KOREA

About six hours into the flight to Korea, Wendy is restless. She’s already played all the games on her phone twice, and she has terrible internet connection here, so she can’t check any of her social networking sites. She sighs heartily.

By now most of the tension and fear has seeped away into nothingness, and she’s just bored. Grumbling a little, she gets out her phone again and open the camera app, and watches the lense flares burst across her screen as she points it at the window. She takes a few pictures of the sky outside, the clouds rolling out for miles, but quickly tires of this too.

Switching to the front facing camera, she is briefly shocked by her own face- her posture is giving her a double chin- so she rights herself then takes a few photos of herself, trying to make it obvious that she’s on a plane.

Seulgi is watching her, an amused quirk to her lips. Quick as a flash, she moves over so her cheek is resting on Seulgi’s shoulder and snaps a few photos before the other girl even realises what’s happening.

“Wha- no! You can’t!” Seulgi fights her off, covering her face before she can take any more, and they’re laughing even as they’re bickering. Seulgi takes the phone from her, accidentally scratching her in the process, and holds it away, so Wendy has to half climb onto her lap to get it back, like little children fighting over a toy.

“Why not? C’mon, humour me,” Wendy whines, exaggerating the pout so Seulgi has no choice but to give in.

“I shouldn’t have pictures of me floating around, it could be bad,” Seulgi explains, and it’s then that Wendy realises just how close they are. Seulgi’s cheeks bloom pink, seemingly realising too. She clears and Wendy can smell her scent, something powdery and sweet.

Reluctantly, Wendy slithers back onto her own seat, wishing now more than ever that the internet connection wasn’t so bad- she could really use it to vent about this situation right now. She’s never wanted to kiss someone specific this badly before, and not just kiss, but spend time together, and just be with.

She knows, she knows, that nothing is likely to come of this, that after this is all done they’ll never see each other again, but that doesn’t quell the burn inside her. They would be good together, even just for a short while.

“I could cover your face with an emoji or something,” Wendy offers, unwilling to give up this rare footage.

“Well, if you cover most of my face… then I guess its ok,” Seulgi eventually concedes, turning away.

Trying to soothe her racing heart, Seulgi agrees to Wendy’s proposition, even though she knows perfectly well that if those photos of them together were found by someone, and they recognised her for who she was- then Wendy would be in even more danger that she already is. She hates to disappoint her.

With a sigh, Seulgi peers over Wendy’s shoulder to look at what she’s doing, and gasps. There’s a polar bear covering most of her face, apart from her eyes, wide from surprise. She’s put a filter on it too, to make them both paler, and surrounded them both in sparkles. Wendy’s face in the photo makes it obvious that she was leaning over for a surprise selfie, a cheesy grin gracing her face.

“I like that one,” Seulgi murmurs.

“You do? Can I put it on my blog then?” Wendy asks, looking up through her eyelashes.

“Uh. I don’t see why not,” she lies. There’s a myriad of reasons why she shouldn’t, but she disregards each and every one of them. Is it selfish of her to want to keep memories of the people she meets? Even if they are separated in the future, at least now there will be some record of their meeting, something to mark to time they shared.

“I’ll only put this one up, ok? I should probably delete all the other ones, right?”

“Right,” Seulgi agrees, “I’ll show you how to permanently delete them when we get to korea, it will still be on there even if you delete it if I don’t,”

“Oh, ok,” Wendy nods seriously. Seulgi finds herself sighing again. The amount of she’s put this girl through- she’d been genuinely frightened for her life earlier! - and she’s already visibly recovered from it. She’s amazing, and Seulgi is afraid she’s falling for her.

She checks the time again, glad that there’s less than an hour until the land now. Peering past Wendy, she can see tiny houses and streets that mean they’re descending closer to their destination. They’re close now, and Seulgi can almost see the time limit before they have to separate, so she just has to hold out until then, just has to make sure she doesn’t fall any harder for her, which is easier said than done. Wendy seems very easy to love.

How hard it had been to share a bed with her, Seulgi recalls, trying not to move in case she brushed up against the other girl, which of course, was inevitable in the end. Waking up to her serene sleeping face, and fancifully wondering what it might be like to wake up to this every morning.

