"That animal teared up my crime scene. Again!" Senior Detective, Bae Joohyun yells as she slams her fists on her desk. Across from her, her partner, Kang Seulgi looks up from her computer with a grimace.

"Unnie," she calls, sending an apologetic glance to the other officers in the bullpen. "Whoever it is, they caught the guy we've been after for the past couple weeks. Why don't we call it a win?"

Joohyun scoffs and gestures to the stack of files sitting at the corner of her desk. "Hell no. All this paperwork we have to go through now? The Blue Squirrel's on my hit list. I'm going to catch that guy and put him behind bars."

"'He'?" Seulgi says, rounding around her desk and leaning against Joohyun's. "What if they're a 'she'? Man or woman, I mean... We don't know! For sure..."

Joohyun rolls her eyes and waves her off. "Whatever. I'm catching this crook if it's the last thing I do," she grumbles and picks up a photograph on her desk. It's the only picture they have of the vigilante and it's way too dark and blurry to see their face but Joohyun vows to be the person to pull off their mask and finally bring this criminal to the light of justice and the full might of the law. "Vigilante scum."

Nervously, Seulgi gives her a brief nod and a weak slap on the back for encouragement and walks off to the other side of the room.

"I don't know, I feel like she kind of hates me," Seulgi hears Seungwan say as she approaches the desks of Detectives Son Seungwan and Park Sooyoung. 

"She's just really quiet and super introverted," Sooyoung says right as Seulgi appears in their eyesight. "Seulgi, tell her that Joohyun doesn't hate her."

Blinking, Seulgi her head to the side. "She doesn't hate you, Wanie."

Seulgi and Seungwan were in the same class at the police academy, being best friends for years. Graduating from the academy, they were unfortunately separated and assigned to different precincts but with a few strings, Seungwan was able to be transferred to Seulgi's station in Gangnam due to its higher crime rate as of late. 

A living ball of sunshine, some call her; she's made friends with everyone at the station... except for Bae Joohyun. They don't hate each other, the older has enough hatred for the vigilante on the streets, but rather, Joohyun just doesn't seem to like Seungwan. Every time Seungwan tries making conversation with her, it's very much one-sided and Joohyun looks like there are about a million other places she'd want to be in, with a billion other people she'd rather talk to. 

"She hates me," Seungwan says with a pout. "I tried giving her coffee this morning and she said she doesn't drink coffee but I literally saw her making some ten minutes later."

"That was for me," Seulgi replies with an amused smile. "I bought her tea so she offered to make me coffee. But no, she doesn't drink it at all."

"Oh," Seungwan begins. "Doesn't drink coffee," she mumbles as if noting it down mentally. "Got it."

"You know, not everyone has to be your friend, unnie," Sooyoung says, fiddling with her pen. "And maybe Joohyun doesn't want to be your friend, anyway. I wouldn't take it personally. It took me a year before she warmed up to me."

Seungwan visibly shrinks at that. "I have to wait another six months?"

"There's no timeline for it," Seulgi says and as Sooyoung looks down to fill out some paperwork, she gives Seungwan a look in hopes the other will get what she's trying to say.

"You know, you can't wink right?" Seungwan asks with a quirked brow, looking at her with a confused expression.

Huffing to herself, Seulgi takes a cursory glance at Sooyoung who's resting her head in her palm as she reads her file. "Let's go to the break room, you need a break!"

"From what? The Blue Squirrel's taking all our work," Sooyoung says, not looking up from the papers.

"All this moping about not being able to befriend Joohyun!" Seulgi quips hastily and all but drags Seungwan to the other room.

"I'm not moping," Seungwan grumbles but her dramatic huff says otherwise as she lounges lazily over the couch.

Seulgi lets out an inaudible sigh of relief seeing nobody else here and shuts the door behind her. "Joohyun really hates you, Wanie."

"What? You just said she doesn't!"

Seulgi waves her hands frantically at that. "No, no, no. Not you." She then points to the bulletin board on the wall, where all the notices are pinned. She jams her finger into the blurry photo of the Blue Squirrel, with the words 'WANTED' on it. "She hates the other you!"

