“Hey, wake up.” LE felt someone tapping on her shoulder softly.

“Mmmm……” LE groaned in an annoyed manner and covered her comforter over her head, not wanting to face reality.

Once again, LE felt taps on her shoulder. This time, they were a little harder than before. “LE, wake up. It’s time for class. You’re going to make us late for class!”

“Just give me few more minutes…” LE said from underneath her comforter. “Go feed Chiqs or something while waiting.”

“I already fed her and cuddled with her.”

“You cuddle with your pet chicken?” LE voiced out from underneath her comforter. “Cool…” And then silence came once again.

“It’s already 9.50am! Our class starts at 10! There is no few more minutes! Wake up!” The person nudged LE and tugged the comforter off her.

There LE laid on the bed with her morning hair as messy as ever. She then sighed loudly. “Why are you doing this to me, Solji?”

“What do you mean why am I doing this to you? Today is your first day to this university, LE! So get your round off the bed and let’s get to class already.”

LE finally opened her eyes slowly to come in contact with a girl with huge, nerdy glasses and braces staring back at her. LE’s house mate Solji was holding onto at least 5 books on her arm and a huge backpack. One look and you could tell right away that she is the class nerd. LE yawned. “Can’t you go to class without me?”

“Err, no. I need to make sure you come to class so that you don’t fail your exams again. Why do you think you were kicked out of your previous university? My university is kind enough to give you a chance to study here so please don’t take it for granted. Now that we’re in the same university, you promised me that we’ll both graduate together, remember?”

“Look, Solji… There’s no point in me attending any classes. I know there’s no hope for me. I at studying. Don’t try to deny it. You know that. So yeah. If you don’t mind, I’ll go back to sleep.”

Before LE could shut her eyes once again, Solji tugged on her shirt. “You may not wanna go to class but I do. And I’m gonna drag you along whether you like it or not.”

LE got so frustrated that her roommate isn’t letting her get more sleep. “Why do you even go to class, Solji? You always score the highest in your class without even trying.”

“I go to class because it’s the right thing to do.” Solji said.

LE sighed. “You’re a total nerd, you know that?”

“Why, thank you.” Solji shot a sweet smile at LE. “Now get up.”

LE reluctantly got up from her bed and grab her bag. “Let’s go.”

“Ew, without even washing up or changing clothes?” Solji showed a disgusted expression.

LE took a look at her own clothes. “I don’t see what’s wrong with wearing this.”

“You are like a walking bacteria, LE. Ew. At least tidy up your hair. It looks like a lion’s mane.” Solji shook her head.

“Oh, my hair? No problem.” LE merely pulled up her hoodie. “There. You can hardly see my hair now. Happy?”

Solji rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible not to hate sometimes.”

After that, both Solji and LE head to their university. It’s supposed to be a new day for LE but it doesn’t seem like she cares about it at all. As expected they reached class 10minutes late. Solji apologized to the lecturer again and again despite accepting her apology already. Solji took her usual spot right in front of the whiteboard while LE went all the way to the back corner of the class. As soon as LE sat down, she laid her head on the table and dozed off almost immediately.

Solji could only shake her head. “That girl… She doesn’t seem like she wants to turn over a new leaf at all.”

The lecturer forgot to collect last week’s assignments. Solji raised her hand right away and reminded the lecturer. “Excuse me, madam. I think we’re supposed to hand up last week’s assignments today.” So typical of the class nerd to do this.

The lecturer smacked herself on the forehead. “Ah, yes. I almost forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me, Solji. Now hand them up, class.”

As soon as the lecturer said that, you could hear grunts from almost everybody in the classroom. LE was exempted of course, since today is her first day but she didn’t really care at all. Apparently there were a group of bullies in her class who didn’t do the assignment at all and they were punished for that. They shot a glare at Solji. She noticed it but she pretended that nothing happened.

When class ended, Solji headed over to LE’s table and tapped on her. “Wake up, sleepy head. Class is over. Let’s go somewhere.”

“Go ahead without me. I wanna sleep awhile more.” LE replied with her head still down.

Solji sighed. “Fine. I’ll be waiting at the cafeteria whenever you’re ready.”

Solji was on her way to the cafeteria to wait for LE when somebody called out to her.

