Momo is sitting in silence next to Mina, when Mina asks a question.

"Momo... I'm not supposed to ask this, but, what's in the capsule?" 

"I thought you would know." 

"Father never told me. It's my duty to protect the family fortune, the business, the name, that's what I was trained for. I don't ask questions but.... All of this has me so curious." 

Momo swallows. 

"I don't know either."

"What do you mean?"

"They didn't tell me. They never tell me the details."

"Wait, so you're doing all this for something you don't even understand or know about?"

"Aren't you too?"

There's an awkward quiet, almost physical, filling the air. 

"I'm doing it for my family." Mina finally retorts. 

Momo feels a drop of guilt. 

"I just... They don't tell me about details of missions because they don't want me... getting attached. Emotions get in the way of being perfect." Momo pauses, fiddles with her hands, and says, almost too quiet to hear, "I guess I still got a little attached this time."

Mina gives her the tiniest, almost unnoticeable smile. 

"You know, when I read your profile, it said you'd been training since you were 13."

"My profile?"

"I hacked into your database, remember?" Mina says with a mischievous grin.

"Psch." Momo grumbles. "You're too mysterious and strange for your own good."

"Did you always want to be... A spy, a secret agent, whatever you call yourself?" 

"No." Momo's voice lowers to a softer tone. "My parents died when I was young. The agency picks up kids, orphaned children, raises them you know, 'normally', until they're 13, and then trains them to be agents. I wanted to be a dancer, you know."

"Really?" Mina says, and the way her eyes light up makes the other's heart turn circles. "I did too! I wanted to be a ballerina, but my father stopped paying for lessons so I could focus on my studies."

Momo pictures Mina, the elegant curves and lengths of her body twirling on some stage, and the image almost fits her perfectly. The fact that ballet is such a painful and torturous practice yet so dainty and effortless seems to encapsulate her character perfectly. 

"I wish I'd continued doing it." Mina says, her eyes wandering out the window. 

"One."

Thud.

The knife lands perfectly in the middle of the target. 

"Two."

The knife flies across the room to the second target. 

"Three." 

The final knife lands in the last target. 

"Good work."

Fifteen year old Myoui Mina mutters a soft "Thank you."

"I'm very proud of your work so far. You've advanced a lot." Sooyoung, tall, elegant, strides over to the targets and yanks out the knives.

"The faster I complete my training, the faster I get to go home, right?" Mina says to her.

"Your Korean has really improved." Sooyoung responds, not answering the question. 

"You didn't answer me." Mina says sternly as she unwraps the bandages from her hands.

"Mina," Sooyoung sighs, "Your father is not as much a man of his word as you'd like to believe. Being the heiress to the Myoui fortune is a lifetime job."

"But my mom is back in Japan, and my friends, and my dance studio-"

"Your mother is dead."

Mina almost chokes on her spit. 

"What?" 

"She was killed a year ago."

"You're.... You're kidding right?" Sooyoung, as she's found from hours spent training with her, has a taste for humor, but this doesn't feel like a joke.

Sooyoung looks around nervously, as if there's cameras watching her. 

"Mina. Me and Seohyun are here to prepare you for anything. You think you can trust your father, but there is a lot he's hiding from you. Your mother died protecting your father's secrets. I don't want you to go out the same way too." 

Mina bites her lip to try and hold back tears. 

"I found it!" Mina says, holding up a black dress. "I think it's your size." 

"That's a rather... deep collar." Momo says.

"It'll accentuate your chest. You have a very pretty chest."

"P-pretty chest?" 

"Yeah, a nice bosom, whatever. I always always conscious about my chest size when I was younger."

Momo coughs. 

"Uh... I like your chest... too..."

Mina smirks, before handing the dress to Momo.

"Here, put this on. We've only got a couple hours before the party." 

"What? Right here, right now?" 

"I need to see how it fits."

"Can I go change in the bathroom?"

"We're all girls here, it's fine."

Momo feels herself screaming inside. Myoui Mina is impossibly testing every ounce of her lesbian blood.

"I'm going to put my dress on, too." says Mina. She unfolds a creamy white lace dress from her suitcase. Momo gulps and tries to look away as her fingers fumble with the buttons of her shirt. She pretends that possibly Mina's eyes couldn't be boring into her back as the sleeves fall off her arms and she swings her hair over one shoulder. She gently steps into the dress. It's been so long since she's last worn one—vague memories of Jeongyeon leading her on a dance on a ballroom floor during some awards ceremony flashes through her head—and the feeling is odd. Her back is exposed too, she feels impossibly out of her own skin. But this is a part of adapting another identity, she learned this all in training, how to completely become another person. She can do this. 

"Momo," Mina calls from behind her, "can you help me?"

Momo is a little ashamed of how fast she whips around to answer the other girl's call. 

Mina is standing in her dress, looking utterly angelic, the fabric floating around her like trapped wind, the lace  gripping to her softened skin, and shes holding onto the straps so that the whole thing doesn't collapse. 

"Can you zip this up for me?" she says. "I just can't quite reach. It's rather aggravating." 

"Oh... Of course." 

Mina is positioned in front of a full length mirror, and Momo can see her reflection as she cautiously steps behind the other girl and reaches for the zipper. As she tugs, the image of her and Mina together almost looks like bride and groom—just almost. She pauses when she's finished to admire Mina's neck, shes so close she could kiss it right there, but she holds her breath. 

"You need to do something about that hair." Mina says. 

"What? It's fine." 

"Sit." She shoves Momo down onto the bed, pulls a hairbrush out of her bag and a makeup bag. She starts gently brushing her hair, delicate fingers pulling it up into a bun. 

"Why'd you bleach it?" she asks the spy. 

"Sense of originality."

"Ah." She uncaps a tube of lipstick. As Mina smears it on the other's lips, Momo wonders if the lipstick has ever touched Mina's. Perhaps like an indirect kiss. 

"Alright! You look gorgeous."

"Thank you." Momo murmurs. 

Mina slips on a long camel coat. 

"Well, time to get this party started."

a/n: hope you all enjoyed this longer update <3 as always comments/upvotes/subscribes always appreciated