I barged into my apartment, slamming the door behind me and going straight to the bedroom. I took a backpack out of my closet and shoved all the necessary items into it. Once I was done with that, I went back to my closet and pushed all the clothes out of the way and stared at the bare wall behind it for a second. I reached out and pressed on the wall, which opened into a secret compartment where I kept my weapons. Just the smaller guns, knives, and stuff, nothing big. After slipping a gun into the back of my jeans and a knife into my boots, I slid the clothes back into place and went to the window, grabbing my bag on the way. I opened the window and was halfway onto the fire escape when I heard a pounding on my front door. I knew who it was, and there was no way I was opening the door. Besides, they’d break the door down anyway so there was no point.

            Proving my point, the guys behind the door kicked it open just as I slipped out the window. I had no time to close the window behind me so I just turned and ran down the staircase. I got a few floors down when I heard, “EunMi, wait! We just want to talk!”

            Yeah, right.

            Ignoring their calls, I hopped off the last floor of stairs and landed on my feet on the ground. I didn’t waste anytime and ran straight into the crowded street.

            And to think, this time two hours ago, those guys had been fighting right beside me.

            In those two hours, I had been ordered to assassinate a target, found out something about the Association I wasn’t supposed to know, and turned myself into a target.

            Geez, why did I listen to that kid?

            “EunMi-ah, Boss wants to talk to you.” Daeshin had said on his way to his locker. We’d just finished a stimulation and were all changing back into our normal clothes in the locker room, when he’d told me that. So I rushed to get changed and made my way towards our Boss’ office on the third floor. I’d entered the elevator only to find out that two other agents were already standing in it. One of them being Lee Minho, the Association’s best.  He’d glanced at me and smirked.

            “Well if it isn’t Space Cadet.” He said, jokingly. I rolled my eyes at him. He’d called me that since we’d met three years ago on account of the fact that I was really good at zoning out but still seeming like I was paying attention. But if you asked what had been happening around me, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you.

            “Agent Lee.” I said in my most formal tone. We waited until the other agent exited the elevator to speak more.

            “You still coming over tonight?” he asked in a low voice, so that the cameras wouldn’t pick up what we were saying.

            “You really think I would miss dinner at your place? The rare times that you cook? Not even if my life depended on it.” I shook my head in disbelief. “Seriously, it’s like you don’t want me to come over.” He chuckled.

            “Trust me, I do.”

            “I don’t think I can trust you.” I said as I stepped out of the elevator. “Six o’clock, Agent Lee.” I went down the hall to Boss’ office and entered.

            He was on the phone, but he gestured for me to come forward once he noticed my presence. He tossed a folder across the desk and motioned for me to wait a second. As he continued his phone call, I went through the folder.

            It held information about a target. There wasn’t much info about the person besides a picture. I gazed at it for a while. This was just a kid, what could he have done that made him deserve assassination? 

            Boss got off the phone and let out a heavy sigh. “EunMi-ah, I know you weren’t expecting another mission so soon after you had just completed your last one such a short time ago.”

            I shook my head. “It’s no big deal, what’s this one about?”

            “Need to know basis, ok? Everything that is needed to know is in that file.” He replied, nodding towards the folder in my hand.

            “That’s not much.” I muttered, scanning the page with the typical info about the target.

            “He knows things he shouldn’t know, and we need to annihilate him before he tells someone else.” Boss said. “That’s all you need to know. Nothing else, understood?”

            “Understood.”  I stood up, taking the folder with me as I exited the office and went back down to my locker to grab the things I would need for the mission. I opened the locker and a note fell out of it and onto the ground. I picked it up to read.

            ‘Six o’clock, Agent Kang.’

            Rolling my eyes at his dorkiness, I crumpled up the note and shoved it to the back of my locker, underneath an extra pair of clothes. I went straight to the garage from there and climbed into one of the black Ferraris. I don’t exactly know why the Association insisted on getting the agents such expensive cars, but I wasn’t about to complain about it. They were fast. And I liked fast.

            I drove out into the city of Seoul where the target supposedly lived. After checking the area around, I entered the apartment complex without attracting attention and went straight up to his floor. There were lots of crashing sounds coming from the apartment room he lived in, so I silently pulled out my gun, just in case.

            After waiting a moment, I kicked the door open and entered the room. Whatever was going on in there, it had covered up the sound of the door being forcibly opened. I slowly walked down the hall on the right and over to a door that was cracked open. I peeked in and saw the target scrambling around the room, papers being thrown here and there as he muttered to himself.

            ‘This guy’s a nutcase.’ I thought to myself. I pushed the door open slowly with my foot, keeping my eyes on the guy’s back, which was currently facing me. Once I had entered the room and crept over to where he was standing, I pointed the gun to the back of his head.

            “Don’t move.” I said. His entire body froze and he stood there in silence.

            “W-who are you?” he stammered.

            “Don’t worry about that.” I grabbed the back of his shirt and shoved him into the chair near the desk, keeping the gun pointed at him. “All you need to know is that I’m here to kill you.”

            “What? No! You can’t do that!” he cried out. I quickly shut him up by pressing the gun against his forehead.

