Holding the Starbucks Frappuccino in between my hands as they rest on the table, I welcome the cold intermingling with my warmth. Again, needing a breath, I inhale the flavors and aromas within the food court and try exhaling my worries. As I become aware of Sarah's heels clicking towards me, I look up towards her small individual walking towards me wearing a nude flowing dress, with floral wedge heels, and her hair put into a messy up do and wearing natural makeup. Her white tote purse is hanging in the crook of her arm. Wow. "Should I be flattered that you got so dressed up for this meet up?" I say to her, as she arrives at the table and sits down.
"I just felt good today, so I decided to go a little bit out of the norm and dress up."
"I'm glad Jin put you in a good mood," I say with a genuine smile and excited to see how this pans out.
"Well, maybe we can get you your own 'Jin' and see if we can turn your mood around," she retorts with a smile. "What happened anyway? When you left my place you were relatively happier and more chirper. And what is this about you finding your own 'Jin?'"
Shaking my head, I wave off my last text to her, "Disregard that last message."
"Why? Because it's impossible?"
"Honestly, yes. I'm just overacting and the only reason I said that was because he looked hot," I finish, hoping she would drop it. But...
"Isn't that usually as good a reason as any? Besides, what's his name?" she inquires while taking a sip of her own Frappuccino.
"I don't know. I met him first in the elevator last night and then this morning after I caught his puppy for him," I answer, and realizing how funny that sounded and I almost snort at myself. "Oh, and there's a good chance he's also a detective like Jin, and even the last detective I met because he was wearing a badge last night."
"Whoa, coincidence much?"
Shrugging my shoulders, because it was almost too much of coincidence, and I go back to nursing my drink. However, needing to get this off my chest, I ask, "Is the reason my relationship never worked with Greg because of me?" Sarah tilts her head to one side and before she can speak, I keep going, "I'm asking because I've known for a while that our relationship was ending and not in a good place, yet I kept allowing him back in whenever he took some time off and wanted to come back. What if it's because I was using him as a buffer between my life and not wanting to go through everything alone?"
"How long has this been on your mind?"
"I just started thinking it through when I was getting ready this morning, but what do you think?"
"Well, you do have your plate full and I can't say I don't understand or agree with your reasoning, but there are multiple reasons why it just didn't work out. Some of which I'm sure you're not ready to discuss," she acknowledges and treads lightly. Securing her notion with a nod, I take another sip of my drink and force a small smile. The memories are still crisp in my mind, and at times I have to strong hold myself so I don't go back to those times. Nevertheless, at times I'll ignore my own promptings, and pick apart everything in the relationship. I've tried to have conversations with him when we were together, but there were always fanciful promises I never expected him to keep and yet, allowed his behavior to continue at any rate. Partly due my subconscious demand of not wishing to be alone.
"Hey, you ready for some shopping?" I assert with more glee in my voice, contrary to how I feel.
"Ready? I was born for shopping, let's go," and motions for me to start standing as well. As I loop my arm around hers, she gestures to the impressive space of the mall that stands 3 floors tall, that's already decked out with Christmas decorations, "Where first?"
"How about H&M?"
"How 'bout Guess?"
"And spending my life's saving? How 'bout not?"
"Oh come on. I saw a sale happening as I was walking here, and we can still get you a couple things while there's still time," Sarah gleams with mirth in her eyes and hauls me to the store that takes an arm and leg for purchases. "Besides, I just want to get you a good pencil skirt, and cute button up. Child's play, let's go." Arriving at the store 5 unsettling minutes later, I'm standing in front a rack that says "50% off" and staring at the price tag. As I calculate the remainder of what money I'll have left after such a purchase, even with the "sale," I'm practically hysterical in my mind. Yeah sure, let me just sell my kidney now and get it over and done with.
As Sarah grabs another skirt off the rack, and giant smile on her face, she presses the skirt to my waist and scrutinizes my options. I lift a questioning brow up, "How much?"
"$39.99. Why?"
"I feel like I could get at least three shirts and a pair of jeans from H&M with that money," she awards me a look and gives the other skirts back to the rack.