“Hey, stop right there.” Someone called out.

“Hmm?” Solji turned around and saw the three bullies from her class giving her the stinky face.

“Because of you, we got punished.” One of the bully pushed Solji’s shoulder.

“Hey, stop that!” Solji seemed quite alerted about the situation.

“You always give us trouble in class.” Another bully pushed Solji again.

“Stop pushing me!” Solji looked scared and start asking for help. “Someone help me!”

“Does anybody want to come help this loser nerd here!?” One of the bullies shouted to everyone at that area. Apparently nobody dared to get close to the group of bullies because they were known to be very notorious in the university. It’s a surprise that they haven’t been kicked out yet. “Nobody is going to help you, idiot.”

“Don’t call me an idiot.” Solji retaliated a little.

“You’re not an idiot? If so then why are you wearing these stupid glasses?” One of the bullies removed Solji’s glasses and started playing around with it.

“Hey, give that back! It’s mine!” Solji desperately hopped around and tried to grab her glasses back from the bully.

“I’ll give this back to you instead!” The bully pushed Solji hard this time.

“Hey!” Solji stumbled backwards and fell onto the floor. The stack of papers she were holding onto flew all over the place. “No! My assignments!” Solji was desperately trying to collect her assignment papers back. She was definitely struggling to collect them back as her glasses were taken away.

“Aww… What a poor girl.” The bullies laughed at Solji.

Solji was trying to get back her glasses at the same time. “Give me back my glasses! I can’t see!”

“So this is important to you, huh?” The bully took a look at Solji’s glasses.

“Yes, so please give it back to me.” Solji begged.

“Nah…” The bully tossed her glasses on the ground and stomped on it before he started laughing.

“No! My glasses!” Solji fell on her knees.

All of a sudden, somebody tapped on the bully’s shoulder. “Err, excuse me.”

“Hmm?” The bully turned around and came in contact with LE. “What the hell do you want, woman?”

LE pointed. “That’s my friend over there and she’s feeling very uncomfortable with you people doing this to her. So please leave her alone and nobody will get hurt. You’ll be happy. She’ll be happy. I’ll be happy. What say you?” LE then smiled sweetly at the bullies.

“Leave her and nobody will get hurt?” The bullies laughed. “What can you do? You’re just a girl.”

LE frowned. “Look. I don’t know if this is a ist thing or not but that doesn’t matter. You’re going to apologize to her, you’re going to apologize to me, and you’ll stop bullying people. If you do that, I might just pretend that nothing ever happened.”

“Oh, we’re definitely cool with that.” The bully shrugged and suddenly grabbed LE’s collar. “After we beat you up, that is.”

LE merely looked at her own collar being grabbed up by the bully. “…”

“Don’t like your collar being grabbed? Do something about it, lady. I don’t care if you’re a female. I swear I will beat you up.” The bully warned.

LE finally looked up at the bully once again with an unimpressed look on her face. “I want you to remember this. You made the first move. I did not initiate the fight. You did. So that means I’m allowed to whoop ALL your asses from here on.”

“What the hell are you blabbering abo-” Before he could finish his sentence, LE gave him a head- directly on his nose.

His nose started bleeding profusely. “Argh!!! My nose!!”

LE was acting like she got scared. “You guys attacked me and I got so scared. I’m just defending myself from you people.”

“Defend this!” Another bully came and try to grab LE but to no avail as she managed to dodge to the side and elbowed him right on his face before grabbing onto another bully and judo-tossed him to the ground hard.

“Wow!” The students at the area were all impressed with LE’s fighting skills. Nobody has ever gone up against the three notorious bullies until today.

Before one of the bullies could get up again, LE twisted his arm with one hand and held his head down with another. “Trying to get up?”

“Ouch ouch ouch ouch!!” The bully was obviously in a lot of pain.

LE turned the bully’s head towards Solji’s direction. “Apologize to her now.”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

“Sorry for what? Please be specific.” LE twisted his arm a little more.

“Ouch!” The bully groaned before apologizing. “I’m sorry for always picking on you, Solji. I’m sorry for being a big bully.”

Even Solji felt sorry for the bully. “No, it’s alright. I forgive you. LE please let him go. You’re hurting him.”

