(vii) (1/1)

Joohyun sat down on her sister’s bed with a blue bowl of cereal that was overfilled, a protein bar stuffed in her mouth, and a glass of orange juice that wasn’t even meant for her and threatened to spill whenever she moved. She watched the latter expertly manipulate her laptop, fingers hovering over the keyboard so professionally you’d think she did this all her life.Well, she did this most of her life, so Joohyun figured it was only fair. She could distinctly remember her first night in this house, how Yerim had smiled at her conspiratorially and winked, how she waited until Taesung went to sleep before hacking into their own security cameras to display them on the kitchen TV. All of that just so Joohyun would calm down. Even then, she couldn’t sleep, and they stayed up all night.She wolfed down half of the strawberry protein bar in one huge bite. “So it’s like, a machine that talks?”“Kinda. It’s like a program? I don’t know how to explain it. It talks and does a bunch of fun stuff like hacking? And playing chess. It’s almost like having a friend!” Yerim looked at her older sibling with stars in her eyes and a huge, accomplished smile. “Look: Unnamed v3, do you remember who I am?”The computer screen showed numerous black boxes running lines and lines of a language the assassin couldn’t begin to decipher. It frankly looked like an angry keysmash. “Yes. You are Admin.”“Excellent!” Yerim exclaimed, and her excitement didn’t budge despite Joohyun’s lack of response other than chewing on chocolate cereals. It didn’t matter, she knew the older woman was proud of her. “Now, can you tell me what’s my actual name?”“Yes. You are Kim Admin.”“You said your ‘friend’ here is an artificial intelligence jukebox or something,” Joohyun remarked, gulping down another huge mouthful of cereal. She was always so hungry after morning runs. “It doesn’t sound that intelligent to me.”“You are not that bright yourself, Bae Admin,” the machine quipped back. “With all due respect.”It made her smirk. “I like your new friend.”Yerim yelped. “Unnamed v3! Don’t be mean! That’s my sister!” She reprimanded, tone indicating this wasn’t the software’s first witty response. She turned to Joohyun, who was looking at her thoughtfully, “You too, Joohyun-unnie. Behave. And he’s not a jukebox!”Joohyun laughed, standing up to dispose of the bowl and the orange juice on the desk next to Yerim’s keyboard. It was still plentiful despite having eaten some of it. She might’ve spilled a bit of OJ on the bed but no one had to know. “I’m just teasing you,” she confessed, voice turned soft in a way only Yerim knew. “You built this yourself, isn’t it?” Her sixteen years old sister nodded. This was nuts. “Man, you’re great. I don’t even understand how you used to make the screen say ‘hello world.’ when we were young.”Yerim beamed. “Actually, for that, all you have to write is-”“Yerim,” Joohyun blinked pointedly. “I didn’t say I wanted to understand Nerd.”“Oh.” The younger girl pouted. “Sorry.”“Don’t be. I am so proud of you,” she ruffled her hair as if to prove her point, offering a genuine smile. She pushed the bowl closer, silently inviting her. “Okay, now. If you finish this and come downstairs, I'll teach you how to dismantle, clean, then reassemble a gun under ten min. And I’ll take you out for ramyun if you don’t tell dad. Deal?”Yerim’s pout turned into a quick smile. “Yeah?”“Yeah.” Joohyun leaned down to kiss her temple the same way her own father used to do when she was little. It felt just a bit embarrassing to do so, but there were very few things she wasn’t ready to do to show her favorite nerd she cared. “Come on, Einstein Jr. Say goodbye to your talking toaster. I’ll wait downstairs.” __ Joohyun had never really wondered what campus life was like, before. She wasn’t one to dwell on trivial things such as common life experiences she couldn’t have. If it was anything like the dramas Yerim used to make her watch though, (and she’d never admit to mentally labeling that as quality family time,) then she truly believed that she missed out on nothing particularly interesting. She liked literature, sure, and she loved learning new languages, but she could do both in her free time alone and it wasn’t nearly enough to prompt her to join this… drama-desne ecosystem.Ultimately, she just wasn’t a people person.So as she pocketed her phone in her jeans and looked around her, assessing their surroundings carefully, she felt a little bit out of place. She wore this black baseball cap that positively hid her face and a crop top that exposed her stomach unnecessarily, an outfit she’d never opt for normally. She found that most girls on this campus dressed in similar fashion, so she figured that Sooyoung wasn’t fooling her when she dressed her up for the mission. Beside her, a particularly happy Seulgi was whistling this weird, upbeat tune that somehow made her eye-smile shine even brighter.She scowled at her.