“That wasn’t the agreement”

“What are you talking bout little lady? I gave you the items for the price you paid, did I not?” 

“I don’t have time for this bull. Drop the cocky attitude and hand over the rest of the goods like promised, don’t make this difficult.”

The muscular “goon” stands straight, crosses his arms, and speaks with an ugly smirk plastered on his face, “Whatcha gonna do bout it, Sweetie.”

Miyeon doesn’t flinch, nor does she drop her death glare, much to the man’s surprise. Instead, she takes a step forward, maintaining eye contact. All it took was one quick swipe at his legs for her to throw the guy off his balance while she moved to slam him to the ground, pinning him chest down while holding his arms behind his back.

“Never, call me Sweetie.” 

“OK OK I’M SORRY!! TAKE IT ALL JESUS CHRIST WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME YOU HAD A STRONG GRIP?!?” whines the man.

“That’s because no one is supposed to know me. And if they did, they would know better than to act as foolish as you did.”

Despite clearly having the upper hand, she feels the dumb guy still trying to wriggle free of her hold.

Really? What a pathetic newbie they sent.

She scoffs right before leaning in to whisper in his ear

“You’re lucky I let you live.”

The body under her stops moving. Her words definitely made his blood run cold and freeze up.

“Please just let me go miss. I’m sorry for the trouble, I don’t wanna die please….” the man pleads.

“Not so tough now huh? I’d let you go but I’m not sure if you learned your lesson...” she says condescendingly. It’s her turn to wear the smirk.

“NO NO I PROMISE I DID. I SWEAR!!”

That’s enough fun for me. This guy has wasted too much of my time anyway.

She lets go of his arms but while the guy tries to push himself off the ground, she places her boot on his back, pushing him back down. 

She utters but one word in a low and threatening tone

“Scram.”

“Yes Ma’am!” he says as she lets him up, for real this time, and he scrambles to get up and run out the door, actually bumping into a wall at first before grasping his whereabouts and making a run for the exit.

Once the door closes, Miyeon turns her attention to items. After double-checking the contents of them all, she begins beaming the items back to HQ. As she scans them with her watch and they begin to dematerialize into particles, she laughs to herself about the prior few moments.

“What an idiot. He really thought I wasn’t a threat. I guess that’s what I get for being a woman in the industry. Then again, that’s part of the fun. It’s more fun when they don’t expect it haha.”

As she goes to check the time, she gets an incoming call from her partner. The half hologram of Minnie appears on her wrist.

“What’s up.” 

“I’m almost done, I have one more guy to meet up with. How bout you.”

“Pfft, you’re so slow, I just finished my last one.”

“Yeah, I totallyyyy didn’t have more people to meet with at multiple locations.” Minnie shakes her head. “Anyway, since you’re done, wanna join me for the last one?”

“Nah, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Plus this warehouse is pretty cool so I’ll just explore and chill here a bit before heading home.”

“Ugh fine then. Any of the guys cause you any problems?”

“Not really. Oh, except for this last dude. Seemed like a newbie and thought he could pull a fast one on me. No biggie haha.”

“He didn’t have back up?”

“I know right! Rookie mistake, kinda wish he did. It’s more fun when the odds are “seemingly stacked against me” you know haha.”

“This isn’t fun and games Miyeon, it’s business.”

“Yeah but a little fun never hurt nobody. Anyway, you’re boring me so I’m gonna go. Have fun with your last guy.”

“Alright, be safe.”

“Yeah yeah, bye-bye.” 

Miyeon ends the call and actually checks the time like she intended to.

1:18am

“Hmmm, I’ll hang around till 2 unless I get bored earlier then,” she mutters to herself.

She looks around the warehouse. Aside from the half-filled with the crate maze, the other area is basically empty, except of course for the three old airplanes. Two of them seem to be different models of some old fighter jets while the last appears to be a jumbo jet.

“I’ll save exploring you lovelies till the end,” she says before she faces away from the aircrafts and at the mini labyrinth behind her.

“Let's see where you lead me.” 

After making many lefts and rights, it’s evident Miyeon didn’t quite remember the path as clearly as she thought she did.

“Three rights means I’m going in a circle so I should go left here, right? Wait not right, I mean. Gahhhhh this is too confusing and frustratingggg. I should just hover over it all.” 

She bends down to enable her hover-boots but she stops herself.

“No, you told yourself no cheating. We’re going left and if it’s a dead-end, then pretend it never happened and come back here to go right.”

Before she can take a step down the left path, she hears a sound. A door opening and closing, to be exact.

I guess I’m going right then

Quietly she walks down the right path and conveniently, she notices some crates stacked with a rope net draped over it. 

