Fire & Silk

19. So Close Yet So Far

   Jeongyeon had never been a stranger to paper work. In fact, she kind of liked doing it. Going back to work and seeing a mountain of paperwork though was not something she had mentally prepared herself for. In the center of the office she shared with Nayeon was a hefty stack of papers and folders sandwiched in between, tabs sticking out everywhere to let Jeongyeon know which ones were the most important. She sighed and shrugged her jacket off, sitting down in one of the chairs. "I shouldn't have gotten sick."

   Even though Jeongyeon was working with Nayeon, Mina, and the rest of the small team on the Copy Cat case, she was still new to the firm. That meant that even though the rest of the team's workloads weren't that big, she still had miscellaneous things to deal with when it came down to it. She was looking through a fairly straight forward assault case when she heard her phone buzz. She picked it up off the table and let out a small chuckle at the message. 

9:45 am | Jihyo: Sana called out sick today and I'm stuck at work. should I just go back to her apartment and take care of her?

9:47 am | Jeongyeon: Ji you know she's okay, right? she has protection there for a reason.

9:50 am | Jihyo: ugh whatever. you just don't want me to have a day off while you drown in paperwork.

9:53 am | Jeongyeon: how did you know i'm drowning in paperwork? are you spying on me??

9:56 am | Jihyo: ... Nayeon may have snuck a picture and sent it to me.

9:58 am | Jeongyeon: 1. you're annoying and 2. when did you start becoming close with Nayeon?

10:00 am | Jihyo: she gave me her number whenever the case started to pick up. she's funny as hell

10:01 am | Jeongyeon: gotcha. well like you said i gotta go back and drown in my paperwork.

   Somehow Jeongyeon made it through almost half of the mountain on the table by the time she worked through her lunch break. She stood up, stretching her back and legs up. It was hard being hunched over a table for that long on a normal day, and being hunched over like this on an empty stomach was no better. She decided to take a break and went down to the cafeteria, picking out a few things to tide her over until she got real food later for dinner. 

   Jeongyeon sat back down at the table, ready to start working again when she saw the interview files that Mina came over with a few days ago. Curiosity got the best of her so she flipped through them again as she bit into a cookie she picked up. Sana really did work with some horrible men but no one really stood out. A lot of them were just your regular creepy and perverted office workers. Jeongyeon was going to call it quits but flipped the next page and saw the same picture of the same guy Mina said was a little strange when she bumped into him. She took a closer look at the picture, trying to see if he had a scar or anything else distinct about him. There may have been a tiny little mark on his face but Jeongyeon was sure that was just dust on the camera lens or a speck of dirt on his face. She shrugged it off and finished reading through, noticing that he actually seemed like the most normal one in the group.

   It was almost 9 by the time Jeongyeon made it through most of the papers and folders that had taunted her throughout the day. She sat back and groaned, closing her eyes and stretching her arms up. "The rest of this can be done tomorrow. I can't look at another paper or I'm going to die." She said this to herself and collected her things, turning the lights off in the room since she was one of the last ones left on their floor. She slowly dragged herself to the elevator and then onto the bus, barely fighting sleep as she made her way home.

   Not even bothering to get dressed in more comfortable clothes, Jeongyeon flopped down on the couch and closed her eyes. I'll just take a few seconds to rest my eyes. This was the last thought she had before she ended up being rudely woken up by her phone violently buzzing in her pocket an hour later. She whined as she blindly grabbed for her phone that was haphazardly tossed on the floor when she had first laid down. Holding the phone up to her ear, she answered in a groggy voice, "Hello? Yoo Jeongyeon speaking."