Solar woke up to a very loud and obnoxious ringtone.

She groaned and tried to force open eyes glued shut by exhaustion, hand blindly groping in the direction of the sound.

The moment her eyelids cracked open, she cursed under her breath as the sharp sunlight immediately flooded her pupils and sent a of pain straight through her skull. Kyungri must have forgotten to completely close the curtains last night. Well, it wasn’t like she remembered much either.

In her muddled state of mind, she realized that the ringtone was not from her phone, and she called out in a raspy tone, “Hey. Kyungri pick up your damn phone." No response. “HEY! GODDAMN!”

Kyungri’s snores continued to echo throughout the apartment.

Grumbling to herself, Solar peeled herself off the couch lethargically, heel of her hand pressed between her eyes to alleviate the pressure from her throbbing headache. She stumbled forward, nearly breaking an ankle on an empty bottle rolling haphazardly across the floor. Blinking her squinting eyes, she let the continuous ringing piercing through her eardrums lead her towards wherever Kyungri had managed to collapse the night before.

She really should have resisted drinking so much. Kyungri was hard to resist, though. Especially an inquisitive, party-happy Kyungri who had twice the alcohol tolerance as her.

She found the girl, limbs splayed out over her bed, unconscious of the loud ringing emanating from the upturned phone on a nearby dresser.

“Yah, Kyungri!” Solar leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed as she yelled at the immobile girl.

Kyungri mumbled and moved an imperceptible inch. Rolling her eyes in impatience, Solar stomped towards the dresser and swiped the answer button right impatiently.

“Hello? Sorry, Kyungri’s too hungover right now to answer. I’ll ask her to call you back later when she’s decent.”

Blissful silence fell in the room when the call disconnected.

Only to be punctuated by a yelp of pain when Solar dug her fingers into Kyungri’s side, partly to wake her up and partly to exact revenge for waking her up. Rather unnecessarily early too, considering it was a Saturday and only 2pm according to her phone.

“Solar, lay off---umph—I’m---mmphh---I’ll get you ---“

“Uh huh.” With a wicked grin, Solar upped her attack.

“Ok, ok! I’m sorry!” Kyungri was curled into a ball, nearly falling off the other side of the bed in her retreat from Solar’s wiggling weapons. “Jesus, you’re insufferable in the mornings.”

“Says the one who has an abominable ringtone and wakes everybody else with it!”

“It’s not abominable,” defended Kyungri, sulkily. “It’s practical.”

“Same thing.” Solar dismissed the excuse tiredly with a limp hand. “By the way, Hyuna’s called you for like five times so far. You should really call her back. Once you don’t sound like an old man on the verge of coughing his last breath.”

Kyungri’s eyes bulged. “She called that many times? Ah .” She crashed to the floor, blanket and all and began dragging herself to the restroom, presumably to freshen up.

“Tsk. So whipped.” Solar chuckled and plopped face first into the bed Kyungri had just vacated. With a deep sigh, she closed her eyes to try and catch a few more winks of sleep, but Kyungri’s phone sounded again.

This time growling in annoyance, Solar snatched the phone off the stand and raised it close to her squinting eyes. Just a message.

She flung it onto the covers beside her and let her head droop once more, mind drifting off--

Wait.

Solar’s eyes snapped open. Her hands roamed the covers until they met with Kyungri’s phone once more. She shakily pressed the power button and Kyungri’s phone lit up once again, locked frontscreen showing:

2 messages from ‘Solar’s suit chick’

This, no it couldn’t be, there was no way it could be—

“Whatcha doing with my phone,” asked Kyungri, who was toweling dry her face as she returned to the room. “Did Hyuna call again or something?”

“Y-You, y-you have….”

“I have?”

“Moonbyul’s number?” Solar looked from the phone to Kyungri’s face in shock. “She texted you. Why’d she text you?”

Kyungri read her expression, smirk slowly sliding across face. “Aww, is our little Solar jealous? That your little crush—“

“She’s not my crush!”

“That’s not what you said last night.”

“Oh god.” Horror dawned on Solar’s face when she grasped for the faintest wisps of memories of last night. “What the hell did I say last night? How much did you make me drink last night? Oh my god, Kyungri, what do I do last night? Wait, where’s my phone?”

