“I’m about to lose my mind,” Hayoung groaned. She fell back onto Naeun’s bed and pulled a pillow over her face.

Naeun set an old mission report down onto her desk and sighed, “I’m one step ahead of you. I think I lost my mind a few hours ago.”

“We’ve been staring at the same mission reports and files of Seungri for days,” Hayoung lamented. “How is it that we haven’t found anything?”

“We have the information,” Naeun said. “We just need to piece them together.”

“I’ve always hated puzzles,” Hayoung groaned.

Naeun stood from her desk and made her way to her bed, where the tall, younger woman was sprawled amongst several sheets of paper. The princess grabbed another pillow and threw it on top of Hayoung’s belly. “Stop complaining. We’re not the only ones getting nowhere.”

It had already been two days since their last meeting with Bomi, and since then, all of the members had been working tirelessly, but to no avail. Chorong and Eunji hadn’t been able to get anything useful out of Seungri yet. They had tried to interrogate him on multiple occasions, but Seungri had been like an iron wall each time. Naeun could see the toll it was taking on Chorong and Eunji; every time they met, they looked exponentially more tired than before.

The tech team and Hayoung, Namjoo, and Bomi hadn’t had much luck either. All of the useful information had been extracted from Seungri’s phone, but it had just been a bunch of incomprehensible texts and contact numbers with code names. They were trying to interpret the codes and messages, but it was difficult when they had no other clues to work off of. And if the clues were there, they certainly weren’t very visible.

Even though it was late at night, Naeun couldn’t rest comfortably until she figured something out from the files. Hayoung had apparently had the same idea, because a few hours ago, she had come knocking on Naeun’s door with her own copies of the files. They had been trying to make sense of them for the past few hours, and they had been doing a lot more groaning and frustrated shouting than making breakthroughs.

Hayoung lifted the pillow off her face. “Let’s call it a night.”

“I want to figure out what these codes mean first,” Naeun said.

“Half the messages are nonsensical strings of emojis and words, and the other half are casual conversations with his friends,” Hayoung uttered tiredly. “We’ve stared at them all day.”

“We have to be missing something,” Naeun pondered. “What if the casual conversations with his friends are codes for something as well? He mentions a fried chicken restaurant quite a lot.”

“We’ve checked out the place. It’s a real restaurant.”

“Have we tried identifying and locating the people he messaged?”

Hayoung lifted one of the files above her eyes and studied it. After a few seconds, she groaned and dropped her arm. “It’s too risky to go after them individually. Word would spread too quickly, and then they’d either attack us first or run away.”

“Everything would be a risk regardless,” Naeun mumbled.

“That’s why we have to strategize wisely,” Hayoung said. “Which is something we can’t do when our brains are fried. Come on, Unnie. Let’s call it a night.”

Naeun surveyed the messy array of papers on her bed. They had been studying the same files for so many hours that she could recite what each paper said from the top of her head. Sighing, the princess sat down next to Hayoung. “Alright. But you have to help me gather these papers.”

“Deal,” Hayoung grinned, sitting up. She helped Naeun stack the papers into a neat pile and set them aside. It only took a minute, but it seemed that Hayoung was extremely tired, because right after she put the papers onto Naeun’s desk, the younger woman flopped right back down onto Naeun’s bed.

Naeun couldn’t help the endearing smile that spread across her face as she looked at Hayoung. For someone so tall and fearless in battle, Hayoung was so precious. Outside work, Hayoung was as much of an adorable child as she was an amazing friend. Naeun was glad that she and Hayoung had gotten close enough for her to see that side of the younger woman.

Naeun sat down on her bed, still staring endearingly at Hayoung, who was resting her eyes. Naeun searched Hayoung’s long lashes, fair skin, and pink lips, hoping that something might jog her memory. She tried to imagine what Hayoung would’ve looked like as a fifteen-year old, but, as always, nothing came up. No matter what she did, she could not recall anything about her childhood love, except for what had already been burned into Naeun’s mind: her promise to always protect Naeun. No matter how much time she spent with her team, she never got any closer to figuring out which one was her childhood love―or if any of them was her childhood love, for that matter.

A part of her wanted to just give up already, but a larger part of her held onto that promise and hoped that one of the members was the one she’d been looking for for years. 

“You’ve been staring at me for quite a while,” Hayoung murmured, her eyes still closed. “Is there something on my face?”

“A booger.”

Immediately, Hayoung covered her nose with her hand. When she realized that nothing was actually there, she withdrew her hand and opened her eyes. “You could have just said that there was beauty on my face.”

“And give you that satisfaction? I don’t think so.”

“How very kind of you,” Hayoung said sarcastically.