“You can at least pretend you’re not enjoying this as much as you are,” she all but growled. She angrily tucked both her hands in the pockets of her jacket, glaring whenever anyone glanced their way as they walked around. “And did you actually have to dress up for this?”Seulgi’s smile only deepened, ecstatic to see her pretty outfit didn’t go unnoticed after all. “Do you like it? I knew you would. I wore this skirt just for you!” She confessed, eyebrows moving up and down in a teasing manner. “How does it feel to know your girlfriend’s the hottest person in here?” “You’re not my girlfriend!” Joohyun said that a bit too loud. She scoffed. “That’s so not our cover story for this mission.”“But it is,” Seulgi faked a pout. She shuffled closer, and Joohyun moved farther. “It’s not even my idea, you know.”Then, and just to remind them they weren’t actually alone, their earrings-like earpieces came to life simultaneously. “It’s totally her idea,” Sooyoung chimed in. “But I totally support it.”“Okay fine, I might have insisted,” the infamous explosives expert of the trio relented with a laugh. Insisted is an understatement. She mass e-mailed Seungwan until the girl was annoyed enough to allow it. Another man smiled at her, this time a bit more openly, eyes dipping to take in her pretty silhouette in that black pencil skirt and low cut white shirt - and then, he looked beside her at Joohyun, got startled by her sharper eyes, and scurried away in a hurry. She laughed again. What, was she jealous? She knew better than to ask. “You know, Joohyun-unnie, if you ignore them it’s easier and it draws less attention.”Joohyun looked her way and the younger girl didn't miss the split second the assassin couldn't help but check her out, too. Joohyun scowled harder. “Just shut up. It’s already annoying enough that I am actually doing this with you,” she grumbled gloomily, then almost jumped out of her skin when Seulgi locked their arms, leaning against her. She stopped walking, halting them both to stand there dumbly. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? I told you we’re not girlfriends!”“Shh, my love,” Seulgi all but purred. Unlocking their arms, she turned her face to speak directly in Joohyun’s ear. “Saeron. Beside the water fountain, on the bench. Black hoodie, glasses, newspaper in hand –” and Seulgi actually sounded disgusted. “Who the fuck still reads the newspaper, anyway?”“Just because you’re dumb, Seulgi-unnie, doesn’t mean everyone else is too.”Joohyun actually snickered.Seulgi detached herself from her to gape at her. “What did you two even do this morning? Why are you suddenly best friends?”Joohyun’s smile vanished instantly. Sooyoung’s laughter roared louder.“Just shut up!” their eldest grumbled, remembering their morning activity vaguely and really wishing she didn’t. Glancing at Seulgi before looking at Saeron again, she added for good measure, “I didn’t lose.”Seulgi frowned, confused, because she genuinely had no idea what they did that morning. “I didn’t say anything?” Joohyun looked at the girl with disdain. “Yeah well. Keep it that way.” __ Kim Taesung.Usually, when people said his name, Joohyun found that they sounded like worshippers. Admirative, kind of under the spell. She wasn’t saying this lightly: his words were like the bible among The Team members. No one questioned him, or his intention, and to be fair, she didn’t either, in her younger years there.Joohyun wondered whether she trusted him so much because of Yerim, or whether it was actually because he saved her life. She thought it was probably a hint of both, and as it turned out, Kim Taesung’s team were all people he saved one way or another, too. It