“Promise me that the three of you will not bully ever again.” LE told.

“Promise! Promise! Let go please! It hurts!” The bully begged.

“Deal.” LE released him and the three of them dashed off from the area.

The students who witnessed the whole scene cheered and clapped their hands. LE was smiling back at them and even bowed back to them. “Thank you. Thank you.”

It didn’t last long as the lecturer arrived at the scene quickly. “I heard there’s a fight going on here.”

LE explained. “The three bullies picked on Solji and they tried to hit me. So I retaliated.”

The lecturer crossed her arms. “So you did fight.”

LE frowned. “Yes, I did but they started it. I was just defending myself.”

“You still fought back. You just gave me a bad first impression on your first day, LE. Meet me in my office.”

LE got frustrated. “What an idiot! Don’t you understand what I just said!?? They started it! I was just defending myself!”

The lecturer had her eyes shot wide open. “Did you just call me an idiot?”

LE blinked a few times after realizing. “Uhm… Would you like a cup of coffee? Ha…ha…ha…”

Just like that, LE and the three bullies were penalized and required to attend counselling class every weekends for the next two months. It took about 2 hours of nagging until the lecturer let LE go. Solji was waiting for her outside the room.

As soon as LE came out, she pulled Solji. “Let’s go hang out at a café. I need a coffee to cool down a little.”

“Okay…” Solji followed LE silently.

“Can you see the road?” LE was worried about Solji since her glasses broke.

“Yeah, I can.” Solji nodded.

“No you can’t.” LE grabbed Solji’s hand tightly. “I’ll be your guide.”

“Okay...” Solji nodded and gripped LE’s hand. “Thank you.”

“Oh come on, Solji. Stop with the thank you. We’re good friends, remember?”

Solji stopped on her tracks suddenly. “…”

“Solji?”

“I’m sorry, LE… I got you penalized on your first day in university. I feel bad about it.”

“Nah… It’s not like this is the first time I got penalized for fighting in school. Besides, it’s just counselling class. Nothing serious. Don’t worry about it.”

Solji still felt apologetic. “You’re not mad at me at all?”

“Well, I will be if you keep on apologizing. I do things that I feel is right. I don’t care about the consequences.”

“Okay.” Solji nodded.

LE pinched the side of Solji’s mouth and pulled them upwards. “You should smile. You look prettier that way.”

“…” Solji could feel the blood rushing into her face from LE’s comment. “Really? I don’t hear that very often though... Usually people just call me a nerd.”

“Well, they’re not wrong. You are a nerd.” LE then moved her face closer to Solji’s. “But who told you nerds can’t look pretty?”

“Even with these braces?” Solji showed her teeth.

LE rolled her eyes. “Gosh, why do you have so many questions?? Do you want me to call you ugly instead?”

“...” Solji blinked her eyes and kept quiet like a little girl.

LE chuckled. “Don’t worry. You look good even with those braces. Besides, you look better without glasses.” After ruffling Solji’s hair a little, they made their way to the café.

Solji seemed to have difficulty reading the menu as she was squinting her eyes about. “I’ll have the...uhm...”  

LE immediately intercepted. “2 Caramel Macchiatos please. Thank you.”

“Thanks.” Solji thanked once again.

“Stop with the thanks, will you?.”

“Sorry.”

“Stop with the sorry too.”

“Okay...”

LE then noticed a lady sitting a few tables away staring directly at her while sipping her coffee. “...”

The lady didn’t even bother to look away at all. Her eyes remained locked onto hers. She seem to be moving her eyeballs towards LE and Solji consecutively. “...”

LE felt uncomfortable but she merely shrugged the suspicions off thinking that the lady was just casually staring. She then continued talking to Solji. “So where do you wanna go after this?”

Solji shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe take Chiqs out for a walk.”

“Alright, listen here. First, you have no glasses so you basically can’t walk around half blind. Second, nobody in their right mind would take a chicken out for a walk. And third, once again, who the hell has a chicken as a pet??”

“I do.”

LE rolled her eyes. “Yeah, nerds like you.”

Solji showed her tongue at LE. “I love Chiqs a lot so I don’t care what you say about her.”

“Suit yourself then.”

