The figure gave a high-pitched ‘Eeek!’ and promptly fell on their butt.

  “What the heck, Bhuwakul?” whined the person on the floor.

  “Sorry, Nayeon, you surprised me. I was not expecting to see you right there as I opened the door. What are you doing here?”

  “She seemed to have her head in the clouds all day, so I came by to check on her. What are you doing here,” she asked with an arched eyebrow and a sly smile.

  “We went to dinner after work.” The sly smile on Nayeon became a grin. ”The dinner that you turned down, I might add.” The smile disappeared. He held out a hand to lift her. He noticed that Nayeon had the same slight figure that Seulgi had that was heavier than she looked, for the same reason. This girl was toned.

  “We got some more bad news. You’d better come in.”

  Curious as three cats, Nayeon accepted the hand and was lifted. She rubbed her butt and went inside.

  Bhuwakul started to expin the evening. When she started to grin at the fact that they went out to dinner again, he pointed out that it could have been her, but she turned it down. She pouted again.

  He deliberately left out the antics at dinner and dessert. He was not about to give her that ammunition. She’d never shut up and would tell everybody. Seulgi might not mind, but he did. His private life was not fodder for Nayeon’s grist mill.

  Bhuwakul loved Nayeon for herself, not because she was Seulgi’s friend. But that didn’t mean he trusted her bad habits. Being a bbbermouth was very high on the list of her personal faults. Even she admitted it.

  He brought her to the dining room table. He motioned to her to be quiet with a raised forefinger to his lips. She nodded. Then he pointed to the nearly catatonic Seulgi. Before sitting at the table, she walked over to Suki and gave her a quick but proper petting. She gave Seulgi a once-over while there, too.

  So, in hushed tones, he told her about going into the manager’s office and seeing that Jackson was both alive and involved. He did not go into detail about what he saw but did imply that it did not seem that Jackson was willingly involved. He pointed out that there was at least one other person involved, but it was not known if there were more.

  He said that the apartment manager was going through the apartment camera feeds to see if there was more. There should be a fsh drive with all of the relevant footage in the morning.

  They started discussing if they should tell Gillian that her husband was alive with nothing to really substantiate it with. Then follow it up in the morning. She was already worried out of her mind, of course. Would it be more harmful to give her hope and nothing to back it up? Or should they tell her and then find out something worse in the morning?

  Neither Bhuwakul nor Nayeon were close enough to Gillian to make a certain decision about which would be best.

  After a bit of back and forth, they decided that he should go over to Gillian’s pce, to check on her. Then if she seemed to be stable enough to take the news, he would tell her that Jackson was alive, but that they did not have a whole lot of information yet.

  Nayeon would stay here for a while and try to gently wake Seulgi up.

  He got up and left, trusting Seulgi with Nayeon and Suki. Mostly Suki.

  She got up and checked on the soup. Removing the lid, she stirred it and found that it was closer to a broth than a proper soup. Which was wise, as if they tried to feed it to her in this state, she might choke on a bit of vegetable. Perversely, this made Nayeon, in a typically Nayeon fashion, want a steak. She shook her head at herself.

  Nayeon went back to the couch, and pet her Highness a bit more. She also started talking to Suki, softly at first. Then progressively louder, to a conversational level.

  She then went around to the front of the couch and started talking to Seulgi. She also took Seulgi’s unresponsive hands and started rubbing them. Not because they were cold, but because she wanted to make a sensation for Seulgi to come back to.

  Suki decided to help by jumping down onto her Idiot’s p and started purring as hard as she could. Her person should answer when called, right?

  After about a half hour, Nayeon was starting to get worried enough to contempte calling Yeji. But, that was when she noticed that Seulgi was blinking more often. She was speeding up and her eyes started moving. She was coming back from wherever she had been for the st two hours.

  She was uncertain just how soon her boss would fully wake up, so she turned the heat on the soup up to Low and came back to sit next to her. After about ten minutes, the apartment started smelling delicious and Nayeon decided that if Seulgi didn’t come back soon, she would eat the soup for her. That Bhuwakul was a wizard in the kitchen.

  Unfortunately for Nayeon, she would not get any soup this evening. While stirring, she heard a tiny “Nayeon? When did you get here?”

  Nayeon dropped the spoon on the counter, and didn’t quite run, but didn’t just walk fast over to Seulgi, dropped to her knees, and glomped her in a bear hug. She dislodged Suki in the process. The cat was annoyed but understood that none of her Mistress's friends were cooth.

  Nayeon finally let go when Seulgi started struggling and making I’m Being Smothered noises. Chagrined, Nayeon let go. Then she got Seulgi in a seated position and re-tucked her back in with the bnket. Would she like a sandwich or soup?

  Soup, please. (Nayeon cursed in her heart. She wanted that soup.) Nayeon put the soup into a bowl, got a spoon, put it on a pte, and brought it to her.

  Then she expined that she had been there for about an hour. She told about the conversation with Bhuwakul. He was on his way over to talk to Gillian and may or may not tell her about Jackson, depending on her state of mind.

  There was an odd tapping going on while the discussion was happening. If she had been asleep, it would have gone unnoticed. Seulgi was wondering if her neighbor was hanging pictures, though it seemed odd to be doing this so te at night.

  Seulgi nodded at each point in understanding.

  The quiet tapping kept happening for a little longer then abruptly stopped. This relieved both women. But then the phone rang. The caller ID showed Front Desk Security. Even more baffled, Seulgi answered. “Hello?”

  “Ma’am? There was someone in front of your door. It looked like he was hanging something. You may want to take a look to see if we call the police.”

  “OK. Will you stay on the line with me?” Nayeon perked up to see what her friend was getting up to now.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Seulgi was too distracted to be annoyed with all of this.

  She went to the door and turned the camera on. There appeared to be a line down the video. Maybe a string? But…why? She won’t know until she opens the door.

  “I’m opening the door now.” She proceeded to do so. Seulgi managed to stifle a shriek (though Nayeon didn’t) because at the bottom of the string was a golden detective badge.