Shaking her head, she rids herself of these fantasies- because that’s all they will ever be- and focuses instead on preparing for landing. Once off the plane, they will need to make their way quickly across the airport, straight to the waiting car and then to the hotel. All as fast as possible. Once there, it’s just a simple matter of discussing with her higher-ups over whether the best course of action is to take the package straight there or have someone else come and pick it up- it gets complicated when civilians are involved.

The base of the plane shudders as they touch ground. Wendy’s hand shoots out to grip Seulgi’s sleeve for a second, before retracting and clutching at her knee in distress. Seulgi wishes she could hold her hand, reassure her that everything is going to be ok- but that would encourage whatever this is between them and she can’t let that happen. Reluctantly, she looks away and gathers up her things to carry off. As soon as the vehicle stops moving, they’re both making their way to the door.

Blinded as the door opens, Seulgi shields her eyes against the light, and steps out into the low hanging evening sun. She takes one step down the escalator and a loud bang resonates across the tarmac, quickly followed by three more in sharp succession.

“Get down!” Seulgi shouts, grabbing Wendy and tugging her down the steps. She shields her with her body even though she can’t tell what direction the gunfire is coming from. Screams and shouts  echo all around them, but she can’t distinguish them from scared people, or agents who are here to her and Wendy away.

“Seulgi!?” Wendy cries out, almost tripping as she does her best to keep up while they sprint across the tarmac towards the relative safety of the airport terminal, filled with vacationers and families. Dodging and weaving between regular people, they make their way across the terminal and out into the air again, pushing against the flow of people to reach their taxi. It’s one Seulgi uses regularly, so she knows who to look for, and he’s standing outside the car waiting for them. As they approach, he jerks into action, getting into the car and revving before their seatbelts are even done up. Both girls are thrown against the back of their seat as he pulls out, honking to get the general public to move out of the way before speeding off out onto the main road. This driver weaves in and out of the traffic, but is less noticeable in the rush of Seoul traffic.

Wendy sniffles and Seulgi looks over in shock to see her charge wiping tears off her cheeks as she clutches her arm. Her clothes are soaked in red.

It hurts so much! She’s never had pain this bad before- she’s always been blessed with a gentle period so she’s never experienced cramps much- but this is awful. It feels like her upper arm is on fire, and her shirt is already soaked with blood already.

“Wendy, you’re hurt!” Seulgi cries, reaching for her. Unthinkingly, Wendy cringes away, not willing to let anyone touch it, “you have to put pressure on it, Wendy, please,”

“I can’t,” she sobs, touching will just make it hurt more, right? She flinches away again when Seulgi leans closer, and furiously wipes her face. How could this happen? This is not how this was supposed to go!

Seulgi’s phone vibrates in her pocket, and she gives up in her attempts to get Wendy to block the blood spilling out, answering it sharply. A moment later her face drains of all colour and she shouts to the driver,

“Change of plan, the destination is compromised, we need another place to go. Wendy? Where does your friend live? Quickly!”

“Um..” Wendy tries to remember what she said earlier, while also ignoring the fire ants that are swarming her skin, “N-near Sogang University?”

“Ask her the precise address, please,” She says, before directing an order to the driver to take them in that direction, the switch to Korean instinctual. Then, to Wendy’s shock, Seulgi retrieves a shirt from her bag and shuffles closer, swiftly pressing it against the bleeding area before Wendy can defend herself. And it hurts so much! She grimaces, trying her best not to cry out, but it’s tough.

“I know it’s painful, but you need to hold it there to stop the bleeding, ok? C’mon, I know you can do this, c’mon Wendy,” she murmurs, taking her hand and guiding it to hold on herself. It’s kind of amazing how she can be so calm and collected in this situation.

She rests her head on Seulgi’s shoulder, and cries hot tears.

“Wendy, we need your friend’s address,” Seulgi urges, holding her steady even as she trembles. Her fingers are slippery with blood as she reaches for her phone, and she has to wipe the blood off on her jeans before she can type anything.

God, what an absurd situation, if she weren’t in such awful pain it might be funny. Fumbling, she finally manages to send a simple ‘ur address?’ before letting the device fall on her lap and curling against Seulgi’s warm, comforting presence.

