Tiffany awoke to the happy cheeping of birds, a ray of sunlight finding its way past the curtains. A new day had come and she was relieved to find that her memories of the past day hadn’t faded. It had occurred to her that maybe her mind would reset itself every day and that may have been the reason she knew absolutely nothing about what she had done in the past. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. The images of a half- Taeyeon were still savored inside her head. Feeling her body heating with the remembrance she sought to find Taeyeon. Tiffany found her where she had last seen her; in her bed where she was drooling over her own pillow this time. A smile formed on Tiff’s lips as she saw the peaceful state Taeyeon resided in. The hard expression Tae had worn ever since she discovered her best friend was in fact still alive had eroded from her face.

 

Tiffany just knew that Tae was keeping her sorrow to herself. There was just no way she could accept things as they were right now. If what had been told to her was true, then Taeyeon should’ve been devastated; her world falling apart. Imagine losing your best friend in the entire world and live with it for years, only for her to suddenly appear again in the most abrupt way possible. Not only would it be hard to accept the fact that she was still alive, but to accept that she also lost her memory of you? That was just pushing the boundaries of definition unfortunate.

 

Yet, Taeyeon hadn’t shown any sign of emotion. There was no way Tiffany could tell how Taeyeon really felt, for Taeyeon had surrounded herself with an impenetrable wall of bricks. A sour taste filled Tiff’s mouth. For some reason she knew she and Tae used to be very good friends, but the present situation told her something different. Tae told her nothing; acted towards her like she was just any roommate.

 

Taeyeon brushed her leg over the other, causing the blanket to fall from her torso.

So fragile…

Tiffany to resist the extreme urges to wrap the girl in her arms and pull her close.

 Tae…Please share your pain with me…

 

“Taeyeon,” Tiffany whispered, “are you awake?”

 

Her words, although soft, made Taeyeon shift in her bed and response in a sleepy voice: “Don’t wanna.”

 

“And to think you called me a sleepyhead,” Tiffany shook her head and laughed, causing Tae to throw a pillow to her head.

 

“I’m just saying.” Tiff got up and sat herself next to Taeyeon.

 

“Hey, I don’t want to go alone,” she placed her hand on Tae’s hip.

 

“Hmgh,” Taeyeon groaned.

 

“Come on,” Tiffany shook Tae back and forth hoping to release her waking spirit.

 

“Fine,” Taeyeon eventually surrendered to the will of Tiff. With another moan she slipped from underneath the covers and stretched her arms above her head. In the process her skimpy shirt crawled up her belly, giving Tiffany a nice view of her abs. Yeah, Kim Taeyeon was a beautiful girl.

 

“Morning Tae.”

 

Taeyeon saw her friend sitting on the edge of her bed and, spite the lingering weirdness, was glad she was there.

 

“Good morning,” she replied, “ready to go have breakfast with the others?”

 

“I don’t know,” Tiffany fidgeted with her hair, “it remains hard to determine how I’m supposed to react.”

 

“Don’t be so silly. You are you, who you were does not matter,” Taeyeon paused and hung her head, “we’ve all changed…”

 

Sensing the mood about to turn sour, Tiffany changed the subject. “You’re right, thanks Taeyeon. Let’s go eat then.” With a nod of approval they went to ready themselves for their encounter with their friends.

 

*

 

The canteen was always calm at this time of the day: No line at the counter, several empty tables, not more than thirty people present. Evidently, people didn’t like to stand up so early in the morning. The smell of fresh baked bread hung in the air and was sure to lure out the appetite of everyone who stepped inside.

 

Taeyeon hadn’t been here much in here entire stay. Her routine was exercising in the early morning, eat alone in the breeze of the soothing wind, then train some more, train her aim, go out to hunt, eat, sleep and repeat. Whether she was at the base or not didn’t matter much to her.

 

“Hmmm,” Tiffany hummed, “that smell.”

