Jennie and Lisa only left the lake because Jennie was afraid Lisa would end up getting hypothermia once the sun set.
Lisa was surprised no one came looking for them, considering Lisa was their leader and Jennie was basically the brains of their project but once they walked into the estate hand in hand and she noticed the house was too quiet she realized why.
"Where is everyone?" Jennie asked curiously.
"Probably taking one last day to slack off like we just did." Lisa said. She was sure of it. They had probably taken a well deserved break before continuing their big impossible project and huge mission.
It was sort of tradition that Thai soldiers had unspoken permission from the superiors to take the day off before anything that significant.
Considering Lisa disappeared on them, she figured they took it as permission too. Lisa knew they must have worked on what they could without them and then called it a day.
Lisa was happy they did, they needed a break. They'd been working nonstop for months. If it wasn't one thing it was another. Running for their lives, rescue missions, revenge missions, even love missions that one time when they ran a whole operation so that Jisoo wouldn't marry Haein for Jisoo and Rosie's sake.
It was endless. Now they were going to embark on their toughest mission yet for the next few weeks. Stopping a war and getting their second lieutenant back, and that was going to entail of mostly sleepless nights if they had any hope of succeeding. One night off wasn't so bad for morale.
"To the cellar!"
Lisa and Jennie turned, recognizing Jisoo's voice.
Jisoo was being held up by Jackson and Lucas, who were both giggling and holding ridiculously massive palm leaves, probably taken from Jisoo's garden, on their outside hands that weren't helping hold Jisoo up and fanning her as they carried her on their shoulders to the cellar.
"Halt." Jisoo demanded to the boys when she noticed Jennie and Lisa in the entrance hall. Jackson and Lucas both stopped walking immediately as they continued fanning her.
Jennie giggled at Jisoo's seriousness as she appraised them.
"How drunk are you?" Lisa asked, laughing too. It was winter and really chilly outside yet here she was having the boys fan her like it was a hundred degrees and not below forty.
"On a scale of one to Felix," Jisoo said thoughtfully, "Definitely Felix." She said seriously.
Jennie snorted. She had witnessed Felix after one drink after all, the boy's tolerance was non existent.
"Anyway, you sickening love birds, you can either go upstairs and defile the room I gifted you just like you just did with my precious lake and continue on with your sexcapades, or go to the backyard and join all of us and get shwasty with us on our last day of freedom." Jisoo said unceremoniously.
Jisoo may be tipsy, but it didn't take a genius to know what they'd been doing.
She didn't even bother to ask why their hair was wet or to point out how Jennie's neck looked like it had been mauled by a bear. It was obvious they'd been getting it on in the water.
"And you're judging me for being drunk." Jisoo said, shaking her head. "Bet that water was freezing but you two were too busy moaning to notice." Jisoo mumbled under her breath.
Jennie blushed because she still heard what she said. Drunk mumbling Jisoo was just as loud as sober regular speaking Jisoo.
Lisa really wanted to go upstairs and continue where they left off, but she had asked Jennie's mom to have dinner with her and then accidentally ditched her in the chaos of things.
Lisa looked to Jennie, pouting and looking incredibly conflicted.
Jennie squeezed her hand and kissed Lisa on the cheek.
"Go shower quickly, then you can go outside so you can talk to my mommy and hear those stories you wanted her to tell you about your parents." Jennie said, immediately understanding Lisa's struggle.
Lisa got a devious look in her eye as soon as Jennie said that and leaned in to whisper into Jennie's ear.
"Do you want to save water and shower with me? It'll be nice and warm in there, not like the lake." Lisa rasped out suggestively and Jennie shivered as Lisa's breath hit the shell of her ear, or maybe because of her words, she wasn't sure. Either way, they both left her flustered.
"I don't even need to hear what she just said to know what she just said." Jisoo said making a look of disgust on her face and shaking her head. "Onwards slaves. I can no longer witness this depravity without losing the contents of my stomach. Then I'd have to work twice as hard to keep my level of intoxication."
"Why do you sound like you just time traveled from three hundred years ago you weirdo?!" Lisa quipped back.
"Use the guest bath farthest from my room you heathens!" Jisoo shouted back, ignoring Lisa's question as the boys carried her down to the cellar. "I refuse to be within fifty feet of your unholy deeds!"
Truthfully, Jisoo was enjoying her little dorky role at pretending to be a pompous queen. She'd only kept it going because Rosie had fallen into a fit of giggles as Jisoo called everyone peasants and demanded they tend to her, so Jisoo kept it going in order to make her girlfriend laugh.
She kind of really fell into the role a few drinks in though, hence why Jackson and Lucas were literally carrying her to the cellar and using palm leaves to fan her, playing into her game, because Jisoo refused to walk to fetch her best wine because of course queens shouldn't have to lift a finger.
Jennie blushed but she still gave in to Lisa and they showered together.
Though there wasn't much showering involved for about an hour because as expected, Lisa looked at Jennie with hungry eyes under the lights and despite feeling flustered, Jennie was turned on.
She tried to hide the scars from her stomach from Lisa as much as possible as they jumped in. She was very self conscious over them. Lisa looked at her knowingly and whispered into her ear as she pressed herself flush to Jennie, hugging her from behind as the water rained on them.
"You're beautiful Nini. I have them too, remember? You didn't think me any less beautiful because of my scars did you? Even though I kept getting them."
Jennie shook her head no, but Lisa could tell she still looked self conscious. Jennie grabbed the soap as Lisa still held her from behind and continued whispering in her ear, refusing to let her go.
"Do you know why I love those scars so much?" Lisa asked as she ran her hands gently over Jennie's scarred stomach.
