A/N: I got really excited to post this one, because the update that was meant for the original work is here (and the added revisions made to the last chapter I left this story on before the rewrite), so now we're back on track and finally making progress this time :D

Btw, this is where the other characters start being introduced. But we'll see the rest of the team a bit later on, along with honorable mentions.

**edits/revisions made as of 6/22/2021.

7:21:58 AM

May 4, Tuesday

When Minnie came to almost two hours later, she’s a bit disoriented and confused about her surroundings. But once her vision cleared up, Minnie notices that she’s back at her apartment. Lying in her bed with a fluffy blanket tucked below neck.

I’m… home? She thought, baffled. How in the world did I—?

Her brain slowly fills in the blanks for Minnie, and her expression turns sour.

Oh, right. Yuqi knows where she lives.

“That giant, twisted .” She grumbled under her breath before looking around. She better not have messed with my things, or I’m attacking her with an umbrella.

The familiar white walls of her bedroom are the first thing Minnie sees. Then the pictures and other memorabilia that have been clipped onto a grid board above her tidy work desk, her open closet and wardrobe, the keyboard piano propped on its stand by the corner, her succulent plants sitting on a shelf rack by the curtained window… and her chest harness that is neatly placed at the foot of her bed.

Checking herself immediately, she’s once again relieved to see that her uniform is still in the same state as it was when she had first woken up in the cabin. And this thought is shortly followed by Minnie realizing that she had passed out for the second time in a span of a single morning.

“Ugh.” The cop palmed her face. “Seriously, Min. Get your together.” She berates herself. “You can’t be unconscious around some homicidal maniac!”

Speaking of, where the Hell is Yuqi anyway?

“Yuqi?” Minnie called out through the open doorway of her room. Blanket thrown aside as she goes to swing her legs off the side of her bed and trudge out into the hallway. “Yuqi, are you here?”

Poking her head around the corner, she finds the main room empty—save for a yellow duffel bag unlike the one she had seen in the cabin plopped on her couch.

“Where did she even go…?” Minnie muttered to herself, frowning.

After making sure that she’s alone, Minnie takes a few wary steps over and cautiously s the bag with bated breath. Then sighs out loud when she finds just a stack of folded clothes inside with a lighter and a pack of cigarettes on top, the jade-green dragon mask next to a pair of black gloves similar to the ones Yuqi had worn during the warehouse ambush (that giant er—), some bandages and pills, and three different knives with a couple of their blades wrapped in cloth.

Curiosity gets the best of her as she picks up the strangest looking knife she’s ever seen, which almost resembled shears with the two handles attached to the blade’s tang by pins. Upon closer inspection, Minnie discovers that the drilled handles have grooves in them.

This is new… Her eyebrows furrow as she scrutinizes it more. Unaware of the creeping presence that is slinking behind her. “At least none of her stuff is covered in blood.”

Cold fingers touch the skin of her neck, gripping it loosely.

“What are you up to, little mouse?” A low voice purred into her ear, and Minnie jumps in shock.

“Jesus!” She almost drops the knife when she spun around, coming face-to-face with Yuqi as the giant looks down at her in amusement. Jacket now gone along with her clothes from the previous night, which have been swapped for a pair of dark joggers and a white tee. Yuqi had even changed out of her boots and into a pair of comfy slip-ons with her feet clad in socks.

“You—Where did you come from?!” Minnie bristled.

“The kitchen.” Yuqi said simply, her gaze drifting down to the weapon clutched in Minnie’s hands. “I see you found my favorite knife.”

For a moment, Minnie panicked. She assumed that Yuqi wouldn’t be too happy with her for not only going through her things without permission, but also because she has a ing knife on her and Yuqi might get the wrong idea that the cop was up to something.

However, Yuqi doesn’t react beyond just gently taking the knife from Minnie and turning it over in her grasp.

“In the Philippines, this is called a balisong or the Batangas knife. Though, it’s more generally referred to as the butterfly knife.” Yuqi explained. “They’re traditionally crafted in the Taal province and sold by dealers there, and the blade’s quality is usually tested by hacking it into a one-peso coin. It’s said that if the tip doesn’t break and delivers a hole on the coin, then you got a solid piece of Batangas knife in your possession.”

