Sunmi was still completely focused on her mission, when she decided to order a green tea in a local Starbucks, close to Bogum’s place. Luckily, it hadn’t taken her a long time to find his address, specially when he was a non-secluded semi-famous artist.

While she waited in the line, Sunmi kept anxiously looking behind her back in an attempt to spot Bogum amongst the few people outside, who dared to be awake at such ungodly hour in the morning.

“Hello, what can I get for you today?” The tall, white, blonde barista asked, in a cheerful tone. “Miss?”

“Bogum, please. Can you get him for me?”

“I’m sorry, what?” The barista asked, confused. “What-”

“Nevermind,…” Sunmi said while her eyes scanned for the barista’s tag name. “Carol. A green tea would be great.”

“A green tea that is. Which size: tall, grande, venti?”

“The big one will do.”

“Name, please?”

“ It’s Sunmi, insurance fr-” Sunmi said and stopped herself before she continued her introduction out of habit. “Sunmi, only.”

Carol, the barista, wrote on the name on the plastic cup, and as Sunmi swiped her credit card, menacing staring at her, she slightly flinched but maintained her customer service appropriate posture.

“You’re not Korean.”

“Hm, no.”

“Good accent, though.” Sunmi said, smirking and using her best flirtatious tone, she slightly smacked her lips. “Thank you, pretty Carol.”

Sunmi then left the line, leaving the poor barista completely flustered. Once she grabbed her drink, she sat down in one of the tables and kept looking straight outside, waiting for a sign.

She was about to give up and change her strategy when she spotted a cute dog running down the street with its little legs bouncing up and down. That scene obviously grabbed her attention, for obvious reasons: it was to cute to handle.

When its owner called him, the dog went full speed and Sunmi squinted her eyes to see better the familiar face of the dog owner and, much to her surprise, it was Bogum himself.

Once she realized who it was, Sunmi sprinted outside, almost tripping on herself before she crossed the street, to reach the other sidewalk. She rushed to catch up with Bogum and walked side to side with him.

Before she could open , Bogum interrupted her by bending a little to pick up his dog from the ground. He protectly held it and stopped walking, looking straight at Sunmi.

“Are you a fan?” Bogum questioned. “I’m not in the mood for pics now, it’s barely nine in the morning.”

“Sunmi, insurance fraud investigator.” She introduced herself and Bogum kept staring at her, motionless. “Can we talk?”

Bogum slowly nodded and began walking again, his time a little faster, almost as if he wanted to get over with as soon as possible or maybe he was actually running away from her as Sunmi was out of breath once they got to his apartment.

He huffed a little as they both entered the elevator. Bogum’s dog looked curiously at Sunmi and when she tried to pet it, Bogum slapped her hand away and the dog flinched in reaction.

“Ouch, what the hell?”

“Have you washed your hands?”

“Yes!”

“I doubt it.”

Just as Sunmi was about to complain (because she did wash her hands very frequently and kept her personal hygiene in check), the elevator reached Bogum’s floor and the door opened.

Bogum went ahead and unlocked his front door, typing the code in one fluid motion. He motioned for Sunmi to enter and once she took out her shoes, she sat on his sofa, waiting for him to say something.

“How did you know I live here?”

“I-”

“Nevermind, I don’t wanna know.”

“Are you always this rude?” Sunmi asked. “Or are you just salty because you got rejected by Miss Park?”

Bogum narrowed his eyes at Sunmi and then took a deep breath.

“I wasn’t- What do you want to know, Sunmi?”

“Here are some photographs of you and Miss Roseanne Park, with your hands on her neck… Before you got rejected, of course.”

Sunmi displayed several photographs on the mini table in front of the sofa and Bogum rolled his eyes.

“The problem is that this necklace has been stolen and a fake one has been put in its place and-”

“Why would I steal a necklace?” Bogum annoyedly asked. “I have no reason to do that.”

“That’s what I keep asking myself: why would you do it? You’ve got everything.”

“So, there’s your answer: I didn’t do it.”

“Really?” Sunmi said and stared deeply into Bogum’s eyes. “Why are you so nerv-”

“Ok, I’m done.”

“What… why?” Sunmi pressed the subject, but at the same time gathered all of her stuff, ready to leave. “Just so you know, you are a suspect.”

“Please get out.” Bogum said and pointed to the door. “Don’t pet the- argh!”

Joy and Yeri were rewatching the whole scene of Bogum slapping away Sunmi’s hands away for the fifth time when Irene simply waltzed into their personal space, almost squeezing herself between the two, squinting her eyes to try to understand what was so goddamn funny.

The duo had been laughing uncontrollably for about five solid minutes until the leader decided to check on them. They had been responsible for tracking down Sunmi for the last couple of days and, as expected, they completed this mission just fine.

“So what happened?” Irene curiously asked. “Could you guys find out anything useful?”

“Yeah.” Yeri said and wiped away her tears from laughing too hard. “She sort of stalked Bogum yesterday and confronted him about the necklace.”

“Hm, interesting.”

“Unnie, you’re not thinking what I’m thinking, are you?” Joy carefully said. “It’s too risky.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Oh my god, she’s lying, look!” Yeri said and pointed to Irene’s face. “The corner of is twitching.”

“Geez, it really is.” Joy noted and nodded along. “So what’s the plan?”

“Call Rosé, we’ll need her.” Irene demanded. “But don’t tell Lisa about this.”