When Daemin walked into the restaurant that night, he spotted Jaehyun immediately.

He was slouched against the bar with a glass of whiskey in front of him and reeked of booze. Things must’ve been really bad if he broke his sobriety. Daemin walked towards the bar with slow steps and overheard the conversation he was having with the owner.

“5 years, Jae. You fell off the wagon after 5 years, what were you thinking?” He muttered.

Jaehyun snorted, ing his hand through his hair, “You’re the one who poured me a glass.”

“After you came to me already drunk. I didn’t want you ending up in some alleyway.”

The owner did a double when he saw him and quickly moved the bottle out of sight and gave Jaehyun’s figure a worried look before turning to him, “Hi, how can I help you?”

He was smart, he sat down across the bar, 5 seats away from Jaehyun to appear nonchalant, “Vodka on the rocks.”

Jaehyun hadn’t acknowledged Daemin yet and instead was focused on trying to convince Taeyong to refill his glass, “C’mon, Tae.”

He sighed and set Daemin’s drink down in front of him with an apologetic smile, “Ignore him.”

He turned back to Jaehyun and knocked his fist against his skull, “No. I’m cutting you off. Can you manage to stay conscious for 20 minutes until I finish closing?”

Jaehyun groaned, resting his head against the counter before wincing, “Whatever.”

Taeyong gave his friend a long look before sighing and walking to the back through the doors to the kitchen.

Jaehyun sat up and glanced towards the door Taeyong went through before leaning over the counter and pulling a bottle from under it with a triumphant smile. That was when he noticed Daemin staring and gave him a sloppy smile, “Keep this between us, yeah?”

“Trying to drown something out?” Daemin asked casually.

Jaehyun smiled bitterly, “Drown? No, I’m trying to set something on fire.”

Daemin stood up with his glass and moved to sit next to Jaehyun who barely noticed. “What happened?”

“I just found out my girlfriend, oh sorry, my ex-girlfriend has been sleeping with some random all this time.” Jaehyun with a wry laugh.

“Oh, bummer.”

Jaehyun snorted, “Bummer indeed.”

“She sounds like a .” He said matter-a-factly. 

Jaehyun turned his head in his arms and stared at Daemin for a long moment before nodding sluggishly, “Yup, one big .”

“You know, when someone pisses me off, I like to get revenge.” Daemin looked away but he could feel Jaehyun's curious gaze on him, hooked.

Jaehyun laughed and sat up, “Yeah, that sounds about right, but she’s a cop, it’s not easy.”

“Oh, come on, no one is perfect. There has to be some dirt on her that you could use to get back at her.”

“She’s working with a reporter.” Jaehyun said quietly, “Apparently she’s going to be at some abandoned dry cleaner place tonight to meet with her.”

Daemin froze, that was where Delco operated out of. That was where Lucas died, and she was going to be poking back around there with Mina?

“T-That doesn’t sound so bad.” He choked out.

Jaehyun shook his head with a smile and thumbed the glass in his hand, “She killed a man.”

“She—woah.” His mind raced, he had no idea about this, neither did his father, all they knew was about the prosecutor’s ex-boyfriend but even that wasn’t murder. If this was true, then she did a hell of a job covering it up.

She killed someone.

At this rate, he would’ve believed that she actually killed Kyung Gyu if he didn’t fire the shot himself.

But this was good, they could fight Kyung Gyu’s murder charges but there’s no way they could fight murder charges if she actually killed someone. He just needed to point the prosecution in this new direction.

“Do you know who it was?”

Jaehyun winced and blinked heavily, “I don’t remember.”

Daemin’s knee bounced erratically, “If you have a name, it’ll make the revenge sweeter once you put it out in public.”

Jaehyun frowned and reached for the glass in front of him when Daemin stopped his hand, “Remember the name.”

Jaehyun sighed, his body sagging, “I don’t know, man. It was Lee Dong-Something.”

Lee Dong Jae.

What?

What the was she talking about?

Dong Jae wasn’t dead.

What the hell did she know?

“What did she say about him?” He asked frantically but Jaehyun had passed out, knocking the glass of whiskey over, his sleeve soaking up the liquid.

He tried shaking Jaehyun’s arm, but the man was out. He moved quickly, feeling around Jaehyun’s pocket before finding his phone and using his thumb to unlock it. He clicked on Ayeon’s name and typed out a quick message.

[Jaehyun] We need to talk tonight. Where are you?

[Ayeon] I’m leaving to go somewhere at midnight. We can talk after.

