The blinking star moved on the map. It represented Hyoyeon and the three cars followed it faithfully. It left the city center and entered the suburbs where the land was littered with residential properties and such.

‘She can’t be going home, could she?’ Sooyoung whispered to her brother.

Minho looked at her and rolled his eyes at his sister’s moment of idiocy. ‘Of course not… she’s probably heading towards a hideout she has planned.’

‘Oh, yeah, right, right.’ Sooyoung nodded, wanting to slap herself for asking such a silly question.

The blinking star came to a halt on the map an hour later, at a quiet part of the suburb. They slammed on the accelerator and stopped their cars some distance away from the house that Hyoyeon had apparently parked her car at.

Jessica whipped out her binoculars and surveyed the area. ‘Target’s car spotted in the house. No sign of activity.’

‘Roger that. Choi, head to the back. YoonYul, rush the front. Sic, keep your snipe on the car. Remember, we want them alive.’ Boa rattled off her commands authoritatively.

‘Roger that Constrictor!’ Came five cheeky voices.

‘YA!’ Boa yelled, sounding annoyed by their cheesy attempt at joking around with her name although a tiny smile had already occupied her face.

+++

Like the well-trained agents that they were, the Chois aimed and shot their wall scaling hooks and scaled over the wall with ease as did YoonYul. The Chois then snuck around to the back whilst YoonYul surveyed the front of the house. Jessica had her snipe up and ready to shoot in a jiffy. She scanned the neighbourhood for signs of disturbances but found none.

‘All clear.’ Jessica’s cool voice came through.

YoonYul nodded to each other and placed themselves on both sides of the front door. Yoona and her nifty lock picking skills had no trouble with the door and it swung open in a matter of seconds. In the meantime, the Chois had scaled the wall at the back and entered through the windows. Swiftly and efficiently, both teams swept through the house but found that it was completely devoid of any human life except for their own. Hyoyeon was nowhere to be found.

Yoona walked across the hall to the kitchen where she paused. She walked back over the spot she had just passed. Yuri saw that curious look on her face.

‘Discovered something?’

‘I think this is hollow.’

Yuri’s brains jumpstarted into action and she dropped to her knees to study the floor closely. She knocked on the tile and sure enough, there was a slightly more hollow sound where Yoona had just stood.

‘Give me a hand here Yoona.’

Together, they used a flat metal bar to pry the tile up. It was incredibly heavy and both girls were panting from the physical exertion. When they finally managed to lift the tile up, they discovered a curious looking contraption on the edge of the opening.

‘We’ve been given the slip!’ YoonYul exclaimed.

‘WHAT?!’ The rest were in shock.

‘What do you mean?’ Boa growled.

‘We discovered a secret passageway hidden under a very heavy tile. There’s a spring that pushes it open. Hyoyeon must have gone down this passage.’

‘Sic., start driving up north, there is a helicopter hangar and helipad that Hyoyeon must have planned to use as a getaway. I will send the coordinates to you now.’ A new voice entered the frequency.

‘Seo! You’re back!’ They were glad to hear that familiar voice that had not been around for the past week.

Jessica revved up her engine and drove at the speed of light – well, almost. As promised, the coordinates had been put into the system and her GPS now directed her towards the helipad. She floored the gas and zoomed towards the target destination whilst the other two teams hurried out of the house and got into their cars to head there as well.

Jessica hopped out of her car, armed with a handgun.

‘Seo, I see them!’

‘Wait for Choi and YoonYul to arrive, we want them alive.’ Boa’s command came through.

‘I’m afraid there’s not enough time to wait, Boa. Hyoyeon is with a man and they are boarding the helicopter as I speak.’

‘Stall them.’ Boa’s voice came through loud and clear.

Jessica looked at the helicopter and her brain worked quickly. She put her handgun away behind her and dropped to her forearms. She worked her way through the long grass, hidden from view and before they knew what hit them, she had pounced on them from behind.

She grabbed Hyoyeon’s arm and twisted it to her back, causing the older girl to scream in pain. A quick knee to the back of Hyoyeon’s knees had her on her knees and Jessica pressed her to the ground. Before she could cuff the girl however, Eunhyuk had kicked her viciously in the shoulder. She grunted in pain but held on, trying to cuff Hyoyeon but another kick in her ribs had her rolling over in the grass, writhing in pain.