The only thing she has the mental capacity for is the stinging burning on her arm, so she barely even notices when her phone buzzes signalling her friend Irene’s reply, but Seulgi picks it up for her and relays the address to the driver, who nods and makes a sharp turn. The movement jostles her, making her gasp, and she bites her lip, screwing up her eyes against Seulgi’s neck. The spy her hair reassuringly, and a few more tears slip out.

“We’re nearly there, hold on,” the driver calls over his shoulder.

“Good,” Seulgi replies, muttering soothing words against Wendy’s head. It’s sad that it took her getting shot before she came anywhere near her like this, and now she can’t even appreciate her closeness.

A few minutes of searing pain later, the car stops, and Seulgi is coaxing her to get up. Walking isn’t hard, but every time she shifts her arm twinges and she just wants it to be gone.

Being shot .

One hand behind Wendy’s back, Seulgi guides her charge up to the front door of the apartment building, and calls for the elevator. Wendy is still sniffling and Seulgi feels incredibly guilty. This is all her fault, there’s no excuse for this to have happened at all. She’s so lucky it was just a graze, not even a puncture hole. Stepping down at the very last moment must have saved her from a worse injury. How could she have let this happen?

The elevator plays quiet music that seems out of place next to the turmoil in Seulgi’s mind.

Wendy’s friend live at number twenty three on the fourth floor, so that’s where Seulgi takes her, after looking at a map of the building. She raps on the door, still murmuring reassurances to the sad ball of sunshine beside her, and hopes the person inside opens up soon.

“Hello? Wendy?! Oh my goodness, what happened?” The woman exclaims, eyes widening at the sight of the bleeding girl,

“She needs to be cleaned up, may we use your bathroom?” Seulgi pleads. The woman shakes her head sharply, then backs up against the wall and holds the door open for them,

“By all means. Do you need anything? I have bandages. Painkillers?”

“Yes!” Wendy breathes, “Please,” she amends after her friend looks shocked, before backing up and leading them to the bathroom, where Seulgi sits Wendy on the toilet (with the lid down) and makes her raise her arm to slow the bleeding a little, and holding down firmly on the wound. Blood smears on the porcelain sink, and on the tiles, and it looks awful, but she knows Wendy will be fine. It looks like a lot of blood, but it’s not life threatening.

“Here,” the woman hands Wendy a glass of water and a sheet of pills, hovering distractingly as Seulgi checks for the fourth time to make absolutely sure that there’s no complications with this injury, and it really is just a graze.

“Thanks,” Wendy mumbles, swallowing down two of the pills, then staring at the floor sullenly.

“I’m Joohyun, by the way. I didn’t really get a chance to introduce myself earlier.” The woman says in Korean. Her hair is a striking blonde- unusual here in a sea of black and brown hair.

“I’m Seulgi, and I’m sorry we had to meet this way,” she grimaces at the state of things, “I promise we’ll clean up after ourselves,”

“No, no it’s fine. Just make sure she’s alright,” they both glance at Wendy, huddled up miserably against Seulgi’s chest and frown, “can I get you anything else? Would you like something to eat or drink?”

“Not right now, maybe later on. When the painkillers kick in.” Seulgi says, “but do you have a sponge? Or something I could use to clean her up a bit.”

“I’m sure I can find something,” Joohyun bustles off in search of cleaning implements.

“You know I’m right here, don’t you? My korean isn’t that bad, I can speak for myself,” Wendy pouts, and Seulgi feels a jolt,

“I didn’t mean to talk over you, I just thought you might like to rest a bit, that’s all. I’m sorry,”

“I’m so sorry, Wendy.” Seulgi whispers.

“I don’t blame you, so you can stop apologising, ok?” Wendy sighs, wishing the painkillers would start working already. It’s getting a little easier to ignore, but it’s still terrible. Worst day ever.

