Taeyeon was rudely awoken. Her kidnapper jostled her out of her dreamland—the only respite she had from reality. Her eyes fluttered open but she might as well have left them closed for a blindfold kept her from seeing anything but darkness. She was hauled out of bed in a hurry and tossed over someone’s shoulder in a fireman’s lift. It wasn’t the most pleasant position to be held in but she was in no position to complain or argue about that.

People around her bustled in a nervous manner. The silence was palpable, except for the constant shuffling of shoes over the apparently dusty floor. She pricked her ears to catch any clues that might help her but there was none to pick up. It was as though they knew that she had superhuman memory but it wouldn’t make any sense. Nobody knew of her ability—except her dad and Sunny. Her dad. Her eyes widened behind her blindfold and for once she was glad that she had it on. Did her dad have anything to do with this?

Her heart twisted painfully. If her dad had any part in this, she’d be heartbroken. She had such great difficulty in tolerating his betrayal of the nation he had been entrusted with, and now, she couldn’t stand the thought of his betrayal of her. She was his daughter for goodness sakes. Had he no morals? She should have just jumped that night. She should have jumped.

+++

Sunny followed them from a distance. Just as she’d thought, they’d move her. Hyoyeon had been able to narrow the zone down enough for the NSI team to deduce where Taeyeon might be held and of course, Sunny lost no time in hurrying there for fear of them getting paranoid and moving to a new place.

There are times when you suddenly realize why certain rules and regulations are in place, as much as you hate and despise them. For example, the practice of removing agents when they are too emotionally involved. Sunny was one perfect example in this case because she slipped up in her eagerness to keep Taeyeon safe.

She got too near.

The car that Taeyeon was in began zooming off much faster than before, forcing Sunny to rev up her engine a notch higher, putting on an additional burst of speed. She didn’t care to report what was happening to Hyoyeon or Boa who were connected to her through her earpiece. She didn’t have the time to. This was going to be just her. All her.

She bent even lower over her trusty bike and sped ahead, following the car in front of her. She was glad she did because a man poked his arm out of the window and took a shot at her. He missed.

She swerved violently when another arm stuck itself out of the window on the other side of the car. Another miss.

She crouched the lowest she could and thanked the heavens for her incredibly flexible body as her body was practically plastered to the body of her bike, somewhat protected by the bulletproof mini windshield of her bike.

She put her bike on turbo mode and literally zoomed ahead, closing the gap between her and the car. She was going to get them, if that was the last thing she was going to go.

She swerved dangerously and jerkily, not allowing the men in the car to predict the way she was going to go and her sudden shifts in direction had them missing their shots at her. She allowed herself a tiny smirk before reaching into her jacket for her own firearm.

It was all or nothing.

BANG.

+++

Yoona and Yuri approached the pier that they had been instructed to bring the money to. Backing them up were Jessica, Tiffany and the Choi siblings. Jessica was with her sniper and so was Sooyoung. They would pick out all the nasty thugs whilst Yoona, Yuri, Tiffany and Minho would try to ensure the safety of Taeyeon who, of course, was their main concern.

Two men stood in the distance but all the NSI agents knew that they would be fools if they believed that that was all the men that BLACK had sent. Just like themselves, BLACK members would most probably be hidden all around the place.

To ensure that they were not outnumbered, Boa had enlisted agents from other units of NSI and they were all ready for action at the drop of her signal.

“Where’s Kangta?” the men spoke first, looking around for any sign of their leader.

“You won’t see Kangta until we see her.” Yoona maintained a cool and calm exterior, something she excelled at no matter what the circumstance.

“You’re not in a position to negotiate. We demand to see Kangta first.”

Yoona jerked her head backwards, signalling Tiffany and Minho to bring the agent they had disguised as Kangta forward. The real Kangta had been extracted from his high security prison cell one quiet night and transferred to the maximum security cell in NSI premises as a cautionary measure.

The men looked suspiciously at ‘Kangta’, trying to assess if he was indeed the real deal.

“We want to see his face.”

At that moment, all NSI agents heard Boa’s voice in her ear.

“We have Taeyeon. Take them down.”

Everyone felt a sense of exhilaration for the action was on. They brought ‘Kangta’ towards the two men and when they got close enough, ‘Kangta’ jumped on them, knocking them to the ground in one blow. Tiffany and Minho acted quickly, securing their wrists in cuffs behind their backs, rendering them powerless.

Shots began raining on them from several points behind barriers and they ran for cover in a hurry. Jessica was in her element. She picked off the men shooting at her fellow agents one at a time, in rapid succession. None of them could escape her sharp eyes and telecopic lens. Sooyoung was good as well. She did her fair share of sniping, taking down men on the other side that Jessica did not have access to. Between the two of them, most of the men who were shooting from the buildings surrounding the agents on the ground were eliminated.