“A princess must always be kind to her people,” Naeun said jokingly. She straightened a tangled strand of Hayoung’s hair. “You should go back and rest.”

“Kicking me out already?”

“Only because I know that you’ll be back again very early in the morning.”

“You know me too well,” Hayoung grinned, but she didn’t move. Instead she stayed where she lay and stared up into Naeun’s eyes. Naeun stared back down, and for a moment, neither of them said anything.

“Can I ask you something?” Hayoung finally asked. The tone of her voice had completely shifted to something softer.

“What is it?” Naeun replied, but before Hayoung could say anything, someone knocked on the door. Hayoung was on her feet in a second. Naeun also stood and placed a hand on Hayoung’s shoulder. “Relax. If someone came to assassinate me, they wouldn’t have knocked on the door. Besides, there are guards outside my door.”

Reluctantly, Hayoung relaxed her shoulders and nodded. Naeun went to open the door.

It was Eunji, holding two cups of ice cream and smiling widely. “Good evening, Princess. Mind if I come in?”

Something warm blossomed in Naeun’s chest. She immediately returned Eunji’s smile and stepped aside. “Hayoungie is here too.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize there was a party in here,” Eunji said. “I would have brought more ice cream.”

Hayoung stepped forward with a light chuckle. “Don’t worry, Unnie. I was just on my way out.”

“You were?” Naeun asked curiously.

Hayoung’s eyes flitted from Naeun to Eunji and down to the cups of ice cream in her hands. She seemed restrained when she said, “Yeah. I forgot that Namjoo-unnie and I agreed to meet tonight and play PUBG. Sort of a de-stressing thing.” She gathered her things and began walking towards the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Unnie. Hopefully my brain isn’t still fried by then.” 

“Wait,” Naeun said, grabbing Hayoung’s arm as she walked past. “What did you want to ask?”

Again, Hayoung’s eyes glanced back and forth between Eunji and Naeun. It was for the briefest of moments, but Naeun caught it. Still, the maknae smiled and said, “I’ve already forgotten.” Then she bade Naeun and Eunji a good night and exited the room.

“Is Hayoungie okay?” Eunji asked when the door closed.

“She’s tired,” Naeun answered, still staring at the door. “We’ve had a long day.”

“Are you okay? I can leave if you’d like.”

Naeun turned to face Eunji. “No, don’t. I want you to stay.”

Eunji faltered, like Naeun’s response had surprised her. It had surprised Naeun, too. She had said it so quickly, like it had been out of reflex.

“You can’t expect me to turn you away when you have ice cream in your hands,” Naeun quickly said, taking one of the cups from Eunji.

“I know last time you said that ice cream wasn’t a requirement for my visits, but I thought that we’d need some ice cream after our lack of success,” Eunji said. She walked over to Naeun’s bed and sat down. Naeun joined her shortly after. 

“The interrogations really aren’t going well, huh?”

“I’d say that’s a bit of an understatement,” Eunji replied wearily. “Seungri refuses to tell us anything. It’s infuriating how well he can curb our questions.”

“He was probably trained for that,” Naeun surmised. “How’s Chorong?”

“She’s very close to taking matters into her own hands. By matters I mean Seungri, and by into her own hands, I mean strangling him. You could never tell from just looking at her, but you can definitely feel it when you’re standing next to her.”

“Ah, her scary aura?”

Eunji laughed and nodded, “That’s the one.”

“Seungri should be scared out of his mind, then. Where is Chorong now?”

“I don’t know.” Eunji said the next part more quietly, “Probably visiting Bomi.”

Naeun tilted her head, concerned. “Is something wrong?”

“Well, we aren’t getting anywhere with Seungri, but you already know that―”

“Eunji.”

Eunji shut her lips and paused. “I suppose you won’t take ‘I’m fine’ for an answer?” she asked, smiling wanly.

Naeun shifted on her bed so that she was facing Eunji directly. “I know I told you that you have to admit when you’re not fine sometimes, but I won’t force anything out of you. Just know that if you ever decide that you aren’t fine, I’ll be here for you to talk to.”

Eunji peered down at her ice cream. Before Naeun could stop herself, she reached over and took Eunji’s hand. It was freezing cold from holding the ice cream, but Naeun still clasped her palm around Eunji’s and held it tightly. Eunji looked down at their interlocked hands and did not pull away.

“Thank you, Naeunie,” Eunji said. “The same goes for you too.”

“Even when the Shadow Clan has been defeated and this team disbands, I’ll still be here for you, okay? We’re friends before we’re Princess and subject.”

