“The video was fake?” Bomi repeated the last words that had been said.

Her teammates and Princess Naeun sat around her bed in the infirmary, looking like a mix of seriousness, sadness, and sympathy. Most of the sadness came from Eunji, and most of the seriousness came from, as expected, Chorong. 

About ten minutes ago, Chorong and Naeun had called for a team meeting, and since Bomi was still bedridden, they had decided to meet in the infirmary. It felt weird and awkward, being the only one lying in the bed while everyone else sat in chairs. She could stand up and walk now, but her capabilities were severely limited. She could only walk for a few minutes before the pain became unbearable again. For the past few days, she had been trying to get used to the feeling of moving around again, but it had been difficult, especially since she had been doing it late at night, when no one was there to help her or potentially watch her make an embarrassing fall.

“I’m afraid so,” Eunji answered sadly. “I’m sorry, Bbom-ah.”

Bomi looked down at her knuckles, which were still cut up and bruised. Her eyes slowly took in all of her other injuries, from the healing bruises on her arms to the stitches hidden under her shirt. All of it had been for nothing.

“There were recordings of your entire team, including you,” Naeun said. “Do you remember being recorded?”

“No, I don’t. I remember that they separated us into different cells for a while, so they must have filmed us during that time without us noticing.” Bomi racked her brain trying to recall that moment in the cell; it would have been obvious if they had been recording her, so why didn’t she remember seeing a camera?

“That should be the least of our concerns now,” Chorong said sternly. “Now that all of us are here, would you like to explain in detail what happened, Bomi?”

The subtle annoyance in her tone struck Bomi harder than she had expected. It had been a few days since she and Chorong had last spoken, and during that time, Chorong hadn’t so much as walked past the doors of the infirmary. Bomi had figured that the leader had been busy, but a part of her had feared that she was still upset from their last talk. Evidently, the latter was true.

Bomi had been in and out of sleep for the past few days, and her team had graciously given her some time to rest before assembling for a meeting. This was her first time seeing everyone in the infirmary together, and she hated that the mood was so grim. She had spoken to everyone individually about what had happened when they visited her, but she still launched into an in-depth recollection of what had happened. She watched her companions’ faces as she spoke, trying to make sure that she didn’t leave anything out.

For some reason, her gaze fell on Chorong the most. The leader had that serious look on her face that any stranger would have thought was permanently plastered onto her face. Bomi would have thought that too, if she hadn’t seen Chorong smile that night that she had treated her wound. For such a stern leader, Chorong had a beautiful smile. But then again, Chorong seemed to be a woman of opposites. For such a small woman, she was such a strong leader. For such a soft voice, she had such a mean bite. For such a nasty glare, she had such stunning eyes. 

Bomi could go on, but now was hardly the time to be thinking about that kind of stuff. 

When Bomi finished speaking, she sat back and waited. All of her teammates looked deep in thought, as if trying to process the bomb of information that Bomi had just laid upon them.

Eunji spoke first, “It doesn’t make sense. They claimed that they summoned you because they wanted to trade Yookyung for Naeun. If they had stopped at that, then it would make sense, but they tried to kill you. Why would they do that if they needed you to get to Naeun?”

Bomi shook her head. “I didn’t understand that either. It seems like they had some other ulterior motive that for some reason involves me.”

“The only ulterior motive that would make sense is if they wanted you dead,” Hayoung pondered. “If that was the case, then why bother proposing the trade and showing that video of Yookyung?”

“Maybe they wanted to shake Bomi up so she’d be easier to kill,” Namjoo suggested.

“Well, they certainly chose the right way to shake me up,” Bomi muttered. Eunji gave her an apologetic look. “The only thing we do know for sure is that they want me for something. They wouldn’t have sent those two men, that man with the message, and that letter to me if they didn’t.”

“The letter was a trap for Bomi, not Naeun…It seems that they’ve gone through a lot of trouble to get to you, Bomi-unnie.” Hayoung said. The younger woman looked as confused as the rest of them. Bomi sympathized. Everything was an unorganized mess; they had all these bits and pieces of information, but no way to tie them together.

