Jungkook and I joined the rest of our Unit in a semicircle surrounding the man's desk. He looks down at a piece of paper, then looks back up at us.

"Jeon Jungkook and Kim Misun?" he asked.

Jungkook and I nodded. "I go by Kimmy, sir." I told him, combing through my brain, trying to remember when I heard his voice before.

"Kimmy." the man repeated. "Says here you're not cleared for active duty yet, Kimmy."

"No offense, sir," I said, "but I think the circumstances should overrule that for the moment."

"I disagree." the man said. "Parasitic mutations aren't something to mess around with."

I showed him my arm, where the scar was. "I had to Cross to get here, sir. If the parasite was going to come back, I think it would've."

"Crossing isn't exactly a great feat of magic, Kimmy." Taehyung said, his voice sounding concerned but his eyes glinted with the familiar teasing light that usually lit them up when we spoke. "The parasite isn't going to be tempted with measly crap like that. It could still come back."

I smiled sweetly at Taehyung. "Well then since, according to you, the only magic I can do is measly crap that you were pulling off at age three without a hitch, I should be fine!"

Taehyung raised his eyebrows, smirking with his usual look of superiority. The man behind the desk cleared his throat.

"I see your point, Kimmy." he said, looking from Taehyung to me and back. "But V-ssi has a point. You're not cleared. You shouldn't be here."

I clenched my jaw, but forced my lips into something resembling a smile. "With all due respect, sir, Kangdae-ssi still allowed to be part of mission briefings even when I hadn't taken the fit test to clear me for duty. I'm still part of the Unit. Aren't I?"

"Kangdae-ssi is dead." the man said. "I'm sorry, Kimmy."

I couldn't keep my face composed this time. I think it was stuck painfully in the middle of surprised and enraged. Jungkook rested a hand on my shoulder. I think it was to ground me, to remind me that it probably wasn't smart to attack the new commander on our first meeting. Rapmon stepped in front of me.

"Please, sir." he said. "At least let her stay for this one. You're right, Kangdae-ssi is dead. Which is why she should stay. She deserves to know what the hell is going on. We all do."

The man looked down at his papers on his desk, then back up at Rapmon. He sighed, rubbing his temples.

"They warned me you lot had no idea what a formal command structure was..." he said.

Rapmon smiled. "Kangdae-ssi let us bend the rules a bit. We work better that way."

"Unfortunately, I can't disagree." the man said. "Fine. Kimmy can stay for this meeting. This meeting only. Then she's out until she takes the test. Clear?"

"Crystal." Rapmon said, stepping to the side back into his place.

The man reached into a drawer on his desk and pulled out a bottle of caffeine pills. He knocked back two with some coffee. Then he stretched and shuffled through his papers on his desk until he found the right one. He leaned back, looking at each of us. "What a day." he said. He muttered some magic words under his breath, and the paper he was holding multiplied by eight. He passed the stack around. "What a ing day." Jungkook handed me my paper. It was a list of names. Kangdae-ssi's name leapt out at me immediately, but I saw others too. Names I'd been hearing for years.

Jaejoong-ssi. He trained all of us. He's the only reason I can use any magic, however poor I am at it. I eat lunch with him every year on my birthday. He always insisted I address him formally, even though we were close. "Professional formality", he called it. The last time we had lunch together, he told me how pr