As it turned out, Sowon’s clumsiness was not a one-off occurrence.

Sinb was given the menial task of showing the new team leader around. Though, she didn't quite mind, since it was a chance to get to know the other woman. And truly, she learnt so many things about Sowon.

For starters, Sowon was either doomed to fall at least once a day or her long limbs were the cause of her blundering.

When she was showing her around, Sowon almost tumbled down a flight of stairs if it wasn't for Sinb's quick reaction to catch her. Sinb attributed it to another unlucky incident, but the other detective somehow managed to slip on a puddle of water in the next ten minutes. Once again, Sinb stabled her before she had another unfortunate meeting with the ground.

She would have been amazed at how many times a person could trip if Sowon wasn't her team leader. During her lunch break, she overheard her team gossiping about Sowon, and they were fully convinced that she got the position because of nepotism.

Sinb had refused to consider that theory because she thought that her seniors simply couldn't believe a young woman was more capable than them. However, after witnessing Sowon's inherent lack of coordination, a tiny seed of doubt had settled within her.

Clumsiness was not a trait that resulted in excellent fieldwork. Sinb couldn't understand how Sowon solved cases and nab criminals if she was that ungraceful.

If the other detective proved to be incompetent, and in fact landed the promotion because her father was the top dog, Sinb would be utterly crushed.

Yes, she did desire for more women in the top ranks, but that had to be achieved through legitimate hard work. Not some biased placement because of connections. That would only serve to worsen the discrimination women faced in the police force.

Personality-wise, Sowon clicked well with her. Sinb appreciated how she treated her as her equal, telling her within minutes to address her casually and drop the "Team Leader" title. She was rather easy-going, and Sinb genuinely enjoyed their conversations thus far.

As they made their way back to the office after Sinb was done showing her around, she hoped that Sowon would be as skilful as what Chief Lee had proclaimed. She liked Sowon, and it would make her work more bearable if she had a friend on the team.

"Surprisingly, the coffee here is good," Sowon complimented after she took a careful sip from her paper cup. It was the best coffee from one of the break rooms on the second floor. Sinb had learnt that Sowon treasured coffee as much as her and promptly showed her where she could get some at a decent quality.

"Why, is Incheon's crap?" Sinb questioned.

"Crap is an understatement." Sowon sighed, holding the cup gingerly in her hands as it was still hot and freshly made. "I gave up brewing coffee entirely when I was at my workplace."

She gave her a sympathetic wince. "Is the terrible coffee why you transferred?"

"It was a major factor." Sowon played along with her jest, humoured. "I also didn't see a reason why I should refuse a promotion to Seoul. It's every officer's goal to be assigned here."

If Sowon was interested in Seoul, she could have gotten her father to assign her here way earlier than now. The fact that she didn’t, earned a point towards the "Sowon-is-skillful" theory.

Before Sinb could even reply to that, Sowon crashed against her body and they were sent flying to the floor. She hissed as her shoulder burnt with searing heat, her coat splashed with Sowon’s coffee.

Footsteps tumbled past them, and Sinb glared up at the cause of the accident—Team Two’s team leader. They were passing by Team Two’s office and their whole team started rushing out with him at the lead, bumping into Sowon who was in front of their door.

Moonbin, a detective Sinb was friendly with, ran past them with an apologetic yell, “Sorry, pretty lady, Sinb! Big lead!”

She pushed herself up from the ground, cursing in her head at Team Two. Sowon tugged Sinb’s coat off the moment she recovered, her movements frantic as she all but stripped Sinb of her outerwear. “Are you okay? How bad is the burn?”

“It’s nothing,” Sinb dismissed. Her coat absorbed most of the coffee, and her turtleneck was thick enough to save her skin from the brunt of the scalding liquid. She didn’t get out of the accident unscathed considering how her shoulder stung and scratched against the material of her clothes, but it was tolerable.

“Wait for me in the washroom. I have a spare shirt in my car,” Sowon ordered, not even waiting for her response before bolting off to the stairs.

“I hate my luck,” Sinb grumbled, stomping towards the washroom. Once there, she entered one of the cubicles and peeled her turtleneck off to check the burn. Her shoulder was red at where the coffee had splattered, and it itched like crazy. It didn’t seem too bad. At least blisters weren’t forming.

