Footsteps echo in the middle of the night, the sound mostly mitigated by the torrential downpour, as a malnourished looking girl wearing nothing but rags reaches a dead end on an alleyway.

She knew she should have turned the other way, she knows almost the whole neighborhood like the back of her hand, but in stressful situations like this she can’t help but to act out of impulse. Still, maybe it’s not too late for her to turn back.

She was about to do so when a voice reached her from behind. She turned around as fast as she could and tried not to cower in fear before the man standing in front of her. He had a muscular complexion and really short, almost shaved, blonde hair. He was also well dressed, donning a simple lightblue shirt along with a dark blue tie, a grey vest and a pair of grey pressed jeans. A golden watch adorned his right wrist.

“Listen little girl, I won’t hurt you, so be nice to this old man and give me my wallet back”- He says with a tone of voice that sounds sincere, but she knows better than to trust somebody she just robbed.

She refused silently. Shaking her head from side to side slowly, without taking her eyes off of him.

“What about this? If you give me the wallet I’ll give you some money”- He tries again, the pacifying tone of his voice still present.

He remains there, with his right hand extended towards her, expecting the girl to give back the stolen property. This man must really be foolish if he thinks she is going to give such a bulging wallet back even when, by the looks of it, he doesn’t seem to desperately need it, or so she reasons.

She tries to give him the slip and run back to the crossing but fails miserably as the mature looking man shortens the distance between them before she can speed past him. She is cornered against the wall as a consequence.

That’s when it kicks in, the burst of adrenaline, the “fight or flight” reaction. She is in danger now and her body shudders at the thought. She goes rigid for a second and before she can think of anything else, she launches a punch towards the man.

It’s still a clumsy punch and misses by a wide margin after the man just steps aside to dodge it, but that doesn’t discourage her, adrenaline still flowing in her bloodstream, she launches another one to the same effect, then another one, and another one….

She doesn’t know how many punches she has thrown to the man in front of her and neither does she care. She was about to try and toss another one when her feet clumsily tripped between themselves and she fell face first to the floor.

Although not really, since before her face collided with the ground, she felt a hand reaching for her wrist, pulling her back. She didn’t wait for the guy to pull her back up completely and, in a last frustrated attempt to hit him, she thoughtlessly aimed at his left cheek. Eliciting a yelp from his part as he removed his hands and her fall resumed.

She remains there, not bothering to get back up and resisting the unceasing need to cry out in defeat or hit the cement floor.

“Oww, you have a killer left hook, I’ll give you that”- The man, who was now rubbing his cheek, got closer to her before he crouched down at her side. – “What is your name kid?”

She looks at him uncertain of what to answer, she ultimately decides to just tell him her name.

“S-Sohye”- She says, forcing the words out, she can’t remember the last time she talked to someone.

“Well, Sohye, it’s raining heavily and we are both soaked, forget the wallet, what do you say you come home with me and stay until the downpour eases?”- He says and Sohye can’t understand where this sudden act of kindness comes from. She wasn’t accustomed to strangers showing her anything other than pity.

Sohye isn’t going to lie, the offer was tempting, but she was by no means naïve, the same offer was made to her by a lot of men before, greasy looking ones that thought they were being cunning.

“Hey…”

This time it seemed different however, maybe because he didn’t look like them, he carried an air of dignity around him. Then again, maybe that was purely for show and this time she was falling into an upgraded version of the same schemes the other miscreants tried to pull on her.

“Hey…?”

That must be it, his mere image led her to believe that he wasn’t like the other man just because he was dressed nicely and all, society’s dogmas were at fault at this! Yes! That must be it! Prejudice based solely on the grounds of social clothing trends.

She takes moment to rejoice in her own findings.

Now… what was she thinking about in the first place?

“Hey!”

The sudden shout broke her out of whatever daze she was in.

“You mustn’t have listened to me then if you were so absent minded”- He emits a short laugh while Sohye becomes flustered after being called out for spacing out – “Let me repeat it then…”

He starts talking and soon enough Sohye becomes distracted again, although this time she had a good excuse, as two hooded people were walking in their direction.

“Um, m-mister..? – She manages to catch his attention seeing as he stops talking as soon as she opens – “Someone is coming…”

He straightens himself and turns around as fast as lightning. Sohye wants to follow but ends up failing in the process as she kept slipping thanks to the wet ground. She was about to try again when she heard a voice, a woman’s voice. The only thing she was capable of seeing at the moment regarding the scene was the now blue wet shirt of the middle-aged man.

Speaking of him, she hears him sigh, probably in relief, as both his shoulder relax.

“What’s the matter?”- He starts talking, although this time his voice is filled with nothing but seriousness

“It’s Yeonjung, boss, she wants to talk with you as soon as possible”- Another voice interjects, she can’t see the two hooded figures from before but Sohye recognizes it as a girl even with the rain muffling the sound.

“And why am I required, may I know?”

“It’s Sejeong, she disobeyed and went all by herself… We found her a few hours ago… She was unsuccessful.”