With a flick of the wrist, Yuqi flips the blade in and out and around her fingers using a series of impeccable hand movements that she had mastered perfectly. Minnie was instantly mesmerized. Fascinated by her prowess of twirling the sharpened blade and the handles around while they danced between her fingers without so much as nicking her once.

Yuqi steps back a little to avoid cutting Minnie by accident, and the Thai lets out a gasp when she tosses the spinning knife in the air before catching it flawlessly by the handles. Holding it in a reverse grip with the flat of the blade facing upwards.

“How did you do that?!” Minnie was amazed, her expression awestruck. “That was incredible!”

Her inner knife geek is showing, and Yuqi chuckles at the childlike enthusiasm in her sparkling eyes. She finds it adorable, her cute officer.

“Just a lot of practice and technique. It’s fairly easy once you get used to the feeling.” Flicking her wrist once more, Yuqi snaps the knife shut just as smoothly by flipping it again until the handles closed around the blade. Nestling it inside their grooves with a latch locking them in place. “They’re like pocketknives, but a lot more dangerous.”

Yuqi sets it aside in her bag and turns back to Minnie, smiling. “When I start training you, I’ll teach you how to wield one. But for now,” She ruffles her scarlet hair, and Minnie’s face pinches into a scowl. “I’ll go prepare breakfast for us. How does bacon and eggs sound?”

“What—”

She doesn’t wait for an answer and just proceeds to move around her kitchen like she owned the damn place. Yuqi feels right at home, and Minnie feels her blood pressure about to rise through the ceiling. But she takes a deep breath, counts to ten, then exhales right after to calm herself down. Minnie is stressed enough as it is. She doesn’t need to have a this early in the morning, no matter how much she wants to scream in frustration.

Just roll with it, Min. It’s only temporary.

With a resigned grunt, Minnie joins Yuqi in the kitchen and wordlessly sits at the dining table. She can tolerate this… living arrangement, so long as Yuqi behaves herself and doesn’t screw around in her home.

She observes Yuqi from the back as the giant scours her fridge for a carton of eggs and packaged bacon, the cupboards for a small skillet and a spatula, then places them all on the countertop by the stove before going over to the coffee maker and starting it up. Yuqi must’ve familiarized herself with the kitchen while Minnie was still unconscious, and the Thai feels annoyed all over again.

“How long are you planning to stare, sweetheart?”

Yuqi’s smile is evident in her tone as she switches on the gas burners to start cooking. This has Minnie shifting her gaze elsewhere while her cheeks flush mildly in embarrassment.

“So, how are we going to stop these masked killers?” It was an obvious attempt to change the topic, but Yuqi replies to her anyway.

“In time, I’ll tell you. I trust that you know the basics of self-defense, given your job as a police officer. But that won’t be enough to guarantee your survival against those sickos.” Yuqi places a couple bacon strips on the hot skillet, then cracks open a few eggs to fry alongside them before grabbing the spatula. “You can’t even handle a rotting corpse. If you fainted from just seeing one, imagine disposing of it.”

“It was the smell! I can’t handle the smell!” Minnie argued as she threw her hands up, agitated. “Plus, dealing with dead, already decaying bodies isn’t part of our job description!”

Yuqi laughs through her nose. “No need to hide your discomfort, not all cops can handle the nasty stuff. That’s why I’m here to help you.” She said, a simper on her dry lips.

“So, like… you’re going to train me to become a better cop or something?” Minnie asked, taking the empty mug Yuqi later offers to her.

“Precisely.”

Minnie lets that sink in for a moment. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try…

“Fine, whatever. The department didn’t get to train us properly because of all the disappearances. They’re pretty much hiring anyone to help with the investigations when the cases for missing people grew higher.”

“No wonder I got your wacky friends bleeding so easily.” Yuqi sounded pleased with herself as she grabs the pot of freshly-brewed coffee and walks back to the table. Minnie’s expression hardens into a deep frown as her lips flattened in displeasure.

