“Do you want a lollipop?” Minkyung offered with a smile.

Hyojung hesitated for a moment before nodding.

“Yes, please,” Hyojung said politely, stretching her hand out.

“Oh god, she’s so naïve,” Minkyung thought half worried half amused.

She tried not to let her worry show as she brought out a lollipop and placed it in Hyojung’s palm.

“Thank you!” Hyojung smiled brightly.

Minkyung laughed, albeit a little unsure, and just nodded, leaning against the doorframe. She observed Hyojung as she tried to unwrap the lollipop.

“Are they all this hopeless?” Minkyung thought. “What is that woman doing, wasting her time with these girls? Is this how she gets her kicks?”

“Do you need any help?” Minkyung offered cheerfully, opposite to the dark tone she had inside her head.

“Ah yes, I do,” Hyojung said gratefully handing back the lollipop.

“I’m sure you do,” Minkyung snickered to herself. “In more ways than one.”

Minkyung took the lollipop and in one swift movement, pulled out a knife from under her skirt and sliced the wrapper away, finishing it with a little twirl.

“If Haeri were here, she’d say I was showing off,” Minkyung laughed to herself. “And maybe I am.”

“That was so cool!” Hyojung squealed, thoroughly impressed.

Minkyung laughed loudly without holding back, completely amused and utterly baffled with Hyojung’s strange personality.

“What is a cute little girl like you doing in a place like this?” Minkyung asked, handing Hyojung back the lollipop.

“Well, I’m here on a mission and I’m also trying to help” Hyojung said, placing the lollipop in . “What are you doing here?” Hyojung asked, remembering how strange it was for this woman to appear out of nowhere.

“Well, I’m on a mission too,” Minkyung smiled, a little mysteriously.

“Oh, what a coincidence!” Hyojung said, clearly surprised. “Does it have to do with the plans of this café?”

“Mm, not really,” Minkyung smiled. “It’s got something to do with a specific set of people visiting this café.”

“Us?” Hyojung asked, taking the lollipop out of .

“If I’m being honest, yes.”

“A-Are you the bad guys?” Hyojung asked warily, taking another awkward fighting stance.

“No, not for you guys,” Minkyung said. “Me and my partner are just doing a bit of babysitting.”

“You have a partner too?” Hyojung asked, brightening up. “Where is she?” she asked, looking around.

“She’s not here right now,” Minkyung said. “We split up.”

Hyojung’s brightness disappeared and she seemed sad again.

“Did you guys fight too?” Hyojung asked.

Minkyung felt a little sorry for her.

“No, we didn’t fight. There are just some situations where you have to split up in order to get things done,” Minkyung said.

She couldn’t resist the urge to pat Hyojung on the head. Hyojung smiled, looking a little more relaxed.

“But aren’t you worried something is going to happen to them?” Hyojung asked, looking a bit unsure.

“Well, in order to have a good partner relationship you have to trust the other person a lot,” Minkyung explained. “I trust my partner to look after herself and to come back to me still alive.”

Hyojung still looked unsure.

“But of course, I still worry. That’s what happens when you care for someone a lot. You just can’t help but care about them.”

Finally, Hyojung smiled again. Minkyung continued to pet Hyojung as her mind drifted away to think of how her partner was doing on her end.

“Of course I trust you but please allow me to worry about you as well.”

“Tell me your plans!” JinE shouted, aggressively shaking the man which she held by the collar.

“N-No! I-I don’t know what y-you’re talking about!” the man spluttered.

“You don’t?” JinE scoffed. “Take a look around you. Are you in any position to be lying to me?”

The man sweated profusely as his eyes shakily roamed around the office. His men were all dead, covered in blood. The girl who had done it didn’t even have a weapon. And that same girl was gripping onto his shirt collar tightly. She had simply barged in and started asking questions. Every time he brushed her off or ignored her she took out one of his men. Now they were all out, except for him.

“It’s j-just… business,” he stuttered, attempting to smile. “What is it you want, girly? I-I’ve got money, heck, I’ve even got a little power! I can get you what you want!”

“Money I can believe but power? You’re absolutely weak,” JinE scoffed. “What I want is answers. You’re in charge of this business, right? So tell me your plans,” JinE insisted, shaking him some more.

JinE was not amused with how easy it had been to defeat his men. She had not been able to vent any of the chaotic feelings she had kept in while with the other girls. She really felt the need to let loose.

“N-N-N-Not really a boss,” the man said, teeth chattering. “L-Look, I’m just in charge of this café. I’m not in charge of the project regarding the kids,” he said defensively.

