Silence & Chaos | Kim Jungwoo

Chapter 2 - Moderato

"Actually, sir, could you drop me off at my friends house for a minute?"

Sunhee asked, wanting to go see someone who could keep her sanity in check. She was mildly in shock from the bizarre situation, and being alone would not help her mental stability. She'd taken off the mask that had long since warmed up and lost its purpose, showing off her bloomed bruise off to the world.

Jungwoo looked at her, glancing over her exhausted state before turning his eyes back to the road with a nod. "Yeah, that's alright. As long as you still have the energy to navigate afterwards," he chuckled, with another quick glance to see how she'd react.

She gave a small smile at his attempt to make conversation and felt a pang of guilt that she wasn't able to oblige him. "Thank you,"

"Jungwoo."

"Huh?" Sunhee turned her head, eyebrow furrowed a bit.

"You can call me Jungwoo. We'll be working together on this case more, now that we know you're the hostage. Though, I convinced the director to let you go home and rest before we bring you back in." He slowed at a stop sign.

"Oh... well thank you, Jungwoo," She was almost surprised when he looked back at her with a smile.

"You're welcome, Miss Jung," He said with a matter-of-fact tone, and turned left as Sunhee instructed quietly.

The rest of the drive was quiet. To Sunhee, it was awkward. To Jungwoo it wasn't abnormal or uncomfortable in the slightest. He was usually quiet anyway, so silence wasn't an unfamiliar thing to him let alone an awkward thing.

He had offered to turn on music for her own comfort, but the pain in Sunhee's head had things to say otherwise. A few times she had almost fallen asleep, but was woken either from Jungwoo asking for the next few directions, or bumps in the road.

"The apartment on your left. Park here," She unbuckled herself and rubbed her forehead with a small exhale. "Thanks for driving me. Would you like to come in?" She opened her door, but stayed in her seat as she looked to Jungwoo.

"No, I'll stay out here. Take your time," He stretched and turned the car off, leaning back into the chair and running his hand through his hair.

"Alright. Thanks," She said again. Jungwoo smiled to himself at how much she was thanking him. He found it adorable.

Sunhee closed the car door and dragged herself up one flight of stairs, to Junhui's door. She knocked on the door as hard as she could without hurting her knuckles and waited. She couldn't help but sigh with a smile when the door opened to reveal her pretty-faced-friend.

Junhui had been there since senior year of highschool. Funny enough, Junhui and Sunhee weren't very fond of each other back then, however after Sunhee was having problems with a particular teacher, Junhui stood up for her and called the teacher out. Since then, they'd actually found out that they're not as incompatible as they had thought.

His solemn and curious look instantaneously turned wide and alarmed.

"Oh my gosh, Sunhee, you're alright!" He pulled her into a tight hug, rubbing his hand up and down her back, as if to verify that she was really there in front of him. He pulled away and saw her tired demeanor.

He brought her into his home that she'd been in countless times, gently sitting her on the couch and quickly walked to the kitchen, sitting back down next to her with a two mugs of tea after rummaging around his cupboards and brewing some.

"Where's Hao?" Sunhee asked after realizing they were the only ones in the apartment.

"He's at work right now," Jun replied, before brushing it aside. "You look like you've been through Hell and back." He nodded to the bruise on her jaw as he pulled a blanket off the arm of the sofa and wrapped it around her shoulders.