“Wow… You live here?” Hwayoung stopped walking and said with a slight frown upon her face.

“Yeah?” Haneul said while carrying her shoulder bag which was her only form of luggage and charging straight inside the condominium without turning around to look at Hwayoung, “Problem?”

“No… Just… It’s so much better than the place I’m staying at…” Hwayoung said, shrugged, then followed her.

“Really?” Haneul asked as she walked up to the front desk, “My apartment is better than a rich girl’s? That’s surprising.” Haneul laughed, “How exactly did that happen?” Haneul smiled at the woman who recognised Haneul and just pulled open a drawer, pulled out a key and handed it to Haneul with a bright smile and stood up to bow at Haneul.

“Welcome back, Miss Jang.”

“Ahjumma, thank you!” Haneul said smiling, then bowed to the ahjumma politely, “I’m back.”

The two of them entered the elevator and Haneul immediately pressed 5 floors’ buttons. 4, 11, 13, 16, and 20. The elevator stopped at all 5 floors, and finally at the 20^th floor, which also happened to be the top floor, Haneul stepped out and Hwayoung followed. Haneul brought out her keys which she had safely stowed away in an inner pocket in her jacket and unlocked the single door in plain sight on the floor. (plain sight because Hwayoung could tell that there was another door some way down the corridor)

Hwayoung stepped in and just marvelled at the architecture and furniture. She stared at the plush sofa which seemed like it was from 18^th century France, but still fit into her perfectly modern apartment. “Haven’t been in an apartment this nice since last time I was in my parents’ apartment in Beijing. I’m surprised you’d live in a penthouse. Isn’t it harder to escape in case of emergency that way?” Hwayoung said and she plopped herself and her luggage down on the sofa.

“Reverse psychology, dear Hwayoung.” Haneul said as she tapped her right temple gently leaning down to match her face level to Hwayoung’s, “Nobody would expect me to choose a penthouse up the top, would they? And in case of emergency I have bulletproof hang gliders. Anyway, you can sleep anywhere you want. In the guest room, in my mother’s room, on the floor, on the ceiling, on the kitchen bench, I don’t really mind.” Haneul said as she opened the door to what was obviously her room and threw her bag into the room, landing perfectly in the middle of her bed. “Anyway as to your previous question while we were in Tokyo,” She turned back to face Hwayoung, “I’ll answer what happened back there tomorrow while we’re in the car. I’ll call for a chauffeur now. What type of car would you like to ride in tomorrow?”

“Ah… Any type should be fine, really.”

“Alright. I’ll ask for a Ford since it’s middle-ranged. Won’t garner too much unwanted attention, and not too low-ranged to make people stare at our brand name clothing weirdly. Anyway, sleep well. I’m waking you up at 5:30 to do research with me.”

Hwayoung just smiled and nodded and waved goodnight then headed for what she assumed was the guest room. She didn’t exactly want to sleep on the floor, the ceiling or on the kitchen bench like Haneul said, no matter how much training it would give her.

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Hwayoung woke up at the sound of a telephone ringing and a few seconds afterwards the ringing stopped. She pushed herself up with bright eyes despite the early hour and looked at the digital clock that was directly in front of her up on the wall. “So it’s only 4… I wonder why there was ringing already?” She murmured to herself softly and walked into the living area. She heard soft murmuring from Haneul bedroom, so she made her way closer to Haneul’s bedroom door and tried to listen for what Haneul was saying inside there, but Haneul was speaking very softly, so she just opened the door and walked in.

“Yah… Oppa… Who gave you permission to-… Oh hey Hwayoung, sorry. Did my oppa’s phone call wake you up?”

“Yeah…” Hwayoung murmured.

“Hear that oppa! Who gave you permission to call your cousin at 4 in the morning!” Haneul paused to listen to the response from the other end of the phone, which sounded like an overexcited older brother talking to his precious little sister whom he hadn’t talked to in days.

“Well my precious baby cousin’s back in Korea for the first time in 7 months! And plus I haven’t called, or rather, you haven’t called, since I don’t know where you are 70% of the time!”

“No. No… No! Jang Hyunseung you listen to me. I don’t care if it’s the first time in 7 months I’m in Korea, and you haven’t talked to me in 2 months, do not. Do you hear me? Do not call me at 4 in the morning.” She paused once again to listen to her cousin Hyunseung’s response.

“But… Haneul-ah, oppa missed you! Don’t tell me you didn’t miss oppa!”

“Don’t give me that that you miss me.” Haneul grumbled lowly, “How did you know I was coming anyway?”

“Gikwang told me!” He replied chirpily.

“And how did Gikwang know?” Haneul said, furrowing eyebrows having a suspicion as to how Gikwang would’ve found out.

“Audrey!” He replied once again, just as chirpily, “She texted Gikwang at 3:30 and because Gikwang’s phone is somehow rigged to always beep whenever she calls or texts him whether it’s on silent or not, we all woke up!”

“Why are you so cheery then… And aish… That girl…” Haneul grumbled lowly, then trailed off, “I’ll kill her later.”

“Don’t aish her! You’ve got to thank her!” Hyunseung told Haneul off in an almost motherly voice.

“And why exactly should I do that?”

“Because if it weren’t for her, you wouldn’t have gotten a call from your favourite cousin!” Hyunseung said, and Haneul swore that if she were talking to him in person she would’ve seen him wink at her. She grumbled again.