"No," Jennie said timidly.
"They make me feel so proud of you. I hate what she did to you. I'd rather you not have them at all, but that's solely because it means you wouldn't have suffered so much. You wouldn't have been hurt by her, not because of the way they look. But you did suffer, and they're there, and you survived." Lisa touched the deepest one, the one right over Jennie's appendix.
"And to me, they're beautiful, because they help me realize how strong you really are. I know this might sound wrong, but they give me a kind of twisted sense of peace.
I hate that you were forced to have them. I hate that you were in pain. But when I see them, I'm grateful there's a mark to show me how truly formidable you are.
My fear lessens.
That fear that I've had ever since I met you, the fear that tricked me into thinking that despite you being so damn smart, it still convinced me that you're too small and fragile and that you need someone there to save you. That you need a hero to protect you 24/7.
That fear goes away, when I see those scars. Because you don't need a hero, you're your own hero. You don't even need me, and the relief that gives me helps me sleep at night, knowing you can take care of yourself and fight until the end without me, even though I'll always make sure not to ever leave you without me nonetheless. Despite knowing you can fend for yourself.
You're so strong my angel. Look at all she did to you and you still survived.
The amount of mental and physical strength that would have taken is unfathomable to me. Who could say that? Who could be on the brink of death like you and still make it?" Lisa said, turning Jennie around to face her now.
"You." Jennie whispered into Lisa's lips, snaking her own hands to touch the scars from where Lisa had been shot.
Lisa shook her head.
"These were nothing compared to you." Lisa whispered back, claiming Jennie's lips. She worked her way down her neck and her breasts and much like Jennie had done before with her, Lisa kissed every single scar before she hooked one of Jennie's legs over her shoulders and paid special attention to her center, wanting to make Jennie feel good as Lisa used one hand to caress the bumps of her scars.
They took a little too long in the shower after that and by then everyone was well on the way to Felix scale of drunk, except, surprisingly, Felix.
Only because Jisoo had took it upon herself to find him her least potent wine because he refused to drink, knowing he'd just pass out. His cheeks were very rosy but over all he was the one slurring the least.
"Impressive." Lisa told him as she ruffled his hair.
"I wrote a formula of how fast the alcohol metabolizes in my body and adjusted it to my size and general tolerance based on my history and so now I've found the sweet spot and only take a drink every thirty minutes. I've had four and haven't passed out yet!" Felix said merrily.
"Leave it to you to use math to hack drinking." Lisa said fondly.
Felix shrugged giddily and ran off practically skipping, happy that for once in his life he wasn't missing the party as he joined the party. He usually just had to stay sober the entire time to enjoy them but now he knew how everyone felt when they talked about being tipsy.
Lisa spotted Irene as she watched Felix run to Rosie.
"I want to be glued to your side all night, but I need to get an update from Irene about Bammy, see if she's gotten anywhere, is that okay?" Lisa asked Jennie. "You don't have to come with me of course."
Jennie leaned up to peck her on the lips.
"I need to talk to Hoyeon anyway. She might be able to help get access to some of the things we need to build that cell." Jennie said, spotting the doctor too. "Do your thing baby."
"I love you." Lisa said as she reluctantly parted from Jennie.
"Irene."
"Lisa, hey. Good thing you're finally here. This is my girlfriend Seulgi."
Lisa was mildly surprised at how loose Irene was being, introducing her to her girlfriend and being friendly, usually Irene was all business.
She supposed that was fair considering they weren't in a professional setting at the moment, giving the raging party getting progressively more hectic around them.
Besides, that drink in her hand looked suspiciously like Jackson's hooch, and no professional was capable of being professional on Jackson's hooch so she really shouldn't have been surprised even if it was Irene, she just hadn't expected it.
"Hey Seulgi, nice to meet you." Lisa greeted her, Seulgi returned the sentiments.
"I'm sorry about Bambam. I hope you're not upset Irene told me about what's going on with him. She's usually way more rigidly professional than that and doesn't tell even me about her clients but that hooch really got to her I think and she kind of let it slip." Seulgi said honestly. "It's my fault, I dared her to drink it when Jackson offered it to us."
Lisa managed to laugh because no one ever stood a chance against Jackson's hooch, no matter how rigid they were.
"It's okay, I really don't know what he puts in that stuff. I swear his hooch could knock a three hundred pound muscle head soldier down in just five drinks."
"Too bad you can't spike the entire base with it so you can get Bambam back. They'd stand no chance against you guys." Seulgi joked.
Lisa laughed along with her, but something in the back of her mind thought that might not be such a bad idea at this rate, with the way things were going.
Seulgi cleared her throat.
"All jokes aside. I really am sorry. I get how crazy you must be going right now, how helpless I know you feel. Trust me. I'm not even just saying that. My older brother was put to trial and was executed in that same base for deserting his post.
That's how I met Irene, if only I had met her sooner, he'd still be alive. She found evidence that he hadn't gone A.W.O.L after all when I tried to get his name cleared after they killed him. There were records of him serving under Colonel Yu's regiment when she took over the base.
My brother of course didn't approve of her methods. She's very sadistic. He spoke up and confronted her. She shot him down and told him this was war, and that extraordinary measures should always be taken in war.
So he lodged a complaint about her to the higher ups, documenting all of her sadism and the way she continued to break human rights law, and not just against their perceived enemy because she didn't hesitate to torture Korean soldiers that didn't fall in line with her either. That detailed report ultimately got him tortured and killed.
I'm really rooting for Bambam. It will feel like redemption for my brother if someone managed to get out from under her clutches. She's worse than the angel of death, no remorse, she doesn't even care if she's hurting her own people."
