Dahyun has been doing a great job brushing off the curious stares she’s been getting from everyone the entire day. It’s not like it’s such a big deal but even Tzuyu, who is the best at keeping a pokerface among all of them, has been glancing her way a lot today.

At least until a certain brunette came giddily bounding towards her, eyes full of wonder and interest as she stops just a couple of feet short from the captain.

“You know what you remind me of?” Momo asks, scooting closer to Dahyun with her head slightly tilted in question.

“Blueberries. You look exactly like them.” The girl in front of her giggles like a child who just told her a secret.

The captain cannot disagree with that logic though. Dahyun watches as Momo carefully took a few strands of her hair into her dainty fingers and looks at it – just twenty four hours ago it was as dark as the night, and now it’s bordering between the shades of dark blue and purple. The captain sighs but nevertheless tries to embrace the new look she’s donning now.

She still can’t believe she’s been roped into dyeing her hair for the first time in her entire life.

“You have me to thank for that, you know. If she hadn’t splat that hair dye on my face, then she would still have that boring hair color.” Sana, who was now a full-fledged ginger, said as she stuffed her books from her last class into her locker.

“I still think you could’ve gotten away with being blonde though.”

“I did not ‘splat’ the hair dye on your face, Miss Sana – and I think this is enough.” Dahyun’s brows furrow at the accusation – which is actually half true, but she’s not relenting that easily. It was just a small bit of dye that dropped dead center on Sana’s forehead that took a few hours to completely remove. The heiress complained the entire night about her reddened forehead from all the wiping that an apologetic Dahyun has done to reverse the damage.

“Oh but you did, AND nearly scrubbed my forehead off afterwards. I say, deserve.” The girl sticks out a playful tongue at the captain as she hooks her arm around Momo’s (her eyes still on Dahyun and her neck practically craning to look back at her) and dragging the latter to cheer practice.

“She’s not going to let it go anytime soon, is she?” Chaeyoung pops up beside Dahyun with Tzuyu in tow, looking up ahead as the two best friends walk and chat as if nothing bad had happened just days ago.

Chaeyoung and Tzuyu simultaneously shake their heads in answer, making Dahyun sigh. The three start walking to follow the two girls, with a slight distance from each other so as to not look too suspicious.

“But it does suit you, Cap. I’m just saying.” Tzuyu compliments as she pushes the other half of the double doors open while Dahyun pushed the other. Chaeyoung is on her tail, but still focused on the tablet in her grasp.

Dahyun simply hums at the compliment, knowing that her youngest colleague and friend understood what she meant.

“Status?” The captain now asks, her eyes scanning the immediate area around Sana and Momo who was just a few meters away from their group.

“I’m already connected to the main servers, currently looking for a backdoor to access the encrypted and private files. Just give me a couple more hours.” Chaeyoung murmurs, not looking away from the screen.

“Okay. You two, proceed with that lead and contact me if there’s anything we can work with.”

“Copy that.” The two lieutenants say at the same time before stopping short near the gym and watching on as their team leader went inside, following Sana and Momo.

---

“Captain Cutie, please let Satang go to the game this Friday. Pretty please?” It was Momo’s turn to attack and she did so by using her kicked puppy dog look, arms wrapped around Dahyun’s while resting her chin on the latter’s shoulder; a trick that has proven to work wonders for the brunette for years.

“No, it’s too dangerous. There will be too many people to look out for, and way too many vantage points.” Dahyun deadpans, trying not to be affected by the two girls’ onslaught of attempts to change her mind.

Aunt Chun, the chief maid in the Minatozaki household, looks at Dahyun with a suppressed smile as she sees through the captain’s somewhat crumbling exterior. She was obviously not used to being persuaded in this manner, and the three have been at it for nearly three hours. The group had settled in the dining room as soon as they got home and continued their ongoing ‘negotiation’ from the car while the old woman served them snacks.

“Aunt Chun, back us up here?” Sana spun on her seat, looking at the wrinkled woman beside her who tried to just shrug in response. But being with this family for so long, she’s developed her soft spot for the one and only child of the home.

“Pardon me for intruding, but is it really going to be that dangerous for Miss Sana? It’s only one game if I heard correctly. You have brought some friends to help you too, right?” The captain pauses at the thought. She does have more people with her right now and she can still source out a few extra ones from Haseul.

But she shakes her head ‘no’, standing firmly by her decision.

“Come on, oh dear captain. Just one football game before the cheer competition. This is like our last shot to practice being in front of a huge crowd.” The heiress had finally stood up from her seat and made her way to Dahyun’s right side and opposite Momo.