 

“It’s good, isn’t it? Since the cooks don’t have anything better to do they just keep on mastering their art. It’s safe to say that they improve every day.” Taeyeon explained.

 

“Amazing!” Fany clapped her hands together in joy. A good meal is critical for every person that values their body. “Quite so.” Taeyeon agreed and grabbed Fany’s hand.

 

“Hm?” Fany looked at her puzzled.

 

“Come on, I’ll show you where we can get our breakfast.” Not allowing Tiffany to break free Tae pulled her towards the counter and grabbed a plate. As she reached out for the utensils she froze for a moment. “What’s wrong?” Tiffany inquired.

“Eh,” Taeyeon was at a loss. In the old days, she would always share a plate with Fany, stealing her food from the girl’s plate whenever she felt like eating. But now, she had no idea if that would still be appropriate. The sadness that she had tried to keep at bay for almost two days now began to surface.

 

“If you don’t know what you want we can just share a plate if you like. I would actually appreciate that, since I have absolutely no clue what to pick,” Fany flashed her eye smile at Tae and used her hands to encourage Tae to move forward in the queue.

 

“S-sure,” Tae’s upcoming sadness faltered in the light of Fany’s suggestion; in its place the feeling of tenderness emerged.There was no doubt something clicked between them. It almost seemed as if Fany had read her mind.

The two girls moved along the line with the distance between them remaining extremely small.

 

Further into the room a pair of eyes inspected every move the two made.

 

“Aren’t they cute?” Sooyoung leaned with her elbow on the table, her face resting on her palm. Opposite of her sat a girl who wasn’t as nearly as calm as Sooyoung.

 

“Unnie, what if they see us?” A panicked Yoona tried her best to hide herself behind her arm.

 

“Hm?” Sooyoung gave her friend a look, “so what if they see us?”

 

“But unnie~” Yoona drawled, clearly not agreeing with her.

 

“Geesh Yoong, nobody is going to suspect anything.”

 

“Since when does Tae eat breakfast?” They both glare at Taeyeon, who is now almost finished with gathering her breakfast.

 

“Who says she’s going to eat breakfast?” Sooyoung smirked. “They only have one plate for the two of them.”

Suddenly Yoona grabs Sooyoung by the arm, her eyes wide. “Soo…”

She doesn’t need to say anymore. Sooyoung knew exactly what she meant, because they also had decided to share their food on one plate. Now normally speaking Sooyoung could easily think of an excuse, but with Taeyeon that simply wouldn’t be enough. That girl was thorough.

 

“, , ,” Sooyoung targeted all her remaining food on the plate and, much like a hamster, filled her cheeks with the delicacies. There was no way she was going to let Tae see that she was sharing a plate with Yoona. Sooyoung never ever shares her food, so if anyone caught wind of her sharing a plate with Yoona conclusions may be drawn… Conclusions neither Sooyoung nor Yoona was eager to talk about.

 

“Soo!” Yoona yelped astonished by her act. Though, after she caught her breathe, Yoona couldn’t help but to find Soo adorable. It was usually the other way around. Sooyoung would call Yoona adorable and Yoona would in turn jokingly call her a ‘ShikShin’, a term that was very applicable especially now.

 

“Hey guys!” Tiffany had seen the girls sitting in their corner and waved at them. She then turned towards Taeyeon and whispered something in her ear. The blonde shook her head as a response to whatever Tiffany said and the two went to sit a few tables away from the other pair.

 

“Wh-what?” Yoona said a tinge of annoyance in her voice. “Why did they skip us like we’re just some strangers?”

 

“Tfher ar-owly twho tsjairs ‘arhling,” Sooyoung spoke with still full with food.

 

“What?”

 

Sooyoung held up a finger to indicate she needed to swallow first. She took a few more strong bites before sending everything down and leaving out a satisfied ‘aaah’. “There are only two chairs for this table. It’s why we picked it, remember? They probably thought it a good idea to leave us together. Either that or Tae wanted her Fany all to herself.” Sooyoung chuckled.

