"You totally are the worst detective in the history of ever."

"I wouldn't go that far. I'm bad at my job, but I'm not the worst."

"Semantics. You kept seeing Carly Lee."

"You say that like I was having an affair with her or something. We had lunch and dinner together occasionally."

"You saw her for dinner and lunch within thirty-six hours of having her in for proper interrogation. You. . At. Your. Job."

"I don't stop my job to face with my coworker."

"Touche. But that doesn't mean I'm less right."

"Carly always had other information for me, almost always fresh. She never stopped doing jobs for them during the whole investigation and there was nothing illegal about what she was doing. It's really that simple. She was a wealth of information. It took some time to get used to talking to her, though."

"You seem pretty bloody friendly to me."

"I mean in asking her the right questions. Usually when you're looking for info, you've got to dance around the issue and draw the answers out of the suspects or witnesses. But with her, I had to work back years of experience and just blurt out what I wanted to know."

"Did you guys ever find out where she lived?"

"She told us straight up. We asked her for it so we sound send her summons for court to testify against her former employers."

"Please tell me you set up surveillance."

"Of course we did. We're not stupid. In all the time we had officers sitting out there, none of them ever seen her come in or out of the house. They never seen anyone, for that matter. But - without us telling her - she showed up to court exactly on time."

"You're ting me."

"I you not."

"How?"

"I don't know."

"Well, someone has to know."

"I think Mark said it best, really."

"There is no such thing as catching Carly Lee." Mark said, sitting on the edge of Jaebum's desk. "None of us have ever been able to keep track of her, including the FBI. She comes to you, not the other way around."

"There has to be someone who can do it." Jaebum protested. "There has to be someone to catch her."

"Catch her doing what?" Mark sighed. "She doesn't do anything."

"No, I mean we can't find her grocery shopping. There should be someone who can sneak up on her. Catch her by surprise."

"You're obsessive, dude."

"Probably. I can't help it."

"Well, at least you're sleeping more now." Mark scoffed. "Maybe she's good for you."

"Don't say like that. People take it the wrong way."

"So, you're going to the prelim hearing for the Orestia family head?"

"Yeah. Carly's supposed to be there."

"Godspeed then, good man. I hope she shows up."

Exactly. On. Time.

Carly was standing in the witness waiting area for the state in a navy pantsuit. Her silver heels - ones Jaebum couldn't help but notice anymore - peeking out fron under the boot-cut length of fabric.

"How did you get the summons?"

Carly looked over at him as he sat down beside her. "I went home and found them in my mailbox. Why?"

"You know we've got surveillance on your house. You never came home."

"I'm pretty sure I did." She retorted, but without bite. "So, this one is for the Orestias?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Just answer the questions as honestly as possible and if they beat around the bush too much, just ask for clarification."

"Okay. Thank you."

"Thank me? For what?'

She gave him a cheeky, but nervous, smirk. "Believe it or not, this is my first time in a courtroom."

He looked her over. "Actually, I'm quite ready to believe that."

"Good. Wouldn't want to leave a bad impression or anything."

He snorted. "I don't think you can."

"You don't know me that well."

"Oh really?"

"What, looking to get closer?" She bunted his shoulder with her own. "You gonna be gettting out of this when I am? Wanna get something to eat and maybe go somewhere?"

"Like a date? You're awfully straightforward."

"I guess. But like a friend-date. Just hang out? You seem like you'd be really interesting, but you leave all that behind when you're talking business."

"I hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty much all business."

"No one can be all business." Her eyes flickered across his face. "The fact you still have those earrings means you're not business all the time."

He reached up to touch them without thinking about it. "I guess I'm not."

"See?" She leaned back on the bench, watching people mill about the courthouse entrance. "We don't have to go anywhere. Takeout dinner at a park would be cool."

"You know, that actually sounds really nice." He mirrored her pose. "Do you like Korean food?"

"Nothing too spicy, but yeah, I do."

"Nice. I know a place. Real Korean food with a small, nearby park."

"Okay." She nodded out of the corner of his vision. "You wanna meet here after the hearing and then I can follow you in my car? The courthouse has a six-hour limit and this hearing is likely to take up a decent portion of the afternoon."

"Sounds good to me."

Carly looked remarkably at home in her suit, sitting on a dirty park bench eating ramyeon out of a styrofoam package wiht a plastic fork. Jaebum knew he didn't look half as good, tie pulled only partway off and some buttons on his shirt undone. He didn't feel it, though, sitting with her. Even eating, she gave him all her attention as he told an anecdote about his childhood in Seoul and the time he accidentally wandered into an Epik High concert.

"How did you manage to pass by the guards? Aren't there ticket checkers at the venue?"

"Of course there are. I guess they just assumed I was with this older teenager when I followed her in and they just let me go. I stayed there most of the concert, too, only to run into my mother when I left to find a bathroom."

"Are you serious?"

"What can I say, it was a good concert."

She burst out laughing. "Well, I can't say that I blame you. I probably wouldn't have left the concert either. The problem would have actually been getting me away from my mother."

"Close to her, I take it?" He asked.

"Yeah. When I started this job, I used to bring her and my father with me sometimes to the new countries I was in and keep them around for a while. But, Mama got sick and couldn't come anymore. I fly out to see them sometimes, but I've been really busy lately."

His voice was softer, more touched. "She means a lot to you, doesn't she?"

She nodded, her face void and serious. "I miss her a lot. I wish I didn't have to travel so much. I'd go home way more often. I can't call as much as I'd like to. Come to think of it, it's been almost five years since the last time I seen her."

"Maybe you should take some time now, then. Can't be anytihng that important going on."

"Maybe. We'll see." She sounded distant, like there was something else she was thinking about, but then she turned back around with a grin. "So tell me about Mark. He texts me all the time about you, but I want dirt to use on him when he gets annoying."

He grinned. "Oh, do I have a story for you. So, Mark and I went to Police Academy together, right? And our current Chief of Police, Youngjae, was a couple of years younger than us. Mark had the absolute worst crush on him, so . . . "

Jaebum wound up inviting Carly back to his house, where they talked through all three Iron Man movies, ate three bags of popcorn and she introduced him to something wonderful - organic green tea. Perhaps the most surprising thing, however, was waking up splayed across the couch, the Netflix menu staring back at him from a darkened tv screen with Carly sound sleep on his chest, her ear pressed over his heart. 

"Oh God." He said to the ceiling. "I am so ed."