Die Spielerin - Ch.5
Jessica sits down in the cold steel chair of the assessment room; walls barren and devoid of any life. The single window is barred, forcing what little sunlight there is to push through in stripes; little rays of light that Jessica welcomes - the only thing not depressing about the environment. The table she’s sitting at is uneven, so Jessica decides to put a stack of papers underneath the leg to balance it out. She waits and stares at the door towards the front of the sterile room - waiting for the guards to usher her next patient in.
A few minutes pass and the heavy door swings open, guard in the front. He nods towards Jessica and she nods back, relief washing over her as she’s finally able to begin. Behind the guard an orange-clad woman shuffles in: chains bound her thin wrists and ankles, and despite her long stay in prison she hasn’t lost the glow to her skin. Hair free and flowing, Jessica thinks she might as well have stepped out of a shampoo commercial.
“Dr. Jung,” The guard breaks the silence,
“This is your next patient for today, Choi Sooyoung. She has exactly one hour.”
Roughly pushing the prisoner forward, he laughs haughtily as she stumbles towards the chair. Jessica shoots him a glare and he leaves.
“Good afternoon, Sooyoung. How’re you feeling today?”
The prisoner groans and rolls her eyes,
“Like any other fucking day, doc.”
Patience, Jessica thinks to herself. Patience.
“You know why you’re here today, don’t you?” Jessica asks, rummaging through some papers within a manila envelope.
“No, I don’t. I haven’t gotten into any fights and I haven’t attempted suicide. So no, I’m not sure why they’re making me see the prison psychologist.”
Jessica grabs a sheet with a timeline, “It says here that you’re due for an annual screen - “
“What do they pay you anyway?” Sooyoung interrupts, chains clanging against one another as she folds her arms across her chest,
“Pardon?”
“The Commandant must be paying you something shitty to get stuck working in a place like this. Who’d want to deal with all these crazy tweakers is beyond me.”
Dr. Jung tilts her head and narrows her eyes,
“I believe you would, Sooyoung. Isn’t that what you do?”
The inmate cackles towards the ceiling,
“Sometimes, yeah. But I prefer the coke heads. At least they dress nice.”
Clearing her throat, Dr. Jung repositions herself in her chair,
“Anyway, let’s get started shall we? I’m going to hold up a series of images and I want you to tell me what you see. Afterwards, I’m going to have you write down why you thought they looked like what you saw. Do you understand?”
Sooyoung rolls her eyes,
“Yeah, doc. Sure. Let’s just get this over with.”
---
“So, there I was in the supermarket buyin’ cat food for my little buddy Rey, then I turn my head to the left and bam! I bump into Krem! You remember him, right? Soo’s old head goon?” Sunny speaks animatedly with Hyoyeon after the dancer’s set.
“Yeah, I think you mentioned him a couple of times.”
“Oh, I put him away a dozen times years ago when I was working with Tae, but he reformed and turned to Jesus since then. Got married, found a legal job. Raising a little girl now. Pretty standup guy. We exchanged numbers.”
Hyoyeon smiles and sips her martini, swirling the olive inside the glass.
“Geez, I wonder what made him turn over a new leaf?”
Sunny shrugs and takes another swig of scotch, “No idea, but I kinda miss those days, you know?”
She sighs, shifting on the barstool slightly and looks over at the dancer’s face. Hyoyeon looks back, giving her a look of pity. She puts a warm hand on Sunny’s thigh.
“I know you loved it, but I’m glad you’re not doing it anymore. Wouldn’t want you ending up some sulking emotional mess like Tae.”
The shorter woman shakes her head,
“It’s not exactly her fault…there was a particular incident one night and…”
She pauses, brow furrowing,
“It just…it really unhinged her.”
Hyoyeon runs a hand through her platinum tresses and sighs. Sunny puts her down her drink and resumes,
“Look, Hyo, I wish I could say I came just to chat and to see some rockin’ legs on stage, but unfortunately I’m here for another reason.”
“What’s up?”
