The blue grey-haired woman looks at the street as she waits for the green light, tapping the steering wheel as she remembers yesterday’s night.

FLASHBACK

Nayeon tightens the grip of their hands and looks at Tzuyu with a raised brow. “Don’t think because of this you have my trust.”

The villain lets go Tzuyu’s hand and the hero looks at her turning around.

“and my trust is not easy to win, Chou Tzuyu.” Nayeon says as she gives Tzuyu a look from over her shoulder. “Work for it.”

The hero looks at Nayeon’s back feeling her eye flinch and her hand tensing with ice.

Tzuyu breathes deeply and raises her hands in an annoyed manner but then she lowers them exhaling cold air.

She only rubs the bridge of her nose and shakes her head.

Because in the end, this is what she signed for.

END OF THE FLASHBACK

Gripping the steering wheel after the green light flashes and pressing the accelerator with a frown she drives faster to her destiny.

---------------------------------------------------------------

The moment she parks her white Mercedes AMG 63S coupe in front of one of the highest buildings in the city, a man approaches her with a challenging attitude.

“Excuse me miss! but this is the CEO parking place and no one can!-“

Tzuyu turns to meet the man with a raising brow as she gets out of her car with a folder. “First of all, good morning sir.”

“Second.” Tzuyu shows a polite smile to the man who is looking at her with surprised eyes. “Tell your boss, I will borrow this place for a little while.”

“I-I apologize deeply miss Chou, I-I didn’t want to-“

The team leader frowns when she notices the man is almost shaking, even though he is obviously embarrassed she notices a little bit of fear in the man’s eyes making her frown even more.

“It’s okay, but please try to change that challenging attitude.” Tzuyu smiles politely and passes beside the man, she looks at him before she enters the building noticing his surprised face and a relieved sigh.

Tzuyu can’t help to frown with displeasure internally for a moment because she knows why the man was scared and relieved.

When she enters the building everyone is surprised to see her, a lot of the employees can’t even control their surprised expressions, looking at her with jaws on the floor.

She expected these reactions and even the whispers she manages to hear.

“The CEO’s daughter! The team leader of Second-to-none!”

“She has never been here…what is she doing here?”

“It’s the first time I see her this close, she is so pretty…”

“Maybe she will be finally taking what is hers?”

“She looks somewhat cold but so cool and even better than-“

The whispers stop the moment she turns to look around her and only shakes her head walking towards the receptionist.

“Good morning.” Tzuyu greets and notices the receptionist doesn’t look at her in the eyes. “I’m here to see your boss, she hasn’t arrived, right?”

The receptionist shakes her head and raises her head to meet Tzuyu’s cold but at the same time kind greyish black orbs making her blush. “S-She is late today Miss, she will be here in-“

The sound of the entry glass door opening loudly makes the receptionist lower her head and Tzuyu turns to meet the person she doesn’t want to see but she has to see today.

“WHO WAS THE ONE WHO-“

A tall woman almost at the same height as Tzuyu dressed in an expensive dress stops in front of her with her wide greyish black eyes, she looks Tzuyu from head to toe, she quickly recovers her posture and shows Tzuyu a false smile.

“My dear daughter, what a…pleasant surprise.” The woman says with an unreadable tone. “Have you finally decided to assume your obligations?”

“An unpleasant surprise for me.” Tzuyu answers with a cold tone. “I came here to fix and help grandmother with your…pleasant mistakes” the hero says with a sarcastic but sour tone.

The tall woman face changes completely to an indignant grimace “How dare you?! Looks like time only made you worst! Get out right-!”

“Ah, seriously” Tzuyu lets out a dry laugh as she shakes her head. “He and you need to learn how to talk without raising your voice, it’s annoying.”

The tall woman wants to say more but Tzuyu opens the folder and starts reading. “The stocks fell 23 points to an all-time low, instead of investing you use the money for trips around the world and shop your precious Louis Vuitton bags, oh! And even Prada bags too, the employees that ask you for better treatment or a raise get mysteriously fired and they even sue you but it’s okay right? You use the company’s money to silence them, and the list goes on.” Tzuyu closes the folder with a false smile.

“Do you want me to tell you everything? It must be great, grandma still spoils you.” Tzuyu chuckles dryly again and notices her mother raising her hand but she dodges it. “Even the slowest villain is faster than you.”

The woman looks at Tzuyu with enraged eyes filled with embarrassment. “YOU-!”

“Enough.”

The team leader notices the cold air and decides to remain silent and only look at her grandmother who is looking at the scene with unsurprised eyes.

“To my office, now.”

Tzuyu and her mother follow the older woman with an uncomfortable silence, the ride in the elevator is cold and tense, almost irritating.

The moment they enter to Suzy’s office, Tzuyu and Suzy notices the woman is about to scream like she used to do when Tzuyu was younger, but Suzy stops her when she speaks as she sits on her chair.

