Wendy was never really in the limelight. She was always by the sidelines, never wanting to stand out or anything.

She does not like the attention people give her.

Especially the attention now.

Yoongi would not stop.

He has been visiting the café every time it would open and right before it would close.

And to say that she was annoyed is an understatement. She is very annoyed.

Even Taehyung asked her if they were close friends already. Wendy downright dismissed the idea.

They are not friends. And they shouldn't be. Because of what she does secretly, she should not be close with anyone even if such person is just a freelance photographer.

"Come on, Wen. Tell me the truth, are you guys secretly friends or something?" Taehyung immediately asks in a hushed voice just when he slides up to the woman. Wendy scowls at him then glances at the man who was calmly sipping from a mug of coffee. It's a quarter to six in the morning and Yoongi has been in the café for the past 15 minutes. "Wen, it's the fifth day in a row that he's here this early in the morning. Yoongi never wakes up so early in the morning unless it's for work. And trust me, his work does not require him to wake up early in the morning," he finishes his last statement under his breath.

Wendy lets out a huff as she sneaks a glance at the lone man seated at one of the tables.

She was also mad, of course, when he took that picture of her. She did not care if it was an accident or not, she got scared and frightened with the fact that there is this piece of data that held an image of her face. She is well aware that Yoongi is a freelance photographer...imagine if he holds an exhibit and displays her photo then some people, especially those higher-ups, would recognize her as Faeles. She knows that she is over-exaggerating, but she should always expect the worst. Anything could happen if she laxes.

"If you got the hots for each other and started dating, I wouldn't mind that. But keep your quarrels to yourselves."

Wendy throws a tired look toward her boss which he does not take lightly for a moment.

"What?" Taehyung says defensively, then waves a hand at her in dismissal
"Take a menu and bring it to him," he instructs her. Wendy furrows her eyebrows and furiously shakes her head. "Hey," he softly calls out to her, "I'm your boss. Our first customer of the day might be hungry." He hands her a menu from the side of the counter.

Wendy lets out a breath and grabs it from him before striding to the other side of the room where Yoongi is seated.

Once Yoongi sees Wendy walk toward him, he straightens up in his seat and anticipate her coming. He's been trying to get her to even notice him for the past days but it never worked. It was difficult for him to even let her look his way, her being selectively mute made it all the more a challenge. So even if she arrived at his table and dropped the menu on it, he grinned at her while she gave him a deadpanned expression.

"Hi-"

She interrupts him by pressing a finger on the menu then grabbing a notepad from the pocket of her apron. She cocks her head and raises an eyebrow at him, waiting for his order.

"Ah," he sighs when he understands her intention of coming to him. Well, it doesn't mean that she has forgiven him but progress is progress whether it's slow or not. "Do you have any best-sellers?" He asks, looking up from the menu.

Wendy immediately points at the set meals served for breakfast. Most of them consisted of flavored pancakes or waffles, things that can be prepared in a few minutes.

"Uh...how about a plate of 'I'm sorry' and a side of 'Will you forgive me'?"

Wendy grunts with his 'order' and immediately scribbles her answer on the notepad she is holding and shows it to him.

Waffles it is.

And before Yoongi could protest or even clarify his order, Wendy grabs back the menu and walks back to her counter. The man is left alone in his seat, again.

"Ah," he grumbles under his breath and ruffles his hair, "I shouldn't have said that. I could have just said that I wanted pancakes not waffles."

------------

It's another long night for the pair. It's another full night for a stake-out. Ever since that murder stint, their division chief added more stake-outs for the detectives to do especially at night and at their respective locations. At least it's not every night. If it was, the pair may act like the walking dead by now.

Yoongi rests an elbow on the window ledge of his car and rests his head on his hand. Joohyun, who is seated beside him, continues to read from her book that she bought at the café that day.

"It's my turn to watch over. Stop reading and go to sleep."

"No, thanks," Joohyun calmly dismisses him, turning to the next page of her book to start reading a new chapter.

Yoongi faces her in utter disbelief. Did he just hear her correctly? Joohyun would always take the chance to sleep during a stake-out because whenever it is her turn to watch over, she does it with much determination and leaves no room for any distraction.

"You're going to be tired once it is your turn," he presses on.

"If you say so, I know I won't," she simply replies, her eyes still going through the words written on the book.

His mouth sets in a hard line then he lets out a sigh after a while. "How can you even see properly as you read?"

