- - - - -

Taecyeon slammed the door behind him and took off his shoes walking into the apartment. Once he heard the dishes clatter in the kitchen he glanced in to see Victoria apparently working on the dishes he assumed she’d avoided all morning.

“Why didn’t you do what you just wanted?” Victoria asked without turning around.

He wondered how she knew he was there.

“I know you wanted to fight with him out there. A man to man fight,” she paused, “isn’t it a normal thing?”

“Psh,” he snorted. “You don’t know anything about these things.”

“You think I don’t?” she asked turning around to start a lecture about the men in her base but shut herself up before she said anything. She smiled happily, “Of course, I don’t.”

He frowned at her and turned around to walk away. It was a meaningless thing to chat with this strange woman who demanded to live with him. He groaned frustrated and sat on the couch staring at the blank TV.

- - - - -

After getting her hair permed the 40 year old woman with a pearl necklace hanging around her neck walked into a small café shop. Her fancy white dress did not fit into the causal atmosphere that the relaxing café gave off. From the large glass window the sunlight lit into the small shop turning everything into a calm yellow against the pale walls decorated plainly with paint marks. Each circular table had been separated from each other, far enough for people not to eavesdrop on each other. On the left hand side of the restaurant a woman with hair tied up into a bun sat alone sipping at her warm yellow mug of cappuccino.    

“My are you early,” the woman greeted sitting down then raised her hand and said when a waitress in a blue outfit walked over, “a cup of coffee, please.”

“Yes, ma’am.” she said then walked away.

“Has Yoona decided to ask off work yet? I was thinking if she had time to go look for a wedding cake today.” the woman, obviously, Donghae’s mother asked.

“What do you mean wedding cake?” Yoona’s mother questioned still holding onto the handle of her mug.

“She hasn’t asked off?” the woman assumed.

“What?” Yoona’s mother asked. “I thought the wedding was cancelled. Yoona left this morning to Kwangju.”

“Kwangju?!!”

- - - - -

“Still no sign of him?” Donghae asked when Secretary Jung walked into his office.

“No, sir.”

Donghae heaved a tired sigh. “We’ll wait till he shows up.”

“Sir,” Secretary Jung started, “there’s been a large sum of money deposited into Director Choi’s bank account.”

“What?” Donghae raised an eyebrow. “Who is it from?”

“I’m having them work on that right now,” Secretary Jung explained feeling proud of himself for being one step ahead.

“Keep everything on track for me and send those e-mails for me. I’m heading home.” Donghae told grabbing his jacket.

Donghae walked into his home with the maids all stiff in front of the door. Wondering why they were all standing there he walked further in to hear screaming from the other room.

“Young sir, madam’s very upset with you.” one of the maids whispered behind him.

“Ah…” Donghae nodded catching on. “I’ll go have a talk with her.”

When Donghae walked into the gathering room with the fancy patterned expensive furniture behind a big table, he dodged his head just in time as a pillow came flying at him. It bounced off the brick chimney and onto the carpeted floor. The family picture above smiled at him as if glad that he’d missed the hit.

“Yah!!!” his mother screamed.

Donghae turned to find his father sitting in the recliner calmly with a coffee in hand, his glasses halfway down his nose.

“Evening.” he greeted.

“What is wrong with you?” Donghae asked making a move for the pillow.

“Where do you think you’re going?!” his mother screamed.

He raised an eyebrow pointing at the pillow, “I’m picking it up. I’m not going to run.” he dusted the pillow and held it out to block another pillow coming his way. “Mom!!”

“Don’t ‘Mom’ me! Explain to me, you explain to me right now what’s going on!” she demanded stomping her feet in the white dress she was wearing.

“Did I tell you, you look like the fairy godmother in Cinderella?” Donghae smiled.

“Why you…” his mother muttered and stomped over grabbing his jacket and shook him.

“Honey,” his father called getting up.

His mother let him go throwing him back into the chimney, “Sit down.”

Donghae tugged at his tie, “I swear you’re going to get rid of my throat one day.”

