A/N: chapter is heavily crack, unbetad.

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“Hey, I got the files you requested— whoa, what the happened to you?!”

Taeyeon continued to just sit there, unbothered by the other woman’s outburst. She was truthfully expecting it. How could she not when her head was currently wrapped with bandages and she was in the presence of her mother hen-like friend.

“It’s not as bad as it looks. Sit down, Soonkyu.” Taeyeon calmly drank from her black coffee.

“You cannot expect me to just sit down and ignore the elephant in the room, Taeyeon.”

Nothing could stop Soonkyu now, her hands were commandingly positioned on her hips looking like a really angry mom. When her friend started the doting, it never ended until she was satisfied. Taeyeon could only sigh as she diligently answered Soonkyu’s questions.

“How did you get hurt?”

“Yuri,” then she adds as afterthought, “football.”

“I swear to god that Kwon Yuri,” Soonkyu clucked her tongue, already connecting the dots like those two words were enough. “How bad is it? Did you go to the hospital?”

“Yuri brought me to a doctor.” That was a half-truth but Taeyeon wasn’t in the mood to breach the subject about a certain pre-med student. “Not too bad, just a mild concussion.”

Soonkyu didn’t seem convinced. Taeyeon lets out another sigh. “I can send you the x-rays if you’re still so worried. Nothing broken, I promise. The doctor even congratulated me on having a thick skull.”

Taeyeon wasn’t lying. Even after the first aid, Jessica wouldn’t relent until she agreed to go for further assessment from ‘actual licensed doctors’ (her exact words). But all Taeyeon could think about was how she trusted Jessica enough and that apparently Yuri said the same thing a while ago.

But Jessica was strictly stubborn, Taeyeon learned that the hard way. The blonde could only stare in fear and misplaced fascination as the almost-doctor grabbed a bunch of straps of white cloth from her drawer.

“Jessica, wh-what are those?” Taeyeon wasn’t oblivious, she knew what they were— her brother was a psychiatrist so she’s seen these things before and the fact that she’s probably used them a couple of times already— and yet she stuttered.

“Restraining straps,” she said matter-of-factly.

“What are you going to do with them?”

Jessica smiled sweetly and leaned forward to whisper into Taeyeon’s ear. “To tie you up of course.” The blonde could only gulp in dread as the brunette slowly raised Taeyeon’s arms above her head. “But probably not in the way you’re imagining right now.”

Her words were enough to render the injured girl motionless. And just like that, Jessica barked orders to everyone in the room to hold Taeyeon down as she skillfully tied her hands and legs until she was fully restrained and was placed back on that stupid stretcher carried by the two football players again. Then off to the hospital they went.

Taeyeon felt her spine tingle remembering the whole series of unfortunate events. What Jessica wants, Jessica gets. Taeyeon would never question that ever again.

“Okay, I’ll expect those x-rays later tonight then.” Soonkyu doesn’t yield and Taeyeon gingerly agreed to end the whole discussion.

“So back to these,” Soonkyu brought out three folders from her case and placed them on the table. “Taeyeon, you do know I’m like the best profiler in the force right?” The blonde just nods her head. “And you made me, the Lee Soonkyu, gather info on a bunch of college students.”

Taeyeon shrugs. “It’s for the investigation.”

“Well, as long as it’s for the case and not for you to have leverage to stalk your crush, then here you go.”

“Uhh yeah, of course.” A nervous laugh, goddamn it at self. “For the case, not at all because I’m interested in them or anything.”

Soonkyu’s face deadpans. “Seriously Kim Taeyeon? Who is it you like? Or don’t tell me it’s all of them.”

“Wha—“ Taeyeon erupts, “I HAVE A CRUSH ON ONLY ONE OF THEM.”

“Guessed so. This isn’t how you’re supposed to get to know your crush Taeng.” Soonkyu lectures then looks through the files before continuing, “so let me guess, it’s this brunette chick with the sharp eyes isn’t it? She looks exactly like your type.”

Taeyeon just curled into her seat and kept quiet without sparing any comment. Self-preservation mode was on. Unfortunately for her, Soonkyu doesn’t drop it that easily.

“Name, Jessica Sooyeon Jung, twenty years old, Korean-American citizenship, has a younger sister. Oohh this is interesting, bust size—“

“OKAY, STOP.” Taeyeon stood up with her hands on the table before her friend could reveal any more unwarranted statistics. “You’re right, this isn’t how I want to get to know her!” Her face was burning up like a red, hot, chili pepper.

“Thought so.” Soonkyu looked up from the material with that sickening ‘you know I’m right’ smile. Taeyeon doesn’t appreciate it one bit.