"There is a streetlight by my side. It's giving me enough light to decipher the words I'm reading."

He leans back from his seat to see if what she said is true, and there it is - a streetlight connected from a post by her side, illuminating enough light even for him to read the title of the book she is reading. He cocks his head to read the letters splayed on the book's cover.

"The...Merry Adventures of...Robin Hood," he reads out loud. "Why are you reading a children's book?"

"And why are you not doing your job now?" She shoots back in a calm manner. "Aren't you the one who's taking the shift now?"

His mouth forms a frown and he immediately goes back to looking outside their surroundings, mumbling under his breath on how his partner is so annoying and uptight. Though, he wouldn't say it out loud but he's still happy that she's his partner instead of the others out there who could not take the job as serious as her.

"And this is not only a children's book," Joohyun continues, "It's also a book for adults which I think you should read as well."

He scoffs, "Should I really find the time to read a book like that? Joohyun, everyone knows the story of Robin Hood already. He's that guy who steals from the rich and distributes what he got amongst his friends-"

Joohyun immediately interjects, "He is an outlaw who lives in the forest and helps his fellowmen go against tyranny." She slams her book shut and places it at the compartment beside her. "We can learn a thing or two from him."

"Like what?" Yoongi spits out, annoyed.

"Like how there are some people who, I believe, are modern reincarnations of him."

Yoongi lets out a mocking laugh then throws a look in disbelief toward his partner. "And who the heck are you referring to?"

Joohyun pouts her lips lightly and shrugs her shoulders, feigning ignorance. "I'm just saying...it could be someone like the reason why we're here-"

"Faeles?" He exclaims, then scoffs. "Faeles is no Robin Hood. She is a criminal."

"Faeles is not a criminal," Joohyun shoots back with a strong expression showing on her face. She purses her lips as anger starts to brew in her.

"Are you serious, Joohyun? You're a detective in-charge of taking her down. She is more than a criminal, she is branded as a murderer now."

She averts her gaze from her partner and looks out through the window. "...It's not her," she mutters under her breath.

"Huh? What are you saying?"

"I believe that it's not her who committed the murder," Joohyun clearly declares with conviction, turning her head to face her partner once again. "She just steals."

"Okay, listen," Yoongi starts, "Whether she really killed that man or not, that does not change the fact that she's been stealing. Noona, that is still a ground in deeming her a criminal."

Joohyun rolls her eyes and lets out a huff as she crosses her arms in annoyance. "You know what? There are times when I hate that you won't listen or even believe me."

"I'm stubborn like that," he merely replies, twitching his mouth to the side to also hide his growing annoyance for his partner.

"We both are," Joohyun admits quietly under her breath. In terms of professional work, the two seem to really be partners made for each other - they both are strong in will, word, and mind.

"Anyway," Yoongi immediately dismisses any advance of bringing the argument further, "go to sleep now because my shift is almost over. When it's your shift, I am really going to need sleep because I still need to get up early to visit Taehyung's café."

"Hm," Joohyun hums then lets out a soft laugh. "Yet all your attempts have never worked," she teases.

Yoongi lets out a groan. "Don't remind me. I never thought that she would be a person who could hold a grudge."

"Anyone could hold a grudge, but I don't think hers is. She seems more annoyed..."

"Annoyed? Am I annoying?" He asks and Joohyun decides to not answer his question to tease him further. Yoongi does not take her silence lightly. "Yah, noona, am I annoying?"

"I'm going to sleep now," she announces and turns the other way to make herself comfortable on the car seat.

"Aish, Joohyun-noona!" Yoongi whines from beside her.

"Go back to doing your job," she tells him, downright rejecting his whining.

Yoongi grumbles incoherently under his breath and decides to go back to looking out their surroundings. I shouldn't have even bothered at all. He thought as his mind started to wander elsewhere. He can't even focus on his job anymore.

Suddenly, his phone's screen lights up as he receives a new message. He swiftly grabs it to check and see that it's a text message from Joohyun. He raises an eyebrow of curiosity and confusion as he throws a glance at her back that is facing him and looks at his screen again. This time, he reads the message in his head. Slowly, the corners of his mouth twitch up to form a small smile as he goes through the text.

Wendy has been going to the park for the past nights. I think she does it to de-stress. You can catch her there later.

------------

Min Yoongi never thought that he would have to resort to this - hiding behind bushes because of a girl.

