When Eunbi wakes up, she finds herself in one of the campus’ clinic beds. As she rubbed her eyes, there was a part of her that was desperate to believe that what happened at the KYB Science and Research building was just a nightmare, but from the look Hongki had given her once he noticed she’d woken up, she knew it wasn’t the case.

“I’ll let Hyewon know you’re up. She’s been busy this morning with the other mishaps from last night…” The head doctor says in a sad tone.

“The other mishaps?” Eunbi thinks before taking a look around her and seeing other trainees in bad shape. Next to her bed was Rei from IVE who was eating some breakfast. The Japanese girl had a wrap around her right shoulder while her face and arms were covered in bandages.

“Rei, what happened with your mission?” The older girl asks. The question seems to trigger something within Rei as she immediately puts her chopsticks down, a tear falling down her cheek.

“There was a big explosion… Yujin-unnie. S-She sacrificed herself to save us.” Rei manages to get out, and Eunbi’s whole world turns upside down. She didn’t believe she’d heard that correctly. Yujin… there was no way she was just gone.

And, like the nightmare had come to life, the punches just keep on coming as Hyewon finally arrives with Chaewon. She’d normally feel relieved to see the two, but there was something about Chaewon in particular that didn’t feel right.

“Hi, unnie…” The short-haired girl greets with a bow. Chaewon hadn’t greeted her that politely in years.

“Uhm, apparently, my memories from the past two years were wiped away by someone named Sohye. You’re the only person I recognize here.” Chaewon says in an awkward manner when the older girl doesn’t respond.

That felt like the last straw for Eunbi as she immediately doubled over and vomited whatever was left in her stomach into the trash can next to her bed. Hyewon tries to help her, but Eunbi throws a hand forward to stop her.

“Oh god… Chaewon… I-” The older girl coughs before pulling her dongsaeng in for a hug and bursting into tears.

Chaewon couldn’t recall what had happened the past two years, but clearly her relationship with Eunbi had deepened over that time. The last thing she could remember was the older girl asking her to join the PD program. From there, it was all blanks.

She felt bad because it looked like she’d made a lot of good friends in that time too. She apparently even had a girlfriend in the dark-haired girl she met last night, Kim Minjoo. Chaewon had no idea how she managed to get with such a beautiful woman which made want to find her memories even more.

Meanwhile, Hyewon stood and watched her partner crying, knowing that there was even more bad news to break. Yujin was gone. Chaewon lost her memories. There was a spy lens implanted in the older girl’s eyes that had been monitoring their plans the past few months. And now, she was supposed to tell her about the missing members and escaped fugitives. How much more could the leader take?

“Hey, Eunbi… there’s a bit- or well, a lot more news that we’re gonna have to discuss in a bit. If it’s too much, you can-”

“No, Hyewon. I have to help. We don’t have the luxury to sit people on the bench right now.” The older girl says, wiping away her tears. “May I make a request though?”

