“Can you hear me, ChaeYoung?” A deep voice asks.

“Yes,” I answer simply and look at my prey.

“Has the prey fallen into the trap?” I smile at the tall man who is openly looking at my .

“Yes, it has.” I bit on my bottom lip and start walking glamorously towards him.

“What about yours, MeiLing?” I look over at the dance floor and smirk.

“She can’t talk right now, JunMyeon. She’s dancing.” I stop in front of my prey. I put a smirk on and he smiles.

“Would you mind dancing with me?” He looks over to his partner who smiles mischievously, probably thinking that I would be an easy prey. 

“Of course.” He follows me to the dance floor and puts his big hands on my waist.

We start dancing and he pulls me closer, one of his hands going down to my . I smile and look quickly over at WuFan who’s flirting with the bartender, probably trying to get some information.

“So what’s your name, beautiful?” He asks.

“SooYoung and yours?” I ask, acting naively. I simply love to pretend to be naive because I love to see the surprise in men’s faces when I reveal my real self.

“JaeWook. You have really interesting eyes.” He compliments my eyes which triggers something in me that I brush off.

“I know. That’s used to get the man I want.” I whisper next to his ear and bit playful his earlobe. He chuckles.

“Would you like to see something interesting?” I nod eagerly and he smirks. “You have to follow me then.” I nod, again.

He takes my hand and I follow him. I look at MeiLing and wink, signalling that the plan is working. She nods discreetly and whispers something in her prey’s ear. I couldn’t see what happens next because I’m dragged in one of the many rooms in that club. He closes the door and he changes his attitude immediately. He pushes me hard against the wall and grabs my neck.

“Have your parents never thought you not to trust strangers?” He has an evil smile on his smile, probably thinking how he’s going to me.

“I don’t have parents,” I say coldly and look him dead in the eyes.

“Did I hurt you with my words?” He asks, mockingly.

“Although I don’t have parents, at least someone taught me never to judge a book by its cover,” I smirk. He looks confused.

I grab his wrist and use my knee to hit his stomach. The grip around my neck becomes loose and I use that opportunity. I get free and turn his wrist, making him groan in pain. I let him go when I see his fist coming. I hear some shouting from outside, and knew that I have to be quick.

“You little . You’ll pay for this.” He growls, furiously. He pounces towards me, blinded by his anger. I move to the left and drive the base of my palm into the underside of his nose. I can hear his nose break and he falls to the ground, yelling in pain. His nose starts bleeding. In order to assure that he couldn’t get up again, I cup my hand slightly and strike both ears at the same time. He yells again because of the pain. I smile, satisfied with my job, and reach for the handcuffs which were hidden under my dress. I would like to ask him how he didn’t feel them, but I guess I can do it later.

“Lee JaeWook. You’re under arrest for money laundering, murder, the attempt of , the attempt of assault to a federal agent and for being an idiot.” I handcuff him and force him to stand up. I walk out of the room with him and hand him to another agent, who has followed us to the room and was only waiting for my signal. Another agent passes by me as I walk back to the dancing floor. People are being cuffed, interrogated and led outside.

“Good job.” Wufan praises me, as soon as I stop next to him.

“Did you manage to get the information we need?” I ask while putting my hair in a ponytail.

“Of course, my charms have never let us down.”

“What charms?” MeiLing asks and I laugh.

“Stop, girls. You’re hurting his feeling.” JunMyeon, who pops out of nowhere, says. “All of you did a great job.”

“What could you expect of the best team of CIA?” WuFan and I agree with MeiLing.

“We need to go back and examines all the information you gathered today, best team,” JunMyeon says, jokingly. We laugh and follow him to the van.

“Hey, Vince.” We say as we go in.

“Hey, guys. You did a good job out there.” He congratulates us.

“Of course we did,” I say. “MeiLing’s charms and mine did the whole job,” I say, knowing exactly that WuFan would whine.

“What about mine?” He asks.

“Don’t exist.” Everyone except WuFan laugh. We talk the whole trip and as soon as we enter the building, we go change into more comfortable clothes. Mei and I then go to the operation room and sit in our usual seats.