"I like this one better, with this top. And guess what, it's only $54 with the chances of a small tax," Sarah gloats, seemingly feeling proud of herself and drags me to the counter. Though, I have to admit that I'm a little surprised that she can just tell what would suit, and better yet fit me, with just looking.
The woman sales clerk with long blond hair and a bright smile rings up my purchases, "$56.74 please." Sarah nodding her head, hands over her credit card, leaving me again with an astounded look of awe and me wanting to tell her desperately to stop.
"Want to make it up to me? Have lunch with me at the restaurant and meet Jin and some of his friends," and she grips the handles of the shopping bag and loops her arm around my mine and walks out the store with me on her arm.
"Sarah, thank you, but you didn't have to do that," and my eyes fall to the floor that we're walking on.
"I know, but I did it because I think you deserve to get spoiled once and a while, and with everything going on, it's a small price to pay for your happiness," she smiles, and continues to walk with me and go window shopping for possibly more items we can grab before we leave. Arriving at my place almost an hour later, and Sarah walking through the door with me, we go to my closet and hang up my new clothes. All the while she keeps one bag for herself, being that it was a present for my little sister that both I and Sarah picked out. "You can just accept what I just bought for you from Guess as my Christmas present to you, since you wouldn't have it any other way." Me smiling at her this time, I grab her into a hug, "Though my parents are likely to spoil your whole family blind compared to me, so don't get your hopes up just yet." How could I forget? Her parents were literally just that generous and wouldn't hear anything about it.
"That's fine, but it's going to get harder for Mom to top her last Christmas dinner if you guys keep trying to one up us like this," I retort with humor, while putting away the last of my considerable haul.
"She hasn't failed to amaze me or my parents for the last 5 years, so I'll surprised if she actually doesn't meet our expectations for something even more grander than the last dinner," and she helps me throw some tags away that we ripped off the clothes and no sooner we're out the door within minutes.
"Is what I'm wearing okay? I don't want to seem weird," and glance down at my clothes and I'm aware that that's not the true reason why I'm worried. As Sarah and I were walking back to my home, I got the idea in my head that if mystery guy is in fact a detective like Jin and Yoongi, what are the chances that they know each other and are working together? She had mentioned that Jin and his friends were going to be at the restaurant, so what if he was there too? I mean, sure. Is it a received idea that just because they're all Asian that they're together? Yes, but what can I say? The dude makes me feel weird and want to recede inside myself. His eyes do something to me.
Entering the elevator and pressing first floor, she continues, "You're fine. Trust me. I've met just a couple of his friends, and they're likely to be weirder than anybody within the vicinity," she affirms and giggles to herself. As she gets a little bit of faraway look in her eyes, she gets quite for a minute and continues, "They're good people and don't seem like the judging type, or at least the ones I've met so far seem don't seem so."
"Oh, yeah? How many friends does he have?"
"6 or 7? I'm not sure, because he's mentioned a lot of names and I can't remember them all. However, I've heard of the name Yoongi. I haven't seen him yet, but from what I hear, he seems to be a treat and loves music like it's his life," she shrugs and a calm comes over me. At least I'll know someone there, and maybe I'll get update about what's happened in that apartment above mine.
Exiting the apartment building and something 10 minutes later, we're entering her parent's restaurant, we're greeted by Jeonghan. He's sweet towards me, and even initiates a short side hug and a side long glance towards Sarah, which she fails to notice. Giving her the cold shoulder, he looks towards me with a smile, "Table for two Devon?"
Sarah smirking to herself, but loud enough for me to hear says, "Actually, has a man named Jin and his friends checked in already? We're having lunch with them."
"Yes, of course. Please follow me," and he leads the way to a table setup for ten but actually only housing what looks like 7 for now. Only the seventh person that was seated had his or her designated seat pulled out, and is gone.
Coming closer into their view, if my memory is right: Jin gets up from his seat, and the other three, minus the one who wasn't there at the moment, follow suit. No doubt I see Yoongi, standing right there in the mix of friends Sarah had mentioned, also getting ready to greet us. "Good afternoon," she says first and does a quick bow and I bow too.