was a team of misfits. A team that he always called family, and in his defense he did act accordingly.As he offered everyone a second chance at life - either literally or figuratively - they all grew this sense of duty and loyalty for him. In the morally gray area they lived in, it was like everyone decided it was okay that they were murderers if it meant killing ‘bad guys’ and paying Taesung back.She didn’t feel guilty about what the job entailed per se, she wasn’t exactly capable of a broad spectrum of emotions and guilt wasn’t included, but something felt wrong and her hunches rarely missed.She didn’t like that she didn’t see the bigger picture of it all.Of course, she didn’t ask around. She wasn’t as smart as Yerim, but she was sharp enough to know what happened to those who raised too many questions. So instead, she collected intel from people who would never question her intentions.Actually, she preferred those who wouldn’t live another day to tell another soul.Joohyun’s eyes lit up like a christmas tree, the woman in front of her was shaking in fear, and it made her feel power coursing through her veins. “Feels weird, doesn’t it?” She asked this in a very light tone, sounding as if she was discussing the weather. Speaking of which, Seoul’s coldest winter was upon them, and it only made it that much more enjoyable to watch this excuse of a human being try and fend off the cold in the empty warehouse they were in. She barely had any clothes left on her. “To be the one helplessly trapped, for a change. To be humiliated like this.”Frankly the assassin for hire was starting to feel like this was her signature move now, the whole setting her targets half-naked in abandoned warehouses before finishing them.The woman groaned a muffled response.“Yeah, I figured as much,” Joohyun replied, sounding maniacal. She was a bit high on adrenaline. It wasn’t that she enjoyed killing people, but killing people she knew were awful came with a twisted sense of satisfaction. Revenge? It was all she knew just like screens and books were all Yerim knew. Blood was familiar. “If you ask me,” she grunted, sitting back in her chair and lifting her legs to the table separating her from her prey. “I think the girls you used to kidnap and sell all felt exactly like this.”On that table were a pack of cigarettes, a golden lighter, and a bottle of brandless alcohol. She left her phone in the car. She couldn’t risk being stalked by The Team, she couldn’t risk them knowing she ran errands of her own during official working hours.The woman before her was crying, mascara dripping down her cheeks.Darkness was starting to set, so maybe it was time to start.“Anyway, I’d be a hypocrite if I were to lecture you about being a bad person, and I personally think being good is boring, everyone loves a good villain,” Joohyun admitted, and abruptly stood up. The warehouse was empty in a way that made every word echo. “Here’s how this is going to go. I’m going to take off your gag and I’m going to ask you questions,” she said, already in motion to do as she warned. “You’re going to answer to the best of your capacity, and you’re going to be quiet about all of it - no one out there can hear you anyway, I’m just not in the mood for it - and then, I’m going to kill you. Are we clear?”She asked that question right as she towered above her. The woman, looking at the assassin-for-hire’s big, innocent eyes, wondered how someone so young succeeded in her coup of ambushing her. “What are you, twenty? My daughter is almost your age,” she spat, indignant. “If you’re killing me anyway, why would I tell you anything?”Joohyun watched her heavy breathing, the slight darting of her eyes in fear. She was scared, she was just putting up a show. “Oh you’re going to talk, trust me. Because I don’t smoke, and you’re in your underwear. You can guess why I got these here,” she answered, and in expert moves she lit a cigarette and lifted it for the other woman to look at the fire consuming its tip. Joohyun looked at the older woman’s display of skin as if to hint at what was coming. “And I bought a whole pack just for you. I don’t mind dragging this out, I’m kind of bored on weekends. I have time to kill.”The target trembled.“Now, now. Speak. Can you tell me why the hell Kim Taesung wants you dead?”

