin patted her shoulder.
Following the officer down the short corridor Eunhyuk glanced at the plaques hanging on the walls. Within seconds the plaques transformed into a black window and they were led into a gray room.
“Please sit,” they were ordered by the officer sitting at the table inside the cold square room.
The room was a perfect imitation of a jail cell. Bare with just the worn out table sitting in the middle of the room.
“The Sherriff wants to be here before you proceed,” the officer who led them in announced to the one sitting in front of them.
“Ok.” the officer nodded.
After he walked away Eunhyuk observed the face of the officer before them. His face was pudgy and well outlined with wrinkles from smiling too much. Other than his head that was well balding he looked young for his age.
A knock on the door stole Eunhyuk’s attention and he turned to see Yuri.
“Has it started?” Yuri questioned stepping in and closing the door after her.
“Was waiting for you,” the officer replied. “Wanna have a seat?”
“I’ll stand,” Yuri dismissed the offer.
“Alright, lets get this going,” the officer rambled. “These people here, is it you two?”
He slid out two photos from the folder on his lap out toward them. They were the exact same copies Yuri had shown them both.
“Yes.” Eunhyuk and Nana answered.
“You two know this man?” the officer slid out the ID photo of the bearded man.
“No, sir,” Eunhyuk shook his head.
“You?” the officer glanced at Nana.
“No.”
The officer pulled the photos back and placed them inside his folder.
“If you two lie, I have your profiles right here,” the officer tapped on the folder with his pen, “and you two will be sentenced. You hear?”
“Yes, sir.” they both replied.
“This man, Kim Sang Woon, was killed,” the officer went on, “you two were the only ones seen before the cameras malfunctioned. You sure no one else was there?”
“No.” Eunhyuk answered.
“Then what were you two doing there?”
Both Eunhyuk and Nana were quiet. If either of them said that Nana had run away, would the problem get worse? Would there be more questions?
“What were you two doing there?” the officer repeated the question.
/ / / / /
Yuri stared at both Eunhyuk and Nana unsure of why they weren’t answering. If Eunhyuk just said that he was looking for Nana and found her being harassed she was certain they’d be let off easily. What was going through his mind?
For some reason, Yuri was feeling nervous.
/ / / / /
Nana glanced at Eunhyuk through the corner of her eyes. He wasn’t saying anything. Why? What else did he have in mind? Or was it ok to say she’d left Yuri’s place and Eunhyuk had only come to look for her? If talking like that would bring Yuri into the picture and cause even more trouble, what should she say?
“I ran away that day,” Nana said.
The officer’s gaze changed and he leaned forward causing Nana to slide back in her chair.
“Ran away? Why?” the officer interrogated.
“That has nothing to do with this,” Yuri cut in.
“Sherriff, I’m the one assigned to this duty, just chill and stand back,” the officer ordered.
Nana held her eyes back from Yuri for if she did look at her she’d just make her feel embarrassed.
“Why?” the officer prodded on.
Nana pressed her lips together. What to say now? What reasonable lie could she come up with?
“We were having a couple’s argument,” Eunhyuk chimed in.
Nana turned to look at him shocked. Her jaw dropped open.
“You know this turf belongs to drunkees like Kim Sang Woon,” the officer tapped the tabletop with his fingers. “Why would you enter their turf?”
“We didn’t know,” Eunhyuk went on, “honestly. We were making up when he interrupted us and we just fled the scene. If there were others around, we weren’t aware of it.”
“Making up?” the officer repeated with a twisted face. “You two were probably screwing around in the area.”
He snorted before getting up.
“Interview’s over, you two can go home and enjoy yourselves,” he muttered before flinging the door open.
Nana gritted her teeth together unsure of how to react.
“I’ll walk you out,” Yuri offered.
They traveled silently along the corridor. The air was stuffy and full of misconception. Nana didn’t know what to say and was wondering why Eunhyuk wasn’t explaining himself to Yuri. Why wasn’t Yuri asking anything?
Turning around the corner Nana watched as Changmin rose from his seat. He and Yuri exchanged stares for quite a while before Yuri spoke.
“You’re here too?”
“Yea. How did it go?”
“You can all leave,” Yuri said.
Nana watched as Yuri walked away sullenly before turning to take a glance at Changmin.
/ / / / /
The ride back was unpleasant. Nana was quiet and didn’t answer much of Changmin’s questions about what had happened. Eunhyuk wondered if he’d offended her by what he’d said. If he hadn’t jumped in the officer would have made the matter worse. Now that they were off the hook, Nana would most likely be upset with him for making up a lie on the spot.
