Rating: Strong T

Warning: None.

A/N: Thank you for reading, commenting and subscribing people. Here is the next installment.

|Eight|

By morning the bruising had completely faded and Sooyoung was back to 100 percent. Perhaps it was also because she’d had a restful night after resolving her differences with Yunho. He didn’t quite accept her choice, but he understood her reasons and for the moment that was enough. With contrasting schedules, it had been a few days since she’d seen Professor Ahn and was pleasantly surprised to find him in the kitchen nursing his first cup of coffee for the day.

“Annyeonghaseyo, gyohsoonim,” she greeted, offering him a bright smile. “Have you eaten breakfast?”

The young woman honestly had one of the warmest and brightest smiles he’d ever seen, and was equally contagious coaxing a tug of a smile on his own lips, “Annyeonghaseyo, Sooyoung-ssi. To answer your question, if toast and coffee constitutes as breakfast then I have.” Having a midmorning lecture, and living so far from campus meant he had to set off early if he was to make it on time –an elaborate meal would delay him.

“Okay that is absolutely unacceptable, Ahn-nim. Please let me make you a proper breakfast? I can’t in good sense let you go with just coffee and toast,” even if she wasn’t the shikshin that she was, it was fact that the Coffee-Toast combination wasn’t healthy.

He already had a protest on his tongue, but the girl’s endearing smile was weakening his objection. “I have to be on the road in next hour and a half, if I hope to make my lecture on time,” he cautioned the young woman who was already gathering the ingredient to get started. She may not have been moving at DBSK sped, but she was fast enough to appear a blur as she moved around the kitchen. “How’s your training?”

“Good,” giving him a noncommittal shrug as she continued her preparation. “It’s much more taxing and harder than anything I’ve ever done, but I guess it’s because it’s because my body’s going through conditioning. At least that’s what Min-oppa says.”

He nodded despite her not being able to see it, “He is right, just don’t push too hard, it will do more harm than good.” He was partially aware that Yunho had been pushing her pretty ruggedly in hopes of making her quit, but nothing that couldn’t be rectified with a proper regime. “And things with Yunho and Jaejoong?”

“Yunho-ssi and I have worked out our difference, he isn’t that hard a person to get along with once you come to an understanding,” she revealed happily, an unconscious smile tugging at her lips at the mention of the DBSK leader. It was truly relieving that they didn’t have that uncomfortable civility between them anymore, and she was looking forward to the day. “As for Jaejoong-ssi…”

“He’s still being difficult?” Professor Ahn suggested, already having a slight idea why the two were so caustic with each other, but not confident enough to voice it out loud.

Switching on the rice cooker, she collected her thoughts before answering. “I don’t know… has he always been so antagonistic? I’ve settled for being civil, but it isn’t enough. A word of gratitude from me is like a venomous insult to his ears,” chopping the vegetables in record time. “I know it’s uncomfortable for everybody, but I’ve honestly never met someone so disagreeable.”

“He doesn’t hate you though, I hope you know that,” he offered in comfort, hearing the strain and defeat slipping into her tone, entirely different from the one she used to speak about Yunho. To be honest, he didn’t blame her since Jaejoong wasn’t making an effort to show her something other than his acidic words.

She chuckled, “Jun-oppa already convinced me of that.” She always gave everyone the benefit of doubt, preferring to expound on her first impression of someone before truly determining whether or not she liked the person or not, but even she had a limit to her patience. “You’d like me to be the bigger person, don’t you?”

“You and him are grown ups and it’s up to you on how you want to handle it, Sooyoung-ssi, but I trust you to make the right decision,” Jaejoong was much more bullheaded and slow to admit he was wrong, so the person offering the white flag had to be Sooyoung.

The beeping of the rice cooker saved her from giving a solid, affirmative answer as she let the silence stretch companionably. It didn’t seem like the professor was inclined to disrupt the silence and she was grateful. Besides, she had a lot to think about in terms of her interactions with Jaejoong.

“I wanted to ask you something about the whole change thing,” the change of subject wasn’t her running away from the topic of discussion, but rather her remembering something she’d wanted to ask him after everything that had happened. “That is, if it’s okay?” daring to look at him, to see if she could continue on.

Professor Ahn gave her an assuring fatherly smile, “you can ask me anything. Is there a problem?”

