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The stars in the sky were few that night, as if someone had thrown a dark blanket over the sky to prevent anyone from having to watch the events about to unfold. The oblivious pink-haired girl way below stared up at the distant pinpricks of light scattered throughout the blackness. She wished that there were more. The stars were so pretty. Maybe they were making way for a shooting star, she hoped. She'd always really wanted to be able to wish upon one."Enjoying the view?" her companion inquired. The other girl grinned wide, eyes lighting up and matching the stars above."Yes!" she responded enthusiastically. "I love the stars. They're my favourite part of nature." she explained, happy to be out in the park amongst the trees, watched by the twinkling stars, no one around except for her and her friend. Well, and the young girl they'd passed walking a dog along the riverside a few moments ago.The girl's companion blinked up at the almost starless sky, brow arching. "There are hardly any there." she pointed out. The pink-haired girl shrugged, seemingly content with simply basking in whatever nature had to offer. "They probably didn't come out because they didn't want to see you. It is possible that you're literally that annoying that you could drive the stars away." The girl stopped walking, hurt and a little confused, and turned around to respond to her friend, only to come face-to-face with the knife in her hand. "Probably making a point by staying away from you on your last night alive."The pink-haired girl bolted, her footsteps thudding hard on the grass, her breaths rapid and shallow. She'd never been a strong runner - how would she be able to escape this situation alive? She collided with a tree in her panic, almost sending herself tumbling to the ground. She caught herself and was about to start running again, but the other girl had caught up easily and slammed the girl against the tree, pinning her there with one arm while the other dragged the knife across the girl's throat. "Let me go!" the girl screamed, fighting desperately, albeit uselessly, against  her attacker's grip. "Stop, please!" she begged. She didn't stop. "You can't just kill me, Ha S-" she cut herself off with an earth-shattering scream, as the knife tore through her flesh. The scream was reduced to a helpless gurgle when the blade was plunged into her throat. The attacker ripped her knife from the bleeding girl's neck and dropped her to the ground, leaning to stab her throat a few more times. That was one way to shut her up, the attacker thought.She watched the light drain from her friend's eyes, smiling in satisfaction once she was dead and leaving her bloody corpse there to rot, feeling triumphant and victorious.-Jung Jinsoul scalded her tongue on a too-hot cup of coffee too early the next morning, and set the dangerous liquid down on her desk in the police station with an offended frown. Her fellow detective and one of her best friends, Choi Yerim, sniggered from the neighbouring desk. "The cup says 'Caution: Hot' for a reason, you know." Yerim teased.Jinsoul rolled her eyes, giving herself a headache. "Shut up." she groused. It was too early for this.Yerim just grinned, and cracked her knuckles (making Jinsoul shudder uncomfortably) as she observed her surroundings. "No Jiwoo yet, huh?"Jinsoul scoffed. "Hopefully no Jiwoo ever." she muttered, absent-mindedly reaching for her steaming coffee cup again."That's still hot." Yerim reminded her. She set it down. "Don't you ever think that you're maybe a little too hard on her?" Yerim asked. Jinsoul's raised eyebrow and disdainful expression indicated a 'no, not particularly'. "She's only trying to help, you know." Yerim pressed.Jinsoul snorted. "She's really not all that helpful." she sniped. Yerim let out a resigned sigh. Jinsoul deemed her coffee safe to consume after blowing on it to cool it down a little first.Jiwoo was their (rather irritating) civilian consultant, who tended to show up when it suited her, and who, according to Jinsoul, had volunteered herself to make Jinsoul's life a living hell on the daily. Yerim thought that her friend was just a little dramatic."Well, I like her." Yerim said. Jinsoul couldn't understand how. Then again, Yerim's glass was always half full. Jinsoul's was absolutely not. Never had been, probably never would be.They'd met Jiwoo when she'd been one of the witnesses to a murder a few months previously. Jiwoo, a little intoxicated and clearly not taking the situation as seriously as she should have been, had taken one look at Jinsoul and immediately tried some awful line about being willing to witness every murder in the city if it meant she got to witness Jinsoul's beauty. Yerim and their other best friend and captain, Jungeun, had cracked up at the sight of Jinsoul's mortified face and blank stare, which prompted Jungeun to suggest that Jiwoo become a civilian consultant for them and do just that. Jinsoul didn't think she'd ever forgive her."You deal with her, then." Jinsoul responded, huffing. Speak of the devil, Jinsoul could hear Jiwoo approaching. Loudly. Fantastic.Yerim grinned cheekily. "Nah. She's all yours." Jinsoul scowled at her younger colleague as Jiwoo rounded the corner."Jinsoullie!" Jiwoo greeted cheerily; far too loud and chirpy for this early in the morning, Jinsoul thought, grimacing slightly. Jiwoo flung her arms around Jinsoul's shoulders, almost crushing the detective's bones in her tight embrace. Yerim snorted at the exasperated look on Jinsoul's face. "Hi, Yerim." Jiwoo smiled politely at the younger girl, who returned the greeting with a small wave. Why did Jiwoo always pay way more attention to Jinsoul than anyone else? Surely she wasn't that interesting, Jinsoul mentally grumbled. Yerim was nicer. Jungeun was funnier. Yeojin was chattier. Jinsoul was kind of boring and miserable, honestly. Jiwoo took a seat on Jinsoul's desk, despite the empty chair adjacent to it, and nearly knocked over a stack of very important paperwork. She caught it before it hit the floor and ruined Jinsoul's life, barely saving Jinsoul from having a mild heart attack. While Jinsoul was still trying to recover from that, Jiwoo immediately began babbling away, as usual, something about a hectic morning and her flatmate's dog, almost kicking Jinsoul's coffee out of her hand as she swung her legs while she talked about the stress she'd been placed under. Like singing sensation Kim Jiwoo knew stress.Jinsoul snapped at the consultant a little. Maybe she shouldn't have. She'd later blame it on the early hour and her headache, even though deep down she knew that she was just being petty for no real reason. She interrupted her, told her to shut up, and continued to sip her coffee and act like she'd rather be dead than anywhere near the singer. Jiwoo looked upset. Yerim looked irked. Jinsoul ignored both of them.Jungeun strode out of her office, bleached-blonde hair framing her grim expression. Jinsoul sighed. A nice early-morning murder, then. This job brought so much joy. She, Yerim and (unfortunately) Jiwoo got up to follow the Captain, who looked more upset than she usually did. "You guys are gonna have to brace yourselves for this one." Jungeun told her detectives."What? Why? Is it super gory?" Yerim asked, confused.Jungeun shrugged. "Not particularly, but, uh..."Jinsoul paused. "We don't... know them, do we?" she inquired hesitantly. She'd never had to investigate the murder of someone she knew before, and she really hoped that she didn't have to change that now."No way. It will just be a weird one, or something." Yerim responded, seeming sure of herself.Yerim was wrong. They knew the victim."Wong Kahei, 26." Yeojin, the medical examiner, announced. "Stabbed repeatedly in the throat. Time of death between 11:20 and 11:35, according to the witness." Jinsoul zoned out as Yeojin started detailing an apparent struggle, staring at the rotting corpse of one of her oldest friends. Kahei was dead. Kind, sweet, gentle Kahei had been murdered in cold blood.Yerim had left Jinsoul's side as soon as she'd heard Yeojin say Kahei's name and gone to talk to the witness instead. Jinsoul decided to follow her lead. Jungeun could get the details from Yeojin. They'd both understand.Jinsoul trudged over to Yerim, Jiwoo following once she realised that the witness had a dog. "Can I pet your dog?" she asked, interrupted Yerim.Yerim frowned. "Jiwoo. This is a crime scene."Jiwoo ignored her and repeated her question to the witness, who nodded silently, looking a little confused. "She's not a cop." Jinsoul muttered to her, in an attempt to save the reputation of the police."No- yeah- I know- Kim Jiwoo, I know who she is, but, uh... why is she here?" the young woman asked, still staring in the direction of Jiwoo and her dog."She's our civilian consultant." Yerim replied. She didn't seem all too bothered by the interruption, but Jinsoul figured that she'd take anything that distracted her from the fact that her close friend's dead body was lying a few feet away. "Ah. Oh, yeah, I think I read something about that on Tumblr." she said, before turning away and continuing to recount what happened. Jinsoul thought she heard Yerim sigh quietly. "When... When I got here, she was already dead, and the person who killed her was long gone. But we'd crossed paths earlier on, and she was walking with another girl. She was alone when I found her, though... I didn't see the other girl anywhere. I don't know where she went."Yerim nodded as she noted down what the girl, Chaewon according to Yerim's notebook, was saying. "She could be our killer. Thank you, Chaewon." Jinsoul was impressed by how professional Yerim appeared to be staying. Neither of them had ever dealt with the murder of someone they knew, and Yerim seemed to be handling it a lot better than Jinsoul was. Then again, Yerim was clearly deliberately avoiding looking at the body. Or acknowledging that it was Kahei, probably. She was likely pretending to herself that it was just another poor soul that she'd never met, would never meet, and came to a horrible end that would never really affect her outside of work. Jinsoul wondered when it would hit her. "Do you think you could describe the girl the victim was with to a sketch artist?" Ah. There it was. Ordinarily, Yerim would have said the victim's name, rather than just 'the victim'. She always wanted them to be remembered as the person they were, not just as a corpse at a crime scene. Yerim was pretending that this wasn't happening, that it wasn't Kahei. Avoiding confronting the situation. The realisation would sink in soon enough.The witness nodded. "Yeah, I mean, it was kinda dark, but I think I got a good enough look at her face.""I'll call Sunmi." Jinsoul told Yerim, pulling her work phone out of her pocket. "Oh, wait! There was something else." Chaewon exclaimed. "Sorry, I only just remembered. She - uh, the girl, the dea- the victim, I mean - she shouted something before she died, I think she was in the middle of saying the murderer's name?"Jinsoul looked up at the blonde, eyebrows raised. "A name? What was it?" Yerim was frowning as she wrote silently in her notebook. It was sinking in, then."Uh, 'Ha S-' something, she didn't finish it..." Chaewon trailed off sadly. Well, 'Ha S-' narrowed it down a fair bit, Jinsoul thought. She was suddenly grateful for Kahei's loud voice. Then she realised that she'd never hear it again and crumpled.Yerim seemed to have had a similar realisation. "Right, uh, thanks." she mumbled. "At least that narrows it down.""To everyone whose family name is Ha." Jinsoul finished. Yerim frowned. "She always last-named people, remember?"Yerim remembered. She looked at the ground as she felt her eyes filling with tears, hearing a distant 'Choi Yerim!' in Kahei's exasperated voice. She'd never hear that voice again. A tear fell. "Mmhm."Chaewon gasped. "Wh- You knew her?"Jinsoul nodded, not moving her gaze away from the spot where Yerim's tears had fallen on the ground. "Yeah. We're... we were... friends with her. For a long time." Chaewon covered her mouth with her hand and started crying. Jinsoul didn't really know what to say. Her brain was too full with memories of Kahei. Her train of thought was interrupted by a shriek from Jungeun as Chaewon's labrador started licking her ankle. Jinsoul snickered despite the situation. Everyone knew it wasn't funny, really, but Jungeun's fear of dogs would never fail to make everyone laugh at her. Jinsoul was surprised she hadn't fired anyone over it yet. Chaewon called to her dog, looking embarrassed, as Jungeun edged away and nearly ended up halfway up a tree. "Loona! Get back here, girl!" The dog turned away from Jungeun and returned to her owner's side. It'd be nice if Jiwoo was that obedient, Jinsoul thought.Speaking of whom, Jiwoo was sat on the floor on her phone, all interest in both the dog and the case seemingly gone. She hadn't even acknowledged Jungeun's panic. Jiwoo was usually the only one who told everyone to stop laughing at her phobia. Jinsoul frowned. Jiwoo must have been very invested in whatever Hyejoo was texting her.It must have been super intriguing, actually, because Jiwoo was still on her phone when they were back at the station and Seulgi was writing on the murder board. Yerim was getting coffee. She was also taking her time. Fair enough, Jinsoul thought. Jinsoul herself was taking her time wondering what in the hell Jiwoo was playing at rather than paying attention to Seulgi. She shifted to try and sneak a glance at Jiwoo's phone screen. Turned out she was looking at surreal memes on tumblr. Unbelievable. "Here's the sketch from Sunmi." Jungeun said, handing a drawing of a dark-haired, angry-looking woman to Seulgi. Jinsoul glared at it. That woman probably killed Kahei. Then she glared at Jiwoo. She still wasn't paying attention. Jinsoul would quite honestly like to stab her in the face."Jinsoul, are you going to the funeral?" Jungeun asked, pulling Jinsoul back to reality."Hmm? Oh, yeah." Jinsoul mumbled. "Hey, if this woman is a friend of Kahei's then she might be there. We can question her about what happened.""Unless she's the murderer, in which case she likely won't be there." Seulgi pointed out."In which case I'll kill her." Jinsoul hissed through gritted teeth."Jinsoul, that's illegal." Jungeun muttered."What's illegal?" Yerim asked as she rounded the