None of group had slept after returning from the mission that night. The girls came back from the rooftop at the crack of dawn, while the guys were talking to Paro in the hopes that she would be able to memorise their names. It was a task that demanded patience, lots of patience. The girl pronounced the names wrongly at first or when she got the pronunciation right, she would mix up the names. There were even times that she created completely new names, because she couldn’t remember, causing laughter and frustration among the group.

The first name she had remembered, was much to Hyunseung’s dismay, Gikwang’s name. Hyunseung had hoped that he would be the first she’d remember, but Gikwang who introduced her to her name, Paro, was the first to be embedded into her memory. Hyunseung was the second to be remembered and both of the men were the only ones she had no trouble with. The other four however, were the ones she either mixed up or gave a name that was a mixture of their name with something random.

Doojoon had become Dungeon at some point, Junhyung turned into Junjun, Yoseob became Sopyup and last but not least, Dongwoon had become Ongdong*. It took them the whole night, from which 4 hours were left before their usual arrival at the headquarters, but eventually she remembered the names and even some sentences and other words they had spoken. She had managed to learn a few basic words and sentences and the girls' names as well after they had returned at around 6 am.

They had an hour left until they would start a new day. Carlo had told them to meet him in his office at half past 7 sharp. The group decided to eat breakfast and despite the lack of sleep, they didn’t feel tired at all. Maybe a little. It could be due to the excitement and curiosity towards the girl. It could be the anxiety of the responsibility that raising her and taking care of her brought with them. Especially Doojoon seemed to space out quite often as he was deep in thought.

At the cafeteria of the headquarters each of them had brought their breakfast. Hyunseung had taken an extra plate with a tuna sandwich and peanut butter jelly sandwich for Paro, while he had a bagel, a tuna sandwich and black coffee for himself. The 10 of them sat at one long table, with Hyunseung to Paro’s right, Chaima to her left and Yoseob across her. Hyunseung placed her plate and a glass of milk in front of her.

The clattering sound of the dishes against the wooden table almost immediately attracted her attention and she stared at the unfamiliar objects on front of her. She poked the glass with the white substance softly and heard her nail ticking against it. She repeated the action and smiled. She did the same with the white plate in front of her. She tapped the edge, but since her nail didn’t touch the hard material, there was no sound this time.

Her reaction was a frown, that others recognised as confusion and frustration. Chaima couldn’t help but chuckle and tapped the plate as well with the back of her finger, making sure her nail touched the plate. Paro stared at her action and watched her movement carefully. She turned her hand around to look at the hard structure on her finger that formed her nail. Cautiously, she imitated Chaima’s action. When she heard the expected tick, she smiled brightly in satisfaction.

“Chaima! Chaima! Look!” She exclaimed as she she tapped the plate with her nail again, causing the brunette to smile.

“Paro. Eat this.” The girl heard from her other side.

Paro turned around to gaze at Hyunseung with a questioning stare. He pointed at the square sandwich on her plate and returned to his own breakfast. She watched him pick up his tuna sandwich and glanced at her own plate, to notice the same unfamiliar combination of bread and other ingredients, that formed the sandwich. Paro imitated this action as she picked it up with both hands at each side. She side glanced at the male again and watched him open his mouth and took a bite.

Paro gazed at the unidentified object in her hands for awhile in silence. After a few seconds she blinked as she pulled it closer to her. She opened to take a bite and distanced it from herself again. In she chewed it by natural reflex and let the sensation of tastes dance on her tongue. It surprised her, this strange feeling in . She had no idea how to react to this. Slowly the pieces of tuna and lettuce fell out of the folds of bread and a few pieces of pickles joined the rain of ingredients. Hyunseung was fast enough to catch the rest of the sandwich as it was released from her grip.

After chewing for about a whole minute, Paro finally swallowed the contents of . Her lips and the sides of were greased with butter and a piece of tuna and tomato. She heard laughter coming from in front of her, but was too busy to process the experience of eating to drift her attention away from it. Her eyes were widened slightly and her hand unconsciously moved to to touch her lips.

“I think it’s the first time for her.” Yoseob spoke out. “Eating I mean.”

With an amused smile he watched the girl eat, as he munched on the bagel with cheese in his hand. He took a sip of his tea and watched Hyunseung reassemble Paro’s sandwich and clean . Everyone knew that Hyunseung was one of the caring members, but this almost fatherly side to them still surprised them. He was different when it came to the girl in the wheelchair. Though one couldn’t really put a finger on it.

Paro had observed Yoseob taking a sip of his glass and decided to imitate this action as well. She wrapped her hands around the mug with milk and placed it at her lips. Before tilting it, she observed Yoseob once more, carefully to see if she was doing it right. She watched how he tilted his glass lightly and did the same. The white liquid flew right into as she filled with it. At the taste, her nose cringed and she swallowed it quickly. Because was overfilled streams of the milk dripped down the corners of until it was empty.

She heard laughter when she placed the mug on the table again, displeased with the taste of the strange liquid. Her eyes moved to her far right were Doojoon was sitting across the table, two seats away from Yoseob. He as well was amused by the girl’s first experience of eating and drinking. She felt another tissue dabbing her face and her eyes fell on Hyunseung, who once again cleaned .

Like that the breakfast that usually took them about 15 minutes, took four times longer this time. In the end Paro got used to the taste of milk, Hyunseung made her drink whether she liked it or not and got used to eating in general. She had even memorised what everyone ate and could speak out some words. The group got used to her voice as well during this experience.

