“Are you paying attention?” Ryujin looked down at her, equal parts amused and annoyed.

Karina was, for her part, not paying attention in the slightest. Karina, Winter, Yeji, and Ryujin were all congregated in Ryujin’s flat, which while rather violently alerting Karina that Ryujin’s sense of style had not changed much at all since Uni, also meant that Karina had been introduced to Ryujin’s cat, Dallie. Apparently, Byullie was at her parent’s house since last week. 

Dallie was...precious. An angel. A blessing, a gift unto this world, and at the moment contentedly purring in Karina’s arms as she scratched behind the soft fluff of Dallie’s ears. So Karina was very much not paying attention to whatever Ryujin had been saying, though that didn’t stop her from glaring indignantly at Ryujin and scoffing. “Of course.”

Ryujin seemed unconvinced. “Why did I ask you all to come here then?”

Karina quickly racked her brain for an answer. She hadn’t paid attention to much of anything once she’d seen Dallie. She’d barely even registered Ryujin ushering them all into her cramped kitchen, and she wasn’t quite sure when exactly she’d sat down on the wooden stool she found herself perched upon. In fact, it was only now that Ryujin had shaken her from her cat tunnel vision that she realized that the four of them (five including Dallie, which Karina did) were not, in fact, sitting around a table, but a kitchen island. Distantly she remembered the text from Ryujin that had brought her here and she gave her an unwarrantedly confident look. “You think you’ve found our opening.”

Ryujin squinted at Karina, scrutinizing her. Finally, she seemed to give up, and let out a sigh. “Fine. You keep your Dallie privileges. For now.” Karina clutched Dallie closer protectively and glared at Ryujin. Karina always thought she had a rather intimidating glare, and if there was any time to use it, it was now. She ignored the amused look on Winter’s face. Ryujin, for her part, did not look properly intimidated and just rolled her eyes at her. “Anyway, like I was saying, I think I know when we can do this. I’m sure at least Karina and Winter are aware of the Kwangya Institute’s Annual Sponsor's Ball?” Karina and Winter both groaned.

“I take that’s a yes, then,” snorted Yeji, leaning into the counter with a smirk.

“Dongwook is...more Dongwook  than usual whenever it comes around,” Karina explained, upper lip curling in contempt.

“Dongwook?”

“The Head of the institute,” answered Karina.

Winter nodded gravely. “Yoo In-na, his assistant has to go every year too. You should hear the stories she tells. They skew...risque.”

“Yes, well it’s also the only time where the Institute is open and basically empty,” said Ryujin, looking a little less sure than she had a moment ago.

Karina raised an eyebrow as she rubbed the steadfastly purring Dallie's chin. “Basically empty? There’s going to be at least a hundred people there, not to mention The Head on full alert.”

“At least a hundred people all on one floor,” grinned Ryujin, regaining her composure. “The event itself takes place in The Diner, and the rest of the building is closed to the guests. That means that every level will be empty except for the ground level.”

“Where The Warehouse is on.”

“Yes, but on the opposite side of the building.”

“And security around The Warehouse is...well there is security around The Warehouse,” interjected Winter, looking apologetic.

“There are cameras,” Karina agreed. “And the door is locked. It’s a proper lock too.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” snarled Yeji, fingers rapping on the ugly adjacent countertop in a faux-casual warning.

“It means we couldn’t even break the lock on The Pigeon,” explained Karina, unimpressed. “So either we give up on this heist or someone learns how to properly pick a lock, or we steal the key.”

“Unnie!” Winter gaped at her, wide-eyed and aghast.

“What?” Karina adjusted her hold on Dallie and shrugged nonchalantly. “We’re already stealing from The Warehouse. Taking a key can’t hurt. And besides, all we need to do is take it long enough to make a copy.”

“That...makes a lot of sense, actually,” begrudged Yeji, looking annoyed at that fact.

Ryujin chewed her lip thoughtfully. “Do we know who has the key to The Warehouse?”

Winter nodded. “Hyoyeon-unnie is the head of that department but she’s really protective of it.”

