[h1][b][i][color=lightblue][center]Shin-ae Yun[/center][/color][/i][/b][/h1]
[center][img]https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/Zxbwq_UeWaxQJIbhzXOuAw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTIwNDg7aD0xMTUy/https://media.zenfs.com/en/comingsoon_net_477/18ead59aa410f975313e99a05011bee4[/img]

[i]Location: West Caldwell Streets
Skills: N/A[/i][hr][hr][/center]
There was a long, awkward silence after AJ broke down, or at least that's how SHin-ae saw it.

Although Shin-ae hadn't exactly wanted her anywhere near her scrape, she had to admit that she'd cleaned it up fine. And she'd gotten her violin in the end, so really, everything turned out fine. Until AJ did, in fact, start crying. Shin-ae wasn't exactly sure how to respond to it, she'd never been good with kids, and really, never been good with upset people in general. But Kaitlyn's question was still sitting there, and it seemed like bad form to not answer it at all. Hence the silence. While she waited for some kind of magic to break the impasse--or for an arbitrary length of time that felt 'long enough' after AJ started crying, she busied herself with checking on her instrument.

Running her finger softly along the case--lingering for a moment on the bite mark that Meredith had left there and swallowing heavily--she unlatched it with delicate hands, lifting the violin gingerly out like a glass infant and inspecting it. Nothing was broken. Frets were firm. Strings were still in place. She ran a fingernail softly over them, and the soft strum told her that it was still in tune from playing it last night. Placing it carefully back in its cradle of deep blue velvet, she pulled the bow out next. This was the part she'd worried about the most; it was a thin, delicate piece of equipment, after all. But she needn't have worried. It was still just as intact as it was before. The rosin was still sitting in its nook. She let out a long breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Fine. It was fine.

Another moment passed before she realized that probably more time had passed than was strictly necessary, and became belatedly aware of how awkward the silence was. Replacing the bow and closing the case, she coughed lightly into her hand, then turned to Kaitlyn. "[color=lightblue]Manhattan, Upper East Side. The whole city basically blew up so I got out as fast as I could.[/color]"

She tested her leg for a moment, wincing at the still-painful alcohol sting, before standing up and walking slowly and with a light limp over to her fallen bicycle. Even before she thought to kneel down to inspect it, she heaved a long, quiet sigh and searched around on the tarmac. Ah, there it was. Another few feet away, she bent down and picked up the snapped-off left pedal.

A part of her wanted to say something to AJ. She'd [i]liked[/i] that bike. But her brain managed to catch up just in time to remind her that yelling at a child who had watched her coach get killed, or at least that's what she could gather happened, would be a [i]horrible[/i] thing to do, and would leave her feeling guilty for who knew how long after. The least she could do was to not put her foot that hard in her mouth. Maybe she could find a way to repair it somehow, though that'd mean she'd need to walk it for a while. 

Tossing the pedal up and down in her hand a few times, she returned to where she'd been, sitting down again next to her violin and applying as much pressure to the gauze as she dared. She almost opened her mouth to speak, but stifled the impulse at the last moment. She didn't know if she'd already committed a faux pas. It'd probably be better if she stayed quiet for a while.