Perfect 

She quietly and carefully uses it to climb onto the crates and keeps her body low to try and get a good look at the “intruder”. Well yes, technically she is an intruder herself but she was here first!! Plus, whoever entered came through the same door as she did so they must’ve noticed the unlocked door, maybe even the lock tossed to the side so if the person is an agent like Miyeon suspects, all the more reason to keep an eye on them before making sure she “takes them out” like the one at the airport the other day.

All Miyeon can see at first is the person checking their back, their face hidden by their long black hair.

Ah, just as I thought. One of them C.U.B.E gir--

Her thoughts are interrupted when the agent whips her head back to check in front of her, giving Miyeon a clear look.

Woah 

Yup. Just looking at this girl has rendered one of the most “feared villainesses” nearly speechless. 

She still wants to “take them out” but in a different way now. 

Her eyes shine with a mischievous glint at the plan of action she just conceived.

She puts on her black mask, which she took off earlier when meeting the guy, and tilts her cap lower to further conceal her face.

About to climb back down, Miyeon realizes she could’ve just made it easier in the first place by using the handy-dandy teleportation powers she holds on her wrist. She sets her location coordinates to teleport to just a little bit ahead of where the girl is likely heading. 

After appearing fully, she waits at the corner a bit for the sound of the footprints from the other side to get closer.

The sound goes quiet for a second, it starts up again however, it seems to be getting quieter.

Must’ve approached a crossroad. Seems like you picked the wrong path sweetheart.

Miyeon quickly creates some “natural-sounding” footprints by pacing in one spot. Again she hears silence from the other end, a bit longer of a pause but like the last, it starts up again, this time getting slightly louder as they approach.

Waiting till the absolute last second for the girl to turn her corner, Miyeon finally walks forward. 

Once again, a halt.

What? Was the faint glimpse of me enough to spook you? What if I were to disappear and reappear behind you hmmm?

As the footsteps pick up again, this time a steady yet “cautious” pace, Miyeon teleports a few steps behind the girl. 

It’s her turn to watch the other turn the corner. Miyeon decides to get even closer till she’s just inches behind the girl, walking at the same pace as her to mask the sound of her own boots against the ground.

The girl comes to a stop in the middle of the hallway. To be completely honest, Miyeon expected her to slowly turn to check her back and then flinch at the sight of an unknown person that close to her.

She didn’t expect her to draw her weapon. 

“Hands up”

Huh, I guess I underestimated my opponent. Good move though. Now the game just got interesting.

In the split second she had to react a few moments ago, she made sure to keep her head down. In a “cocky defeated manner”, she raises both arms as asked.

“Lift your head”

She does so in a slow dramatic fashion, eyes locking with the ones in front of her.

The eyes of the agent were very dark, almost black she thought. That could mean many things. It can make you appear soulless and empty. It can also make you seem doe-eyed and somewhat innocent. The girl kind of seemed like a bit of everything, with that serious gaze she shot right back at Miyeon. It was like they had a few seconds of a staring contest, normally Miyeon isn’t good at those but for some reason, it seemed like her eyes would be able to stay open to swim in the others for hours.

“Take it off. I need to check your identity, ma’am.” spoke the girl, snapping Miyeon out of her mini trance she didn’t even realize happened. Hopefully, the girl didn’t notice either.

She let out a small chuckle, “I would but I do as told, and since you have that pointed at my face, I’ll be keeping my hands up, for your safety.” Articulating the last few words left her with a proud smirk.

“Hands behind your head. No funny business.”

“Bossy are we?”

“You gonna make this difficult?” The girl raises an eyebrow.

“As you wish.” she says while raising her hands behind her head like asked. This one’s a bit feisty like herself, a quality that makes Miyeon even more infatuated with the girl.

Without dropping the gun, the girl carefully takes a step forward. She has yet to break eye contact with her and she definitely doesn’t intend to any time soon.

Using her free hand, she removes the mask from one ear and gently takes it off the other.

There it is. Your full picture view. Looks good?

She notices the girl, closer proximity than before, finally breaking eye contact as she briefly scans over the face she just revealed.

Her eyes snap back up to Miyeon’s but she notices something. Ever so slightly, she can see the girl’s eyes waver.

After what felt like forever, the girl appears to remember the situation, (as well as the fact she’s still holding up her weapon), and takes a “safety” step backwards.

“Name and profession.” 

“Woah there little lady, you sure move fast with someone you just met.” Miyeon chuckles.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” says the girl, clearly taken aback by her comment. She lets out a small sigh before regaining her composure.

“I asked for your name and profession to identify you and your reason for being here at this hour.”

“Depends on who’s asking.” Miyeon says, with a “challenging” raise of an eyebrow.

“C.U.B.E Agent 0106 : Yeh Shuhua. Sector S.” 

“Ha, had a feeling you were one of those from your get up,” she says, as an excuse to look the girl, now known as Shuhua, up and down. Yes, a blatant excuse to check her out.