“Woah there, slow down now.” Kyungri began to walk around the room, picking up bottles and pieces of trash that were remnants of last night’s mess. “One question at a time. I’ve got a big enough headache already. Don’t need to make it worse by thinking.”

“Where’s my phone?”

“I confiscated it when you got too drunk first.” Kyungri leaned over, plucking her own phone out of Solar’s limp grasp, unlocking it with her thumb. She shrugged while swiping through her history of missed calls and messages. “You should thank me. You could have made even bigger messes.”

“What do you mean?” Dread bubbled in her stomach as she racked her brains fruitlessly.

“Your phone’s in the first drawer. Find out yourself. I’ll be back in a min. Got to call Hyuna back.” She stepped out the room as Solar lunged for the dresser.

Like Kyungri had said, her phone was smack dab in the middle of the drawer. She powered it on with trepidation, holding her breath as she waited for the screen to load.

“Solar?”

Kyungri’s voice startled Solar and the phone jumped out of her hand before crashing into the floor with a heart wrenching crack.

“FCK!! #$^@#%$^ I SWEAR TO GOD KYUNGRI—“

“Ok girl, you really need to chill. Like bury your head in an ice box chill.” Kyungri sighed as she watched Solar cradle the wrecked phone between her hands, desperately trying to power it on once again. “That phone’s a lost cause.”

Indeed it was, but Solar held on to that last string of hope that the maze of cracks etched across the screen would be only a fleeting issue.

She was sorely mistaken.

“You know what?” Kyungri treaded forward to pick up the phone that Solar had flung onto the bed in rage. She tapped Solar on the shoulder carefully, trying to raise the head that was buried into a pair of claw-like hands. “I’m heading out for an afternoon snack with Hyuna. Want to come with? We can get your phone fixed or replaced after.”

Solar lifted her head and glared. “We better.”

Kyungri threw up her hands in mock surrender. “Yes ma’am.”

----------------------------------------

During the whole car ride there, Kyungri still refused to spill what had happened. At some point, Solar wasn’t sure if Kyungri even knew or remembered what had happened herself. But the taller girl insisted that there would be some clue to the blank memories in her cracked phone, so she just stared at the disabled device as if willing it back to life.

She forgot the last time she went so over the edge. Was she a drunk texter? A drunk caller? She couldn’t quite recall, and it wasn’t like that could lead to anything too drastic. The worst that could happen would probably be stupid ramblings to a family member or close friend, considering how limited her address book was. However, she didn’t know what to make of the knot of unease in her stomach.

Kyungri parked the car under the shade of a palm tree, and the two exited swiftly, heads bent as they strove to avoid the blazing sun.

“Kyungri! Over here!” A voice called out to them when the jingle of the front door bells accompanied their entrance into the café. An elegant looking woman in a white button up waved them over.

“Hey babe, missed you,” said Kyungri with a wide smile, sliding into the seat next to Hyuna with a quick kiss of hello. Solar took the seat opposite them.

“Me too. Oh Solar! I haven’t seen you in a while. How have you been?” asked Hyuna while she waved the waiter over.

“I’ve been doing well. Don’t worry, I’ve been keeping your girlfriend in line,” she added, giving her a wink while Kyungri’s expression turned sour.

“More like she’s been draining my life of fun.”

“It’s not my fault you can’t manage to remember any of the fun.”

“Now now, kids.” Hyuna flashed a crooked smile as the two friends began bickering once more. “Maybe you’re both just too busy fighting all the time to actually enjoy anything.”

“Blame that on her personality,” sniffed Kyungri, pointing a dainty finger at the shortest girl. “Nagging all the time like an old woman. No wonder she’s still single. It’s actually miraculous she managed to catch anyone’s attention with the way she acts.”

“Oho?” Hyuna’s eyebrows lifted in curiosity, turning her head back towards Solar, who was glowering ferociously at Kyungri. “Is there someone you’re dating right now?”

“Well there’s someone she wants to date for sure,” interjected Kyungri sweetly.

“No! Not like that! What are you even saying—“

Kyungri wagged her finger back and forth triumphantly. “Uh uh, that’s not what you said last night.”

“Oh my god.”

