A bittersweet smile appeared on her lips when Jungyoon still remembered that day she sought out Aria. It felt like yesterday when it was months ago… earlier this year, to be exact.

It was when she decided to seek her teammate after their court proceeding in The Hague, and pulled her aside to ask the very question that was plaguing her mind since her release from the hospital. She hadn’t used Savant Syndrome since that day, but she could feel that something was off with her body. She felt lightheaded and tired too often for her liking, especially when she enhanced her concentration but not quite using Savant Syndrome.

“Tell me the truth, Aria.” Jungyoon remembered requesting solemnly to the other girl. “You withheld some information when I was at the hospital because there were civilians. What was the actual damage?”

 “…I’m so sorry, Yuna…”

It stunned her briefly when she heard those words. Ever since she participated in this program, she knew what was coming for her and she was ready the inevitable; yet, now that she was approaching that line, she doesn’t want it to end. She supposed she felt more appreciative for life and wanted to live the closer she was to the impending deadline.

Interestingly, when every U.N. members uncovered the truth about Project Sigma and they forbade everyone in that program from using Savant Syndrome.

“It'll be a miracle that you will survive if you used it again.” She recalled Aria’s advice with a frown. “Your healing ability overused Savant Syndrome to heal your internal bleeding. Combine that with years of using it, especially when you’re in front line… your time may be very limited now. The rest of us have been feeling the same effects as well. That’s why, I don’t think any of us will survive if we used it again. The U.S. official told me that their medical team made a prototype vaccine to counteract the Sigma effect. They wanted to test it before giving it to us, so it might be a while before we’re back to normal. Well, as normal as we can be considering our training.”

She snapped out of her musing when she heard loud cheers from the audience members, making her remember that she was at a concert venue. The cheers progressively grew louder when the VCR started playing, more so when it revealed pictures of each member. The entire venue darkened as soft instrumental music began playing, and all she saw were white lights of Army Bomb – she found out its name from the girls sitting behind her, and they were kind enough to lend her one – bopping up and down.

.

She couldn’t believe that hours flew by that quickly while she watched her brother and his group. She wasn’t familiar with some tracks they performed, but those songs were very nice that she made a mental note to include in her playlist. Moreover, the fans sitting around her were kind and cordial when she questioned them about song titles. Overall, she enjoyed the concert despite her desire to hide underneath mountains of blankets due to their cringe-worthy speeches in between songs.

“That was so much fun.” She couldn’t help but smile when she heard the comment from a girl sitting behind her. “Unnie, how was your first concert with BTS?”

“I had fun. And how am I an ‘unnie’? I could be younger than you girls.” Jungyoon replied with a smile still plastered on her face.

“Unnie, you don’t look like high school students like us.” The girl answered politely, and then added, “Welcome to the ARMY family. You won’t regret it for sure.”

She simply laughed at the comment as she stood up from her seat, stretching her tired limbs from sitting for a long time. She followed other fans when they stood up to cheer for the boys for the first half of the concert, but she got tired and opted to remain sitting.

“You’re so lucky you have backstage pass, unnie.” One of the girls pouted. “I want to meet my bias, Jungkook, and tell him he did well.”

“I’ll be sure to pass the message.” Jungyoon chuckled at the cute disappointed look the young girl had.

“Unnie, can we exchange contact information with you? It’s always nice to talk to another ARMY.” Another girl requested politely. “I’m Park Minji, by the way. This is my best friend, Kim Nana.”

She blinked in surprise at the request, but nodded in agreement as she took out her personal phone, and unlocked the device. She paused momentarily, contemplating on which name to give, and finally uttered, “I’m Jeon Yuna. Nice to meet you.”

“Wow, you have the same last name as Jungkook-oppa.” Nana commented with eyes widened in realization.

Jungyoon simply smiled and didn’t bother to say anything about her relation to Jungkook. Instead, she focused her attention on inputting her phone number on the girls’ cellphones, and then said, “Get home safely, girls. And don’t forget to drink some tea for your throat.”

“We will~ Get home safely too, unnie.”

.

.

Jungkook paused in his conversation with his family when the dressing room door opened. He beamed considerably when he saw Jungyoon strolled in, looking as if she wasn’t late at all, and watched as she glanced around the room until her gaze landed on him and the people standing near him.