 

“It’s probably the last,” Yoona now also laughed. “Must be weird though, for Taeyeon I mean. Tiffany knows nothing from our past.”

 

“Hm, I don’t know. When you compare Taeyeon in the state she was before this it couldn’t be much worse either way. The way I see it we should be happy for her. She hasn’t been in the canteen for ages!”

 

“Do you think she’ll stay?” It was a question the girls always knew the answer to: No. But this time Sooyoung hesitated.

 

“Well we’ve to search for Yuri, so we’ll be all out this time. But I suspect Taeyeon will restrict herself to the schedule. Jessica however…”

 

Both Yoona and Sooyoung knew this would spin Jessica out of control. They had to find Yuri and quick or the resulting consequences could be catastrophic. To make matters worse Krystal was also missing. All of the girls wanted to help Sica, even Taeyeon who had been struggling with her own problems and still wanted nothing more than to take Sica out the base and track Yuri down.

 

“We trained yesterday, we can afford to sit here for a while Soo,” Yoona sensed the guilt within Sooyoung. The guilt of relaxing. It was something hiding in every single one at this point. Was it okay to slack off once in a while? To take a rest, while the rest is training or even fighting the threat that may well cause human-beings to go extinct?

 

“You’re right, let’s take our breather and then continue to kick !” Sooyoung did a little fist pump to show her motivation, causing Yoona to call out: “Fighting!”

 

*

 

“Did you see them?” Taeyeon was eager to discuss whatever that was that they had seen. Tae picked out a table for two and sat down.

 

“Of course I saw them. I waved to them!” Tiffany whispered while taking her seat.

 

 “Yeah and it was dumb! There was totally something going on, but now you’ve made our presence known so I can’t spy on them.”

 

“Spy on them? You should’ve said so.” An evil tingling colored Tiffany’s eyes. “Tell me more.”

 

“Well, something piqued my interest and although Yoona tried to hide it I saw it.”

 

“What are you on about?” Tiffany listened on the edge of her seat, filling with a fraction of a croissant.

 

“See, I’ve been in the recon field for years now. Often my top most priority is to disappear in my surroundings so that I can assassinate the target without them noticing. Every single mistake can cost me my life, so I’ve learned to observe and take in every little detail I perceive.”

 

“Hmhm,” Tiffany nodded to show she followed, “so you’re saying you saw that Sooyoung and Yoona shared a plate?”

 

Taeyeon’s eyes went wide. “You saw that?”

 

“At first I didn’t really bother, I mean who the hell cares who shares a plate with whom?” Unbeknownst to Tiffany, Taeyeon squirmed in her seat. To her it mattered a lot.

 

“But then I saw that Sooyoung was stacking her food inside in matter of seconds I knew something was up. Quite ironic, she must’ve tried to keep us from noticing anything weird, but that action made her even more suspicious.”

 

 Tae scraped , being embarrassed by her previous attempt to impress Fany with her ‘observation’ skills. “Yes, eh… That was what I referred to.”

 

“Right? Our mind must be connected.” Tiffany laughed gleefully, eliciting a smile from Tae.

 

“Right.”

 

 

The rest of the day Tiffany had been learning under the instruction of a very cute

teacher. Taeyeon had changed into her work out gear and was teaching Tiffany how to handle a basic gun. She had Tiffany equip a holster necessary to practice to draw.

Tae herself also wore a holster, two actually, one that was positioned as any other normal holster; at her side. The other one was located behind her back, hovering just above her , which was tightly wrapped in a camouflaged trouser.

 

“Alright, I’ll show you one more time.”

 

In a flash Taeyeon had translocated the gun from her holster to her hand, aiming at the poor girl standing in front of her. There was no one in the entire base that was able to match Taeyeon in her speed.

 

“Ehm.. Tae?” Tiffany spoke tenderly, “do we need to stop for today?”

 

It hadn’t escaped Tiffany how Taeyeon was trying her upmost to hold herself together. Her trembling hands, lack of instruction and absent-mind told her at least that much.

