Jessica took a step back to scrutinize her work and nodded in satisfaction. “There! You don’t quite look like you fit in, but at least you won’t stand out in a bad way.”

Haruki just smiled absently, causing a frown to come to Jessica’s face. For the past half hour, Haruki had sat still and let Jessica apply makeup on her, never making a single protest. Normally, having Jessica pick her outfits was enough to make the detective throw a fit, but she’d accepted the little black dress Jessica had handed her without a murmur. She’d even put on the gloves and hat that completed the film noir feel of the outfit without commenting on how ridiculous they were.

Jessica was worried.

Haruki barely glanced at her reflection in the mirror as she rose to her feet. “Shall we go, then?”

“Okay, what’s wrong with you?” Jessica demanded, hands on her hips.

“Nothing,” Haruki said a bit too quickly. “Let’s, uh, hurry up. I don’t want you to be late.”

Jessica scrutinized her carefully, but Haruki’s face was expressionless. The detective barely said a word on the way there, leaving Jessica feeling even more worried than before. The last time she’d seen her friend looking like this, Haruki had come up with a stupid plan to meet a serial killer alone in an abandoned building.

As they approached Mirotic, Haruki seemed to rouse herself. “So what exactly happens at these things?”

“Oh, you know...” Jessica waved vaguely. “Dinner, speeches, a quick runway show by us girls. A lot of congratulating and thanking sponsors and all that.”

“Sounds like fun,” Haruki said and this time, there was no mistaking the pout in her voice.

Jessica could have sighed in relief at this semblance of normality. “Could you at least smile and look like you want to be here?”

“Sorry.” Haruki forced the corners of her lips to curve upwards, giving her the look of a cat about to pounce on a mouse.

“Not like that! That’s creepy!”

“Sorry,” Haruki said again and Jessica couldn’t help laughing. After a moment, Haruki chuckled as well, making Jessica believe she had only imagined the earlier tension.

A man was heading towards the front door as they approached and upon spotting them, he immediately pulled open the door and held it for them. “Ladies.” Haruki froze.

“Hi, Sungmin,” Jessica replied.

“Hello, Jessica, Haruki,” he nodded. He was giving Haruki what Jessica thought was a hopeful look, but the detective had her eyes glued on the floor, a hint of red creeping up her cheeks. One finger subconsciously crept up and touched her lips.

“I better get going,” the model said quickly, squeezing her friend’s arm. “I’ll see you both later.” She disappeared into the crowd, blending in with a group of girls in floor-length gowns with curled hair.

“Shall we?” Sungmin asked, nodding towards the crowded room, but Haruki glanced at him suspiciously.

“What are you doing here?”

“Jessica invited me,” he replied. “She thought you might be bored.” Haruki shifted uncomfortably. “Look, Haruki, if you don’t want me here, I can leave-”

“No,” she said quickly. “I...it’s fine.” She smiled, but it was unconvincing, even to herself. “I’ve just...got a lot on my mind right now.”

Sungmin looked concerned, but merely nodded, taking her arm as they entered the room together. At least that was one thing she could count on with him. He wouldn’t ask any questions he knew she wouldn’t want to answer.

The phone rang three times before Donghae bothered to rouse himself from his zoned out state in front of the TV and pick it up. “What’s up?” he said without bothering to look at the caller.

“Donghae! Haruki’s in danger!” came the breathless female voice on the other end.

Immediately, he jumped to his feet, then checked himself, though his heart was still pounding. “Who’s this?” he demanded.

“It’s Tiffany.”

“What?” Donghae knew the voice had been familiar, though the panicked quality in it was not. “Where are you? What’s going on?”

“I don’t have time to explain!” Tiffany replied. “I know I jumped bail, but there were some things I had to do! Haruki and I figured out who the murderer was and she went off on her own to hunt him down. Donghae, she might be killed-”

Donghae grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair as he ran towards the front door. “Where are you?” he demanded.

