It was the crimson-colored sash bounded around her waist that initially caught his eyes, followed by her dark, ominous gaze pointed directly towards him. It was as if she was begging to be followed, he initially thought as he returned her gaze with a cold, intimidating look of his own, the same he would use on anyone threatening to disrupt the harmony of the village. However, it would only last for another few seconds before pedestrians passing by in the densely populated plaza obstruct their views from one another. Using this to her advantage, she vanishes sending Jimin into offense mode and whether she was truly asking for it or not, he was going to confront her.

Training and experience initiate the heightening of his senses, instantly he becomes more aware of his surroundings. His peripheral becomes just as alert as his central line of senses as he implements a brief 360 scan on the ground floor. No red velvet-colored sash to be seen.

"She couldn't have gotten far," he mutters to himself, evading to the alleyways. In a matter of seconds, he's perpetuating himself onto ledges on the side of the building and making an escape towards the rooftops, undetected by the village dwellers down below.

To his surprise when he reaches the top, his eyes immediately lock onto his target. She was standing there, the young woman, with the alarming scarlet sash a couple rooftops down from where he was. Her long chestnut-colored tresses drift along with the summer breeze and her clothes, now that he has a clearer view of her entire figure, were foreign. His eyes travel up her body, taking in every detail until he reaches her face where a blank and mysterious expression radiates across the distance. He wanted to demand her identity, using his authority as the village's safeguard to be informed of her whereabouts, but then a slow smirk begins to draw across her ruby lips. That was when Jimin knew that she had been waiting for him and she had purposely provoked him. From the very moment they initiated eye contact on the ground, they had entered themselves in a game, the game he had grown to hate throughout the years.

"やめろ!" He shouts, trying to stop what he knew about to commence but he's too late. The smirk across her lips blossoms into a wide, Cheshire smile and chase begins. Like dog and cat, Jimin is grazing across rooftops, hearing the shingles crack with every leap he lands as he jumps from house to house trying to catch up to her.

She is thinner and smaller than he is—though not by much—and she uses this to her advantage, leading the chase by maneuvering more nimbly and gracefully catapulting across town's rooftops. He swears—though it could have been caused by the wind hitting against his ear with the speed he was going—he hears her laughing aloud in the distance as she cartwheels across a spandrel beam connecting two house together.

'She's taunting me, this is a game to her,' he notes as he dashes across the beam. Her agile movements were feather-like; it was clear that she had been well-trained enough to keep him running and that was what concerned him the most. Up until now, her identity was a mystery and he couldn't help tragically underestimating her capabilities. Who was she? What was she doing here? Where was she from? It was rare for clans to yield a kunoichi, female ninja, but with the skills she had demonstrated so far, Jimin had no doubt she was also a warrior to her master. Yet, the mystery to which clan she belonged to and how much power she wielded remains. In addition, her attire and features were unlike anything Japanese, it was clear that she was a foreigner, but why was she here?

For the past seven years since Jimin had been sent by his clan to surveil the local region, he had been the only foreigner around. The Imperial Justice, the Japanese clan that his clan back in Korea were conspiring with, did not like the idea of having so many foreigners trespassing into their holy land. The Japanese only caved when Min Yoongi, his clan leader, voiced that Jimin was a huge asset to their plan of action to overtake the government. So they opened their borders and Jimin was granted permission to enter. Extreme scrutiny from the Imperial Justice Warriors was inevitable, however, it did not take long for him to earn their trust through the plethora of information he was easily able to cultivate from independent espionages and infiltration operations.

Within a short amount of time, Jimin found himself climbing the ladder and earning himself the high-ranking title that he continues to bear at today, an honorary member of the Anbu, or Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, specializing in assassination and tactical missions (more of the tactical missions than assassination). He worked directly under the region's kage, which was a significant checkpoint for a foreigner like himself. In his hands, Jimin, the outsider, now held the responsibility for the well-being of five governmental provinces, ensuring that the inhabitants were safe and guarded against the furtive political activities occurring in the area.

"Now where did she disappear off to," Jimin mutters, landing with a hard crunch onto the gritty, dirt road. He was now on the outskirts of town, where it was more sparsely populated and there were more creatures that lurked than humans.