She knew she should run her burn under water to treat it, but Sinb would rather endure the pain than risk having someone walk in on her without a long-sleeved shirt.

She hid her markless arm from her team, knowing from personal experience that their attitude towards her would take a turn for the worse if they realised she didn’t have a soulmate. She would either be pitied or scorned, and Sinb abhorred both possible outcomes.

Markless people were a hot topic to gossip about. Even if it was some random cleaner who saw her without a mark, rumours would spread like wildfire and every idiot in the station would know. It happened when she was in middle school, in high school, and it will happen again if she wasn’t careful.

“Sinb?”

Sowon was here, and she sounded breathless. Sinb wore back her shirt and went out of the cubicle to meet her.

"Here, you should change into this." Sowon passed her a folded up shirt, concern lacing her voice. "Do you need medical attention? I could drive you to the hospital."

"I'm fine," Sinb declined, rolling her shoulder to prove her point. She unfolded the shirt, her heart dropping when it was short-sleeved. "Look, thanks for this, but I'll go home and change."

"Why?" Sowon questioned. "It's uncomfortable to continue wearing your stained turtleneck, and it must still be hot."

Sinb shifted uncomfortably on her feet, her brain trying to cook up an excuse without giving herself away. "I, uh, don't like wearing short-sleeved shirts."

Sowon hummed in understanding, and she didn't press Sinb any further. She took off her blazer, revealing toned arms that were shrouded by it. Sinb noticed the scrawl of words on her arm as Sowon offered the blazer to her, but she respectfully looked away from them.

Some people flaunted their marks, others preferred to keep it private and show them only to close friends. Sinb didn't give a damn about what the words on other people read, so she long decided to avoid looking at them entirely.

"Wear this too, then," Sowon insisted, pushing her blazer and spare shirt into Sinb's arms.

"Thanks," Sinb mumbled, and under Sowon's watchful gaze, she retreated into the cubicle. The team leader was more commandeering than she had expected, and her stern tone kept Sinb from protesting against her.

She changed into the clothes, frowning when the shirt dwarfed her body. Sinb made do with it, tucking it into her jeans to hide the excess and slipped on Sowon's blazer. Likewise, the sleeves went past her hands, so she had to roll it up to not appear like a slob.

Her perfume smells nice. It was a pleasant, aromatic scent that wasn't too overbearing. Sinb held her turtleneck in one hand and left the cubicle when she was done. She raised an eyebrow when Sowon was missing from the washroom and left to find her.

Sinb noticed Sowon down the hallway, back at where she had spilled her coffee. She bowed to a cleaner who was dealing with the mess they left behind, a sheepish smile on her face.

"Officers these days…" the cleaner grumbled as he wiped the floor, mopping with a vendetta against the puddle.

"Once again, thank you." Sowon ignored his little quip. She perked up when Sinb stopped beside her, taking in her new look.

"Give me your shirt, I'll get it dry cleaned," she said, and Sinb foiled her attempt at grabbing her shirt by pulling her arm away.

"Why are you taking my shirt for a dry clean?" she dodged a second attempt with a huff, "Wait, you took my coat too, didn't you!"

"I spilled the coffee on you, so it's my responsibility."

"It was an accident! Besides, we should be blaming Team Two for it."

"Perhaps, but I could have sidestepped them if I reacted faster."

"Sidestep what? The door?"

"The two of you, stop dancing around me like irritating flies! Take your argument somewhere else, or I'm throwing this mop at you!"

They froze when the cleaner snapped, with Sinb still using one arm to push Sowon away from her and the other hiding her shirt behind her back. Like scolded children, they apologised and hurried away from him towards the lift lobby.

"Let me at least take your coat to the dry cleaners," Sowon spoke up after they were in the lift heading to the ground floor. "You took the time to show me around the station today. I can't repay you with a burn and stained clothes."

Sinb met Sowon's pleading eyes, and the other detective was fiddling with the sleeves of her shirt which oddly reminded her of a kicked puppy. Caving in, she said, "Fine, but only the coat."

