Haneul turned around to see Kevin, Soohyun, Jaeseop and Eli all standing there. Haneul’s eyes almost widened until she remembered Woohyun’s words about not letting her eyes get too wide so she decided to play it cool. “And? So what of it?”

“Ah, so cool you are for being caught in the act of doing something that nobody would expect you to be doing.” Eli said and laughed a little. He then his lips and began to speak in English, “Damn. Who knew you’d look so hot in a mini black dress. Man, this is just unexpected seeing you wear that.” Woohyun narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Why thank you.” Haneul replied back in English flatly without emotion in her voice. “So what are you 4 doing here on this fine day?” She crossed one long leg over the other and looked at them pointedly, “Where are the fangirls?”

“Please. Don’t make me think about that right now when I’m trying to have fun.” Jaeseop said in  Korean, returning the conversation back to Korean so that Soohyun could understand.

“Oh, what a terrible ‘oppa’ you are.” Haneul shook her head at him.

“So this is the person you were visiting?” Kevin raised an eyebrow and said pointedly, “Your friend Woohyun?”

“Yeah, got a problem with it?”

“Hang on Haneul.” Woohyun whispered to her in Spanish with his words inaudible to the U-Kiss boys due to the loud music, “You told him you were coming to visit me?”

“No. I only told him that I was visiting someone.”

“Hey! The two of you! Don’t exclude us from your conversation!” Soohyun called out playfully.

“So what happened to visiting your mother?” Kevin asked, obviously not believing her story about visiting her mother anymore, “I didn’t think your mother was the type to hang out in a club?”

“I didn’t think you were the type either Kevin, but hey! You’re here aren’t you?” Haneul asked sarcastically. Woohyun quickly caught on to the situation and realised that Haneul had used the ‘parent’ trick again.

“We already went and visited her, if that’s what you’re wondering Sunghyun.” Woohyun replied with his voice steady, not showing any signs of lying, “We visited her first and then came here.”

“Alright then.” Kevin nodded and said in an unconvinced voice, “But I still didn’t think that you would be the type to be hanging out at a club in some revealing mini black dress like that. Guess I was wrong.” He finished and then walked away from them.

“Wait!” Haneul called out with a frown, “Don’t misunderstand!” Haneul got off the chair and was about to chase after Kevin because it appeared that he didn’t hear her until Woohyun grabbed her arm.

“Don’t go yet. The DJ hasn’t come here yet. Did you forget what we came for today? And why would you care about him misunderstanding you anyway?”

Haneul pressed her lips into a frustrated thin line and sat back down. The bartender finally came back with Woohyun’s mint julep and Woohyun quickly drank it all down.

“Geez, what’s got his knickers in a knot?” Jaeseop frowned, “He sees a girl he normally sees in a different circumstance all dressed up and looking hot like eye candy and he’s upset? Strange boy.” Jaeseop shook his head.

“Just leave him alone Jaeseop. But then again, he’s never been much interested in checking out girls, has he?” Soohyun said.”

“No sire, he’s never been.” Eli said and then smirked, “But that’s because he’s got me, isn’t it?”

“Yah! If the fangirls heard you say that they’d all go crazy. Especially those people who ‘ship’ Elvin.” Jaeseop rolled his eyes.

“That’s exactly why I said it.” Eli laughed.

“Ah, sorry that took a long time, Hanbi’s sister and friend.. What was your name again?” Changsun had finally finished his shift.

“Haneul.” Haneul replied politely and stuck out her hand for him to shake, “And this is Woohyun.”

“That’s nice. Do you guys want to head out to a café or somewhere to talk? It’s not exactly the easiest to talk in here.”

“A café sounds good, right Woohyun?” Haneul nudged Woohyun.

“Uh, yeah. Café.” He nodded and stood up. Haneul too stood up and the two of them followed Changsun out.

“That was strange.” Soohyun said as he scratched his head, “I’m guessing she came in here just to find that guy then? It seemed like the first time they had met.”

“Who cares why she was in here. She was freaking hot.” Eli said and Jaeseop nodded his head in agreement.

-------

“Here. Two vanilla lattes. On the house.” Changsun smiled at them and Haneul realised that whilst she hadn’t seen Changmin since Hanbi had died, she still remembered his smile and he and his older brother Changsun both had the same smile.

“You and Changmin both have the same smile.” Haneul replied as she wrapped her hands around the steaming cup of latte and felt herself warming up. It was a cold winter’s day after all and she was only wearing a short dress.