“Uh…Tae stopped by last night…”
The look of surprise on the dancer’s face is not lost on Sunny. The shorter woman continues,
“Yeah, she came ‘round like one in the morning or something. Hard to remember, I was pretty drunk. She came asking for help. It’d been some time since I’d last seen her, I was kinda taken by surprise. Anyway, she wanted me to see if you had any new info.”
Hyoyeon scoffs and shakes her head,
“That’s just like her, get someone to do her grunt work…She’s been getting me to do it for months. I don’t know how you put up with it for so long.”
“You know how she is,” Sunny takes another swig and squeezes her eyes shut; the burn both painful and relaxing, “she worms her way into your head and heart and stays there. Feeding. Like a tapeworm or something.”
Hyo giggles, “A Taepworm?” she emphasizes for added humor
“That’s an excellent way of putting it.”
The dancer purses her lips and drums detailed nails on the mahogany bar stand,
“I…have heard a few things recently.”
“Go on.”
“Well, seems the late Mr.Hwang has a daughter who’s flying to New Seoul in a few days to attend the funeral.”
“Shit.”
Hyoyeon continues,
“Don’t think she’s in any immediate danger or anything, but it’d be best to keep tabs on her.”
“Wait wait, hold up,” Sunny looks over at Hyoyeon quizzically, “From what Tae said, this seems like a political killing. With Kwon ruled out, maybe someone from Europia? Either way, there’s no reason to go after the daughter…”
Crossing legs tinted with glitter, the dancer shrugs,
“That’s what I thought too but a couple of nights ago this guy came into the club. Rich, bald, fat. You know, the usual gross office monkey. But this one knew things…he said that neither Europia nor the US would dare touch us right now. Some weird stuff going on within the Commandant’s cabinet. I don’t know what though, he was too gone to tell me.”
“The Commandant? What the hell could she do? She doesn’t exactly run this place.”
“Like I said, I don’t know. But more than likely, Hwang probably did.” Looking around anxiously, she leans closer to Sunny and lowers her voice to a whisper,
“You know she has eyes and ears everywhere. It’s not that farfetched to think.”
“But the Commandant basically waits on those corporate asshats hand in foot and legs over head. She wouldn’t dare.”
Hyoyeon nervously glances around again,
“I mean, she could have someone within her cabinet pulling strings to make shit happen. Regardless, there’s something fishy going on. Look after that Hwang girl.”
Sunny nods emphatically. Rising up from her seat, she wraps the dancer in a hug and bids her farewell.
Stepping out into the acrid air, she begins the trek back to her apartment - and back to Spielrein. Truth be told, Sunny really did miss her; years without a word, she was beginning to worry about the vigilante. Spielrein had made Hyoyeon promise to stay silent about her whereabouts and actions - even to an old pal like Sunny. Maybe that’s what hurt the most: the fact that Spielrein found someone else to help her out - a new companion - someone else to help carry the burden. The two of them used to be a team.
The wind picks up and Sunny is thrown back into a bout of nostalgia. Looking upwards, she smiles to herself remembering when they decided to begin this whole crime-fighting business in the first place.
---
“We’re the Danshin Duo!” Sunny declared excitedly, fist in the air
“No, you’re not calling us that.”
“What? ‘We’re short, we’re cute and we’ll kick your ass.’ It’s the perfect motto!”
“No.”
“But Tae, c’mon!”
“No. And remember, I’m Spielrein.”
Sunny relented,
“Fine.Whatever.”
---
From the notes of Dr. Jessica Jung, May 8th,
Choi Sooyoung’s evaluation went without problem. No signs of mental illness, no signs of psychotic behavior - routine. Rude, but cooperative as well as unusually flirty. Seems she isolates herself from other inmates, that might be to her best interest; her records indicate that she was thrown in prison for drug trafficking - quite the sentence. It’s reassuring to know that she hasn’t been administering narcotics within the confines of federal prison here. The guards also say she shows no signs of aggressiveness with them.
With the court ordered assessment successful and without incident, it’s my humble opinion that she is well enough to stand appeal.
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A/N: Hey everyone, sorry this update is so late. I had a bit of trouble organizing how i'd like the story to progress in my head, but I think i've figured it out now. Hope everyone's having a nice weekend! =)) PS: formatting on LJ makes me want to tear my hair out.