The helicopter ride home was a quiet one. Most of the girls were either passed out or in too much pain to talk. A head superior greeted them back in their hometown and excused them back to their dorm for some rest after the unexpected turnouts of the mission. 

Taeyeon insisted on carrying Tiffany to her room, despite having an ankle injury herself. The girls were naturally against it, though Taeyeon was stubborn. Eventually they had a mutual agreement on letting Sooyoung help her.

"I'll let you two alone," Sooyoung said, winking to Taeyeon. She motioned a silent 'thanks' to the shikshin.

"So... you need anything? Food? Water?" Taeyeon asked. Tiffany sighed.

"Why are you so persistant...?" she groaned.

"Well... why not? I like you, so I want to help you," Taeyeon smiled. Tiffany sighed again.

"Well... thanks," she smiled weakly, "I'm fine... just go to sleep... you're wounded too you know."

"But at least I can walk," Taeyeon said, pointing to her casted foot, "I can stay, you know. You can wake me up if you need anything," she sat on the other bed. 

"...you're not going to leave even if I ask you, huh?"

"Nope!"

"Fine..."

Yoona changed out of her silver suit and into her pajamas. She fell back on her bed and was about to fall asleep when Yuri walked out of their bathroom.

"What do you think is up with that Taeyeon kid?" Yuri asked.

"W....what?" Yoona asked, puzzled.

"Taeyeon... that ert kid that violated Sunny."

"Oh, well I know of her. What do you mean?"

"I mean... what do you think YG wants with her?"

"Hm?"

"You said UJin wanted to take Taeyeon or something... just what do you think is their angle here?"

"If I knew, I'd be on their case already..."

"Good point. I'm just curious as to what's up with Kim."

Yuri proceeded to sit on her own bed. "So... did you get hurt at all?" Yoona shyly asked.

"Me? Not really. Just a minor cut on my wrist," she displayed the wound to Yoona.

"Eh? That's not minor at all! Why didn't you get that checked out?" she exclaimed, grabbing her wrist suddenly.

"It's fine," she yanked her hand away, causing Yoona to look shocked, though it could easily be mistakened for hurt, "Oh... I'm sorry."

"Let me see it," Yoona said, holding her hand out, expecting Yuri to give up. She did.

"This is completely unnecessary..." she groaned.

"Stop it... let me fix it," Yoona got up to grab some bandages from the bathroom pantry.

"It's fine..."

"You'll get an infection. We have enough members in recovery, we don't need another one... there, all fixed," Yuri looked at her professionally-wrapped injury.

"Thanks... I guess..." she said.

"Hm. You're welcome," she smiled, "Now goodnight!" Yoona pulled her covers over her head and turned the lights out.

Yuri turned around and looked at her wrist. Hmph. "Goodnight."

Sunny turned over on her bed. Where's Taeyeon...? I mean... she doesn't have to stay with me but... I guess it was... nice last time. She thought back to the warm feeling she had when Taeyeon was holding her in her sleep.

"Ah..." Sunny's back stung a bit. Can't lie on my back tonight... There was a knock at the door. "C-come in," she said, expecting to see Taeyeon, her heart beat a bit faster.

She unknowingly felt disappointed when it wasn't the person she expected, though soon afterwards she felt a bit happy.

"Hey."

"Hi Jessica unnie... why aren't you in bed?"

"I just wanted to check up on you."

"You got hurt too... go to sleep, you'll heal a lot faster..."

"Okay... well... to say the truth, I wanted to... ask you something."

"Yes?"

"Well... I wanted to ask why you jumped in front of me like that-back at YG."

"Ow..." Sunny sat up, "Unnie... do you think I could let you die-right in front of me? I couldn't just stand by... I had an option and I chose to keep you from dying..."

"... I see. Well...----" the last part was inaudible; she was already half way out the door.

"Excuse me?" Sunny asked.

The door swung open a bit and out showed an emotionless Jessica. "... thanks," she muttered.

"Thanks for... thanks for doing that," with that, Jessica left the room.

I never heard her thank anyone before other than her superiors... Sunny smiled, though it quickly disappeared as she thought of someone else. Where is she? I hope I didn't make her angry...

The familiar smell of bread baking drafted throughout the dorm.

"Sooyoung! Again... really...?" Jessica groaned, throwing a pillow at her roommate's face.

"I was hungry!" she said.

"But it's six in the morning! It's too early to eat... It's time to sleep..." 

Sooyoung faked a gasp. "It's NEVER too early or late or... anything to eat!" Jessica gave her a look.

There was a knock at the door. "Hello? What's going on?" Sooyoung quickly fixed her hair and took her glasses off. Jessica looked with (though she would never admit it) curiosity.

"C-come in," Sooyoung chimed.

Outside the door stood the Dancing Queen, Hyoyeon. If she wasn't an agent, there was no doubt she'd be a superstar dancer.

"What are you two doing up so early?" she asked, obviously smelling the delicous bread of the daughter of the famous baker.

"Breakfast... apparantly... you hungry?" Jessica muttered.

"To tell the truth... a bit," she flashed a beautiful smile. Sooyoung almost dropped her thongs.

"I-I'll get you some!" Sooyoung took out the best looking piece and put it on a napkin.