“Thanks to you, they’re likely in hospital beds right now.” She glares at the giant who is calmly pouring coffee into her mug. “You could’ve talked to us, but no. You prefer to hurt others for your own sadistic satisfaction.”

Yuqi takes a casual sip straight from the pot. She didn’t even flinch nor make a noise when her tongue comes into contact with the scalding liquid, besides smacking her lips obnoxiously afterwards.

“You’re not wrong, sweetheart. Except they pointed their guns at me.” A cloud of steam floats through her lips when she lets out a small belch. It’s nowhere near disturbing, yet it unnerved Minnie all the same. “And if I asked you to come with me, would you though?”

Minnie chewed on the inside of her bottom lip. The answer was obvious, and Yuqi had a point.

“N-No…” She reluctantly admits. “But you still didn’t have to hurt them like that.”

The other girl barks out a laugh.

“Ah, my little mouse. You have a big heart, but such a tiny brain!”

Placing the pot down, Yuqi leans over to grasp Minnie’s chin between her index and thumb. “You’re so nice. Too nice for your own good.” Her fingers dig lightly into soft skin, which urges Minnie to tense up. “You’re making yourself an easy target to eliminate.”

With a tightened jaw, the cop bolts up to her feet. The action causing her chair to skid backwards with a screech as she peels Yuqi’s hand off and slams it down on the table hard. The surface rattles from the force, so much so that a splash of coffee ends up spilling over from Minnie’s mug.

“Listen, Yuqi, I get it. Those s murdered your family and you want revenge. You’re angry, hurt, and resentful because of what they did, but that’s no excuse to hurt others!” She rebuked harshly. “Don’t be the kind of monster you say they are!”

Minnie hoped that her words would knock some sense into Yuqi’s messed-up brain. But instead, Yuqi just cracks up even more—dark and abrasive—as if Minnie had insinuated something so preposterous about her.

“I will never become those pathetic rats.” She asserts, sliding her hand out from Minnie’s faltering grip. “I’ll be better than them. I’ll be the kind of monster they will all fear.”

Her voice is deep and even, but cold and sharp like the edge of a knife. It made the hair on the back of Minnie’s neck stand on end.

“However, since you want to spare their disgusting lives…” Her lips curl back into a depraved grin. Nothing like the signature toothy smile that Minnie has gotten accustomed to. “… I’ll just have to kill them elsewhere.”

Minnie feels her heart drop. “No! You can’t—!”

Yuqi interrupts her by raising a finger to her face. “Little one, please! You need to know how to deal with an infestation! Their minds are so blinded from the pleasure of murder, they’re not even considered human anymore!”

The smell of burning food assaulted their nostrils, and they both whipped their heads around to see the misty, white smoke puffing out from the skillet. Yuqi had forgotten about it.

“Huh. Were you cooking?” The giant slants her a curious gaze. If she didn’t look so honestly confused, Minnie would’ve thought that she was trolling with her.

Except she’s not.

“What?” Minnie stares back, wide-eyed and dumbfounded. “No, it—it was you!”

“Really now?” Yuqi taps her chin thoughtfully, then shakes her head. “That can’t be, I don’t remember cooking anything myself.” She points her thumb at the smoking pan. “You should definitely take care of that, though. It might burn the place down.”

Minnie is torn between being exasperated or bewildered by this weird shift in Yuqi, but she rushes to the stovetop anyway. Jamming the dial down to kill the flames quickly before they could burst the now-charred food on fire. She grimaces at the smoke wafting to her face and fans it with her hand, just as Yuqi tuts behind her.

“Tsk, tsk. Do you even know how to cook, dear?”

She glowered at Yuqi from over her shoulder, though a look of uncertainty crossed her face. She’s aware of the girl’s erratic behavior and sudden mood swings, but how come Yuqi doesn’t remember ever cooking in the first place?

“What are you talking about?” Minnie is baffled. “You’re the one who left it to burn!”

Yuqi leans against the table’s edge, arms folded across her chest as she tips her head slightly.

