Much like it had been scheduled, Sunmi’s campaign for senate was about to begin and she got a whole new team to work on it. Jihyo was the poster wife, a big name, very pretty, well built, and kept herself in perfect shape. The stylists were happy to work with the detective, and her ‘demands’ were always reasonable and doable, not that the detective actually demanded anything, she’d always ask if something was possible and whenever it was, she was granted it. The big, bad detective image was refined, and she was doing way too many press conferences for her liking.

Her friend group was delighted to see the old grump all dolled up and smiling for the cameras. Okay, maybe not smiling, but not snarling also. As Mina was still holding off on cases for Jihyo, it wasn’t much of a problem to let her go. That and she had spent so much idle time that the juniors she was helping were too good. Yugyeom had also improved a lot under her tutelage, his own team had already made it into the best results of the station. There had been another order from above for Mina to not give detective Park too much, they wanted her to learn she could keep doing her job in higher positions. There were rumors of their department getting another chief to split the work with Myoui, and the high ups really wanted Jihyo out of the streets.

The whole promotion idiocy was easily pushed back, Jihyo was in a lot of publicity schedules, being the perfect poster wife to Lee Sunmi. Sunmi’s apartment had people in and out of it all the time, but Jihyo saw what she had been waiting for in the campaign coordinator. A younger woman, full of brilliant ideas and very up to date with how the electorate was tending. But the mutual interest between the two was clear as day, Sunmi was taken to this woman and the woman clearly reciprocated. This was the first time Jihyo would be spending the night at Sunmi’s after the campaign began, good thing too because it was madness.

“Jyo! Come here and meet my campaign coordinator.” Sunmi calls her wife over once she spots her.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Park Jihyo.” The detective greets.

“Kim Chungha, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.” The young woman says with a smile.

“I believe we will.” Jihyo laughs. “Just tell me when to shower and where to be and I’ll do my best.”

“When to shower would be right now, cutie.” Sunmi cuts in, side hugging her wife. “You stink again.”

“Will do, I feel disgusting.”

“What happened, anyway?” Chungha is curious.

“Keep it PG, love. She isn't used to your tales yet.” The tallest woman warns.

“So, you know what I do, right?” Getting a nod, Jihyo continues. “Well, I’ll just say sewer crime scene.”

Both women shiver, Sunmi releases her hug immediately and takes a step to the side. Chungha does her best to not show how disgusted she really is, but the detective sees everything. Jihyo can’t help but look at them and chuckle.

“I got an antiseptic bath once I was finished, don’t worry much. But this smell is all the disinfectants they throw on us to make sure we won’t carry any diseases around and whatnot.”

“Regardless, go in and don’t come out before you smell heavenly as you usually do.” Sunmi ushers.

“Sure thing. Chungha, I hope you’ll stick around, we should talk more.”

“Don’t worry, we still have a lot to do around here, and the team won’t be out until late at night.” She says, gesturing to the rest of the team still milling around.

Jihyo proceeds to her room, she agrees she smelled bad, but it was better than risking contamination. They all did wear proper protection and their clothes had been incinerated, but all the things they had to scrub themselves with during the sanitary shower made them all smell like a porta-potty before a festival. Jihyo took her time showering, she had been nervous about meeting the team and this whole new development between her wife and the manager added to the nerves, plus, the crime scene being in the sewers also added to the irritation.

One thing our favorite grump had taken a liking to was perfume, she got really into the world of fragrances and how they interacted with mood, climate, occasion. It was fascinating to her and she also had quite a few at Sunmi’s place. This particular night, she was feeling some white florals and light fragrance, so that’s what she went for. When Jihyo got back to the living room, she saw the team had started working on something else, and some photos had been put up on the whiteboard they had previously scribbled all over. So this is how a campaign headquarter looks like.

“Oh, you are back!” Sunmi chirps once her wife enters the room. “And smelling decent, great.”

“Am I needed for something right at this moment?” Getting a denial, Jihyo continues. “Great, I’ll go and eat something. Have you eaten already?”

“We all have dinner coming already. One of the kids ordered it earlier. But go on and get yourself something.” Sunmi explains, pushing her wife to the kitchen lightly.