But her pride be damned, Soonkyu was right. She almost crossed a boundary mixing her professional and personal lives together. That concussion really did a number on her.

“Which is why I’ll keep this file with me for now. The other two is all yours.” Soonkyu hands the folders to Taeyeon. “So do you think they have anything to do with the drugs? That’s why you asked me for their files right?”

Taeyeon nods. “We don’t have anything solid just yet but I just don’t trust these two.”

It wasn’t quite a lead but Taeyeon believes she needs to keep a close eye on them. She opens the documents and begins to thoroughly study them while Soonkyu supplied her with other data she might need.

On their desk read the files of Choi Sooyoung and Kim Hyoyeon. Taeyeon started suspecting them when she found out the two girls were part of an infamous sorority— Zeta Tau Alpha. Which coincidentally threw parties left and right.

One of which was the last party Jang Wooyoung attended, their first deceased victim that brought the force into this case. The autopsies revealed a drug overdose from H.S.F. which the higher ups suspected were distributed at the party.

Unfortunately, they haven’t been successful in trying to acquire the drug. No one on campus seem to even know what H.S.F. was. Taeyeon was hoping that the party would give them more clues.

So Taeyeon’s suspicion wasn’t totally unfounded. Even if she did feel slightly jealous that Yuri seemed to have struck a friendship with the possibly guilty party. It was also reason enough why Taeyeon gathered information behind her partner’s back.

She felt remorseful, this wasn’t how partners were supposed to act. They were supposed to work together. Taeyeon sighs, feeling an impending headache. She’ll tell Yuri someday, just not today.

--

Taeyeon’s head felt like it was going to implode any time soon. She didn’t know if was because of the lack of sleep from reading the files Soonkyu provided her or because of the trepidation of having so many people around her.

College parties could be recounted in two simple words— crowd and alcohol. One of them Taeyeon wasn’t fond of. It was pretty obvious which was which.

While it seemed like Taeyeon didn’t fit this scene at all, Yuri on the other hand did much better. If she was being objective, it seemed like Yuri fit university life better than her.

The younger girl stood by her promise and stuck to Taeyeon’s side the whole time. But it wasn’t difficult to notice the pulsating excitement from her partner’s eyes so she tried to shoo her away but Yuri wouldn’t relent.

“Scout’s honor Taeng,” she said as she figuratively crossed her heart with her finger. “I promised to be your bodyguard and protect you from your social anxiety.”

“That wasn’t the promise Yul… and I don’t think it works that way.”

Yuri huffs. “Even so, a promise is a promise.”

Taeyeon was about to argue further but a loud, booming voice cut her off.

“Yuri!” Taeyeon swore she’s never heard anyone pronounce her best friend’s name like that, she thought as she eyed the newcomer who was swiftly heading their way.

“Tiffany! Hi!” Scratch that newcomer title, Yuri seemed to be well acquainted with the girl.

“Glad I finally found you,” the Tiffany girl paused and finally noticed the presence of the quiet blonde girl. “TaeTae!” She visibly beamed.

“TaeTae?”

To say that Taeyeon was confused would be an understatement but Yuri didn’t seem to agree as she sat back down on the couch curling with boisterous laughter, not at all being helpful to her confusion.

The not-so-stranger then lit up in understanding. “Oh right sorry, I’m Tiffany, Jessi’s roommate and best friend. We would have met sooner but circumstances always seem to not be in our favor.” She said it all with a really pretty smile that seemed to keep growing.

Taeyeon didn’t know what to say so she remained quiet, still trying to understand the whole situation (TaeTae? Seriously, what the ?). Until she recalled the words roommate and Jessi— “As in Jessica Jung?” She questioned to which Tiffany eagerly nodded her head at.

A lightbulb figuratively lit up above the blonde’s head. “You’re Jessica’s pink monster of a roommate,” Taeyeon exclaimed out loud, pointing to the other girl.

Tiffany huffed at the term. “Now I know I have an affinity to pink more than the average person—“

“What do you mean more than the average? It’s an addiction, Steph.” Taeyeon knew that voice, she admittedly dreamt of it too.

Pink monster turned toward the newcomer with a scoff. “We’ve talked about this Jessi. If we’re discussing addictions, it’s your love for sleep!” Jessica simply snickers, like this was a completely normal occurrence. “And you can’t disagree with me when you’re the one late right now because you overslept!”

“What can I say,” Jessica shrugged, “if I learned anything from med school, it was to have eight hours of sleep everyday.”

“But you sleep for thirt—“ Tiffany was rapidly cut off by Jessica’s palm.

“Anyways, hi Yuri…” the shift in Jessica’s voice was audible, a little gentler, “hel