Daemin checked his watch, it was 11:00PM, if she was going to leave her apartment, she must've figured out how to take off her ankle monitor, which means she was going rogue. If he left now, he could beat her there.

If she knew about Dong Jae, getting her thrown in jail as a corrupt cop-killer wouldn’t be enough.

He’d have to kill her.

He stood from the bar, not bothering paying and tossed Jaehyun’s phone on the counter as the owner was blissfully unaware before racing out of the restaurant, is mind concocting a plan. He bet he could make it look like suicide.

He’d done it once before.

-----

“A florist? You could’ve been an actor.”

Jaehyun sat up from the bar and picked up his phone, looking through what Daemin had done with it. He didn’t look at Taeyong who was cleaning the drink he spilled, “He was so creepy and persistent.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t attack him. You just sat next to your sister’s killer.”

Jaehyun’s jaw tensed as he sent Ayeon a warning text, he needed to get over to her place fast. She had an hour. “Trust me, if this doesn’t work out, I’m going to regret faking drunk for the rest of my life.”

“So why do it?” Taeyong asked as Jaehyun stood, “Why not just kill him here?”

Jaehyun walked to the door, his heart in his throat, “Because that wouldn’t help Ayeon, it would only help me.”

-----

Jaehyun stopped by his apartment before he went to Ayeon’s and was a little taken back by the crowd. Jinah, Soya, Mina, Johnny and someone he’d never seen before surrounded her on the couch.

Taeil and Doyoung were monitoring things at the precinct and Shownu was completely left out because if this plan failed, Ayeon would need one hell of a defense, so the less he knew, the better he’d be at saving her in court.

She looked up at him when he walked in and the apprehension and tension in her face melted away, “Hi.”

Be supportive, don’t show your worry. He had to chant in his head.

“Hi, detective. How’s it going?”

She looked up at him and sniffed before frowning, “You reek like expensive booze.”

”Taeyong wanted to sell it so he basically poured a shot down my shirt.” He said assuringly.

She looked unsettled, “Thank you for doing this. Being around that much alcohol...”

”I’m fine, detective.” He said with a soft smile. If it was for her, he’d put himself through a lot worse. 

Mina crossed her arms and stood behind the new guy that was crouched by Ayeon’s ankle like his guardian. He glanced up at Jaehyun nervously, “Are you a cop too?”

“Former.” Johnny chirped in, grinning smugly at the panic on the boy’s face.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead, “Oh man, I knew you were working with cops, I was happy to hack into whatever database to get you information, Mina, but did you have to drag me here and show them my face?”

She rolled her eyes, “Relax, Hendery, this isn’t some elaborate sting to bust you for hacking.”

“Although, I’d like to talk to you a bit more about potential holes in our security system.” Jinah said with a frown.

Hendery groaned weakly, “I can’t believe two cops and a lawyer are watching me do something illegal.”

“How’s it looking? You have 40 minutes to get down there.” Soya said impatiently.

He used a small screwdriver to work on her ankle monitor, “I’m doing my best. I have to be careful; these things are programmed to notify the police when it’s taken off, I have to make sure it’d down gently so I can disable the program and replace it with a fake signal.”

Jaehyun peered at the laptop sitting next to Hendry with code filling the screen.

“Are you sure this plan is a good idea, Jinah?” Soya asked quietly. She had become more and more unnerved ever since her boyfriend was pulled from the vault of her mind into the stark forefronts. Everything made her jump and it made Jinah protective.

She reached for her hand, “Ayeon needs to confront him, that’s the only way we’re getting answers. We’ll be following her closely with Taeil and Doyoung. It’ll be fine.”

“I can’t believe it.” Ayeon muttered. “Daemin. He looked so small and vulnerable. I felt so bad for him. He lied about being bullied. He lied about defending me. He’s a sociopath.”

Jaehyun frowned as he watched Ayeon’s face fall into a trance, “Your only interactions with him started when you found him on the roof, what reason does he have to hate you so much to do all of this to you? What does he think you know?”

“What happened at the funeral?” Jinah asked, “He came to your computer after it and apparently started hating you there.”

She shook her head, “I have no idea, I wasn’t even allowed to go, remember? I just dropped off the flowers.”

“Almost…done.” Hendery said as he poised the screw with one hand and used his other to hover over the enter key on his laptop. He took two quick breaths before hitting the key and lifting the screwdriver off simultaneously.

They waited for the alarms and SWAT team bursting through the door, but minutes passed in silence before Hendery laid down on the ground, spread out, “Oh thank god, it worked.”

