FINE WINE || L.HS

8. I LOVE YOU, OR NOT?

It was a busy day yesterday. Everyone was exhausted. A rest day, it would mean, but work continues.

Sunghoon and Haeun sat across from each other in a cafe in the big city, both with laptops in front of them and lots of paperwork around them. Haeun sighed and took a sip of her iced mango matcha as she scrolled through the earlier files of the investigation. All those years of research were boring her. 

She wanted to start something new. This case was already taking too much of her energy that it wasn't even fun to be doing anymore. Where are the criminals robbing banks in Seoul that she may catch? No... Instead, she's stuck with thousands of pages of paperwork.

 She almost fell asleep. Her eyes were close to closing. Sunghoon, across from her, was examining the new drugs and symptoms, but he still couldn't find enough. At least Sunghoon was having fun. At least he could discover new things. Haeun was stuck on the fact that Heeseung was just another beloved criminal.

"What do you want to do, Sunghoon? It gets boring if we just have to sit on our asses all the time and research things we already know anyway," Haeun said and sighed deeply. She took the last sips of her matcha and chewed on the straw out of boredom.

Sunghoon stopped typing and looked up. "I don't know. I also can't do anything further in terms of research about the drugs because I don't have enough information," He replied.

"True," Haeun said slowly as she followed Heeseung's tracker in the meantime, but it had been at the factory since 8 a.m. That gave her an idea. "We may need to investigate the factory further."

"You want to break in, you mean?" Sunghoon asked.

Haeun shrugged her shoulders. "What else should we do. Breaking in would lead us to so many new answers and then we can find out what the new drugs are. Then you can move on, too."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Me? I'm looking for important information about Heeseung, like all the companies he owns, where he works mostly, and just find enough evidence for the court to put him in jail forever."

Sunghoon nodded. "Doesn't sound wrong," He smiled.

"Let's do it tomorrow night? At about 10 o'clock? I'll keep an eye on when he leaves the factory anyway. Around that time tomorrow we can go there too," Haeun suggested. 

"You brat!" Sunghoon laughed. "You're so looking always for the exciting."

Haeun smiled and stuck her tongue out at him. 

Sunghoon shook his head and chuckled. "You are one of a kind."

"I know."

Sunghoon took a sip of his latte. "I like your personality."

Haeun widened her eyes. "Only my personality? I thought more," She said, joking. 

"Sure more," Sunghoon admitted honestly. 

"Such as?"

Sunghoon shrugged and began to blush. "Your smile. You're beautiful when you smile."

That comment made Haeun laugh right away. Her cheeks formed dimples. Soon she hid her smile with her hands. Her face, too, as she felt a warm glow spread across her cheeks. She turned red. 

"This is what I mean," Sunghoon said with a big smile on his face. "This is you."

"Thank you, Sunghoon," She said and closed her laptop. She stepped up and sat on the empty chair next to Sunghoon. She laid her head on his shoulder. "You are too sweet for this world."

Sunghoon laid his head on her head as he continued to type in his file. "I love you, Haeun."

"Platonic, right?"

Sunghoon gulped. "Yes, platonic." 

He lied. He was blatantly lying. 

"Are you glad we're in New York?" He asked.

"I'm glad to be here with you. I don't know what I would do without you."

Sunghoon smiled, not too widely. He had mixed feelings. Does she like him? But she wants to be platonic, right?

It's too hard to just read someone's mind. 

"Shall we go to the hotel room? I'm tired," Haeun muttered. 

Sunghoon nodded and gathered his things together. "Me too, let's go."

They grabbed their stuff and got up, paid at the cash register and left the cafe.