corner, carrying five coffees."Pre-meditated murder." Jinsoul replied as Yerim handed out the coffees. Mocha with extra whipped cream for Jiwoo, Americano for Seulgi, skinny latte for Jungeun, cappuccino for Yerim, triple espresso for Jinsoul. "Okay then." Yerim sat down at her desk, carefully avoiding looking at the murder board. "When... When's the funeral?""Three days from now." Jinsoul told her. "You're going, right?""Right. You two going?""Of course." Jungeun replied."I'll go too." Jiwoo cut in. Jinsoul turned to stare incredulously at her, nearly dropping her coffee. Her phone was down, for once, and she was staring at Jinsoul like she was asking permission. Jinsoul wanted to swill her. "You don't even know Kahei." Jinsoul practically spat out, shooting a challenging stare at her. Jiwoo seemed unfazed.She frowned. "So?" she responded, hopping off the desk. Jinsoul raised an eyebrow. "Anyway, I'm going home. Need to dogsit Max while Hyejoo's in work." she announced, turning to leave. "Thanks for the coffee, Yerim!""No problem." Yerim called back, shooting finger guns at her even though she wasn't looking. She also hadn't looked at the murder board once, Yerim realised. "Wait, how does she know who we're looking for if she didn't..." Yerim turned to look at Sunmi's sketch but accidentally looked at the picture of Kahei's corpse instead. It was the first time she'd seen it. She burst into tears. Jinsoul followed suit.Because what the hell?? What the hell??? First of all, Kahei was dead. Secondly, Yerim was crying. Thirdly, Jiwoo was currently ruining everything, on a bigger scale than usual, and Jinsoul quite honestly wanted to punch her. Why did Jiwoo even want to come to the funeral? To annoy Jinsoul? Likely. Also, Kahei was dead. Why was Kahei dead. Kahei was the nicest person Jinsoul knew, besides Yerim. Who would want to kill her? Jinsoul was close to tearing out her own hair. And then Jiwoo's main organs. Jinsoul wondered why she was being like this on this particular case. Surely she didn't dislike them that much? Jinsoul hated her."Jinsoul." Jungeun whispered. "I know you're upset about Jiwoo as well. Don't worry. She won't ruin a funeral." she said, handing Yerim a box of tissues.So, anyway, Jiwoo ruined the funeral.She spent the whole time texting Hyejoo and sharing memes. She even had the audacity to snort every now and then. Jinsoul wanted to scream. Although, she did notice the point where Hyejoo remembered that Jiwoo was at a funeral and stopped responding, which Jinsoul was thankful for. Jiwoo didn't seem to reach that point, though.Jungeun and Yerim made sure they stayed in between Jinsoul and Jiwoo. Probably a good thing, or Jiwoo likely would have been joining Kahei.Jiwoo wandered off after Kahei's coffin had been lowered into her grave. Jinsoul was secretly grateful. She decided to focus on Kahei instead, on Yerim's and Jungeun's tears and on everything they loved and were going to miss about Kahei. It was a lot.Jiwoo, meanwhile, was Super Focused on the Undercover Operation. Find a friend of the vic's whose name started with Ha S-. Simple. Easy. A baby could do it. God, she wanted to go home. She saw a teary-eyed brunette woman stepping away from the grave and decided she'd start there. Maybe she was crying because she felt guilty for leaving her friend. Maybe she was just sad. Maybe it's Maybelline. Maybe Jiwoo needed a snack. No, Jiwoo definitely needed a snack. Oh well. The snack would have to wait. Anyway. Super Focused."Hi, I'm Kim Jiwoo. I'm so sorry for your loss." She said, sincerity in her words and eyes. The woman managed a small smile."Jo Haseul." She introduced herself. (Ha S-!!!!!) "How did you know her?""Oh, uh, I didn't. I'm just here with a mutual friend. Y'know, moral support and all." Jiwoo praised herself for her improvisation abilities. "I understand what you're going through, though." She added quietly, so quietly she wasn't sure she'd actually said it, but Haseul nodded in understanding. She turned her face upwards, frowning at the sky."It's a beautiful day." She sighed. "Kahei would have loved it. She would have dragged us out to the park to pet dogs and admire trees and stuff..." Haseul trailed off, tears streaming down her cheeks. Jiwoo almost just left it alone. Almost just alerted Jungeun, walked away, went home and had that snack. But she was determined to prove her competence to Jinsoul, and prove it she would. Hopefully."When was the last time you saw her?" Jiwoo asked tentatively, immediately deciding that she wasn't good at this questioning thing. Maybe she should leave this to the professionals, after all. It felt awkward, uncomfortable, and she honestly didn't really want to pry, which is what it felt like. Did the detectives feel like this?Haseul wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Like, the day before she died. We were supposed to all go out together that night, but she cancelled last minute. I don't know why. Probably to look at the stars or something."Jiwoo frowned at that. There hadn't been many stars out that night, if she recalled correctly. She'd been stargazing with Hyejoo and Max. Well, Hyejoo had gotten bored after fifteen minutes. Max liked them, though. If Jiwoo was as good at interpreting woofs as she thought she was. Focus!!!She started to try and stutter out another question, but Yerim appeared by her side at that exact moment. Maybe there was a God after all, Jiwoo thought. "Haseul?" Yerim sounded happy to see her. Great, Jiwoo thought, time to escape. "I haven't seen you in forever!" Yerim exclaimed, excited. Then deflated. "Suppose... the circumstances aren't ideal...""Yeah." Haseul frowned. "The girls and I would invite you and Jungeun and Jinsoul out more, but we know that you're all always working or sleeping or locking people up." she explained."Pretty much." Yerim shrugged."Way cooler than us three, anyway." Haseul smiled. It was forced. Jiwoo wanted to go home.Yerim did a dramatic hair flip and tried to smile, but didn't quite make it there. Jiwoo didn't get why she was so upset. Yerim gave up and changed the subject. "You know Jiwoo?""Oh, no, we just met. Are you two friends?" Haseul inquired."Yeah! Well, we work together. Honestly, I think she really only likes Jinsoul.""That's not true." Jiwoo mumbled, but Haseul was raising an eyebrow at her and the urge to leave increased."So you're here on police business, or...?" Haseul asked. Her brow was furrowed. She looked a little angry. Jiwoo missed Max and Hyejoo."Oh, no, she's just here for moral support. I guess. She's not even a cop." Yerim dismissed. Haseul was still staring at Jiwoo, though. Glaring?"If that's so, why was she asking me where I was when Kahei died?"Yerim turned to frown at Jiwoo. "Why were you?"Jiwoo decided to avoid eye contact by staring at the grass instead. Brilliant idea. She was so smart. "Curiosity. Anyway, Hyejoo is calling me, I should go take thi-""Your friend thinks I killed Kahei?" Haseul asked Yerim. She looked rather displeased. Jiwoo bolted.She called Hyejoo with shaking fingers. She could feel her eyes filling with tears. "Hyejoo?""What's wrong?" Hyejoo asked immediately. Max barked in the background."I want to go home." She whispered."I'll be right there. Where's the detective?" "I don't know. I don't- I don't know." She mumbled. She also didn't care. Jinsoul would probably tell her to panic quieter. Or not even notice that she was panicking. Either way, she'd most likely shout at her. Jiwoo wasn't really feeling that right now.“Alright.” Hyejoo replied. “Alright, okay, try to calm down. I’m coming. Think about penguins.” she told her gently before ending the call. Jiwoo did as instructed, pulling her keys out of her purse and holding the penguin keychain from her brother against her lips. It was a tiny, cheap thing from a residential that Minhyung had been on, and he’d been kinda bummed about there not being anything better he could’ve gotten her, but it was still one of Jiwoo’s most prized possessions and she never went anywhere without it. It always helped her calm down in situations like this.“Are you okay?” Jiwoo spun around at the sound of a European-sounding voice, clutching Minhyung’s penguin tigher. A dark-haired, pretty girl stood in front of her, looking concerned. Jiwoo just nodded and went to turn away, wishing that Hyejoo would get there faster. “You sure? You don’t look okay. Is there someone here I can get for y-”“Just- I’m fine. Thanks.” Jiwoo muttered. Not that she didn’t appreciate the help, just that she didn’t feel up to receiving it.She was about to back away from the girl, but Jinsoul appeared in her peripheral vision and she ended up edging closer to her. As soon as Jinsoul was close enough to her to whisper-screech at her about Haseul and how dare she accuse her of murder, Jiwoo burst into tears. The stranger dragged her away.“Hey, it’s okay. Don’t worry. Please stop crying.” The stranger tried. It wasn’t very comforting, but it was better than being shouted at.“Thank you.” Jiwoo gasped out between tears.“Don’t worry about it. Anyone here who won’t yell at you who can take you home?”“My friend is coming to get me.” Jiwoo replied, voice shaky.The girl nodded. “I’ll take you out front, then, okay?” Jiwoo nodded, grateful. The girl guided her to the front of the field, talking to her as they went. Her name was Yves, she liked swans and the colour white (white isn’t a colour but Jiwoo chose to let it slide) and she wasn’t going to come to the funeral because she hates having to talk to people, but then she remembered that her friend had just died and felt really bad about not going. Jiwoo felt that.“Thanks again.” Jiwoo whispered quietly, seeing Hyejoo’s car pull up across the street.“Honestly, don’t worry about it. I think I’ll go home now myself.” Yves replied. “I’ve paid homage to Kahei, I guess.” she shrugged. “Hey, can I give you my number? Just so that you can text me when you’re home safe. Otherwise I’ll be worried about you all day.” she smiled. Jiwoo nodded and pulled out a pen and scrap of paper from her purse, carefully replacing her penguin. Yves scribbled down her phone number and handed it back to her, flashing her a bright smile that made Jiwoo feel at ease.Hyejoo approached, frowning at Yves. “Hey, Jiwoo… ready to go?”“Yeah.” Jiwoo replied. “Uh, Hyejoo, Yves, Yves, Hyejoo. Anyway, see you later.” She said to Yves, turning to leave with Hyejoo. “Thanks for getting me out of there.” she said as they got into the car.“Of course! Did you think I’d leave you there?” Hyejoo exclaimed. “What happened?”“I don’t know. Tried to do some discreet investigating, thought I’d found a suspect but it was Yerim’s friend and then everyone started shouting at me. Sucked. Then Yves helped me escape and here I am.” Jiwoo explained briefly.“Yves?” Hyejoo repeated.“Yeah, I think she’s French or something. She gave me her number, look.” Jiwoo told her, showing her the piece of paper when they were stopped at traffic lights. Hyejoo’s frown deepened when she saw the spelling of her name.“Jiwoo, that’s a boy’s name.”“What? No it isn’t. It’s what the girl at the start of that Church book is called.”“...The Bible. And I promise you, that’s a boy’s name in French. It’s also almost definitely not that girl’s name.” Hyejoo insisted. Jiwoo frowned at the paper, then shrugged. Maybe it was short for a French girl name or something.-“Why is your immediate response to anything Jiwoo does always anger?” Jungeun demanded. Jinsoul’s face remained defiantly blank.“I thought we already established that I don’t like her, and I don’t care for her idiocy-”“Jinsoul! I don’t give a damn what or who you don’t like! Jiwoo is one of our people, now, one of my people, whether you like it or not, and I will not tolerate you screaming at her and making her cry for trying to help!”Jinsoul looked away, anger still bubbling in her veins. Yerim spun around absent-mindedly on her desk chair, sipping coffee and trying not to listen.“Do not, ever, treat her like that again. Understand?” Jungeun hissed, glaring at Jinsoul. Jinsoul didn’t respond. “Understand?”“Yeah. Sure. Whatever. Anyway, I think we have more important things to discuss. Like the woman that Jiwoo disappeared with.” Jinsoul reminded them, pointing to the sketch on the murder board. “That was our suspect.”Yerim choked on her coffee. “It was?!” she exclaimed. “You’re just bringing this up now? Why didn’t you stop them?”“We tried! She was too fast, we lost her.” Jinsoul explained.“But, wait, if she was the killer, then Jiwoo could be in danger!” Yerim pointed out. That made a panic alarm go off in Jinsoul’s chest, but she wasn’t sure why. The murderer striking again, that was it. Not Jiwoo’s wellbeing. She hated her, remember?Jungeun tried to call Jiwoo, but her phone was engaged. “I’ll try again later. For now, we need to work on how we’re going to find this woman.” she said to her detectives.-“I just don’t get why you’re so bothered about Jinsoul, what she does, what she thinks, how she wears her hair, how many times a day she breathes and blinks and yawns, why don’t you just let her go?” Hyejoo asked, filling Jiwoo’s glass back up.“I don’t know. I’ve recently decided that I prefer Jungeun, anyway.” Jiwoo replied, sipping her (ridiculously expensive, in Hyejoo’s opinion) wine. “Oh- wait, I forgot to call Yves.”“‘Yves’.” Hyejoo repeated, using her free hand to make air quotes with her fingers. Jiwoo rolled her eyes and put her glass down, holding a finger to her lips as she pressed the call button.“Hi- Yves? It’s Jiwoo. From the funeral. Uh, I’m home! Sorry I didn’t call you earlier. Really? Okay. Well, thanks again. Maybe we could meet up sometime? Cool. See you.” Hyejoo raised her eyebrows as she hung up. “What?”“Just wondering what her real name is. I bet she’s not even French.”“Oh, come off it. Anyway, highlight of your day. Go.”“Apart from right now?” Hyejoo tilted her head as she thought. “Hmm. Max watched me do a handstand before and tried to copy me but just fell over. It was funny, he laughed at himself. Then I threw one of his chew toys at him and he caught it in his mouth and looked super proud of himself. Ha, I love him.”Jiwoo grinned. “Me too. Not as much as I love you, though!”