Sowon beamed at her, a triumphant grin on her face. Sinb didn’t get why she's so eager to spend money to clean her coat.

"To make it clear, I don't blame you for the accident," Sinb reaffirmed as they stepped out of the lift. Sowon may have been falling all over the place, but her colliding into Sinb and spilling coffee was no fault of hers.

"Still, I want to make up for it somehow," Sowon said. "Are you okay to drive home? I can give you a lift."

"I'm good."

They came to a stop at the exit of the station, with Sowon not going further. "You're not going home yet?" Sinb asked.

"No, I need to settle some administrative matters first," Sowon shook her head. "Get home safely. And really, thank you for the tour."

"Wasn't a problem," Sinb replied, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "See you next morning, team leader."

As Sinb drove home, she couldn't stop thinking about Sowon. About how she would be so perfect as her team leader even with her clumsy antics because Sowon had a charismatic aura to her. The only thing that could ruin that perfectness was whether Sowon used her father's connections or not.

And Sinb prayed dearly to whoever was listening, to not let Sowon be a fraud.

Sinb pressed her ear against the door, scrunching her face in concentration as she listened. Music blared from inside, vibrations thrumming through the door.

. Eunha's home. Sinb tapped her fingers on her arm, planning out a strategy to avoid her. The instant she stepped through the front door wearing a completely different outfit, Eunha would notice something was off and start transforming into an overbearing mother hen. She was eerily observant whenever Sinb came home with an injury and would freak out over the smallest of wounds.

"Ah, whatever." She gave up, not seeing a way to creep past the living room into her room without Eunha spotting her. Sinb could only depend on luck.

She entered the passcode to the apartment, pulling the door open. "I'm home."

Eunha was seated on the sofa, her glasses perched on her nose as she held a piece of paper up. "Welcome home," she greeted back, eyes fixated on her work.

Sinb took her boots off, setting it aside neatly. While Eunha was distracted, Sinb rushed to her room—or at least, she attempted to, before Eunha's sharp voice made her stop mid-run.

"Why are your clothes different?" Eunha set her paper down, scrutinising her. She paused her music, and a tensed silence settled instead.

"I got coffee on myself?" It was the truth, but why did she sound so hesitant?

"Hwang Sinb…"

Not the full name. Sinb grimaced as Eunha dragged her to the sofa, grabbing her by the shoulders and forcing her to sit. "Ouch," was what slipped out of when she felt an unexpected stinging sensation.

"Ouch?" Eunha repeated, and the next thing Sinb knew, she's ripping the blazer away and grabbing the hem of her shirt too, until Sinb realised that she was about to be very half- if she remained passive.

"It's just a small scald!" She clamped Eunha's hands in hers in a desperate attempt to stop her, but Eunha wrenched her hands away and leaned back, crossing her arms.

"The last time you said it was ‘a small wound', you ended up in the hospital! Because Sinb, a concussion was not a small wound. I don't want your burn to actually be a what, fourth-degree burn, and end up having to visit you in a hospital again!"

"There's only up to three primary degrees of burns," Sinb muttered, not having a retort to that.

Eunha glared at her. She was fuming, but her hands were trembling slightly, so subtle Sinb wouldn't have noticed if she wasn't versed in the art of understanding Eunha's behaviour.

"Here, check it yourself if you want," Sinb took off her shirt, leaving her in her sports bra. "I'm serious about it being minor this time though."

Eunha sat beside her, and her gaze was intense as she analyzed the burn. Sinb's cheeks warmed when she moved closer, feeling terribly exposed in front of her. Can she stop staring so close to my chest?

"So? What's your verdict?" Sinb forced herself to sound coherent, hoping that Eunha wouldn't notice her shaky voice.

"Hold on." Eunha grabbed her phone, biting her lip. Sinb sighed in exasperation when she navigated to a search engine, entering the keywords "how do you know if a burn is serious".

"Doctor Jung, what does the internet say?" Sinb teased as Eunha scrolled through walls of text.

Eunha smacked her arm in retaliation, and Sinb yelped. "Hey! That's not how you treat a patient!"

