I must have just been staring in bewilderment at her for an awkward while because when she began to frown and snapped her fingers in front of my glazed over eyes, I shook my head to bring myself back to the present. Bora started to smile but I could only mirror her previous expression, did she just say she's a lawyer?

Surely I heard wrong...I mean considering it was all of three-five hours ago that I was thinking about getting Taeyeon one to possibly lighten her sentence and now one just presents herself to me? 

After a while I found my voice miraculously and with a rude point directed her way I had to ask if she was for real. "Y-you're a lawyer?" Her smile faltered a little, maybe a little confused by how I was reacting to a seemingly normal career and she nodded slowly with a now suspicious look.

"Yeah.....what did you think I was, a e?" So i'd actually insulted her, . When she saw me get a little panicked to dismiss her answer she burst out into laughter. "Never seen one this attractive?" She winked

"No I uh....gosh" I said with a sigh, smiling at how truly stupid I sounded. 

At least Bora was taking my dumb responses well and wasn't completely offended as I'd first thought. I told her to ignore me and gave the excuse that I was drunk which wasn't really the case at all.

"I just really like that area I guess" I paused to take a gulp of my drink and continued, trying not to look at the smirk that had grown on her face as she the rim of her glass.  
"I mean, the stuff you do, defending innocent people and helping to put away the ones who have done evil. It's interesting to me" I shrugged, I really did feel that way but right now I was just trying  to keep the topic on her job, hopefully to see whether she was actually good at it and whether she had the potential to help Taeyeon.

She shifted, coming a little closer to me as she kept up that damn smirk. I thought Taeyeon's was bad but compared to Bora hers is so freaking innocent. 

"Oh really" she commented, her eyes now wavering beneath mine. "It's...interesting that you find it interesting. I do like my job, sometimes it's rewarding, then again sometimes it's not. "

"How come?" I responded.

"Well like you said, I could be putting away a person who had done evil things but if I was to be assigned to that person's case instead? I have to work to keep them out of jail." I nodded at that. 
"Thats hard but usually it always falls through since they have too much evidence against them. I don't think I could sleep at night if what I did actually allowed them to walk free again if they had killed or...."

"Yeah, I guess it's the same with me. It's difficult to treat people equally in a harsh manner in my line of work." Bora's eyes lit up in interest as I shot a smile her way. 
"I work as a correctional officer as you probably already know because of Yuri... so to really know that someone is innocent and they've been put behind bars due to a traumatic experience that wasn't entirely their fault it's tough"

"I agree" she said as she averted her eyes for a moment, enough time for me to let out a shaky breath. I don't know why I was so nervous, it's strange since I could probably just ring up a lawyer and enquire about Taeyeon that way but as its Bora and I'm closer to her than I am to a complete stranger...I had a lot riding on how this went.

 There was a slight silence as I thought about what else to say, awkward to say the least. Our actions were even entwined, raising our glasses to our mouths and then lowering them. We laughed at that and I thanked the lord that she wasn't being overbearing now with her flirtatious ways. Maybe  she wanted to change the subject or something and when I saw her looking at her watch and starting to watch the television, I knew I had to get her attention back on me and the only way I could think of was to begin opening up to her about Taeyeon. 

"Alright so....metaphorically speaking" I said, giving a slight smile when she looked at me in interest. "There's this girl....who is innocent but who still sort of did the crime...if that makes sense" 

"That makes no sense" she chuckled. Of course it didn't, I had even slurred my words. As I put down my glass and grabbed a different one filled with water, I tried to sober myself up a little since we were in murky territory with this whole thing now. I could say the wrong thing and bam, Bora could have something to report me on if she desired. 

"Okay." I said, banging my palms against the table a little too hard as if to say I'm starting a new sentence, listen to this.
 "So there's this girl who's now in prison...." I went slowly, just in case she wouldn't understand despite her intelligence; I was drunk okay.

"Right..." She went along with it so I continued.

"Let's say...she committed a crime but wasn't fully aware of what she was doing."

"I'm not sure what you mean" Bora replied, resting her head on her hands and looking as if she was putting up with this drunken nonsense like it was any old thing I was blabbering on about. "Was she intoxicated or something?"

