5 years ago…

“Nice work, Hyewon. Now we just have to take care of the witness.” Sohye says, tightening the grip of her bat while staring at Eunbi’s unconscious body.

“Yah, this is already beyond our jurisdiction. She didn’t appear to have any abilities either. Just wipe her memory from today and let her go.” Hyewon tries to argue.

“Ugh, fine, but if she ends up talking, it’s your fault.” Her partner replies, walking up to Eunbi, forcing her eyes open and staring directly at them.

“I’ll bring her back to her house while you take care of the mutant here. I’ll meet you at base.” Sohye then says.

“Wait, how about I bring her back instead. Her brother is already knocked out cold and shouldn’t be a problem for you to handle.” Hyewon replies, suddenly not trusting what Sohye would do to the girl when she wasn’t there.

“Fine. Just be quick.” Hyewon nods, unfreezing Eunsang and using ice to cuff his hands together.

~~~~

After about half an hour of travel, Hyewon arrives at the older girl’s address. She then places her down in a seat next to the front door and whispers something in her ear.

“You were just on your way back home from school, and nothing out of the ordinary happened.” She obviously felt guilty doing this, but Hyewon had no other choice. It was true that this girl’s knowledge could blow their whole organization’s cover. She may have only been 15 at the time, but she knew enough already about the spy business that one’s cover is everything.

Hyewon takes another look at Eunbi who was still unconscious. She knew she had to leave, but there was something within her that didn’t want to yet. The young girl ended up waiting for what felt like an hour until Eunbi began to stir and wake up. Only then did Hyewon finally decide to return to base. What greeted her back at 8D though was a very upset Sohye.

“What took you so long?” She asks while tapping her foot on the ground.

“I…was just making sure the girl really didn’t remember anything.” Hyewon replies quietly. Though it wasn’t the true reason, it was technically true, and it seemed to be convincing enough for Sohye.

“Well, you took so long that you missed all the fun. That mutant we were after? I had to put him down.” She says casually as if she were talking about watering a plant or buying lunch.

“What? Why? He was already restrained and unconscious.” Hyewon was in disbelief. There was a glint in her partner’s eyes that she couldn’t quite place, as if she’d finally lost it.

“Don’t look at me like that, Kang. If you just let me get rid of that girl, you would’ve been there when the guy woke up instead. I didn’t have a choice.” Every one of Sohye’s words pierced Hyewon’s heart. Maybe she should’ve gone with Sohye’s first suggestion. She would’ve easily been able to restrain Eunsang if he ever woke up during transport. Hyewon couldn’t help but think now what the girl from earlier will think once she gets the news. These thoughts were interrupted when a middle-aged man called the duo’s attention. It was the director.

“Sohye, Hyewon. To my office, now.” He says before turning and walking away, not waiting for the two to follow.

~~~~

“What happened on the mission? Why did our target end up on the news?” He asks in a frustrated tone, turning on the monitor next to him which was running a segment on Kwon Eunsang’s death. He’d been found in a butcher’s meat locker with blood dripping from his head.

“This is Hyewon’s fault, sunbae! She wanted to protect the guy’s sister by transferring him properly. I had no choice but to take him out when he started to wake up.” Sohye replies first, pinning the blame on her partner. It’s not like Hyewon could deny it though. She put her personal feelings over the mission. Sohye’s actions were a result of her weakness, and it wasn’t the first time. The director is quiet for a couple seconds, and Hyewon was silently preparing for whatever punishment he’d give.

“Kim Sohye, you’re out. I do not approve of your methods anymore.” He eventually says which shocks both of them.

“What? I’m the one who always completes the missions! Hyewon is always too soft. How is that my fault?” She replies angrily.

“I have long mentioned that we should prioritize contain over kill. A lot of these mutants haven’t done anything wrong. Our mission's main goal is to assess what kind of threat level they possess and react accordingly. I feel like you’ve lost that vision.” The director says flatly.

“This isn’t fair! You two just don’t have the guts to get the job done. Some of these mutants, including that Kwon boy, need to be put in mutant centers to be monitored instead of roaming free!”