“First of all, all of you did a great job in the field. Lee is already being interrogated by Vince and his home is being investigated. With MeiLing’s gathered information, we managed to locate the missing girls and a team is heading to the place.” MeiLing smiles, proudly. It’s always a good feeling to know that you have helped to save lives. “Well, I have also news for you, guys,” JunMyeon says and sits down.

“Is it a new mission, Boss?” MeiLing asks, already excited. JunMyeon looks quickly at me, strangely, before keep on talking.

“But we just finished one.” WuFan and I whine together, but we get ignored.

“Yes and a big one.” He types something on the computer and the picture of an Asian man appears on the screen. “This is Chae SeungWon, Ceo of Korean pharmaceutical company. According to the information WuFan managed to collect, he has some kind of connection with our beloved friend, Ian Glasnost. We need to gather more information about him. So we are going to Seoul on a mission.” I lose all the colours in my face with his last words.

“Why us?” MeiLing asks.

“Why do you think an all Asian team was formed in the first place?” He asks, sarcastically. I stand up abruptly and avoid their eyes.

“When are we going?”

“Today at night. I already have the flight tickets. We need to be at the airport at 7 P.M.”

“See you tonight then.” I simply leave them. If it was in any other situation, they would have stopped me, but they know the reason for my reaction. Fortunately, the lift is empty when I go in. I press the bottom and wait for the doors to close. I lean my head on the wall. I start feeling nauseous and because of it a memory pops in my mind.

“Are you sure you have eaten at night? You seem quite weak.” JongIn asked, worried. I smiled and nodded.

“I’m just tired. I stayed awake until late at night, studying.” I lied again. JongIn nodded. We passed the school gate and I opened my eyes, surprised when I saw KyungSoo with ChanYeol and JongDae.

“Good morning.” JongIn and I said, simultaneously.

“Good morning. How are you?”

“We are fine,” JongIn answered for us. “I got to go, noona.” I nodded and he hugged me before going away.

“Are you alright? You seem sick.” KyungSoo asked, also worried.

“I’m fine. I’m just tired.” I whispered.

“Let’s go to the classroom then. You can rest a bit before the teacher comes.” ChanYeol suggested. We started walking. I looked back and ChanYeol smiled at me.

“Why are you behind us?” I asked confused. He usually was next to JongDae.

“So that something similar to yesterday doesn’t happen again.” He explained while smiling. I looked at the others who were also smiling, agreeing with ChanYeol. I simply accepted their kind action. I couldn’t help but smile slightly because they were thinking about my well being, something that just a few people had done for me.

“Thank you,” I whispered, truthfully happy for having them as my friends.

We arrived in our classroom. ChanYeol and JongDae left their things in their desks before joining KyungSoo and me in the front.

“So, do you have plans for the weekend?” JongDae asked us. I shook my head.

“Me neither, hyung.”

“Cool. Do you want to go to the cinema with Yeol and me?” JongDae asked, looking at us with what I assumed was hope.

“Who is Yeol, oppa?” I asked innocently.

“Awww, you’re so cute.” KyungSoo pinched my cheek slightly. “Yeol is a nickname Hyung gave to ChanYeol hyung,” KyungSoo explained, but he only confused me more.

“A nickname is another name you give to a person you feel affection for. JongDae calls me Yeol and I call him Chen some times. A nickname can be completely different from a person’s true name.” ChanYeol explained, probably foreseeing my question about JongDae’s nickname.

“I understand. But I don’t know what is a cinema.”

“Do you remember what is a movie?” I shook my head and they looked at each other.

“You know what is a story, right?” JongDae asked and I nodded. “A movie is like a story, but with images and has people talking.” I could see that he was trying his best, but I still didn’t understand. “Ask your parents if you can go out with us. You will understand it once you see what it is.”

ChanYeol and JongDae went back to their seats when the teacher came in. We greeted him as we always do and he started talking about some war. I couldn’t pay attention because my head was hurting and I was feeling weaker every hour. When it was time for lunch, I couldn’t even lift my head either because it was too heavy or I was too weak to lift it.

“It’s time for lunch, noona,” KyungSoo said. I knew that, but I couldn’t even eat anything. I forced my body to stand up, but my legs were too weak to be able to support my weight. I ended up, collapsing and I hit my head on the chair.

