“New outfits?” Hei asks. Baekhyun eats his lunch with an infuriating air of nonchalance, and frustration sweeps through Hei once more. His mood and tone is ever-shifting—just when she feels as if she’s pinned something down, that Baekhyun is gone, replaced by another mask.

“New outfits,” he repeats once more, chewing thoughtfully. “I saw a clothing store on the way here, which we can loop back to once I finish eating this.” Baekhyun waves his chopsticks at her own plate. “Are you not going to finish?”

Hei goes back to eating. “I don’t understand why we’re getting new outfits.”

There’s a twinkle of mischief in his eyes when he looks up at her, one that can only speak of bad ideas. Hei gulps. She’s already regretting agreeing to work with him now. “New outfits, sweetheart,” he drawls, “because we’re going to be infiltrating San Yuan and we’re going to need to dress the part.”

“San Yuan?” Hei echoes. There was everything at San Yuan—drinking, gambling, illegal fighting pits, ion—the list went on and on.“We’re going there?”

He shrugs. “Where better to go than the center of all the criminal activity in Castra?”

“They’ll definitely kill us if they know we’re family members.”

“Which is exactly why we won’t look like family members. The two of us will be fine as long as we don’t use our powers, and as long as you get a new outfit.”

Hei looks down at her clothing. Her tunic is a plain brown color, and the dress underneath is just as simple. It’s for convenience’s purposes anyway, and she frowns. “There’s nothing wrong with what I’m wearing.”

“Nothing inherently wrong,” Baekhyun corrects, “but if you don’t want to stand out, then you’re going to need to wear something much more eye-catching.”

“Eye-catching,” she echoes uncertainly.

“Right,” he confirms. “No offense, darling, but you need to look like you belong with the crowd that usually turns up at San Yuan.”

His words take a couple of seconds to sink in, and Hei feels her face heat up. “I am not dressing up like a e.”

Baekhyun raises his hands in surrender. “I’m not asking you to.”

She settles back down. “Good.”

“It would be easy to pass you off as my ,” he continues.

"You could be the ," she feels obliged to point out before she can think twice. Hei claps her hands over the moment the words come out, but to both her embarrassment and relief, Baekhyun bursts out laughing.

"I wouldn't be against that if it were doable," he grins. "But unfortunately, I've been planning this for a couple of weeks, and I don't think we'll be able to turn up there only for them to find out that I've suddenly become a girl."

Hei sighs. "It was worth a try."

His grin has yet to disappear. "Next time, darling. But for now, we’ll need to find a dress for you that can show off... well, wealth. Unless you have one of those packed?"

Hei thinks back to her wardrobe of equally simple gowns. “Probably not.”

“Exactly.”

He’s right, but that doesn’t mean Hei has to be happy about it. Baekhyun only grins wider when she scowls at him, shovelling the rest of the food into . “So what’s your plan? Dress up and waltz in?”

He rolls his eyes. “Of course not. Dressing up is the fun part, but…I’m hoping that once we get in, we can weasel out information about Castra’s most notorious criminals and their locations and where to find them, and we can start narrowing down. If we’re lucky, one of them is the thief. If none are, they must have at least some sort of information.” With that huge piece of information dropped, Baekhyun’s eyes crinkle. “How well can you hold your liquor, Song Hei?”

“My liquor?” she echoes. “I don’t drink.”

“Ah,” Baekhyun drawls. “Well, if anyone offers me alcohol today, you can drink it for me. I have tolerance, and I can promise you all our plans will be ruined if I drink more than one glass.”

Hei’s pretty sure her eyes have bulged out. “You?” she demands. “You have a bad tolerance?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Surprised? It’s custom for the host to offer a drink in the beginning, which I have to drink no matter what. Afterwards I’m allowed to refuse, but if I turn down too many, it might become suspicious. But if I drink too many…” Baekhyun rolls his shoulders. “Point is, being my , you can accept drinks for me. So do you think your tolerance is good or not?”
 

“I have no clue. But nevermind that—you said… you said host. That means you got yourself an invitation to San Yuan, right? How? Who?”

His smirk is infuriating enough that Hei nearly breaks away from the conversation at hand to think about how much she wants to wipe it off his face. She forces herself to focus on his next words.

“The right bargaining and the right price can bring you many things.” He gathers his bag from the seat beside him. “But if you must know, his name’s Park Jaekyung.” 

***

Hei practically chases after Baekhyun onto the street. He’s enjoying this way too much, and if he had dropped any other name she would’ve been calmer. But Jaekyung—Park Jaekyung? One of Castra’s most influential, well known criminals—how the hell did Baekhyun know him, much less get invited to San Yuan by him?

“Baekhyun,” she snaps, finally catching up with his strides. She has a feeling he’s walking fast just to spite her. “Jaekyung? How did you get Jaekyung to invite you to San Yuan? H-he practically owns San Yuan!”

“Speak louder, and I’m sure all of Castra will be aware of our brilliant plan,”