Seungwan walks into the bullpen screaming. Seulgi grins beside her as she's welcomed by the entire station, balloons and a sign that reads: finally on time for once!

"So you're not dead," Sooyoung laughs at her shocked expression and runs up to give her a hug. "Don't ditch me for that long again!"

"Ah, I missed you," Seungwan grunts out as Sooyoung has her neck in a death grip.

"Glad you're feeling better," Jackson says and pats her on the back. 

Joohyun comes up and wraps her arms around Seungwan, giving her cheek a little peck that has Seungwan blushing immediately. She wonders if she's still in her suit or something. "Did you miss me, too?" she whispers in her ear and leans back with a sly grin.

"H-Huh?" Seungwan gulps as Joohyun peers at her through her lashes and she slowly, the events of the other night with Joohyun what it almost leads to, crawls with light, electric feet up her neck and settles an invisible film over her eyes in clear technicolour. 

"Because I missed you very much," Joohyun whispers before disappearing from her arms.

Seungwan watches her step back to let a few other officers greet her. She gives them all a warm smile and some words of gratitude but her mind is still focused on the older detective staring at her from her desk. Does she know? Does Detective Bae know who she is?

When everyone settles down and actually goes back to work, Seungwan's determined to go search Yeri's computer again for confirmation on whether or not she knows her identity. That is, until one Bae Joohyun slides across the floor and presses firm palms around Seungwan's collar.

"U-Unnie--"

"Wan-ah, let's go out," Joohyun grins.

"Huh?"

On a date?

"Do you want it to be?" 

Oh, she said that out loud..?

"Yes, you did," Joohyun giggles and pinches the younger's cheek. "Let's investigate that company I was telling you about. The crocodile leather?"

"Oh," she's still on that? Seungwan's completely forgotten the fact that Joohyun holds a vendetta against her vigilante self and is quite hell-bent to unmask her. She hides it quite well because all this time she's spent around Joohyun, both as herself and the Squirrel, she almost convinced herself that Joohyun might've forgotten..? No, not forgotten. But more so, forgiven. Ah, but that's not possible is it? Seungwan's naive to think she could be forgiven for the pain she's done to Joohyun and her family. 

"You said you wanted to come with me," Joohyun says with a pout. "Unless you have something better to do..."

"What? No! No, of course not!" Seungwan blurts out, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. She sees Sooyoung and Seulgi out of the corner of her eye snickering to themselves about something and quickly looks away from them. "I gotta go let Soo know--"

"Sooyoung and Seulgi are fine with it," Joohyun interjects. "Sooyoung said I could have you--" she starts, biting her lip and tilting her head ever so slowly "--for as long as I like."

"Oh," Seungwan gulps. "Cool." She lets Joohyun drag her out of the bullpen. "Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool--!"

Turns out, the place is a bust. No surprise there to Seungwan obviously. 

"I knew it was the one in Busan," Joohyun mutters as they walk back to the car. 

"Well, better safe than sorry, right?" Seungwan chirps back, opening the door for her.

Joohyun blushes and grazes her hand over her forearm as she thanks her and sits in the passenger seat. "That and I just wanted an excuse to see you."

"We see each other every day at work, no?" Seungwan says confusedly and goes around to the driver's seat.

"Sure," Joohyun starts, leaning over to clasp the seatbelt over the younger. She smirks at how quick Seungwan is to freeze up and get flustered over their close proximity. "As much as I love our dear friend Kang Seulgi, I wish you were my partner."

Seungwan swallows nervously. Joohyun moves back every so slightly; her face hovers just a breath's width away from Seungwan.

Her seatbelt is on, what is she still going over here? Oh forget that, Seungwan can put her seatbelt on herself! 

Impulsively, Seungwan sort of wants to undo the buckle and have Joohyun even closer so that she clasps it again. 

"W-Why?" Seungwan murmurs dumbly. 

"Well, if I got to work so closely with you, I would never want to go home. Granted, I wouldn't be so productive with that face of yours...To be honest, I'm jealous of Detective Park."

"What? Why?"

Joohyun's eyes narrow ever so slightly as her gaze dips to Seungwan's lips and she purrs, "I want you all to myself."

The older shuts her eyes and Seungwan automatically feels herself leaning in without any other thought in her mind when suddenly, Seungwan's phone is ringing. 

Everytime, Seungwan thinks with an annoyed wince.

"Hey, Wannie. Can I take my partner back? We have a case," Seulgi says through the phone.

Seungwan turns to the passenger seat, finding Joohyun half-pouting, half-smirking; Seungwan quickly averts her eyes and bites her lip. "Totally! Uh... We just finished here, we're coming back now."

Fortunately, the car ride back to the station is mostly quiet, aside from Seungwan's playlist softly playing over the aux. It leaves Seungwan to be victim to her confusion and a mix of puzzle pieces she doesn't even know what it should end up looking like.

Maybe, Joohyun just really did miss her? Seungwan's never seen Joohyun being so affectionate though. Why her? 

And then there's still what happened two nights ago in Joohyun's apartment. Seungwan can still feel the softness of Joohyun's s--

Okay, no she's driving, she really shouldn't be thinking about this!

Joohyun's wearing a low-cut top today, Seungwan thinks absentmindedly and can't help but glance through the mirror to get another look. It looks really good, Seungwan muses and forces her eyes back to the road. 

Quietly, Joohyun sighs and Seungwan's immediately transported back to a similar noise she made the other night, when she had Seungwan's fingers in and--

Nope. Nope. Nope.

Seungwan is not a reckless driver.

Suddenly, the car in front of her turns into a giant and Seungwan has to pull over to ask Joohyun to drive instead.

For the rest of the day, Seungwan gets a whole headache from questions she doesn't even know how to form. Joohyun's behaviour is weird and Seungwan isn't uncomfortable because of it; no, Joohyun's actions actually are really nice and it makes Seungwan's heart do a little fist bump and a twirl in her chest. Rather, it's how sudden this change of demeanour the older woman has that's placed fog and smoke into her mind.

It starts with a cup of coffee. Now, that's not really that unusual at all, but Joohyun places the mug on her desk, followed by a wink and a lingering touch on Seungwan's shoulder.

Then, by lunchtime, Joohyun sets her purple container right on top of the casefile Seungwan's working on before leaving without a word. There's a note on the lid that says: made with love ;)

Later that day, when Seungwan's coming back to the precinct, holding someone in cuffs, Joohyun's there to quickly shove the guy into another officer's arms before dragging Seungwan to a supply closet. 

"Unnie, what--?" Before she knows it, Joohyun pushes her against the door and her collars, pulling her in for a searing kiss, made of fireworks and question marks.

Seungwan lets herself get wrapped up in the kiss for a split second before she's gently prying Joohyun's head off her. "Joohyun, what are you doing?"

She definitely knows about me, Seungwan thinks with a frown. Dammit, what the hell happened while she was unconscious?

Joohyun chuckles amusedly, bringing a finger to her bottom lip. "Kissing you, silly."

"W-Why?" Seungwan asks dumbly between a few more pecks.

"Do you want me to stop?" Joohyun husks, brushing their lips together. 

"Uh..." Seungwan has her hands gripping the sides of the shelves beside her. She swallows her confusion and presses her back as firmly as she can into the door. The room they're in has gotten incredibly stuffy even with the open window giving her a slight chill. "Do you--Do you know?"

"Know what?" Joohyun asks, nosing her neck and Seungwan scolds herself at how easily she lifts her chin to give her better access.

Shoot, what if she doesn't know? How does Seungwan ask Joohyun if she does without revealing it herself?

"Uh, I-I thought you liked someone else?" Seungwan gasps out when Joohyun's nipping at her earlobe and squeezing her waist.

"Sure," Joohyun chuckles. "I love the Squirrel, but can't I also love you as well?"

"H-Huh?" Sorry, did she say love? The Squirrel and her? She loves both sides of Seungwan?!

"Now, enough chit-chat, Wan-ah," Joohyun whispers, lifting her arms to grip Seungwan's wrists and push them beside her head. "Do you want me to stop?"

Quick, Seungwan. Morals! Truth! Honesty! , Joohyun's wearing a different lipstick today! It's red! It's red! This should be a big warning sign. Red does not mean 'go' in traffic laws! How many tickets has she given people for that very offence? What is she doing?!

