They didn’t speak for a moment. The eerie silence allowed for the detective to think, and the ex-reporter to relive the memory, and after all of the words left unsaid were heard Daniel finally managed to ask for some clarity.
“He… tried to kill him?”
Nora didn’t respond.
“And you hid the goddamn pictures?”
Nora finally thumbed her camera off and turned to drop it back in its bag, but the detective latched onto her hand. He didn’t understand.
“You’re stupid, aren’t you?” he asked, “That’s the only way this makes sense.”
“I am not—”
Daniel shook her wrist, ignoring her argument, “If you gave me this while you were in custody, I would have let you go. You trespassed to save a life. All of your charges would have been dropped. But instead, you kept your mouth shut and wasted everyone’s time? And some guy who attempted murder walked out??”
A pause, then he added, “How did you even know about it?”
“What, you can have good eyesight, but I can’t have good hearing? Buzz off.”
She wasn’t helpful. Just rude. He started mumbling, “Is it attempted murder? You keep mentioning Senator Song. God, if this is a contracted killing… I can’t go up against a senator. Is it even worth trying?”
Nora pried his fingers off of her wrist and managed to slide the camera to safety. The zipper of the bag shutting riled him even more. He glared and pointed and scowled.
“You… You’re a time bomb waiting to explode. You know too much,” he finally managed.
This wasn’t news.
Nora sighed, frustrated, “What are you gonna do, arrest him? He’s already gone.”
“And whose fault is that??”
“It’s mine,” she held her wrists out in front of her, “Cuff me. I’m guilty.”
Daniel pulled the cuffs out of his pockets and shook them in front of her face, “Don’t tempt me!!”
Finally, the detective discovered he couldn’t sit still. He slid off the side wall and started pacing. Something felt missing, and when he found his dropped cigarette on the floor, crushed under one of his frustrated stomps, he cursed and shoved a hand into his bomber jacket pocket. He pulled out an empty pack. All he could do was whip his glare at the girl in front of him. He bt his lip to stop the profanities from spilling out.
Nora sighed again. She felt a little bad. He didn’t have to stress himself out like that. She kicked her feet out at the wall, ready to wait and watch him calm down, but he smacked her legs out of the air and they thud back into place. He wasn’t in the mood for casual snark.
All that was left to do was sit and stare at each other in silence. The detective fiddled with the cuffs in his pocket. He breathed. His mind churned, and the mess of thoughts gave Nora a headache.
Finally, she said, “He regretted it.”
“Don’t talk to me.”
Nora was about to argue but thought the better of it, “Fine. I’ll sit here. Stew in your own anger.”
A beat.
“Did he tell you that?” he asked.
“Tell me what?”
“Regret. Did he tell you he regretted it?”
“Well, no,” Nora scoffed, “I just—”
“’You just knew?’ Cause you know everything?”
Nora wasn’t impressed with his attitude.
“I regret walking over here,” she told him, “You’re an imbecile.”
“HA!”
Another silent stalemate. Nora crossed her arms over her chest and debated whether she should just walk away. He’d definitely chase after her. Probably drag her back if he had to. She was willing to answer any reasonable questions he had, but if he wasn’t going to ask them then what was the point?
She was finally tired. The sky had paled to a muted blue, with traces of sun that hadn’t shown up yet. She wanted to go home. She didn’t want to listen to the man curse her over and over inside of his head.
She pushed again.
“As soon as he came back to himself, he regretted it. Instantly. With everything he had.”
This time, Daniel didn’t answer. Good. He’d hear her out.
“I didn’t think it would be worth ruining him for a choice he wasn’t proud of making.”
“A lot of people make bad decisions,” he argued.
“And you’re no exception.”
He didn’t like that. His tongue clicked, and his scowl sharpened. It turned ugly.
“I decided not to fault him for it,” she told him.
“And you have the power to make that call?”
They weren’t getting anywhere. Again. They scowled at each other. It seemed as if the two weren’t mean to get along.
The detective sighed and tried again, “Is that why you jumped through hoops for Mr. Kim to keep him? No one would blame him for kicking him out after that mess.”
“Mm,” Nora nodded, “I felt bad. He deserved better.”
“Oh? Did he?”
“I think learning from mistakes through an opportunity is better than learning through punishment,” Nora paused, then said, “It’s why you’re here now, isn’t it?”
The detective’s eyes wavered.
“Don’t use me as an example.”
She ignored him, “You were demoted to a substation for inappropriate behavior. Nothing bad, just extremely erratic. Unhealthy. They pushed you out to where nothing happens and you wouldn’t cause any trouble—”
“I said, don’t.”
He looked about ready to rip her throat out.
“But this isn’t a punishment,” Nora clarified, “It’s an opportunity. To get better.”
A long track of silence. Finally, all that he could spit out at her was, “Go.”
Daniel was pissed. Who did this girl think she was? Never mind the pictures, the idiotic decisions, the attitude. She was rude. She was obnoxious. And she knew everything about him, everything that he never wanted to say.
