Jessica found herself lucky for not having to worry about having a bullet surgically extracted from her anatomy. She tried her best to stay conscious and at least reach the one person who knew of her life apart from the one she usually had. 

A few grueling minutes later, Jessica found herself staggering towards the floor of her own office building. She had passed by the stairs to avoid attention and somehow, Jessica regretted having her office at the topmost floor. She slowly opened the door to the floor’s hallway and to her relief, there was no one loitering at the corridor. 

Hastily opening her office, she found the one person who could lend her a hand. Her trusted secretary whom she regarded like her very own sister was already on duty despite her boss being on leave. 

“Unnie! What happened to you?” the person’s eyes widened upon seeing a wounded Jessica. 

The young lady ushered the CEO inside and closed the door. “Seohyun-ah…Someone tried taking me out after my mission.” Jessica said as she plopped down on the sofa while Seohyun scurried to gather the necessary equipment to tend to her wound. 

“You should be more careful in the future, unnie. I hand you missions but I’m only following HQ’s orders. You should take extra care next time.” Seohyun mused as she patched up Jessica’s open wound.

“Aigoo, I might be your boss and you are my personal organizer slash lawyer, but in HQ, you’re my mission handler…Code White…” Jessica dear dongsaeng whom she had known for a long time. 

“Don’t say it aloud, unnie. The walls have ears as they say…” 

Jessica chuckled at her dongsaeng’s clever comeback. “I guess I’ll just stop teasing you right now, Kook Kooki…” 

“Yah! Unnie! Stop calling me that… It’s embarrassing…” 

Jessica giggled at the cute pout that her very own secretary and lawyer had shown her. The young CEO tried keeping herself from pinching the younger girl as Seohyun went back to tending Jessica’s wound. The young lawyer then got up and went to her boss’ walk-in closet that was installed inside the office. 

“Just give me my casual clothes, Juhyun… I’m on leave today as ordered by my father…So, I won’t be working today.” Jessica said as she looked back at Seohyun who was opening the gargantuan closet. 

“I know, unnie. President Jung called me this morning telling me that you’d be absent from work for a couple of days, but he also told me to prepare for the incoming company meetings between the Kim and the Jung Empires when you get back.” Seohyun replied as she tried to pick a change of clothes for her unnie whom she was working for. 

Seo Juhyun, more popularly known as Seohyun, had been friends with Jessica ever since she was in her primary schooling. Being a genius that she was, Seohyun was raised a few grades up where she became Jessica’s classmate. Seohyun was the youngest in the batch that consisted of Yuri, Tiffany, and Jessica who had studied at the same school until their secondary education. She was also close friends with Yoona. Seohyun graduated at the top of her class with Jessica, Tiffany, and Yuri following her. 

They were schooled in a different private institution with standards that enables one to graduate from secondary school at a tender age of 16, but in the maknae’s case, she graduated at the age of 14. Seohyun proceeded to enter law school in pursuit of her dreams. Her older friends branched out into different fields with Jessica studying business administration, Tiffany studying medicine, Yuri studying modeling, and Yoona studying acting. Jessica and Tiffany studied separately while Yuri and Yoona became schoolmates which made them end up together. 

“So, President Jung wanted me to represent our company in the upcoming business meeting?” Jessica mused as she gazed upon the figure gathering a set of clothes for her to wear. 

“Yes. That’s what he told me this morning…” Seohyun handed the pair of jeans and white shirt to her boss. 

“Then, have you told him about the Hallyu Star project that we plan to hold at the mall?” 

“I have told him about it, unnie. He said it would make a great impression in the upcoming meeting as well. I have already compiled the data on the project, unnie. It’s now ready for presentation when you get back.” 

“That’s nice of you, Juhyun. What will I ever do without your help?” 

Seohyun chuckled at her unnie’s remark. “Unnie, you should change your outfit.” 

“Ah yeah…I’ll change in the closet…” Jessica stood up and headed towards the walk-in closet with her change of clothes. 