Haruki stifled a yawn, causing Sungmin to glance over at her and grin. “I can see you’re enjoying this.”

“I’m trying my best,” she retorted.

“Not judging,” he replied. He nodded at one of the models. “Are they dressing up like famous people? Is she supposed to be Lady Gaga?”

Haruki cracked a smile. “Actually, I think the theme is ‘dangerous women’.”

“To themselves or to others?” Sungmin asked. Haruki followed his gaze to the six-inch needle-thin heels that some of the girls were wearing and her grin widened.

“Look at you, being all knowledgeable about fashion,” she shot back and he laughed.

“I can’t believe we’re attending a fashion event,” he replied. “If any of the guys found out-”

“You’re fine, you’ll bounce back. I’d be the one teased for finally embracing my feminine side.”

“You do look the very picture of feminine right now,” Sungmin replied, scanning her up and down. “Like a dainty little damsel in distress from a black and white thriller. Nice hat, by the way.”

Flushing, Haruki yanked it off and stuffed it into her borrowed purse. “Jessica made me wear it. She said it would help me fit in.”

“And the gloves?”

Haruki yanked them off and shoved them in the purse as well. “I must have been out of it when she talked me into that.”

Sungmin eyed the empty glasses in front of them. “More wine might help us actually enjoy this night. Refill?”

“Sure.” Haruki watched him walk towards the bartender with both glasses and smiled. It was nice, talking to Sungmin like she used to, back before...

Before Taemin. Before you realized the law wasn’t enough...

...and you can do something about it.

Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her purse.

Ready to go.

Haruki glanced over her shoulder, where Sungmin was still waiting in line for the bartender’s. She smiled vaguely around the table, though no one was paying much attention to her and, squeezing her phone, headed out the door.

Siwon was waiting at the curb in his car. He nodded as she climbed into the passenger seat and strapped herself in. Neither said a word as he shifted the gear, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the road.

“I told you before, didn’t I? You’re not the only one who wants to see guys like Taemin punished for their crimes. No one should escape the law. The only difference between us is that you have all the subtlety of a hurricane.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve felt it all along. I know you have. You didn’t want to find Taemin’s killer and catch her. You wanted to talk to her. They’re not murderers, they’re avengers.”

“They?”

“‘There’s more than one’- he told you so himself. He figured it out pretty quickly, actually, and tried to warn you. But really, there was no reason to warn you because you’re not in danger.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I brought those girls together. I found out about the girls at Miracle when I visited there a couple years ago. From those, I chose a few with the same passion for justice as you and I have, who were willing to carry it out. A select group of vigilantes.”

“But Tiffany...”

“I brought her into it. With me and her acting on the inside, we could cover everything up and make the deaths look like accidents.”

“Taemin wasn’t an accident. And neither was G.O.”

“Everyone saw you weren’t your usual self anymore. I wanted to help you. Tiffany and I planned it out to bring you out of your slump and give you something to chase after.”

“Where is she now?”

“We’re here.” Siwon brought Haruki out of her reverie as he pulled into the driveway in front of a townhouse. The street looked empty, like the houses hadn’t been used in years. “Not a popular area to live,” he went on, as if reading her mind. “But it serves our purposes well enough.”

“No one would have thought of searching this area,” Haruki murmured.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Siwon closed the car door and locked it, shoving the keys into his pocket. “Let’s go inside. I know the girls want to properly meet you.”

These shoes were killing her feet. Haruki took them off and left them in the car, following behind Siwon on bare feet until they reached the front door. A thought crossed her mind and she held out a hand to stop him as he was about to open the front door. “Why L. Joe? And Seungri?”

A faint frown crossed Siwon’s face. “I don’t know what you mean.” He unlocked the front door and pushed it open.

Was he lying? Somehow, Haruki didn’t think so. Looking back on it, she remembered him being just as horrified as she was at seeing L. Joe’s body. He could have been pretending, though. And besides, memories were fallible. Many times, you remembered seeing things a certain way after the fact when in reality, it was only you imposing your later knowledge on-

A crack rang out that left her left ear ringing. She whipped her head around in time to see Siwon stumble slightly, before tripping forward onto the ground.

