Audrey just waved at Haneul as she stepped out of the car. As soon as Haneul slammed the car door closed, the driver sped off. Haneul pulled out her white pair of Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses studded with fake diamonds with a bold D&G printed on the side and quickly put them on. The studded fake diamonds actually had miniature LED cameras inside with the capability to zoom up to 10x. As for the D&G letters on the side, when it’s pinched for 3 seconds turned into an emergency call line to the IAI capable of working up to 20 metres underground. The entire gadget could run on solar power provided by the miniature solar cells provided in the hinges of the sunglasses.

Haneul quickly entered the apartment complex and went straight to the front desk and leaned down on the counter and smiled at the woman working there. “Hello Miss,” Haneul said politely and pulled off her sunglasses before bowed her head slightly in respect to the older female, “I was wondering if you could tell me which room Suzuki Mieko-san was staying in?” Haneul said with a bright smile on her face, wording everything carefully. The woman looked up at the young teenage girl in front of her and looked just slightly shocked that the person she was expecting was actually as young as the rumours had said.

She stared at Haneul for a little longer till Haneul cleared awkwardly as if to tell the woman to stop staring. The woman awkwardly coughed until she stared at her screen again and just replied in a voice with no emotion “1818.”

Haneul bowed her head in respect again, before walking over to the elevators and walked straight into the elevator and instead of pressing the button for the 18^th floor, she punched in the numbers 1-8-1-8 in that order. As soon as she punched those numbers in, the door began to slide close and she heard a mechanical voice speak out in Japanese, “Please place right eye in front of the emergency button and wait for retinal scan.” Haneul followed the instructions and saw a bright light in front of her eye for 5 seconds and then it went out. Haneul didn’t know this, but the section above the elevator outside which was supposed to display what number the elevator was on now said “Not in Service”

Haneul straightened up again and felt the elevator move downwards, instead of up. She looked up at the section above all the numbers where it was supposed to say what level they were on. She saw it changed from ‘B1’ to ‘B2’ to ‘IAI 1’ and then eventually to ‘IAI H’. The doors slid open and she saw a young girl who looked a year or two younger than Haneul smiling nervously in front of her say in accented Korean, “Nice to see you here, Miss Jang. This way, please.”

As they were walking down a corridor towards the base manager’s office, Haneul decided to make conversation. “Are you a trainee by any chance?” She asked in Japanese towards the girl who looked a nervous wreck in front of Haneul. She seemed to jump up and squeaked at Haneul asking her a question. “Why? Am I that scary?” Haneul said chuckling lightly.

The girl blushed profusely, “Ah. I’m sorry, senpai.” She said deciding to answer in Japanese which was a lot easier for her, “I was rude not to introduce myself, wasn’t I? I’m Koga Riko, 14 years old and an A blood.” She said and paused her walking to bow deeply towards Haneul, “And yes, Sorami-sama. I am indeed a trainee. May I please ask how you knew, though? If it isn’t too rude to ask you that, of course!” She spoke very respectfully towards Haneul which caused her to chuckle.

“There’s no need to talk to me so respectfully using ‘sama’, my kouhai!” She said smiling brightly, “And it’s because on your right hand’s third knuckle there is a slightly bruise, and the skin above your left hand’s pinky’s knuckle is slightly rougher than the rest, so I believed that those may have been from training.” She said smiling. The girl called Riko just stared at Haneul in wonder. “No wonder this girl is my idol.” She thought to herself amazed at Haneul’s observation skills. She didn’t even notice Haneul looking at her hands.

“I wish to become an agent like you one day! I began training just two months ago after someone here at the IAI saw me win a karate tournament then checked up on my background and discovered I’ve always wanted to be an agent and help my country. Now that I’m part of the IAI, I can not only just help my own country but the whole of Asia!” She said happily. Riko then she realised her idol had been inspecting her and noticed her and felt elatedly happy in the inside. Well she thought it was on the inside but Haneul noticed her facial expressions becoming slightly happier and laughed inwardly to herself.

“We’re here!” She heard Riko say happily as she gestured towards the thumb scanner outside the chrome sliding doors. Haneul simply brought up her right hand and pointed to her fingers and said, “I can’t. You scan your thumb. I have tape on.” Riko’s eyes seem to widen and sparkle at the mention of the tape she wasn’t yet granted permission to use yet and nodded eagerly. She pressed her thumb to the thumb scanner and because her clearance wasn’t high enough yet, the base manager’s voice spoke out to her. “Yes, Riko-chan?” The man spoke cheerfully, unlike the base manager at Fukuoka.

“Ah! Takahashi-sama! Sorami-sama is here!” Riko said into the intercom cheerfully. Well. ‘Said’ is an understatement. More like ‘shouted.’