LE’s phone suddenly started ringing. She held out her phone and looked at the name. “Oh gosh, not now...” She then walked away for a moment and picked up the call. “What do you want now?”

“LE, where are you!?” A lady voiced out from the other side of the call.

“I told you not to call when I’m off duty!” LE told the person on the phone.

“But this is important.”

“I don’t care how important this is, Hani. You and Junghwa can deal with this without me.”

Hani was a little surprised with LE’s statement before voicing out. “LE, don’t forget that you’re actually an undercover cop. You’re not a real student. Get your priorities right. This is important. We finally have a lead on the ‘Phantom’ who had been notorious for robbing people’s account and hurting people for the past few months. We had info that somebody was found unconscious with serious injuries in the back alley and his account robbed off $10 million. I’m not sure when the crime was committed but whatever it is, it has to be the infamous ‘Phantom’.”

The amount made LE’s eyes shot wide open. “Tell me you’re kidding.”

“I wish I was kidding about this, LE. Junghwa got the necessary surveillance cameras from the authorities. After watching it, we found a really suspicious lady. We suspect that this person is the Phantom. I’ll send her photo to you now.”

“Alright.” LE then ended the call  and went back to her table.

Solji sat there and stared at LE with a blank expression. “Is something wrong?”

“Nah… My friends just called. They wanted to hang out.” LE shrugged.

Solji frowned a little. “Are you sure? Your expression seemed a little too serious for that though.”

Just then, LE received a photo of the suspect. As soon as she saw the photo, she was shocked to see that it was the photo of the lady who seemed to be stalking her in the cafe earlier along with a message that goes “We did a background search on her and found nothing. But we did trace her back to her family members. It seems that her family came from a long line of notorious mafias. Her father used to be the head of the mafia until he was arrested about five months ago. And when did the Phantom started appearing? Yes. Five months ago. It’s too much of a coincidence. My guess is that she’s continuing her father’s job alone and most likely has a huge grudge on us cops for arresting her father. You need to watch out for her. Her name is Seo Hyerin.”

“Are you serious!? She was just-” LE started looking around for the lady.

Before LE could stand up, Solji tugged on her shirt. “Hey, where are you going?”

“I have work to do, Solji. It’s urgent. I’ll not be back for dinner tonight.”

Solji stood up from her seat and looked at LE in a concerned manner. “LE, you seem to be disappearing a lot lately. Is there something you’re hiding from me?”

Then another message from Hani came. “LE, you have to beware of this Hyerin. Those mafias from her family are known to be very smart. They can gather information from literally anybody around them. They have contacts everywhere. If you ever notice that she’s stalking you, chances are, she would have already known that you’re actually an undercover cop. She will use the ones you’re close with to her advantage. Be wary of that and make sure she doesn’t catch you hanging out with someone.”

LE’s hands started shaking as she remembered something.

The lady didn’t even bother to look away at all. Her eyes remained locked onto hers. She seem to be moving her eyeballs towards LE and Solji consecutively. “...”

“She was looking at Solji and I…” LE mumbled.

“LE?” Solji seemed worried. “Are you okay?”

“You need to go back home now, Solji.” LE said in a serious manner.

“Huh? Why?” Solji seemed surprised.

“I can’t explain. Just go home now alright? I’ll call you later.”

“You’re acting weird, LE. Are you okay? Just tell me.”

LE sighed. “You’ve seen the news about this person called ‘Phantom’, right? She don’t only rob people off their money, she hurt people too. My friend just called me and told me to be careful because she was last sighted in this neighborhood. I just want you to get back home safely. Can you do that for me?”

“Then what about you? Shouldn’t you come back too?” Solji asked.

“Well, I love danger. So I’m still going to hang out with my friends.”

“I love danger too.” Solji said.

LE rolled her eyes. “You’re a nerd, Solji. I’m a delinquent. You should stay at home and read books while I go out and mess some up. So can you be a good girl for me and stay at home?”

Solji nodded softly. “Okay. Don’t come back too late though.”

“I’ll see.” LE then rushed outside in search for Hyerin. It was definitely a busy day, so she found difficulty searching for her as the street was literally filled with people.

 Suddenly, she got a call from an unknown number. She had a weird feeling about this caller, so she picked it up. “Hello?”

“…” There was no reply.