“Jungyoon-ie, you’re late. Did you get lost?” He asked in a teasing tone.

“I was talking to your cute fans, and we exchanged phone numbers.” She answered casually with a shrug, and then greeted our parents and older brother.

“We didn’t know you were here as well. Where were you sitting? You could’ve sat with us in the front.” Their older brother questioned with a raised brow.

“I didn’t want to bring attention to myself. I mean, can you imagine the chaos if Jungkook’s fans knew about my relationship with him, especially when he didn’t mention me anywhere in his profile?”

“Our ARMYs are nice. I’m sure they’ll understand.” Jungkook protested, but he decided to drop the subject when his sister shrugged in response. “Anyways, others went to have dinner with their family, so they left first.”

Jungyoon just hummed in response, indicating that she understood, but she didn’t anything else even when her gaze flickered to their parents for a few seconds.

“Well, if you’re done, Jungkook, let’s get going.”

Dinner, suffice to say, was strangely awkward. He informed his family about his upcoming schedules, and apologized to them about his inability to visit them for the holidays. He also found out that Jungyoon resided in Netherlands, and she was roommates with Aria and two miniature Samoyeds.

“They seem to like me more than Aria for some reason, and she’s their owner.” Jungyoon chuckled amusedly at the thought. “I think it’s because I feed and play with them more often than Aria. She doesn’t mind, though; her cousin, Nikolai, and I think she got them because they’re cute.”

As he walked his family to their car, he realized that Jungyoon didn’t mention to them anything about her current condition. In fact, it dawned to him that she expertly deflected questions regarding her occupation – stating that she worked with a prosecutor (not that she is a prosecutor) or that she worked with law enforcements to help them catch criminals (when he knew that she is the one making those arrests herself), or anything relating to Project Sigma.

He understood that she doesn’t want to worry them, but it doesn’t seem right to keep it a secret.

Jungkook blinked in confusion when Jungyoon stopped walking, and stared at her in horrified awe when she deflected a flying dagger with her own. He didn’t even see her take it from wherever she hid it. More importantly, where did that dagger came from and how did she know it was aiming for her?

He had to suppress a shudder when he saw the sudden serious expression on Jungyoon. From what he noticed, she didn’t seem to be using Savant Syndrome since the color of her eyes didn’t change yet. Nevertheless, there seemed to be noticeable difference in the atmosphere as soon as her facial expression changed – the amicable air instantly transformed into a cold one.

“You seemed to have an issue with me.” She began in a deadly calm tone that sent shivers down his spine. “State your name and business.”

He looked around the premise, trying to locate to whom she was speaking to, but he couldn’t find the person. Everyone looked just as confused as he was since they have yet to experience firsthand of what Jungyoon could do.

He supposed her secret is out of the bag now.

“Who are you talking to, Jungyoon?” Their mother questioned with furrowed brows.

“You’re the one who prosecuted our leader and gave him death penalty! I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done.”

Jungkook tried to locate the source of the voice, but he couldn’t see where it was coming from due to the darkness. However, it seemed his baby sister seemed to know the exact location of the voice, and outwardly looked calm despite frantic whispers of everyone else.

“Ah, a follower of Park Sung Dung.” Jungyoon commented nonchalantly with a disgusted scoff. “Killing me won’t bring back your so-called leader. But if you wish to contest with me go ahead – you’ll lose regardless of what you have.”

“Heh, that’s what you think. I know your secret – you’re dying. I just need to give you a little push, and then I’ll make you rot in hell!”

He nearly got a whiplash when he turned to stare at his twin in shock at the news. It surprised him that this unknown man seemed to know what Jungyoon was hiding, but she looked unfazed by that declaration. If anything, she looked completely uninterested by this confrontation.

“Are you done? You’re boring me to tears with your theory.” She rebutted in a cold tone that doesn’t reveal her thoughts. “Now then, if you aren’t going to surrender yourself, then I’ll just have to force you. For violation of ICJ Penal Code 281.7 – attempted murder in the first degree – you, Park Kun Woo, are under arrest.”

“How the hell do you know my name?”