"Thanks!" she gratefully took it, taking a large bite. She talked inbetween chews, "So... when do you... want to... report in?"

"I don't care," Jessica said cooly.

"Whenever is good for you," Sooyoung said. Hyoyeon sighed. Helpful answers...

"Well I guess around ten is good... we have to get a wheelchair set up for Tiffany. Not to mention most of the members are wounded and need to sleep. Is that okay?"

"I don't care! As long as I get a couple more hours of sleep..." Jessica shouted. 

"D-dont' mind her..." Sooyoung chuckled, "that's perfect! Thank you..." she smiled.

Hyoyeon gave a strange smile back and left the room.

Sooyoung smiled and took a bite of bread. She's pretty.

A few hours passed, and finally everyone was wide awake-even Jessica.

Everyone got dressed and headed outside. Taeyeon pushed Tiffany's wheelchair.

"Sunny... you okay there?" Yuri asked, spotting a frown on the usually "sunny" faced girl.

"Y-yeah..." she said, unconvincingly.

"Let me know if you need anything." Jessica walked over to Sunny and grabbed her hand without looking at her face. Sunny looked sadly at Jessica, though not releasing her grip.

Meanwhile, TIffany and Yuri were standing by, a hint of jealously lingering on their faces.

"You... FAILED!" BoA shouted from across her desk.

All the girls jumped in response. "W-what?" they said.

BoA pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to calm herself down, "We needed you to retrieve the files, not destroy them... now we're going to have to collect all that information again. Information that took years to accumulate!"

Sunny looked down, suddenly feeling guilty. "I-I need to excuse myself. I'm sorry," she ran outside.

Taeyeon looked as she ran out, feeling confused as to why she was acting like this. She contemplated chasing after her.

"Psst. Jessica," she whipsered.

"What, loser?" she replied back.

"I need you to take care of Tiffany for me. I'm going to chase after Soonkyu." Jessica didn't like that idea.

"What, so you can kill her again?"

"I never killed her! Agh, I should have asked Seohyun..."

"You two! What is so important that you need to be talking over me?" BoA interrupted.

"I need to go do something important. I'll see you at the dorm! Tiffany, Jessica is going to look after you, bye!" Taeyeon said as she ran out of the room.

"Why that-whatever, she can't be helped. Now, I need you nine to take care of some things for me." she fixed a stack of papers on her desk as the girls stood in fear.

"Soonkyu! Soonkyu!" Taeyeon called as she looked for her around the building.

Where is she?

Taeyeon proceeded towards the bathroom. As she opened it, she heard soft sobbing. 

"Soonkyu!" the sobbing stopped suddenly. Taeyeon slid under the stall door only to see a red-faced, puffy eyed Sunny.

She pulled Sunny into a comforting hug as she stood there, as stiff as a board.

"What's wrong...?" Sunny sniffed.

"I...I r-ruined the m-misson."

"What?"

"I failed you guys... my uncle was right. Even at my best, I was the one who brought you all down. I'm nothing but a burden to this team."

"No... Soonkyu. I talked to Jessica... believe it or not. She said... she said you saved her, right? And that you destroyed the files right before they were downloaded. I'm sure you couldn't have done more... it wasn't your fault. If anything, it was my fault. I'm the one who delayed our arrival. If we had arrived earlier, you would've had enough time to extract the files, rather than delete them. You did what was best. You are no burden... I'm the burden. So don't cry, alright?" she rubbed her back.

Sunny started to cry harder.

"W-what did I say? Don't cry more... please... Let's just go home, okay?"

Sunny sniffed. "You... just made me... so happy. That's why I'm crying."

"Happy?"

"No one has had that kind of... trust in me. It... it means a lot, coming from you... so... thank you," she shyly said.

Taeyeon felt something she really couldn't explain. She just held the still crying girl tighter, rubbing her back. Something was telling her that she had to protect Sunny. Seeing her hurt or sad gave her a feeling that she didn't like.

"Let's go home now. Okay?" she gave an arm out to Sunny and she reluctantly took it. 

When Sunny and Taeyeon arrived at the dorm, there were seven other girls waiting for them, anxious to tell them the news.

"You guys don't look very happy..." Taeyeon said.

"We aren't. We got stuck with the job of recording all the information of every agent in SM... even the trainees..." Yuri said, annoyed.

Taeyeon looked at Sunny, her face becoming sad again. She gave her shoulder a little squeeze. 

"Hey, well... it is what it is I guess..." she said, being as optimistic as possible. The other girls gave her a look.

"Yeah, yeah..." Yuri muttered.

"So... what do we do now?" Taeyeon asked, trying to fill in an awkward silence.

"Looks like we're back to square one," Hyoyeon sighed.

"...but we can't give up, right? I mean, sure it's a big setback from us getting the ranking points we need to progress, but we can work on this!" Taeyeon encouraged.

No reply from the girls. Even Sunny looked away.

Taeyeon stamped her foot with frustration.

"Right?"

Still no response.

"That's it."

Taeyeon walked to the middle of the room, dragging Sunny inside the dorm.

"If you guys don't have the strong will to do this... I'll just have to do this for us."

There was a pause, the girls trying to understand just what Taeyeon was getting at.

"And that's why, I think I should be leader."