As announced the day before, Minjeong woke up the next morning with a notification from Ms. Yu on her new service phone reminding her that the consultant would be arriving at the hotel at 5AM sharp. Looking at the time, she saw she had twenty minutes left to prepare. She begrudgingly got up from the bed, still feeling slightly jet-lagged, hopped in a quick shower and decided to change into practical clothes for the day, selecting a combination of black cargo pants, simple white shirt and brown jacket. She then grabbed her wallet and her two phones, pocketing them in her jacket, before leaving her room and taking the elevator downstairs.

When Minjeong reached the lobby entrance, she was not surprised to see a tall figure already waiting for her. All clad in black, from her suit to her high heels, to her silky long dark hair, Ms. Yu noticed her and offered a discreet smile which made Minjeong froze for a split second. The consultant was exhibiting such a poised and collected aura that Minjeong felt momentarily self-conscious about her own appearance. Mentally scoffing at her thought, Minjeong approached Ms. Yu nonetheless and had to slightly look up in order to maintain eye contact.

“Hi.”

The short and effective salutation did not deter Ms. Yu from widening her smile. “Good morning, Minjeong,” she greeted in turn. “Is that okay if I call you that? I know you didn’t grow up here, so I figured you wouldn’t mind dropping the honorifics, right?”

“Ahem- Yes. I haven’t thought of that,” Minjeong said, taken aback by the relevance of Ms. Yu’s simple follow-up remark. “I guess I don’t mind, as long as it’s okay with you too?”

Jimin’s smile did not waver. “It’s fine.” She extended her hand and Minjeong only noticed then that it had been holding a cup of coffee all this time. “Here, a consolation for making you get up so early, despite arriving late last night.”

Minjeong took the offered cup, not one to reject a gentle gesture. “I’m used to it. I’ll sleep when the mission is done.”

Jimin’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “Ah. Of course, that’s the spirit,” she agreed. “So consider this coffee as a sign of camaraderie instead.” Then, without waiting a beat she turned around, gesturing to the exit. “Shall we?”

Minjeong nodded and followed Jimin through the door and into Seoul’s streets.

The city was slowly waking up from its slumber and the lingering quietness made the controlled staccato of Jimin’s heels on the pavement almost feel like a lulling melody to Minjeong’s ears. She took a gulp of her coffee, trying to force her jet-lagged brain to reboot. Thankfully, Jimin broke the silence.

“We will need to drive to our destination. As you know, we are going to meet with the Aespa Group today.”

“Okay.”

Jimin led them to the parking lot, located in the adjacent street, and made her way towards a slick gray SUV – a Kia Sorento. She waved her hand in the air.

“Let’s go.”

Minjeong briefly wondered who Jimin was addressing, but then, she noticed a man moving from behind the SUV and positioning himself as to open the door to the back of the car. Wordlessly, Jimin gestured for Minjeong to enter the car first and followed behind once she was settled in it. The door was then shut and the man went around to take the driver seat.

“This is Youngbae,” Jimin introduced, angling herself towards Minjeong and pointing at the driver with her chin. “He’s part of the rallied unit which will help for the mission. He’ll drive us to our next location.”

The man, Youngbae, furtively looked up at the rearview mirror to meet Minjeong’s eyes. He nodded at her politely. “Hello.” To which Minjeong curtly nodded back.

“We are heading to our base of operation,” Jimin continued, reaching for her phone and tapping on it while speaking. “It’s situated one hour or so away from here. It’s established in one of Aespa’s factories and we prepared a fake contract for you to cover your presence there. You are now an employee of the Aespa Group. I’m sending you the details now.” Her sentence was punctuated by a ding on Minjeong’s phone. “It’s a simple enough cover. Take the time to read through what I sent you. When we arrive, we’ll get your badge and access to the factory sorted.”

Minjeong grabbed her phone from her pocket and opened the message, taking the information in. She was to be Ms. Kim from the Logistics Department. Apart from that, the message went over the layout of the factory, its various access points and where the base of operation was located – far away from the public entrance and conveniently hidden in a storage facility.

“Who has access to the storage facility?” Minjeong asked.

Jimin looked up from her own phone, stopping her typing. “Only the members of the operation,” the consultant answered. “You’ll meet most of them today, but I can provide a list for you to go over later too.”

Minjeong hummed. “What about you?”

Jimin’s eyebrows slightly raised with confusion. “What about me?”

“Are you part of the Logistics Department too?”

“No, not exactly,” Jimin said. “Unlike you, I don’t work for the Government. I don’t need to cover my tracks.”

The candidness with which Jimin provided her answer made Minjeong pause.

“Who do you work for then?”

Jimin shrugged and resumed her typing. “No one, I’m just a consultant.”

Understanding when she was being dismissed, Minjeong went back to memorizing the details provided in the message.

___

Upon arriving at their destination, Jimin asked for Youngbae to drop them off at the main building instead and meet them at the facility after.

“We need to get your credentials and badge first.”

So Minjeong found herself, once again, following Jimin’s steps into the Aespa’s factory.

From behind, she couldn’t help but notice how familiar Jimin seemed to be with the environment as she swiftly navigated them onto several hallways before stopping in front of a desk, where a young man’s feet were casually resting upon, as their owner seemed to have leaned all the way back on his chair. He seemed to be oblivious to their arrival.

