xVI. operation commences

  Jaebin could feel his fingers curling inwards to form a fist on the desk, as he watched the live video feed of the mission. Even though it was supposed to be undergone by just Celeste and Chess, Minwoo had suggested they all be on standby in case of sudden and unpredictable...ah, changes. Or developments. Whichever he had preferred. 

   Right now there were only three of them in the meeting room. Or rather, it had been mostly the three of them hanging out; Jaebin, who was the most able fighter aside from His Majesty the Queen, Minkyung, who insisted on knowing everything about the operation, and Seoah, who hung out there because she didn't really have much to do otherwise, what with Sungjong forbidding them to go out aside from for missions. 

  Sungjong and Jineul were somewhere else as always, while god knows where Minwoo was.

  Jaebin took a deep breath, before exhaling slowly to let the tension bleed out of his shoulders. Sitting there in the room, doing nothing but watching, was possibly the most excrutiating thing he could experience. He would give literally anything to be there, onsite, and in person, executing the mission. 

  "Guys," Minkyung's voice broke through the silence. "Do you see that?"

  "I've done nothing but seeing, Minkyung, we - " 

  "Yeah," Seoah's trembling voice halted his irritated tirade. "Chess." 

  Turning his sight from Celeste singing onstage to the upper right corner, Jaebin stared at Chess, who was negotiating with a figure hidden in the shadows. "I don't - " 

  "Open your eyes and see." Probably annoyed at him, Minkyung had jumped out of her seat and strode to the other side of the table where the holoscreens were, and jabbed her finger at the two figures making their way up to Chess from below the grand staircase. "Those two." 

  Jaebin squinted. "What about them?" 

  "Siren song." It was early, yet Minkyung had already broke out the drinks. Plucking a bottle of whiskey off the drinks cart, she uncorked it and filled a crystal glass with amber liquid. "Humans are supposed to succumb to it immediately upon hearing. And yet, those two are completely capable of moving and were headed to Chess." Thoughts seemed to run through her head as she tapped the whiskey glass in hand before sipping from it, making a face. "Looks suspicious to you?" 

   "Very." Seoah nodded, wrapping her fingers tighter around the mug of hot chocolate, while Jaebin voiced his thoughts aloud. "Do you think it's those humans she told us about like ages ago? CARDS or something - " 

  "Glad we're on the same page." With a note of finality, Minkyung downed the rest of the whiskey, and set her glass down. "Right. Should we tell Chess then?" 

   "Wait." Jaebin turned to Seoah, who seemed to have a bit of difficulty getting the next words out. "Backup. W-we might need backup."

   "Seoah, you're a genius," Minkyung was pouring herself another glass again, and Jaebin had to snort at the irony of her being a surgeon while promoting irresponsible drinking - because what else would you call drinking whiskey at 10am in the morning? - before a stern look from her shut him up. "I'll go find His Majesty the Queen. Jaebin, you call Chess." With that (and drink in hand), she spn on her heel and headed for the door. 

   "You sure it's a good time?" Jaebin called after her retreating back, tilting back his chair. "Usually not a good idea to disturb them when both the King and Queen are gone." 

   "I survived so long as one of the second-in-commands of Gemini, what's one more temper tantrum?" She turned around, and smirked. "And besides, y'all need me. Who else would patch up your sorry selves after a battle?" 

   "Chess, I need you to listen carefully." As the agent was negotiating with the fey representative from Court, a wave of static flowed through her airpiece, and she bit her lip to stop the annoyed sigh from escaping. It was Jaebin, one of the last people she needed murmuring in her ear right now. 

   "Is something the matter?" The fey girl in front of her frowned; they were halfway through dscussing the methods of transport for the Glyph, having already verified her identity. Alys seemed impatient and Chess couldn't blame her, they'd already wasted quite a lot of time in discussing relatively petty details, and now there's an interruption. 

   "One of my agents seems to have some news from home. A moment, please." Giving her a strained smile, Chess quickly turned around to mumble into her earpiece, and to receive whatever message Jaebin wanted to tell her. "Make it quick, please." 

   "There's someone following you." 

   "And?"

  "Two humans," Jaebin confirmed. "A woman and man respectively, and they're likely from CARDS, Wonderland, whatever the name was of that meddlesome human organisation you told us about. They should be fairly easy to spot - they're the pair who weren't affected by Celeste's song. In fact, ah. Look up, and they're to your 10 o'clock." 

   There was a pause as the agent looked up, squinting at where Jaebin was pointing her to, before spotting two humans leaning back against the gilded handrail casually as her eyes flickered over their forms. "Thank you." 

  "Jineul's coming to give you back-up," Jaebin added, just before he broke off, and she straightened her back to tackle the situation head-on. "Alys, we might need to move our discussion elsewhere." 

    Instantly, amythest eyes narrowed at her, but before Alys could get another word in, Chess leaned in, and murmured in a low voice, "Ought I remind you that the fey are in a dangerous position at the current moment, and the last thing anyone would want is for your safety and that of the Glyph's to be compromised. Ma'am." She added, almost as an afterthought. 

