“Minjoo, is that you on the TV?” Chaewon points as a commercial plays on one of the cafeteria screens.

“Agh, I wasn’t told it was coming out today. Can you shut it off, please?” Minjoo replies in a surprised tone, embarrassed at seeing herself energetically showing off a bottle of water.

“How come? You look really cute here. I’d line up to buy that drink if I saw it now.” The short-haired girl says with a chuckle.

“Yah, it’s not funny. Besides, with all the talk about Jirisan recently, I don’t want to think about that brand.” Minjoo says, puffing her cheeks in protest. Sure, the money she’d be getting from this deal was good, but seeing everyone in the cafeteria glancing up to the TVs made her slightly regret it. “I should’ve looked for a cooler item to promote.”

“I’m sure you’d look good with anything.” Chaewon replies with a smile that causes Minjoo to blush. Even without all her memories, the older girl just always knew how to fluster Minjoo. The two then continued to pick out their food for breakfast in silence before finding an empty table to sit at.

“So, what’s the plan from here? Chaeyeon-unnie and the others left already, right?” Chaewon asks before taking a bite of bacon.

“You two will be staying put. That’s what your role is for now.” A new voice interjects from behind. It was Eunbi and Hyewon holding their own trays of food.

“Huh? How come?” Minjoo asks confusedly while the two older girls take seats next to them.

“We didn’t have time to mention it last night because it wasn’t the main agenda, but we met up with Nayoung. She knows someone who can get your memories back.” Eunbi says and at those words, a glint of hope appears in Minjoo’s eyes.

“Wait, you mean, someone has powers that can do that?” The brunette asks. Chowon had shown up yesterday while everyone was on missions to attempt to fix Chaewon’s mind like she did with Hyewon, but it didn’t work. There were just too many memories that were buried.

“Yes, her name’s Chungha, and she was part of I.O.I. She’s still on her way back from the States though. Nayoung told us she’d arrive by tomorrow, so we need you two to stay here and wait.” Eunbi says, having received that notification from Nayoung when she’d woken up that morning. Though, technically it was Hyewon who had to read it out to her.

“Thank goodness… you’ll be back to your old self in no time, Chae!” Minjoo says cheerfully, just missing the unsure expression that flashed across the short-haired girl’s face.

“When are we going to get you back to normal, unnie?” Hyewon then asks Eunbi.

“Hmm, what do you mean?” The older girl replies.

“Your eyes…?” Hyewon says, gesturing towards the blindfold Eunbi was still wearing despite knowing she wouldn’t be able to see the action.

“Sakura’s still the only one we know who can fix this. Besides, I think I’m getting used to it.” Eunbi says just as she misses while trying to eat her breakfast.

“Yeah, you’re practically a master now.” Hyewon chuckles sarcastically before turning serious again. “You mentioned you had a plan though, right?”

“Mhm, it’s going to be a fakeout. We have five escapees that we need to get back, and I have an idea on how to lure some of them to us.” Eunbi says with a sly smile.

~~~~

Later that afternoon…

“We’re in position, unnie.” Yunjin comms from an alleyway next to KYB Science and Research.

“Good, just break in and use the decryption key to find out anything about Jirisan or any other lab. If you see the target though, they become the new objective.” Eunbi radios back from the other side of the building with a hooded figure next to her.

“There’s no way this is going to work, unnie.” Hyewon argues while picking at the entrance's lock.

“We have the upper hand this time. Trust me, we’re going to find something out this time. Just make sure to not use your powers until we get the signal.” Eunbi replies, careful not to make direct eye contact with her girlfriend.

“Alright, we’re in. Let’s move.” The younger girl says before sneaking inside, Eunbi following right behind.

~~~~

“Hmm, the security here seems pretty weak compared to the programming company.” Eunchae whispers while tiptoeing next to Yunjin.

“Well, it’s not like Eunbi-unnie and the others had stealth options the last time they visited here.” Yunjin replies while casting her illusions to deter anyone who got in their path. Meanwhile, Kazuha was just floating in the air without a worry. Something that they did find odd though was the lack of people. They’d been expecting more scientists and guards to be milling around, but there were hardly any. It almost felt too easy.

After a couple minutes of walking up stairs and through corridors, the trio reach their destination- the lab that Nako and Hitomi had gone through days before. Yunjin was about to place their decryption key into one of the computers before Kazuha stopped her.

“How are we sure that they haven’t added precautions to detect Kkura-unnie’s gadgets by now?” The Japanese girl asks.

“Kinda too late to consider that now, right? Besides, we’re supposed to draw attention away from Eunbi and Hyewon anyway.” The older girl replies, pushing the USB in.

After a couple seconds of silence, PC starts to whir followed by the screen turning on. Yunjin then turns around to give Kazuha a look that says ‘I told you so’ before searching through some files for something their friends had missed. From what they said, they were ambushed fairly quickly after they accessed the computer, so they probably only had time to look at a couple things. The only things about Jirisan Yunjin could find were about new product releases from the area, nothing too suspicious, but before she could decide to click on them anyway, her attention was grabbed by an interestingly titled PDF.