“HyeJin noona, are you okay?” KyungSoo kneeled down. I simply blinked.

“ChanYeol, quick. Take her in your arms and let’s go to the nursery.” I heard JongDae order. I felt my body being lifted and I leaned my head on ChanYeol’s chest, out of energy. He was probably taking me to the nursery, whatever that was, followed by JongDae and KyungSoo. A door was opened and ChanYeol put me on a bed.

“What’s wrong with her?” A female voice asked, calmly.

“She collapsed in the classroom,” KyungSoo answered.

“All right. I need you to go out for a moment. I’ll check her out.” The boys didn’t answer but still got out, leaving me alone with the stranger. She started talking to me while doing things to my body. I didn’t answer her questions and she didn’t seem to care. She didn’t hide her concern and called someone. When she was done, she called the boys in. I was surprised when I saw JongIn coming in too. He approached me and grabbed my hand.

“Are you feeling better now, noona?” I nodded to make them feel better even though I was getting worse.

“Are you her brother?” The woman in white clothes asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you know if she had been eating enough? She collapsed because she’s low on sugar.” She answered and JongIn looked at me with an emotion I couldn’t define.

“You told me you were eating. You know you can’t skip any meal. Why would you do that?” He was talking as if he was the oldest of both.

“Why can’t she skip meals, JongIn?” JongDae dared to ask.

“She’s underweighted, malnourished and anaemic. The nutritionist told her that she can’t skip any meal. Do you not want to get healthy?” I looked down, feeling my eyes getting teary. “Noona, look at me.” I looked up and he smiled, sadly at me. “You were doing so well. What went wrong?” He seemed really worried about me. I looked at others who had the same look like him and felt a tear fall down.

“I’ll leave you alone. I called your mother and she’s coming to pick HyeJin up.” The woman warned me and left. My cry got harder because I would receive another punishment from her. JongIn got on the small bed and hugged me tightly.

“I’m sorry, JongIn. The directress didn’t tell me about her health issues. If I knew, I wouldn't let her skip her meals at lunch.” KyungSoo apologised, sounding guilty.

“There’s no way you could know that because my parents didn’t tell the school. I was given the task to assure she would eat. It was my fault. She seemed to get better and wasn’t opposing to eat like at the beginning. I thought that I could leave her with her friends alone, but I guess she wasn’t ready. I just want to know why.” I could feel his eyes on me.

“Some people said I didn’t deserve lunch,” I whispered, very tired. It was the exact same words as the evil men would always tell us. It just contribute to me to accept my punishment.

“Why would they say that?” JongDae asked, confused.

“They said I’m fat and didn’t deserve to eat.”

“Oh no, it’s that why you have been skipping meals?” KyungSoo asked, seeming shocked.

“You can’t listen to them, HyeJin,” JongDae said, angry for some reason.

“Is there another reason why you haven’t been eating? You know you can tell me everything. I won’t judge you.” JongIn encouraged to tell him the truth. I shook my head. “I know you’re lying, but I won’t pressure you to tell me. Just know that you’ll have to eat.” I shook my head repeatedly and started crying harder.

“Why, HyeJin? Why don’t you want to eat?” ChanYeol asked, worried and confused.

I really wanted to answer, but I couldn’t. DoYeon would probably force me to eat. I would go against his orders and received a worse punishment. I only started crying harder.

“You need to tell us what’s wrong so that we can help you,” JongIn said, softly.

“I think we shouldn’t pressure her. She had been through a lot. There are so many things that she’s being introduced to. Maybe she’s overwhelmed and doesn’t know how to deal with everything. I heard that people stop eating when they are going through stressful or traumatic moments.” KyungSoo said to the others.

“You’re right, hyung.” JongIn agreed, still rubbing my back.

“Boys.” The woman called them. “Your classes will start soon. I need you to go.” The four of them started protesting, wanting to stay. “I can’t have all of you stay. I can only do an exception for JongIn who is her brother.”

“You should go. You can give me your phone numbers and I’ll text you about her situation.” They seem to agree and gave it to JongIn. They bid their goodbye and went to class. “You have made good friends, Jin.” He commented but got no reply. He kept on rubbing my back until I stopped crying and feeling it when I fell asleep.