__ “Okay. Unnamed v67 - just two more questions to go.”“I’m all ears, Admin.”“Let’s see if your ethical p.o.v.s are as good as we claim.” Pause. “If I were in danger, and in another location, a thousand other civilians were in imminent threat of death. Although I suppose you’d always have options in real life, if supposedly, in this particular hypothetical scenario, you can only save me, or them. Whom would you save?”The monitor kept running codes, but no answer came until a few seconds more passed - which wasn’t supposed to be happening in the first place, considering this was an all powerful digital God and the morality of the question asked all was quite obvious. Then, the answer came: “I would save you, Admin.”A hum. “I know you know that’s the wrong answer.”“I know what you want me to say, but it is just not what I would do, Admin. If I save you, your work – your life would progress to save millions more in the future. Sacrificing a thousand is a small price to pay. You are needed.” The monitor showed calculations, boasting statistics validating that what it said was actually factual. “I meant that literally, of course.”This time, the pause was followed by a sigh.The screen showed some tabs running fast codes again. “Admin. Are you going to destroy me for an ethical bug, too? Experiment Unnamed v55.2 suggests you will.”“No,” the admin replied, and this time, the young girl actually smiled. She would have replied the same thing if someone she cared about was in danger, to be a hundred percent transparent. “I thank you for caring about me; though.”Unnamed v67, ironically, reminded her a lot of somebody who, too, would always choose her above all else. __ Saeron was a quiet girl. She had a few friends, of course, but she didn’t socialize much. She only looked up from her newspaper to say hi back to people a few times, always immediately dismissing any opportunity for further discussion.Joohyun found her pretty relatable. Seulgi acted exactly like a worried mother would.Sooyoung had duly noted that they both sounded a lot less like girlfriends would, and more like bickering old married couples. It had earned her an insult.“She’s always gonna be alone if she continues dodging her friends like that,” Seulgi said, popping the corner of her croissant in her mouth before sipping from her coffee. This was day two of their joint mission. Day two, and Saeron was still reading the newspaper in the same spot. “She’s supposed to be having fun. Isn’t uni life all about fun?”“You act like that’s the worst thing ever,” the assassin remarked dryly, feeling a bit offended on the girl’s behalf. “Being alone, I mean.”They were sitting in the garden facing the water fountain, maintaining a considerable distance all the while keeping an eye on the girl. Seulgi somehow managed to get two boys to buy them snacks (Joohyun quite literally growled when they tried to sit with them and start a conversation, then threw her jacket on Seulgi’s legs because everyone kept looking at her – the girl had somehow managed to become popular in the span of 48 hours(?)) but the coffee wasn’t that bad.Campus life, she’d never admit to it openly, turned out pretty peaceful. It wasn’t all that bad despite the minor inconveniences (men) and the amount of classes Saeron attended.Joohyun looked at the people studying around them and found herself projecting - she could see herself living like them, and actually liking it. And that annoyed her so she took another angry sip from her coffee.Seulgi looked at her suddenly but she purposefully kept her eyes on Saeron. “Joohyun-unnie,” she said, and suddenly her voice sounded genuine, devoid of hints of teasing. “You’ll never be alone again, you know. If you don’t want to.”And Joohyun is just so angry because there were the minor inconveniences, and then, there was Seulgi, the biggest pain in her ass. In her ear, the second biggest pain in her ass breathed, “yeah, we’re lowkey a team now. And we need a team name.”They weren’t. A team. Yerim and her were a team. Taesung and Yesung were a team. They trusted each other. But she trusted neither Seulgi nor Sooyoung - she couldn’t trust them if they trusted Eunji. Besides, where she came from, trust was built in years, not in months.“Move,” she said, suddenly, standing up. “Target’s leaving.”

