The diner they met in had the worst leather seats Jeongyeon had the displeasure of sitting. Her current contractor, a certain miss Hirai, seemed at ease at the place: she ordered food without looking at the menu for more than a few cursory seconds, coffee being put in her cup without a question. Curious, but Jeongyeon’s job for miss Hirai wasn’t analyzing her.

“I’ve found it.” Jeongyeon started, after the waitress left. The coffee smelled vaguely burnt, as if it had been left on the machine to brew for too long. Jeongyeon looked at the clock behind miss Hirai’s head: considering it was two in the morning and the diner seemed dead, it was of no surprise the coffee was burnt. 

Not her problem, though. Miss Hirai perked up, eyes shining.

“Have you?” She said, sipping at her coffee. Jeongyeon did not bother with replying, simply taking out the brown paper bag containing the jewel - the infamous Flame Diamond, a 57-carat rock surrounded by small pearls. Quite the ugly thing, were Jeongyeon allowed an opinion - and sliding it on the table. Miss Hirai grabbed it cautiously, peered inside the bag and smiled. “You have. I’ll send you the payment in the morning.”

Jeongyeon nodded. She rather liked getting paid: the bills to her little rundown office were already behind. Again. 

“How did you manage it? The Flame Diamond has been missing for so long…” Miss Hirai mused, putting the brown paper bag in her purse. The food arrived - a courtesy of the young lady in front of Jeongyeon -, and they dug in. Eggs, toast, nothing fancy.

“It was a simple matter of tracking down the last owners of it, then tracking down to whom they sold it.” And something of a small heist into a party. Jeongyeon stirred her coffee, looked into miss Hirai’s shining eyes. “Although, I’ll admit I’m very curious why I had to break into Hirai Manor to grab that.”

Miss Hirai smiled, friendly and unassuming as she delicately cut into her eggs in a basket.

“Let’s just say me and mother are not in pleasant terms with each other.” She clutched her purse closer to her. “Detective, how much it would be to steal some more of my mother’s jewelry?”

Jeongyeon cocked her head, pretended to mull it over. She had stolen one thing from the Hirai Manor, she surely could steal a few more - even, perhaps, pieces of jewelry that were to go unnoticed for long enough that Jeongyeon’s thievery of it might slip under the radar.

She needed to pay the bills, and if miss Hirai was going to finance her, Jeongyeon might as well make a few savings for herself when miss Hirai couldn’t pay her anymore.

“Sure. What else?” Jeongyeon listened to miss Hirai say a small laundry list of jewels - the Queen Anne tiara, the Lover’s Knot necklace, the Rose ring, and many others. In her search for the Flame Diamond, Jeongyeon had come across these items, all in the possession of the Hirai family. “Of course, of course. It’s fine. When do you want them?”

Jeongyeon needed time to plan those heists. Maybe she should contact Tzuyu and offer her a run of the collection; that girl was good with lockpicking, leagues better than - 

“For our next date, I think I’d like the Lover’s Knot.” Miss Hirai chirped, and Jeongyeon choked on her lukewarm coffee. She looked at miss Hirai, who huffed. “I mean, if my parents set an investigator on me, they’ll surely find it weird if I suddenly start meeting with you. So, I’ll say we are dating, and we can pretend these are dates.”

Jeongyeon kept staring at the young Hirai heiress. She was ready to say no when her bills knocked on her mind.

“Fine. When is our next date, miss Hirai?” She drank a sip more of her coffee.

“Call me Momo, and say, how about two weeks?” Momo chirped, and Jeongyeon nodded. She slipped a few bills on the table - more than enough to cover the food - and rose from her seat. “Great! I’ll see you then.”

She left in a hurry, and Jeongyeon took her time eating. She could use a few spare minutes to think of the next thievery she would have to commit.