*Italics will be used for flashbacks and music lyrics.

*Bold will be used for texts.

Taeyeon’s POV

After stepping out of the building, yelling at Sooyoung in the process, I hesitated. Looking back toward the four girls who were already walking further into the building, I yelled at the others, “Hey, guys. I think I’ll stay here for a while.”

“Why? We’ve already finished our business here,” said Hyoyeon.

“Oh. I forgot something in there so I have to get it back.” Apparently, my lies were as see-through as air since everyone gave me disbelieving looks.

My terrible lie, however, did not stop Sooyoung from teasing me, “Oh, yeah? What did you forget?”

“…Something?” My poor answer only put a victorious smirk on Sooyoung’s face. I sighed. “Alright, you win.” Lying attempt #2.  “I figured I would wait for those girls to lead them back to the front of this school. They might get lost again.”

“All right, then. If you really want to wait here, then go ahead,” said Yuri. It was obvious that Yuri had easily seen through my second lie but didn’t feel like bothering to question me any further.

“We’ll meet up with you at the store across the street. The one that sells ice cream. Can’t remember what it’s called but you know what I’m talking about,” added Hyoyeon.

Running, Sooyoung screamed, “Ice cream! Ice cream!”

“Later,” said Hyoyeon. The rest of the girls ran after Sooyoung, who was out of sight but her passionate screams for ice cream could still be heard.

Letting out a breath of relief, I walked inside the building and sat down on the cold floor. I wasn’t really lying. It was partly true. However, my main reason was to get closer to the girl I assumed to be Tiffany. Even though it was difficult to see her face with the hood and sunglasses on, I had a gut feeling it was her. This is for a job, I reminded myself. You have to get closer for your mission. Absolutely no selfish feelings would interfere… that. I wanted, no, I needed to know more about her. 

Seated on a not-so-comfy wooden chair, we waited for the man in front of us to give orders. This seemed way too familiar. Besides that, you’d expect much more comfortable chairs from a prestigious school than plain wooden ones. Sitting on them for just a few minutes had already made my sore. I gave the principal a special look that translated to “Get better chairs.” Sadly, he didn’t seem very fluent in eyes and ignored me. “I’d like to introduce you to the University of Sonata where you will be attending,” said the principal. “Mr. Hwang has graciously paid for all your enrollment fees as well as the dorm you will be staying at. He wants you to protect his daughter at all costs. So we have to put you in all of the same classes as her.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “We’re not exactly the best choices for this school.”

“At this point, it doesn’t matter,” said the principal. “Mr. Hwang has insisted that you stay here.”

The principal continued to talk, allowing no interruption, going through the number of steps to officially enroll us. After an hour, we had finally left his office with our keys to our new dorm. “I have a feeling we won’t be doing too well at this school,” I whined.

“What are you talking about? We have amazing musical talents,” said Sooyoung. “Especially you, Taeyeon.” I blushed. “You always sing so passionately in the shower.”

“What!?” I yelled. I ran after the taller girl, who was already sprinting away from me.

Loud footsteps and sobs that echoed throughout the empty building broke my attention away from my flashback. The footsteps slowed down as I walked toward the sound. Now, only sobs were head as I walked up the stairs. Cautiously, I moved closer and closer to the sound.

In front of me was Tiffany, sitting down with her back against the wall, crying her eyes out. My breathing became heavy as I continued to stare at the crying girl. Paying no attention to anything around her, I walked over to her. Bending down to match her eye level, I gently placed my hand on her soft hair. “You okay?” I asked.

Time slowed down as Tiffany raised her head to look at me. She was still wearing her sunglasses which was…odd. Nevertheless, she turned from gorgeous to down right adorable. Her short hair plus her adorable face made me want to hug her like there was no tomorrow. My heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest as she opened to speak. Keep calm, Taeyeon. Keep calm.

She screamed. “W-who are you? What do you want? Go away!” She placed her arms in front of herself as a cute attempt to protect herself.

Her outburst almost tore my heart to pieces, but I kept my composure. Her hostility made sense; the inability to trust anybody I knew all too well. Even though I didn’t know her at all, her words affected me like a harsh breakup. I pushed my hurt feelings behind my now emotionless face. In a soothing voice, I said, “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you. Really.” I put my hands up in front of her to show that I had nothing dangerous on me. Suddenly, she grasped onto my blue sweater and dug her face into my chest. I was in complete shock. What was with the sudden change in attitude? Could she possibly have remembered me from a few days ago, saving her? It didn’t matter now. I gently moved my hand on her back as a way to comfort her.