Lisa didn't really know what to say, she was about to say she was sorry about her brother's death but Seulgi cut her off.
"I know you are, and I'd rather not have to say that to you too in a few weeks. So how about I tell you what I know about the Colonel and maybe it might save him. I don't want it to be too late for him too."
Lisa nodded sympathetically, her heart aching for the loss of her brother, she briefly reached out to squeeze Seulgi's hand before sitting down in front of Seulgi and Irene, who took the lounge chairs across from her.
"Colonel Yu?" Lisa asked. "That surname sounds familiar, somehow I doubt it's a coincidence we launched an operation against a certain General Yu and now you're here talking about a Colonel Yu."
"Yes, I expect that's why Irene got over her fear of practical strangers knowing about our relationship and actually brought me here and let them see proof I actually exist." Seulgi joked. "I'm sure she was hoping Bambam would come up in conversation and I'd tell you about her. Seems you've had experience with her family already."
Seulgi looked to her girlfriend. Irene looked a little guilty, but nodded in confirmation. Of course Seulgi would have seen right through her plans. They'd been together forever. Despite them keeping their relationship a secret for Irene's career's sake, they hardly spent any waking moment when neither of them were without each other.
To everyone but her most trusted of people, Seulgi was just Irene's best friend, and everyone knew they were attached at the hip. Only the lucky few knew they were together.
Seulgi didn't mind it, times were tough for same sex couples in Korea, they always had been, but especially now in times of war. People found any excuse to blame the war on the outcasts or to throw them under the bus to save themselves.
Seulgi was a journalist, she'd already had to publish one too many articles on the deaths of the people who didn't fit the status quo because people thought they didn't need to live and that they were taking resources from who they deemed were the productive members of society who were apparently suffering because those people existed.
She'd had to be careful, she couldn't outright write it, but educated people would have noted the political undertones in her articles as she reported the facts.
The last article she wrote about that reported about the massive food shortages happening across the country, making people starve to death due to the war clearly also pointed out the rising violence against those who didn't meet the status quo because they weren't being 'productive members of society.'
Namely, that included anyone from a mixed family, because no one trusted foreigners these days, anyone that wasn't straight, unmarried women past the age of thirty five or married women that couldn't produce children, Seulgi had very sarcastically pointed out that clearly it was their fault, not their husband's for not being able to bear children, so that her clueless editor would let the article through.
He missed the sarcasm and cynicism and let her publish it, it was one of her proudest moments because it was very obvious she wasn't being serious about solely placing the blame on women.
That list also included women that had too many children, because food was scarce, and 'clearly' that was also their fault, for having too many kids so the whole country was suffering for it. It included single mothers, because a woman with a child that didn't have a man in Korea meant something was wrong with her.
Men, women, and children with mental health issues. Poor people, because they weren't paying taxes apparently, they were lazy bums living off of the hard working people's backs. Homeless people, even the ones that had worked their whole lives and just lost their homes to the war and had no where to go. It included orphans.
The pointing of the fingers were endless. The people that had the means to prey on the weak and vulnerable spewed violent rhetoric for the lack of food or the lack of resources and Seulgi could have written an article every day of the week for the last year of how many cruel attacks, verbal, and physical those groups of people had endured.
Maybe they would have been braver before, coming out, but in these times, their jobs were more important than standing up for their love. Irene helped the helpless by defending them. Seulgi did her best to expose the corruption for the helpless with the subtle undertones in her articles.
More often than not, her editor rejected what she wrote, calling it too flagrant. So despite wanting to shout from the rooftops that Irene was her girlfriend, not just her roommate and best friend, keeping their reputation was important because she knew she'd be kicked out of the most reputable newspaper in Korea in two seconds flat if he found out she was with a woman.
Her work was too important, Irene's was even more important in her opinion.
Besides, Seulgi knew Irene wasn't ashamed of her, and she'd throw away her career for her without hesitation if Seulgi even said the word and asked her to acknowledge her as her significant other, but Seulgi never thought it needed to come to that. They would cross that bridge when they needed to come to it. She was happy despite having to hide their love. They both were.
Seulgi had everything. They lived together, behind closed doors Irene showed her love without hesitation. It almost made it more intense considering they weren't able to do so otherwise. It never lulled, they appreciated each other even more because they weren't allowed the luxury to love in public.
Not to mention, Seulgi found it kind of funny knowing Irene's family loved her, the woman that was practically married to their daughter and that they would probably have a heart attack when they found out just how close they were.
She was pretty sure Irene's dad's brain would short circuit when he realized all these years of him doting on Seulgi and trying to set her up with his friend's sons, that this entire time, Seulgi had been dating his own daughter and that the fact they were together was also why Irene, as beautiful and intelligent as she was, had refused countless of suitors, no matter how handsome, rich, or kind they might have been.
Seulgi had to admit, if Irene were straight, there were some serious contenders. She would have felt nervous they would steal her away because even she could admit some were incredibly generous, respectful and smart, which was exactly Irene's type. They would have been worthy of her, but Irene never looked twice at any man because she'd always had Seulgi.
"Anyway, Irene's never been the most patient of people so she blurted it out to me once she got to her second drink and told me about Bambam." Seulgi continued.
"Lisa, Colonel Yu is dangerous. I'm sorry, I hate to be the one to say this, though I'm sure you've probably already had your own suspicions, but Bambam is absolutely being tortured at this very moment. I have no doubt about it.
I received a letter from my brother after he died, it had been delayed in the post. He'd sent it before they convicted him.
He told me all about her. She tortures for fun but she's worse than the angel of death because she's ambitious too. She wants to be made general and all signs point to that being the case soon."