 

“I-I’m fine,” Taeyeon sighed as she accidentally dropped her gun to the ground.

 

“Not good enough. You’re most definitely not fine,” Tiffany rolled her eyes and went to Taeyeon’s side. “Let’s call it a day.” Tactfully she placed her hand on one of Tae’s shoulders, hoping to calm her down a bit.

 

“Tsk,” Taeyeon clenched her teeth together, angry with herself for slacking off and letting her emotions pour through.

 

“We’ve trained all day! I’m freaking tired. Please, I wanna take a break,” Tiffany said, shifting the blame on herself in an attempt to help Taeyeon.

 

“You’re probably right.” The blonde finally admitted as she bent over to pick up her gun.

 

“Hey, want to know a secret?” Tiffany bit her lip while she inspected her friend’s behind.

 

“What’s that?” Taeyeon rotated her head to look up at Tiff.

 

“You’ve a cute .” Tiffany accompanied her teasing comment with a soft slap to Tae’s bum.

 

“Yah, fany!”

 

Both laughing now, they tidied up the room and returned to their room for a much needed rest.

 

*

 

I need to find her

 

Jessica tramped through the otherwise silent hallways of the base. There was no time to lose. She found the door she had been looking for to her right and burst right in, shocking the poor guard who had been sleeping in his seat.

 

“Sleeping now?” Jessica scoffed

 

“N-no, I wasn’t doing anything of the sort,” the guard stuttered but stood firm.

 

“Listen, I’m not here to cause you any problems, just let me fetch my weapon and I’ll be gone.” Although most attendees and soldiers were allowed to keep their weapon in their own room, Jessica’s was an exception. Hers was placed with the most dangerous objects of the entire base.

 

“Do you have any idea what you’re asking of me?” The guard stood up, ready to show Jessica the door.

 

“I do and it won’t be a problem.” Jessica nonchalantly passed him, but the guard wasn’t going to give in so easily. He put his hand on her shoulder.

 

“The hell do you think-” The sentence was cut short by a tearing scream; a scream that originated from his own throat. The man’s eyes almost bulged out their sockets, refusing to take in what was happening.

 

“It won’t be a problem,” Jessica repeated, her voice stern and cold. The guard however was too shocked to give notice. The hand that he had moments ago placed on Jessica’s shoulder had been ripped of its ability to move. Sica hadn’t completely frozen the man’s hand, her power was weak without her weapon, but it was enough to momentarily rob the man of his will to hold her back.

 

“I froze the blood inside your veins. You should be okay in about ten minutes,” Jessica spoke as she left the daunted man for what he was and entered the vault. Within a few minutes she had found her desired object. With her robe fluttering behind her she departed the room and made for the base’s gate.

 

The immediate breeze she faced once outside sent her brown hair airborne and she nuzzled her chin into the opening of her coat to escape the vile wind.   

 

I’m coming for you Yuri

 

Her flingers slit into her pocked, gliding over the object she had just acquired; a cyan crystal which was linked to the origin of her powers.

 

And for you Krystal

To be continued...

 

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Author notes

Seems like Yoona and Sooyoung are hiding something, what could it be? (I know it's totally obvious isn't it?)

Taeny is going to be intense in the next chapters, Taeyeon has to come clean to Tiffany sometime, right?

And then there is Sica, dangerous and ready to fight for her love. But was this a wise decision to take?

Some other things, for those that are waiting on some fluffy /ty will be pleased to hear that we're very close to a the relationships blooming. I've chosen this setting so that it at least the story has some plot that can be used or discarded whenever the need arises. I'm enjoying writing this and I hope you enjoy reading this as much. I'm in the middle of my exams so I'm kinda pulling late nights for this haha. 

Anyway I look forward to writing a bit arousing scenes in the very near future!

O and please, do leave a comment with how you liked it so far or to show your thoughts or to attend me on some errors. I love to recieve comments hehe.