He turned the water off but kept holding the plate beneath it, his fingers tightening slightly around the edges. 

“Have you ever been there? It’s so entertaining watching them. You are not allergic, are you?” I asked.

“I am not allergic. I would lo– Like to go.” He smiled.

I thanked him for everything he had done since last night, and again, he simply dismissed it as if none of it counted. If he was not allergic to cat fur, he was definitely allergic to others expressing gratitude. My phone kept vibrating inside my pocket, and even without checking I knew it was my mom. She kept asking me when I was coming home.

“So, you need to do prep today for dinner, right?” I said as I stood up. “It’s 1:52 right now, I should leave. Should we go on Wednesday?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. And yes, I need to prep, my coworkers should arrive…”

My phone rang before he could finish. I didn’t recognize the number, so I glanced at Geonsu before answering.

The man on the other end introduced himself as an officer from the Fifth Precinct. They had taken over the case from last night and wanted me to come in to give a statement. I looked at the clock again. 1:52.

“I can come now.”

He asked if I could be there by two-thirty. I agreed and hung up.

My mom’s messages were still sitting beneath the missed notifications when the screen returned. I opened them and started typing, but my thumbs had begun to shake.

“I have to go,” I mumbled, trying to text my mom where I was going next. “I have to give a statement about last night… and I need to be there in 30 minutes. Thank you for the meal.” 

I picked up my jacket and threw it on, walking towards the door. Geonsu followed behind me and as I turned to face him, I saw him try to grab onto the arms of my jacket but retract his hand fast. He put his hands behind his back and spoke.

“Would you like to be accompanied?”

It wasn’t the first time I had to give a statement. I could go by myself. Still, I didn’t answer him immediately.

“You need to prep for dinner right now,” I said.

“It’s fine. This is such a non-issue. Trust me.”

“What if this takes too long? You might miss work.”

“Then I take today off,” he whispered.

I stared at him. His eyes widened slightly when I didn’t answer, and his hands remained tucked behind his back. He was getting antsy again.

I could go alone, but… I didn’t particularly want to.

“Okay.” I pulled my jacket closer. “I would like to be accompanied.”

He nodded to himself and disappeared toward the other side of the kitchen. I could still see him moving around farther down while I texted my mom and told her where I was going. I had already given her enough reasons to worry since last night. The least I could do was tell her which precinct wanted me there. 

By the time I put my phone away, Geonsu had changed his shirt and was pulling a beanie over his hair. He wrapped a scarf around his neck, grabbed his jacket and walked back toward me while pushing one arm into the sleeve.

I reached for the door. It opened before I touched it.

The group I walked past returned. I was overwhelmed with the number of people gathered around the door. There were considerably more of them when they were all standing directly in front of me.

My mind was already somewhere between the night before and whatever waited for me at the precinct. Having people suddenly fill the doorway didn’t help.

Geonsu moved before I did.

He stepped partly in front of me, his body turned at an angle rather than completely blocking me, and lifted one hand toward the man who had opened the door.

“Give us a second.”

The man backed up enough for us to have some room.

“I need today off,” Geonsu said. “I’ll come in Tuesday and make it up.”

“Is everything okay? Why so suddenly?”

“Yeah. I need to resolve a personal matter,” Geonsu said.

The man looked briefly past him toward me. “Yeah, man. It’s perfectly fine. Don’t worry about it. Take care,” the man said.

“Thanks.”

They shared a fist bump and afterwards, Geonsu led the way. I followed behind. Everyone we walked past greeted him, telling him to take it easy and be safe, and some smiled warmly at me and said bye. 

Heading through the alley, I was still lost in thought. I burrowed my chin into my jacket. I made it another step before realizing he wasn’t beside me anymore and turned around. He was already taking off his scarf.

“What?”

He walked over and placed it around my neck.

“Oh. I’m not–”

He had already looped it around a second time. His fingers worked quickly, pulling one end through and adjusting the fabric until it sat closer beneath my chin. I stood there and let him finish. 

