“Jang Haneul, when exactly are you planning to pack?” Hwayoung said with her arms crossed neatly. She was staring down at Haneul who was on her Macbook, casually lounging on her 18^th century couch.

“I don’t know. When do I need to be packed by?” Haneul said while reading up on her files for the groups SHINee, MBLAQ, F.T. Island, Big Bang and the rookie group B.A.P. and sipping on her coconut juice at the same time.

“Well, it’s not clear either. But I do believe that it’d be nice if you were packed up by 10:30am so we could leave then. Of course, in true Haneul fashion, you’ve left it to the last minute and you now only have 30 minutes left to pack.” Hwayoung tapped her foot impatiently on the ground, “I think you’ve done enough studying, Haneul. You’ve a good memory anyway, so why go over this information again and again?” Hwayoung wondered to herself why Haneul always seemed to be only studying male groups, but she unconsciously smirked to herself as she remembered that she would find out soon.

“Wipe that smirk off your face.” Haneul announced in an annoyed tone, “And that’s my business and my business alone.” Haneul muttered as she slammed her Macbook lid shut. “And fine, fine, fine. I’ll go pack now if it bothers you that much, Hwayoung.” Haneul started to mutter as she walked in long strides over to her room and slammed the door behind her.

Haneul closed the door behind her then immediately went over to her wardrobe. She had done this too many times before, the whole packing up process. She thought to herself that she could probably pack up suitcases of varying sizes and for varying lengths of times of stay with her eyes closed, in her sleep. “Let’s assume I’m packing for a long stay…” Haneul muttered to herself as she pulled open her extremely large tops drawer. She saw a whole bunch of sparkly, revealing low-cut tops piled on top and she groaned. Jiyoung’s girl had been busy again. Haneul grabbed the whole lot of them and dumped them on the ground next to her. Then she sighed in satisfaction as she saw her ‘normal’ looking tops again.

She pulled out a bunch of tops, exactly 8 short sleeved shirts, 6 long sleeved ones, 3 singlets and 2 tank tops. She then went to her shorts drawer and sighed in satisfaction again at the fact that Jiyoung’s girl was obviously satisfied with her shorts. She made a mental note though, to change the lock on her door again. She pulled out 3 pairs of denim short shorts and 3 patterned short shorts. She then pulled out 3 pairs of Burberry skinny jeans, 2 pairs of Levis and 3 tracksuit pants from her pants drawer. She then looked at the pile of clothes she had and raised an eyebrow at how much she had. “I’d better get a large suitcase then.” She thought to herself and continued packing.

At the end of it, she had added another 3 cardigans, 5 jumpers, 1 overcoat, 2 windcheaters, 2 pairs of ballet flats, 3 pairs of training shoes, 3 pairs of Jimmy Choo medium heels, 1 pair of Miu Miu high heels, 5 pairs of sunglasses (3 IAI, 2 normal) and 2 bottles of the nail polish she had received from the IAI. She made a mental note to buy toiletries later, as she just couldn’t be bothered bringing hers. A necklace in the jewellery section of her wardrobe caught both a ray of light and her attention. Haneul walked over to the jewellery section, held up the necklace and gently touched the charms on it. There were two small charms, a sterling silver with gold beehive and a white gold with diamond crown, which amazingly still hadn’t lost their shine after 10 years due to Haneul’s great care with them. Haneul gently rubbed her finger over the smooth surface of the beehive which could be no bigger than the size of her thumbnail and couldn’t help but to smile at it. “I wonder if you still think about me and care for me, even today.” Haneul sighed out loud and closed her eyes as she gently enclosed her first over the two charms and held it up to her lips and she whispered into it, “I wonder if you still care for me like I still do for you.”

“What are you doing?” She suddenly heard from the doorway. Haneul spun around to see Hwayoung in the doorway and her brain started to spin, looking for a legible excuse as to why she was so tenderly holding such precious pieces of jewellery up to her lips and seeming psychotic talking to it. Because, Haneul knew, she could never say the truth about it.