“Well considering how you kept calling and texting her random yesterday, I guess that plan’s going down the drain.”

“Wait---I what?” Solar’s jaw moved up and down, but no words could form. Her mind whirred in panic and her eyes darted left and right, looking for the truth that had fled her mind. She couldn’t have. No way no way no way.

Flashes of broken memories flitted through her mind like a whirlwind.

Giggling into the phone about hot some girls looked in suits. Especially Moonbyul.

Calling the person at the other end 69. Over and over again. While cackling like a madman.

Rambling about how lovely peach perfume was, and how she loved people who wore the scent.

Oh god oh god oh god.

“D-Did I even have her number?” whispered Solar blankly, mind still processing through the shock.

“I gave it to you since you were near begging for it.”

Hyuna looked between the two with an amused expression. The drama unfolding was even juicier than the latest celebrity gossip. It was always a treat to see the two friends go off on each other, insults honed by years of comfortable friendship.

Her phone suddenly rang in her pocket and she dug into her coat, answering it after a brief glance at the caller ID.

Kyungri and Solar stopped fighting and turned to look at her, but she waved off their questions with a sweep of her hand.

“Hello? Oh you’ve found her? Really? That fast? Oh my god, thank you so much! And of course, I can meet up soon to get her.” Hyuna hung up the call to two pairs of very curious eyes staring back at her.

“Who was that?” There was a hint of jealousy in Kyungri’s tone as she asked. “Who were you talking about?”

“Relax.” Rubbing the top of Kyungri’s thigh comfortingly, Hyuna chuckled. “That was the person I hired to find Moya. Remember how my cat went missing a few days ago?” She directed the question towards Solar, who was looking completely lost. “Apparently, they accepted the case this morning and already found her! So I’m going to go get her and pay them later. Do you two want to come with me?”

“Well….” Kyungri looked at Solar and at the bag on her lap that held the broken phone. “We were actually going to go to a store to fix her phone, since I promised her.”

Hyuna interrupted, “We can do that too. Not a problem.”

“Solar?” With eager, pleading eyes, Kyungri turned towards the third girl at the table.

Solar could see the hope sparkling in her best friend’s eyes. She sighed, knowing Kyungri didn’t get to spend much time with her girlfriend due to her job. And she wasn’t that much of an to keep them apart because of a petty argument. “That sounds fine with me.”

“Great! Shall we head out now?”

-------------------------------------------

She shouldn’t be laughing. She really shouldn’t be laughing, especially after what she had supposedly done last night.

But the sight of Moonbyul inching her way forward looking as though she had a ticking bomb in her arms wore away at her self-control and she stood stiffly next to Hyuna, twitching in amusement.

“Here you go, miss.” Moonbyul gingerly pried the cat off her arms and chucked it into Hyuna’s arms with a deep sigh of relief.

“Thank you so much! I’ll transfer the rest of the payment as soon as possible,” said Hyuna delightedly as she the cat’s fur, eliciting a content meow.

“So…” Moonbyul straightened up, smoothing out the creases in her shirt and directed an indecipherable expression towards Solar. “Friends of yours?’

It was then that Solar realized the gravity of the situation.

She was not prepared to see Moonbyul again yet.

Which, by the way, was a thought that should have begun with, “Why am I even thinking of meeting her again?”

She was a thief.

Moonbyul was a detective. And the victim. The worst combination.

This led to another terrifying possibility.

What if she had babbled about stealing the vase last night?

What if she had accidentally confessed to the crime?

But it wouldn’t make quite as much sense, since she was still walking around free without handcuffs right now.

Even so, Moonbyul was a difficult person to understand, and god knew what went on in that calculative mind.

It didn’t help that Kyungri was snorting under her breath as she bounced from one foot to another, watching the scene play out. Hyuna, ever perceptive, noticed the spark of tension between them and nudged Kyungri, who nodded slightly at the unvoiced question. They shared a glance.

“Well,” began Hyuna, inching backwards with Kyungri in tow. “Since I have Hoya, I’ll take my leave now and go on a date with Kyungri. I’ll leave you two since you seem to have stuff to discuss. Bye!”

With extra long strides by already long legs, they soon disappeared, leaving Solar frozen under Moonbyul’s gaze.