“Which I guess is to be expected from the way you two talk about that place,” sighed Ryujin.

“Again, we don’t need the key for very long,” Karina interposed, absently massaging circles into the fur on Dallie’s head. “Just long enough to make a copy.”

“All we need is one of those key presses and an excuse for someone to get a hold of the key,” agreed Yeji. She finally abandoned the stool she’d been perched upon and hopped up onto the island countertop. 

The room was quiet for a beat. “It’ll have to be Winter, then,” Karina sighed, sidling Winter with a mournful look. “I’m not allowed in the building and you two won’t be allowed to even get close to The Warehouse, let alone the key.” 

“Do you think you can do it?” asked Ryujin, softly.

Winter hesitated for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah.”

“I think I’ll practice picking locks anyway,” Yeji mused. “Just in case.”

“That’s how we get into The Warehouse squared away, but how are we going to get into the Institute during the ball? None of us are sponsors,” Winter asked, cocking her head to the side, her soft brown hair falling just a little into her eyes. Karina rubbed the soft fur behind Dallie’s ears and wondered, just for an inconsequential and meaningless moment, if Winter’s hair would be that soft. 

Ryujin’s laugh shook Karina out of her unbidden musings. “Not yet.”

“What?”

Ryujin nudged Yeji with her arm. “Me and Yeji are starting a joint media company.” 

Yeji grinned. “We’ll be a network. Patreon’s going wild for us.”

“They’re going wild for Dallie,” Ryujin corrected, rolling her eyes. “Her presence is a fairly high reward tier.”

“The internet’s besotted.”

“Karina’s besotted.”

Karina, who had really only been paying half attention to the conversation, glared up at the pair of them, and once again clutched the cat in her arms closer to her. “Yes, well she’s a very important part of this operation, and I’m just making sure she knows she’s appreciated.”

“Don’t let it get to her head,” Ryujin warned.

Karina pressed a kiss to the top of Dallie’s head, who reached her tiny head up to meet her with a soft brr. “She’s far too humble for that.”

“So what, Paranormal Seoul is going to be a sponsor of the Institute?” asked Winter, not looking at Yeji or Ryujin and instead looking at Karina with a tender look on her face.

Karina let out a derisive snort. “There goes your credibility.”

“Karina, I’m serious,” Ryujin warned, crossing her arms across the Paranormal Seoul logo emblazoned on her shirt. “I’ll revoke your Dallie privileges if you’re going to be an .”

“You wouldn’t dare .”

“How are we getting in then?” interrupted Winter, nodding at Karina and clearly trying to diffuse the situation.

Ryujin gave Karina a warning look before turning her attention to Winter. “We both get a plus one each. It should be enough to get us in the door.”

“That just leaves getting the books and then getting them out of document storage. That’s where you two come in.” Yeji grinned at them.

Karina straightened and slowed her cat petting. She was a professional after all. “Right. As far as I’m concerned, we just need to get the books to The Pigeon.”

Yeji made a face. “Why?”

“It’s fairly secluded with a newly opened back entrance out,” Karina said ruffling the fur on the back of Dallie’s neck. “Since no one’s used that door for easily over two decades, no one will be watching it. As far as Dongwook or anyone else is concerned, it’s just more wall. That just leaves getting the books to The Pigeon. The report implied there were a lot of them, so I don’t think just carrying them’s feasible.”

“Well, they have to take deliveries, right?” asked Winter.

Yeji leaned back, arm keeping her from pitching backward and onto the floor and a confused expression on her face. “What?”

“The Warehouse. They take deliveries all the time, and they tend to skew bigger I think.”

Somewhere in Karina’s brain, a lightbulb flickered on. “Which means that they have to have a way to move larger, heavier stuff.”

Winter beamed at her. “Exactly. I’d need to check, but I’m already going to The Warehouse anyway. I’ll report back.”

“So what does that leave?” asked Ryujin. “An exit plan?”

