Sang Hee and Himchan had driven to Jeon's house, where Dong Chul and Chin Hwae were working, so that they could be filled in.

They stood in the middle of Jeon's bedroom and watched Chin Hwae pick up a large, black velvet box from Jeon's bed.

"We got the lock company to open up her safe and we found dozens of these."

Chin Hwae flipped a box upside down and both Sang Hee and Himchan watched the contents tumble out.

Sang Hee reached out with a gloved hand and lifted one of the sheets of paper up and held it up. Himchan leaned over her shoulder and scanned the words.

If you want to keep this a secret, be prepared to pay.

"That's one. Jeon must've communicated with the killer a few times before." Dong Chul said while holding one that said, 'Are you willing to pay for your secrets?'

"It looks like whoever wrote this watched a lot of ransom movies." Sang Hee snorted when she stared at the letters on the note that looked like they were cut up from a magazine and pasted together.

"Do you know what they were threatening her about?" Himchan asked as walked around Jeon's room.

Dong Chul pulled out two small, wrinkled photographs, "Probably about this."

Himchan reached for the picture, but Sang Hee was faster and maybe a little immature, and quickly snatched it out of Dong Chul's hand.

Himchan rolled his eyes, "What is it?"

"Is this her boyfriend?" Sang Hee asked in confusion.

The picture she was holding was of Jeon and a man giggling into each other's ears while walking hand in  hand down a dark alley. The other one was of the 40 year old woman fiercely kissing the 22 year old man.

"No one we interviewed said anything about her seeing anyone." Himchan said as he yanked the picture out of Sang Hee's hand.

She gave him a glare that made Chin Hwae sigh, "I'm guessing neither of you bonded."

"Don't ask." The both of them huffed.

They looked at each other before turning away, childishly.

"Oooookay." Dong Chul said while looking at them awkwardly.

He turned to Sang Hee and couldn't help but smile, "But we looked through some of her personal things and she's been dating Jung Ho for just over a year. I'm guessing that it was a secret relationship, since it would probably cause a bit of an uproar."

Himchan wanted to scoff at the way Dong Chul looked at Sang Hee with hearts in his eyes.

She wasn't that great.

"But you're right, no one knew about their relationship. And it's because this guy is young."

Sang Hee's eyes narrowed. "How young?"

"Like, half her age, young. According to Jeon's personal files, his name is Park Jung Ho. He's a 22 year old trainee."

Himchan froze, "Wait, what kind of trainee?"

"Idol. We called the company earlier and they verified that Jung Ho is one of their idol trainees. He was supposed to be a soloist but--"

"But Jeon wanted to form a boy group." Sang Hee mumbled.

Himchan on his teeth, "A boy group that Jung Ho most likely was going to be a part of. Have you contacted Jung Ho?"

"That's the thing." Chin Hwae said as a junior officer handed something to him, "Jung Ho has been studying abroad for 6 months."

Sang Hee frowned, "There's no way a kid can be a trainee and have an education abroad. Kids can't even be a trainee and have a Korean education."

Chin Hwae snapped his fingers with a blank expression, "Exactly. That's because Jung Ho left the company. He's not a trainee anymore."

"So…what does that mean? Are they still 'together'? Does he even know she's dead?"

Dong Chul shrugged, "We can't reach him and the only other person who knows about the relationship is dead or is a killer."

Sang Hee pursed her lips, "It would ruin Jeon's career if people knew about her relationship with someone younger especially if he's signed to her. It'll ruin his career too. So she probably was willing to pay the price."

"Did you look into her financials?" Himchan asked while sitting down at Jeon's computer.

Chin Hwae nodded and handed something else to Sang Hee. She looked at the highlighted line and frowned, "She withdrew 15 million over the course of  one month, probably to avoid suspicion. She must've been planning to pay the blackmail for a while which means this has been going on for a while."

"We need her phone." Himchan mumbled while scrolling through her computer.

"We're trying to talk to her service provider and see if they can give us a compilation of all her recent texts but we won't know much about any phone calls except for the length of the calls."

Himchan hummed from his seat, "We need to search her office too."

"I already submitted a request." Sang Hee said.

Himchan stopped moving and looked over at her, "I didn't sign off on that."

"I don't need you to sign off on it. I made an executive decision." She mentioned while casually flipping through the notes.