He casts eyes on a doe, following it as she leads her fawn from the open meadows back to the forest not too far from where he was. With the sound of cicadas ringing in his ears and the bold tuscan sun obscuring his vision, he eventually lost track of the female warrior when she leaped down from the balcony and vanished into thin air. Perplexed, he sweeps through the area, sending a dust storm as his feet skids across the dusty dirt road, in search for her. Not a single streak of crimson in sight, only splashes of saffron and shamrock from the gradual emergence of wild life and specks of vermillion from the buildings that existed in the area.

"She purposely lead me out of town," he postulates, facing away from the village and towards the wall of shrubbery and trees behind him. "What did she want from me?" The thought hangs in the air as he observes his surroundings trying to configure the best way to apprehend the situation. With only his instinct left to navigate himself through his mission, he marches towards the forest, following the doe with her fawn into the viridian fortress.

His guard is kept on high alert as he cuts through the forest, pushing away abnormally large leaves, kicking past broken twigs, and listening to the natural rustling of bushes. It was a significant change in scenery for him, as he was used to feeling the hard shingles beneath his feet as he steered his way across rooftops or sturdy paved roads when he bounces around town. Feeling the softness and tenderness of the forest ground as the dirt road soon fades into a trail of dead leaves made him more vigilant. His mind and eyes begin to wander, traveling up the grand tree trunks to the forest's jade ceiling. Sunlight filters through splotched canopy, hailing down glittering, iridescent beams of light. Soon, Jimin is completely immersed with the scenery that he neglects to notice the reappearance of the crimson sash. It's striking as it cuts through the myrtle hues of nature with its garnet resemblance, but it isn't until it's wrapped tightly around Jimin's throat does he realize the consequence of his negligence.

"動かない," her voice pierces through his reverie, snapping him back into reality, don't move. Instantly, his hands fumble towards his neck, clawing at the sash bounded to it. "No sudden movements, or else." She warns, tightening the hold to serve as a warning.

"What do you want from me?" Jimin coughs, his mind is racing as he grasps onto the gulps of air that manages to pass through his windpipe. Out of the corner of his eye, he tries to catch a glimpse of his captor, taking notice that the female fighter had swapped her peculiar attire to something more orthodox with her discipline. Along with being garnished from head-to-toe in Japanese civilian clothing, he can hear the soft clinking of the light armor embedded beneath her layers of clothes. With his head propped forwards, he can barely make out the corner of her mocha-colored eyes but that was it. He still couldn't identify her.

"You're going to listen to me and do as I say," she speaks in a low, threatening command, shoving him forward to rattle an answer from him when he refuses to speak.

"Okay, okay," he bobs his head before pointing to his restraint, "Can you loosen the tie? You've got me between your fingers and I know you would much rather have me alive than dead."

He hears her inhale and exhale, pausing on whatever she had in mind to consider his request. Shortly, he feels the restraint loosen completely, falling onto his shoulders and the shamrock scenery fell into place again. Before he could conjure an act of defiance, another threat abruptly poses enforcing him to surrender to her command. She withdrew a dagger, holding it mere creeping centimeters away from his throat.

"Not another word."

'Unbelievable' he curses to himself, feeling the cool grazing of the knife as she holds it against his skin. He was growing more despicable with himself, it was unlike of him to remain captive for this long. His training taught him better than this, however, with the knife to his throat there was nothing Jimin could do at the moment except submit to her demands.

"Use the sash as a blindfold." She orders, "tie that around your eyes. No funny business. It would be easier to have you alive, but I won't hesitate to end you if I must. I—"

"Who are you?" He works up the nerve to ask, cutting her off. With the belt in his hand, he blinds himself and the chartreuse scenery before him ultimately fades to jet blackness. With his vision disabled, he feels her relax and the cutting-edge blade retreats from his throat—though her iron-clad grip remains steady on his shoulder.

"That's none of your busi—"

"너 진짜 누구야?" He groans a bit carelessly for someone with a knife to his throat. Not even registering that he had subconsciously switched to his native tongue, he's too preoccupied praying that his vicarious outburst wouldn't backfire on him.