“Model five?” She mumbles while hovering her cursor over it.

“You think that’s the new schematic of the android Kkura-unnie was tasked with making?” Eunchae asks.

“Only one way to find out…” Yunjin then clicks on the file only for an alarm to begin ringing through the building.

“I told you it was risky!” Kazuha says, immediately going back into air-form to camouflage.

“Let’s just hope this was also part of Eunbi-unnie’s plan.” Yunjin replies before casting another illusion to cloak herself and Eunchae.

The trio stare at all the entrances waiting for an army to show up only for a familiar figure wearing a cap to run into the room.

“Guys! Eunbi-unnie and I ran into a problem. We have to get out of here!” The woman says.

“Chaewon?” Yunjin asks, dropping a part of her illusion when she recognizes their leader in front of them.

“Yes? Come on, we don’t have much time!” She rushes, but the girls don’t move. Instead, Yunjin walks up closer to the older girl and inspects her.

“What’s with the hat, unnie?” She asks, which seems to catch Chaewon off guard.

“Huh? Oh, I just put it on to hide my face more. I don’t see what-” And before she could finish that sentence, Chaewon was knocked down from behind by a powered punch from Eunchae.

“You’re not going to fool us that easily… Michelle.” Yunjin says with a smirk, taking off the girl’s cap to reveal long flowing hair that Chaewon didn’t have herself.

“Yah, how did you know?” Michelle groans while trying to stand up, now surrounded by the three Le Sserafim members.

“Call it a lucky guess.” Yunjin replies before going in for a punch of her own only for her target to elegantly dodge it.

“I don’t know what game you’re playing at, but you’re not going to stop my revenge. I have a score to settle with Chaewon!” The long-haired girl yells before splitting herself into ten.

Though there were multiple adversaries for each member, none were on the combat skill level of Chaewon. Yunjin would cast illusions to create her own doppelgangers in order to confuse Michelle. Meanwhile, Kazuha would simply shift between solid and air form to keep her adversaries off tempo. Whenever a clone would throw a punch, the Japanese girl would turn hollow only to solidify and swing back with her own attack. Finally, Eunchae was just using her avatar’s pure strength to block and ward off the hits. There was a small part of her that felt off about hitting someone who looked like Chaewon, which made her dial back her counterattacks back just a bit.

Without the element of surprise, Michelle just couldn’t compete with them. What she lacked in power though, she made up for in endurance. Every time one of her clones would get knocked down, she’d just split into another one. She’d thought nothing other than getting back at Chaewon for over a year, and she didn’t want to be stopped now.

“Yah, she’s stalling!” Yunjin realizes, noticing a clone in the distance holding a cellphone in her hand. “The guards will be here soon. Kazuha, wrap this up!”

“With pleasure, just hold your breaths!” The Japanese girl says before airifying and all the oxygen in the room towards her. Slowly, but surely, the Michelle clones began to drop one by one until only the original copy was left. Eunchae then walks over to pick her up before running off with the others.

It takes a few minutes of fighting through security, but the trio eventually arrives at the rendezvous point without much trouble. Eunbi and Hyewon are already in the van, urging them to hurry in.

“You get what you were looking for, unnies?” Eunchae asks as they drive away.

“Mhm, and I see you girls completed your mission too.” Hyewon nods back, referring to their new acquaintance they’d tied up and placed in the backseat before shifting her eyes back on the road.

“Our main objective wasn’t really to gather more data from the labs, was it…” Kazuha says more like a realization than a question.

“Yeah, it all went according to plan.” Eunbi replies with a smirk, blindfold still on. She then begins twirling a USB in her hand while recalling the conversation they’d had a few hours earlier.

~~~~

“Okay, so last time, they knew who was going where because they saw the plan we drew out. This time around, I think we can return the favor.” Eunbi had said when the group of five had gathered in the war room.

“What do you mean by that, unnie? Also, why is Chaewon here? I thought you said she wasn’t going to leave campus.” Yunjin asked, only to be surprised when the older girl removed the blindfold she’d been wearing for the past few days.

“Yah, unnie! What’re you doing?” Hyewon wonders, immediately putting her hands over Eunbi’s eyes.

“Don’t worry. They can’t hear the audio, right? We can use that to our advantage.” And with that, Eunbi takes out a whiteboard and begins writing something out.

“We’re going to try and bait out Michelle. If they think Chaewon is coming, they’ll definitely send her over to try and fool us. Now, when I put Chae’s name on the board, I’m actually referring to Hyewon, okay?” The others are initially confused, but slowly begin to understand what their leader was getting at as she continues scribbling directions. She even added fake missions that included Hyewon in an attempt to make KYB think they were going to attack multiple places.

“I’m putting here that we’re heading back to the head office, but instead, we’ll be heading for the security camera room. As for you three, head for the labs to get more data on Jirisan, and when Michelle shows up, restrain her and take her back with you.” 

“And if it isn’t Michelle?” Kazuha asks, just trying to cover all their bases.

“Just keep your illusion up while getting the data and pull out.” Eunbi replies. Deep down, the leader knew it was a bit risky. KYB might be wondering why their spy camera hasn’t been showing anything recently, but they had to try.