She saw the shadow of Eunhyuk looming over her and rolled away quickly, dodging another kick and got onto her knee. Cursing under her breath, she her breath in and launched herself at him. She swung a quick fist at his jaw, catching him squarely and followed up with another swing to his stomach that had him doubling up in pain. An elbow aimed right on his back had him sprawling on the ground where he pulled her legs out from under her.

She fell on her back, knocking all the wind out of her and she groaned. Hyoyeon grabbed her wrists and tried to restrain her but Jessica twisted her arms out of her grip and rolled back on to her knee.

Hyoyeon and Eunhyuk exchanged a quick glance with one another before they both attacked Jessica at the same time. Jessica braced herself for more blows but none came. Instead, the couple froze and raised their hands in surrender – the other two teams had arrived and were pointing handguns at them.

Minho cuffed Eunhyuk whilst Sooyoung cuffed Hyoyeon.

‘We never thought that you would betray NSI, Hyo... you too.., Hyuk.’

Yuri squatted down and looked at Jessica worriedly.

‘Can you walk to the car? Or do you need a lift?’

Jessica smiled at Yuri gratefully. ‘I think I broke a rib but I can walk. I just need a couple of shoulders.’ Jessica winced a little as she stood up with Yuri’s help.

‘Yoong, we need you over here.’ Yuri called out to her.

Yoona jogged over and put Jessica’s arm over her shoulder and together, YoonYul helped Jessica into their car.

‘Boa, Sic may have a broken rib. Requesting a medical team on standby to treat her at NSI.’

‘You got it.’ Came the fast reply.

+++

Upon arrival at NSI, Jessica’s heart started pounding in her ears. She blinked and blinked and blinked but each time she opened her eyes again, she saw the same person standing by her car, smiling at her with eyes that looked like the most beautiful crescent moons on a cool summer night.

She inhaled sharply and winced instantaneously as a sharp streak of pain shot through her. The smiling girl ceased to smile as she saw Jessica’s face contort in pain. She rushed to open the door with furrowed eyebrows.

‘Jessi! What’s wrong?’

‘She might have a broken rib.’ Yuri kindly informed the worried girl as she stepped out of the driver’s seat. ‘May I know who you are? Are you Sica’s friend?’

The worried girl stood straight and smiled at Yuri. ‘I just joined NSI today and yes, I am her friend. Jessi and I graduated from the same training team.’

‘Tif…’ Jessica breathed in disbelief. She simply couldn’t believe her eyes. She reached out and held Tiffany’s hand. Oh yes, she was real alright. She wasn’t a figment of her imagination. There she stood… in one solid piece… the love of her life, Tiffany Hwang Mi Young. Suddenly, she was reminded of the promise she had made to no one in particular if Tiffany made it back in one piece. The recollection of that promise made her laugh but she groaned instead as another sharp streak of pain attacked her.

‘Jessi…’ Tiffany’s eyes brimmed with tears as she held Jessica’s hand tight. She missed the older girl so badly but when she saw her again, she was in pain. How it hurt to see her in this state.

The medic team laid Jessi on a stretcher and brought her into the medical center which was in the heart of NSI. A well staffed medical center was essential to NSI, considering the inherent dangers in the execution of their jobs. Tiffany followed them closely until they entered the treatment room at which point she was invited to wait outside.

+++

‘Boa, we found these among Hyo’s belongings.’ Sooyoung reported.

Boa looked at the memory sticks and narrowed her eyes. She had a good idea about what was in them but there was just one way to find out. She plugged them into her computer and her suspicions were confirmed. Hyoyeon had all the pass codes encrypted in one memory stick and the script that would decrypt them in the other.

‘I gather from this that you have not handed the decrypting script to BLACK yet.’

‘No.’ Came Hyoyeon’s sullen answer.

‘Good. You just saved yourself from a truckload of trouble – not that you’re not in enough trouble already, Hyo.’ Boa breathed steadily, maintaining her cool and calm appearance. She was absolutely fuming inside but she knew that Hyoyeon would not react well to an outburst and she had to extract as much information out of Hyoyeon as she could.

‘I presume that BLACK now has possession of the encrypted pass codes?’

‘Yes.’

‘Will they be able to decrypt them?’

‘No. Only my script can do it. There’s a special signature I designed which is unique. It would take them ten years on a powerful computer to come up with the computation to decode it.’

‘As expected of our top hacker.’ Boa’s voice carried a tinge of pride.

Hyoyeon closed her eyes tight, feeling ashamed of herself but she knew that she had made a choice and there was no point in regretting any of it now.