“Right. Well. Thanks to you I’m up 1 hour earlier than planned. Which in a way is a good thing, because it means I have 1 and a half hour more to my day, but 1 and a half hour of sleep.” She said and yawned, “Anyway your ‘baby cousin’ is going to hang up now and nap for another 56 minutes and wake up at 5:30 like she planned. Bye.” Haneul said and hung up, but not before half a yell of protest was heard from the other end of the phone. “You can go to sleep for an hour too Hwayoung… Or you can research a group called ‘U-Kiss’ for me… You should know the type of data I need after I told you the plan already on the plane yesterday.” Haneul said, flopped back down onto her pillows and pulled her blanket back over her and went to sleep again.

Hwayoung rapidly blinked a few times, then walked back out and pulled out her self-customized (and hacked) MacBook Pro, plopped herself down on the previously mentioned sofa and started compiling a document of data she deemed ‘important’ and ‘relevant.’ She even hacked a couple of government databases within minutes to get information on the members of the group that normal fans wouldn’t be able to access. After exactly 53 minutes, Hwayoung wandered into where the study room of the apartment was and connected her MacBook to the printer and printed the document out. “I’ll show these to Haneul later…” She muttered, then yawned and grabbed an opaque plastic cover folder and placed the full 20 document inside. She checked her watch. It was exactly 5:26.

On her way out of the study a small shiny framed picture that looked about A5 sized and placed landscape caught Hwayoung’s eye. She leaned in close to the picture to see two girls in the picture. One she could obviously tell was an 8 or 9 year old Haneul and she chuckled at how cute Haneul looked. The other girl looked about 13 or 14 and somewhat like Haneul, but at the same time different. Their features were quite similar, but the ambiance they radiated was completely different. “Who is this…” Hwayong muttered to herself as she picked up the frame. Haneul radiated a slightly different feeling to how she was now. Right now she gave off a completely tough and serious feel, whilst in the picture she looked slightly softer. Hwayoung inspected the picture closer and squinted her eyes at it even though she had absolutely no problem with her vision. “This girl… Why does she look so similar to Haneul… But her ambiance…” Hwayoung trailed off and just thought to herself that this girl just seemed so soft, frail, yet motherly at the same time. In the picture the two girls were hugging each other with smiles on their faces. Haneul’s looked especially bright and Hwayoung thought to herself even though she had only known Haneul for 2 days, she’d seen enough pictures of Haneul and heard enough stories to have known her for a lifetime. And yet she’d never get to see that smile on Haneul’s face for the rest of their lives. She looked at the second girl who had a soft smile that was still powerful and radiated love in her eyes when she hugged Haneul so gently. “This girl… Their similarities in appearance… It’s almost as if…” She began saying, then got cut off by a voice at the door.

“Almost as if… She’s my sister?” Hwayoung looked up to see Haneul coolly leaning on the door frame with one shoulder and her arms crossed. There was absolutely no emotion on her face to give an indication of whether she was cross or not, “Is that what you were going to say?” Haneul said with an eyebrow raised.

“Why, yes. I wonder how you knew?” Hwayoung said with an eyebrow raised, though she very much knew the answer at this point in time.

“Because she is.” Haneul replied, even though she knew Hwayoung knew by now.

“So where is she now?” Hwayoung asked, “Is she an agent too?”

Now, Haneul had been trained for many years not to show any reactions when people asked her things, but this was an exception. It had always been an exception. The only exception. “Don’t you worry yourself over where my older sister is, Lee Hwayoung. Let’s get a move on and go to the NH Media building to sort out some business.” Haneul said, almost crossly and walked out of the room, “Chop chop! Get a move on! It’s 5:45 already.”

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By the time Haneul and Hwayoung arrived outside the NH Media building, it was already 6:30. Haneul’s stomach rumbled loudly and she sighed, “I forgot to get breakfast. You hungry too Hwayoung?” Hwayoung simply nodded, a bit worried to speak up after she asked a question which was probably a bit too personal for Haneul’s liking just previously. Haneul sensed her hesitation. “It’s okay, Hwayoung. Don’t worry about the question. Just don’t ask it in future, okay?” She said in a tired voice, then trudged towards a small café and Hwayoung as usual simply followed obediently.

After a grand total of 12 minutes, the two girls exited the café with their sunglasses on, even though it wasn’t bright out at a quarter to 7 on a cold winter’s day. Haneul was holding a small cupboard cup of steaming latte and a ham sandwich and Hwayoung a bottle of ice mocha (despite the cold weather) and a chocolate croissant. “These are nothing like the ones at the store I met your friend Woohyun at.” Hwayoung declared loudly between chomps on the chocolate croissant with a disdained look upon her face, “This store needs to learn from the café near the Hangang.”

“Oh, quieten will you?” Haneul said turning back to face Hwayoung as she walked, “The owner of this store might get cross.”

All of a sudden Haneul sensed a presence and turned back towards the front to see a tall man come towards her from the side. She quickly tried to move out of the way, but didn’t make it in time. She went crashing to the floor with the man on top of her. The man quickly got up and bowed at her in apology, “I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry! Don’t have a grudge against me for this!” He exclaimed, then ran into the NH Media building.

“Ah! Are you okay?” Hwayoung said as she tried to help Haneul up.

“Yeah… I’m okay.” Haneul nodded, then grumbled and pouted almost cutely in Hwayoung opinion as she stared at her spilt coffee on the ground. She’d managed to at least move her coffee away in time and not land on top of it. “But my coffee isn’t.”  

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A/N

AIGOOO~~~ I'm soooooo sorry charmallama! I did say U-Kiss was going to be in this chapter but they didn't appear... .__________."
I feel like I've lied to a friend now D:
Well I do promise they'll be in the next one... And at least Beast (as in Hyunseung haha...) was in this one... Right? :D