“Hello? Who’s this?” LE called out once again.

A chuckle of a lady was then heard. “Were you looking for me, Ahn Hyo Jin? Or should I just call you LE?”

LE felt goosebumps all over her body from hearing that. “Hey who is this!? Is this Hyerin!?”

She chuckled. “Impressive for a cop of your caliber.”

“I swear I’ll be the one to put you behind bars, Hyerin.” LE warned. “Your time as the Phantom will be over soon!”

“Really now? How are you going to do that when you cannot even find me? While I’m actually looking at you right now?”

“You’re lying.”

“Am I now? I wonder who that lady is standing by the clothes shop right now with the phone.”

LE froze in her tracks and looked to her right. It was a clothes shop. This alerted LE as she started looking around. Hyerin is definitely somewhere around here stalking her. “Where are you!?”

Hyerin chuckled. “You’re a hypocrite aren’t you? Calling me a liar when you’re the real liar here. Lying to that friend of yours that you’re a student when you’re actually a cop? What’s her name again? Heo Solji, was it?”

LE’s eyes widened in shock. “I swear I will kill you if you dare to touch even one strand on her hair, Hyerin!”

Ignoring LE’s threats, Hyerin continued. “You’re very close with her, aren’t you? Let me guess… Living together?”

“What do you want!?”

Hyerin chuckled. “A dumb cop will always be a dumb cop. It’s funny that you actually asked her to go back home alone when I already know where you stay, LE. Well then... Have you called in to check if she’s home safely?”

As soon as LE heard that, she immediately ended the call and dashed back home, pushing everybody out of the way. While on the way back, she desperate tried to call Solji’s number. Nobody picked up even after LE called her five times. “!! Please be safe, Solji.”

As soon as she reached home, she started searching all over the place. Solji wasn’t home. She was supposed to be here long ago. So LE started panicking like a mad woman. “ !” Once again she desperately tried to call for Solji.

Just then, the door opened to reveal Solji entering and staring at LE. “Ah, LE? You’re home already?”

Before Solji could continue, LE pulled Solji in for a tight hug. “Where have you been to!? You got me so worried!”

Solji felt warm at the same time, she was confused. “I thought you said that you won’t be home for dinner. And why are you hugging me suddenly?”

“I called you a couple of times and nobody picked up. I came back and you weren’t home so I thought something happened to you. Where did you go to?”

“Oh, I forgot. I had my phone switched off. There was a bookstore sales going on in that area just now so I just dropped by and bought some books. Wanna read some?” Solji took out a few novels and showed LE.

LE sighed in relief and shook her head. “You’re a true nerd, you know that?”

“Yeah, I know that…” Solji scratched her head and took out another book. “I bought this specially for you.”

“What’s this?” LE grabbed the book and read the title. “’Self-improvement for Dummies’? You actually bought this for me? Who the hell reads these??”

“Hey, it’s a best seller and I want you to pick up reading as a hobby. It’s good for your brain.”

“Yeah, good for your brain but not your brawn. That’s why you always get bullied for being a nerd. All you can do is just read and read. Go pick up some physical activity sometime.”

“Physical activity like what?”

“Self-defence, obviously. I won’t always be here to protect you. What if you get bullied again? Or what if you get kidnapped or something?”

Solji shrugged. “Nah… I prefer to roll myself in my comforter and read. I don’t like to move around too much. I’d rather stay home and play with Chiqs.” She then walked over to the designated chicken coop and picked up her pet chicken.

And then, LE’s phone rang once again. It was the same unknown number that called her earlier. LE knew it was Hyerin so she planned to track the call to her location. After plugging in a tracking device, LE immediately answered and heard Hyerin chuckling. “So how was it? Is your friend Solji safe?”

“I swear I’ll make you pay for what you did, Hyerin...”

“You’ll make me pay? For what? Hurting your feelings? Hahahaha...” Hyerin laughed. “You know, sometimes you cops can be so stupid...”

“What the hell are you trying to say?”

“You think I don’t know that you’re trying to track me down?” Hyerin laughed. “You have to be on the call for a minute before you can track my location successfully. Well, look at the time, it’s almost 50 seconds. I’ll see you around, LE.”

“Wait!” The call ended before LE could say anything else. “Damn it!”