“Thank you.” He replied and gave her the same warm smile which suddenly seemed to falter at a distant memory. He looked off onto the cold streets and sighed, “We used to get that a lot from people. That was, until your sister left this world.” He gave Haneul a sorry look, “I’m sorry about your loss, but if you trust me enough I will tell you that I feel like I’ve lost something too.”

“No, it’s okay.” Haneul said even though all 3 people sitting at that table knew she was far from okay, “And what did you lose?”

“I feel like I’ve lost Changmin ever since then.” Changsun sighed, “He doesn’t smile like he used to. He’s become a singer now, a largely successful one if I must say, and he’s living his dream and everything, but he’s just not the same. Your sister and my brother, they had the same dream, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.” Haneul bit her lip. “They both wanted to be singers. At least Changmin oppa got to live out his dream, right? Whereas Hanbi unnie got killed because of me and never got to live out her dream.” Haneul bit her lip and Woohyun could tell Haneul was fighting to keep the tears at bay. Haneul wasn’t a cry baby of any sort, but her sister’s matters always did it for her.

“Hey, hey. It’s not your problem.” Changsun said as he pat her back awkwardly and then tried to change the conversation, “Anyway you guys came to me because you were looking for something, right?”

“Yeah.” Woohyun nodded for Haneul.

“Well you guys had better have a good memory because I’m only saying this once.” He said and leaned back and crossed his arm, “47 F8 Sunset Level 3.”

“What does that mean?” Haneul furrowed her eyebrows.

“It means what it says it means. I’m not entirely clear either, but I was told some time before her death by her to pass that message on to anyone who comes looking for me with the phrase you told me before. It’s up to you guys to figure it out.” He said and smiled and then looked at his watch. “Oh my, look at the time! I’ve got to be at a dentist’s appointment soon. I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave you kids now.” He said as he got up, “It was nice to meet you two though.”

Haneul and Woohyun watched him leave. “Let’s go back to your place now.” Haneul mumbled as she picked up her vanilla latte which had cooled considerably in the short span of time.

“But I’ve got the map with us?” Woohyun asked with an eyebrow raised.

“I need to change too, you know?” Haneul snorted and glared at Woohyun, “Who told you to give me such an uncomfortable, short and revealing dress anyway?”

----------

“Alright, so if we look at this with an open mind, sunset could mean anything from Sunset Avenue which starts in the nearby square F9 and stretches across all the way to F7, ‘Sunset Shoes’ the shoe store which is actually in F8 and is also on Sunset Avenue, or sunset as in sunset when the sun is setting.” Haneul mumbled as the two of them hunched over the map on Woohyun’s king sized bed and studied it with other investigative equipment nearby.

“According to the internet sunset is at 6:05 today.” Woohyun said as he looked up at his Macbook screen, “Which gives us an entire 7 hours and 15 minutes to investigate the other two options.”

“Of course.” Haneul nodded as she continued to stare at the map as if in her own world.

“Haneul?” Woohyun said as he was at the door of his bedroom about to go out, “Aren’t you coming?”

“Ah. Yes.” Haneul nodded and got up and then seemed to realise something, “Hey! Where are my clothes from before?

“Didn’t we leave it at that boutique that we got your black dress from?” He said as he pointed to what Haneul was wearing.

Haneul groaned. “So what am I going to do then?”

“Go out wearing that?” Woohyun suggested.

“That’s not an option, siree.” Haneul frowned, “Unless you want everyone to think I’m a wearing this around. We’re not even in the Hongdae district anymore which makes it less acceptable.”

“Alright then do you want to wear clothes that you left behind from when you were 13?” Woohyun crossed his arms and looked pointedly at Haneul.”

“Well, no.” Haneul admitted. “I’ve grown quite a bit since then, you see.”

“That’s what I thought.” Woohyun nodded and then swung his arms through a jacket. “Stay here while I go get some other clothes for you, okay?”

“Alright.” Haneul said and then sat back on his bed to study the map again, “Don’t take too long and don’t you dare pick weird clothes!”

Within 20 minutes Woohyun had returned with normal clothes for Haneul to wear. She quickly put them on in Woohyun’s bathroom and the two of them were soon out the door and into the Porsche that the IAI had prepared.

“What shall we investigate first?” Haneul asked as she climbed inside the leathered comfort of the back seat, “The store or the rest of the street?”

Woohyun climbed in after Haneul and said, “Let’s start with the start of the street at F7 then make our way through the street. I’ll take the west side of the street and you take the east. Update me with texts on your progress through the street and I’ll do the same. We’ll also call each other when we find anything of interest, okay?”

