The mansion of Miss A sounded more quite that morning, no signs of odd activities, no signs of life.

But that’s what their far neighbors thought.

If we went deeper into the house, into the second level basement, we could hear a lot of talking and debating happened, so noisy we couldn’t tell whose voice is whom.

“TRUST ME! I know it’s Max !”

“But it doesn’t mean we could ride on a jet, and find him right away, right?”

“Well, I said, we should call the other units to form a search team for him! I’m not that stupid.”

“Siwon-oppa called last night, he said...”

“Who cares what he said?! Finding Max is our top priority!”

A beeping sound appeared between them and they stopped talking. Heechul the screen and the girls unwillingly took a seat circling the table. JYP is back online.

“Agents.”

Their boss appeared on the screen, shared his deep glance to each and everyone of them.

“We nearly endangered our asset, we should really be ashamed.”

No one replied or said a word. Even Heechul stayed in his own mind. Earlier, after the black out, Jia contacted JYP through another connection to ask for back ups. The men surrounding their mansion had been all arrested and moved for further investigation. Suzy switched on their higher security protection surrounding the mansion before finally joined this meeting on the basement.

Min finally spoke out, “Sir, permission to talk.”

JYP nodded, “Granted.”

Min stood out rigidly, trying to hold herself as best as she could, “I suspect Max was the one who sent those men to get Amber.”

Heechul chuckled, “Min, come on, you’re better than this.”

“Mwoya?” she felt insulted. The girls just smiled and watched. They know how this is going to end.

The only man in the room smiled cockily at her, “Your observation failed you. If they were here for Amber, at least one of them would stop Key from taking Amber with him, right? But they didn’t, they were eager to attack you girls, completely ignoring Amber. I believe they aimed for something else.”

The girls, except Min, nodded in agreement. Min sat down in embarrassment, but still looked fiery, even when she glanced at JYP. The odd boss joined the scene, “Becareful next time, Min. You can’t trust your raw thoughts.”

He let out a little sigh before twisting the topic, “Anyway, I have just received an early report from the investigation team. From the report, those men, though were acting barbaric, are actually professional field agents, working under one’s order.”

“Their goals?” Fei demanded.

“Still unrevealed. Of course it would be your job to find out, isn’t it?”JYP threw them a threatening look.

Suzy who’s been trying to say something the whole time, finally stood out, “Eeeh... I got a call from Siwon-oppa last night.”

JYP raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t know you two are dating?”

“YAH! We're not!” Suzy glared at his annoying boss. He was serious a second ago, but turned into a clown the next second. It’s always like that. What sin she has done to have such a boss, she thought. Plus, all the girls in their agency would kill her if she’s even standing in 1 meter distance from Siwon. He’s a popular agent after all, despise the rule to not be involved in any emotional relationship.

JYP only chuckled, hinting her to continue her sentence.

Suzy continued, still a bit boilt up, “Oh. He said the facility is ready. We could move Amber now, instead of turning her small apartment into a fortress.”

“That would be great. It would be hard for us to keep an eye on her if she still lives among civilians.” Fei added.

“Yes, please, proceed right away.”JYP agreed. “But after Ms. Liu is settled and secured, I would like some of you to run another missions.”

Jia was the first to show disappointment, “So the four of us won’t be working together anymore?”

Min was a bit shocked, but she handled it better than the rest of the girls, “We’re ready to accept the mission.”

The screen switched into a map, and a line of photos from one person. A person that was quickly recognized by Min as a fellow agent and, a close friend.

“You all know Agent Lee Hongki from the Japanese headquarters, right? His status now is M.I.A, and I want you Heechul, to continue his progress of work in Osaka. The complete detail of his mission will be given to you as soon as possible. So, do you accept the mission?”

Heechul turned to Min, he noticed her saddened expression and thus answered, “I accept the mission.”

“Wait!” Min tried hard to control her wild breath, “He’s MISSING IN ACTION and you didn’t even send someone to search for him?!” she sounded desperate.

JYP only replied, “Further informations could be extracted from the respected division.”

Fei bit her lips as she slowly grabbed Min to calm her down. She exchanged glances with Suzy and Jia, and they couldn’t do anything but feel sorry for her. They know how much this meant to Min, but her unstable emotion would affect her proffesionalism, so they have to stick to JYP’s plan. He didn’t choose Min for no reason.