"The internet says you'll be fine," Eunha ignored her, glancing up from her phone. "Can I take a picture and ask the actual Doctor Jung?"

"Yerin-unnie? Sure, why not," Sinb agreed. Eunha was close with Yuju, a singer in SourceM, and Yerin was Yuju's soulmate who worked as a doctor. They all knew each other and were close friends.

Eunha snapped a quick picture and was soon engrossed in texting Yerin. Sinb waited patiently for her to be done, throwing her shirt back on in the meanwhile.

"Yerin-unnie says it looks like a first-degree burn, so it's minor," Eunha read off as texts began piling into her phone, the doctor responding fast. "Run it under cool water, apply some burn medication or aloe vera, don't mess with the burn area,"

"and see a doctor if it gets infected," she conveyed the final text.

"Now that you know that I'm fine, can I go?"

"Take a cold shower. I'll head to the pharmacy and get some burn cream," Eunha commanded, and Sinb felt a sense of deja vu.

"Yes, mooother," she copied what Eunha said in the morning, and Eunha hit her arm again. "Ow! Really?"

"Stop being a brat," Eunha deadpanned as she wore her coat, "and go bathe."

Sinb wisely followed her order, or else she would have a furious bunny on her heels, and Eunha was terrifying when she was pissed.

“How did you get scalded by coffee?”

Sinb sat cross-legged on her bed as Eunha rubbed the burn cream on her shoulder, her hair still wet from her shower. She blanked out as Eunha's fingers brushed against her skin, her touch light and gentle.

"Sinb?"

"What?" She snapped back to reality, and Eunha repeated her question.

"I said, how did the burn happen? Also, are you sure you didn't hit your head too?"

“My head's fine. And it was Team Two’s fault. Their asshat leader bumped into my new team leader, and because of that, she got her coffee on me,” Sinb scowled. Team One and Team Two had a long-lasting rivalry, and while Sinb had only been in the team for a short four months, she already had a bone to pick with them. The one person she tolerated from the other team was Moonbin.

“Ah. So, are you getting along with her?”

“I guess? She’s nice, but…” Sinb trailed off as a mental visage of a baby giraffe popped into her mind, “You know that one animal documentary we watched? There was this baby giraffe that was trying to walk, but it kept wobbling about and diving headfirst into the ground?”

“It was so cute!” Eunha cooed, before faltering. “Wait, how is that related?”

“That’s basically my team leader. For the entire day, she was like that baby giraffe! Falling all over the place! Who trips over nothing? That happens in cartoons!”

Eunha chortled at her heated words, and Sinb continued her rant. “I don’t get how she got promoted to a team leader when she’s so uncoordinated. Her father’s apparently the Commissioner General, the number one big shot of the police force. I can’t help but wonder if she used his connections, even if I didn’t want to judge her unfairly.”

“Well, have you seen her in the actual fieldwork yet?” Eunha questioned as she finished applying the burn cream on her, “Maybe she’s just nervous on her first day."

“No, not yet,” Sinb answered. She furrowed her brow as she pondered whether Sowon seemed nervous or not.

“If she wasn’t bragging constantly about being the daughter of the Commissioner General, I think you should give the baby giraffe a chance."

Eunha did have a point. Not once did Sowon mention her father around Sinb. In fact, no one would have known she was the daughter of the highest-ranking officer if it wasn't for Chief Lee's big mouth. Sinb also recalled how Sowon conversed with her father, clipped and tensed.

She mellowed down. "Yeah, okay. I'll wait till I see her in action to make a judgement."

Eunha was always a perceptive person, despite her devil-may-care attitude. She tended to see the best in people, yet she was quick to notice if she was getting fooled. Sinb, on the other hand, was reckless and distrustful of strangers. To her, it was safer to assume everyone was untrustworthy until proven otherwise.

After all, it was the simplest way to not get her hopes up.

---

A/N:

I hope you guys enjoyed reading their interactions so far! It’s still heavily wonb and 2eunbi, but give it a few more chapters and wonha will come quick :)

I think I will be aiming to upload a chapter every Wednesday. Again, I would love to hear your thoughts about the chapter! (thank you to everyone who subscribed and commented :D)