"Good afternoon, as well," Jin speaks in a smooth and happy tone an bows as well. Not necessarily deep like mystery man's, but then he was a special case. Trailing after Jin's greeting comes a whole round of 'good afternoons' from the rest of the group. "Is this your friend?" he inquires with only a small hint of an accent, making me assume he's been here in America for a while or studied English for a while.
"Yes, I am. Nice to meet you. You've turned up in our conversations every once and a while," I say with a humorous tone, and friendly smile.
As he smiles to himself, one of his other friends, whom I haven't met before but may have seen, returns with, "As has your friend in our conversations. He has talked our ears off about how great she is and we had to see for ourselves," he admits, in a deep voice with almost prefect pronunciation. Noticing he has dyed blond hair, dark brown eyes, and deep set dimples, I remember that I have seen him before when Sarah showed him to me the last time I was here. "My name is Kim Namjoon, but you can call me Namjoon. This is Jin, though you may already know that. To my left is Yoongi, Jimin, and our youngest, who will be here soon is named Jungkook."
Nodding, while extending my hand to each of them and Sarah following suit to the ones she's also just meeting for the first time, we both introduce ourselves. However coming back to Yoongi, I say, "I'm sure we've met before."
"Yes, my team and I are doing an investigation in your building. How are you with everything? Is your bag of sweets okay?" he says with humor. His friends seeming surprised that he's met someone from the building, probably thinking it's a small world and wondering what we're talking about, observe our exchange.
"Yes, thank you. It's no problem at all," again I'm smiling back at another seemingly harmless personality. As we're all getting seated, we make small talk until a waiter can come by. "Anyway, if you don't mind me asking, how is the investigation going?"
"We're still investigating. We all know someone broke in, we just haven't found a clue as to who. Once we find that, then we can keep going. It's lucky that whoever was staying there wasn't home though," Namjoon replies, and begins to think to himself.
"Yeah, I've been calling people in for questioning and I still haven't gotten anything solid as of yet, but everything'll be okay," he nods to me, hoping to reassure me.
"That is weird though. From rumors that have gone on within the building, they said the hinges of the door were broken and handle practically hanging on the door frame for its life. Wouldn't people be able to hear if someone were breaking in with that much assumed noise?" Sarah pipes in.
"Technically the hinges were okay, and so was the handle surprisingly. However, what's messy is the fact that the apartment was totally trashed, yet we can't find any evidence of anyone having been there aside from the obvious mess," Namjoon responds, coming out his thoughts. "In a matter of fact, the whole thing would've been left alone unless someone that lived next to that apartment hadn't called, communicating us that it sounded like something traumatic was happening next door. Though from our investigations, it didn't look like anyone was there at the time thankfully. So no one was caught in the crossfire." Thank goodness.
"So we can't necessarily pin anyone onto this without any DNA or other forensic evidence," Jimin speaks up. "Trust me when I say, we've looked."
"Looked for what?" another voice is added to the mix. Maybe by a 3 or 4 years younger than the rest, and probably still in college, yet just as tall as, if not taller than, some of the group walks up to the table. Pointing to us he asks, "Who are you?"
Jimin standing next to Jungkook, if I'm right, takes Jungkook's head and makes him bow to us. "Yah!" and anything said after that was in presumably Korean and lost to my ears.
Sarah laughing to herself, and prompting us to stand so we can bow too, whispers to me, "He's Jungkook, and Jimin is lecturing him on manners and greeting us properly." Extending her right hand she introduces and Jungkook does the same, and apologizes for being impolite. "It's no problem really, but it's nice to meet you."
Smiling back at her, and then looking to me he obliges, "And you as well. Jin, where are Taehyung and Hoseok?"
"They're a part of our group of friends as well as also detectives. However, they couldn't make it."
"Pardon me, but does any of your other two friends own a puppy? It's a weird question, I know, but I feel like I've seen another one of you because he also had badge such as yours," I inquire.
"Ah, is he about the same height as me with brown hair?" after saying yes to Jungkook's
question, he nods as he finishes the food from the appetizers in his mouth. "You mean Taehyung. Yes, he is also a detective. How did you meet?"
