Humming to herself, Bora plays with a flame, letting it dance between her fingertips. She’s in the meeting room, waiting for the other members of the team to arrive. Their director, Minji, had called in a meeting to discuss their team status. The sound of Minji thumbing through a report and the crackling of Bora’s flame against her hand are the only sounds audible in the large room. Bora lets the flame die out in her palm, closing her hand over it. It sizzles, small plucks of smoke escaping her hand as she reopens it. Minji looks up at her as she turns to hunch over the table.

‘Are you alright?’ Minji takes in the appearance of her number one field agent. Her skin read, as befits a demon descendent, with runes drawn on her right arm. Her small horns pointed up on her forehead, shimmering and glowing like ashes in a hearth. Bora simply nods at Minji’s question, resting her chin on her right arm. Minji has noticed Bora’s boredom lately. She’s always felt like she had large shoes to fill, being a descendant of infamous Hellboy and Liz. She’s worked hard since she entered the Bureau, proving herself to be more than overqualified for the position of Team Alpha’s leader. All at the Bureau show her nothing but respect, and as Minji took over from her father around the same time Bora stepped in to replace her mother, the 2 became close very quickly.

‘Hey, guys!’ In comes the resident bookworm, Yoohyeon Sapien. True to her title, she holds a thick book under her arm and fixes her cute round glasses before taking a seat across from Bora, near Minji. ‘Hello, Yoohyeon. Did you see Yubin on your way in?’ Shaking her head, she pouts slightly at their boss. ‘I thought she’d be here already.’ The 3 share a look, knowing it is likely that Yubin got caught in paperwork and lost track of time again. They’ve tried telling her to loosen up a bit, but she’s dedicated to her work. ‘I’ll call her up again.’ Minji steps out, dialing Yubin’s number. Being left alone, Yoohyeon smiles at Bora. ‘I heard we lost some recruits again. You didn’t happen to have anything to do with that, right?’ Bora is in charge of the final recruitment evaluation before rookies are allowed to intern on the field and handle real cases. She’s known to be strict but righteous, scaring some of the recruits into leaving. ‘If they can’t handle me, they can’t handle our work. It’s as simple as that, Yooh.’ The taller girl just shrugs and flips open her book, reading as they wait.

‘She’s on her way, she was archiving applications again.’ Bora shakes her head as Minji re-enters, taking her seat at the head of the table. ‘Meanwhile, I can relay some information that Yubin is aware of already, to the rest of you.’ The 4 of them make up the core team, additional members picked per mission, based on their fields of expertise. The 4 of them are basically the backbone of the company. It had been surprising when Minji took over the director’s chair yet chose to go out into the field with the rest for the high-profile missions. After a while, they learned Minji is much braver than previous directors, and much more empathic. ‘You are aware we are becoming understaffed due to an increase in the numbers of recruits falling away in the final evaluation stage of our recruitment program.’ Bora grunts at this, running a hand through her hair. ‘They all think it’s fun and games until I bring up the real details of what they’ll have to face out there! It’s not my fault we can’t find any decent brave agents lately!’ Minji sighs at her friend’s outburst. ‘I am well-aware, Bora. The fact of the matter remains, however, that this is causing staffing issues. Yubin doesn’t trust anyone but us to help with administration, our permanent members have started taking up other jobs to get around during the times their expertise isn’t needed, and honestly we can all tell how frustrated you are becoming with the lack of life around the Bureau.’ It’s true. Bora enjoys the company of others, sharing experiences and socialising. She hasn’t been able to do any of that as they’re all either doing too much work or none at all due to understaffing issues.

‘What do you suggest we do, Minji?’ Yoohyeon has brought up a notebook, scribbling down little notes about their meeting. ‘Yubin and I have discussed a different recruitment approach.’ Speak of the devil and she shall appear. Yubin walks in, tailored suit pressed to perfection and hair slicked back tightly. ‘My apologies for my tardiness.’ Taking a seat next to Bora, she rests her hand on the table in front of her, clasping them together. ‘Thank you for joining us, Yubin.’ Receiving a nod, Minji continues. ‘Instead of running through applications, then interviewing, putting effort in training and finding out we’ve wasted time at the end, we are thinking of organising a sort of free-for-all bootcamp.’ Bora frowns at this. ‘How would it work?’ Yubin turns to her slightly, elaborating.

‘We would organise a month of bootcamp, with a set number of entrees available. Set up a profile they need to fit, and then put all the trainees through several high intensity courses. Each of us can take up a specific course as their responsibility and we can convene after each day to discuss who shows most potential. At the end of each week, we would disqualify certain trainees. By the 4th week, we should have a pool of specialised individuals with great potential, ready to go into the field as assistants.’ Bora mulls over the idea. It could technically work, but she isn’t sure about the details of it all. Yoohyeon, always having been better with wording her concerns, pipes up. ‘I love the idea! However, how would we conduct such a large scale bootcamp while still keeping up with our own work and missions?’ Bora nods, glad that Yoohyeon voiced her concerns perfectly.

Minji leans back in her chair with a soft smile on her lips. ‘We have put together a Beta team. They have agreed to take over any missions and tasks we can’t handle during that period. All we have to do is give them the exact dates.’ Minji slides a slip of paper over to both Bora and Yoohyeon. On it are the names of the team members. ‘Sorn, Elkie, Yujin, and Seunghee. Well done, boss.’ Bora nods softly. They have been their most loyal associates for the past years and are more than well-versed in the operations inside and outside the Bureau. Yoohyeon takes more notes and neatly puts the slip of paper away in her notebook. ‘Then, what date were you thinking of?’ Yubin sits up, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘If we can all agree on it right now, we should be able to get all the preparation done within 2 months.

Sharing a look, all the girls nod in agreement. ‘In 2 months it is. Yubin, as discussed, you will be in charge of planning structure and sending out application forms and ads.’ Yubin nods and moves up from her chair, leaving the room with a short wave. ‘Yooh, I would like you to concern yourself with the structure of the courses, as well as content.’ Picking up her books, she holds them against her chest and gets up from her chair. Moving towards Minji, she pecks her on the cheek with a soft smile before nodding towards Bora and leaving the room with a soft goodbye.

Smiling, Minji meets Bora’s eyes. Bora tenses, seeing a glint of challenge in her friend’s eyes. ‘And you, Miss An Rama, will be in charge of personal coaching.’ Frowning, she crosses her arms. ‘Why me? I may be social but I don’t do well with rookies, you’ve seen that.’ Minji walks around the table to Bora, placing a hand on her shoulder. ‘Because it is something you need to work on. Most of them are willing to work hard to land a position here Bora. Not all were born into this line of work as we were.’ Sighing, she nods. Bora knows Minji is right. She simply hates the idea of someone going out into the field without a true realisation of what to expect. ‘Alright, I’ll try talking to some people around the bureau for tips and what not.’ Smiling, Minji pulls her friend up and walks her out of the meeting room. ‘Great! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some meetings to plan so we can actually afford this whole ordeal!’ With that, Minji skips to her office, leaving Bora standing in the hallway, trenchcoat swaying softly with the wind created by her boss’ movements.