~~~~

When the group arrives back at campus, Eunbi and Hyewon immediately head over to the library to check the footage they’d stolen while Yunjin and the others brought Michelle to the interrogation rooms.

Her and Hyewon’s side of the mission had gone pretty smoothly as well. Barely anyone was at the surveillance room, and from the looks of the footage, it was due to a lot of them being positioned near the head office; Eunbi’s prediction had been proven right. KYB clearly wasn't ready for Hyewon’s presence either. Once the alarm went off upstairs, the brunette unhooded herself and began blasting the halls with ice to block anyone from coming down their path. They were back at the van with the building's camera history in no time.

“Alright, Hyewon, can you go back three nights ago.” Eunbi asks.

“Yeah, I’m on it now.” The younger girl replies after plugging in the USB into the older girl’s laptop. As expected, KYB had tried to delete the footage from that night, but with Sakura’s decryption key, they managed to recover it.

“What do you see? Yuri and Yena were supposed to be on the first floor.” Eunbi recalls, absentmindedly focusing on the sounds of keyboard clicks until she hears Hyewon gasp.

“I see Geun… he has Yuri in his grasp, and Yena has her hands tied while following.” She says before shifting to other cameras to follow their movement. After fastforwarding, Geun finally arrives at a van parked behind the building. Hyewon then zooms in closer to see the logo on its side. “Chuncheon Robotics.”

“Huh? That wasn’t in KYB’s portfolio? What are they doing here?” Eunbi wonders while Hyewon opens another tab to look up the address.

“Wait, that can’t be right. This company doesn’t even exist.” Hyewon mutters, not seeing anything listed online.

“It could be a paper company. That would explain why we didn’t know about them and how they’re developing the androids without us knowing.” Eunbi guesses, the information, or lack thereof, frustrating her. It felt like another dead end.

That’s when an email notification pops up on the monitor they were using. Hyewon was confused as the sender wasn’t familiar to her.

“What is it?” Eunbi asks when Hyewon quiets down.

“There’s an email with an audio file attached. I don’t know who the sender is though.”

“Let’s give it a listen, you never know.” The older girl suggests.

When Hyewon opens the file, random beeps begin to play, or at least, Eunbi thought they were random. On the other hand, Hyewon’s eyes began to widen the more intently she listened.

“It’s morse code…” She says, playing it back to hear it from the start.

Y-E-O-N-G-S-O R-O-A-D… C-H-U-N-C-H-E-O-N R-O-B-O-T-I-C-S… S-A-K-U-R-A… 

"Sakura!” Hyewon says loudly after realizing who it’s from.

“Kkura? She sent that?” Eunbi asks, still a bit in the dark.

“Yes, it sounds like she’s also at Chuncheon Robotics and it’s near Yeongso Road.” Hyewon replies.

“Alright, we have a new lead. I think we should go tomorrow after we fix Chaewon up. We’ll need all the help we can get with Chaeyeon and the others heading to Jirisan.” Eunbi says, the gears in her head already working on another plan.

~~~~

Meanwhile…

“Ugh, we’ve been hiking for hours, Wonyoung. Are you really sure she’s here?” Liz asks, out of breath from the trek they’d just gone on. Their van hadn’t been allowed to head into the park, so the group had decided to go on foot from there. With how huge the area was though, it had been a fruitless search thus far.

“I’m sure she’s close. I can feel it.” Wonyoung mumbles, and she’s not sure if she’s trying to convince herself or her friends who, aside from Chaeyeon, were panting heavily behind her.

“The girls are tired, Wonnie. Why not give them a bit of time to rest? I know we said not to split up, but I can cover more ground than everyone. I’ll take Hii-chan with me too, so she can feel for disturbances in the ground.” Chaeyeon suggests, and though the bunny wants to argue against the older girl, she couldn’t find the energy to muster up any more words.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Chaeyeon says, giving Wonyoung an encouraging smile before taking Hitomi on her back and running off.

“We’ll find you Yujin. I know you’re around here somewhere…” Wonyoung says after taking a swig of water they’d bought from the convenience store at the mountain’s base. It was a new brand they were selling- Jirisan Spring Water. 

 

A/N: Hi! Back again for another chapter, and in this one, the group manages to catch Michelle as well as find out where YulYen and Kkura are. In the end we also see that Wonyoung and the gang have arrived in Jirisan.

Questions still swirling though like how Kkura managed to send that message, will Chaewon's memory restoration go well, and what information Michelle will give them. All will be revealed as time goes on.

Now that a bunch of storylines are happening at once, I hope the story still makes sense HAHA, I'm open to answering any clarifications if I wasn't clear enough in some parts though.

Anyways, unsure if I'll be able to get the next chapter out before Christmas since things will be getting busier with family, but I'll see what I can do. Also, anyone else see the new Percy Jackson show? I loved the first couple episodes, makes me want to write another capture-the-flag lol. 

Thanks again for all the support, and I wish you all happy holidays! See ya in the next chapter!