Men dashed out from the buildings, all guns blazing, poised to take the agents down. They could not allow their members to be captured. Yoona and Yuri tagged teamed, each girl taking turns to shoot from the spot they were hiding behind. Tiffany and Minho held on to the two men they had caught and hid behind a big metal crate.

“Backup, backup required.” Tiffany tapped on her earpiece to communicate with Boa. And that was when a horde of agents arrived in several cars almost instantaneously. They had been waiting for orders just around the corner from the harbour.

Shots rang out all across the piers and the warehouses around Pier 9. it was exactly what they’ve all been trained for—a shootout.

Moments later, it was apparent that BLACK was retreating. They had lost several men to the NSI snipers and hence, lost their advantage over the situation. They abandoned their attempt to retrieve the members who had been captured by NSI and ran for it.

The NSI agents rounded up the BLACK members who had been captured and loaded them onto their vehicles. This was anything but the end. In fact, this was just the beginning of a very long investigation.

+++

Taeyeon groaned and opened her eyes slowly. Her body was aching and her head was throbbing. The last thing she remembered was her car spinning out of control. Everything else was a blur after that.

Her vision gradually returned to their focused state and she made out a solitary figure standing at the foot of her bed, conversing with a man in a white coat—most likely a doctor.

Her groan alerted them to her awakening and the doctor checked her vitals immediately.

“She’s good.”

The lady he had been talking to nodded her head firmly.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Taeyeon shi, you’re safe now.”

And for some reason, hearing those words opened her floodgates and her tears came gushing out. She hadn’t realized how strong she had been, not to breakdown in front of her captors. She hadn’t realized how much she had put up with for the past few days. She hadn’t realized how afraid she really had been when she was held hostage. So now, as the word ‘safe’ was said to her, all the pent up stress, anxiety and distress were released in a torrent of tears.

“You’re safe, Taeyeon shi. You’re in a hospital right now and we are protecting you.”

Taeyeon couldn’t stop crying, however. It was almost as if crying was theraputic for her. Perhaps it was, for she felt a whole lot better after crying.

“We understand that you’ve been through a lot. We applaud you for holding up so well but we will need to ask you questions about this once you are ready.”

Taeyeon looked at the lady and nodded.

“I understand.”

The lady smiled and Taeyeon thought she looked really pretty when she did.

“I am Boa, head of internal national security at NSI.”

+++

Sunny was in a lot of pain. As she looked down at herself, she muttered ‘thanks’ profusely in her heart to no one in particular. She was just thankful to be alive and kicking. From what she could see, she deduced that she had not broken any bones so all the pain that she was in must be from her superficial wounds.

A doctor entered her ward and gave her a cheery smile.

“Good morning! I’m glad to see that you’re up now. Did you sleep well?”

Sunny nodded but her eyes looked about furtively. She wasn’t entirely sure if she was safe or not. The doctor seemed to sense her uneasiness.

“Sunny shi, you’re in good hands. Don’t worry. Your co-worker will come around to see you in a short while. She’s in the other room with another lady. At the moment.”

Sunny was jolted back to full consciousness at the mention of another lady in another room. Taeyeon? Is she alright?

Boa entered Sunny’s room right then and Sunny had never been happier to see her. She could tell Sunny if Taeyeon was alright.

The doctor looked up from his clipboard and smiled at Boa.

“Sunny shi is doing well as well. I’ll take my leave now.”

Boa nodded and smiled at the doctor and he seemed to be momentarily stunned by her. This was part of the reason why Boa hardly smiled. She simply looked too damn attractive for her own good when she did. However, she was in a very good mood and so she was all-smiles this morning.

“Sunny, well done.”

Sunny grunted. She begged to differ.

“You don’t think that you did a good job of rescuing Taeyeon?

Sunny shook her head. A sob escaped her lips.

“I slipped up. I got too close. You’re right, I shouldn’t have joined in this. She could have died because of me.”

Boa sat down beside her and held her hand firmly.

“Sunny, you saved her. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“She could have died…because of me.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“I got too close. I wanted to see her so badly. I got too close, damn it. They spotted me and shot at me. I dodged and dodged and got close enough to them. I took a shot at their tyres. They spun out of control but I couldn’t stop soon enough so I slid down the road with my bike.” Sunny choked at the thought of her mangled bike. “My bike…”

“What happened after that?” Boa probed gently.

“I got up and shot the men in the car. One of them got out with Taeyeon and I shot him too. Then Taeyeon screamed and fainted.”

Sunny began sobbing more heavily at the thought of Taeyeon fainting.

“Taeyeon is alright, by the way. She’s in much better shape than you are.”

Boa looked amused by that fact.

Sunny heaved a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad she’s alright. If anything happened to her…I could never forgive myself.”

“Regardless, I still say that you’ve done a good job. Trust me when I say it, Sunny.”