“Of course.” Haneul nodded, “’Sunset Shoes’ is on the east side, right?”

“Yep.” Woohyun said and smiled at Haneul softly, “It’s more likely that it’s going to be in there after all as it’s a ‘double sunset’. And if anyone deserves to find the next clue, it’s you.”

“Thank you.” She said and softly bit her lip and shuffled closer to Woohyun and hugged his arm. They sat in comfortable silence for the rest of the ride.

--------

Finished searching through 22nd spot – Misty Fashion

Haneul texted Woohyun as she headed towards the 23rd place she was to search on Sunset Avenue. So far her searches had been fruitless. Woohyun was already at his 26th location and had ‘bookmarked’ one place in his mind to check out more thoroughly later. Haneul told herself to speed things up a little.

“Welcome.” Haneul heard a storekeeper politely say and bow to Haneul.

“Thank you.” Haneul politely replied and did a small bow back.

She walked around the fine pottery store as if she were browsing. This is a strange store for Hanbi unnie to hide anything, if she has, that is. It’s so fragile. The exact sort of place agents hate because we can’t properly defend ourselves without breaking anything and leaving traces behind if we were to ever be attacked. Haneul thought to herself as she felt uncomfortable in such a place which was pretty high up on an agent’s list of nightmares. Haneul walked around the store a bit and used her observation skills to see if anything was of interest. She decided that absolutely nothing was of interest to her and quickly shuffled out the store bidding a quick goodbye and “Nothing interested me” to the shopkeeper.

She then pulled her phone out of her pocket to text Woohyun about her location.

Finished searching through 23rd spot – Out of the Kiln

Then as she was tucking her phone into her pocket while walking along to the next store which was the store called ‘Sunset Shoes’, she noticed something. On a telephone pole directly outside the store, there was something marked into the wood. Some vandalism. But there was something especially eye-catching about that vandalism. It wasn’t the usual ragged, street style most graffiti was.

It was very precise penmanship.

Haneul walked over closer to the telephone pole to study it closer and her suspicions were immediately confirmed. The precise penmanship. The pen knife patterns.

It was her sister’s way of marking a place she had been.

She looked at the message noticed it was in French and groaned. Her French wasn’t particularly good and she could only ever communicate simple messages, but her sister’s French was always good. Almost as good as a native’s, they’d say.

Haneul pulled out her phone and called Woohyun. He immediately picked up after the first ring. “Found anything interesting?” He eagerly said.

“Yup. French.” Haneul said, popping the ‘p’ sound.

“French?”

“Just come outside of Sunset Shoes and you’ll get what I mean.” Haneul said and hung up.

Soon Haneul saw Woohyun sprinting down the street and end up next to her in a matter of seconds. “Yes?”

“Read the French for me.” Haneul pointed at the pole.

“Aww, come on! You know that I failed the French classes more than you did.” Woohyun muttered, “The only people who we knew that were good at French were the French teachers, Hanbi noona, Changmin hyung and Sungyeol h-” Woohyun cut off and then sighed at his own stupidity at bringing him up again.

“Sungyeol hyung.” Haneul finished off for him, “Otherwise known to me as Sungyeol oppa. Anyway,” Haneul moved on from the subject, “Translate this for me. Even if we both , you were still slightly better at French whilst I was slightly better at Italian and German.”

Woohyun scrunched up his face as he stared at the French words. “It’s kind of been worn away a little, you know.”

“Yes, I know. 9 years’ time takes its toll. And stop stalling time, tell me quickly. We both know that I’ve neglected all the French we knew all these years whilst you’ve actually been practising.”

“Hey! How’d you know?”

“Instinct of a childhood friend.” Haneul pointed to her head and smiled, “You always worked harder with your studies after all.”

“Well if you want to know what I’m guessing from what I can read, it says something about waiting till sunset.”

“So we’re right about this place then?” Haneul said with a smile growing on her face.

“Yeah. But I don’t know why we’d have to wait till sunset.” Woohyun said and thought, “The time for sunset changes every day after all. We’d have no idea if someone has a shift in that store at sunset.”

“What if we’re not looking for a person this time though?” Haneul said as her mind drifted off to the numerous possibilities.

“Like?”

Haneul narrowed her eyes in thought and stared up at the sky, “Oh, I don’t know. The sun shines at a certain angle at sunset? But all I know is that all we can do for now is to wait. Just wait.”

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A/N

DOUBLE UPDATE FOR ALL MY LOVELIES~