“That’s not even true, is it.” Hyejoo deadpanned. Jiwoo snorted as Hyejoo got to her feet, setting down her glass on the coffee table. They both knew that she was telling the truth; there wasn’t a single being in the world that Jiwoo loved more than Hyejoo. “Anyway, I need to pee. Be right back. Don’t miss me too much.”Jiwoo laughed as Hyejoo left the room. She glanced at her phone screen and saw another text from Yerim. She swiped it to the side to get rid of it without reading it. She didn’t really want to talk to any of them at the moment. Maybe she’d quit. None of them would miss her much. She was just the nuisance who talked too loud and didn’t know any of the technical terminology. Everyone else was neat and organised and knew what they were doing, whereas Jiwoo was a hot mess who never knew what day it was and preferred Animal Crossing to paying attention. Yeah, they wouldn’t miss her. Would she miss them? Yeah, probably. She would miss Yerim, for sure; she’d miss the way the girl always managed to remain so bubbly and positive despite her depressing job. She’d miss the discourse about pop music and pizza toppings and reality TV with her. She’d miss the way Seulgi would dramatically scoff and roll her eyes whenever such topics came up, but end up joining in with the discussion anyway. She’d miss Seulgi’s constant supply of mints and sweets, too. She was only 29, but she was already set to be a good grandmother. She’d kill Jiwoo for saying that. She’d miss the forensics team, they were always so nice to her, and they let her come on their lunch breaks with them as long as she paid for the food. She’d definitely miss the cleaners, they were some of the nicest people she’d ever met. She’d begun to think of one of them, Heewon, as her Work Mum. If she did leave, she’d have to just deal with probably never seeing any of them again. Well, she might see some of them again. She couldn’t possibly go without ever seeing her Work Best Friend again. Jungeun was the best part about working there, without a doubt. She was the only person there who really got Jiwoo, who didn’t judge her or ever try to belittle her, who just let her be her. It was really nice, being friends with Jungeun, because she didn’t have that with anyone else other than the Sons. It was nice to have a second safe haven again. And then there was Jinsoul, of course...A knock on the door made her jump a little. Who could that be? She stood up to answer it, legs a little wobbly from too much wine. She swung the door open and came face to face with... Yves?“What are you doing h- mmffh...” Jiwoo was cut off by a cloth being pressed to her mouth. Her eyes widened and she tried to step backwards, but Yves’ grip on her was too tight to move away. Her vision went hazy. She felt herself beginning to fall. Yves caught her and tossed her rather ungracefully onto the couch. “How d’ya… know… wh’ri live...”“Shut up.” Jiwoo frowned. Yves wasn’t very nice when Jiwoo was drunk. Or… something. Jiwoo was pretty sure she could feel something moving on her chest. Not sure what it was. Sleepy. Someone started shouting in the distance. Hyejoo?“What the hell is going on? MAX!”-“Jinsoul! I got something! Oh, no, this is bad.”“What is it?” Jinsoul asked, darting over to Yerim’s desk to look at her screen.“The girl in the sketch, the one at the funeral.” Yerim said, pulling up her mugshot and criminal record. “Her name is Ha Sooyoung and she’s been convicted for assault in the past. Jinsoul, if she’s with Jiwoo right now, then-”“Ha S-” Jinsoul repeated, then stopped, swore, ran her hands through her hair, grabbed her gun and started running out of the precinct.“Jungeun! We need backup at Jiwoo’s place and this address!” Yerim called to her captain, before reading Ha Sooyoung’s address off the screen.-Jinsoul started pounding on Jiwoo’s front door as soon as she got there. “Jiwoo! Hyejoo! It’s Jinsoul, open the door!” The door remained closed, but Jinsoul could hear sounds of a fight and the dog going crazy in the apartment. She banged her fist on it again. “Jiwoo! I’m coming in!”Jinsoul kicked the door down and stormed into the apartment, gun raised. She was greeting with the sight of Hyejoo pummelling Ha Sooyoung while her dog alternated between scratching and biting at her and going to check on Jiwoo. Hyejoo flicked her eyes up at Jinsoul for a millisecond, not stopping the onslaught of punches. “Jung! Stop gawking and do your damn job!”Jinsoul pulled herself out of her momentary stupor, deciding to let the disrespect slide, and rushed over to them, pulling a pair of handcuffs out as Hyejoo forced Ha Sooyoung onto her knees. “Ha Sooyoung,” she ground out, “you’re under arrest for the murder of Wong Kahei.”“And the attempted murder of Kim Jiwoo.” Hyejoo added, landing another punch in between her shoulder blades.“You’re not actually allowed to say that, but thanks.” Jinsoul muttered, dragging Ha Sooyoung to her feet. The dog growled at her. Jiwoo looked distant and confused, Jinsoul noticed. And… damn it, was that shirt red or bloodstained? “Wait, is Jiwoo okay?”“Like you care.” Hyejoo snapped, kneeling at her best friend’s side. “Chuu? You good?”“Who… Ha Ssss… young…” she slurred.“Yves from the funeral. She’s also a killer. I told you that was a fake name.” Hyejoo explained.“Ssshhht up…” Jiwoo mumbled.“Hyejoo, take her to the hospital. Now.” Jinsoul demanded, forcing Ha Sooyoung out of the apartment as Yerim and Seulgi showed up at the door. “Doesn’t matter, I’ll drive. Guys, here’s the killer, take her and go. Hurry up, I got somewhere to be.” Jinsoul yelled, shoving Ha Sooyoung in their direction. She lifted Jiwoo up and slung her over her shoulder, rushing out of the apartment. “Come on, come with me. She wakes up with just me there she’ll freak out. Is the dog okay on its own?”“His own.” Hyejoo corrected with a frown. “And yeah, he’s fine. Aren’t you, baby?” she cooed at Max, who wagged his tail happily in response before retiring to wherever he usually chilled. Hyejoo glared at Jinsoul as she locked up. “I will never ever speak to any human like that ever and also I hate everyone except Jiwoo and my parents so stop looking at me like that, thanks.”“Wasn’t looking at you like anything. Anyway, hurry up.” she demanded. Hyejoo muttered something inaudible under her breath. Jinsoul didn’t know what she said, but it sounded disrespectful. She’d trip her up if she wasn’t concentrating on not dropping Jiwoo.The two of them made it downstairs in what must have been record time and approached Jinsoul’s haphazardly parked car. Hyejoo raised an eyebrow. “Your parking is...”“I was in a rush, shut up! Anyway, we’re still in a rush, so take Jiwoo and get in the car.” she snapped, handing the younger girl over to Hyejoo as gently as she could manage, before unlocking the car and climbing in front of the wheel. Hyejoo carefully placed Jiwoo into the backseat and climbed in after her, closing the door and putting both of their seatbelts on. “Do you really need seatbelts?” Jinsoul asked as she started the car.Hyejoo stared at her through the rearview mirror. “You are literally the police, what the hell?”“I’m not that kind of police, I couldn’t care less.” she responded. “Although Jungeun says I should.” she muttered as an afterthought.“Jungeun’s right.” Hyejoo told her. Jinsoul resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Which one’s Jungeun, anyway? Is she the captain who doesn’t like dogs?” Jinsoul mumbled a confirmation, focused on the quickest route to the hospital (taking into account how many rules of the road she was allowed to break with her sirens on). “I bet she’d like Max. Everyone likes Max. Even my mum likes Max.”“M… I li- Ma- Mmm...” Jiwoo slurred quietly, eyes still closed. Jinsoul saw Hyejoo’s face crumple with worry in the mirror. She silently observed that Hyejoo wasn’t really as tough and uncaring as she liked to portray herself as. Maybe they were more alike than Jinsoul thought.“Max likes you too, babe.” Hyejoo told her. Jinsoul quirked an eyebrow at ‘babe’, but decided to concentrate on the road instead of saying anything. Hyejoo’s hands were shaking, just a little. The corner of Jiwoo’s mouth curled up into a tiny smile for as long as she could manage, which was about half a second. Jinsoul drove even faster.“We… c- car…?” Jiwoo managed to ask.“Yep! Jinsoul’s driving us to the hospital. Yves made you sick.” Hyejoo explained. She was so gentle and delicate with her, Jinsoul noticed, and wondered briefly if there was a reason for that. Then realised she didn’t really know what she was wondering.“Mmm Ji… Ji’soul… d’nt li- like me...” Jiwoo pointed out. Jinsoul didn’t even have to look at Hyejoo to know that she was glaring daggers at her.“Well, that’s fine, because I don’t like Jinsoul!” Hyejoo stage-whispered. Jiwoo mumbled something that seemed to agree. Jinsoul huffed.“I do like you, Jiwoo.” Jinsoul called out from the front of the car. Jiwoo started. The reaction was pretty slow and delayed, and increased Jinsoul’s panic levels considerably.“Sssss… Soullieeee!!” Jiwoo chirped, as cheerily as she could manage in this state. “You- You’re so… cool. Yeah. R- Really… cool… Wishhh tha- I was cool as- as you…”“I’m not that cool.” Jinsoul rebutted. “I mean, I’m mean to people I actually like because I can’t handle attachments. I wouldn’t personally call that cool.” Why was she saying this? Why was she even acknowledging this? In front of an incapacitated Jiwoo was fine, but why in front of Hyejoo? This day just kept going from bad to worse. She was definitely getting smashed after this.“Yeah, yeah, b- but yyou… shoot bad people...” Jiwoo muttered out. “You were the first… first… first person I ever saw who… shot a bad person… in-instead of a n-nice person...” Jinsoul’s blood went cold. She knew that Jiwoo had seen that woman get shot when they first met, but something about the way she’d said that seemed to imply that she wasn’t talking about that woman.“Nearly there, Jiwoo.” Hyejoo said quietly, after a long pause. Jinsoul’s gut twisted. So she was right and Hyejoo knew about it. Jinsoul suddenly realised that she actually knew next to nothing about Jiwoo. She was a singer, she was rich, she only had one friend (not including the people at the precinct), she had some ridiculously long and sweet coffee order that was only about 2% caffeine, and she was super happy and bright all the time, though sometimes she had a bit of a dark sense of humour. That was pretty much it, and that was all kind of superficial stuff, really. She didn’t really know Jiwoo at all. She also didn’t really know where she was going with this train of thought, but she was beginning to realise that she had no right to treat Jiwoo the way she did when she had absolutely no idea what the girl was going through. Maybe Jungeun was right. Maybe Jinsoul definitely needed a drink.They reached the hospital, finally, and Jinsoul parked diagonally across two spaces. “Inconsiderate prick!” Hyejoo sing-songed jokingly as they both exited the car.“Shut your damn mouth.” Jinsoul groused, lifting Jiwoo out of the car. She looked so young and vulnerable. Jinsoul followed Hyejoo to the A&E foyer, as quickly as she could with Jiwoo in her arms.“Hello, how can I- Jinsoul?” the nurse on the desk, Park Sooyoung, cut herself off from her automatic introduction when she recognised the detective. Her gaze shifted to Jiwoo. “What happened to her?”“Strong dose of rohypnol or something like that, and, uh, this...” Jinsoul explained, then showed Sooyoung the blood dripping through Jiwoo’s shirt. Sooyoung went pale and immediately called a doctor. Hyejoo looked as terrified as Jinsoul felt as she carefully loaded Jiwoo onto a stretcher. “She’ll be okay, right?” Jinsoul asked Sooyoung, in a small voice she hadn’t used since… in a while.“Of course.” Sooyoung replied. It sounded like the default response, though, not really a guarantee of Jiwoo’s wellbeing, but not a lie, either. They wouldn’t know until they either fixed her, or- Or nothing, there was no other option here. No other option that Jinsoul would consider, anyway.Sooyoung directed them to a waiting room before disappearing with Jiwoo, the doctor and the other nurses. The two women sat in worried silence for a while. Jinsoul had a lot to think about. She really needed to do some serious self-reflection and improvement, honestly. Although it might have to wait until another time. Hyejoo broke the silence.“Don’t ask her about what she said in the car.” Hyejoo didn’t look at her; kept staring straight ahead, pretending she wasn’t trying not to cry. “Please.”“I won’t.” Jinsoul promised. Of course she wouldn’t. She would hate for anyone to bring up the deaths that still haunted her, she’d never knowingly do that to someone else. She was still curious, though. “Can I ask you, tho-”“No.” Hyejoo interrupted, a slight frown appearing on her otherwise still blank face. She still wasn’t looking at Jinsoul. “Not without her permission. I can’t do that to her.”“Alright, fair enough.” Jinsoul relented. She glanced at Hyejoo again, and watched as a single tear fell from one of her eyes. “Jiwoo will be fine, you know.”It took a moment for Hyejoo to process Jinsoul’s words, but when she did she just nodded and blinked her tears away. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.” she said, wiping her eyes and sniffling just a little. “I mean. She can’t die now. That’d be too cruel.”“Yeah.” Jinsoul muttered. Both girls fell into a silence that was neither comfortable nor uncomfortable; they didn’t really notice it at all, both too wrapped up in their own thoughts. “This is all my fault.” Jinsoul whispered eventually, mostly to herself.Hyejoo’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “How?”Jinsoul squirmed in her seat, feeling uncomfortable and guilty. “If I hadn’t… I don’t know, chased her away from the funeral, she wouldn’t have gone anywhere with that… woman...” Jinsoul gritted out, hating herself.Hyejoo made a low noise in the back of her throat that sounded an awful lot like a growl. It was safe to say that Jinsoul was a little afraid. “Yeah. This is all your fault.” she muttered. Jinsoul let out a defeated sigh and slumped lower in her seat. “I was joking. I mean, yeah, it is partially your fault, I guess, that she got into that situation, but the only person responsible for Ha Sooyoung attacking Jiwoo is Ha Sooyoung.” Hyejoo pointed out. Jinsoul’s frown deepened. That didn’t line up with what she’d told herself in anger.