"Her base is the only one gaining ground." Irene chimed in. "Everyone else has suffered massive casualties. Even on her missions, when she sends them down to the Kumi line, she's the only one making progress. She hasn't failed in a single mission yet since she became Colonel."
"You think they're just going to make her General just like that? There's rankings within Generals in the Korean military too, it would make more sense she'd get promoted to Lieutenant General first, not General of the army." Lisa reasoned.
She might not be Korean military but that's how most militaries worked. There were usually five different classes of General before you were promoted to be the main leader of an entire branch of the military. That was true in most countries with strong militaries.
"They'll be making her General in a few weeks. There's no doubt about it." Irene answered.
"How do you know all of this? Neither of you are even in the military." Lisa said skeptically.
Irene motioned for a young girl to come over.
"This is my assistant, Ryujin." Irene introduced her once she approached them.
"Huh," Ryujin said, tweaking her head to the side as soon as Lisa stood up to greet her. "You look tall. Why are you so tall when you're not even that tall?" Ryujin said immediately as she observed her.
"Um—what?" Lisa asked in confusion, at a loss for words.
"Ignore her, she's brilliant, but she has no filter." Irene said. "She kind of just blurts out whatever she's thinking at the moment."
"I think it's the legs. It's the legs, right Seulgs?" Ryujin asked Seulgi, turning to her and ignoring Irene's comment. "According to her records she's five six, and I'm five five so why does it seem like she's towering over me even though she's really not. It's gotta be the long legs right?"
Seulgi sighed and simply patted Ryujin on the head, shaking her head at her. She held out her arm to grab Ryujin's empty cup from her hands.
"I'll get you a refill." Seulgi responded and walked away.
"Oh, thanks Unnie." Ryujin said, smiling.
"How is it that you know my records?" Lisa asked Ryujin suspiciously.
"This is going to be a very long story, so do you mind if I wait to tell you once Seulgi gets back with my refill?"
Lisa shrugged and looked around the crowd of rowdy soldiers, trying to spot Jennie.
Jisoo had ordered Jackson and Lucas to build them a bonfire because it was getting chillier, but mostly because Rosie had wanted marshmallows. Rosie was currently sitting on Jisoo's lap, talking animatedly to Felix as they roasted their marshmallows.
Haein was in his own little bubble with Youngro. They were sitting next to Jisoo too and Lisa had to tweak her head to the side because in the light of the fire, Youngro and Jisoo looked like literal twins. Come to mention it, Haein looked like a male version of Jisoo too.
She vaguely wondered if maybe all rich people just look the same. She shook herself out of her thoughts as she scanned everyone, trying to find the person she had intended to find in the first place.
She finally caught Jennie's eye, who was sitting across from them all with her mom and Hoyeon.
Lisa sent Jennie a wink. Jennie lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers at her in a cute little wave, grinning her bubbly gummy smile. Lisa mouthed a Be there soon to her and Jennie nodded, smiling warmly, their eyes staring for a little too long before Jennie finally found a way to break the eye contact because her mother had said something to her.
Lisa was pretty glad it was cold out and Jennie had opted to wear a scarf around her neck after their shower because Lisa would have been quite embarrassed if Scarlett saw just what Lisa had done to her precious daughter's neck in the hours they had been out.
Seulgi got back right at that moment holding three drinks, handing one to Lisa and one to Ryujin.
"Thanks." Lisa said, taking a small sip.
Lisa's mouth dropped as she watched Ryujin down hers in one go.
"Dude, that's not a regular drink. That's Jackson's hooch, you can't do that unless you wanna die." Lisa couldn't help but blurt out.
Sure, Ryujin wasn't as small as Jennie or Jisoo. She was taller, but she was still skinny as hell and downing a drink like that while being so small was likely to have her passed out faster than even Felix.
Ryujin shrugged nonchalantly, "I've chugged like five of these already, they're not that bad."
Lisa didn't believe her at all.
"There's no way." Lisa countered back.
"I know right." Seulgi said. "But she really has, I counted them myself. Her tolerance is no joke."
Lisa still looked at them skeptically.
"Anyway, I think I may be of service to you. Irene said you guys had a half baked plan to get your soldier out and stop the war." Ryujin said, dismissing the whole hooch conversation.
"Right." Lisa drawled out.
"Well, I'm about to sound really lame right now, but I'm the oven you've been looking for."
"What?" Lisa asked, looking more perplexed by the second.
"You know, to bake the plan fully." Ryujin said nonchalantly, as if that was obvious.
"Again, brilliant, but odd." Seulgi said, giggling towards Ryujin as she took a sip of her drink.
Lisa did the same.
"Honestly, this is just a testament that there are larger forces at work. Like fate." Ryujin said, immediately getting side tracked.
"Because really, the fact I met the very person that needs me, and you're the very person we need. Through a random connection with a lawyer that's trying to save your best friend, not to mention the fact my practical adoptive mother knows your girlfriend and she's the whole reason I got into this field in the first place.
That should be proof enough there's some grand design or a goddess or something.
Either that, or it's just a small world. Statistically though, the odds of us having those connections and it being a coincidence are kind of impossible. There are 2.5 billion people in the world right now. 22 million of those people reside in Korea and 20 million in Thailand.
The odds of us having such close ties to each other and randomly meeting without those ties being the ones who introduced us and us meeting by chance are virtually impossible.
Yet, here we are.
Sure, there's that idea of six degrees of separation. You know it right? Everyone in the world is connected by six or fewer acquaintances. Still. There's way too much overlap, I bet if I modeled it the chances this would statistically be possible would be slim to none.