With all components ready along with the side dishes, she served the professor a healthy portion of bibimbap. “As you already found out, I have that weird déjà-vu, muscle cognition thingy. You said that with the transfusion it might have been hyped-up, but is there also a possibility it could have been dampened?” placing the bowl in front of the professor before plating some for herself.

“Well, you are the second person that has undergone the transfusion, and the first to have something extra to bring to the table so it’s hard to say,” it wasn’t encouraging or comforting, but he didn’t want to give her false exceptions or hopes. “Have you been having problems with it?”

“During the mission it sort of came on for a few minutes, but then it turned off which isn’t exactly normal,” she explained, knowing she was being vague and unclear but not really knowing how else to explain it. “Usually it turns on before danger strikes, guides me through it until the threat is neutralized, and then it turns off. This time though, it warned me of danger and then left me to fend for myself. It wouldn’t bother me if I don’t have it anymore, but I guess I just wanted to know?”

“Like I’ve said, this is the first time any of this has happened. Maybe a deeper look into your brain activity and DNA could explain something, but for now what I suggest is waiting it out and seeing if it fluctuates again. Maybe the malfunction was a onetime thing, as it was adjusting itself to the changes as well?” It would be more telling and conclusive, if he would have her under an MRI when it occurred, or find a way to induce it but it seemed that it only kicked in when she was in danger.

She gave him a less than convincing smile, as she let him dig into his meal.

--~*+*~-:-o-:-~*+*~--

Jaejoong wasn’t a creeper or a busy body, but his sensitive ears and current position couldn’t help the situation. So she went crying to the Professor about him being the big bad wolf, just because he wouldn’t accept her half assed words of gratitude the night before, and here he had hopes that she was grown enough to handle the fact that not everyone thought she pooped rainbow and butterflies. Putting that aside, there was the fact that her 6^th sense was going haywire which was rather interesting to say the least and something to watch out for.

After completing his meal, the Professor left but not before giving him a warning look to remind him to behave. Behave like what he’d do to an insolent or disobedient child. He didn’t exactly like her and every single one of them knew this very well, so he had to wonder why everyone was trying to shove her down his throat. With a dismissive shrug he waited until the door clicked shut behind the older man before sauntering into the kitchen, heading straight for the coffee pot.

“Annyeonghaseyo,” despite everything warning her against it, Sooyoung found herself greeting him for the morning, probably because the Professor’s words were still playing over in her head.  On some level she had to admit the man had been right, and the regular unpleasantness because Jaejoong and her found themselves in the same room, was draining. But, of course, he wasn’t going to make this easy for her if the snigger was anything to go by.

So what now, she was going to prove herself the hero to the professor by faking politeness? Forget that, “Okay let’s just get this over with before you embarrass yourself further, alright? Like I told you last night, I didn’t do it for you, so don’t think I need your supposed gratitude. In fact, if you writhe in pain to kingdom come because of your own stupidity, I won’t bat an eyelash,” his eyes sharp and unblinking as they bore into hers, casually sipping his coffee like his words weren’t cutting and icy. “You may have the others wrapped around your little finger, but for me you are worth less than even an afterthought. Let’s not pretend to like each other to forge some sort of false serenity; I don’t have the patience for it. Okay, Sooyoung-ssi?”

The chill that had befallen the room at his words was hard to ignore, making her shiver despite it being subconscious. His smile at the end of his speech more of baring teeth than anything else, cementing that he meant every single word he said. The tiniest part of her had hoped they’d forge some semblance of a truce, but the bigger part of her wasn’t at all surprised he’d all but jumped down because of a simple ‘Good morning’. But she was still shocked at how cold and detached the man could be –the night before she’d dismissed it as cool professionalism, but in the light of day she saw it for the disdain and revulsion it was. Even though it was chilling, it brought clarity –their animosity wouldn’t disappear, because Jaejoong didn’t want it to, so now she wasn’t even going to bother because really she wasn’t going to embarrass herself further as he said, her pride wouldn’t allow it. “You know what fine; I’m completely done trying to be civil with you. So if this is what you really want, you have it,” going back to her food not sparing him even a glance. Despite it going against her nature to being civil to people she dislike, she’d give him the indifference he wanted, too sane to fight it.