There's a moment of hesitance as she debates on whether to answer or ignore him—something sparks in his eye, it's his golden opportunity and her fatal mistake.

'She shouldn't have underestimated me,' the thought ran through Jimin's mind as he rapidly spun around and swept his leg, knocking the girl off her feet. She falls back with an oof! while he recovers from his attack. Although still blindfolded, he could hear the way the leaves crunched beneath their feet, detecting how quickly she regained her balance and leaped towards to him. His arms immediately fly out to block her attacks, but her movements are just as swift as she counters with advanced sparring techniques. She quickly recovers from his deflections to strike back, jabbing him a couple of times in the chest. He stumbles back, nearly tripping over a log but promptly regains his bearings and reciprocates the same amount of damage to her.

Beads of sweat begin to form along his hairline as he tries to cool off—the summer heat doing little to assist. Meanwhile, his chest is fighting through the metal armor beneath his civilian disguise to rise as he gasps for air. Although he never underestimated his opponents, they were never able to get him this worked up. Additionally, his foes were never female. Who was she and where did she receive her training?

Subsequently, Jimin finds himself mid-air as he s himself into a backflip in order to avoid an attack. Giving up on offense, he quickly switches to defense, a tactic he usually preferred since worked to wear his foes out before himself. He could feel with each oncoming strike, she was becoming weary and frustrated due to her incapability to incur any critical damage on him. Her jabs and punches were growing weaker and weaker, but the kunoichi was determined and wouldn't let up. She was proud and since it was him who attacked first, she was not going to back down until he was on the ground. Realizing this, Jimin knew he had to do something.

Growing tired of how futile the sparring was becoming, Jimin decides to bring it to its conclusion and within seconds he has her pinned to the ground.

"Not how you imagined things were going to be, right?" He huffs, finally ripping off the blindfold from his eyes and using it to bound the agent's hands together above her head. "Although, I'd have to admit you did put up a good fight." His gaze slowly drifts from her pale, nimble fingers, dropping towards her face, surprising him when he finds that the female warrior is strikingly beautiful. The smirk on his face drops instantly as he becomes awestruck and dumbfounded by her natural beauty.

Her dark tresses spill out to either side of her, providing clarity for him to examine her profile and features. He sketches the round figure of her face, following her jawline up to meet her almond-shaped eyes. Her skin is flushed and her thin lips hang open as she catches her breath.

"You're honestly wasting your time tying me up like this." She replies, stunning him even more with her fluent Korean.

His eyes widen and he freezes, "You! You're–"

"–making a big mistake. Time is running out, you need to untie me." She continues in their native language, cutting him off before snapping her upper body off the ground and shoving him aside. Jimin topples over, landing on the soft dirt and feeling the leaves crunch beneath his fingers. His face contorts as he scrunches up to peer at her from the ground, confused yet fascinated.

"Who are—"

"I can't tell you that. I need you to free me, we're running out of time."

Her whimsical character from the chase and her previous threatening facade are suddenly washed away with an emergence of apprehension. The young woman briefly casts her gaze up to the sky, appearing rather anxious than frightened from being captured. Before Jimin could lift his own eyes to follow her, she distracts him by holding out her hands for him to free her.

"Cut me loose."

He looks at her bounded wrists then moves up to meet her perplexed glare. He snorts, "Now why would I do that? You just deliberately lead me across town, held a knife to my throat, threatened and attacked me. And now you're asking me to release you, why would I do that? I should turn you in or worse, should I finish what you started?" His fingers slip around her small waist and rest on the hidden dagger she had previously used on him. With a cocked head and raised eyebrow, he stares at her with a smirk cast on his face, waiting for her response.

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you to release me. Let.me.go."

He shakes his head, "Not the answer I was looking for."

A gust of warm, humid air wafts through the woods, rustling the trees and disrupting the melody of the cicadas. In the brief moment of silence, Jimin took the opportunity to examine her. There was something that stuck out to him that he couldn't quite put his finger on it, like some sort of familiarity with her. Although, he could be misleading himself since he was in a desperate position to acknowledge another Korean native in the foreign land.

"Seulgi," she sighs, dropping her scowl after realizing Jimin was going to continue to stall until she caved.

"What?"

