… She was at a standstill, and she didn’t have anyone else to blame but herself. She let her pride get in the way, and she did exactly the opposite of what she was trying to accomplish. She already knew she needed outside help to figure this out, and that’s what Moonbyul was supposed to be. The perfect person to rejuvenate her investigation.

Yet, here she was sat in front of her laptop with nothing, and now she had an itch to cave in and call her. But she didn’t want to. Not after it was her that pushed this. She didn’t want to see the look on the vigilante’s face. She really didn’t want to have to face that smug smirk of hers.

“Ahhg!” Solar slammed the lid of her laptop shut in frustration. “What was I thinking?! I’m just going to have to call her!” She rubbed her hands down her face. “You’re just going to have to call her, Solar.” She said softer this time, accepting her fate.

She picked up her phone and scrolled threw her list finally stopping at “Moonbyul”, but she didn’t immediately click on the name. She stared at it and tried to scrounge up any information that she might have overlooked.

No. She still couldn’t think of anything.

Solar sighed, clicked on her fate and was just about to press call when she heard a knock on her door. She definitely wasn’t expecting anyone, and due to the nature of her work, she felt a little fear crawl up her back. Did the gangs find out about what she was trying to do?

She stood up slowly and grabbed her handy Taser. It probably wouldn’t do much if that was the case, but she was at least going to try and put up a fight. Solar crept to the door and looked through the peep hole anticipating the worst.

“Thank god,” she let out a breath of relief. It was the very person she was just about to call. What is she doing here? Isn’t she supposed to be out doing recon or whatever?

When she opened the door for Moonbyul, she didn’t expect to see the bashful smile that greeted her, so she was totally blindsided by her reaction to it. … It was cute, to put it more eloquently.

She was still perfectly capable of acting unfazed despite the fluttering feeling the smile sprung in her. “Hey… Just because you know where I live, doesn’t mean you can just be dropping by whenever you feel like it.”

“Welp,” Her bashful smile morphed into a more playful one, something Solar was more accustomed to. At this point, she was convinced it was her default expression. “Get used to it. We’re supposed to be working together anyway, right?”

Moonbyul doesn’t wait for Solar to invite her in. She just walks past her and immediately starts checking her place out.

“Um…” Solar looks at her with an offended expression, but Moonbyul doesn’t notice it because she’s too busy looking everywhere else.

“Nice place you got here.” She says as she picks up one of the few frames Solar had in her apartment. It was one she had of her mom and her. “This you and your mom? You were so cute,” Moonbyul laughs and brings the frame closer to her face. “Your cheeks were soooo chubby. I thought your cheeks were squishy now but this is a whole new level of squishy. Like you had a bouncy house on your face.”

“Stop picking on them.” Solar snapped back, bringing her hands up to her cheeks self-consciously.

Moonbyul just chuckled. “I already told you they were cute, didn’t I? Anyway, you look a lot like your mom now.” She looked back and forth between her and the frame muttering the word “uncanny” as she did.

Solar marches over to Moonbyul and swipes the frame from her prying hands and sets it back gently. “Can you maybe keep your hands to yourself? Really, who raised you?”

Moonbyul pouts for a second but moves on without a word looking around like she had before she stopped at the frame. Only then did she respond, “Foxes.”

“Ha funny.” In retrospect, it kind of was, and maybe she laughed about it later when she was laying down to sleep and she had a certain person on her mind. She wasn’t going to admit that ever though.

Moonbyul stopped walking around when she reached Solar’s laptop, which was at Solar’s kitchen table. Solar liked working in there more than her room sometimes. The open area was a nice change to her cubicle at work. Moonbyul opened the lid and finally that signature smirk that was just as common as her playful grin appeared. “I guess your standoffish demeanor is just a façade. You’re happy to see me, aren’t you?”

“I am not!” There was a short pause. What was the point in denying the truth? She needed her. “Fine. Yes, I may have hit a wall, but still happy is a bit too strong of a word. Maybe try relieved, but just for your assistance.”