I’m going to kill Kyungri. Again. Solar clenched her fists, cheeks flushing darkly at the betrayal.

“What a coincidence,” spoke Moonbyul dryly.

Her head snapped to attention. “R-Right.”

“How are you feeling today?”

“F-Fine. W-Why do you ask?”

“It’s good to see that you recover quickly from…wild nights.” Moonbyul grinned at the heated embarrassment coloring Solar’s face.

She choked on air. “Tell me I didn’t.”

“You tell me.”

“I, uh, actually don’t know.” She shrugged ruefully, hand pulling out her cracked phone for Moonbyul to see. “Had an accident with Kyungri this morning. I was going to get it fixed when---“ Suddenly remembering, she whirled around, phone clutched in her hand, eyes boring through where the car would have been parked. “Those #%^%&--“

“Woah, what’s wrong?” Moonbyul pulled on Solar’s shoulder, flipping her back around to face her.

“They were going to take me to repair my phone but they just ditched me here. I can’t believe this.” She paced back and forth, huffing, going through 101 ways to die in her mind as she thought of how she’d deal with Kyungri later.

“If it’s just that, I’d be willing to take you. Would you like to?”

Moonbyul’s offer made her leg pause mid-stomp. Was this really what she wanted? To spend more time with Moonbyul, when it could just lead to the eventual discovery of her theft? The girl was dangerous.

In more ways than one. Solar’s eyes glanced towards the detective, subconsciously sliding towards and staying fixed on her chest. Soft, but dangerous. Soft…. She gulped. What was she even thinking? Moonbyul was truly a dangerous enemy.

However, she needed her phone fixed. Pronto. But by now, Hyuna and Kyungri were probably miles away and it wasn’t like she had any working way of contacting them in any case.

Pros vs cons. She weighed the lists in her mind. Never mind that extra iron weight on the ‘pro’ side that she convinced herself to be ‘curiosity’ about Moonbyul.

“I’ll take you on that offer—wait, what happened to your arm?” With a frown, Solar stepped towards Moonbyul, eyes trained on the skin peeking out of her coat sleeves.

“Oh this?” The detective raised her arm, sleeve sliding down to reveal a significant laceration across her forearm. “It’s that pesky cat of Miss Hyuna’s. It wasn’t too pleased to be handled, I assume. Far from docile. At least towards me,” she muttered.

“That looks pretty bad though.” Solar clicked her tongue, arm grabbing Moonbyul’s slim wrist to get a better glance. “You’ve cut more than skin, and there’s even bits of blood squeezing through at some parts. Why didn’t you clean it up?”

“The cat was very attention-demanding.”

Solar bit her lip, worry for the other girl bothering her more than it should. “Let’s go get you cleaned up. My place is actually not too far from here and I have quite a few medical supplies since I’m clumsy.”

“I’m really fine—“

“No!” Her stubbornness prompted an expression of shock on Moonbyul’s face. “Do you want to get infected? Do you want to risk getting infected? No,” she continued, before giving Moonbyul, who had opened , a chance to talk. “I think it’ll be better to make sure you clean that wound properly and wrap it up.”

“What about your phone?”

“We can deal with that later. For now,” she looked around the lot, “where’s your car?”

----------------------------------

“Andddddd, we’re all done.” Solar looked up from Moonbyul’s arm, beaming and proud of her handiwork.

Meanwhile, Moonbyul stared bemusedly at her mummified forearm. “Um, thanks?”

“Pft. You don’t need to pretend to be so tough. Tell me you don’t feel better with that gaping wound covered.” Solar rolled her eyes as she placed the antiseptic and roll of cloth back into the kit.

“First of all, it wasn’t gaping. It was a scratch! And second,” Moonbyul leaned back into the couch smugly, “I don’t need to pretend to be tough when I already am.”

“Cocky, aren’t you,” muttered Solar under her breath as she stood up to place the first aid kit back into the closet.

“By the way,” commented Moonbyul behind her, “your place seems rather bare. Of furniture.”

“Furniture?” she repeated aimlessly.

Furniture? Oh.

Her hand fumbled with the kit, dropping it onto her foot. She yelped in pain and took several deep breaths to calm down.

“You ok?”

