Warning: chap with very little conversation.

She woke up from the pain when she banged her head on the headboard. She caressed her head and tried to look for any bump and released the breath that she was holding when she didn’t find any. She clambered out of her four-poster bed and walked towards the personal fridge across the room. She took a bottle of water out and finished its contents before putting it down. It was her perpetual nightmare. She was not able to see the gory truth personally but it was a constant visitor of her sleep. She absently brought her hand to her face and wiped her sweat and tears off her face. She didn't even know she was crying. She ran towards the bathroom and washed her hands many times. She turned the heater on until the water was hot enough to leave blisters on her skin. She slid weakly and sat on the tiled floor shaking uncontrollably.

The nightmares started to ruin her sleep more than two years ago. She was still in Nepal, with the Buddhist monks. She hated her family then, especially Siwon. She was sent to Nepal days before her sixteenth birthday and her mother and her brothers didn't even do anything to save her. When she rode the car that early Saturday morning, she found a brown envelope in the backseat. It contained a fake passport, IDs, and every document saying she's no longer Choi Sehun but Han Sehyun. It had a plane ticket going to Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. She wanted to jump out of the car and kill herself on the road when she finally understood what her family was up to.

When she arrived in Nepal, she had to walk several miles to the outskirts of Kathmandu, to the foot of Mt. Everest's southeast ridge. She was so thirsty and hungry and not once that she had asked Him to take her life. She arrived in the monastery after days of walking and hitchhiking. They shaved her head and let her do all the chores like a total slave. She garnered countless beatings if she wasn't able to do the tasks right. She cried night and day, cursing her family. The monks let her do impossible chores everyday and doubled it with grueling martial arts training. She did everything to spite them and one time, when she was having a sparing with one of the young monks using a katana, she purposely didn't dodge an attack and it landed on her shoulder. She was treated inside the monastery and she woke up with Joonmyeon beside her.

She threw him everything she got a hold of, cursing him. He slapped her hard when he heard her damning Hankyung to hell. It was the first time that Joonmyeon had hit her. It was the first time a member of her family laid a finger on her. She was so shocked that she was not able to move. Joonmyeon didn't care that the blood was flowing from her shoulders to the mat. He threw her a stack of papers, mostly newspaper clippings and a thick envelope. The sound it created when it slapped her face was one of the memories she won't be able to forget. Ever. She read everything when Joonmyeon left her, not coming back. It contained all the answers to her questions, the end to her rebellion, the adjournment of her youth and innocence, the day her pretty little world crashed into crevasse.

After she bought the Ad Astra contract, she didn't go back to South Korea but she really did stop from writing. She explored her new hobbies: anime, manga and shoujo. At that time, her family was having problems with their television network, CTV, and all her unnecessary decisions went unnoticed. She secretly devised a fool proof plan to organize an anime convention in South Korea inviting all the anime enthusiasts she met while going around the world and through the internet without her bodyguards or her brothers knowing. They would surely tell Siwon and everything would go to waste. After months of contriving, the most awaited day came. All the delegates started to arrive and were set to gather in Chiayi Convention Center. She was dressed in her perfect Miaka costume, the heroine of the Fushigi Yuugi, when she arrived in Chiayi. She snuck out of the house by disabling the electric fences and climbing it. She ditched all of her bodyguards and was able to go to the convention alone. Or so she thought.

Being the organizer, she was giving her opening remarks when a gunshot was heard throughout the hall. Everyone ran in panic but she was frozen in her spot. She heard another gunshot and she was very sure it was meant for her but a person blocked it. Her longtime bodyguard, Scott, then swept her from the stage and threw her in a corner, she saw blood on his back and she made a guttural scream before everything went black.

When she woke up, she's already in the maximum security ward of a hospital. She asked for Scott and they told him he was recuperating in a different room. Which, after reading the clippings, she discovered, was a lie. Scott died after losing a fair amount of blood but not after he secured her. He was able to follow her from the house. Her abductors, as they were unsuccessful in getting through her or killing her for that matter, retaliated by burning down the whole Chiayi Convention Center to the ground, including the more than fifty people that were trapped inside.

And because they have money, her family was able to control the media and was able to hide the truth—but not from the South Korean government. They were so set in getting her in custody and wait for the right time to make her pay for the lives that were lost. But they gave Siwon an option. He had to give up CTV to the government in exchange of letting her go. Siwon didn't think twice even if it was the first business that he was able to build from scratch. And she had to disappear in Seoul too, for the effect. It was the most painful decision her parents had to make.