Sunny looked at Boa’s warm eyes and felt comforted.

“Thanks.”

“And I’ve decided on something.”

“What?”

“I’m recruiting Jessica and Tiffany into Light. They’ll work with you.”

“What are we working on?”

“Protecting Taeyeon.”

“You’re going to let me continue protecting her?”

“Yes. I don’t see why not. You have succeeded in all of your missions so far. I have no reason to take you off.”

“But—‘

“But,” Boa cut her off, “there’s a catch.”

“What?”

“You can’t be seen by her. You can’t be seen near her.”

“I see what you’re doing here.”

“Look, we can’t let you end up being a target because you’re seen with her. We can’t let her know that you are a Light agent. And you want to protect her. This is the best solution. You, Jessica and Tiffany will take turns to watch over her in six hour shifts. The remaining six hours during which Taeyeon sleeps will be covered by our agents assigned to her home. The three of you are only in-charge of her active hours. Of course, she will have close range body guards as well, all around the clock.”

Sunny nodded sullenly and Boa laughed suddenly, giving Sunny a shock.

“What?”

“Nothing. You just look so much like a pouting little kid that I couldn’t help myself.” Boa smiled and shook her head self-reprovingly. “I’m glad that I didn’t have to pull my rank on you to get you to agree.”

Sunny smiled wanly. “Just you wait till I’m feeling better.”

Boa smiled.

+++

Yunho was seething. He was boiling over with rage. He had the urge to shoot all of his incapable men. How was it that NSI and their mystery agents were always getting in his way? This would have to stop. He was going to show them that he meant business. He was going to get Kangta and the data he wanted if that was the last thing he was going to do.

“Changmin, kill her.”

+++

Taeyeon tried calling Sunny but she never answered. It was as though she had disappeared into thin air. She was well enough to be discharged from the hospital but they wanted to run a couple more scans on her to make sure that she was completely alright.

She couldn’t wait to see Sunny again so she had been very disappointed to find that Sunny hadn’t called or texted her during the past few days that she had been kidnapped.

She should be worried about me, shouldn’t she? I was with her when I got kidnapped. She ought to be worried!

Taeyeon had asked Boa if they had kidnapped another girl besides her. Boa knew immediately that she was referring to Sunny but she had to play dumb.

“You were with a friend at that time?”

“Yes. Was she taken too?”

“No. You were the only one taken away.”

“Oh. That’s a relief.”

Taeyeon did feel relieved that Sunny was safe, however, that did not explain why Sunny had not bothered to get in touch with her from that moment on. She couldn’t understand it at all.

Boa noticed how distressed Taeyeon was but there was litle she could do about it. Sunny wasn’t going to contact her for a long, long time. In that instant, she felt very sorry for Taeyeon.

“Do you need my help with anything?”

Taeyeon looked hopeful immediately.

“Could you perhaps help me to make sure that my friend is alright? She isn’t answering her phone at all and she hasn’t contacted me since the time I got kidnapped. I’m worried.”

“I can check the nation’s missing persons’ report if you’d like. That way we can find out if she’s been reporting missing or not.”

Taeyeon shook her head sadly. “My friend doesn’t have family. She’s all by herself. No one is going to report her missing.”

Boa cocked an eyebrow. Taeyeon knew a lot about Sunny; more than she had expected her to.

“Well, if you could give me her name, I could try to check her out for you.”

“Really? Could you? Her name is Sunny. Sunny Lee Soonkyu.” Taeyeon cheered up in that instant.

Boa on the other hand wasn’t too happy about Taeyeon knowing Sunny’s actual name. Sunny wasn’t supposed to reveal that kind of information to civilians. She sighed inwardly. She knew that she couldn’t blame Sunny. That girl was lonely indeed. She probably didn’t want to lie to the one person that she truly liked. Boa knew Sunny well enough to know that.

She decided to let it slide, considering the circumstances that Sunny was in. then she chided herself silently for beign so lenient with Sunny. She simply couldn’t help it. She had known Sunny from the time that short girl lost her parents. She had seen what Sunny had gone through. She knew her so well—almost like family—that she couldn’t bring herself to treat her merely as another agent working under her. Sunny would be her only exception. Sunny was the only one who could make her act unprofessionally.

And just like any family member would, she acted selfishly. She had to keep Sunny away from Taeyeon. BLACK had their eyes on Taeyeon for reasons unknown to her. She couldn’t let Sunny become their target as well. She knew that Sunny knew what she was trying to do. What really surprised her was how easily Sunny had agreed to it. Perhaps, Sunny understood her more than she had realized too.

+++

“Yunho, we’ve found the perfect moment to kill her.”

“Good. Get it done. They’ll regret getting in our way.”

“I’m on it.”

+++

A/N: Thanks for sticking around :) It's taken longer than usual to get this out. Hope it makes up for the wait!