“Y-Yeah. I just dropped the box. C-Clumsy me, eh?” She bent over to retrieve the fallen item as Moonbyul chuckled on the couch behind her.

Clumsy her?

More like stupid her.

Furniture.

Moonbyul.

Vase.

Just wonderful.

She really wanted to rip out her hair in frustration right now. What was she even thinking? To invite Moonbyul of all people to her house. Right where all the evidence was. Right where she’d hid the vase.

Master criminal her . Her hand brushed against her chest, feeling how her heartbeat had tripled in the last 20 seconds as she slowly returned to a standing position. Thank god Moonbyul didn’t have a thermal scanner, or she’d probably be lighting up like a solar flare from the embarrassment, regret, panic squirming through her body.

She hoped Moonbyul couldn’t smell fear.

Her hand shook as she slid the box onto the high shelf, eyes surreptitiously glancing down at the piles of cloth bunched at the bottom of the closet. She had truly reached a god-level combination of sheer stupidity and bad luck.

Why didn’t she try to hide it in a better place?

Maybe if she distracted Moonbyul, or if the girl went to the restroom, she could hide it somewhere else.

“Is everything all right?” Moonbyul’s low, husky voice floated past her ear unexpectedly. “It was taking you a while--”

Solar nearly sprained her back at the speed in which she spun around. “I’m fine---ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!”

“Watch out!”

Foot suddenly caught against a crumpled sheet on the floor, Solar’s momentum gave her nowhere to go but down. Moonbyul toppled down as well when she urgently stretched out a hand to catch her and failed to keep her own balance.

A few thumps later, Solar groaned, “Oh, my head,” eyes pinched shut from the fear of the fall. As she began to make sense of the situation, she could feel the other woman’s weight on her, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready to open her eyes and see Moonbyul so intimately close to her. Close enough to feel her breath, close enough for the girl’s dangling hair to tickle her cheek.

Shame her little fantasies were cut short.

“What is this, Solar?”

The stern question flung her sanity back on track, and she could only think, oh . The vase.

She forced her eyes open.

Moonbyul’s hand was tracing along the etchings of the vase, which had become partly uncovered during their scuffle.

“No--“

She reached her own hand out desperately towards the vase and when her fingers met cool porcelain—

They felt nothing after.

-----------------------------------------

“Wake up, you fools! How dare you have the gall to sleep after trespassing on royal grounds?”

The rough voice and the feel of cold steel below her chin shook Moonbyul from slumber. She blinked her eyes, rapidly adjusting to the sunlight---

When had they gone outside?

And trees?

And horses?

Maybe the most questionable of all was the bearded, armored man scowling down at her and his dreadfully sharp longsword he had withdrew from her face.

Swords.

Ok, she was probably dreaming.

Moonbyul closed her eyes again in an attempt to will herself back to sleep and back to the present so she could bury Solar in a heap of questions about the vase. Right, the vase. The vase—

“You scoundrel! How dare you look so lightly upon us—“ The flat of the blade smacked against her cheek and her eyes flew back open in shock.

No, this was not a dream.

She sat up with trepidation, eyes roaming the surroundings with unease.

Solar’s unconscious body was next to her.

But that was the only familiar thing.

They were no longer in Solar’s single apartment, tangled in a heap in her closet.

Dirt clung to her hands as she slowly pushed herself off the ground. Beyond the forested grounds they were in, she could see the faint outlines of a castle.

“That’s better,” scowled the voice. “Now, why don’t you grab your fellow criminal there and come along with me? No funny moves—I’ll sooner cut you down.”

She knelt down next to Solar blankly and obeyed, lifting the light girl over her shoulder.

Where were they?

And what had happened?

*A/N: I actually forgot everything I had originally planned for this story, since it's been a while since I've worked on it and I'm terrible at keeping good track of notes or ideas. 

So I decided to go yolo. I'm pretty sure this is not where I had originally planned the story to head to, but why not, right? ^^

On a side note, while I was writing this on a whim, I suddenly thought of 青花瓷 by Jay Chou, if any of you have heard it or seen the MV. It's pretty old, so I doubt it lol. Some resemblances here and there, if you have seen it. 

Anyways, please enjoy as always! Do feel free to comment below if you'd like~ I'm actually quite curious at how you all take the sudden plot development.