She didn't know that her rebellion and utter negligence will cost so many lives. She didn't even consider hers and the delegates' security. In repentance, she waited for her wound to heal and asked forgiveness from Master Gethin, the eldest monk in the monastery. She trained in every field of martial arts that they were able to teach her. Striking, grappling or weaponry, she was able to master in months what the others achieve in years or decades. She excelled most in Shaolin Kung Fu, Shuai Jiao and Gatka. She even pilgrimaged in Indonesia and climbed Everest to cross borders to Tibet to further her knowledge in fighting. After a year, the Central Intelligence Agency found her. She's the youngest agent they recruited in history of CIA at the age of seventeen.

She had another intensive training. She learned how to use a variety of guns and ammunitions, went through intelligence training, high speed driving, submarine and watercraft navigation, aviation and aircraft troubleshooting, information hacking, art of disguising and whole array of skills used in bringing down an enemy. She learned how to defy her limitations and conquer her fears. When her training ended, she was immediately sent to Moscow to kill a deadly KGB spy. But high profile kidnapping cases became her favorite. Deep in her heart, she wanted to avenge her friends that died in the fire. And Scott.

Scott was another story. He was a former Secret Service agent before working for the Choi family. She learned later that he was about to resign from his duty as her bodyguard when the fateful day happened. He finally found his children that were taken away from him by the mother when he was out in assignment in Guatemala. He wanted to become a real father and wanted to lead a normal life. She ruined everything for him. And his children.

Successful assignment after another, her unique talent and fascinating mental capacity made a mark in the whole organization. The director even gave her an alias: Condor. She's actually appalled that they relate her to the vulture but that's what she really was. A beautiful deadly bird soaring over the unsuspecting victim. With her innocent face and anything but normal intelligence, everything came in a platter. Until one day in Rio de Janeiro.

After a futile search, she was not able to find anything about her own unsuccessful kidnapping but was able to find Olivia and Martin Bertinelli. Scott's children. She will learn later that their mother died in a mental facility in Brazil and both of them were helplessly working on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. She was, coincidentally, going after a dangerous mafia operating in Brazil. Olivia, a beautiful young adult, was being used by the mafia to transport heroine in guise of selling flowers. They have their hands on Martin's neck if she ever thought of going against the organization.

In the agency, they took an oath that if ever you find yourself immersed in a case involving your past, your family member, a friend or any person that will jeopardize the success of the assignment, you’ll have to step down and pass it to one of your brothers in The Farm—an important oath that she disregarded. A mistake that placed the children's and her own life in great danger.

They blew her cover and soon after, she found herself in a pointless run. Thank heavens she was able to save Olivia and Martin but not herself. Going back, it was hard to believe that she was able to survive that night. She was barely breathing when her back up found her.

She woke up in a hospital in Uruguay. She had seven broken ribs, countless bruises and scars, a crack in the skull and dysfunctional internal organs. She had to undergo several operations and reconstructive surgeries but that was not the most painful part. Sun up 'till sun down, none of her family members appeared. In between Valium doses, she waited, but no one came.

She was still recovering when she discovered that her family was just next door, never leaving the hospital. She woke up in a faint sound of the faucet water and after a minute of waiting, the person who she thought was a nurse, came out from the bathroom. It was her father. Siwon ordered her family to visit her only while she's asleep.

She also discovered that Yifan donated his own kidney and Chanyeol a portion of his liver, when both of her punctured organs had to be replaced. And that the back up that tracked her down to the labyrinth that was Rio de Janeiro was no less than her brother Jongin. When Hankyung had another heart attack when she learned that she was being airlifted to Montevideo and that she's with CIA, she promised she'll resign after serving the sanctions. A promise she broke when Jongin got shot in Athens. She flew using one of the inconspicuous jets by the agency and was able to find the gunman which, after she turned over to the authorities in Greece, killed himself. Or that's what the evidences point out.

While recuperating, the director sent her suspension notice that extended to a year. It presented her the chance to go home while her friends in the agency help her find Olivia and Martin. Again.

And that suspension was nearing an end. Will she go back?

**********************************

Kyungsoo stomped her foot again after staring at her watch. She's at a taxi stand near Seoul Trade Tower and had been standing there for the last thirty minutes. It was raining heavily and she won't be able to get a cab in the next five minutes, she'll be late. And there will be a lot to pay for. Professor Lao already warned her that he won't accept late papers and she'll definitely fail. Literature had always been her waterloo—the only reason why it had been looked over in her course checklist. And she'd rather go to hell than to repeat it. While contemplating on running the two-mile distance to school, a black car stopped in front of her and the passenger window went down automatically. She was surprised to see Jongin in the driver's seat when she crouched to see who her hero was.