“I…” She began quickly, with her brain being unable to catch up.

“You what?” Hwayoung raised an eyebrow at Haneul.

“You see her, I was just… Umm…” Haneul stuttered and closed her eyes trying to think of an excuse. Just as she thought of a half believable one, Hwayoung began talking already.

“Can’t find an excuse for packing so slowly and so much?” Hwayoung said with an eyebrow raised. Haneul then realised that Hwayoung wasn’t talking about what Haneul was, so she decided to just leave it and nod. Hwayoung sighed, “You silly girl. How do you plan to fit all of this into one suitcase?”

“Oh, I have my ways.” Haneul said with a smile as she pulled out a big suitcase with her right hand. She threw the empty suitcase over to her pile of stuff she was going to pack with the same hand and then gently unhooked the necklace in her left hand and tried to put it around her neck. Hwayoung came along and hooked the necklace back up at the back of her neck.

“Those charms are beautiful. Pandora?” Hwayoung said whilst touching her charms gently. Haneul jerked away from Hwayoung when she touched them and Hwayoung looked at her strangely.

“Ah, sorry.” Haneul apologised and sighed to herself. “Yeah, they’re Pandora.”

“Where’d you get them from?” Hwayoung asked while narrowing her eyes at Haneul’s reaction suspiciously.

“Ah… Old friend.” Haneul replied simply and then quickly strode over to her pile of belongings and the suit case and started folding all the clothes neatly and stuffing it in. Soon after, she had somehow managed to stuff in the pile which looked twice the size of her suitcase (which was already quite large). Hwayoung raised an eyebrow at Haneul’s capable stuffing abilities and just sat down on her bed and faced her.

“Haneul, the President changed the meeting time. He said that he’s going to give us another 2 hours.” Hwayoung said as she faced Haneul.

“What? So you’re telling me I packed so early for nothing?” Haneul pouted.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. He called just then and I came in to tell you. So, since we have time, why don’t you tell me the reasons for your independent investigation and what exactly we are investigating while we’re in a private place without spying ears? Or so I hope so.” Hwayoung said.

Haneul sighed and sat on her suitcase which was quite firm from all the intense packing. “I really didn’t want to tell you.”

“And why would that be?”

A long, awkward silence ensued. “It’s about my failure.” Haneul admitted after the long awkward silence. “I need to correct my failure.”

“So I don’t see why you would have to investigate to find that out?”

“Because there was someone who caused my failure.” Haneul sighed.

“How and why would it be possible that your failure was caused by someone else?”

“I don’t know.” Haneul said as she covered her face, “I honestly don’t know. I wish I did. I really do, but the truth is I don’t.” Haneul sighed. “That’s why I’ve got to investigate, you see. To find out who the person is and how he was able to so easily intercept my mission.” Haneul began muttereing to herself at these memories.

“Would you like to explain then?” Hwayoung said patiently, knowing the story will have to come out sooner or later.

Haneul sighed to herself and then explained the episode of her meeting with the mysterious man in the tunnels under Mephistopheles’s hide out and how he also casually invaded the Fukuoka IAI base just to pop in say hello to her. Or, so she hoped that that was all and that he didn’t hack any systems, place any trojans or steal any information from the base. Because that would be absolutely disastrous to have the information find itself in the wrong hands.

She also explained to Hwayoung that the man who stole the files from her that day, she suspected ot either be the man she’s looking for or an acquaintance. Haneul wasn’t happy either way that he and whoever he was associated with had managed to make a fool out of her. Twice. Because being made a fool out of was something wasn’t used to, and neither was it something she enjoyed.

At the end of it all, Hwayoung felt that whilst a few of her questions were answered, each answered question only sprung more new questions, creating a tree branch effect. She felt herself wondering things like, “Why is Haneul so desperate to find this man?”, “Who exactly is this fearsome man who is able to defeat Haneul in a hand to hand combat?”, “Who is out there to get the IAI when the IAI is such a neutral organization?”, “Why did Haneul choose to become an idol out of all the jobs in the K-Pop industry?” and last but not least, “What’s for lunch?”