He sighed, his warm breath clouding between us before drifting upward. He turned his head and looked towards the main street, then turned his body and stepped to my side again. 

“Okay, let’s go.” He buried his own chin into the collar of his jacket.

I touched the scarf around my neck and continued walking.

It smelled mostly like cold air. Something much fainter lingered underneath, caught deep inside the fabric. Eucalyptus, slightly bitter and green. I pulled the scarf a little higher over my mouth without thinking about it.

That was when I realized I hadn’t smelled him once since arriving at Toscana. Geonsu himself didn’t smell like anything that day.

Walking right beside him, there was nothing coming from his skin or clothes. Whatever remained in the scarf must have been older, caught deep between the fibers. 

We walked for around thirteen minutes without saying much. I didn’t mind it. The closer we got, the more my mind wandered toward what I would have to say once we arrived. I tried putting everything from last night back into the right order. The bathroom. His arm against the door. The first wave of rotten grapefruit. My foot between the door and the frame.

I breathed through my nose and caught the faint eucalyptus inside the scarf again.

The next breath came easier.

At a red light, I glanced sideways. Geonsu did the same thing. The light turned green, but before we crossed, he looked left and right again. I chuckled, louder than I intended.

“Huh?” His head turned toward me immediately.

“Nothing,” I said, pressing my smile into his scarf.

We arrived at the precinct a little before two-thirty, identified ourselves and were shown to a waiting area. Forty minutes later, we were still there.

Geonsu sat beside me without saying much. He hadn’t tried to start a conversation since we came inside, and I was grateful for it. My thoughts wandered now and then, but never far enough to make me want to leave.

His scarf was long despite being wrapped around my neck twice. One end rested across my thigh and I had been playing with it for I didn’t know how long, rubbing the fabric between my fingers, folding the corner and smoothing it out again. Sometimes I pulled the other end closer to my face. The eucalyptus had almost disappeared since we came inside, but if I breathed deeply enough, I could still find it.

I was doing exactly that when I heard heels coming quickly down the hallway.

I looked up.

My mom?

She was talking to somebody farther down, gesturing with one hand while looking around the waiting area. The moment she spotted me, her entire face changed. She thanked the person helping her and immediately started walking toward us.

“Mom?” I whispered.

“What?” Geonsu turned his head toward me. 

I slowly let go of the scarf and stood up before she reached us. “What are you doing here?”

She didn’t answer. Her arms went around me first, pulling me against her hard enough that the scarf bunched beneath my chin.

“Are you okay? Let me see you.” She pulled back and held my face between her hands. “My sweet baby. Are you hurt? Why didn’t you call me?”

“Mom, I’m fine,” I whispered.

She wiped beneath my eye with her thumb. 

“I’m fine,” I repeated, pulling my face away.

“My child sends me a message saying he’s going to a police precinct and you ask me why I am here?” Her brows furrowed. “You didn’t come home last night, you tell me about what happened after the fact, and I find out you’re coming here alone?” she said as she smacked me lightly behind the head.

“But… I’m not alone.” I turned toward Geonsu.

He was a few steps behind us, his hands held awkwardly in front of himself. 

“Hello, ma’am.” 

My mom looked at him properly for the first time.

“Hello…” Her eyes moved over him before returning to his face. “And you are?”

“My name is Geonsu Walker, ma’am. I am an acquaintance of your son.”

“Denise Becker.” She accepted the hand he offered her. “I’ve never heard of you. Why are you here with Kento?” 

Their handshake was brief and strangely uncoordinated. My mom let go but continued looking at him, then at me, before her eyes returned to him again.

I had told her I was at a friend’s place this morning. I hadn’t mentioned that the friend was somebody she had never met or even heard me talk about before. Judging by the way she was looking at Geonsu, she had noticed that missing part too.

Geonsu opened his mouth.

“Mister Kento Becker?”

We all looked toward the hallway.

A man approached us and introduced himself as Trevon Meyer. He wore a shirt without a tie and black suit pants, with an identification card clipped to his belt.