“I met with Yoona’s mother today.” she started sitting on the big couch while Donghae took the recliner his father had been sitting on. “She said Yoona left this morning and the wedding’s been cancelled. Did you know?”

Donghae lifted his right leg up and rested his ankle on top of his left leg. “Yes.”

His father’s eyes widened under his glasses, “The wedding’s really cancelled?”

Donghae stared at them both, “Yes.”

“Yah!!!” his mother’s high pitched screamed tormented his ears again but he remained still in his seat.

“It’s no big deal.” his father helped, placing a hand on his mother’s shoulder. “They can still reschedule after she returns.”

“That’s not the point…” his mother started but Donghae cut in.

“We’re not rescheduling.”

“What?” his father asked shocked. “You’re what…?”

“The guests, the wedding planners…I’ll call them all.” he clarified.

“Why you little…” his mother started.

“Good night,” Donghae nodded and got up heading for the stairs.

“Yah!!!” his father screamed after him.

After closing his door and sitting on his bed he turned to glance at the photo of him and Yoona on his desk. Getting up he grabbed the photo and stared at it recalling memories. In the end he opened the drawer underneath and put the photo in it and closed it.

“The wedding…wasn’t something I asked for. It’s only something…I worked hard for.” he told himself and turned away walking into the bathroom.

- - - - -

It was halfway into the night when Yoona stepped off the plane. Exiting through an open entryway she walked toward the machines to grab her suitcase. After waiting in line she finally picked up her suitcase and made her way toward the exit.

“Deputy Im!” she heard someone call.

She stopped and looked around. Amid all the strangers around her she didn’t see anyone who was supposedly looking for her. The Chief hadn’t told her that there was going to be someone waiting for her arrival. People wearing all different colors crossed by and she still didn’t see anyone heading her way. Shrugging she turned around continuing to drag her suitcase behind her.

“Deputy Im!” the voice called again.

Turning around with her feet neatly swiveling in a circle she found a man in a black coat pushing his way through the thick crowd. His hair was gelled back making him look like a mafia boss and he decorated himself with a worn out t-shirt and a pair of dry faded jeans.

“Deputy Im,” he said once again when he reached her.

He was obviously out of shape as that small run had made him short of breath.

“I’m here to pick you up.” he finished after a moment.

A few minutes later Yoona found herself sitting in the backseat of a car, the man from before at the wheel.

“I’m a small time assistant with the big federals who came here,” he told glancing into the rearview mirror as the car started into the street, “I’m honestly very excited to be able to tag along. I wonder if we’ll be able to catch anybody who’ll lead us to the fugitive. I’m so anxious to go see the site of murder.”

His words barely traveled through Yoona’s ears as she stared into the night streets that were still occupied that night with a heavy amount of traffic. She allowed her mind to become empty before turning to look forward.

“Where are we headed?” she cut him off.

“Uh…oh…to the police station first.”

“Let me unpack first.”

“Uh…but…”

“Just dropping my suitcase off won’t waste too much time, will it? You should still consider that I just got off my flight. I could be tired or jet legged,” Yoona told.

“Uh…yes…yes…” the man nodded and to the next street.

Seconds later the car pulled up in front of a hotel and she stepped out of the car taking her suitcase out from the trunk. Pushing it closed she started for the front doors and checked in with the front desk. Taking her keys from the receptionist she headed toward the elevator and to her room.

Inside the white room she found the bed to her right with a wooden headboard over it. The bathroom was down a small hallway to the left and the TV sat on a long drawer in front of the bed. What spooked her most was the long window that extended from the left wall, its white curtains barely protecting her from the sight of an outsider. Yoona made her way toward the window and pushed aside the white curtain to get a look outside. Through her dim reflection she was able to make out the lights from the city businesses blinding the night sky from its own stars. Stepping away from the window she was ready to step back and head downstairs when something caught the corner of her eyes. The gray latch to the balcony outside had been unlatched.