How the hell did she know??
There was a feeling creeping under his skin, and he couldn’t quite name it. Her eyes were dark, almost flat, but there was a depth to them he didn’t like. She stood taller than necessary, as if pride and arrogance were two rods holding her spine straight. And that smile. That stupid, all-knowing, all-pleasing smile seemed to be more than just that. Daniel was a man who’d seen countless horrors committed by countless fiends, but nothing quite grated him like the girl standing in front of him, who seemed to have answers to all the unasked questions, and then some. She knew things. A person shouldn’t know so much.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
She was terrifying. That’s what that feeling was. Terror.
He’d much rather get this girl out of his face than debate about ethics with her. When she made no move to leave, he grabbed her and dragged her off the side wall.
“Hey—!" she yelped.
“I said go,” he repeated, “Go home. Go blackmail someone with your stupid photos or something. I’m tired.”
When she still didn’t move, he kicked her box, and the papers scattered on the floor.
She groaned, “Oh, come on!”
Without much choice, Nora bent over to start picking up her filed, and the detective took the opportunity to walk away. He made it around the wall’s corner and up the stairs before she spoke again.
“You really don’t remember me?” she asked.
He stopped. All he could see was the back of her head as she scuttled around. A page got caught in the wind and she dove to snatch it.
“Am I supposed to?” he didn’t want to waste any more time with her.
She looked up at him, “You saved my life a long time ago.”
A simple sentence said without much thought. Anyone walking by would think there was a gravity to it, something attached to fate. A chance to bring two people closer.
But the detective shrugged, his anger still sizzling, “I save a lot of people. You’re nothing special.”
A sharp stab. But Nora smiled.
“I’m extremely special. You just don’t realize it yet.”
The nerve of this girl.
She sighed quickly after, a mask to continue her arrogance, “Maybe I got the wrong person. If you were who I thought you were, then you’d never forget me. I saved you, too.”
He scowled. She was crazy. He didn’t recognize a hair on her head.
When he didn’t answer, Nora took it as permission to keep talking.
“I always wanted to say something to the man who saved my life. Do you want to hear it?”
“No.”
He had enough. Her smile was turning greasy. He started back up the steps and turned his back to her.
“Thank you!” she called to him.
He kept walking.
“You made a difference to me! You made a difference to a lot of people!”
What was this, an apology? Was she making up for making him angry?
He got to the doors of the substation.
“This substation is lucky to have you!”
He reached the door handle.
“You’re sexy!”
“Will you shut up??” The detective whipped around.
Nora was at the bottom of the stairs, slouched to the side, her arms full with her box.
She grinned, “You were listening?”
“This stupid—!!”
Before the thought could reach his lips, Daniel rushed towards her, taking two stairs at a time. The girl cackled at his face and scurried off down the street, and before he could chase her past the walkway she was already at the end of the block. She made a big show of herself, looking back every few feet or so, and when she realized he had stopped following her she gave him a hearty bow that bent her body in half.
“Keep up the good work!” she yelled.
“DON’T LET ME CATCH YOU BACK HERE AGAIN!” he screamed back.
She snickered. The sun rose above the horizon, cutting across the tops of the nearby condominiums, and the detective hissed, rubbing his eyes. He dug for his sunglasses and found them in his jacket’s innermost pocket, and he placed them over his eyes just in time to see Nora balance her box in one arm and wave the other over her shoulder. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. He could figure out what the gesture meant:
No promises.
----------------------------------------
Nora had been living in a studio in the middle of Wonsung-du since college, and never found a good reason to move away. Her room was extremely tiny, cramped, and missing a lot of the standard amenities, but the rent was cheap, the walk to the bus was short, and Nora had burrowed herself well enough in the schemes of the neighborhood that she knew she’d miss it if she left.
She passed the wall of flyers and banners arguing with each other about the redevelopment and nodded to a neighbor on their early-morning jog. The corner store manager waved hello through the square windows of his shop, and she accepted the milk carton he balanced on top of her box with gratitude. A basement studio buried underneath what was supposed to be a loan office, but was definitely a illegal casino, started to blast the opening song to their underground radio station, welcoming the world to a new morning. She tried to say hello to the gangsters settled on the second level, all lined up in the windows for a cigarette break, but they waved her off quickly and cursed her away. They knew she was more trouble than she was worth, a bringer of bad luck to any who got too near. She didn’t mind that reputation one bit.
By the time Nora returned home, the sun was climbing. It washed her dusty tenant building in an orange glow and stretched the shadows in unnatural angles. The lighting, along with the early-morning silence, sunk her corner of the neighborhood in an unnatural calm that vibrated with anticipation.
Was it because Nora had just lost her job, and change was on its way? It seemed as if something was waiting for her, and she wasn’t sure if that something was good.
It didn’t take long for Nora to discover what that something was. It took shape in the strained single mother that lived next to her small studio. She lied in wait on the second floor of the apartment, hunched over the railing that overlooked their small, weedy courtyard. She hadn’t slept. Her shoulders hung with fret and worry. Nora could feel her franticness before she could get a decent look, and she quickly climbed the stairs to meet her.