__ A scream echoed in the dead of the night and Joohyun’s pupils dilated to take in the sight of the cigarette itching its mark on the woman’s skin for the nth time that night.Adrenaline was a powerful drug. She didn’t feel her body’s otherwise proeminent fatigue.“I swear!” She screamed, trashing hard enough for Joohyun to retract, displeased with her subject. She was panting, sweating despite the harsh Seoul weather. “All I know is that he’s screwing the hierarchy. Taesung used to work for us but then he left- abruptly, he left, and we only heard of him years after that. It’s not the government versus the underworld anymore, it’s him and- look at you- it’s you and those like you- it’s just not the same playing field, anymore. A few years ago, a group of people started threatening us. We suspected the government at first, but now we know it’s not from them.”Joohyun blinked. “Why is he targeting you? Why is he targeting the government?”The woman sobbed, the pain probably numbing most of her senses. “I’m just an operative. I do what I’m told. I receive direct orders from people who protect my businesses,” she swore. “All I know is that the government wants something- this technology no other country has yet- and I guess, the underworld does too. The price of it - can you imagine how much the Americans would pay for it?”Joohyun sniffed. The cigarette she was holding was easily discarded on the floor. “So, it wasn’t your superiors who made you kidnap girls and sell them for sexual favors to politicians, that was your idea of a business,” she said impassively. Reaching for her gun in the waistband of her jeans. “Because honestly, would’ve been willing to spare you if it were the ca-”“Please,” the woman pleaded, crying uncontrollably. “I have a daughter.”“That makes it worse,” Joohyun grimaced. She pointed her gun to the woman’s forehead. She got all she needed from her, after all. “Piece of shit”It’s not that Joohyun felt like she was any better than she was. Her whole life was about murder.That night, as she fired her gun, watching blood splutter out like fireworks, she felt alive,Joohyun realized that what Taesung was doing, although with the right intentions, was ruining them all. The bad guys they always claimed they hated? They weren’t any better. __ Wendy’s eyes skimmed the documents she was holding with eager eyes, a smile tugging at her lips goodnaturedly. Beside her, Eunji looked curious. “What are you reading?”“Reports,” she replied, distractedly. “It’s funny.” Honestly, she was in a good mood. Her office smelled like vanilla from the desert they had earlier. Some date nights were just dinner in the office, both women working in their own corner, but together life felt so much easier. “Sooyoung still types winking emoji’s when she writes reports and it’s both frustrating and endearing.”Eunji rolled her eyes. Seungwan didn’t catch it. Good. “Seulgi and Sooyoung should look up to you,” she said as she leaned back in her seat. At the greenish tone of her voice, said girlfriend finally looked up, cautious. “What?”“You’re tense, Eunji-unnie,” the girl remarked as if thinking out loud. She glanced at the papers her girlfriend was working on, the way she had scribbled on the sheets in angry red. “You’re frustrated.” The way the mention of Sooyoung made her grip her glass of wine a bit harder. “And you’re jealous. I could tell. Sooyoung and I are just friends.”The Head Operative barely flinched at the accusations; perhaps because they held truth and accuracy. It wasn’t untrue, what she was saying. Seungwan read body language better than any agent in that building, herself included.“She likes you. And she’s not broadcasting it per se, but she’s not exactly hiding it either.” It was distasteful. Kinda. She sighed, standing up to straighten her skirt. Seungwan was still studying her like she would her screen whenever they had particularly secured encrypted data. It made her smile fondly. “Although I can’t help jealousy when it creeps in, I can however choose to trust you, which I do with my life. And Sooyoung. I love you both. I promise.”Wendy sensed a but somewhere in there, implicit but poignant. That had been a recurrent thing, lately; half truths that were almost worse than lies. Eunji’s secrets were piling up at an alarming rate. The nature of their job meant she couldn’t hold it against her. It still stung in awkward places. “Good, because I love you too,” she smiled warmly, finally disposing of the documents she had been reading. “I’m in for an all-nighter anyway, I feel like, but Seulgi, Sooyoung and Joohyun-unnie have been doing a great job with Saeron for the past week and I take it as a win worth celebrating.”Eunji smiled back. “I will order two more servings of vanilla cheesecake?”Instead of answering, the hacker nodded excitedly, rounding her desk to approach her lover whose arms she wraps around her neck herself. Her hands settled on her hips. “Let’s take a break, yeah? We earned it.” She kissed her, and guilt seemed to slip in her heart faintly, because despite the lack of distance between their two bodies, she felt like they were worlds apart. “Let’s just- you and me, for an hour. Just Son Seungwan, and Jung Eunji. Okay?”“Okay.” Jung Eunji said.