* * * * *

As promised, or rather ordered to, the nine of them, which means the group excluding Paro, had gathered in Carlo’s office. He had been rummaging through the folders they had found on the mission and from his expression, they could all see that something was going on. Something they probably wouldn’t like. When they all had entered, Carlo stopped with what he was doing and stared distantly for a while. A few seconds of silence fell before he broke it with a sigh.

“Well let’s start then.” He announced. “I’ve looked through the folders and I can say for sure that the girl-...”

“Paro.” Doojoon corrected him which retracted another sigh from Carlo and a slap on the arm from Baeri.

“... that Paro is one of Jae’s projects. The folders are always signed with his signature, the letter J. From the voice logs I found out that the gi…I mean Paro has only been in a glass tube. She’s never been out of it.”

“What does that mean?” Junhyung asked.

“It means that, like speculated, she never had human interactions before. She wasn’t trained, nor did they teach her anything at all. They just created her and abandoned her.” Hyunseung replied for him. His gaze was dark and a spark of anger could be seen.

“Right.” Carlo confirmed. “For now I can say that she doesn’t pose much of a danger, but stay on guard. If she ever does…”

“We know.” Baeri interrupted this time. She didn’t like hearing it, despite the vow they made. In the past few hours she knew that she and the others had grown quite attached to the girl.

“Alright then. Moving on. There’s a new mission.” Carlo continued.

For a moment the group stared at the head of Cube, waiting for him to continue on the details.

“But I only need Chaima and Hyunseung to go. The rest of you is dismissed. Doojoon, take the gi-... Paro to the house and settle in. It’s not right for her to stay here.”

With that everyone left except for Chaima and Hyunseung who received the details for the mission. They each received a folder they had to read and had two hours to prepare themselves for departure. It was rare for the two to be partnered. Chaima was usually sent with Baeri, while Hyunseung was usually paired with Junhyung, Yoseob or the six guys together.

They had left Carlo’s office and headed for the gadget room, where they would gather the necessities. Hyunseung had filled his wristband with throwing knifes as usual. He also took an emergency and first aid kit that would fit in his pouch, since Baeri didn’t go with them, nor did Chaima ever bother to take these things with her. Chaima as well gathered supplies and filled her pouch and hidden weapon stashes. She wouldn’t need them, but just in case she took them anyway.

“It’s rather strange for us to be paired up. I wonder what Carlo’s thinking.” Chaima thought out loud.

“Maybe our abilities fit the mission. There’s not much to think about actually.”

The brunette didn’t expect a response from Hyunseung, but didn’t react surprised either when she did get one. She just shrugged. “I guess.” That’s how the conversation ended.

Before they departed, both Chaima and Hyunseung decided to say goodbye to Paro, who was waiting patiently in a room alone. She had been given a pencil and a sketchbook, where she started to scribble things by herself. It was quite surprising to find out that her observing and eye hand coordination were well enough for her to be able to draw exactly what she saw.

The formerly white paper was now a portrayal of the room she was in. The angles of the furniture and details in the room were remarkably alike. Her eyes scanned the room carefully as her hands started to work over the paper. The others had been watching her for a while as she drew, not wanting to interrupt her, when the two remaining agents walked in. Hongjung had returned to her office and only Baeri and the five males remained.

Chaima, followed by Hyunseung, approached the girl who was working on her drawing in full concentration. Her hand landed on her head to it. It took Paro a while to react and look up at the brunette, but once she did, she smiled gleefully.

“Chaima! Look. Drawing!” She exclaimed as she raised the sketchbook with her work.

“Good job. It’s nice.” Chaima assured her.

“Paro.” Hyunseung interrupted the moment. The girl turned around in her wheelchair to look at the male. Her expression once again mostly blank, with a hint of anticipation. The girl tilted her head slightly.

“Chaima and I are going out. We’ll be back soon, okay?” He continued.

The response he got was the usual one where Paro would stare at him momentarily to process everything before blinking. She didn’t know how to respond to this, thus she kept quiet.

“Bye Paro,” Hyunseung smiled and the top of the girls head as well.

“Bye Paro,” Chaima chimed in with a little wave.

“Bye Hyunseung, Bye Chaima,” Paro imitated and waved as well. copying Chaima’s gesture seemed the right thing to do.

* * * * *

“Tell me again, why I’m paired with a useless illusionist?” Chaima questioned. "Abilities fit the mission, my ."

In her voice Hyunseung could hear the anger and frustration. He was sure she expressed it on her face as well. The two were standing back to back while surrounded by the lively scarlet and golden flames, Chaima had created. Outside the flames they could see the creatures, creatures they had never seen before.

“I don’t think it’s the time to question that.” Hyunseung responded calmly earning a growl from the female.

He was wrapping a cloth around his upper arm right above a deep wound and tied it tightly as he pulled the two edges with his teeth and free hand to limit the heavy blood loss. His hand reached out for the small knifes on his wrist band. Chaima meanwhile created a whip in her hand engulfed by flames. The cold expression in her eyes told you to stay away from her.

A jerk of her hand was enough to have the whip lashing at one of the creatures. It took a few cautious steps backwards and three others followed its movements as they backed off slightly. They didn’t seem scared of the fire, but they were aware of its danger. The malicious green eyes were glaring at her as Chaima simply glared back coldly.

“Great.” She groaned. The sarcasm in her voice was hard to miss. “This is just awesome.”

Author's note

Chapter 5~ With a little cliffhanger. So stay tuned~ <3  Everyone enjoyed Paro's first interaction with food? I sure did :3

Also~ Ongdong means in korean. 

Don't forget to comment~ Especially if you want a cameo. I love to add some in. 8'D

Lots of love,

Saenan