With a crash, Seolhyun dumped her case files on her desk. It wasn’t working. That meeting with Hyejeong earlier…it derailed her. She couldn’t focus on her case anymore, just on Hyejeong.

She reached over to her desk drawer (she had her own desk, being the leader) and slipped the 3rd drawer open. From it, she withdrew a picture, a picture she had kept with her since the day Hyejeong left. It was a selca that both of them took, at some point in time when they were dating. Was it on their third date? Or fourth? It didn’t matter; those were the times that Seolhyun was truly happy—she had never been as in love, or as joyful, ever, since then.

Her hand smoothing the dust, which had settled on the picture after having not looked at it for a few months, Seolhyun grinned to herself as she allowed her mind to whisk her away to their first ever meeting.

-----

Seolhyun was a second-year in her high school. She wasn’t the brightest student, nor the worst, and just like everyone else in school she had an obsession. Unlike everyone else, however, her obsession wasn’t on the latest SM boyband, or on Lee Minho’s latest drama. It was firmly for crime.

Seolhyun didn’t know when her obsession started, or how it came about. It could be that her father was revered, at least in their hometown, for being a legendary inspector. It could be the numerous detective dramas that had accompanied her childhood. Or it could simple be that when she read, all she read was whodunits and mysteries. In any case, Seolhyun’s love was firmly for being, or at least role-playing, the next Sherlock Holmes.

Which meant quitting her current after-school activity. As a blind first-year Seolhyun decided to join the club with the most number of people (herd mentality and all) but that ended up being the EXO-L club and spending each session fanboying over “their oppa’s” latest stage wasn’t really her cup of tea. So she sought and received approval for setting up her own, new club—the Crime Club.

Problem was—everyone was interested in fangirling over Kai’s hip s, no one was interested in role playing Sherlock Holmes. So Seolhyun found herself standing at the canteen entrance, dressed up in some stupid Sherlock Holmes cosplay, complete with deerstalker cap and tobacco pipe, trying to canvass for members. She had already burned through half of her $50 club budget on printing sign up posters, half of which ended up in the bin by the end of the day. Her currency was pity now—no person in his/her right mind would choose to come to the Crime Club. And her ploy wasn’t working—if Seolhyun wasn’t getting sneers from snobby es (which form the majority of the school), then she was getting ignored. And reprimanded by teachers for violating the dress code.

Seolhyun had stood there at the entrance for probably the entirety of recess, by the end of which she had signed up a total of 0 members. She had paid dearly in the currency of embarrassment, loss of reputation (she had little to begin with), time and a grumbling stomach, all for no return. She was about to despondently take off her accessories and trudge back to class when she felt a hand pensively tap her back.

“Hey…can…I join the Crime Club?” the mysterious girl ask, biting her lip in anxiety. She looked as if she was about to be swallowed in a whirlpool of awkwardness and shyness.

Seolhyun looked the girl from head to toe. She’s hot, Seolhyun thought to herself. Too hot to be wanting to join the Crime Club. Just hot enough to be a candidate for prom queen which meant that she was another one of the snobby es. In fact, she was probably sent just to ridicule Seolhyun and make her the laughing stock of the school once and for all.

“Who are you?” replied Seolhyun, somewhat coldly.

The mystery girl jumped back in shock as she processed Seolhyun’s frosty response. “I’m…I’m Shin Hyejeong,” she replied. “I’m a first-year, and I’m new to this area.”

Seolhyun considered her again. She was timid—too timid to be popular. But maybe they decided to pick on first-years this time, and make them their agents. Nodding to herself, Seolhyun thought that that was probably the case.

“How am I supposed to know that you aren’t sent here by the popz kidz just to ridicule me?” Seolhyun spat, far angrier than she had pictured it in her mind. She didn’t want to scare the kid away in case she was genuine, and yet she didn’t really want to become the joke of the school.

“I…I don’t know,” replied the girl, timidly, her eyes burning holes into the ground.

Seolhyun twisted her hair in annoyance. “Fine,” she said firmly. “I’ll prepare a test for you, after school. Come over to the Crime Club room at 02-25 in the Happiness Block and you’ll do it. If I see that you are sufficiently qualified you can join.”

The girl eagerly nodded just as the bell rang, before disappearing into the rapidly increasing mass of students rushing back to class. Looks like I’ll have to spend the entirety of World History preparing this quiz, Seolhyun cursed to herself.

Dismissal came, and Seolhyun popped by the canteen for a quick lunch before returning back to the Crime Club clubroom. It was given to her just yesterday, so this was in effect its first use as the Crime Club room. Seolhyun plopped her bag down on the teacher’s desk, and dumped the quiz on another desk, before pulling out her homework to do.

Fifteen minutes had passed, and still no sign of Hyejeong. Seolhyun was convinced that once again, she had been duped.

Twenty-five minutes after the official start time, Hyejeong finally dashed into the room, sweat coagulating near her brows, giving her forehead a glistening tone. She was gasping with exhaustion, having evidently ran all the way here. “Sorry,” she wheezed in between taking in huge gulps of air, “my Algebra teacher held me back. Her graphs were bloody confusing.”

Seolhyun bit back a grin as she thought about first-year Algebra—if Hyejeong was struggling already, she was screwed for the year. But Seolhyun had to play