Seohyun sat on her boss’ desk and proceeded to check with HQ’s updates. Her usual job as Code White was fun and exciting but she also feared for the agents’ safety. She needs them to succeed in their missions and so it was her task to oversee the progress by tracking them. An update came to reveal that the chip that Jessica had handed over was successfully delivered to HQ. The weapons handed to Agent Black were also on their way to HQ.
 

***

Seohyun was discovered by HQ when one of the recruiters attended her high school graduation ceremony. She had been trained in HQ’s undergrounds after she consented to join an organization bent on maintaining peace in the world. She didn’t know that Jessica had been scouted first during their sophomore year in high school. 

The maknae had come to admire Jessica more when she accidentally found out that Jessica was the trainee agent who had risen to the top of the training class. HQ’s underground training rooms were meant to provide anonymity for trainees and trainers. The trainees were masked and were individually picked by their anonymous trainers who were agents themselves. 

Seohyun remembered her time as a trainee. She was in her teens and had been brought by the recruiter into the training grounds after HQ made a false notification to her parents that the young girl was to attend a summer camp as requested by the school for three months. Of course, HQ allowed communication between Seohyun and her family as long as the young girl will not divulge anything about the organization. 
 

***

Jessica closed the door to her closet and proceeded to take off her clothes taking care not to aggravate the pain that her wound would give her should she move carelessly. She reminded herself of that fateful night when she was discovered by an HQ agent. 

That was the time when she defeated a gang that tried to take advantage of her while she was walking alone in a dark alleyway during her sophomore year. The blonde had been absentmindedly straying from her usual route home when her car ran out of gas. 

The night was cold and there was no one on the streets and being in need of a shortcut, Jessica opted to walk into a dark alley where a group of thugs awaited her with pocket knives and steel bars ready to threaten an innocent victim. She saw them heading towards her from afar and the young Jessica took a few steps backward until she had hit a body that caught her arms rendering her limited in mobility. 

“Yah! Let me go!” Jessica hissed as the grip on her arms tightened while the men closed in on her brandishing their pocket knives and steel pipes. 

“Well, what do we have here, boys… I think we closed in on a nice catch!” One of the thugs whom Jessica thought as their leader said with a erted smile on his face. 

Jessica was appalled by his ugly expression and she had wanted to kick their butts in an instant. She felt the grip on her arms loosen up a bit as she pretended to calm down. Little did the gang know what the blonde was capable of doing… 

Taking a sigh of annoyance which caught the attention of the men trapping her, Jessica swiftly escaped from the grip of the thug holding her by elbowing him hard at the stomach just right below his xiphoid process. The man grunted and backed off as he clutched his epigastric area while Jessica let out a playful smirk upon seeing the result of her move. 

‘He’s lucky I didn’t break his xiphoid process… It could’ve been worse…’ Jessica thought as she faced the rest of the gang who seemed frozen by the recent turn of events. 

“Hey, you guys coming for me or not?” the blonde taunted as she readied her fists to fight.

Recovering from their initial shock, the men dashed forward with shining blades of steel ready to stab the girl who dared to stand up against them. Others raised their steel pipes as they prepared to hit the seemingly helpless young lady. Jessica dodged everything that came her way as she made use of her sharpened reflexes which were the result of being her school’s soccer team captain. Not only that, but Jessica also used to study martial arts as a child.

‘Duck and jab. Give a hard kick to the xiphoid process here and dodge the sneaky side swipe of the blade. Jump over the other guy using his steel pipe as leverage and kick him just below the chin to dislocate his lower jaw and make him bite his tongue.’ Jessica thought to herself as she executed her planned actions to counter the thugs lunging towards her. 

Like a cat landing with grace, Jessica found only one opponent left to defeat. “So, you’re the only one left and then I can go home peacefully, huh…” a taunting voice came from the young blonde’s mouth. 

The last man standing was holding a steel pipe and judging from his facial expression, he was angry. With a battle cry, the man dashed forward ready to pound the young girl with the metal that he held high above his head. “Die! You b****!” he screamed as he swung the pipe downwards.

A stinging pain seared through his lungs as he felt a foot h