“Fei, Min, you two will focus on leading a team to locate Max Changmin and Jung Yunho. Do you accept the mission?”

Fei answered for both of them, “We accept the mission.”

Min stared at her hopelessly, but Fei couldn’t do anything more for her.

“As for Jia and Suzy, I think you’ll find out your mission once Amber has been transfered to the facility.”

“I accept the mission!” Jia nodded exitedly, without even asking any questions. Suzy didn’t have any choice but to accept the mission as well.

***

“Weird. I couldn’t find anything about that code, or my dad, except his profile in some science website or whatever those are.” Amber slammed shut her laptop. She took a glimpse of the dark sky outside, still checking frequently if Jia might appear outside the window. Like it or not, she’s her only hope for now. She needed more infos and a clear explanation. A clarification.

Luna got pretty excited, “From those detective movies I’ve watched, usually, the most important information lies within very classic things. Like, a gift, a letter, or a diary.”

Amber smiled tiredly, “Appa doesn’t own a diary...”

This time, Krystal tested out her sleuthing skill, “Could it be in something he said to you before?”

“I’ve tried to remember everything from our geek-conversations, but nothing. He just told me the basic techniques on cracking codes, and creating some simple programmes, or just a trick or two to prevent my PC from getting hacked by a hacker...” Amber scoffed to herself at her own words.Yeah right, I failed, appa. Those Miss A girls have hacked my system so many times.

Victoria crept to Amber’s side, “Oooh...could it be, the answer is in your laptop?”

“Eh?” Amber looked confused.

“Yeah, maybe he created a folder, especially about that code, for you!” Victoria clapped happily, proud of her idea.

Amber didn’t have the heart to laugh at her, so she only pat her shoulder, “Eonnie...it would be too obvious then, wouldn’t it? Miss A would have taken those datas long ago, right?”

“By the way, where’s Key-oppa?” Sulli suddenly leant on the fence of the stairs, searching at the first floor.

“He’s in his room, finishing the dress design. Her birthday is next week.” Amber answered flatly.

“What, Nicole’s?” Krystal guessed.

The tomboy nodded indifferently, hiding her massive weakness.

“Girls, I know you love gossips but please, not me too.” suddenly Key showed up, and Sulli was surely startled as she stepped back in a shock.

He walked to Amber, handing her his cellphone, “Here, they want to talk to you.”

“It’s them?!” Amber was also surprised to hear herself getting this excited.

She immediately put the phone on, “Hello, it’s Amber...”

“Ok Amber, listen. There’s a change of plan. We consider it’s not safe for you to live in your old apartment, so we’ve prepared a place for you to stay.”

“Who’s this? Heechul-ssi?”

“Yeah it’s Heechul. Listen, listen carefully. Jia and Suzy will pick you up in less than 20 minutes from now. Pack your things, take everything you need. But not too much. Do you understand?”

Amber turned to Key, asking in silence, ‘Is this for real?’ and Key replied with a fast nod.

Heechul doesn’t speak in such a serious tone before, so it must be no joke, she thought.

“Okay, but is there something wrong? What about those attackers yesterday?” Amber’s back to the phone.

“Everything’s fine here. For now, you should just do as I say, got it? Jia and Suzy will explain later. As for your friends, don’t worry, while you’re away, JYP will place his best people to watch over them. Perfectly safe. Don’t worry.”  he sounded calm, but in a hurry at the same time.

“But, can I have more time here? Maybe, tomorrow morning?” she looked at the girls and Key, who’re listening to her conversation in worry.

“I’m sorry Amber, but while we could do it now, we should do it now. Tomorrow morning might be different, who knows? You don’t have much time to prepare, so say your goodbyes now and don’t walk out until they come in and you to the vehicle. Do we understand each other?”

Amber, still a bit confused, could only replied, “Yeah, okay.”

“Good then. Have a safe trip.”

The phone ended, and Amber slowly returning the cellphone back to Key. She stabbed him with her eyes, “They told you first before they told me?”

“You don’t have your cellphone so, well, I guess they did.” Key put on an innocent face.

 “What’s going on?” Victoria tried to get into the sitch. The rest of the girls started to throw out their curiousity as well. “What happened? Are you...leaving?” Luna echoed.

