“It’s been a long time since I last saw her.” The man, or rather, man-child, bitterly commented as he kicked at a loose pebble on the ground.

“I know it has been.” A deeper voice replied to the man-child’s distress, “But don’t you worry, you’ll get to see her face soon enough.”

“Really?” The man-child brightened right up, “When?”

The owner of the deeper voice chuckled. “Soon, my boy, soon.”

“How soon?” The man-child whined like, well, a child.

“She’s going to debut as a K-Pop star soon. So by soon I mean within the next few months.”

“But a few months is too long a time to wait! I want to see her sooner!” He continued to whinge.

“Look, weren’t you the preacher of her sister’s words? Didn’t she talk about waiting? And remember, patience is a virtue.”

“But I hate waiting. It’s already been 9 years since I last saw her. It’s getting annoying just waiting. My feelings are still the same towards her, even if it has been this long, you know?”

“Well you were only 12 back then. How do you know anything about your feelings?” The man sighed, “Look. Just wait. You can meet her again soon. We all know there’s something fishy about the IAI, whether or not she or you two’s other friend, what was his name again?”

“Woohyun.” The man-child stiffly replied.

“Yes. That boy. Whether or not the two of them know yet that something’s fishy, we don’t know. We can only wait for the perfect moment to notify them. We don’t want to be too sudden and startle them, you know?”

The man-child sighed. “Alright. I’ll wait. But I’ll have you know if it’s any longer than 3 months then I’ll go crazy and I’ll probably go and look for her myself.”

“But you don’t even know what she looks like now. Like you said, it’s been 9 years.” The man pointed out.

“I know. I will always know which one she is, or what she looks like.”

“How?”

The man-child’s face seemed to drift off into another world. “I don’t care if it’s been 9 years and puberty’s definitely done changes to her. I don’t care at all. If she was that beautiful even 9 years ago when she was a mere 10 year old, then I’m sure that at 18 years of age, turning 19, she’s already become the most beautiful girl on this world.”

The other man simply sighed and shook his head. ‘This boy is hopeless.’ He thought to himself.

-----------

Meanwhile, in a certain dorm for an about to debut K-Pop girl group:

“Oh my goodness! Eun Ae, did you use my shampoo again?” The stern and shrill voice of Soo Jin in the bathroom could probably be heard from outer space, “What did I say about using my shampoo?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Eun Ae shouted back with a giggle, “What shampoo?”

“Kim Eun Ae!” Soo Jin roared, “You little-”

“Choi Soo Jin and Kim Eun Ae!” Both of them heard the enraged but still sleepy shout of Haneul. “Shut up!”

“Well it’s time for you to get up anyway!” Eun Ae shouted back and giggled, “You’re such a sleepy head!”

“What are we getting up so early in the morning for anyway?” Haneul shouted back.

“The U-Kiss boys are back today.” Hwayoung said as she opened Haneul’s bedroom door to see Haneul already up and dressed. “That was fast.” She commented.

“You know I’m a fast changer.” Haneul rolled her eyes.

“I do.” Hwayoung nodded.

“Well what are you waiting for?” Haneul raised an eyebrow at Hwayoung who was still staring at her, “The breakfast made by Hye Su isn’t going to eat itself, you know.”

“No.” Hwayoung bit her lip as she looked at Haneul, “You should be careful.”

“Of?” Haneul raised an eyebrow

“I feel like you might be hurt soon for some reason.” Hwayoung softly said as she looked at Haneul with concern evident in her expression.

Haneul raised an eyebrow as she thought back to Audrey warning her to be careful. ‘What is it with everyone and telling me to be careful? Especially agents who are supposed to have keen sixth sense… Should I really be more careful?’

“How do you think I’ll get hurt?” Haneul asked, wondering why everyone was telling her to be careful.

“I’m not sure. But I just woke up from a dream this morning and all the dream was telling me was to tell you to be careful. I woke up and there was an image of you, freshly imprinted in my mind, quietly sitting somewhere and crying. I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but that’s the only thing I can remember from the dream.” Hwayoung softly spoke, as if she were worried there was a very fragile wall between the two of them she may break at any moment.

“What exactly is that supposed to mean?” Haneul raised an eyebrow, “I have an aunt who works in psychology, do you want to go and see her about that dream?”

Hwayoung shook her head. “No, it’s okay. Just be careful, okay?” Hwayoung warned one last time and went off to have breakfast. Haneul shook the weird creeping feeling in the pit of her stomach and went off to freshen up.

“Haneul come have some pancakes.” Hye Su smiled at Haneul with her usual motherly smile as Haneul stepped out of the bathroom, rubbing her wet hair with a towel.

“Oh, thanks.” Haneul smiled a quick smile back at her.

