Three days into the investigation and Seulgi had to admit begrudgingly that she was, in fact, still very inexperienced about the whole thing.

She stepped on the dusty land with a tired huff and flung the car door shut, wiping the beads of sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand as the merciless summer sun continued to glare down on her.

The heat was starting to drive her crazy and if this pharmacy – the nth one they had visited since days ago – refused to give them even the tiniest bit of information again, she might as well rocket herself directly into the sun and combust into damnation.

Never in her life had she expected getting people to talk to be this hard.

This only proved her initial lament further about how she was still very unknowledgeable about investigative journalism. No wonder Joohyun treated her like an amateur all the damn time.

“We will have to change our plan.” The said girl announced as she stepped next to Seulgi on the dusty lawn, staring at the unkempt, small pharmacy ahead of them with distaste.

“We can’t introduce ourselves as journalists anymore. Clearly, all the pharmacies we have visited immediately shut their metaphorical doors on our faces the second they learned that we were journalists. Clearly, they have something to hide and clearly, we need to use different, less honest approach if we want to find out what they are hiding.”

Seulgi stared at the older girl – who looked five times more annoyed than her because of the incessant heat and the dusty wind’s attack on her pristine Cartier sunglasses – and cocked up an eyebrow.

“You mean?”

“I mean we have to lie about our identity. Say that we are salespeople from a certain pharmaceutical company or something alike. I am not returning with empty hands today no matter what.”

The determined woman breezed forward in fast, efficient steps as Seulgi chased after her with a lot less grace.

“Well, who’s gonna be the one lying? It better be you because I big time at lying. I couldn’t even lie for a surprise birthday party.”

Joohyun stopped and regarded her, veiled surprise fleeting across her face as if she didn’t think about that scenario before.

She blinked, realizing belatedly that none of them was good actress, before deciding singlehandedly to make Seulgi do the dirty job because come on, she was the boss.

“You do it.” She said with final tone and marched ahead.

“Hey! That’s a – horrible abuse of power!” Seulgi bellowed, but the girl in white button up and tight blue jeans strode into the pharmacy and left her with no choice but to rush after her .

Damn her and her shapely in those tight, skinny jeans too.

Wait, did she just think ‘shapely’?

“Good afternoon.” The owner of the fantastic greeted the male pharmacist behind the counter with a professional smile, interrupting Seulgi and her train of thoughts from going down further towards the lane.

“Uh, good afternoon.” The man in white coat who appeared to be in his late 20s regarded them with a confused look, obviously knowing that they were not his usual locals. “What can I do for you? Are you lost?”

Joohyun flicked a glance at Seulgi and quirked an eyebrow to make her work, the latter swearing at her inwardly before turning to smile at the man sweetly.

“Hello, we are, uh, salespeople from, uh, Pharma…Pharma Medica S-seoul? Nice to meet you, sir.”

Joohyun facepalmed at her extremely awkward, poor acting and hid her face.

The man, as expected, appeared even more baffled than before, now rising a questioning eyebrow at them. “And? Uh…what are you here for?”

“Oh, we are here to – uh, to – conduct a survey for our company regarding the uh, the demand of certain medicines in this area. We are also surveying the neighboring towns to know, um, which type of medicine is on high demand and, or, is still lacking supplier. You k-know, to help – boosting our company’s sales with matching strategy.”

Seulgi shocked herself with the quite logical reasoning that popped up in her head despite her awkward delivery, and she relaxed a bit when the pharmacist’s suspicious eyebrows relaxed into calmer lines.

“Ah, you guys are another of those poor employees forced to smell around these isolated backcountry towns for income, eh? I guess the opportunity to make a living solely in big cities is getting slimmer nowadays. There were many pharmaceutical retailers looking for alliance here before you guys too.”

“There were?” Seulgi blurted in reflex and immediately regretted when Joohyun stomped on her foot, a painful hiss slipping from her lips as the shorter girl smiled up at the man like she hadn’t just drilled a possible hole on the former’s sneakers with her sharp high heels.

The man turned his attention to her.

“Oh, and this is…your boss?” He looked at Seulgi again, confusion back on his face as he registered the diamonds embedded on Joohyun’s fancy Cartier sunglasses after being told that they were only ‘salespeople.’

This time Joohyun immediately ripped her shades off and smiled up at him nervously.

Seulgi scowled. Should have stomped back on her foot for being careless too.

Her vexed thoughts were cut short however, when the poor, gullible guy suddenly snapped five centimeters taller and stood with perfectly straight back.

“Wow.” He muttered vocally as he blinked at Joohyun, whose face was now completely devoid of any cover. “Wow, um, you have very pretty eyes.”

