DAY 7

You were on time today. Perfectly on time. You had your morning coffee in hand, emails all sorted and replied to, and though you’d barely got any sleep last night, your heart was more at ease. Although you had not figured out all of your problems or what you should do, it wasn’t pressing at your heart anymore. Hei-Ran was right, you could only do what you would be at peace with, anything that came of it would be a consequence you could accept.

You had a new piece of paper on your desk today. You’d brought it in, you didn’t understand it, but you hoped it was the right call. You were also not thinking about the repercussions of it. You could only do what you were comfortable with, and this was one of them. It felt like the right move, and with your new (and probably temporary) peace of mind, you decided to take the chance while you felt good about it.

You’d almost made it to the stairs when you heard you name being called from behind you. You grimaced, no one liked hearing their name from her lips. Fixing your face into a pleasant smile, you turned around.

“Ms. Ahn, what can I do for you?”

Ms. Ahn supervised the third floor, one of those women who tried to do too many things and never managed to reply to an email unless it was ‘I-need-an-answer-this-very-second’ kind of urgent. She liked to delegate her small useless tasks to everyone, demeaning everyone into paper-runners or admin assistants. If she wanted someone to photocopy all her things, then she should go hire someone. But, although you were working on a higher-level case, your office was still on the third floor and so technically, she was still your supervisor along with Mr. Im.

“I hope you’re not running off,” she said, “we barely see you down here anymore. I thought you’d be spending more time in that new office of yours since we had the generosity to give it to you.”

Ah yes, she was also one of the pillars in the ‘Eunji is sleeping with Mr. Im’ movement. Plus, she didn’t appreciate being bossed around by Mr. Im to give you the office.

“Well I have a lot of work to do upstairs.” You said, edging backwards.

She smiled at you, one of those menacing smiles that sends shivers along your arms and stands up the hair on the back of your neck. She had some of her stupid pink lipstick smeared on her teeth. “Nonsense. It’s the workshop today.”

“I’d completely forgotten.” You said, holding back a groan, “Look, Ms. Ahn, I really don’t have time for this, the upstairs deadline is really strict.”

“Workplace harassment is a serious issue, Miss Kang.”

“But-”

“Surely you don’t think that your new position puts you above everyone else on the floor, do you?”

“No, but-”

“Perfect. I’ll show you to the workshop meeting room.”

You had no choice but to follow, trying to keep your swearing and insults at a mutter.

You pulled a chair up behind Hei-Ran and Yun-Hee, both of them turning to you in surprise.

“What are you doing here?”

“We thought you’d be exempt.”

“We’d have saved you a chair otherwise.”

“Ahn made me come.” You grumbled, shooting a glare at the old woman who was chatting in the corner of the room, waving her hands like there was a swarm of mosquitoes in the room. You imagined her being stung by a swarm of angry bees, and your anger calmed a little.  

“That .” Yun-Hee scoffed.

“Right? I could be upstairs doing ground-breaking interrogations but instead I’m down here.”

“With us commoners.” Yun-Hee snickered. “At least it’ll feel shorter with all of us together.”  

It did not.

                It lasted hours.

It included a lunch break. 

You’d never hated HR so much.

When it finally ended you only had an hour left at work, and you ran out of the room like Hell was on your tail. Hell or Ms. Ahn. You heard her calling your name but you didn’t care. If she had a problem with you she could take it up with Mr. Im. He might not be 100% on your side in terms of your interrogation techniques, but he would not take kindly to a 3^rd floor supervisor questioning his team.

Maybe you should linger behind? Give her a reason to try and keep you, give her a reason to go up to fourth and complain to Mr. Im. God you’d love to see that, see her getting put in her place where she belonged, right in the dumpster with all the other Botox-filled trash.

Maybe another day.

=====

“Thought you’d forgotten about me.” Chen gave you a crooked grin as you entered his holding chamber.

“You would not believe the day I had.” You said as you collapsed in the chair across from him. “My boss is the worst.”

“Oh yeah?” He grinned, leaning forward like a gossipy old woman, “tell me all about it girlfriend.”

“She made me go to a stupid workplace harassment workshop, it took all day! Sometimes I want to take that stupid pink lipstick and shove it so far up her she s wax for weeks.”

Chen roared with laughter, and you found yourself chuckling along with him. “You sure you’re not from my side of the streets?”

You rolled your eyes, “If I were I would be on your side of the table.”

“I don’t know, you’ve got some rage in you.”

“Everybody has rage in them, especially towards useless bosses. You telling me you’ve never been angry at Suho?”

He scoffed, “you kidding? You obviously haven’t met Suho.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He’s a pushover! Doesn’t even complain when we use his card to buy groceries anymore.” He laughed, “there’s nothing to get angry about.”

Did they all live together in one big house? All 8 of them? And if he had a card there was a paper trail somewhere. You made a mental note to follow up on it.

“Well what about other bosses then? Did you not have a first job washing dishes or something?”

“Oh sweetheart.” He gave you a look, “is that what your first job was? No wonder you’ve got so much rage.”

“No.” You said indignantly. Your first job was scooping ice cream, much more exciting than washing dishes.

Chen hummed, obviously not believing you. “My boss made me go to one of those once.”