“So when are we going to the company?” Soo Jin asked as she slid into the chair to the left of Haneul.

Haneul seemed to remember something then put her palm up to signify that she needed to say something. She quickly swallowed her pancakes then looked at all of them. “Sorry. I know that the president says that he has stuff to tell us today, but I need to do something. I already have a previous appointment.”

Soo Jin crossed her arms and gave Haneul a look. “Then why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

“Because I honestly forgot.” Haneul said and yawned. Hwayoung gave Haneul a worried look. Since when did Haneul ever forget things?

“Well that’s too bad then.” Soo Jin shoved a pancake into full, chewed it quickly then swallowed it. “Guess I’ll have to tell poor Kevin that you won’t be part of the welcoming back party.”

“Why would Sunghyun care.” Haneul said and then shoved a neatly cut up piece of pancake into .

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“Well why him specifically?”

“Oh, no reason in particular.” Soo Jin said and laughed a particularly suspicious laugh before she stuffed the last tasty morsels of pancake into .

Haneul frowned. She didn’t like it when people kept things from her but she decided to play it cool. “Alright then, don’t tell me. It’s not like it’s something I desperately need or want to know.” She rolled her eyes and too, cleaned off her stack of pancakes.

“Oh come on! Act uncool for once and beg me to tell you!” Soo Jin pouted.

“Why would I feel a need to do that?” Haneul asked as she picked up her plate to take over to the think.

“Because you want to know, of course. Why else?” She slyly winked at Haneul, “Come on! Ask me why Kevin would specially miss you the most!”

“I already did, but you didn’t answer.” Haneul pointed out.

“OH man, you’re so boring.” Soo Jin huffed and too stood up with her plate in hand. “Fine, I won’t tell you. You can go figure that out yourself. So where are you going today?” She changed the subject.

“Secret.” Haneul winked.

“Tell me this secret.”

Haneul put the plate on the sink, turned around while leaning on the bench and tapped her chin. “How about… No?”

Soo Jin rolled her eyes. “Fine. Be that way. You’re so stubborn sometimes, you know?”

“I’m not stubborn. I simply stick to what I feel is right.”

“Which is stubborn.”

“No it’s not.” Haneul defended.

“Hey, Haneul. I think Soo Jin’s your debating buddy number two with Kevin as your number one, of course.” Eun Ae giggled as she chomped on an apple.

“Sunghyun’s not my debating buddy.” Haneul rolled her eyes.

“Oh, yes he is. And he’ll be so sad when he doesn’t see his ‘debating buddy’ there welcoming him back.” Soo Jin said in a theatrical voice and then laughed.

“You’re welcoming the whole of U-Kiss back, not just him. And is that why then?” Haneul tried askin again.

“No.” Soo Jin shook her head then smirked, “You’ll just have to wait and figure it out yourself, I’m afraid.”

Haneul rolled her eys and simply grabbed her bag and coat from the coat hanger. “Well I’ll be off then. Goodbye.” She said and opened the door swiftly and walked out, softly closing it behind her.

----------

“SNU Station, SNU station. All passengers who wish to get off please make your way to a door. We will be arriving shortly.”

Haneul continued to lean on a pole right next to a door (which would provide easy emergency exit in case of emergencies, of course) and waited for the subway to slow down at the station and open its doors. Soon the doors opened and Haneul joined the stream of students getting off the train.

She followed a couple of students up to ground level and as soon as she stepped on campus, she pulled off her scarf and let down her hair which framed her face nicely. She quickly attracted many interested stares from the opposite .

“Hey that chick’s hot. Have you seen her ‘round before?” She heard a strange boy with dyed red hair and several ear piercings say from 5m to her left. Haneul kept herself from rolling her eyes at how silly this boy sounded and tried to prevent her mind from wondering how he managed to get into SNU. He didn’t seem like he had even half of Soo Jin’s brain power from the way he was talking, but Haneul knew better than to judge based upon outer appearance and behaviour.

“Hey pretty, do you go here?” Haneul heard a husky and flirty voice say to her the moment she stopped walking to ponder the whereabouts of the Korean language and culture department.

Haneul turned in the direction of the voice and say a very pretty and tall good-looking boy smiling at her. Not as pretty or as good looking as Kevin though. She thought to herself then quickly shook the thoughts out of her mind the moment she realised they had entered.

“I’ve never seen that girl around.” She heard a high pitched female voice mutter to her best friend with an annoyed expression on her face, “I wonder who he is? Byungjong sunbae seems to have taken a liking to her.”

