A/N: It's been a long time. But I lost interest after Chapter 2. Found it again after logging in to this site. Decided to continue it :)

Eunmi trailed after Agent Cho, deep in thought. Although she had said what she did, there was still some doubts in the back of her mind. Fears that just wouldn't stop haunting her like a never ending mantra to break down her spirit and back down. But seeing her dad there inside the cell, clothes rumpled and worn, his face littered with more wrinkles and robbed of youthful vigor tell tale of his mere 45 years, she knew she had to do this and agree to become a spy.

Maybe, just maybe, they'll assign her to some desk job. Away from danger, but still able to earn the same benefits and the large salary to support both her and her father without stooping low enough to borrow money from loan sharks.

Agent Cho opened a door and sunlight poored in. Eunmi could hear a low whirring sound. Almost like a-

Helicopter. There in the middle of the concrete was a helicopter and Agent Cho jogged towards it, beckoning her to follow him.

"What? Now? We're training now?", she tried to yell over the noise.

Cho turned around. "What?", he yelled back. But he caught something in her expression and nodded. "We need to leave now if we can set you up for espionage within the year. We haven't seen such potentional in a student since Agent Hwang during the Japanese occupation of Korea. You've got it kid and we need your help."

"I don't even have clothes. I didn't even say goodbye to my friends! I'm not ready!", she exclaimed. She refused to move from where she stood. 

"What do you mean you're not ready?" Eunmi raised her chin as though challenging him. Cho grabbed his bag and began shuffling through it before pulling out several pieces of paper and a recorder. "We have your consent to start training now." He shook the recorder at her. It probably held her conversation with her dad, when she agreed to the proposition. She was vaguely awed at the speed in which they gathered the intel and evidence of her agreement.

"I didn't know the organization was going to take that so literally."

He looked back at the helicopter and saw the pilot signalling for them to hurry up. Agent Cho shot her a glance, chastising her for her behavior. Eunmi sighed in defeat.

"Fine," she muttered under her breath. She joined the walk to the helicopter alongside Agent Cho, kicking the concrete ground to release some of her frustration. They might let her write or email to her friends. But she doubted it. She just hoped they won't think that she abadoned them all of the sudden.

_______

They reached the base extraordinarily fast. She peered below and saw the face of a mountain covered with snow. The helicopter slowly descended and for a moment she thought they were going to crash against the jagged edges of the moutain. But just to the right was a flat, horizontal surface jutting out of the side. it hadn't been there before. 

The helicopter landed smoothly on the landing plane, and she released her hard grip on the handles of the seat. Agent Cho smirked at her, seeing her reaction and the momentary fear that overtook her. She glared at him. Eunmi took her seatbelt off and opened the door, jumping on the  ground with a thump. Relieved at the solid structure beneath her legs. She heard Agent Cho step out of the helicopter and  nodded to the helicopter. The pilot saluted him and winked at her, mouthing a "Good luck" before taking off again.

Cho started walking ahead of her again, signalling for Eunmi to follow. She rolled her eyes behind his back, feeling like this was going to be constant thing between her and the older Agent.

They stopped in front of grey, metal door. She saw no handle and wondered for a moment how they were going to get in before Agent Cho raised his hand and planted it against the metal. A whirring sound came from behind the door and it swung open. They proceeded inside.

She imagined what the headquarters of I would look like on her ride here. From an old castle to a some cult-ish set of buildings in the middle of a jungle. What she saw inside baffled her.

Eunmi came to a stop in the middle of white room and the bright lights blinded her for a second. She rubbed her eyes and blinked eyes. As she was getting used to the ridiculously bright room, she realized she was all alone.

A sense of panic settled in. Was this a trap ?, she thought. Eunmi was confused. She didn't understand. She turned around to make an exit through the door she came through but found it to be already closed.

She stood still in the middle of the room. She didn't know what to think. So she waited. 

Eunmi surveyed the room and at the corner of the ceiling she saw a camera trained in her direction, a red light blinking behin the dark lense. It unnerved her.

"You have thirty minutes to get yourself out of this room." She jumped at the sound. Thirty minutes to escape? What?

"This is a simulation devised to test recruits on their aptitude. It will begin in ten seconds. Ten. Nine. Eight-"

Eunmi's mind was whirling. So many thoughts and feelings and she felt her herself almost fall to baser instincts. But she steeled herself. She was not going to fail this so soon in the game.

"If I refuse to participate?" she asked, staring straight ahead. Stubborness was rearing its ugly head at her, overwhelming her instinctual drive for survival and competition.

The counting broke off suddenly just as it reached three and said in an even more monotone and uncaring voice, "Then you will not pass and you will not be able to help your father."

The wall in front of her flickered to a timer with thirty minutes posted. "Begin."

________

Two men observed her from the otherside of the timer. It was a one way mirror they made to observe recruits and they're ability to get out of puzzling situations, which also had the capacity to project letters and numbers on the other side without betraying the fact that there was a room on the other side.

Agent Cho eased into his chair, his body tensed. "Do you think she can do it?"

He looked to his friend, a man dressed in combat attire. Black from head to toe. His friend looked at him and nodded slowly. "Perhaps she'll even set a new record."

Agent Cho took another glance at his friend. "What do you mean Sungjae?"

Sungjae smiled softly at the girl in front of him and Cho took another look at her.

"There's fire in here spirit and we only need to feed it."

Cho frowned. There was no need to provoke a wild animal. In this case, Eunmi. "Do you think that's wise. She's already angry at the organization for stealing her away from her father and for not letting her say goodbye to her civilian life."

His friend scoffed. "Perhaps that anger will serve as well." Sungjae looked at Eunmi again. She was glaring at timer with venom in her eyes. If he didn't know better, he'd think that she was glaring right at him. "But perhaps not."

Cho laughed, looking between Sungjae and Eunmi. "If looks could kill."

Deep inside, Cho knew that Eunmi was going to pass. It was not a matter of "ifs", but "whens". He knew that they threw a lot at her, even manipulated her for a bit. There really was no need to incarcerate her father. He'd already paid most of his loans within the year he embezzled them from several accounts, and the account manager, being the kind man he was, understood Eunmi's father's predicament empathized with the man. It's just that the organization found it to be a great way to monopolize Eunmi and turn it into their advantage. I saw their chance and took it.

Three minutes had already passed and the two men saw the frown on her face ease into a fiendish smirk. The men flinched just as she took another step towards them.

She began kicking the timer.