JinE was close to completely ignoring anything he was saying. She was just thinking off how to burn off the extra steam she had left.

“Maybe, y-you’re after her? Look, I got no beef with you, kid.”

Lowering his voice to a whisper he said: “See there’s this professor who-“

JinE snapped her attention back to him and punched him clean in the face sending him flying across the room. She was angry. She was so overwhelmingly furious she was shaking. She wanted to rip him apart. She wanted to rip his face off. She wanted to- Something clicked inside her head and the fury drained out a little.

Coming to her senses, she ran towards him and crouched down to check if he was still breathing. Thankfully he was, but barely. JinE sighed to herself, frustrated with how she had snapped.

“I thought you were looking for answers?”

JinE looked up at the voice behind her. It was the same woman she had bribed earlier. Rather than looking cool and pleasant, she was looking very serious and displeased.

“Mind your own business, waitress,” JinE said snarky, getting up.

“This is my business” she replied coolly.

“So, you have the answers?” JinE asked, cracking her knuckles.

“No,” the woman answered frankly. “Also, drop your intimidating act. I can’t take a child like you seriously if you continue.”

JinE scratched her head, wondering if she should listen to the lady or not.

“Do you not see all this?” JinE said, twirling around. “I did this. I didn’t even need to break a sweat.”

“You sound like a kid showing off her art after drawing on the wall.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’d be more impressed if you did all that and not get caught.”

“Who says I’m caught?” JinE laughed.

“I caught you,” Haeri replied smoothly.

“No, you didn’t,” JinE said. “You didn’t catch me. You… are dead.”

JinE made an attempt to lunge at the woman but she easily jumped out of the way. JinE gritted her teeth together as she endlessly tried to grab the other woman as fast as she could. Much to JinE’s frustration, the other woman was faster. JinE finally grinned once the woman got stuck in the corner. Not wasting her time with words, she gave one last lunge for the girl’s throat. She saw a flash of metal before stumbling out of the way, just in time.

“I thought you were more level headed than this,” the woman said, knife still stretched out in front of her. “I’m not your enemy, by the way. If anything, I’m the person in charge of protecting you.”

“Who sent you?” JinE asked, looking surprised.  “Was it my sister?”

JinE bit her lip hard. Was it something important?

“I don’t know who your sister is,” she replied. “I was sent by your boss.”

JinE breathed a sigh of relief, the tension draining form her muscles.

“Okay, so what do you want?” JinE asked, feeling a bit more cooperative.

“Right now, I’m curious as to why you knocked that guy out clean when he mentioned the word ‘professor’,” she asked.

“So, you do know her,” JinE muttered.

“It’s always a bit of a surprise whenever my hunches are spot on.”

JinE looked up, surprised by the hard tone of the woman. She was looking down at JinE in disdain.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” JinE asked, getting up quickly, slowly creating some distance between the two of them.

“Is she looking for you?” the woman asked, her voice ice cold.

Realizing that she had picked up some crucial information, JinE subconsciously took a defensive stance.

“She’s not.”

“How did she piece it together?” JinE thought.

“And to think I was slightly worried about you,” the woman said indifferently.

Shaking her head, the woman made to leave the room but JinE quickly blocked the exit.

“Where are you going!?” JinE said through gritted teeth.

“I’m going to protect somebody who deserves it. I’m not going to risk my life to protect some brat who turns a blind eye for a monster just because they’re related. Or do you do her dirty deeds too?”

“I don’t!” JinE yelled angrily, voice slightly cracking.

She cleared her voice awkwardly.

“I don’t,” she repeated.

On the inside, she was panicking. This woman knew who she was. What was she going to do with that information? Who was she going to tell? She was trying to see behind the woman’s cool exterior to find out any possible motives. The only thing JinE saw was slight pity.  Seeing that jabbed at JinE’s heart. She wasn’t sure she liked what she saw.

“Just get out of my way,” the woman said. “I don’t know anything, I won’t tell anyone. This isn’t my case. Not today.”

“So, you’re just going to pretend you don’t know I exist? That I’m here?” JinE scoffed, eyes widening.

“I’m not doing it to protect you. I’m saving my own tail. Although, I will not cover the mess you just made,” she said, pointing to the dead bodies and the barely living boss. “Clean up and think of a suitable alibi. Now move.”