“Yes, yes, Riko! Now stop defeaning the manager and you can leave now!” He said while laughing on the other side. He knew that Haneul was Riko’s idol, being an agent at such a young age. Haneul was quite famous for being the youngest female agent the IAI had, well not just female, but being the overall youngest agent, becoming an agent at the age of 15.

Haneul stepped in through the chrome doors when they slid open only to see not only the Tokyo base’s manager, but also the Seoul base’s manager.

“Kang songsaengnim…” Haneul blinked her eyes in surprise, “What are you doing here in Tokyo? What about the Seoul base?” She questioned furrowing her eyebrows slightly as if to show she didn’t understand why she was there.

“What? Your songsaengnim can’t drop in just because she wants to see you?” She said with a bemused expression.

“No. Of course you can. But, I only just requested a meeting here exactly 57 minutes ago. A flight from Seoul to Tokyo would take longer than 1 hour. Plus, we would have to add on traffic time. Even if you were to take a helicopter to and from airports, it would most likely take over 1 hour and 20 minutes.”

Right after Haneul finished saying the word ‘minutes’, she saw her songsaengnim clapping. “Ah, there’s the talented child I trained.” She said while clapping and walking towards Haneul, “So exact with the details, just like songsaengnim taught you so.” She finished saying as she stopped clapping and pinched Haneul’s cheeks like a young child. Haneul pouted.

“Songsaengnim! How many times have I told you not to squeeze my cheeks! It makes me seem like cute, which in turn makes me seem childish and weak!” She whined while pouting. Kang Miyoung just laughed and let go of her cheeks.

“I see my adorable student hasn’t changed at all.” She said winking at Haneul.

While all this was happening, Takahashi Takahiro the Tokyo base manager was just watching amusedly beside them, but he finally decided to clear his throat. “Ahem. Ladies, ladies. I think it’s about time we get moving. Kang-san, why don’t you tell her what you’re really here for. It’s not too high clearance after all, and Haneul-chan, let your sensei pinch your cheeks. They look quite fun to pinch after all.” He said and ended it with a laugh.

Kang songsaengnim just stuck her tongue out at him and stepped in front of Haneul protectively. “e…” she muttered, “Anyway, Haneul I’m here because I heard you were in Tokyo. So yes I really did come to see you, but I was heading here before I heard you organised a meeting anyway.”

Haneul cocked her head slightly to her right, “Songsaengnim?” She began to ask.

“Neh?”

“Why would you come here to see me anyway?”

“You’ll find out in a minute. For now though,” She said and then sat on the edge of Takashi Takahiro’s OCD-style neat desk and crossed one elegant leg over the other, much to his annoyance, “Tell me why you requested a meeting here. Your songsaengnim commands you to tell me.” She said extremely quickly in Korean on purpose to slow down Takashi’s understanding. He only displayed further annoyance on his face while keeping quiet concentrating on what she was saying at a high speed.

“Ah. Oh yes, that.” Haneul said, while remembering her initial purpose to request a meeting with the Tokyo base manager, “I want to request an independent investigation.”

“Oh?” Miyoung replied raising her right eyebrow elegantly, “And what would that be for?”

“This is mine to deal with, damn it Miyoung-san!” Takahiro suddenly said speaking up, “She requested a meeting with me, not you. Let me handle this.”

Miyoung simply turned around and raised her eyebrows once again, and then patted his head, “Aww. Our Takahiro is growing up, is he? He’s daring to speak up to his seniors now?” She said with a hint of danger in her voice. He simpled swallowed the ball of fear which had developed in his throat in the short space of time it had taken her to say that once sentence out loud.

“But I think you should know that we are of equal ranking in IAI’s system now, so whether you were my senpai or not, I hardly think that matters now?”

Miyoung glared at him some more, before deciding to just leave it by muttering a single sentence, “I’ll deal with you later, hoobae.” She said threateningly, then turned back to Haneul who was quietly politely waiting for her seniors to finish, “Haneul continue. And tell us,” She said, emphasising the us while glaring at Takahiro who shrunk back a bit when she glared at him, “what that independent investigation would be for.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have enough information to support anything at this moment in time to support anything, so I’m afraid I can’t disclose too much until I’m certain.” Haneul said mechanically, trying not to give anything away. This only caused more suspicion from Miyoung, who raised Haneul as much as her own mother did. She gave Haneul a questioning look for Haneul to continue. “I wish to investigate a possible threat to the IAI.” She concluded firmly.