Himchan scoffed, "What makes you think that you have the experience to make an executive decision? You sat at a desk all day."

Chin Hwae cleared his throat, "Um, guys, now isn't really the ti--"

"Sending in a request to search a dead person's office doesn't take years of field experience. Get over yourself. You're just mad that you didn't think about doing it first." Sang Hee deadpanned before tossing the file back at Chin Hwae before walking away.

Dong Chul looked at Himchan with wide eyes.

"Dude, what the hell happened at the agency?"

-----

Himchan kept his face straight when he saw Sang Hee leaning against the front of the car with her arms crossed over her chest.

"How come you worked so well with your old partner? Were you not worried about him dying or are you specifically rude to me?" Sang Hee pointed out when Himchan walked around to the driver's side.

Himchan grunted as he got into the car, "Why are you still talking about that?"

"It just doesn't make sense. You said that you like working alone because you don't want to be responsible for your partner's death, but I'm not your first partner. The boys said that Minsoo is still alive, looking after his sick mother or something. So how does that logic hold up?" Sang Hee said while getting into the seat beside him.

"You talk way too much." Himchan grumbled while pulling out of Jeon's driveway.

Sang Hee propped her arm on the window sill and leaned her head against her palm, "But you don't have an answer."

"My past is none of your business."  He grumbled.

Sang Hee frowned and felt her palms sweat, "Is it because I'm a woman? Do you think that I can't take care of myself and will get myself killed because I'm female?"

Himchan slammed the breaks, jerking their bodies forward, ignoring the cars honking behind him, "Are you asking me if I'm ist?"

"Yeah. I am."

Himchan sighed angrily, "For the love of god, I don't give two s if you're a woman. Trust me. I've seen my fair share of capable, strong, smart women. I've lived with two almost my whole life. I have no issue working with a woman. I just don't know you. I don't know how you work or function. I don't know what you're capable of or how good you are. That wouldn't change if you were a man. I don't know if I can trust you. That's why I see you as a liability."

Sang Hee watched as he started driving again, weaving through traffic. Sang Hee pursed her lip and for a second, just a second, she felt bad for Kim Himchan.

Why?

He just seemed terribly lonely. He didn't trust anyone and he acted like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

He made it seem like he had to be distrusting, not because he wanted to, but because he had no choice.

To an extent he was right, his past wasn't any of her business, but it must've been bad if he was so distrusting of people now.

She watched his face carefully. There was a small scar above his lip and his jaw was set in his normal glare as he stared out at the street.

"Let's make a deal." She said with confidence.

Himchan glanced at her from the side of his eye, suspiciously. The change in the tone of her voice, raised red flags in his head.

"If I can prove to be capable of taking care of myself, be smart and useful on the field and be a good enough detective to keep up with you and the rest of the team, will you accept me as your partner?"  

Himchan chewed on the inside of his lip, "Why do you care so much about whether or not I accept you as a partner?"

"Because I love this job. I love being on the forefront, taking down the bad guys and serving justice for the victims. It's the whole reasons I entered the academy. I want to do my job well and that's only possible if I have a good partner. " Sang Hee said firmly, holding her head up high.

Himchan looked over at her when they hit a red light stared into her sparkling eyes. There was so much determination and so much ambition that it reminded him of himself when he started at the academy.

He got a fresh start; a second chance.

Something he desperately needed.

Himchan never had hopes and dreams before. He did his work under Yongguk's leadership, did his part and got the job done. That was the end of that.

But ever since Yongguk fell in love and ever since s began living normal, civilian lives, Himchan started giving into the luxury.

He started to dream.

He started to dream of a life where he locked people up instead of killing them. He dreamt of a life where he fought for justice and not vengeance.

He dreamed of happiness.

The stop light turned green and Himchan pressed down on the acceleration, "And if you don’t prove yourself to be worthy of the team?"

"I'll personally put in a request to Woon to get transferred back to Organized Crimes." Sang Hee said steadily.

He kept forgetting she was part of that. It made him uneasy that he was working so closely with someone who could easily recognize him and his past.

It would ruin everything he worked so hard for.

It was something Woon had warned him of.

Just because he was no longer in a gang, didn't mean he had immunity of all the crimes he committed in the past.

And working around other cops would be dangerous.

But