Police life was nice, Jihyo had been a bit disheartened when she learned that she should be, at least, assistant inspector to be allowed to enter the detective courses and go that route. So, at least, three years before she could get to what she really wanted to do, if everything went well, that was. At least Jihyo was able to skip the lowest rank and wouldn’t be stuck on traffic duty, but she WAS stuck on the night shift taking care of the drunks. The mornings were the worst, when she would have to go around waking up those who had slept on the street and tell them to go home, she lost count of how many times she got puked on.

At least the station had a laundry room that everyone could use, and this was the period that got Jihyo wearing uniforms no matter what. The good part was that she didn’t need to go home with her uniform covered in human dejects, that was also how she talked her way into being given an extra pair of shoes after the third time she had to wash hers and it didn’t dry on time for her next shift. All in all, things were alright. The pay wasn’t all that, but Jihyo lived in a nicer area now, Dahyun was ever the great friend and dropped by quite often, she was able to work through Tan’s death and was moving forward now.

What Jihyo didn’t really know, however, was that Nayeon had kept an eye on her ever since the incident, she was the one who pulled a few strings to have Jihyo be placed on that specific station. Going up the ranks was easier there and Jihyo would be able to get more opportunities there. Chaeyoung and Dahyun had exchanged numbers back on graduation day and had kept in touch, the older one had met Nayeon and they got to know each other very well.

Momo and Sana were a chance meeting for the three. Nayeon and Dahyun were waiting for Chaeyoung in front of a coffee shop when the japanese couple passed by. Im Nayeon was many things, but discreet had never been one of those, and pointed the couple out as the ‘girls from Jihyo’s robbery case’, they obviously heard and waved awkwardly. It led to a very uncomfortable first meeting, but all got comfortable with each other soon enough and found they all made rather good friends. Nayeon provided updates about Jihyo’s career, Dahyun (the one who spent time with her) provided updates about Jihyo’s life and Sana breathed a sigh of relief knowing the little officer was doing alright now.

“Are you having fun with Nayeon and Chaeyoung lately?” Jihyo asks one lazy afternoon.

“Wa- Ho- Wa-What do you mean?” Dahyun almost chokes on the cake she was eating.

“Hyun, do you really think I wouldn’t know?” The older’s smirk was very annoying. “I also know you are giving Jeongyeon a chance again. I’m glad you are taking the chance.”

“Look, Ji, I-”

“Are you happy?” Jihyo asks with a warm smile.

“I am.” Dahyun sighs. “Aren’t you upset?”

“Why would your happiness upset me? You are my friend, Hyun. All I want is for you to be happy.”

“You are too good, Ji. You deserve the world, you know that?” The younger woman says, draping herself over her friend.

“Stop letting yourself drop like a sack of potatoes on me!” Jihyo laughed, but still hugged her friend.

They go on talking about Dahyun’s adventures with her ‘new’ friends. Jihyo also learns how they ran into Momo and Sana and also got to talking to them. It looked like they were forming a nice group, and if Dahyun was happy with how things were turning out, Jihyo was happy too. Might be seen as an unfair way of thinking for some, but Jihyo never regarded herself as someone worthy of anything, and she definitely would never want to impose on anyone’s happiness, no matter what. But Dahyun had learned to never take her friend’s words face-value, so she decided to bid her time and see how things would develop. 

With time, Jihyo got used to her bad schedules, working nights never got easy, but a year into the job and she was lined up for a promotion. It would be one step closer to her goal, and she would be transferred to another station, a bit far, but she did her calculations and learned that if she got a second-hand bike, she would spend less than taking public transportation, and she would save about half an hour on the way. So Jihyo got her first vehicle, it was just a little vespa, but it would do and she had enough to pay for it without loans. Like most of the cadets, she got her licenses during training, they would all need it at one point or another, and they could get the heavy vehicles certification and the motorcycle ones along with the car license in one go. It would also be a fraction of the price for getting those outside.

Dahyun was the most excited, demanding to be taken for a ride as soon as she laid eyes on the bike. Jihyo laughed and handed her a helmet. They cruised around the Han river, feeling the cool air and enjoying the night scene. Jihyo stopped at a picnic area. It was fairly deserted, despite it being a friday, she guided her friend to a little barbecue place. It didn’t look like much from the outside but it was very cozy on the inside. Jihyo greeted the man behind the counter and signaled something to him, probably their order as they sat down and weren’t handed menus.

“Looks like you come here often.” Dahyun opens a conversation.

“I used to come here back in college, usually when I was stood up and wanted some pick-me-up.” 

“Oh.” This was always a hard topic for the younger woman.

“You don’t have to think too much about it. I know how you get uncomfortable whenever I bring up these things. It’s just, this is one of my safe places, and I wanted to share it with you.” Jihyo smiles kindly.