Jihyo chuckles and heads to the kitchen to make herself something to eat. She did kind of just dropped by, despite Sunmi having answered her text with something along the lines of ‘you know you don’t have to ask to come over, but the campaign team will be here’. Jihyo rumages the fridge and finds some shrimp she had been meaning to finish, along with mushrooms and a bit of cheese. Sunmi, she found, had this unexplainable habit of leaving small portions of whatever she used for her own food and never really finishing it. 

The good part of Sunmi’s habit was that Jihyo would be able to find hidden gems for her meals whenever the older woman had dinner without her, sometimes when both would eat together she’d make small dishes for them to share. While the detective was whipping up some shrimp pasta for herself, she saw the manager come into the kitchen. She gestured to her food, asking if the younger woman wanted some, she didn’t. Chungha patiently waited for her to finish, sitting at the breakfast bar and watching how Jihyo moved around the kitchen with practiced ease.

“Alright, you want to talk to me about something.” Jihyo says as she settles on a stool to begin her dinner.

“I understand you and mrs Lee are married.” Chungha begins carefully.

“How much has she told you about our marriage?” Jihyo cuts in, wanting to get to the bottom of it already.

“She said you both are married and like each other a lot, that you aren’t in a romantic relationship but she did bring it up before, but you explained your feelings on that and you both agreed to not move into that for the time being, and that you both also aren’t in an intimate relationship.”

“Good, so she told you the gist of it.” Jihyo says between bites. “I’ll just say one thing.”

“What?” Chungha doesn’t seem to understand where the conversation was going. 

“If you both do intend to go ahead with whatever it is you both have, make sure you are discreet and remember I’m still her wife to the outside world.” Jihyo warns, having stopped eating for the moment. “We know what is really happening, but she needs the public to believe she is the perfect little politician.”

Chungha looks too stunned to speak, so Jihyo continues what she had to say.

“I don’t mind whatever you both want to do behind closed doors, but there can never be any visible signs of it on her and you have to learn to control your jealousy whenever she’ll have to act like my loving wife.”

“Your fame really doesn’t do you justice.” the younger woman chuckled humorlessly. “I knew about you, we had a P.I. run a background check and all. Normal for a politician, as you already know, and you are as clean as a whistle.”

“That I really am. Not a single littering ticket, even.” Jihyo confirms. “I did notice I was being tailed a while back, but the kid never really presented any trouble, so I left him alone. Quite sloppy kid too, might I add.”

“I’ll take note for future reference.”

“Great, now are you spending the night too?”

“That was the plan, but are you alright with that?”

“She will probably tell you that it isn’t her house, and we aren’t anything but good friends who happened to be married, and it isn’t her call.” Sunmi answers from the doorway. “But she would never tell anybody if this whole thing hurts her or not.”

“Like I told you before.” Jihyo shakes her head. “It wasn’t a good idea to go any further with our relationship, this was exactly what I was talking about.”

“Yeah, but you will never let anybody know where you really stand in this, what is really going on in that brilliant head of yours?”

“Right now? That I should finish eating and get some sleep.”

“See what I told you?” Sunmi huffs, draping an arm around Chungha, who had been watching closely.

“Yeah, and you never warned me she was as perceptive as she really is!”

“She is frustrated I figured you both out before she got the chance to say anything.” Jihyo chuckled and got up to wash her dishes. “But, like I told her, you both need to learn to be discreet about this. We are still the happy poster couple to the outside world.”

“Will do, we still have to figure out how to go about this. It’s fairly new and we haven’t really talked about it.” Sunmi accepts.

“I can just go home later, if you both want to talk.” The detective offers. “I think I’ll do just that. Is the team leaving or staying?”

“They should leave soon.” Chungha informs. “But you don’t have to leave.”

“New couples should have their alone time. And there's much you both should work out. I’ll just go and talk a bit with the rest of the team, they should know me at least.”

The detective makes her way to the living room, where a bunch of kids was still milling about, busy with whatever it was they did. Jihyo makes easy conversation with them all and goes to fix her stuff so she could go home when the team leaves later. It was a pleasant evening, mostly reviewing strategies and coming up with the plan for Sunmi’s candidature announcement. Jihyo was asked to be there to show support and a united front as her wife announced she was running for senate.

If a bottle or two disappeared from the drinks cabinet that evening, Sunmi wouldn’t mention it. It was only fair she’d allow Jihyo to do as she pleased after all this. The older woman was sad, but the heart wants what the heart wants, and she was already bummed enough about Jihyo being completely correct when she said they didn’t love each other like that.