"No. For example, have you ever hugged someone or even hit someone in your sleep?" When she nodded after thinking for a while I exhaled in relief, hopeful that I was getting somewhere. 
"Alright so imagine this girl who had just gone through something seriously, and I mean seriously traumatic and she was totally scared of everything" 
There was no answer from her side so I carried on with my speech.
"And then...there's this kid who takes advantage of her state to pull a practical joke on her. Let's say that she hit him in shock and in panic but didn't realize she'd done it until she woke up."

Bora frowned as I looked to her expectantly, hoping she'd come up with an answer that would solve all of this in a heartbeat. 

 "So what's her actual charge? How long is she or has she been in prison?" She asked. "Metaphorically speaking of course" a slight smirk and I knew the metaphorical thing hadn't worked, damn.

"She's inside for attacking a minor, punching him and scratching him... but the sentence ended up being six years even when the attacker wasn't aware of their surroundings. Almost sleepwalking if you will....metaphorically"

"Okay shut up about metaphorically it's bugging me" Yep, didn't work.
 "So I'm guessing this is a girl who's in your prison yes? A friend of yours?" I nodded but lowered my gaze, suddenly all too aware of where the is could possibly lead. I was nervous, really nervous.

I nodded while she sighed, averting her own eyes to her clasped hands on the table in thought. 

"It's certainly a tough situation. Who testified against her to make her go down for so long considering the circumstances that you've just told me?" She was interested, perfect. "I mean, surely if the sleep thing was an issue someone could have tested that, at least looked into it a little"

 "After what happened to her, she stayed with a friend and that's where it happened. After she did what she did, that friend thought she was a monster and was determined to send her down for as long as she could despite growing up with her." 

"Harsh" was the comment that came from her lips, her eyebrows furrowed also while I nodded absentmindedly. 
"I mean as a friend she should have listened to what the girl had to say and taken into account of whatever she had been through that was so scarring. It must have been something big" 

"Very" I replied. "It's like something you'd expect to see in a movie, like it's not even real life" a sigh escaped my lips when I thought back to how much of an I had been when Taeyeon had told me. Feeling a tear roll down my cheek I quickly got up from the dining room chair and turned my back on her as I attempted to conceal my emotions on the subject. What happened next was that she grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the sofa.

"It must be hard for you too, obviously being close to this girl and I'm guessing you're telling me this because you want guidance or something?" 
Not really guidance but I nodded anyway. 
"Alright so, I'm going to need to know some more details...to see first hand whether it was both traumatic enough and worthy of her being sent to prison for it." She smiled sadly after looking into my eyes, a really nice change from her usual personality. Again I nodded and took a deep breath as she encouraged me to let it out.... but I still had to be careful.

 Slowly but surely and leaving quite a few details out, such as the aggression Taeyeon had showed as she told the story about Jessica, how much of a I was and oh yes....I was now ing this girl and quite possibly in love with her, I began to explain what Taeyeon had told me that night in the kitchen.

As I spoke I studied Bora's expression how it went from slight surprise at Taeyeon's lesbian status to a smile as I described the love she and Jessica shared together albeit with pain in my heart...and then a glisten in her eyes as I told her all of what she had gone through, how evil that one man was to have taken away such an important and innocent person that didn't ing deserve any of it. 
I wiped another tear as I finished and heard Bora clearing , her voice breaking due to her own emotions after hearing the story.

 "That....wow" was all she said and I knew then that I could maybe trust her with the whole truth if it ever came down to that. As I stared at her, it amazed me how the woman who walked in here earlier tonight was so different than the one sitting before me now. I'd like to say the real Bora was here right now but I just wasn't sure; I didn't know her enough to judge. Nevertheless, she was touched and reacted well considering.   

As I explained the next part, about the kid and her friend and how the boy used to bully Taeyeon with his loud voice and sneak attacks, Bora actually chuckled darkly at the audacity of the child. Like it seemed she too thought that deserved what he got even though Taeyeon didn't mean for it to happen that way. I finished with the actual attack and the look on her friends face as she sent her best friend to jail, how Taeyeon had decided to just accept that it was all her fault and not stick up for herself in any way.