Eunji squeezed Naeun’s hand. “Of course. We’re friends before anything else.” Naeun smiled and almost pulled her hand away to reach for the TV remote, but Eunji added, “I’m always going to protect you.”

Naeun froze. She looked at Eunji with wide eyes and asked in a small voice, “What did you just say?”

“I’m always going to protect you?” Eunji repeated with a confused face. “Is something wrong?”

 Naeun’s breath caught in . Could it be...Could Eunji possibly be the one she was looking for? She swallowed and forced herself to calm her mind. No, it could’ve merely been a coincidence. It was very much like Eunji to say something like that, so those words could have just flowed out of her with no other added intent.

But then again, those words had also flowed out of Naeun’s childhood love as naturally as they had from Eunji’s.

“Naeun?” Eunji pressed. “Are you okay?”

Eunji’s voice pulled Naeun back to reality. The princess blinked and brought her attention back to Eunji in front of her. “Sorry, I thought I figured something out from Seungri’s files, but it turned out to be nothing.”

“Your brain’s always working, isn’t it?” Eunji pulled her hand away from Naeun’s and leaned her back against the bed’s headboard. “Why don’t you give your brain a break? Let’s watch a movie.”

Although she was still a bit dazed, Naeun retrieved the TV remote and sat next to Eunji. “What do you want to watch?”

“Let’s pick a drama to watch together,” Eunji suggested. “So whenever I visit, we can pick up where we left off.”

Naeun would be lying if she said that Eunji’s suggestion hadn’t made her heart skip a beat. “Alright, I’d like that. Which drama?”

“I chose the movie last time. You pick this one.”

Naeun agreed and searched for a drama to watch. She eventually settled for one with high ratings. She started the first episode, dimmed the lights, and then snuggled into her blankets next to Eunji.

She tried her best to concentrate on the drama, but her mind was off wandering somewhere else. If Eunji was truly her childhood love, then did she say that she would always protect Naeun as a way to tell her who she really was? And if that was true, then why had Eunji waited so long to reveal herself? Was it anything to hide? Naeun’s mind swirled, bouncing from one thought to the next, but never reaching a firm conclusion.

But it wasn’t the possibility of Eunji being her childhood love that made Naeun’s mind swirl.

It was the fact that an overwhelming happiness and relief had bloomed in her heart when she first thought that Eunji could be her childhood love.

Namjoo’s nightly skincare routine was something very sacred to her and was not something to be interrupted. So when someone knocked on her door just as she was preparing her face for a scrub, she nearly reached for the knife hidden in her bathroom drawer.

But when she opened the door and saw that it was Hayoung, she immediately dropped all of her murderous wishes. “Hayoungie, what are you doing here?”

Hayoung took in Namjoo’s bare face, tied-back hair, and embarrassing pink panda headband. “Oh shoot, did I interrupt your skincare ritual? I’m so sorry. I’ll come back another time.”

Namjoo knew that the younger woman was kidding, but she was somewhat both pleased and amused that Hayoung knew just how important her skincare routine was. She was about to make a joke back, but she got a good look at Hayoung’s face and decided otherwise.

“No, come in,” Namjoo said and stepped away from the door. Hayoung gently closed the door behind her and sat down on Namjoo’s bed.

Namjoo and Hayoung had been close friends since their academy days, almost like how Bomi and Eunji had been close friends back then. They hadn’t been friends since they were children like Bomi and Eunji, but they had known each other for so long that it practically felt like they had known each other their entire lives. That was how Namjoo just took one look at Hayoung's face and knew that something was wrong.

Hayoung showed no obvious signs of being sad, but after years of knowing her, Namjoo had developed this sort of intuition that let her know when her friend was in need of a shoulder to lean on. She also knew that now was not one of the times where Hayoung would explicitly say what was bothering her, so she simply sat next to her friend and asked, “Hey, do you think you could help me with PUBG? I’m trying to get better than Sungjae, but I still don’t know where I’m shooting half the time.”

“Weren’t you just going to sleep? You were getting ready to wash your face.”

“I was getting ready to wash my face for PUBG. It’s a very intense game that I need to be refreshed for.”

Hayoung shook her head and stood up. “Alright. I’ll go start up your computer while you wash your face.”

“You’re the best, Hayoungie. You know I love you, right?”

“Yes, I know. I love you too, Unnie.” Hayoung smiled, but it was a sad smile. Namjoo didn’t have to interrogate her to know what was going on.

Namjoo smiled back and watched as the younger woman booted up her computer.

I love you too, Unnie.

Namjoo watched the maknae for a few more seconds, then sighed and stood to go wash her face.

If only she knew.

What do you all think? Who do you think is Naeun's childhood love?