Can't Let You Go

***HONEY***

"I'm posting this right here," Liam tapes the employment contract on the fridge, "so you can't pretend later like you forgot what the parameters are."

"Geez. If I said I'll do it, then I'll do it."

"You've also told me dozens of times that you'd stop calling me, yet..."

"I- You- That's a completely different situation."

"Alright, fine." His face shows he's sorry for teasing me like that, so I let it slide. "I'm off to work now. Call if you need anything."

When I'm alone, I call the American Embassy. It's a little bit of a process to navigate through the phone menu, but eventually I get to speak to a person. They are very well informed of Korean laws and the justice system surrounding relatively minor offenses like my alleged one. However, that is all they have for me - information. They direct me to a list of attorneys who speak English as well as a database of translators.

As for my actual legal situation, since I am no longer in police custody, they tell me that I just have to wait until the investigation has concluded. Which I pretty much already knew. The good news is that if I do get charged and end up sentenced to time in prison, someone on the embassy staff will make visits to me to enquire whether or not I'm being treated humanely. So much for that. Time to earn my keep.

I take the opportunity to do some light snooping. Although, since I live here looking in cabinets and closets in the shared spaces shouldn't really qualify as snooping. Liam seems to be a fairly tidy person and he doesn't have a lot of stuff. There's nothing particularly interesting, but I discover that I really like the smell of his skincare products. He has more of them than I do, all Korean brands. I'm still super basic when it comes to beauty and skincare. I should probably step up my game though since I'm still getting acne around my menstrual cycle.

When I first arrived, and even after Liam said my job was to take over housekeeping duties, I thought the place seemed pretty clean. It's only when I'm looking closely that I can see the dusty surfaces and filmy windows. In my not-snooping, I only find a light degreasing general cleaner and a few cloths. There aren't any other cleaning fluids nor is there a mop or a vacuum.

{You're lacking in cleaning supplies} I text him.

{Trying to worm your way out of work already?}

{No, :P there's things I can do, but you don't have glass cleaner and I can't clean the floors thoroughly with just a broom. Can we go buy stuff after work?}

{My housekeeper washed the floor by hand, but worry about that stuff later. Tonight we're going out.}

The life I've had so far in Korea has been weird and difficult, made all the more so because I was completely on my own. Although, I wouldn't have guessed that would be a problem for me. Each of my family members kept pretty much to themselves and I grew up on the fringes of friendship. I was invited to parties and things mostly because of who my parents were. It wasn't until I met Zayan and then formed a little tribe with him, Ashton, and Emily that I became used to hardly ever being alone. When we split up the previous summer and all went off to college, I became a teeny bit of a wild child and I discovered that alcohol made socializing easier.

Fortunately, Zayan and I both went to Alaris University, but it was more rare to be with Zayan alone than it had been in high school. I became used to surrounding myself with people. He and I were still emotionally close, but he was loving his new adult life. He was always the more social one of the two of us anyway.

"What's up Baby Girl? Do you have news?" Zayan answers his phone quickly. I'm surprised he heard it ring over the background noise.

"Not really. The embassy says I just have to wait it out. They gave me a list of English speaking lawyers and that was pretty much it."