“Sure, anything.”

~~~~

“Okay, everyone. I’m going to need a report on what happened last night. I know it’s… difficult, but if we’re going to stop KYB, we need to start over with whatever we have. I’ll go first.” Eunbi says. The others looked to their leader in confusion as she was wearing a blindfold right now, but it all started to make sense when she began explaining.

“So, it turned out KYB was one step ahead of us the whole time because when I was abducted six months ago, they implanted a spy lens into my eye that could give them a glimpse of whatever we were planning. From the blueprints though, it looked like there was no microphone developed yet, so covering my eyes should keep them in the dark for now. I was hoping maybe Sakura could help detach them.” The older girl begins, but at the mention of the tech-girl, Chaeyeon had to interrupt.

“I’m sorry, unnie, but Sakura was taken by Sohye last night…” She says dejectedly.

“Yes, she threatened to wipe Chaewon’s memory completely if she didn’t go, so Sakura complied.” Minjoo adds. When the short-haired girl hears this, she feels a pang of guilt, realizing she had been used as leverage.

“Oh, well, maybe Yena could give me a quick shock to short-circuit it.” Eunbi suggests, but again, someone interjects.

“Unnie… by the time I got down to where Yuri and Yena-unnie were, they were gone. Someone had taken them, and we had to retreat because you and Hyewon were in bad shape.” Hitomi says.

“Yuri and Yena too?” Eunbi thinks to herself. She was trying so hard to be strong right now, but it was so difficult.

“So… each team has at least one missing member.” She ends up murmuring, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Yes, uhm. In our mission to KYB Mechanic Repair… we also lost Yujin.” Gaeul replies on IVE’s behalf.

“Yah, unnie! Yujin isn’t gone. I know she’s alive!” Wonyoung shouts.

“I’m sorry, Wonyoung. I wish that was true too, but that explosion was huge. I don’t think-”

“No, unnie. I’ve known Yujinnie long enough. There’s no way she would just die like that. I’ll go look for her myself if no one else believes me!” The bunny then begins stomping her way out of the war room.

“Wonyoung!” Eunbi called, but there was no response.

“I’ll go after her, unnie.” Hitomi says before following Wonyoung out the door. The rest of the room was now so quiet you could hear a pin drop on the ground.

“Okay… before we go over whatever data we got again… is there any other information from last night I need to know about?” Eunbi asks.

“Well, as you know, Sohye had somehow escaped prison and gotten back to KYB which pretty much proves the base we had infiltrated a couple months ago was theirs. In addition to that, it appears that Wonyoung and IVE ran into the singer that Yuri and Yena apprehended last year. That’s two escaped criminals.” Chaeyeon says with Liz and Leeseo adding their experiences to confirm the story.

“Great… and from the footage we saw yesterday night, our campus was compromised too, right?“

“Yes, they must’ve waited until we were all off campus. Seoyoung is once again gone, but so is Michelle.” Hyewon says.

“Who’s Michelle?” Chaewon asks, the name not sounding Korean or Japanese.

“She’s… one of your copies, but bad. She tried to kill you last year.” Minjoo replies.

“Oh…so I’ve been involved with clone conspiracies, killer robots, mind control plots and I have an evil copy running around who wants to replace me? I’ve been pretty busy.” The short-haired girl replies, recounting the quick synopsis of the big events that Minjoo had told her this morning.

“At least your humor is still intact.” Nako chuckles.

“Do you know who attacked? Were they robots?” Eunbi asks Hyewon who shows the room footage of the events of last night. A couple androids had broken into campus and easily taken care of the guards and students who tried to get in their way.

“Alright… let’s summarize the losses first. Yuri, Yena, and Sakura were captured. Yujin is missing, Sohye and the masked singer escaped jail, Seoyoung and Michelle were taken from campus, and Chaewon lost two year’s worth of memories. Anything else?” The rest of the room shakes their heads before realizing that Eunbi actually couldn’t see them doing that.

“That’s about it, unnie.” Chaeyeon ends up saying.

“Okay. Now to plan on how we can address those losses, what information did each group get from their missions?” Eunbi then begins to recount her and Hyewon’s encounter with Kim Yong-bum himself. They didn’t get his motive yet, but at the very least, they know he was in charge of everything.

“For me and Tomi, we found out that the company was involved with Ahn Joon-young in the past.” Nako says.

“Oh, we found the same thing from our trip.” Yunjin says, taking out a picture of their former principal with KYB executives.

“That explains how Sohye could see through my invisibility.” Minjoo comments, remembering the thermal goggles from the lab in Daegu years ago. “They must have copies of the weapons he developed.”

“Same for me actually.” Chaeyeon says. “JYP had been tipped off about the connection between him and KYB, and that’s when they got attacked. Their mole might have been exposed.”

“As for us, we found about a hundred androids hooked up on the roof of the place we visited. We were going to leave, but Yujin insisted on destroying them all. She caused a huge explosion and… yeah.” Gaeul says, not wanting to elaborate more. Wonyoung may have been the one most affected, but as the last person to see the puppy, Gaeul felt awful.

“Well, it looks like that explosion got on the news.” Hyewon was now playing a report on the event from the night before.

“Last night, citizens were shocked as a large explosion detonated at KYB Mechanic and Repair. The reason is unknown thus far, but a statement from a security guard who had fled the scene before the explosion gave us a statement.” The reporter says before moving to the man who they recognize as the guard Yujin had knocked out.

“I got hit in the head with something, and when I woke up, there were explosions going off! I decided to make a run for it, and good thing I did because the place blew up right after I left.”

“KYB has no further comment at this time and requests the public to let them investigate this matter internally.”

“At least he didn’t see any of you.” Eunbi says with a relieved sigh, not wanting the media to be against them again.

“So, is Yujin actually… gone?” Leeseo asks, and suddenly, the whole room’s mood drops again.

“I… don’t know. We’ll organize a team to go over and look in a bit.” Eunbi replies, guilt rushing through her again as it was her who just told her what being a leader was about days ago. Maybe if she hadn’t said those things, Yujin would’ve gone back to base after the discovery instead of playing the hero. Eunchae, who was next to Leeseo, began patting her back in an effort to comfort the youngest in the room.

“You two can head out for a bit first. I know it’s been tough for you both.” Eunbi says. Those two girls weren’t even fifteen yet and had to face such hardships. It wasn’t fair. They had to end this.

“What’s the play now, unnie?” Chaeyeon queries when the maknaes of IVE and Le Sserafim had left.

“Well, for starters, we need to find where their main base is. It’s likely that they took Yuri, Yena, and Sakura to the same place. Aside from that, I think we should send a team back to the mechanic company to check for any signs of Yujin. Finally, we need to check out the police station for how the criminals escaped custody. There might be some clues there.” Eunbi replies, the others nodding in response before going into detail about who should be going where.