“That’s, uhh… wise words from a foetus.” Jinsoul mumbled instead of giving a proper reply. Hyejoo started protesting in indignation about being nearly 22, but Jinsoul wasn’t really listening anymore. Why was Jinsoul so willing to take the blame for this? It was very unlike her. If this was anyone else she’d think they were an idiot for trusting a stranger. Jiwoo kind of was an idiot for trusting a stranger, but Jinsoul found that she was mad at herself for thinking that. Man, if it was Yerim, she would have just told her that out loud. She was slowly coming to the conclusion that she perhaps didn’t dislike Jiwoo as much as she liked to pretend she did. She wasn’t really sure why that sounded like a bad thing, and she also wasn’t sure where she was going with this train of thought, either. This was stupid. She was stupid. She needed a drink. She needed something. She needed...“I need to apologise to her.”“Yeah, you do.” Hyejoo muttered. Dr. Kim entered the waiting room after another long while of the two girls silently dwelling on their thoughts. Hyejoo’s eyes snapped to him immediately. Jinsoul started. Hyejoo was honestly quite scary. She also didn’t blink often, which Jinsoul found rather disconcerting. Although, Jinsoul did sleep with her eyes open, which was probably a lot creepier. “Is she okay?”“Yes, she’s fine. She’ll be fine. She’s had some stitches, and she’s under anaesthetic. The rohypnol will leave her system on its own, and she’ll be alright. She’s very lucky that nothing worse happened to her. She should be waking up any time now, and she might be a little panicked when she does, b-” Hyejoo bolted from the room and went to find Jiwoo before the doctor could finish his sentence. “Okay. Cool. Well, uh. You okay, Jinsoul?” he asked.“Mmmm. Great.” she mumbled, still staring blankly at the seat that Hyejoo had vacated. She shook herself and turned to Dr. Kim. “Uh, thanks for...yeah.” she muttered. Her words seemed to have disappeared along with her earlier sense of urgency. Seokjin smiled as he took the seat next to Jinsoul’s.“It’s my job.” he shrugged. “You’re her friend as well?” Jinsoul nodded once. It felt like a lie, even though Jiwoo would probably argue against that. Actually, after Jinsoul’s behaviour as of late, maybe not. “You’re not going in to see her?”Jinsoul shook her head. “Not yet. I think they need some time alone. Uh. Yeah. So. How’s Taehyung?” she asked. Seokjin raised an eyebrow slightly at the abrupt topic change, but didn’t comment on it. Jinsoul was grateful.“He’s great. Still pining. Driving me insane. Makes me glad I usually work the night shift.” Seokjin grumbled, rolling his eyes. Jinsoul chuckled as she tipped her head back to stare at the ceiling. The remains of someone’s pink chewing gum was stuck to it. Jinsoul made a face of disgust and turned to Seokjin instead. “We’ve been scraping at that for some time now. I don’t even know how it got there. It’s gross. I won’t touch it.” Jinsoul snorted. “How’s Jungeun?”“Still in denial of her feelings.” Jinsoul replied. She didn’t know what she was talking about, honestly, but Yerim said so, so.“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Seokjin said accusingly. Damn it. “Let me guess… Yerim?”Jinsoul laughed. “You got me. Don’t you need to get back to work?”“Not yet.” Seokjin replied. “Who is this girl, anyway?”“Kim Jiwoo.”“Oh, the civilian consultant?” Seokjin asked. “Jungeun told me about her. She said she’s really nice and really cute. I think Taehyung was jealous.”“What? Why?” Jinsoul frowned. Seokjin smiled and clapped a hand on her shoulder.“Oh, Jinsoul.” he sighed. “I think you should go see her now, anyway.” he said, standing up. Jinsoul followed and walked with him to the operating room.Jiwoo was crying. Jinsoul’s stomach lurched. Yeah, what was she doing here? Jiwoo hated her. Surely Jinsoul was the last person she’d want to talk to while she was crying. Jiwoo caught sight of her, and the corners of her mouth pulled up into a small smile. “Jinsoul?” Jinsoul was wrong, apparently. Maybe Jinsoul was too stupid to be a detective, honestly. What was going on today?“Hey.” Jinsoul greeted awkwardly, edging into the room. Hyejoo was glaring at her. Was she crying too? Jinsoul decided not to check, for fear of death. “How you doing?”“I’m fine! Great. Fabulous. How close to death was I? Hyejoo won’t tell me.” Jiwoo asked.“Hyejoo did-! What’s the point.” Hyejoo grumbled under her breath.“I mean, I’m no expert, or anything, but I’m pretty sure you’re fine. Like, in terms of injuries, that is.” Jinsoul told her, moving closer to the bed. “Uh… in terms of… uh…”“Did Yves nearly kill me or not?” Jiwoo interrupted. Jinsoul didn’t answer. “Guys!” she whined.“If Max and I hadn’t been there...” Hyejoo started, but found herself unable to finish.“I would have died.” Jiwoo finished. She seemed oddly pleased with that, for some reason, and smiled faintly to herself as she rested back against the pillows. Jinsoul decided to change the subject.“Hey, um. I’m sorry about-”“It’s fine! All good. Doesn’t matter. Hyejoo took me home and we had wine, anyway.” Jiwoo dismissed. Jinsoul thought that that must have been some pretty damn good wine if it cancelled out everything else that happened after that gigantic screw-up of an event. “I’m sorry I’ve been ignoring you.” Jiwoo added, mumbling.Jinsoul’s mouth fell open as she stared at Jiwoo. “You- Wha- Why?” she stammered out, shocked. Jiwoo let out a little humourless giggle.“Ha, yeah, sorry. You were being mean to me and I was being petty. Unnecessary. Sorry.” Jinsoul was lost for words. She could completely understand why Jiwoo was acting that way, now that she thought about it, and she was honestly quite surprised that she had only done this now, but… She’d done it now. The literal worst possible time that Jiwoo could have been acting this way. Although she wasn’t sure if Jiwoo knew that it was a bad time, it was still...Hyejoo was watching the different emotions flit across Jinsoul’s face with a scowl on her face. “You have no right to-”“I know.” Jinsoul interrupted quietly. “I… I’ll be right back.” she said, quickly leaving the room and heading straight for the nearest exit. Once outside, Jinsoul covered her mouth with her hand and burst into tears. The guilt of how she’d been treating Jiwoo, the grief of losing Kahei, the stress of working Kahei’s case, and the panic that built up over Jiwoo for the past few hours had all hit her at once. She wasn’t sure how long she spent crouched on the ground next to the sliding doors, arms over her face, tears cascading down her cheeks, fighting for breath and falling down a rabbit hole of spiralling thoughts, but it must have been a while, since it was considerably darker when she eventually looked up to see Jungeun and Yerim hovering over her, worried.“What happened?” Jungeun demanded. Jinsoul just shook her head and tried to stand up, ignoring Jungeun’s question altogether. Yerim helped her to her feet after the second failed attempt. “Jinsoul, talk to us.” Jungeun pressed gently.“I’m fine.” she mumbled. “I’ll take you to Jiwoo. Then I’m going home.”Yerim frowned, concerned. “Do you want me to take you h-?”“No, no, I’m fine, really.” Jinsoul dismissed. “Thanks anyway.” Yerim decided to just drop it; Jinsoul was too stubborn to ever tell them what was wrong. Jungeun, however, was too stubborn to let it go.“You don’t look fine.” Jungeun pointed out, frowning.“Well I am!” Jinsoul snapped, perhaps a tad too loud. She sighed heavily, running a hand over her face. She was suddenly exhausted. “Jiwoo’s in that room. Tell her I said bye.” she told them, before turning and heading straight for the doors. She didn’t stop, didn’t even glance back; just left the building, got in her car, and drove straight home. She didn’t have the energy to do anything else. Feeding her fish and drinking enough that she could fall asleep without remembering why she was crying sounded like an excellent idea.-Jiwoo looked up when she heard people entering the stupid room she’d been temporarily confined to. It was Jungeun, Yerim, and… Jiwoo tried to look around them to see if there was another person with them, but it was just the two of them.“Where’s Jinsoul?” she asked. Jungeun looked annoyed. Yerim looked worried. “She said she’d be right back.”“Uh, she just went home...” Yerim told her, immediately feeling guilty for it when Jiwoo’s expression crumbled. “I don’t think she feels very well.” she added awkwardly.Jiwoo’s eyes started to fill with tears that she was clearly having trouble fighting away while she was still in a bit of a woozy state. “But she said she’d be right back...” she repeated in a quiet whine. Yerim looked to Hyejoo for help. Hyejoo just looked furious, so she looked to Jungeun instead. Jungeun looked mostly concerned, which was much better than furious in Yerim’s book.“What the hell happened in here?” Jungeun inquired.Hyejoo shrugged. “Beats me. The idiots were, like, having some kind of moment, and then Jiwoo apologised to Clouseau for ignoring her out of spite, or something, and then she went all weird and left.” she explained.“And said she’d be right back.” Jiwoo grumbled under her breath.“Ignoring- oh. Oh. Okay.” Jungeun muttered. Jiwoo and Hyejoo frowned as Jungeun turned away. They looked to Yerim, who turned away as well, wondering why every situation involving Jinsoul and Jiwoo was always so damn awkward.“Yo, Captain Mack?” Hyejoo prompted.“So, uh, um.” Jungeun started, running a hand over her face. “Jinsoul’s dealing with some stuff, at the moment, and. Yeah. Something big and tragic just happened, and then Kahei died, and Jiwoo’s total disregard of the case was, um… I don’t know, I think it really hurt her feelings. Bet you didn’t know she had any of those, haha. And, I guess the realisation that Jiwoo was deliberately making the situation worse for Jinsoul probably pushed her over the edge a little bit, you know, and then she had to go back to the hos- uh, never mind. So, yeah...” Jungeun explained hastily, holding a hand to her side where Yerim had elbowed her when she almost gave away the recent tragic event that Jinsoul had wanted to keep to herself.“I think it may have just hit her all at once.” Yerim added timidly. Jinsoul hadn’t cried like that for a while, and it hurt both Yerim and Jungeun to see her like that.“Wait, wait-” Jiwoo started, trying to sit up. Hyejoo stopped her gently. “No, wait- Kahei- wasn’t that the girl who died? In the last case? With the pink hair?” Yerim nodded solemnly, not looking at her friend. “I don’t- wh-”“Kahei was our friend.” Yerim whispered. She heard a sharp intake of breath from Jiwoo and flicked her eyes to her. Jiwoo’s eyes were wide and she looked like this was the worst thing that had ever happened to her.“What?” she gasped. Yerim winced. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything. Even Hyejoo looked at a loss for what to do, until Jiwoo burst into tears all of a sudden. Hyejoo moved closer to her best friend’s side, whispering words of comfort.“Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay. Calm down, Chuu. It’s okay.” Hyejoo tried, arms around Jiwoo. When her sobs didn’t show any signs of ceasing, Hyejoo tried the rationalising route instead. “Come on, aside from your revenge plan being a bit dramatic, I don’t really think you can blame yourself for how much this impacted her, you know? I mean, how were you to know that they were friends with her? Please don’t beat yourself up too hard about this.”“I wo-would have known if I- if I h- if I hadn’t-” Jiwoo stuttered out between loud and gasping sobs. Hyejoo tried to shush her gently, clearly panicking. Jungeun moved forwards and grasped Jiwoo’s hand.“Hey. Jiwoo. It’s okay, nobody’s angry with you.” she told her. Jiwoo started to argue weakly, but Jungeun quickly interrupted. “Jinsoul isn’t angry with you either. She’s just a little overwhelmed, is all, but she’ll get over it.” Jungeun explained gently.Jiwoo nodded her head, trying to get her breathing under control. “I was just- I was just trying to- to- to make a point, I guess.” she started in a small, quiet voice. “I’m sorry. It’s just- It’s just because Jinsoul never listens to me, and I just wanted to know how she would feel if I quit, or something, because I know she values my thoughts and opinions really.” Jiwoo explained in a rush. “And, I don’t know, I was feeling petty. I’m sorry.” she whispered, breathing still shaky.“It’s okay, I get it.” Jungeun told her, rubbing soothing circles into the back of Jiwoo’s hand with her thumb. “That’s completely understandable. There’s nothing to cry about. Don’t worry, Jiwoo.”“I still think it was kind of a wacky plan.” Hyejoo muttered. Jiwoo managed a small smile, but fresh tears started to fall from her eyes.“I’m sorry.” she whispered again. Jungeun pulled her into a hug. Hyejoo joined in. After a moment’s hesitation, and a poke from Jiwoo, Yerim joined in as well.Seokjin and Sooyoung entered the room together at that moment. “Everything alright?” Seokjin asked. The women untangled themselves from the impromptu group hug and straightened up, nodding. “Alrighty! Jiwoo, you’re good to go.” he informed her. Jiwoo brightened considerably. She could not wait to go home. Hyejoo and Sooyoung helped Jiwoo off the bed. Seokjin pulled Jungeun to the side. “When are you going to-”“Oh, leave me alone. My friend is hurt.” Jungeun scoffed, gesturing to Jiwoo. Seokjin raised an eyebrow.“I literally just said that she’s fine.” he deadpanned. Jungeun rolled her eyes. “Whatever, just- stop ignoring him, at least. Please?” Seokjin begged.“Fine.” Jungeun grumbled, returning to Yerim’s side. “I hate him.”“Is he trying to-”“Yeah.”“Well, why don’t you just-”“No.” she snapped, rolling her eyes again. Yerim levelled her friend with A Look.“Is this because you need to re-dye your hair, or-?”“Shut up, Yerim.” she groaned. Jiwoo and Hyejoo raised their eyebrows at each other. Was the doctor into Jungeun?Sooyoung leaned over to whisper to the girls. “Seokjin- I mean, Dr Kim isn’t into Jungeun, if that’s what you’re thinking.” she told them. They frowned at each other. Psychic nurse? “You were?” she laughed. “I swear I’m not, like, psychic or anything. I’m just good at reading facial expressions.” Jiwoo and Hyejoo stared at each other while Sooyoung continued to giggle away. Psychic nurse. “Seokjin’s brother is super into Jungeun, though. And she claims that the feelings aren’t reciprocated, but she really just doesn’t want to admit it because Taehyung is kind of a nerd.” Jiwoo’s jaw dropped at this tantalising information. Why did she not already know this? Oh, she was never going to stop teasing Jungeun about this. Oh, wait, that’s why she didn’t know, she realised.