“Oh… I see, what about the cop?”- A cop? What exactly where they talking about? Who failed?

“We don’t know, she is nowhere to be found”

 “Tell her I’ll be right there in a few minutes, I just need to take care of something first…”

“What? Oh… is it the girl behind you? We can take care of it while you go”- A shiver ran down Sohye’s spine, she didn’t like how those words came out.

“No you idiot! Not in that kind of way! Now run along.”- The man laughs a little bit as his voice switches from the serious tone to a more cheerful one. Still, Sohye is way more preoccupied about the previous threat to care.

“As you wish”

The man crouched down again, still standing on his feet but with his back facing Sohye. She could now finally see the two retreating figures in the middle of the stormy night.

“Listen Sohye, I’ll stop this game and cut the chase”- he suddenly twists his head to look at her, eyes full with a firmness that wasn’t there not long ago – “I know you are an orphan, I know you parents died when you were 4 and your aunt followed close behind, I know you’ve been living in the streets after you got away from the orphanage and I know you are an adept at lurking the shadows… You are special”

Sohye was beyond confused at this point, how did this man know that much about her?

“Sohye, kiddo, do you want to have a family?”

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A month went by in the blink of an eye for Sohye who was still unaccustomed to everything his new “father” had to offer to her. From expensive food all the way to her own king sized bed, it was like a miracle come true after years of living in the streets.

She was still shy around everyone nonetheless, she could freely speak with her step-father now but the stuttering never left her. An indelible mark of her time as a street dweller along with a shameful lack of general and basic knowledge, which wasn’t that weird considering she didn’t go to school and there were no classes inside the orphanage she resided.

“It’s okay, there’s no hurry, you have all the time in the world to learn it, just focus on paying attention to your tutor and you’d do well” he would say, but Sohye felt burdened by it, so she had been doubling her efforts since the very beginning. She was being tutored in multiple subjects at the same time, ranging from math to history and geography of the land.

She was in the middle of one of her daily study sessions when her stepfather came into her room, it still felt weird calling him that but she was sure she’d manage.

“Follow me kiddo, I’ve somebody I want to introduce to you”

She got up and silently followed him out of the room and down the stairs to the ground floor, there was a girl there, a little bit taller than Sohye by the looks of it, with her gaze glued to her cellphone and two giant looking luggage cases besides her.

“Somi, I want to introduce you to someone, this is Sohye…”- Said girl lifted her head to look directly at her.

Sohye got closer to the girl nervously and extended her hand, she didn’t wholly understand what was going on but she wanted to show she was well-mannered, or that she at least tried to.

“She is your stepsister”

Now everything makes a little bit more sense, he had a daughter. But why didn’t he tell her before? She was confused but didn’t dare to speak so as not to risk causing a bad first impression. She figured remaining silent was the better choice.

“Oh… wow, I didn’t think you’d do it… I mean…after mom…”- Clearly Somi was at a loss for words, and so was Sohye although that wasn’t rare at all.

The three stood there, in complete silence, Sohye was looking down at the floor and still had her hand stretched towards Somi.

“I… I need to think about this, I’m sorry”- She didn’t bother to shake hands and went past Sohye, without even sparing her a single look, with her dad following close behind, trying to stop her from leaving.

A few seconds later a “bang” coming from a door upstairs was heard.

Sohye just stood there, feeling awkward. She feared the other girl would start hating her for whatever reason. She felt her eyes becoming moist and then used her sleeve to rub them.

She was, after all, a very sensitive girl.

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“Here we are, penguin”

It was strange enough already when they entered a flower shop´, but when the floor of the backroom moved to reveal a stair Sohye couldn’t speak out of sheer stupor. They started descending without a word.

When they reached the end, her stepdad opened a metallic door that revealed a giant but well-lit room, its walls painted a bright white color. There were lots and lots of people, all dressed so formally that left Sohye feeling nervous for the simple clothes she was wearing. The structure of the whole place was similar to that of a greenhouse, only that it was underground and had no windows.

“I guess I owe you an explanation”- She was brought out of her amazement when she heard he stepdad talking. – “This place is where I work and this is where you’ll be trained”

“What are you talking about?”- She didn’t understand, she needed training for what? She was sure she didn’t need any more, since by now she had already finished with all her tutoring lessons that started five months ago when he adopted her, her sheer determination proved enough to ace all test thrown her way after weeks and weeks of exhausting revision.

“Remember when I told you that you were special? I’m talking about this” – He continued, patting her head – “Let’s just say, you’ll be working for the government”

“I..”- She didn’t completely grasp what they were talking about so she remained silent, thinking about it, if her dad wanted her to do it she would. She would make him proud, return everything he had given to her. It was the least she could do.

“Now listen closely”- His voice turned dark – “I don’t want you to worry, but in a near future I may need your help penguin, regardless of what you think of me, promise me that when the time comes I’ll need you to trust me and do what I say, do you understand?”

Sohye remained still, his words were shrouded in mystery and she wasn’t capable of making anything out of them. However, before she could ask what did he mean by it, they were interrupted.

