Leaving school alone, Siyeon takes the bus across the city, walks a little and ends up outside of a tall building with the words 'Kim and Lee' in large lit-up characters on one side of the building. A name that didn't really reveal what the company specialised in.
Siyeon heads inside, giving a brief smile and nod to the receptionist.
"Remember your meeting with Miss Lee in ten minutes!" He calls after her.
"Thanks!" She replies and heads into the lift, pressing the button for the seventh floor.
On the correct floor, she heads to Dami's office, already dreading the meeting. She didn't exactly have a way with words and Dami was a genius master in everything from languages to assassination.
"Did you make it here okay?" Dami rises from her seat and lends her hand out to Siyeon as she enters.
"Great. Thanks." She replies flatly, limply taking her outstretched hand before sitting. Her frustration bled through her pores heavily as Dami frowns in clear concern.
"How are you feeling today? You seem a touch...moody." Her eyes crinkle. "I guess your teenage hormones are running wild this month."
"Why am I not a Senior Assassin yet?" She demands and crosses her arms.
"Is that what you called a meeting with me for?" Dami's eyebrows raise in a controlled arch.
"Yes. Please. Tell me why. Is there even a reason?"
She smiles infuriatingly slowly and leans back in her chair to spin around and pull a ring binder out from the shelves behind. Dami turns back to Siyeon again.
"Do you know what this is?" She finally asks, her hand on top of the black ring binder.
"My file, I guess." Siyeon replies coldly.
"You've been with us for five years." Her hand opens the file and she stares at the front page. "It was the day of your thirteenth birthday that you came into my care."
"Don't mention that again." Her mouth purses as unwanted memories pursue her wandering mind that she struggles to repress.
The flames. Their dead eyes...and something else she couldn't quite remember.
"Sorry, Siyeon. Of course that would bring up, painful, painful memories. But what privileges do you think Senior Assassins get?"
"Well, they-- Hang on, I need to focus." Siyeon turns away from Dami to close her eyes and throws the dark memories away into the back of her mind. "Whew." She spins back to face Dami.
"You okay?" Dami's concern makes her feel fuzzy inside. "Do you need any water?"
"I'm fine. Let's continue. You asked me what privileges Senior Assassins get?"
Dami nods.
"I believe that they are allowed to go on longer and more immersive missions and are allowed to learn more of the company's secret techniques, use more of the studios and a wider range of weapons. The list feels endless."
"So you feel that your missions are not enough?"
"I enjoy them and they're pretty easy."
"You 'enjoy' them?"
Siyeon immediately realises with embarrassed dread that her words likely made her sound like a psychopath. "I mean, I don't enjoy killing. I just enjoy the feeling of successfully completing a mission."
"I see." She replies with a straight face. "Do you feel that what you have isn't enough, being a Junior Assassin?"
"I have been here for five bloody years! There are people who here who are Senior assassins that have been here for less time than me."
"So are you jealous of them?" An eyebrow raises again.
"Yes." She admits shamelessly. "I feel that I am more capable than some of them."
Dami finally lapses into silence, a hand to her lips as she thinks. Her eyes stare through Siyeon.
Siyeon stays quiet, allowing her time to think.
"You are a young woman." She eventually starts. "You're still in education. I don't want you to be consumed by this career. Sometimes I wonder if it was a mistake to introduce you to this business five years ago."
"It's already consumed me! This is my life. This is how I earn my rent, this is my life! What I do here is even more important to me than school"
"Ooh, now." Dami's mouth parts in concern. "That's exactly why I don't want to make you a Senior Assassin. This period of your life where you are maturing, is the most important part of your youth. I don't want this to be the most important thing in your life. I want your schoolwork, your friends, your hobbies to be the most important thing."
The sorrow in her voice almost fills Siyeon to the brim with guilt, but she bites her lip to come back to reality. Assassinating is her life. School is just a mission to complete before she can fully immerse her life in the art of assassination.
"I receive copies of your school reports." Dami continues. "They're awful, to be frank."
Siyeon's eyes widen at that fact. "O-oh really?"
"Uh-huh. So I'm aware that you're just cruising through school, not trying at all. And don't try to dispute that. I know you, Siyeon. I can already see that you don't care about school at all. How much do you like school?"
"Not a bit."
"And how much do you love this?"
"With all my heart."
"Okay then. Make an effort in school. If your grades rise, that will be one factor in me considering you to be a Senior Assassin."
"I can do that." She agrees with partial reluctance, but Siyeon would do anything to become a Senior Assassin, a position she'd been vying for, for years.
"I'll also give you more missions to see how you divide your time between schoolwork and preparing. There is a new assassin coming tomorrow. One of your ongoing missions will be to tutor them in the ways of being an assassin here. The mission will end when they become a Rookie Assassin."
***
Siyeon turns up at Yoohyeon's house after the meeting with Dami finishes.
Both of their smiles are strained as Yoohyeon opens the door to her.
"Your mum drinking again?" She whispers.
Yoohyeon nods. "Just be quiet going upstairs to avoid her."
"Will do." She steps in and they creep up the stairs to Yoohyeon's dingy bedroom, permanently smelling of damp.
Yoohyeon settles on her bed and opens her textbook. "This is what you missed, first period."
"English?"
"Yup. We learnt some verbs today. Come lie beside me and I'll go through."
Siyeon lies on the bed next to her, moving closer to her as Yoohyeon focuses on finding the right page. She watches her concentrated face with a smile as she feels herself warm.
"Here we are. I'll go through them first, so repeat after me."
"Yup."
"To run." She explains the word in Korean after and Siyeon nods in understanding.
"To lun." Siyeon repeats, struggling with the sharpness of the 'r' sound.
Yoohyeon giggles and says the word again until Siyeon can repeat it without the thick accent.
She does this with the half-page of verbs before moving into examples.
"Do you want to try and give me an example with...er, to run, first?"
"Sure. I...run late always the school."
"What?" Yoohyeon chuckles softly and falls on her face into the bed. "Do you mean 'I was running late to school'?"
"Yeah?" Her voice rises with the question, having no idea if she was correct, so she says it in Korean to check. "I always am running late to school."
"I'll give you two out of ten for that." Yoohyeon continues to giggle, unable to stop. "The only correct order of words you had was 'to school' and 'I'. You're hopeless."
"Teach me then." Siyeon can't help laughing along with her and wipes the tears from her eyes. "I want to learn."
"Siyeon? Wanting to learn? What's up with you?" Her hand cups over Siyeon's glistening forehead as she peers intently into her eyes.
"I just...want to see where I get if I try." She admits, the answer very close to the truth. She was curious what results would happen if she tried harder.
"Interesting thought process. But I'll be glad to help you!"
A/N:
Very ill rn...managed to fall asleep during the day for five hours so that's an achievement lol
Hope everyone has a good day!