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Mina woke from with a start, a piece of paper stuck to her cheek as she looked around her room in a haze, trying to remember what led her to falling asleep at her desk.

“Ah.” She winced as she rolled her neck, stiff from the angle she slept in. She blinked the bleariness out of her eyes as she finally caught sight of her laptop.

She sat up straighter and opened the message.

[LuckyStar88] There are only two reasons why officers have unexcused transfers. 1) Their precincts hate them and what them out or 2) They ed up and need to be removed from the problem

Mina frowned at the words. Was this person telling her that all the people under the new Commissioner were transferred for one of those reasons? She chewed her lip and let her fingers dance over the keyboard.

[User1340ac92] So, why is it suddenly happening so much more often under this Commissioner?

She stood, stretching the soreness of her muscles, expecting to wait another 12 hours for a reply, but she had barely made it to her bathroom before her laptop chimed again. She raced back out, opening the message, her eyes widening.

[LuckyStar88] Wouldn’t you transfer people more often if you were getting paid to do it?

“What?” She breathed out, her fingers trembling before typing out a new message.

[User1340ac92] Is that true?

The reply came instantly.

[LuckyStar88] I don’t have proof, but I bet you’d see it in his bank records. People paying to move around officers that cause problems or dig where they’re not welcomed.

Mina had that information. She had it in black and white. She thought back to what that officer has whispered in her ear and felt her stomach churn.

“I helped cover up a murder.”

She could feel her ears pounding into her skull. Everything was hitting her in a violent rush of information. She looked back at the screen, uneasy.

[User1340ac92] Can we meet? I have more questions.

She watched the chat box as the little bubble of three dots blinked but instead of a response, the green online button turned grey

[LuckyStar88] is offline.

-----

Something between them had changed, Jaehyun could feel it. He wasn’t exactly sure what specifically had changed but he knew that Ayeon was getting far too liberal with how she touched him.

It was driving him mad.

Like take right now, for instance, he had said something to her, he couldn’t even remember what it was, but it made her laugh so hard that she reached out to hold his hand as she leaned her head back with a boisterous laughter that left him feeling embarrassingly fuzzy.

He squeezed her hand, a chuckled escaping his lips as he took in the way her face flushed red when she laughed hard, and how her eyes would fall shut. He wondered if she knew that ever since she came into his store, he had begun to allow himself to take breaks. Instead of working through lunch and slow lulls of business, he’d find himself getting things in order before walking to the back in search of her.

She wasn’t particularly loud or talkative, but she always had something of value to say when she spoke and when she wasn’t around him, the vacancy was stark.

“Please, stop.” She gasped out, releasing his hand while wiping the tears that formed at the corner of her eyes. “Oh! Did Ten end up getting that job?”

He grinned proudly, “Yeah, he found out last night and must’ve gone out to celebrate with friends because I woke up to a very drunken voicemail where he was nearly sobbing about how I helped him with his career and how the head designer loved the fact that he worked on floral design.”

“Will you be short-staffed?” She asked with a frown.

He hummed, “Are you offering?”

“Ha ha, but no. I was told I was a bit of a crappy assistant.”

He gave her a look of overexaggerated shock, “What a lie.”

She rolled her eyes and shoved his arm, “Oh, shut it.”

He smiled softly at her, “But I’ll be okay, I have some on call people at standby in case we get a big order.”

She propped her elbow on the table and leaned her head on her fist, “That’s good.”

“And how’s work?” He stood to busy himself with the kettle and two mugs, her undivided gaze was overwhelming.

Her smile fell and she hesitated as she remembered the word angrily scribbled on her desk, “It’s fine.”

He looked over his shoulder at her changed tone to find her turned away, looking at her laptop, shoulders stiffened. He walked to her, reached out to twist a strand of her hair around his finger, “Doesn’t sound fine.”

She looked over at her, taking in a sharp breath at how close he was, “It’ll get better.”

“How?” He asked with a frown, his finger still in her hair, “Lucas isn’t coming back, so they’re not going to stop.”

She gave him a strained smile, “Maybe one day they’ll learn what happened and realize that maybe I’m not entirely to blame.”