“Interesting. Thank you for this information.” Jiwoo said to Sooyoung, who laughed again and bade them farewell. They caught up to Jungeun and Yerim in the corridor. “Is that nurse psychic?” Jiwoo asked Yerim.“Oh, yeah, definitely. She scares the hell out of us, to be honest.” Yerim replied, shuddering. Jiwoo giggled.“She said that the doctor’s brother likes Jungeun?” Jiwoo prompted.Yerim snorted. “Oh, yeah, big time. Poor guy. I strongly doubt that Jungeun will ever get her act together.” Yerim sighed dramatically. “We’re all betting on it, actually. I bet never, and so far I’m winning.” Jiwoo cackled. Jungeun and Hyejoo glanced back from where they were walking a little ahead. “Nothing!” Yerim smiled dismissively. Jungeun raised a brow, but turned back around. “Jinsoul’s really close to losing.” Yerim added after a pause.“Really? When did she bet on?” Jiwoo asked.“Like, next month.” Yerim snorted. Jiwoo laughed as well.“Oh, no.”“Jinsoul is, like, constantly losing bets. She’s terrible at guessing things like this, and really doesn’t have enough money to be this bad at it between how often we bet on stuff and how much she spoils her stupid fish, honestly.” Yerim said, rolling her eyes. Jiwoo’s eyebrows shot up.“Jinsoul has fish?” she repeated, excited. Yerim laughed.“Yeah! She loves them more than anything. More than she loves me.” she grumbled the last part a little bitterly. Jiwoo giggled.“Well, now I know what to get her for her birthday. Kind of. Shall I get her another fish, or like, a cool tank, or like… a song about fish?” she pondered.Yerim grinned. “Buy her a fish and call it Jiwoo.” Jiwoo beamed. An excellent idea. “You should get in on these bets, anyway.” Yerim suggested.Jiwoo hummed. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to win. And I don’t know this drama about Jungeun and her boo well enough to participate, anyway. Actually, I met bet on tomorrow, so I definitely lose.”“You’re really that rich, huh.” Yerim mumbled to herself. Jiwoo shrugged. It was okay. She could buy people cool stuff without having to skip lunch and possibly breakfast for a week, and she could give more than a tiny amount of money to charity. Plus, Hyejoo was probably the most spoiled girl and Max the most spoiled dog in at least the whole city, and Jiwoo was quite proud of herself for being the cause of that.Speaking of Hyejoo and Max, it became clear what she’d been discussing with Jungeun when Jiwoo and Yerim heard an overly dramatic gasp from in front of them, accompanied with a loud and accusatory “YOU DON’T LIKE DOGS???”Jiwoo and Yerim snickered. “I have a phobia! It’s not my fault.” Jungeun explained. “A dog bit me when I was a kid, and now I guess I’m just scared of them.”“Well, the only reason you would ever have to be scared of Max is if you tried to hurt me or Jiwoo. Other than that he’s a massive softie. You know, you could pour soup on his lap and he’d probably apologise to you.” Hyejoo smiled softly as Jungeun laughed. “I’ll keep him away from you if it would make you more comfortable, though.”Jungeun smiled. “Thank you. I get why Jiwoo likes you so much, I think.” Hyejoo grinned and turned to face Jiwoo and Yerim.“You hear that, Chuu? I got Captain Marvel’s approval!” she yelled, proud of herself. Jiwoo broke out into a fit of laughter.“Does Hyejoo have nicknames for all of us?” Yerim asked.“Pretty much, I think, yeah. You’re Girl Meets World, sometimes Lana Del Rey. Yeojin is Baby Shark. Seulgi is Kuromi. You get the picture.”“Wait, no! Stop exposing me! I want law enforcement to like me!” Hyejoo protested.“Hey, I’m Lana Del Rey, I’ve got the best one! I definitely like you.” Yerim assured her.Hyejoo punched the air. “I’ve peaked.” she declared.-Jungeun and Yerim returned to the precinct after dropping Jiwoo and Hyejoo off at their apartment. They were surprised to find Jinsoul at her desk. “Jinsoul? What are you doing here?” Jungeun asked her.“S’time for work.” Jinsoul said with a tired smile, showing them the digital clock on her desk, which read 5:58am. “So I’m working!”Jungeun frowned. “Have you slept?”Jinsoul hummed. “Not since, uh… the night before the funeral? But that was like… two hours.” Jungeun raised an eyebrow. “I’m not tired though! I have this.” she informed Jungeun, holding her double espresso under her captain’s nose. Jungeun pried it from her grip.“Go sleep in my office, please. Now.” Jungeun demanded. Jinsoul huffed, but dragged herself to the couch bed in Jungeun’s office anyway. Yerim went with her to make sure she grabbed a blanket and pillow from the cupboard next to it. Jungeun sipped Jinsoul’s coffee as she tidied her desk for her. She stopped when she came across a heart-shaped post-it note stuck to the desk next to her pencil jar, with Jiwoo’s loopy handwriting on it in green ink. ‘A reminder that you’re my favourite detective (and also the coolest :p)’. It looked like the exact kind of rubbish Taehyung left all over Jungeun’s own desk. Jinsoul still didn’t get it, huh. It seemed as though Jungeun would win this particular bet, after all.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“This doesn’t feel right without Kahei.”The other six women around the table quieted at Haseul’s observation. Jinsoul shifted in her seat across from Haseul. “I don’t… I’m sorry, but I don’t really wanna talk about Kahei.” Jungeun and Yerim winced.“You’re alright, right?” Jungeun asked her best friend. Jinsoul nodded, not moving her eyes off her glass. It was happy hour in whatever bar Haseul had insisted they visit, and everyone around them was getting quite drunk. Jinsoul was mainly just hoping that no fights were going to break out. She was just a tad too miserable to be dragging fully grown men who were smashed off their faces outside. She could always pretend she’d fallen asleep.“There’s just a lot going on right now.” Jinsoul told them after a moment’s hesitation. They all knew what she meant, of course, which was great because it meant she didn’t have to elaborate. She wasn’t the biggest fan of talking about her problems, as much as her friends told her that it was the best way to get rid of them.Haseul nodded in understanding, a look of sympathy on her face that was making Jinsoul’s skin crawl. “Are you and your mum doing okay?” she asked. Jinsoul knew that Haseul meant well, but she hated questions like this. What was she supposed to say? ‘No, we’re not, everything is awful, our lives are falling apart, I’m letting my grief ruin my relationships and she’s letting hers ruin her body.’? Nobody wanted to hear that, they just asked how you were doing out of a sense of obligation.“Yeah, we’re fine.” Jinsoul said instead. Jungeun squinted at her. Whatever, Jinsoul thought, this night was already awkward as hell anyway, what would be the point in making it more so. She knew one easy and fun way to lessen the tension, anyway. “How’s Taehyung, by the way?”“Oh, would you leave me alone.” Jungeun groaned.“Stop pretending you don’t like him!” Yerim exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at her friend, who rolled her eyes with such force it was surprising they didn’t fall out of her head. “You do! You so do.”“I’m waiting for the right time.” Jungeun admitted. The other girls around the table all high-fived each other. “And by that I mean that Jin and I have a bet going.” she grinned.“A bet?” Heejin repeated. “On what?”“On your bet. Losers.” Jungeun told them, then broke out into laughter at the immediate responding chorus of ‘What bet? We don’t have a bet...’. “Oh, cut it out, I’ve known about it for ages. I also know you lost last week, Jinsoul.”“Ah, yes, what does that make this… is it the ninth embarrassing defeat this year?” Yeojin teased. Jinsoul reached around Yerim to smack the medical examiner upside the head. “Ow!”“Stop betting on my love life, anyway, you gang of freaks.” Jungeun interrupted. “Jinsoul, you need to stop betting in general. Just because you won one two years ago doesn’t mean you’re any good at them. That was luck.” Jinsoul huffed, but laughed nonetheless.“We told Jiwoo to start getting in on them.” Yerim informed her. Jinsoul raised a brow.“As if she needs the money-”“Yeah, exactly, she doesn’t. I’m betting right now that Jiwoo is as terrible at betting as you are.”“I bet she’s decent at it.” Jinsoul replied.“I bet she’s bad, but not as bad as Jinsoul.” Jungeun cut in.“I bet she’s really good at it and that’s why she hasn’t already joined in on it.” Yeojin piped up.“I bet that you all need to take a trip to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, good lord.” Haseul interrupted. Yeojin flipped her off. Haseul went to lean over the table to smack her younger friend, but Heejin dragged her back into her seat while Yeojin stuck her tongue out. “Real mature, brat.”“What’s the deal with you and that Jiwoo, anyway?” Hyunjin asked Jinsoul, deciding to move the subject onto something less likely to cause violence. “And how come we haven’t met her yet?”“She cramps my style.” Jinsoul answered. Yeojin snorted. Yerim and Jungeun both elbowed her at the same time. “Okay, alright, I’m joking. I don’t know why you haven’t met her. Maybe swing by the precinct more often.”“Nuh-uh, the place is teeming with mean cops.” Heejin declined.“Jinsoul is embarrassed because Jiwoo is way richer than all of us.” Yeojin informed the group. Jinsoul smacked her again. “Stop it!”“That’s not true.” Jinsoul clarified. “No, seriously, Yeojin, stop looking at me like that. It’s not true. It’s not like she flaunts her wealth or anything, and she doesn’t mind hanging around us commoners, I don’t think she’d care.”Yerim backed her up. “No, course not. She wasn’t born rich, she lives with a gigantic rottweiler and I’ve seen her sitting on muddy patches of grass more than once, she doesn’t care. It’s not like she acts like she’s from Beverley Hills, or anything.”Jungeun nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you haven’t met her yet because Jinsoul is worried that you’ll agree with us.” she told the other girls.Jinsoul frowned, confused. “Agree with you about what?”Yeojin covered one side of her mouth with her hand and dramatically stage whispered across the table, “Jiwoo has a massive crush on Jinsoul.” Haseul, Heejin and Hyunjin all made sounds of understanding, while Jinsoul groaned and threw her head back against the bench.“No she doesn’t!” Jinsoul whined. This random conspiracy theory had come out of nowhere throughout the precinct recently, and Jinsoul was really not appreciating it. It was stupid, it was unrealistic, and it was just weird, honestly. Jungeun was laughing like Jinsoul was wrong. “How’s your damn crush on Kim Taehyung, Jungeun?” Jungeun smacked her.-Hyejoo collapsed in a heap on the floor next to Jiwoo’s desk. “Good walk?” Jiwoo asked, not looking up from her notebook.“Yeah. Max walked me today. I’m exhausted now.” Hyejoo replied. She sat up and leaned over Jiwoo’s shoulder. “What are you writing about?”“Mmmmm… not telling.” Jiwoo mumbled, continuing to write. Hyejoo rolled her eyes.“Jinsoul, then.” she sighed, standing up and heading towards the bathroom.“I didn’t say that!” Jiwoo protested.“You didn’t have to!” Hyejoo called back. “Jungeun said they’re all betting on when she’s going to realise you’re in love with her.”“I am not!” Jiwoo yelled, except it came out as more of a whine. Ignoring this, she threw a small cushion at Hyejoo to establish just how tough she was. It missed completely, bouncing off the doorframe so hard that it came back and hit her in the face, but that’s entirely beside the point. Jiwoo grumbled to herself, tuning out Hyejoo’s laughter, as she glowered at her notebook. She’d lost the roll she was on, now. She flipped a few pages and started a completely new song about Hyejoo instead.-Jinsoul decided that Yeojin and those two idiots she called best friends were either stupid or crazy. Jiwoo? Crushing on her? Highly unlikely. Almost definitely completely ridiculous, she concluded, stroking Max’s fur. “You agree with me, right?” she murmured to him, scratching behind one of his ears. He woofed in response. It sounded like a yes, but unfortunately Jinsoul couldn’t speak dog. She stretched her legs out on the grass of the park while she waited for Jiwoo to return from buying them ice cream from the truck stopped across the street. The two of them were dog-sitting for Hyejoo while she taught her self-defence class. Max seemed pleased about it. At least one of Jiwoo’s roommates liked her.Jiwoo returned, giving Jinsoul a huge smile and a huge ice cream, and took a seat next to her and Max on the grass. “Chatting with Max?” she asked, getting started on her own ice cream. “What did he say?”“I’m not sure, to be honest. When Duolingo adds a course in Bark, I’ll add it to my classes.” Jinsoul deadpanned. Jiwoo just laughed. It was kind of cute, Jinsoul thought. Then she immediately pretended that she hadn’t thought it.They walked Max around the park for a while, Jinsoul carrying his leash while Jiwoo and Max played fetch with a big stick he found. It was nice, being outside with Jiwoo and nature and this big idiot of a dog. It didn’t last long, sadly, because she got a call from Jungeun about a murder.“Jiwoo!” she called. Jiwoo looked over, telling Max to wait a second and stop headbutting her knees. “I gotta go to work.” Jinsoul told her as she reached where Jiwoo was standing, handing her the leash. Jiwoo frowned.“Can’t I drop Max off at home and come with you?” she asked. Max whined. Clearly he didn’t like the sound of that.“You still need to rest...” Jinsoul protested.Jiwoo raised an eyebrow. “You call this resting?” she questioned, gesturing to Max and his stick. Jinsoul rolled her eyes and huffed.“Well, whatever. You know what I mean. I just don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come back yet. Besides, Max wants to stay out.” Jinsoul explained. Max wagged his tail excitedly, staring up at Jinsoul with what seemed like anticipation. Maybe she could speak more dog than she realised.“I thought you couldn’t speak Bark?” Jiwoo reminded her, with an attempt at a scowl that was really more of a pout, but she knew she’d lost the argument. “Whatever. Have fun looking at dead bodies, loser.” she said, turning back to the dog. Jinsoul shrugged, knowing she didn’t really mean it, and went back to her car.