“Is that really what you think? All the more reason for you to be let go. You can exercise your philosophy somewhere else. Hyewon, please her out.” At this order, Sohye jumps out of her seat and gets in a fighting stance.

“You two just don’t understand. If you really want to keep the populace safe, you have to make tough decisions. I will not let you undermine me!” Hyewon was about to charge up an ice blast, but before she could, Sohye removes her shades and stares daggers at her and the director.

“Neither of you will ever remember who I am…” Sohye mutters as she leaves the room, leaving her two former colleagues unconscious.

~~~~

Present day…

“Woah…okay, I remember everything now. You were right, Yena.” Hyewon says as she rubs her head only to realize there was now a scorched patch on her scalp. “Wait-”

“Ah, why not go back to the part where I was right!” Yena says quickly before her friend could complain about the new hairdo. Hyewon sighs, deciding it was a topic for another time.

“Alright, so Sohye was once my partner when I was younger. She admitted to killing Eunbi’s brother and because of it, our director decided to bar her from joining any future missions. She was upset about our ideological difference, and before I could restrain her myself, she brain blasted our memories of her away.” Hyewon explains. An event in her past suddenly made so much sense. She’d woken up in a hospital with the director in the bed next to her with no recollection of how she got there. The overall details were still fuzzy, but Hyewon was definitely sure of one thing- she did not kill Eunbi’s brother.

“Okay, I guess we should go back to Eunbi-unnie and try telling her the truth.“ The duck replies before taking out her phone and seeing a text from Chaewon.

“I’m with Eunbi-unnie right now. We’re heading to Hyochang park. Meet us there if you can.”

“Uh…actually, scratch that, Kwangbae. I think they found where Sohye’s hiding.” Yena says, showing the older girl the text.

~~~~

One hour ago…

“Nothing looks out of the ordinary here…” Eunbi mutters to herself as she takes a seat in the restaurant. They’d just missed the breakfast run, so the place was pretty much empty at the moment.

“Unnie, you must really be out of it. If this girl wants to hide, she wouldn’t just leave clear evidence of her presence.” Chaewon replies from across the table. As Yena had instructed, she paid Eunbi a visit early in the morning. She’d actually caught the older girl just as she was about to leave campus and forced her to let her come along.

Eunbi had reluctantly given the details of the mission the night before and eventually relayed the information she’d gotten from Seunggi regarding the I.O.I members. The older girl just had a soft spot for Chaewon because of their ties together. Now that she was leading her own group, she wanted to set a good example for her as well.

“Good day! What may I get for you?” An older woman asks suddenly,handing the duo some menus.

“Ah, we were just wondering if you’ve heard of a girl named Im Nayoung? We wanted to talk with her.” Eunbi replies. At the mention of the name though, the woman’s expression shifts just a little.

“I’m sorry, but you must be mistaken. We don’t know any such person. If you aren’t going to order, please leave. We’re expecting a lot of customers today.” The elder replies in a tone that, when combined with the expression change, tells Eunbi that she was lying.

“Actually, we’d love to order! We heard this restaurant was very famous. May we try some seolleongtang and some kimchi rice?” Chaewon says after taking a quick glance through the menu. Eunbi looks to her in confusion, but the short-haired girl mouths to just trust her.

“How about drinks?” The elder follows up.

“Just a couple cans of sprite. Thank you!” Eunbi says. The woman nods and goes to the kitchen.