“My dear daughter, don’t worry.” Chou Suzy says. “Starting from today, you will be resting in our house, to do what you do best.”

Tzuyu holds back a laugh and only bites her lower lip noticing her mother’s surprised eyes.

“B-but I’m the CEO” Tzuyu’s mother said with a loud whisper.

“For the next three months, she will take your place.” The oldest woman ways as she opens a couple of folders she had on her leather desk. “And this is not open to discussion, it’s already decided. Or do you want Tzuyu to read again a couple of the mistakes we need to fix?”

Tzuyu only feels her mother’s cold air filling the room along with her raged breathing only to turn around, her heels resounding in the office along with the door closing loudly.

“She didn’t make a scene in front of you, that’s weird.” Tzuyu says and turns to meet her grandmother’s raised eyebrow. “What?”

“I didn’t expect you would do that.” Her grandmother laughs quietly. “but I didn’t rule out to be honest.”

Tzuyu only grips the folder and sighs tiredly. “She needed a lesson, however, I admit I should’ve talked to her privately.”

Suzy nods in agreement but smiles a little. “I like that you always do that dear, you learn from the little things.”

The hero smiles truly for the first time of the day and approaches to sit in front of her grandma’s desk. “Can we start the meeting?”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tzuyu enters her new office and whistles noticing it looks elegant with the big glass wall behind her chair and glass desk.

“It looks somewhat new.” Tzuyu says as she steps and notices she will have to decorate it and smiles but someone knocks the door.

“Come in, please.” Tzuyu says and the door opens revealing a slim woman wearing glasses and looking formal with her black skirt and blazer.

“Nice to meet you Miss Chou, I’ll be your assistant from today, my name is Lee Jieun.” The older woman bows deeply and Tzuyu answers with a bow too, the team leader notices the woman must be about her mother’s age or less maybe.

“Pleasure to meet you Miss Lee, I’m Chou Tzuyu.” Tzuyu extends a hand to Jieun surprising the older woman who takes a moment to shake her hand softly with respect, the hero also notices her brownish-green eyes and chuckles internally thinking about a peculiar villain

Tzuyu frowns a little bit and smiles a little. “You used to be the last boss’s assistant, right?”

“Yes, I was.” Jieun says with a formal nod.

“That explains your surprise.” Tzuyu chuckles a little bit surprising Jieun again and Tzuyu signals her to take a seat.

“I also suppose you’re used to yells, rudeness and a lot of things, isn’t it?” Tzuyu asks and Jieun purses her lips. “I assure you, if you tell me the truth you will not be fired.”

Jieun raises her head to meet Tzuyu’s mild smile and that’s when she notices, the young woman in front of her is nothing like her bossy boss who yelled her from morning to night, she’s nothing like her.

The assistant nods only still fearing to lose her job.

Tzuyu purses her lips and sighs, that confirms why the man was scared and challenged her when she parked her car, she feels even more annoyed but masks her displeasure very well.

The assistant keeps telling her about the company and Tzuyu listens and looks everything with careful and attentive eyes, until her watch announces it’s time for lunch, she dismisses Jieun and takes the elevator looking at its metal doors with a somewhat lost look.

She gets out of the building and when she is about to enter her car a big dog, almost like a golden retriever but a little bit different, approaches her excitedly.

“Oh!” Tzuyu’s bad humor instantly goes away as she looks at the dog with excitement.

“Chocolate! Please stop, be a good dog!”

When Tzuyu looks at the owner she opens her eyes with surprise. “You..”

“Chou.” Nayeon looks at her with surprised eyes for a moment but turns to look at the dog who is now sitting and looking at Tzuyu.

“Is this your dog?” Tzuyu asks and Nayeon thinks for a moment before sighing. “No, he is the dog I walk and watch today.”

“Can I pet him?” The hero crouches down and looks at Nayeon with a little smile.

“Yeah?· Nayeon frowns with suspicion and watches Tzuyu’s smile grow when she starts to pet the dog, she doesn’t notice she has been looking at them for a while until Tzuyu gets up again.

“Are you a dog sitter?” Tzuyu asks casually.

Nayeon only nods.

The hero feels the silence between them and asks something else. “Have you eaten yet?”

“Yeah.” Nayeon lies but her stomach decides to grumble loudly enough and Tzuyu hears it.

The hero purses her lips to hold back her laugh and Nayeon looks at her with an embarrassed frown trying to mask her blush.

“A-anyway, we have to get going.” Nayeon gently calls the dog and the dog turns to her but Tzuyu speaks again. “Why don’t we have lunch?”

Nayeon turns to look at her for a moment and seems to be thinking about the offer, however. “I will eat with him.”