~~~~

“Wonyoung! Stop running!” Hitomi called to the bunny who had used her long strides to gain distance on the peach-cheeked girl.

“Have to find Yujin…” Wonyoung mumbled to herself as she ran, but it was clear she still wasn’t in the best shape after the explosion yesterday. Hitomi didn’t want to do it, but she eventually decides to command the grass under Wonyoung’s feet to grab her and hold her in place.

“No! Let me go, unnie!” The younger girl complains, but Hitomi wasn’t loosening her grip.

“Please… she needs me…” Eventually, Wonyoung stops struggling, her whines now replaced with tears.

“It’ll be okay, Wonyoung. We’ll find her. I promise.” Hitomi says, giving her friend a hug. “I once thought my parents were gone forever, but I kept looking with the help of our friends. We’ll do the same for you.”

“But… what if she is gone?” Wonyoung asks, the possibility she wanted to avoid the most finally being vocalized.

“I believe Yujin is alive too. She’s a tough puppy. We just have to keep believing. Now, come on. The others need us. Eunbi needs us.” The older girl says. Hitomi had seen how dejected their leader looked earlier from all the bad news, and it was only now getting to her how much weight Eunbi carried on her shoulders. She needed their support as much as they needed her leadership.

“Okay, unnie… let’s go.” Wonyoung replies. If she really wanted to find Yujin, she couldn’t do it alone.

~~~~

When the duo returned, the group was already in the middle of planning their next moves. Wonyoung then shared the information that Eun-kyung whispered to her before disappearing which only seemed to add to the confusion.

“The androids have different models, right? Chaeryeong said one of them would be shipped here by the afternoon, so maybe we can compare that with an android we get from the mechanic company. If you were at the wrong place, that might mean they’re still trying to perfect them.” Chaeyeon says

“That would explain why they wanted Kkura-unnie.” Minjoo realizes.

“She told us to trust her… maybe she’s got a plan.” Kazuha adds.

“Nevertheless, we should still do our part to be prepared in case things go wrong. Wonyoung, Chaeyeon, I know you both want to look for Yujin and Kkura, but everyone is still reeling from last night. Just stay calm for now and trust them. We’ll send the teams out tomorrow morning. Please do not pull a Yena or Chaewon.” Eunbi says, the two aforementioned girls reluctantly nodding.

“Wait, pulling a Chaewon?” The short-haired girl asks Minjoo.

“I’ll explain later.” She replies with a chuckle, remembering the day Chaewon saved her.

“So, to repeat. The team going to the mechanic company will be Wonyoung, Gaeul, Rei, Liz, Hitomi and Nako. Meanwhile, the team investigating the police station will be Chaeyeon, Yunjin, and Kazuha. Leeseo and Eunchae will stay here on campus for the time being as well as Minjoo and Chaewon. Only after we find more clues can we then begin planning for the rescue op.”

“What about you and Hyewon-unnie?” Nako asks.

“We’ll be going to visit someone else.” Eunbi says mysteriously.

“Rest well, girls. We’re down, but we’re not out. We gotta keep fighting”. The leader then says, understanding that they had a really big task ahead of them. They were dealing with a foe much more powerful than the ones they’d fought in the past, and to beat them, they needed to play their cards right.