“Alright, I’m going to sneak around. I’ll tell you if anything’s amiss.” Chaewon whispers before heading to the bathroom where she split herself into two copies. One went back out the door while the other climbed out the window.

~~~~

“Hmm, maybe Eunbi-unnie was right. I don’t see anything suspicious.” Chaewon says as she tiptoes around the restaurant’s perimeter. The only thing of note was a garden next to the establishment where she assumed the owners grew their own produce. Everything else looked normal. Just as she was about to head back and rejoin with her other copy, though, Chaewon hears the sound of someone clearing their throat behind her. It was a young woman with long brown hair wearing an apron.

“Oh…are you Im Nayoung?” Chaewon asks with a forced laugh, recognizing the woman’s face.

“Depends…who’s asking?” She replies in a cold tone.

“Kim Chaewon. I’m an agent from-” Chaewon realizes she’d picked the wrong words too late as at the mention of ‘agent’, the woman charges right towards her with a closed fist which she just managed to dodge. When the short-haired girl turns back, she sees an indent in the brick wall that her attacker had ended up hitting.

“Okay, note-to-self, she packs a hard punch.” The cheetah thinks to herself before cloning herself into four copies.

“I knew it! You’re not taking me in!” The woman yells. Chaewon uses this lapse in focus to sneak in a jab right at her stomach, but what happened was her and all her copies recoiling their right hands in pain. It felt like she had punched solid stone.

While Chaewon’s guard was down, her target rushed towards one of the copies, grabbed her, and threw her towards another duplicate. Chaewon just didn’t have the physical capability to compete with this girl.

“Yield…” The woman says in a quiet tone while pinning Chaewon’s original copy to the ground.

“Yah! I’m from PD campus too! Please hear me out!” Chaewon says while struggling to break free. Her attacker’s grasp was rock solid, not allowing her to fight back.

“Wait…PD campus?” She asks, loosening her grip a little.

“Yes! We need your help looking for Kim Sohye!!” The short-haired girl complains until she feels the weight of a boulder lift off her shoulders.

“Kim Sohye…? Yes, I know her, but we should discuss this inside.” The woman replies, an unreadable expression now on her face.

~~~~

Back at the table, the food had just arrived when Chaewon felt a sharp pain in her hand, dropping her spoon.

“Chaewon, what’s wrong?” Eunbi asks worriedly.

“No…problem…unnie. Just a little misunderstanding.” She struggles to say, her back now starting to ache.

“Alright, I’m heading out and looking for your clone.” Just as the older girl was about to stand up though, the kitchen doors opened to reveal Chaewon with another woman next to her.

“Im Nayoung, I presume? My name is Kwon Eunbi. I see you’ve already met my friend, Kim Chaewon.” Eunbi greets, extending her hand.

“Yes, apologies for the misunderstanding with your friend here. She should’ve just stated your intentions from the jump.” She replies, accepting the handshake.

“Wait, I was just getting to it when you attacked.” Chaewon complains.

“It’s alright, Chaewon. What matters is that she’s here now.” The older girl says, inviting Nayoung to take a seat.

“So, what do you want with Sohye that you had to come all the way here?” The aforementioned girl asks.

“We believe she’s involved in a plot to take down mutants. We want to know her history and what her motives might be.” Eunbi says.

“Sohye always did have…strong ideals. We didn’t always agree, but we were family in I.O.I.. She would always have our backs when we needed her.” Nayoung replies, looking at a framed picture on a wall behind Eunbi. It was those 11 girls again, this time in more casual attire.

“What exactly were those ideals? I actually met her when I was younger. She was involved in the killing of my mutant brother and wiped all my memories of it. I only remember now because she brought them back when I fought her yesterday. She was trying to steal security codes.” Nayoung quiets at this information for a few seconds before speaking again.

“On her behalf, I apologize sincerely. I had no idea she did something like that before joining us. Yes, she was a bit quiet when we first met, but she gradually broke out of her shell as time passed. That is, until our last mission before we split up.” There was a certain pain in the woman’s eyes that Eunbi recognized. She had a feeling she knew where this was going.

“Yoo Yeonjung…she was one of our members.” Nayoung says in a sad tone.

“‘Was’?” Chaewon asks to which the older girl nods.

“Yes, she passed away a couple years ago.” She replies before going on to explain what happened.

There was a hostage situation. One of Korea’s gang leaders had abducted the daughter of a high ranking politician, and I.O.I. was dispatched to recover her discreetly. It didn’t seem very complicated from their point of view- just sneak in, knock everyone out, and save the girl. What they didn’t expect was that two of the gang leader’s lackeys were actually mutants, one with the power to create explosions and one with the ability to mimic voices. The latter mutant lured the group into a room by copying the hostages voice, and by the time they realized it was a trap, the other mutant blew the room up, leaving some of the members badly injured. Though they still had enough strength to fight through and eventually save the hostage, it was their escape attempt where disaster truly struck. The gang leader was upset at not being able to cash in his ransom and ordered his mutant to create the ultimate explosion that would essentially kill everyone in a five kilometer radius. Yeonjung, whose power was creating energy shields, decided to sacrifice herself by forming a bubble around her and the mutant. When the dust cleared, both of them were dead.

