A/N: Hi everyone, so this isn’t any new thought but I wanted to try and write this because the idea was nagging at me again to go for it, and so we have Private Investigator Kim Yerim who is asked by one Park Sooyoung with help in finding her missing wife, and so Yerim is on the case to help, but can she help with becoming too personally involved, sounds interesting, I think so, enjoy, Happy Joyri Day

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Cases were slow for Kim Yerim, which was a bit unusual for the blonde-haired private investigator who was used to at least some sort of work, whether it be wives coming into find out information on cheating husbands, someone trying to locate a missing person, or in some cases working with the police on special assignment, and in short the woman was bored. She reached for a strawberry lollipop out of the candy jar on her desk and just as she was about to open the wrapper her assistant knocked on her door.

“Boss?” The cheerful brunette smiled. “I’ve got great news.”

“Oh, if it’s about my lunch order then please send it in because I am starved.” Yerim sighs, as she is actually hungry. If she can’t get any work assignments then Yerim surely could use some good news about her takeout she ordered almost a full hour ago.

“Um, no, but you do have a client! Shall I send her in.”

Yerim perks up some, hearing she has a client is good news since she was getting bored staring at old case files on her desk, or looking at the desk fan spinning back around back and forth on her desk.

“Sure, send her in, oh and bring her some tea or coffee, iced! Since the air conditioner isn’t working right now, you know again.”

“Right away, Ms. Kim.”

Yerim sighs and finally opens her lollipop. This is the second time in less than two months where the air conditioner isn’t working, and she hates greeting potential clients when there’s no ac, especially on particularly warm spring days like this. Fortunately, Yerim has built up a rather good reputation within her clientele that no one complains. The blonde is reaching for her lucky black leather-bound notebook, one where she always takes notes from the client in the beginning, it’s always been a sort of good luck charm for her, and she never begins any case without it, when the door opens again, only to reveal her assistance showing in a beautiful dark-haired woman.

The woman looks like an actress or a model, easily with her stunning looks, bright brown eyes are the first things that Yerim notices because although so clear, Yerim tells there’s sadness there too. Judging by her attire she has money, dressed well in a gorgeous red dress, expensive shoes, and trench coat, if the Chanel bag alone wasn’t enough to give it away.

“Ms. Kim, this is Park Sooyoung and she declined the tea and coffee, in fact she just wants…”

“I just want to talk to you, Ms. Kim.” The gorgeous woman speaks in what is this soft tone of voice that doesn’t quite match her slightly tall frame, but at the same time Yerim thinks it does sort of fit her face. “I’m sorry.” The woman, Sooyoung, smiles in apology to Yerim’s assistant. “I rushed over from work, so I’m eager to speak to the investigator.”

“O-Oh, of course. Well, boss, I’ll leave you to your meeting, if you need anything.”

“Yeah, my lunch order.”

“Right, I’ll let you know when that arrives.”
 

Yerim waits until her assistant leaves and sighs before leaning back against her comfortable leather chair. She hears a faint chuckle that makes her look up and over at the woman who is staring at her.

“Sorry about that, I get somewhat cranky when I’m hungry. Please sit down, Ms. Park.” She offers Sooyoung a seat in one of the other comfortable leather chairs, in the room where she conducts small business meetings with her potential clients, a coffee table set up for tea, or coffee, sometimes pastries too.

“Thank you,” The dark-haired woman smiles with a nod. “I heard from a friend that you are very good at your job, and so it’s my hope that you can find something that is most important to me.”

Yerim can’t imagine what could be important to this woman, who is probably very rich, and could have already hired tons of private investigators to find whatever it is she’s looking for, but then again people come look for all sorts of things, and Yerim isn’t the type to judge.

“What are you looking for, fancy painting, missing artefact?” 

The woman laughs. “No, nothing like that, more important.”

“What could be more important?”

“My wife.” Sooyoung admits. “I’d like for you to help me find my wife. She has been missing for some time now, and she means more to me than anything in the world.”

The blonde nearly drops her lollipop out of , she wasn’t quite expecting such a profound answer, certainly not the way Sooyoung speaks about her wife. Normally when Yerim is asked to look for people’s spouses it’s in cases of cheating, and never are the clients speaking fondly of their significant others. Sooyoung talks about her wife with love, longing, and it makes Yerim feel badly for this woman.