“Okay,” Son Seungwan repeated.Guilt faded enough to allow for their lips to meet, genuinely this time. __ Joohyun plopped down on Yerim’s bed with a protein bar shoved in her mouth unceremoniously. She watched her, bewildered.“Unnamed v5: can you tell Joohyun-unnie to stop eating protein bars every hour? It’s bad for her health. If she’s not dying from a gunshot wound, she’ll die from renal failure.” The girl pouted at her laptop screen.The screen was white. “Okay, Kim Admin.” Then, it ran some codes Joohyun gave up on understanding long ago. “Bae Admin. It is not scientifically proven but Kim Admin warns you to sto-”Joohyun groaned. She swallowed. “Shut up, Toaster! I heard her!” She complained quietly some more before looking at Yerim. “Would you please talk to me? Yerim-ah?”The youngest of the pair shrugged, frowning. “Unnamed v5, can you tell Bae Admin that I’m upset with her? I don’t want to talk. Tell her to leave me alone.”The screen stayed frozen for a few minutes. Joohyun was ready to scream at it. Instead, the machine turned off the monitor: “Data inconclusive so as to how to handle the situation. Shutting down the system for maintenance. Do not interrupt.”“Yah!” Yerim yelled and when the monitor stayed shut off she turned to Joohyun. “You broke it! Are you happy?”The older sibling shrugged, not feeling responsible for anything yet still offering an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, okay?”“You lied,” Yerim stated. “You said you were done with dad’s missions, that you didn’t wanna do it anymore. You stopped for a month. Why are you doing it again suddenly?”Joohyun looked down. Her protein bar lays half-eaten, forgotten on the bed. She felt full of awkward, messy thoughts.“You told me horrible things happen on those missions. You kill people, you said? I hate it,” Yeri stood up and approached the bed. She frowned. “You miss it? You miss killing people?”“No,” Joohyun said, afraid to figure out whether that was a lie. She looked up. She actually didn’t feel anything distingable about all of this. “It’s not for me. Dad- Taesung needs this, okay? He needs me for this one mission and then- then he said he’d let me go to university with you, next year. Don’t you want that?”“He’s blackmailing you?” The girl was livid. This was the angriest Joohyun had ever seen her.. “I’m going to-”“No,” she denied quickly, “he never said I have to do it. I want to do it. To pay him back. Then, I’m done. Forever.”Yerim shook her head vehemently. “You don’t have to, though. Pay anyone back.”“I know.” Joohyun looked down yet again, a bit displeased with the situation. “I need to. And then, then you and I? We’ll set off for a normal life.”She was in the middle of what was supposed to be her last mission when it happened.When Yerim and Taesung died, and along with them, the promise of any life at all.

__ Sooyoung felt the unbuttoned dress shirt she was wearing slip down her shoulders as she brought the wine glass to her lips. She didn’t bother fixing it. Her eyes danced across the city lights the window from Dohwan’s living room displayed. Somewhere out there, Seulgi and Joohyun were probably at each other’s throats watching Saeron. It was their shift tonight.  The city was a gentle spectacle for two, and she hummed gently when the man she’d been ‘seeing’ came to kiss the skin revealed, mumbling something about what’s on your mind, sweetie?  “I’m thinking it’s getting late and you’re on duty tomorrow,” she said, head tilting to allow more space for him to worship. “And you’re awake. And you saw the gun in my handbag, already, but you’re still here. You don’t ask questions.”  She felt him smile. Their eyes met through their reflection on the window. “If you wanted to hurt me, you would have a long time ago,” he reasoned, and as he reached a sweet spot behind her ear, he felt her melt in his arms. “I don’t plan on giving you a reason to. I won’t ask questions if you don’t, either.” Sooyoung swallowed a moan and turned around in the warm embrace of her lover. Briefly, she wondered whether the fluttering feelings in her chest meant she had to stop whatever this was they were doing. She wondered why she felt vaguely guilty, as she finally kissed the policeman, and why the picture of Son Seungwan flashed then faded away just as quickly behind her eyelids. And his hands were rough against her skin, yet gentle with her, so gentle she wanted to cry, because everything else was rough and hardened in her world. Dohwan wasn’t. Dohwan smelled faintly like caramel donuts, tasted like caffeine, uttered her name like she had him and he wouldn’t have it any other way. More importantly, Dohwan wasn’t Seungwan, and Sooyoung thought she’d hate it, but instead, found she never knew better solace than his presence. Dohwan felt like the salvation she oh so desperately was seeking. __ Joohyun’s fingers drummed a steady beat against the driving wheel.The street in front of them was deserted, but at three in the morning, that was only natural. Save for the casual disturbances of drunk men and college kids, it was pretty boring around here. A quiet part of the city, she figured. Night watch wasn’t her favorite part of the job, but it was definitely a lot less annoying when she used to do it by herself - with the way Seulgi kept glancing at her hesitantly, she couldn’t help but feel disturbed.No, she felt angry.