“Whatever you say.” She turned away and looked at me with that stupid, undeniably attractive, smirk still plastered on her face. It’s only there for a moment more before a genuine apologetic look appears. “So, I actually do apologize for dropping in so late.” She raises her hands up and lowers her head as if to say “my bad”.

“It’s okay, and honestly I may have been just about to call you.” Solar admitted, touched that she was actually apologizing. She may be rude, but she wasn’t without any manners.

Moonbyul nodded with a faint smile, like an understanding. “I noticed something about your past work within the past few hours, and it gave me an idea if you’re up to it.”

Finally, something to boost Solar’s mood. Just moments ago, she was been beginning to feel the pull of fatigue, but that feeling went away quick after hearing that. “What’s the idea?”

“Well first I have to confirm my suspicion. There’s a lot of information in a lot of your work that would be pretty hard to get to. Unless, you somehow had access to their personal information. So I’m thinking you probably got that information by means of maybe a personal device such as a computer, right?” Moonbyul finished her sentence with a raise of her eye brow.

This wasn’t the first time Solar was accused of such a thing. In fact, most of her victims ended up saying something like this. Claiming that she would have had to have gotten their information by illegal means because they were sure to have covered their bases. They were right most of the time.

Solar wasn’t totally working clean, and Hwasa has hinted about knowing that. Yet, there hasn’t been anything that’s come of it. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was being protected by Hwasa or if they just couldn’t get any evidence. She was sure it was probably both.

“So my point is, do you hack peoples’ computers or what?”

Solar was actually surprised Moonbyul had come to that conclusion. Most people assumed she was paying other people to get it for her. She was flattered, but Moonbyul wasn’t exactly right.

“I’m not exactly a hacker type… I can’t hack, but I do snoop into people offices, houses, cars, ects… I had this device that would help me crack their passwords, but it’s been displaced.” She’s sure that Hwasa stole it from her, but Hwasa refused to even admit to knowing of its existence. That may have been part of protecting her… She just realized this now… Hmm. She’s really a good friend. I should do more for her.

Solar still wanted it back nonetheless. “But we can still try to snoop if you want. I think it would be very beneficial.” Solar looked at her with hopeful eyes. Things would probably go a lot smoother if the Silver fox had her back even if she didn’t have the device to help her. She definitely knew of some spots they could check out. It was just about picking the best place to go to first.

“What do you mean it’s been displaced?”

“I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s sitting in the Chief of police’s office right now just so that I can’t get to it.”

“Oh really?” Moonbyul surprisingly didn’t look discouraged by the answer. “Why don’t we go get it then?”

“You want to break into Hwasa’s office and steal the password breaker as it sits in the police station where there are many-many police?” Solar asked, baffled by Moonbyul’s complete ease with the suggestion.

“If Hwasa is the Chief of Police, then yes. That is exactly what I want to do. That device sounds really useful. So are you ready?”

“Like right now? No planning or anything?”

“Planning?” Moonbyul asked like it was some outrageous suggestion. “For this? No. Come on it should be easy.”

Solar stood there for a moment conflicted. Usually, she planned this sort of thing and any other sort of thing. I mean she followed her gut, but she still used her brain. That’s the only way things went off without problem, or at least with very minimal problems. There were a couple of close calls of course, but that was to be expected in this sort of business.

Then again, they were just stealing from Hwasa, not even stealing because it was hers. Plus, she may have been the Chief, but she was also a good friend.

But Moonbyul complicated things with her hair. Hwasa wasn’t dumb, and even if the look was becoming more popular, she would probably figure out she was the Silver fox. Which was a major problem when you consider that the police have been looking for her because she was interrupting police business or something. Anyway, Solar knew she could only get away with so much. She really shouldn’t push it…

Moonbyul watched Solar, almost literally seeing the clock turning in her head, feeling blessed to witness this moment. Solar was just standing there making faces as she volleyed the pros and cons of going with her. This girl is something else. An interesting creature for sure.