“I’m sorry.” Yerim squeezes her pen a bit too tight. “Can you tell me anything about her?”

Sooyoung pauses, with a sudden faraway look on her face. Yerim wonders for a second if she should ask her assistant to bring in tissues, then she wonders if her assistant even has tissues, , they need to think about these sorts of mundane things.

“Ms. Park, are you sure I can’t offer you any tea or coffee?”

“You know what, sure, thank you. I’ll have a cup of tea, lemon slices please, thank you.”

“Sugar?”

“Just honey.”

“Alright, I’ll be right back. I apologize for the lack of air conditioner too, I hope you don’t mind it iced for now.”

Yerim gets up and heads out to get the iced tea for Ms. Park in the kitchen area, where she ultimately decides to make herself another iced coffee, her second in the last hour. She prepares the iced tea just the way Ms. Park asked and when she returned she handed it over, only to see the dark-haired woman on her phone looking to be answering something important, possibly a business email of some type.

“Ms. Park, I’m ready to take notes now, when you are?”

Sooyoung looks up from her phone when she notices the coffee that Yerim sips from, but there’s also an empty glass sitting nearby too, judging by the looks of things the blonde probably not too long ago finished it.

“Too much coffee is bad for you, Ms. Kim.”

“What is she trying to do, be my mom.” Yerim mentally groans, the woman is clearly older than her, maybe early thirties to her late twenties. Still, Yerim is not the type to be rude to any client, even though some have been rude to her in her line of work. So far, Sooyoung isn’t being rude though.

“It’s a habit, I guess, anyway, please tell me about your wife? Do you have a photo, anything I could go in for my search to begin?”

“Yes,” Sooyoung nods, and goes into her bag to take out a photo of what appears to be a very pretty dark-brown haired woman, with bright eyes, somehow looks like an actress type too, so maybe Sooyoung has a type like herself, then again Yerim should not assume she has a type.

“Pretty.” Yerim comments. “Is she an actress too?”

“What makes you think I’m an actress?”

There is no real reason for Yerim to think that this woman is an actress, as of course she could be a businesswoman of some kind, an heiress even, or model, any of the above. Still, Yerim has this feeling the actress title fits her.

“Are you not?”

Sooyoung looks serious then, quite so that Yerim hopes she hasn’t offended the woman before she could even begin the case.

“I’m an investment banker.”

“Oh…I’m sorry, I…”

“I’m just messing with you.” The woman laughs. “I’m an actress, petty good, huh.”

“A comedian.” The PI shakes her head, this was the sort of case that would either be interesting or drive her insane, unfortunately it was much too early to tell. Yerim grabs a journal again, this time with force.

“Details about your wife, please!”

Sooyoung looks startled, as if she didn’t expect that reaction from the other woman, and Yerim takes a second to observe her reaction. She realizes that she probably lost her temper too fast, and apologizes.

“I’m sorry. I am really cranky without food, but that’s no reason to be unprofessional. I’ll make sure to throw in a discount for this, tell me about your wife, please, Ms. Park, or it’s probably Mrs, I do apologize.”

“It’s okay, I understand. I accept your apology, all will be forgiven anyway once you find my wife, I hear you are really very good at what you do, Ms. Kim.”

It’s not unusual for Yerim to have satisfied clients to the point that they recommend her to others, and that’s part of the reason why she has such a good rep with her clientele. 

“Anyway, my wife is not an actress, but is a bit of a musician, you could say. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen her so she could be using an alias, but I could provide you with all the usual hangout spots she would normally frequent.”

Yerim writes down the things that Sooyoung tells her, and one of her first questions is why hasn’t this woman gone to the police, surely this sounds like a case for the police, a missing wife.

“No offense, but…”

“Why haven’t I involved the authorities?” Sooyoung figures that would be the question, because why not? Someone’s spouse is missing, the first thing to do is go to the police, normally. The blonde nods, because that would be her first thought if she had a missing wife out there.

“I don’t need to get the police involved, she’s not runaway or anything, besides she’s a grown adult with her own resources, they wouldn’t be much help to me. This is why I need a private investigator, to quietly handle this.”