“...” Solji merely looked at LE with a concerned expression. “LE, are you ok? You seem to be in a very weird mood today.”

LE sat down on the chair and rubbed her forehead. “I’m fine, Solji.”

“Are you having a headache? Maybe you’re lack of calcium. When your head is pounding, your body may be calling out for calcium. Do you want some yogurt? We have the plain flavored one, we have the fruit flavored one...”

“No, Solji. I don’t want any yogurt.” LE answered without even looking back at Solji.

Solji then walked towards the refrigerator. “Oh, then I’ll get a banana for you. It’s good for headaches. They’re high in Magnesium which can relax your blood vessels and ease head pain.”

LE suddenly raised her voice. “Solji, stop!”

“...” Solji was stunned and remained standing in front of the refrigerator while gripping tightly onto a banana.

“I told you I’m fine. Please, just keep your health and science talk for yourself, alright? Just let me think for a moment.” LE looked really annoyed.

“Okay...” Solji nodded obediently and walked over to her pet chicken before hugging it.

LE noticed that she may have lost her temper on Solji accidentally. “I’m sorry.”

“No, please don’t apologize to me. I shouldn’t disturb you when you’re thinking.”

LE stared at Solji for quite some time before an idea came across her mind. “Solji?”

“Hmm?”

“I was actually thinking of refurnishing this house so we may need to shift out for the time being.”

Solji blinked. “Well that’s really really random of you. Why the sudden refurnishing?” She asked while petting her pet chicken.

LE shrugged. “I just want a new atmosphere. That’s all.”

“Well if you say so. But where do you want us to stay for the time being?” Solji asked.

LE smiled. “Start packing. I know just the place... A friend’s house.”

*************************

*knock knock*

The door opened to reveal one of LE’s cop friend, Junghwa. “Ah, LE. Nice to meet you.” She politely gave LE a huge bow. “Please come in! Please come in!”

That was when Hani pushed Junghwa to the side and blocked LE from entering. “What are you doing here, LE? You know we’re not supposed to contact each other face to face like this?”

“I need a place to stay.” LE said.

Hani frowned. “Why do you need a place to stay? You already have a place to stay.” Then, someone standing behind LE caught Hani’s attention. “And I see you brought a friend along.”

“Yes, I did.” LE pulled Solji out from behind her and introduced. “This is Solji.”

“Uhuh, of course she is.” Hani then pulled LE to the side and whispered. “Who the hell is she, LE!? You idiot, you can’t just bring a stranger back to my house like this! We’re on undercover! You’ll blow our cover like this!”

“She’s my house mate, Hani. Don’t worry. You can trust her.”

“I don’t care if she’s your house mate or not, LE. She’s a stranger to us. It’s either you take her away or I’m going to.”

LE begged. “Come on, Hani. Please.”

Hani shook her head and looked over towards Solji. “I’m so sorry, Solji. You’ll have to lea-” Little did Hani notice that Solji wasn’t standing at the door anymore. “Eh?”

From the living room, they could hear Junghwa’s voice. “Please have a cup of tea. Would you like some sugar?”

“No sugar, thank you. Wow, you’re a very nice person.” Solji who was sitting on the couch smiled back at her.

Hani smacked her own head. “Gosh, Junghwa you imbecile!”

Junghwa innocently smiled back at Hani. “What did I do?”

“You do realize that you’re serving tea to a stranger, right?”

“But Solji is LE’s friend. And LE’s friend should be our friend, right?” Junghwa brightly answered.

“Ugh, you are one not-so-smart person.” Hani got so frustrated.

LE pulled Hani in and whispered. “Come on. Junghwa’s your intern so give her a break. Just let us stay here for a few days.”

“Wait, why are you even bringing your friend and staying here in the first place? You haven’t told me yet.” Hani asked.

LE took a deep breath before continuing. “I came in contact with the Phantom, Seo Hyerin. She saw me hanging out with Solji.”

“Are you serious!? Did you get to her then?”

“No, I didn’t. She managed to get away. But then she called me earlier. She knew details about me, Hani. She knows that I’m a cop. She threatened me with Solji and she knew where I stayed. I had to keep her safe. As far as I know, this is the safest place to be for now. Hyerin won’t act rashly when there are a few cops in the same house.”

