It’s been a couple of days since Sana had been discharged from the hospital and had decided to stay at home for a couple more days; something that Dahyun completely agreed with.

Things have been relatively quiet.

With the captain resuming as Sana’s close-quarters bodyguard (something that she decided without a tinge of a doubt after their “talk”), Jeongyeon and SinB has taken the position of being Dahyun’s shadow. 

Her two youngest lieutenants, on the other hand returned to the academy with Momo to continue their own investigations. Chaeyoung dreads going back because of two things – first is not being the most social person and having the need to mingle with actual people to do her job. Second, she has a bad case of the butterflies for a certain classmate that she has to finally sit beside to in class that day.

The shorter girl had been putting extra effort to avoid running into Mina in the hallways or bump into her in any sort of way for the first two days of the week. Come Wednesday, however, she had her Social Studies class and she knows she cannot miss it.

Despite having brainstormed what she should do over the weekend with Sana, Momo and Tzuyu, the younger lieutenant still finds herself nervously fiddling with the small object in her hand as she leaned against her locker. Luckily enough, her best friend-slash-partner in crime stood next to her as she fishes out her books for her next class from her own locker.

“You’re going to be fine. Remember what Sana and Momo said, Mina is a really nice person. She’s going to forgive you, I’m sure of it.” Tzuyu reaches forward to place a reassuring hand on the shorter girl’s shoulder. “Plus, that little guy will definitely help.”

Chaeyoung drops her gaze down to the fuzzy thing she’s holding. He is pretty cute.

The sound of the first bell ringing throughout the hallways signal that the two must now separate ways and head to their own classes. Heaving a sigh, Chaeyoung turns to Tzuyu and lets out a small groan before stalking off to her classroom at the other end of the building.

The taller girl suppresses a smile at Chaeyoung’s adorable demeanor, and then makes her way to the opposite side of the hallway.

As she turns the corner, her phone buzzes inside her coat pocket. Tzuyu quickly readjusts her hold on her books as she takes out her phone, smiling as soon as she sees the caller ID flashing on her screen. She quickly swipes on the answer button and immediately hears the voice she’s been missing for days.

“Tzuyu-ya~ How’s my favorite lieutenant?” Jihyo says on the other end, her cutesy tone of saying it (which Tzuyu swears Jihyo only ever uses on her) is making the younger blush to no end. Tzuyu holds back a laugh and decided on poking fun at her long-time crush for a bit.

“So does that mean you also have a favorite captain? A favorite private? A favorite major?” She feigns an offended tone. “Wow, way to make me feel special, Captain Park.” Tzuyu drawls.

Just as she thinks her heart couldn’t beat any faster, it does when Jihyo’s characteristically loud laugh that she loves so much, goes off on the other end.

“No, I don’t.  I only have you as my only favorite, Lieutenant Chou.” The captain responds confidently, making Tzuyu bashfully grin. It’s been quite a while since she first met Jihyo, and doesn’t really remember liking anyone else before her. Tzuyu never even thought of speaking to the captain first, but luckily the other had different ideas.

As Tzuyu walked to her next class, the two quickly updated each other on their current situation and ongoing missions. Not much details, given the sensitivity of some of the information they handle, but they’ve both mastered understanding each other despite it all.

They share a few more playful banters before Tzuyu gets to the door of her class and has to say her goodbyes.

“It was really great hearing your voice, Tzuyu. I think I needed that after this entire week.” For the first time in their conversation, Tzuyu hears the exhaustion from Jihyo’s voice. The latter has been running around Japan for quite a while, looking for anything that can help catch whoever plotted against Sana’s father but still is empty-handed at the moment. Tzuyu wishes she can just hug the older girl right now, but settles on the next best thing she can think of instead.

“Well, I feel the same way. How about when we all this is over, we go to that Italian food place you like so much back in New York?”

Silence fills the other line and Tzuyu begins to that she may have overstepped.

“Are you- do you mean like on a date? Are you finally asking me on a date, Chou Tzuyu?” The lieutenant really tried her best to word it closer to a hang out, but doesn’t have the heart to deny that she really wanted it to be a date, especially after hearing the peculiar shyness in Jihyo’s question.

She takes a deep breath.

“Yes, a date. I am asking you out on a date, Jihyo unnie.” Tzuyu finally says, calling Jihyo in the most casual manner.

“Oh, wow. I-“ Jihyo says on the other end, making Tzuyu nervous as hell. She was right about to retract her statement and yell ‘ISSAPRANK’ like what Chaeyoung usually blurts out, when Jihyo finally talks again.

“I would really love that, Tzuyu. Thank you for asking me.” The two fall in a comfortable moment of silence, shy smiles not fading from their lips. It is however interrupted by the sound of the second bell, signaling that Tzuyu should be inside her classroom already.

“I guess that’s my cue, huh?” Jihyo says, sounding slightly disappointed from their time cut short.

“I guess so. I’ll see you later, Jihyo unnie.”

“I’ll see you later, Tzuyu. Bye.”

The other line clicks to end the call, and Tzuyu could feel her cheeks hurt from all the smiling. She can’t wait to tell Chaeyoung later that she’s finally asked her crush out on a date, and is about to enter the classroom when she hears a door slam at the other end of the hall.

She turns and sees it was Principal Park’s office and Eunha standing in front of the door, obviously being the one who slammed it.

