NO STRING ATTACHED - JENLISA

The Ghost in the Code

The silence is oppressive. No music. No banter. Just tension.

Seulgi looks up from the decrypted feed.

SEULGI
Rin had embedded failsafes. She was never allowed to go rogue. Someone let her.

ROSÉ
Or watched. Like it was... data collection.

JISOO
We were monitored, not protected.

Lisa stands by the window, still as stone. Jennie finally speaks.

JENNIE
This war — it wasn't a glitch in the system. It was the system. Built to test our response time. Our breaking points. Our capacity to choose loyalty over love.

The squad stares at her.

JISOO (quietly)
Who the hell raised you?

JENNIE (numb)
Two people who don't know what love is.

Lisa meets her eyes. They're both breaking and holding it in.

⸻

INT. KIM HYUN BIN'S OFFICE – NIGHT

Hyun Bin watches the Lisa-Jennie footage. Then switches to a new feed.

New Subject: SEULGI. Condition: Reactive loyalty.

Subject: JISOO. Condition: Mistrust index increasing.

Subject: LISA. Status: Variable. Unstable. Potential: Critical.

Son Ye Jin sips tea beside him, calm.

SON YE JIN
They're bonding. That wasn't part of the original algorithm.

KIM HYUN BIN
No. But it's producing more data than expected.

He rewinds the scene of Lisa refusing to touch Jennie's hand.

KIM HYUN BIN (CONT'D)
She's resisting instinct. Trying to be more than what we made.

SON YE JIN
And Jennie?

KIM HYUN BIN
She's already begun to rewrite the code.

He smiles. Cold. Calculating.

⸻

INT. SQUAD COMMON ROOM – LATER THAT NIGHT

The lights are dimmed. A quiet hum of machines fills the background.

Jennie sits at the edge of the long table, the printed file beside her — still untouched by the others. She stares ahead, blank, exhausted.

Lisa stands across the room, leaning against the wall, arms crossed tightly, body coiled.

Silence.

LISA
They trained me to fight wars.
(scoffs)
Didn't tell me I was one.

Jennie doesn't move, but her voice is steady.

JENNIE
You were the variable they needed.
Someone brilliant. Controlled. Conditioned.
But impossible to truly own.

Lisa's gaze sharpens.

LISA
And you? What were you?

Jennie slowly turns to her. Her eyes glint under the low light, not with tears — but with fury barely contained.

JENNIE
The observer.
The one who knew just enough to follow orders, but not enough to question them.

Lisa steps forward. Her voice cracks through the quiet.

LISA
And now you do.

JENNIE
Now I can't stop.

A beat.

LISA
That footage you showed me...
(swallows hard)
How long have you known?

JENNIE
Not long.
(pauses)
But the moment I saw your file...
I realized why you don't let anyone touch you.
Why you sleep with strangers and walk away before they know your name.

Lisa's jaw tightens.

LISA
Don't psychoanalyze me right now, Jennie.

JENNIE
I'm not.
I'm telling you I get it.

Lisa walks to the center of the room, restless.

LISA
You don't get it.
You had a family. A name.
You could've walked away from all this.

JENNIE
I tried.
(quiet)
But the only thing I couldn't walk away from...
was you.

Lisa freezes.

LISA
You don't mean that.

JENNIE
Don't I?

Lisa turns, and for once — the ever-unshakable Captain BLACK looks afraid. Not of Jennie. But of what this means.

LISA
I'm not who you think I am. I'm... programmed. Modified.
I don't even know what parts of me are real anymore.

Jennie rises. Crosses to her. Stands so close, Lisa has no choice but to look at her.

JENNIE
Then let's find out together.
I'm done being my father's spy.
Done being my mother's legacy.
And if I'm gonna burn this all down — I want you with me.

Lisa looks at her. Everything she's buried — the pain, the confusion, the years of not belonging — floods her eyes.

But all she says is:

LISA
What if I ruin you?

Jennie almost smiles. Almost.

JENNIE
Too late for that.

And for a second, Lisa leans forward. Their foreheads nearly touch. But then she pulls back — like she always does — the tension snapping tight again.

LISA
I'm still a weapon, Jennie.

JENNIE
Then point yourself at the right enemy.

Their eyes lock.

And somewhere high above them, in a surveillance node buried in Seoul's mainframe, a red dot blinks — recording.

Recording them.