Crimes. Crimes are all over us. In the city, in the provinces, everywhere! Evil doesn’t choose a place to thrive in. It also doesn’t choose a heart to grow in. Even good people have evil sides, it’s up to them if they want it to rule them. Evil lurks around in every corner of the city, waiting for a vulnerable prey to attack. Prying from every corner is evil, just looking for an opportunity to succeed. Every country has this. No country is safe. No country is too good or too disciplined to have evil roaming around. No matter how strict your country’s rules are, if a person wants to do bad, they are ing gonna do bad. There ain’t no stopping them!

 Well, for this group, there is!

 T.R.E.E. What does that read? Tree. The big and tall plant that’s strong and sturdy. Trees. But this T.R.E.E. is different. It actually stands for something. Four words that are simple but mean a lot to those who are in need. In case you are curious, T.R.E.E. stands for To Rid Every Evil meaning to erradicate the bad elements in society. In Korea, this was the leading crimefighting organization that made use of policemen, secret service, spies, undercover agents, and detectives. This intelligence agency had always been succesful in terms of fighting crime but as I’ve said, there ain’t no stopping evil. After getting rid of one, expect another to pop up and continue the legacy of its predecessor.

T.R.E.E. was governed by Jung Yunho, also known by his agent name U-Know. U-Know was the Boss at T.R.E.E. Headquarters. He told everyone what to do and how to do it and organized missions to bust criminals and throw them behind bars. He had been doing it for years and had yet to fail. Together with him was his right hand man Shim Changmin, who went by the name Max, made sure that everything fella ccording to his boss’ plan and they always did. Never had the T.R.E.E Organization failed.

Along with these two men were several other men and women who worked to ensure the safety of the city. One of them was Lee Jin Ki, the youngest agent working in the headquarters. Jin Ki went by the codename Onew. Lee Jin Ki, despite his young age, was one of the best and the favorite of U-Know because of his precision and dedication to his work. He was at the top of his game, organizing and sending spies on missions as well as partaking in these missions himself. Yunho and Max couldn’t be any prouder of their new recruit.

It was just another day at T.R.E.E. Headquarters. Agents and intelligence groups were monitoring crimes and doing additional research on still wandering criminals and convicts who had escaped. The forensic scientists were investigating dead bodies that still needed further investigation. Everything was going well until…

“BOSS! I GOT SOMETHING HERE!!!” alerted one of the intelligence agents. U-Know, who was busy monitoring his own radar, dashed out of his workspace to check his computer out. The incident must’ve been really disturbing for him to have to call U-Know’s attention urgently.

“What is it, Chung Ri?” asked U-Know. Chung Ri, the intelligence agent, pointed a finger at the small screens on his computer and even zoomed each box in for better viewing. U-Know put his glasses on and carefully studied them. Sure enough, there was a great attack on the public. A riot, in short! Shops were being broken, buildings were being burnt down, glass windows were being smashed. There was fire, murder, chaos all over the city.

“Oh my God.” U-Know adjusted his glasses and radioed Max Changmin in.

“Come in, Max. Are you there?” The reception wasn’t good at first, only giving out whispery sounds. U-Know frantically twisted his radio wire to get a better reception. Finally, he was able to get a good signal and Max’s voice came in clear.

“I’m here! U-Know, are you seeing what I’m seeing here?” Max was working in a different observatory. He did see the ruckus that was being caused by an unknown force on the city. Not only that, thousands and thousands of phone calls for help were coming in, disturbing the continuity of Max’s work.

“This is an explosion. One minute we’re peaceful and the next we’re scrambling to get help and find operatives to work on this.” Yunho felt his heart racing really fast in nervousness and tension.

“It’s occurred in 3 differetn cities all at the same time. This is definitely from an organized group. This was planned.”

“Three different cities. All at the same time.” Yunho repeated what his partner had just said. “Terrorism. It’s not new in our world now. It happens all the time.”

“We have just sent 3 terrorist groups in prison. Don’t tell me they have escaped!” Max rubbed his forehead, feeling stressed out.

“We’re gonna have to send spies and operatives to hunt these bastards down.” Yunho said.

“Terrorists have always been our problem. I think they just never run out of people to hire and recruit and order around to go and bomb cities or cause riots. We need a more powerful force this time.”