Naeun rubbed her temples. “Let me try to make sense of this. So the Shadow Clan lured you out and proposed a trade of Yookyung for me, right?”

Bomi nodded.

“They chose you specifically, because they know your history with your team and Yookyung?”

“Seems that way.”

“And that would have made perfect sense if that had been all that happened that night,” Naeun thought aloud. “But they ambushed you with a dozen men. That means that they obviously had other plans for you. It seems like they had tried to kill you, but we don’t know for sure. We don’t know if they truly wanted to use you to get to me, use Yookyung to get to you, or both.”

“We can interrogate Seungri for that information,” Namjoo said. “It will be difficult, but we can force some information out of him.”

“That’s true,” agreed Naeun. “Chorong and Eunji, I’m leaving you with the interrogation. Namjoo and Hayoung, you work with Sungjae to see if Seungri’s phone can provide anything useful. Bomi,” Naeun looked at Bomi still laying in her hospital bed and faltered, “Bomi, you need to rest.”

“I want to help,” Bomi protested. “I can’t work in the field right now, but my brain is working just fine.”

“She can work with us to try to piece together the clues from Seungri’s phone,” Namjoo offered. 

“We’ll take care of her,” Hayoung said with a slight smile.

“I am not a child who needs babysitting,” Bomi grumbled.

“No, but you are still recovering from severe injuries. This is no time to be stubborn,” Chorong replied sternly. The subtle, yet powerful force in her tone was enough to shut Bomi up.

“Bbom-ah may not seem like it, but she can do a lot more than just throw a few knives around,” Eunji said. Bomi arched her brows, and Eunji gave her a playful grin. “She can help crack this case.”

Naeun sighed and gave in, “Alright. Just don’t force yourself too much, okay?”

Bomi nodded. “I know my limits.” This time, it was Eunji who raised her brows. Bomi pursed her lips and added, “I just choose to ignore them sometimes.”

“Don’t ignore them this time.” Chorong said that like it was an order, but Bomi dared to believe that she caught a hint of concern in the leader’s voice. “Now, moving onto a different topic...we can use this mess to our advantage.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Eunji said. “The Shadow Clan wants us to believe that they only wanted Bomi to get to Naeun, but they don’t know that we know that they want Bomi for something too. They also still think that we don’t know that the video of Yookyung is fake. We could somehow feign ignorance and trick them, but I don’t know how yet.”

“We’ll figure it out with more information from Seungri,” Chorong said. “Eunji-ah and I will get started on the interrogation immediately.”

“Very well,” Naeun replied. “Sounds like we have a plan.”

“A very rough plan, but a plan nonetheless,” Hayoung agreed.

“Does anyone else have anything to add?” Naeun asked. She looked around the group, and when no one raised a word, she stood from her chair. “Then this meeting is adjourned. Thank you for all your hard work, everyone. I’ll go see what I can do about the paperwork.”

Everyone stood and bowed to the princess. Bomi would have done the same if she could, but she only managed a tilt of her neck. Naeun bade her farewell to everyone, then exited the infirmary. After her departure, everyone else slowly began to trickle out, beginning with Namjoo and Hayoung. Eunji lingered for a while longer before leaving to check up on Seungri’s files.

In the end, only Chorong and Bomi remained in the room. Bomi waited for Chorong to stand and leave like the rest had, but the leader stayed quietly in her seat with no obvious intentions of leaving.

“Is there something you’d like to speak to me about?” Bomi asked, unable to bear the tense silence anymore.

For the first time in a while, Chorong’s stern exterior slipped. It had only been for a second, though. Bomi blinked, and in that split second, Chorong’s face had gone from cautious uncertainty back to hard confidence.

Bomi sighed. She wasn’t in the mood, and certainly not the condition, to play these games anymore. “Unnie, I’m sorry. I’ve said that already. You don’t know how much I regret what I did.”

“I didn’t come here for that,” Chorong said.

“No?”

“No. I’m not upset with you anymore.”

Bomi tilted her head curiously. “You’re not?”

Chorong bit her lip. Her stern exterior slipped again. “No, I’m still upset. Not nearly as upset as I was a few days ago, though.”

“Then why have you been avoiding me?”