“Prepare your stuff, girl. I’ll be at the kitchen. You might need some night snacks.” said Key as he stepped downstairs.

***

“Yo, hyeong...” she’s standing behind the dining table, watching his back as he put some kimbab in a small food container.

He turned around with a well-packed kimbab, “You can share these with those girls too. Do you want some chips too?”

Amber stared at him  silently. He handed her the kimbab and leant on the sink, staring back at her.

“Yah.” Key finally talked. “Look at this house.” he looked up to the ceiling and around, and Amber followed where his eyes fell into.

“This house is not  too small, but not enormous either. But it’s warm and is a great place to hang around, perfect right?” he’s still looking up at the ceiling. Amber’s listening carefully.

But then Key snapped out and walked toward her, “The only thing that this house is missing, is a proper security locks and some other sophisticated whatnots, to protect you.”

“Hey, I know, it’s about- -”

Key gave her a light bro-fist. “You’re cool Amber. So cool that some secret agents came to stalk you like some crazy fans. My dad trust these guys, and I think I can trust them too. If they can provide you a bullet-proof place to stay, then I thought, why not?”

Amber inhaled deeply and started to grasp his true intention.

“Take care there, will you? I told them to give you a cellphone, so we could stay in touch.”

“You too, hyeong. Take care of the girls, and send my hugs to the boys.”

“I will. You, be a good geek, okay?” he said before giving her a warm hug, and with that, Amber sinked her head on his shoulder, absorbing all the his soap and shampoo scents she could bring with her.

- - -

It’s been about 15 minutes since she’s sitting in the back of the van, between Suzy and Jia who’s been fighting over the last kimbab. Her mind was still left in the clubhouse, and how the girls broke into tears when they knew she’d be away from now on.

“Yaaah! Eonnie... waeee...” Suzy pouted when Jia ate the last kimbab. Technically, stole it from her.

Amber dug out her box and took out a large bag of chips and pushed it to her lazily, “There there, don’t cry Suzy...”

“Wah! Are you a minimarket or something?” Suzy opened the chips gracefully.

Jia seemed to be jealous to the chips, “Rah, Suzy-ah, rive me hamm...” she said while munching her kimbab.

“Oy oy, seriously. Tell me where are we going!” Amber yelled to stop both of them from stealing each other foods. Her food, to be exact.

“You’ll love the place!” Jia squaled.

Amber sighed, totally annoyed, “Yeah, but WHAT is it? A prison? A torturing chamber?”

“Omomo, stop your crazy thoughts. We’re not bringing you there to kill you.” Suzy paused to take another chip, “..mmhh.. Well, you see...mmhh... there’s a room for you to sleep, there’s a cafe... Mmhh... wait, gotta finish it.” she paused again to swallow her chips. Why, what’s wrong with this so-called agents?Did JYP forget to feed them tonight or what, Amber thought.

“It’s our main research and observation facility. Not big, but JYP turned it into a warm place for us agents and researchers.” Suzy finished her short explanation.

“A warm place, huh..” Amber mumbled to herself. ..with security locks and some other sophisticated whatnots to protect me...

After about two hours on road, the van stopped in a large field full of dried grass. Someone opened the door from outside, so Jia quickly led Amber out of the van, followed by Suzy behind them.

“Where’s the facility? Oh my... I’m really going to be killed here am I..?!” Amber looked around to find something, anything, but as her eyes gazed over the field, there’s nothing but wild herbs and dried grass all over.

Both Suzy and Jia kept walking across the endless land, leading her to nowhere. Until suddenly Suzy pointed into a spot in the ground, “Is that the right one?” she asked Jia.

Jia mumbled on her own until she finally answered, “Yes, I’m sure it’s this one. 47 degree from the north, 527 steps from the parking lot.”

“What parking lot?” Amber once again looked around to find one, but still nothing. It’s almost like these girls dragged her into an invisible gate.

Suzy cleared and bent down to the ground, “Miss A, Bae Sue Ji. Codename: Suzy. ”

A small beeping sound was heard and a robotic female voice responded, “Codename recognized. Retina-scanner is now ready.”

A tiny hole opened at the same spot, and Suzy bent down even more, letting a red laser scanned her retina.