Onew, who wasn’t really taking part in their conversation with Chung Ri, overheard them and felt the urge to volunteer and extend his help to them. He stood up from his work station and approached the three men who were taking a look at Chung Ri’s monitor, replaying the scenes over and over again just to check if they could spot the suspects. Sadly, they weren’t able to. Yunho was busy looking into the monitor, playing with the ri of his glasses when he noticed Onew standing right next to him via his peripheral vision. Yunho turned to face him and took his glasses off.

“What do you want, Mr. Lee?” he asked sternly. The young intelligence agent stood nex to his boss, wrenching his fingers in nervousness.

“Well I was thinking if maybe I could help you in this mission because I have a really great idea.” Max heard the words ‘great idea’ and turned around to face him. Onew felt all the more nervous. Though he knew he was their favorite, there was still a chance that they wouldn’t buy his idea.

“Great idea, huh?” Max rubbed his chin. “Let’s hear it.” Onew gathered all his confidence upon hearing that they were interested. He was about to open his mouth when Max stopped him.

“Wait, let’s take this to the conference room, shall we?” Onew nodded and followed Max and Yunho. The duo led the rookie into the conference room where they continued their discussion. The two heads sat down and waited for their young ally to take a seat. Onew took several deep breaths and when he finally relaxed, he pulled a chair for himself and sat down.

“I plan on creating a spy team to represent our organization.” Max and U-Know looked at each other, seemingly considering Onew’s idea. “I want this team to be dynamic and versatile. The ideal team, so to speak. I want this team to have everything.”

“Your idea is good. So we’re talking A-Team style here?” U-Know questioned, making a pop-culture reference. Onew didn’t know the A-Team as well as his bosses but knowing what the A-Team did, he just nodded his head.

“Yeah, something like that. Anyways, point is we need a team that represents what our organization stands for.” Onew boldly stated. Max smiled at him and shook his head, placing his hand on the table and resting his chin on his palm.

“Boy, I love your plan and I think it sounds tremendously great but what I don’t seem to be getting is what the standards are and how are we going to select members.” Max confessed.

“That’s simple.” Onew smiled. “I have envisioned this all my life and right now I know quite well what makes a good spy team.”

“All your life?” U-Know arched an eyebrow. “You’re barely even 30! How could you say that you’ve envisioned this ‘all your life’ ?”

“My father was a secret agent. He spent 20 years of his life working undercover for an intelligence agency, busting crime. He told me the qualities of a good spy.”

“Well since he told you about the qualities of a good spy, why not just hire a spy. A single person to save us the trouble of having to go through several profiles just to find members of a group!” U-Know suggested.

“Trust me, this is a good idea.” Onew assured him. U-Know shook his head, slowly disillusioned by the young agent’s suggestion. He turned to Max and asked him what he thought of this.

“Well I think we should give it a try. We can always dissolve the group if it doesn’t work.” Max said.

“But I don’t think this is a good idea. I mean, we can’t have five people all scrambling around, doing something one experienced spy can do! Five’s a crowd!”

“Please.” Onew pleaded. He really wanted his ideas to push through. After some consideration and hard thinking, the bosses finally decided to give him a chance.

“Alright, we’re giving you the permission to go on with this mission of yours,” Onew couldn’t contain his joy. He just straight out cut U-Know and thanked his bosses over and over.

“But!” U-Know cut his celebration. “Make sure that this doesn’t fail because the moment it does, you know where your project and you go.”

“Home?” asked Onew.

“Down the drain.” U-Know said sarcastically. “Now get started on it.”

“YES SIR!” Onew stood up and gleefully skipped out of the conference room and back to his workplace to organize the mission and get things going.

“All you criminals better watch out! None of you are prepared for this!” Onew began to type on his keyboard.

The Ideal Spy.

[SHIFTS TO SCHOOL WHILE ONEW STATES THE QUALITIES]

Hardworking.

CL came to class before time. Her class would start at 8 but she had been there for an hour already. She spent that hour reviewing for the quiz that they were about to have that day. The subject was Fundamental Trigonometry, a subject that CL enjoyed so much. CL, however, didn’t just review. She used her multitasking skills to accomplish two things at the same time. On the same day, a term paper in Communications Class was due so while familiarizing herself with the mathematical terms.

“If a is equals to b, then c must be…” CL stated over and over again while writing down her thoughts on the movie they had just seen in CommClass. Of course, CL had to divide her attention from studying. When she figured that she couldn’t get anything done if she was to do this so she decided to focus on the subject that was to be taken up earlier which was CommClass.

