Time since Sunny's kidnapping: 13 months

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Taeyeon slipped off her goggles, turning the safety mode on her rifle and setting it down on the platform in front of the shooting target. She wiped her forehead and opened the door to the other room to get her evaluation. 

Two days ago was Taeyeon's birthday and she turned 19 years of age, allowing her to begin firearms training. 

"You did great for your first try, Taeyeon," BoA ruffled Taeyeon's hair and gave her a thumbs up.

"Thanks. I have to admit, though, my arms are really sore..." Taeyeon said, rubbing her forearm.

"You'll get used to it soon. Work on your aim a little bit. You should be aiming a bit higher than your initial target. Due to gravity, the bullet will impact lower according to the distance of the aim point. Keep that in mind."

Taeyeon smiled, "Thank you BoA sunbaenim. May I be excused? I have a bit of hand-to-hand after this."

"You go ahead. Work hard," BoA gave a little 'hwaiting' fist pump. 

With a quick hug and a grab of her backpack, Taeyeon was out the door.

A few blocks down the street and Taeyeon noticed Jessica walking, most likely for her start of fire arms training. Her birthday would be next among the girls-in a month, to be exact, and she would start studying the basics.

Taeyeon couldn't help but notice the look on her face-she looked like she had just seen a ghost. Her eyes were moving from place to place rapidly and she constantly rubbed her palms on her jeans. Without greeting each other, Jessica quickly walked past Taeyeon.

She stopped and turned around to watch the Jung speed by, "Yah?! Is that any way to treat an elder?"

No response. Taeyeon huffed and turned around, heading down the street for her lesson. 

The rehibilitation had been working for Tiffany. She was getting used to her leg and actually felt better than ever. She was stronger, definitely, and a bit quicker. She had been sparring with Seohyun for the past hour or so, and put up a good fight with the extremely powerful maknae.

Seohyun puffed, "Unnie... five... minutes... please..."

Tiffany unstrapped her helment and gave an eye-smile. "Sure thing Seobaby."

As she helped Seohyun untie her sparring gear, Taeyeon walked through the front door and took her shoes off. She greeted the two girls and headed to her locker to change.

"How did you... get your... stamina so... high?" Seohyun struggled to get out.

"Hm? Well..." Tiffany tilted her head in confusion, "Well actually, I'm not sure... I haven't changed anything in my diet or exercise regime..."

"Must be genetics then..." Seohyun sighed.

"Maybe I'm just a blessed kid," she smiled.

Tiffany helped Seohyun stand and gave her a towel and water bottle. "Don't drink too much, ok? You'll get cramps," Tiffany warned.

"Yes, unnie."

"I'm going to go stretch in the yoga room. Take your time, ok," Tiffany announced and Seohyun nodded. Wiping her forehead with her towel, she walked to the other room to see Taeyeon warming up.

"Hey," Taeyeon popped her spine and stood properly.

"Hey."

"Can I help you with something?"

"Hm? No."

"Alright then..." 

She hasn't been as persistant lately... Tiffany reached for her toes and took a glance at Taeyeon. She seems really stressed out. Maybe I... er-

"Taeyeon."

Taeyeon looked up from her stretches. "Yeah?"

"You want to go grab some lunch after practice?"

Taeyeon took in a deep breath, startling Tiffany. Her eyes twinkled.

"Um so is that a-"

"YES!" she jumped around excitedly and quickly realized what she was doing. "I-I mean, yeah, sure, whatever," she tried to play it cool but ended up tripping over her own feet.

"Good. You're paying," and with that, Tiffany walked out of the room and back to Seohyun, leaving Taeyeon to sit on the floor in shock.

"W-wait!" Taeyeon ran to her bag and checked her wallet. She hung her head in depression. I'M GOING TO GO BROKE AFTER THIS!

Hyoyeon walked down the street after finishing her dance lesson. She was tired and sweaty, and needed to get back to the dorm. I shouldn't have scheduled tonfa training back to back with dance...

"Ah! Hey, Hyo!" a voice hollered from down the street.

She turned around, only to see the tallest shikshin plowing her way down the sidewalk to see her.

"Ah, Soo. What brings you here?" 

"I was on my way to get some lunch. Want to join me?"

"I was actually on my way home-"

"I'll pay! I heard that Tiffany, Taeyeon, and Seohyun were going to go eat at the barbeque down the block. You want to come?"

"Well... I guess I can't say no to free food," Hyoyeon chuckled.

"That's my girl! I'm totally rubbing off on you~" Sooyoung took Hyoyeon by the arm and dragged her to the restaurant.

#

"Hey, hey, hey! We're here!" Sooyoung smiled widely as she hauled the Dancing Queen behind her. She literally threw her into a chair and took a seat next to her.

"Hyo you look horrible," Taeyeon mumbled.

"Nice to see you too, sunshine," Hyoyeon scowled.

"Unnies, let's not do this at the table," the Maknae warned.

I thought this was gonna be a lunch date... Taeyeon mentally groaned. The whole freaking population's here.

The waitress brought bowls of rice to the table as well as a few more water cups for Sooyoung and Hyoyeon. Seohyun poured them drinks while the rest of the party shoveled rice into their mouths.

"How's... firearm training treating ya?" Sooyoung managed to talk between chews.

"It's alright. A bit scary at first, to be honest. You feel like your arms are behing pulled off every time you shoot," Taeyeon answered, still struggling with the soreness.

"Firearms?" Tiffany asked.

"Yeah. When you turn 19 in August you'll get to start practice too," Taeyeon said, putting the meat on the grill.

