I'd Take A Bullet For You

Be His Partner

"There must be something wrong with him."

The loud clicking of her keyboard stops the moment Yoon Seri turns her attention to look at her fellow detective and best friend, Park Hye-young, who is in the middle of biting into a doughnut after voicing out her random observation. With only the two of them left in the bullpen of the police station, there is no need to talk secretly using their computer's messaging app concerning matters outside of work. Seri was in the middle of finishing the backlog in her paperwork when her friend decided to distract her with – what she thinks – the latest gossip about some guy who might have caught her attention for the week.

And Hye-young has had some pretty interesting stories about the guys in her past.

"With who?" Seri asks with interest as she stands up to walk over to her friend's station.

Standing behind her chair, she sees Hye-young scrolling through the social media profile of none other than their co-detective and resident Hallyu star, Ri Jeong Hyeok, someone who has never left the gossip mill of the excitable ladies in the office because of his celebrity-level looks and undeniable charm. One of the latest rumors she has heard is that he is actually gay that is why none of the women in the office has caught his eye. He thought it was hilarious.

"Oh, him," she visibly deflates. "I thought we were talking about someone else."

"Well," her friend says as she swivels in her chair to look at her straight in the eye. With her dark hair piled up on top of her head in a neat bun, her sparkling brown eyes shining through her glasses, and her small face deprived of any semblance of a flaw, Hye-young is considered one of the prettiest detectives in their precinct. "I might be seeing him."

Seri feels an invisible force slam into her heart at the thought of her best friend with Jeong Hyeok, but she keeps her composure and shoots her an exasperated look. "Are you?"

"You don't know my life," Hye-young playfully teases before returning her attention back to the screen, unable to witness the secret smile that slowly grew on Seri's face when she did.

It was her idea to keep her relationship with Jeong Hyeok only between the two of them, given that one, she wants to keep her privacy; and two, she does not have the energy to deal with all the gossip once it becomes public knowledge. He can laugh at the outrageous rumors she shares with him, but Seri knows that she won't be able to deal with it the same way. She will want to defend herself, Jeong Hyeok, and their relationship. And once that Pandora's box is open, the line between their personal life and their work life will be erased, and it will just be a whole mess.

"He is just so perfect," Hye-young continues to say, blissfully unaware of the thoughts racing inside her friend's head. At her words, Seri had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling too much. She knows. Knows all too well how he can be the perfect man both at work and at home. And it thrills her that only she has seen that side of him.

"He's handsome, he's sexy, and he's one of the best detectives in the country. And," her friend stretches the last word dramatically for suspense. "Did you know that he cooks?"

The image of Jeong Hyeok wearing only his pajama pants in her kitchen, smiling and flipping pancakes, flashes before her eyes. She clears her throat and says nonchalantly, "Well, I do now."

"I saw him grilling meat during our company outing last year," Hye-young tells her excitedly, furiously clicking through the numerous pictures on the screen. One of which Seri actually took herself. They had a beach date that day, and she took the camera off his hands and snapped a candid photo of him. And of course, being the photogenic man he is, he managed to look glorious in his wet hair and his half smile with the sun shining behind him. "And the meat came out perfect."