Eunha was about to walk away when the door opens, revealing a very angry Principal Park who grabs her arm quite forcefully and closer to him; the two having a very hushed argument about something Tzuyu couldn’t make out from her position.

All she can tell is that something is fishy, and she ought to find out. She pushes the classroom door open, her mind now occupied with something other than her upcoming date.

---

Chaeyoung shifts uncomfortably in her seat. She arrived at their classroom a few minutes earlier and is slightly relieved that Mina hasn’t arrived yet. With her eyes trained on the classroom door, the girl firmly holds the small object in her hands.

“You’ll do great, little cub!” Chaeyoung jumps from her seat and turns to find Momo taking the seat behind hers, grinning. She simply gave the girl a tight-lipped smile in ‘thanks’. She needed all the encouragement she can get.

A few moments later, she hears a familiar soft voice and feels a movement on the seat beside her.

“Hi.” Mina had casually taken a seat beside Chaeyoung, a small smile gracing her lips.

“H-hello!” Chaeyoung mentally facepalms at her stutter. She could feel the heat creeping up to her cheeks as she readjusts herself on her seat once more, Mina placing her stuff on top of their shared desk.

“So uhm..” Mina starts, interrupting Chaeyoung’s train of thought. The latter feels a poke on her back, knowing it came from Momo who was cheering her on just a while ago. She takes a deep breath and knows she has to it up and apologize to the girl beside her.

Chaeyoung quickly whips her head to look at Mina’s general direction, taking the latter by surprise but nonetheless looks at Chaeyoung expectantly.

“I-I’m sorry… about the party.” Chaeyoung blurts out, cheeks reddening. “I just got caught in the middle of things, you know…” The lieutenant trails off.

“I’m also sorry that I haven’t messaged you or anything after that night, I just… I’m very bad with socializing, and just talking in general. I wanted to call you or text you but I would always chicken out and end up not doing it.” Mina looks on as the girl in front of her dips her head lower in apology. She honestly wanted to mess with Chaeyoung a bit more but couldn’t handle seeing the other so sad.

Truthfully, Mina knew why Chaeyoung left so suddenly from the party; seeing her rushing to get out to the front door with Sana’s bodyguard right on her tail, carrying the unconscious girl in her arms. She followed the group out, just like the other onlookers at the party and spots Chaeyoung on the driver seat of the familiar black car that Sana always rode to and from school.

Mina found this nothing, but chivalrous.

There was still a palpable silence between them and so Chaeyoung braves it out and raises her head to look at Mina, who was just looking at her tenderly with a soft smile. 

“It’s totally okay, Chaeng. I understand.” Relief washes over the lieutenant when she sees the other girl smile a bit bigger than earlier. “Besides, I saw what you did for Sana and her bodyguard. That was so…” The girl trails off, trying to find the right words.

“So?” Chaeyoung asks, still reeling from the nickname Mina just called her a few moments ago.

“Cool. You were cool. Yes, that’s the word.”

“Huh. I’ve never been called ‘cool’ before. A nerd, maybe..” Mina feigns a gasp, making Chaeyoung smile once more. 

“Well, that too but you’re really cool for me.” Chaeyoung’s heart rate seems to double over at this, until she remembers the small thing in her hands.

“Uhm, here.” The shorter girl brings up her hands and reveals a really small and fuzzy black and white penguin keychain, with big round eyes and a yellow beak that resembles that one Pokemon for some reason. “It’s my peace offering, I hope you like him.”

Chaeyoung sees a sudden sparkle in Mina’s dark brown orbs, flitting to look between her and the tiny penguin she’s still holding out with her palms.

“Like him? Are you kidding, Chaeng? I LOVE HIM.” Even with her soft voice, Chaeyoung could hear the excitement in Mina’s voice as she watches her carefully take the gift from her hands, their fingers slightly brushing against each other in the process.

Mina coos and looks at the key chain in her hands. “How did you know I like Pengsoo?”

Chaeyoung freezes a bit at the question. She’s not about to reveal that she had quite possibly checked out her social media accounts to find out what she likes for the past three days, and drove around the city for hours looking for the perfect Pengsoo to give her.

“Oh-  I-, lucky guess?” She scratches the back of her head, knowing how unconvincing she just sounded.

“And also, I don’t mean this in a bad way, but you kind of reminded me of a penguin. You know, with how you walk sometimes.” Mina’s eyebrows rose a bit at statement, seemingly surprised and Chaeyoung thinks she might have offended her.

“It’s really cute though! The way you walk, I mean. I just noticed that you look like you’re waddling sometimes, and it’s really cute. You’re cute.” The lieutenant rambles nervously, and Mina lets out a laugh.

“Thank you, Chaeng. I think you’re cute too. Thank you for this, you really didn’t have to.” Tucking a stray strand of her dark brown hair behind her ear, Chaeyoung couldn’t help but become more entranced by Mina. She knows she’s got it bad.

And she can’t wait to tell Tzuyu that her crush just called her ‘cute’.

---

Dahyun doesn’t know how this happened but she finds herself in Sana’s bathroom, watching intently as the latter sat in front of her huge vanity mirror, mixing this weird smelling concoction in a bowl.

“Uhm, I hate to sound dumb but what exactly are you doing, Miss Sana?” Dahyun asks, peeking over Sana’s shoulder and makes out an orange-colored substance in the bowl. Sana doesn’t answer for a while as she continued to focus on mixing.

The captain is surprised wh