“Agent recognized. Agent #049. Access Granted.”

The tiny hole closed off, replaced by a wider hole, which caused the earth beneath them to tremble a little by the massive movement. Suzy jumped into the ‘rabbit hole’ and once she disappeared, the hole closed fast.

Jia repeated the same procedure, and the computer voice replied, “Agent recognized. Agent #051. Access Granted.”

But Jia added something, “Permission to bring an asset.”

“Please insert you codename.”

“Amber, say ‘Raven’!” Jia pushed her to the scanner.

“Oh? Ohh.. Codename: Raven.”

“Asset recognized. Asset #351. Raven. Access Granted.”

The giant rabbit hole opened itself again, and Jia immediately grabbed Amber to jump with her.

“WHAAAAAA!” Amber screamed when she’s falling free into the air, completely the opposite of Jia who looked like she’s really enjoying this moment, “Woohoooooo!!”

“Becareful, that’s our landing!” Jia pointed something far below them. Amber struggled to take a look and successfully turned pale when she saw a giant fan began to spin below them. It’s blades were shiny, ready to slice them into pieces.

“WHAT KIND OF ENTRANCE IS THIS??!!!” she screamed while trying to fly up with her hands, flapping as if she had wings. Jia laughed and grabbed her hand to guide her.

As they got down and down, the fan spinned faster below them, created a pressure which lifted them up. Amber was still in horror, she strengthened her grip on Jia’s arm.

“Just wait a little more!” she shouted through the noises of the spinning blades.

“How can we- -“

“THERE! That’s Suzy! Come on!” Jia screamed, pointed at the waving girl at the end of a corridor. Amber tried to picture the whole setting, and was pretty much confused by a corridor that suddenly appeared on their left side. She looked down to those blades meters from where their feet are, then looked to her near left where a long corridor has just appeared.

“The pressure will push us to the corridor! On the count of 3, okay? 1...2...”

But before she said 3, Amber already jumped to the corridor, pulling Jia along with her. They landed on the cold floor of corridor roughly and with their jump, the giant fan stopped spinning  and another robotic female voice appeared.

“Agent #051. Asset #351. Have entered Gate One. Proceed to the next gate.”

Suzy smiled naughtily at the pale tomboy, “How was your first flight?”

“That was...insane...” Amber mumbled, crawling carefully on the floor.

Jia chuckled and pulled her up, “There’ll be no monster blades like those again, kekekeke...don’t worry! Look, this is it~!” she showed her the glass door before them. But Amber couldn’t see anything beyond the glass door. Protection film from the inside, she thought.

Suzy knocked on the intercom, “Hey hey, it’s me Suzy, Jia, and Raven. Let us in!”

This time, a real female voice appeared from the intercom, “You need to complete the procedure.”

“Aaah..okay.” Suzy then walked to the glass door and touched some spots with her hands, waiting for the scanner to recognize her fingerprints. “Agent recognized. Bae Sue Ji. #049.”

Jia who stood next to her, did the same, and so did Amber. Though she wasn’t sure where she was touching, but the door had been opened anyway.

“Okay, we’re here!” Jia pushed Amber to come inside, entering the world full of white colors and a busy traffic of people.

In front of her laid rows of clean-cut glass desks, with an agent sitting behind each of them. They waved to Jia and Suzy, greeted them from their desks, but as soon as their greetings ended, they’re back into their pile of works, drown in their own screens and papers.

“This is the boring section. Let’s move to a more fun place!” Jia cheered as Suzy led them across the room. As the three of them walked, some guys turned around to greet them, especially Suzy. She politely replied their greetings one by one.

“Wow...you’re popular.” Amber whispered.

Jia giggled, “She has so many ‘uncle fans’ here...”

“Yah...” Suzy shushed her before replied another greet from a guy at the far east desk.

They finally stopped in front of a march of transparent glass tiles, and Suzy jumped onto one of them while saying, “Level 3 Gadget Laboratory, please.” followed by Jia and Amber behind her.

Amber kicked the transparent glass below her, “Is this suppose to be a lift or something?” When the tile moved down, she tried hard to keep her balance while standing on top of it.