“I’ve been busy,” Chorong began saying, but stopped. “But that gave me no reason not to check up on you. That was stupid and immature of me.”

“It was stupid and immature of me to meet the Shadow Clan without telling you guys,” Bomi pointed out.

“Yeah,” Chorong chuckled under her breath. She bit her lip again and said, “I know what you’re going through.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Back then, in the van…I told you that I knew what you were going through. The heartbreak, the loss of motivation, the―”

“The numbness that follows,” Bomi finished for her. “I remember.”

“I know because I went through the same thing.”

“What?” Bomi leaned forward with renewed interest. Her eyes flickered down to Chorong’s hands, which were resting in her lap. Last time, Bomi had reached for Chorong’s hand, but the leader had pulled away before her fingertips could even brush against her skin. Her expression had been hard and serious.

Now Chorong was vulnerable. That shield she always walked around with had dropped, and this time, it wasn’t just for a split second. Chorong gripped her fists in her lap, and Bomi could tell right away that whatever Chorong was thinking about had haunted her for a long time.

Chorong took a breath and explained, “I have been a part of two other teams aside from this one. I was the rookie of my very first team, and I did everything I could to please them. Back then, I was still that studious little girl that knew nothing except for studying and working to gain others’ approval. I must have been the most pathetic and annoying kiss-up, but my teammates did not patronize me for it. They worked with me and taught me the tough lessons that made me who I am today. I respected them with all my heart, and it took me a while, but I was eventually able to see them as my teammates and not my mentors, just like how they wanted me to see them.”

“They sound like amazing people,” Bomi commented.

“They were,” Chorong said softly. She looked down at her fingertips. “Irene, Suzy, Minho, Taecyeon, and Changsub. I was the rookie of their team, and they never treated me as anything less than their equal. Except for one time.”

Chorong drew in another shaky breath, and Bomi nearly reached out to hold her hand, but she stopped herself. “What happened?” Bomi asked instead.

“We received a tip that the Shadow Clan would be meeting in a certain place at a certain time. We were dispatched on a mission to ambush the meeting, but we had no way of expecting what we would find there. The tip had given us an accurate time and location, but it had completely failed to warn us of the magnitude of the party. When we arrived at the location, we found nearly fifty armed men and women gathered in the small building. It was only me and my five other teammates against all of them. We fought them off as best we could while we waited for backup, but fifty was too overwhelming a number.”

Bomi watched as Chorong clenched and unclenched her fists. She had never seen the leader so vulnerable.

“We were able to take down about half of them before we started falling. Minho was the first one. He was stabbed straight through his chest by a man who had snuck up behind him. I still remember seeing him, the man who taught me a calming breathing trick that I still use today, collapse to the ground with a blade sticking out of his chest.” 

Bomi sat perfectly still. Thoughts of Moonbyul swirled in her mind.

“My team began to crumble after that. We were still able to fend them off for a good amount of time, but our fighting had become sloppy. Eventually, the Shadow Clan began pushing us back into an inescapable corner, and there was nothing we could do to push forward.” Chorong shut her eyes tightly and kept them closed as she continued, “My teammates never treated me like the rookie of the team, but after Minho fell, their fighting styles changed. They stopped fighting and started protecting. I yelled at them to stop, but they wouldn’t listen, and there wasn’t anything I could do in that moment to stop them. With a shout and a final burst of effort, my teammates began charging through our enemies to try to clear a path for me to escape. One by one, I watched them fall. Taecyeon was stabbed through the belly, Suzy was stabbed through the chest, and Irene only fell after she had been stabbed for the third time. When Changsub and I finally reached a door out, I practically begged him to come with me, but he refused. He kissed me once―a quick peck on the lips―and pushed me through the door before slamming it in the face. He held it for as long as he could so I could escape.”

Chorong unclenched her hands and kept her eyes on her fingers as they shakily unfurled. Bomi couldn’t stand it anymore. She reached over and covered Chorong’s hands in hers, steadying them. To Bomi’s relief, Chorong did not pull away.

