The five don't find anything at all in the next few weeks. The longer Seungwan's family is missing, the more on edge they are.

The team managed to check through all employees working in Son Industries as well as all officers in Seoul and they came up with nothing. It got to the point where Sooyoung wanted to cut them all open just to be sure. 

In any case, the city is clear of microchips, but there might still be traitors in the police force working for the Sons. To this end, Yeri's been tight-lipped about the investigation even to her superiors. 

"I think they just ran off," Sooyoung mutters, lying horizontally on the couch in the break room. 

"Why would they do that?" Joohyun returns, mixing a cup of coffee.

"Who cares? You got the girl, isn't that enough?"

Joohyun purses her lips, eyes focused on the swirls in the brown contents before her. "We haven't really talked about it much. Nothing's official, yet."

"'Yet', huh?" Sooyoung smirks at how quickly her teasing brings roses to Joohyun's ears.

"Hey, Valentine's Day is coming up soon," Seulgi chirps with a mouthful of chips.

"Ah, good idea," Sooyoung grins at the girl sitting on the floor; Sooyoung's long legs have taken up all the space on the couch. "You can sort it out then, hm? I bet you've been waiting to give her all your love and affection. What better time to do that than on the day of love?"

"You should serenade her, unnie," Yeri says, making her own cup of coffee beside Joohyun.

"Who's serenading who?" Seungwan's voice pops into the room and she shuffles in, accepting the coffee from Joohyun with a grin.

"Nobody," Joohyun's quick to deny but it doesn't stop Sooyoung--

"You," the tallest says bluntly.

"Oh, right! I said I would sing with them," Seungwan exclaims, missing the way Joohyun glares at Sooyoung. "I promised the kids at the hospital I would visit them," she frowns, guilty for forgetting.

"Sorry, unnie," Sooyoung starts lazily. "I won't be able to tag along. I've been diagnosed with a terrible allergy to hospitals."

"What? You always come, though?" Seungwan furrows a brow. 

"That was before she had a bad breakup with that paediatrician," Yeri deadpans.

"It wasn't a breakup," Sooyoung snarks. "It was a situationship and he gave me the ick."

"Hey, I said I would come with you," Joohyun speaks up. 

"Oh, I didn't think you really meant it..." Seungwan chuckles awkwardly, rubbing the muscle between her neck and shoulder.

"Why wouldn't I?"

Sooyoung snorts. "Jackson told me you were possessed with jealousy, when you said that, unnie."

"You and Jackson have the biggest mouths," Joohyun grumbles. "Don't you have paperwork to do?"

"Yeah, you told me that was your New Year's resolution, Detective Park," Yeri grumbles, cocking an accusatory brow. "What happened to that?"

"Eh," Sooyoung waves them all off. "Maybe next year. I'll ask Santa if he can fit it in."

Seulgi munches on her chips on the floor, seemingly dazing out of the conversation as she enjoys the barbeque flavour in . "Yummy."

"Who? Santa?" 

And so, the station slips back to the usual routine--sort of slacking off thanks to the Squirrel and the Bunny, with a few cases here and there they can't exactly work on as heroes. Seungwan and Joohyun are still sort of keeping to themselves when they're in their masks. They politely and professionally work together on certain things but for the most part, they've also gone back to the usual relationship with the simple banter and all.

Sure, they're both aware of each other's identity, but they don't know that the other knows. 

This puts a sort of... tension between them at work. It's not exactly awkward, but it seems like they're walking on eggshells around each other. Circles and circles, dancing around each other as they test the waters.

"Seungwan," Joohyun starts, placing a container on her desk. "My mother said she spoke to you a while ago."

"Oh, yeah we did," Seungwan replies, grabbing the box like a child on Christmas Eve. "Ooh, what did she make today? I'm excited."

"I made it," Joohyun says shyly as Seungwan opens the lid.

"Did you?" Seungwan gasps with wide, sparkling eyes. "Your mum said you're a walking hazard in the kitchen."

"I've been getting better," Joohyun mumbles. 

"I um," Seungwan starts, biting her lip and Joohyun fails to look elsewhere. "I can teach you? I mean, just to give your mum some reassurance whenever you cook with her... Just to save another one of her kitchens burning down..."