“I’m still sorry.” Seulgi’s eyes are dark and she looks away, going straight back into business mode, using a small knife which she pulled out of her shoe to cut away her sleeve carefully, and peeling it back to get it away from the blood. “I hope you didn’t have any particular attachment to this shirt,” she murmurs, entirely focused on what she’s doing. Wendy shakes her head and looks away, not wanting to see the bloody state of her arm. If it’s as bad as it feels, it probably looks really bad- she can feel the blood caking her sleeve and drying on her skin.

“Here, I’ve got bandages and cotton wool, and a sponge. There’s alcohol in the cupboard behind you.” Joohyun holds out her offering and Seulgi takes them, practised fingers removing her blood-soaked shirt and pressing wads of cotton wool against the wound, then wrapping the bandage around it a few times. Wendy hisses as burns, trying not to cry again but her eyes are already watering.

Silently, the government agent dabs at the red stains on her arm with a damp wad of cotton, cleaning her up diligently. Once done, keeping Wendy’s arm up above her head, she mops up some of the red one the white tiles. Wendy wonders how she’s so good at this- has she been in a lot of situations involving injuries? It could be part of her job, being trained to treat this kind of this it probably important in her line of work, but even then most people would be a little less sure of themselves.

“What happened?” Joohyun asks, arms crossed across her body and staring at her bandage.

“It was an accident, don’t worry too much about it.” Wendy waves her off, lying through her teeth. Well, it was an accident in so much as she hadn’t meant for it to happen, but it does really hurt, and she does like it when people to fuss over her.

“Well, ok. But shouldn’t you go to a hospital?”

“There’s some people out there that don’t want us to get there.” Seulgi interjects before Wendy can ask them why exactly they aren’t getting professional treatment, and she nods. Of course they wouldn’t have given up that easily. They’re probably out there right now, hiding in wait for them to go back outside so they can dispose of them and take the package. Wendy shivers.

Has she made everything worse by dragging Joohyun into this? Probably. They aren’t as close as she and Joy and Yeri are, so this whole endeavour might end up a little more awkward. Joonhyun only follows Wendy for the recipes she posts, and doesn’t actually go on tumblr a lot, so she likely missed all the posts she made- was it really only a week ago?- about the cute girl. As far as she knows, Joohyun is completely unaware of her feelings about girls in general.

“Let’s move you to a more comfortable spot, ok?” Joohyun implores, “I’ll get out the futon and move the sofa back a bit, so you both can sleep there tonight, unless one of you would rather sleep on the sofa?”

Seulgi nods, leaving Wendy’s side cold when she departs. But just a few moments later, she returns with a jacket and lays it over her shoulders to keep her warm. Wendy smiles gratefully.

“Will we always share a bed?” Wendy mock laments, the back of her hand resting across her forehead like a damsel from long ago. She must be feeling better already, if she’s making jokes like that.

Seulgi has already checked out all the possible entry points, and concluded this place as safe as any. They’re high enough off the ground that climbing would be difficult without being noticed by someone, and the front door is stronger than she expected it to be. Unless someone accidentally invites them in, Seulgi doesn’t think infiltrating this flat will prove easy for their pursuers.

And she hadn’t realised how late it was, it’s getting dark now. Wendy needs to rest, even if she doesn’t feel tired. Seulgi feels very awake, hands still shaking slightly from the adrenaline rush of earlier, so she wouldn’t be at all surprised if Wendy is the same, but they need to at least try and get some sleep as soon as possible, while they still can.

“Do you think you need help getting, um, undressed?” Seulgi asks, thinking of her arm, but the way Wendy raises an eyebrow at her makes her think of other things, inappropriate things that she can’t afford to think about now.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Wendy smirks.

“I don’t want you to hurt yourself, and you need to rest as soon as possible,” Seulgi replies primly, willing the blush that she’s sure is spreading over her cheeks.

“Ok, well. In that case yes, I might need help.” Wendy frowns, glaring at her injured arm. Seulgi takes a breath through her nose and crouches down next to her, then reaches for the hem of Wendy’s shirt to help her get out of it.

“Get your good arm through first,” Seulgi instructs, trying to exude an air of propriety, but that goes down the drain when her fingers brush her warm skin. The back of her bra is revealed, and it reminds Seulgi of the time when she came out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel, back in Canada, her skin glistening softly.