“Wait, did you say Sector S? I heard that’s basically the highest level for you agents, must’ve taken you a long time to work your way up there huh?”

“If you consider a year a long time then yes I guess?”

“Only a year! Damnnnn so you're like their Star Student, Top Spy, Model Espionage, the list goes on.”

For the first time in this whole interaction, Shuhua lets out a little chuckle. It’s noteworthy to point out throughout the last few sentences, her firearm was slowly lowered until it was just now pocketed.

“What? You mean to tell me NOT A SINGLE PERSON has ever called you one of those?”

“Not really?… Ok, maybe just one of those but I swear I’ve heard it said only like once!”

“Once still means, I was correct.”

“I suppose so. Still, I don’t quite understand how it’s so “hard” as people say... I mean, my best friend’s in the same sector as me and we joined at the same time.”

“Sounds to me like the two of you are just prized players and you don’t realize it. Oh hey! There’s another one: Prized Players”

“Pfftt, not one of your best ones but I’ll take it haha.”

“Hey! As if you could do better!!”

“Of course. What about… hmmmm. Ah! Got one! Ace Agents.”

“Weak, but that was cute coming from you so I’ll let it slide.”

Shuhua nearly missed that last bit, or maybe she misheard. Miyeon would’ve thought one of the two at least if she didn’t notice the girl's eyes slightly widened at the compliment.

“Anyways, you never answered my earlier question. Who are you and why are you here?”, acting like she disregarded the earlier comment from Miyeon.

“Just someone that felt like escaping her normal life for a bit. Go on a bit of an adventure, and glad I did I mean have you explored those planes? Look at the size of them!!” Miyeon says while looking and pointing at them.

“So, you just wandered here because you wanted to be away from, whatever your “normal life” is?” Shuhua asked, a softer but curious tone in her voice. 

Miyeon lets out a sigh as she looks down from the planes, slowly turning to face Shuhua head-on. Pausing before she answers her. Although her “alibi” is obviously a lie, the words that come out of next, at this very moment, she’s speaking the truth.

“I just don’t want to be “me” for a few moments. These few moments.”

This time Shuhua takes a second before responding.

“I know exactly what you mean. I don’t hate my life completely but sometimes I wish I were somewhere else, just for a moment, to forget about all my worries and not have to deal with any responsibilities.” She looks up after speaking only to find Miyeon’s eyes giving her a look, much different than the gaze she received at the start. This has a warm, kind, and caring aura to it. Like she’s sending the message of “you get me” and Shuhua’s sending the same back.

Unfortunately, this tender moment came to an abrupt end when Miyeon’s watch started to beep. It’s an incoming call from Minnie but she turns it towards herself to mask it from Shuhua. She declines it after a few beeps.

“, that’s my 2 o’clock alarm. Didn’t realize it was this late. And I barely got to explore those planes…”

Truth be told, she didn’t have the biggest interest in exploring it, but exploring it with someone else would definitely change her mind.

“Hey, how bout we meet here tomorrow? Same time same place kind of deal. Well, maybe not exactly the same time since I’ll be leaving now, so a few hours earlier instead. Maybe like 11?”

“Uhhhh, I’m not sure if I can…”

“Come on!! It’ll be funnnnnn, pleaseeee.” she says while flashing her best pouty face.

I have a feeling I want to see you again

“Alright, alright. I’ll see what I can do. But I make no promises.”

Miyeon cracks a big eye smile, more than she intended but that’s what happens when you’re happy. Really happy.

“I’ll take my chances.”

With that, Miyeon takes her leave as she turns around to head back into the labyrinth. If she turned any later she would’ve gotten to see the soft smile that crept onto Shuhua’s face.

Once Shuhua snaps back into reality, she realizes she completely forgot to get the girl’s name.

“Wait!” she says as she runs ahead to turn the corner just as the other did, only to find like earlier, she’s vanished into thin air.

Shuhua lets out a defeated sigh, plus an added groan at her stupidity and forgetful mind. 

She looks down at her watch.

2:06am

21 hours left.

————————

“Tired Jinnie?”, asked Amber when she finally caught one of the yawns Soojin wasn’t able to suppress.

“A little I suppose but don’t worry bout it Unnie. I’m more concerned about you, don’t you have a shift tomorrow?”

“Haha no, I don’t work on Fridays. Remember, I’m the boss so I can choose my shifts anyways.”

“Right, hope you don’t boss Chaengie too much with that power.”

“Of course not. Even if I did, that girl is just a ball of laughter and energy so I’d be surprised if I ever see her tired haha.”

Amber stops looking at the file in front of her for a second and puts her hands together as if to say a “prayer”.

“Pray that our Chaengie stays this bright and hyper forever.”

“I s