Joohyun blinks twice and they lock eyes in a brief battle of minds. 

That last thing Seungwan just said...

Does Joohyun remember Seungwan telling her--Bunny--that she once saved a restaurant owner from burning down? 

Meanwhile, Joohyun just wonders how she never figured it out sooner. The pieces were right there, basically putting themselves together but she was blind the entire time. 

God that ing pen of hers!

The blue pen Seungwan has and literally is on her desk right now that was Joohyun's first clue to the Blue Squirrel's identity. How adamant she was when they had a little squabble early on about the order of the Squirrel and Bunny (Joohyun still thinks she should be first). How Seungwan would always show up late to work because she was up until three or four in the morning for her patrol. 

And there's so much more. How the hell did Joohyun miss that?

"I might take you up on that," Joohyun mutters.

"Great," Seungwan smiles. "It's a date."

"Eh?"

"I mean, if you want it to be... I mean--It can be a platonic sense! Uh..."

"It's fine," Joohyun says. "I owe you one, anyway."

This time, it's Joohyun testing for the other's reaction.

Can Seungwan put two and two together--connect the fact that she lost a game to the Squirrel and still owes her a date? 

"Oh, about the case?" Seungwan says and Joohyun tries her hardest not to facepalm. She's not surprised Seungwan still doesn't know her identity. "I'm so glad you figured out it was the Squirrel and the Bunny. I was going crazy!"

Joohyun purses her lips. "Sure."

"Wow, can't believe they never noticed how much damage they do to the city."

Joohyun shrugs. "They save lives. The city has enough money to fix up all the things they break along the way."

"That's true," Seungwan nods. "Hopefully they've learnt their lesson. This was such a hassle."

"Well, Bunny was never the one doing much damage," Joohyun murmurs casually. "Squirrel crashed my car this one time."

"She bought you a new one," Seungwan grumbles. "Uh, I mean... That's what I assumed. Given how you have a new car..."

"Never really apologised for it, though."

Seungwan presses into a thin line. "She didn't?"

"Nope," Joohyun says, exhaling a burst of air between her lips. "Quite rude, don't you think?"

Seungwan swallows, scratching the back of her neck. "Totally," she agrees quite emphatically. "What a ."

"She's not," Joohyun frowns. "Don't call her that."

"Oh. Right--sorry," Seungwan nervously fiddles with the sides of Joohyun's lunch container. 

"She's a good person," Joohyun adds sincerely and leaves after that.

Nothing really progresses much between them. 

Seriously.

Nothing.

“Hi, unnie.”

“S-Seungwan. Hello.”

“Um, how are you?”

“Good. How--How are you?”

“I’m good as well.”

“Good. That’s really, really good.”

“Yeah. I uh… I made cupcakes? Red velvet. Would you like--“

“I’m cutting back on sugar.”

“Oh. Can I ask why..? You have perfect skin and you’re in such good shape--“

“What?”

“Uh. I mean… You’re very fit! Cops are fit!”

“Right.”

Peeking at the scene occurring in the break room, Yeri and Seulgi share a tired sigh.

“Wow, they still haven’t told each other," Seulgi mumbles, snacking on a bag of chips. "It's been weeks."

“I know right, it’s kind of getting depressing having to watch them go round and round in circles like this," Yeri says. “Jesus, it’s so ing awkward, I can’t take this much longer.”

Suddenly, a third person pops in between their huddled heads. “Are we talking about the tense gay energy going on between them?”

“Sooyoung!" Seulgi exclaims. "Their tense gay energy is totally normal! Nothing else going on. Just gays in the wild!"

Yeri's eye twitches at her. What a terrible liar. If she were a vigilante, she wouldn't last a day.

"Yes we were," Yeri says to Sooyoung.

“I say we handcuff them to each other and stick them in one of the holding cells until they work it out," Sooyoung suggests, propping a hand on her waist. "Worse thing we’d get is having to erase a o from the security camera.”

“Or…" Seulgi starts worriedly, "we’d totally mess up their relationship even further."

Sooyoung rolls her eyes. Seulgi always shuts down her more exciting ideas. 

