Shotgun K

I sat in silence, sulking in the passenger side seat of my car, my mind playing over the last failed conversation. Mr. Park had yet to come down yet, but according to the security guards, he was almost done with business with the president. So that left me to wait in the car with silence to myself.
Why couldn’t this conversation go smoothly?

My mind didn’t let me sit there in peace as it reeled and twisted, all bothered by the whole situation. What did we just fight about, exactly? For some reason it felt like it was over something stupid, something that was nothing. Was it nothing?
But I knew what I was mad about, and that was not stupid…or nothing.

First it was the detectives, now it was the president and even K. Why did they keep on trying to hide things from me? I’m an adult, and I’m involved in the case. I’m being targeted! I had the right to know. I should know what is happening as it is happening.

A heavy defeated sigh escaped me and I sank into the passenger seat.
What a mess…how did I get here, anyway? Last week was nothing compared to this…wait, did anything happen last week?
I shook my head to myself, kicking all bothersome thoughts out of my head. I need to distract myself; maybe I will listen to the radio…
---Shit, I never got the keys back from K.

My eyes turned to the wheel of the car…and stopped.
The set of car keys hung from the ignition, almost mocking me for not noticing sooner. Dammit, that girl…she could at least tell me where she was going to leave the keys.

Muttering under my breath, I reached across and turned the key. The engine came to life and cool air flowed in from the vents. It took about thirty seconds for it to warm up.
I shivered and sighed, welcoming the soft warmth that seeped into my arms. I hadn’t realized I was cold until now. I held my hands over the vents for another minute before reaching over to the radio and pressed the power button.
The radio came to life, some commercial blaring out its catchy jingle. It provided a good background sound to keep my mind quiet and thoughts at bay. Having things too quiet was never a good thing. I sighed and closed my eyes, settling back into my seat and vaguely listened. I left the radio on, my attention drifting in and out of the sounds coming from the speakers. Nothing piqued my interest from the commercial, something that I didn’t really care about anyways. I was finally starting to feel at peace.

“---the accident have been cleared, and the roads look good for those of you heading back home…” some traffic reporter was saying.

I found myself only half-listening, as I was still parked in a parking garage, nowhere near heading home. It didn’t really affect me for a while. They guy finished his hourly report before switching over to a meteorologist.
“The weather tonight is going to be much better than what it was last night, but the winds are still going to be strong, if not stronger as the temperature drops even further…” the female voice reported smoothly.

My eyes opened, realization setting in. I never asked K about last night, why she stood out on the balcony all night. It couldn’t be because I told her to…right?
And just like that, my mind started to mercilessly puke out these questions I had no way of answering.
Why would she do that? Seriously, I couldn’t even get a grasp of her thought process. If it was me, I would’ve snuck back in for the night and get out in the morning…did that make me a bad guy? Maybe an immoral person? Because I would disregard my own orders? What the hell was she thinking---did she even think? If the weather was as brutal as I heard it was, why stay out? What would she gain from doing this…outside of getting sick?...the hospital, did she go for herself?
I thought hard, trying to recall everything she had said before I actually kicked her out to patio. We were in another argument because she wouldn’t put her gun away. There was yelling, glaring and tension…Dammit, I should’ve paid more attention to what she was saying.
The radio stations opening tune spilled from the speakers, returning my attention back to the radio.

“In recent news, we have a missing person’s report in the city of Seoul ” this time, a man announced. His tone was calm and serious. “Shim Ga Eul-ssi has been reported missing at approximately 3:45 PM this afternoon. Coworkers of Shim say that she was last seen yesterday when she left after her shift at her job.”

“Shim…Ga Eul.” I said slowly to myself.
Ga Eul…Why was that name familiar?

My mind was still spitting out the headache-inducing questions when a knock sounded from the driver’s side. I looked up and saw Mr. Park peering into the car at me. He pointed at the car lock, motioning me to unlock the door for him. I pushed the button on my side to let him in.
My manager slipped into the driver’s seat and sighed tiredly. He closed the door, took a glance around before turning back to me.
“Where’s K?” he asked.

I shrugged.
“I don’t know. She just got a call and just drove off.” I muttered.

Mr. Park frowned.
“Drove off?” he questioned.

“She has a car.” I just said. I then reached into my pocket for his phone and handed it to him. “She checked everything. She says everything is clean.”

Mr. Park looked at the phone and glanced back at me. I could see the question in his look before he even spoke.
“So the talk with K…”

I tried to keep myself from scowling as I sighed and looked away.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I muttered.

I ignored Mr. Park’s questioning look and stared out to the window. He didn’t push it any further though because he then quietly put the car into drive and started out of the garage.
The car ride was quiet all the way back home, with only the radio providing the background sounds. But even that no longer gave me the distraction I needed.



My bare feet tapped lightly against the smooth tiled floor of my kitchen as I made my way over to the fridge. I opened the fridge and grabbed the nearest bottle of water before shutting it and heading over to the couch.

