Black Velvet

Chapter 1

Jennie was having a horrible morning. It started when she forgot to charge her phone, and her alarm clock didn't go off. And then, she couldn't find her car keys, or her badge. After at least forty-five of looking, she finally found both of them wedged between two counters in her kitchen. How they got there, she had no idea. But however they got there, had made her come fifteen minutes late to work.

"You look like a mess, Jennie," her coworker, Chaeyoung said as Jennie walked into the precinct building. "Did you hook-up or something last night?"

"Shut up, Chae," Jennie grumbled, sitting down at her desk. Her and Chaeyoung's desks faced each other, but the distinction was clear. Jennie's was neat, and organized. On Chaeyoung's side, there was almost no space uncovered. "My phone died."

"Yeah, sure," Chaeyoung said, leaning over her desk, almost hovering over Jennie's space. "Jennie, you've been single for over a year now. When are you going to actually do something about it?"

"I don't know Chae, maybe when I'm not so busy with work," Jennie said, opening her computer. It was a lie. And both of them knew it. Chaeyoung was right, Jennie hadn't been with anyone in over a year. Not after a horrible experience she had with a break-up. Even if she wouldn't admit it, it had scared her from starting another relationship.

The crime reports in the precinct had been suspiciously low in the last few weeks. The only thing for Jennie to do at work was paperwork, which bored her in a way almost nothing could. She would do almost anything to have something interesting happen. Hell, she was considering committing a crime to give her something to solve.

"Who's going to tell her?" Jennie looked up from her computer. Chaeyoung and Jisoo, another coworker, were whispering to each other. It was too quiet for Jennie to hear, but she could make out some phrases.

"I don't want to, you do it," Chaeyoung whispered. Something told Jennie they were talking about her. Both Chaeyoung and Jisoo kept glancing at her in the midst of their conversation.

"Are you talking about me?" Jennie said, loud enough to interrupt Chaeyoung and Jisoo. Both of them stopped talking, and stared at her. "What, is there something on my face?"

"Jennie, um," Jisoo said. "I don't know how to explain this. You see, the thing is-"

"Jennie, did you hear? Your ex is dead!" someone yelled across the room.

Jisoo sighed. "What Lisa said." Lisa walked from across the room over to them, and sat on Chaeyoung's desk.

"Wait, are you serious?" Jennie said. She couldn't believe it. Out of everyone, why would it be her ex? The person she loved, and loathed, at the same time. It couldn't be possible. How could he be gone?

"Witnesses saw a dead body in the river. Forensics pulled some tests, turns out he was Jongin. And he is very much not-alive," Lisa said. "Did they tell you yet?" She looked at Chaeyoung and Jisoo.

"We we're going to, until you decided the entirety of Seoul needed to know," Chaeyoung said. "Sorry, Jen."

"No, why are you apologizing? He's just my ex, he doesn't mean anything to me anymore. I actually can't believe I ever liked him anyway, he is such a dick. Or, he was a dick," Jennie said. "Really, it doesn't matter to me. In fact, it matters to me so little that I'm going to go over there now."

Jennie stood up from her desk, and walked over to the small little kitchen space in their precinct. It had been left a mess from all the people who had come by, and none of them bothering to clean it up. It had been a place that Jennie seldom came to. But she needed a moment to think. It still hadn't fully settled in yet. Her ex was dead. And he was never coming back. And she couldn't tell how it made her feel. He was a horrible person, and the way he dumped her had scared her from ever making a relationship again.