“I wish you would rub my back to console me now, JongIn.” I grab my phone and look to the screen photo. I had been so happy that day.

“So now that you have eaten and feel better, I have something for you.” I looked curious at JongIn who was smiling openly. He gave me a phone.

“Why do you have another phone? Did the other break?” I asked, confused.

“No, silly. This one is for you so that you can call me or our parents if you need us. You can also put your friends’ number.” JongIn explained it to me.

“It is mine?” I asked, completely surprised. He nodded. I jumped on him, excited. "Thank you very much.” I hugged him tightly.

“You’re welcome.” He chuckled, also happy. “Do you want to try and call somebody?” I nodded. “Who?”

“You.” He chuckled again.

“You don’t need to call me, Jin. I’m right next to you. What about KyungSoo hyung? I haven’t told him yet how you are.” I accepted his idea gladly.

JongIn showed and explained to me how to dial a number. I dialled KyungSoo’s number and put the phone next to my ear, waiting for him to answer.

“Hello. Who is it?” I smiled automatically.

“Hey, Soo. It’s Hyejin.” I said, excited.

“Noona. Hey. You seem better.”

“I have already eaten, thus I feel better now,” I explained.

“It’s good to know. Don’t scare me like that again.” He said seriously, but I understood that he was joking.

“I won’t. This is the number of my new phone.” I explained happily and I heard him chuckle.

“I’ll save your number in my phone.”

“Okay. Bye Soo.” He said goodbye and hung up.

“Can I call JongDae oppa and ChanYeol oppa, too?” I asked, knowing that they had given JongIn their numbers too.

“Yes, but first let’s take a picture to remember this moment.” I nodded. He showed where I had to go to get to the camera. JongIn did something weird with his hand and told me to do the same. When he put his hand next to mine, our hands made the form of a heart. I smiled excited about it and he took a picture at that moment.

“You’re very pretty when you smile, Jin.” I blushed and looked away.

“Can we call JongDae oppa now?” I asked, embarrassed.

“You’re so cute.” JongIn pinched my cheeks but gave me his number nevertheless.

I come back to reality when the doors open. I get out quickly and walk towards my car. I get in and sigh deeply.

“I guess this moment would happen at any moment. It’s time to go back home.” I talk to myself, not feeling ready for that.

A few hours later …

“You don’t seem happy to go back to your homeland.” MeiLing, who is sitting next to me, affirms.

“I’m just nervous. I haven’t been there in years.” I partially lie to her.

“It’s understandable. I was born here, but I miss Taiwan sometimes.”

“Let’s sleep, okay? JunMyeon is also Korean and you know how he gets when a Korean is involved in the mission. We’ll have a lot of work to do and I want to rest as much as I can. I’ll need the energy to be patient in order not to kick JunMyeon and those Korean agents’ .” I suggest.

“You’re right. He’s going to be impossible to deal with.” I closed my eyes and let my mind run wild.

“Do you think that you can fool me? Do you really expect me to believe that you almost fainted?” I was looking down, biting my bottom lip. “Answer me.” He only didn’t shout because JongIn and DoYeon were at home.

“My b-body g-got used t-to food. I-I’m not used a-anymore not to e-eat every day.” I whispered, afraid of his reaction.

“Hands on the desk.” He ordered. I obeyed, sort of know what was going to happen. He took out a long metal ruler out of the drawer.

“How many people were with you in the nurse room?”

“F-Five,” I answered, already feeling my eyes watering.

“I’ll hit you five times. Each time you make a sound, I’ll add on more.” I nodded.

Honestly, I preferred physical punishments. Most of them are quick and the pain only lasts for a certain amount of time. I bit my lip when the ruler hit my hands. He was stronger than I thought. I cried silently while he was hitting them, not harder enough to break them because I knew he could if he wanted to. My hands were extremely red when he was done and they were starting to swell.

“I hope this gives you a lesson. Don’t try to use others to get away with your punishments. Out.” I bowed and left the room quickly. I ran past JongIn towards the bathroom. Opening the water hurt a lot, but the cold water felt good on my hands.

“What’s wrong, HyeJin?” He approached me.