“Hahahaha, it IS a lift! JYP designed it himself, his idea is for people to travel into each floor in a more lively way. That’s why he didn’t want to use the old ‘box’ lift.” Suzy explained with a hint of amazement in her voice.

“Wow...I didn’t know that guy could create something like this.” Amber said while enjoying her smooth ride down to the basement. “Almost feels like flying!”

“I know right? That old man sometimes can be a genius...” Suzy chuckled.

They passed a floor with a darker lightings and fewer people than before. Cabinets and computers were seen almost in every inch of the floor. Amber was about to ask, but Jia talked ahead, “This is the information warehouse. Our past cases, missions, agents, weaponary datas, and historical reports, everything is here. It’s another boring part of this building.”

Amber only laughed a little when she mentioned ‘another boring part of this building’. “But looks cool though.” she commented.

The scene in front of them changed into a more familiar scenery, where wooden cabinets of books stand side by side here, accompanied by some proper reading tables and couches.

“You guys have a library? Whoa...” Amber asked as she’s watching some women in their white lab jackets reading in one of the rounded sofas.

“But there’s no magazine there...” Jia faked a pout, before adding, “But of course it’s still kinda fun there, sometimes. I love the sofas.”

Suzy gave her a joking glare, “Just admit it eonnie, you’re not really into books, aren’t you?”

Then the tile they were riding on finally stopped on a floor, darker than two floors before. It was almost like a corridor of a modern hotel, with a kind of sephia feel from the dimming lights. There’re only a few people passed by since the three of them entered the floor.

“What is this floor?” Amber asked when they started circling the floor.

“Multifunction floor. Your place to stay should be around here somewhere...” Jia’s looking around, while still following Suzy.

“We need to meet someone first. Siwon oppa said she’ll be the one who takes care of Amber’s needs while staying here.” Suzy was checking the instruction once again on her smartphone.

“Gadget labs is that way, isn’t it?” Jia pointed to a corner, where a small dome is waiting for them. The dome itself was covered by wooden surface, almost looked like a giant cave in a building.

“That’s where I’m going to live?” asked Amber, but both Jia and Suzy had already walked ahead of her toward the cave.

- - -

A soft sound of guitar strumming.

That was the first thing Amber heard when Suzy opened the door. The dome was like a workshop, with a center lightbulb on the center of the ceiling. A plank was attached to the wall, circling all over the dome as the workshop table. Many unique things and unfinished gadgets were scattered along the plank. And in the middle of the circling plank, was a mountain of pillows, where the sound of the guitar strumming flowed from its behind.

Suzy and Jia went behind the mountain of pillows and when they found the person, the music stopped.

“Oh!” a shocked voice was heard through the pillows.

“Aaaah EONNIE!” Suzy looked shocked as well. Amber could only wondered what’s going on behind those pillows.

A figure of a girl rised with an acoustic guitar on her hand. She looks quite homy with a big knitted sweater and a black warm pants. Her long brown hair is tied loosely and a thick glasses hanging on her neck. She hugged Suzy right away, “Suzy-ah! It’s been a while! Siwon-oppa told me you’ll come today!” then she also hugged Jia casually, “Jia-eonnie, your hair’s not pink anymore!”

Suzy dragged this friendly-looking girl to Amber, “This is Amber Liu. A.K.A Raven.”

The girl bowed at her, “Ah...annyeonghaseyo...Lee Jieun imnida! You can call me IU if you want!”

“Oooh...annyeong... Amber imnida.” Amber also introduced herself, awkwardly.

“Ok then. I leave her to you. We’ll talk later, eonnie!” Suzy waved at her when she and Jia were about to leave the dome. Jia winked at Amber, “Have a good night, Raven~” before closing the door behind them.

“So...what am I supposed to do now?” asked Amber, unsure about the situation.

IU put her guitar carefully on the pillows and politely welcomed the new guest. “Hmm...let’s see... It’s late, and...are you sleepy? Because if you are, I'll show you your room right now~”

“Well, not really...”

She smiled, “If that's so, then how about a little tour from me?”

Amber nodded, and with that, IU happily opened the door, “Let’s go..!”

***

It's a quick update, isn't it?

I got really addicted when starting this one, so I couldn't stop and ended up making a new chapter this early~

But anyway, hope you like it!

Oh, anyone a fan of IU? Raise your hands!