“Your absence is what I want, but we can’t always get what we want, can we?” He corrected, eyes watching her critically as he gulped down his coffee. But she didn’t stiffen or even flinch at the words, losing herself in her food completely remaining that way until Changmin chose to join the land of the living long before he was due.

Grabbing a pair of chopsticks, Changmin settled in close beside Sooyoung to steal some food as he waited for his own to heat up in the microwave, well aware of the silent tension in the room. “So how are you doing this morning?”

“Better, can’t complain,” offering him a smile, as she pushed her bowl to him appetite already sated. She knew Jaejoong was still watching her, waiting to see if she’d go weeping to one of the guys. But she was too grown for that, and their problems were their problems not for the whole house.

“The NIS had me on the phone for most of the night, so I asked hyung to check on you instead,” Changmin stated, half prompting the woman to tell him if Jaejoong had done more harm than good. He even raised an eyebrow at his hyung, who was watching the woman unwaveringly.

“Don’t worry Jaejoong-ssi was a complete professional,” eyes not even glancing at the man who was probably expecting her to spill to the maknae, but she’d be damned if she made a big deal out of nothing. “Your foods ready, I’m going for a run,” he alerted him to the microwave, giving his arm a gentle squeeze and leaving.

There was silent accusation in the maknae’s eyes, “What did you think I’d do, break her in half?” Internally curious as to why she hadn’t completely divulged everything about her condition to the maknae when he’d asked. Maybe it was because he was in the room as well?

“I wouldn’t put it past you,” Changmin confessed, dodging the plastic measuring cup thrown at his head at the cheeky comment. Sure, the guy was a cold jackass to the woman but he wasn’t exactly a sadist and wouldn’t hurt her, no matter how much he feigned hate toward Sooyoung. “Hey, your words not mine.”

“Aish, gae jasik,” Yunho spoilt the smartass too much.

--~*+*~-:-o-:-~*+*~--

“The impunity also known as the complete BS of the NPA is going to drive me insane,” Hyoyeon grouched, removing her gun from the holster and settling down on the couch with a beer. It had been a long night with the raid at a warehouse of the most protected bugger in the corruption roster, who was now looking for blood and demanding layoffs despite the fact that the stink was coming from his end. For goodness sake, they’d just secured the site not 5 minutes before NDI was all over it claiming they had jurisdiction –meaning cover up in bureaucratic terms. “Chu Sungyeon got someone by the nads and we are the ones on the chopping block.”

Sunny joined her friend on the couch, “It’s an open secret he’s given free reign by some higher ups, I don’t know why you are so surprised, Hyoyeonie,” taking a sip of her own beer. “Did you manage to get something before they shut you down?”

“Onew run a check on one of the bodies and found out the guy was already dead 6 months ago, not to mention hazmat trucks rolling in as we rolled out,” Hyoyeon revealed, “I’m thinking some coverts, KIA maybe, were snooping round the warehouse, hence the commotion that got us called over but we’ve been coaxed to move on to more fruitful pursuits like … the Reds.”

“The entertainment industry linked Kkangpae, I thought you guys managed to stop their activities?” In fact, Sunny, had been one of the prosecutors in the case, which had seen most –if not all–the leaders behind bars and activities crippled.

Hyoyeon snorted, “Precisely, it’s just busy work to keep us occupied and off the Chu case. But, I’m going to look into it myself.” She’d be damned if she let a slime ball like Chu Sungyeon get away.

“Hyoyeon…”

“Sunny don’t even try to warn me off, you know I can’t let this go,” She’d joined the force to put criminals and the like behind bars and streets safe, only to realize that impunity and liberties were being afforded by the same institution that was meant to protect. “Has Jinnie checked in yet?”

Sunny nodded, “just a few moments before you arrived. Did I do the right thing in letting her go?” she asked, unable to stop a bit of doubt seeping into her bones at her choice.

“Kid is stubborn and determined –the Choi type of stubborn and determined. Do you honestly think you could stop her even if you tried,” if there was something the Choi sisters had shared it was their sheer stubbornness, and Sooyoung had always been the most stubborn. “But don’t worry, I have Heechul tracking her phone just in case,” the eccentric techie being more than happy to assist, due to his fondness of the teen.

