An hour and a half after the group had their midnight snack – or dinner for Joohyun and Seungwan’s case – Saeron watched with amusement as her girlfriend clumsily cleaned up the coffee table, consistently flicked on the forehead by Seulgi and Sunmi for pretending to help when she’s actually just rushing to get started with the booze she bought.

Saeron noticed how the chaotic display that is her girlfriend brought out an uplifting mood to Joohyun’s apartment, the latter’s mouth quirked up in the corner trying to contain her laughter as she leaned on Seungwan with both hands placed on her lap.

There’s no point in delaying the inevitable now, Saeron thought, sighing as she called out to Joohyun.

“Unnie,” the older girl looked up, comprehension clear on her eyes as she nodded back at her, resolution to get beyond this case etched in the furrow of her eyebrows.

Seungwan looked at the silent exchange between the two of them, rubbing Joohyun’s shoulder for attention which the older responded with ‘I’ll be back’ and ‘I’ll be okay’ to Seungwan’s concerned look. She patted the hand on her lap, for assurance and for courage – assurance that she’ll be okay, and courage to face the interrogation.

Joohyun stood up as she cleared , not expecting the sudden attention her friends throw her way, she blushed a bit before shaking her head, “We can use my room,” she said, words directed to Saeron who only nodded her head about to follow Joohyun.

Saeron felt a hand tugged at her dress-shirt, turning around as she noticed Yeri’s worried look, she smiled at her girlfriend, bending down to peck her on the nose, “I’ll only ask a few essential questions, babe, don’t worry,” she said as if asking for understanding from Yeri, who nodded her head at her. She ruffled Yeri’s head playfully which earned her an annoyed huff, laughing as she ran away before her girlfriend could retaliate.

“Seungwan unnie,” Yeri called out, after hearing the door to Joohyun’s room closed, staring at her with a knowing look, “Did you bring the memory card?”

Seungwan smirked lazily at Yeri, a bit of her ego inflated maybe when they talked about what she did to the man Bogum sent to follow her around, “Yeah, should we start now?”

“I told Saeron before dinner to take her time with the interrogation, we need about an hour at most to get all throughout the station’s database after filtering the necessary evidences we could give anonymously.”

Sunmi placed her ‘babies’ on the table after its cleared of the food they had earlier, patting her laptop – a habit born out of this thrilling chase of a hobby – murmuring encouraging words like “Let’s do this baby, just relax, let’s not rush, you’re great, yes, you are” to it as she connected the cords.

Joy looked at her weirdly, telling Sunmi that, “Unnie, you really should find a real person to call ‘baby,” who ignored the jibe.

“Unnie, don’t bother her! She needs that like Reveluvs chanting ‘Zimzalabim’ to summon Red Velvet,” Yeri mildly berated Joy, to which the latter just rolled her eyes at.

“Should we say ‘Zimzalabim’ then or do we drink some liquid courage to get this underway?” Seulgi mused, pursing her lips at the bickering duo, making Seungwan laugh. They all looked at Seungwan, who can’t seem to stop her laughter. Maybe lack of sleep and the worry finally did a number to her, making her lose some screw on her noggin. 

She finally calmed when she noticed the girls reaction to her outburst, Seungwan wiped the tears that escaped from her eyes, “Sorry guys,” she chuckled, looking at each of their faces with a smile, “I’m just glad you’re here. It means a lot to me.”

Yeri sniffed, unable to contain that soft flutter in her chest at Seungwan’s words, she clapped loudly to snap them out, “Tsk, we’re Joohyun unnie’s friends, unnie. Of course, we’d be here!” she confidently said, with a smirk thrown at her.

“Okay! Drink up first, unnie!” they didn’t notice Joy already opened the bottle, mixing the drink while they talked about this cringe-worthy things, handing the glass to Seungwan, who gladly chugged it down like she’s been in the desert all this while.

Sunmi shook her head at them, mirth dancing in her eyes at all the girls’ antics. Looks like they need only one person to be sober and actually do the hard work, she thought. She almost missed the glass dangled in front of her, looking at the object towards the hand holding it and to the grinning bear in front of her.

“No one’s exempted, unnie,” Seulgi said, eyes disappearing into a smile, along with her lips. Sunmi thought, she’s been shaking her head a lot when she’s with this bunch, as she accepted the glass, taking a sip from it like its warm nectar.

Are they really gonna hack into a government-owned facility, leave unlawful evidences, and get away with it faster than Luvies could say ‘Zimzalabim’? 

Or are they just gonna eat and drink and get drunk and wasted until Joohyun and Saeron kick their asses for partying without them?

‘Ah, whatever,’ Joy thought, chuckling at Yeri and Sunmi fighting over a bottle of Yakult when there’s five unopened bottles in the table.

She felt a warm body lean on her side, Joy turned her head to see Seungwan with a soft smile on her face, looking at the bantering duo in front of them, “Thank you so much, Soo,” she’s heard her say that so many times but the flutter never went away, so before she could tear up and say sappy things she’ll regret, she nudged her shoulder strong enough to topple Seungwan out of the couch.

That stopped the duo from their banter, Seulgi scrambling up to help Seungwan who only laughed out loud, not minding the mild pain in her bum.

And yeah, maybe they all laughed along, too.

They need that, after all, they’re gonna tread dangerous grounds in a while.

***

Joohyun stared at the closed door, ears catching that distinct laughter followed several different others like a choral at church. She’s so curious at what they’re laughing about and probably more emphasis on the curios part to that one distinct laughter. 

She wants to see her laugh.

She wants to see Seungwan laugh.

Not just hear the muffled ‘Haha’s’ with a door between them. She wants to be there with her, beside her, next to her, in front her, anywhere but with he— Saeron coughed, making her look and away from the swirl of thoughts that she fell into just hearing Seungwan laugh.

“I know there was no need for me to conduct this interrogation,” Saeron started, “I mean, Yeri told me about what happened years ago and the recent one,” staring at Joohyun with concern and understanding, “and you’re as much as my friend as you are to Yeri, unnie. And if you could tell me more that I haven’t known, then please help me out, so we could lock up the guy w-who .. did this to you.”

If  Joohyun heard that slight break in Saeron’s voice, she didn’t show it.

“He bribed the guard, the lobby attendant, I don’t know who else he used his money to, but h-he … he got inside this building and into my floor,” Joohyun stared at Saeron, exhaustion marring her face, resignation clear on her tone.

“The team who got here arrested the two employees, they’re now under custody. You don’t have to worr—“

“I’m not worried about them, ‘Ron!”

Saeron stared at her, surprised at her outburst, “I—I’m not worried about them at all. I just … I just didn’t want this to happen again,” Joohyun hang her head, fingers on her lap fidgeting, nervous at the thought of another episode of Bogum visiting her once again.

“And we’ll make sure of that, unnie,” she looked up to Saeron’s words and the assurance as she held her hand, “we’ll make sure of that.”

They talked more about the first time Joohyun met Bogum, from the harassment in her office years ago, to the photoshopped nudes sent to everyone in her office a few weeks ago, until the visitation that happened a few hours ago. Surprisingly, Joohyun didn’t appear as shaken as she was before, providing bravely the statements with minute pause in her words, trudging through her memory bank with valiant effort for the case.

“Seungwan-sshi, was stalked by one of Bogum’s men, did you know about that?”

Joohyun nodded her head, “Yes, but she never told me the full stor—“ she stopped when she noticed the beaming smile on Saeron’s face, confused why the you