“Alright.” Yerim is not the type to ask, unless things seem particularly shady. Whatever her client’s personal business is, is really their own. Besides, there doesn’t seem anything really shady about this Park Sooyoung woman. She genuinely appears to only want to find her missing wife. After the meeting is over, Yerim thanks Sooyoung for coming in, and  is about to walk her out of the office.

“I will do what I can to find your wife, Ms. Park.”

“Thank you, I just have one request.”

“Request?”

Yerim looks up at the taller woman, who has this smile on her face, one that can only be described as amused, or rather like she’s about to drop some sort of bomb. The blonde is sure she’s not going to like whatever this is.

“Yes, it’s a small one really.” The actress smiles again, only this time it’s more dazzling in nature, the kind of smile that lights up her entire face, and makes the shorter woman do a double take, because Park Sooyoung is very obviously a gorgeous woman. She has the kind of smile that makes you feel something, and Yerim for one has no idea why she is feeling anything, she doesn’t even know this woman.

“I want to be there with you, when you go to these places I gave you.”

“You’re asking to be…”

“That’s right, I want to be right there with you when you find my wife, I hope that won’t be a problem.”

Yerim works alone. She never has someone tagging along with her on assignment, especially not the client. The only times she’s not working alone is when she is doing special cases with police, but that is entirely different. Sooyoung is looking at her with a hopeful look that also stirs something up inside of Yerim.

“Ms. Park, I work alone.”

“Ah, I won’t get in the way or anything, you’ll see. I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow!”

“But, Ms. Park…”

It’s already too late as Sooyoung is already heading out of her office. Yerim shakes her head in disbelief, at the nerve of the woman really, who does she think she is to invite herself along in the case. No one said anything about Sooyoung coming along, and tomorrow morning when Yerim begins her day she better not see the woman at her office, or she will let her have it.

“She’s not coming along.”

That was the plan anyway. The plan was for Yerim to go into her office and get started on her day, first she would greet her assistant as usual, get her coffee, check for any messages, emails, things of importance before heading out to start the search for Sooyoung’s wife.

“Good morning,” Yerim nods to her assistant, not fully awake yet because she spent all night, or most of her night up as she happens to be a night owl, not very good for a person who is supposed to be up in the day as well.

“Good morning, oh, Ms. Kim!” Her assistant tries to flag her down before she gets to her office. “There’s something you should know.”

“Oh, is it about the fact that my lunch order never came yesterday, is it on my desk now and I can have it for breakfast?”

“Um, no but….”

Yerim opens the door to see Park Sooyoung sitting in her office, dressed again very nicely in a black blouse, dark slacks, and boots, looking as if she probably had some early business meeting of some kind. Yerim nearly spits out her coffee. She is stunned by what she is seeing, who the hell let her in here.

“You didn’t eat breakfast?” Sooyoung looks and sounds worried about her, which strikes Yerim as odd.

“M-Ms. Park!”

“Oh, good morning.” She nods. “I told you that I would be back bright and early, so what’s this about you not eating breakfast. How do you expect to be out there being a private investigator if you’re starving, hm?”

The blonde simply shakes her head, heads to her desk first, places her coffee down. She can feel Sooyoung watching her, as if analyzing her every move, and in short that’s exactly what the actress is doing. She looks at the blonde, who appears tired, but looks overall healthy, dressed in a nice gray suit jacket, white collared shirt, and black jeans, very casual for a private investigator, perhaps this is an off day, and not one of her professional look ones. Still, Sooyoung can’t help that she’s worried the woman looks like she needs to be in a bed somewhere rather than about to be heading outside.

“I’m fine, but what are you doing here? I work alone.”

“Well not today you don’t, Ms. Kim. This is my wife, and if I want to tag along then I should be allowed to do so. If money is an issue, I’ll write you a check, that’s not a problem.”

Yerim can see Sooyoung will not be letting this go, and rather than risk herself getting a headache or possibly bursting a blood vessel. Yerim against her better judgement tells Sooyoung she can come along.

“I might regret this but you can come.”

“What, did you just say that I can come?”

“Yes,” the blonde sighs. “I also said that I might regret this, so…”

“Yes!” Sooyoung cheers, excitedly and suddenly throws her arms around Yerim for a hug, one that has the investigator looking at her oddly. Sooyoung laughs, nervously and apologizes. 

“Alright, well, I’ll wait for you outside then.”

“Uh-huh.”