That was what Jungkook would like to know as well. As far as he knew, that man didn’t give an introduction – so, how in the world did his sister figured out the name?

“That doesn’t matter! You’re still going to die here!” The man, now identified as Park Kun Woo, bellowed angrily.

For the third time he was with Jungyoon, he ducked down when he heard several gunshots rang in the air, and forced himself not to look up when he heard a sword unsheathing. He wanted to know where his sister hid that weapon since she didn’t look like she was carrying a sword. In fact, he was curious how she managed to pass the security teams his company hired for the concert when she had that weapon on her.

“What in the world is going on?” His brother questioned in confused tone. “Why in the world is Jungyoon fighting that man? Where did she get that sword?”

“Long story short, the school she attends trained armed detectives. Jungyoon-ie happens to be one of the top students.” Jungkook summarized without revealing the details and specifics of Project Sigma. He doesn’t know how much his older brother knew, so he wanted to wait until everything calmed down to explain.

“Kindly shut up. You’re disturbing the peace and quiet.” His sister retaliated mercilessly as she flung four daggers – he had no idea where she got those weapons – towards her target.

He winced when a loud frightened yell echoed through the otherwise silent night. From what he saw, Jungyoon didn’t flinch at all when that yell resonated  as she continued watching the scene in a bored manner. Wordlessly, Jungkook turned to look at the direction that captured her attention, and blinked in surprised when he saw a man pinned to the ground with daggers.

How did she know that man was hiding at that location? When she did figure it out?

He frowned when the man started spewing curses and death threats to Jungyoon. Even though his baby sister looked completely unfazed by this, he doesn’t appreciate such rudeness at all.

“Did you really think that you alone can contest me?” His sister taunted mockingly. When the man defiantly remained silent, she just chuckled as if she already knew the answer. “I figured that was the case.”

“Wait, what? What did you figure out?” His older brother interjected in confused.

“Everyone, don’t move. This is going to be over in a couple of seconds, trust me.”

Dread settled in the pit of his stomach when he heard those words. Jungkook turned to look at his baby sister to see if what he suspected was correct; however, she strategically turned away from his inquisitive gaze.

“This is a bad location… we’re practically sitting ducks.” Jungyoon clicked her tongue in an annoyed manner.

He could tell she doesn’t like the current situation – he doesn’t either – and she was considering her next movement carefully. He watched as she shrugged off her trench coat and placed it on their parents, who looked confused by the gesture.

“It contains bulletproof and impact resistant properties, so even if stray bullets hit you, you’ll only have bruises at worst. You might not need it, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.” She explained without tearing her gaze from the surroundings. “Ten snipers with submachine guns. Interesting… they’re going all out to eliminate me.”

“Shouldn’t we let police handle this?” Their older brother questioned.

“If I let the police handle this, all they would find are our bodies. We don’t want that, do we?” She paused momentarily to tie her hair in high ponytail, and added, “Don’t move from this spot. No matter what, I’ll make sure you get of this alive.”

He ignored the confused expressions from his parents and older brother as he held onto his twin’s hand, “No, I can’t let you do this, baby girl. You and I both know what will happen afterwards.”

Jungyoon just gave a small smile in response, and uttered, “My future for yours and our family’s, Jungkook. I don’t regret it, I won’t regret it,” as she gave him her cellphones as replacement of her hand.

As soon as those words escaped from , she shoved him towards their parents, and multiple gunshots resonated through the otherwise quiet night. He had to choke back a sob when he noted her hauntingly serious eyes – they were of lighter shade than her usual eye colors, indicating that she had activated Savant Syndrome.

He wanted to see Jungyoon in action in its entirety since he only caught glimpses of it before, but he regretted that desire now that he knew the consequences. The words she spoke when he found her bucket list tauntingly reminded him, “We speculate that if we use Savant Syndrome to its full power once more, we might not make it,” as he watched his sister brandished a pistol from her vest holster.

A quiet “Wow” escaped from his mouth as he watched her pulled the trigger multiple times, each shot she released seemed to hit its mark despite the distance because he heard several small explosions faintly. He snapped out of his amazement and turned to look at Jungyoon, but she wasn’t standing where she was anymore.

