because it's all mine (i don't wanna sacrifice) | purinz

Day 1: The world is my oyster

"Huh Yunjin?"

The receptionist stared up at her with bored eyes, a heavy sigh passing her lips. She turned to clank against the keyboard behind the desk. "He's upstairs. In his office. Just go."

Yunjin managed a polite smile, fingers smoothing back her hair after she nodded her head in a bow. "Thank you." She fumbled. Yunjin stepped back and immediately pushed against the glass double doors beside the desk, mostly to avoid the receptionists' withering gaze.

It was really out of the ordinary for her to be called up to see her boss. 'Boss' was used lightly, when Lee Hyun called for her attention fresh out of getting home from her last job, then Yunjin figured she was in too much trouble.

It wasn't like her life was panned out for this sort of job, anyways. She sort of fell into it after an incident in middle school, and when her parents moved her back to Korea without a lick of the language in her brain; she figured learning self defence was better.

The classes were cheap and her mentor back then was good. She graduated, and somewhere along the line accidentally funnelled her way into being a private agent.

Not so good. But... It paid well. She tried not to think of it otherwise, because it kept her parents happy and safe — and she was good at it! Good at cleaning up messes the rich didn't want waving around.

But Mr. Lee calling her in left a rock in her stomach. He'd always just called, and she'd figure out the rest from there. Had she fucked up the last job? It had been a clean shot to the head and the former parliament member had only been found days later, and she'd received the paycheck, and-

Yunjin knocked on the door, tongue pressed against the roof of her mouth. When she heard him call her inside, she finally let out a small breath of air.

Inside, she saw the back of another woman's head. A large suit jacket clung onto her, a size too big, but it made Yunjin already felt out of place in the meek black tank top and sleek pants she'd put on. Chopped black hair right against her shoulders, streaks of white bleached through, reminiscent of the idols and their 'oreo-hair' Yunjin caught sight of.

The lead in her stomach exploded with the immediate pang of recognition, and Yunjin whipped her head up to glare at Mr. Lee. "What is she doing here?"

"Sit down." The older man huffed. Peppered streaks of grey laced his temples while he nodded towards the spare empty seat next to the other woman.

Yunjin stepped forwards and locked eyes with Kim Chaewon.

She didn't like her. Detested her even, from the years she could trace back to highschool, when they'd both been in the same class. It was stupidly childish of her to cling on to that remorse, but when some pretty girl breaks the heart of another teenager, who was also a better fighter at the time, it was more than a struggle to move on from.

"What is she doing here?" Yunjin repeated insistently, hands balling into fists right above her knees as she stared at the woman.

Mr. Lee sighed at Yunjin's agitation, slowly rubbing one hand through his hair just to tousle the last few neat strands. "She's been requested from another company to come help us out."

Yunjin could only manage a scoff, eyes already narrowing at the notion that she needed help. On a job? She'd done far worse than whatever Chaewon could probably imagine. Maybe she was the one who needed the help and guidance of herself? Ironic considering where she was now.

"I know I usually send you out on a variety of cases, Yunjin, but you actually need this help this time around. There's a major hit out on Park Dae-hyun and we need you to trail the actor around until we're definite."

"Like a bodyguard." Chaewon clipped, narrowed eyes flitting over to Yunjin. She stared like some hungry, feral cat, clearly peeved about the idea of company. "I'm sure you can do that, yeoja?"

The muscles in Yunjin's jaw spasmed, and if she grit her teeth any harder she may as well fracture every tooth. Might get her out of working with Chaewon. "I can't do this sir." She sighed and strung her eyes away from the woman, immediately sitting upright in her seat. "He's like- the most well known actor right now. Does he not have bodyguards? Surely they are competent enough-"

"Huh Yunjin." Mr. Lee bit out. He frowned deeply and Yunjin sank back into her chair like a scorned puppy. "I understand that you believe this is below your pay grade. But while Chaewon is expertised in her line as a bodyguard, if anything goes wrong, or you do need to take out whomever is after Park Dae-hyun then it is essential you also work on it. Okay? We do not need this breaching to a national level and making news."

Yunjin's lips soured, eyes narrowing as she glanced back at Chaewon.

It was so stupid to hold a grudge. Just a coincidence they had both trained underneath the same mentor and really it was her own stupid fault she got an end-of-the-world, devastating crush and an even worse turn down when Chaewon had just laughed.

But whatever. She was as mature as anyone could get at 22 years old.

"Fine." Yunjin slowly sighed, her head tilting backwards as she rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms and tightened them  around herself. "Fine. When do we start?" There was the money. The money was good. Always good. And Chaewon would be gone afterwards!

"Today."

"Eh?"

Chaewon finally turned her head, a wide, shit-eating grin immediately spreading. She slowly tilted her head and almost cooed as she spoke. "What's wrong, yeoja? You're afraid I'm going to beat your ass at something again?"

Every nerve in Yunjin's brain was about to explode.

Chaewon hummed loudly and reached out to snatch Yunjin's hand, nails digging into her skin. She practically jumped straight back on her feet. "We're going now."

"W-Wait!" Yunjin's eyes widened, her feet stumbling underneath her. "I gotta go and pack something-"

"Nope! No time. Gotta explain how to act like you don't want to strangle everyone." Chaewon huffed, languidly waving her hand behind her.

Yunjin could only throw one more, heavily worried glance back. Mr. Lee was grinning from ear to ear.

Yunjin felt her body practically fall out of the room in Chaewon's insistent grasp. She felt the words creeping on her tongue, ranging between a slew of derogatory curses, to the temptation of trying to call her unnie.

Which was not what she currently needed in this situation.

"Chaewon-" Yunjin breathed before her heart caught up with her brain, and she reached out to gently clasp her hand to stop her movements. "Just wait for a moment. You're trying to run from me?" Again.

The older girl's eyes rolled harder than they needed to. "Running from you? As if that's what had happened, yeoja. Come on." Chaewon wriggled her hand out of Yunjin's grip to turn and face her, both hands on her hips. "We should get going. Now."

Yunjin pursed her lips. "You haven't even let me think about packing. Nor any sort of plan for this right now. And- and we should try to think of what we're gonna do- and I got to... to pick out equipment and-" Yunjin's lips were moving far faster than her brain was processing, and she was already struggling to keep it on track with all the questions she'd tried to keep locked up over the years. "-and how did you manage to get a job as a bodyguard of all things."

The way Chaewon glared loosely reminded her of an angry tiger cub. She always used to insist that she was more of a snake, but they were at least a little smarter in their cruelty. "Because, yeoja," she breathed in deeply. "There is no time. But fine, if you wanna spend the rest of your evening messing around trying to organise shit, be my guest. We will meet at the station tomorrow morning. At 8."

"Where on earth would we be going to have to be awake that early?"

"Seoul." Chaewon smirked. "Buckle up, you can't flake on me now."