And, she's kissing her. And, she doesn't stop. And, she doesn't complain when Joohyun smears her crimson all over Seungwan's neck.

They don't stop even when Joohyun gets a call from Seulgi, asking her where she is because they have a new case. The younger literally has to peel Joohyun off of her so that she can go back to doing her job and Seungwan can rush to the bathroom to clean up her neck.

"Jesus, she's feral," Seungwan utters as she stands in front of the mirror. Joohyun's lipstick stains are bright red and splatter from under her ear, to her chin and down to her collarbone. "Looks like I got ravaged by a pack of wolves." 

Seungwan thinks hard about what just transpired between them, trying to ignore the visuals and the jolt in her heart rate but more so on the implications of the matter. There's two possibilities:

One, Joohyun knows she's the Squirrel and is incredibly .

Two, Joohyun doesn't know and she's still incredibly .

She thinks about the second option and pouts a little at the idea that Joohyun would seek someone else for that, even if she's the Squirrel. But then again, Joohyun did say that she loves both of them. This is literally her dream come true! Joohyun is in love with both sides of her. But how is that possible and where did this come from? Something definitely happened between the last time she saw her and now. Seungwan's never gotten any inkling to Joohyun having feelings for her, let alone love or...anything physical. 

Suddenly, the door opens and cuts through her thoughts like a knife, making her jump in the spot. 

"Jesus, you look like you got ravaged by a pack of wolves," Sooyoung deadpans. "Wait, is that lipstick?" 

Seungwan grimaces and avoids meeting her eye through the mirror. "No..?"

"No way, who was it?" Sooyoung gasps out, rushing to the bench and shaking her shoulders. "Please tell me it was Joohyun. Please, please. I've had enough of this stupid slowburn!"

"Slowburn? What are you talking about?"

Sooyoung shakes her head. "Just tell me. Was it Joohyun?"

Hesitantly, Seungwan manages a rough nod that has Sooyoung cheering like an animal. "Finally!"

I'm so confused, Seungwan thinks.

She opens , question on the tip of her tongue before Sooyoung slaps her shoulder and runs out of the bathroom. "I gotta go collect my winnings!"

"Winnings?"

--

Seungwan gets back to her desk, noticing a couple of disgruntled officers sending her an annoyed look before Sooyoung comes back into the bullpen with cash in her hands.

"Did you rob a bank?" Seungwan asks, watching her stuff the money in her wallet.

"Just won a bet," Sooyoung grins back, wiggling her brows. "Thanks to Gay Unnie Number One and Two."

"Huh?"

"Well, Gay Unnie Number One over there--" she tosses a thumb over her shoulder to Joohyun talking to Seulgi about a case "--has been in love with you, Gay Unnie Number Two, for... Like ten months or something. There was a bet being made, next thing I know, I'm putting down an entire month's rent on it. Man, I was so stressed out, it looked like nothing would ever happen between you two. But I'm so glad you proved me wrong." Sooyoung flashes a toothy smile at Seungwan's shocked expression before saying, "Yeri's gonna be so pissed when she finds out she lost."

Oh, that's right. Their Captain hasn't shown up to work ever since she and Joohyun found those suspicious files on her computer. 

"W-Wait, where is Yeri? Have you seen her at all?"

Sooyoung gives her a nod. "She came back from her holiday. She got here while you and Gay Unnie Number One were boinking in the evidence locker."

"It wasn't in the evid--" Seungwan starts and immediately sighs at the smug look she finds before her. "We weren't boinking."

"Sure," Sooyoung nods, obviously not believing her before leaving her desk towards Yeri's office. 

Seungwan groans in mortification and feels a gaze on her. She tilts her head, gulping as the hairs on her arms rise; Joohyun is staring right back at her with a lip chewed in her teeth.

What the is going on?

"Hey, has Joohyun unnie been acting weird, much to you?" Seungwan whispers to Sooyoung, whipping her head away from the aforementioned detective. 

"Uh, aside from the fact that she's finally pussied up and made a move? No?"

Seungwan blinks. Pussied up? Made a