As I was enjoying the moment, a voice echoed throughout the hallways. “Tiffany! Tiffany!” I turned my head. Three girls were running in my direction. Why does everybody interrupt me when I’m having sweet moments? I sighed and let go of Tiffany. Holding onto her hand, I waved to the three girls. Suddenly, they were all over Tiffany. Sunny yelled, “You’re so stupid! Don’t you ever try doing that again!” The three girls took turns lightly hitting Tiffany’s head as punishment.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I was just in this building anyway…There’s no way anyone dangerous would follow us all the way here.” She pouted. Too. ing. Adorable. She pointed towards my direction. “Besides…Taeyeon was here too.”

I couldn’t help but smile. She had remembered my name despite her annoyed attitude when we had introduced ourselves to each other. I covered my mouth to hide my large smile. This was not the moment to start smiling like a dork. “Just a cough,” I added. A few seconds of silence. Oh yeah. I let out a raspy cough that reeked of ‘fake’.

Good job, me. Managed to make yourself look like the weirdest person in the world. I stared at the group of girls. Although it was sad, I knew I was no part of this. Standing up, I said, “I guess I’ll leave now. Take care.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem.” Flashing a quick smile towards Tiffany, I turned and walked away. The way her voice rang in my ears, the way she moved, and her overflowing beauty…I was completely head over heels for her.

As I was walking towards the entrance of the school daydreaming about Tiffany, my ring tone broke me from my daze.

Lalalalala Lalalalala 1 2 3 4 5 6~

I took out my blue phone. It was a text from Yuri.

Hey. Meet up with us at our apartment. We got tired of waiting for you so we’re packing our stuff to move into the dorm

Also, you better get here soon or I’ll throw your doll out the window.

I sent her back a reply.

Alright. I’ll be there as soon as possible.

If you throw him out the window, I’ll make sure that Spongebob doesn’t make it out alive. ):<

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thankfully, there was no need for the bloody massacre of Yuri’s Spongebob doll as my cat doll was still sitting on top of the bed waiting to be stuffed into a box. Packing all of our stuff took less than an hour. We only had a few belongings which included our precious dolls, clothes, and other random necessities. Nothing more, nothing less. We were all cramped into one apartment room with two large beds. None of us minded the close quarters. It was more cozy than anything. It was a bit sad to leave but it was for the better.

After a painful walk from our apartment, we had finally found our dorm room. In front of the dorm entrance were two more beautiful fountains. Behind were several buildings ranging from one to four floors. We were assigned to one of the biggest dorms thanks to Mr. Hwang. There were only two rooms on each floor and we were assigned to one of the rooms on the second floor. The dorm was much larger than our dinky apartment. A kitchen, a large bathroom, plenty of beds, it had pretty much everything we asked for.

While unpacking our stuff, Seohyun suddenly cried out holding onto the bag of drugs from the laboratory, “I almost forgot about these. Taeyeon, do you mind if we stop at the bar tonight?”

“The bar? I can’t see why not,” I replied.

“If you’re going to the bar, bring me along,” said Sooyoung who had already finished unpacking and was now lying on her bed.

“Me too,” added Hyoyeon.

“Let’s just all go, alright?” After hearing my reply, everyone cheered.

After the sky became a bit darker, we started walking toward the bar. It was about time for the bar Abracadabra to open. As we opened the door to our favorite bar, a voice yelled out, “Welco- Oh. Where have you guys been? All the customers yesterday were complaining about your absence. Really. Why would they want you guys when they already have me?” She crossed her arms and pouted. It was nowhere near as cute as Tiffany’s pout, but appealing enough especially if it came from a thirty year old woman.   

“Sorry, Narsha unnie. We were too tired to work from our previous mission,” I said.

“How was it anyway?” Narsha asked as she wiped the cups with her towel.

“Exciting!” yelled Sooyoung. “Narsha unnie, you always give us missions like babysitting officials. Boring. These are the kind of missions I’m talking about.”

“Hey, don’t blame me. These are just the ones I get from the higher ups.”

“But-”

Narsha cut off Sooyoung. She placed her finger in front of her lips and pointed to the back door. “Customers are coming in. Jea, Miryo, and Ga-in are in the back. You can go complain to them.”

Entering into the back room of the bar, two women were sitting down around a wooden table. Like Narsha, they all wore white dress shirts and long, black skirts that showed off their body curves. Upon entering, I was brought into a tight hug by Jea. “I was so worried about you guys.” She continued to bring each and every one of us into a tight hug.

“It was just a day,” I said.

“Yeah? Just a day with no contact at all from you. I was so worried when Yuri suddenly popped up here asking for weapons.”

“But I gave you the car and the weapons back. What was there to worry about?’ said Yuri.

“Can’t you let a mother worry?” Jea wiped her fake tears from her face. “You could have said ‘Hey, we’re back. Safe and sound. Miss me?’ But no. Just leaving a note tacked on the door in the back.” More fake sobbing.