“They had never treated me like anyone less than them until that day, when it mattered the most. After that day, I wasn’t the same. I ran away. I refused any calls or summons by my superiors. I went on a mission to hunt down the rest of the Shadow Clan members who had been at that meeting. Sound familiar?”

“A little too familiar,” Bomi replied quietly. There was an odd twist in her chest.

“The agency finally convinced me to come back, and when I did, I refused to develop any attachments to anyone so it wouldn’t hurt if I lost them in a mission. I closed myself off to everyone. I was determined to keep that vow when I was put in the team with Eunji, and at first, I would not do anything but work or talk about work with them. But things quickly changed as I worked with them even more and began to care for them. I was the leader of the team; I should have expected the inevitable. So yes, I grew to care about my team, despite everything that I had gone through. And I don’t regret a single thing.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Bomi asked.

Chorong finally looked up from her hands and straight into Bomi’s eyes. “I’m telling you that I understand what you’re going through, because I’ve been through what you’re going through. That heartbreak, that loss of motivation, that feeling of numbness―I’ve felt it all.”

“I’m sorry,” Bomi murmured in a near whisper. “It hurts.”

“I know it does. And that’s why seeing what you’re going through resonates so much with me. I see me in you.” Chorong moved her hands, and for a second, Bomi feared that she was going to take her hands away. But Chorong only moved her hands over Bomi’s and clasped them gently. “You kept running away because you were scared to lose anyone you care about. You didn’t want to feel that hurt again, and you thought that the best solution to that was to not care about anyone ever again.”

Bomi said nothing. Chorong searched Bomi’s face for confirmation, but Bomi knew that her silence was confirmation enough.

“I’ll tell you now that that method never worked for anyone. Do you know why?”

Bomi shook her head slowly.

“Because life isn’t worth living if you have no one to care about,” Chorong answered.

Again, Bomi did not reply. She stared straight at Chorong, seeing all of her and yet none of her at the same time.

“No matter what, you will always end up caring about someone. It’s in our nature. It’s what keeps us human.”

Despite the conflicting thoughts in Bomi’s head, she knew that fact as clear as day. As she gazed at Chorong and her milky brown eyes, that fact was consolidated into her mind. There was something beautifully raw in Chorong’s unfamiliar vulnerability, and Bomi couldn’t help but stare. Chorong was the leader of her team―and yet somehow to Bomi, she was so much more. Bomi didn’t know when or how it happened―or what it even was―, but she could not deny the fact that it was there.

“How did you learn this?” Bomi asked quietly.

Chorong’s reply was short and simple, “I started caring.”

“About Eunji?”

“About everyone,” Chorong said. “But, yes, Eunji taught me how to care again. She has so much love in her, and she helped me become the person I am today as much as my late teammates did. She cares so much about everyone in her life, and you are no exception. She cares so much about you.”

“Do you?” Bomi inquired―and clamped her lips shut immediately after. She had meant to say that she cared a lot about Eunji too, but the question just slipped out of her lips. Chorong’s hands stiffened over Bomi’s, and, again, Bomi feared that Chorong would pull away again. To her delight, Chorong didn’t. 

“I’ve told you before that I do,” Chorong said. “We’re in the same team now. There’s no way I wouldn’t care about you.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant,” Chorong said, but said nothing more. She glanced down at their intertwined hands, and this time, she actually did pull her hands away. Bomi kept her hand still, suddenly missing the warmth of Chorong’s tender grip. “You should get some rest.”

Bomi’s heart fell as Chorong stood from her chair. She began to protest, but she forced herself to keep her lips glued together.

“I’ll see you later. Tell me if you need anything, alright?” Chorong lingered for a second longer. Her hand shifted forward, as if she was going to reach toward Bomi, but she pulled her hand back into her pocket and held it there. 

Sullenly, Bomi bowed her head. “Goodbye, Unnie. Thank you for talking to me.”

Again, Chorong hesitated. She clenched her jaw and nodded. 

“Rest up, Bomi,” she said. Chorong turned around and walked out of the infirmary, her steps a bit too quick to be normal. As Bomi watched Chorong go, she closed her fingers around her palm, trying to fill the cold emptiness that she now felt there.

And now we have a little more of Chorong's backstory! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter :)