Donghae stepped into the coffee room Monday morning to find Haruki standing there with her back to him. She was apparently absorbed in her thoughts, as she’d already added about three packs of sugar to her cup and was reaching for another one. For just a moment, he saw her dressed in that tiny black dress and gritted his teeth when he thought of Sungmin’s jacket draped over her shoulders.

He opened a cabinet and slammed it hard enough to make her jump. She glanced at him and then back down at the coffee cup. “Donghae.”

“Haruki.”

She didn’t look up as she drew a stirring stick, capped her cup, and turned towards the door. He could see that she was nervous about talking to him, which was all the more reason for him to confront her.

“So…” He took a step towards her, blocking off her exit. “You and Sungmin, huh?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said shortly. She attempted to move around him, but he followed her, keeping himself between her and the doorway.

“I liked your dress.”

“Thank you,” she bit out.

“I’ve never seen you dress like that before,” he continued.

“Drop it, Donghae.” Haruki scowled, but swallowed hard as he came closer to her again. She quickly backed away, bumping into the counter.

“You were wearing makeup too.” He forced a laugh. “What’s the deal? You like him, or something?”

“It’s none of your business,” she mumbled, flinching as he leaned towards her ever so slightly. Her free hand gripped the edge of the counter as her knees buckled slightly. She swallowed hard.

“Oh, come on. I’m just curious. Tell me about it.”

“Sungmin and I are friends. We had dinner together. Why do you even care?” Haruki burst out, staring down at her coffee cup to avoid looking up at him. She didn’t know what she was so afraid of, but she could feel her body trembling. And not entirely in a bad way.

Donghae said nothing as he leaned forward and reached around her, the front of her body just barely brushing up against hers. Haruki looked up in surprise and alarm just as he locked eyes with her. Her breath caught in as he smiled slyly. He was so close she could feel the heat radiating from his body. Her heart pounded as the blood rushed to her face and she was sure her palms were sweating-

Then he pulled away and she just stood there, clutching at her chest as if trying to slow her heart rate and gaping unattractively at him. As he stepped out of the room, he smirked at her. “Can Sungmin do that?” he asked in a low voice that sent new shivers running up her spine and her knees growing weak again. He chuckled as her blush darkened.

 Donghae walked away, feeling strangely pleased with himself as he left a very flustered Haruki behind. The smile dropped, however, when his boss stormed past him into the room, eyes dangerously dark.

“Haruki. My office. Now.”

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Leeteuk demanded. Haruki had the vague worry that he was about to combust, but that was drowned out by the panic churning in her stomach as she stared at the coffee-soaked tape recorder on the desk in front of her.

“Where did you get that?” she asked in a barely audible voice.

“Jiyong saw you throw it in the trash,” her boss replied.

“Are you having him spy on me?” she snapped.

“Don’t give me that!” He slammed a hand on the desk. “Withholding evidence is a criminal offense, you know that better than anyone! And with your hiding the diary-”

“Siwon told you?” Haruki blurted out in disbelief.

“Siwon, unlike you, has always strictly followed the rules. He readily agreed when I asked him to keep an eye on you,” Leeteuk explained.

Haruki grumbled something under her breath, but her heart was sinking.

Chief Park sighed and folded his hands on the desk as he leaned forward. “I’d ask for an explanation,” he said seriously, “but I know you won’t give me one. I could kick you out of the force right now, Haruki, and I’d have every right to do it. I could even press charges, if I wanted to.”

Haruki stayed silent, staring at the spot directly in front of her on his desk.

“I’m giving you one chance to save your sorry self. What did you and Tiffany talk about?”

She pressed her lips tightly together.

Chief Park stood up, towering over her as he leaned across his desk. “One chance, Haruki. Answer my question or turn in your badge right now. What did you and Tiffany talk about?”

Haruki was silent for a long time. Then, she slowly reached into her inside pocket and took out her badge. She didn’t dare look at Leeteuk as she set the badge down on the desk and pushed it towards him. She didn’t have to raise her head to know he looked as stunned as she felt.

It was over. Four years of fighting to earn the respect of her colleagues and her boss. Four years of staying up until odd hours of the day, inhaling more coffee than she could handle as she went through her notes just one last time, searching for a pattern that would put all the pieces in place. Four years of mercilessly driving felons to the ground and doing everything she could to lock them up, at the expense of her own personal life and at considerable danger to herself.

Without waiting for his dismissal, she stood up and walked out of his office, barely surprised to see most of her colleagues crowded around the door. They’d heard everything. Wordlessly, they moved apart as she passed, and she could feel their eyes on her. Ryeowook was on the verge of tears, Siwon looked like he’d been punched in the stomach, and Eunhyuk’s jaw was practically falling off its hinges. She knew Sungmin and Donghae were there, but she was too afraid to look at them as she made the long walk back to her office, fighting back tears of her own.

The door of her office slammed open as she was packing away her laptop charger. Cleaning out her office hadn’t taken as long as she’d thought it would, but then again, she hadn’t brought many personal items to work.

“Haruki!” Luhan, Kris, and Kai piled through the door, breathless from running.