Where and when did she go?

A loud vibrating noise halted him from looking around the premise, and focused his attention to Jungyoon’s cellphone. The screen showed an incoming text message from someone she hadn’t added to her contact. He hesitantly hovered his finger on the screen before he decided to unlock the device to read the message.

Jungyoon won’t mind… probably… maybe. He hoped she doesn’t.

{Unnie, this is Minji. I just wanted to let you know that Nana and I made it home safely. We’re having a sleepover to talk about the concert. What about you? Did you make it home safely? What was it like meeting BTS backstage? Give us the details, please, we’re dying to know.}

He tore his gaze away from the phone and winced when multiple crashes, almost sounding like loud volleyball spikes, echoed through tense atmosphere. When the dusts settled, Jungyoon was standing rather haughtily before ten injured men – he doesn’t know what she did to them, but they were groaning in pain and looked like they weren’t able to move at all. The sirens he heard in the distant told him that the police were arriving.

They were, as usual, late.

It marveled him that the battle ended in a blink of an eye… literally. He doesn’t know if this was the true prowess of Jungyoon’s ability or if she held back at all. Still, it thoroughly surprised him that this whole battle only took less than five minutes. He was curious to know if it took longer for his sister since she was using Savant Syndrome.

“Damn it, I know that you and the rest from Sigma are dying! My information isn’t wrong!” Park Kun Woo insisted.

Another vibrating noise made him look at the interrupting device, noticing that it was from his sister’s cellphone once more. There were incoming messages from a group chatroom he was unfamiliar with, but he speculated it was a group for her work. Curiously, he unlocked the device to see what those messages were talking about since it wouldn’t stop vibrating.

{Yuna, call me back as soon as possible. America finished final tests on the prototype, and researchers from other countries approved of it. Luka volunteered to try the serum first, and it worked miraculously. No side-effects that we know of. Call me back soon, okay?}

{I heard you’re visiting your brother. Hope you’re having fun at the concert! Nikolai might have told you, but here’s the news in case he didn’t. The prototype serum is out of its prototype stage, if you get what I’m saying. I’m on my way to get that shot. Aria told me to tell you that she’s coming to you with that serum.}

{There is antidote for Sigma effect now. Make sure you get that shot before you use Savant Syndrome again.}

“Whomever you got that information from… they are wrong. Does it look like I’m dying? You're foolish to believe everything you hear.” Jungyoon’s cold tone snapped him out of the hopeful mood, and reminded him of his current situation. He watched as she critically eyed at the screaming man, and scoffed, “Get these buffoons out of here,” to the arriving police officers.  

He knew she was bluffing – she had to be. He wearily eyed at Jungyoon, who was silently watching the police officers handcuffed and dragged away ten men. It stunned him that her imposing posture remained unchanged, and a taunting smirk remained on her expression even when Park Kun Woo insisted the information was correct and swore revenge on her.

“Makes me curious as to who told him that information.” Jungyoon murmured with a frown.

“Honey, would you like to explain what just happened?” Their father’s polite request sounded like a demand to his ears, but this was his sister’s matter, so he opted not to say anything for now.

He jumped in startled when loud sirens interrupted their conversation as the police vehicles pulled away from the otherwise empty parking lot. From the corner of his eyes, he saw his sister released a long exhale as if she was unleashing all the tensions in her body, and covered her eyes.

“Jungyoon, your team messaged to tell you that it works.” Jungkook decided to inform the news before anything else.

“That’s great.” She replied in a quiet tone without uncovering her eyes.

“Are you alright?”

He approached her still form worriedly and gathered her in his arms when she remained silent. Instead of giving a verbal response, she wordlessly put her head on his shoulder and just hummed to their older brother’s question. The stark contrast between how she was just minutes ago to how she looked now worried him immensely.

“Sorry, I just need the world to stop spinning for a moment.”

Jungkook discreetly shifted his footing to be more comfortable, and patiently waited until she got her bearings back. He gave a helpless smile towards their older brother and his parents, not knowing what to tell them since Jungyoon didn’t mention anything about the side effects from Project Sigma. They probably only knew bare minimum at best considering they looked like they didn’t understand his twin’s current condition.