I felt more tears sting my eyes but before one fell, Bora's thumb quickly grazed beneath my eye to rid me of it. I then raised my eye line and saw she was giving me the most sincere yet emotional smile she could possibly manage and I was grateful for that. Without even thinking I grabbed her hand and squeezed it since my voice would probably just sound like a dying cat if I tried to speak anyway.
Her other thumb grazed the skin on my hand as she moved a piece of hair from my eyes, she was comforting me and I was surprised to see that she was really good at it. I felt relaxed with her soft caresses and knowing that the outcome could be good for Taeyeon if Bora decided to help us was...relaxing almost. 

"Taeyeon doesn't deserve to stay in there another minute, let alone years" I sighed, seeing Bora nod slightly from the corner of my eye.

"Taeyeon?" It was then that I heard the apartment door slam and Yuri walk in, her eyes darting from her cousin to me in almost a panicked state. My eyes widened as I realized. "Tiffany you didn't...."

"No no!" I replied, standing quickly to reassure her but it seemed Yuri had already figured I'd told her cousin the other part...

"Tiffany she's a ing lawyer do you not know that?" She raised her voice a little, angry at me for being so seemingly careless.

 "What's going  on?" Bora frowned, getting up too to join the two of us. Yuri turned to face her.

"Bora she made a stupid mistake and I'm sure she feels awful. Right Tiffany?" 
The anger and threat in her voice then was almost paralyzing but I had to stop her before she told Bora. I had come so far and I had her on my side, if Yuri told her what we had been doing in such a reckless way it could become utterly ed.
"She didn't mean to take it that far and it was only-"

To try to fix this I grabbed Yuri and pulled her aside out of ear shot. "I haven't told her everything!" I whispered angrily. "I just found out she's a lawyer and was hoping she'd help me out with lightening Taeyeon's sentence, she doesn't know what we do!" 

The dread that came on her face was almost comical if it wasn't such a tense situation but Yuri also seemed a little relieved at the fact I wasn't as stupid as she first thought. It may be possible for Bora to get Taeyeon out of jail without telling her about Taeyeon and I's relationship together and that's the way I intended to keep it....unless it was completely necessary.

It was silent as Yuri walked past her cousin without a word and grabbed a bag off of the table that I didn't even realize she had brought in. She began to take out some plates and dish up our food as Bora eyed both of us in suspicion. When we were all gathered round the table to eat, it seemed Bora didn't want to drop the subject which I was both nervous and slightly grateful about.

"So I assume Tiffany has told you about....Tae...? Taeyeon"  she repeated after I helped her out with the name. Yuri simply nodded to reply, not lifting her head as if she was scared that she'd reveal something accidentally after that little hiccup. 
"It's an interesting case isn't it, tragic but certainly interesting....do you know Taeyeon like Tiffany does?"

Yuri really was related to Bora, I say that because the slight smirk and naughtiness on her face as she no doubt desired to make a dig at how much I really did know Taeyeon was something she had to restrain herself from doing. 

"I know of her. Taeyeon is someone who is....selective in who she talks to" A quick look my way proved that Yuri really wasn't entirely over what Taeyeon and I do together. Nevertheless, Bora nodded in understanding as she revelled in her thoughts. It interested me that she had become so involved in this case, how she wanted to know every detail like it was the most refreshing and stimulating thing she'd heard in a long while. 

As we ate, I noticed Bora glance at me time and time again. I wouldn't say it was uncomfortable, but I was wondering why she was doing it. When I looked up at the right moment and our eyes met, Yuri looked between us and then once Bora realized she had all of our attention, she spoke what was on her mind.

 "The things she’s told me are valid enough to possibly re-open a case and help a person who seems to have already paid for their actions.” 

Wait, what? Did she just-? I smiled immediately and set down my chopsticks. Was this real? I could kiss her right now! I literally couldn't even speak, if I tried it would come out in garbles and that wasn't wise. When I saw Yuri was eyeing me, silently telling me that I was maybe act