Demon in Disguise

Suspicion

After returning home from Mr. Wang's place to get changed for work, Qiang feels slightly better though still shaken by the approach of Junmyeon this morning. He looked so much so like the stranger she had bumped into. She shivers, a chill running up her spine. She fills up her cat's bowl and quickly puts on her outfit, she had taken extra long with her distracting thoughts.

"Woah... Qiang..." A coworker sends her a concerned expression. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I woke up at five and couldn't go back to sleep."

She peers in the mirror in the bathroom meant for the employees. She had dark circles under her eyes and her skin looked pale, to sum it up she looked ill.

"Qiang! Oh my... You look terrible are you okay?" Her Boss places a hand on her forehead. "You don't have a fever but you look like you're going to fall over any moment. Can you work the rest of the day?"

"Of course I can." Qiang needs to money, she can't not go to work because of a small distracting thought and a sleepless night,

"Actually," her Boss frowns and stares at her face. "I think you should go home, I don't think it's wise to have a sick employee working in a restaurant." The Boss waves her away, "I'm going to call your phone to make sure you get home safely, go on home. Come back healthy tomorrow."

Qiang sighs, a smile on her lips. "Thank you Boss."

Qiang takes off the apron and hangs it on the hook. She grabs her bag and takes out her keys.

The drive back home is quiet. Qiang usually has music playing but today, her thoughts occupied her mind. Junmyeon in his dark sweater, her nightmares and the stranger. Pulling up into the driveway, Qiang unlocks her door and heads up to the bathroom. A nice, warm shower would be ideal. Hopefully it will wash away all her bad thoughts.

Qiang steps out of the shower gingerly, her wounded knee feels stiff being exposed to the cold air after the hot shower. She kept it bandaged during her shower and after getting dressed, she puts antibiotic on it and places a new band-aid on the injury.

Her phone rings, the caller ID showing 'Junmyeon'. Even with the conclusion that she has no evidence that he's related to the stranger or to the death of BiYu, Qiang still can not bring herself to be comfortable around Junmyeon. Even if it was just three hours ago that she had seen him. She takes a deep breath and presses the green button. "Hello?"

"Qiang, how are you feeling?" Junmyeon asks. "I went to go see you at the restaurant but your manager said that you left after a couple minutes of being there. She said you didn't look so well."

"Oh... I took a hot shower and I just ate medicine so I'm feeling better." She lies. Qiang doesn't take medicine.

"Oh, I see. That's good." Junmyeon softly replies.

She looks at the clock in her room, 9:00. "Junmyeon... Don't you have work yourself? Why did you visit the restaurant?"

"Ah, I told Chanyeol and Sehun about how you didn't look so well this morning when I took you to Mr. Wang's place. They suggested for me to go and check up on you."

"I have a few friends there, they major in chemistry and mechanics. Together they designed some fireworks and want to display some of their work. Will you come with me?"

Qiang frowns, "I don't think I've ever asked but, what do you work as Junmyeon?" she tries her best to keep the shakiness out of her voice.

"I am a student at the university two towns over, you remember how I told you Sehun majors in mechanics and Chanyeol in chemistry?"