Yoona looked behind her to find the room empty. Walking to her right she grabbed the handle and slid the window open feeling the wind rush in at her all at once. Her long hair flew back drifting with the escape while she slowly stepped out onto the balcony glancing to her left. The balcony extended all the way from that end of the window to the opposite end where the window ended. No sign of anyone, she figured, and concluded that the last person who’d used the room had just carelessly left the window unlocked. Satisfied with that explanation she turned around to head back down when a shadow inside her room stole her attention. Rushing back in sliding the window behind her shut, she heard the door click open. Immediately chasing after the intruder she paused within that second to see if anything had been taken. Nothing.

What was the purpose of the intruder being there?

To find out, Yoona grabbed her card key and ID slipping them into her pocket and started down the hallway. The door slammed after her and clicked as it locked. Turning down the corner of the hallway she was able to make out a dim shadow escaping down the stairs. Following him she pushed the door to the stairs open and rushed down the zigzagged stairs. With quick observation she could tell that the swift movement of the intruder’s belonged to a man. He was just one flight of stairs ahead of her.

Who was he?

Yoona jumped down the last 5 steps to save time and continued to pursue her intruder. The door to the first floor opened and she tailed him out. Women screamed, men moved aback swearing at them, but Yoona could have cared less. She wanted to know why he’d chosen to mess with her. The doors to the hotel flapped open and she jumped through them following him down the sidewalk.

“H…hey!! Where are you going?!!!” the assistant from earlier screamed out of his car.

Ignoring his calls she continued down the block where he was continuing. He ran into the streets where a car screeched as it braked. Yoona ran into the street just as the car was starting again. It came to another screeching brake when she ran in front of it.  

“Sorry!” she apologized and continued.

She should have tied her hair earlier. She didn’t know why she’d boarded the plane with loose hair. Loose hair always got in her way during a chase. After a minute he disappeared through a crowd and all she saw before her was a smoky dark alleyway where doors aligned the walls and trash bins decorated the small path in between.

“Shoot!!” she shouted stomping the ground with her feet.

“This isn’t the time to be messing around!! What are you…a deputy managing the idiots of the streets?!” the tall man pounded the table where she sat in the enclosed room. “Do you know how long you made us wait?! Approximately an hour and forty five minutes! The time which you would have been informed about the assassination and we could have gone through our plan! What a waste!! What kind of a chief would send in a deputy as arrogant as this?!”

About 20 of them were seated around a square table in a conference room at the Kwangju police headquarters. All of them from all over Korea. 5 detectives, two leading FBI’s, and the rest deputies. Rarely any of them seemed bored, most upset and serious with the time wasted.

“Sorry,” Yoona apologized with head down.

“Lets just get on with it,” the woman beside him cautioned, the other FBI, Yoona assumed. “I’m Lee Hyemi, I will be explaining our tactics for this mission. If either one of you act individually I will dismiss you from this mission. We are going to split up in two groups of 10 with I, leading one, and Lee Jung Hwa leading the other. Lee Jung Hwa will fill you in with information regarding the assassination, first.”

The tall slender woman with short straight hair turned her attention over to her partner standing beside her. The man with a well built body underneath his suit turned toward them all. His gelled hair glistened underneath the light bulbs.

“October 18th, two days ago, the president’s son made a trip down to Kwangju for a meeting in place of his father. 10:00pm when he’d been left alone in the City Hall meeting room he was shot through the head by a woman, who disguised herself as one of the maids.

“Our fugitive, the person we’re seeking, is a woman who could still be lurking the streets in Kwangju or somewhere else. She took out 40 of our security guards that night, wiped out 10 more in the woods where she disappeared. Our search for her starts in Kwangju tonight. Don’t whine about the rest you’re not getting, on the way here you should’ve already had plenty of rest.

“As Deputies and detectives who’s been nominated for this job, I expect the best out of you. If one should fall behind during a chase, you’re considered out. During your years of training you should have had multiple practices with survival courses, this should be even harder, we’re going to keep moving from city to city…and I expect that each of you can shoot a gun with accurate aim.”

Yoona met with his eyes that seemed to belittle her but remained solid in her seat.

“I hope you all packed light.” he ended. “Hyemi will hand out the instructions.”