“Are you sure?” Johnny asked. If Ayeon was in a better mood, she’d tease Johnny for being jealous of Hendery and Mina.

Hendery nodded, “Definitely.”

Jinah took a long breath, “Okay, I guess this is it. He’s going to be there in about 35 minutes.”

“I’ll mic you up.” Hendery said tiredly, dragging himself up as he searched his little tech toolbox for the proper equipment.

Jaehyun watched her lift her shirt and Hendery paused when he saw all the bruising and glanced up at her in shock before he began taping things to her torso. He waited until he was done before stepping towards her through the group.

“Ayeon.”

Everyone turned to Jaehyun but he just stared at her, the undeniable love of his life, before reaching behind him and pulling something out of his waistband. “Take this with you.”

Everyone gaped at the gun he held out towards her. She looked at him, startled as she reached for it, the cold metal sharp against her fingers, “Where did you get this?”

“My safe.” He said, glancing at Mina who seemed to realize where his previous curt tone had come from when she had mentioned it before, “It’s my old service pistol. I didn’t return it after I quit and there was so much chaos that no one noticed.”

Jinah blanched, “I can’t believe you had that.”

“I don’t use it. It’s usually unloaded but you don’t have your gun and I’m not letting you go in there unarmed.” He said deeply.

She tucked it into her belt with a nod.

Hendery shook his head, quickly packing up his things, “You people are insane. I’m leaving. I was never here. You don’t know me; I don’t know you. Bye Mina.”

He scurried out of her apartment and Jinah pulled her body away from Soya’s, “Okay, I’ll head over with Taeil and Doyoung. Mina and Johnny stay here. Soya, go into the office, let us know if anything comes up, the prosecutor will be the first to know. Jaehyun…”

“I’ll be here too.”

Ayeon looked surprised but he smiled, “I’m not promising I’ll stay here all night.”

Soya looked at Ayeon, “Ready?”

“It’s now or never.”

-----

He stopped her before she left, pulling her aside. It felt wrong not telling her he loved her or not kissing her before she left, instead, he just stood close and asked one single question.

“Friends can hug, right?”

Ayeon felt her heart stutter before she nodded. He brought her into his arms, and it was like everything had fallen into its correct spot, where it belonged. She closed her eyes and breathed him in, memorizing the rhythm of his heartbeat. She smiled, for the first time since he’d seen her, and leaned her forehead against his, “Can I have a small vase of flowers tomorrow?”

He pulled her close and prayed his confidence wouldn’t be in vain, “Detective, I’ll bring you a whole garden.”

She quickly brushed her fingers through his hair, soaking in every last moment, she remembered the night when he asked her if he could tell her he loved her because he felt uneasy of her leaving in the night.

She felt that now.

“Be safe, okay?” He whispered.

She nodded against his shoulder, squeezing him especially tightly. He used a hand to gather her hair into a ponytail and smooth down it, “I’ll be here when you get back.”

She nodded for the third time, too afraid to speak as he slowly stepped back, “Just promise to come home.”

“Promise.”

-----

“You know what the worst part of it is?” Johnny said as the three of them waited. “No matter what he says tonight, we’ll never know if it’s the whole truth or just his side of the story.”

Mina rested her head against his shoulder, “It’s because we don’t have any hard evidence.”

Jaehyun couldn’t sit still and was pacing in the kitchen when his phone buzzed. He stared at the name and blanked trying to remember why it looked familiar.

Sicheng

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this…Jung Jaehyun?”

Jaehyun narrowed his eyes, “Yeah, who is this?”

“I’m Sicheng from Snapshot. Your film roll is developed, and your photos are ready to be picked up.”

God, he totally forgot about Haerin’s pictures, “You guys are still open?”

“For another hour.” Sicheng said, bored.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead, “I’ll be there.”

He grabbed his jacket and moved to the door, “I’ll be back, I have to go to Snapshot to pick up Haerin’s polaroids.”

“Wait, what?” Mina asked with a stunned laugh, “Why did you need to get polaroid photos developed?”

Jaehyun stilled, “What do you mean?”

“The whole point of Polaroids is that they’re instantly developed. How did a film roll come from a Polaroid camera?” Mina asked incredulously.

Jaehyun’s hands trembled. “I—the person who found Haerin’s camera who saw a police car in the area gave it to me. She said it was in the camera. I wasn’t really paying a lot of attention at the time.”

“That’s not possible.” Johnny said, “That’s no