Haru didn’t have a lot of patience.

Some would even say she was easy to anger. 

…So, why does one person continue to push her buttons that were sensitive to start with? Or maybe she should have accepted this long ago? She knew he was going to return even if the world was close to its end.

“Move, would you?” She brushed past him to get to her front door. 

“You should fix that door.” Jongup comments, easily ignoring her attitude that seemed to be more than just tendencies, like it was actually her personality. Something that isn’t very easy to change.

“What for?” She sticks her key in and wrestles to get it open. “It’ll keep creeps like you out.”

“Here.” He holds up the familiar white envelope.

A familiar eyesore also.

A sigh leaves her lips. She was so tired of saying the same goddamn thing. Merely shooting him a look, she gets her door open to step inside and shuts it behind her. No words of explanation were needed. 

After slipping off her shoes and after taking four short steps, Haru walks past her kitchen – that was usually more empty than not – and steps into the living room. 

No, there wasn’t a couch but there was a small coffee table that Haru liked to sit at to watch her usual shows on that tiny TV.  Size didn’t really matter; she was just glad that it still worked. Grabbing the remote off the corner of the table, she flipped the TV on. She wasn’t much for watching news but today, there seemed to be something that successfully caught her eye.

Reading the short message that scrolled a little too fast at the bottom of the screen, Haru managed to gain the gist of it.

It seems Sugo has been popping lately. 

Popping as in the scums were out to play and for once, getting caught for it. Haru wonders if the enforcement understood the extent of the gangs’ reaches. 

And in that short second, she realized something.

***

“You’re here early.”

“What do you want from me?” Haru eyed Youngjae. It was a familiar scene – his head deep in his paperwork but still somehow unaffected by his own distractions. “You don’t like it when I’m late either, you always have something to say.”

Bright laughter fills the station and it draws Haru’s attention. Her eyes dart over to the loud mouth on the other end of the room. He was saying something to his friend when he looked up and raised his hand in the air – 

“Yongguk!”

She sees the timid officer looking to see from which direction his name had been called from.

The bright smile on the loud-mouth officer’s face beckons Yongguk to come closer and Haru watches their exchange.

“Can you do me a favor?” The officer starts out – 

“Who is that?” Haru questions aloud but Youngjae would be the only person to hear her.

“Who is who?”

“The one that looks like he has a permanent grin on his face.” 

“Sungwon.” Youngjae responds without looking up to check if he was right. 

“You didn’t even look.” Haru eyes the detective from the corner of her eyes. 

“I am buried in all of these reports, do you mind helping me out?” The loud-mouth continues.

She looks back upon hearing the officer asking Yongguk for a favor. And not too surprisingly, Yongguk accepts the task with a kind smile on his lips. Almost too willingly.

“Yup, that’s Sungwon.” All it took was that request to confirm it for Youngjae.

“Does he do that often?” Haru further asks while she watches Yongguk place the pile of work onto his desk neatly. “Push his work off to others?” If he has time to joke, she was sure he had time to finish his own goddamn reports.

“Not to others, just Yongguk.”

How irritating. Haru clenches her hands tightly before relaxing them as the breath slowly leaves through her lips. 

“Here, I made this for you so you could keep track of your hours.” Youngjae takes the slip of paper from one of the piles on the corner of his work space and hands it over to the young girl.

Haru doesn’t bother to look in his direction and snatches it roughly from out of his hands. Her irritation wasn’t because of the detective but because of the scene she wishes she didn’t have to see. And moments after, Yongguk had started making his way towards her. 

“Ready to go, Haru?”

Getting up from her seat, she follows after the officer. 

***

While driving, Yongguk takes curt glimpses in Haru’s direction. He had noticed she wasn’t one to speak much but he had not heard one word from her. Not even a question regarding what their task was today.

“What do you have there in your hand, Haru?”

Relaxing her grip, she looked down to see the slip of paper that Youngjae h