“Oh, so now she knows that Junghwa and I are cops too, huh? Well done, LE you idiot.”

“Come on, Hani. It’s not as bad as it sounds. This is the safest place for now. We’ll just have to catch Hyerin and end her reign as Phantom fast.”

Hani rolled her eyes. “Alright, fine. You both can stay here. But remember. My house, my rules. Get it?”

“No problem.” LE agreed.

Hani turned around and tried to put her best hospitable attitude for Solji “So, I’ll be cooking later. What do you wanna eat, Sol-” She was suddenly silenced by the sight of Junghwa patting a chicken in her arms. “Is that a chicken?” Hani looked over to Junghwa. “Why the hell is there a chicken in our house?”

“Oh, it’s my pet chicken.” Solji smiled so brightly, her braces were reflecting light.

“Aww, that’s so cute~” Junghwa ignored Hani and squealed. “Does it have a name?”

“Uhuh.” Solji nodded. “Her name is Chiqs.”

“No no no. You do not bring a chicken into my house.” Hani walked over and grabbed the chicken from Junghwa’s arms.

“Hey, but it’s such a cutie pie!” Junghwa pouted a little.

“Uhuh. And I’m about to make it into a chicken pie. No animals allowed in the house. You know the rules, Junghwa.” Hani just tossed the chicken out of the house as if she was throwing some garbage away.

“Hey, Don’t throw her like that!” Solji immediately went out and picked Chiqs up.

“Either that chicken stays out or you stay out. The only time the chicken is coming into my house is when I make a pie out of it. Get it?”

“Okay fine. She’ll stay out but if she falls sick or anything, I will hold you responsible.” Solji placed both her hands on her waist.

“You will hold me responsible if your chicken falls ill?” Hani rolled her eyes. “What the hell is wrong with your friend, LE!?”

LE shrugged. “She loves Chiqs a lot.”

Hani sighed. “Alright. Whatever. Just make sure Chiki stays out.”

“It’s Chiqs!” Solji raised her voice.

“I don’t freaking care what your chicken’s name is, Solji. So do you want to come into the house or not?”

“Of course!” Solji then re-entered the house and sat on the couch.

“Alright, so both of you stay home. Can you do that?” LE asked.

“Where are you going?”

“LE and I are going to hang out for a while.” Hani answered.

LE then pulled Junghwa in for a whisper. “Hani and I are going out to do some investigation and get some clues about Hyerin’s whereabouts. Stay home and watch over Solji. Make sure she stays safe. Got it?”

“Got it.” Junghwa nodded.

“So we’re going out now.” Hani ordered. “Junghwa, please take care of Solji, will you?”

“Yes madam!” Junghwa saluted.

Hani was absolutely stunned that Junghwa saluted to her. “Do not salute to me, you idiot! Ugh!!”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Junghwa scratched her head.

Hani then angrily whispered to LE. “I swear to god that Junghwa will blow our cover one day. I’ve never seen such a clueless undercover cop before in my life.”

“Don’t worry about her. She’ll manage.” LE said as the both of them exited the house, leaving Junghwa and Solji alone.

“So what shall we do now?” Junghwa excitedly intertwined her fingers together.

“Do you like reading?” Solji asked.

“Ooo yes!!” Junghwa clapped her hands.

“Really?” Solji seemed surprised. “Wow, so far I haven’t known someone who loves to read.”

“Well, you found one now. I’m known as the nerd back in the police academy.”

Solji frowned. “Police academy?”

Junghwa blinked a few times. “Sorry, what did I just say? Did I say police academy? Pfftt... I mean university. People call me nerd in my university.”

Solji then shrugged it off. “Oh, wow. I am known as the nerd in my university too!”

“Oh my god, we can be like sisters then!” Junghwa laughed.

“Nerd sisters!” Solji too laughed. “Let’s start reading then!”

Junghwa looked a little doubtful. “That sounds fun but I have orders from Hani to put you to bed by 10pm.”

Solji moved her face closer to Junghwa. “Hey, since nobody’s home, let’s do something bad.”

“Bad? Like what?”

“Let’s stay up past midnight!!” Solji cheered.

“Yes!”

Chapter 1

END