Seulgi stared at him, dumbstruck.

Seriously?

“It’s a knock-off.” Joohyun lied politely as she attempted a smile that didn’t look like she was constipated, wagging her sunglasses stiffly before shoving it into her bag. “Looks like the real one, huh?”

The guy’s jaw remained hanging open like a stunned goldfish, until the gawking silence stretched to a nearly uncomfortable level and Seulgi cleared .

“We are wondering if you can tell us what sort of medication is consumed most often here? So, we can, uh, know the demographic of the prevalent disease in this area.”

Seulgi frowned when it seemed like her words didn’t go through the man’s head. His eyes still glued on Joohyun with sparkles.

She felt irked for more than one reason she wanted to admit too.

Why did she want to strangle him for ogling Joohyun?

“Excuse me.” She snapped two fingers in front of his face, the guy finally swiveling to look at her. “Oh, y-yes? Right. The medication, uh. I’m sorry but um…I’m just an employee and I don’t have the sales record here. It’s in our boss’ office and he is pretty strict about not wanting anyone to invade there.”

Seulgi resisted letting out an exasperated growl, so ready to throw tantrum because another shot went down the drain for nothing today.

She felt frustrated.

“Well, is he here now?” Joohyun asked calmly, to which the guy responded to so quickly it was a wonder that his neck didn’t snap with its abrupt rotation. “H-he is not here. I’m sorry.”

“Well then, there will be no one to scold you if you perhaps, take a quick glimpse of the record, yes?” Joohyun asked hopefully, still nowhere near sounding overly sweet because she was too prideful for that, but the awestruck guy melted down all the same.

He hemmed and hawed as his resolution thinned.

“You don’t even have to bring the record book out, you can just peek and tell us. I will be so thankful to you.”

One elegant bat of eyelashes, and the guy ended up straightening his back like a new hero.

“Right. I will see what I can do for you. There’s no harm in quick peeking, right? Wait a minute.”

With that he dashed off, white coat flapping about wildly, and left the two women to stare at each other in silence.

“What?” Joohyun asked the second he was out of sight, elegant long lashes batting one more time as Seulgi mused, “Wow.”

----------------------------------------------------

“So, from the data he gave us, it is obvious that the cough syrup is the most prescribed drug by doctors around here. The number pretty much quadruples any other medicine which is honestly, quite weird to me, because even cold tablets are ordered way less.”

Joohyun flicked her gaze to Seulgi when she didn’t receive any response, the other girl still staring far ahead of the steering wheel even when the car wasn’t moving.

When Seulgi turned to give her an answer, it wasn’t the opinion she was waiting for.

“You know, I think we could have saved so much time if you just batted your eyelashes and smiled at these people with something ‘friendlier’ than your usual constipated smile more often.”

Joohyun frowned at her, feeling somewhere between offended and not catching what she was implying. “What do you mean friendlier? I already tried my best to speak to these people without showing that their snail pace made me eager to pull my hair out. Which, honestly, I did. This entire town and its sleepy folks make me reconsider my will to live.”

Seulgi rolled her eyes, sighing as she laid her head on the headrest while still regarding the caustic girl. “I mean be more human, you know? Talk sweeter and smile more often. It will create miracle. Don’t tell me you didn’t realize our poor, love-struck friend back at the pharmacy was practically drooling at the sight of you the entire time.”

At this Joohyun’s eyebrows knotted together, her entire face scrunching up in confusion.

“You are implying that he is infatuated with me?”

“Joohyun, you are one amazing journalist, but if you didn’t notice that easy fact, I have to say that you are lacking basic social cue more hopelessly than I first thought. Come on, the guy was literally ready to throw out all the record books on your feet if you so much as asked. He was a goner.”

Joohyun stirred her gaze to the road ahead of them, refusing to look at Seulgi in the face for the first time as her cheeks heated up.

“What? You never realized any of the bumbling guys stuttering in front of you before? There must be tons of them throughout your days.”

“Well – I have always assumed that they were just scared of me. I know my reputation in the office and I know that I make everyone nervous.”

Seulgi stared at her for a beat longer to detect any lie but was surprised to find somber, slightly fidgety moves instead.

“I know the y nicknames and I know some people really, really hate me. Sometimes I want to fix it and try being friendlier but –“ She paused, looking clearly out of her comfort zone, and cleared . “I don’t know how to do it. I grow up like this. I’m not cut out to be people person and I think it’s okay for me to remain as the evil boss as long as it gets work done.” She turned to stare at Seulgi then, and her next words came out surprisingly genuine. “As for the kind person spreading smiles daily, the office has you.”