Sunny’s eyebrow rose, “You do realize that’s illegal right?”

“Dangyonhaji,” she admitted, not at all apologetic about bending the rules this time.

--~*+*~-:-o-:-~*+*~--

Part of accepting Sooyoung’s decision, even though he did not entirely like it, was actively being part of her training in a healthy manner. Yoochun had more than willingly relinquished his role as combat trainer to Yunho, when the older of the two had informed him that he was taking over. It was, in the end, better to learn from the best since it was Yunho who had taught them all martial arts and was a master in over 5 types. Donning a loose pair of track pants, wife beater and light pair of sneakers, he watched her making her way up the path in a leisurely jog.

“Morning,” he greeted, when she came to a stop a few paces in front of him slightly breathless.

“Good morning, Yunho-ssi,” Sooyoug returned with an easy smile to mirror the one he was giving her, hand on her hips as she regulated her breathing. “I’m guessing you’re overseeing my training today,” an educated guess, since his attire suggested it.

“Smart girl,” Yunho confirmed with a playful lopsided smile. “We’re going to assess your combat skills, so I know what needs work,” from the little he’d watched during her sessions with Yoochun and Changmin, as well as how she handled herself during the operation, he’d say she wasn’t half bad. She preferred Taekwondo to Aikido as she used kicks much often than blows using her hands and elbows. “So get stretching.”

Shedding her own hoodie, she got to it –stretching her body out, even if she’d done so before the run. If she was being truly honest, she was nervous. There was a certain pressure going against Yunho, than going against Changmin and Yoochun. With Changmin she expected verbal jabs in between kicks and blows that never reached him. Yoochun was ever the gentleman, never egging her on and slowing down whenever he needed her to change something about a particular attack. The only thing she’d faced with Yunho in terms of training was the drill sergeant who was hell bent to make her quit, so she didn’t really know what to expect. Not to mention the fact that everything Changmin and Yoochun knew they’d learnt directly from Yunho. So if they were good, she could only imagine the level he was on.

“Ready?” Yunho asked, surprised by how fast her heart was beating, despite the calm demeanor she displayed. Had his previous hard-line stance scared her off? Apparently so, if the sharp intake of breath and its shaky release was anything to go by, “This is just an assessment, Sooyoung-ssi,” he moved closer, placing reassuring hands on her shoulders, voice gentle. “Just relax and show me what you got.”

Of course he’d heard the accelerated heartbeat and breathing, “I don’t know why I’m even nervous, to be honest,” okay subconsciously she knew why, she wanted to prove to him that she was capable and if she fell short then it would probably prove his point right.

She obviously wasn’t going to address it, so it was up to him to bring it up. “I know I was pretty hard on you before, I just want you to know –”

“–You don’t have to explain anything to me, Yunho-ssi,” she interrupted what she was sure was an apology that really wasn’t needed least of all to her. “I may be an ordinary, but I’m not slow. I understood it then, and understand it now,” looking him in the eye to assure him of the genuineness of her words.

He nodded, deciding to take her acceptance for what it was, “Ready?” He asked again.

“Always,” came her signature reply, accompanied with a much more sure smile.

She didn’t expect to land any punches or kicks and she didn’t, heck she hadn’t even gotten close to landing one. Throws and holds were out of the questions, since she couldn’t get within an arm length of him for even a second. The time it took for her to think about the hold, was slower than the time taken to evade. His movements were graceful and done with such ease you’d mistake it for dancing. She didn’t know how long this cat and mouse game lasted, but he called for a halt before slowing things down to her level of speed allowing her to get physical.

No longer was she hitting air as often as the session before the pause.  He was allowing her close enough that some of her hits almost landed, only to be blocked physically by a hand, forearm, foot or shin. He even allowed her a few throws which weren’t all successful since he managed to escape and she ended up on her back on the receiving end of a reverse. Her proudest moment came toward the end of the second secession when she managed to catch him surprisingly distracted enough to sweep him of his feet with a horizontal scissor kick, only to be rewarded with the same and landing on her back once again. In a tumble and blur of quick movements and tangle limbs, she tried her hand at getting him into a hold of submissions but failed, again, ending up under him trapped with nowhere to go. Arms, legs and body sufficiently imprisoned –she didn’t even bother trying to escape, too tired, sweaty, winded and defeated to attempt. “I give up,” she announced through short pants of breath, which disturbed the slightly disheveled strands of ebony failing on his forehead.

