The case Mina had been waiting for finally came in. As she expected, it was messy. A low soldier, son of a major or something in the middle like that, brought some girls to a shady bar, enraged the wrong people and got himself and the girls killed. There was another boy with them as well, who survived until the ambulance arrived and died on the way to the hospital. The girls happened to be loosely related to a big name, who pushed for the case to be handled by the police, not by the army. Absolutely messy and needing to be solved as fast as possible.

“Park, my office.” Mina called as soon as she saw the detective.

"Chief." Jihyo greets as she steps inside and closes the door.

“I have a case for you. It’s messy, I have no idea who pulled it out of the military’s hands, but you will have them breathing down your neck at each step.”

“Is this why you’ve been holding cases from me until now?”

“You know it is. I got the heads up from upstairs last week, it just happened that you were wrapping up your cases and had to be jobless for a while.”

“Next time, a heads up would be nice. But I’ll take it. Do I get a team or something?”

“I think Choi just wrapped up the last of his cases, I held off on anything else for him because I know you like him.”

“The kid is good, and he actually listens when I try to teach him.” Jihyo shrugs. “I’ll take Choi and his team, then. Anything else?”

“You are talking to Nayeon again.”

“Yeah, she came and honestly apologized.”

With that, the detective leaves before Mina could think of anything to say about it. As promised, Youngjae and his team were free, so Jihyo recruited them. The juniors were ecstatic about officially working with their beloved Park sunbae. Yougjae could only laugh, Jihyo had told him about her reunion with her father and family, and also about the arranged marriage, and he could only wonder how disappointed the juniors would get when their Park sunbae showed up with a wedding band on her finger. Fun times.

The meet the parents dinner arrived, Dahyun had been bouncing all day. Jeongyeon was about to lose it with her wife. But it was only because of Dahyun that Jeongyeon would be having the chance of entering a high society neighborhood, so she powered through. Jihyo was still not talking to her, and she certainly wasn’t about to admit she was wrong, but if Jihyo’s father had enough money to live in a neighborhood like this, she might reconsider. They arrived at the house, and calling it a house was the understatement of the century, it was huge and opulent, clearly rich folk stuff.

“Jyo!” Dahyun jumps out of the car as soon as it stops.

“Hey, Hyun. Did you guys find it okay?” Jihyo easily catches her friend and laughs.

“Oh, yeah. Jeong said she wanted to see how the other side lived and has been studying the route from the day I told her we were invited.”

“Well, come on in, then. Can’t leave Jeongyeon waiting for a taste of the glamorous life.”

Jeongyeon is pissed at the jabs, but she did want to taste the luxurious life, so she just grit her teeth and let them talk. She also knew one slip up and Dahyun would spend another season at Jihyo’s mysterious new residence. Plus, if this was indeed Jihyo’s father, she might be able to put in a good word about herself, maybe get that boost she’s been trying to get for a while. And she would be able to talk to these people directly, no need to ask Jihyo for any favors.

As they enter, there is a couple waiting in the living room. Both are beautiful people, as expected from people rich enough to live in this place, their clothes are simple but clearly expensive, and their perfume fills the area around them. It is indeed true that rich people even smell expensive. Jihyo had already talked to her parents about everything, they knew all about Dahyun and Jeongyeon, and agreed to not reveal where Jihyo was living either. 

“Well, this is my dad Gok Jiyoo, and his wife Gok Chinsun. I do think of Chinsun as my mother, though.” Jihyo tells their visitors. “Mom, dad, these are Yoo Jeongyeon and Kim Dahyun.” She motions between the other two.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” Dahyun says and bows respectfully. 

“Thank you for inviting us.” Jeongyeon says and also bows.

“Jihyo, honey.”

“Yes, mom?”

“You were cooking,  remember?” Chinsun is almost failing to suppress her laughter.

“Oh shoot!”

As the detective hurries to the kitchen, her parents chuckle lovingly, Dahyun shakes her head, it was just like her friend to forget these things, and Jeongyeon smirks, thinking her chance had arrived. The older couple invites their guests to sit down, Jiyoo asks what they would like to drink, Jeongyeon says whisky (not her usual, but she figured they’d have some high quality ones), Dahyun says she would join mrs Gok on her tea and Jiyoo returns to his cream soda. It seemed like being the only one drinking didn’t bother Jeongyeon at all, especially not when she was tasting a twenty one year old whiskey and it was just so velvety down .

The group makes light conversation while Jihyo is finishing dinner, along with her parents’ chef. The old man was honestly impressed and learned quite a few techniques for achieving high quality in shorter times. Jihyo was also a master at not wasting anything, she was making exactly enough for six people for all dishes. She had insisted the chef taste her food as well and give his feedback later. Plus, the chef was the only staff left for the evening, he said he could serve the dishes himself and the others agreed easily.