“Is that so?” She puts a hand on her forehead and rubs it a few times. Like she was trying to get the gears in her head working again. “Oh, honeybun. I really can’t recall. My brain’s not cooperating with me today, sadly.”

The cop has half the mind to march over and knock a few loose screws back in place, but one look at Yuqi shows that she’s equally—if not more—clueless as Minnie.

“Yuqi, I swear to God, don’t with me right now.” Minnie warned, although her voice wavers upon noticing how the giant’s eye twitched.

Something’s not right…

“Goodness, no sugarpie. I’m as serious as my family’s death.” Yuqi insists with a sardonic grin.

It’s a grim and humorless attempt at a morbid joke, which doesn’t quell much of Minnie’s anxious concerns. She goes to approach her, but then stops when something red catches her attention. A thin line of blood dribbles out from Yuqi’s nose, and the mere sight of it has multiple alarms bells going off in her head.

“Man, trying to remember stuff is making my brain all itchy.” A throaty laugh is heard as Yuqi scratches her temple, a lazy smile on her lips as she remains completely unfazed by the blood dripping over them. “It hurts a lot, actually…”

“T-Then stop remembering!” Minnie waved her hands frantically, unable to hide her panic.

She grows even more unsettled by the blood as it slides down Yuqi’s chin and onto her shirt. Staining the white fabric with a dark splotch bigger than the size of a button. Yuqi showed no reaction, whatsoever, and her grey eyes have this glazed look in them that doesn’t sit well with Minnie.

Her own eyes trail up to the giant’s face, and she notices how detached Yuqi is in that moment. Her faraway gaze stares at nothing in particular, and her perpetual smile has been replaced by a flat line.

Yuqi seems… disconnected from the present. Like her mind just drifted away and left her body sitting behind.

“… Yuqi?” Minnie sounds hesitant, uncertain even, but concerned nonetheless. She tentatively reaches her in measured steps. “Yuqi, come on. Snap out of it. This isn’t funny anymore.” She asserts more strongly this time, expecting it to work.

No response.

Unsettled, Minnie snaps her fingers in front of Yuqi’s face a few times. Still no reaction.

“Okay, this is some crazy . But it’s getting annoying.” Minnie speaks up after repeated attempts at trying to pull Yuqi out from her catatonic state. She had tapped her cheeks, shaken her by the shoulders, and even did an air-punch to the nose in hopes that it would make her flinch at least. Nothing.

A sigh of frustration. What do I do now?

Searching her kitchen helplessly, she spots the roll of paper towels by the sink. Considering how Yuqi is far too out of it to be bothered with cleaning up her bleeding nose, Minnie takes it upon herself to tear off a piece before turning back to the passive Yuqi.

With careful hands, Minnie lifts Yuqi’s head by the chin and proceeds to clean off the mess from her face. Her fingers dabbing gently at the blood that’s sticking to Yuqi’s skin and the excess that fell out. While she did this, Yuqi kept obediently still and quiet. Her steady breaths feel tingly against the edge of Minnie’s fingers as she worked away, but Yuqi showed no signs of stopping the cop from her task and just continued staring off ahead. Glassy-eyed, and strangely docile.

After a moment of awkward silence, Minnie breathes heavily while thinking about what she’s going to say next. Hoping yet again that Yuqi, in some way, would be able to acknowledge it in her current mind state.

“Listen, this whole thing is… it’s very complicated for me.” She wearily admits, layers of exhaustion surfacing in her voice to reflect the burden that’s been dropped on her shoulders. “I don’t understand you at all. I know we’ve just met, but I feel so overwhelmed by everything. You’ve told me so much, and yet… it’s like I’m facing this huge iceberg without knowing how deep it really goes.”

Minnie stares up at the unresponsive giant and feels her insides squirming restlessly when those dull greys fixed onto her. But admittedly, a part of her is relieved to know that Yuqi is finally paying attention this time.

“I can’t exactly blame you for acting this way. I get it, you’ve been through a lot already. It’s way too much for one person to handle, but I honestly don’t know how to deal with stuff like this. I really want to understand you, Yuqi, so can you just help me out here? Please?”

Still no reply.

