It was early in the morning yet the girls were all ready and alert sitting at the table with their boss. She swiftly gave them all a once-over and cleared .

"This is the meeting that some of you have been waiting for," she announced.

The girls looked somewhat confused. The boss smirked at how transparent they were.

"We're making progress," she continued. "It's about time I fill you on some details but first, I want to hear what you have to say."

Binnie immediately spoke up.

"The cases you're giving us are connected. There's just one boss behind it," she stated clearly.

The boss raised her eyebrows.

"And this boss... is the professor."

The last word barely left Binnie's mouth as she lost the will to speak. Looking down, she mumbled:

"Why us?"

"What? What's that supposed to mean?" Mimi asked, not following what was happening.

"It means, she set us up to die!" Binnie burst out.

The room fell silent. The girls exchanged horrified looks except for Binnie and JinE who refused to look at anyone in the eye.

"H-Hold on, hold on," Seunghee chuckled nervously. "Seems like Binnie's brains are still affected by the mission. Hah, setting us up to die. What a joker, amirite?" she laughed, nudging Arin.

"It felt like that from the start so why are you pretending not to know?" Jiho interjected coldly.

Seunghee scowled and cast a quick glance at Arin's worried face. YooA sighed and swiftly pinched Jiho under the table.

"Ah-! What-" she said in surprise.

"You were never the sensitive type," YooA said to Jiho while looking sympathetically at Seunghee Arin's hair in an attempt to comfort her.

"There are a thousand deaths everyday," the boss said. "Yours could actually make a difference," the boss smiled.

"What a typical thing to hear from you," JinE smirked.

"Although I don't want you to die too soon," the boss said pleasantly, raising her eyebrows. "I need you girls for something."

"You think we'd follow you around knowing that you're just prepping to have us killed!?" Mimi said in disbelief.

"It's not like we have a choice," Jiho grumbled.

"This is why nobody likes you, you know," Mimi said, sticking her tongue out.

"Oh but Binnie likes her very much," YooA smiled knowingly.

"Hmph, smart people can make mistakes too I suppose," Mimi said thoughtfully.

"Hey!!" Binnie and Jiho cried out indignantly.

"Hyojung and Arin like her too but that's by default. They could like anybody," YooA shrugged playfully.

"Why do they have an attitude today?" Seunghee wondered aloud.

"I think it's because Mimi's still upset that Jiho closed the door in her face yesterday," Arin suggested.

"THAT DOOR WAS HEAVY!" Mimi burst out angrily.

"What about YooA?" Seunghee asked, ignoring Mimi.

"Because they're partners?" Arin offered, weakly.

Seunghee laughed and slapped Arin on the back. Arin gave a weak smile.

"Her mind seems to be off the dying thing for now," Seunghee thought, watching Arin carefully. "Good job, guys."

She directed a wink at YooA and Mimi who in return gave her a wink back. Nobody wanted Arin worried. Even Jiho didn't but Jiho was dense to a lot of things so she ended up doing it by accident.

The boss observed their banter with amusement. She glanced at her watch which told her she was running two minutes behind.

"Let me speed things up before you get to intensive training," the boss said.

"Yes, your cases are connected and they are under a person referred to as "The Professor". This person is extremely dangerous and only few people know of her existence and even fewer know what she actually looks like. Nobody else gets in her way because they would be wiped out. I suppose I'm the only one crazy enough to try and actually get away with it."

"Why?" Binnie asked, trembling slightly. "Why you?"

"Someone as dangerous as her needs to be stopped. Don't you agree?"

"No," Binnie said slowly. "Why are you doing it?"

"Well," the boss paused. "Let's just say I'm holding a very old grudge."

Before Binnie could say another word, the door burst open.

There appeared two women swinging knives around swiftly. One was doing it rather playfully. The other was marching head on towards the boss who seemed neither surprised nor affected by their interruption. Her expression didn't change even as the tip of the knife hit her neck.

"First, babysitting! Now, tutoring? I am not obliged to follow your every bidding!" 

"Haeri, you are obliged to do my every bidding and also, I don't appreciate a knife at my neck unless you mean it," she said, swatting the knife to the floor.

Haeri clicked her tongue and kicked the knife into the air and hid it somewhere in her outfit.

"Minkyung, what are you doing?" Haeri said, rubbing her temples.

"This one is so cute!! She's like a child~~," Minkyung said in a sing-song manner, as she waved a lollipop in front of Arin.

"I don't think it's smart to accept candy from strangers," Arin said doubtfully, eyeing the candy warily.

"It's alright!" Hyojung smiled. "She gave me a lollipop yesterday! It tastes nice and sweet~"

"So, you accepted candy from a stranger, Hyojung?" Binnie asked, tiredly. "We are going to die."

"Binnie, shut up," Seunghee said gruffly, snatching the lollipop from Minkyung and stuffing it into Arin's mouth.

"Ah, it tastes really nice," Arin said, blushing slightly.

Minkyung adored her cute little cheeks and doted over her even more, tying her hair into pigtails.

"Minkyung, stop that," Haeri demanded. "Don't associate yourself with her toys."

"Always so uptight, Haeri," Minkyung teased. "We're going to spend time with them whether you like it or not. I'm going to have fun while doing so."

"Who are these people?" Jiho asked firmly.