“Took you long enough,” he grinned gently, jumping to his feet and holding out a hand chivalrously to help her to her feet.

A breathless chuckle escaped her despite herself, as she accepted the offered hand allowing him to pull her onto her feet with no effort at all, looking annoying unperturbed by their sparring session. She would never get used to how unaffected they were despite being in a vigorous spar. “Your humbleness is overwhelming.”

“Your determination is exhausting,” he returned, because she honestly wasn’t inclined to quit unless she was good and truly defeated. His words earning him a roll of the eyes, but a smile around the water bottle she was drinking from, “Seriously though, your endurance is no joke. I’d expected you to tap out after 2 hours, you made it to three.” There was surprise but also impressed light in his eyes as he looked at her.

She could only thank the exercise that she was already flushed, or she would be spotting an embarrassing flush on her cheeks at the undiluted praise. She doubted the stutter in her heart had gone unnoticed, but if he had noticed he chose not to comment on it. “What was wrong?”

“You seem to naturally favor your right side, but not by much so it can be trained out of you completely with time and practice,” He answered her, wrapping the towel he’d retrieved from hanging on the railing round her neck. “You favor kicks over using your hands so I’m seeing a lot of Taekwondo, but to your favor a lot of the others are a hybrid of Aikido and Taekwondo. We are going to incorporate some more Hapkido as well next time.”

“Hyung, the captain’s on his way here and wants to talk to all of us,” Yoochun called out to get the pair’s attention, leaning casually on the door way with Junsu by his side choosing not to comment on what was begging to be commented on.

Taking another swig of water, she stepped away from Yunho, “I should take a quick shower then. I’ll leave first,” sparing them a collective subtle nod of the head, before disappearing into the house between the two immobile men.

“Do you know what it’s about?” Yunho asked, sitting on the railing across from them. Usually the guy would give them a grace period of about a week or month, before dropping one of his mission impossible operations. 24 hours was pushing it, even for them.

Junsu shrugged, “I’m guessing it’s for whatever you guys were working on, since Changdola is working on a report for him and he wants Sooyoung there as well.” He figured that Yoochun wasn’t inclined to ask what needed to be asked, so it was up to him. “So, you’re training Sooyoung.” He heard Yoochun chortle, but otherwise saying nothing at his statement.

“What gave it away, the training?” Yunho suggested sardonically. It was Junsu’s nature to state the obvious, but even he was confused as to what the blonde was trying to imply.

Yoochun lost it breaking into chuckles at the mixture of confusion, amusement and exasperation playing on his hyung’s face. Junsu moving to correct his statement, “I mean actually training her and not, you know, trying to make her quit.” Okay fine his first statement was vague and stupid and probably deserved the sarcasm on further thought.

“Yeah, figured I’d take Chunnie advice and accept her choice,” the wavy haired male looked surprised, but gave him a small smile of acceptance. It wasn’t entirely true, but it wasn’t entirely a lie. He had heard the younger male; it just took him sometime and a conversation with Sooyoung to consider them.

--~*+*~-:-o-:-~*+*~--

“Kyu said you have something for me about those trucks,” Captain Dojin began as they all settled around the conference table, accepting the coffee that Sooyoung offered him. It was rather embarrassing that Cassiopeia Manor had a better equipped conference room than his team’s but then again the boys did have an abundance of funds and didn’t really want for anything.

Changmin tapped away at his keyboard bringing up a satellite image, “We tracked them out of Seoul –about 5 hours out –before they disappeared after going into a tunnel, someone tried to hide this by laying a later image over it through a force glitch in the algothrimic code. Basically they recorded over the original footage; I wouldn’t have caught it if not for the glitch as it changed from one image to the next.”

“Do we know where they disappeared to while in the tunnel?” It was great they figured it out, but it would amount to nothing if they didn’t know the trucks’ destination.