“She’s cool, right?” Jiwoo asked Max. Max woofed impatiently. Jiwoo rolled her eyes and threw the stick again.Jinsoul pulled up outside the apartment block in the middle of Seoul. It was Haseul, Hyunjin and Heejin’s building, though they lived on the fifth floor. The crime scene was on the eighth. Their floor was definitely nicer than this one, Jinsoul thought, trying to step around all the blood on the floor.Jinsoul showed her badge to the uniformed officer at the door of the apartment where the crime scene was, ducking under the tape and making her way over to the two dead bodies in the middle of the otherwise nicely decorated and cosy living room. She skirted around them, trying to avoid looking too closely at the scared expressions on their faces, as she approached Yerim and the forensics team. Yeojin and Yuqi were identifying the cause and time of death while Shuhua photographed the scene. Seulgi and Seungyeon were bagging evidence near the woman with the dyed hair closer to the door of the apartment, and Yerim was crouched next to the pyjama-clad woman in the middle of the room, gazing speculatively at her. Jinsoul hovered next to her, silently surveying the rest of the apartment as she asked for an update.“Her name is Park Chaeyoung.” Yerim said, indicating the woman in front of her in pyjamas. “She lives here. Lived. She was a music teacher at the secondary school in the city.” Jinsoul frowned. Who would break into a music teacher’s home when she was sleeping and murder her? It seemed a little unnecessarily cruel, especially with how aggressively her throat had been slit. “The other woman is Kim Jisoo, she was a model. She lived next door.” Kim Jisoo sounded a hell of a lot like Kim Jiwoo. Jinsoul suddenly felt quite ill and decided to not think things like that anymore. She decided to focus instead on the arrangement of the bodies. They were laid out in a very deliberate ‘L’ shape, with Chaeyoung perpendicular to the door and Jisoo parallel, their feet beside each other. The way the blood was smeared across the floor suggested they’d been arranged this way on purpose. Jinsoul suppressed a shudder. “Both of them were in their late twenties.” Now she suppressed a bitter scowl. She hated seeing this, such young lives, so much potential, just stolen, taken, wasted, so easily, so brutally, so unnecessarily. Jisoo was beautiful, and from the look of the apartment Chaeyoung must have been a talented musician. Jinsoul could feel her blood boiling. “A delivery guy delivering food to the guy across the hall saw blood leaking into the corridor from under this apartment’s door and called the police. The neighbour’s been telling us everything he can.” Yerim nodded towards the kitchen in the other corner of the room, where Jungeun was talking to the neighbour and the delivery guy. Jinsoul raised her eyebrows in surprise at recognising the victims’ neighbour.“Oh, hey, it’s Heechul.” she muttered to herself, turning away from the tattoo artist before she accidentally made awkward eye contact with him.“So here’s what happened;” Yeojin began as she stood from where she’d been kneeling next to Kim Jisoo, “Park Chaeyoung was killed first, her throat was slit.” she explained, signalling to Yerim that she wanted to use her for a demonstration. Yerim rolled her eyes but stood up and followed Yeojin’s directions regardless. “How tall are you?”“Five foot three.” Yerim replied, her lips twitching up into a smirk when Yeojin grumbled something about her being a show-off under her breath. “How tall are you, Bean?”“None of your damn business. How tall is Park Chaeyoung?”“I think she’s about five foot six?” Heechul piped up. “Not sure though.” He added, pulling a tape measure out of his back pocket and tossing it to Jinsoul. Jinsoul grimaced, but knelt down so she could measure the victim.“Yeah, five foot six.” Jinsoul confirmed, moving to hand the tape measure back to Heechul.“Okay, imagine we’re both three inches taller.” Yeojin said, moving Yerim to stand in front of her while glaring at everyone who started cracking jokes about her height. “The killer would have grabbed her from behind… held her like this… Seungyeon, that’s not helpful… And then...” Yeojin mimed slitting Yerim’s throat with her pen. “...Like so.” she finished.“Did you really have to draw on me?” Yerim grumbled.“Hey, that actually seems to be the right height difference.” Yuqi pointed out. “So if we’re adding three inches, the killer is probably...” she trailed off, raising an expectant eyebrow at Yeojin.Yeojin rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. “Five foot three.” she gritted out. Everyone started sniggering. “You’re all heightist scum.”“Anyway.” Jungeun interrupted loudly.“Anyway!” Yeojin turned to Kim Jisoo instead. “She was stabbed once in the stomach and then twice in the chest, after Park Chaeyoung was already dead. It looks like it happened like this – Yerim, if you will-”“Wait!” Shuhua interrupted. “Kim Jisoo is about five foot three.” She pointed out. “We’re gonna need someone the same height as Yerim here...”Yeojin flipped her off. “Scum, all of you.”Shuhua laughed to herself as she took Yeojin’s place in front of Yerim. “So, it looks like Kim Jisoo startled the killer and made them turn in surprise and stab her by accident in the stomach,” she explained, demonstrating on Yerim, “then she pushed her down to the floor and stabbed her twice in the chest, not by accident.”Yerim piped up crossly after she was done making all of the appropriate sound effects. “Can I ask why I always end up doing this?” Shuhua ignored her.“She bled out pretty quickly after that.” Shuhua finished, standing up and helping Yerim up.“So that would have happened here.” Yuqi continued, gesturing to the spot in front of the door where the most blood was. “And then she was dragged over there… And then Park Chaeyoung was dragged from over there by the window to there.”“And then the killer washed up in the kitchen sink, it looks like.” Jungeun added, frowning. Heechul and the delivery guy both grimaced.“So, we’re saying that the killer originally planned on just killing Park Chaeyoung, but then Kim Jisoo interrupted, so she got killed too?” Jinsoul recapped.“Looks like it.” Yerim frowned. “We should look for someone who’d want to target Park Chaeyoung, then.”“Guys? I found a recently-polished knife in one of the bedrooms.” Seulgi announced, holding up an evidence bag containing a large, shiny blade. “Nerds, do you think this is the murder weapon?” The forensics team all rolled their eyes, but all agreed that it was likely after giving the blade a closer look. “There’s a guitar and a keyboard in the other room, so I’m guessing that that’s her roommate’s bedroom and this belongs to her-” She was cut off by a scream coming from the doorway, where the roommate was stood with her hands over her mouth and tears welling up in her eyes. “Maybe not, then.” Seulgi muttered.“Is this Lalisa?” Jungeun asked Heechul, who nodded in confirmation. Jungeun crossed the room to take Lalisa into the corridor and ask her some questions.“Man, I can’t imagine what she must be going through.” Yuqi said, glancing at one of the many framed pictures of Lalisa and the two victims in the apartment. “It looks like they were all close.” Jinsoul pointedly avoided looking at Yerim or Yeojin.“What’s she got orange hair for?” Seungyeon muttered to herself, continuing to bag evidence. “Hang on...” she frowned, lifting up a strand of dyed orange hair from the smeared blood next to Kim Jisoo. “Lads,” she called, holding up the hair, “is it me, or is this the roommate’s hair?”Jinsoul and Yerim leaned over to examine it. “What, you think she did it?” Yerim asked, sounding unconvinced.Seungyeon shrugged. “Her hair is here, the murder weapon was in her bedroom-” she started, but Heechul stormed over to them, furiously shouting and swearing at Seungyeon while Jinsoul held him back. Yerim and the delivery guy helped drag him out of the room.“Heechul! Shut the hell up, man!” Jinsoul hissed once they were out in the corridor.“No! I won’t stand there and let that cop decide that this was Lisa’s doing with no evidence to back it up-”“There is evidence-”“She lives there! Of course her hair is on the floor!”“And that knife?”“What knife?” Lalisa interrupted, staring at them with terror in her eyes. Jungeun narrowed her eyes at Jinsoul.“Boys, I think it might be time for the both of you to pipe down.” she said firmly, mostly to Jinsoul, who looked away, biting her lip. “Now what the hell is going on? Quietly, just to me, please.” Jinsoul and Yerim explained Seungyeon’s theory, Jinsoul elbowing Heechul every time he tried to interrupt them. Jungeun turned to Heechul when they were done. “And what do you think?”“That’s stupid. Lisa would never hurt Chae or Jisoo, they’re- they were- her best friends!” He told her. “Why would she want to kill them?”“We do have means and opportunity.” Seungyeon interjected from where she was leaning against the doorway. “I’m sure if we dig deep enough we can find a motive.” she shrugged.Heechul made a sound that was almost a growl. “Listen here, you stupid f-”“Heechul!” Jinsoul shouted, stepping in front of him. “Stop. You’re probably right, but we need to investigate every possibility so we can find who did this.” She explained to him patiently. Heechul looked back inside the apartment and deflated a little.“Yeah, okay.” He mumbled. “Sorry.” He said to Seungyeon, who suppressed an eye roll and went back inside without saying anything. “But Lisa didn’t do it. She wouldn’t.” He insisted.Jinsoul nodded. “We’ll still have to take her back to the precinct, though.”“Okay, whatever, just don’t, like, scare her, because-” He was cut off by Lalisa screaming again and running into him. “What?” he asked her, alarmed, but Lalisa was crying too much to respond.Seulgi frowned, the evidence bag containing the knife still in her hand. “I’m beginning to think it’s me.” She deadpanned, though there was a hint of concern in her expression.Yerim turned to Lalisa, noting the way her terrified gaze was trained on the evidence bag. “It’s that knife. Get it out of her sight.” Yerim commanded. Seulgi nodded and went back into the apartment. Yerim turned back to Lalisa. Heechul had his arms around her protectively, asking her something. “Lalisa?” Yerim asked gently. Lalisa just shook her head and mumbled something, curling herself further into Heechul, who looked incredibly worried.“She said…” Heechul dropped his voice to a whisper and leaned in to Yerim. “Jennie. That’s her psychopath ex. She tried to kill her a bunch of times. She disappeared after Jisoo called the cops on her, none of us have seen her since. I think that knife is hers. Check if there’s a ‘J’ on it.” Yerim nodded and went to go and locate Seulgi. “Damn it...” he muttered.Jinsoul stared at Lalisa. She’d seen Jiwoo occasionally go into similar states of panic. She decided she’d have to start paying closer attention to what triggered them.-Jiwoo was spinning circles in Jinsoul’s desk chair when they returned to the precinct with Lalisa and Heechul. Jinsoul shot her a look of ‘what the hell are you doing here’ before disappearing into the interrogation room with Yerim, Lalisa and Heechul. Jiwoo gave her a little wave as she passed, which Jinsoul ignored with a grin and a shake of her head.Jungeun noticed Jiwoo and approached Jinsoul’s desk with a long sigh. “What the hell are you doing here?”“Uhh… What I’m always doing here?” Jiwoo replied, doing another spin. Jungeun rolled her eyes, trying to hide her amused smile.“You’re supposed to be home.” Jungeun reminded her. “Jinsoul said you were minding Hyejoo’s dog.”“Yeah, that was hours ago. Hyejoo’s home now.” Jiwoo told her. “And I’m here! Having the time of my life.” She stated, a huge smile on her face.Jungeun raised a brow. “Having the time of your life… playing on Jinsoul’s chair?” Jiwoo nodded, grinning as she continued to spin. Jungeun laughed. “Whatever. I’m glad you’re having fun. She’ll be out soon, she’s just following up a lead on a case. I’ll be in my office if you need me.” She said, leaving her alone with a smile. Jiwoo smiled back, but it quickly dropped off of her face. Now she was lonely again. It wasn’t a day that Jiwoo felt she could be alone, and there was nobody at home because Hyejoo had had to take Max to the vet. Hyejoo had told Jiwoo that she’d probably be better off in the precinct, surrounded by people she felt safe with, than in the vets’ watching Max get shots. The problem with that was that she wasn’t really surrounded by anyone. The only person who didn’t seem busy was Yujin, but from the way Seunghee kept telling her off she was obviously procrastinating. Jiwoo huffed and tugged at her hair. Maybe she should dye it. Actually, nah.She had just finished drawing a picture of a dog in Jinsoul’s notepad when a vaguely familiar face showed up. Jiwoo didn’t know his name, but he swung by the precinct every now and then to talk to Jungeun, sometimes bring her stuff. She always seemed half-annoyed, half-amused by him, but overall fond. As predicted, the guy went to knock on Jungeun’s office door, but she saw him coming through the blinds and told him to come back later. Jiwoo saw a pout begin to form on his face. “Where do I put these flowers, then?” he asked Jungeun, poking his head through the door. Jungeun replied with something rather unpleasant that had Jiwoo sniggering into her hand. The guy darted into her office, left the bouquet of flowers he’d brought with him on her desk, and darted back out, closing the door before she could yell at him. Jiwoo giggled. She watched him dither near her door for a while, before deciding to put him out of his misery.“They just got back from investigating a crime scene, so everyone is busy.” She informed him. It took him a second to realise that Jiwoo was talking to him, but when he did he turned to face her with his big, dopey, smitten, boxy smile still on his face. “I’m waiting as well, for Jinsoul.”“Ah, we can wait together, then.” He offered, seating himself on the chair next to Jinsoul’s desk that was usually occupied by Jiwoo. “You must be Jiwoo?”Jiwoo grinned wide and nodded. “Jung Jinsoul’s personal pain in the neck, at your service.” She confirmed.The guy laughed. “Funnily enough, I just so happen to be Kim Jungeun’s personal pain in the neck.” He grinned.“Oh!” Jiwoo exclaimed, realising who the guy was. “Taehyung?”Taehyung looked pleased. “You know who I am? Does that mean Jungeun talks about me, too?”