“CommClass first. Anyways, this is just an essay. I know I watched that movie well.” CL told herself. She put the FunTrig notebook aside and finished her essay. Down to her last sentence, the articulate CL ended it with a period and placed it in her organizer. Then, she took her Trigonometry notebook, further understanding the terms. She even pulled out three scratch papers for practice sheets.

CL spent an hour reviewing for that very short quiz that they were going to have. And to think, she spent the entire night studying for it, she still wasn’t content. She knew she just had to perfect this test.

Stylish.

Jessica arrived in school a few minutes late. In her pretty pink pumps, she dashed out of the elevator and ran for the classroom. Figuring that it would be a good idea to check her hair and makeup first before proceeding, Jessica headed to the bathroom, struggling to pull her makeup kit out of her bag. When she got to the bathroom, she faced the wide mirror and opened the pink, heart shaped box that was full of small accessories and cosmetics.

“My hair is so messy. Maybe a little fun bun won’t hurt.” Jessica had cute terms for the hairstyles she did on her hair. Pulling out a heart-shaped brush from her huge Juicy Coutoure bag, she burhsed her black and brown hair a good 4 times before collecting them and tying them up, twisting it into a bun. She then used the scrunchie with a pink polka dotted ribbon to tie and secure the bun. Using a pink glittery comb to fix her bangs, Jessica’s hair was all done.

“How many more minutes before I’m late?” she asked herself. She peered outside the bathroom and looked at the clock. In school, the rule was that you were given a 30 minute allotment before being marked as late. Seeing that she had only spent 15 minutes outside of the classroom instead of inside, she shrugged and figured she still had time to prettify herself even more.

“All that ducking in and out of that limousine as well as the bumpy ride’s got my makeup all messed up.” Jessica re-applied her powder, put some baby pink glitter gloss as well as baby pink blush on. With some mascara and cat-eyeliner, Jessica looked like a living mannequin. Grabbing her iced coffee from her bag, she walked out of the bathroom and classily headed to Chemistry class.

Intelligent.

Sohee was sitting in History class, a class that most students found boring. In her class of 28, only 18 were awake, 10 of which aren’t paying attention. Sohee was one of those who were really engrossed in the subject. Every word the teacher wrote was copied and every line he said was being absorbed by the young genius’ brain. All this she managed to do while drawing a caricature of their goofy-looking history professor.

“Can anyone summarize the history of the Romanovs?” asked the professor. Sohee, without hesitation, raised her hand but the professor won’t call her. It was probably the 5th time in class that she raised her hand for recitation.

“Anyone else besides Sohee?” Sohee refused to put her hand down despite hearing that the professor wasn’t interested in what she had to say because she knew he had no choice but to call her. With all the sleeping and inattentive students, the professor really had no other choice.

“Alright fine.” he sighed. “Sohee, please narrate the story of the Romanovs.” the dillegent and intelligent little girl, who was only 5’2”, stood up and fixed her glasses. She fixed her school uniform and spoke up in a manner that only a diplomat of some sort would speak.

“The Romanovs were Russia’s noble family. They were the last Imperial Family before the Communists took over Russia. Their execution occurred on the snowy night of July 17th 1918. All of them were shot including the only male heir, Alexei Nikolaevich. Prior to their execution, Alexei was already sufferring from haemophilia-”

“Woah!” one inattentive classmate faced her, giving her all his attention and said. “He was into gays?!” the entire class jeered. Sohee childishly put her hands on her waist and said with a snobby face.

“NO!” she squealed. “Haemophilia is different! Haemophilia is the lacking of a blood clotting factor, resulting in uncontrollable bleeding!” the entire class made fun of the guy who asked a question.

“You don’t test the powers of the Human Google!” jeered another classmate. Sohee frowned at them and they all quieted down, allowing her to finish her explanation.

Ready.

Nicole had her camera, laptop, and iPad with her. When it came to gadgets, she was very complete. She came just in time for her Photography Club meeting right after finishing a seminar on computer graphics. As a matter of fact, she was still too early for the club meeting, being the only person in the meeting room.

“I’ve not eaten yet!” Nicole told herself as she merrily looked through her things hoping to have been able to bring a snack along with her. Nicole loved snacks and snacking and always made it a point to bring some with her wherever she went. Who knew when she could go hungry? Nicole finally found a small bag of cracker nuts and opened it, munching on them while listening to music on her iPod. Nicole meant to use her laptop but there were no tables and the power outlet was far away from Nicole’s seat.