Ah, but Moonbyul is Wheein’s sister, and Hwasa would do anything for her! I’m so lucky she’s hopeless when it comes to Wheein. We could probably even tell her Moonbyul’s secret… Nah that was a problem for another day.

“Okay. Let me get my shoes on.”

“Alright, how do you propose we do this?” Solar parked her car down the street because at this point, most people on the force knew her car and she didn’t need a witness.

Moonbyul looked over at her and shrugged. “I was thinking about going through her window. You happen to know where her office is?”

“Your grand plan is to go through her window?” Solar asked expecting a lot more from the Siver Fox.

“Yep. She should be gone by now, right?”

“Yes, but this is a police station. I’m sure they have security and everything, so how do you propose getting past that?”

Moonbyul pursed her lips for a moment, looking like she was thinking of a plan, but in reality she was thinking up a suitable lie.

“I’m going to momentarily shut off the power so we have a moment of open passage. I’m like basically an electrician in my morning life, so it’ll be easy.”

Before Solar could respond, Moonbyul exited the car and started walking towards the building. Solar had no choice but to get out and follow. With a frustrated huff, she opened her door and jogged lightly to catch up to the silver haired girl.

“Lead me to her window, and then I’ll work on shutting off the power.”

“What do you mean by “basically”? How can you only basically be an electrician?”

“It means what it means.”

Solar blew out another breath in frustration, trying to keep herself from shaking Moonbyul for a direct answer. Moonbyul only smiled in response, mostly amused by Solar’s reactions.

It was quiet outside of the police station and they had no problem walking around the building so Solar could show Moonbyul to Hwasa’s office.

“This window right here is Hwasa’s.” Solar stated bluntly waving at the window, still annoyed by Moonbyul’s vagueness.

“Cool. Wait here while I take care of our power situation. Be right back.” Moonbyul knew Solar well enough to know that she couldn’t trust that she wasn’t being watched. So for the sake of appearance she took the time to open the fuse box, but instead of pulling a circuit, she took the power and stored it up in herself, just in case. She’d never know when she’d need it.

She knew that from this point they had to move fast. No doubt someone would be coming around to check out what had happened. Moonbyul jogged back and quickly grabbed a useless metal tool from her jacket pocket so she could use it to melt the lock on the window without Solar questioning how she did it.

“Alright.” Moonbyul lifted the window and hopped in quickly so she could help Solar in. “Come on, quickly take my hand.”

“What was that thing?” Solar asked not failing to be as inquisitive as always.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s a trade secret.” Moonbyul knew she had to watch herself, but this girl is a handful. She almost wanted to just tell her to save herself the hassle.

“Psch. Trade secret.” Solar grumbled as she stumbled in. Solar looked around the dark room amazed to be in here at this time of night while noting the shouts of concern outside of the office. Luckily, they were far away enough to brush off for now. Although, she’s sure Hwasa always locked this room before she left, so what need would they need to come her for? “Wow, we did it. We really made it in.”

“Told you it wouldn’t be a big deal.” Moonbyul had already moved over to Hwasa’s desk, which looked like it was left in a fit of frustration judging by the strewn papers that looked haphazardly tossed away.

The display caught Solar’s attention because Hwasa was usually an organized person. Solar quickly went over to join Moonbyul before she found some important information without her.

Solar grabbed the first paper that caught her eye. It had a seal from the military stamped on it and from what she could tell it seemed to be a letter thanking the Chief for her cooperation. It wouldn’t have seemed bad if Solar didn’t know anything about how the military worked Hwasa over last time. They ordered her around and if she tried to push back they just brought back higher ranked people and documents Hwasa couldn’t turn her head from. This letter was nothing but a slap to her face. She understood the state of Hwasa’s desk now. What was she “cooperating” with though?

“Hmm, looks like the streets aren’t going to be quiet for long, or at least the military doesn’t seem think so.”

“What do you mean?” Solar looked over at Moonbyul and snatched the paper she was looking at straight from her hands.