“Yeah! To be fair, everyone talks about both of you like you’re soulmates, or something.” She told him. Taehyung’s smile was so wide that Jiwoo was surprised that there was any room left for the rest of his face. “Does Jungeun talk about me?”“Yeah, she thinks you’re adorable.”“She’s right!” Jiwoo exclaimed. “This is why she’s in charge. Obviously nobody else here is as smart as her.”“Yeah.” Taehyung agreed, staring at her office door with pure affection in his eyes. Jiwoo thought that it must have been the third cutest thing she’d ever seen in her life, after her younger sister when she was a baby and Max when he was a puppy. “I hope she likes the flowers.” He mumbled.“She usually does. Once I saw her write ‘buy another vase’ on the to-do list on the back of her hand, so I’m assuming she has them all over her place.” Jiwoo said. If Taehyung lit up any more, he was going to start attracting moths. Jiwoo decided to ask a question that she’d had since she first overhead Jinsoul and Yerim talking about Taehyung. “So, are you two dating? Because it’s a little unclear...”Taehyung huffed, his light suddenly slightly dimmed. “No. Sometimes I feel like I might have a chance, and other times, like right now, I think she just feels sorry for me.” He told Jiwoo with a little self-depreciating laugh. Jiwoo squinted through the blinds in Jungeun’s office window to see her carefully replace the dying flowers that had been in a fancy vase on her desk for almost two months with the new ones. The smile on her face made Jiwoo think that Taehyung was probably right the first time.Jinsoul stormed out of the interrogation room at that moment, dropped down heavily into Yerim’s desk chair, and threw her head back to stare at the ceiling. “I’m losing my damn mind.” She announced. Jiwoo thought she was probably talking to herself, but asked her to elaborate anyway. “What this girl’s been through...” She swore under her breath. “I won’t scar you guys with the details.” she said, shaking herself and sitting up. Then she frowned. “Why am I at Yerim’s desk?”“Because I’m at your desk.” Jiwoo supplied helpfully.“Why are you at my desk?”“Why not?” Jiwoo challenged. “To be fair, though, I don’t like you sitting there.”“Well, I don’t like you sitting there.” Jinsoul retorted, though a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. Jiwoo felt accomplished.Yerim approached the desks, looking faintly sick. “I’m beginning to think we shouldn’t have asked for the full story.”Jinsoul shook her head. “Yeah, maybe not. Is Sunmi in there?” Yerim nodded. “Great. We’ll know who we’re looking for-” Jinsoul started to say, but Yerim grabbed her arm and cut her off. “What?”“These two. Jiwoo and Taehyung.” She said, staring at them. They both stared back. Taehyung pulled a face. “Don’t they radiate the exact same energy?”“Don’t they what the which?”“Like, they give off the same vibe.” Yerim clarified. Jinsoul just raised a brow. Jiwoo and Taehyung shot each other a look, then immediately started making the same hand gestures that made absolutely no sense to Jinsoul or Yerim, but to them meant they were exchanging vibes. “They’re on the same wavelength.”Jinsoul was horrified. “I don’t like it. Make it stop.”Yerim turned to Jungeun’s office to see her leaning against the doorframe and trying not to laugh. “Jungeun! Come get your man.”Jungeun rolled her eyes as she approached, coming to a stop next to Taehyung’s chair. “Stop calling him my man. He’s not my man.”Taehyung moved so that he was sat on the arm of the chair, facing Jungeun. “I’ll have you know that I’m the man of many people’s dreams.” he informed her, adjusting his tie and trying to make himself look important.Jungeun scoffed. “Not mine, that’s for sure.”“If that’s true, how come you always wear the earrings he bought you for your birthday?” Jiwoo interrupted, an innocent smile on her face that had Yerim and Jinsoul wheezing. Jungeun glared at her and moved her hair so it hid her earlobes. “And how come you’re always a billion times happier after you’ve seen him, and how come I’ve caught you doodling his name on your hand more than once-”“That’s enough!” Jungeun commanded, her face very red. Taehyung had that look in his eyes again, like Jungeun was the moon and he was a wave in the ocean. Jiwoo decided to keep going.“No, wait, wait, I’m a bit confused.” She said, talking over Jungeun. Jungeun raised her eyebrows, but fell silent. “So, if Taehyung likes you, which he clearly does, and you like Taehyung, which you clearly do...” Jungeun was glaring at her again, though this time it was more calculating and somewhat amused than angry. “Why aren’t you dating?”“Because she’s playing hard to get because she thinks it’s cool but really she’s just making this whole thing a really unnecessarily long and drawn-out-”“Yerim, I can and will fire you if you don’t shut up right now.” Yerim closed her mouth, but couldn’t control her silent giggling. “Anyway, Jiwoo, we’re not dating because… Uh...” Jiwoo, Yerim, Jinsoul and Taehyung all raised expectant eyebrows at her. “Whatever. Don’t ever do something like that again.” she huffed, then turned to Taehyung. “I’m assuming you’re not busy right now?” Taehyung shook his head, confused but a little hopeful. “Great. Let’s go.” she said, grabbing his hand and practically dragging him out of the station, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed elated, looking back over his shoulder to mouth ‘thank you!’ to Jiwoo before they left. Yerim and Jinsoul were stunned.“You did it.” Yerim said, still staring at the door they’d left through. “You did it!” She almost screamed, nearly knocking Jiwoo out of her chair with the force of the hug she gave her. “Guys! Jungeun and Taehyung are on a date right now!” Yerim announced to the station. Several jaws dropped.“Seunghee, get the book, get the book!” Seungyeon shouted. “Someone get the lab geeks!” Seunghee started rooting around in her desk drawers while Yujin ran off to alert the forensics team of the news.Seunghee opened the brown diary and cleared her throat after Yujin returned with the forensics team. “So, Jinsoul lost ages ago.” she began. Jinsoul rolled her eyes as everyone started snickering. “Shuhua, Yujin and Seulgi also lost a while back… Yeojin and Yerim vastly overestimated. Although, to be fair, I put ‘never’, so they did better than me. Seungyeon is about to go mental because she bet they’d get together this Christmas.”“Wait, seriously? Who bet closer than that?” Seungyeon wailed. Seunghee smirked as she continued to read out their bets.“The infuriating thing here is that I’m pretty sure Yuqi wasn’t even being all that serious about it.” Seunghee said, shaking her head. Yuqi looked surprised.“Wait, did I win?” she exclaimed. “Right, no one get angry with me, but I completely forgot what I put.”Seungyeon rounded on her, furious. “You what?”“I didn’t think I’d win!”“How could you forget this amount of detail?” Seunghee asked in wonder. “She’s literally written a fanfiction, listen. ‘They’ll get together on a random day in the middle of September or maybe October, when Taehyung has had a hard day but he still comes in with flowers or chocolates or whatever regardless and Jungeun realises that he’s literally the perfect guy and they’re perfect for each other and they start going out and everyone’s jealous of them because they’re the ideal couple. The end – Yuqi’.” Everyone turned to stare at Yuqi, who just snorted.“I think the writing technique could maybe use some improvement.” Yeojin deadpanned. Everyone except Seungyeon burst out laughing.“Oh come on! She wasn’t even taking it seriously!” Seungyeon protested, but Seunghee was shaking her head.“She won, Seungyeon, you know the rules. Everyone pay up.” Everyone obliged, most of them grumbling about it, while Jiwoo checked her phone. Jungeun had texted her, asking who won the bet. Jiwoo responded with ‘Yuqi’; Jungeun replied a few minutes later with a few surprised emojis and asked if she knew who the runner up was. Jiwoo told her it was Seungyeon, then had to hold back her laughter when Jungeun replied with ‘AHA in jins face’. Yerim noticed Jiwoo’s barely contained mirth and asked her what was so funny.“Jungeun won the bet against Jin about who would win your bet.” Jiwoo told her. Yerim spun on her heel, triumphant, and relayed the information over to Jinsoul, who groaned, and Yeojin, who cackled.“Hey, wait, you made a bet without us?” Shuhua demanded. Yeojin and Yerim just laughed some more, while Jinsoul just rolled her eyes as she gave them the money she owed them. Jiwoo’s phone buzzed – it was Jungeun again, asking if anyone bet on hers and Seokjin’s bet and if so was it just Yerim, Jinsoul and Yeojin or was it the whole department. Jiwoo told her and received another ‘IN JIN’S FACE!!’ as a response.“Wow, okay, so Jungeun and Seokjin bet on your bet on their bet on your bet.” Jiwoo summarised, laughing. “It’s like that episode of Friends.”Sunmi overheard as she took her sketches over to the murder board and shook her head. “You kids and your damn gambling. It’s a wonder that Jinsoul has any money at all. Anyway, here’s the sketches of the suspect.” she announced, sticking the drawings up under Kim Jennie’s name on the board. Jinsoul and Yerim went back to business immediately, Yerim returning to the interview room and Jinsoul going back to her desk to look up Kim Jennie. Or, well, she tried to, but Jiwoo had gotten quite comfortable in her chair and decided she didn’t want to move. Jinsoul picked the chair up and tipped her out of it. Jiwoo sat on Jinsoul’s lap once she’d sat back down. Jinsoul just shrugged and decided to accept the compromise, turning her chair so that she could see her computer screen over Jiwoo’s shoulder.-“What’s Yerim doing?” Jiwoo asked. She was still on Jinsoul’s lap. She had her phone open on the notes app and was taking down everything that Jinsoul said was important about Kim Jennie.“Asking for more information about this Jennie scum, probably.” Jinsoul replied, eyes still on her computer monitor. The way she had to reach around Jiwoo to get to the keyboard and mouse meant she was basically hugging her, but neither of them minded. “I don’t think she’ll take much longer. Heechul and his neighbour are probably desperate to leave, to be honest.”Jiwoo hummed. “Do you know Heechul?” Jinsoul tensed a little – Jiwoo probably wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been sitting on her – and shot Jiwoo a quick, unreadable glance. “Um. Never mind.”“No, it’s okay.” Jinsoul said. “He’s a tattoo artist. He did all my dad’s tattoos.” She told her, but dithered for a moment on whether to stop there or not. “He… He did mine as well.” she mumbled.Jiwoo’s eyebrows disappeared beneath her bangs. “You have a tattoo?”“I don’t really want to talk about it.” Jinsoul said, fiddling with the computer mouse. “It’s just a bit of a sensitive subject. You can ask Jungeun or Yerim if you want, I guess, it’s not that I don’t want you to know, it’s just that-”“No, it’s okay, I get it.” Jiwoo interrupted Jinsoul’s awkward ramblings. “I won’t ask to see it, or anything.”A faint smirk lifted the corner of Jinsoul’s mouth. “I’d have to take my shirt off, so that wouldn’t be happening anyway.”Jiwoo snorted, a larger smirk taking over her face. “Any chance I could get you to change your mi-”“No. Shut up, Jiwoo.” Jiwoo dissolved into laughter.-Jinsoul glanced over at Jiwoo a few hours later. She’d gone back to the chair she usually occupied, much to the relief of Jinsoul’s legs. She was curled up in it, staring glumly at her phone screen. “What’s wrong?” Jinsoul asked her.Jiwoo started, then put her phone back in her pocket. “Um. Nothing.” Jinsoul raised a brow. Jiwoo sighed. “Hyejoo had to go to Incheon to see her parents.” she mumbled. “She’s going to have to stay overnight.” Jiwoo went to carry on, but couldn’t decide what she wanted to say and just shut her mouth in frustration instead.Jinsoul frowned as she stared contemplatively at the younger girl. “You can stay over at my place, if you want...”Jiwoo’s eyes lit up at the suggestion, even though she was shaking her head. “No, I- I don’t want to, like, impose-”“No it’s okay.” Jinsoul interrupted, turning back to her computer screen. “If you don’t want to be alone, or whatever, you can just tell me, you know.”Jiwoo smiled faintly. After a brief pause, she responded, quieter than Jinsoul had ever heard her. “Thank you. And you’re right.” she admitted.Jinsoul hummed. “Is this always, or is there just something going on right now?” She caught Jiwoo’s eye as she finished her question and rushed to elaborate. “Just so that I know for the future, I mean.”Jiwoo paused, contemplating her answer, then huffed in frustration with herself. “It’s, uh, sometimes? Like, sometimes something will remind me of m- uh, something, and I just find it hard to cope with on my own, you know?” she tried to explain.Jinsoul frowned. “You mean you need someone there while you’re going through it?”Jiwoo looked relieved that Jinsoul understood. “Yeah! Exactly. Sometimes I’ll talk about it with Hyejoo, but I won’t burden you with it.” Jinsoul looked ready to tell her that she could if she wanted to, but Jiwoo dismissed her with a wave of her hand. “I never had to tell Hyejoo anything, she was there. I don’t know if I could go through the whole story.” Jinsoul just nodded, deciding to just drop it. Jiwoo turned back to her phone screen, probably to tell Hyejoo that she didn’t have to worry about her. Jinsoul turned back to her computer, but found that she couldn’t focus on what she was reading.