Soo reacts instantly, suddenly throwing her pipe into the sea as she springs up, clutching her jacket and purse in each hand and sprinting away. The officer stares at her retreating figure, flabbergasted. While he’s looking at the spot amongst trees that she disappeared I bury the weed into the sand as far as I can.  Jongin stares at the officer wide eyed. 

“Hey Kris we got 5-9-6-7 headed t-“ the officer begins talking into his walker talkie

“What?” Another voice calls back

“A 5-9-“

“Use your words” 

The officer in front of us gives as exasperated sigh “A young girl, of Asian decent, just fled me. She’s wearing a black dress, a denim coat and I believe black and white slip on shoes” 

The officer on the other end of the walkie talkie laughs “Junmyeon it’s just some girl smoking pot, why are you scaring her into running away? Poor girl.” The other officer, Kris, let’s out another chortle and continues again “We’ll no use chasing her down, come back up and we’ll head to In-n-Out” 

“Wait! I have two other kids here.”  

“And they’re not running away?” 

Junmyeon looks at us as if to ask us if we are going to run away. “Nope.” 

“Alright I’ll be right down” 

I look at Jongin, trying to see if he would be able to flee. I feel kind of lazy, the weed making me slouch and my limbs feel heavy. Jongin isn’t too far off. Running would be fruitless. 

I then stare up at the intimidating police officer, who now that I look at him, isn’t all so intimidating. He’s short with mid length brown hair, combed nicely over the side, his face looks very kind and I feel more relaxed because he didn’t react too badly when Soo ran away. Things could’ve been worse. But his stance is worrying, he stands straight, one arm on his hip and the other always resting on the handle of his gun. He keeps flashing his light in mine and Jongins faces as he waits for his less professional partner. 

Soon we hear rumbling footsteps and loud grunting approaching. “Took you long enough! Junmyeon shouts, throwing his arms up. 

“I was just giving these kids some time to run away from you” Kris grins at us, I offer a sort of friendly grimace 

“That’s not funny! This is serious!” Junmyeon stomps 

“About as serious as that time we reported to a call about a stolen chicken finger.” Kris rolls his eyes and trudges over to our position in the sand. 

“They said it was theft!” 

“Yeah Grand Theft Chicken” Kris rolls his eyes and looks at our shivering and wide eyed forms. 

“You two went swimming?” 

“No!” I reply instinctively, may be legalized in California but we didn’t buy from a legal source, the unprofessional sandwich bag would tell them that, you can’t smoke in public places, and it was illegal to just be down at the beach at three a.m. best to just deny everything. 

“Why’s your hair wet?” Junmyeon peers at us, his face suddenly not so kind. 

“None of your business” 

Kris has a much meaner exterior than Junmyeon, much taller and a scary face. But he talks to us nicely so when he asks me the same question Junmyeon did, I answer truthfully. 

“Yes we went swimming.” 

“I knew it! Trespassing!” Junmyeon eagerly scribbles on his notepad

“It’s really not that big of a deal, the most we can give them is a ticket” Kris rolls his eyes

“No we can give them a ticket!” Junmyeon excitedly scribbles more on his notepad. It looks like he’s writing a lot more than ‘trespassing’ on that notepad. 

“Myeon, relax it’s not a big deal” 

“Kris this could lead to a huge underground ring that we solve and finally make it to the big league” 

“You can’t use these two kids for your own personal gain.” Kris counters. The two officers completely disregard us and I nudge jongin fo stand up and grab our stuff, two T-shirt’s with our wallets and phones, our jackets and  shoes stay over on the other side of the officers. 

“All  I’m saying is these two shouldn’t have been here in th-“

“They’re kids! It’s what they do just give them a minor ticket and then we can go get burgers and clock out” 

“I won’t put my own hunger before justice” 

“Come on Junnie” Kris bends down so he’s shorter than his partner 

“No Kris we can talk abou-“

“But the in n out closes at three!” 

“It’s already four!” 

Me and Jongin slowly stand up, our shorts clutched in Jongins hands as we watch the two officers argue like a married couple. Waiting for the right moment. 

Kris suddenly pulls Junmyeon close to him to whisper in his ear. I grab Jongins wrist and run as fast as I can to the brush. 

“So can we go get those burgers then?” I hear Kris ask Junmyeon. 

I forget them and focus on not tripping on the rocks and bushes. I can’t see where I’m going and neither of us have our shoes. 

“Where are we going?” Jongin asks, panting

“I don’t know, they could see us at the Archery Club, but there’s a chapel not to far.” I push myself over a particularly huge rock, helping Jongin get over once I’m done. 

“We need Jesus after all this” Jongin laughs

I can’t help but chuckle, as I drop his wrist and grab his hand. We don’t talk for the rest of the way, focusing on not tripping or cutting up our feet too badly.

Surprisingly when we land on asphalt it feels worse than the jagged rock. The salt in the air settles on the road, the small cuts we do have stinging painfully as we limp to the empty church parking lot. It’s one of the old catholic missions, we sit on a curb and try to breathe. 

“Where to now?” I ask, kind of laughing as I say it. It’s just past four in the morning, but it seems like bad timing to go home right now. Might as well stick to our adventure till the sun comes out in a few hours. 

“Walmart” Jongin said firmly, before breaking our into a round of giggles “I lost our shirts” 

I can’t help but chuckle, soon we’re both reduced to full blown laughter, trying to catch our breath between loud bursts. 

“D-did you see how fast Soo zoomed out of there?” I wipe a tear from my eye

Jongin clutches his sides as he laughs, loud and high pitched, “She dipped so mother ing fast” he squeaks and we lean against each other as we laugh some more. 

I reluctantly turn on my phone, only to realize that it’s dead. I tell Jongin and we both laugh some more as he checks his phone to find out he has 3 percent battery left.

Hurriedly he orders an Uber to our location, not putting in a specific address. After he confirms the ride, his phone turns off and we both just sit on the curb of a church. Shirtless, shoeless and covered in sand and dirt. 

It’s such a beautiful night, I look up at the sky. Even the smog seems to have been lifted because I can see the stars. But jongin catches my attention, he shines far brighter than any flaming ball of gas ever can.