Seulgi wanted to open at the unexpected, soft remark but Joohyun returned her gaze back to the road.

“We should go. I think we can squeeze in some visits to a few clinics before the sun sets.”

She pulled her seatbelt on and snapped it in place.

Seulgi decided that she wouldn’t let this rare, tender moment between them go to waste.

“It’s not because they fear you. It’s because they look up to you as a respectable senior. Because you’re really good at what you are doing. You need to know that a lot of young journalists admire you as their role model despite you being not as talkative and as easily approachable as anyone else.”

Joohyun stared at her in silence, smart comebacks seemed to escape her usually fast-tracked brain.

Seulgi smiled. “That, and you are really just too perfect looking in general it’s impossible for mortals to not be nervous. I hate to admit this because you are such a prick to me but you are one attractive, intimidating lady, speaking honestly and objectively here.”

She shrugged, suddenly feeling pathetic to have said those and to have shrugged at all. Because why would she feel the need to play it off with a shrug as something nonchalant? It should actually be nonchalant.

She frowned at herself and at the incessant lurch in her stomach, her cheeks warming up like they were glowing red lampions.

Joohyun’s gaze bore holes at the side of her head for a really long time, until she felt her skin prickle with strange, pleasantly charged electricity under the equally strange, intense gaze.

“Thanks, I guess.” The woman said after a long period of silence, a small, trademark smirk curling at her lips as she looked away. “That’s a nice thing to hear from someone who used to call me Bugs Bunny and made fun of my appearance throughout elementary to high school.”

Seulgi grumbled, starting on the engine with still warm cheeks.

“That’s for making fun of my F grades. And for oconomy.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The second step of their endeavor turned out to be more difficult than the first one.

Seulgi peeked up through her eyelashes as her head bent low, feeling like she was a kid caught lying in front of the grey-haired lady who was old enough to be her grandmother.

“Absolutely not drug retailers.” The old woman decided simply after one glance, dismissing the two of them with offhanded handwave. “I don’t know what you girls are trying to achieve here, in this small clinic, but the fact that you are not patients and you have just lied about your identity to me implies that you are up to no good.”

She stopped writing on her book then, and lifted her gaze to regard them again with more scrutiny. “Cops?” She asked slowly, and Joohyun stifled a breath.

“What makes you think that we are cops?”

The old lady ignored her question and shook her head. “No. Not cops. Well, you maybe.” She pointed at Seulgi and then swiveled her gaze back to Joohyun. “But definitely not her. A blue blood, and she can’t hide it. Reporters?”

Joohyun stopped breathing this time despite her attempt to play it cool.

“All your guesses sound very scandalous. Is there something worth sniffing around here for reporters and cops?”

The old lady fixed a look at her, almost glaring. “Don’t try to play words with me, young lady. I have 30 years ahead of you. Now, if you refuse to give me honest answer to all my questions, then I’m sorry to say that I will do the same to yours.”

Joohyun was about to retort with something – and from the look of her face it didn’t seem very good, Seulgi thought – but was cut short because Seulgi seized her wrist under the registration desk and squeezed it tightly before she could say anything she would regret.

“Alright. We are sorry. You are right, we are reporters. We come from Seoul Metro News.”

The old woman looked at her with smug, victorious expression, while Joohyun glared at her intensely from her peripheral.

“And what are you here for?”

Seulgi gulped and let go of Joohyun’s wrist, now fiddling with her own hands nervously. She hoped she wouldn’t this whole thing up. “Uh, we are here to investigate a rumor. We heard there was a suspiciously large amount of cough medicine being ordered constantly in this area. We just…want to check if it’s true and if it’s really because there are plenty of people suffering from uh, cough here and not because of other…reasons.”

She blinked sheepishly and waited for the explosion, that was bound to happen if this old lady turned out to be an accomplice of whoever it was they were chasing.

Seconds ticked away in silent tension for what felt like forever, until thankfully, the old lady exhaled in unthreatening manner and looked at her with less guarded face.

“You are quite the intuitive one. You can tell that I’m harmless and that I will work better with honesty. Unlike your stubborn little friend here.”

She stirred her gaze back to Joohyun, regarding the indignant girl for a while.

“Wait, you are friends, right? Or are you something else? I’m sensing ambivalent vibe here and my gut feeling is rarely wrong. A walk on the wild side with the carefree spirit here, blue blood?”

At the obvious ‘couple’ implication Seulgi’s cheeks colored bright red, but before she could sputter out her objection someone raced her to it with even stronger reaction, and that someone apparently had redder cheeks too.

“That’s none of your business. Can’t you hold this conversation on professional level?”