Sighing once more, Minnie balls up the used tissue, grabs a new one from the roll, and swipes it over the fresh trail of blood that managed to escape.

“I don’t know why you picked me from everyone else. Surely, there’s more to it than just you needing a reliable cop. But for some reason… I feel thankful. You didn’t see me as a threat and even trusted me enough to disclose all this information to me. Even the sensitive ones. So, thank you for that…”

Maybe it’s the compassion in her, or the pity she felt upon comprehending the trauma Yuqi had gone through—losing her family and being forced to witness their murders—which compelled Minnie to offer up a soft smile as she suggested an idea for them.

“You know what? Let’s also look for your family. Give them a beautiful garden as a resting place so you can visit them whenever you want. We can even plant them flowers, if you like.”

Yuqi’s head moves back a tad. It’s a miniscule amount, but an action nevertheless. Minnie perks up immediately, but then squares her shoulders when Yuqi scrunches her face while opens slightly.

“Ah…” And, in a moment that seems so anticlimactic for Minnie, the giant lets out a huge sneeze. “Achoo!”

Stray drops of blood come spurting out that, quite appallingly, land on her face when Yuqi covers her nose a second too late. “Geez!” Minnie’s eyes are shut as she rubs at them with a fist, which accidentally smears the blood in a few places. “Yuqi, what the Hell?!”

As if her earlier dissociation never happened at all, Yuqi wipes her nose using the back of her palm and reverts back to her normal carefree behavior as she leans in with a bright smile.

“Sweetheart! How did you like the bacon and—” She pauses mid-sentence upon noticing the specks of blood on Minnie’s peeved face. “Sweetheart, why are you bleeding?” Yuqi asked, blissfully unaware of the stress and confusion Minnie had to deal with because of her.

“I’m not. It’s your blood.” Minnie shoots the giant a crossed look after cleaning off the mess with her sleeve.

“Oh, dear.” Yuqi cants her head to one side. “Did I do something, officer?”

“Yeah, you did. You freaked me out!” Minnie fumed, clearly ticked off by her absent-mindedness. “What was that about? You were pretty much brain-dead all of a sudden!”

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.” Yuqi repeats while giggling, a hand over her eyes as the corner of her lips curled up into a crooked smile. “I’m so sorry. Excuse my twisted noggin’. It’s my condition, you see. It triggers randomly and makes me forget things that happened, but I’m not sure. I don’t understand it myself either.”

“O-Oh.” Minnie says this time, feeling a touch disappointed. I guess that means she didn’t hear anything I said…

At this new bit of information, she’s certain that Yuqi has no recollection of what Minnie had told her during her dissociative state. And the cop is further discouraged by the fact that she had sufficiently wasted her time talking to a brick wall.

“I have no idea what I do whenever it triggers, so I documented myself to record my actions.” Yuqi then procures a silver flash drive from her pocket, which she holds up for Minnie to see. “I keep it all in this tiny USB, 24 hours per video!”

Minnie stares at it with interest. “Can I watch?”

Chuckling, the taller girl pockets the flash drive before patting Minnie’s head. “Not yet, my curious little mouse, but soon.”

A knock on the door grabs their attention, and Minnie turns her head to the entrance.

“I wonder who could that be.”

Yuqi, having pushed herself away from the table, appears by Minnie’s side in a flash. And it takes approximately three seconds for Minnie to realize that Yuqi has grabbed a kitchen knife from the rack and is heading straight for the door. How she had gotten it so quickly isn’t in the forefront of Minnie’s mind right now, because her biggest concern at the moment is getting Yuqi to drop it.

“What is wrong with you?! Put the knife away!”

“But what if it’s an ambush?”

“Yuqi, for ’s sake! Quit it!”

“I’m just being careful, sweetheart. Better to be safe than sorry.”

“I will stab you with that knife myself if you don’t behave! Now drop it!”

“Alright, alright. No need to be so violent.”

Their voices are muffled behind the door, which shortly swings open to reveal Minnie standing in front of Yuqi as she blocks the giant from possibly tackling the poor girl. (At least she got rid of the knife in time.)

