“Thank you Mrs Yoon, this is very delicious.” Hitomi smiles brightly at the older woman who came personally to the dining room to greet the two girls.

Mrs Yoon has been working in the Kim Family for as long as Minjoo can remember and for all the great food she has tasted all around the world, nothing beats food from Mrs Yoon. When her mother passed away and father decides to drown himself in work and forget about his motherless daughter, Mrs Yoon was the only adult figure left in Minjoo’s life. She is the iceberg that stands strong amidst rising sea levels, protecting Minjoo and guiding her throughout the rough publescent period.

As Minjoo’s longtime friend, Hitomi has had a fair share of great Korean home cooked food by Mrs Yoon. She also knows that Chaewon is a big fan of it too, always silently devouring the food away in the staff pantry during her short break times.

As if Mrs Yoon can read Hitomi’s mind, she asks the two agents standing behind. “Are you sure you girls don’t want to have lunch now? Can you really resist my ginseng chicken soup?” Mrs Yoon cheekily tempts them.

Yena does her infamous pout, using all the mental will she learnt in her training to stop herself whereas Chaewon replies politely, “It is okay Mrs Yoon. We will have our lunch later.”

“You guys… the infrequent food times will spoil your body. You have to take care of it while you are young otherwise you have many problems like me when you reach this age. Minjoo and Hitomi will take awhile with this hot bowl so don’t worry and join in. Right Minjoo ah?” Mrs Yoon smoothly loops Minjoo in knowing that the agents do listen to the words of the youngest Kim member.

“Yeah. Chaewon unnie, Yena unnie, come eat with us. Hitomi and I are not in a rush we are just going to plan Hitomi’s upcoming birthday. Have lunch first, we have time.” Minjoo chimes in to Mrs Yoon’s directive, prettily waving the girls over.

Mrs Yoon moves ahead and walks over to her kitchen staff who is waiting near the side of the room. “Since we have our youngest Kim’s blessing, go get the two agents’ lunch.”

“Yes Mrs Yoon.” The staff member bows and heads off with Mrs Yoon following behind.

Needless to say, with the obvious order from Minjoo and Mrs Yoon, the two agents give in - although rather willingly because of how tempting the ginseng soup is. They sit themselves beside the girls, Chaewon on Minjoo’s right and Yena on Hitomi’s left. Hitomi is disappointed but her feelings are something she is already used to; Chaewon always chooses Minjoo whether she is aware or not - even Yena subconsciously moves to sit herself away from her principal.

The agents gently nod their head with respect as their food is delivered to the table. Yena quickly takes a spoonful of soup, blows on it lightly and sips down the delicious goodness. “This is sooooo good… I can eat this all day.” She moans in delight. Minjoo and Hitomi both cringe at Yena’s exaggerated expressions although they do acknowledge that Mrs Yoon’s food often provokes such reactions.

Unlike her counterpart, Chaewon silently digs in. Her movements are minimal but her food is quickly being devoured away. Hitomi notices the silent agent. “Chaewon unnie, eat slowly. You just started and you are already catching up with me and Minjoo.” Hitomi knows Chaewon’s bad habit of eating really quickly given the nature of her job. However, she still worries that the hot soup can hurt .

Chaewon looks up at Hitomi and nods in response before continuing with her meal. She tries to slow down but bad habits are hard to get rid of. She balances the chicken drumstick on the spoon while she nibbles the meat off the bone. Everything was going well when Chaewon unintentionally allows the bone to roll off the spoon, dropping it back into the bowl. That drop causes some soup to spill out onto the owner and her neighbour.

“Unnie!” Minjoo squeals out. “You are always so messy when you eat!” She giggles at the mess Chaewon has created and takes the napkin over to dab Chaewon’s suit sleeve. Chaewon immediately directs Minjoo back to her own top.

“Sorry Minjoo ah. Don’t worry about mine, clean yours first. There’s some on your top.”

Minjoo stretches her shirt out and tries to find the spot but the clear soup stain makes it less obvious to spot. Chaewon reaches out to hold onto Minjoo’s hand, directing her to the area. Minjoo can’t stop giggling at the situation as she attempts to rub off as much as possible. “Chaewon unnie, you are good at everything but being a messy eater is your weakness. You need to eat slowly.”

Minjoo then stretch out again to Chaewon’s sleeve and slowly rubs the fabric. Chaewon can only freeze in place and watch as her principal attentively tries to reduce the stain. “This kind of reminds me of the first time we met.” Minjoo slowly looks up from what she is doing to stare at her agent. “Remember when you spilled water on me?”