Seulgi shot out a hand to clench Joohyun’s wrist again, because it was obvious that her temper would get the old woman to shoo them out of the clinic in under three seconds.

They couldn’t afford losing a possible source.

“We’re just friends, mam. Just friends, nothing more. I’m sorry for my friend’s strong reaction, she is very lousy at friendly conversation, which is why I’m here.”

She squeezed Joohyun’s wrist harder when the girl attempted to peel her hand off, and as if the message of the witness’s importance finally delivered itself between them through intense glaring-match, Joohyun finally relented with a scowl.

“I can see.” The old lady said in amusement, now directing her attention solely on Seulgi. “Now, what do you want to know? I probably can help if I deem it for good reason.”

“The cough medicine, especially the syrup one. Our data shows us that its number quadruples any other medicine and it’s honestly quite sketchy. Is it true that all of those went to patients and not to other…places?” Seulgi asked carefully and hopefully.

The old woman considered her with an equally tentative look. “I’ve been working in this clinic for 20 years and as far as I know, yes, it only went to the patients. The doctors here prescribe it very often which is why it has such big number, I suppose.”

“How often is this we are talking about?” Seulgi led subtly. “Like, logical often or strange often?”

The old lady looked skyward and gave it a calculative thought. “Now that you mention it, it does feel a little…odd. I told you I have worked here for two decades, it’s longer than some new, young doctors. Before them, the old doctors didn’t prescribe it that much.”

“How many was prescribed back then for a patient and how many is prescribed lately?”

“One bottle each back then, and three bottles each now.”

“Three straight away? For everyone? Despite the severity and variation of the case?”

“Yes. At first, I thought it was overly done too. Most of the patients here are poor and they can save money on those unnecessary, extra drugs. But what can I say? I am just an old nurse running a registration desk and I have no say in doctors’ prescriptions.”

Seulgi nodded, biting her lip slightly as she drowned in deep thoughts.

“Do you have an invoice or record of all the drugs prescribed from this clinic for the past six months? Can we please take a quick look?”

“Will I get in troubles?” The old nurse asked back, eyes growing wary. “If this has something to do with any dirty, big corporation deal –“

“We will offer you protection and we won’t release your identity to public.” Joohyun jumped in abruptly. Her tone was no longer snarky and her face had taken over a professional look. “I will leave my cell number and business card with you so you can call me if you need anything. I will have my lawyer and guards on watch too if necessary.”

Seulgi was surprised by the serious, generous offer, and even the old woman seemed surprised. “Your personal lawyer and guards, blue blood?”

“Before you make fun of how I have personal lawyer and guards, it’s actually not because I am a blue blood but because I happen to work as investigative journalist who deals with deathly threats from debauched, angry big guys all the time.”

“That’s not my point, blue blood. I’m asking if you are willing to share your personal lawyer and guards with me, a backcountry nobody, because that is surprising.”

Joohyun stopped speaking at her explanation, her open mouth closed again and her face looked caught off guard. “Of course. I want to get my stories out but I never did it at the cost of my witness’s safety. I never left them unattended either. It’s the basic norm.”

“Not for all.” A slow smile found its way to the old nurse’s wrinkly face as her eyes squinted to examine Joohyun better. “Maybe you are not a bad bean after all, blue blood. You just need a little people practice. Perhaps you weren’t used to it since you were little. After all, almost all rich kids in empty, giant houses are like you.”

Joohyun’s face turned a bit steely, but her voice wasn’t unkind. If anything, it was with slight tremor. “You need to stop trying to read someone you just meet for ten minutes. Now, about the invoice, are you going to show it to us or not?”

The old lady debated with herself slightly before nodding off. “Wait a second.”

Seulgi watched as she rose from her seat with wobbly legs and then turned to look at her boss who still appeared oddly uncomfortable.

Did the old lady’s observation hit too close to home? Seulgi wondered.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

“I don’t understand. What do they plan to achieve by prescribing this huge number of cough syrup to patients? Like, how does this even relate to the presidential candidate we were talking about? Cough syrup and presidential election sound like two very separated worlds it’s almost silly to say it out loud in one sentence.”

Seulgi growled with frustration once she finished copying the invoice from the picture on her phone onto her notebook, throwing her pen onto the page and crossing her arms over her dinner that had gone cold because she was too busy agonizing over her work.

Joohyun remained busy comparing and analyzing her own notes acquired from their three days of work, her poorly cooked black bean noodles sitting untouched on the table too. “It’s not silly at all. Cough syrup can be a way to make illegal, big money.”

At this, Seulgi quirked an eyebrow. “How? It’s such a cheap medication. If they want to gain money through drugs they can at least try for painkillers like morphine.”

Joohyun put down her papers and leaned back on her chair, crossing her arms as she regarded Seulgi with that tired, exasperated sigh again. “I told you to study the files I gave you before starting this journey. Did you even read it? I’ve slipped in the list of possible drugs that you need to know about in the ring-binder.”

Seulgi winced, now remembering that she had tried to sort through the entire ring-binder the night before their departure but falling asleep on her sofa halfway through it.

She was dead tired.

Joohyun rolled her eyes and picked up her cup of coffee. Maybe Seulgi should try chugging down coffee as her dinner companion too so she would stop being such an embarrassing amateur in front of the girl.

Wait, since when did she care about what Joohyun thought about her? Mayday.

“Cough syrup contains codeine. It’s a potent opioid used to relieve pain and suppress cough reflex. It’s not unheard of that some people try to extract this substance from the syrup mixture with certain procedures to sell it as illegal narcotic.”

Seulgi stared at her stunned, forming a tiny “O” as her cheeks reddened.

Joohyun sighed and abandoned her papers to start digging into her cold meal.

“I’m sorry.” Seulgi said, her voice small and guilty as she peeked at Joohyun sheepishly. “You are right, I won’t get anywhere with just myself.”

The girl in neat dark blue blazer stopped eating for a while and stared at her, finishing the food in calmly before wiping her lips with a napkin. “On any other day I would agree, but today that is not completely true. Well, yesterday and the day before too. We wouldn’t have gotten so much evidence if it wasn’t for you sweet talking to people.”

Seulgi frowned slightly. “I wasn’t sweet talking, I was just being normal.”

“Which means you are naturally sweet and good at charming people. Which, I have to admit, is a useful skill to have for this job. You have good people skills and good intuition.”

Seulgi blinked at her in silence, caught off guard because she was not expecting a compliment. “Wow, um…Thanks, I guess?”

“Don’t push it.” The small, trademark smirk curled again on Joohyun’s lips. A very nicely shaped, nicely red-colored, soft looking pair of lips.

Seulgi wondered if they felt as soft as they looked.

She was tempted to check, preferably with her own.

Her traitorous eyes slid down to the elegant steep of neck below the tempting mouth without her permission, and her equally traitorous brain joined in to wonder if the perfect, smooth skin covering the pale neck extended all the way down.

She hissed to herself when she realized that she was wondering about what lay beneath Bae Joohyun’s shirt.

There was absolutely no good to come from that train of thoughts.

“You look like you are passing a kidney stone there.” Joohyun stated matter-of-factly, her dark eyes glinting with amusement. “Finish your meal.”

Seulgi did as she was told. Her brain had short-circuited and depraved her of any possible retort.

The rest of their dinner continued silently with only the faint buzz of the small eatery’s patrons filling in the evening.

When the silence had stretched a tad too long, Seulgi decided that it was probably the perfect time to poke about something she had been curious about.

“About what the old lady said earlier, is it true? About you being alone a lot at home as a child?”

Joohyun’s fork froze midway to , and instead of carrying it all the way up she decided to put it back down as her playful demeanor shifted completely to blood chilling front.

“What makes you think it’s true?” Her jaw flexed, and Seulgi was starting to think that it was a mistake to ask.

“Um, well, you know, you looked quite taken aback when she said it, and uh, I honestly couldn’t remember seeing you with your parents during our younger days. They never showed up at our parents-teachers’ conferences either.”

At this, Joohyun’s face darkened even more than before, and she stabbed her fork into her food coldly. “No comment on that.”

“Alright, I’m sorry, I just wanted to know –“

“Why would you want to know? So you can make fun of me?”

“What? Of course not!” Seulgi stared at her with bewildered eyes. “I’m just asking because it’s what friends do.”

“Who says we are friends?”

Ouch.

“That hurts.” Seulgi mumbled after a while, and they stared at each other in awkward silence until she decided to just abandon her remaining dinner and rise from her chair.

“I didn’t mean it quite that way.” Joohyun’s frustrated sigh stopped her from her leave, sounding less menacing in what Seulgi hoped was regret.

“What? There’s a nice way to tell someone that they are not friend material?”

“It’s not that. It’s just – can you sit back down? Please?”

Her injured ego held her back from doing what the older girl asked, but Joohyun looked straight into her eyes with sincerity this time and she couldn’t find it in her heart to ditch her request.

She slid back down to her chair.

“Alright, what?”

A small smile graced the other girl’s lips even though it was forced. It carried points for effort because at least, she was trying to patch things up.

“When I was five I w