“Thanks Ji, but you shouldn’t have to police what you say around me just because I get upset at how you’ve been treated.”

“It’s alright, it’s not that important, so I don’t need to bring it up.”

“Jihyo, I want you to know that you can always speak to me about anything. No matter what.”

“Okay.”

Dahyun smiles and goes back to grilling the meat, their evening ends on a fun note, Jihyo dropping her at her place when it was time to go home. Jeongyeon was standing at the door and didn’t look the least bit happy seeing her girlfriend with that Jihyo girl. Dahyun could be very fun, warm and gentle, but she would make the devil afraid of her when she got angry, and the taller woman saw in her girlfriend's expression that she’d better shut the hell up and be on her best behavior if she didn’t want to get it.

The first day at the new precinct came with an old, familiar face. Jihyo’s new supervisor was none other than Myoui Mina, the shy girl she had met all those years ago in highschool and never heard of again. It was nice, they talked a bit before work started, Mina had been excited to see her old friend again since she got the transfer papers. Jihyo was just happy that it would be someone who knew her before adult life. But duty called and they were forced to stop their conversation so Mina could start showing Jihyo around and introducing her to her new colleagues. What they would do was mostly securing crime scenes, running errands for the higher officers, isolating and controlling traffic whenever they’d deal with accidents, these menial things.

The job wasn’t that bad, certainly an upgrade from patrolling the streets all night and getting puked on. Securing areas did get boring, and she was just a newbie, still being shut down whenever she tried to point out something she thought was being done wrong. But Jihyo bit the bullet at all times and did what she thought was better regardless of the older officers. Trully, the crime scenes Jihyo was working would always be the better preserved ones, she would check the whole perimeter and dutifully isolate anything she thought important, she would check street drains, gutters, the vehicles around, everything. If there was a chance evidence could be found, Jihyo would check it and isolate the area when she found something. The other officers who worked with her thought it was just up to their superiors and resented her a lot for insisting on making them look bad. 

Mina, their superior, knew it wasn’t about that, she knew Jihyo was just being thorough with her work and really just wanted to help. It was one meaningful conversation during their younger years, one of the times Mina had visited Jihyo and the older one was sick. Jihyo told Mina she wanted to make a difference, that she wanted to mean something, even if for a short while. If Jihyo had followed the lawyer route, maybe she could make it to public defender, but certainly nothing higher, getting into law enforcement, Jihyo would be able to reach places and do things that she would never be able to otherwise.

At one of her securing scenes jobs, Jihyo had been tasked to isolate and guard a car crash. It was a rich boy who crashed into some parked vehicles and fled the scene. They already knew it was the boy himself driving and that he ran off without checking for anything or anyone, the CCTV in that area captured everything, even who was driving the car that picked him up a few streets over. It was boring, Jihyo didn’t have anything to check, she had already checked if there were any leaks, and when there weren’t, she was left to stand there and wait. Until a very angry young lady came marching over with a purpose, that was.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you can’t get past this point.” Jihyo stopped the woman before the police line.

“That is my ing car! I can do what the I want.” The lady answered.

“As a matter of fact, the yellow line shows that no, you cannot do whatever you want and you will not get past this point.” 

“Do you know who you are talking to? Get out of the way, .”

“I do not care for whomever you think you are, ma’am.” Jihyo uses her ‘no bull’ voice. “I advise you to walk away and take your troubles to whomever caused them.”

“You are the one causing trouble and trying to stop me.”

The young lady whips something out of her purse, Jihyo catches sight of something metallic and all alarm bells go off. The woman smirks and lunges forward, brandishing the knife and trying to do as much damage as possible. Jihyo tries to keep calm and remember her training, she knew she would have to let this girl hit her to have a case and be able to stop her. 

Jihyo offers her forearm, she stops the knife and gets slashed, ignoring the pain to the best of her abilities, and subdues the woman in a fluid movement. Jihyo grabs the hand that was holding the knife, twists it behind the woman’s back with a few steps, kicks the girl’s knees and, before her attacker can make sense of anything, she’s already laying on the pavement, with the officer kneeling on her back and being cuffed. It took mere moments to happen, Jihyo was incredibly proeminent in her defense skills, but she was hurt and had to call for backup.

Turns out, the girl was also the daughter of some rich man. She was dating the guy who crashed and he had taken her car without permission. Jihyo was told that when her colleagues arrived to take the girl and put another officer there to secure the area. When Mina heard about the attack, she opted to stay behind and guarantee that Jihyo would have her justice. If these people’s parents were to get involved, the videos for the attack and the accident itself would soon ‘disappear’ and they would be stumbling around to close the cases. Mina pulled some strings and secured the recordings, she did throw in there that an officer had been attacked and sent to the hospital and the boys from IT promptly granted her everything she wanted.

