Seulgi didn’t faint, but she did fall on her butt.

  “Security? Call the police. Now.” She hung up.

  She turned around and said to Nayeon, “Call Bhuwakul, warn him what he might be walking into. He needs to tell Gillian, too.”

  She dialed Yeji. The young dy picked up on the second ring. There sounded like a rge, wild party going on in the background. “Yeji? Get over here. My apartment. Now.” With that, she hung up.

  She stood up, took a couple of photos on her phone, and closed the door, touching nothing. She sent one of those pictures to Yeji to encourage her to hurry up. She figured that with her cousin’s name on the badge, it would be reason enough to interrupt her night and get her to hurry over. This just proved to the younger dy that Seulgi does not make demands precariously.

  While the pictures were being taken, she heard the elevator *ding* and some hurried footsteps heading towards her door. It was the security manager.

  Seeing what was hanging on the door, he whistled. They both noticed at the same time an even more disturbing thing – across the golden badge was a bck ribbon. That just became even more ominous.

  The manager lifted his phone back to his ear and said “Call them. Hurry.”

  To Seulgi, he said, “I don’t know what this is all about, but I am pretty sure it’s above my pay grade. However, with how you asked for video surveilnce earlier, I am going to assume that I am going to need to make a duplicate for the police now. Don’t touch it, OK?” He was pointing at the badge.

  “Don’t worry, I was not pnning on it. Would it be possible to get that fsh copy run up here as soon as possible as opposed to waiting until morning? If this is whose I think it is, his cousin is on the way over now.”

  “Yes, of course. I was already working on it when the call came in. It should be up to you in an hour, maybe an hour and a half. With all of the craziness going on, I’ll call you before I send someone up so you know to expect them. OK?”

  “That would be both helpful and wonderful, sir. Thank you, very, very much.”

  He left and she closed the door. Looking down the hall, she saw Nayeon’s back and left arm gesturing wildly.

  “….I told you, Bhuwakul, that there is a golden detective badge hanging in front of Seulgi’s door. What more do you want from me?”

  Seulgi unceremoniously snatched her phone out of her hand. “Bhuwakul? It’s Seulgi. Remember how Yeji’s cousin was working on this case? He disappeared a few days ago. Well, the badge is his. His name is on it. It also has a bck ribbon across it. Yes, like they do for a death over in America. That’s all we have.

  “How’s Gillian?”

  She listened for a moment. She made a few grunts in affirmation. One ‘Oh!’ and one “Really now.” That was followed by a serious frown. “Did you tell her? Or do you need me to?”

  She looked over at Nayeon, “He told her that Jackson is still alive.”

  “Don’t tell her about the badge yet. We don’t have any hard evidence yet. Let alone circumstantial. The manager has already called the police and is making a duplicate copy of everything for me. I should have it in hand within an hour to an hour and a half.”

  A few more Oks and Uh huh’s ter she hung up. She threw Nyeon’s phone back to her as her own phone began to ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Seulgi, tell them to let me come up.” It was Yeji.

  “Hand them the phone. Hello? Ah, Hi George. That’s Hwang Yeji, she is cleared to come up. Yes, please put her on the ‘Allowed anytime’ list. Also, add Im Nayeon, she’s already up here with me. Thank you for being conscientious. Thank you.” Then she hung up.

  She sent a message to Wendy with a picture of the badge and a note saying that Yeji’s cousin is no longer working the case, but became a part of it. She expined how the badge is currently hanging on a string outside of her front door. She ought to get a response in about six hours or more due to time zone differences.

  There was a gentle rapping at the front door. Having crawled back into her soup, Seulgi said “That should be Yeji, please let her in.”

  Nayeon nodded and walked to the door. It was, indeed, Yeji. She was bancing the bottom of the badge on the palm of her hand and observing it. “This is indeed my cousin’s. There is a small nick in the upper right corner that came from a knife that almost killed him if his badge had not been there.”

  Yeji walked in, walked over to the most important person in the room, and gave chin scritches. Then she turned to Seulgi and said, “Hi boss. Thanks for the call. That party was dull.”

  She followed up with, “So, what’s been going on?”

  Seulgi started narrating the story about the afternoon, starting with going to dinner with Bhuwakul. The main difference between telling Nayeon and Yeji was there was no smug look with Yeji. Nayeon told her that she had been invited and turned down the opportunity anyway. Yeji didn’t care, she was invited to what was supposed to be a crazy party a week prior. It turns out that she was wrong about both invites.

  Ignoring Nayeon, like everyone else does, she simply said, “Please continue.”

  Yeji had to sit down when she suddenly, and unexpectedly, found that Jackson was alive. And her cousin might not be. That would be enough to knock anyone over.

  Seulgi brought her up to date as much as possible. And as fast as possible. She asked Yeji to take over when the uniforms showed up. She could speak the nguage better. She also mentioned that security would be bringing up a fsh drive when avaible. She would then have access to the ptop to view the evidence.

  Yeji was assigned to be responsible for the door. Seulgi asked if she needed a sandwich or anything as this might be a long night. Yeji said that she was famished – the party had snacks but no real food.

  Seulgi asked Nayeon to make Yeji something. Nayeon started to say something but got cut off. She was told that she needed to make it so Yeji could watch the door. Besides, everyone knew that Nayeon could make some of the best sandwiches in existence.

  With her ego stroked, Nayeon went to the kitchen to work on her assigned tasks.

  Seulgi went back to her phone and started notifying those possibly affected about what’s been going on.