Kirihara Misaki flipped on the lights and surveyed her apartment for a long moment, before finally entering and shutting the door with a sigh. This was becoming too much of a ritual, but she just couldn't seem to break out of it.

It's not like she actually expected to see anything other than an empty apartment. She wasn't even sure she wanted to see anything else. After all, if he did show up in her apartment after dark, it would most likely be to kill her, not to sweep her off her feet.

She didn't know which option was more terrifying.

Misaki tossed her purse and keys onto the kitchen counter and opened the fridge. Two week-old take-out containers…a bunch of brown bananas…a yogurt. She took the yogurt, and leaned against the counter to eat.

Misaki hadn't seen Hei - or Li, for that matter - in nearly three weeks. Not since the night he had spared her life in exchange for her silence. Not since the night he had kissed her.

At least, she thought he had kissed her. Her memory of the moments before he'd knocked her out was hazy. She clearly remembered agreeing to his deal, and him standing over her, explaining that he had to shock her, gazing deep into her eyes, and then…hazy.

She might have dreamed the whole thing. After all, she'd been out for hours. Long enough for him to remove every last trace of his team's occupation from the rundown old bar - even the towel he had given her to clean her hands with was gone. It was late in the morning when she finally awoke in a hospital bed, having been found unconscious in the basement of the bar after someone (Hei, she presumed) called the police with an anonymous tip.

The whole situation still baffled her. Why hadn't he just killed her? Contractors were too pragmatic to leave loose ends dangling (and a cop whose mission it was to discover his identity and arrest him was one hell of a loose end). He had implied that he had feelings for her…but that was completely crazy. He was a contractor.

…But if he did have feelings for her, then why hadn't she seen him again? For that matter, why should she care? He was an assassin - a contractor!

Or had he realized it was a mistake to trust her after all, and he was just waiting for the right time to silence her forever?

The doorbell rang, startling Misaki so badly that she slopped yogurt over her hand. Cursing herself for being a paranoid idiot (like he would actually ring the doorbell - or would he? He had been oddly polite whilst she was in his possession), she went to answer the door. Her palms were sweating as she turned the handle.

"Hungry?" Kanami held up two bags of take-out, spotted with grease.

"Oh, thank god," Misaki said - though whether the relief was from seeing her friend or the food, she didn't know. "How did you know I was home?"

Kanami slipped off her shoes, and handed the bags to Misaki. "I heard you were kicked out of the office, and these days if you're not there, you're here."

"I was not kicked out," Misaki protested as she returned to the kitchen to get out two bowls. "The Director just…suggested…I take a break for dinner. Somewhere else." She purposely ignored the second half of Kanami's comment.

"Everyone's still walking on eggshells around you, huh?"

Misaki sighed. "Yes. And it's driving me crazy. I don't know how many times I've had to tell Saitou that I'm not upset about his phone being off - it was my own fault for walking into…whatever it was I walked into."

"Hm, maybe that's the problem," Kanami mused. "Misaki, this expired a month ago!"

Misaki looked at her friend; Kanami was holding up the yogurt container. "Expired yogurt is the problem?"

"No. Well, maybe." Kanami opened the fridge. "Tch! When was the last time you went grocery shopping?"

Her palms were sweating again. She wiped them off on a napkin. "I don't know; I've been busy." And what if I run into Li Shengshun while I'm out at the grocery store? She wanted so badly to see him again; and yet, was terrified of what would happen if she did.

"See, that is the problem." Kanami crossed her arms and gave Misaki a pointed look. "You're not that busy, but you've been putting in extra hours anyway; you're avoiding social interactions completely; you aren't giving your team the usual hard time; you just…haven't been acting like yourself."

Misaki crossed the room to the sofa and began eating. She didn't have a rebuttal to Kanami's observations; everything she said was true.

"I can't imagine how horrifying it must be," Kanami continued, following Misaki to the sofa with her own bowl. "To know you were in the hands of such a dangerous contractor, and not be able to remember a thing. But - I don't know, I would have expected you to be more furious about it, to put all your effort into catching him. Instead you let the rest of your team handle the investigation, and you haven't badgered me about his star once."

"There was nothing left to investigate," Misaki said around a dumpling.

"Unless…"

"Unless what?"

Her friend looked at her shrewdly. "Unless you do remember something about that night."

Misaki coughed and nearly choked on the dumpling.

"I knew it! There is something you haven't said!"

"It's not…look, I can't explain it." She rubbed her temple. "I guess I'm just worried about running into him again. He's let me go with my life twice now; I really don't want to bet on a third time. And burying myself in work is the only way I can distract myself."

"Misaki…"

"It's alright," Misaki assured her. "You're right. I need to get back to my old self. There's no point in worrying; if I see him again, I'll shoot him." She'd told Hei the same thing, she remembered - maybe that was why she hadn't seen him.

Kanami smiled. "That's more like it."

The two continued their dinner with more frivolous conversation. Misaki felt her anxiety starting to wash away. Kanami was right, she needed to stop worrying about what Hei might or might not do, what he might or might not be thinking, and just focus on herself again.

Kanami's phone buzzed. She looked at the screen.

"What is it?" Misaki asked, watching her friend's face.

"Nothing," Kanami said, a little too casually. "Just work stuff."

"Work stuff, like contractor activity?"

"Don't worry about it."

"It's BK-201, isn't it?" Misaki wiped her palms on a napkin. "Look, you just made me promise to start acting like myself again, and that includes 'badgering' you about his activity."

Kanami sighed. "Fine. I guess you're still on duty anyway, aren't you. Three stars are active, although they haven't been able to get a fix on the contractors' location."

"Which stars?"

"TX-788, SY-573, …and BK-201."