The following week consisted of Jihyo and her juniors running around trying to get as much as they could on this potential serial on the loose. They had quite a lot and Jihyo just couldn’t find the one piece that would bring everything together, she knew there was something amiss but neither her team nor Gwon’s had come up with the one lead. It was frustrating and Jihyo started looking into Chungha, anything to de-stress from this case going nowhere. Yugyeom made a few quips about not knowing his sunbae was the jealous type, which Jihyo had to take because the juniors didn’t know about the truth behind her marriage, but they all quieted down quite fast.

There was already quite a lot of information available, Jihyo had done a quick swipe of the apartment and got to know the maker of the bugs she spotted, planted a few of her own and set up a quick image loop feed that would be picked up by anything that could be filming the apartment when she was doing her search. It was good enough, the transition wouldn't be that noticeable and her equipment would also feed the same small disturbance periodically to trick anyone observing to think it was something to do with the equipment itself. This wouldn’t be Jihyo’s first run in with this kind of surveillance and she had developed this technique quite a while back.

The team made good progress, but Jihyo would need to check what her own equipment picked up and she really couldn’t risk her juniors finding out her personal matters. So Jihyo just asked them to help out with locating where the feeds were being sent to, all were surprised when it was all being sent to a rather shady organization, so the juniors were tasked to find Chungha in the street cctv around the place. Imagine their surprise when the juniors discovered she had been frequenting the place rather often, a lot of times entering late in the evening and leaving in the morning. Alright, this was already much worse than simple political espionage.

Jihyo immediately sends a message to Secretary Kim, asking to meet up as she had some information that needed more investigation and she couldn’t proceed much further without raising suspicion. Yugyeom asked if Jihyo wanted him to go over and help with the feed her own equipment captured, but she dismissed it explaining that she knew who to go to with it and they were all better off not poking it anymore. The detective asked the juniors to make a compiled file and then erase any trace of their little investigation.

“Alright, we have nothing more to work on for today, so everyone go home and have some time with the people you love.” Jihyo dismissed her team after they were done.

“It’s rare to see you so eager to leave, sunbae.” One of the juniors observes.

“Oh, I have a meeting with my father this evening, something about investors wanting to meet me? I can already feel the headache coming.” She lies easily.

“Alright, now go on kiddos.” Yugyeom laughs and claps his hands.

The juniors start moving and leave quickly. Jihyo notices Yugyeom lingering and decides to let everyone go so he can ask whatever it was on his mind. 

“Alright, out with it.”

“Are you sure you don't want me to help out? I understand not wanting the kids to see whatever you have there, but I already know everything.”

“I’m sure. I have someone I trust to take care of it and not draw any attention. I’ll also be removing my own equipment from Sunmi’s apartment too, if Chungha is really involved with those people, she’ll look around for bugs just like I did pretty soon.”

“Alright, I’ll leave it alone. Just promise me you’ll be alright.”

“I promise. Don’t worry much. And forget anything you saw today.”

“Will do, boss.”

Both chuckle at that, and Jihyo pushes Yugyeom out the door. He leaves still clearly worried and Jihyo moves to fix her things. She already had all the footage in a flash drive, so she got the two copies of everything she managed to find with her juniors, double checked that every trace of their investigation was erased and headed to the blue house. Arriving, she was guided to the same process as her previous visit.This time she was alone, but she did remember to call her father and their lawyer, and explain everything on her way.

Secretary Kim was waiting with commissary Choi, Jihyo guessed they were the only ones available for this. Regardless, she should pass on the information as quickly as possible, then head on to Sunmi’s apartment and have the woman pack to move in with her for the time being. The politician had already been asked to wait for her wife, with ‘spontaneous date’ as the reason. Now, back to the meeting at hand.

“Detective Park, you sounded urgent.” Secretary Kim greets.

“I’m afraid it’s quite urgent, yes.” Jihyo quickly bows and starts fishing for everything she brought, taking out one copy of each, the other copy she will keep to herself for now.