Miyoung’s suspicious look turned from suspicious to semi-alerted. Most people wouldn’t trust Haneul, no matter how long she had been with the IAI for, she was still a child. But Miyoung had raised this child to be different, and she knew she should be at least be a little worried. When Haneul says it’s a possible threat, it’s a possible threat. “Alright. How long do you think this investigation will take?” She asked and then heard muttering from behind her saying, “I said this was mine to deal with didn’t I…” That only earned Takahiro a glare from Miyoung once again.

Haneul chuckled slightly at her two seniors’ immaturity, then just continued on to answer Miyoung’s question, “I’m not sure. It could vary. Anywhere from a few months, if I’m lucky, to a few years if I’m unlucky, which I hope isn’t the case. I plan to enter the K-Pop industry to investigate this, so I would have needed to contact Kang songsaengnim about this anyway, Takashi-san.” She said politely to the upset man.

“The K-Pop industry?” She heard a questioning female voice asked her, and she directed her attention back to Miyoung.

“Yes. The K-Pop industry.” Haneul replied.

“I never knew you were interested in that kind of thing, Haneul.”

“I’m not. Like I said, it’s for the investigation.”

“Oh really? And what do you plan to do in the K-Pop industry for your investigation then?” Miyoung probed Haneul further.

“Once again, like I said, I plan to investigate a possible threat to the IAI. And placing me in the K-Pop industry will put me in an easier position to investigate.”

Miyoung just smiled proudly at Haneul. “That’s my girl. Songsaengnim taught you well after all. Though sometimes I wish I didn’t teach you so well. I can’t get anything out of you even when I probe. No slips of the tongue at all. That’s an A+ for today. And Takahiro?”

“Yes?” He squeaked with fear.

“Approve her request. Haneul’s never really requested any independent investigations before.” She said, then just pressed a button on the wall next to the chrome doors and they slid open soundlessly for her to exit, then slid closed soundlessly once again.

“What’s wrong with songsaengnim?” Haneul turned back around to ask Takahiro who looked much more relaxed now that Miyoung had left the room. “What was she here for exactly?”

“I’m telling you now, your sensei and my senpai, that woman is crazy!” He exclaimed and said the last word with a bit too much emphasis, “She’s psychic or something!” He said fearfully.

“Psychic?”

“She said she felt that you might request something. Even though you’ve never requested it before. When she heard you came to Tokyo last night… Well… She said she felt that she should make her way here. And she’s gone to get someone she needs to int-… Ah! She’s back already! With the person she wants to introduce to you, not to mention!”

Haneul cursed herself for being so caught up in the conversation she didn’t notice the door sliding open and didn’t sense her songsaengnim’s presence. She turned around though, to find a girl who looked a little older than Haneul staring back at her. She mentally cursed herself again. She could forgive herself for not detecting her songsaengnim’s presence, but she really should’ve detected this girl’s presence. She then looked at the girl’s face carefully again, and realised. This girl was one of the most beautiful girls she had ever met in her entire life. And trust Haneul when she said this, she had met a lot of people, and could remember a lot of faces.

She looked the girl in the eye and saw nothing but cold metal. Almost as if this girl purposely put up a wall to hide away her emotions from Haneul. It wasn’t natural, Haneul could tell. As someone who had a natural wall come up subconsciously to protect her emotions away from people, she could easily tell this girl had only momentarily put up the wall.

While Haneul pretended to continue staring off with the girl, she was actually observing this person. She noticed this girl had a rougher patch of skin between her right thumb and index finger, and Haneul immediately knew two things:

One) She did archery.

Two) Her dominant hand was her right hand

The girl probably could tell that Haneul was inspecting her hands at that moment, and lifted up her right hand to put it into her pocket. But in the quick moment she was stuffing her hand into her pocket, Haneul discovered another thing about the girl:

Three) She shoots guns. On her right index finger’s distal phalanx section, the skin was slightly roughened.

“Stop inspecting me.” She suddenly heard the girl announce in accented Chinese in an alto pitched voice, “I know you’re doing it. I do have training just like you, Zhang Tianmei.” She said in a smug voice as she leaned backwards slightly on the chrome doors which had shut by now. By doing so, Haneul noticed a heart shaped necklace with two English alphabet letters, ‘L.H’, carved on it. Haneul smugly smirked as well as she remembered the list of young trainees the IAI was currently training.

“I know you do, but let me just say something to you,” She replied to the girl smugly in Korean, “I think you should stick to Korean instead of Chinese. Not quite as good at Chinese as you might like to think you are, Lee Hwayoung.” Haneul finished off, emphasising each and every syllable of the girl’s name.

Glossary

senpai - equivalent to sunbae

kouhai - equivalent to hoobae

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A/N

wheeeeeeeeeeeee~

Dear all my readers,

Please don't think Lee Hwayoung is just another random minor character

She will be a very important supporting character

Sincerely,

The Author of this very slow to update fanfic ^.^"