“Hiya, unnie!” Lee Chaeryeong, her trusted landlord, beamed as she bows her head.

“Hey, Chae.” Minnie greets back with a tired, but friendly smile. “What brings you here?”

“Just checkin’ on one of my favorite tenants.” Chaeryeong gives her an apologetic look. “Also, I wanted to say sorry about your dog. I planted some chrysanthemum flowers for poor Hyukkie, so I hope you don’t mind.”

Minnie feels lost. “My dog…?” She parrots, just as Yuqi’s hand goes up to her chin and forces her jaw shut.

“Great choice of flowers, Chae.” Yuqi interjects right before Minnie could question the younger girl about it. “I’m sure Hyukkie would’ve loved rolling in them. Thank you.”

“Of course! Anything for Minnie-unnie and her girlfriend.” Chaeryeong casually said.

Something like glass shatters in Minnie’s head as her thoughts grind to halt.

“Girl-ing-what?”

Her outburst is muffled by Yuqi covering to effectively shut her up. They can’t blow their cover now.

“Shhh, it’s just our disguise.” She whispers into her ear while Chaeryeong goes off on a tangent about the flowers and the shop she had bought them from. “Your landlord won’t let me inside unless we’re linked in some way. But I’d rather be someone who’s much, much closer to you.”

Minnie’s glare is downright venomous as she grunts beneath her palm, finding Yuqi’s smirk to be absolutely infuriating.

“By the way, Minnie-unnie, one of your friends back at the station called in last night and said you were missing. I think it was either Miyeon-unnie or Soojin-unnie who told me, I forgot.” Chaeryeong adds while scratching her cheek. “I actually thought Yuqi was the culprit when she just walked in this morning while carrying you.”

She smiles sheepishly at the giant. “Sorry about that, Wooks. If you hadn’t shown me proof, I would’ve called the cops.”

A hundred different questions are spinning through Minnie’s brain right now. Wooks? Proof?

She scrutinizes Yuqi with a narrowed glare as the latter waves off the comment with a good-natured laugh. “Haha, yeah.” Yuqi removes her hand from Minnie’s mouth, loops her arm around the shorter girl’s shoulders and tugs her into a side-hug. “We look really cute together, don’t we?”

Chaeryeong nods along eagerly. “Sure do!”

With a tightened jaw, Minnie stretches her hand to Yuqi. “Show me.” She demands.

Yuqi obliged and passes over her phone to the cop after unlocking it, and Minnie wastes no time scrolling through the gallery it was opened to and scanning the pictures with a critical eye. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Most of them were just photos of landscapes overlooking the horizon, like trees and rivers and cityscapes, with a handful of selcas that Yuqi had taken herself. Some with face masks, others with a cap or a beanie as she smiled at the camera.

Towards the end of the album, however, two pictures stood out from the rest because of how fast Minnie’s expression pales once she has opened them.

The first image showed Minnie fast asleep on what appears to be a public bus with her head resting on Yuqi’s shoulder. Yuqi herself is wrapped in a dark jacket similar to the one she had worn the night before, along with a white cap and a black face mask as she posed for the photo with smiling eyes and her hand cradling Minnie’s head.

“Wait a minute…” The Thai faltered, staring at the picture in a mix of comic shock and disbelief.

“I was escorting you back home from work, sweetheart. You were so tired that you fell asleep as soon as you sat down!” Yuqi chimes in while peering over her shoulder.

Minnie doesn’t recall ever seeing Yuqi or any signs of her presence in any of the commutes (granted, she never bothered to look long enough at the faces of other people and fellow passengers during her trips) and oftentimes took naps going to and from her workplace. But the fact that Yuqi had managed to find her and slip into her seat for this picture while she was napping is beyond presumptuous at most.

The second image was much more unsettling, however, and Minnie didn’t know whether to freak out or punch the living daylights out of Yuqi for it.

She’s still sleeping in this one, no difference there. Except now, the setting is inside her bedroom during the middle of the night—based on how dark it is and the limited light source coming from a lamp in the corner—with Minnie tucked into Yuqi’s side, hand curled against her chest as she laid down with her forehead pressed against Yuqi’s neck.