Honestly, I should model it. Maybe write a paper on how 'coincidences' are just a minuscule part of a larger proof of the existence of a higher intelligence. It obviously couldn't stand on its own, the logical fallacies with that as being the single proof is too grand but—"
"Ryujin, can we philosophize after we get this thing done?" Irene said in frustration, used to Ryujin's little rants. She loved the girl, but as brilliant as she was, sometimes she was too smart for her own good and she had her head in the clouds and tended to lose focus.
"Oh right, sorry, anyway. I hear you want to turn yourself in to the Thai's, I can facilitate that and get you to the right people, to the people you can influence about that energy cell you're trying to make."
"How do you even know about that?" Lisa said, looking to Irene accusingly, feeling frustrated. "People knowing about it is dangerous Irene. I get you trust her but you should have come to us first. We told you that in confidence. I thought you knew how serious this all was."
"She already knew about it." Irene said, cutting Lisa off. She had honestly expected a more explosive reaction, but she knew the entire thing was probably taking a toll on Lisa. She looked like she hadn't slept properly in days. The stress was more than likely taking a toll on her energy levels.
"Remember how I told you about the woman I consider my mother, even though she's only twelve years older than me, the one that knows your girlfriend?" Ryujin asked, but she didn't let Lisa respond. "She's a defector. She works for your country now. Her name is Jessica Ho. She's the head of Thai intelligence."
Lisa looked to Jennie, who was giggling along with her mother and Hoyeon.
"Hold that thought." Lisa told Ryujin.
Lisa walked to Jennie's group. As much as she didn't want to break their fun because this was supposed to be a day off, it seemed too important. She needed Jennie.
Lisa adressed Jennie's mom first.
"Ms. Scarlett, sorry about ditching our dinner."
"Oh honey, that's quite all right. Jennie already explained that she distracted you. We can do it another time. Besides, we're having such a great time as a group."
Lisa looked to Jennie gratefully. She reached a hand out for her, pulling her up.
"Baby, I hate to be a buzzkill, but I kind of need you right now."
Jennie raised an eyebrow at Lisa, smirking at how that sounded. Usually Jennie was the one to blush in these types of situations but when her mother was present, Jennie always had the upper hand over Lisa.
"Not like that." Lisa said hastily, glancing towards Scarlett in embarrassment, thankfully, she was too busy talking to Hoyeon to hear what she said.
Jennie giggled at Lisa's flustered state. Lisa had absolutely no shame in that regard unless it was around her mother. She couldn't even peck Jennie on the cheek around Scarlett without blushing.
Jennie knew that's not how Lisa had meant it so for once, Jennie wasn't the one to blush and took her opportunity to tease Lisa instead.
"Okay." Jennie finally said once the giggles died down. She leaned down and hugged her mom. "Mommy, I'll be right back. Lisa has her serious face on." Jennie said, giggling even more. "So whatever it is it must be important."
"You drank Jackson's hooch didn't you?" Lisa said in amusement, noticing Jennie's flushed cheeks and the fact she was giggling more than normal and being very playful clued her in on her tipsiness. "I leave you alone for fifteen minutes and you're tipsy already."
"It's Hoyeoni's fault!" Jennie said pouting, pointing cutely at Hoyeon who made a solemn face and shook her head no vigorously, trying to wash herself of the blame. "She made me drink as punishment because I kept her waiting. I didn't even know you were coming." Jennie said indignantly to Hoyeon, who just laughed in response after that.
She was a bit tipsy too.
"Go be serious with your girlfriend!" Hoyeon said, shooing them. "I'm learning from a genius right now and you're interrupting."
Scarlett had slowly started regaining fractured memories ever since Jennie first visited her and once she recognized Lisa after she witnessed her throwing her knives, a lot more came coming back.
There were still major gaps in her memory but it was more than she had remembered in years so she had currently been telling Hoyeon and Jennie how she thought she had developed the formula that Hoyeon administered to Jennie while she was in her coma.
Lisa led Jennie by the hand to Ryujin, Irene and Seulgi.
"Do you know a woman named Jessi?" Lisa asked Jennie as they walked to them. "Her full name is Jessica Ho."
Jennie furrowed her brows as she wracked her brain to see if the name was familiar.
"I'm sure I've met a Jessi before, but I can't recall anyone by that name. Was she a patient of mine? I usually remember my patients." Jennie said, feeling bad. She figured Lisa would only ask about her if the woman had ties to Jennie.
Lisa frowned.
That fact alone, the fact Jennie didn't know who Jessi was already killing Ryujin's credibility for her. But Lisa decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, because she trusted Jisoo and Jisoo didn't tolerate bullshit. Jisoo trusted Irene and by extension Ryujin so Lisa figured they would hear them out together before she made any judgement calls.
Lisa sat down in front of them again, pulling Jennie down with her.
"She doesn't know a Jessi." Lisa said immediately.
Ryujin put down the new drink she had just chugged again and Lisa was seriously impressed with this girl's tolerance.
"Sorry, I don't usually drink. I have too much work to do normally so when I get the chance to relax I don't hold back." Ryujin apologized to Lisa, then looked to Jennie. "Well you look exactly how she described you, but in, bigger form."
Ryujin said, using her hands to indicate Jennie was taller than three feet now. Ryujin knew exactly who Lisa had brought back despite never meeting her before, even before Lisa spoke.
The sight of Ryujin motioning to her height would have been comical if Jennie wasn't so confused.
"Who?"
"Jessi."
"I don't know who that is."
"Well you wouldn't would you? You were way too young and ye high." Ryujin quipped back, using her hand to measure out three feet from the ground again.
"I'm not following."
"Jessi was your babysitter. Well, actually, her mother was. Jessi was way too young back then to babysit you unsupervised.
