'And who will I be working with?'

My boss got up from his leather arm chair and walked past me, heading to the heavy wooden cabinet that held all of our worker's files. Still today I think that they choose the agents for their missions by randomly shuffling through the drawers, eyes closed, asking others to shout 'stop!'. But when my boss was bent over one of the drawers, carefully chosing the file he was going to hand me later on, I couldn't help but shiver with excitement. This was the first mission that I would be involved in together with a partner. I was hoping for someone my age, even a little older maybe, so that I would have someone to rely on if things were to get tough, but with the same level of experience so there wouldn't be a 'leader' amongst us.
 

When my supervisor finally took his place behind his desk again I looked at him in anticipation. He opened the file and took out a picture, then put it on top of the folder and pushed it towards my side of the table. 'There you go, miss Lee.' I picked the picture up and took a closer look at it, neglecting everything else that was in the black folder for the moment being – and what I got to see let me frown.
 

My partner was going to be a man, estimately somewhere in his early twenties so he was indeed a little older than me. But somehow he didn't look reliable. His sparkling, cattish eyes were attentively gazing back at me from out of his frame, ready to judge my every step. The corners of his pouty mouth were slightly curled up into a smile that was both inviting and alarming, and dark hair framed his aristocratic looking face. Every day of the last few years had I been hoping to meet someone like him, and now that he was introduced to me as my partner in crime, I just wanted to cancel everything and back out.
 

But this was, and I knew that exactly, not possible. Not at all. So I inaudibly cleared my throat and put the picture aside to take a look at his file. 'Kim Kibum' it said, and behind that 'Key'. 'I didn't know that people were actually given nicknames here', I remarked sharply. My boss let out a throaty laugh and leaned back into his arm chair. 'Usually, they aren't', he explained, 'but Kim-sshi was successful in so many cases that we decided to call him the 'Almighty Key' to completing any mission.'
 

Good lord, I thought to myself, this can't be true. He was my age but he definitely wasn't my level of experience - but I didn't plan on letting him dominate me. This was going to more of a challenge than I would have imagined. 'Keep the picture', my boss said when I handed the folder back, 'you might need it to recognize him.' I nodded obediently and folded the picture to put it in my pocket, but I was sure I wouldn't need it. That man would be hard to forget.
 

 'It will be an enrichment to your abilites and a personal gain to work with him', my boss told me when I was just about to leave his office. I took a deep breath and smiled vaguely.
 

'Most certainly', I assented.