"I met him last night in the elevator, and then I helped him catch his puppy this morning," and I feel slightly embarrassed because this is the second time I'm telling this story and it truly does seem remarkable in every sense.
Jin laughing a little louder over the others, says, "Yah, next time just let the squirt run."
"Let the dog run?"
"Yes, him too," and the others laugh a little harder, and mirth overflows from the table. Looking over to Sarah I ask in my mind, "Did we miss something?" Sarah shrugging her shoulders, Jin notices our confusion and adds in, "Taehyung is the odd ball of the group, and can act a little..."
"Outlandish," Yoongi finishes. "Alien, yet can be very animated at the same time." That's news to me, because from what I've witnessed, he acts very reserved. I have yet to see a friendly smile.
"The puppy is actually mine," Jin affirms. "But I let Taehyung try to take care of it because where I live has placed a ban on my dog for having too many accidents in the hallways."
"You should've seen the dirty looks we've received from our neighbors," Jimin adds in. "It was embarrassing," and Namjoon and Jungkook nod their heads in agreement.
"Did he even look fed, the little one I mean," Jin asks with amusement.
"Yes," I say, while finally looking at the menu, "He was great." Sarah catching on to what I did there, bumped my knee under the table and gave me look 'aha' to my silent boldness. Finally resting on an order I was happy with, I'm back at listening to the conversation around me.
Watching Jeonghan come to our table to take our order, he pulls out a notepad, "Have decided on what you want to eat?"
"Yes, Devon and I will take two orders of the pork egg rolls, one medium order of kimchi, and two orders of Sundubu jjigae soup please," and looks to me for confirmation. Giving her the good to go, he turns to Jin.
Having a slight bite in his voice, Jeonghan turn to Jin and his friends, "Welcome back. What would you like to eat sir?" Jin looking noticing something weird, but obviously unaware of the reasons why, ignores the tense air and he continues to order for him and his friends. "Thank you, sir," and turning to Sarah and I, he regards us as well, "I will be back serve you two as well," and gives a quick wink before leaving. Jin noticed that time.
Namjoon laughing soundly to himself, trying to be discreet turns to Jin, "It looks like you have some competition." He gives Jin a friendly pat back, and goes back to having a conversation with others. Jin turns into himself slightly and smiles shyly at Sarah, before trying to find something to do on his phone.
As lunch ends, and they're called back to their office, we say our goodbyes and Jin give me a word of encouragement for the job I've been accepted for, "Thank you for having lunch with my friends and I, and good luck with your job at the office. I'm sure everything will go great."
"Thank you. I'm just glad that I'll know some there to show me around and not be by my lonesome," and stepping out into the cool, winter breeze we go our separate ways. Sarah obviously stays behind because she lives there, and as I go home, Jin and his friends go the opposite direction.
Returning back to the front of my apartment building and admiring its impressive height among the other towering buildings that have been planted beside and around it, I walk in through the revolving doors. I take time to appreciate the shy grandeur as I walk into its foyer. The obvious clicking of my boots emphasize the ghost town like feel within the foyer. Even Mr. Smith is gone, probably on break or lunch. The building stands 12 levels tall and the foyer is delighted in soft peach and gold hues. The marble floor shines from the light outside, that cascades through tall windows, and there are varying seating options around the room that are occupied by salmon colored love seats that are plain, but still add that hint of something. The building all in all, isn't bad despite the inconveniences here and there, and the building would shine even brighter if our landlord would just put in a little work.
