The rest of the week went by and Jihyo found herself at the mall, trying to find Dahyun that specific fluffy jacket she said she wanted. Her new car had been delivered, but her new motorcycle would take a while longer, so Jihyo decided it would be alright to drive there. Plus, her old bike was already sold and it was either that or the bus. Jihyo ended up finding the coat in a rather expensive store, but she had good money saved, as she wouldn't need to keep saving for a bike. She also didn’t mind spending a bit more on her best friend.

Arriving at Dahyun’s apartment, this was a just before she married Jeongyeon and they moved to their house, Jihyo was buzzed in and headed up. She knew Jeongyeon had moved in not long before, and this was already a bad idea. Combined with the fact that old faces would be there too, the officer was very uncomfortable about it all. But Chinsun was right, she was there to support and appreciate Dahyun, and she will do a damn good job at it. 

Jihyo knocked, luckily it was Dahyun who answered, so both spent a few minutes outside. The younger woman was just happy her best friend showed up, she would be ecstatic the next day when she looked at her gift, but for now Jihyo’s presence was more than enough. They talked until Jeongyeon called from inside, and Jihyo took a deep breath and grit her teeth before entering.

“It’s nice that you decided to show up.” Jeongyeon throws.

“I came here to celebrate my best friend’s birthday.” Jihyo responds.

“I’m sure you know most who are here, Jyo.” Dahyun intervenes. “Bo is somewhere towards the balcony.”

Jihyo nods and moves away. Bo, Bogeum, was Dahyun’s cousin who always had a soft spot for Jihyo. He was one of her many failed attempts at finding someone, but the man had fallen ill at the time and didn’t intend to stand her up. Jihyo understood, he did get ushered into an emergency surgery for gallstones, and it was fate that he ran into another patient who he got more interested in during one of his required walks. It wasn’t pleasant, it never was, but Jihyo was sympathetic to the incident and remained friends with him. She could feel the eyes on her, and had already spotted all the people she was trying to avoid.

As it turned out, it was easier than expected. Bogeum had brought his fiance, Jihyo found her quite pleasant. The woman had brought along her little sister, Jihyo’s junior by a year, only because the officer graduated earlier, they had a pleasant conversation all night, exchanged numbers and the girl even asked Jihyo out on a date. The next day was a saturday and both were free, so there was no reason not to. By the end of the evening, the crowd thinned out and Jihyo found herself saying goodbye to the people who had kept her company all night. Dahyun had asked her to hang around so they could talk.

It wasn’t long before she was surrounded by the unavoidable crowd. The women were all sitting in a circle, Dahyun and Jeongyeon were saying their goodbyes to the last of their guests. Jihyo kept herself out on the balcony, she was absolutely NOT going in there without the absolute need to. Dahyun stepped outside and closed the door behind her not much later, the younger woman figured they should have a talk before anything.

“Any reason you entrapped me here?” Jihyo asks, still looking into the city.

“They demanded it, and Jeong kept insisting you were still hung up on her enough to agree to hang around.”

“For all it’s worth, I really don’t want to do this.”

“I know.” Dahyun sighs. “But they said it was either that, or Nayeon and Mina would try and get someone in HR to talk, then barge into your place.”

“Well, this is the best option, indeed. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t .”

“Hey, at least you got yourself a date tomorrow!”

“So it WAS you then!” Jihyo remembers feeling a familiar presence when she was making plans. “No getting hopes up, though. We both know how these things end.”

“C’mon, Ji. It’s bound to work at some point.” Dahyun whines.

“Perhaps. But still, let’s not have any hopes at all.”

“Fine. You ready to get in there, then?”

“Not really, but it’s as ready as I’ll get. Let’s get this over with so I can go home and sleep.”

The whole thing ended up being worse than anticipated. Momo and Jeongyeon were still full of themselves, even getting into a little argument over who Jihyo was still hung up on. The answer was none of them. Tzuyu ended up being nicer than expected, sure, they talked a lot at the hospital, but Jihyo didn’t even get a single date with her, so they didn’t really know each other. Sana, the officer already knew, was very level headed, and quite pleasant to talk to, everything considered. Chaeyoung was still the same, and Nayeon had grown up quite a bit from the last time they saw each other. Mina, well, she wasn’t that much of a friend anymore, despite being the one who knew Jihyo the longest, she was the one who knew her the least.

The poor and hungry child Mina usually cared for was gone, had been gone for years. What was left was a broken woman who learned to live depending solely on herself, with no real shoulder to lean on. A broken woman who tried her best to still help others, even when she was left to fight alone. Mina was in the process of becoming chief of police, she knew she would be given the homicide department and really wanted to have Jihyo as one of her detectives. The problem was, Jihyo’s current superior was making it very difficult to get her, the man knew Mina and Nayeon had been snooping around and was making it as difficult as possible to have the woman removed from under his wing. But that is for a future time.

Right now, Jihyo was absolutely fed up with all this, she wanted to go home and sleep. Maybe hope she will actually have that date tomorrow. Another few minutes and Dahyun signaled that her friend was free to go if she wanted, the pale woman was fed up herself and just wanted to scream at these women about how stupid they all are without her firend around. Jihyo didn’t need to be told twice, she up and left promptly, gave her friend a tight hug and told her to just come by whenever for them to hang out.

The next day, as expected, the date didn’t happen. The girl gave some flimsy excuse, one that Jihyo didn’t care about at all. The officer had been sitting at the restaurant for a while, and decided to order something to go. She would be charged a fee if she didn’t have anything (nothing like what Jeongyeon did to her), so she decided to get something to eat, even if alone. Once she arrived at her apartment, her father called, it was weirdly well timed but Jihyo answered.