“Through another underground tunnel since they don’t show up anywhere on the image, until 8 hours later when they are leaving the tunnel,” Changmin revealed. “We looked at possible locations around the area but none are equipped to handle what those trucks were ferrying. There’s this compound over here,” he zoomed in on the particular area, “that formerly housed a private, science and technology based high school, Ssamdong Institute of Science and Technology (SIST), before it was moved to Daegu. However it was bought by a Shin Yunshik, Hotelier extraordinaire, so we ruled it out.” Not impressive, but 24 hours was hardly enough time to do anything concrete. There was something they were missing, and he was well aware of it –he just didn’t know what.

“Except we shouldn’t,” Sooyoung spoke up gaining the attention of the whole room, with the exception of Jaejoong who only gave her annoyance. “Shin Yunshik is Jang Soori’s … sponsor,” That was putting it lightly but sugar daddy wasn’t exactly the right word either. Of course, they all looked skeptical, but she chose to ignore it and decided to appeal to their logic instead. “Look at the location, there is absolutely nothing remotely appealing about it as a site for a tourist development or a five star hotel. It has a swamp and fish pond in its backyard, and roads as it only view. Do you honestly think he invested billions of won to leave it as a white elephant? NDI have the files under the classified if you got them de-classified you’ll find that I’m telling the truth here.”

“Sooyoung has a point,” Yunho stated, getting a relieved look of gratitude from the woman, and a roll of the eyes from Jaejoong. “It’s a white elephant, so it’s unlikely to raise eyebrows especially if they’re using underground channels in and out. It wouldn’t hurt checking it out; we don’t have anything to lose.”

Captain Dojin had to admit that Sooyoung’s tip on Jang Soori had panned out since the doctor was instrumental in obtaining the people who underwent the Project Android procedure, along with other questionable acts that remained uninvestigated. “I don’t have people to spare, so you’ll have to do this one on your own, except for Sooyoung and Jaejoong, I need them for something else.”

“Pardon me,” She couldn’t have heard right, there was no possible way that the Captain was suggesting a mission with Jaejoong.

“I didn’t stutter Sooyoung-ssi,” the Captain told her, not in the habit of repeating himself to anyone.

“It’s just Jaejoong-ssi and I, we can’t stand each other,” it wasn’t a professional thing to say, but the last thing she wanted was to be on an operation with the guy. Just that morning he’d practically told her he’d feel nothing if she rolled over and died and now she was expected to work with him. Any of the other four she wouldn’t mind, heck she’d jump at the chance but Jaejoong, she wasn’t a masochist.

She was acting like she was something great, when she was just a step up from ordinary. Did she honestly think he was biting his nails in anticipation to work with her? “I just don’t see the point of lugging around a liability, which you are, during an operation. It slows me down. ”

“Well you’re just going have to hold hands and make merry, because there is no one else,” Captain Dojin spelled out. What were they in kindergarten? “Let me put this another way, to kingdom come is how long you’ll be holed up in desk duty if you two can’t pull it together long enough to handle this mission. If you pull each other’s hair afterwards or on your time, that’s your business.” He always expected high professionalism from his team, not personal drama and feuds. Jaejoong had always had an elitist attitude and he’d learnt to accept it, but he’d expected much more from Sooyoung who seemed level headed. “Everything is in the file, I’ll be by tomorrow. Hopefully, by then you two would have kissed and made up. Yunho-ssi, if you need additional equipment and technical support let me know. I’ll leave first.”

Sooyoung had the decency to look embarrassed, while Jaejoong glared something fierce at her.

TBC

A/N: Not entirely happy with this chapter, but there’s a lot of tie-ins in it so I posted it. The next chapter will hopefully be better. Below is a glossary for some words I felt needed it. Will try to reply to comment ASAP, so don't think I'm ungrateful.

Glossary

Gyohsoonim –Professor; NPA – National Police Agency; KIA –Korean Intelligence Agency (CIA equivalent); Gae jasik –This Punk (correct me if I am wrong); Dangyonhaji – Of Course; Hazmat – Hazardous Material; Kkangpae –Mafia; NIS –National Intelligence Service; White Elephant –A non profitable venture, that cost more than it’s worth. Basically redundant

The plotline and story is mine. Please do not repost, copy, translate anywhere without consent and plagiarism is a bad thing.

Comments would be lovely and greatly wanted, helps me know what you think. Constructive Criticisms is welcomed, because it helps me improve. Flames … “to each his own”.