"I'll take you." He said. He was really surprised when she got in without anymore coaxing from him. His fist tightened around the steering wheel and his brows furrowed. He stepped onto the accelerator and he saw her fumbling for the seatbelt. "Where to?" He asked grumpily. He asked Kyungsoo to get in the car, and when she did, he's not happy at the mere thought of it. He's getting crazy! This girl must be a witch.

"Seoul-dae." She answered. She can't understand why he had to offer when he did not look like he's doing it on his own volition. "Look, if you're not too happy about it, I can jog my way through school." He didn't answer. He just drove faster, his face rapt.

"Would you really get in any car that would stop in front of you?" He asked after a long moment of silence, an edge in his voice.

She felt her ears reddened instantly upon hearing him. "No." She answered in an equal tone. So that was it. He was just testing her if she would take his bait. If she's not desperate she wouldn't even touch his car with a ten foot pole. "Why are you like this? What did I ever do to you?" She noticed her voice cracked a bit and she wanted to kick herself. The last thing on her mind was to make a fool out of herself. Before Jongin could react, her cellphone rang. "Wei?" Her voice quavered.

Hello Kyungsoo? Are you on your way to school? It was her best friend.

"Yes, why? I'll be there in ten minutes. Is Professor Lao there now? Oh my God! What will happen to my paper?" She felt like crying.

Do not bother to come here. The classes are suspended. The deadline for the Macbeth paper had been extended

"Are you sure? Thank God! Okay I'll go home now. You have a safe trip home too, okay? Take care. Bye!" She put the phone back in her purse. "You can drop me off at the nearest bus stop." She said without looking at him. The rain seemed to become heavier as well as the flow of traffic.

"Where do you live?" He asked in a lighter tone.

"It's none of your business." She retorted. She removed her jacket and placed it on top of her head. She tried opening the door beside her but to no avail.

"Don't bother. It is power locked. Now, will you tell me where you live or we're going to spend the night here in my car?"

Kyungsoo sighed heavily. "Take Sun Yat Zen then left on exit 9A." After a wordless journey home, she noticed that the car was already pulling up in Myungsoo's condominium. He bought a new house in preparation for his and Celine's wedding after their college graduation. When he left the pad, she asked if she could relocate. She wanted to experience living alone and to concentrate on her studies. "This is me. Thanks for the ride." She said. She heard the faint sound of the door unlocking. She was about to grab the door handle when he spoke.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" He asked. He might have pissed her off totally and he badly wanted to say sorry but do not know how to.

"No. Goodnight, Mr. Choi. I hope this will be the last time that I'm going to see you." She said and ran through the building's entrance. She didn't even spare the guard a glance when he greeted her good evening. Only when she was inside her unit that she let the tears fall.

All her life, people made fun of her. In grade school, she's the only girl in school who had nuns listed as her guardians. Since the orphanage where she grew up did not have its own school, she was forced to go to a regular school. As soon her classmates discovered it, they , called her names. She rebelled against the sisters and insisted that she didn't want to go to school but they won’t take any of it. They won't be able to take care of her forever. Sooner or later, she’d have to fend for herself. They can only stay in the convent until they're eighteen. At that time, she had no choice but to stop going to school and look for a job. She only got chances with odd jobs. She and Sungjong sold random things at the market to save for their tuition fee when they left the orphanage. There she met Nancy, her long lost aunt.

Her mother's family was quite well-off but when her mother became pregnant with her out of wedlock, she was disowned by her parents. She just gave birth when Nancy found her wandering on the streets of Seoul and brought her home. They found out that her mother gave her away so that she'll have a better life. Missing her, she fell into depression and later died calling her name. Her undeniable resemblance to her mother told Nancy that she's the long lost niece that she's looking for. After a DNA test, Nancy brought her to her house and took care of her. But the truth that she grew up in an orphanage seemed to mar her forever.

And she didn't need an ultra rich guy, gorgeous maybe, to remind her what a lowly being she was. After she slapped him days ago, she was not able to go back to Nancy's. Instead, she went to a stairwell and cried until she can cry no more. She thought that when he offered to give her a ride, he was sorry for what he did but she could only wish.

A/N: Love love love your comments! Keep 'em coming ;)