Namjoon's grip on the glass door handles stiffened as he began to violently undulate them back and forth. His patience was getting thinner by every passing second, inciting him to finally submit to his curiosity before the situation took a much worse turn.

With his eyelids batting wildly in frenzy, Namjoon pitched a few pensive glances around before yelling out, "Who the fuck is in there? Let me in so that you can come clean while I still haven't changed my mind. Because once I do end up losing my marbles, I won't give up until you're thrown behind the bars for illegal trespassing!"

However, when not even a low rumble emerged from the other side, Namjoon's composure hit the skids— the very set of circumstances that he had all along been striving to circumvent. He paced across the length of the constricted verandah that constituted the entrance of Youngmi's clinic, dread simultaneously de-bossing onto his features. With absolutely no expedient spawning in his brain as to how to deal with the unanticipated, Namjoon collapsed onto the granite floor, crouching down as he frustratingly held his head in his hands.

"Ugh!" He elicited a muffled groan, needlessly considerate regarding the behavior expected during the dark hours.

A couple more minutes were forfeited due to Namjoon's ongoing skirmish with the overwhelming consternation with bated breath. But once he collected himself and rose to his feet all determined, all the misspent bit of moments suddenly started to appear worthwhile. Standing erect with a heaving chest, Namjoon whisked his gaze towards the narrow alley that encompassed the No Man's Land between Youngmi's business and her adjacent one. He firmly nodded to himself before rushing into it with an enthusiasm that was not exactly appropriate for the cramped passage.

With a handful of bumps into the bordering walls in the initial phase, Namjoon had soon gotten the hang of it as he slunk through the rest of the path with an unforeseen efficacy. Once reaching the window that was supposed to provide him with an entry into Youngmi's private chamber, Namjoon closed his eyes and drew a long breath in. A calm, new perspective now clouded his mind as he fluttered open his eyelids.

Ramming his elbow into the unbelievably fragile glass pane, Namjoon focused on his breathing when a piercing sting swept through his entire arm. The window was successfully splintered in a single go, at least sufficiently enough for him to intrude into the building and apprehend the felon. He instantly hopped onto the sill, thrusting himself in quickly to avoid the possibility of having end up with an escaped miscreant.

Nevertheless, when he looked around for inspection, all his efforts seemed futile to him. Absurdly unavailing. Why would it not be construed as so, when every single object— including the paperweight that remained Youngmi's trademark since the past ten years— struck him as though it had not been touched even slightly by the assumed offender, let alone desecrated by him?

Namjoon had landed himself in a grave trouble, he was aware of that. However, for the episode to develop itself into something slanderous for him was not particularly inevitable. He did overshoot the mark— he sincerely accepted that— but that did not mean he could not rectify his wrongs anymore.

After all, he would have numerous opportunities in future to own up to what he did. He was certain that Youngmi would believe him then. Albeit currently, with their relationship so precarious, he was not as sure.

Bobbing his head in agreement with his own self, Namjoon proceeded towards the same window that he, himself, had shattered not too long ago— planning to jump across into the backstreet that had led him till there, to begin with. He rested his hands cautiously upon the slab that accompanied the window, brushing off the glass shards in a scrupulous manner before pouncing onto the sill and achieving what he had laid out for himself.

But before that could materialise for him, someone opened the door to that very chamber from inside, startling Namjoon to such an extent that he lost his balance and ultimately fell down on the ground. The lights were switched on eventually, causing the man to squint his eyes to adjust them accordingly to the searing brightness. His eyes gradually enlarged in panic when, after a thorough survey of his surroundings, he glanced a face that mirrored his reaction.

Across him stood Youngmi, who was in the middle of deciding as to what to make out of the situation.

"Senior this is not—"

"What are you doing here, Namjoon?" Youngmi asked with a straight face, her stupefaction slowly receding.

"I—I..." Even Namjoon could not figure out where his hesitation stemmed from.

"Cat got your tongue, huh? Then again, it's only natural to be rendered speechless when you've done something wrong. I wonder what you have done wrong, Namjoon?" Youngmi clicked her tongue, roaming her gaze around to ensure nothing had been tampered with.

"What do you mean? Are you implying that I had ulterior motives to be here?" Namjoon bellyached, to which Youngmi responded by pursing her lips.

"I mean, isn't that a no-brainer? You're not supposed to be here at this hour!" She emphasised on every single word.