JinE wasn’t convinced but she was surprised when she felt herself move aside. The woman didn’t hesitate to fly past her without saying another word. JinE barely heard her escape. Now that she was by herself, she looked around at the mess she had made. She bent down to pick up a lonely paper in front of her. She tried to hold it gently but it crumpled a bit where she held it. JinE stared at the creases on the paper just around where her fingers touched it.

“To be able to destroy anything you touch is so much fun, right?”

JinE crumpled the paper in her hand and threw it across the room. The next thing she knew she was breaking furniture, beating up the already dead men and just making more of a mess. In the middle of her rampage, she caught the bloodied boss in the corner of her eye. She stopped attempting to break the table to bits and decided to stomp towards him. Everything seemed to be red in her eyes and she felt her hand form into a tight fist. Her whole body was shaking and she felt herself mouth twist up into a smile. Raising her first, she aimed directly for the center of his face.

“If I did something wrong, I’d do something right to make up for it.”

“What?”

JinE felt her fist crash into the wall, shaking the whole room. She grunted as she extracted her hand from the wall, shaking her hand.

“That was strange,” she muttered to herself.

She turned her hand around slowly, observing it intently. She looked back at the man’s face which hadn’t been punished with her fist a second time.

 “A snitch,” she whispered. “I don’t need to kill you. Once it gets out that you tattled, you’re gonna wish I was a one punch man.”

The man didn’t respond or move.

 “I guess I was done playing around anyways,” JinE said, lying down on the blood stained floor.

Rolling on to her side, she shuffled through the man’s pockets until she found a black cellular phone. She didn’t have to scroll through the contacts to find the name with the star next to it. Pausing for only a second, she hit dial.

Haeri was running silently through the dark corridors, thinking about what had just happened.

“She really put us in a tight spot, huh?”

Haeri thought about Minkyung. Minkyung was more than competent enough to handle any possible dangers but feeling the overwhelming strength of the last girl was enough to make her worry just a bit. Haeri was thankful she didn't have any slip ups. If she had been caught by that girl, it certainly would have been hard to get out of. She wondered what kind of card the other girl was hiding up her sleeve. Haeri shook her head and calmed herself down by rationalizing that there was nothing more dangerous than the previous girl and her sister. Well, maybe the crazy boss lady who had forced them to come here in the first place was also on the danger list.

To be honest, Haeri shouldn’t have known about the sister. There weren’t many people who knew the professor’s true existence and almost no one knew she had a sister. Haeri only knew because she had a strange amount of luck on her side ever since she was born. She had overheard this particular bit of information when the crazy boss lady had visited her own boss. She was discussing something with her boss when she was suddenly pushed out because that lady had arrived. Due to all the pushing, Haeri’s microphone fell. It was pretty much broken at that point but it did catch snippets and lucky for her, she had caught some important ones.

Haeri stopped running and leaned against the wall for a bit to gather up her thoughts. What did that crazy lady have to gain by keeping such a dangerous item? Is she trying to lure the professor out? That would be too risky, wouldn’t it? She did take a lot of risks but did she normally take such a big one?

“Is something wrong?” a voice asked pleasantly.

Haeri froze before realizing who it was.

“What are you doing here?” Haeri asked politely.

“The leader of my cute little rookie group called for back-up so I tagged along too,” the figure in the dark smiled.

“Don’t you have more important things to do? Like take out a few more of my hoobaes?” Haeri asked, not smiling.

“Haeri, don’t be so cold,” the boss smiled, grabbing Haeri’s shoulder.

 “You know you business is your own and what’s mine is mine, right?” the boss smiled, trying to be pleasant.

Haeri didn’t have any of it. Shaking the other woman’s hand off, she merely said:

“Take care of it.”

She gave a curt nod before speeding off again, leaving the boss behind. The boss looked at the place where she had disappeared to for a few moments before looking forward again. She walked forward slowly, whistling merrily. It took her a while to actually reach her destination.

“JinE, are you alright?” she smiled.

JinE didn’t turn around. She was just sitting in front of the bloody faced man who seemed to be shaking.

“I’m tired,” JinE said.

“Well, you know you have a nice cell waiting for you back at HQ,” the boss said in a friendly manner as if she were offering a nice spacious guest room at a mansion.

“Is Hyojung okay?” JinE asked.

The boss raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“I actually came to see you first,” she said, not giving the surprise away in her voice.

“These guys started it,” JinE lied. “It was a tough battle.”

“I’m sure it was. Let’s get you cleaned up, okay? I’m sure the others are finishing up right now.”

JinE sighed and stood up, stretching.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”