Jimin cleared , leaning herself slightly on the desk.

Minjeong found it comical how the young man startled at the noise and, upon looking at the interruption, he immediately straightened on his chair, fighting with his mouse and keyboard to put his computer out of its sleep mode. She repressed a grin, her glance meeting Jimin who offered a brief knowing smirk in turn.

“Hello, I’m here to retrieve a badge for Ms. Kim,” the consultant informed the young man at the desk with a light tone. “It should be under the name of Minjeong Kim. She’s from the Logistics Department.”

The young man’s eyes widened. “Y-yes. Of course, yes. Uh- just a moment, please,” he managed to say through his stupor, opening the drawer of his desk, and furiously rummaging in it. “Here you go,” he said while offering the found badge to Jimin.

The latter nodded for Minjeong to take the badge, which she did, putting it in her jacket’s pocket with her wallet and the two phones.

“Thank you,” Minjeong said.

There was a short pause, during which no one said anything. Jimin put a hand lazily on the desk and tapped with her index finger on it, tilting her head ever so slightly.

“Shouldn’t we sign some sort of declaration form?”

Again, Jimin’s remark seemed to turn the young man into a fumbling mess. Minjeong watched as he frantically scanned through all the papers on his desk until finding the one he needed and putting it on display.

“Y-yes. If you could sign here, please.”

Minjeong looked around, in search of a pen. However, as she was about to ask for it, Jimin had already provided one from the inside pockets of her suit and handed it to her. It was a very stylish fountain pen, which fitted pleasantly in her grip. And so, with her name and her signature, Minjeong confirmed the acquisition of her badge.

“Thank you, everything is in order. Ha-Have a nice day,” the man at the desk said.

“Have a nice day,” Minjeong repeated, ever so politely.

She chose not to comment on the fact that he did not check at all what she had written on the paper before putting it away. The young man seemed nervous enough already – Minjeong wondered if he was a new employee.

“Yes,” Jimin interjected. “Have a nice day.”

There was a strange inflection in Jimin’s voice and when Minjeong looked away from the young man to observe the consultant, the latter had an odd expression on her face, tracking with her eyes the paper she had just signed. Although, it immediately disappeared when she met Minjeong’s questioning glance. The consultant offered a discreet eyeroll accompanied by a grin as the both of them made their way to the Aespa’s facility.

“The Aespa’s employees are not what you would expect from such a big company,” Jimin commented casually.

Minjeong smiled. Obviously, they had the same thought and it felt nice to be able to casually comment about it with the consultant. Even if they were supposed to be coworkers, getting along with Jimin was something Minjeong wagered would make the mission here easier and less lonely.

“Poor guy,” Minjeong said. ”It was probably his first day.”

___

The rest of the walk was spent in a comfortable silence, and as they moved deeper in the main building, Minjeong noticed that they came across fewer and fewer employees in the hallways, until they arrived in front of a sealed door.

“Let’s test your badge,” Jimin indicated while pointing at the scanner next to the door.

As she was about to do so, Minjeong registered the presence of the fountain pen still in her grip. Swiftly, she handed it back to Jimin without a word, sensing a blush forming on her cheeks. The consultant took it and made no further comment, sparing Minjeong the embarrassment.

Beep.

The door opened and Minjeong half expected to enter a new room. Instead, she was met with filtering rays of sunshine scarcely coming from a roof made of thick opaque glass. In front of her, there was a small venue, enclosed by barriers, blocking the view from inside and outside, like some sort of hermetic tunnel connecting two structures. Security cameras were strategically placed all along its path, and several meters ahead was another sealed door – which would lead to the operation’s headquarters, Minjeong reckoned based on the layout of the factory Jimin sent earlier.

Beep.

This time, Minjeong could sense the shift in the atmosphere. As she ventured inside this new building, two men leaning against the wall by the entrance welcomed them. They were heavily armed with assault rifles at the ready in their hands. One of them approached confidently while bowing his head in respect, but before he could introduce himself, Jimin dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

“Boys, the formal introduction will have to wait. Get back to your business for now,” Jimin said with authority, before turning to Minjeong and softening her tone. “They are part of the tactical unit we enlisted for the mission. You’ll have time to get acquainted later. Right now, we’re on a schedule and need to go to the briefing room first.”

“Okay.”

As Jimin continued leading the way, Minjeong took the time to analyze the new environment and get an understanding of its organization. The base of operation was a huge hangar which was divided into various zones and, despite having no walls to be delimited properly, each zone was easily identifiable.

Directly to the right was a lounging area with two couches and a table surrounded by several chairs. Next to it, there was a kitchen which was fully equipped with a fridge, coffee machines and electric kettles. And beside it, embedded in the wall, was a television set on the news channel.

To the left of the entrance was a makeshift armory filled with open lockers and shelves. A quick glance would confirm the presence of weapons, firearms, and tactical equipment such as bulletproof vests, binauculars, ropes and grenades.

At the center of the hangar, several vehicles were parked, ranging from standard sedan cars, to motorcycles,  to all-terrain armored vehicles, to big transportation vehicles.

A little further on was an operations center filled with desks, computers and giant screens, near which a gray curtain stretched from one end of a wall to the other – suggesting that this was a private area.

Overall, Minjeong counted around twenty or so people inside the hangar. As Jimin ste