"This is Haeri and Minkyung. They'll be your trainers for the following intensive training. I borrow them from time to time when I feel like it," the boss smirked.

"If only our boss weren't so smitten with you, you'd never see us spare a second for you," Haeri said spitefully.

"ACHOO!"

Everybody looked to where Arin was, now a little toddler. Minkyung was looking curiously at the girl.

The boss raised her eyebrows.

"I only offered this banana," Minkyung said innocently. "Looks like she's got a little banana allergy."

"Don't go around stealing the things in my place, Minkyung," the boss said, holding out her hand.

Minkyung shrugged and tossed the banana back at her.

"She's got tons of gigs, don't you think?" Minkyung smiled. "The club... the cafe... why, she even has a banana plantation!" she laughed.

"And you know all this because..?"

"My partner is always lucky to hear about it," Minkyung laughed.

The girls grew a bit nervous as their conversation played out. Minkyung seemed to be very playful but the sound of her laughter was becoming more and more sinister.

"Hey, don't touch her!" Seunghee yelled out angrily as Minkyung picked up toddler Arin.

She gulped as the tip of Minkyung's knife faced her. The girls gasped.

"Back to your seat," she smiled.

"I, uh-, never left my seat," Seunghee coughed nervously, shakily sitting back down.

Now, toddler Arin was looking a bit cross and started moving around in Minkyung's arms.

"Ah, she's getting fussy," Minkyung said, cirnkling her nose. "Haeri, you hold her."

Haeri just looked at Arin solemnly. Toddler Arin stared back at Haeri hard. Growing uncomfortable with a child's nasty glare, Haeri took the chance to avert her gaze and look at JinE. JinE's face was dark.

"She's having a fight or flight moment," Haeri thought. "Why?"

Her gaze steadily went back to the fussy Arin being expertly manuevered in Minkyung's arms.

"So, how many stolen goods do you have in here?" Haeri asked, looking the boss straight in the eye.

"I don't need to tell you," the boss smiled. "Aso, put the child down, you wouldn't want to see someone getting upset."

Minkyung only smiled and raised the squirming child in the air.

"But she's so cute!" Minkyung exclaimed. 

Without warning, she flashed out a knife and pointed it at Arin. Before the girls could fully rise from their seats, there was a swift movement and Minkyung was thrown back into the wall. Well, actually several walls back. JinE was looking extremely sour as she held the tiny Arin in her arms. She immediately put Arin down on the table and stalked off towards the hole in the wall. Minkyung had reappeared, looking slightly shaken but still smiling.

"Too much for a first hit, don't you think?" she said lightly. "Don't spend all your energy there. You'll have nothing left for later."

Aside from taking a massive hit, she still seemed to be bright and playful although Haeri had a slight shadow of concern over her face. Minkyung took in a deep breath.

"You can hit hard. But if you can't hit, then it's a zero percent chance of winning."

With that, Minkyung began to dash around JinE with incredible speed and agility. Jine, for her part, made no attempt to move or engage in whatever was happening. For a fraction of a second, Minkyung's movements slowed, showing the tiniest bit of disappointment on her face. She stopped moving and sighed.

"Playing hard to get, huh?"

Minkyung snapped her fingers and in a blink, Arin was in Haeri's arms, crying. Once again, JinE was pissed as hell. She tried to grab Arin but this time the duo decided to work together and work very, very swiftly. JinE's eyes could barely keep up.

"Aren't you going to help your teammate?" the boss asked the other girls.

They blinked their eyes at her, stunned.

"You're getting deductions for not starting your training on time," the boss said uninterested, stifling a yawn.

Jiho perked up at the word "trainining" and immediately sprung into action.

"Oh god, don't tell me this is the intensive training," Mimi groaned. "They look like they're out to kill!"

"So I suppose we have to start helping or somebody's really going to end up dead," Binnie said nervously, her body reluctantly moving towards the chaos.

The others prepared themselves for the  oncoming battle with heavy hearts.

"I really didn't want to die today," Seunghee grumbled.

"Yeah, I heard we were having pancakes for breakfast tomorrow," Mimi said regretfully, cautiously walking towards all the action that was definitely increasing as more people jumped in.

"I'll be back in an hour," the boss called out, walking out of the room. "If there are any dead bodies, I want it to be theirs. Do not disappoint."

WIth one final look at the girls, she firmly shut the door tight.

"How could you leave them with those two?" Archer said, worrying.

"Training," the boss replied simply.

"They'll be killed."

"If they die in here or out there, what's the difference?" the boss laughed. 

Archer looked gloomy.

"But the little banana allergy monkey was cute," the boss said thoughtfully.

"The what?" Archer asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Nothing. I was just thinking out loud."

They continued to sip their coffee in silence. Well, the silence backed up by the sounds of the fight going on in the next room.

BOOM!

"You gave them weapons?" Archer sighed.

"I guess I left them there," the boss said innocently. "Just small explosives and the like. Nothing serious."

Archer rolled his eyes and sighed once more before letting his mind drift again. He wondered what the next dinner with the girls would be like. If ever they happened to survive the ordeal, that is.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

IT HAS BEEN FOREVER BUT HERE WE ARE.

THEIR STORY HAS NOT YET ENDED. 

I'm incredibly sorry for the long and uncalled for hiatus. I hope you guys still remember what's happening haha

Author, out ;)