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"What are you supposed to be doing right now?" Somi demands as Hani approaches the counter of the Creature Café."I thought you were working at the precinct, on the other side of the city, carrying out your insanely suicidal plan. Are you trying to make us suspects, by the way?" Beads of sweat have pooled above her upper lip and have soaked through the armpits of her shirt. She smells like terror and guilt with a potent undercurrent of shame."I think we should hide. I think I'm going to hide. I don't want to go to jail. I don't want to be interrogated! Do you think they use torture?"

Hani narrows her eyes. "Keep your voice down," she hisses. There's a line behind her. She hopes it's not too much for Somi to handle—she was supposed to be on shift with her today, after all, and now on top of a constant crisis of guilt, Somi is also dealing with the morning rush of the café alone.

Somi wipes at her forehead and blinks rapidly. "I'm going to pass out," she says. "I'm going to pass out and then I'm going to wake up in jail. Oh, gods. How long is a sentence for eating somebody's liver? A century? A millennia?"

"You're not going to wake up in jail." Somi's panic has made Hani feel even more secure about her decision to take Shim's job. "I told you, I'm handling it, okay? They won't even look in your direction. I promise."

"I didn't sleep at all last night," Somi says and points to the dark bags under her eyes with a trembling finger. "Every time I heard a noise, I thought I was going to be arrested…"

"Somi," Hani snaps. "Voice. Down."

Somi blinks meekly. And then clears her throat. "Are you here to order something?" she asks loudly, as if it will null anything the line behind Hani may have heard.

"Actually, yes." After being shooed away by Seokga with the request to be brought breakfast, Hani decided with malicious spite to keep the god waiting and hungry for as long as she can. Judging by his stack of paperwork, he won't be leaving his desk to go hunting anytime soon, anyway. So Hani has taken a taxi to her old café, where she plans to spend a very, very long time chatting with Somi. "Seokga wants breakfast."

Somi shakes her head and begins to gnaw on her nails. "I used to wonder how he liked his eggs in the mornings," she whispers in a thin, reedy voice. "Now I wonder if he's going to imprison me."

"Somi."

She blinks rapidly. "I really can't believe that you left me here. What if they come for me while I'm working all alone?"

"Nobody's coming for you. And I'll return eventually," Hani promises quietly, mindful of the clusters of jeoseung saja and the handful of demigods fidgeting impatiently behind her, "once Seokga drops the Scarlet Fox case. But for now, I'll order two cherry tarts, one matcha latte, and one iced coffee with seven creams and seven sugars. Actually, make that eight of each."

Somi looks absolutely terrified. "No."

"Yes." Hani smiles pleasantly.

"You're actually going to get me killed." Somi gulps down a deep breath and shakes her head, even as she punches in the order. "Fine. Fine, okay. Coming right up."

Hani grins and hands over Seokga's money. The cherry tarts are both for her, as is the matcha latte. But the coffee…Well, that's for him.

As she waits for Somi to produce her order, Hani eyes the ever-growing line with a guilty twinge. Without her, Somi is having to take on the jeoseung saja orders despite her fear of the reapers. She can only hope that a part-timer is hired soon…Wait.

Hani narrows her eyes in interest.

There, at the very end of the line, is the white-haired jeoseung saja from the day before. Chang Hyun-tae. He's holding his hat in his hands, fiddling with the brim nervously as he watches Somi, a faint blush staining his cheeks. And though he looks wearier than she remembers—he probably needs a caffeine fix to help with the long hours of a jeoseung saja—Hyun-tae seems excited to see Nam Somi.

Hani tilts her head. Somebody, it seems, is smitten.

She continues to watch him as she snacks on her tarts at a nearby table. Somi, to her credit, is handling her interactions with the many jeoseung saja well. Although she does still avert her gaze from the grim reapers, her professionalism is something to admire. Hani slurps on her latte as Hyun-tae reaches the counter, nervously pushes up his glasses, and says in his oddly formal voice: "Hello."

