*BANG*

The gun fired, but nothing moved. The six empty cans of cola remained unbothered.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Not a single bullet met its desired end.

“You know you could just breathe a little and concentrate instead of going bonkers and shooting just for the sake of it, right?”- Nayoung was starting to lose her patience, something really unusual since they’ve been practicing for no longer than five minutes.

“Shhh”- The condescending shushing wasn’t helping at all.

“Listen, you won’t hit anything if you…”

“Do you ever just shut up?”- The girl with her, which looked no older than fifteen, barked loudly at Nayoung, growing impatient thanks to her fruitless efforts. Ever since they started she hadn’t been able to hit even one of the cans. - “I’m just… feeling the gun, that’s right, I got to adjust to its weight and ”

*BANG*

This last shot came closer than the others, but it was still a miss in the end.

“For sake…”- The young girl groaned.

“If you’d listen to me then…”- Nayoung couldn’t help it, the “teacher” part of herself came out way too easily in those kinds of situations, voice tone and everything.

"Random little ing Bobby could just pick up this gun and be a better teacher than you"

"Well deal with it, I'm the one you got"- A snarky remark met with another snarky remark, Nayoung wasn’t about to let a teen offend her. - “Now, are you going to start listening or do want to keep missing?”

"Whatever… you crone..."

"Excuse you?"

*BANG*

Another shot, only that this time it managed to pierce one of the cans, sending it flying backwards until it landed on the grass with a metallic sound softened by the ground.

" yeah!"- The girl pumped her first, obviously pleased with herself after landing her first shot - “Quality shooting if I ever saw one”

“Sure, if that lets you sleep better at night…”- Nayoung rolled her eyes before repeating the same tips she had taught the younger girl when they first started practicing - “Try keeping a firm grip on the gun, hold your breath to keep it steady and, when you have aligned the target, shoot. “

*BANG*

Like the last time, another can fell, crashing against the first one in the process. It made Nayoung remember the first days of training she had. Of course it wasn’t shooting cans out of a fence, more like shooting at the paper targets, but the feeling was oddly the same.

“Good”- She said, the whole thing was bringing back fond memories.

“I knew that”- There was smug grin present as the girl blew at the barrel of the gun like an old western film - “I told you, I was just adjusting to the gun, duh…”

She had managed to ruin Nayoung’s mood yet again. Why was she even training a kid? Guns were dangerous things.

Jieqiong and Chaeyeon, that’s why. Neither of them wanted to take care of the little girl while waiting for Dani to come back. Eunchae had kicked her out of the lab, Yebin and Eunjin were out working (Someone had to keep a steady income after all) and Mina was nowhere to be found, probably out there somewhere, like she had been doing for the past three months.

“Nayoungie~~~”- Jieqiong had said, looking completely adorable and instantly managing to bewitch Nayoung – “Can you please take care of little Somyi here for me? I need to finish with some things~”

Needless to say, Nayoung accepted, though she had been regretting it ever since.

“Anyways, time to go back, give me my gun”- Nayoung glanced at her wrist watch, it was about time they finished their little lesson. Lending her gun to someone else was already bad enough, plus the fact that it was a teen that refused to listen just made it worse.

“Yeah, no way, I’m just getting started”- But Somyi didn’t even move to give it back.

 “I warned you I was only going to do it for five minutes tops”-Nayoung fought to keep her voice cool, usually she’d have no problem considering she was a calm person, she wasn’t bad with kids either, but this girl in particular had been especially frustrating to handle - “Now go inside and play chess or something until Dani returns and you can spend your time with her.”

“Chess? What are you? Sixty years old?”- Somyi cackled - “Nah, I’m happy with keeping the gun, thank you very much”

The little devil in front of her, the one that was fearlessly telling Nayoung to go eff herself, was Ahn Somyi, Dani’s best friend and the daughter of a couple of economists, survivors of the purge that occurred in the north branch when JYP arose to power more than five years ago.

They had been living in japan ever since. Both were acquaintances of Chaeyeon and Dani, hence why Somyi herself was now on “vacation” visiting her best friend. And, in the middle of all, was Nayoung, stuck with taking care of her until Dani came back from her tutoring lessons.