Karina Dallie like a Bond villain, mulling it over. “Winter’s got a car. We can just park it by the Pigeon’s back exit and load up the trunk. When we’re done, we can just drive away. It’s fairly simple, but so is most of this plan.”

“Simple doesn’t mean ineffective,” Yeji shrugged. “It’s not very Ocean’s Eleven, but it’ll work.”

Ryujin fished her phone from her back pocket and looked up at the three of them. “What do we need to get?”

“One of those things you press keys into to make a copy for one,” said Yeji, and Ryujin’s fingers flew across her screen. “Or a lockpick just in case.”

“You can use mine if you want,” Karina said offhandedly.

Winter gaped at her. “Why do you have a lockpick unnie?”

“Until I ran into the lot of you,” groused Karina. “I was going to break into The Pigeon on my own.”

Winter looked like she was going to say something, but Yeji cut her off. “Just a keypress then.”

Ryujin made the adjustment on her phone and looked up at the group, a smug smile on her face. “Almost. The Sponsor's Ball is a black-tie event. We’ll need something to wear.”

From the floor of her closet, Ryujin tutted in good-natured disbelief. “I still can’t believe you don’t have any dress for such occasions.”

Karina didn’t even bother looking up to give her a look. “Why would I?”

“You’re always dressed up!”

“In business casual, Ryujin,” sighed Karina. “You can’t exactly wear business casual to a black-tie event. I’m more surprised that everyone else had.” For some inexplicable reason, the three others had taken the news of the dress code in stride, while Karina had found herself floundering. 

Ryujin held up a pair of shoes and looked at it appraisingly before tossing it behind her in annoyance. “What can I say, we’re fancy people.”

“At least Winter and Yeji’s could be counted in one hand, you have a selection of dresses.” Winter had recently attended the wedding of someone at the Institute, though whose exactly Karina wasn’t sure. Yeji for her part seemed to have made a habit of ghost investigation with a black-tie dress code and had only a month ago investigated a hotel with a supposedly haunted ballroom that demanded any who entered it to be well dressed. Ryujin, on the other hand, had taken Karina’s lack of outfit option as a personal challenge and had wheeled her into her room and presented her with a selection of ensembles all dumped inelegantly on her bed.

From the closet, she could almost hear Ryujin’s smirk. “Lucky for you.”

“I suppose.” Karina lifted up an off the shoulder cream-colored dress and sighed as she returned it back to its place by Ryujin’s pillow. “We’re not exactly the same size.”

“I can tailor it. Or did you forget Shin Ryujin was a certified theater techie back in the day?” Ryujin actually stopped her rummaging to lean out of her closet and give her a wry smile and a raised eyebrow.

“You were in charge of audio, Ryujin.”

“Yes,” she conceded, “but I’m a woman of many talents. I picked up a few things.”

Now it was Karina’s turn to raise an eyebrow at her. “Like how to tailor clothing?”

“Exactly. Now stop stalling and pick a dress, Karina.”

The slew of dresses laid in front of Karina leered up at her. Ryujin had long since picked her dress, something chiffon  and sparkly with long sleeves and that made the faintest jingle when it moved like it was made of wind chimes. Even with Ryujin’s dress extracted from the pile and sitting next to her on the floor in front of her overflowing closet, the mass of dresses was still imposing.

Karina tore her eyes away from the mound. “Seriously though, why do you have so much of these?”

Ryujin shrugged as she compared a frighteningly high heeled shoe up to her cocktail dress. “I go to a lot of parties.”

“Idol parties? Youtubers?”

“Not just.” Ryujin tossed the shoe into the steadily growing congregation behind her. “And sometimes I want to look nice.”

“Black tie event dress nice?” asked Karina.

“If the mood demands it.” Ryujin looked away from her shoe hoard and let out a breathy laugh. “And anyway, the only way I can get anyone to eat Hungarian food with me is to go on a stupid date. You hate it, Lia says it’s ‘too Soviet’ whatever that means, and Yeji says it’s too salty.”

Karina crossed her arms. “I don’t hate Hungarian food.”

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