Chorong spared no time when they returned to the palace. She stormed into the meeting room with Naeun and the rest of the team, letting the door slam behind her. Eunji wanted to say something to her to calm her down, but she didn’t know what to say. She was still in shock about what had just happened.

Eunji, like everyone else, was still dressed in her mission gear and had specks of blood flecked all over her hands and face. None of them had bothered to wash up before they called this emergency meeting. They were even still carrying their weapons. 

“Could you explain again exactly what happened?” Hayoung asked. 

“After we lost the leader and returned to you guys, everything seemed to be a mess,” Namjoo said. Eunji knew what Namjoo had thought but hadn’t voiced: Chorong had seemed like a mess. It had been a difficult feat, trying to hold Chorong down as the Shadow Clan took an injured and obviously concussed Bomi away. The fact that Eunji had also wanted more than anything to run after her friend had made it even more difficult to hold Chorong back.

“Bomi was taken. The leader got away,” Chorong summarized in clipped words. She still looked frantic and breathless. 

“The mission was otherwise a success?” Namjoo questioned.

“We got Naeun out of there safely,” Eunji said, gesturing to the princess at the head of the table. “But Bomi was taken.”

“We have to get her back,” Chorong uttered.

“There’s nothing we can do now,” Naeun said. Her expression was troubled. “The situation is out of our hands.”

“We can still plan!” Chorong protested.

“Chorong, I understand that you are upset, but please try to think logically,” Naeun replied calmly. “We have discussed how to proceed should this happen. The only thing we can do now is wait.”

“For how long?” Eunji asked. “We don’t know what they would do to her.”

“The situation is truly out of our hands, isn’t it?” Hayoung murmured. “Your father has handed the case to the Ministry of Defense.”

Naeun gripped her fists on the tabletop. “Yes. I should have expected this. Now that the leader has finally appeared, my father has deemed this task too big to be handled by just us. We will still be involved, of course, but we won’t be in charge of the missions from here on out.” 

Eunji grimaced. They hadn’t accounted for this, though they definitely should have. “Would they even make rescuing Bomi a priority?”

“I’ll make sure that they do,” Naeun promised.

“And if they don’t,” Namjoo said, “then I guess we’re going to have to go against the Ministry of Defense.”

They all looked to Naeun for her response, expecting a firm disapproval. But the princess only shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, I suppose I’ll have a lot of explaining to do to my father after all of this is over.”

Later that night, after she had finally washed the blood and grime off of her body, Eunji went down to the kitchen and got a whole carton of ice cream. She had considered just scooping some out into a bowl, but she had decided that the situation warranted a whole carton.

Eunji wasn’t going to Naeun’s room. No, she had already checked on the princess as soon as they got out of that meeting. Naeun had been pretty shaken up with the turn of events, but she had quickly pulled herself together and was now devising a plan about how they should proceed. Eunji truly admired how Naeun had been so able to steady her thoughts, despite the drastic occurrences that had just taken place. 

Chorong, on the other hand, had been more difficult to calm down. She had been practically hysterical when Bomi was taken, and Eunji didn’t know how Chorong had been doing since their meeting. She didn’t know if the leader had composed herself like Naeun or if she was in dire need of some ice cream and comfort. Either way, Eunji was heading towards Chorong’s room, prepared to face either possibility.

Chorong’s door was slightly ajar when Eunji arrived. This was such a rare and odd occurrence that Eunji’s hand immediately went to her gun at her waist. Breathing cautiously, Eunji backed into the door slowly. 

“Unnie?” she called out.

No answer. 

Cursing to herself, Eunji set down the carton of ice cream and slipped her gun out of its holster. As silently as possible, she removed the safety from her gun and took a deep breath and counted.

One…

Two…

Three…

Eunji burst through the door, pointing her gun forward and quickly scanning the room for dangers.

But all she saw was Chorong, sitting by her desk in a mountain of papers, staring blankly at Eunji with both confusion and shock. Eunji sighed and sagged her shoulders, returning her gun to its holster.

“Damn it, Unnie,” Eunji cursed. “Why was your door open?”

“Was it?”

“Yes,” Eunji said. “I thought that you were in trouble.”

“Oh,” Chorong replied. “Well, I wasn’t.”

“Yeah, I see that now.” Eunji walked over to pick up the carton of ice cream, closing the door while she was at it. “What were you doing?”

Chorong sifted through the papers on her desk. She had also washed up after their meeting and was now wearing her glasses and an oversized hoodie. Her hair was tied into a loose bun with strands of hair falling onto her face. She looked surprisingly well for someone who had been near inconsolable only a few hours ago.

“I’m reviewing all of the reports from today. Some agents were able to describe the appearance of the Shadow Clan leader, and I’m trying to see if we have anyone in our files that resembles him,” Chorong answered.

“Unnie, you know that’s going to be practically impossible,” Eunji said. “He was wearing a mask and a dark cloak. The only thing we were able to distinguish was his height and that fact that he’s a man.”

Chorong pursed her lips and continued to examine the papers in front of her. After a few seconds, she sighed and slumped back in her seat. “I know. I just...needed something to do.”