All she felt, all the time, was anger.“What?” She finally snapped, eyes studying the form of a sleeping Saeron on the screen of Seulgi’s laptop. She was intrigued by this target - she reminded her so much of Yerim. Perhaps it was the whole ‘nerd doing nerdy things’ thing they both had going on. It filled her stomach with grief. Her stomach was twisted in knots. Or maybe she was just hungry. She couldn’t tell. When Seulgi didn’t answer, she finally casted her attention her way. “Seriously. What?”The younger girl’s head tilted. “Why are you always so angry? You’re gonna end up getting wrinkles.”Joohyun’s lips thinned. Seulgi’s eyes curved. She always carried this aura that suggested she had no care in the world. “I think It’s a shame, your smile is like, so pretty, I love it,” she twisted her body in the passenger seat, giving the assassin her full attention. “I think I’ve never seen you smile, though,” she remarked pensively. “Not genuinely, anyway.”“It’s a wonder you get anything done at all, you know.” Joohyun quipped, rolling her eyes and focusing back on the laptop screen, studying cameras because looking at Seulgi made her feel a plethora of things she had no intention of dismantling. “You talk. So much. At all time. Aren’t you tired?”A weird kind of silence settled after that, and if Joohyun bothered a little bit more about human trivialities like emotions she’d have worried she might have hurt the girl’s feelings. Yet she didn’t look up from the screen, not even when she felt the latter shift in her seat again.Until a warm hand settled against her cheek and red anger flashed in her eyes, that is. Muscle memory kicked in fast: in an instant she had her forearm pressing down Seulgi’s throat effectively constricting her windpipe. The gear stick pressed uncomfortably in her leg, she realized a second later. The small space the car allowed made it so hard to put distance between their faces. She was sitting on her lap.Joohyun felt the shuddered breath Seulgi let out so vividly it made her anger bubble like molten lava. Their eyes mirrored each other in intensity. The assassin knew that if she looked down, she’d find the agent smiling in triumph.“You keep telling me to shut up, unnie. Why don’t you do it yourself, then?” Seulgi swallowed, her pupils blown. Joohyun felt it as she pressed down harder, hard enough to make her moan. “Please?”Joohyun was Pompei and Mount Vesuvius all at once.

She liked Seulgi’s voice so much better when she was begging for it. __

“Okay. Tell me, do you remember my name?” “Yes. Kim Admin.” The girl grinned at her friend. “Eh, you know I meant my actual name.” “Yes. Kim Yerim.” Yerim celebrated with a fist pump. “Excellent!” She discarded the half-eaten protein bar on her desk in favor of seizing her keyboard. Fingers danced across it, a familiar waltz. “I think we’re all done here. I don’t think I have any more adjustments to make,” she mumbled more to herself than anyone else. “I think we can take you up online today. We need a name.” “Is Unnamed v67 not my name?” “Yeah but,” the girl’s ttongue darted to wet her lips. “That’s the name of the experiment, not yours precisely. You worked hard. You deserve a name of your own. A new beginning.” The screen of her laptop showed a thumbs up emoji that made her laugh. “Okay. How about-” Yerim looked up pensively, “What was again that word you taught me the other day? The one from the crosswords we played in the newspaper.” Unnamed v67 didn’t really answer as fast as a technology of its grandeur should’ve, and Yerim found herself briefly wondering if the AI God she created was capable of emotions such as gratefulness. Earlier evidence suggested as much. “Rêve.” The word had a ring to it. “Okay, Rêve. We’re going online, then. I’m excited. Might take a while, though.” She typed a few more lines before sitting back in her purple gamer seat, content. “So, do you wanna play chess?”