Hwayoung decided not to ask the last one, but instead asked of Haneul the second last one. “So why an idol out of all the jobs in the K-Pop industry? Why not a cordi noona (dongsaeng), choreographer, producer, composer, lyricist, etcetera?” She asked with a questioning glance at Haneul, “Why an idol out of all things, when an idol is the job that causes the most attention?”

“Because as an idol you’ll get to meet more other idols and therefore through those idols you’ll meet even more other people who are connected to the industry.” Haneul said but sighed as she thought about her one last reason for choosing to be an idol.”

“Why do I feel like that’s not the complete answer?” Hwayoung asked, with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

“Because it’s not, I suppose.” Haneul sighed out.

“Care to divulge?”

“Well…” Haneul closed shut her eyelids painfully as she thought about the past. “You know who my mother is, right?”

“Of course! Who in the IAI doesn’t know who Chen YiLin is?” Hwayoung chuckled, “Why?”

“Well, do you know who my father is then?” Haneul asked another question as she left Hwayoung’s question unanswered.

Hwayoung thought long and hard and realised she had never heard or even bothered to think about who the man who was the famous Chen YiLin’s husband and the famous Jang Haneul’s father was. “Well, no. But I’ll take a stab that his last name is Jang and he constitutes the Korean half of your heritage?” Hwayoung chuckled.

Haneul couldn’t help it either, so she gave a low, grim chuckle. “Yes. Jang Chungho.” She nodded, “He’s actually half Japanese as well, so he constitutes the quarter Japanese and quarter Korean part of me. I’m going to bet that you didn’t know that I was part Japanese too, did you?”

“Oh, I actually didn’t know.” Hwayoung said, thinking that it was amazing that she thought she knew so much about the famous Jang Haneul, but she didn’t even know such simple things about her like her heritage. “So what does anything have to do with him?”

Haneul sighed and squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could, as if that were able to shut away the pain of her memories just like that. After a long silence Haneul suddenly spoke up with the words she said shocking Hwayoung. “He abandoned my mother and I when I was around about 10…” Exactly 10, you mean. Haneul thought to herself in her mind and winced at the memories.

“Wait, what!?” She asked, alarmed. “Your father abandoned you and you mother? How is that possible!” She exclaimed.

“It’s the whole truth.” Haneul sighed sadly. “He was a talented musician. My mother actually fell in love with him because of his music and his love for it. She always loved the passionate look in his eyes and sound in his own music he composed… Or at least that’s what I heard.” Haneul paused then opened her eyes slowly and looked at Hwayoung with her beautiful, normally piercing eyes which had clouded over with the memories. “Do we have time for a nice long love story?” Haneul asked.

“Well, I suppose so.” Hwayoung said, nodding as her internal clock gave her the go ahead.

“Right. Well, continuing on. My mother actually lived a relative normal childhood and life, or at least compared to mine. She went to school and fell in love and all. She still got training, of course, from her own parents. Similar training to what we,” Haneul pause to gesture between the two of them, “Get at the IAI nowadays. But she still attended school normally, albeit the fact that she’s often turn up with injuries and she was stronger than all the boys in the school.” Haneul paused to chuckle at the sight of her mother’s slim figure easily tossing around more sandbags and lifting more weights than a bunch of buff boys. That must be where Haneul got it from, she thought to herself.