“What’s all this?” Commissary Choi received the items curiously.

“Well, my lovely wife’s little girlfriend might be into some questionable activities. I did some digging and when I found the people that girl has been associating herself with, I knew it was better if I didn’t go further myself.”

“Sounds worrying indeed.” Secretary Kim agrees.

The duo moves to inspect everything Jihyo had provided and she takes the time to have some of the tea that had been served. Commissary Choi pulls out an old looking computer, most likely untraceable, and they also check the flash drives. Both look increasingly concerned and Jihyo figures her suspicions were correct, this was deeper than what it looked like. Both the commissary and secretary take out their phones and start making some urgent calls before turning back to the detective.

“Well, you certainly came to us at just the right time.” Commissary Choi sighs.

“I would have come earlier, but the missus was too in love with the kid.” Jihyo chuckled emptily. “It was just recently that Sunmi told me she was suspicious of her plaything and asked me to look into it.”

“We’ll handle this, but you should take your wife away from this woman as soon as possible.” Secretary Kim advises.

“I’ll take her to my house for the time being. I should go pick her up as soon as I leave here.”

“Smart thinking.” Commissary Choi nods. “But be sure you are discreet about it. Also, tell us when you arrive at your residence.”

“Will do. I know your boys keep an eye on me, but they are two houses down. Ask them to drop by when Sunmi isn’t over and I’ll give them a temporary link to my own cctv, which I know you weren’t capable of bypassing yet.”

“Always the show off, huh?!” They all laugh at Secretary Kim’s remark. “Regardless, I’ll let you go. We should start looking into this as soon as possible.”

“Also, the kidnaps and murders you are working on?” Choi remembered. “Yeah, same culprit. You should find something soon.”
 

“Anything else I should know about it?”

“Just keep going as you are. I only know this because of some idle gossip one of my little birds happened to come across. And since telling you would reveal their identity, I’ll just advise you to look into the kidnappings again, maybe look at the pattern.”

“Alright, I’ll take it.” Jihyo accepts as she gets up. “I’ll leave you both to it and go extract my wife now.”

The group says their goodbyes and Jihyo leaves, remembering to text Sunmi she was about to arrive soon. In the corridor, just before she enters, Jihyo activates her equipment, it had been a smart move to make it remote controlled. She will create a scene she can loop to Chungha’s equipment and then tell her what they should do. Speaking of Chungha, she was at the apartment as well, but it was expected. Jihyo figured she might have come to check her equipment as the little disturbances would raise suspicion to anyone who was following the feed.

“Jihyo, it’s been a while.” Chungha greeted.

“It truly has, but crime never really gives me much of a break, you know.”

“My biggest hope is that you lose your job, you know.” Sunmi says, coming from the kitchen.

“Because then there wouldn’t be anyone being killed?” Chungha confirms.

“Exactly.” The tallest woman side-hugs her wife and goes back to what she was doing.

“That would be the best day of my life, to be honest.” Jihyo sighs as she removes her coat. “You ready for dinner with both our parents tonight?”

“Obviously not, but I’ll manage.”

“Speaking of which, how do they see this whole marriage situation you both have going on?” The manager is curious.

“Oh, they don’t really know about it. We got set up by our parents, but they don’t really know the intricacies of our married life.” The detective explains, having thought the cover story on her way over.

“Oh…” Chungha seems a bit lost in thought.

“Now, my dearest wife, would you kindly get ready so we can go and surrender ourselves to our parents?”

“I’ll be right back.” Sunmi smiles and walks off.

“I guess I’ll get going, then.” Chungha decides. “Tell me how it went later!”

“Will do. Message me when you get home!” Sunmi pops her head in the hallway and ducks back into the bedroom.

Jihyo gets up and follows the younger woman out, waiting for the door to close before she heads to the bedroom and starts her recording. She only really needed a few minutes so she could loop it and they’d have a few minutes to talk before it became obvious. Luckily, Sunmi was in the bedroom, and there wasn’t anything there. Most likely for their privacy as a couple. Jihyo got enough of an empty living room and decided to call her wife over so she could give the woman some quick instructions before removing her own equipment.