“Yeah I remember.” In that moment, Chaewon really wishes there’s only two of them in the room. Not that she would have done anything different but at least she would get a moment keeping eye contact with the most beautiful girl in the world - Yena’s spoon clanks against the rim of the bowl, making Chaewon very aware of the situation they are in.

Yena did not intend to let go of her spoon, but being reminded of the first time Minjoo and Chaewon met having just told Eunbi and Yujin about it freaks her out a little. So I guess Minjoo and Chaewon both remember their first time very well. Yena smirks a little knowing she has more news to update the two other agents about.

“So be careful unnie. If not, one day you will end up spilling a swimming pool worth of liquid on me.” Minjoo laughs at her own joke as she withdraws her napkin.

“Minjoo ah, what is a swimming pool worth?” Yena shakes her head at Minjoo’s bad attempt of a joke. “Again, Minjoo…” She pretends to sigh very loudly.

“Unnie!” Minjoo turns on her natural cuteness as she retorts Yena.

Hitomi sits in her place observing the entire thing play out. Right now it is one of the rare moments where she sees Chaewon smiling so brightly that there are obvious wrinkles at the side of her eyes. She should celebrate and keep a smiling Chaewon in her mind yet she does not want to because Hitomi knows she isn’t the cause of it.

“This is why I like Chaewon unnie better than you.” Minjoo sulks at Yena and changes 180 degrees when she beams at Chaewon.

“So Chaewon and Eunbi unnie are your team leaders because they can handle your bad jokes right!”

Minjoo is about to retort when Chaewon speaks up. “Yes. And I don’t think they are bad.”

The room falls into silence after Chaewon’s defense. Minjoo can only stare at the side of her team leader’s face. Hitomi slowly breathes out.

Chaewon keeps her eyes on Yena, “Finish up. We need to go for a briefing soon.” She then nonchalantly picks up her spoon and continues with the drumstick that started the whole exchange. Chaewon knows Minjoo’s eyes are on her and it is taking every inch of her restraint to not look back. Because that will be very weird and unprofessional.

Everybody resumes their lunch at Chaewon’s request and the agents stand up when they are done. They pick up their tray and hands them over to the kitchen staff who promptly arrives. “How was it?” Mrs Yoon walks back into the dining room with a motherly smile on her face. “Is it enough? Are you guys full?”

“Yes Mrs Yoon.” The two agents answer at the same time. “Thank you for lunch.”

“It is my pleasure girls. Now run along, I know there’s a briefing to head to.” She pats their backs.

Chaewon walks towards Minjoo, “The base agent is here to take over from us while we head to the briefing.” She points to the agent standing by the exit.

“Don’t worry unnie, I know the protocol.”

Chaewon takes a step back and bows before she and Yena head out of the dining room. Hitomi’s eyes linger near the door even after it is closed.

“Chaewon unnie is really thorough in her work isn’t she? It is not like it is my first day having bodyguards yet she still makes sure to tell me these.” Minjoo comments after taking a sip of water.

Hitomi takes her eyes off the door and turns back to her friend. “It is great that she is back being your team leader again.”

“Well Chaewon unnie shouldn’t be demoted in the first place. You know, not considering how I got Eunbi unnie as a team leader after of course.” Minjoo’s cheeks turns slightly pink at the thought of her crush.

“You…” Hitomi teases her friend before continuing seriously. “On the demotion, I agree with you but I do get your father’s and Chief Ka Eun’s reasoning. She let you go and that got you in danger.”

Minjoo’s expression changes when Hitomi brings up the past event. “I was the childish one…” Minjoo mutters to herself.

- Three years ago -

Her mother had just passed away one year ago and things were happening daily with a new normal. Her father has not been at home, constantly telling her - not even directly but through the agents - that work is very important and needed his devoted attention. Little did he know, work was not the only thing that needed it.

Minjoo tried her best to cope with the change but the loss of her parents - both physically and spiritually - and the changing environment was not helping. Immediately after the death of her mother, she was assigned to a new team of agents because accordingly to Chief Ka Eun, their more appropriate visuals will help Minjoo blend in better as she graduates middle school and heads onto high school. She can make more friends to form a solid support system and in turn, help her get through her grief, or at least that was what her psychiatrist has been preaching. To Minjoo, it did not really matter if she gets buff sleek mid thirties agents or some small petite fairly good looking ones like Chaewon and Yena. Day by day, she was just getting through her feelings and coming up with diffe