“I think he would like to eat with me too.” Tzuyu smiles while she pets the dog again and Nayeon rolls her eyes with a raised brow. “Keep dreaming, we don’t want you in our lunch”

Tzuyu only lets out a silent chuckle and sighs. “If you say so, good luck eating dog’s kibble.” The hero opens her car with a smirk when she notices Nayeon annoyed expression and starts the engine.

Nayeon watches the white Mercedes go and sighs turning with the dog to complete their walk.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Mina passes through the supermarket halls grabbing what it’s necessary and of course, snacks for her friends.

When she notices a bag of red skittles she excitedly tiptoes to grab it but a hand also tries to grab it surprising her when she turns to meet a pair of blue eyes.

“Miss Myoui.” Momo says with a whisper and bows greet Mina. “It’s unexpected to meet you here”

Mina notices Momo gentle smile and needs a few seconds to function correctly again after noticing Momo is wearing casual clothes that make her look absolutely gorgeous. “Y-Yes.”

Momo takes the red skittles and extends them to Mina. “I was going to take them, but I guess you like them more than me.”

Mina takes the bag careful to not touch Momo’s hands but actually wanting to touch them, she brushes Momo’s fingers slightly.

Momo shows her a warm smile and Mina can feel her heart beating again. “Um.”

The blue-eyed woman looks at her attentively.

“Can you-“

-----------------------------------------------------------------

“You had another opportunity and you choose to ask for a recipe?” Jeongyeon says to Mina through her phone.

“I panicked…again.” Mina says with a sigh as she talks to her car’s stereo that is connected to her phone.

“I think we should make a bet again.” Jeongyeon suggests with a smirk.

“I’m not losing 20 dollars again.” Mina answers with a deadpanned tone.

“But I would like to win them.” Jeongyeon says with a laugh.

“Then work” Mina answers playfully before hanging up.

“Tsk, it was going to be a good offer.” Jeongyeon mutters with a pout and leans in her seat looking at Sana waiting to get Jihyo’s attention.

Jeongyeon smiles softly and gets up deciding to walk around the hospital and go for an iced americano.

Today there’s no line and she celebrates silently closing her hand into a triumphant fist, she tells her order to the barista and waits patiently, when she gets her coffee and she’s about to walk back to where Sana is someone taps her shoulder.

The blonde turns to meet the one who tapped her shoulder and finds the girl with silver hair that makes her think if it’s the same girl who was watching her the other day.

She also notices the girl’s blush notices a lot because of her pale skin.

“Yes?” Jeongyeon asks with a gentle smile. “How can I help you?”

She notices the girl is holding a paper with a pen and Jeongyeon immediately thinks she is going to ask for an autograph, she smiles waiting for the shy girl who she supposes is one of the team’s fans.

“C-Can I have your number?”

Jeongyeon has to hold back almost spitting her coffee because of the surprise and opens her green eyes wide.

The girl raises her head to look at her and Jeongyeon confirms it was the day of the other day when she notices her black eyes.

“Oh dear god, she’s really cute.” Jeongyeon thinks and notices the girl retreats her hand with the paper but when she’s about to say something the blonde takes the paper along with the pen and writes her number.

She wants to know this girl’s name, its been a while since someone this cute has asked for her number and she decides to follow her sixth sense who says her she should go for it.

However, her phone starts to ring and shows an apologetic smile.

“I’ll wait for your call cute stranger!”

The sand hero smiles to the silver-haired girl and runs with her phone on her ear and her drink on the other.

----------------------------------------

“Look at you, someone asked for your number and we can’t even ask that to a chef girl and a doctor.” Sana says with a sad whine since she failed to ask Jihyo’s number even though she managed to flirt with her, so that’s a half-success for today.

“Jeongyeon-unnie has luck these days.” Tzuyu says as soon as she enters their house making the three girls turn their heads to meet her. “Although she would be the same handful of nerves if she were in your situation.”

“Hey!” Jeongyeon says from the sofa but she gets up like Sana and Mina to receive Tzuyu with a giant hug.

“You had us worried, how was it?” Sana asks with a worried frown.

“Well…” Tzuyu starts with a deep breath.

Later, after Tzuyu told them everything about her long day, her three friends look at her with angry frowns about what happened first.

“The next time I see her I’m going to throw her something-“ Sana says with an irritated voice.

“I cannot believe she tried to hit you.” Mina says but sighs angrily. “Well, unfortunately I can but still”

“Trying to act like that with you, she is unbelievable.” Jeongyeon says with irritation.

“I expected worse to be honest.” Tzuyu drinks a little bit of water. “But well, we all know how it works with them.”

The girls keep talking about their days, the three women are more focused on Tzuyu’s day though, however, their meeting seems to be interrupted when their watches start to vibrate.

The team put on their costumes fastly and Tzuyu reads her watch only let out a big sigh.

