Haeun drove back to the office in silence, her mind reeling with trying to figure out how to spin the evidence against Kim Sanghee in a way that would show that she shot the gun in self-defense. It wouldn’t be easy considering the evidence was so obviously pointing towards the fact that it was a premeditated murder. She brought a gun to the scene with bullets in it, and then she brought it out and shot her boss, point blank. The woman would’ve survived if Sanghee had simply called 119. She’d only have blackmail and assault charges then instead of blackmail and murder. But it wasn’t her job to say what her clients could’ve done, but rather what they should do from now on. 

There was a dull ache in her head, and she was blinking hard to prevent herself from hitting her head against the steering wheel while she was at a red light. The lack of sleep was really catching up to her, and she regretted staying up late two nights in a row binge watching dramas with Kai in her lap. Trying to ignore everything, she turned up the radio, only to hear depressing news. Instead she switched to a music station and tried to sing along to the songs to relieve some stress.

Looking at the clock, she realized that she had some time before she was supposed to be back at the office. Not to mention that the interview had been scheduled at 12:30PM, and she ended up missing her lunch hour since it was nearly 1:15PM. She wasn’t scheduled back at the law firm till 2PM. So, she decided that she would just aimlessly drive around for a bit. Maybe that would help her calm down. Making an abrupt right turn a few streets away from the law firm, she began driving at random points throughout Seoul, trying to find a straight road without three red lights between two streets. 

Ten minutes later, she realized that constantly stopping at red lights was making her feel worse and more annoyed by the traffic, so she pulled over to the side of the road and parked. Then she did hit her head against the steering wheel a few times, not caring if people saw her through the window. She continued to just lay her head there afterwards, but mere minutes later she heard a knocking on the car's passenger seat window. She had parked in a way such that her side looked out into the road while the passenger side was right next to the sidewalk. Haeun looked up and realized she was looking right into Chanyeol’s face. Startled, she quickly ran a hand over her tied hair to pat down any stray strands before rolling the window down with one hand as she lowered the music volume with the other.

“Hey?” she asked, rather than greeted.  “What are you doing here?” Chanyeol smiled at her through the window before pointing to the store behind him. His badge was clipped to his thick leather jacket’s pocket. 

“We’re here for an ongoing case,” he said. We? Then it clicked.

“Baekhyun’s with you?” she asked. 

"Yeah.”

“Anything I know about?” she asked, referring to the case. He shook his head.

“New development. It came up not long after you left the precinct on Saturday, actually. We’ve been busy over the weekend, but Baek and I went home kind of early last night. Wasn’t much we could do when a lot of the businesses we needed to talk to were closed on a weekend.” She knew that when he said ‘kind of early,’ he meant probably around 8 or 9 last night. 

“Doesn’t that mean you’re nearing the end of the first 48 hours?”

“We’re already past it. Stuff happened, so we’re already kind of at a loss.”

“Yikes,” she murmured. They fell into an awkward silence for a bit where Haeun didn’t know what to say to Chanyeol. She didn’t meet up with him separately, and no one had locked her into a room overnight for her to get to close with him, either.

“Hey, did you eat lunch?” he asked. She looked up at him and in her heart, she was just so thankful that he had spoken up, and those were the exact words he had chosen to say. 

“No, not yet. I was on my way back from the prison after talking to a client. I was kind of planning to skip – wasn’t sure I’d get time.” It was getting kind of uncomfortable talking to him through a car window. Chanyeol’s eyebrows furrowed for a moment. 

“The prison’s in the other direction, though. What were you doing here?”

“That’s a story for another time,” she replied. “Or lunch.” Chanyeol grinned. 

“There’s a great Chinese place five minutes from here.”

“Wonderful,” Haeun replied. She grabbed her purse and her phone from the car and got out to meet Chanyeol on the sidewalk. Once she was out, she went to the passenger seat and grabbed her long coat, so she could put it over her clothes.

“How did you know it was me in the car?” she asked, her breath coming out as fog in the cold air. 

“I recognized your car,” he started before grinning as he looked down at her while they waited for Baekhyun. “I also saw you banging your head on the steering wheel. Not many people have navy hair.” 

Haeun groaned. 

“Oh…I can’t deal with you alone; I need someone else.”

“Baekhyun’s coming,” he added, raising his index finger as if he were making a point. 

“I know,” she said pointedly. “Why do you think I need someone else with me?”

“To keep you in check?” She rolled her eyes, and Chanyeol’s face seemed to be stuck in a grin that she desperately wanted to smack off.

“Isn’t that why Baekhyun hangs around you?” she challenged as she pulled out her phone. He barked out a laugh.

“Touché. Who are you texting?”

“Jeonghan,” she replied, hitting send. 

“Is he even free?”

"He’s a prosecutor,” she replied, thinking he had a screw lost in his brain. “Of course, he’s not free. I’m not even free. Neither are you.” 

“Hey, I like my food breaks. Food’s important.”

"Food’s wonderful, but my sanity is just as important.”

“How is it that you’re smart enough to be a lawyer and yet you don’t seem to be very sane?”

“Says the man who’s a detective but tried to light a wooden spoon on fire. In my house.”

"It was a perfectly valid idea. It’s called a torch.”

"No, it’s not!”

"How do you even live without fun in your life,” he asked seriously. The grin had disappeared to create the semblance of a tough detective,