“One of what?”

He rolled his eyes, “A workplace harassment meeting, keep up.”

“Really? You asked, grinning. You couldn’t imagine him sitting though even 5 minutes of it.

“Yeah, but I think it may have been from a different perspective than what you were doing.”

Oh.

He grinned as you realised what he meant.

“Have those types of meetings often?” You asked delicately.

He shrugged, “depends if anyone needs harassing.”

You frowned, not entirely sure he was telling the truth. But either way, you were unlikely to get anything more out of him on that avenue. Turning tracks, you pulled the paper from this morning out of your pocket, attempting to smooth the creases out of it before you placed it face down on the table. “I brought you something.”

You slid it across, hesitantly, not sure what his reaction would be.

He grinned as he looked at it, not yet turning it over to see what it was, “never pictured you as a one to send nudes, isn’t it my lucky day.”

“Eugh.” You said, “You’re making me regret bringing you anything.” Like you would send nudes in the first place, never mind to this .

He eyed it curiously, turned the page over. His eyes lit up, and he looked at you for a fraction of a second before darting back to the page.

You chuckled, “better than nudes?”

He looked from the page to you, and back to the page, a smile on his face bigger and more honest than any you’d seen. “How’d you know?”

You shrugged, grinning, “lucky guess.”

The paper was some random piece of sheet music you’d pulled off the internet. Apart from some recorder in primary school, you’d given up on any ventures involving you playing a musical instrument. But while you had no idea how to read music, you’d been toying the idea that Chen might. With all the foot tapping and finger dancing, it seemed a fitting proposal. You’d been mulling it over in your mind all last night that he was a musician, and it seemed your hunch was right.

He was a musician after all.

=====

BEEEEEEEP

BEEEEEEEP

BEEEEEEEP

                Who on earth was assaulting your apartment buzzer?

BEEEEEEEP

                “Alright, alright, I’m coming.” You muttered, unfolding yourself from your chair and going over to the little box by the door. “Hello?”

                “-ing ! Think you can ignore me while you some other guys -”

                You sighed, leaning against the wall, “what are you doing here?”

                “What the do you think I’m doing! Came to get my stuff!”

                “I told you, I threw it out weeks ago. You should have come get it when I told you to. And it was what, a couple shirts?”

                “Lying ! Bet you ing to-”

                “I’m not buzzing you in, go darken someone else’s doorstep.”

                You moved back to the chair, phone in hand. The buzzer kept ringing, over and over again, invading the peace of your little home.

He’s here again.

Hei-Ran: Seriously? I thought he’d stopped calling!

Yun-Hee: Call the cops!

Hei-Ran: Agreed. Want us to come over?

Yun-Hee: We can be there in 15

Hei-Ran: Help you kick his .

Nah, if he doesn’t leave soon I’ll call the cops

Yun-Hee: If he’s still there in 10 you tell us.

Yun-Hee: I’ll wear my biggest heels.

Hei-Ran: I’ll bring a baseball bat

Thanks guys 😊

                You dropped the phone on the couch cushion beside you, running your hands through your hair as you groaned. What did you do to deserve this? Were you a puppy killer in your last life? Did you really do something so awful that everyone seemed to hate you for something or other in this one? You’d only dated him for two months. It’d been an ok relationship, he’d been nice enough, it was alright but nothing special. You’d been planning to break up with him because honestly your work meant more to you than this relationship, but then one week he’d been really bad tempered, yelling at you and punching walls.

                You dumped him immediately.

                You’d texted him to pick up his stuff later that evening, but he never came by, so you tossed it all. It was literally a couple shirts that he’d left ‘accidentally’, you didn’t want any of his crap in your apartment anyway. But since then he’d been calling you, texting you, harassing you, just being an . You’d reported it already and they’d told you to just call the cops if he showed up again but after the day you just had with Ms. Ahn and the seminar… you really couldn’t be bothered. You went back to the buzzer which was still ringing.

                “I swear to god if you aren’t gone in thirty seconds ’m calling the cops.”

                After a final round of swearing and insults, the buzzing stopped. The guy was an , but he was still a coward.

                If you’d known that this guy would have caused you so much aggravation you never would have returned his call. Never.

                The apartment was quiet now, but your frustration levels higher than ever. Gone was the peaceful tranquility, replaced with a tense silence. You couldn’t just sit in this apartment for the rest of the night, you had to get out. You didn’t even grab your coat as you strode outside, praying to god that he was actually gone and that he wasn’t just lurking around your front door.

                You didn’t know where your feet were taking you. You didn’t want to go to Hei-Ran and Yun-Hee’s, they’d be loud and angry about the situation, you just wanted quiet and peaceful. Was that really too much to ask?

                You were in the observation room before you knew it.

                You took a seat, looking at Chen through the glass. He was still up, but not silently lying on the bed like you usually saw him. He was up, in the chair at the interrogation table, the piece of music flat before him. His hands were dancing along the table’s edge, eyes intense and focused, but alight.

                You were captivated, watching him, it was like he was an actual pianist at a real piano. You could practically hear the music coming from it. His hair fell over his eyes as he looked down, the light shadowing over his cheekbones. Here, he looked almost ethereal, he looked beautiful.