Narrator's POV

Before you continue reading, you should know firsthand that this is not a story of boy meets girl.

As soon as she came home from elementary school and observed as their family lawyer handed out divorce papers to her crying mother and agitated father, Yeo Kyungjin knew that that was the beginning of everything — her courage, her flaming self respect, her trust in self sufficiency, her belief that love was but a word on the 566th page in the dictionary, and her lifelong running, not from, but towards everything bigger than herself.

"Ya, Detective Yeo! Jump in!" the police superintendent called out from inside the police car. The 42-year-old man groaned in frustration after the woman ignored him. Instead, she continued on the chase her own way — by running. Her long brown hair flew behind her swiftly as she dashed past passersby and curious onlookers.

Maneuvering the swerving car, the man floored the accelerator and honked the horn. "Oh come on, Kyungjin! You're not bionic, for heaven’s sake!" he exclaimed. To his disbelief, the woman just smirked at him and sprinted faster, her figure nearing the robber they had been chasing for the past half hour.

As criminals nowadays grew more ruthless and tactful, Kyungjin knew she had to keep up. And keep up she did while searching for the robber in a sea of people. Her eyes narrowing, she clearly saw the man run into a corner. Silently thanking herself for deciding not to follow the headquarter memo about police women wearing skirts, Kyungjin winced as she felt the burning friction the soles of her shoes made against the concrete.

From behind, she heard the loud siren of the police car trailing behind her. As soon as she realized where the criminal led her, Kyungjin nearly smacked her own forehead. It was the street she didn't want to be in the most. With its population consisting mainly of thugs and gangsters, District 2 was the breeding ground for the up-to-no-good minority.

Raking a hand through her hair, she turned to her senior, who already had the radio pressed against his lips as he called for backup. Amidst the ongoing business of pirated DVDs and smuggled products, Kyungjin spotted the same black-haired man a few feet from her as he pushed past people in his haste.

Her blue police uniform didn't even spark a hint of fear among the people engaging in black market. Kyungjin took a good look around her, checking to see if people just don't really care about the presence of law enforcement or if she was really just invisible. In the end, she loosened her black necktie and pulled the gun out of the holster by her waist.

"HEY PUNK!" she shouted, meant for the man who still held his victim's purse. He turned around to look at her, as if teasing, and smirked. "STOP OR I'LL SHOOT!" Kyungjin threatened, earning her stares from the people on the same street. The superintendent had left the driver seat and was now slowly advancing to her side.

"Ya," he said. "You just got back yesterday from a one-week suspension! Do you want to get another seven-day vacation?" he hissed fearfully. Kyungjin just hushed him in response. Closing her eye for more focus, she lifted the gun in level with her face and aimed it at the man still trying to escape.

The agitated officer kept on patting her on the shoulder. "The others are about to come. I already called for backup!" he exclaimed, sweating and nervous of the glares he was receiving.

"I don't have a clean shot," she muttered to him. "I hate my lack of firing accuracy." And with her loaded gun in one hand, she began to run again, not even bothering to excuse herself and merely just pushing her way among the thick crowd. In fear, people moved out of her way and let her pass through easily.

Kyungjin's feet threatened to slow her down, but the woman shook her head microscopically. Being tired was no excuse. She cursed under her breath as the man entered a shopping mall. She looked back at her senior, who was holding onto his knees and panting against the radio as he stated their current location.

When he nodded to her, gesturing for her to continue even without him, Kyungjin ran past the security guard by the entrance and searched for her suspect. And there he was, running up the escalator still with the stolen purse in his hand. Seeing how the criminal only squeezed himself among the people ascending, she decided to advance to the second floor with the descending escalator.

Imagining it to be a treadmill going to the opposite direction, Kyungjin doubled up her speed in running. By the time she had reached the second floor, she was nearly out of breath and the man was nowhere to be found. Pausing for a second or two, she spotted a dash of black hair scurrying to escape and turning into corners.

The woman went back to running, accidentally knocking a janitor over together with his mop and bucket of dirty water. Just as soon as he was about to pick it up and resume to his work, Kyungjin lost her balance and slipped, falling flat on her back. But it was no time to feel pain, and so she shrugged off her hurting back and resumed the chase.

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS?" Kyungjin nearly groaned against her radio. She nearly lost the suspect, but following the sound of gasps and murmurs, she soon found him descending the escalator and looking as guilty as ever. "Aish, make yourself stand out, won't you?" she grumbled before quickly thinking of a plan.