“Katherine,” she called. The woman jerked from her anxious stupor.
“Nora? What are you doing out so early?”
“I should be asking you that,” Nora walked past to drop her box in front of her door, then turned back, “What happened? You look upset.”
Katherine opened her mouth, then shut it, then released a heavy sigh, leaning deeper into the railing. She pulled out her hair tie and recollected the long strands into heavy bunches.
“I look like a mess, don’t I?” she shook her head, “Don’t mind me. It’s nothing.”
“It’s probably nothing. Let’s not drag her into this.”
Nora didn’t let her neighbor rest. She took the spot next to her on the railing and handed her the milk carton. Katherine smiled weakly and accepted it, and she didn’t speak again until the carton was completely drained.
“I fought with Savannah last night,” she finally admitted.
“Ah.”
The walls of the tenant building were thin. Savannah was Katherine’s teenaged daughter, and not a week passed when Nora didn’t hear them screaming at each other. The most recent bouts were triggered by Savannah’s most recent screw-up: she didn’t bother to apply to any colleges or look for jobs, and as a result was granted a period of screwing around after her graduation. Her school’s ceremony was just a week ago, and already the family and its neighbors were feeling the aftereffects of a teenager who couldn’t be bothered to plan her future. She was still very much a child and partied more often than bumbling around at home. It was no surprise that Katherine was at the end of her tether.
“I know it’s nothing new, but this time I really dug into her,” Katherine’s hands clenched around her empty carton, “I think I said a few things I shouldn’t have said. No, I know I did. But she’s so stupid, I didn’t think she’d take it seriously.”
Nora grimaced. She could hear remnants of the shouting in Katherine’s head, and it was ugly. She felt a bit relieved that she was locked up for that fight, because if she wasn’t she’d probably be dragged out of her room by Savannah to referee. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“So she went out after that?” Nora guessed.
Katherine nodded, “I’m gonna kick her ass when she gets back. She keeps going to those clubs off of Wukong Street.”
“She’s old enough for that??”
“No, but she’s pretty enough. She gets that from me.”
A small smile. Katherine wasn’t stressed enough to miss joking around. That was a good sign.
“But she hasn’t texted me. At all. I haven’t heard from her.”
The small smile disappeared.
The two stared out into the courtyard, one expecting a daughter to walk in and the other unsure of what to say. Nora listened.
“She usually texts. She’s not so angry that she wouldn’t text, right? Her phone’s off. She’s not answering her phone, but she always makes sure it has a charge. Did something happen? Surely nothing did. She’s just upset. That’s right, she’s just throwing a tantrum. She’s such a brat. I must have raised her wrong. I didn’t act like that at her age, did I?”
“It’s nothing. She’s having fun. She probably crashed at a friends place. She’ll walk through that door with a hangover and I’ll tell her how stupid she is. And we’ll go look for some jobs for her. Paul’s always looking for someone at the store, but I don’t think Sav would like that. But its better than nothing. She needs to learn how to earn her own money if she wants to screw around. It’s the least she can do.”
“…But why hasn’t she texted me back? She should have texted by now.”
Nora patted her back, and Katherine’s shoulder twitched at the sudden touch. But she was grateful for it.
“She probably crashed at a friend’s place,” Nora assured her, borrowing her thoughts, “She should be fine. You’ve got their numbers, right? Wait a few hours and call her friends if you haven’t heard anything.”
Katherine nodded. That made sense.
“Go inside and sleep. She’ll be fine. You’ve got to get Lionel ready for school.”
Nora peeked over her shoulder, at Katherine’s front door that was slightly ajar. A small boy peered back through the crack, and his eyes widened when they met Nora’s glance. Katherine followed her gaze.
“What are you doing up??” she asked when she spotted her son, “You don’t have school for a few hours. Go back to sleep.”
“Tch.”
He turned his glare to Nora, annoyed that he’d been ratted out, and shut the door quietly without uttering a single word. Nora smiled. Lionel was the youngest and the quietest of the family, but his thoughts were well beyond his years. He was easily Nora’s favorite neighbor.
Seeing that Katherine’s worry had kept her son up, she quickly shuffled back inside, leaving Nora out on the walkway with her own thoughts.
A missing daughter was a typical event of her neighbor’s lives, but Nora was a bit concerned. Katherine would usually parade up and down the courtyard and beckon the gossipers of their street with complaints of her daughter as soon as she left, but there was always a guarantee that Savannah would crawl in under their haughty glares by the next morning. It was rare for Katherine to stay up worrying like this. Their fight must have been a bad one.
She decided not to think too much of it. Time for sleep. By the time she was back up, Savannah would be home, Katherine would be screaming, Lionel would watch, and the tenant building would sigh in relief at the normalcy that returned. Nora turned to her door, and after digging for her keys and maneuvering her way through the lock she stepped into her room and collapsed into the dark.