Jihyo was taken to the hospital, an ambulance was dispatched when she put out the call for ‘officer down’. It wasn’t as bad as everyone seemed to think, the adrenaline must still be numbing her to it. The good thing was, Jihyo didn’t lose her uniform, she was wearing short sleeves and the cut was on her forearm, plus, she knew the staff at the station knew how to remove blood from fabric and wouldn’t mind helping her out. Jihyo really didn’t want to have to pay for a new uniform. Now, the emergency room was a bit chaotic, Jihyo got a local anesthesia and was being checked over by one doctor as another one was patching her up, good times.

“Hello, officer Park. I’m nurse Chou, and I’ll be the one responsible for you during your stay.” 

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you.” Jihyo greets back with a smile. “Any idea on when I’ll be allowed out?”

“Not yet, dr Kim said he wanted to keep you a little longer to ensure nothing was damaged and you won’t need any follow up surgery.” Nurse Chou explained, looking over the files. “Also, you don’t have an emergency contact listed, would you like to do that now?”

“No, not really. I don’t have anyone to list as an emergency contact.” Jihyo says honestly.

There could be Dahyun, but her best friend had her own life as well, it’s not like Jihyo would want to impose on her like that. Especially for things like this, it was just a cut, there was no need to call anyone at all. The nurse was surprised, if not a bit saddened that this officer was on her own.

“Well, I’ll have to call your superior, then. You can’t really be discharged without someone to accompany you home.”

“Can you call her when I’m about to be discharged, then? I know she has a lot of things to take care of, and I really don’t want to waste her time coming here before she has to.” 

“Alright, I’ll do as you asked, then.” Nurse Chou agreed, albeit reluctantly.

Jihyo stayed in the hospital for three days, nurse Chou, Tzuyu as the woman asked to be called, would come in often and just talk to her. They hit it off, but Jihyo knew it wouldn’t amount to much, but entertained the woman regardless. As the doctors didn’t identify any nerve damage nor anything else that would leave permanent damage, there was no more reason for Jihyo to stay. Tzuyu asked Jihyo out when she went over to announce the officer would be discharged. She had taken a liking to the young officer and wanted to know more about this lonely and kind soul. 

Once Mina showed up to pick up her subordinate, Jihyo and Tzuyu had been talking animatedly. The change was immediate, Jihyo saw how the nurse lost all possible interest in her and directed it to Mina. It was expected, but doesn’t mean it hurt any less. Jihyo did what she was best at, put on a smile and pushed her feelings down so she could discard them later. It often happened like this, Jihyo wasn’t good enough, she wasn’t supposed to be hoping to be given more than what she already got. Tzuyu had already been kind enough to talk to her during her stay, it would be too much to expect more than that.

Jihyo got another week off, then she would be doing desk work for the next month, before being allowed back to duty. Tzuyu messaged, reminding her of their date, which the officer confirmed she would be going. It was a quick ordeal, Jihyo had arrived first, ordering a coffee to go, as she didn’t expect to stay enough to finish it. Tzuyu arrived and ordered something, frowning when she sat down and saw that Jihyo had a travel cup. Jihyo just told her she knew the nurse wanted her supervisor and had just shown up to properly end things, even if nothing had started at all. Tzuyu tried to deny it, but couldn’t really say much. Jihyo wished her well and walked out.

Mina wanted to talk to her old friend, she heard from Tzuyu, they had exchanged numbers when she went to pick up Jihyo, what happened and wanted to talk about it. Jihyo, in turn, was a master in disappearing, she was on desk duty, but that didn’t mean she would have to stay in her cubicle, and she learned her superior’s schedule perfectly. The two weeks she stayed home were fine, it wasn’t like Mina could just up and go confront her there, she was from a well off family and lived on the other side of town. Jihyo opted to help out in the evidence room and timed whatever she had to do around the area of Mina’s table whenever she knew her superior wouldn’t be able to notice her.

After Jihyo was back on the streets, it became impossible to find her alone to talk, so Mina kept putting it off. Until a few months later, when Jihyo’s promotion came through, along with a transfer to the financial crime department. Mina swore to keep an eye on her friend, she didn’t intend to leave Jihyo now that she found her again so many years later. Nayeon noticed someone was also following Jihyo’s file and decided to investigate, she learned it was officer Myoui, a younger girl who was brilliant and had saved a police chief in her first year, getting promoted and leveling up with herself. The older one decided to contact this officer Myoui, both agreed to meet and bonded over the fact that they liked Jihyo but couldn’t really manage to quite reach the girl.