Again, the other girl is smiling here and has her cheek nestled into Minnie’s red hair as she winks towards the camera poised above them with her outstretched arm.

“Oh, I remember this one! You drank so much that night when you were watching that boring movie, you dozed off on the couch and I had to carry you back to bed.” Yuqi fills in happily. “You’re pretty lightweight when it comes to alcohol, sweetheart. Maybe you should tone it down a notch.”

Minnie’s mind is spiraling like crazy. H-How…? When?

Then she recalls that same night when she treated herself to soju after a particularly long day of handling paperwork and being assigned to the ungodly task of patrol duty with Soyeon. Minnie helped herself to three bottles before her body decided to tap out, and she had woken up in her bed the next morning with little recollection of the night before.

She vividly remembers being in the main room watching a romance film Miyeon suggested to her (it was very boring) when she out, but simply chalked it up to sleep-walking or her drunk-self having slugged her way under the blanket sometime after. Though, Minnie never really figured out whether or not her balcony doors were left unlocked by her own doing…

Now she knows why.

“After all, I’ve been watching you everywhere and every day. You can’t escape me, sweetheart.” Yuqi’s words echoed in her mind.

“You’re a twisted, ing creep.” Minnie hissed, enraged by Yuqi’s presumption as she twinkles down at the cop with a veil of innocence.

“Seems like everything’s gay and okay here!” Chaeryeong flashes up an ok-sign while Minnie, who is too busy fending away Yuqi’s persistent lips by pushing her face back, deletes the two incriminating photos out of existence—or so, she thought.

Yuqi doesn’t stop her at all. Not when she’s aware that every photo goes straight to the trash and won’t be permanently erased until thirty days. But she doesn’t tell Minnie that, obviously.

“Guess I don’t need to call the police anymore since you’re fine now, unnie. Good things Wooks cleared up the air for me before I could, or you wouldn’t have enough rest from all the cop blabbers.” Chaeryeong joked. “Thanks for saving my tenant’s , by the way! Also, what’s that red spot on your shirt?”

Pointing at the blood stain on Yuqi’s collar, the giant looks down with a hum. “Oh, it’s just ketchup.”

“Eh?”

Before Chaeryeong could further question it, Yuqi suddenly removes her shirt in front of the two without any shame whatsoever. A blush erupts on Chaeryeong’s face as she voices her surprise, and Minnie tries not to facepalm while her cheeks flush a little at the sight.

Beneath her loose clothes, Yuqi is modestly fit. The subtle, lean muscles move beneath Yuqi’s taut skin, and the outlines of her well-defined midriff are on display for both girls to see. She isn’t very packed up there, by any means, but she certainly filled that sports bra out.

Look away, look away! The rational part of Minnie’s brain screams at her, and she swiftly averts her gaze to the side while clearing out loud.

“You, um… just leave it in the laundry.” Minnie coughs into her fist, looking a bit pink.

Yuqi gives her a thumbs-up. “Okey-dokey!” She chirped before heading back inside the apartment.

“Damn, unnie.” Chaeryeong can’t stop staring at Yuqi’s receding form. “Have you guys gone down on each other y—”

“No. I will die a , Chaeryeong.” Minnie deadpanned.

“You can never be so sure, sweetheart!” Yuqi sing-songs from behind her, and it takes everything in Minnie not to flip her the bird. Watch me, you creepy bastard.

“Well then, I’ll just be downstairs if you need me.” Chaeryeong smiles once more, waving her hand as she prepares to leave. “Hope your girlfriend enjoys the apartment! And she’s welcome to drop by the café downstairs and mingle with the owners anytime, I’m sure Wooks will love them!”

“Oh, I’m certain she will too. Thank you so much, Chae.” Minnie returns it with a honeyed smile of her own as she says her goodbye, shuts the door gently afterwards, then turns to Yuqi’s direction with an almost indecipherable look on her face.

“Yuqi,” Minnie starts in an overly calm voice before her expression changes into one of pure outrage. “What. The. Actual. ?!”