Mr. Park had left after dinner, making sure I ate something. He said something about coming here early in the morning tomorrow to get an early start for the day. Tomorrow’s schedule was supposed to be jammed pack and busy.
I took a few gulps of the cold water and sighed, running the towel hanging from my neck through my damp hair. The hot shower helped some with getting some fatigue and tension out of me, helping me clear my mind so I can think straight.

If anything was made clear by today it was that she and I couldn’t work together. This wasn’t talking about chemistry or compatibility or other crap that shouldn’t even matter. Monday couldn’t come fast enough.
I didn’t know the answers to much right now but one thing’s for certain: I need to fix things.

I sat down on the couch and relaxed, letting my neck rest against the back cushions.

The way things were now was far from ideal. Hell, it’s not going to work unless something drastic changed between K and I. A replacement for her wasn’t possible until Monday, so until then, I had to make things at the very least tolerable for both of us. K must see the tension; she’s not blind. And I don’t like getting hit and thrown on the ground.
I took another sip from my water bottle and tried to think up a way I could make it through the next four days with having that girl around. One thing for certain, I can’t have her running around, not with my schedule tomorrow. Whatever the hell she was doing for the president and the police…

I stopped, my mind coming to a halt.
Wait a minute, from the way she spoke earlier, it was obvious that she knew a lot about what the police were doing and what they knew. And she wouldn’t tell me when I asked. Did President Chung tell her not to say anything to me? It was the type of thing he would do, to keep me ‘protected’. And if the president really told K not to tell me, what could have possibly happened?

The more I thought, the more consistent became one single thought.
I want to know…no, I needed to know what happened. And K knows.

My eyes lifted to the wall to my left, up to where my atomic clock was hanging. It was nearly 9PM, and K had yet to come back.
…she will come back, right?

I sat up, set the water bottle down and got up. I’ll wait for her to come back. We have to talk.

Restlessly I walked around the couch and paced back and forth. We had to talk, and actually get to the topics that needed to be addressed without starting an argument. A normal, civil conversation…why was that so hard?
I turned and started another set of pacing when I looked up and caught the sliding door to the balcony in my view. My pacing slowed and stopped.
How cold did the forecast say it was going to be?

Curiosity got a hold of me and before I realized it I was standing before the door. My hands reached forward and grasped the metal handle of the door. It was ice cold.
My fingers curled around the handle as I pulled the door aside.
Cold air shoved its way into my apartment, blowing the curtain aside and attacking my torso through my thin shirt. I tensed, the shock of the cold making me hold my breath as I felt my muscles tighten in response. My skin tingled, hair rising in protest.
Despite that, I found myself stepping outside and onto the balcony. Cold attacked me from all sides, sinking into my bared arms and feet. I fought the urge to wheel around and jump back into the warm air of my apartment.
Instead, I imagined staying out there the whole night, with rain and fierce wind beating down on me.



“---Coffee.”

I opened my eyes with a shock, suddenly thrown to an alert. Everything around me was still…and quiet. And blank. I was sitting in a space of plain white, my surroundings eerily empty. But there was something familiar about it, something comfortable.
I couldn’t move a muscle.

“---Coffee with a friend.”

I felt myself inhale, my lungs expanding slowly against my ribs. Pressure pressed softly down on my eyelids, compelling them to shut. When I opened them next, everything was different.
My eyes scanned my new surroundings, my mind slowly taking in the familiar setting. It was still quiet and empty as I sat in my seat, at that same table I had sat down at an unknown amount of time ago. But it was undeniably the café I went to with Sun Hi. Slowly, I turned my head to look over my shoulder. No one was in here but me, and not even a single person walked on the streets by the window outside…



A voice that wasn’t mine spoke out, echoing into the space as if it was recalled from a distant memory. I turned back around and saw Sun Hi sitting across from me, with two steaming cups set in front of her.
“Sun Hi…” I murmured.

Sun Hi sighed, and pushed one of the two cups towards me.



Her voice was distant, far away despite the fact she was sitting right in front of me. I frowned, my confusion building. My eyes fell to the cup that now sat in front of me. Black coffee was in the cup, steaming calmly.
“Sun Hi, what am I doing here?” I asked.
If she heard my question, she didn’t show it. She just looked down at her cup of coffee with an bored expression before picking it up and taking a sip.
“Sun Hi,” I repeated, trying to get her attention. I was about to say more when there was a loud sound behind me.



The sound of breaking glass and shattering cups broke into my ear as I wheeled around. The sounds were familiar, exactly the way I remembered them…
I stopped when I saw the worker girl on the floor, collecting the shards of coffee cups and saucers from the floor and onto her tray.
With some sort of instincts or some other driving force, I found myself getting up automatically and kneeling by the floor beside her. My mouth spoke the words before I realized it.

I asked her.



Inside, I felt myself freeze, reacting to my own voice that was now distant and far away. What was going on?
I looked back down to the girl kneeling on the floor next to me. She was still collecting the shards and pieces off the floor onto the tray. I noticed a single tear fall from her eye and down her face.

My eyes fell to the name tag on her uniform.