Seeing him walk out his office from a sound distance on the other side of the check-in/help desk, I see him talking on the phone. However, not caring to listen to him talk on the phone as it would be rude to ease drop, I quickly walk to the elevator and press the up button. Nevertheless, I hear him talking in the speaker of his phone and am able to catch some of his conversation. "Yeah, I'm still here, just thinking," I hear him say in his usual mellow, lazy voice. Following a sigh dancing with annoyance he continues, "Yes. Yes, I know. I know. I'm doing the best I can. I made sure to uninstall all the cameras when I moved into this dump, and I'm positive that there's no hard evidence." After a couple seconds of silence he continues, "Don't worry you won't be caught, the neighbors," and he snickers to himself, "know not the say anything if they want to continue finding their rent-hush money in their mailboxes." He sighs again, this time with more apparent frustration, "Will you calm down, the police and detectives have yet to find anything if you've done your job right. However, what lies as an inconvenience is what you didn't find and the detective that's now living under my roof. By the way, and I'm sure you're tired of hearing this as much as I'm tired of asking, but did you find it?" Snickering again to himself, happily unaware of my presence continues, "Well I have to check twice and even thrice multiple times because there's no trusting your underhandedness." My breaths come slow and shallow, as I'm sure I shouldn't be hearing this. Questions start screaming in my mind as to why he had anything to do with the break in. But still hidden from his ears and sight he keeps going, "That reminds me, there's a rumor that the person in that apartment was gone for the week, but knowing for fact who lives there was there at the time, what happened to him?" Clutching my hands to my sides and silently shaking, and wanting to hide in a corner but willing myself not be seen or heard I stand firmly in place. I'm not sure how, but the temperature in the room just dropped to a halting low, and I start to feel dizzy. Aware of the tears prickling at the corner of eyes, the elevator door dings open. All too stunned at what I just heard, I barely acknowledge the detective in the elevator, and I rush into the small space and my hand clamps over his mouth before he can say anything and I push him up against the side wall and out of the sight of Mr. Cartwell. At the last second, I press any floor's button and the doors close right in time before Cartwell can get any closer or hopefully even see us.
Yet even now, I can't get myself to breathe right or stop the tears that are falling down my face. Clutching my fists against his shirt, I hide my face so he can't see my tears, but he pushes my body away from his as he tries to catch a glimpse of me. "Hey? You alright? What's the matter?" he asks me in a heavy accented voice I must have not noticed before. Shaking my head 'no,' and not knowing what to say I just keep shaking my head slowly back and forth as I cried. "Are you hurt? Are you in trouble?" at that last question I start crying a little harder and my shoulders haunch over a little more because my mom and sister come into my mind and I want to panic.
Covering my cries with my hand and crossing my arms, all I know is that I want to leave. Go somewhere far away, but what about that poor person? What do I say? What should I say? Looking up into the detective's eyes, not sure what I must look like, but he nods both sympathetically and understandingly even though he doesn't fully know why I'm like this and pats me on the back softly and presses the 7th floor button. He remembers? As we're waiting for the elevator to go to the seventh floor, albeit I had pressed second a while ago, I take in his presence and his tall person. At this moment, feeling small from that shocking experience, he seems taller than when I first met him. More like a true protector at that second. "I'm taking you to your apartment, and if you're sure you're okay, I will leave you," hearing him say that actually makes something within me feel sad and distant. As if somewhere within me, I'm saying, 'please don't leave me.' "However, if there is something wrong that I can help with and that I need to know, I'm going to need you to tell me, alright?" Nodding my head to his incentive, I hear the elevator ding again and we step through the receding doors and he escorts me to my apartment, "Will you be okay?" However, I can't, nor want to speak right now and I'm not able to answer. Realizing that his sympathetic coaxing isn't working, he instead gently takes my free hand and places a business card in it while simultaneously wrapping my fingers around the hard paper, "My name is Kim Taehyung and I am recognized as Mr. Kim at my job. I'm a detective at the police office I work at, and it is only about 6 or 7 blocks away. If you need me, call me. And I'm sorry, but I have to go to work." Giving him a slow confirmation of 'okay,' he hesitates at first but leaves back down the hallway thinking it's okay to leave me alone. Leaning against my door and this time releasing my breath, I look up and say a silent prayer for the poor man or woman that was in that apartment, and then a prayer my family and the rest of the people in this building. Now, just breathing and gathering myself, I hear a door unlock somewhere away from me and not wanting anyone to see my face, I fish in my purse for my keys. The time it took to finally get my keys, I hear a small barking approaching the hallway bend. I quickly wipe at my eyes to erase the tear stains that are plastered on my face before someone may see me. Pleasantly surprised, the little bundle of joy I met earlier this morning runs up to me. Feeling a warmth in my chest from his happy little smile and eyes, I pick him up and hug him to my chest, longing for just any source of a happy peace that I can get. Somewhere to my left I hear someone clears their throat. Turning my head to the detective, he bows his head and shakes his bangs out before meeting my eyes again, and says, "I fed him and walked him a while ago. So he should not be too hard to take care of and he's probably a little sleepy, but do you mind watching him while I'm gone?" He takes his phone out of his pocket and looks at the time, "I'll be gone for an hour. Will you manage alright?" Understanding his underlying intentions I mouse out a yes and give him a small smile thanking him. Again, he hesitates before taking his leave but must trust me enough to not lose his dog, mean the while, his person leaves around the corner and his steps recede farther down the corridor. Kissing the little body in my arms, on the top of his head, I proceed to going in my apartment.
