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Peeking out of the passenger side window, Yongguk squints his eyes in order to take in sight of the big home as the bright sun beats down on him. Just one day after getting yelled at by the Chief, they are already returning to their problematic behavior. 

“So, this is our story in case Chief catches us–,”

“He’ll catch us again.” Youngjae interjects before Sungwon, who is in the backseat, can finish his thought.

“Detective Youngjae, aren’t you scared about losing your job?” Chief has already made the consequences pretty clear. 

“I won’t. When you know that you’re needed, you have the upper hand.” Opening the driver’s door, he steps out. “Come on, Yongguk.”

“I’ll stay here?” Sungwon questions from his seat. 

“Yeah, stay there.” Youngjae responds as he walks off and towards the home. 

She obviously knows they’re here. So, if she wasn’t planning on meeting them on her own volition, Youngjae just has to make it happen somehow. 

Thankfully, it’s easy to get a rise out of her. 

***

“They’re still out there.” Barom comments and allows the curtains to fall back in its original place. Turning around, he looks at Haru sitting on her bed and playing with Hercules without a single care in the world. 

Despite Jongup’s uncertainty about the dog, Barom finds Hercules serving quite a service for the young girl and her temper. 

“Should we ignore them?” He goes on to ask. 

“I think Hercules needs to go to the bathroom.” She merely responds without lifting her eyes away from the Rottweiler. 

“You want me to let him out in the yard?”

 “Yeah, sure.”

***

“The door is opening.” Yongguk alerts Youngjae from where they are standing and waiting.

They focus on the front door but the next scene has Youngjae’s heart jumping harshly within his chest. His steps stagger backwards away from the gates that blocked the yard off from the sidewalk as the large black dog comes running out of the home.

“Youngjae–,”

Before Yongguk could finish his thought, the detective was already back out into the street with his hand on his chest in an attempt to calm himself from the frightening and unexpected sight. Yongguk is reminded once more of Youngjae’s surprising weakness– it’s simply uncharacteristic of him. He had only noticed it once before but didn’t think much of it until now. 

“Should we call an end for today?” The officer carefully asks from behind. “We can look into that tip we received earlier in the morning.”

Turning away, Youngjae heads for the car while muttering on the way, “I’m not going to forgive her.” 

She exploited his fear and he was going to remember this. He may not look like it but he holds onto grudges like there’s no tomorrow. 

***

Peeking through the curtains, Haru couldn’t stop the delightful laughter that slipped from her lips at the sight of the ‘spies’ leaving. Initially, she didn’t think they would give up so fast. 

But, they make it so easy. 

Her laughter dies down but her amusement remains when she reaches for her phone. Clicking on the news app, all emotions are abruptly wiped from her body. 

Nabi is still front page news. 

After reading a few articles, her bedroom door opens to reveal the return of Hercules and Barom.

“What’s my old man doing?”

“You saw what happened?” Barom asked upon seeing her on her phone. He has learned that whenever he found Haru stuck to her phone, it was always news that she was busy reading. “Another warehouse was found so he’s been busy with cleaning that up with Senior Jongup.”

“You guys have to get better at hiding those.” 

“We never had a problem before.”

Haru stares at him as he takes a seat at her desk. She breathes out. Well, he isn’t wrong– so what changed?

***

“Another one?” She finds it strange that she’s finding out Nabi’s news from the internet and not from people directly related to the gang– like her dad or Barom. “That’s two this week.” And, they all ended the same way– the cops were successful through tips. 

“They’re working on it.” Barom merely responds. 

Hearing the front door open and slam shut, Haru jumps from her bed and walks out into the hall with Barom with her. Looking over the railing, she finds Jongup staring up at her from the bottom floor. 

“Get ready for tonight.”

“What’s tonight?” She questioned. 

“There’s going to be another meeting.”

Getting dressed, Haru follows Jongup and Barom out to the car. Not before long, they arrive at the site. A small temple out in the countryside– though, Haru wonders how they even know where they’re going. Not only was it dark but there seems to be a lack of street signs as well.

But, surprising her, here they are.

Going up the steps, they reach the wide entrance of the temple. Haru is led down a small hallway until they stop before a closed room. Haru inhales deeply, not because she was nervous, but because she just didn’t want to come face to face with that old geezer at this time. But, none of that matters as Barom pulls open the door and they’re greeted by a room full of faces she has met before.

Her dad was already present, sitting at the head of the table. He never did get a good look at her face after meeting with Jinyoung and the bruises haven’t faded yet. Ignoring the stares, she walks to her spot behind her dad. Looking up, she meets Jinyoung’s eyes. 

As expected, he’s acting all smug. 

Does it make him happy that he picked on a high school girl? Fine, she’ll let him get it out of his system before she does it herself. Diverting her attention elsewhere, she comes to notice the tension in the room.

“We’ll start.” Her dad’s voice rings out.

“Boss, the cops have been shutting down my clubs for the past week.”

“My gambling sites have been discovered as well.”

So, it wasn’t just Nabi that was running into trouble.

“We can’t carry out business like this.”

“They stopped fearing us– if we remind them who we are, they’ll back off.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“Let’s shoot some down.”

Haru reacts to those words. They’re talking about hurting, and possibly killing people like its deciding on what to eat for dinner. 

“Enough.” Her dad’s voice interrupts and silence follows. “Our plan to meet tomorrow at Pari’s night club has not changed.”

“Boss, what if they show up there?”

“Are we going to stop business then? Until when?”

There was silence until a chorus of voices replied. “We understand.”

Through all the complaints that she heard that night, she learned something when she gave it some thought. None came from Geomi. 

***

“Cops are definitely going to show up tomorrow.” Haru remarks as the four head out to their cars. Why would her dad openly walk into a trap?

“Doesn’t that mean there is