“Siwon!” Her hand flew to her side before she realized she wasn’t in uniform and her gun wasn’t there. Straining her eyes in the dim light, she searched for the attacker, but saw nothing. No, there was no time to search, Siwon needed help.

She dropped by his side, reaching for her phone, but it wasn’t in her pocket. Must have fallen out or something. She turned him over, staring dumbly at the red stain spreading across his white shirt, knowing there was nothing she could do. Siwon’s eyes were already glassy, but they managed to focus on her as she mechanically reached for his hand. His lips formed a word, something she couldn’t hear and with a raspy breath, the hand she was holding fell to his side.

She exhaled slowly, only to gasp sharply as cold steel touched her temple. Her muscles tensed as her mind scrambled for ways to disarm her assailant.

 “There’s no need for that intense look.” Ga-In melted out of the shadows, her still-smoking gun pointed at Haruki’s chest. “Come on in, Haruki. We just want to talk.”

Sunny collapsed into the chair beside Sungmin and gave a long hard look at the glass of wine in front of her. “Do you think Haruki would mind if I had a little?”

“Have you seen her?” Sungmin scanned the room yet again, as he'd been doing every few seconds for the past hour. “She disappeared about an hour and a half ago. I thought she was taking a phone call or using the restroom, but...”

“Maybe she snuck out,” Sunny suggested, taking a sip from the glass. She sighed. “Not so sure about the food, but they really know how to pick wine.”

Sungmin shook his head. “She wouldn't have left without her purse.” He knew Haruki had more or less been coerced into coming, but she wouldn't just abandon Jessica unless she had a really good reason for it. This was all too familiar...

He pushed back his chair and stood up. “Sunny, would you thank Jessica for inviting me and tell her I’m sorry I had to leave early? Something’s come up.”

“Of course.” Sunny's eyes were glittering with curiosity, but after her experience with Haruki, she knew better than to ask.

Ga-In smiled pleasantly, as if this were a social call, but all of Haruki’s instincts were on high alert. Nothing had gone according to plan- well, not her plan, at least. What were these girls up to? Were they holding her hostage? She needed to get out, somehow. She was way in over her head- Siwon had been, too. Had he any idea the girls he’d recruited to his cause would betray him?

The girl behind Haruki pressed the barrel of the gun against her back and led her into a dining room. She pushed Haruki down into the chair as Ga-In took a seat across from her. The model set her gun on the table and the girl came forward to take it away. Haruki twisted around to see who it was and her eyes widened.

The girl in the black beanie.

It was the first time she had gotten a good look at the girl and she recognized her instantly: her first week on the force, she’d been assigned to investigate the alleged of a high school girl. The boy had claimed it was consensual and thus, there was no proof.

Just like with Haruki’s sister.

Haruki had been so furious, she’d punched the boy across the face, leaving him with a colorful dislocated jaw.

Haruki had tried her best not to think about the girl again. There were too many bad memories for her to go down that path.

“Hyuna, leave us for a moment, alright?” Ga-In asked and the girl wordlessly stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

"Hyuna,” Haruki whispered. It had been years since she’d thought of that name.

“I see you remember her.” Ga-In continued smiling coldly and calmly.

"There are some things you don’t forget,” Haruki said dully.

“She hadn’t spoken a word since that day, until she saw you again,” Ga-In said. “Remember, at the hospital, when she greeted you? She had been looking forward to seeing you again for so long.”

“What do you want?”

“I thought that was obvious.”

“Why did you kill Siwon?”

Ga-In shook her head. “You’re a smart woman, but you have no imagination. Do you really think Tiffany would just disappear like that after dropping all those hints to you? She practically told you she was responsible for Taemin’s murder. She knew you wanted to meet with her. Why would she run away?”