Shaking her head, she doesn’t allow herself to get distracted, quickly unhooking the hooks and deliberately not looking as Wendy slips on her pyjamas.

“You should take the sofa, it will be more comfortable,” Seulgi offers, pulling out the bedding from the neatly folded pile on the floor that Joohyun brought them. She spreads it out neatly, and places some of it on the sofa for Wendy to sleep on, then helps the sullen girl onto the seat, and hovers while she slowly lays herself down, worrying silently.

“Ok?” Wendy nods, batting her hands away.

“I’m fine, for now- I’ll let you know if it starts hurting again, don’t worry.” Nodding, Seulgi accepts this answer, though she still sends wary glances towards her as she lies on the sofa with her eyes closed. Despite the jitters, Wendy drifts off quickly.

She looks troubled even in sleep, so she must still be in some pain despite the painkillers she took earlier.

Before calling her boss again, she waits to be sure she isn’t going to wake up, then heads out into the hallway for a little privacy, and hopes that Joohyun doesn’t come out to see what the noise is. The number is already stored on her phone, so she doesn’t need to memorise it- it changes all the time anyway depending on the mission.

“Agent nine three four, requesting back up for a delivery. We were ambushed and need assistance, my charge was shot and injured; and they are blocking our path outside.”

“Understood, we’ll send someone after you as soon as possible,” the person who answers the phone has a generic female voice, and she would think it were a recording if she hadn’t seen the people sat in the room answering calls like this before.

“When?” Sulgi grips the phone tightly- how long will she be putting her new friends in danger?

“When someone becomes available,” the voice replies hollowly, “but we’ll get someone there as soon as possible.”

“Ok, codeword is blue moon,”

“Understood,” the woman hangs up then, and Seulgi sighs quietly before heading back to the room they’re to be staying in tonight, casting a quick worried glance at Wendy lying down. It takes a long while for her to fall asleep, complicated thoughts of whether this whole ordeal was the right decision or not, and whether Wendy really minds that she’s been put in this awful situation or not. Finally unconscious, she dreams of strange things chasing her and her charge.

Wendy woke up once during the night to a burning pain in her arm, but didn’t wake Seulgi as she said she would- instead she just stealthily crept to the bathroom to find more painkillers. It took a while for them to kick in, and as before, even though they were making it better, the pain didn’t abate completely. It made it easier to sleep, though, so eventually she followed her friend to dreamland.

Waking up, Wendy hopes that what she was dreaming about wasn’t obvious, because she would never be able to look Seulgi in the face again. Luckily, though, the object of her affections isn’t in the room, so she escapes the inevitable embarrassment of looking her in the eye after a dream like that.

She allows herself a few minutes to compose herself before heading to the bathroom to freshen up and get dressed, slowly, so it hurts less. After that, she peeps into the kitchen, and finds Joohyun there, along with Seulgi, who is sat at the tiny table.

“You shouldn’t be up,” Seulgi says, instead of greeting, but Wendy forgives her because she seems more worried and upset than anything.

“I hurt my arm, not my legs,” she says reproachfully, and takes a seat at the table next to her, “good morning, Joohyun.” The switch to korean is stilted, and she knows she has a bit of an accent.

“Morning Wendy,” Joohyun smiles brightly at her, and that’s when she notices the spoon in her hand, coated liberally in some kind of orangey goop.

“What are you making?”

“I’m actually using one of your recipes,” she explains, “it’s one from a while ago, I don’t know if you remember: Kimchi pancakes? I had to improvise a little, but hopefully it should still taste good.”

“Ooh, I remember that one, sounds good,” Wendy smiles, “but be gentle with the spices, ok?” She grins broadly. Seulgi cracks a smile too, and Joohyun nods knowingly, turning around to pour her mixture into a frying pan.

It doesn’t take long before a warm spicy smell saturates the room, making Wendy salivate, reminding her of her family. Even though they are back in Canada still, her mother makes this kind of meal all the time and the recipe on her blog is the one her mother uses- they worked on the specifics together. Like every recipe, everyone makes it slightly differently, so she looks forward to tasting Joohyun’s rendition of the meal.

