Here’s the thing, morals are good. Ethics are important. Principles are key.

But when you’re playing a rigged game using the rules of the original game, you’ll always lose. If you want to win, you need to change the rules, re-strategize and switch your objectives.

You don’t win a rigged game by playing fair.

You win by playing like a cheater. 

-----

“Detective, it’ll be okay.” He said calmly.

She ground her teeth before kicking his garbage bin so hard that it ricocheted off the wall and flew back past her shoulder. Jaehyun didn’t flinch but he closed his eyes when the can tumbled to the ground, rolling away from her. “No! No, it’s not ing okay. How can you say that it’ll be okay? They blocked Haerin’s file. It’s just gone. This wasn’t a mistake or some computer glitch. This is ed.”

He slowly moved around the counter, nearing her before reaching out to touch her but she dodged his grasp, shaking her head, “Why aren’t you furious? This is Haerin’s casefile.”

Her body was shaking and the vein on the side of her neck that he loved to kiss was throbbing dangerously, “Sweetheart, I need you to take deep breaths.”

“No!” The scream was louder and more frantic, “They’re covering this up, worse than they did before. This new Commissioner, he must’ve ordered the higher clearance because I was able to look at the file before but the minute he’s in office, nothing about her death shows up. They just erased it like it didn’t happen. Like she didn’t die. I can’t access it now, I can’t, I can’t do anything about it. I can’t help her, and I can’t find who—”

He pressed his face against her neck first before the palms of his hands smoothed out under her ribs and pulled her towards him, tucking her against his chest. Her breaths came out in short, hysteric bursts, shaking in his arms, “I’m not furious because this is exactly the type of stuff that I expected. This doesn’t surprise me, it’s what I dealt with for years and I didn’t expect it to be any different.”

She frowned, pushed him back, “We thought the interim Commissioner would be a good change, you said so yourself. How are you so accepting of all of this?”

“I’m not accepting!” His voice boomed, bouncing off of the corners of the room before it reached her. Her eyes were wide, her heart sunk to her stomach. She had never heard him raise his voice before.

She took a step back and he froze, alarmed. He stretched his hand out nervously towards her, “I’m sorry. I’m not angry at you, I shouldn’t have yelled.”

“If you’re not accepting than why aren’t you freaking out?” She asked, reaching her own hand out to hold his.

“I’m just…I’m not accepting of this and I am freaked out but I’m also ing tired, detective. I’m tired of being let down, I’m tried of thinking that I can actually find Haerin some justice and I’m tired of getting beat down by this system over and over again. There are only so many things you can do before you realize that you’ll be getting the same outcomes each time and insanity is just doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Frankly, it doesn’t surprise me that her file is suddenly hidden, that it’s suddenly ten times harder to find out the truth or that one rotten Commissioner is being replaced with another. I’ve seen it happen before and I knew it would just happen again.” He said simply.

“This is not okay.” She spat out, “This is not fair, not to you or Haerin. I didn’t team up with Mina to take that old rat bastard down just for another one to make it even harder. This is not how this was supposed to end up.”

He narrowed his eyes at her, “What were you even doing with Haerin’s file in the first place?”

“I made a promise to your sister and I keep my ing promises.” She growled out.

He looked at her, confused, “When did you ever speak to my sister?”

“At her grave. I promised I would figure out who killed her but if I can’t look at the evidence, then there’s nothing I can do for her and I don’t accept that as an option.” Ayeon muttered out.

He let out a long breath before cupping her cheeks, “Sweetheart, you didn’t have to do that, you know it’s not your responsibility or your burden. You do not have to take this on yourself. I would never put that on you. Ever.”

“Jaehyun.” She breathed out.

He smiled and her breath caught in when she watched tears glaze over his eyes, “Detective, you’re so important to me but you’re selfless almost to a fault. You always take responsibility, even for things that are out of your control. This is one of those things.”

“You’re right, but I’m not going to stop fighting for her, Jaehyun.” She ground out.

He pressed his forehead against hers, “Ayeon.”

“I’m not doing this because of my saviour complex or my personal baggage, not this time.” She said, meeting his soft gaze with her own angry one.

He looked unsettled, “Then why?”

“Because you are important to me, and it kills me to see you hurt so much because someone else keeps putting roadblocks in your way hoping to burn you out. You don’t deserve this, no one does.” She reached a palm up, it down his face to brush away tears that he didn’t know spilled down his cheek. “And I want to try to bring some sort of peace to Haerin because that’s what she deserves.”

He felt hopeless, he wanted to stop her before her spirits get crushed as well because he knew the walls he hit in his search for the truth, the same ones that Jinah hit as well.

“I desperately wish I could talk you out of this.” He whispered to her, “This case has taken so many people from me, I don’t want you to be one.”

“I’m not, nothing is taking me away from you.” She replied.

He looked unsure, “I don’t want you resenting me when this case drains you of everything.”

She brushed her lips against his softly, “This is my choice, I’m not going to hold anything against you for it.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked in resignation.

She nodded, “I made a promise.”

He carefully tucked her hair behind her ear, “Okay. For Haerin.”

She dug her fingers into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, “I have the address of the people who witnesses that police car take your sister. I’m going to go back there after work, I’m not asking you to come with me, but this is Haerin, so you should know where I’m going.”

