Hana parked in the precinct’s underground parking lot and told Myungsoo to go ahead, and that she’ll follow in a few minutes. She watched him give her a sad smile before making his way inside, walking towards the elevator, until he was out of sight.

She sighed and looked down at her hands, wringing them nervously, a habit she had formed when she was younger. She diverted her attention to the cup holder and picked up the small star charmed ring that Myungsoo had given her for her birthday. She took it off last night while she was putting on lotion and then never put it back on. Or at least, that’s what he told her, but really, she knew that he had gotten it at the same time he had gotten a star collar for his cat. It was a silver-plated ring which a straight bar of silver on the top of the ring where a small golden star hung from it. Hana figured it was better to play with the ring than wringing her fingers together – her hands were already turning red.

How did the day go so wrong? She and Myungsoo were just going to get some information, meet up with Jongin and Jessica, and then find the murderer like they always did with cases. However, there was something up with Kris Wu, and it was bothering her. She technically didn’t hack into his computer (not her fault for being able to follow along passwords), but she still knew that what she did was wrong. Still, Kris had to be involved with Miyeon’s murder; she just didn’t know how. Why else would he lie about her contract with the sister company? It didn’t make any sense.

She didn’t know when she ended up hitting the back of her head against the headrest of her seat, but Hana didn’t stop until her phone buzzed with a notification. She took her phone out of her coat pocket to see a message from the chief.

I need to see you.

Hana stared at her phone for a few seconds before putting her phone into the cup holder with the star charm, deciding to just sit in her car for as long as she could, closing her eyes to avoid looking at the white lights built into the ceiling of the parking lot and leaned her head back onto the headrest. Hana didn’t know what her exact reasoning was behind ignoring Chief Park, but it was a mix of embarrassment, exhaustion, and annoyance towards him for putting her on probation so quickly. She honestly thought that over the years, he would trust her more.

She didn’t want to question the chief, especially because she knew that she was in the wrong, but her mind wasn’t agreeing with that. She knew she was the best detective he had, and he had made a mistake by pulling her off the case.

Although, there was a part of her that was excited by the prospect of sleeping.

Hana’s phone buzzed yet again, and she opened her eyes with a grunt of annoyance, muttering a quiet, “What now?”

It was another message from the chief.

I know you’re here, probably in the parking lot. I saw Myungsoo a minute ago. I expect you in my office in the next two minutes.

“Oh god damn it,” Hana muttered as she took the keys out of the ignition, locked the car, and made her way into the chief’s office, ignoring everyone else in the precinct. Normally, it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but her heavy footsteps and furious aura had the officers wary of approaching her. Hana was a force to be reckoned with when she was pissed.

Hana wasn’t going to knock on the chief’s door, but quickly pushed away the rebellious thought; she may be on probation, but she wasn’t about to get fired over barging into her superior’s office.

And so, she knocked on the cherry wood door, pretending all of the officers staring at her (who, no doubt, had heard about her probation already) didn’t exist, and waited until she heard a muffled “come in.” Hana opened the door and shut it behind her quietly, bowing to the chief before standing in front of his desk with her hands behind her back. She wanted to tap her foot to get rid of some of the restless energy within her, but she held back as much possible.

“Nice of you to finally acknowledge my presence,” he drawled as he motioned for her to sit down.

“Well considering all things, I thought I had the right to a few moments to myself,” Hana replied, making herself comfortable in the sofa chair. She clasped her hands in front of her before deciding against it in the case she ended up wringing her hands again. Instead, she placed them on her knees.

“You're going to have quite a bit of alone time while on probation,” said Chief Park as he grabbed a hold of his pen and twirled it in his hands, “considering you're going to be investigating alone.” He took a break to pause before he continued speaking, becoming more and more amused as he saw Hana’s facial expressions change from one of utter annoyance to surprise and finally, to disbelief.

“Depending on what you have found so far about the Lim Miyeon case, I may be willing to let you do some investigation off the record.”

“But why?” Hana breathed.

The chief raised an eyebrow at her. “You can be so clueless sometimes. Because I trust you, Hana. If you had decided to go through Kris Wu’s computer and lied to him about who you and Myungsoo were in the first place, then you probably had a valid reason to do so.”

Okay, so, maybe he did trust her.

Woops.

“What happened?” he asked. Hana explained what had happened back at TNR Agency, and chief simply twirled the pen in his fingers while focusing on her.

“Wait so, he told you two that she was being moved over to the sister company as she had an offer to be casted, but she had actually been complaining about the money distribution between her and the company?”

“Yes, according to what Myungsoo read in the file.”

“But didn’t Kris say that she would have to receive an acting offer in order to switch companies?”

“Yeah, but he lied about her contract, why wouldn’t he lie about that? Maybe there’s some form of clause that allows them to switch over and wouldn’t need an acting offer?” Chief nodded at that and instead went to reach for the phone on his desk, holding the number 3 for a few seconds until the call connected.

“Myungsoo? Yeah, can you come to my office?” he started before pausing for a few seconds and then continuing again, “yes, thank you.” The chief hung up, and Hana looked at him curiously.

“I told him when he got back to look into the contract structure.” Hana simply nodded, and when she looked down, she was startled that her hands had drifted together. She was rubbing her ring, and her hands were tinted pink from the pressure. Chief Park noticed and threw a small black ball towards her. She jumped slightly at the sudden incoming piece of rubber and instinctively moved to grab the ball. Her eyes moved to the chief with a questioning gaze. He simply pointed the pen in his hand at her hands, indicating for her to stop wringing her hands and play with the ball instead, if she needed to. Hana’s cheeks burned slightly and lowered her eyes to her hands, shaking her hair out so that it covered her cheeks. In that moment, the two heard a knock on the door which elicited a “come in” from the chief. Hana looked up to see it was Myungsoo, followed by Jessica and Jongin, and she breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of them. Jessica sm