~~~~

Later in the afternoon…

“So… can you tell me more about what I was like the past two years?” Chaewon asks the dark-haired girl next to her. Though the group had eaten lunch together at the cafeteria, the atmosphere was still a bit too somber for any casual conversations to be had. Now that the two were walking around the campus alone though, the short-haired girl felt a bit more comfortable talking.

“You were a huge flirt, you know?” Minjoo replies with a slight chuckle.

“Sounds a lot like me. Is that how I managed to get you? With my irresistible charm?” Chaewon jokes back which earns her a playful hit from the younger girl.

“Yah, it wasn’t just because of that. For a year, I actually wasn’t even sure if you were just stringing me along or not.”

“So what was it?”

“Well, I was abducted once by Chaeyeon-unnie’s sister and her friends, but they were being mind controlled at the time though so it’s fine. Anyway, the others wanted to plan for a couple days, but you were an impatient idiot and wanted to save me right away. You even made up with your mother to get a ride all the way to Daegu. Though, technically it was Michelle who saved me, but you were still in control at the time… agh, this is a bit complicated actually.” Minjoo says,  laughing at the memory. At the mention of Chaewon’s mother though, the older girl’s expression shifts.

“Wait, I made up with my mom? As in the actress who wished I wasn’t a mutant and made me run away from home?” She asks, not believing that she could ever have come back to her.

“I guess that’s how much you liked me. You faced your past and it turned out your mom was really nice. You even hang out at her house when you’re not training at HYVE. She even invites me to lunch when you’re busy.”

“Huh… maybe people can change after all.” Chaewon mutters. She must’ve really grown a lot to have forgiven her mom and even be assigned as the leader of her own group. She had also always been hesitant of following her idol dreams because she didn’t want to end up like her mom, but it turned out she faced that fear too.

“Speaking of HYVE, you also had a youtube channel before debuting where you posted dance covers with your clones!” Minjoo says, taking out her phone and showing a video with 20 million views showing the short-haired girl splitting into five copies and dancing to Red Velvet’s ‘Bad Boy’.

“Yah, okay you can stop that now. I get the gist.” Chaewon says with a laugh, trying to snatch the phone away from Minjoo who was keeping it at arm’s length.

“You’re going to have to take it from me, unnie~” Minjoo teases back. The older girl kept reaching for the device until her momentum accidentally pushed both of them to the ground. Chaewon looked down at her supposed girlfriend, who was staring right back.

Suddenly, Minjoo starts leaning up closer to the short-haired girl’s face, and as much as Chaewon wanted to be in this moment… she couldn’t. Not yet.

“What’s wrong?” The younger girl asks when Chaewon turned to avoid her kiss.

“N-nothing, Minjoo. It just feels… a bit sudden right now. I like you a lot, but I want to remember you fully first too.” Chaewon says. “It wouldn’t be fair to the Chaewon you knew for 2 years for me to get a free pass like this.”

“But what if you can’t remember the past anymore…” Minjoo replies quietly.

“I have a feeling I will. I’m just going to need your help along the way.” The older girl replies before standing, pulling Minjoo up and giving her a hug.

Chaewon may not currently know what was happening and why. She may not know who the people fighting by her side are completely either. The one thing she did know though was that the Chaewon who got to this point would want her to keep fighting.

 

A/N: Hi again! Apologies for another filler-ish chapter, just wanted to have a recap of the past three chapters to make sure everyone was on the same page. I did add some 2kim fluff in the end there for y'all in return lol.

For the next chapter, we'll be back on the investigations and I'm going to be introducing a couple characters. Here's a hint for a couple of them- DM

That being said, it won't be out by tomorrow because I have onsite work and will be out the whole day, so please be patient!

Anyways, thanks again for all the support! I appreciate you all!

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