Yeri wasn’t particularly keen on actually shooting, since she said it reminded her too much of going down with Woohyun and Key to watch Hyeri shoot, and so Miran found herself back in the gym on some mats.

“Wrestling is fun,” Yeri insisted, already limbered up and raring to go.

Five minutes later, Miran was convinced that Yeri actually meant she personally found wrestling fun because she was good at it, and scarily so.  The muscles all over Miran’s body were sore, and she crouched, warily eyeing the petite woman across from her.  She’d have to get some way of evaluating it properly, but she thought Yeri might actually be stronger than Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo had an absolute death grip if you were unfortunate enough to be fighting him.  He’d let her spar with a couple of other trainers once or twice and Miran had to say that he was still the one she found toughest to go against, but Yeri was definitely on a par with him.  Definitely.  The disconcerting thing was that anybody with eyes could see that Kyungsoo had strength in him because it was obvious he worked out, but Miran would not have been able to guess the same about Yeri from a glance.  Or, apparently, from knowing her for a few weeks.  The woman was like a tiny version of the Hulk.

Half an hour later, and completely distracted from anything she’d been doing earlier in the day, Miran tapped out for the forty-seventh time.  Yeri took her while getting off her.

“You know,” she said, “you’re not half bad at this.  You should ask about putting wrestling into your training routine.”

Miran rolled over, massaging her arm.  “No thanks.”

“Shame.”  Yeri skipped a couple of steps as she made her way over to the water dispenser she’d conveniently located them next to.

Muscles screaming in protest, Miran sat up to see if Yeri was getting water for them both or if she was going to have to ask her to, because there was no way that she was going to get up for a good few moments yet.

“How come you’re not a field agent?” she asked Yeri curiously.  “I’m not exaggerating when I say I think you could go in for international competitions.  Where did you even learn?”  You’re a midget.  You shouldn’t be that strong, she wanted to add, but she wasn’t so sure she wanted to offend the woman.

“My eldest brother’s a pro,” Yeri replied, handing her a full plastic cup.  “There’s a six-year between us, and since I’m the only girl in the family, when he was training as a pre-teen and then later on, I was the easiest target to practice his moves on.  Then he grew up a bit and stopped being a douche when he realised guys were hitting on me and thought it would be a good idea to teach me some self-defence.  Not like there are many sports or martial arts places that actually take on girls, is it?  I heard you more or less started the trend in university by going for the shooting team.”

“Ah.”  It explained a lot.  Miran tried not to flush at the blatant admiration in Yeri’s voice.

“You know,” said Yeri.  “When word got out you were being headhunted, there was a lot of objection that people wanted you for your celebrity status and that it was part of the COO’s response to accusations of this being a ist organisation.”

“There are loads of women working here, though.  And lots in top jobs, too.”

“A lot have been passed over in the most recent promotions.”  Yeri hummed to herself before crumpling up her empty plastic cup and lobbing it at the bin.  It rolled around the rim before toppling in.

“Do you know who suggested getting me on board?” Miran asked.  It wasn’t something she’d thought about before.

Yeri shrugged.  “No idea, but it was probably somebody pretty high up.  Probably Kangta or the COO.  I heard there was a massive fight over whether you were wanted for internal or external jobs before the COO said he wanted you on the inside, and then all the cell leaders started squabbling over who should get you.”  She paused thoughtfully.  “Actually, if you want information on this, go to Key.  He was the one who told me everything I know.  I know the reason he told Kyungsoo he ought to nab you for our team is because he’d found all this out from…”  She winced, her voice trailing off, suddenly realising exactly where that information had come from.

Miran’s mood smashed into the ground.  Gayoung.

“Yeah, let’s finish here for today.”  Yeri grabbed Miran’s empty cup and chucked it at the bin.  Almost identically to her previous throw, the cup rolled around the rim before toppling in.  Miran raised an eyebrow, not sure whether she was more amused or impressed, and they headed out of the gym, Miran opting to head out of the building for some fresh air to clear her head again, since the aim of physical exertion had been to forget about Gayoung and the benefits had kind of been undone.

As luck would have it, she was halfway across the entrance hall when she quite literally bumped into Shin Gayoung, knocking a stack of papers out of her hands.  Miran was apologising and bending to help the woman pick them up on autopilot before she even realised who she was talking to, and she froze momentarily as she extended a hand to give the papers back.

Then she retracted it, keeping the papers hostage, and dug in her pocket for her recording device, just in case.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” she asked.

Gayoung’s head snapped up.  Apparently she’d been too preoccupied to notice who she’d walked into, too.

“I have nothing to say to you.”

The curtness in her voice took Miran aback.  She was used to Gayoung being bossy, but not to her being prickly and chilly like this.  Gathering herself together, and feeling like one of those irritating news reporters who didn’t know when to leave something alone, she forged on and tucked the papers under her arm.  She saw Gayoung’s eyes darting to them in irritation.

“Really?” the woman demanded.  “Those papers have absolutely nothing to do with your investigation and you could be held up for ethical malpractice by trying to blackmail me into talking to you by keeping hold of papers you don’t have a warrant or clearance to look at.”

“You know perfectly well you’ve done something you’re very worried about me investigating,” Miran fired back, “or you wouldn’t have assumed off the bat that I’m here to question you.  I asked for a conversation.  I’m a rookie here and everybody knows you’re the fount