IAI. Three letters. Representing a powerful intelligence agency. But one few members of the public know of. Not commonly publicised like the CIA, FBI, MI6, ASIS and the KGB just to name a few. The three stand for the three words INTERNATIONAL, ASIAN and INTELLIGENCE. They are well known as a super force in the intelligence game to other agencies and agents, but the public do not know of their activities. Never has IAI been mentioned in a movie before like CIA, FBI and MI6 commonly have been. Never will you search up on the internet IAI and return with a website for the International Asian Intelligence. Instead, if you bothered to google it you may end up with results such as: "Israel Aerospace Industries", "International Aluminium Institute" or the "International Association for Identification", just to name a few.

Why such secrecy? Why not even disguise another website as their own? Because they are a relatively new intelligence agency with only a history of 20-30 years. (When it was founded is not clear) IAI has seen mistakes from other intelligence and obviously, does their best to avoid them. They realise even if they were putting a website up in disguise so they could inform their agents of new information, the website could be hacked and false information could be put up. Letting the public know about the agency could bring many fraudulent people to claim to be their agents or workers. They only choose from the best. They go to people they wish to hire, not the other way round, so there's once again no need for them to publicise anything. This way they can only choose the very best and be more careful about who they hire too. The only people that know about the IAI are other intelligence agencies, other high level agents around the world, political powers and very rich and influential businessmen.

The IAI has no single main base, as this means if the main base is invaded, the IAI, its agents and the information they have collected will be at risk. So it has 3 main bases. One in Beijing, one in Seoul and one in Tokyo. The majority of their employees (67%) are from the three countries the main bases are located in. They also have 9 more important bases in Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Fukuoka, Singapore, Pyongyang and Hanoi. The IAI has managed to grow into an international house of superpower in the 20-30 short years they've been around.

IAI happens to be the intelligence agency Haneul works for. The best? A 16 year old? You may be questioning right now. But due to many connections, the IAI discovered Haneul and put her through intense training since she was just a young girl. And even before she went through the intense training, she was trained by her mother, who was another agent for IAI. Her mother had been one of the best and had been with the agency since its early days. So, of course, being the daughter of a highly talented and trusted agent of the IAI, Haneul grew up with many expectations to be as good, or even better than her mother.

The Fukuoka base for the IAI also happened to be the place Haneul was heading for. She needed to go back and report back to the base manager. After she went back to her hotel room and showered and changed into a fresh but plain set of clothing. Nothing too spectacular or she would draw attention to herself. When she arrived in front of the 'Sky Dream Fukuoka', Haneul looked around for a ramen store called 'Hakata Hakata'. She found it 100m to her right.

Haneul slowly stepped inside and saw it looked like a normal ramen store. Inside she sat down at the counter and stared at all the workers there. One middle aged man with piercing grey eyes and looking like he either had a life of crime or he "tripped" down stairs way too much came up to her and asked what she would like.

"1 large serving of Hakata Ramen with extra beni shoga, sesame seeds and bean sprouts. Oh, also don't forget to serve it in two bowls so it can cool down faster for me." Haneul phrased the two long sentences carefully, word by word. She gave the ramen store oji-san a meaningful look. He stared back at the young girl in front of him eyes wide open. He heard from Naoko-sama that there would be an agent coming in today. One of the best, although still a bit young and inexperienced. And indeed she was young. A bit too much younger than he'd expected in fact. She look about 15 or 16. 18 tops. What were the IAI doing since he retired from field work?
"Of course." He started reciting the code words to the girl, "1 large serving of Hakata Ramen coming up. Where are you from okyaku-sama?"

Haneul smiled as she realised this was the right man. She was worried she might've come to the wrong place. "I come from Busan in Korea." She replied evenly talking to the man while he cooked, "Has oji-san heard or been there before?"
"Yes. The seaport…" The man trailed off waiting for Haneul to finish his sentence.

"Is beautiful." Haneul finished for the man.

"Yes. Okyaku-sama, your Hakata Ramen is ready." he said and bowed respectfully towards Haneul.
"Thank you oji-san." Haneul said and bowed her head back respectfully. "Itadakimasu~!" She then began to eat her Hakata Ramen. Whilst she WAS here for business and all, she enjoyed the ramen quite a bit and told herself it was an extra treat. After about a minute, her entire bowl of ramen was gone and she patted her stomach while saying "Gochisousama~!" and smiled at the man.

The man looked at her and stared. Even he couldn't down a bowl of ramen that fast. Oh well, this poor young girl having to work for the IAI at such a young age. She must be hungry. And anyways, his ramen was good and he knew it. After Haneul paid and the man thanked her, she asked him a question "Oji-san. Do you know where the Fukuoka Girls' High School is? If you do could you please guide me?"