It was only a few days more before the New Year, and so the mall was sparkling and inviting in decorations and bright lights. There were red and green streamers hanging from above, and in her mind lit up an imaginary light bulb. Pushing her way among the crowd, she stepped on the ledge and lunged for the streamer nearest her grip.

When she was sure she wouldn't suffer a bad fall, Kyungjin loosened her grip a bit and slid down the long red cloth, ignoring the burning sensation on her palm caused by the friction. Maybe the man knew this was bound to happen, and so he jumped off the escalator and scampered towards the stalls and shops.

More angered than ever, the woman went after him again. But alas, as luck would have it, a passing chain of grocery carts happened to block her way. There is no problem if one could always find a way around it. And so Kyungjin found a way around it — or maybe over it. Jumping over the carts, she found herself on the run again.

This time, she got him cornered on a dead end. Before she could smirk to herself because of this, the man sprinted to the nearest window and was about to smash it. In the end, she pulled the trigger and sent a bullet flying towards the man. It took an entire second for the sleeve of his shirt to turn from white to bloody red. The people in the mall had scattered with screams and shouts everywhere at the sound of the gun shot.

"Bingo," Kyungjin mumbled, feeling proud of herself while running towards the fallen suspect. The sound of police sirens grew louder and clearer with her each step as the backup came but too late. Pressing her own radio near , "Jurisdiction 230, District 2. This is Detective Yeo. The suspect was shot," she informed as she finally reached the man she had been chasing for a while.

Kneeling by his side and immediately grabbing the stolen purse, Kyungjin raked a hand through her hair. "Ya, next time you steal, make sure I'm not on duty, or I'm suspended, or I'm dead, arasseo?" She watched as the man lying face down on the concrete struggle to lie down on his back.

The man pushed himself up by his elbows to sit up. His eyes widened when he laid eyes on her. Unconsciously using his injured left arm, he let his right hand reach up to his bleeding shoulder, his eyes not leaving her face. "P-please shoot me again," he mumbled, as if hypnotized, but the woman, whom he was busy adoring, was distracted.

"What?" Kyungjin turned to him questioningly.

Before he could open his mouth to speak, "Who shot him?" a different police officer walked up to them and asked.

"I did," the woman said voluntarily. With the help of other officers, the suspect was handcuffed and assisted to the police car. "Wait, what's your name, anyway?" she asked, tucking her hair back inside her cap no matter how much she hated having her hair up.

The man's lips upturned to a smirk. "You can call me any name you want, baby. I'm yours," he said while being towed into the backseat of a police car.

Kyungjin, however, was not the least bit impressed. "Just bring him to the headquarters before I bust his head off," she scoffed and turned to her senior.

"Wait, baby! You never even told me your name!" he exclaimed and watched as she went inside a different vehicle.

The policemen in charge of him laughed. "You can never get to her, boy," said the officer manning the driver seat. "No matter how much you run, you will always end up being a mile behind her."

—

"Sir, Detective Yeo reporting," Kyungjin said firmly with a salute.

The man waved her off impatiently. "Let's see the damage now, shall we?" he said and led the way to the front desk. There, the suspect of the day sat on the bench while a nurse tended to his injury. "How bad is it?" Geum Jangsoo, the chief of police, asked. He dipped forward to take a closer look.

"It's not serious," the attending nurse explained and shrugged. "The bullet just sliced its way across his shoulder. But he's stitched up really nicely now." And he packed his bag before slinging it over his shoulder. Before the nurse could leave, he laid a hand on Kyungjin's shoulder. "You're getting luckier and luckier," he teased, which earned him a smack on the head.

After throwing the nurse a farewell but threatening glare, Kyungjin glanced back at the investigation at hand. After taking all the necessary information from the man, named Kim Jongin, he was put behind bars. "Search for any identification inside the purse so we could return it to the owner. Since we recovered what he stole, we'll release him tomorrow," the chief stated.

Turning to the woman, "And you," he exhaled while rolling his eyes. "You're lucky his injury wasn't serious. If you were always up and ready for shooting people, you might as well have signed up for the army. And why would you even involve yourself in everything when you're only assigned to be behind the front desk today?"

"Don't say that, chief! If she had signed up for the military, even the soldiers would have been dead," one police officer chided, which made everyone burst out into laughter. He was Bang Minsoo, who graduated from the same university as Kyungjin and was one of her closest colleagues.