Her mom had the job, but she was just basically there to make sure you didn't get hurt and so you would eat and to make sure Jessi got you into bed on time. You never listened to her, Jessi was the one you always listened to. She was like your older sister.
Your parents hired Jessi's mom on the spot when she came over for an interview. They had gotten a grant to do some research and needed someone to keep an eye out for you since you weren't in school yet while they worked.
They hired her because of Jessi. She was very capable of taking care of you of course, but she was afraid your parents wouldn't hire her because she had to bring Jessi along. She had to homeschool her, I'll let Jessi get into why that was later. It's her story to tell if she wants to.
Not the point.
The point is you were a menace, and Jessi caught you sneaking in to the lab during her mother's interview, holding a blowtorch and she managed to talk you down by asking you how it worked and asking you to show her.
Apparently that's how she got you to stop doing dangerous things all of the time, so your parents trusted them enough to let you stay with them for a month while they went to Thailand, because Jessi was the only one that could talk you down, by distracting you and having you explain things to her.
Not even your parents could do that most of the time. You never listened and always copied their experiments and put yourself in danger until they'd have Jessi come over and she'd gently ask you not to do things without her. It kept you from running off too much on your own without supervision."
"Okay, while that may track, what does this have to do with our situation?" Lisa interjected.
"Several reasons actually. For one, Jessi's the one you were going to try to turn yourself into right?"
"Yeah."
"I can send a coded message for you. I can communicate with her. So you'll be safer than if you just show up at a Thai base and ask to see the head of intelligence. You know they'll just arrest you first and there'll be lots of bureaucratic tape before you could even talk to someone that can get you in contact with her. Time is of the essence for you isn't it? Sure you might get a message to her eventually, but by then it would be too late for your soldier."
"Okay, that is helpful." Lisa conceded.
"Secondly, the reason Jessi even defected was because of the murder of Jennie's parents. Her mother was the one that found Baek-Hyeon dead. They were supposed to baby sit Jennie that day only to find that Jennie was gone, Scarlett was no where to be found, and the kind man that she respected was laying dead in the middle of their lab with his brains blown out.
Jessi's mother went to jail for his murder.
She called it in. She called the cops when she found him dead. They didn't suspect her at first, but since there were still no other suspects a few weeks after that they took her in.
They were poor. The Kims paid them really well, much more than what anyone would have paid a babysitter, but Jessi's uncle had passed years before and her father inherited his debt. He had been a gambling man, he had too much that he owed. They had no chance to pay it back once Jessi's father passed too. They had no chance even before then and Ms. Ho was too proud to ask for help.
Jessi swears up and down that your parents would have definitely helped them get out of that hole. They were good people. They would have freely given her money, or loaned it to her if she was that proud but her mom refused to ask." Ryujin said, addressing Jennie now.
"Anyway, because of that debt she couldn't afford to get out of jail. She couldn't afford bail. She couldn't afford a lawyer.
The court appointed lawyer she got was awful. She died in there, a month in. The conditions were too harsh. She had been a healthy woman, according to Jessi, but the stress of leaving her eleven year old daughter to fend for herself, the stress of knowing that even if she did get out she probably wouldn't find a job, all of it ended up killing her.
I'm not sure what the official cause of death was, if she was murdered in there for the little things she had because she was slowly becoming weak, or if she had a heart attack or a stroke, Jessi doesn't talk about it, but all of that definitely led up to her death.
It clearly wasn't Scarlett who had killed her husband, but any lawyer could have gotten Jessi's mother off of the charges by pointing out that Scarlett was missing, and that Jennie was suddenly gone and Scarlett's husband had been shot. Even if it wasn't the truth. He could have at least made it so she wasn't taken in because in reality Scarlett was the better suspect. She should have taken priority.
He did the bare minimum, he stopped working the case once she was taken in altogether and told her to just plead guilty.
Jessi knew Aeri, but Aeri didn't know Jessi. She had no idea someone out there knew she had managed to take over Scarlett's identity.
She asked me to apologize to you Jennie, for not getting you out of that house. She tried. No one believed her. Who'd believe the daughter of a supposed convicted murderer and kidnapper, especially when she was that young. She was shipped off to a shitty orphanage far from Seoul and as soon as she was old enough to age out of it she joined the Thai's.
She had valuable information, having worked in your parents house, so they accepted her into their ranks. She's the reason they even found out about the angel of death.
Jessi's very clever and she was the first to piece it together. She discovered that there was a man butchering Thai soldiers for medical research, it's part of the reason why she's the youngest head of intelligence officer in Thai history."
"Wait, wait, if she knew about that damn research why didn't she tell anyone about it? Why didn't she tell Thailand about the bomb Aeri was trying to make?" Lisa cut in.
"She didn't know Lisa. She was young. She knew about the energy cell. She knew Jennie's parents went to Buri Ram. She pieced together that they were killed over that research, but she thought it was because of the earning potential of it.
She didn't find out about the fact there was a secret facility trying to use that stolen research to make a bomb until I found out for her when I traced a lead to try to find Aeri once Kim Chul was killed. She had been pretty much a ghost up until then, even as Scarlett."
"No offense, but you look barely twenty, if that. How would you have even found that out?" Lisa asked looking skeptical.
"Twenty two actually, and it's the same reason why women can beat men in a physical fight despite them being larger and stronger.
They underestimate me. I'm young. I'm a woman. Not to mention all I have to do is play the part of the poor orphan with no money or brains for people to dismiss me.
Kim Chul was killed at the Kumi base and it was the military's obligation to notify the next of kin that a civilian working at their base had died. It was easy to find her after that, watch her, and see where she worked.