Yerim doesn’t see it, but Sooyoung has the brightest smile on her face while exiting the room. This means so much to the actress to be able to go too, because it gives her the perfect chance to be at the locations she gave Yerim, while they search. Nothing means more to Sooyoung than finally reuniting with the woman she loves so much, her wife. Sooyoung actually had to request some time off from work specifically for this, because the separation from her other half was getting too much, even though people in her life would tell her she should probably let go, and take it for the loss as it was. They all told her things, hurtful things, words that varied in nature but words she would never forget no matter what.

“I think you should probably let her go, Soo.”

“It doesn’t seem possible that she’s coming back to you, Sooyoung.”

“You are technically separated at this point, Sooyoung. I know you need the other person to get a divorce, but she’s not in any position to give you one, but you can be as single as you want to be.”

But Park Sooyoung was not single, not in her heart, or her mind, and certainly not with her very real wedding band on her ring finger. She must be thinking too much or zoning out for a while because Yerim is trying to get her attention.

“Sooyoung?” She calls out and the woman turns to see a pair of big brown eyes staring at her curiously. 

“Oh, hi, sorry. Are you ready?”
 

“Yeah, I checked the list again. But since you’re coming do you want to pick the first place we go?”

“Sure, let’s go to the music store I told you of. She’s a bit of a musician, so it’s possible she could have been seen there.”

Yerim nods and leads the way to her car. This is a highly unusual situation for her. She never has her client with her, and because this is new territory, Yerim doesn’t know what she should or could expect. Will Sooyoung be helpful in some way, after all the person they are searching for is her wife, someone she knows better than Yerim. Will she only cause trouble, because she isn’t a professional, and that is also something the blonde doesn’t need at all. Still, she already said Sooyoung could come, and so they headed for the car. Once inside, Yerim notices how Sooyoung is looking around the car and inspecting everything, as if there will be something random to pop out and scare her.

“Are you looking for something?”

“Yeah, where’s like the cool private investigator gear, the cameras, the gloves, the forensic !”

“What!” Yerim laughs. “You spend too much time on film sets, Ms. Park. I mean, I do have equipment, sure but I’m not a cop, you know.”

“You look kind of like a hot cop, off duty of course.”

Yerim looks at her wide-eyed, is this woman flirting with her. The blonde surely hopes that’s not the case, not this married woman. 

“Uh, yeah, let’s go.”

“Do you mind if I put on some music?”

Yerim doesn’t necessarily mind if there’s music, sometimes she herself has music on in her car. Again, this is not a typical situation, and so she agrees. Sooyoung turns on the Bluetooth radio automatically putting it onto a specific station that is playing American musicians.

“You like music like this?”

“Sometimes,” Sooyoung agrees. “My wife is a musician so she had me listening to everything, all kinds of music, she really loved American singers, I think.”

“Did she?” Yerim nods. Kind of listening to what Sooyoung is saying, but zoning out somewhat too, unsure of why the woman is telling her all of this, unless Sooyoung is simply missing her wife that much and can’t help to share details.

“How long has she been missing exactly?”

“Two years.” 

“That’s a long time, Sooyoung.”

“Are you going to tell me that I should give up on her too?”

Sooyoung eyes Yerim for her reaction, her answer, and wonders what she will say. Will she tell her to give up on the love of her life too, just like everyone else has? The private investigator has her eyes on the road, and naturally can’t look at Sooyoung at the moment, but she can feel those bright eyes on her, in an intense gaze that is sort of making her uncomfortable, if she were being honest. What does her opinion matter so much to Sooyoung anyway, they are strangers, and this is a job.

“Ms. Park, I have no right to tell you what to do about your wife, clearly you love her enough to hire me to lead this search. I hope it gives you the results you want.”

“Me too,” She whispers her thanks afterwards, but says no more. Outside of the music playing, the two women don’t say anything more to one another, the first place they drive to is the music store Sooyoung mentioned. At first glance it doesn’t look like much, a typical store where you can purchase instruments, and even sign up for lessons if you need, but when Yerim walks around she notices there is more to the store than what meets the eye, like people having jamming sessions together with guitars, and upstairs a recording studio of sorts where people can pay to record demos of songs. Yerim walks around for a moment forgetting that she should be asking the owner of the store about Sooyoung’s wife.

“See something interesting?” The dark-haired woman asks, because she sees how Yerim is looking at the guitars in particular.