“Listen here, you brat, give me that thing back or I swear I’ll not answer for my actions”- The cop tried her hand at something a little bit more intimidating, but it proved fruitless.

“And what are you going to do if I don’t? Cast a curse on me, old witch?”

“That’s it! I’m taking it by force kid!”- The last strand of patience Nayoung had melted as she lunged at the teenager, without the intention of harming her at all of course, but still trying to force the girl to the floor - “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

Maybe it was her slim body shape, but Somyi proved to be a little bit too elusive for Nayoung to catch at her first try. The adolescent jumped back, evading Nayoung first grab even though she managed to catch her by surprise.

Somyi tried to move back once more but her regular reaction time wasn’t enough to outspeed Nayoung for a second time. The cop managed to latch onto the girl’s right wrist, holding her in place effortlessly.

Of course, Somyi resisted, flailing her arms in hopes of getting away from Nayoung’s grasp. She made a crucial mistake nonetheless, and that was raising her left hand, the one where she had the gun.

Nayoung met face to face with the barrel of her own gun and her instincts kicked in without delay. Using the already iron grip she had on Somyi, Nayoung deflected the girl’s left arm with her free hand, violently pushing it away before she yanked the teen towards her.

She did so without thinking at all, once Somyi lost her footing everything became blurry. Nayoung twisted the girl’s arm, quickly locking it behind her back before both crashed against the ground, Nayoung ending up straddling Somyi in what appeared to be a really painful position to be in, at least for Somyi.

The next thing she heard was a painful yelp and a harsh shout, both coming from different sides.

One of them was Somyi, the other one…

“Nayoung! What are you doing to Somyi?!”- Jieqiong looked furious - “You were supposed to be taking care of her!”

Nayoung never saw her exiting the mansion. Speaking of which, the whole building – which was almost destroyed three months ago – had been steadily getting better, mostly thanks to Nayoung and Eunjin constant repairs. They had decided against hiring a team to do it, opting to do it slowly but silently and to prevent from anyone knowing of their location.

They technically had nothing to fear after Minkyung assured Nayoung that they were “dead”, but she wasn’t about to trust an assassin wholeheartedly.

On the bad side, the repairs had cost them most of what was left in their savings (more commonly called “Dani’s bank account”, something she had when her father was in charge of the north branch of the shadow government) hence why Eunjin, Yebin and Jieqiong had to get either part-time or fulltime jobs.

And speaking of the devil…

“She refused to give me my weapon!”- Nayoung got up, leaving Somyi space to do the same, and tried to defend herself - “She even…!”

There was a sniff and Nayoung could swear she was the smirk in Somyi’s face before the girl turned around, doing a 180 spin both literally and figuratively.

“I… I…”- The girl’s voice trembled before for a little before ACTUAL tears started streaming down her face, to the point that even Nayoung believed for a moment that she had hurt her - “I was going to give it back! I just asked her to give it to me a few more minutes and she got all violent! I’m scared now! She is a mean woman!”

It was a blatant lie, but it seemed to be enough to turn Jieqiong against her.

“Look at what you’ve done!”-Nayoung’s girlfriend didn’t seem to content - “Come here, you poor thing”

“But she is lying! That’s not true at all! She…!”

“No buts!”- Jieqiong interrupted her - “Come on, let’s go inside and get away from this meanie, I’ll make you something to eat”

Somyi just nodded, drying the tears with her sleeves before following Jieqiong inside the renovated building. Nayoung did not wait to be left behind and rushed after them, she had a right to be offended of her own.

“Wait! Are you seriously going to believe her?”- Jieqiong turned around, a bored look on her face.

“If you are not here to apologize then WE don’t want to hear it, Nayoungie”- Her voice sounded almost dry, but there was something off. If Jieqiong were truly mad then she’d be throwing a tantrum.

This was awfully out of character for her…

“It’s fine… I’m not mad at her even if she said mean things to me…”- Somyi interjected before Nayoung could speak, smirking at Nayoung with a malevolent glint in her eyes when Jieq