Jihyo swallowed thickly, eyes never leaving Sana underneath her even as the cold barrell of a gun pressed insistently against the back of her head. Heavy breaths echoed behind her, as if the assailant had ran to get here in time, and Jihyo tried not to flinch when the chilling bite of the metal pressed deeper with every shaky breath.

  “How’s Momo?” Sana said, snapping Jihyo’s attention back to her. She was calm, lax, as if there wasn’t  a gun being held to the head of the woman pinning her to the ground.

  “Good.” The voice of the unidentified woman was soft, barely audible even in the still quiet of the room. There was an underlying strength in it though, and Jihyo felt it when she spat out her next words through gritted teeth. “She’s unconscious, but so is the agent who took her out.”

  Worry overcame Jihyo’s better judgement.

  “Is, is she-“ she began but she was cut off at the barrell being shoved into her skull.

  “Mina,” Sana began, looking behind Jihyo’s shoulder to make eye contact with her other partner. “It’s okay.”

  Mina.

  She hoped Chaeyoung was still listening to this. The tell tale voice in her ear was absent, but she heard the annoyingly familiar crackle of a microphone being tapped. Perfect.

  The gun behind her was drawn away and Jihyo almost fell forward in relief. Sana was looking up at her bemusedly, probably because she still hadn’t gotten off of her.

  “Your friend,” Mina spat harshly, “is fine. Might be a little sore in the morning but it’s what she deserves for drugging Momo.”

  Sana’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

  “She did what, now?”

  Oops.

  “We knew about Hirai, how she looked like” Jihyo began sheepishly, nervousness seeping into her voice. “And we decided to do this as peacefully as possible.”

  “Uh-huh.” Sana mocked from below her, wiggling herself to remind Jihyo of their position. “And how did that work out for you?”

  Jihyo sighed heavily, shifting herself so she no longer pinned Sana down and allowed the girl to pull herself up. She was surprised, when Sana finally brushed herself off, to see a hand extended to her too.

  “So what’s your offer agent?”

  Jihyo swallowed the thick knot of fear that had been lodged in , the situation considerably less hostile now.

  “We,” she began, gesturing with a hand, “as in myself and my team, discovered something the other day.” She took a deep breath.

  “As you are already aware, I am an agent. The company I work for has been...less than forthcoming recently about events, and my missions have become increasingly mundane and useless even as this city is facing its biggest crime wave in nearly two decades.” She made eye contact with the girl in front of her, serious expression drawn tightly across her face as she listened to Jihyo’s plea.

  “You think that something’s going on behind the scenes.” The girl behind her voiced, moving around to stand next to Sana. She still had the gun in her grip, but from the way she held it Jihyo was sure it was to do with a sense of familiarity than intent to use it. Jihyo nodded sharply.

  “I know that there is. And that’s why I’m here.” She gestured to the girls in front of her who both raised a single eyebrow in unison.

  “I think that The Erinyes have a hand in this.” She noted the sudden way both bodies in front of her stiffened, exchanging furtive glances that spoke volumes Jihyo couldn’t understand.

  “I don’t think you fully understand what you’re getting into here, agent.” Sana says, voice clipped and controlled.

  It’s a warning. Jihyo ignores it.

  “You’re right.” She says reluctantly, closing her eyes briefly.

  “Which is why I’m here.”

  “No.” Mina says firmly, no room for negotiation in her tone. Her stance shifts, steeling herself for resistance and driving her point deeper into the ground.

  “We’re clean, and we’re safe - and we’re going to keep it that way.”

  Jihyo eyes the woman in front of her; the one who’s somehow slipped under the radar for all the years they’d been following J-line. It would have been no easy feat, and Jihyo has a damning suspicion that this woman may very well have been the reason it was so difficult to find these girls in the first place.

  The quiet ones were always the ones to be most feared.

  “Not as clean as you think,” Jihyo replies slowly, noting the shock that stills the two bodies in front of her, “if we could find you, what makes you think they haven’t been watching you all this time too?”

  “How long have you known about us?” Sana demands, words short and sharp and dripping with command.

  “Four years.” She admits, sees the concerned rise of Sana’s brows as Mina in a shaky breath.

  They look at each other for a moment, concern painting every feature of Sana’s face and something akin to resolute fear soaking Mina’s. There’s a silent agreement, resolve melting away from Mina’s stubborn form, and Sana is turning to Jihyo with a mask of neutrality clipped in place on her face.

  “You’ve known about us for four years.”

  “We’ve known about you and Hirai for four years. We had no idea there was a third member.”

  There’s a satisfied smirk poking through the veneer of dread on Mina’s face. Jihyo supposes she’s earned it. Sana sighs heavily, brows scrunching together as she pinches the bridge of her nose.

  “They know. If they’ve been tracking us, they definitely know there’s three of us.”

  “There’s always three.” Mina chimes in, soft voice a stark contrast to the harsh colour in her tone earlier.

  In that moment everything felt too intimate, like there was something Jihyo didn’t quite understand about their last exchange and she was a silent witness to something too private to explain. She watches them talk silently again, noting the familiar body language that they could gleam from each other with the slightest of movements and glances.

  It was polished, refined. Something that could only be achieved through years of teamwork and absolute trust in the other. She had yet to see how the dynamic would change with the presence