BAD HEROINES

She sat alone in the wide, gloomy room where one wall featured a large mirror. Though she couldn't see through it, the weight of watching eyes from the other side pressed heavily upon her.

With her head lowered, her intertwined hands rested on the metallic table.

'God, how long do they plan to keep me here?' She blinked slowly. 'Why the hell am I even here?'

She knew she was innocent, but in that room, it didn’t matter.

She’d tied her short brown hair into a messy bun, and the black jumpsuit hugged her slender frame.

She removed her hands from the table and rested them on her lap.

'I can't even do anything in peace. What if pulling my hands back makes me look guilty? Damn it. Can't they just be done already so I can get out of here?'

Three figures watched her through the observation mirror—two women and a man. A young man wearing glasses turned to his side where the other women stood.

"What's next? Should I go and question her?" the young man asked.

"Why are you never this eager when the suspect's a guy?" the ponytailed woman shot back, unimpressed.

"You think I'm scared of them?"

"Not only that..."

"Enough," the woman with short hair said sharply, her voice silencing them both.

Without another word, the woman walked away.

She heard approaching footsteps. The steps on the floor grew louder as they drew closer, and her light brown eyes jerked toward the door.

The woman with shoulder-length hair wore a long leather coat over a white high-neck shirt and black trousers as she stepped inside with calm confidence.

The same one who had shown up at her door for questioning. Detective Michelle Cheng. She looked at her silently as the detective took a seat across from her.

She hadn't seemed that serious when she'd appeared at her door, but now there was something almost intimidating in her.

'So this is what it feels like to be a suspect?'

The clack of the laptop hitting the table made her flinch as if she were supposed to feel that way. When she realized how tense she was from just that simple act, she inhaled deeply.

The detective's stare lingered for a moment. The girl's eyes had deep dark shadows as if she hadn't slept a wink for days. Her expression showed extreme nervousness as she kept fidgeting, but her eyes told a different story. There was no fear in them.

Michelle turned to her screen, her tone calm but firm. "Your name."

Her voice softened, almost too carefully. "Reina... Lau."

"Reina. How old are you?"

"Ah... 25."

Michelle's gaze hardened, pinning Reina with a steely stare. "Do you know why you're here?"

Last night, she had been in a casino, winning round after round, her stacks of chips growing by the minute, until the fire broke out in the building.

"Damnit," she spat as she remembered that moment. It wasn't every day she experienced such luck.

'If only I'd left sooner.'

The chaos and panicking people, the shouts for help and fire alarms still rang in her ears as bodies pushed and stumbled toward the exits.

She'd been part of that panicked crowd, focused more on saving her winnings than herself.

She didn't get to spend a penny, and here she was, treated as a suspect in starting that fire. She added another curse quietly.

Reina lowered her gaze, pressure settling in her bones at the accusation. "You think I had something to do with that fire?" she asked sincerely. "I don't. I swear!"

Michelle scrolled through Reina's file. Her name had appeared in other cases, assault, traffic violations and yet she always slipped through. Michelle's mouth curved slightly. Too many coincidences.

Michelle leaned forward. "You were the last person seen with Chaisai, right before he was murdered."

Reina's breath caught. Michelle's words echoed in her skull. Murdered.

He'd been alive just yesterday. The image of his smug smile was still vivid in her mind. Yes, she didn't like him, but how could he be gone?

"He's dead?"

A tense gaze from the detective confirmed, she'd heard right.

Was it a coincidence? She’d been the last to see him, and the police arrested her for it. She felt a strong urge to shudder.

In the middle of such thoughts, she instinctively moved her hand to her stomach.

Michelle caught the sudden tension in Reina's shoulders and the strange expression on her face, as if she were sitting on fire.

"I'm not a murderer!" Reina's voice cracked.

"Why don't you tell me what you two talked about?" Michelle asked.

"He liked my talent. He wanted to see it in person."

"Talent?" Michelle raised an eyebrow.

"Poker. He paid me, I left."

The detective's tone sharpened. "That's not what the footage shows. You were still with him. It wasn't the first time you two met, was it?"

Reina's words caught in her throat. She tried to speak, but the cramping in her stomach worsened beyond what she'd felt for all the past hours. The nausea that had been nagging, overwhelmed her.

Her vision blurred, and her body gave in to whatever had been slowly destroying her from the inside. She collapsed to the floor.

A rough cough followed, threatening to tear her chest apart.

Michelle didn't move. Her eyes narrowed as she watched with curiosity. She'd seen this trick before, fake sickness to escape interrogation. But she hadn't expected it this soon.

Then Reina coughed, and blood spattered the floor.

Michelle’s eyes widened. She dropped her arms at once. Reina wasn’t faking. Without hesitation, Michelle rushed toward her.

She touched Reina's hand only to feel how burning it was.

Reina's defensive demeanor from earlier had disappeared. Her skin turned gray, her lips trembling and pale. Her chest barely moved.

Looking at Reina's pale, almost bluish lips as she vomited blood and struggled to breathe, Michelle remembered how Reina had acted several times during the interrogation. This was too sudden to be a normal illness.

She grabbed her phone and called an ambulance.

The two officers stepped into the room, having watched through the mirror.

"Detective Cheng..." the male officer asked with panic.

Michelle ignored them, focused only on the unconscious Reina, her expression tense. Who could want her dead?

Not long after, an ambulance arrived.

Michelle stepped outside the station, watching nurses rush Reina into the ambulance and strap an oxygen mask over her face.

Now it was obvious, Reina was more involved in the case than she'd thought. If not about Chaisai's murder, then something else. Otherwise, she couldn't explain how Reina had gotten poisoned.

Michelle's fingers twitched. She was ready to crack a new case. A faint smile curved on her lips, subtle but enough for her team to notice.

They exchanged uneasy glances and sighed. That smile only ever meant one thing.

Chaos.