That event was so traumatizing for the group that they just couldn’t move on. Their teammate. Their friend. Their family. They lost her just like that, and no one would know because the government covered up the whole story. The only memory of Yeonjung left was carried by the members and everyone else who knew her in the facility. Eventually, the group decided it would be best to part ways which their director understood.

“I think what upset Sohye the most was that when we looked into those two mutants, there were no records of them in any mutant facility or police station. They were just two people living their lives normally until being recruited by that gang leader.” Nayoung says, a few tears rolling down her cheeks.

“She still showed up when we gathered here every once in a while, but it was clear that she wasn’t the same after Yeonjung’s passing. She would always go on about how mutants should’ve been required to go to mutant facilities, so things like this wouldn’t happen again, but you know that’s almost impossible. Some people will always inevitably slip through the cracks and go by undetected.”

The puzzle pieces were now starting to fit together for Eunbi. She’d heard Sohye say something similar before in her memory.

“It’s not about what you’ve done, but what you could do in the future.”

“That must’ve been tough…for all of you. Losing anyone close to you can be painful, and I know you want to keep protecting your friends. That being said, Sohye is our only lead to finding something that was stolen from PD campus- a database of all mutants on campus and all that we’ve run into on our missions including abilities, personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and last known locations. If we can’t find Sohye, everyone will be at risk.” Eunbi says.

“You must be the leader of your group, right?” Nayoung suddenly asks with a smile.

“How did you know?”

“Because, that’s exactly something I would say. I understand what you mean, and…I’ll tell you where she usually stays. Beyond that though, I can’t help more, and I hope you can understand my side.”

“Any help is enough. I won’t ask you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with.” Eunbi replies.

“She has a cabin in Hyochang Park. Sohye never really had anyone outside of us and valued her alone time a lot. Maybe if I paid more attention though, I would’ve realized she was acting suspiciously. There were a few times recently where she’d pass on our hangouts for no reason.” Nayoung says, feeling responsible as I.O.I’s leader.

“Don’t worry. It’s hard to police everything your members do. You wouldn’t believe how many times mine have snuck off without me knowing.” Eunbi says, giving a look to Chaewon who almost chokes on the water she was drinking.

“Unnie, it was one time!” She whines, causing both the older girls to laugh.

“Before you go, why not finish the food? My mom worked hard on that, you know?” Nayoung eventually says, gesturing at the seolleongtang in front of them.

~~~~

The trio ate together for the next half hour, exchanging funny stories about the groups they led. Chaewon may have been a new leader, but she already had a lot to say about her members’ tendencies.

“It gets better with time, Chaewon-ah. Trust me, you’re a natural.” Eunbi had said.

The duo were now in front of the restaurant saying their goodbyes. Before they could leave though, Nayoung pulls Eunbi aside.

“If you find Sohye, please bring her back to us. I promise she isn’t a bad person.” She says.

“I’ll…try my best.” Eunbie replies hesitantly, still very conflicted on the truth of Sohye’s involvement in her brother’s death.

“We still need to have a drink some time, so I know we’ll meet again.” She adds to lighten the mood before giving Nayoung a hug and whispering something in her ear.

“Stay strong.:.”

When Eunbi gets back to Chaewon, she notices the younger girl was on her phone,

“What’s up?” The older girl asks.

“Oh, it's nothing, unnie.” Chaewon says, putting her phone back in her pocket.

“If you say so. Now come on, let’s go.” 

A/N: Hi and welcome back to another chapter! Here we get two flashbacks about past events that give some context to Sohye and her connection with Hyewon and I.O.I. These ended up being pretty long because I couldn't just cut it in between, so I hope y'all enjoy the longer chapter HAHA

Next one will likely be the last one for this entire book, but I'll see. Depends on how long it'll be.

Thank you all again for the likes and comments! I appreciate everything! Hopefully this whole journey has been fun so far!

Have a nice day and see y'all in the next one!