“Here’s something else you can do.” Eunji placed the ice cream on Chorong’s desk and handed Chorong a spoon. “How are you holding up?”

“I should be asking you that. Your best friend was taken by the Shadow Clan. Are you alright?”

No, Eunji thought. I’m far from that.

Her best friend had been taken by the Shadow Clan, and she didn’t know where she was or what they were doing to her right now. The Shadow Clan was capable of many things, ranging from horrible to utterly monstrous. Eunji knew that it would be unrealistic to think that Bomi would come out unscathed, so she just prayed that whatever the Shadow Clan was doing to Bomi was not at the end of the spectrum.

It hurt every second, thinking about how Bomi was in possibly the most dangerous place in the country, and Eunji was back in the palace, where she was safe and unharmed. If Eunji had a choice, she’d be rushing over to Bomi right now, determined to save her best friend. But she couldn’t. She didn’t even know where they had taken her. Bomi’s life was at risk, and there was nothing immediate that Eunji could do to save her.

Eunji drew in a shaky breath as terrifying thoughts filled her mind. “I guess I…I just need something to do too. To distract myself.”

“We’re going to get her back.” 

Eunji nodded her head mindlessly. “You seem awfully composed now.”

Chorong winced. “That wasn’t my proudest moment.”

“It wasn’t any of ours.” 

“Thank you for holding me back, though. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t been there.” 

“I’ll be honest, I was holding you back as a way to hold myself back,” Eunji confessed. “If you hadn’t been there, I probably would have run to Bomi and gotten a chest full of bullets.”

“I probably would have met the same fate if you hadn’t been there.”

Eunji leaned against Chorong’s desk and glanced over the papers that were scattered across it. “I know you care a lot about her.” Chorong’s lips parted, but Eunji quickly added, “Not in the way that you care about the rest of us. This is different. You love her.”

Chorong closed her lips and just stared at Eunji with her tired eyes. “Was it that obvious?”

“Not exactly,” said Eunji. “Hayoungie had to point it out to me.”

The leader chewed on her lower lip and fiddled with her fingers―two very tell-tale signs that she wasn’t in the greatest mindset. The carton of her ice cream still sat on her desk, untouched. 

“I didn’t think it would happen,” Chorong said after a while. “I didn’t think that it could happen.”

“Well, it did, and I think it’s one of the best things that could have happened to you two.” Eunji’s words faltered near the end, but she didn’t have to force them out. It still felt weird to openly think and talk about this, but Eunji no longer felt that deep ball of jealousy and longing when she did. It was a small improvement, but Eunji would gladly take it. Eunji put a comforting hand on Chorong’s shoulder. “We will get Bomi back. Naeun said it herself. We’ll even go against the king’s wishes if we have to.”

“I hope we don’t have to resort to that,” Chorong mumbled. “But I will do whatever it takes.”

“What’s this? Park Chorong, willingly going against the king’s orders? You must really care for Bomi.”

“I would do the same for you too,” Chorong muttered. A month ago, Eunji’s heart would have fluttered with giddy hope, but now Eunji knew that Chorong hadn’t meant it in the way that Eunji would have wanted.

“We will get Bomi back,” Eunji said for the third time. “She’s a fighter, and quite possibly the most stubborn person I have ever met. Death has always had the hardest time taking her, and I’m pretty sure it has even given up at times.” Chorong chuckled, and Eunji grinned in response. “Get some rest, Unnie.”

Chorong’s eyes swept over the papers on her desk one last time, then she sighed and began to gather them into a neat pile. When she finished, she slipped them into one of her drawers and slid the ice cream closer to her.

“Thank you, Eunji-ah,” Chorong said as she opened the carton. She offered Eunji the spoon. “Would you like to have some?”

Eunji’s heart lurched, and she nearly reached for the spoon, but she stopped herself. This was dangerous. She had decided to move on from Chorong, but it was difficult when Chorong was oblivious to Eunji’s feelings. If Eunji had been the same person she was a month ago, she would have gladly taken the spoon, but she was trying so hard not to be the same person. So Eunji kept her hand stiff by her side and politely shook her head. “Thank you, but no. I have to go check on the princess now.”

“Is she okay?”

“The most fine out of all of us, but I’d still like to check on her,” Eunji answered. That itself wasn’t a lie, but she actually hadn’t been planning on visiting Naeun afterwards.

“I see,” said Chorong. “I wouldn’t expect any less of the princess.”

Chorong stood and walked Eunji to the door. Just as Eunji was about to exit, Chorong stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She looked at Eunji with the compassion and care of a friend, not a leader. “We’re going to get Bomi back, Eunji-ah. I promise you that.”

Eunji stared back at Chorong, feeling the weight and determination of her gaze. Eunji had been the one repeating that statement to Chorong over and over again, yet it felt different to hear it from the opposite end. The way her chest became lighter, Eunji would have said that hearing those words had almost felt like a relief.

We’re going to get Bomi back.

Those were the words that Eunji had been telling others, but she hadn’t realized that she herself had needed to hear them. They were the words of reassurement that Eunji had so badly needed.

“Yes,” Eunji replied, nodding slowly. “We will.”