“Good thing I charged this before leaving the house!” Nicole said. Her laptop could stil manage to work without a charger for a good 15 minutes, good enough to be able to log in to her Facebook account. Nicole finished the last of her cracker nuts, stood up and threw the plastic container in the trash bin before getting her laptop bag, taking out the laptop and turning it on. It did work and she spent a good 15 minutes chatting and updating her Facebook account.

“GOOD MORNING!” greeted the president of the Photography club. Nicole closed her laptop, putting it into sleep mode and smiled at the president who had a camera hanging from a lanyard around his neck.

“Good morning, too.” she smiled at him. He was surprised at how early she was but even more surprised to see that she was the only one in the room whereas he made it clear that the meeting would start at 8.

“I remember texting all the members to come at 8. Why are they not here yet?” Nicole played with the lace of her camera and smiled.

“Maybe they didn’t receive it.”

“That’s impossible! Anyways, since you’re here, let’s discuss the photo subjects and themes that we’re going to take up.” the president said. The two discussed their future plans for the group and in between their talk, Nicole pulled out her camera to show the president her pictures.

“I have managed to take some great pictures over the weekend as well as last week and I would like it for you to see them. Check them out and tell me what you think. I uploaded these on the club’s Facebook group and I posted them on my wall but I think you haven’t opened your account yet so I’m just gonna show you now that you’re here.” Nicole said in an excited, fast-paced manner while showing him the photos that sh etook. The president studied them and was undoubtedly impressed.

“You have a talent in photography. And you’re very punctual. Keep this up and you might just be the vice president!” The president gathered his materials, leaving Nicole hanging in suspense.

“Woah! Wait up!” she ran after him with her camera still on. “What do you mean? Please elaborate.” The excitement in Nicole’s eyes couldn’t be hidden. She was thrilled when she was informed that she had a chance at vice presidency.

“I said, keep this up and you just might get promoted as vice president. You’re always around. She’s almost never around. You deserve her position. Now this meeting is over. It’s pointless.” the president dashed out of the room, leaving Nicole in a daze.

“Oh. My. God.” she squealed. “VICE PRESIDENCY HERE I COME!”

Headstrong.

Gahee had just finished the last subject for the day and was walking down the hall of her college with her high school friends who promised her that they would all go to college together.

“I so do not want to study here anymore. I hate it here!” Gahee complained.

“I know. The people are like…” UEE rolled her eyes. They were talking about the attitudes of the people in school.

“They compliment people when they are right in front of them but as soon as those people leave, they talk about them and post it on Facebook! It’s all so ty!” Gahee grunted.
“When did you notice this?” asked Jung ah, her other friend.

“I noticed it when Kevin recited several days ago. His answer was really boss and I think that made them feel insecure. After class, they were all smiles and they even praised him, called him smart and all but when I logged in to my Facebook account the other night, I saw something on my News Feed about a guy they call “Google Wannabe” and I knew right then and there that it was Kevin.” Gahee explained.

“They are such big douches!” Jung ah exclaimed. UEE agreed.

“I know, right? They are douches but they can’t be douches around me. I won’t let them act like that towards me.” Speaking of douches, the three girls ran into the group of mean friends. As usual, they were noisy, they kept on laughing, one kept on moving around and dancing though there was no music. Gahee just sighed and rolled her eyes, opting not to mind them. But they were the type to notice every single little thing.

“HI GAHEEEEEE!!!!” squealed the hyperactive member of the group. Gahee looked at her and smiled.

“Hey.” she said sarcastically with a poker face on. UEE and Jung ah extended the same courtesy.

“Why do you all look so tired?!?!? We should be happy!!! Right guysss?!” squealed that girl. The others just laughed at her. Gahee chewed on her tongue like it was bubblegum, eyeing her down from head to toe before walking away.

“BYE!!!!” they all jeered. Gahee looked back at them and shook her head.

“I will never understand those people. They think that just because they’re in college and in a prestigious university, they can do or say whatever they want about other people. They can just try and do what they did to Kevin to me and they will see.” Gahee and her girls left the campus as soon as possible.

[ONEW’S OFFICE]

You girls are perfect for my team! You have the traits of the ideal spy. Now all that’s left for me to do is inform you and bring you girls together.

And that shouldn’t be hard…