“What happened to your hands?” He asked worriedly. I simply kept on crying. It was hurting a lot. “You need to go to the hospital. You might have broken one of them.” I shook my head violently.

“Ice,” I whispered. JongIn ran out of the bathroom and came a few minutes later with two bags of ice.

“One for each hand.” I took them out of the water and he gasped.

“How did you get hurt?” I remained silent. He sighed and put the ice on my swollen hands.

***

“What happened to your hands?” The three boys in front of me asked, looking at my red and swollen banded hands.

“My dad asked her to get something from the car. She left the door open. The wild blew the door closed and I don’t need to say where her hands were.” JongIn explained.

“I’ve never seen someone as clumsy as you. You’re a danger to yourself.” JongDae said. I looked at his mocking smile and understood that he was teasing me.

“No. I’m not,” I answered after a while.

“Yes, you are. ChanYeol or I am always catching you so that you don’t fall.”

“You’re lying. It’s only ChanYeol who grabs me.” I argued back to my own surprise.

“Are you calling me a liar?” JongDae asked suddenly serious.

“Y-Yes.” I dared to answer, nervously. He looked dead in my eyes, silently. I was about to apologise for going too far when he hugged me.

“You grew up so fast.” He let go of me. “ It feels like it was yesterday that you were afraid of even talking.” I stared, confused at him.

“Stop being dramatic, Hyung.” ChanYeol hit his arm slightly, but Jongdae made a big deal out of it.

“HyeJin, ChanYeol hit me.” He complained to me.

“I saw it,” I stated the obvious.

“Then do something.”

“Why should I do something?”

“Because I’m your friend and ChanYeol is being mean to me.” He explained.

“Really? When was ChanYeol mean? He’s nice to you all the time.” I said, innocently.

“JongDae, Noona isn’t on your side this time.” KyungSoo laughed.

“How can you betray me like this?” JongDae accused me. His words surprised me.

“You’re lying. I never betrayed you. You’re my friend and friends don’t betray each other.”

“Was I the only one who felt touched with her words?” They answered ChanYeol’s question with a headshake.

“Let’s go. I want to take noona’s things to her classroom.” JongIn said.

“I can do it for you if you want.” JongIn shook his head.

It was my first time walking with the four of them to class. It felt so right to be with them. I smiled at the scene of JongDae and ChanYeol arguing.

“Do they always argue like that?” JongIn asked KyungSoo.

“The day they don’t argue I’ll worry.” I agreed with him because they argued ever since I’d met them.

“Your friends seem funny, Jin. No wonder you almost cried last time.”

“Why did she cry?” KyungSoo’s question got the two other boys attention.

“My mom is taking HyeJin’s welfare really serious. When she asked if noona made any friends, she thought it was weird for her to have male friends. She thought you might be taking advantage of her. At the end of the conversation, noona thought she had to stop talking to you and almost started crying.” I hit JongIn’s arm, embarrassed.

“ChanYeol, my heart is melting.”

“Mine too.” ChanYeol ruffled my hair softly. “You’re so cute.” I looked up, meeting with his brown eyes. I felt my heart race up and stepped back, hiding a bit behind KyungSoo.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed. We are friends and it’s normal not to like the idea of separation. We want to spend time with each other.” He smiled openly. We got to our classroom and JongIn came in to put my bag on my seat. The boys were talking and I walked JongIn to the door.

“I looked through your schedule and put the alarms on your phone. You need to take these pills every time you hear the alarm.” He took a small bottle with white candies out of his bag. “I still don’t know what made you skip meals, but you can’t do the same with these pills. Noona, you really have to take them. I’m going to trust you this time. I don’t want to burden the boys with it. I’m already grateful that they take care of you in my absence.”

“What is it for?”

“Iron piles so that your anaemia gets away.” He explained to me.

“I’ll take them. I promise to you.” He handed them to me. Suddenly I felt an arm on my shoulders.

“Don’t worry. We’ll make sure she takes them.”

“Thank you, JongDae hyung.”

‘I hope we don’t meet. I’m not ready to face them after all those years. Please, God. Don’t let our paths cross because if I meet one of them, I know that I’m bound to meet the others too. And if our meeting is in your plans, don’t let ChanYeol or JongIn be the first one.’ I pray before falling asleep.