“Hey dad.”

“Hi, sweetheart. A little birdie told me you got stood up.”

“Ah, so that was your man.” Jihyo laughed, she had seen the guy following her. “Well, I told you it happens a lot. The girl gave me some excuse that I really don’t care for, but I’ve already blocked her number and deleted the conversation.”

“You know it makes me sad when things like these happen.”

“I know, dad. But it’s how my life has always been, don’t worry. I’m used to it.”

“I worry, your grandma worries and Chinsun worries too.”

“It is what it is, no use moping about that. Feel free to arrange any marriages you might think beneficial. It’s not like I’m doing good by myself anyway.”

They talk for a while longer, Jiyoo saying the family would be heading up to their house in Cheongdam so they could spend some time with her without getting her away from work for too long. Jihyo made a joke about chaebols that backfired as her father pointed out she was now a chaebol herself. It was nice to have someone caring for her like that. Dahyun showed up sunday morning and they spent the day talking, the younger woman convincing Jihyo to give the group another chance, and revealing she was engaged and she really wanted Jihyo to be her bridesmaid, pointing out that Jeongyeon’s sister would be the other bridesmaid and that the woman was single. 

Jihyo huffed and asked about the gift, which brought her friend to an excited rant about how cool it was and being impressed about how Jihyo would make a great detective because she found it when Dahyun herself had been looking for said coat for ages. The officer kept quiet about how she just called her father and asked if he knew where to find it. The man passed the task on to his assistant and the woman had an address in a matter of minutes. Jihyo just drove up, her car telling the attendants that she certainly had the money to be there, even if she didn’t look the part. It was the type of exclusive store that people were judged from the moment they pulled up to their parking spots.

The Goks arrived on monday, Jiyoo having scheduled some meetings up in the capital while they were all there. To fulfill their promise to take their girl shopping, the three just told Jihyo to head to their apartment (calling it that was downplaying it by a lot) after work. Once the young woman arrived, Chinsun was waiting for her downstairs. She guided Jihyo to a little room beside the reception, some sort of security room, to get her registered into the system, allocated a parking spot, and given full access to their penthouse. It was, after all, HER penthouse. Once they were done, both women headed outside so Jihyo could get her car and park it inside. It was a very modern building, the parking spots would have a green light to each resident’s key (a magnetic tag) above their allocated spot.

Jihyo found it all fascinating, and also learned that the penthouse consisted of the entire top floor and the roof area. They were also given six parking spots, three had been empty, with Jihyo’s car, now they still had two. Chinsun also explained that the extra spots were for their drivers, whenever they needed them, and the ones occupied were their private cars that were kept at that residence. It was a new thing, to have various houses and various cars, Jihyo still preferred to keep her one car, it was already too much, but she figured she should be thankful to her father, the car was what allowed her to purchase her best friend’s gift.

With her new found family in Seoul, Jihyo found herself spending quite some time with them. They did go out shopping, she maintained her style, only with better quality clothes. Regardless, Jihyo wore her uniform for work, and intended to continue doing so. For the first time in her life, Jihyo felt what it was like to have a real family and it wasn’t so bad afterall. Time went on, as it often did, and a rich boy had asked the chief for a date with her, she had worked in a case of embezzlement about the father’s company and the boy found her pretty enough.

They went for dinner, a fancy restaurant in a private room as expected. The boy ordered for them, not caring if Jihyo wanted something else, demanding she drink with him. He was clearly the self absorbed, never heard a no type, but his father was giving a generous donation to her department and her boss asked her to entertain the boy for the sake of everyone. Jihyo was bored beyond belief, but powered through. Not that she needed this money, but she also didn’t think this throw money around power play was right. By the end of the evening, she found herself giving the boy a and letting him kiss her while she did it. It was his demand, else his father would be withdrawing the donation, so she complied.

It wasn’t like Jihyo was completely innocent, she did have a few one night stands and her fair share of escorts, but this made her feel dirty. Her father called once she got home, as he always did after all her dates since they met, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him, not this. So Jihyo just told him the boy was insufferable and left it at that. Jiyoo laughed and said he would wait until she found the right person, then. She never did. All other bought dates went about the same way, Jihyo really wanted to not think she was herself out, but that was exactly what was happening. She made detective not long after this first time, the chief didn’t have that much pull left to keep her on his squad.

Mina was doing everything she could to get Jihyo into homicide, she had already managed to pull Nayeon, and the older woman was up for promotion as well. Both talked and played their last card, Nayeon bartered her promotion so they could get Jihyo into the squad and it worked. That was how the legend of THE detective Park began. Jihyo was given cold cases, as any newbie did. The squad was weary of her, everyone knew their boss and Im sunbae insisted too much for this woman to join them, so much that a promotion was given up for her. But Jihyo showed them exactly why she was worth the sacrifices.

In her first semester, Jihyo had closed all their cold cases, she found evidence where they had looked and made the entire department look like toddlers tumbling around. It wasn’t the best way to start, but she was there to help people, not feed these old geezers’ egos. Most of the other detectives had no more qualms with Jihyo’s transfer, those who still did were mostly the ones with the cold cases. Things got calmer after that, but the ‘dates’ with high profile brats were still happening, and Jihyo was becoming more and more numb to it. It wasn’t like she would ever be picked by anyone, why not help out with guaranteeing more money for the force, they always needed better equipment.