“We just heard! Is it true?” panted Kai. “Y-you’re leaving?”

“Word travels fast,” Haruki murmured, wrapping the cord around the charger and tucking it into her back.

“But why? What happened?” Kris demanded. “Why are you quitting?”

“It’s none of your business,” Haruki snapped, before biting her tongue quickly. Obviously, they were worried about her, for some reason, and it distressed them that she was leaving. Strange, but oddly touching. The least she could do was be nice. “It’s nothing, really. I just need to get away for a while.”

“So you’re coming back?” asked Kai.

His hopeful expression was bittersweet to her. After this, she would be lucky if Chief Park decided not to press charges. “Maybe.” She offered them a quick smile, which satisfied Kris and Kai. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the searching look Luhan was giving her.

After she’d fended off Kris and Kai’s good-byes and promised to keep in touch, she finally turned to Luhan, who had been standing silently beside her desk the entire time.

“I’ll keep you updated,” he finally said, before shoving his hands in his pockets and turning towards the door.

“Wait.” Haruki stepped past him to close the door and turned to frown at him. “What are you talking about?”

Luhan gave her a half-smile. “Please, there’s no way you’d give up the investigation this easily. You’re planning to keep searching at home or something, when you won’t have Chief Park’s eye on you.”

The kid was smart.

“So I’ll keep you updated on everything they find,” he finished. “You need someone on the inside. Like in spy novels or something.”

Haruki had to smile. “You know you could lose your job for that.”

Luhan shrugged. “I joined the police because I wanted to work in forensics. I was happy with the thought of processing crime scenes and collecting evidence. Just being near the action was enough.”

“Luhan-”

“Instead, I got the chance to be a detective. It’s more than I ever dreamed off, and I wouldn’t have that chance without you. I owe you a favor.”

“Kid, you don’t owe me anything,” Haruki retorted. “I wrote you that recommendation because you deserved it. You’re smart and hard-working and you’ve shown plenty of talent.”

“Then think of it as my helping out a friend.” Luhan smiled at her as he disappeared through the doorway.

Haruki found herself grinning as she closed up her bag, turned off the light, and left her office for the last time.

“Ow! Let go!” Sungmin glared at Donghae as he rubbed his shoulder, which the other detective had just rudely grabbed him by. Sungmin had been in the middle of writing an email to Haruki, asking her if she was alright, when Donghae had marched in and dragged him out into the stairwell.

“What did you find out in the archives?” Donghae demanded.

“I didn’t find out anything,” Sungmin grumbled. “And who told you I was in the archives?”

“Do you think I’m stupid?” retorted Donghae. “You disappeared for several days without telling anyone but Ryeowook where you’re going. You come back with a folder bulging with files. Where else would you go?”

Sungmin sighed. “Fine. But I can’t tell you. I promised Haruki I’d keep it between us for now.”

Us. Donghae gritted his teeth again. “Sungmin, do you really think that matters right now? Something’s going on with Haruki. She just willingly turned in her badge and walked out of here.”

“I don’t know what’s up with her,” Sungmin snapped.

“But I know she’s not going to sit at home twiddling her thumbs,” Donghae hissed. “If you know anything about her, you know she’s going to investigate on her own and do something reckless and stupid again. Remember last year when she tried to corner The Lobotomist without telling us her plan?”

Sungmin nodded slowly as he remembered. Haruki had given into her stalker’s terms and agreed to meet with him. However, it had been a trap set up to frame Sungmin as the culprit and turn everyone’s attentions away from the real killer, allowing him to kidnap her.

“Chief Park was stupid to let her leave,” Donghae gritted out. “If we’re going to solve this case before she does anything moronic, we need to work together and I need to know everything she knows. What did you learn?”

Sungmin gave him a searching look before sighing and crossing his arms. “Fine. Those patients that the girl in the black beanie visited were all witnesses for the prosecution in criminal court cases. Many of the defendants were found not guilty or got light sentences. A couple cases were dismissed for lack of evidence. Every time, it was some technicality that caused an airtight case to fall apart.”

“Like?”

“You know the youngest one? Janey? Her dad was charged with abuse, but he was too drunk to understand when they read him his rights, so he was let go,” Sungmin explained. “And the poor girl was in a hospital for months, recovering from a concussion. He even came to visit her a couple times.”

Donghae’s face darkened. “That bastard.”

“That’s not all, though,” Sungmin replied. “I checked the records. Most of those defendants are dead, now. Including Janey’s dad.”

“What?” Donghae asked slowly.

“Cause of death was usually listed an accident, but…” Sungmin shrugged. “I didn’t think so. Haruki didn’t either.”

“Do you think it’s…”

“A vigilante? That’s what I thought.” Sungmin bit his lip, a worried expression crossing his face. “Haruki’s chasing some psychopath determined to serve his brand of justice.”

“Chasing?” repeated Donghae, shaking his head. “I don’t think so. That ‘psychopath’ sounds exactly like her.”