Sure, his work entailed him to do other sort of weird things only to capture those suspects. But Wendy is not a suspect. She is just a normal person who happens to be very, very quiet. In fact, there is nothing to suspect of her!

"So why am I here sitting in dirt waiting for her?" Yoongi frustratingly whispers to himself and ruffles his hair. Because you also fucked up with what you did that night, dumbass.

It's true. Although he has this cold persona everyone sees and feels from him on a daily basis, he does not like it when he is in conflict with another person. That is why he keeps his demeanor to make sure that others won't even try to start a conversation with him. It was just that night, when he felt so stressed, that he had to fall back with his every day persona. And it was that night that made him face one of the very things that he dread the most - conflict.

With the spare time he has now, he decided to clean the viewing screen of his camera with his shirt and turned it on to take a few shots. And it was then when the person he has been waiting for finally arrived at the park. He freezes in place and goes quiet when he spots Wendy taking a seat on one of the vacant benches placed at the middle of the whole park.

Just like that night, she is in her pajamas with a thin cardigan wrapped around her. Her hair is combed down and kept in place with a thin plastic band placed on top of her head. He watches her close her eyes and let out a long breath before inhaling and doing the same thing all over again.

"Maybe I shouldn't bother her," he whispers to himself, his eyes still watching the girl on the bench. He shakes his head to dismiss the thought of giving up. "No," he utters with newfound conviction, "I'm going to her and I'll ask for forgiveness." He places a hand on his chest and gently beats on it. "Min Yoongi, hwaiting. Like as if you also have a choice to back down because Joohyun will just kick your ass after," he mutters towards the end and quietly clears his throat before standing from his hiding place. He dusts off dirt and a few stray leaves and grass that stuck to his clothes. Slinging the strap of his camera over his head to let it hang on his neck, he takes one last deep breath and makes his way to the girl.

Wendy's mantra continued in her head. Breathe in through your nose for five seconds, then exhale through your mouth for another five seconds. Do it again. And again. And again.

She needs to steal again. After the murder and everyone, especially the police, giving the blame to Faeles, she had to stay low for a week. But a week is too long for those who cannot make ends meet for the day. She could just imagine the amount of people who have not received their share of food for the past days. What about those patients in homes for the aged that need extra money for their medicines? Those thoughts are the cause of her stress and anxiety. What's even adding to that is this certain guy who she finds, but will never admit out loud, too handsome for his own good. Yet, he is also so annoying with how he always tries to insert himself in her life-

"Wendy?" A soft voice calls out to her.

Her eyes fly open in shock and turns her body to face the direction where the voice came from. Speaking of the devil, he happens to be here...just when I was thinking of him. She continues to eye him from head-to-toe in confusion and when she notices the camera hanging from his neck, she flinches and brings her arms up to cover her face.

"A-Ah, it's not on!" He immediately utters to clarify the situation with her before things go out of hand like last time. "I won't take any pictures of you!" He continues, and slowly Wendy moves her arms out of the way of her face. She warily gazes at him and he grabs his camera to show proof. "See? The light is not on. I was just taking pictures around the area and when I saw you, I..." his voice falters before he turns timid and rubs the nape of his neck. Wendy tilts her head and cocks an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to continue.

Aish, this is embarrassing. Yoongi says in his head. As he watches the confused yet albeit intrigued expression on the girl's face, he knows he needs to continue with his explanation or else things won't end well for the both of them. "I immediately turned it off because I did not want you to run away from me if ever I approached you. Now...I'm here and you haven't ran away."

He's true. Wendy also wonders the same thing, herself. She could have just ran away the moment she heard his voice. But she chose not to. Is it maybe because she has this gut feeling that is sending her a message to at least listen to what he has to say for himself? Or is it also because of her guilt for treating him like dirt for the past days?

"I don't want to keep you uncomfortable around me for long...and I'll work on not approaching that much compared to the past few days," he continues, "I know that you are, literally, a woman of few words so I'll never know if you have forgiven me or not. But maybe I will when you'll allow me to take a photo of you," he finishes, looking into her eyes with every feeling of sincerity he could muster.

Wendy could feel it from where she is seated. His seriousness and sincerity catches her off-guard that it makes her thankful that everyone thinks she is selectively mute. For the first time in a long time, she finds herself genuinely at a loss for words.

Yoongi lets a small grin grace his features. "And maybe you're not aware but we, photographers, can stay patient for long periods of time. So either way, I'll wait for you, Wendy."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

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