An honest lie | Kim Taehyung (editing*)

- A warm witness -

XXV

Having a pencil between her middle and index finger while playfully twirling it in circular motions, Eda was spacing out with her gaze fixed on her desk.

It almost looked like she wasn't breathing, moving, heck she wasn't even blinking. Her vision was stuck on an uneven spot on the wood. After a while, it started becoming blurry and unproportionate due to keeping her eyes open for too long.

"Why are you hiding things from me Eda?" A female honey-like voice snapped her out of her unintentional distraction, as she finally blinked away the dryness that had formed, giving full attention to her friend, who was staring at her with a wrinkled frown.

She sighed and staved off her gaze towards the window. "I'm not."

Aanya adapted a resigned expression and brooded in disappointment. "You asked for my help. Remember?"

Eda glanced at her from the corner of her eye.

"So the least you could do is be honest with me so that I can help."

"There's no need." She answered avoiding eye contact. "I have it under control."

Aanya touched her forehead. "Do you?" She spoke with a concerned tone. "When was the last time you avoided eye contact?"

Eda shot her a glare and rolled her eyes. She didn't like it when people would try to read her. She stood up and turned around to arrange some files.

"You don't even answer properly anymore." Aanya continued waiting for any sign of acknowledgment from her.

Eda kept preventing the conversation and setting useless things on different points of the library without having a reason to move them in the first place. All part of her plan of a bound to fail avoidance strategy.

Not receiving any interaction or contradiction from her, Aanya lost her patience. "Andromeda!" She shouted her name to get her attention.

Eda flinched at the sudden mention of her full name and harshly dropped the small box of paper clips, acknowledging her useless attempt, as she turned around with a look of discomfort. "WHAT?" She yelled back.

"What are you afraid of?" She consulted her with concern. "Come on, talk to me." She pleaded.

The young woman pressed her lips and clenched her jaw. "I-... It's-.." she released a half breath and then got rid of it all in a heavy sight while lowering her head and shaking it. "I'm afraid..." she started. ".. that there's no hope."

Aanya looked at her sympathetically. "There's always hope."

Eda shook her head again in denial and looked to her side, a feeling of anger started to rise inside her. "I wish I could just-"

"Just what?"

She put her arms on the top of the back's chair and rested her forehead in her hands while slowly brushing them upwards to her hair and pushing some strands of it behind, matching them with the rest of the braided ones.

"I feel helpless. Like there's nothing I could do but just watch."

"Watch? What are you talking about?" Aanya asked in pure perplexity.

Eda stayed quiet.

"For God's sake Eda, what's going on?" She snapped at her.

Eda shut her eyes and roughly pushed herself away from the chair with a groan before walking towards the window and admiring the clouded sky. "I'm helping a detective to look for..." she trailed off. "..Ellen."