“Wildfire-N and Stormwater-M” The team leader informs. “They robbed a jewelry shop this time.”

“Can they just work and buy things as normal people do?” Jeongyeon shakes her head with a frown. “How far is the jewelry?”

“Not too much, only four streets.” Sana says as she arranges part of her costume.

“Then, let’s go.” Tzuyu says as she purses her lips.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

When they arrive at the jewelry shop, they find just a few civilians inside and both villains are still inside.

However, they see the civilians escaping from the jewelry shop the three women think it’s a distraction but Tzuyu doesn’t think the same.

“Did she let them escape because she doesn’t want to hurt them?” Tzuyu thinks. "She's really confusing."

They help the civilians and tell them to go to a safe place but never leaving the jewelry shop out of their sight.

“Stormwater-M is still inside! I will take care of Wildfire-N!” Tzuyu says to her teammates and they nod.

Tzuyu looks around and outside the jewelry shop searching for the fire villain when she looks up, she barely has time to do a back stunt to avoid Wildfire-N’s kick.

“Just let me land a clean hit for once goddamn.” The fire villain says as she raises her hand to send Tzuyu a fire blast.

But Tzuyu answers with a burst of cold ice that even makes Nayeon step back and cover her face.

“You’re not playing this time.” Nayeon says behind her mask and Tzuyu purses her lips looking at Nayeon with a frown.

Tzuyu notices this time Nayeon has a bag that she supposes it’s the jewelry. “Give me that bag.”

“Or what?” the fire villain shots Tzuyu an even more powerful fire blast but Tzuyu lowers her ice temperature even more and raises an ice wall after receiving the impact she jumps towards the villain giving her a sidekick on her face that Nayeon blocks with her arm covered in fire, Tzuyu then decides to shot Ice from her punch successfully hitting Nayeon’s chest and sending her to the wall.

Tzuyu tries to grab the bag Nayeon let go but she dodges an even more powerful blast of fire, this time different and stronger when Tzuyu notices the fire colors she knows she has to use her ability.

“, this is unbelievable, blue fire?” The ice hero thinks as she grits her teeth raising ice walls to protect herself but its almost useless towards that fire.

“You are handful, Ice maiden.” Nayeon says with a frown behind her mask as she keeps shooting fire to Tzuyu who keeps dodging and exhaling cold air. “And an annoying pain in the .”

“Just a couple of seconds more.” Tzuyu thinks as she keeps preparing her special ability and uses her ice to impulse herself to Nayeon again but Nayeon raises her hand shooting her a powerful blue fire attack.

The fire villain opens her eyes surprised when she sees her blue fire being useless versus the ice attack the hero uses against her and makes a back stunt to step back only to notice the coldest air she ever felt coming from the hero.

“Looks like you are the worst pain in the .” Tzuyu says exhaling even more cold air. “Making me use this ability.”

“So this is, below-zero.” Nayeon says as she recognizes Tzuyu’s special ability and chuckles feeling somewhat excited and irritated. “Can you be a good girl and let you kick like your comrades?”

Nayeon is the one jumping to Tzuyu this time her fists covered in blue fire which are successfully stopped by Tzuyu’s ice hands as they look at each other’s eyes even though Nayeon has her mask.

The hero tries to push Nayeon only making the villain step back a little bit. “Just give me the damn bag.”

“Just shut the up.” Nayeon answers trying to free her fists from Tzuyu’s hands as she tries to push the hero.

Their encounter ends when Nayeon gets hit with a body that sends her to the ground.

Tzuyu turns to meet Jeongyeon’s big sand fist along with Mina and Sana breathing heavily.

When the Ice maiden turns to look at Nayeon she finds her holding Stormwater-M who seems to have difficulties standing up because of the impact of Jeongyeon’s sand fist.

Wildfire-N stands up in front of her and Stormwater-M talks to her but Nayeon shakes her head, the only thing Tzuyu manages to hear is.

“I won’t leave you, never”

Tzuyu feels her legs move slower but tries to approach Nayeon who breathes deeply and feels sweat on her face, her fire quirk starts to affect her but she doesn’t care, she has to protect her and escape.

Stormwater-M takes the bag and prepares, alerting Tzuyu when she puts a light grenade on , grabbing the safety pin ring with her teeth ripping it.

The strong light manages to blind the whole team even though Tzuyu tried to use her ice to cover the light, Wildfire-N was faster.

When the light disappears Tzuyu grits her teeth only finding some jewels on the floor.

Leaving the team with part of their robbery but with a bitter feeling and questions, again.

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Hello! I hope you are having a wonderful day and doing well!

Although this is more like a bridge chapter, so to speak. There's someone important here *sips coffee* 

Thanks for reading as always! C': 

Please eat well! I will see you later! Cx