Strings & Stitches

Chapter 29

A few days have passed after that meeting with Dami. Gahyun was simply having a hard time to think of anything else, the anxiety and excitement merging together into a whole new feeling, not so familiar for her. She was thankful it was the weekend and she had time to try and wrap her mind around everything that happened while peacefully being in her room, or else it would be extra difficult to concentrate on classes like this.

Of course she wanted to find out more about the gang and how it worked, hoping to also figure out something about the wrong ways of her prior orphanage. But like this, she would only get frustrated by not making progress. That frustration could lead to her being careless, and even a single mistake could spell disaster when dealing with criminals.

She had the number of that girl saved securely in her drawer, the one she was frantically staring at in that moment, not knowing when exactly to take that step and how. First time, it somehow - miraculously - happened that she managed to lie, to look like someone eager for drugs. But the second time? She wasn't sure the luck would still be there. And she was also so scared of things going very wrong, but... she still wanted to try. Try to know more about Dami, the orphanage she escaped from, or why, and to get more information about the gang in general as well.

In the end, she breathed in deeply and reached for the drawer, about to take the paper out with the number, when Bora knocked on the door, making her flee back to her bed.

"Collecting your dirty clothes," Her older sister announced before entering the room, smiling when she saw Gahyun with her head in the books. The short-haired girl had neatly collected her dirty clothes in a basket, but when she saw Bora reach for her coat, she panicked. "Wait!"

Bora paused, almost freezing with the basket on her hip as she glanced back at her sister. "Uh... yeah?"

"Throw me that." she pointed at her coat, doing her absolute best not to stutter or give Bora any reason to be suspicious. The free drugs she had gotten from Dami were still in there, having forgotten that they were in her pocket. It wasn't exactly something she could dump anywhere.

Bora stared down at the coat, then back at Gahyun. "It seems dirty to me, though. Are you planning to wear it today? Thought you were staying home all day," She questioned, yet still putting the coat back down on the bed.

Well, it's not that easy to think that Gahyun, out of all people, would be hiding drugs in her pockets.

Just like that, though, her older sister had given her a perfect excuse. "I might go for a walk later, but I'll put it in the washing machine after." In the meantime, she would be able to find a way to get rid of those goddamn pills.

"Okayy" Bora shrugged and finished taking all the dirty clothes, walking back out and closing the door. Gahyun breathed out in relief, sliding her hands through her hair in stress.

Part of her understood why doing all this was a very bad idea after her surgery, and just in general. It would bring about a lot of stress, and she'd have to lie to people who cared about her.

But now that Bora had entered her room for the laundry, she couldn't think of another reason for her to come in. To be absolutely certain, she locked her door, opening the drawer again to get Dami's number.

Her fingers trembled as she typed in the numbers, breath stopping when she pressed the call button and heard the dialling tone. Now she just hoped it would be Dami's voice on the other side...

"Hello?" A few seconds later, the slightly familiar voice was heard, making Gahyun feel a little relieved, but now the stress of knowing she had to start speaking came in to attack.

"Hey" No chance that this girl would recognise her voice, probably having met a lot of people in the meantime. "We uhm... met in the abandoned warehouse?" Maybe that would ring some bells.