Namjoon scoffed incredulously as he dusted the dirt off his pants and got up on his feet, "Just so you know, I glimpsed a wavering light going about in your chamber from outside. Impulsively, I sussed it out to be a burglar breaking into your office. For fuck's sake, forget about everything else, your documents could've been at risk! It was all in the heat of that moment that I entered from the backside. I thought I'd be able to catch the perpetrator and save you from whatever that would've followed if he had accomplished his objective. Yet here I am, standing before you and explaining myself when I didn't even do anything wrong!"

"Which documents are you talking about? And how do you know that I keep them here?" Youngmi quirked a brow, goading him into spilling the beans.

"The banking ones? Something about the loans you may have taken out? Your passbook? The registry of this building? Could be anything senior! I don't understand why you're debriefing me like this when you've known me for years..." Namjoon rasped, tears upwelling in his eyes, "Do you doubt my intentions—"

"Oh Namjoon stop doing that," Youngmi squeezed her eyes shut in repugnance, brandishing her palms as though demanding him to suspend the rhetorical questioning, "I'm not buying any of that bullshit."

"But I'm not lying! Why don't you listen to me?" Namjoon's pleas were morphing into a lethal variant.

Youngmi had held herself back from rising to the bait, but a disappointed puff of air still managed to break free from the confines of her lips. Namjoon's heart foundered as a consequence of catching her in the action, the realisation that sand had indeed slipped through his fingers this time— and that too in an irreversible fashion— devouring him like a deadly inundation.

Whilst Namjoon was preoccupied with battling the pounding sensation in the back of his head, Youngmi had switched off the lights, a curtain of murk enveloping them as a result. As the patter emerging from the objects that tumbled onto the surface of her worktable fell into Namjoon's ears, the latter cottoned on that the female was definitely up to something. And she totally was for once, for she was scrambling for her UV light for a purpose that had not yet been disclosed to Namjoon.

Cluelessness had never seemed so intimidating.

Thankfully the curved metal stick soon started emitting the radiation that it was designed for, facilitating Namjoon's speedy retraction back to reality.

"Why did you turn that on?" Namjoon quizzed, uncertain regarding the device's relative significance.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" Youngmi cooed, moving the light to bring her table, her two cupboards, and lastly, the safe behind the spot where she regularly sat in, to the foreground.

She highlighted every nook, every corner that Namjoon had presented as prospective targets for his self-conjured predator. And as he trailed the path that Youngmi had been paving for him with the help of her medical instrument, Namjoon gleaned what precisely she was beckoning at all along.

There were no fingerprints, not one to start with. Two series of footprints were unarguably there though, each of them ending at the two individuals who stood facing each other. Namjoon was baffled at the outcome that Youngmi's experiment had brought along with itself, since there was no way his hallucination could have become so realistic that the fine line between delirium and actual world ended up blurring for him. Could Namjoon's concern for Youngmi truly have gotten the best of him?

Could it really be that it was just Namjoon's insecurity that was projecting itself before his eyes and thus inducing him to be Youngmi's knight in shining armor before that fellow Ewan beat him to it again?

Did no one, as a matter of fact, attempt to impinge into Youngmi's clinic?

"H—how is this possible?" Namjoon stuttered, unable to count on his eyes.

"Because I disinfect the whole clinic everyday before closing," Youngmi countered, only to make it more brutal. "Oh, and also no one apart from you tried to sneak in, Namjoon."

"Are you seriously suspecting me, senior? You know I'd never do that." Namjoon entreated.

"Don't tick me off, it might prove to be fatal for you." She whispered, breath hitching as if she was restraining herself from breaking down.

Despite it being utterly sombre for light to refract and enable him to see the tears flashing in Youngmi's eyes, Namjoon had comprehended that even the female was but a mere slave to the circumstances at the end of the day, and that she did not really harbor hostile emotions against him. However, what she decided to pick up with next, deprived Namjoon of even the faintest trace of hope that it was all transient, and that the trials surrounding them would eventually come to subside. It was all in vain now, to expect so anymore.

"Whatever you were looking for, Namjoon, don't worry... I won't report you. So kindly do me a favor and please leave. Don't you ever show up again. Whatever we had— used to have, is now over." Youngmi exhaled.

▪️

a/n

you can consider this the end of ACT I. ik i haven't really *professionally* divided the book into acts, but the story's gonna take a subtle- if not drastic- turn from now on. now that's upto you to imagine how's it's gonna be in the further chapters hehehe😼 are you ready? buckle up your seatbelts like i always say, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!😁 pls vote and comment if you liked the chapter. pls share 'sweet tooth' with your friends if you approve of this book as worthwhile. thanks a lot for reading <3 see you in the next chapter!❤️