A chill ran down Haruki’s back. “Siwon killed her?”

“He said she was a liability,” Ga-In replied. “Thought she was getting too sure of herself and would bring the police onto our track. He should have known she was smarter than that.” She sighed. “He was an idiot.”

“Siwon?” “Idiot” was one of the last words Haruki would have used to describe her colleague. But then again, “murderer” wasn’t a word she’d associate with him either.

“Just because he brought us together, he thought he was in charge,” Ga-In replied. “It gave him a lot of pleasure, you know, deciding who got to live and who got to die. It made him feel like a god.”

Haruki’s mind was a whirl of confusion. The picture Ga-In was painting of Siwon was the polar opposite of the god-fearing man she had looked up to.

“He became dangerous,” Ga-In said softly. “When we made the mistake of letting Taemin’s diary be found, he threatened all of us. Tiffany risked herself to get it back.”

“She ran over an innocent cop,” Haruki snapped.

“There are no innocent cops!” Ga-In shot back. “They’re all incompetent. They tell you they’ll do their best and you get nothing! Because of stupid mistakes or technicalities, the most evil of people can escape!”

Haruki didn’t bother arguing back. Ga-In couldn’t possibly understand all the work that police officers did when investigating a case. But what she said was partially true. It had bothered Haruki her entire career.

Ga-In seemed to settle down, eyelids fluttering slightly as if in shock at her own outburst. She gave Haruki a smile and laced her fingers together. “Where were we? Ah, right. Haruki, don’t you see? We both have the same goals. We want men punished for their crimes against women. Letting such monsters go is only feeding the vicious cycle that turns women into victims.”

“I…” Haruki couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Every word Ga-In said was true.

Ga-In continued speaking, staring to the side as if seeing either into the future or the past, Haruki couldn’t tell. Her words flowed over the detective like honey, hypnotizing and warm. “I want to make the world a place where girls can walk down the street without feeling the need to duck their heads and hurry when they see a group of men. We’re not here for male viewing pleasure and definitely not for their use. Women everywhere deserve to live without fear and with the confidence to express themselves however they want.” She locked eyes with Haruki and suddenly, Haruki felt like Ga-In’s vision was flooding her mind. She found herself embracing it.

“You’re one of the few women who have power,” Ga-In continued. “The girls look up to you. You saw their faces that day, when you joined their session. You could put that power to a lot better use, Haruki. Are you with me?”

Against her will, Haruki found herself shivering slightly as she nodded. “Yes.” She felt as if she’d plunged off a diving board and straight into icy water, but there was no turning back. Ga-In was right. The law had many limitations that allowed men to get away with daily abuse of women. People tended to look the other way in such cases. All of it had to be stopped.

Ga-In reached across the table and squeezed her hand warmly. “I’m so glad you’ve made the right choice. Follow me.”

Dazed, Haruki rose to her feet and trailed dumbly after Ga-In on trembling legs. Her mind was still foggy, still reeling with the enormity of what she’d just done. A nagging voice at the back of her head warned her that she didn’t know what she was really getting into.

“Of course you’ll have to prove yourself to us,” Ga-In said, though Haruki could only half-understand what she was saying. She stopped open entering a large room, empty except for a chair in the middle and several girls standing along the wall like guards.

Haruki froze as she stared at the beaten body sprawled in the chair, the sight greeting her like a slap to the face. The man’s face was bruised, a trickle of blood making its way down the corner of his mouth. His clothes were scuffed and torn, his arms and legs graced in red and blue marks. His head was tipped to the side, eyes closed, breathing ragged and difficult.

“Donghae…” she whispered. Blood was roaring in her ears as she balled her hands into fists, desperately wanting to shake her head, to blink it all away and unsee what she was seeing. It couldn’t be real, none of this was real. This was all a bad dream, wasn’t it?

Just what had she agreed to?

Ga-In’s icy voice cut through her thoughts as she inclined her head towards Donghae with a slight smile. “Kill him.”