“My mother pretty much didn’t associate with the ‘musos’ like my father. Not because she didn’t want to, or because she looked down on them, but rather because she just didn’t. She was perfect. Beautiful, fairly well off, fit, although I would severely argue more than so, smart, so incredible intelligent actually, and above all she had a heart that yearned for justice. A heart of righteousness that would always help the weak. My father was just a simple, scrawny looking, weak boy who wore glasses that were out of fashion even for 30 years ago. He was the type, rare for back in those days, who would have rather spend time in a sweltering hot room with a piano, guitar, trumpet, drumkit or just something that you could make noise with, rather than outdoors kicking a soccer ball. Of course the two f them would never really have crossed paths, especially with my mother being in the A class for all the brilliant students, and my father in the C class for the students who simply passed. Nothing more, nothing less. It wasn’t that he was stupid. It was just that he was too caught up in his own little world of music to care about school marks. He had a dream to become a musician anyway, so what good would finding the square root of x, the history of the Korean war, how atoms ionize and ancient Korean poems do him? In the end, my mother was idolised, and my father… Just a looked upon muso.”

Haneul paused to stare down at her hands that could play music well, very well, but not nearly as well as her sister or her father and sighed. “One day, my mother was hiding from fanboys- yes fanboys. She was just that popular on campus and these particularly fanboys kept asking for a kiss that day. She tried hanging around some other girls, but they just kept on asking for homework help and tried to invite her to parties. Because of course, anyone who could get Gwak Jina, which was her Korean name by the way, because it was practise for her living in disguise, to go to their party, they’d be immediately cool. Hanging out with the most popular girl on campus.”

“Wow. Your mother sure sounds like she was popular.” Hwayoung chuckled, “I’m jealous.” Hwayoung sighed as she looked down to her hands and remembered her days of being bullied. She shook the thoughts away then looked back intently at Haneul’s face, urging her to continue the story.

“I think it’s not just how perfect she was, it’s also about her ambience. She always just radiated this confidence… Or at least that’s what I heard once again.” Haneul laughed and then continued. “So she decided to hide. And what did her smart brain tell her to do? Hide in a music room. Because musos were look down upon, so hey! Why would the Madonna of the school hide in a music room which would be sweltering hot that day thanks to the fact it was a balmy Thursday’s afternoon. And yes, she still remembers the very day she met my father. She was running along the corridor towards the music room on the very end, the stuffiest room, but the one fangirls and boys alike were going to look in to just in case they did catch on. But as she was nearing it, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. Because she said her alert hearing helped her ears pick up the most beautiful music she had ever heard in her entire life. She just stood there and listened to the song till she heard a scream from outside which broke her trance. She decided to go into the room anyway to hide and to meet the person who was creating such beautiful music.”

Haneul paused and then smiled a sad, knowing smile, as she already knew the sad ending these two poor souls who were going to meet each other for the first time in a sweltering hot music room were going to have. And it was going to be all her fault too. “So she opened the door quietly and snuck in. And hello, future MSS and IAI agent and a passionate future musician in his own little world. Of course he didn’t hear her go in. So she stood there quietly, watching him play the piano with his eyes closed, being mesmerised by his music. Eventually though, he does finish the song, which by the way was a Jang Chungho original, and sees the most popular girl in the school watching him, one of the most looked down upon boys due to his passion in music, with a look of admiration, from in front of the door. Of course he was half freaked to hell. He knew who she was, but she definitely didn’t know who he was. O so he though. I mean, I don’t blame him. Nobody expects school madonnas to be school files thieves. Or borrowers, as my mother liked to call herself. “What are you doing here?” He squeaked out to my mother who still had that entranced look on her face. “Jang Chungho, your music is absolutely amazing. You’re so talented.” Was all my mother could say.”

----------

A/N

Okay, SORRY MY DEAR DONGSAENG CHARMALLAMA T_T

Unnie doesn't have time to make this a double update...
It turned out super long at least though... So here's an extra long chapter to make up for breaking the promise of a double update... :(

Good news though is that since I'm already halfway through the next chapter, it'll definitely be out tomorrow!

and @rhienz03

AWWWWWW. AUTHOR MISSED YOU TOO TAT

Author promises quicker updates... Not really... Since school started you see...
But Author -sshi will try her best!!!

And in case any of you were wondering what the charms looked like, here:

http://www.pandora.net/en-au/explore/products/charms#750453WD

http://www.pandora.net/en-au/explore/products/charms#790577