He stared at the note in her hand, sadness creeping over him as he thought about his little sister whom he loved so much. She was his entire life; he spoiled her silly and didn’t think he could ever love someone as purely and honestly as he did Haerin. He took the note of her hands and stared down at it.

“I’m coming with you.”

Her eyes widened, “Are you…sure?”

“If you believe in solving this, then I’ll believe it too.” He whispered.

-----

“I’ll close early and meet you out front.” Jaehyun spoke quickly into the phone as Ayeon entered the precinct after leaving his shop earlier that day to go out to interview on a case.

She signed in, wedging her phone against her cheek, “Jaehyun, I’m sorry if this is hurting you.”

“I feel better than when we first talked about it, at least I get to do it around you, you’re like a painkiller.” He murmured.

She smiled slowly, “I’m sorry I kicked your garbage can.”

“Yeah!” He quipped, “It’s basically caved in. You really punted that thing.”

She groaned, “I’ll replace it.”

“It feels nice.” He said quietly, “That you care so much, that you don’t want to give up on her. I’m really lucky to have you.”

“I dream about you.”

There was a pause. “Wait what did you say?”

Ayeon’s eyes widened, her words had slipped out of in an aggressive blurt, “Um…I need to go, bye.”

Hitting the red button, Ayeon ended the call, shoving her phone into her pocket, her cheeks burning. She walked up to her desk, her steps slowing when she spied the large white box sitting on top of her files, addressed to her. Her breathing was loud in her ears when she noticed all the officers around her, watching her closely, stopping mid-conversation to stare at her and her desk.

She wasn’t one to typically get mysterious packages delivered to her. Her worst fears swirled in her mind of its contents. It could be a box of maggots, a severed pig’s head, hell, she wouldn’t be surprised if it was a live bomb. It had all the makings of a horrible prank made to humiliate her in front of everyone.

Her hand trembled as she flicked the box open, revealing what was inside.

“What?” She murmured, leaning over to take in the rows and rows of beautifully decorated cupcakes. It took a moment before she realized that these were the exact same cupcakes that Jaehyun had made and offered to Jinah, Mina and Soya.

Her fingers grazed the enveloped taped to the lid and peeled it off to read the handwritten note inside.

I hear cops like doughnuts, I thought these were classier. 

-Jaehyun

Her lips twitched up and a flush stained her cheeks as she re-traced his penmanship. Schooling her expression into one of blank impassivity, she looked up, bracing herself against everyone’s gazes. She looked back down at the box, realizing why he sent someone who typically strayed away from sweets dozens of cupcakes.

Clearing , she smiled slightly, “I have cupcakes, I’m going to leave it in the breakroom, please feel free to take some.”

“Where’d you get cupcakes?” Daemin asked, incredulously.

From the man she constantly longed to be with, “A friend with a talent for baking.”

A snort caught her attention and she glanced across the room where Soya was covering with a file, her eyes curved up in a smile, exposing her role in this surprise gift. Maintaining a tense smile, she carried the box of treats in her arms and walked quickly over to her friend.

“You, me at Maison. Now.”

-----

She was going to scream when Soya and Jaehyun leaned against each other, trying to stifle their laughs as she paced back and forth in front of them, ranting. They didn’t need to know how the sight of Jaehyun smiling sent her heart soaring and filled her with more joy than her body could handle.

“I’m sorry? Do you both think that this is cute? I find it slightly repulsive that my best friend and my boyfriend think it’s “charming” to send me cupcakes at work.” She snapped. “You realize how I needed to lie through my teeth so that they thought this was something completely normal for a platonic friend to do? I cannot believe this.”

Their faces changed immediately, Soya’s melting into a giddy smile and Jaehyun’s softened, his lips parting almost in shock. She blinked at them before scowling, “Whatever  your faces are doing, make it stop.”

Soya stood up with a grin, dusting her hands dramatically, “My work here is done.”

“And what exactly did you do other than annoy me?” Ayeon hissed as Soya blew kisses at the both of them, leaving them alone in the shop.

She turned and narrowed her eyes at Jaehyun, “Well?”

He tilted his head and a confused hiccup spread through her chest, “I’m sorry, as your boyfriend I should’ve been more careful.”

Her brows furrowed, “What?”

“I thought it’d be nice to get you cupcakes for your coworkers to soften on you, but as your boyfriend, I should’ve asked you in advance.” His smile grew slowly that it almost felt .

Her face flushed, “Why do you keep using that word?”

He squinted his eyes at her “You’re the one who used it first.”

She fell silent, her eyes darting back and forth as she trekked back through her words. She leaned back, shocked that she’d even dare to utter the forbidden phrase, after being so careful, “Well, in that case I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to use it. I don’t want to make this complicated. We hadn’t discussed labels.”

He watched her carefully, inspecting the panic, “Ayeon.”

She had no inclination to listen to him. She had to do damage control, stop him before he distanced himself away from her foolish slip-up, “We’re both adults, and spending time in the same room together doesn’t constitute a relationship. We’re not attached. We can see other people, be with other people and it’s fine.”

He waited until she took a breath before speaking up, “There aren’t other people, at least not for me. For me, it’s only ever going to be you.”

A silence fell as she gawked at him, those words were weighing heavy in her heart, the implication sending flickering flames down her veins, “I see.”

He was always so ing balanced, even when he was met with her silence, a silence that would’ve made a lesser man insecure. He just smiled and st