“And you call me rude.” Moonbyul shook her head with a faint smile anyway. “It seems that the streets are going to be filled with a lot more cops, but the majority of them are going to be military dressed in blue. I’m assuming they’ll still be carrying their usual issued M4 carbine. I doubt the citizens would like that too much, and it’s pretty obvious either way. Maybe they want it that way though.”

“That’s insane.” Solar read the paper with wide eyes having to see it for herself. “That element must be some reeeally dangerous stuff.”

“Tell me if you see anything else that might be interesting. I’m going to look for your little device.” Solar merely hummed in response, happy to have full uninterrupted access to Hwasa’s stuff.

Moonbyul was happy that Solar was further occupied. It made it easier for her to break into the out of place big cabinet the Chief had. To Moonbyul, it looked like a personal armory, and she knew she’d find some useful stuff in there.

If she focused enough electrical energy to one finger, the electricity would act purely as focused power that she could use as a useful tool just as she did with the window. But without the nosy girl around, she could forgo the useless metal conductor.

“Heh. Easy peasy.” Moonbyul proudly stepped back and opened the cabinet revealing that she was right. She thought smugly, Ain’t I always?

“They’re really keeping Hwasa in the dark on this.” Solar said displeased. “She should’ve gone for a military job. Nah, but then I wouldn’t be able to bother her.” She sighed. “I guess it’s for the best after all…”

When she finally looked up and saw what Moonbyul was looking through the “forbidden” cabinet, her jaw dropped. She’s never been able to talk her way into there, and Moonbyul just broke in like it was nothing.

The first thing her eyes landed on when she went over was her device. “I knew it! Here it is.” She grabbed it cradled it to her chest protectively. “Alright, we got it. Let’s go.”

“Okay, but how mad do you think she’d be if I took this?”

“What is it?”

“I think it’s called a shotgun microphone. It’s so you can hear through buildings and stuff. I think it’ll be more useful for our purposes than that. I know it was my idea, but I’m beginning to doubt they keep any files on their evil plans in their computers.”

“True, and it might take some of the suspicion off me…” Solar was almost certain that something like this might actually persuade Hwasa to throw in the slammer for good. So in light of that… “You should take the blame for this since you don’t know her. Otherwise she’s gonna know it’s me, and then she’s never going to let me in this office again. I don’t think you’d understand how important that is to me.”

“Me take the blame for you?” Moonbyul could use this in her favor. “What’s in it for me?”

“What do you want?” Solar asked, afraid to hear the answer.

“Uh.” The open possibilities inevitably led her to think about one thing.

One thing that led her to be slapped. “Ouch!”

“I am not kissing you for a favor.”

“I wasn’t going to suggest it, alright? It was a fleeting thought that I apparently couldn’t hide, but I can respect that you want it to happen naturally. I guess I’ll do this out of the kindness of my heart.”
“Ugh, just do it then.” Naturally? No… But how long would that take?

“How?”

“As the Silver fox, just leave a note.” Solar knew how it sounded. Dumb. Childish even, but she didn’t want to have to face Hwasa for this, and the Silver fox was the perfect scape goat.

“Leave a note?” Moonbyul smiled at her amused. “Alright, if it makes you feel better.”

Moonbyul walked back over to the desk and picked up a pen and wrote a swift message. The moment she finished, Solar picked it up and read it.

“Hey, sorry but I had to borrow some stuff. In return, I’m sure I can get information back to you so you won’t be so hidden in the dark about what’s going on in your town. Respectfully, the vigilante you have an APB on.” Solar pursed her lips and set it down. “How are you going to get info back to her?”

“You’ll get it back to her.” Moonbyul stated as a matter of fact. “Alright when we jump out of the window this time, we’re going to have to run. I don’t know if the system is back on. Although, I’m sure it is.”

“Wait. How am I going to get the information back to her?”

“We’ll figure out the details later when we aren’t trying to get out of here.”

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feels like it's been a year since i wrote for this story

life, you know? it's such a nusiance taking my time and such