‘I am also going to presume that you did all that to rescue Eunhyuk from BLACK.’

‘Yes.’

‘You are aware that Eunhyuk is the rogue agent who leaked the data disc that Sunny and Sungmin eventually retrieved for us?’

‘Yes.’ Hyoyeon trembled in the memory of Sungmin who had died in that op that had gone awry. If Eunhyuk hadn’t leaked it, they wouldn’t have had to retrieve it and perhaps… Sungmin would still be alive today. A sob hovered dangerous near the surface at that thought.

‘Are you aware of what BLACK’s objective is?’

‘No.’

Boa sighed. ‘Neither do I. But I can tell you this Hyo. Whatever BLACK has planned… it’s going to be big. They would not go through so much trouble to plant Kyuhyun into NSI so that you can steal those pass codes for them if their main objective wasn’t something huge. As such, I am glad that they have not gotten the pass codes.’

And the realization of what her actions could have led to broke down her last resistance to tears. Eunhyuk looked at Hyoyeon in dismal as tears fell down from her eyes like the rain from the sky.

‘Eunhyuk, I will speak to you later.’

Eunhyuk too, lowered his head in shame.

‘Chois, send them to the Cell.’

The Choi siblings nodded and did as they were told, leading away a sobbing girl and ashamed man.

+++

Tiffany faced the corridor tensely, unable to sit still while waiting. A short while later, the doors opened and Tiffany waited eagerly to find out about the results of the checkup.

‘Doctor, is Jessi alright?’

The doctor nodded. ‘She has suffered a kick to her ribs resulting in an incomplete fracture. It is very minor and should heal by itself in a couple of weeks.’

Tiffany sagged with relief. Jessica was going to be fine! There was nothing major to worry about and that was the biggest concern she had. Her face lit up like a firefly in the dark when she saw Jessica walking out of the treatment room slowly. The older girl smiled just as widely as she did and they embraced each other – albeit, rather gently.

‘Come with me, I’ll take you home.’ Tiffany’s breath tickled her ear.

Jessica was so full of emotions that she couldn’t even speak. All she could do was nod her head in agreement with Tiffany.

Yuri appeared and smiled at them. ‘Tiffany, are you going to bring Jessica back home? Boa asked me to send her home but I can tell her that you will do it.’

‘Yes please. I will send her home.’ Tiffany answered a little too quickly.

If Yuri detected anything, she certainly didn’t show it. She simply nodded, turned and walked down the corridor.

‘Let’s go home Jessi.’ Tiffany smiled, warm like fire on a cold winter night and Jessica hooked her arm into hers like a happy little girl.

+++

‘Tif…’

‘Hmm?’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Whatever for?!’

‘For getting injured like this.’

Tiffany rolled to the side and reached for the light. She turned back to look intently at Jessica.

‘It’s not your fault Jessi.’

‘B-but… I didn’t want to welcome you back like this.’ Jessica’s lips turned down and her eyes glistened.

‘Shh… listen…’ Tiffany her face gently. ‘I’m content to see you and to have you here with me… I don’t need anything else… believe me.’

Jessica looked into Tiffany’s warm, brown eyes and was touched by her sincerity and love. Tears streamed down her fair cheeks and formed wet spots on her pillow.

Tiffany kissed her tears away tenderly, whispering comforting words in between kisses. ‘Jessi… have I told you lately… that I love you?’

Jessica blinked her tears away and smiled.

‘Have I told you there’s no one else above you?’

Tiffany smiled and held Jessica’s hand, slipping her fingers in between hers, interlocking them.

‘You fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness… ease my troubles, that’s what you do.’

It suddenly dawned on Jessica what Tiffany was doing and a giggle bubbled up to the surface. That giggle cost her however as she winced in pain again from the sudden movement in her ribs. Tiffany’s smiling face vanished in that instant.

‘Oh gosh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I forgot about your ribs for a sec…’ Tiffany sighed. ‘I guess you know where that came from… I was planning on singing that to you when I came back.’

‘And I was planning on feeding you strawberry ice cream… I have a tub in the fridge… waiting for you…’ Jessica blushed as she said that and Tiffany couldn’t help but giggle like a kid.

‘I can wait a couple of weeks. Can you?’ Tiffany grinned cheekily at the blushing girl.

Jessica’s face grew redder as she nodded. Oh how embarrassing… why did she have to mention the ice cream? She hadn’t told Tiffany about her edited promise yet either…