His gaze grew darker, “How is that going to happen when you still blame yourself?”

She stared at him for a long time before turning away, shrugging dismissively, “I’m not sure.”

“Knock knock. Anyone home?”

The pair of them looked towards the door, before abandoning their conversation to move to the front of the shop where Mina stood.

“The hangover must’ve passed.” Ayeon snorted.

Jaehyun smiled distractedly, his eyes still on Ayeon. Mina made a face before locking the doors and pulling down the blinds of the shop, “Is anyone else here?”

“No, just us.” Jaehyun said softly, causing Ayeon to glance at him from the side of her eyes.

“Good.” Mina breathed out, oblivious to the air around them. “I’m going to do it.”

Ayeon looked back at her, blinking cluelessly, “Do what?”

“I’m going to release the article.” She said, her voice shaking as she pulled out her laptop and opened it, showing them the completed article.

“What are these names?” Jaehyun asked as he scanned the list of last names with censored first names.

Mina grinned, “Every transferred officer. It’s all circumstantial but it’ll get people talking.”

Ayeon raised her brow, “Why them? What’s the connection?”

Mina her lips and sat across from them, “I have a source who claimed that these officers were transferred because someone paid the Commissioner to move them.”

“A source?” Ayeon repeated unsurely.

Mina waved her off, “That’s not important. The money from the Commissioner to the charities? It didn’t come from tax payers, it came from people high up who sent the money to the Commissioner who moved it to a fake charity fund so that it couldn’t be taxed or audited. He didn’t spend $100,000 like we thought. He got $100,000 from other people?”

“And we don’t know who?” Jaehyun asked as he scanned her article.

Mina shook her head, “Not yet. But if we get this article out, people will start asking questions. It’ll also give me more time and resources to do digging. I just need this out before his position gets renewed and word will spread”

“Are you sure people will even get the chance to read it? It’ll probably get taken down minutes after it goes live.” Ayeon said with a sad smile.

Mina chewed on her lip, “I know, that's my only issue. I got my friend to put up some pretty serious firewalls, but I don’t know if it’ll be enough. I wanted more publicity, but I can’t get any news organization to get on board and there’s no way I can broadcast it on my own.”

Ayeon stared off at the wall, silence ticking by until she shut her eyes and cursed loud enough for Jaehyun and Mina to look her way, “I think I know how you could get some more publicity.”

Mina’s face lit up despite the growing scowl on Ayeon’s, “Really? How?”

“The Commissioner’s Ball is tomorrow night. The press will be there.”

Mina scoffed, “So? The only way I’m getting in there is with an invitation. The security on those things are insane.”

“I have one.” Ayeon muttered.

Jaehyun turned and stared at her, stunned, “You do?”

“One wha—an invitation?!” Mina yelped.

She winced and nodded, “The Commissioner invited me yesterday.”

Jaehyun fell silent and just stared at her, she met his gaze, challenging his stare until a stiffened word slipped past his lips, “Why?”

“Some bravery award. I don’t know, it sounded full of , I wasn’t going to go.”

“Then don’t.” He fired back.

Mina’s eyes darted between the two of them, enraptured by their back and forth. Ayeon made a face and shook her head, “But if I go, I can get her inside, like open a door for her or something once I’m in the venue.”

“That…that would be perfect. There’s so much press, if I accost him publicly the same time the article goes live, there will be no avoiding or hiding the issue. Everyone will know.”

Jaehyun’s jaw tensed before he looked at Ayeon, “Can I talk to you?”

Ayeon sighed and nodded, following him to the back. He looked at her in exasperation, “This is insanely risky. If this scene happens, they’ll look for anomalies and you’ll be the first on their list. A detective they invited for the first time.”

“It’s not like I asked for the invitation.” She said back.

His eyebrows knit further, “What about Mina? Her face will be plastered everywhere.”

“I don’t know what to say about that.” Ayeon replied, resigned, “She wants to do this and even if she only releases the article online, people will see her name on the byline. At least this way she has insurance, if everyone knows her face, then people will be too nervous to do anything to her because the entire city if not the entire nation will know.”