Unlocking the door to my apartment, I step into the cool small foyer and lock the door behind me. Bypassing my family's medium sized living room, and kitchen alike, I walk into my bedroom. Siting on to my bed and allowing the little bundle of joy to jump out my arms once I feel the weight of my body sink into the comforter and underlying sheet. I take another deep breath inward, and I wipe at my eyes again, checking for any more signs of tears and experience relief when I don't feel anything. Despite all of that, my mind is still focused on that call. My family. Our safety. While the detective is staying here, and for how long I don't know, everything is still so fuzzy. You'd think that because I'll be working at a police office that everything'd be okay, but I don't have evidence of that call. So it'd basically be my word against his. Mentally kicking myself for not acting faster, a small tongue licks my hand. Turning my head to the pug's big brown eyes, he looks at me with a curious stare as to why I won't play with him back. So much for sleepy. As I cradle him in my arms once more, but putting him down because the last thing he's looking for is a hug, I let him down off my bed. I toss him a pair of old socks he can chew on and watch as he plays by his lonesome. Not really prepared to mull over this by myself, I lay down on my bed and close my eyes for a few seconds. Not really thinking I'll be able to sleep, but just needing time to rest until the owner of the dog can come back. Maybe even think about what I'm going to tell him.
Relaxing deeper onto my covers, I don't realize that I've been sleeping for probably an hour until I hear a faint knocking from my front door. Sitting up, and comprehending that I was in a deep sleep because when I got up my head felt dizzy, I stand up nonetheless to answer the door. Already witnessing the puppy scratching at the door with the same exuberant smile on his face like always, I smile back at him and look through the peephole. Yeah, this will definitely become a habit. A bit of excitement rises within me when I see the detective behind my door. Unlocking the door and standing back to open it properly, the puppy rushes out and around the feet of his owner. Technically this is Jin's dog still. Making a mental note to not confuse the two, I grant the detective another 'I'm okay' smile, "Hi."
"Hello, I see my dog hasn't given you any trouble," and he smiles back first at the dog, begging for attention, and then upturns his smile to me. Breathe, dang it!
"No trouble at all. Barely even noticed he was here," because I fell asleep, I think to myself.
"That's surprising, because usually when he's around, he stills the whole show," and the puppy confirming this statement starts running into his legs and pulling at his jean's legs with his tiny teeth. Giggling to myself and focusing on the puppy, the detective then says, "Are you okay now?"
Looking into his eyes hat hold some concern, deciding to be honest I reply, "I'm not sure. I'm trying, I just..." and I shake my head. "Can I tell you something? Being a detective and all?" I ask, hoping he would oblige to my request. Actually seeming surprised, he wordlessly agrees to a talk with me and I ask him to come inside.
Author's Note: Excited as to what could happen in this chapter, I started to write this one immediately after the last one. I'm very happy as to how it turned out. You finally get to meet Jin and some more characters I've wanted to introduce, and you've gotten to actually see my female protagonist have actual interactions with the male protagonist of this story, which despite the circumstances was sweet. I hope you think so too.
As always, comment, vote, and subscribe for more updates. I always update every weekend, unless I specify otherwise, so get hyped for more! Thank you. :)