“W-What, oh no…. I’m sorry, I should ask the owner of the store about your wife.” She takes out the photo and heads over to what looks like the owner, at least she hopes the woman upstairs in the pinstripe suit is the owner. To Yerim she does stand out, and doesn’t appear to be a regular worker. Sooyoung watches and observes what the shorter woman does and how she asks for any information.

“I’m sorry, she hasn’t shown up here in a long time.” The boss of the place answers Yerim’s question.

“So, she has been here before?”

“Yes, frequently, sometimes just to play the guitar here. She was really rather good too, good at composing music as well.”

“My name is Kim Yerim and I’m a private investigator, if you should see her or hear from her, contact me, please.” She then hands her business card over to the woman who nods.

“Alright, Ms. Kim, I’ll be sure to do that.”

Yerim nods in thanks and heads back to where Sooyoung is standing. “Nothing?” The actress wonders.

“No, but I left my contact information in case. We can go now maybe to another place if you want.”

“Wait,” Sooyoung smiles suddenly. “Are you sure that you don’t want to play? You looked at the guitars like you wanted to.”

The blonde looks back at the guitar section with a look that suggests a part of her would like to go and play, only she decides not to. This is not free time as she is working a case right now. Yerim declines and suggests they get a move onto one of the other places on Sooyoung’s list.

“I’m treating you to lunch.” The dark-haired woman announces suddenly, once they’re both back in the car.

“Ms. Park, this isn’t a field trip, you know.”

“Still, you have to eat, so I’m treating you. I know a really great place, trust me.”

Yerim can’t believe this is happening, and yet she has the odd feeling she can’t turn this woman down, because clearly Sooyoung found a way to tag along anyway, even though Yerim shouldn’t even have allowed for that to happen. Truth be told, she is rather hungry, and so for her own sake she will take Sooyoung up on her offer. The actress gives her the address to the restaurant she is talking about and she types it in on her gps. 

“My friend owns the place, and she’s an excellent chef. She even studied in a fancy American school, so she knows all sorts of food. My wife and I used to have date nights there when we had time.”

Again, more stories about her spouse. Yerim finds it strange, but she’s not about to complain or tell Sooyoung to stop talking about the woman she loves. She also doesn’t really ask for Sooyoung to elaborate further either. Upon pulling up to the restaurant, Yerim notices how it doesn’t appear overly fancy from the outside, which kind of takes her by surprise since Sooyoung is well dressed and rich. But the place is kind of low-key, casual, perhaps that’s what an actress like her wants from time to time, somewhere low-key and out of the way. She and Sooyoung are seated at their own private booth soon, and before they even have a chance to look at the menu, Sooyoung is introducing a woman dressed in a dark navy chef’s jacket and black pants to her.

“Yerim, I want you to meet the chef and owner, this is my good friend, Son Seungwan.”

The blonde looks at the brunette who smiles kindly, as she offers her hand to her. Yerim nods politely back. She is small in stature, maybe just a tad bit shorter than Yerim herself, but has a warm presence about her that makes Yerim feel like she’s probably nice enough to approach. 

“Hello, Ms. Son.”

“Hi, Ms. Kim, it’s nice to meet you, I hope you enjoy the food here, I can even recommend some of my most popular items.”

Yerim takes a moment to look at the menu, the problem is that everything sounds delicious. Now she feels even more hungry than she first did, because it all looks good.

“Yeah, thank you, I’d like some recommendations.”

Seungwan nods and gives her a few of the most popular dishes, and Yerim ultimately decides on her meal, Sooyoung ends up ordering too, and from what Yerim hears it’s a few of those fancy appetizers that Seungwan mentions.

“I’ll be right back, Yerim. I just need to talk to Seungwan for a moment.”

“Sure, I need to check with my assistant anyway, see if anything important happened at the office.”

Sooyoung walks off with her friend and they head back toward the kitchen area to talk. Seungwan first makes sure the order is placed with some of her chefs, as she isn’t the only one who cooks at her restaurant, and today she wanted to make sure she would be available for Sooyoung who said she would be coming in today. 

“She looks good.” Seungwan smiles. “I haven’t seen her in forever, but Yerim looks good.”

Sooyoung nods in agreement, taking a look at where she sees Yerim on the phone wit