If Somi recognizes him, she does not give any indication—mostly because her eyes are trained on a point well above Hyun-tae's head. "Welcome to the Creature Café—" Her voice wobbles, and she cuts off. She's sweating even more now, which Hani hadn't thought possible.

"I would like a small black coffee with no cream and no sugar," Hyun-tae replies promptly, as if he is answering a classroom question. "Thank you very much."

As Somi makes his coffee, Hyun-tae shifts from foot to foot. And then…"I saw the sign on the door," he says as Somi hands him the coffee. "You are looking for a part-timer?"

Somi's eyes snap to him, widen, and then immediately avert back to the point far above his white hair. "I…Don't you already have a job?"

"I do. Yes. I do." Hyun-tae clears his throat. "But my hours are not so bad. I would enjoy having another job. In the afternoon."

"You would enjoy having another job?" Somi sounds wary, dubious, amused, and terrified all at once. "Seriously?"

"I…" But Hyun-tae freezes as, within one of his coat pockets, his radio crackles. Hastily, he withdraws the walkie-talkie and presses a skull-shaped button. Hani tilts her head, her ears twitching as they curiously sort through the static crackle for the words on the other side.

"Chang Hyun-tae,"a deep male voice says, "we have a lost soul wandering around New Sinsi near the city park. Its body was uncovered just now in the residential sector. The haetae have already been alerted—it seems to have been an Unruly attack of some kind. Please dispatch immediately. Over."

An Unruly attack. Hani lurches to her feet.

Seokga will undoubtedly be called to the scene of the crime. And as his assistant, she's meant to assist him in finding the perpetrator.

But as somebody who has a bone to pick with that god, she's meant to completely botch his entire attempt at finding that Unruly.

Hani is out the door and running with a very, very smug smile on her face as Somi makes a disbelieving noise behind her.

Hani bursts through the doors of the haetae precinct and promptly collides with Seokga.

"Oof!" Hani stumbles backward, her forehead smarting from where it has banged against Seokga's (rather sharp) chin. She blinks the stars out of her vision while Seokga glowers down at her imperiously, those narrow green eyes flashing with no small amount of ire as he rubs at his reddened chin.

"I suggest that you watch where you're going," he cuts out, clutching that cane of his, the silver imoogi glowering at her with its beady black stone eyes.

Hani grits her teeth, still blinking spots of light out of her vision, and thrusts the iced coffee toward the fallen god. "Here," she snaps. "Breakfast."

Seokga casts one look at the drink and his scowl deepens. "No. Now move." He steps around her. "I have somewhere to be."

"The body?" Hani asks interestedly. She cannot help but be curious at the prospect of examining a crime scene that is the product of a crime she didn't commit.

Seokga whirls. "How do you know about that?" His eyes narrow. "And before you ask, no, you are not accompanying me."

"I didn't plan on asking," she replies sweetly, taking a sip of Seokga's coffee and immediately regretting it. Even with eight creams and eight sugars, coffee is still the worst beverage created by man. She tries not to gag. "And I overheard a message to a jeoseung saja at the café. I know that you're going, and I am coming with you. I'm your assistant, after all. Accompanying you is my sacred duty. Besides. If you leave me behind, I'll complain to Shim, who will complain to your brother." Hani's smile grows. "So yes, I am accompanying you, Seokga."

The fallen god closes his eyes, and Hani gets the distinct impression that he is attempting to count to ten, as she suspected this morning. She lets him again get to seven before saying, "Are you taking a cab? Or do you have a car?"

Seokga's eyes fly open. "I have a car."

She tilts her head in interest. "Can I drive?"

"No." The word is barely more than a very agitated and extremely murderous growl. "No. You cannot. You can sit in the backseat and keep your mouth shut." His eyes flash. "And if you interfere with my investigation, gumiho, I promise you that you will suffer."

She eyes him, unimpressed. "I won't interfere," she lies.

He scowls. "I mean it."

"Yes, I'm sure you do," she purrs, and watches in delight as Seokga stiffens in indignation and opens his mouth with a searing retort before abruptly snapping it shut, turning on his heel, and stalking out of the precinct.

With an immense amount of amusement, Hani follows.