“I’ll be taking your statement today. Would you please follow me?” He glanced at my mom and Geonsu. “Would you like either of them to come with you?”

I looked between them. I wanted my mom there, as I did Geonsu. And Geonsu had just left work to be there. I could have given the statement alone, but sending either of them away after that gave me an unpleasant feeling.

Besides, leaving Geonsu alone with my mother after that introduction seemed cruel.

“Can they both come?”

“Of course. Follow me, please.”

We were taken into a room that looked like a small, cheap conference room. A rectangular table took up most of it, with roller blinds covering the window toward the hallway. Meyer closed them after we entered.

I found the privacy slightly excessive. My statement was going to be short. Nothing had happened that would take very long to explain.

My mom sat to my left and started picking the polish off her thumbnail. Geonsu took the chair on my right.

Meyer explained that he would probably ask me to repeat things I had already told the officers last night, and that if I couldn’t remember something exactly, I should say so instead of guessing.

“Do you know the man from the restroom?”

“No. I had never seen him before.”

“Did you have any interaction with him before you went inside?”

I shook my head.

He asked me to tell him what happened from the beginning, so I did. I told him about washing my hands, the man bumping into me and blocking the door when I tried to leave. Meyer mostly let me speak until I mentioned the pheromones.

“Before he released them, did you tell him you didn’t want him to?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember what you said?”

Unfortunately, I did.

I repeated enough of the conversation for him to write it down. The offer to calm me, what he said about my scent and the fact that he touched my hair after I asked him to move. 

“Tsk, bastard.” My mom parted her lips just to say that. 

Meyer asked me to describe the pheromone release next. I explained the pulsing and how the strength kept changing before I could adjust to it. Then came the questions I had expected and didn’t particularly want to answer in front of either person sitting beside me.

Whether I felt dizzy. Whether my legs weakened. What other involuntary reactions I had.

I answered him.

He wrote everything down without reacting to any of it, which made it considerably easier.

“And what happened immediately before you left the restroom?”

“He leaned toward my face. I thought he was going to kiss me, so I scratched him. When he moved away from the door, I got out.”

Meyer looked toward Geonsu. “That’s when you saw him? The officers noted that you were there.”

“Yeah.”

Geonsu had barely moved since the interview started. Now his hands were clasped tightly between his knees.

“I heard the door hit the wall and looked over. Kento came out first.” He paused, his jaw shifting before he continued. “The other guy came after him, yelling.”

Meyer asked what he remembered hearing. Geonsu repeated what he could.

“What did you do?” Meyer asked.

“Got between them. I told him to back up.”

“Did you make physical contact with him?”

“Only when he came forward. I pushed him back.” Geonsu gave an apologetic smile.

A vein stood out along the side of his neck now and his fingers were pressing hard enough into one another that the skin around his knuckles had gone lighter.

I glanced toward my mom. She wasn’t picking at her nails anymore. She was looking at Geonsu.

“So, what are you going to do to that motherfu– I mean, guy?” my mom asked, crossing her arms and leaning back into her seat. “He tried to sexually assault my son.”

“I understand, ma’am. What happens from here isn’t something I can promise you. We’ll submit what we have, including Kento’s statement, and the case will be reviewed…”

“This is a serious matter! I want him put on the registry as well,” my mom said, getting louder.

“Mom, please…”

She pressed her lips together. “I’m sorry. Continue.”

“I have no other questions, Kento.” Meyer finally let a small smile slip through. “We’ve also spoken with the manager and some of the staff about what they witnessed afterward. We’ll contact you if we need anything else. Thank you for your time!” He stood up slowly.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” my mom muttered and picked up her purse. 

All three of us left the room and were escorted by the detective until we reached the front door. 

“And here. If you need counseling, call this number. Don’t hesitate.” 

The detective handed me a card, shook my hand, then my mom’s and Geonsu’s. He nodded his head slightly and turned around. The moment the three of us were alone outside, my mom spoke up.

“Care to get some coffee with us? I need to calm down.”

“Um, yes. Thank you,” Geonsu responded.