A delicious smell accompanies the sound of sizzling a few moments later, and Wendy’s stomach growls insatiably, but she remembers the reason they’re here. Shuffling a little closer to Seulgi, she whispers so Joohyun can’t hear her,

“So, what’s happening? How are we getting the package to your boss?”

“Someone will come for it. Then you can go home,”

“Oh,” Wendy tries not to let the sting of that comment show on her face. She knows perfectly well- or she at least hopes- that Seulgi doesn’t mean to sound like she wants to get rid of her, but she can’t help the way it makes her feel. Like Seulgi is just going to forget about her after all this is over. Like she’s only here because she has to be.

Like she’s a burden.

She blinks a few times, swallows, then nods. Luckily she doesn’t have to say anything more, as Joohyun places a plate with a tasty looking kimchi pancake on in the middle of the table. There are already chopsticks lying on the table, along with plates and glasses.

“Dig in, guys,” Joohyun encourages, “Wendy, help me tear this, would you?” Wendy smiles and grips the edge of it with her chopsticks, pulling the other way from Joohyun. Seulgi quickly joins, and the pancake rips, strands of kimchi peeking out through the gaps.

“This is really good!” Wendy exclaims, covering with her hand,

“Thank you,” Joohyun glows under the praise, “I’m glad I found your blog; before I moved out of my parents house I didn’t know how to cook anything at all. It’s thanks to you that I was able to feed myself,”

“I’m glad I was able to help,” Wendy says, before the conversation quietens, in favour of all three girls eating. The food doesn’t last long, and once it’s gone, Wendy groans, patting her full stomach,

“That was so good,” she sighs, “I would help with the washing up, but….” Wendy frowns, “I could do the drying?”

“No need, I have a dishwasher,” Joohyun explains, already gathering the crockery. Seulgi is swift to help her out, loading the machine with their used plates. It’s still a little odd to see her doing such a mundane task, knowing her occupation, but she likes it- it makes her look more ordinary, more attainable.

And she likes the view of her backside, she can’t deny that.

Seulgi can’t relax, it’s too difficult. Joohyun is out shopping for food and other necessities, leaving Wendy and her alone in the apartment. If it were up to her, now would be the perfect time to break in and steal the package, which she has carefully hidden already.

So she waits in the hallway, posture rigid with tension, waiting for the moment when her rival agents will attempt to pick the lock, or worse, break it down.

“Seulgi, you’ve been out here for ages, why don’t you come sit down?” Wendy implores, absently fiddling with the edge of her bandage, fully visible with her sleeveless shirt. Just seeing it, and remembering why it’s there, draws her eyebrows together. No, she’s already in too deep with this girl, but if she goes now there’s no way she’ll come out of this ordeal unscathed. She shakes her head minutely, making Wendy grimace, twisting to the side grimly.

“If I have to carry you, I will,” she all but growls. Seulgi raises an eyebrow, wanting to , but that would just be inviting her to try. So she shakes her head again, looking at the floor and hopes that Wendy will leave her be. But, naturally, she doesn’t. Instead, she comes closer- so close that there isn’t anywhere she can look that’s not Wendy.

“C’mon, take a break. You’ve been standing sentry for almost two hours, it’s got to be boring.” Well, yes, she’s right, but it has to be done. It she left it unguarded and people came for the package while she wasn’t paying attention, she would fail the mission and Wendy might get hurt. She’d be demoted, possibly suspended, and Wendy might be in pain. She purses her lips

“I can’t,” she mumbles, pointedly staring at the floor to the right, instead of Wendy’s pouting mouth, or the dark lashes that frame her earnest eyes.

“Just for a little while?” Wendy breathes. Seulgi makes the mistake of looking at her. Isn’t she far too close? This is dangerous. She panics, breath hitching as she takes in her pink lips and cheeks, her flowing blonde tresses and her pleading expression.

Without thinking, she her lips.

Internally, she tries to talk herself out of what she so desperately wants to do, but she finds herself unable to listen to rationality right now. She’s been teased relentlessly, seen flashes of her bare legs and skin, seen her almost entirely , and felt ‘accidental’ touches galore. Wendy seems to sense the growing atmosphere too, a sultry shadow slinking over her eyes as her lower lip is caught between her teeth. They’re so close now, Seulgi can feel her breath on her lips. Wendy’s eyes flutter shut, and she can feel the lightest brush of -

“I’m back!” The two of them spring apart, flushing crimson. How did she not hear the key in the lock? If that had been an intruder, they could have been dead already!

