BEEP BEEP BEEP

Jinyoung groaned. What was that? 

"Hrnnnnnngh." 

Reaching a hand out clumsily for his alarm clock, he rolled off of the narrow couch and onto the ground with a THUMP. 

Right. 

He was at work. Why was he at work. He contemplated several minuscule loops in the carpeting as his sleep-addled brain turned this dilemma over in his mind over and over. Suddenly it came to him.

He bolted upright to find Lizzy staring at him from across the coffee table. She scoffed and slid a thermos across the coffee table. "You know, you're really dumb when you've just woken up, Jung."

He snorted as he grabbed the thermos, examining it with a little sniff of disdain. "Speak for yourself Park. Just because you're Miss Academy-Sweetheart, doesn't mean anyone can ignore how much of a mess you are after an all-night stakeout."

She hmphed through her lightly freckled nose and her heel, her braid whipping smartly behind her. She marked several steps away, and then paused and called over her shoulder, "You're coming, aren't you? Unless you'd rather sit there?"

Jinyoung picked himself up, brushed himself off, and smoothed down his hair. He walked into the nearby conference room and settled down in the nearest uncomfortable black chair to receive the latest intelligence as well as his assignment. He could see the days stretched out before and ahead of him, 

Such was life at the narcotics department in the beautiful city of Seoul. 

+~~~+

Days passed. Weeks. Months.

Always the same, trying and failing. Trying, but failing. Bleeding, but failing. Dying, but failing. 

It all seemed futile sometimes. They lost officers all the time. Those who retired early, died in action, those who couldn't fight any longer and those who wouldn't fight any longer. But there were always the recruits. Fresh-faced, young, and excited, they always tried. But, one after another they would be beaten down.

Hope was dwindling. They had been fighting this battle for over two years. Only the brave of heart remained.

And Jinyoung had never been brave. But he tried. He had joined the police academy to try to be brave. He had sought the elusive mask called courage within those stark white walls. Although he never found it, he made do. He painted his own mask, of bravado and nervousness, and no one ever noticed. 

The mask was useful. When he hunkered down in his car and kept his eyes glued to one entranceway. When he kicked a door open with his heavy, angry, regulation boots. When he held a gun, his hands not quite steady, and threatened a boy, barely out of high school. When he got in some scumbags face, breathing heavy and demanding answers. When he had to make do with a tradeoff of a strong coffee for a few hours sleep. When he couldn't go home in two weeks, and when he did get home sweet Ji-Eun of the long, silky, black hair had cut it all off and when he walked in the door the face staring up at him seemed a stranger. 

But Lizzy made it worth it. More and more, he found Lizzy to be his reason to fight. Her smile. Her eyes. Her hair, whether tied up in her signature braid or left loose and disheveled after a 3-coffee all-nighter. Little by little, he found himself falling in love with her. Everything about her was practically perfect. He couldn't get enough of her. Whether they sitting together and poring over papers, or running side by side, guns raised, through an abandoned drug lab. 

And one day they had a breakthrough. The announcement came in.

"We've found him. We've found U."

+~~~+