Investigate

[MurderWeasel]

"Yeah."

Mandy was mostly looking at her feet now. The soles of her Uggs pressed down on the carpet. She wasn't standing in blood. That passed for kind of nice in this room.

She'd expected to feel better once the bandanna was in Seo-yun's hands. It was a visual reminder that they were a pair, that regardless of what the rules of the game said, they were in it together, watching each other's backs. But as reassuring a thought as that was, it didn't change the rules of the game. They were just lying, or maybe playing pretend. It was a costume, as much as any Disney character Mandy had ever channeled or the onesie buried in her bag or the increasingly-ragged-and-bloody getup Seo-yun wore. It could serve as tool or disguise, but it couldn't change what they were up against.

But Seo-yun had known that from the very start, hadn't she? Words came back, or ideas at least, expressed by so many of the people Mandy had crossed paths with thus far. She chewed on the insides of her cheeks, and it hurt enough to prickle at the edges of her consciousness but not enough to break through and get her to stop. She rubbed the toe of one boot against the carpet, and sort of turned the gun back and forth, and braved a glance at the dead boy.

Good thing there wasn't too much time to ruminate before they got going. And Mandy was at least in decent enough spirits to swing by one of the more unscathed tables to secure her prize on the way out.

((Mandy Gross continued in 눈에서 멀어지면, 마음에서도 멀어진다))