Fire & Silk

17. Uneasy

Mina stood by the coffee kiosk in the cafeteria, eyes barely open. Sleep had been almost nonexistent for the past few weeks and even though she didn't usually drink a lot of coffee, it was now her best friend. The machine made a weird gurgling noise, signaling it was almost done. Mina reached for the cup as the last few drops of the warm liquid trickled out, bringing it up to her lips to take a cautious sip.

"Ow! Holy hell that's hot." Mina hissed at the new burn on her tongue, only interrupted by the loud laughter behind her. She turned around and saw Nayeon doubled over, a breakfast sandwich in one hand and her purse and briefcase in the other.

"Well you did just get it from the machine." Nayeon laughed at the eye roll Mina gave her and followed behind the woman into the elevator. They chatted as they went up to Nayeon's floor and sat down in their now shared office. Mina had only been up to her office three times in the past few weeks to get supplies or to use what she called "the superior vending machines". Since the Copy Cat case was the only thing she was really working on, there was no need for her to be on her floor.

Mina set her coffee to the side, deciding to actually let it cool down before she burnt her tongue again. She checked her watch with a confused look gracing her face. "Is Jeong not in yet?"

Nayeon was starting on her sandwich when Mina asked her question. She raised her eyebrows questioningly at the nickname the Japanese woman gave their coworker but shrugged it off. "I didn't see her when I cam in. Maybe she just overslept."

Mina just shook her head and started taking files out of her briefcase. It wasn't like Jeongyeon to be late. Even when they were hungover from Sunday night parties, Jeongyeon somehow managed to get to class five minutes early. The few times Mina ever saw her late for anything, she was deathly ill or had a prior commitment that ran over. "She's never late though. I'll give her a call."

It took a few rings when Mina finally called but the absent woman eventually picked up. "Jeong where are you? We're supposed to be leaving for the police station in an hour." Mina put her phone on speaker, setting it down between her and Nayeon who was now halfway through her sandwich.

"Hello? Wait what time is- oh shit." Jeongyeon groaned and Mina could practically see the disappointment on the other woman's face through the phone. "I don't think I'm gonna make it. I woke up two hours ago sweating buckets and I can barely move." Mina now heard the strain in Jeongyeon's voice and winced. She knew Jeongyeon didn't take care of herself when she was sick in college and she had a feeling that this wouldn't be any different.

"Awww take care of yourself Jeongyeon! We'll work extra hard for you." Nayeon shouted in between the last few bites of her sandwich, causing Mina to let out a small laugh and Jeongyeon to groan.

"Thank you Nayeon, but you didn't have to yell that. I think my head just split open." Nayeon sheepishly smiled and whispered an apology before getting up to throw her trash out and get a drink.

Mina took the phone off speaker and sighed, closing her eyes. "Jeong are you going to take care of yourself properly this time or do you still not know how to do that?"

"Hey I can take care of myself just fine. I'm an adult just like you."

"Mmhmm just like you took care of yourself in college." Mina shook her head, filling Jeongyeon in quickly about what they were doing the rest of their day before she warned her again to take care of herself and rest. She hung up and put her phone back in her pocket, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I swear she could be dying and she wouldn't take care of herself."

The police station was surprisingly empty for a Monday. A few detectives were busying themselves with paperwork and some officers had stopped in to drop off citations they had written earlier in the morning. Mina walked in behind President Park, dropping her things in the small tray before she stepped through the metal detector. An officer scanned her with the wand and let her go through. She grabbed her things and followed President Park to where the Chief's office was. The door was open so they walked in, Mina and President bowing to greet the Chief.

The Chief got up from behind his desk and greeted the two, briefing them on the interviews that were going to be conducted. He walked with them to one of the meeting rooms and pointed to the officer who was setting up. "Officer Kim will be conducting the first few three interviews today with Officer Nam. They'll switch before lunch and Officers Chang and Lee will take over for the rest of the interviews for the day. I don't know how long this will take, but it should be no longer than four days. Miss Minatozaki works for a fairly large company. We'll try to conduct 6 to 9 interviews each day."

President Park nodded and took down a few notes, turning around to see a few men waiting to be checked into the precinct. He assumed they were the first to be interviewed. "Is there anything you need from us Chief Choi?"

"If you would like to go over and organize the interview notes after each one is completed, it would be a great help. The officers are just going to be going off a short script but it will still have to be typed out." Chief Choi smiled and Mina nodded, offering to help since she was going to be doing most of the processing for the paperwork once it was in their team's posession.

2:03 pm | Yoo Jeongyeon: how's the interview stuff going?

2:10 pm | Myoui Mina: slow. no one really looks too threatening so far and one guy looked like he was going to pass out he was so nervous.

2:11 pm | Yoo Jeongyeon: lol at least there's progress.

2:18 pm | Myoui Mina: are you taking care of yourself?

2:20 pm | Yoo Jeongyeon: of course i am. i told you, i'm an adult too.

2:21 pm | Myoui Mina: and by of course do you mean that you've taken medicine and have barely eaten?

2:24 pm | Yoo Jeongyeon: i had soup or something earlier with the medicine i took.

2:25 pm | Myoui Mina: earlier means that you haven't had anything to eat in hours. do i need to call nayeon to go over and make you eat?

2:26 pm | Yoo Jeongyeon: mina no. i'm fine i promise. why are you so worried anyway? you've got more important things to think about right now.

2:30 pm: | Myoui Mina: what do you mean what do i care?? i care because you sounded like you were dying over the phone this morning and i know how you are "taking care" of yourself.

2:35 pm | Yoo Jeongyeon: okay mom. i promise i'm okay. stop worrying. go back to work

Mina groaned and set her phone down on the table a little harder than she meant. Why was Jeongyeon always so difficult when she was sick? And why was she so worried that Jeongyeon was sick? She'd been sick a million times before and it had never been like this. She decided to let it go and got up, finishing her third cup of coffee of the day. She moved to throw it away and accidentally bumped into a man who was walking out of the bathroom. She quickly bowed and apologized before looking up and making brief eye contact with him. He had a mask on that covered a decent portion of his face and his suit was all black.

The man mumbled a quick sorry before turning on his heel and heading into the interview room. Mina stood there for a moment, an uneasy feeling in her stomach. "Maybe I shouldn't have had that third coffee."

Do you guys like coffee? I'm not a huge coffee drinker but I do love the flavor of it. Short chapter for this update but the next one will make up for it! Have a good week :)

Stay safe, happy, and healthy!

- krn