Somewhere inside the east branch HQ:

It wasn’t the best place in the world, that much was evident by the weird smell of humidity that lingered in the air and the amount of dust the materials stored there had gathered over the time, but it was the most private place she could think of for what she was about to do.

She only hoped that the setting would not affect the outcome. The situation by itself was making her anxious so thinking about things going wrong because she had chosen the tools depot as a meet up point was almost nerve-wracking.

What the hell was she thinking? How is this supposed to be a good idea? She hesitated, maybe she should just call Kyungwon and tell her to meet elsewhere? Maybe their room would be okay after all…

But Siyeon was there, and she didn’t want to do this in front of her.

This was her best chance at it, she only had a few months before her training was officially done and she would qualify as a real deal assassin, maybe it was for the best if she came out clean right there given the possibility of not seeing Kyungwon again.

The danger of being transferred to another HQ was admittedly great, it’s not like she minded because she’d get to meet new people and stuff, but she was sure leaving Kyungwon and her other friends behind would be something distressful to say the least.

So yes, she made up her mind, she was going to take this chance.

She looked at her watch, only five minutes before their arranged meeting time and this was proving to be more stressful than she thought it would.

She steeled herself, she should not falter, if she did then all the time she spent gathering her courage would be in vain.

Bzzzzt

“Huh?”- Her phone was buzzing, maybe it was Kyungwon?

Bzzzzt

“Hello?”- She answered the call, immediately bringing the phone to her ear in hopes of hearing her best friend’s voice.

“Nunu?”- It was Siyeon - “Where are you right now?”

“Oh… Siyeon, what’s the matter?”- Eunwoo did not want to say she was disappointed… but she was.

“I need to tell you something urgently!”- Eunwoo pushed away her cellphone as her friend’s voiced boomed through the speakers, almost destroying her eardrums completely - “I’m going to do it!”

“What? Do what?”- Eunwoo tentatively got the phone closer again once Siyeon seemed to have calmed down from her original hyperness.

“I can’t tell you over the phone dummy, everyone is listening…”- Siyeon’s voice lowered and Eunwoo could almost imagine her looking over her shoulder, searching for any eavesdropper - “Are you free to come see me now?”

“I…”- Eunwoo looked around, as much as she hated being in that old dusty place there was no way she was leaving until Kyungwon arrived - “I’m actually in the middle of something…”

“Oh, damn, that’s bad…”- Siyeon muttered under her breath before her voice regained her previous liveliness - “Welp, I’m just going to do it, I’ll tell you about it later!”

“Wait! Do what?”- Eunwoo asked once more, still confused by the lack of explanations.

“You’ll see! Wish me luck!”- Siyeon chirps animatedly before the line goes mute.

And the door to the depot opened, letting in irritating levels of brightness that came from the hall’s light, as Kyungwon stepped in the place walking casually.

“Hey there Nunu!”

“Hey…”- She answered weakly, the nerves already grabbing hold of her.

“What kind of world domination plan does Siyeon have in mind right now?”- Eunwoo choked on her own saliva, maybe telling Kyungwon that Siyeon would be present for their little “best friends” reunion was not a good idea… - “Wait, where is she?”

“Umm... she is not here…”- Eunwoo racked her brain, looking for a believable excuse that would drive the topic away from Siyeon. After a few seconds of extreme search, she used the best one she could come up with. - “She left not too long ago… said something of getting some snacks or something…”

“Well, too bad”- Kyungwon didn’t seem to mind that much as she sat down in one of the musty wooden boxes, examining the run-down place as her face showed a mix between disbelief and confusion - “So, how is it going? Been a while since we didn’t get together… although you guys should let me pick the place next time…”

“Oh… sure, I’ve been great lately”- Eunwoo managed to let out a dry laugh, which didn’t help at all to her growing apprehension. - “So… I actually have something to tell you…”

“What is it?”- Kyungwon’s eyes bore holes in Eunwoo’s body, causing the girl to start malfunctioning out of the sheer pressure - “Why are you sweating?”

“Oh… um… ah…”- She couldn’t find the words, her brain seemingly disconnected, bereft of any logical thinking - “I… I want to…”

“Are you alright? You don’t look to good”- Eunwoo’s stomach filled with butterflies, why couldn’t this girl stop being so caring even for a single second? She was actually making the whole thing harder on Eunwoo! - “Do you want me to call a doctor or something?”