He tore away from his thoughts when he suddenly felt Jungyoon’s full weight on him, and looked at her alarmingly, “Jungyoon? Come on, baby girl. Wake up. Wake up!”

“…Call Aria to come with the serum.”

He almost sighed in relieve when he heard her response. It shouldn't relieve him to know that she fell unconscious for a second, and not anything else; but it did. 

“What serum are you talking about?” Their mother questioned while he texted his urgency in the group chat he saw earlier. “Are you taking drugs? That’s why you look like that, aren’t you? I can’t believe you.”

“Mom, that’s not true.” He choked out, but the words he wanted to utter as explanation died when she gave him a sharp look.

“I think there’s more to this that we don’t know, mother. Baby Yoon-ie just saved us from those men.” Their older brother added disapprovingly.

Jungyoon slowly raised her head and retorted, “Don’t call me by that embarrassing name, oppa,” without any bite in her tone.

“How are you feeling?”

“Aria sure is slow.”

Her remark didn’t answer his question at all, but it baffled him that she believed her team could arrive at a moment’s notice. To further contradict her claim, he heard the whirling noises and approaching gusts indicated an arrival of a small plane – the same one as the one he saw when Jungyoon arrived for a surprise visit.

He covered his eyes when the dusts kicked up as the plane landed, and ran a hand through his hair to smooth it from its unruly state. As he does so, he stared in stunned silence, watching Aria and her team walked out of the plane professionally.

They approached Jungyoon, talking to her in hushed tone before they hoisted her on a stretcher and hooked his baby sister to an IV and oxygen mask. Incomprehensible medical jargons flew over his head, but he snapped out of his stupor when he saw that they were wheeling Jungyoon to the plane.

“Wait, I need to go with her!”

He didn’t hear what Aria said in response as he hastily made his way to the plane. He heard footsteps behind him, indicating that his family also rushed over despite not knowing what was happening or why this was occurring.

“Aria, she’s going into shock.”

A series of low cursed words escaped from Aria’s mouth, but she quickly recovered her composure to say, “We need to operate on her immediately. We don’t have time to take her to a hospital. Wheel her to the back,” before she pulled a curtain to divide the two sections.

“Prepare Anti-Sigma serum immediately.” Those were the last words he heard in Korean as the conversation from henceforward continued in hushed English.

Silence blanketed the premise as he worriedly looked at the drawn curtains, not knowing why this was happening to his sister. He had many questions circling in his mind concerning the current situation, such as ‘How did that man know Jungyoon’s location’, and ‘Who told him about her Sigma effect’, but he shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind to focus on Jungyoon’s recovery.

She must make it through. She needs to.

“Is she going to be alright?”

He looked over to his brother when he heard the question. As much as he wanted to give an affirmative, all he could say was, “Jungyoon-ie is a strong person. I’m sure she’s fighting.”

“Son, you seemed to know what’s going on with Jungyoon. Mind explaining to the rest of us?”

His father’s voice tore his attention away from the closed curtain. When he processed the request, he couldn’t help but heave a sigh as he mentally prepared himself for a long explanation.

It didn’t take as long as he thought it would have. Then again, he speculated it was because Jungyoon didn’t reveal the information in great details to him. He doesn’t know if it was due to her fear of him judging her, or if it was due to something else. Nevertheless, he tore his gaze away from solemn gazes of his family, and anxiously returned his attention to the closed curtain.

He utterly disliked waiting.

He doesn’t know how many minutes or hours passed, but he immediately jumped on his feet when that curtain moved, and Aria walked out. “How is she, Aria?”

“She’s still unconscious, but the vaccine is in her system. For now, I’ll keep her under observation to see if her condition improves. She strained her body considerably in the last fight using Savant Syndrome, so it’s trying to recover from that effect… without the help of Sigma strain.”

“She’ll make it through, right?” He asked in a hopeful tone.

“I can’t say for certain, but she’s a fighter through and through. So, we'll have to wait for her to wake up.”

Fin.

I know you have much to say about the cliffhanger I left you hanging with, but I wanted to make the ending an open-ended one. I'll leave it to your imagination whether Jungyoon survives or not ~  Nevertheless, thank you for spending time to read this.