“Why are they even like this anyway? I thought they finally got together... Is it because of Seungwan's parents?” Sooyoung wonders.

“Uh…”

Yeri shakes her head, wanting to avoid Seulgi having to come up with another horrible lie. “Joohyun’s not the type to judge someone based on their family.”

“That's exactly what I’ve been trying to tell Wannie but she’s gone all Spongebob on me," Seulgi whines.

Sooyoung blinks. “Spongebob?”

"Absorbing what I say then she just rings herself out of it all," Seulgi explains intelligently. "Like Spongebob. 'Cause he's a silly guy."

“Huh," Yeri mutters, sharing a look with Sooyoung. "Nice.”

“Thanks, I thought really hard on it."

Sooyoung chuckles and pats her shoulder. “I'm sure you did.”

"Guys they stopped talking," Yeri whispers and they all flinch, wondering if they should scramble and pretend they weren't spying on them.

“Wait, why are they just staring at each other?" Seulgi mumbles.

“I can't tell if they want to make out or if they want to fight," Yeri says

"Well, either way, it’ll probably end in ," Sooyoung says casually.

Seulgi whips her head to the tallest detective. "You watch too much .”

“You don’t watch enough," Sooyoung shrugs back.

“Anyway, will you guys drag your partners to do some work or something?" Yeri mutters and pushes the other two towards the break room, "Don’t let the gays up my precinct’s pristine productivity levels!”

“That's only because the vigilantes do most of the heavy lifting," Sooyoung calls over her shoulder.

"Not if they're being angsty gays," Yeri mumbles and saunters back into her office.

A similar scene occurs just a few days later...

"Seungwan, what do you think of the Pink Bunny?"

"Uh, she's cool...?"

"Just cool?"

"She's nice?"

"Just nice?"

"She's pretty...?"

"You think she's pretty?!"

Anyone could hear the sharp hiss in Joohyun's voice there.

"Jesus Christ, get back to work!"

And again...

"So...the superheroes are getting the key to the city..."

"Yes, Seungwan. I heard. It's been all over the news."

"Will you be there..? To see them accept it?"

"Yes."

"Cool! Um, I won't but--"

"Why?"

"Uh... Busy."

"With what? You just closed a case."

"I'm baking."

"Can I join you?"

"Uh..."

At this point, Joohyun's purposely making Seungwan uncomfortable. It's the petty part of her, really. 

"Detective Bae."

"Detective Son."

"How goes... Things?"

"Things are normal."

"You talked to the Bunny recently? You're friends, right?"

"Sure. What about you? Seen the Squirrel at all? How is she?"

"She's fine. She um, she said she misses you."

"Oh. She told you that, did she?"

"Yup. Uh--Did the Bunny say anything about me?"

"Nope."

It gets worse around Valentine's Day.

"Code red guys!" Seulgi says as she drags Sooyoung and Yeri into the break room. 

"What is it?" Yeri mutters seriously.

"Both Joohyun and Seungwan are late!"

"Detective Kang, you can't just say code red when it's not a code red," Yeri scolds.

"No, no, no. This is a national-level crisis," Sooyoung says. "Why the hell is Joohyun late as well?"

"Maybe they finally sorted things out," Yeri suggests.

"Ooh, hot make-up ," Sooyoung grins. "Good on them."

"Or not," Yeri mumbles, eyeing Joohyun walking into the bullpen--sans Seungwan.

"Unnie!" the youngest calls out. "Why are you late?"

"Are those flowers?" Sooyoung narrows her eyes at the bundle in her hand.

"For Seungwan?" Seulgi pipes up.

Joohyun rolls her eyes and scoffs, "Why do you guys just expect it to be for her? Why couldn't it be for someone else?" The look they all give her makes her scowl and ignore them.

They slowly trickle out of the room, watching as Joohyun puts a single rose into each of Seungwan's drawers, before tucking the rest of the bouquet beneath her desk.

"What are you doing?" Yeri quirks a brow.

"What does it look like?" Joohyun snarks.

"Did you guys... make up?" Seulgi asks.

"We cooked," Joohyun mutters and tucks a note into the centre of the bouquet.

"Meth?" 

Yeri slaps Sooyoung's shoulder at that comment.