Seulgi is quick to compose herself, diving forward to help their host with her load and carrying it deftly to the kitchen. Wendy follows behind her, still pink-cheeked, carrying only one bag, while Joohyun brings up the rear, grateful for the assistance.

“I got you presents!” Joohyun announces jovially, picking out one bag in particular, and rummaging through it, “here, this is for you,” she hands Seulgi a dark grey knitted hat with a yellow ring around the edge and bobble on the top.

“Thank you,” she grins, pleased and surprised to receive a gift from someone she barely knows. She pulls it over her head, and laughs- it suits her, in an odd way, Wendy thinks, wishing she could discreetly take a photo. Joohyun beams at her, then delves back into the bag and pulls out a thin looking but pretty scarf. It’s blue with a golden thread pattern, and Wendy puts it on immediately.

“Thank you so much, Joohyun, you’re the best.” She exclaims, hugging it to her neck and smiling with her eyes. They catch each other’s gaze, but Seulgi looks away quickly. Wendy quickly squashes the disappointment. She had thought the almost kiss would mean something, might indicate that Seulgi has some kind of feelings for her too. Apparently not.

Joohyun, completely oblivious to all this, asks if Wendy would like to help make dinner, so that’s what she does. She does her best to forget about the girl in the other room as she chops veggies and chats with the motherly woman about their daily lives and family.

“I’m so grateful that you were able to take us in on such short notice, you don’t understand how much. We’re indebted to you, I think,”

“Oh, nonsense,” Joohyun scolds, “you’re a friend, and I couldn’t leave you without a place to stay when you were in trouble. Even though you were injured, you have been very untroublesome guests, so you don’t need to worry about being a burden. It’s nice to have company, actually,”

“Still, thank you so much,” Wendy bows her head. It’s been quite a humbling experience staying with these people, people she’s never met in person. It’s a cliché thing to say, but it has restored her faith in humanity, not that it was failing before.

Humming softly to herself, she continues to stir the curry they have made, and wonders if she should check her tumblr tonight, realising she hasn’t been online in almost three whole days. People might be wondering where she is. And by now surely she will have a lot of asks to answer.

Evening meal is a fairly quiet affair, but not by any means in a bad way. They sit at the table and talk until late in the evening, at which point Joohyun gasps, explaining that she has work tomorrow, and should go to sleep soon.

Bidding Joohyun goodnight, Seulgi and Wendy troop back to the living room and get ready for bed too. This time Wendy needs less help getting undressed, but she plays it up a little to get Seulgi to touch her again, taking advantage of her kindness. Light fingertips brush across her back, and she wishes there could be more to this, but all Seulgi does is help her out of her shirt and unhook her bra. Minimal contact.

She doesn’t bring up the almost kiss, and Seulgi is careful to be at least a metre away from her at all times afterwards, so there’s no chance of what almost transpired earlier coming to fruition. Instead of climbing on her lap and making out, like Wendy would love, she asks about Seulgi’s family. It’s something she hasn’t brought up before, since she was concerned it might be a sensitive topic. She already knows all about her skills in various martial arts and firearms anyway.

“There’s not much to tell.” She murmurs, “I have parents, they don’t know much about my job, and no siblings. Never really knew my grandparents.”

“Oh, that’s a shame. I guess you need to keep your distance from the people you love, huh,” Wendy muses. She’d love to introduce Seulgi to her family- as her girlfriend of course. But that will never happen.

“Mhm.” Seulgi agrees. “When I was little, we used to be really close, but then a few things happened when I was around eighteen- one of them was me joining the NIS- and we fell out of contact for the most part. We meet at Chuseok when I have time, but other than that...radio silence.”

“That’s so sad,”

“It’s not so bad, I’m busy all the time anyway.” Seulgi placates her, “We should really go to sleep, who knows what might happen tomorrow,”

“Ok, ok, but. I still think it’s sad,” Wendy pouts. She must be so lonely.