Jaehyun fell silent and Ayeon tried to muster a smile, reaching out and gripped his wrist. “I get to bring a guest, but I’m guessing you won’t want to go, huh?”

His face immediately softened, “Detective, I’m sor—”

“It’s okay.” She said quietly, “I’d never make you go, even if you wanted to. Just, trust me, I’ll make sure she gets in and out harmlessly.”

Jaehyun nodded, “I do trust you. That was never a question just…just take some sort of backup.”

She smiled and nodded, “I will.”

“Are you guys done or…” Mina called from the door.

-----

Mina had left to prepare after they had gone over the strategy to get her in the venue and Ayeon could feel the antsy energy radiating off of Jaehyun. He kept his words minimal even after Mina was gone. Ayeon distracted herself by looking into Haerin’s case, she had been so busy the last few days that she hadn’t paid it as much attention. She dug, trying to find out about the family that Jaehyun had spoken to who had initially claimed to see Haerin get into a police car.

There was nothing, not even a record of Jaehyun’s report.

Giving up on the police files, she looked into the little town on google, checking the map, she trailed through the area until she reached the location where Haerin’s body was found. It was empty, obviously, but Ayeon still held her breath when she clicked the arrow, half-expecting to see Haerin’s body draped over the rocks like in the crime scene photos.

She stared at it, right by the water, it was just a beautiful place for such a beautiful young girl to meet a tragic end. Ayeon swallowed down the lump in and kept clicking. The seaside was relatively empty save for a few boats on the dock. She paused when she clicked passed something, going back, her eyes widened when she stared at the image of a house. She went back and measured the distance between the place where Haerin was found and the house. You couldn’t see it from the house, but you could definitely see a cop car from your window if you happened to glance out the window. She continued clicking until she could confirm that there were no more houses in a reasonable radius.

There was only one.

Only one that most likely saw the police car that took Haerin.

Her hand shook as she scribbled the address onto a piece of paper and shoved it into her wallet. The bells on the front door chimed and it barely registered as she stared at the picture of the house. She wondered if those people still lived there or if they moved right after they were questioned by the police.

“Good Morning and welco—” Ayeon frowned, breaking out of her trance when she heard Jaehyun’s voice trail off. “Welcome to Maison De Fleur.”

The quietness of his tone had her leaning back, peeking through the door to see a uniformed officer, with his hat tucked under his arm, ordering a bouquet. Her eyes trailed to Jaehyun’s back, tensed as he scribbled the order down. He kept his head down, muttered out a total and swiped the officer’s credit card before bowing as he walked out.

She watched, as he stood, rooted behind the counter, just staring off at the door he had walked out of. Waiting a few seconds to see if he would move, she slowly stood and walked towards his rigid figure, lingering over his shoulder before speaking up.

“Hey.”

He stiffened a fraction before his shoulders dropped and he turned a smile gracing his face, “Detective.”

Ayeon’s eyes darted around his face, in a frantic search to reveal a feeling that didn’t suit the blinding smile. “Are you alright?”

“Of course, I’m fi-I’m doing okay, I’m just tired.” He said simply before side stepping her and walking to the back, but she was upset.

Because he nearly said that he was fine.

And that was her lie.

She reached out and gripped his arm, pulling him back to her, “No, I don’t think you’re just tired.”

“Detect-“

She rolled her eyes and tightened her grip on his arm, pulling him to the back of the shop before pushing him down on the chair that was exclusively occupied by her. He stared at her, befuddled as she turned her back to him to switch the kettle on, “I’m making you tea.”

He just continued to gap at her, “Isn’t that my line?”

“Ugh, I know.” She muttered, pulling two mugs out of the drying rack. “You need to stop rubbing off of me.”

He ran his eyes down the curve her neck, the slope of her shoulders, she was devastating. He watched her drop two tea bags in the mugs before facing him again, leaning against the counter.

“Does it hurt?”

“What are you doing, detective?” He asked nervously.

She shrugged and slowly slid down until she was crouched, “Are you hurting now?”

“He’s buying the flowers for his little sister’s graduation.” He whispered. “Haerin didn’t get to graduate.”