Jisoo, Jennie, and Joy got home from Mrs. Kim Tae Yon's garden party just in time for dinner. Suyeon met them in the foyer, her face lighting up at the sight of them.

"Good evening, ma'am," Suyeon said with a curtsy. "I hope you had a good afternoon. I didn't know when you'd be back for dinner, so I prepared shabu shabu for dinner - you can eat whenever you're ready."

"Tarts for breakfast, now shabu shabu for dinner - is there anything you can't cook?" Jisoo asked.

"I haven't had much luck learning to make chicken Kiev," Suyeon said, not she realizing that Jisoo was teasing her.

"Can't make chicken Kiev?" Jisoo said, exaggerating all her mannerisms so Suyeon would be certain to recognize that she was playing with her. "Whatever shall I do with you Suyeon?"

Catching on, Suyeon made a show of quaking with fear. "I'm sure I don't know, ma'am," she said. "I'll try to do better. Really I will!"

Jisoo laughed. "Very well," she said, "that will have to do. In the meantime, go fetch a couple of bottles of soju from the pantry and we'll all sit down to shabu shabu." She sniffed. "It smells delicious."

"Thank you, ma'am," Suyeon said with a curtsy. "I'll have the soju ready momentarily." And with that, she scurried off into the kitchen.

Within a matter of minutes they were gathered around the table, the first ingredients had been added to the shabu shabu pot, and everyone had a glass of soju. Jisoo raised her glass. "A toast," she announced, "to the completion of a successful mission!"

After they all drank, Jennie noticed that Suyeon looked confused and asked her about it.

"Oh, I just. . ." Suyeon began. "I thought all you did today was go to Mrs. Kim Tae Yon's garden party."

"That is what we did," Jisoo said. "Not every mission involves killing people. Today was about gathering as much information as we could from all the navy wives in attendance."

"Oh," Suyeon said, a look of understanding washing over her face. "And you were successful?"

"Better than successful!" Joy said.

"Oh?" Jennie asked. "This must have been something that happened while Mrs. Kim Tae Yon was grilling me about Jisoo's time at school."

"There's one of the wives I've been trying to get close to ever since I moved to Busan," Jisoo said, "and thanks to Joy, not only do I have an invitation to tea with her tomorrow, but we have a chance to get an agent very close to the naval intelligence service."

"How close?" Jennie asked.

"The wife of the head of the Busan office of naval intelligence wants to arrange for Joy to marry one of the officers under her husband's command," Jisoo said.

Jennie whistled appreciatively. "That is close," she said.

"Wait," Suyeon said, "you mean you might have to marry someone as part of a mission?"

"Well, yes," Jisoo said. "How do you think I wound up married to Captain Lee? My family has no naval tradition. I'd never even seen the sea until we moved here after our wedding so Captain Lee could take his command."

"Not all missions involve getting married," Joy added, "but the fact is that a man's wife is often in the best position to influence him."

"But. . ." Suyeon was obviously thinking this through, "how do you know what to influence him about?"

"A lot of the time you don't have to influence him at all," Jisoo said. "Sometimes it's enough that you observe him and report back. If you are called on to influence him, you'll get communication instructing you what course of action he should take. Possibly you'll be given some tips for how to influence him, but more likely you'll know more about him than our mutual friends so it'll be up to you to figure out how to accomplish your mission."

"Our mutual friends?" Suyeon asked, looking confused again.

"That's a phrase a lot of us use to mean 'the people above us in the secret society,'" Joy said.

"We don't know the name of the secret society, if it even has one," Jennie added, "and even if we did know it, it wouldn't be safe to use it in conversation."

"So. . ." Suyeon thought for a moment. "That's why this morning Mr. Kang said to tell you that your mutual friends were very pleased!"

"Exactly," Jisoo said. "A lot of the more basic fieldwork lessons involve how to say things so that you can be understood by another agent of our society but someone not in our society wouldn't notice that you were trying to pass a message."

"In the penny dreadfuls, spies just send coded letters," Suyeon said.

"And sometimes we do," Joy said. "Jisoo is particularly good at it - you're lucky to have her as a teacher - but you can't very well send a letter to someone you're standing there talking to."

"I suppose not," Suyeon said. She fished a mushroom out of the broth and ate it, chewing thoughtfully. "There's a lot of learn - it feels like it will take forever. How do I even know where to start?"

"You won't have to know - I'll guide you," Jisoo said. "When my parents sent me to Madame Park's two years ago I didn't know anything about any of this, but the knowledge builds on itself and soon you're learning things you never could have imagined."

Suyeon's eyes grew wide. "Two years!" she exclaimed. "You mean. . . two years ago you were just ordinary and now you're. . . you."

"I don't think Jisoo was ever ordinary," Jennie said.

"Oh, hush, you," Jisoo said, reaching over and squeezing Jennie's hand. She then turned her attention back to Suyeon. "Your training will obviously take a little longer because you're also in service here, but given what you've shown me so far, I think you'll be ready for your first mission in two and a half years, maybe less."

"But how will we know-" Suyeon began, then she stopped suddenly and a look of understanding came over her face. "Our mutual friends."

"Exactly," Jisoo said. "I'll be sending regular reports on your progress to Madame Park, and she'll send them on to our mutual friends. Then one day, orders will come down. I don't know when or how or anything else about that side of the process. But odds are you won't think you're ready. You will be, though."

"How do you know that?" Suyeon asked.

"Because I didn't think I was ready," Jisoo said, "and now look at me."

Just then there was a knock at the front door. Suyeon jumped up to answer it. The others were quiet, listening to see if they could hear anything. In just a moment, Suyeon came back. "There's an old woman at the door," she said. "She said for me to ask you if you had placed an advert about a missing brooch."

Jisoo quickly put down her chopsticks and headed for the front door. There was an elderly woman on the doorstep, her white hair visible under her bonnet, her face deeply lined, her back hunched over.

"Did you find a brook with 4 rubies?" Jisoo asked.

The old woman nodded. "And 2 diamonds," she added.

"Was it in the shape of the moon?" Jisoo asked.

The old woman shook her head. "It was in the shape of a cat's face."

Jisoo quickly welcomed the woman into her home and, after looking quickly up and down the street to see if she saw anything amiss, closed and locked the door. She turned to face the old woman, who had just correctly given the signs and countersigns identifying herself as an agent and requesting Jisoo to render whatever aid she was able to.

"What can I do for you?" Jisoo asked.

The old woman coughed softly. "First, do you have someplace I could wash the dust of the road from my face?"

"Oh, um, certainly," Jisoo said, leading the way to the bathroom. "So sorry - where are my manners?"

The old woman followed a