“Now, now, what do we have here? You weren’t planning on starting without me, right?!”- Somi comes jogging to Sohye’s side, intruding the conversation they were having. – “I can’t believe you are finally starting your training”

“What? You are working here too?”- Truth be told she was kind of disappointed that Somi didn’t tell her before for a moment, but she brushed aside the thought, there was nothing she liked more than spending time with her stepsister.

“When you work here you get to live here if you want, that’s why I was gone for a few weeks, and damn, let me tell you, the food is here is absolutely mouthwatering”

“Oh, that makes sense”- Sohye answered with a giggle at Somi’s antics

“I’m sorry to interrupt but Som, we have to move now so you better have packed…”- Their dad said and Somi immediately turned pale, he just laughed heartily at her expression – “What am I going to do with you?”

And then it clicked on Sohye’s head.

“Packing? Are you two going to abroad?”- Why did she always have to find out things at the last second?

Her stepdad crouched down a little and got closer to her ear.

“Listen penguin, we have to go somewhere, I can’t tell you where but you must NOT tell anybody about this.” – He whispered putting special emphasis on the last part – “I’ll leave you in good hands but please, just remember that I love you dearly”

He finished the last sentence with a hug and Sohye found herself utterly disconcerted, when he pulled apart she felt another pair of arms embrace her. Secretive words and enigmatic expressions were a staple on her stepdad’s personality, but this time something was off.

“I’m really happy you are here now Sohye, I’m going to miss you, sister”- Somi said as she rubbed Sohye’s back, the sudden use of the “sister” word was enough to move her to tears.

After the first meeting, they didn’t talk for a couple of weeks except for the casual greetings, it took them almost three weeks to even start talking for more than a couple of seconds and it was mostly thanks to Somi, who looked like she was past the initial shock, because Sohye didn’t have enough courage to approach her, fearing a rejection.

Even then, when they finally started to get along, Somi never mentioned her as a sister, not even as a stepsister, it was like she chose to silently deny it. So now, having Somi say that out of the blue made Sohye start to sniffle uncontrollably.

“Wait, wait wait wait wait! Don’t cry! Oh jeez! You are supposed to be the older one!”- Somi rolled her eyes as she frantically tried to dry Sohye’s tears

“I-I-I’m s-sorry”- She stuttered weakly as she ended the hug.

“Now, Somi, go pack, we leave in 5 minutes”- Their dad urged Somi to move, which she did but not before patting Sohye in the back for one last time before running off, probably to her room.

She was left alone again with her stepdad in a comforting silence, which didn’t last long anyways, because he started talking again.

“I’m going to leave you in good hands, penguin, and speaking of which…”- He whistled sharply and waved a hand.

The sound of footsteps resonating against the marble could be heard. Sohye turned back to look behind her.

Two women that seemed like polar opposites were walking to them, one of them was tall, with a model-like figure and long wavy hair, while the other one was even smaller than Sohye was, she had a small face with chubby cheeks and contrary to the other woman her hair reached only barely above her shoulders.

“These are two of my most trusted subordinates here, but I’ll let them introduce themselves”

“Hey, nice to meet you, my name is Yoojung and this Eiffel tower next to me is Doyeon”- The shorter girl, Yoojung, bowed with a smile on her face just before she was hit on the shoulder by her partner.

“Yah! Cut it out”- Doyeon kind of reprimanded Yoojung with a serious look on her face, but that quickly vanished, replace by a smirk similar to Yoojung’s – “I don’t need to make jokes about your size to impress the new girl, I’d never stoop that LOW”

Sohye wasn’t sure what she was witnessing, but it was safe to say she was finding it mildly entertaining.

“This two goofballs will give you a tour of the facilities, I’ll leave you in their hands”- He said as he kneeled before Sohye and kissed her forehead – “Remember what I told you, I love you”

There he was again with the enigmatic words and even though it was a strange request, Sohye would do anything to please her stepfather.

“I promise”

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“So this is the main room of the first underground floor, at the end of the hall you have the boss office, that’s where we have to go after we show you around”- Doyeon was currently explaining the place they were in right now. – “There are five floor more below us, that’s where the bedrooms and training areas are located, a friend of us will take you there after you meet our branch’s boss”

Somi and her dad had already left and now Sohye was in company of the duo she was recently introduced to and they started talking once the found a large and sturdy looking wooden bench at the left side of the hall. Strangely enough, Sohye was beginning to feel like she had already heard Doyeon’s voice somewhere.

“E-Excuse me, but, what exactly am I supposed to train here for?”- She has been dying to ask that ever since Doyeon started explaining the way this underground base was built.

“What? Didn’t he tell you?”- Yoojung asked, confusion written all over her face. Sohye just shook her head

“Dodo, I think he played us and left the worst part of the explanation to us…”- a strange atmosphere set in

“I’m going to hit him the next time I see him”

“Let me handle it”- Yoojung answered after a few seconds of silence – “Sohye