-Jinsoul took Jiwoo back to her apartment after work. Jiwoo seemed incredibly pleased with Jinsoul’s pet fish, and claimed the armchair next to the fish tank immediately. It was Jinsoul’s favourite chair, but she decided to let Jiwoo have it. She was worried about her.Jiwoo seemed to quite like Jinsoul’s apartment, which she was oddly relieved about. She wasn’t sure why she’d been worried that Jiwoo wouldn’t like it, or why it would be a problem if she didn’t. Yerim often told her that it looked like the Loch Ness Monster lived there, amongst other creative insults that had never bothered her. She was acutely aware that she sort of wanted to impress Jiwoo. Probably just because she was rich, though.She showed Jiwoo to the guest bedroom, wincing when she remembered the abandoned treadmill that she’d shoved into the corner and piled junk on top of. Jiwoo wandered over to it, not making any remarks about it, but picking up a book on the Loch Ness Monster from atop a cardboard box. Jinsoul sheepishly explained that Yerim had gotten it for her as a joke Christmas present a few years ago, then tried to explain even more sheepishly why it was funny. Jiwoo just cut her off with a smile, mentioning Jinsoul’s apparent love of fish. Jinsoul shrugged, laughing a little nervously, and added that Yerim called her apartment ‘The Swamp’. Then she cringed internally. Jiwoo just smiled wider and disagreed, telling Jinsoul how much she loved the largely fish-themed décor.Jinsoul lay in bed, still awake a couple of hours later, slowly coming to the realisation that maybe she did like Jiwoo. In the way that everybody said that Jiwoo liked her. She still wasn’t quite ready to admit it to herself, and she definitely wasn’t ready to admit it to anyone else. She refused to give them the satisfaction of being right. Then again… she didn’t want them to end up like Jungeun and Taehyung. How long had those two been in love with each other, and how long had it taken them to finally go out? Jinsoul silently chastised herself. She was getting ahead of herself. Jiwoo didn’t really like her like that. They were all probably just saying that so that Jinsoul would believe them and embarrass herself. She wondered what the terms of their bet on her and Jiwoo were.She was startled out of her musings by screams coming from the guest room. She flung her covers off and jumped out of her bed, running into the other room to see that Jiwoo was still asleep, but screaming and shaking. Jinsoul shook her awake, not knowing what else to do. Jiwoo awoke with another scream, then went quiet as she took in her surroundings. It took her a second to process that Jinsoul was there, but when she did, she burst into tears. Jinsoul just hugged her, alarmed and unsure of what to do. Jiwoo clung to her, crying her eyes out. Jinsoul rubbed her back and whispered hopefully soothing words to her until her sobs subsided into sniffling hiccups.Both of them were quiet for a long time, until Jinsoul finally broke the silence. “Are you okay?” she whispered.Jiwoo heaved a shuddering breath. “I think so.” she replied just as quietly, her voice cracking. Her head was still on Jinsoul’s shoulder. She let out a short laugh that sounded more like another sob. “Th-this is surreal. I sho-should’ve just gone h-home… I’m s-sorry for b-b-bothering you li-”“Jiwoo, you’re not bothering me-”“I woke you up!”“I wasn’t asleep.” Jinsoul told her. Jiwoo went quiet. “Do… do you want to talk about it? It’s okay if you don’t.” she added in a rush.“No.” Jiwoo mumbled; then after a moment’s consideration, “Yeah.” She sighed miserably and started to explain her dream, but struggled to figure out where to begin. “I- My dream- I- I dreamt-” She huffed and started again. “I had a dream about when my- when my brother died.” she whispered. Jiwoo was still wrapped in Jinsoul’s hug, so she didn’t see the look of shock on Jinsoul’s face. Jinsoul didn’t reply, silently indicating for Jiwoo to continue. She distantly wondered if this was what she’d been talking about during that ride to the hospital, when she mentioned something about shooting good people. Jiwoo’s breath caught in her throat as she choked back a sob. “It was years ago. I was nine. Minhyung was only fourteen. He… he burned to death… wh-when our stepfather burned down our old house. He died saving me and our baby sister.” Jinsoul had gone incredibly still, her mind reeling. She could just about understand Jiwoo’s quiet voice, thick with unshed tears, but it was clear enough that Jinsoul felt like crying herself. Jiwoo’s stepdad burned down the house with three kids still inside? What kind of monster would do something like that? Jinsoul got the sense that Jiwoo wasn’t done, though. After a lengthy pause and some more shuddering breaths, she went on. “We had to go into the bathroom… it was the furthest room away from the fire. It had blocked off all the exits except the bathroom window… I can remember Minhyung pushing it open as far as it would go, and helping me climb up onto the windowsill, and then I had to crawl out of it and landed in the back garden… Then he passed Taehi out to me… I nearly dropped her, I was shaking so bad… she was only two… she was crying… And then Minhyung-” She cut herself off with her own tears, then, and Jinsoul just held her tighter until she calmed down a little bit. “Minhyung tried to follow us out, but the fire had reached the bathroom- the ceiling was engulfed with flames, and it had caught onto the windowsill, I think the wind must have been making it worse… And there was nowhere he could go to- to escape it…” Jiwoo gasped as she forced down more sobs, though the tears were flowing from her eyes. Jinsoul could feel them soaking into her pyjama jacket, but she didn’t care. “A-and I h-had t-to just- just sta-stand at the b-bottom o-of the gar-garden, list-listeni-ing to him d-d-die… And there was n-nothing I co-could do about it.” She cried, suddenly unable to prevent her sobs any longer. Jinsoul found that she was crying, too.They stayed like that for a long time, Jiwoo clinging to Jinsoul as they both cried, Jinsoul doing her best to hide her tears from Jiwoo, not wanting to upset her any further. After a long while, Jinsoul quietly, and not without hesitation, murmured, “If you want, I’ll show you my tattoo tomorrow.”That made Jiwoo laugh a little. Jinsoul was glad. “Don’t feel pressured into showing me your tattoo just because I told you about Minhyung. That wasn’t even the whole story.” Jinsoul felt as though Jiwoo’s words had punched her in the throat. There was more? Jinsoul had thought that it couldn’t have possibly gotten worse, but it looked as though she’d been wrong. She decided not to pry, though; she didn’t know if either of them could take it just then.“I mean. It’s just that- I thought that, if you can trust me with that story, that probably only Hyejoo and your family knows, then I should be able to trust you with the story behind the tattoo.” Jinsoul noticed the way Jiwoo tensed when she’d said ‘your family’ and got worried. She suddenly wasn’t sure that she would ever want to hear the rest of the story. “It’s not very long. It won’t make us late, or anything.” She added, in a poor attempt to get Jiwoo to smile again.It had the opposite effect. She gasped and pulled away from Jinsoul, looking around the room for a clock. There was a digital one switched off in a drawer that Jinsoul always forgot about. She knew that some people liked having clocks in their bedrooms, but they always drove her insane. Analogue clocks were too loud and digital clocks were too bright, and Jinsoul enjoyed sleep too much to be disturbed by irritating things like that. She kept that one in the drawer for guests, but always forgot to tell them it was there. Jiwoo made a quiet noise of distress and guilt, before exclaiming, “It’s late! You’ll be tired in work tomorrow! You need to go to bed, I’m so sorry for keeping you up-”“Jiwoo! It’s fine! I don’t mind sacrificing sleep to make sure you’re okay.” Jinsoul told her gently. “Besides, I’m always tired in work. I’ll just nap in Jungeun’s office again.”“Oh… is that what you’re always doing in there?” Jiwoo asked, slightly bewildered.Jinsoul laughed. “Not always. Just most of the time.” She winked. Jiwoo laughed as well, wiping away the last of her tears with the back of her hand. “Are you definitely okay now?” Jiwoo nodded. “Goodnight, then.” She said softly, closing the door. Jiwoo echoed her, settling back down against the pillows. Jinsoul opened the door again. “Oh, by the way, before I forget, there’s a clock in one of those drawers, in case you want it. It’s very annoying, though. I don’t know how to turn the light off, I don’t think you can?” Jiwoo sat up and began rooting around in the drawers until she found the source of all evil- ahem, the clock. She switched it on and set it on the nightstand. It was just past midnight. Jinsoul could see from the annoying green light it emitted that Jiwoo looked a little more relaxed. Hm. She made a mental note to invest in a nightlight, in the hopes that that would help Jiwoo a little more. Then she remembered that this was probably just a one time thing. After a bit of an awkward pause, they repeated their goodnights and Jinsoul went back to bed.The last thing running through her mind before she drifted off was that she really did quite fancy Jiwoo. She wasn’t sure that it was entirely a bad thing. At least, not until she was awoken by a nightmare of Hyejoo repeatedly kicking her in the face, anyway. She sniggered quietly to herself as she rolled over and went back to sleep.-Jinsoul woke up in Jungeun’s office the next day, on the couch that she kept in the corner for anyone who needed a power nap, with blankets and pillows piled up on top of and around her. She must have fallen asleep at her desk and someone had moved her. She sat up, rubbing her eyes as a few pillows and a blanket fell to the floor. Jungeun glanced up at her from her desk. “Oh good, you’re up.” she drawled sarcastically. Jinsoul just made a noise that was halfway between a grumble and a squeak. “Jiwoo tucked you in. Meanwhile, your partner was out arresting Kim Jennie.”Jinsoul processed that for a minute. She was aware that the part she should have been focused on was the Kim Jennie part, but she found herself more concerned with the Kim Jiwoo part. She forced herself to stop thinking about Jiwoo for a moment. “Uh… Where’s Kim Jennie?”“She’s going to jail. I’ve informed Lalisa and the families of the victims. I’ve done a ton of paperwork, sent Jiwoo home, and banged Taehyung on the desk while you were asleep.” She told Jinsoul. Jinsoul stared at her, feeling slightly ill. “I’m joking about the last part, idiot. We made out, though.”“You’re disgusting. What time is it?”Jungeun glanced at her watch. “It’s just past five. You’ve been out for a while. Rough night?”Jinsoul stretched as she responded. “Jiwoo stayed over.” She yawned. “We had a bit of a midnight heart-to-heart. Then I kept having nightmares about Hyejoo and her dog murdering me.” Jungeun raised a brow, smirking a little. “I also may have had a bit of a revelation.”“Which was?”“I think I might have a bit of a crush on Jiwoo.”“A bit?” Jungeun exclaimed, pulling out her phone. She pressed a few buttons on it before shutting it back in her desk drawer. Jinsoul’s phone dinged. She opened the precinct group chat to see that Jungeun had sent a picture of the ‘oh yeah, it’s all coming together’ meme without a caption. Jinsoul started to ask her what in the hell, but Jungeun interrupted. “I’m exercising my right to remain silent at this time. Anyway, tell me how the revelation came about, then.”Jinsoul rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. I think it just kind of hit me? If that even makes sense? Can that happen, or am I stupid?”“Yeah, I know what you mean, don’t worry.” Jungeun said, chewing on her pen lid. “Have you told her?”Jinsoul blinked. “What? No. Don’t be ridiculous.”Jungeun snorted, then frowned. “You know, I wish I hadn’t waited so long to get with Taehyung. He’s brilliant, we’re brilliant together. We’re both really happy.” Jungeun told Jinsoul with a small smile.“That’s great. I’m happy for you guys.” Jinsoul said.“My point is,” Jungeun continued, “Don’t waste your time waiting and worrying when you’re really just depriving yourself of something wonderful. You know what I mean?” Jinsoul nodded. She kind of got where Jungeun was coming from, but she couldn’t really imagine that she could achieve Jungeun and Taehyung levels of wonderful with anyone, even Jiwoo. Jinsoul just wasn’t all that wonderful, especially with other people.-“Can I guess who’s who?” Hyejoo asked through a mouthful of popcorn. She gestured to the TV screen displaying Brooklyn Nine-Nine with the remote. “Personality-wise, I mean. You’re Jake Peralta. Jinsoul is Captain Holt. Jungeun is Terry Jeffords.”“Jungeun is probably Gina, actually, but don’t tell her I said that.” Jiwoo interrupted. “Yerim and Yeojin are Hitchcock and Scully, a.k.a. Dumb and Dumber. Don’t tell them I said that, either.” They both sniggered. Max thumped his tail against the carpet suddenly and made Jiwoo jump. She huffed and started to crush a piece of popcorn between her fingers, sense of humour rapidly dissipating as she thought about the reason loud noises made her jumpy. “I told Jinsoul what happened to Minhyung.”Hyejoo pressed pause. “You did? How come?”“I had a nightmare about it. She was there.” Jiwoo mumbled. For some bizarre reason, she felt as though she was disappointing Hyejoo. “She was really, like, understanding and stuff. I think she cried, actually.” Hyejoo just stared at her best friend in silence, mentally calculating the easiest way to kill Jinsoul and make it look like an accident if she ever so much as briefly thought about hurting Jiwoo. “Um. You don’t think I scared her off, do you?”“I thought you said she was understanding and stuff?”“Well, yeah, she was, but… I don’t know.” Jiwoo mumbled. “It’s just a bit of a weird thing to tell someone in the middle of the night. Isn’t it?”Hyejoo shrugged. “Personally, I think there’s no better time for it. And if she hasn’t been weird about it, she’s probably not weirded out. You feel?” Jiwoo nodded.“I guess. I’m not telling her the rest of it, though.” she said, grabbing the remote to turn the TV’s volume up.“Not telling her now, or not telling her ever?” Hyejoo asked.“We’ll see.”“Fair enough.”Max gave a bark of encouragement. Jiwoo relaxed for the first time in a while. She finished her song that night.-“Jung Jinsoul!”Jinsoul raised her head from where it had been resting on her desk. “What?”Jungeun was leaning against her desk. “Have you listened to Jiwoo’s new song yet?” she asked, a smirk on her face that made Jinsoul vaguely suspicious.“I wasn’t aware she had one. I’ll listen right now.” Jinsoul replied, pulling her headphones out of her pocket and huffing when she realised that they were a tangled mess. Jungeun snorted.“If you fall asleep halfway through it I will tell her.” she warned as she retreated to her office. Jinsoul scowled as she plugged her headphones into her computer. The scowl faded instantly as the song loaded and Jiwoo’s mesmerising voice started to play in her ears.