Jisoo winced as she dabbed some more concealer on her bruise on her left thigh. The mission she completed last night drained whatever energy she had left. Propping her leg up against the door of the small bathroom stall was enough to cause sharp pain to shoot up her body. All she wanted to do was get into bed and sleep for a couple of days straight.

"Get it together," she muttered to herself. There wasn't time to rest. Her schedule was becoming increasingly busy with each passing day. For the past year, she was starting to get sent on real missions. Sometimes she had to remind herself that this wasn't some freak dream, but a strange reality she was living in. She was never one to make careless mistakes, but lately she had been training to the brink of exhaustion. She needed to be pushed to the limits in order to come back alive. On top of this, she still had to find time to maintain her grades and not draw suspicion to her "extracurricular" activites. No one told her being a full-time student and part-time spy was this freaking hard.

Jisoo heard the door to the bathroom open. She hurriedly stood up and flushed the toilet, walking out to wash her hands. Two girls immediately recognized her and blushed. "Hi, Jisoo!" they giggled.

She couldn't help but smile. She vaguely remembered them from her physics class last semester. Jisoo chatted with these girls for a couple of minutes before exchanging numbers with them and heading back outside to eat lunch. Jennie, Rose, and Lisa were waiting for her with knowing looks.

“Jennie, remind me to never take on a mission when we have midterms. I don’t know how many more cups of coffee I can have in one day.” Jisoo groaned.

Jennie raised a single brow. “Or you could just tell your handler that you’re only 21 years old and still in school? That you need a break? You volunteered to take this one on. Last night we were all at the library studying and got pizza delivered. Last night you were out fighting in hand combat with 5 henchmen of a notorious thug.”

“Ouch.” Jisoo turned away. Jennie was abrasive and blunt by nature. Jisoo loved this about her, but right now, it just wasn’t the right thing to hear.

Rose put her arm on Jisoo’s shoulder. “Look, I think what Jennie was trying to say is that you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself and take more than you can bear. We’re all so close to finishing college. We only have one more year, then we’re done with school forever—“

One of Rose’s classmates approached her and she was forced to make a little bit of small talk. He was still in earshot when she continued, “So until we’re done with college, you shouldn’t go on so many trips. Vacation can wait for graduation, okay?”

Jisoo responded, “I guess. You know that I’m doing well in the agency and I just want to continue impressing them.”

Jennie, Rose, Lisa, and Jisoo had all met at their secret agency, Incra, when they were recruited at age 18. They all happened to be attending Myungwol University as well, leading them to become a close-knit friend group. The girls would attend school during the day, then train at night. They were all devoted, but Jisoo went above and beyond her duty by taking on an inhuman amount of work. As she showed a natural talent for fighting and dealing with counterintelligence, the senior members of the organization noticed. This resulted in her being allowed to start going on missions earlier than the other girls.

So although being a secret agent was extremely stressful and draining, Jisoo was still grateful that it provided her with some purpose. Jisoo’s parents died when she was in elementary school, so her grandmother took care of her until she, too, passed. At that point, she was planning to attend Myungwol University on scholarship and was planning to move away from home anyways. Without Incra, Jisoo doubts she would grow to be as driven and focused.

Jisoo also doubts that she would end up becoming so nice and compassionate to her peers and professors. During tougher times, school became a nice break from spy work and restored some normalcy in her life. She learned to cherish it and treat all these students with the utmost care and respect. Besides, she now knew how easily your life could be snatched from you in an instant.

Lisa glanced at her watch and shot up. “I have class in 15 minutes! I’ll see you guys at training later! Uh, I mean at the movies later!” Lisa was scatterbrained sometimes and forgot that they were to act as unsuspicious at school as possible.

Jisoo laugh