Mrs. & Mrs. Kang | DAERIN

Explosions

Just as Haerin starts to pull into the driveway to her home, Danielle slams down on the gas pedal in the Mercedes and crashes right into the passenger door of the Haerin's stolen car.

"Ahh!" Haerin yells with a scowl as Danielle backs up. Her busted front bumper drags along the driveway with a loud screech as she speeds away, not without further clipping the stolen car in the process of pushing it out of the way to head up the driveway.

Haerin puts the car in reverse and tries to back up and follow the same movement forward, but the car is badly damaged, and the twisted metal is stuck on the curb, jerking to a stop: one-third in the driveway, one-third in the shrubbery lining the yard, and one-third hanging into the street. She shakes the steering wheel with a grunt of frustration and jumps out of the car, running to the front door in a crouched sprint. She turns the door handle, further frustrated when she realizes it's locked, and hears Jungwon call out to her.

"Hey, Haerin!"

She jiggles the handle and pushes on the door with her shoulder before tossing a distracted and now furious glance back at her neighbor, dressed in sweats, out on a jog, and sending her a friendly wave in greeting.

"Hey, Jungwon," she grumbles.

"Are you all right?"

She ducks down and creeps behind the bushes, quickly stealing glances in the windows lining the front of her property, looking for any signs of movement inside.

"Yeah."

"Okay..." He lets his words drift off, confused by Haerin's odd behavior as she has now started trying to open every window, all of which, as usual, are locked. "Umm, by the way, your car is hanging out over the... sidewalk here."

"Yeah," Haerin starts jogging around the house, waving the man away. "Thanks, Jungwon."

"O-kay. Have a good night."

"'Night," Haerin yells back, already moving out of sight.

She hides behind the hedge as she runs up the driveway and notices Danielle's car parked awkwardly in front of the garage, the driver's door left wide open. She quickly makes her way to the storage shed, grabs a hammer to use as a weapon, and slips out. A tree in the backyard provides cover when Danielle opens the back door and glances around the yard, shotgun in hand. Once deeming the area clear, she moves back inside the house, locking the door behind her.

Haerin glares at her wife's retreating form and races across the yard, awkwardly diving behind another bush and rolling into a dark corner, not without several pained and muffled grumbles of some rather colorful profanities.

Scrambling up, she keeps her back to the fence and makes a mad dash for the basement doors, sliding past the patio light like she's coming in to home plate for a home run. The basement is also, as usual, locked, and she momentarily seethes before noticing the trellis and vines wrapped around this side of the house. Feeling a burst of inspiration, she climbs the trellis and comes face-to-face with the den. She knocks her elbow and forearm through the glass, breaking the window as quietly as possible and unlocking it, slipping into the room undetected.

She leaves the hammer on the desk in favor of a gun and silencer she's relieved and a little smug to find Danielle hadn't uncovered and confiscated during her raid. Holding the gun steady, she creeps around the dark house, listening for movement.

When she reaches the bottom of the stairs, she picks up a picture frame and holds it around the corner, trying to use the reflection in the glass to spot Danielle. Danielle spots the reflection first, though, and from her position at the top of the stairs she fires off a shot that blasts a hole in the wall directly over the top of Haerin's crouched form. Haerin jumps and ducks lower as Danielle continues firing a row of shots at the wall she's still using for cover.