“Umm…Sorry?” said Yuri.

Here it comes.

“Since you’re feeling sorry. Why won’t you guys perform today? All the customers are begging for you,” said Jea.  

Yup.

“That’s not exactly what we’re here for,” Seohyun said. She lifted the bag of drugs up in the air. “I wanted Ga-in unnie to find out what kind of drugs these are.”

“Really?” said Ga-in. Despite being six years younger than the other three women, she was probably the most mature. With her short, black hair and thick eyeliner, she gave off a fierce aura. Looking at the bag that Seohyun gave her, she said, “These are interesting. They look like sleeping drugs but not at the same time. Let’s go the lab.”

Ga-in walked to the corner nearest to the wine shelves. Bending down, she raised up the fifth wooden plank from the end of the corner. Under the plank was a number pad to enter the passcode and a fingerprint scanner. A small click was heard after Ga-in had punched in the passcode and scanned her finger. She led us to the staff bathroom. Going into the “Out Of Order” bathroom stall at the end of the bathroom, she pushed on the wall causing it to open like any door. Inside was dimly lit stairs leading down to a door. As we entered the door, we saw Miryo who was carefully wiping the guns. All around her were shelves of guns and other assorted equipment. In contrast to the more dimly lit bar, the room was extremely bright with its white walls and hard floor. Miryo was sitting on the table which had random, confusing science stuff that I had no desire to try to use.

Smiling, Miryo waved to us, “How’ve you guys been?” From first sight, you would think she was the cool, silent type but if you really got to knew her, she was just as dorky as Jea.

“Great!” said Sooyoung. “Hey, Miryo unnie. You don’t mind sending a good word to the higher ups about us. We need some better missions. Full of action.”

Miryo laughed. “Sorry. I have no idea how to contact them. They just send us missions to give out to you guys.”

Sooyoung frowned. “I don’t understand why our organization is so mysterious. It wasn’t like this before. We knew what was going on. Now, we just have to do these damn missions like dumb goons,” Her eyes suddenly saddened. “If only Master was here…he would fix all of this.”

“Sooyoung!” I yelled. She quickly placed her hand over regretting saying that one word, ‘Master’. That word was taboo. All that word ever brought us was pain. ‘Master’ was like a father to us but he had suddenly disappeared leaving for us to fend for ourselves. Soon after, we had promised to never talk about him again. There was no use to try to find him, there were no traces of him anywhere. He was the one who saved us, brought us into this organization, raised us, and yet there was always a shroud of mystery around him. Everyone was reminiscing about the good old days except for Ga-in and Miryo who were completely confused about the sudden silence.

I was the leader of this group and this was the time to do my job. I loudly clapped my hands together and said, “No time to go emo about nothing. Let’s go back home. Oh yeah. Sooyoung, you’re no longer allowed to eat anything for the rest of today.”

A large frown appeared on Sooyoung’s face causing me to smile. It felt nice to be in power again. We said our goodbyes to Ga-in and Miryo who were both intensely focused on the bag of drugs. As we walked up the stairs and out of the bathrooms, Jea was right in front of me holding out a microphone. Oh, crap.

She grabbed my hand and dragged me into the bar. After tripping my way onto the stage, I heard the large crowd of people start screaming, “Taeyeon! Taeyeon! Taeyeon!”

The inner singer in me decided to take over. I screamed into the microphone, “Annyeonghaseyo! I can only sing one song today. So choose wisely!”

I turned the microphone over to the crowd who began chanting, “L.O.V.E., L.O.V.E.!” I smiled. It was the first song I ever sang in this bar and in public. I tried to find and call Seohyun from the crowd. I felt a tap on my shoulder. Behind me, Seohyun was already sitting down at the piano, ready to go. We exchanged smiles and I began to sing.

(If you want to hear her cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eu8WpGsJyc)

L is for the way you look at me

O is for the only one I see

V is very, very extraordinary

E is even more than anyone that you adore can

Love is all that I can give to you

Love is more than just a game for two

Two in love can make it

Take my heart and please don’t break it

Love was made for me and you

Near the end of the song, I grabbed the semi-open beer bottle on the piano. I shook it and sprayed its contents onto the crowd. The crowd seemed to enjoy it but by the looks of Narsha’s and Jea’s faces, they weren’t looking too forward to cleaning my mess. Sticking my tongue at them, I yelled, “Run!”

I jumped down from the stage and ran for the exit with Seohyun. Sooyoung, Hyoyeon, and Yuri were already at the entrance running and laughing for their lives. I spread my arms to high-five the people around me, laughing. Once outside the bar, I turned around to the crowded bar. With a small wave, I said “Bye, Bye~”