Now, Dahyun had already told her wife that she would be spending the night with Jihyo, and as everyone else was still forbidden from going to her new place (they still didn’t even know it was a house and not another apartment), Jeongyeon would be returning home by herself a bit after dinner. Things went well, all considered, and Jeongyeon headed home not much later, she did decide to drive around the neighborhood for a while, no patrol cars showed up so she thought herself clear to roam around. It didn’t occur to her that it was suspicious that no patrols followed her, but other than Jihyo, Nayeon and Mina are the only other ones who would notice that, being detectives and all.

At some point, Jeongyeon found herself on a street where there was one house that had a suspiciously familiar motorcycle, but she thought she might have just seen it on TV or something. Meanwhile, Jihyo had volunteered to do the dishes, the chef had already left, while Dahyun got to talk to her parents without her around. She was very happy that this meeting was happening, especially because she was soon to be married and wanted Dahyun as her maid of honor.

“Kim Dahyun, met Jihyo back when she was just a cadet, has been her safe place ever since.” Jiyoo begins listing.

“I believe that’s me, yes.” The girl answers and the couple chuckles.

“Jihyo told us a lot about you.” Chinsun intervenes before her husband embarasses her. “We’ve been meaning to meet you for a while, but we also had to wait for Jihyo to decide to introduce us first.”

“She is a bit of a mule sometimes. But she means well, and is loyal to a fault, so I can’t really do mch about her stubbornness.”

“Oh, she totally got that from her father.”

“Hey!” Jiyoo complains, but laughs along with the women.

“I’m sorry but I have to ask before she comes back.” Dahyun looks nervous.

“Go on, we’ll answer if we can.” Chinsun encourages.

“What is this whole arranged marriage all about?”

“Honestly? I thought she wouldn’t accept.” Jiyoo sighs albeit dejectedly. “But if half of what she said about her love life was true, I understand why she would go for it. The thing is, the Lee case got her name to the high ranks of our society. Congresswoman Lee, a cousin of the girls in the case, thought it would be beneficial for both of them if they got married.”

“So Jihyo is supposed to boost her career?”

“And she will boost Jihyo’s. This can never leave the three of us, but there’s talk that Jihyo is being considered for commissioner.”

Dahyun stops working for a moment there. Jihyo? Commissioner? Her Jihyo? This was huge!

“We understand that you might be feeling a lot with this news, but you really can’t utter a word about this.” Chinsun whispers urgently. “We know this because our family is powerful enough to be privy to these things and we have enough pull to interfere. But most people don’t know Jihyo is related to us. She’s being considered for her own hard work and we don’t intend to interfere unless absolutely needed.”

“This is. Wow.” Dahyun is stunned. “So she’s being considered for herself, but you can pull the strings and make it happen regardless. And her wife will pull her up as much as she will be pulled up by Jihyo.”

“That’s pretty much it.” Jiyoo confirms. “Also, we know exactly who Jihyo will be marrying, she’s a great woman, very stand up. So we are trusting she will do right by our girl.”

“At least I can rest assured that you both will investigate this woman thoroughly and make sure she never hurts our girl.” Dahyun smiles.

As they hear Jihyo approaching, they decide to drop the subject. Luckily, Dahyun was a master at diversion, she had been practicing for years with her wife.

“So, you all done talking about me?” The detective asks as she takes a seat.

“Not really, we were talking about how much you look like your father.”

“Oh, that’s because you haven’t seen her grandfather.” Chinsun quips, happy for the easy diversion. “Wait, I’ll get the picture.”

“Oh yeah, Jihyo is just my father with long hair and without sideburns. We were certain we had found the right girl the moment we laid eyes on her.” Jiyoo adds. “The DNA test was just for legal purposes, but my mother and I had absolutely no doubt she was mine the moment she stepped through the door.”

“Here.” Chinsun returns, passing over the picture of young grandpa Gok.

“Oh, wow. This is reeeallyyy freaky.” Dahyun observes.

“Yeah, Jihyo said the same thing the first time she saw it.” Chinsun laughs heartily.

“No, like, this is Jihyo with a mustache!” The pale woman continues. “Jihyo, can you go to the bathroom and draw a mustache on your face real quick?”

At that, Jihyo smacks her best friend while her parents keep laughing at the duo. It was nice to see their girl so loose, just being herself and having fun with her best friend. Jiyoo had already got everyone involved with his girl investigated thoroughly. They knew absolutely everything there was to know about all the girls, and Dahyun was just great all around. The group talks a bit longer, Dahyun making sure she brings back the fact that Jihyo is her grandfather's female version and asking the woman to go and draw a mustache, you know, for science.