“No! no… I’m fine…”- Eunwoo closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she started talking - “I wanted… to tell you that…”

There was no backing down now, it was now or never. She mustered whatever courage was inside of her, planning on shouting even if that meant the people outside of the depot heard as well.

She was going to do it.

“I lov…!”- There was an explosion of different sounds and Eunwoo’s yell was drowned in them, losing its meaning before it managed to come out of . A door opened, a girl yelled, a box fell from the metallic shelves and EVERYTHING happened at the same time Eunwoo wanted to say it.

“Holy … arrived just in time!”- Siyeon stood there, bathed in artificial light, as she struggled to breath - “Thank god Kyla saw you going this way Yuyu otherwise I… Nunu?”

“Siyeon…”- Eunwoo croaked

“I thought you were busy, why are you in the tools depot?”- Siyeon looked around, bewildered.

“I…”

“Well! Now that the three of us are here we can start catching up!”- Kyungwon happily cheered, urging Siyeon to come closer to them - “Join us Ddi-Ddi! Eunwoo was about to tell me something”

“I actually wanted to talk to you about something, Yuyu”- Siyeon blushed and Eunwoo noticed that both her hands were actually behind her back – “Can I? alone, I mean…”

“Okay! I don’t mind, let’s just let Eunwoo finish before”- Kyungwon insisted once more, turning to Eunwoo - “You were saying? Nunu?”

“I…”- But there was nothing else to say. - “It’s nothing, forget about it… I’ll leave you two alone…”

She started walking towards the door. She had realized from the very moment Siyeon entered the room, but what she saw behind the girl’s back as she passed by her confirmed every single one of her suspicions.

The girl was holding a box of chocolates.

Eunwoo gritted her teeth, feeling anger for the first time in quite a while, accelerating her march. She wasn’t angry at Siyeon or Kyungwon, she was angry at herself for not managing to rise to the moment, she was angry because she was unable to demand Siyeon to leave so that she could finally confess.

She screamed, garnering the attention of the suited up men and women that filled the hall, how could she have been so stupid? She had left without saying anything and provided the perfect moment for Siyeon as she did.

Her feelings were all mingled together, yet it wasn’t anger the emotion that finally came out on top, it was regret.

She regretted leaving, she regretted letting Siyeon do what she couldn’t because now, regardless of what was about to happen in that depot, she wouldn’t have another chance at telling Kyungwon how she felt.

**********************************************

Somewhere near the south-east of Seoul:

“Come on… We have to move”- It was a miracle, that was the only explanation.

They shouldn’t have survived that explosion, yet they did.

Eunwoo had managed to push Siyeon out of the way as soon as she saw the grenade bouncing of the wall. They both hid behind a well-placed wall yet the explosion proved to be huge, knocking them back even from behind cover.

Pieces of the walls and ceilings came crashing down soon after that. Eunwoo came out unscathed, yet the same couldn’t be said for Siyeon.

The younger girl could barely stand on her own, her right leg was full of cuts and her left leg had disjointed. Although painfully, Eunwoo had managed to relocate it thanks to her prior knowledge in medicine. Still, she was no doctor, so the only thing she could do after that was pray that no tendons were broken.

However, even with her left leg almost unusable and her right one looking almost as bad, Siyeon refused to leave the place.

“We have to go back… she could… need our help…”-  Eunwoo did not have to ask to know to whom the girl was referring.

“Do you want to die?”- She asked plainly, both of them had seen the other group of assassins arrive as they got further and further away from the mansion.

They were leaving the place, Eunwoo wasn’t going to stay just to way for death. Yeonjung had been clear, once the second team arrived to the scene everyone would die. No exceptions.

They had failed their original mission, and for all she knew both Kyungwon and the redhead girl were either dead or about to be. There was no one that could match up to the three instructors’ fierceness, and even less to their martial prowess.

She reckoned that instructor Minkyung alone would be enough to handle each and every single one of that mansion inhabitants.

“But Kyungwon-!”- Siyeon protested weakly. The girl looked like she was on the verge of passing out from the pain ever since they left, but somehow she refused to do so.

“They have already entered the mansion…”- Eunwoo did not want to admit it out loud, but Siyeon wouldn’t stop trying to get her to turn back – “She is probably dead by now…”

“How can you say that?!”- And the girl, despite all her injuries, erupted in flames; pushing Eunwoo again and by hook or by crook managing to stand on her own.

“The other team arrived…”- Eunwoo faced Siyeon, her brain already looking for the least painful way to subdue her in case Siyeon tried something - “And she didn’t come up the stairs before you threw the grenade… I’m n