            I should have ended it right then and there. That would have saved me a lot of trouble down the road. But my eyes traveled up the to wall behind him and I noticed pictures of past targets of the Association, along with a few pictures of deceased agents. There were notes scribbled here and there that didn’t make sense to me.

            “What is that?” I blurted out before I had a chance to stop myself.

            He hesitated. “The truth.” He said in a small voice. I looked back at him.

            “What do you mean the truth?” I demanded. He gulped at the tone of my voice.

            “Th-they’re hiding stuff from you. On purpose.” He replied nervously.

            “Who’s they?” I asked.

            “The Association.”

            That caught my attention. What did he mean by ‘hiding stuff’? I knew the Association was a secretive agency, but what were they hiding that meant people had to be killed. I glanced back up at the wall.

            “What do you suppose they’re hiding?” I wondered out loud, not really expecting an answer. But I got one.

            “They plan on killing the President of South Korea. Then starting a war with North Korea.” He said, shifting slightly in the seat.

            “That’s not true, the Association works for South Korea.” I shot back, sharply.

            “That’s what they want you to think. Trust me, that’s far from the truth.” He hesitated for asecond before sliding out of the chair and going to the wall. He pointed to one of the deceased agents. “That’s my brother. He’d found out their plan when he was filing paper work and accidently found the file with all their plans. They killed him two days later, but he was able to tell me enough information before they got him. I’ve been researching about it ever since.”

            I stepped over to the wall to get a better look. “This agent was killed not too long ago.” I mumbled, pointing to one of the pictures.

            “He was the last one that came after me.” The kid said. “He let me go, and then he was target two hours later. He was found dead less than a day later.” I gazed at the pictures of targets, which he noticed. “These are all the guys I recruited to help me. As of last night, I’m the last one alive.”

            He turned to go to the laptop on the other desk. “I hacked into the database and got all the blueprints and files about the plan.”

            That’s when I remembered why I was here. “You shouldn’t be telling me this.”

            “Believe me, I know. But I’m desperate. They’re going to continue sending agents after me and one day I’m not going to be able to outrun them. I need to tell as many people as I can. Even if that person is part of the Association.”  He turned to look at me. “Do you believe me?”

            I’m proud to say that I can read people like a book, so of course I could see just how desperate this kid was. No one is this desperate unless they know the truth.

            I nodded, and he let out a sigh of relief. “Then you need to get out of here before they find you too.” He pulled a flashdrive out of the laptop and handed it to me along with a GPS. “Do me a favor and take this with you. There’s a guy in the States that can help you.”

            “Help me with what?” I snapped, looking down at the items in his hands.

            “Help you get this information out to the public. They need to be stopped. This could start World War III!”

            I shook my head. “I’m not doing this!”

            “You have to! I can’t go, they’ll kill me as soon as I leave this apartment.” He snapped, shoving the items into my hands. “Someone needs to stop them and you could be that person!”

            “This isn’t my problem, I’m just an assassin.” I said, shaking my head.

            He looked me straight in the eyes. “If you don’t do this, it’s going to be everyone’s problem.”

            I don’t know what compelled me to slip the flashdrive into my back pocket and nod in agreement with this kid, but I did it.

            That led me to now. Running through the crowd of people in a busy street in Seoul, going directly to the airport. I had a fake I.D. prepared along with enough money to get me through for the next week and then some. The only thing that could stand in my way would be the Association.

            And, honestly, they could easily stop me once they caught me.

            Which meant I couldn’t get caught. Easy said then done.

            I hauled a taxi and order for the driver to take me to the nearest airport. He drove much faster than I expected, not that I was going to object. Once he stopped into front of the airport, I shoved a wad of money in his hand and bolted into the building. I had grabbed a hat back in my apartment, which came in handy now as I used it to hide my face from security cameras. I purchased a ticket quickly and half-ran to the gate. I got halfway there when I felt someone grab my arm and pull me into a secluded corner.

            I came face to face with Minho.

            “Why is the whole Association coming after you?” he asked in a hushed tone. “They want you dead.”

            “Do they now? Well that was fast.” I muttered, avoiding looking in his eyes.

            He frowned. “It’s not funny, EunMi-ah.”

            I stepped away from him. “Get out of here, Minho, it’s dangerous. They’ll come after you too.”

            He grabbed my hand. “I don’t care. Tell me what happened.”

            I glanced around, noticing a few familiar faces coming our way.

            “If you really don’t care come with me.” I turned to look up at him. “I have to go to the States, but I’ll explain everything on the plane. Come with me.” He studied my face for a moment before nodding.

            We both slipped back into the crowd and went to the gate just as the plane was being boarded.

            I “accidently” knocked the tickets out of the stewardesses hands and bent down to help her pick them up as Minho slipped by and onto the plane.

            “I’m so sorry.”  I said to her, looking up in time to see the agents pass by, searching around but not catching sight of me.

            I rushed onto the plane and sat down beside Minho.

            “Start explaining.” He said quietly, keeping his attention on me while scanning around in case of possible danger.

            “The Association is planning something…”