“Come to the living room with me and don’t make too much noise.” Jihyo whispers when she gets close enough.

Sunmi follows dutifully. “Alright, what’s going on?” She whispers.

“Look, you are going to be living with me for the time being. I’ll explain in length when we get there, but get enough so you won’t need to come here for the foreseeable future and tell me when you are done with your bags. Don’t bring them out here until I tell you to.”

“Alright, if you help me out we’ll be done faster.”

“Good, just remember to make conversation, anything to throw them off the trail.” Jihyo finishes explaining and guides them back to the bedroom.

The detective lets the surveillance get more on them moving around the apartment and then loops it again so she can get the bags to the door. It was a bit difficult for Sunmi to pretend nothing was happening and keep talking to Jihyo as naturally as possible, but they managed. On the way over to Jihyo’s house was when the detective decided to explain better what was happening.

“I think we are in the clear.” The younger woman sighs, she did use her magnets to fry any possible device remaining on Sunmi’s things.

“Well, I’d really like to know what all this is about.” Sunmi chuckled.

“Your girl is hanging out with some very shady people. I already have someone handling it, but you’ll have to stay with me for the time being.”

“It’s alright, Dahyun won’t mind if I take over the guest bedroom for the time being.”

“She won’t. But we can work on sleeping on the same bed too. But I digress, Chungha should be kept as blind to what we are doing and what we know as possible. Do whatever you have to do, but don’t let her suspect anything.”

“And what do I say about not returning to the apartment?”

“You’ll return to the apartment every now and then, but don’t let her sleep over anymore. I’ll come and get you once she’s gone. Also, get another phone, make sure only those you trust know of it and keep it with you at all times. You’ll start leaving the phone she knows about in the apartment.”

“Alright. Should I do something about security?”

“If you can tighten it without her noticing, that would be ideal. There are already eyes on you, but being careful and chicken soup never hurt anybody.”

“I’ll see what I can do, but now, I want to have a nice warm bath and just relax.”

“Alright, do you want anything specific for dinner?”

“Whatever you want.” Sunmi shrugs and heads to the bathroom. “Also, I’m sleeping in your bed. I need cuddles.”

Jihyo chuckles and goes to see what she had in the fridge, seeing a few things that could make for some nice stew so she went with that. Now, while Sunmi was distracted, Jihyo placed a quick call to Commissary Choi, explaining what they just discussed and he assured her that he was on it and she just had to keep pretending nothing was out of order and keep as much distance as possible from Chungha.

They fell into a somewhat easy routine. Sunmi just kept going on little dates with Chungha, despite everything to do with the campaign already being over, and started trying to break things off as easily as possible. Jihyo was getting closer with her serial case, it indeed had clear connections with the kidnappings. She was still working with detective Gwon, still keeping everything under wraps as they started seeing connections to a certain familiar, shady organization. She was also sending regular updates to her secret allies, they were taking care of finding and destroying anything regarding Sunmi and whatever was acquired in the apartment. 

Sunmi was being informed by her wife that things were being taken care of, and made up a story about her grandparents visiting and herself and all her siblings having to stay at the family home for the time being, so Chungha didn’t really push and they kept the little day dates. It was a half truth, her grandparents indeed were in town, but herself and her siblings wouldn’t go back home outside of the weekends. So they managed to keep everything under control.

For the time being, they would have to present themselves as the clueless, loveless couple. Where their marriage was for convenience and they had no real attraction to each other. Sunmi was working on being a good wife, and Jihyo had stopped hiring company, accepting the older woman’s good intentions and deciding to give their marriage a chance as well. They were doing fairly good too, Sunmi had even moved to Jihyo’s room, foregoing the guest room and taking her half of the wardrobe properly. It was nice, rather domestic and awkward, but they were enjoying the process.