"Kang Seulgi," she repeats, "I'm a member of the Anbu as well."

Her confession leads Jimin's eyes to double in size, followed by another shaking of his head in disbelief. He laughs, "Nice try, but sorry, I—"

"I've been undercover for nearly six years, that's why you've never heard of me. That's why you wouldn't recognize me." She quickly explains. "I've been assigned to this high-risk and confidential operation, which as much as I would like to tell you all about, I really don't have the time right now. I need to go, we need to go. There's not much time left.

"Look, I'll explain everything later but right now we've got to go. We need to get to Koryo-koku before nightfall. I don't want to glamorize it, but if everything goes right with this mission, it will all be over. You and I, we'll finally be able to go home. So if you know what's good for you and me, and the Imperial Justice then you'll follow me, quietly. Now either you let me go or I'm going to have to do it myself."

It was a little ironic to see the captor submitting to his captive's command, Jimin thought, as his fingers work to unbound the kunoichi's wrists, before his mind could fully rationalize his actions.

"I'm letting you go but that doesn't necessarily mean I believe you."

"Well, you're just going to have to."

"You're free to go but what I don't understand is, what does this have to do with me? You lead me across town and attacked me. Now you're telling me to follow you, for what? You say it's for the sake of the Imperial Justice and myself, which doesn't make sense. Why should I follow you? This is your operation, I have nothing to do with all of this. Why drag me into your mission?"

She snorts, "Nothing to do with this? The safety of the five villages all depends on the intel we receive from this operation. Don't think that I don't know who you are, Jimin-ssi. This is much as your duty and responsibility as it is mine, six years in hiding or not. In addition to that, not only is Japan at risk but if the wrong people find out we were involved, Korea would be in danger as well. And I don't want to be the one to blame when our country gets invaded because we did nothing.

"But hey, if it makes you feel any better, I'll admit that I won't be able do this alone and I need your help. You're the only person I can trust at the moment."

"Excuse me? I'm the only person you can trust?" He laughs, "Right, you've just met me and on top of that, you held a knife up to my throat, that's some trust." She blinks and casts him an empty gaze, in amidst of biting her lips like she was still holding something back.

It took her a moment to realize that she was staring at him, before she broke out of her daze and shrugged, "It was a precaution. I would have asked you in a more civil manner, but six years undercover didn't teach me nothing. Now moving on, you're Korean, you know what it's like to be an outsider, you know what they say behind our backs, and how they intentionally isolate us. I can't trust any of them, not when they don't trust me. This mission is important and if we can get the information we need, maybe we came finally go home."

The word struck him, home. Instantly, his ears perked up and Jimin began to silently consider the proposition. It was quite attractive since it proposed an outcome that he had been struggling for the last seven years to achieve, always hanging at the back of his mind with every mission accomplished. Despite his efforts, Yoongi and the Japanese still needed his assistance in the sun country, so his return was never on the table to discuss during the routine briefings.

Her words weigh heavily on his mind as his feet slowly tread behind hers as she begins walking. Although he didn't know the full context of her mission and her backstory, Jimin could tell that she was speaking the truth. With the way she held herself up, she moved with confidence and determination; her fiery spirit was hard to miss. Yet, there was an element of grace and innocence that existed and radiated from her, trumping above her strong-willed nature. Additionally, Jimin would be lying if he didn't share the strong sense of camaraderie, despite having just met her. It was easy to invest trust in someone who could empathize the struggles and hardships he went through.

"Hey, you coming or what?" A nudge to his shoulder brings him back to reality and he realizes that the two of them had stopped moving. Seulgi was in front of him holding her scabbard, which Jimin assumed was what she used to poke him with.

He nods, after a moment exerting a heavy sigh in defeat. "From my six years spent not in hiding, I learned to keep both friend and foe close," he says, a faint smile sprouting from his lips. "I'll go with you."

Victory fuels her ego and with a twist of her heel, she has her back facing him, "Then let's hurry, we can't waste any more daylight idling around," she declares, confidently. His eyes travel from the top of her head down her silky locks to her feet, where he synchronizes his steps with hers as they proceeds down the path of dead leaves. With no further objections, he quietly follows her through the labyrinth of moss and timber eventually departing from the forest.