   The reminder of their situation seemed to snap Alys out of her pride for a moment, and she cleared , before putting on a smile that resembled a grimace more. "Of course. After you." 

  "Right, they're out of the situation now." After Minkyung's observation and subsequently her departure, the meeting room had instantly became a war command room, with Jaebin fitting himself with a headset, before tossing Seoah one. "Seoah, stay on line with Chess and Celeste. I'll take command. Where's Minkyung?" 

   "Right here." The woman's voice broke through the tension, and out of the corner of her eye, Seoah saw Jaebin turn to look at her, who was likely to be leaning against the doorway as she often does. "With Jineul." 

   "Don't forget I'm still higher ranking than you while at HQ," Seoah let out an inner sigh of relief when she heard Jineul's lighter voice, one that was less...deep than his Dark side's. "I was busy working. What's going on?" 

   "An emergency, Your Majesty," Minkyung replied mockingly. Keeping her eyes trained on the monitor, Seoah muted the microphone, and reported, "Chess and the faery left already. The two humans are going after them." 

   "Tell Celeste to stop her song. Jaebin, swap places with me and get Jineul fitted for battle. I'll take over command." Minkyung was already hustling around the room, taking the headset Jaebin originally wore. Despite the severity of the situation, Seoah felt a small smile spread across her face. Even though Gemini was a bunch of misfits who squabble and argue with each other most of the time (correction - all the time) when emergency and duty calls, they were actually able to form a united front and get something done. Like how even Jineul didn't say anything while being ordered around by Minkyung, and instead left the room with Jaebin, judging by the sound of things. "Once you're done, Jaebin, get back here so I can get ER prepped." A pause. "We don't know how bad it may be. Seoah, you done?" 

    "Yes!" Having taken advantage of the chaos taking place in the background, Seoah had already relayed the message to Celeste, who was currently taking her place of glory to applause and cheers. Casting her eyes upwards, she noticed the crowd of humans milling around again, effectively stopping the pair from progressing any further, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't take your eyes off the screen," Minkyung warned, a clinking sound alerting her to the fact that she was drinking, again. "All and any sudden changes would be expected." 

    "Right, of course." Seoah gave a small cough, though allowed herself to lean back against her comfy chair. Just as they seemed to get the situation under control and managed to establish a coherent line of command, the door banged open, frightening her enough to turn around to see what the matter was. 

    "Did I miss anything?" A disheveled Minwoo stumbled into the room, clearly having just woken up from a nap, and Minkyung's deep, disappointed sigh, just about summed the situation up. 

    "Thank you." A gracious smile, the brushing of lips against cheeks, before retreating backstage and slipping gratefully into the shawl one of the helpers gave her to make herself more, ah, decent, again. Celeste clasped the fabric - silk, probably - around her, handing her microphone off to someone before looking around. "Does anyone know where my companion is?" 

    "She went off immediately after the beginning of your performance, Miss Perledemer." 

   "Right, of course. Thank you." A mistake, to ask these humans. Her siren's song would've charmed them all to oblivion, and no one should've been alerted to where Chess would have gone to. Giving one last charming smile, Celeste walked back into the dazzling lights of the lobby, and was immediately swarmed with compliments and all sorts of flowery flattery again. As the last of the crowd dispersed (thankfully), and she was about to turn back to the drinks, someone suddenly materialised in front of her. 

     "Hi." Plucking a martini glass off the tray, Celeste plastered the trademark smile back onto her face as she raised her eyes to the person in front of her. A young man with Korean features, a light blush on his face as he averted his gaze. "Y-you were amazing out there! I can't believe I would be able to see my favourite actress in person, much less see her sing." 

    "I don't really do much singing," She agreed, tipping back some of the alcohol. Why was one of her fans here? It was supposed to be a serious global summit, an international forum for all sorts of educated and official and...sometimes boring, men.

  As if sensing her mystified feelings, the boy hastened to continue. "I know it might be...surprising and probably quite annoying to see some of your fans here, but I promise you I'm an actual diplomat on official business. It's just...you happen to be my idol so I thought..." To save his loss for words, the boy started fumbling around before producing a paper napkin and a pen. "A-any chance I might be able to have your autograph?" 

   "Oh, of course!" Setting her martini glass somewhere convenient, she accepted the paper napkin and pen, before signing her name with a flourish. "What's your name?" 

   "Daehyun. Jung Daehyun."  

AHA PLOT TWIST

Also yes hi guys! I'm actually alive! Surprise surprise!

The past three months had been...traumatising. Because of uni apps and all of the trash and baggage that comes with your last year of highschool :'D Anyways now I'm back home and quarantining, so what else do you do except write? (Aside from watching Netflix, ordering food etc etc) 

Actually I have something better to do (don't we all) which is to prep for my university interview but let's face it, I'm dead and I'm brain dead and I want to die

Ooh yes! Good news!! I got an interview from Cambridge! It's part of the admission process, but if you have an interview it basically means you're already halfway there since they find you interesting enough to interview you for a place there :D 

And yes, I need to prep for that, whooops