Irene’s POV

“Wake up, . I don’t have the patience to put up with your bull today, you better keep your damn mouth shut and go shower your musty before I come again, or you’re on cleaning duty for the rest of your life as a trainee.”, he shouted, scaring the out of me as I was in a deep sleep after training last night till 3 AM because the commander was not satisfied with my skills.

Skills, my . He’s such a ; he’s only doing this because he personally hates me.

Still, it was better to shut up and follow my trainer rather than talk back to him. I dragged myself out of the bed, even though I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep, to take a shower and get ready for physical training, which was the focus of this month.

There were only two girls in training and I’m one of them. Needless to say, we were pretty close to each other and we also shared the dorm together, making us inseparable. We were obviously bullied by the boys but the Chief managed to keep them at bay whenever possible. We understood the struggles we had to go through to become one of nation’s finest strategists and secret agents to fight against terrorism of all sorts.

I was so tired that day that after running for 2 hours straight, I came back to my dorm and saw that my roommate wasn’t there yet. I was not vocal about my struggles but I liked to keep them to myself and cry about it when I was alone. I couldn’t control the tears and started to weep silently, keeping my mouth shut with my hands so that no one would hear me.

I didn’t notice Jisoo, entering the room and I was startled when she touched my arm and asked me, “ Hey, what’s wrong?”. I couldn’t tell her anything, but I sobbed harder, which made her sit down and wrap me in her arms, soothing me with her touches. I don’t know what was going trhough my mind but I looked at her and moved a little closer till our faces were inches away from each other, making my heart go into overdrive.

What are you up to, Irene?

I couldn’t move or even breathe at that moment. But when Jisoo put her hand on my chin and lifted my face up to meet her eyes, I got the courage to close the gap between our lips and give her a lingering kiss which made me feel all kind of way. I noticed how I relaxed in her arms, how blissful it was to finally do this. However, my bliss was short-lived, as our trainer opened the door.

“Ma’am, you need to wake up, the Board is coming here in 40 minutes.”, I heard a voice coming through the open door.

, this is not how I want to start the day. Today’s gonna be a freaking nightmare. To everyone.

I wasn’t particularly fond of that memory, in fact, it was a traumatic experience to me that I never talked about to anyone. My sour mood escalated quickly when I  saw a grinning Wendy showed up at my office.

“Hello. You fell asleep while working I guess. Here.”, she offered me some tea, knowing well that I hated coffee.

“Thanks, now leave me alone and tell Yeri to only call me when the Directors are here. I have an important meeting with them and I do.not.want.you.to.mess.it.up. Am I clear?” , I literally growled at her and saw her shaking up a little.

Good to know you’re not immune to my charms.

“As if I don’t have pressing issues of my own. I won’t meddle in your business. Have a good day, Joohyun.”, she winked at me before leaving me in a worse mood.

I ing hate her guts.

I need to be in control of myself for the meeting with the Directors, who want a budget cut because the organization hasn’t been showing great results. I was pretty sure the budget cuts would only affect the science departments because the field agents and surveillance team has been giving excellent results throughout these years. It was because of the intense training which literally the life out of every trainee, leaving them emotion-less and making them only love their job. I was happy to see more female agents and I made sure that I took care of them very well but sometimes, I had to make hard decisions.

Like you did with Seulgi.

Shut the up. I’m gonna fix all my mistakes, I will.