“If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it’s yours forever. If it doesn’t, then it was never meant to be.”
- unknown

“Wow, Chaeyeon-ah, doesn’t that sound so romantic? Doesn’t it just make you want to fall in love with someone and then break up with them just to see if they come back to you? ” The cheerful go-happy girl said to her friend who looked at her in disbelief.

“So what you’re saying is, you want to date someone to solely test out if they’ll come back to you after you break up with them?”

“Mmhmm.” The girl nodded while pouting her lips in confidence.

“Then do you plan on breaking up with Juri?” Chaeyeon cheekily asked her friend whose expression suddenly changed.

“N-no. Why would I do that?!” Yena said slightly panicking.

“To test if she is forever yours.” Chaeyeon said with a smirk.

“I-it doesn’t work that way.”

Chaeyeon raised her eyebrow, curious why the duck suddenly changed her thought process.

“Why won’t it work?”

“Because... it only works if it’s the other way around. If-If I broke up with Juri....” Yena looked down at her fidgeting fingers and lowered her voice, almost to an inaudible volume.

“... I would come running back to her instead...” she added.

Chaeyeon grinned, pretending she didn’t hear the embarrassed duck.

“What? I couldn’t hear you” Chaeyeon playfully teased the older girl.

“Ahhh! Forget about it! This love advice column is a bunch of B.S. anyway. Don’t listen to it Chaeyeon.” The flustered older girl said as she stood up to go throw the love advice magazine in the trash.

Chaeyeon couldn’t understand why Yena always bought those types of magazines when she just ends up throwing it away moments later, frustrated at the advice they give. It’s not like she needed the love advices anyway since she was in a good relationship already. Chaeyeon didn’t know her girlfriend, Juri, very well, but she was a very nice girl who loves Yena a lot from what Chaeyeon can see, and Yena loves Juri a lot too despite saying Juri is the one who is head over heels for her. Out of the very few admiring qualities Yena has, her love life is the only thing that Chaeyeon was 1000% envious of.

Chaeyeon also believed the advices given in those magazines were B.S. too. They were just lame made up sayings to tug at the heartstrings of the young and impressionable girls who are confused about love. But then again, who is she to judge when her own love life was unsuccessful, nowhere to be found and her last not being a fairy tale ending either.  

“Ah, don’t you have work today? Aren’t you going to be late?” Yena said as she returned from her short trip from the trash can.

Chaeyeon looked at her watch noticing she chit chatted way longer than she had intended to.

“Crap! You’re right! I’ll talk to you later unnie.” Chaeyeon said, immediately one shotting the rest of her coffee and rushed to work.
 

•~•

Based on her attire alone, anyone would have guessed that Chaeyeon worked for some big company or office firm. She was always wearing a black suit and tie, low heel dress shoes, and carried no accessories except for a phone, a Bluetooth earpiece, and a watch.

Chaeyeon entered the doors to a big building, and was greeted by the old security guard stationed at the entrance. She flashed him a bright smile and waved as she entered the elevator. Once the doors closed, she scanned her employee ID card on the ID reader. The little red light on the device turned green and she proceeded to press the B2 button. The elevator shook a bit as it proceeded downwards. Suddenly, the elevator stopped and the lights went out, and a red glow slowly filled the little room.

“Identity verification required.”

A mechanical voice said filling the little space. A hidden panel by the door slid open, revealing a screen. Chaeyeon placed her right hand on the screen until it was scanned. She then proceeded by moving her face closer to the screen and having her left eye scanned.

“Identity verified. Agent number one, one, one; code name Feather. Access granted.”

As soon as the mechanical voice finished, the red glow disappeared, the lights went back to normal, and the elevator proceeded to its designated floor.

In reality, Chaeyeon worked for a secret protection agency, the IZ Protection Agency, IZ(eyes) for short. The agency has a regular business firm building above as its cover for what really lies beneath it. Not even Yena, one of her closest friends, knew exactly what Chaeyeon did for a living. She, like anyone else, just assumes Chaeyeon was your average office worker. Sometimes Yena would notice some wounds and bruises on her, but she just believes that it was Chaeyeon being clumsy.

•~•

"Ya! You’re 10 minutes late!” A voice reprimanded Chaeyeon as soon as she walked through the door of board meeting room 1. She rushed to the seat beside the girl who was waiting with her arms crossed.

“I’m sorry Eunbi unnie, I got caught up with something.” Chaeyeon said as she straightened herself out in her chair.

“How many times do I have to tell you? You need to address me by my code name when we’re working. What’s the point in having code names when you’re just gonna blurt my name out everywhere an