Do you know how long it took me to figure out what was happening in that lab? One week. One measly week working as the cleaning lady. One week of collecting trash to learn all there was to know."
Lisa couldn't help but be impressed.
"Jessi had a plan. You beat us to it. That's how you got on our radar. There had been chatter from the Kumi base about the angel of death trying to capture the military princess and his own daughter.
Jessi thought Jennie was dead up until then. She knew about you of course, you're a legend in the Thai military but up until that point you weren't of much importance to her."
"Gee thanks." Lisa grumbled.
"Not like that. The point is she thought you were just another soldier. An exceptional soldier. A very skilled one at that of course, the best to come through the training, there was no denying that, but she didn't defect so she could kill. She defected so she could stop the war with the least amount of casualties.
She didn't need you for that. Everyone saw you as the perfect killing machine. Jessi didn't need a killing machine.
Then suddenly the Kumi base was gone and a few weeks later the lab gets exploded. The lab that she wanted to get rid of as soon as I found out what went on there so she could stop that bomb from being made. It clicked to her why suddenly Scarlett and Baek-Hyeon had abandoned their precious project.
Suddenly you were valuable for more than killing because we realized your views aligned with ours more than we initially thought. Then, a little more undercover work from my end and I find out you've been doing all of this with none other than Jennie Kim.
Not too long after, Jisoo and Irene contact me to see if there's a way I can help a certain soldier stuck in jail get some decent papers so they can save him and get him out of there.
My forger, Moonbyul is very discreet you see, no matter what she finds in their history while she does her best to do her work, but if she finds something that can ruin the validity of those papers she'd be sure to let me know so she can warn our client.
It didn't take us long to figure out that Bambam was Thai, and that he had even been in the same unit as Lisa.
The connections were all too coincidental, and too convenient for all of us.
On paper, I officially work for Irene, who is really close with Jisoo who is apparently very close friends with the both of you too.
I do undercover work for Jessi, who used to babysit Jennie long ago and is still incredibly fond of her. I do work for a woman that I consider as my mother who defected to the Thai army because her mother was framed for Jennie's father's murder. Now she heads the intelligence for the army that Lisa belongs to. The army that Lisa is famous in.
There's two factions right now, according to Jessi. Half the Thai army thinks you've either been captured or killed doing something heroic, the other half are still pissed a woman has broken most of their records and are using anything to slander you. If you go back, that half is the one we have to watch out for, because they can be easily manipulated.
This is why you need me. You can't just show up to a Thai base. Even with me and Jessi, they'll still do their worst to intervene but if we coordinate with Jessi the chances they'll kill you or try to scapegoat you are slimmer."
"Dusik said he doubted they would kill me. I know this sounds conceited, especially because I don't believe it myself, but he said they thought I was too valuable to them to want to kill me." Lisa said.
"You were. You are. More useful than ever before actually, unfortunately, you may be more useful to them dead than alive now though."
"What do you mean?" Jennie asked sharply, gripping Lisa's arm tight as if someone might steal her away and kill her at any second.
Lisa noticed and turned to kiss Jennie on the temple quickly to pacify her before turning to Ryujin again. Jennie clutched on to Lisa tighter and Lisa started rubbing circles into the back of her hand.
"There's a soldier in the intelligence branch, Manaying, he had been vying for the job Jessi was appointed to for over a decade. He lost it when they appointed her instead of him a couple of years ago. He's angry she got it over him considering she's way younger than him and Korean and has been in the service for way less time than him.
As you know, the tide of the war has been turning in Thailand's favor, and he's used that to his advantage. He's using all of the lost soldiers, Lisa especially, to rally support, building up morale with the troops by focusing around you. He started with trying to find you so they would be motivated to fight."
"So why would he want me dead then?" Lisa asked in confusion.
"It's marketing. He's been doing it for weeks now. He's moved on from trying to find you, declaring you dead at the hands of the ruthless Koreans. His words, not mine, though we have been ruthless." Ryujin admitted.
"He's using the 'death' of their precious military princess to rally the troops. They're using your absence as a cause. He's lauding you a hero. It's genius really. He's made you a martyr. They've given you credit for Kumi, for the death of the angel of death who killed and tortured thousands of Thai's. They don't know about Aeri or they probably would have given you credit for that too.
Why do you think thousands of Thai soldiers mercilessly killed civilians without a second thought? They bombed a whole school with children with no remorse. He's slowly brainwashing them, using your image."
"So you're saying the reason my little soldier and Haesook are dead is because of me." Lisa said, almost whimpering, gripping Jennie's hand so tight she was probably cutting off her circulation.
"No, its because of him. I'm still looking Lisa, they may have made it. They could still be alive."
Lisa shook her head, doubting that a kid that wasn't even yet six years old and a sixty year old woman could have made it out after reading the numbers and seeing the pictures in the newspapers. Everything was gone.
Ryujin didn't know what to say about that anymore so she just continued.
"It's his fault all of those children and innocent civilians are dead. He's making grandiose speeches to thousands of troops, begging them to avenge the hero that turned the tide to the war. He's brainwashing them. At this rate, we'll have a genocide on our hands."
Just when Lisa thought things couldn't get any worse.
She looked to Jennie, she could tell she was trying her best to hold her tongue and not tell Lisa not to go.
"If you go, its very important we get you to Jessi. If Manaying gets his hands on you, you're as good as dead. He's built too much momentum with your image of the hero that sacrificed everything for her people for you to suddenly pop up alive."
"Wouldn't that just make her even more useful though, even more of a rallying cause for the Thai troops. The martyr that sacrificed everything and against all odds still managed to come back alive like a phoenix rising from the ashes?" Seulgi pointed out. "I'm no soldier, but if I heard those grandiose stories and suddenly found out our hero still made it, I'd rally behind her even more. Honestly, I'd probably enlist despite hating war."