Dahyun nearly flinches when she feels Sana’s hands slide into hers, her chin also resting on Dahyun’s other shoulder. She was obviously getting ambushed on both sides by these two girls, and she was losing it.

Momo on her left is whining like a toddler and Sana on her right is now pouting cutely. She flits her gaze on both girls and then to Aunt Chun who gave her a slight nod and a motherly smile before letting out another sigh; a habit she seems to have formed ever since she got here.

“One game.” The two girls jump in excitement, immediately letting go of Dahyun and hugging each other instead. The captain cannot help the smile creeping on her face anymore when she sees Sana smiling genuinely now.

“But!” She holds up a finger, making the two quiet down for a bit and Sana playfully rolling her eyes at the action. Dahyun was always like this when she agrees to something; she has conditions.

“We’re in and out of that place. No detours, no after parties. Agreed?” Sana and Momo looked at each other for a bit, iffy about the condition but nevertheless nods in agreement anyway before returning to excitedly chatting with each other about the upcoming game.

The captain, who was planning to turn in earlier for the night takes out her phone instead and knows she has to make some calls beforehand. She takes one last look at the two girls in front of her before finally letting herself out of the room and calling a friend.

---

SinB casts a disgusted look at Chaeyoung as the latter plops down on the couch of their shared apartment. It’s been a couple of days and the younger girl has been nothing but a chirper; whistling and singing randomly everywhere.

Chaeyoung doesn’t seem to register the look as she happily proceeds on click-clacking on her keyboard and her eyes darting between the three separate monitors that she has set up on the center table of the living room.

Tzuyu on the other hand, who has come out of the kitchen bringing two plates of sandwiches and handing one to SinB, notices immediately.

“Please don’t question it, unnie. She’s just happy because she’s closer to her crush these days.” The taller girl says, situating herself beside Chaeyoung and glancing on her screens.

“That’s her being happy? I think that’s just her being totally creepy. Munchkin has been smiling too much to herself lately, don’t you think?” Chaeyoung still doesn’t flinch though, making SinB gasp dramatically at her.

“See? I called her a munchkin and she hasn’t lunged at me yet or at least threatened me!”

Tzuyu smiles in between bites, remembering that both of them have progressed significantly with their dating life; hers a bit more so with having an actual planned date with a certain captain. She’s told Chaeyoung about it and has congratulated her for finally asking Jihyo out after all these years.

“You got anything?” SinB stood from her seat and circled to Chaeyoung’s left side, taking up the small space there. The latter does not respond, just pulls up a series of windows on the screens in front of her and quickly highlights certain figures on the files.

The two lieutenants inch closer to the monitors and recognized them to be bank statements – Principal Park’s to be exact. It wasn’t just one account, there are about three others under different aliases that Chaeyoung was able to track and connect to each other.

If that wasn’t suspicious enough, hundreds and thousands of dollars have been deposited and taken out of the accounts, coming from various names and sources and some even from dark web sites.

“There’s a lot of ground to cover with this one, but one thing is for sure: Principal Park is definitely doing some shady business.” Chaeyoung states, grabbing the sandwich that Tzuyu was eating and taking a bite out of it.

“How does any of this connect to Miss Eunha though?” Tzuyu’s question was immediately answered when certain deposits connected to Eunha’s own account popped up on the screen, showing more than ten bank transactions.

“So this Eunha chick is giving the principal money? For what?” The oldest of the three asks, sinking back to the couch with a puzzled look on her face.

“I’m still working on that one, and it’s a bit tricky because there’s so little interaction between them in public aside from what you saw at the hallway. I don’t know how else to connect those two yet.” Chaeyoung shrugs, settling her wireless keyboard on the table in front of them and focusing on finishing the sandwich.

“Then we’re just gonna have to tail them, don’t we?” Tzuyu says.

---

Saturday comes and that also meant it was the night of the football game.

Dahyun had decided to dress more casual in order to blend with the crowd and advised the rest of her team to do so as well. She readjusts her earpiece as she scans the crowd passing outside the girls’ locker rooms and carefully eyeing anyone who enters.

“Team, status.” She murmurs into her well-concealed microphone on the sleeve of her oversized purple hoodie. A series of voices responded to her, all reporting to be in their positions as Sana and Momo finally emerge from the locker rooms, donning their pristine blue, yellow and white cheer uniform.

The captain follows the two and the rest of the cheer team to the football field, and is immediately greeted by the crisp, cold night air. The game hasn’t even started yet but the excitement that came from the cheers and hollers had already set up the energy for this evening – which is quite chaotic if you asked Dahyun.

Her eyes roam the stands and finds Chaeyoung and Tzuyu sitting side by side at the front and closer to the track w