The man nodded, but before he left he yelled out loudly at the case of the staircase in the store. "SATO YUUTO! COME DOWNSTAIRS AND HELP ME WITH SOMETHING!"
Shortly after the man shouted, a teenage boy who looked about Haneul's age or a little bit older, and was rather tall and good looking ran downstairs. "Otou-san! I'm bus-…" He suddenly cut off short when he saw Haneul standing next to his father. The ramen store oji-san looked at his son's face and then at Haneul's and knew what he probably should do.

"Yuuto, please help guide this girl to her next destination for me." the man said while almost giving his son an all-knowing look. "She says. She would like. To go to. Fukuoka. Girls'. High. School." he phrased to his son bit by bit.

His son looked at Haneul in alarm while she just smiled back pleasantly. "So, are you willing to help me out here, Yuuto-san?" Haneul asked in her normal sing-song voice that she had when she was in a good mood and smiled at him.

"Ah… Oh… That… Of course!" he decided, and led Haneul out slowly down the road. He waved at his father and yelled out happily "OTOU-SAN! SEE YOU LATER!"

They walked in 2 minutes of awkward silence (well it was awkward for Yuuto, but Haneul was too busy staring at the sky with a contented expression) until Yuuto decided to ask Haneul a question. "Er… excuse me, what is your name miss?"
Haneul giggled at his obvious politeness, "No need to talk to me so formally, Yuuto-san. I may be a customer, but I'm sure I'm younger than you. My Korean name is Jang Haneul. My Japanese name is Sorami. Dozo Yoroshiku ne, Sato Yuuto-san." She answered, almost singing every syllable out and giving an adorable little wave at him near the end. "My international age is 16, by the way. How about you?"

The small act of Haneul giving Yuuto a little wave caused Yuuto to blush ferociously. "Oh… about that… I'm 17." He said and smiled at her, "Therefore, that makes me your… Oppa… was that it in Korean?"
Haneul looked up at Yuuto, pleasantly surprised that he knew Korean, "Wow~ you know Korean? Good job oppa!" She said while smiling gently but happily up at him.
Yuuto ended up blushing even more from this as he knew oppa was a term of closeness in Korean. "Ah… yes… just a bit," he said while holding his right thumb and index finger half an inch apart to show only a little bit.

Yuuto decided to ask something more serious now, "Anyways, if I'm not mistaken, you're a field agent for the IAI aren't you?" He looked at her concerned, "What are you doing working as a field agent when you're not even as old as me?!"

Haneul simply smiled back and looked up at him with clear eyes full of purpose. "Age doesn't determine how capable of an agent you are. Experience, the right mind set and enough training can make you a top agent!" She replied, obviously not understanding his meaning. "And plus, I have another friend our age back at the Seoul base!"

Yuuto sighed at her. "No that's not quite what I meant…" He muttered to himself. "Ahem." He cleared his throat, "Who are you visiting today at the Fukuoka base?" he asked with interest.

"Etto… somebody called Inoue Naoko-san…" Haneul replied unsurely

"Oh really? The base manager? Waa~ you must be rather important then!" he exclaimed.

Haneul looked away embarrassed. "Ah. No… not really…" She shook her head a little bit. "I mean I am a little well known due to my age, but I'm not really anyone important." She looked rather sad as she said the last few words. Yuuto caught on and decided to keep quiet until they got to the base.

Shortly after, they arrived at the entrance south entrance to the base which was a dingy set of stairs leading underground. When they arrived Yuuto just gestured towards the staircase and announced, "Here. Your destination. Fukuoka Girls' High School." He said with a wink.
Haneul smiled at him sweetly and did 5 90 degree bows to Yuuto before he stopped her while laughing. "No need to thank me like that!" He exclaimed while chuckling.

"No, no! I can't thank you enough! Without you I would not have been able to finish the mission I just went on properly! Thank you so much!" She exclaimed and then hugged Yuuto around his waist. She then let go and ran down the stairs while waving back at him and shouted, "Thank you Yuuto! Thank you so much!"
Yuuto ended up turning such a deep shade of red that his face began to resemble a large overripe tomato.

Little did the two of them know, they were being watched the entire time.

Glossary:

Hakata - Hakata Ramen is the name of a type of ramen often associated with Fukuoka.

Beni shoga - pickled ginger

Oji-san - a way to call someone an 'uncle'. The japanese equivalent of 'ahjusshi'

-sama - an honorific used to show respect for people above you or of great importance. It is also used towards ones' customers

Okyaku-sama - a way to address customers

Itadakimasu  - it's like grace. Japanese people say it when they begin to eat

Gochisousama - they say this at the end of the meal to show thankfulness for the meal

Otou-san - father in japanese

Etto… - this is equivalent to 'errr…' in english