Hourglass

Chapter 12 Yeji

Seoul Police Department
Interrogation Room #2
11:50 am
Day 3

"De— depressed?" Yeji stutters.

"Yes. When we searched her house, we found antidepressants in her bathroom cabinets and in her bedside table," Officer Chi stops for half a minute to let the information settle in. "We also found a few letters in her dresser. One of which is addressed to you. We didn't open it for privacy's sake, Officer Kim?"

Officer Kim opens the files on the desk and picks up a resealable bag. Inside the bag is a single piece of white paper. It's folded in half, hamburger style. He opens the bag and shakes it so the letter can fall out on its own. The paper lands in front of Yeji. Officer Kim beckons her to read it.

Yeji is scared. Frightened. She just started noticing Ryujin's signs of sadness through her travels. To know that she did indeed have depression was... well, it hit hard. And here it is, the letter. Ryujin wrote one for her. She was planning to... suicide. But someone beat her before she could do it herself. Or maybe she changed her mind. Why else would she say she found happiness that night anyways?

"Ahem. Well, Officer Chi and I will leave you alone to read her letter. We'll interview our last person and we'll be right outside when you're ready to continue," Officer Kim softly says as he and his partner leaves the room.

Now Yeji is left alone, in the silent, bleak room. Is this how Ryujin felt? Alone? Abandoned? Did everything seem dark? If the police did find Yeji dangerous, they would've put her in handcuffs. Did Ryujin feel like that? Chained to the darkness? Trying so desperately to escape and find the light and happiness before the shadows and melancholy drown her?

*drip*
*drop*
*drip*

One by one, Yeji's tears fall silently on the desk. She didn't even feel the tears streaming down her cheeks.

*drip*
*drop*
*drip*

Yeji chokes as she looks at the single piece of folded paper on the desk. She starts sobbing, loudly because who even cares anymore. Of course she still had more tears to shed. Of course Ryujin was depressed. Of course Yeji keeps failing.

Honestly, what was the point anymore?

Yeji yells in frustration, in anger, in distress, in agony. Her hands ball up into fists as she leans her forehead on them, elbows on the desk, supporting her head.

She continues crying for however long. Once she starts calming down, she spots a box of tissues by the door that the officers probably left earlier. Yeji stands up and nearly falls, for being in a sitting position for a long time and for being weak. Knees buckling and legs as strong as thin rice noodles, Yeji slowly but surely walks over to the box of tissues.

Once she grabs the box she reaches for a tissue and wipes her eyes and blows her nose. Her eyes are in pain, for obvious reasons and she knows that they're red without having to look in the mirror. She stumbles back to the chair and drops the box of tissues on the desk.

The desk.

The letter.

Oh, it's staring right at her. Prompting her to open it. To read her ever so beautiful handwriting.