It was a nice evening, the next day being a saturday, Jihyo asked her friend if she wanted to just stay at her parents’, which Dahyun happily agreed to, she didn’t want to walk to Jihyo’s house, as close as it was, it was still too far for this time of night. Jihyo had her own room at her parents’ house, with a full wardrobe and all. Dahyun was surprised, and went on another rant about how her friend should learn with her parents and redo her wardrobe at her own house as well. Chinsun said they could all go the next day and get it, from where she was observing them from the door. Before Jihyo could say anything, both women had already decided everything and she was just to go with them and try on whatever they handed her.

As it turned out, Chinsun and Dahyun were a terrible combination in regards to Jihyo’s wardrobe change. They dragged the woman wherever their hearts desired and ignored her complaining masterfully. The one thing both did keep in mind, was to keep everything in the detective’s style, which Jihyo was thankful for. There was also the fact that Jihyo would be a married woman soon, and her wife was also from the higher social circles, so she accepted it would be better for her to step up a little. After their shopping spree, they all marched into Jihyo’s house to rearrange her closet and get the old things out.

“I’ll just leave you two to it and pack up what you are taking out.” Jihyo sighed.

“Oh, yeah. Be a dear and sort these things for us.” Chinsun agrees absentmindedly.

“Do any of you have a charity in mind?” Dahyun asks.

“Not really, I’ll take suggestions if you two have any.” Jihyo grunted as she tried to lift more than she knew she could.

“I have a place in mind, if you could drop it off on monday, I’ll give you the address.”

“Sounds good to me.” The detective shrugs. “I’ll remind you of that later, then.

Chinsun smiled, she knew these two were good, but she never thought they would be this kind hearted. Sure, she also agreed that the clothes they would be parting with could be destined to people who needed them, but she didn’t think they would worry about it like this. Then again, the fact that Jihyo grew up with nothing must have influenced her to think this way, she too had been dependent on donations while growing up. It did bring a little squeeze to the older woman’s heart thinking about her daughter’s past.

Now, by the time everything was done and packed, Jihyo was too tired, she not only had to allow these two to drag her around and dress her up all morning, but also had to pack their mess all afternoon. The detective really just wanted to sleep, but Dahyun said she needed to go home, so Jihyo took her, it was also the first time Dahyun would ride her big car. The one Jihyo’s dad had bought her back when they met and she usually kept at the family’s penthouse, it was too big for her old apartment’s garage, and she thought she might need it now that she was about to be engaged. It’s not very ‘high society-ish’ to take fancy ladies to fancy places in a mini. 

“When did you get this thing?” Dahyun asked, referring to the car.

“Dad got me this when we first met, he said I would need it. This was the reason I even got to buy you that fluffy white coat you wanted.”

“What? How?”

“The one place that had that coat was one of those fancy stores in Cheongdam. This bathtub was more for a social economic statement than anything. My family’s penthouse is there too, so I kept it there, as it didn’t fit my old apartment’s garage.”

“Oh, wow. I’d never guess your parents would actually choose Cheongdam of all places.”

“Me too, I thought they would go for a rich village or something, but my grandma was the one to choose it, she likes being around there to go out shopping with her friends more often.”

“Ooohh, I want to meet grandma then!”

“She’ll probably come up to Seoul for the engagement. Sometime soon.”

“Then I’ll be waiting anxiously.”

Jihyo laughed and promised her friend would be meeting her family a lot more now. They made small talk until they arrived at the Yoo-Kim residence. Jeongyeon opened the door looking sour, but neither cared too much about it. Dahyun gave her friend a tight hug and got out of the car, with how Jihyo parked, Jeongyeon couldn’t see who was in the driver’s seat and jumped to conclusions, as she often does.

“Well?” Dahyun asks as her wife is scowling and barring the front door.

“I’d think if you were to cheat on me, you’d go for Jihyo, not the driver!” Jeongyeon spits.

“Don’t mistake me for you. That was Jihyo driving me home, and I’m not the one who two times in this relationship.” The younger woman forces her way inside.

“Until when are you going to hold onto that?”

“Until you learn that you are a jerk, that you did Jihyo very wrong and you need to apologize and mean it! Until you understand that our marriage, hell, our entire relationship only happened because Jihyo told me to give you another chance and I listened to her!”

“wha-”

“Look, Jeong. I don’t know, nor do I want to know what your deal with Jihyo is. But you sort yourself out and don’t try to put whatever delusion you live in on us.” Dahyun was very definitive with her message. “I’ll be sleeping in the guest bedroom until further notice, I can’t be near you right now.”

By the time that discussion was over, Jihyo was already halfway back to her house. She got a call from her father, which was odd, he was supposed to be having some couple’s time with her mother, but JIhyo took the call regardless.

“Yes, dad?”

“Jyo, are you home yet?

“I’m halfway back, but is there something wrong?”

“Not really, can you drop by on your way back?”

“Sure, I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”

“Just come right in, we’ll be waiting in the living room.”

“Alright, be there soon.”