Tiffany returned to her rice and side dishes until a thought struck her.

"Wait, where's Jessica?"

Taeyeon sighed and said, "I don't know. I saw her walk towards the agency when I was leaving. She's probably starting her firearms training right now-"

Tiffany quickly stood, her eyes wide.

"Yah, sit down!" Hyoyeon scolded.

"I need to go," Tiffany quickly said, grabbing her purse.

"But all you ate was rice-" Seohyun pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine," Tiffany said as she made her way from the table.

"Yah! What about the check?" Sooyoung called after her.

"Tae's got it!" and Tiffany was out the door.

What the...

A few minutes of silence.

"TAENG OPPA-PA-OPPA-PA-PA-PA CAN YOU TAKE CARE OF SOOYOUNGIE'S CHECK TOO?" Sooyoung pleaded.

"Dyohyunnie's too!" Hyoyeon added.

"If you wouldn't mind, Taeyeon unnie... I left my purse at the studio..."

I can feel my wallet crying already...

Sooyoung grabbed Tiffany's unfinished bowl of rice and share of meat, "More for meee!"

Tiffany ran down the street back to the agency.

"Please... be... alright..." she huffed as she neared the final block.

She burst through the doors, making her way to the firearms room. Locked... she tried knocking, but the sound of gunfire was too loud for it to be heard. 

"Hey! Let me in!" she yelled. There has to be another enterance... She whipped her cellphone out and texted Taeyeon.

A few minutes later and she got a reply.

Taeyeon:

Yah! Where did you go?

Reply:

I'm at the agency. The door's locked. Is there another way in?

Taeyeon:

...Yeah. Go to the cafeteria's hallway and it should be two doors to the right. That one shouldn't be locked right now.

Reply:

Thanks so much Taeyeon.

Taeyeon:

Yeah. It's fine. 

Tiffany clicked the button to turn off the screen and ran down to the cafeteria. She passed by a few rookies but she ignored them. All she could think about now was Jessica.

"Argh," Taeyeon grunted, throwing her phone into her bag.

"Whaff-iss-it?" Sooyoung asked, mouth full.

"Tiffany."

"Ah," she swallowed, "What's up?"

"She texted me about the fire arms room. She must be seeing Jessica," a tinge of disappointment lingered in her voice.

"Hey... don't be so upset, you still have a chance," Hyoyeon said.

"Yeah, you should still push for her," Sooyoung agreed.

"She's been chasing after Jessica as long as I've been chasing after her... she's never been remotely interested in me."

"What do you think, Seohyun? What should Taeyeon do?" Hyoyeon asked. She knew the Maknae would be somewhat helpful.

I guess only Tiffany unnie and I know... she thought.

"I think you should focus on getting Sunny unnie back home," she finally reasoned to say.

This sparked Taeyeon's interest while SooHyun sighed. 

"You're right! Why am I so focused on love when there are bigger problems to take care of? Thanks maknae," Taeyeon smiled. She got up and ran out the door. "I'm going to train even harder from now on!"

"That's at least better than her moping around. Nice one, Seobaby," Hyoyeon high-fived her.

"Thanks unnie."

"W-wait..." Sooyoung realized something important. "YAH KIM TAEYEON! THE BILL!" 

"Oh my gosh," she plopped down into her seat.

"Well..." Hyoyeon said while pushing the check towards Sooyoung.

"What?"

"You did say you'd pay for me," she snickered.

"What about-"

"And Seobaby doesn't have her wallet, remember?"

Sooyoung reached for her bag. Damn you Kim Taeyeon.

"Jessi!" Tiffany finally reached the fire arms room. She looked around frantically. The sounds of gunfire was overwhelming. She had to plug her ears for a minute it was so shocking.

"Jessica? Jessica Jung!" she ran around to check each room. 

Classroom? No.

Shooting range? No.

Evaluation room... 

Tiffany walked in, searching each square foot for Jessica. She was about to give up when she heard sobbing.

"Jessica!" Tiffany finally spotted her, curled up in the corner of the room, covering her ears.

She didn't say anything. She really couldn't think of anything to say in the first place. She knelt down to give her a hug.

"D-don't cry," she managed to get out. "I'm here, it's ok. No one is going to hurt you."

"T-T-Tiffany..." Jessica didn't care about the side she was showing. She was too scared to be concerned about her image.

"Hey, it's ok..." 

"The sounds... they remind me-"

"Shh, it's ok. You don't have to talk about it. I'll be here as long as you need me to," she rubbed circles into her back.

Jessica allowed herself to be held. In fact, she held onto Tiffany tighter.

"How...how can I be an agent, when I'm afraid of the only thing I should be comfortable around?" she whined.

"Don't worry about it now... I can help you, if you'd like. I'll be here, ok? We can sit here until you're ready to go, whether it's back to class or back home. I won't leave you, alright?"

"A-alright..." Jessica nodded.

"Good. Trust me."

"I-I will."

Hey guys, I hope you're still enjoying the story, hehe... it's reaching a slower point now, and I hope I'm not boring you... This is more of a developing time for the story, and I've decided that there will be a few more time skips. Sorry if it progresses too quickly. This story, as far as I can tell, will be quite long so I'm trying not to let it drag on too much. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading, subscribing, upvoting, and, especially commenting. I love comments (: Please continue to leave your opinions below. Until next time~

EDIT: Oh yeah! Guys I need your help deciding on a new pen-name for my account... I'd like something less personal and more SNSD/Dandyu/Ace Family related... If you guys could help out, that'd be great! Thanks!