"Yeah, so does the rest of the police force," Seungwan replies nonchalantly.

"No, but, she really hates you. She might find out about you soon enough. You need to be more careful."

Seungwan shrugs at that. "I've been doing this for six months and all anyone's got of me is that photo. Nobody's gonna know."

Seulgi gives her a look.

"How would they know?" Seungwan adds.

"Somebody is going to put two and two together eventually. I mean, you're only targeting people we're after. Sure, you're saving us the effort of having to investigate and go undercover and all that, but the pattern is there."

"I still pick up some street thugs every now and then."

Sighing in frustration at her best friend, Seulgi tells her, "Just be careful, okay? Not just with Joohyun but also as the Blue Squirrel in general. You could get really hurt out there with no backup."

"Well, that's why I have you to patch me up," Seungwan chirps.

"I took one first aid class," Seulgi deadpans. "Years ago."

Just when Seungwan opens to reply, the door to the break room opens and in pops Joohyun. 

"There you are," Joohyun says, looking at Seulgi. "Your mum's calling you again. Something about a 'bloody mess in the bathroom' I think?"

With widened eyes, Seulgi glances at Seungwan and gives her a pointed look before leaving the room.

"Wait, Joohyun!" Seungwan calls out for the woman just as she's also about to leave. 

"Yes?" 

Seungwan gets to her feet in the middle of the room. "What kind of tea do you like?"

"The one I drink." Joohyun shrugs and turns around before Seungwan has another word in.

The door shuts on Seungwan's face and Joohyun walks back to the bullpen with a scrunched-up face.

"'The one I drink'? Really?" Joohyun mutters to herself, face heating up in pure mortification. "Stupid. Stupid! Why can't I just talk to her like a normal person?" She groans quietly to herself and sits back at her desk, head in her hands.

"Yeah, I got my period. Sorry!" She hears Seulgi say to the phone. "Why is it all over the sink? Uh... I fell?"

Joohyun looks up between her hands at that with confusion filmed over her eyes. 

"Yeah, it was a super heavy day. It won't happen again! Wait why were you in my apartment?"

Joohyun's eyes trickle back down to her desk, to the stack of paperwork, to the image of the vigilante and she scowls; the embarrassment of her interaction with Seungwan now disappearing, revealing the ever-persisting hate for the Blue Squirrel.

"Damn rat," Joohyun mumbles, picking up her pen to childishly draw a pair of 'X's on the vigilante's face. "I am going to take you down one way or another..."

---

Days later and Seungwan comes to work to find the bullpen in a craze. Confused, she weaves past some excited interns to her desk, finding Joohyun and Seulgi hovering over Sooyoung.

"What even is that?" Sooyoung exclaims. They're all hunched over her desk and doesn't notice Seungwan's presence.

"It's a bunny," Joohyun answers, causing the others to let out a chorus of recognition.

"That's cute. It's pink, too!" Seulgi says and finally, Seungwan gets on her toes to see what all the fuss is about.

"What's going on?" Seungwan asks and they turn around, Sooyoung ing a file into her hands.

"New vigilante," her partner tells her and motions for Seungwan to look through the pages. Inside, are a few images of evidence at a crime scene where a pink sticker of a bunny is seen plastered on the forehead of a man tied up in rope. "First the Blue Squirrel and now the Pink Bunny... What's with all the animals? Seoul is a full-blown zoo now."

Seungwan eyes the sticker for a moment before giving the file back to her partner.

"I can't believe he left a goddamn sticker," Seulgi laughs.

Beside her, Joohyun narrows her eyes. "'She.'"

The other three look to her in surprise, almost forgetting that she's there. "Huh?" Sooyoung says, looking at the image again.

"Uh..." Joohyun starts, a little unsettled by all the attention on her. "I mean that sticker is kind of a feminine choice isn't it?"

"Are you gendering stickers, unnie?"

"No!" Joohyun glances around at them and purses her lips when she sees Seungwan's amused look. "Look, a guy doesn't go to the shops to buy stickers, let alone pink bunny ones. Besides, it looks custom made..." Joohyun explains to the group, eyes trained on the photo.

Seungwan chuckles at that and Joohyun fee