"That's just it isn't it? He needs a dead martyr to back him. Not live competition. Who will listen to him once Lisa comes back, not now that he's helped make her into a literal legend?
Not that she's not. He's used things Lisa has truly accomplished for his cause, but once Lisa's back they won't follow him any more. They'll follow her." Ryujin said solemnly.
"They'll hang on Lisa's every word and all of his ambitions will be shattered because his word will have no weight as long as Lisa's around. Lisa can disagree with one thing he says and it'll be over for him. Which is exactly why we need to protect her at all costs, because the prime minister wants to meet you." Ryujin said to Lisa.
"This is our chance. We get you to him and you finish out that plan you've been cooking. Manaying's plan backfired. He's made you so famous even the prime minister is your fan boy.
However, that puts you in even more danger, because Manaying will stop at nothing to make sure you're dead before you reach the minister, and unfortunately, the only way to get to the prime minister is to go through the military.
Jessi and I have both tried figuring something out to get you out of the country, or to lure him here, but you're too well known, on both sides now.
We can't forge documents to get you out of the country. Your face is plastered everywhere to the Korean military, even police stations now. I'm honestly surprised you haven't been caught yet. You have to go with your original plan and talk to the higher ups and convince them you have a viable way to stop the war."
Jennie gripped Lisa's hand tight, resting her forehead on Lisa's shoulder, fighting with herself. She felt Lisa's hand around her shoulders, bringing Jennie in.
"What do I do Nini? Tell me what to do." Lisa pleaded.
She wasn't afraid of dying. She wasn't afraid of being tortured. In that, she was fearless.
What she was afraid of, terrified of, was leaving the love of her life behind and devastated by her loss if Lisa couldn't make it back. If Lisa was stuck in Thailand or worse, killed.
Jennie choked out a sob.
"You can't ask me that Lis. You can't, it's not fair, because I want you to stay, you know that, but I know you have to go. You can't ask me to choose for you." Jennie whimpered.
Lisa held her tighter.
Ryujin, Seulgi, and Irene took that as their cue to leave.
Ryujin paused for a moment to address them again.
"I know it seems impossible right now. It seems impossible that we could manage to get all the pieces together in time and none of us get hurt, that you could build that cell perfectly within two weeks and that we could manage to force a truce after decades of a brutal war that's at its peak of violence but it's not. It's not impossible. It's only improbable."
Jennie sniffled and looked up at Ryujin.
"I was four days old when Jessi found me, bundled up in moist blankets and crying my heart out.
I only found this next part out much much later. It's probably why I'm so good at discovering things, people, spying. I wanted to know why I was abandoned and I guess I developed some skills while I tried to find out why I had been abandoned so cruelly in a cold dark cave as a helpless newborn, left to starve and die a slow painful death.
My parents had been poor apparently, that part hadn't been hard to guess in the first place, but I confirmed it later on. My mother died during childbirth, while she had me and my father had no clue what to do with me afterwards, he couldn't feed me properly, clearly. My mother was dead, the only woman that could breastfeed me was dead.
Initially I thought that he had abandoned me. The stress of trying to figure out how to properly feed and clothe and change a newborn too much without her. I assumed he thought it was easier if he just left me in that cave and let me starve to death.
Eventually I found out that wasn't the case, at all. The village we lived in was at the foot of a mountain. There was a sudden heavy rain the day after my mother had me and died. Suddenly there was a flash flood that drowned half of our village because it had rained that heavy that quickly.
A woman that had survived it said she had seen my father swimming with me in his arms, trying to save me, choking on water as he held me up and made his way to the cliffside.
Honestly, I don't know how he could have done it. A father's love I guess, a father's love made him stronger, more determined, because based on the terrain, the water must have been rushing down that mountain, and still he managed to climb up and tuck me in to the cave.
According to that woman, that cave was where my mother and father used to sneak off on dates before they were finally allowed to marry.
My father drowned trying to save me. He managed to put me just at the edge of the cave before getting swept away by the rushing water running down the mountain. No one knew what happened to him until that woman told me the story because the water had swept his body so far he ended up two villages over.
I only knew it was him because they kept his clothes when they found his body and that woman that told me the story had a photograph of my mother and father tucked away somewhere and I recognized them immediately when I started searching.
My father saving me was a miracle on its own, but it didn't end there. I should have starved. I hadn't had anything since I was born. I could have fallen out of that cave while I wiggled and cried because I was literally right on the edge, my father hadn't managed much more than placing me there. The cave could have flooded. I could have died from the cold because of my wet blankets.
Instead of dying, against all odds, a thirteen year old orphan girl heard my cries and found me days later. A thirteen year old who rescued me and practically raised me.
A girl that was devastated that the little four year old she used to help babysit, a little girl she considered as a little sister had been kidnapped and was probably killed.
Yet.
That four year old is sitting right in front of me decades later. Alive and healthy and not dead, right along with a newborn that shouldn't be here either. The odds were always stacked against us, yet we're still here, and somehow we even managed to meet each other.
Jennie Ruby Jane, do you believe in miracles?" Ryujin asked curiously. "Because I'm starting to."
Ryujin didn't wait for an answer, walking away from them after a small smile and a wave.
_________
A/N This was supposed to be a montage chapter of them working and planning and getting to the nitty gritty so I could get to the finale. Instead it turned into a whole chapter of Lisa meeting Ryujin, it was supposed to just be a summary.
Someone teach me HOW. TO. BE. CONCISE.
Anyways, what you guys think? Favorite part? No favorite parts? Did I make you guys cry again?