“Goodnight,” Seulgi insists.

“Night,”

Knock knock knock.

Seulgi startles awake, jackknifing off her position on the floor and darting out into the hallway to use the peephole. She only relaxes when she recognises the woman’s face, half hidden by her mask. She has that familiar too-calm look to her, indicating she’s done this kind of thing before.

“Blue moon,” she murmurs, eyes looking down the corridor to make sure she wasn’t followed.

Nodding wordlessly, Seulgi invites the woman inside, then heads back into the living room to get the package from its hiding spot. Handing it over, she feels an odd sense of loss mixed in with the relief of letting it go. It’s out of her hands now, but the only reason tying Wendy to her is now also gone. The woman shoves the package into her inner coat pocket and nods, then takes off back where she came from at a casual pace.

Seulgi locks the door behind her, then, not quite sure what to do with herself now, she sits in the middle of her temporary bedding. She should send Wendy back home today, right? She’s technically safe, or at least she will be in a few hours. When she wakes up, she’ll tell her the good news.

But it feels like something inside her is twisting.

The girl is captivating, even when asleep, her silvery blonde hair spilling over the side of the sofa cushions like a waterfall made of sunshine. Get a grip!

Seulgi pulls out her phone and books a flight later this evening for one.

The airport is packed as usual, but there’s a different atmosphere than the last time she was here. For one thing, she isn’t being chased by gun wielding agents intent on stopping them at any cost. Another reason is that, this time, she is going to be to flying back to Canada alone.

Both of them have already said goodbye to Joohyun, with lots of hugs and teary eyed farewells. Wendy had cried and even though she knew in her mind that she was safe now, she still found herself looking over her shoulder every now and then, checking for a tail. Even if there were a tail, this time there’s other agents around for her protection, she can see at least one over by a pillar, and some on the walkways above them. She glances over to Seulgi, who is reading a magazine, and purses her lips slightly. How is it that she seems completely unaffected by all this? Does everything that happened mean nothing to her? Was this just a job? But then what about that almost-kiss they shared?

Wendy doesn’t get it, and she’s giving herself a headache running around in circles trying to figure it all out. There’s no way they’ll ever see each other after this again anyway, so she should just forget about her, right?

Her eyes begin prickling again, and she blinks away the tears before anyone can see. The plane should be boarding in less than ten minutes, which feels like a lifetime away in this moment, but it’s going by so quickly. She has less than ten minutes left to spend with this girl, who doesn’t seem to care.

“Seulgi?” She asks, but looks away when the girl in question glances up, eyebrows raised, “are you going to miss me when I’m gone?” Wendy curses inwardly at how that sounded, she came off so clingy? No one likes clingy people! But Seulgi just watches her, something in her eyes makes her heart feel like it’s breaking even more, and nods.

“Yeah, I’ll miss you,”

The PA system calls for Wendy’s flight, interrupting what she was about to say with a cool mechanical voice that brings with it a sense of finality.

“I should go, then,” Wendy sighs.

“Yeah,” they both stand up, and Seulgi walks her as far as she can without being asked for her ticket, before grabbing her arm and turning her around.

“Hm?” Wendy questions, but Seulgi doesn’t say anything. Instead, she adjusts her scarf, the one given to her by Joohyun, so that it falls more naturally over her body, and mumbles,

“Take care.”

“I will,” Wendy takes her hands before she lets them fall to her sides, and holds them. Wendy can see it, she can see that Seulgi wants to say more, do more, so why isn’t she?

In a rush of urgency, Wendy darts forward and, not caring that South Korea is hardly accepting of this kind of love, kisses her. Seulgi pulls away, and Wendy nods, giving in. Seulgi opens to speak, but Wendy cuts her off,

“I get it,” She does. Wendy is just a job. She knows that now.

“No, you-” The final call for her flight sounds, and Wendy lets go of her hands and walks away.

She doesn’t cry until she’s on the plane, when she’s sure no one who knows her will see her.

DONT FRET THERE WILL BE AN EPILOGUE!!!

ill put that up in a few days ok no worries

my twitter, tumblr

theres like nothing on my twitter someone teach me how to use it pls what s a hashtag