Seeing how nearly everyone was making fun of her, Kyungjin slammed her fist on the table. Everyone resumed to their own work and kept their lips pursed. "What? I can't just sit back and relax behind that desk and let that old man watch as the suspect goes away," she said, referring to police superintendent, who was her partner for the day. "He couldn't even run!"

"HEY!" the senior exclaimed, offended. "The 'old man' you're referring could still shoot better than you, you know!" he fought back, to which Kyungjin just laughed.

Even so, the chief didn't seem to be impressed. "And you're no superhero, for heaven's sake! You can't just hang onto a streamer and swing to and fro! What are you, the queen of the jungle?" he scolded. "And you can't just go on your own chase. It's like you forgot everything inside the police handbook!"

"Aish, there's no such thing as that..." Kyungjin grumbled and scratched the back of her head.

"BUT STILL! I mean, you, of all people, should know the basic do's and don’ts of a police officer. And besides, do you want us both to get fired?!" the man snapped back angrily. "I don't want this to happen again, Yeo Kyungjin. And while you reflect on your actions, why don't you apologize to him for the unnecessary injury you caused?" he reminded, referring to Jongin, before returning to his office. As soon as he left, Kyungjin sank on the bench where the suspect was just earlier.

From inside his cell, "Hey baby," Jongin called out. "Why don't you apologize to me like what your boss said?"

"Oh boy," Minsoo exclaimed and watched as Kyungjin strode to the cell slowly.

The woman crossed her arms over her chest and smirked at him. Jongin, on the other hand, smirked back at her and pressed his face close to the bars, puckering his lips as if waiting to be kissed. Instead, Kyungjin slipped her arm inside the bars and pulled at his ear. "You must know that my lack of firing accuracy was the one that saved you from getting shot straight to the head."

She let go of his ear and turned to leave, until she remembered something. "And one more thing: I don't do apologies. The word sorry is not in my dictionary. If you want to hear it, change your name to sorry so I would call it out to you," she said before walking away and heading to her own desk. Once seated, she slowly ed her blue uniform, leaving her in her black shirt.

She ran her fingers through her hair when she noticed the cup of coffee on her desk. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she saw the post-it, drawn with a smiley face, attached to the cup. She knew instantly who made the hot drink. A hot cup of coffee would always be greeting her every morning she reports to the office.

Craning her neck and looking around, Kyungjin searched the entire police headquarters for the face she had been longing to see. "Is Chunji here?" she asked Minsoo softly. The man concentrating on typing up reports just shrugged blankly. "Aish, you useless kid," she muttered and stood up, advancing to the hallway leading to another room full of working people.

Noticing how occupied he was, Kyungjin decided to disturb him. She crept slowly to where he was before suddenly appearing in front of him. Chunji didn't seem to notice, however, as he repeated incoherent words to himself while his forehead was creased in confusion. "You missed a spot here," she said, taking his glasses off and wiping it clean using the hems of her shirt.

The man gasped, jostled all so suddenly. "Kyu-kyungjin..." he muttered, while she just laughed at his surprised expression.

When his glasses were already spotless after she examined them against the light, Kyungjin wore it on him properly. "Thanks for the coffee. I needed that," she said, leaning against his desk. When she noticed him just staring at her, she cleared his throat. "So what are you doing?" she inquired, eyeing the papers scattered all over the table.

He pushed his glasses far up the bridge of his nose and looked away. "I, uh...I'm just double-checking the...um...the warrants before s-submitting it to...t-to Mr. Geum," Chunji said and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. He hated how he always seemed fidgety and at a loss for words whenever she was around.

"Right," Kyungjin muttered with a curt nod. "I'll just go start my report now." She gestured towards her desk while slowly stepping away. "I just caught a robber, so..." she trailed off before turning around. Walking back to her workstation, she bit on her lip, wondering what got into her to just talk to Chunji like that.

"Is that Kyungjin?" the desk officer behind Chunji asked, to which the man just nodded. "I thought she was suspended for a week?" the older man pressed as he punched in numbers on his calculator.

The younger nodded. "She was. But she just got back yesterday."

"Why was she suspended again?"

"Remember the suspect accused of more than a week ago?" Chunji asked, shifting in his seat to face the man. "Well, since Kyungjin realized that the suspect's victims were little girls, she gave the man a black eye together with a string of insults before throwing him inside the jail. She did it just right in front of the superintendent."