Yuri wasn’t honestly interested in him, so Eunhyuk didn’t worry about how Yuri had taken the situation. Nana, on the other hand, was different. She was just purposely siding with Changmin or rather Changmin was making her play this game with him.
There was an obvious misunderstanding among the two of them, but Nana should have realized he was only saving her from more indecent trouble.
Donghae and Victoria shot up from the couch with their arrival.
“How did it go?” Victoria wondered.
Eunhyuk watched as Nana walked on in without a word.
“What happened?” Donghae turned to him.
“Nothing,” Eunhyuk lied.
Changmin quickly greeted the two before hurrying on after Nana. Eunhyuk watched the two of them disappear up the stairs.
“How did the interrogation go?” Victoria started toward him. “Something must have happened.”
/ / / / /
Yuri flopped into her chair and ran a hand over her face. What exactly had Eunhyuk just said in the interrogation room? He had to be kidding, right?
Nana just had to be dragged further into every problem. However, now that the two were let off how would their lives proceed when she returned home?
/ / / / /
Changmin poked his head into Yuri’s phone to see Nana rummaging inside her bag for something. Quietly walking in he leaned over her to see what it was that she was doing.
“You have a phone?” Changmin asked surprised.
Nana spun around alarmed.
“Sorry,” he apologized with a small laugh. “But what are you doing?”
“Ah…nothing, really,” Nana placed the phone back into her bag. “I didn’t hear you come up.”
“I followed you,” he told, “you look kind of flustered. What did they ask you in the interrogation room?”
“Nothing much…” Nana’s voice quieted.
Changmin watched her wanting to know more but wasn’t exactly sure that he should push her to tell him when she seemed so reluctant. He’d thought the process would go smoothly, but Nana was the only one who seemed troubled when they’d came back. Had Yuri said something? Or was it Eunhyuk? Or perhaps the officer speaking to them had said something that made her uncomfortable? Changmin couldn’t quite imagine what might have happened.
“Yuri doesn’t jump to conclusions, does she?” Nana asked turning to look at him.
What did the question have to do with the topic he was asking her about?
“No, she’s quite reasonable,” Changmin answered.
He still felt confused.
“Are you hungry? You didn’t eat,” he said.
/ / / / /
“You lied?” Donghae asked surprised and amused.
“It was the only thing I could think of,” Eunhyuk told poking at the food on his plate.
Victoria walked over with a cup of water and setting it in front of him she grabbed the chair beside Donghae.
Sitting down Victoria said, “At least the problem hasn’t turned out too bad. Eunhyuk and Nana have been excused.”
“Yea,” Donghae agreed unenthusiastically, “but think about it. They were the only suspects, if the team goes back and investigates some more Eunhyuk and Nana will be dragged in again because they were the only two there. And what did he say? The cameras malfunctioned?”
“Yea.” Eunhyuk nodded.
“Cameras just don’t malfunction like that,” Donghae waved away the statement, “the gang’s probably trying to put the murder on you two.”
“You think so?” Victoria asked from the side. “But what has Eunhyuk done? If they want to plant the murder on someone, they’d only pick on Nana.”
Donghae fell into silent thought before his brain suddenly lit up with the answer.
Snapping his hands he hit the table surprised, “Ah…I know.”
“What?” Eunhyuk wondered.
Donghae still despised the thought of it and he hated the fact that he would have to talk about that incident.
“What?” Victoria ventured on.
Biting his tongue Donghae said, “When you and Victoria rented that apartment. Didn’t you say Ren Gei attacked Victoria?”
As if the thought made Eunhyuk guilty, he silently nodded. Victoria turned to look at him quietly.
“Exactly,” Donghae emphasized on the word loudly and clearly. “What did you do then, Eunhyuk?”
While Eunhyuk went back into his memory, Donghae could only hope that Eunhyuk hadn’t done anything to offend Ren Gei. If he had, Donghae couldn’t imagine what Ren Gei would want to do to his friend.
***I told you, it's going to be a long day for our lovely characters :D And argument in the next chapter
***It's going to be an awfully stressful semester, I don't know when I can or will be able to update.
***I extended the length of the chapter a bit, if you noticed.
***And last, but not least, Happy Birthday Victoria! I know there wasn't a lot of Vic here, but I wanted to make it in time to update for her birthday :DD
spring semester ends this friday and i'm off for summer break :D i'll get back on track with YSRMII
Comments