Haruki tossed her bag onto the foot of her bed and grabbed her laptop, sinking in front of her desk. She opened up her case folder and pulled up a huge number of files. Sighing, she drummed her fingers against her mouse. It had been a long time since she’d worked on her own. Somehow, it was a bit unsettling not to have Siwon sitting across the table from her to discuss ideas with, easily keeping up with her train of thought as she broke their comfortable silence with random comments and questions. It felt too quiet without Ryeowook complaining about the sheer number of questions making his head hurt. And she desperately wanted to talk to Sungmin about-

She quickly pulled up the images taken of Tiffany in the driver’s seat of the van to interrupt that train of thought. How had she ever gotten work done without Jiyong? She was hopeless with computers. And Donghae-

She shook her head and focused her attention on her email, where Luhan was already making good on his promise by sending her the preliminary investigation of the college student murdered the night before. She fired back a quick thanks and a warning to cover his tracks, though she was sure he didn’t need to be reminded. He was too smart to get caught.

The victim’s name was Lee Byung-hun, known as L. Joe by his friends. He was nineteen years old, a sophomore at the School of Performing Arts, studying music. He had no criminal record.

She frowned. That couldn’t be right.

She broadened the search away from major crimes to anything, but there was nothing. His fingerprints weren’t even in the database. This wasn’t unusual for a young adult, but it disrupted her theory. L. Joe did not fit the pattern. And while his keeping a notebook in which he rated girls by their appearance disgusted her, it was hardly criminal.

But the crime matched the vigilante’s recent pattern of behavior. Sixteen stab wounds, for sixteen girls. It was a shocking act, condemning a man who mistreated women. There just wasn’t any evidence that L. Joe had mistreated women.

Drumming her knuckles against the desk as she thought, Haruki frowned as an idea came to her. It was a long-shot, but it just might work.

Thankfully, she never deleted contacts from her phone, just in case she needed them again. She scrolled through the list to the “L”s and dialed a name she hadn’t thought about in over a year. As a matter of fact, she’d done her best not to think about it, because of the bad memories it brought back.

The phone rang twice. “Hello?”

“Luna? Hi. It’s Detective Morita. Do you remember me?”

“Of course.” The voice was quiet. Maybe even a little fearful.

“I need to ask you a few questions,” Haruki continued. “Could I meet with you sometime this week?”

“Congratulations on being released from jail,” offered Seohyun, as she handed Tiffany her latte. Her first stop after leaving the jailhouse was Heartquake Café for some much-missed coffee.

“Thanks, Seohyun,” chuckled the lawyer. “But I haven’t really been released. They just let me go on bail. See?” She stuck out her foot and lifted her pant leg slightly, revealing the ankle monitor strapped to her right leg.

“Ah.” Seohyun looked flustered. “I’m sorry, Tiffany, I don’t know what to say in that case-”

Tiffany laughed, waving off her apologies. “‘Congratulations’ works fine. Besides, I won’t be wearing this thing for long. The whole case will be dismissed. Count on it.”

Seohyun smiled. “Well, good luck then.”

“Thanks.” Tiffany drained the cup and sat there thinking for a while.

It had been an interesting experience, being on the other side of the bars. Because of who she was, she’d been given a special cell with a little extra protection. After all, some of the other inmates were people she’d put in there herself and everyone was raring to have a go at the assistant district attorney. But after being pushed around in the cafeteria a couple times too many, they’d all learned that Tiffany Hwang was not someone to be messed with. After that, her stay in jail had been a bit like a vacation.

She’d been assigned a public defender for her case. Ironically, it was Mir, someone she’d faced many times in the past. He was a decent lawyer, but he didn’t have the guts to fight impossible cases. During her first meeting with him, she’d made it clear that she was the one actually running her own defense. She felt confident in her strategy. Rubbing the ankle monitor with her left foot, she smiled. She definitely would not be wearing this awful accessory for long.

Her phone beeped and she glanced down it, her smile widening when she saw who the sender was. She signaled to Seohyun for her check and left the money on the table, heading out to the parking lot where she saw his car parked towards the back.

She climbed into the passenger’s seat and strapped on her seatbelt. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

He didn’t say anything as he pulled out of the parking lot. He usually didn’t, and she preferred it that way. They made a good team, with her as the mastermind and him as the enforcer.

Once they’d pulled off the main road and maneuvered down a narrow driveway, the lawyer spoke up again. “I heard Haruki’s been getting herself kicked out of work.” Tiffany chuckled as she leaned back in her seat. “I wonder if that idiot Leeteuk knows her at all. If you order her around, she shuts up like a clam. If you dangle the right bait in front of her, she recklessly lunges at it.”

The driver glanced at her, but said nothing.

The lawyer smiled confidently. “We’ve almost got her. I know it.”

Her partner nodded as he parked the car. “She’ll do better than you ever did.”

She turned around to frown at him. “Wha-” she began, but the question was cut off as he slashed open with a razor blade.

Tiffany Hwang lived just long enough to see her blood spatter onto the windshield. 

A/N: I'm so sorry for the delayed update! I stupidly decided to participate in Nanowrimo this year (for those of you who don't know, you write 50k words in a month) and between that and work, I just haven't had any time to work on it. I keep saying that updates will come soon, but I can't guaranteen it. I'm really sorry. 

Thanks to all of you who have stuck with me for so long!