Haneul then had to suppress a laugh at the prominent jealousy in the girl’s voice. What was there to be jealous about having a weird flirty guy flirting around with you? Haneul decided to flirt back with the new ‘flirting skills’ she had studied (that’s right, studied and not picked up) from a textbook. “Could say the same about you.” She said and a natural smirk came upon her face as she looked up at him coyly. Tip number #023 from Haneul’s textbook ‘Tips for making use of males you may acquaint upon on missions’ (yes, Haneul knows it’s a very long and strange name) had stated that looking upwards like that was able to loosen a male’s defence a little. “And no. Never been here before. Care to give me directions?”

“Ah, why not? I’ve time to kill.” The boy seemed pleased, “So where to, beautiful?”

“Professor Ok Jongdae? Of the Korean language and culture studies department??

“Sure thing. I know who he is.” The boy nodded confidently as his right arm slid around Haneul’s waist. “Come with me, y.” He winked at her as he pulled her along, guiding her towards a building in the distance.

Haneul almost choked at how quickly he was moving from pretty to beautiful to y all within the span of 2minutes. How badly did they guy want to get laid?

After a 5 minute walk, the boy stopped and Haneul stopped along with him. “Right here, y.” He leaned in close to Haneul’s ear and whispered with his warm breath in a sultry voice. Haneul felt disgusted once more.

Haneul turned her head slowly to touch noses with him and gaze into his eyes with her piercing and mysterious dark eyes. “Thank you.” She battered her eyelashes, tip #008 from the same aforementioned textbook. “Just one question, Byungjong.”

“How do you know my name? That much of a fan, are you?” He winked at Haneul, seemingly pleased with himself once again.

“No, I heard it off some random girls.” Haneul corrected him. He frowned slightly but seemed to try and shake off the thought that maybe, just maybe, Haneul wasn’t interested in him. Haneul then proceeded to try to use her best sultry voice. “Could you answer just a little question for me?”

“Of course. Anything for a girl as pretty, beautiful and y as you.” Haneul almost puked in her own mouth again. This boy was really just going overboard.

“Alright.” Haneul said as she continued with her act and leaned in to his ear and she let her warm breath tease his ear. “I’ve noticed, but you seem a little desperate so I was just wondering… how badly exactly o you want to get laid?” Haneul said and ended it with a smirk as she used her two hands and pushed him away via his chest. He looked rather shocked and Haneul just innocently waved at him with a big smile and started to back away. She called out, “Thank you for directing me here, desperate boy with a name of Byungjong!”

---------------

“Aigoo… It’s been a long time, Haneul. When was the last time I saw you?” Professor Ok smiled at Haneul.

“You too. I think it was when I was 13 or so? Well that aside, what other details aout my ‘small mission’ did you need to tell me?”

“Well, first off, it’s been  moved up to this afternoon. Is that okay with you?” Haneul nodded and Professor Ok continued, “First off, I’m sure you already know about the vandalism threats at the Wongaksa Pagoda because that would’ve definitely been included in the initial information sheet. But the thing is, we’ve found that this mission is a little bit more dangerous than we initially thought.”

“How so?”

“The suspected people behind the threatening seem to be larger in number than we thought.”

“How much larger?” Haneul bit her lip, ready to calculate the risk increase.

“Twice as large.” Professor Ok looked at Haneul’s face, waiting for a reaction which never came. He sighed. “What do you think?”

“No problem. Give me some level 3 or even 2 or above weaponry that I am proficient in the use of, which is most of them by the way, and I’m sure I could take half the gang on alone. And plus, I’m sure I’m smarter than at least 99 percent of them anyway.”

“That’s not the only risk increase.” Professor Ok paused as he pulled her reading glasses off to look Haneul in the eye with his weary eyes. “Haneul, I trust you know about the UNSC president coming for a visit to Seoul.”

“Of course I know that.” Haneul nodded.

“Well there are rumours about his corruption lately, have you not heard?”

“I have.” Haneul nodded once again.

“Well, of course, this is only a rumour and it has only been passed around in the high circle. But the thing is that there is a rumour that an assassin or several have been paid to come after him.”

Haneul frowned. She had met him before and she never liked the man much because he was too pretentious, but as to why there was an assassin coming after him just due to a small rumour was beyond Haneul. “Why just due to a rumour though? It hasn’t been confirmed yet, has it?”

“No it hasn’t.” Professor Ok shook his mangled grey hair around. “But that’s not the worst part of it?”

“What is?” Haneul asked, eyebrows furrowing.

“Professor Ok his dry lips before he continued with a face full of fear. “The assassin or assassins… Well… They’re rumoured to be from the Blue Triangle.”

-----------

A/N

A long chapter again! :D

Hahahaha, Haneul’s finally growing up and learning how to flirt, although not in the way most people learn to flirt… But hey... Maybe she'll learn to use it on someone *cough*Kevin*cough one day? ;)

And I’m wondering if you all remember when the last time I brought up the ‘Blue Triangle’ was? :D *hint hint* Hwayoung *hint hint*