MINERVA

CHAPTER 1

Kim Ji Eun P.O.V.
I was sitting in the back of one of the lecture rooms of a university. The kids around me looked at me weirdly, they were whispering amongst themselves. A guy stepped towards me, he was muscular and tall and not bad looking. "Excuse me," he said, "are you perhaps a new student that I haven't met yet?" I looked at the name tag on his jacket. 'Professor Nam Ji Hyuk', so this was the teacher. I rose and put on my uniform jacket. "Hello sir, my name is Kim Ji Eun and I was given orders to give a lecture today." The professor immediately bowed and greeted me. He invited me to walk over to the front of the classroom. "Good morning, I'll check attendance first, then I'll seat myself next to one of you to enjoy the lecture that you will have today." The whispering resurfaced.

"Hello, my name is Kim Ji Eun and I'm a soldier in the Korean army. I am here to tell you about doctors in the army and their tasks. Any questions so far?" A male student rose his hand. I nodded towards him and he opened his mouth. "Miss Kim, your uniform does not seem to be one of the medical soldiers." I nodded. "Then are you not a licensed doctor?" I nodded again. Another student started talking. "Then why are you here?" I sighed. "As I told you, I'm only here to explain the duties of an army doctor, I'm not going to tell you anything about the actual doctor stuff. As for the question why they send me and not an actual army doctor is because they needed to find a mission for me. Personally, I think I'm quite suited for this task, for I have been treated by army doctors a whole lot." Another student rose her hand to ask a question. "Ma'am, how is this a mission?" I smiled at her. "I really doesn't seem like one, does it? I can't tell you exact reasons, those are a state secret. In short version these are the reasons: I was injured a while ago and now my higher ups think it would be a bad idea to send me on a mission. I am however still in active service, so they can't just leave me to rot in the dormitories. If that is enough explanation as to why I am here I would like to start." The students grabbed their notebooks and pens and looked at me anticipating my story. All of a sudden the door swung open. The students looked around and professor Nam Ji Hyuk turned around to scold the late student. I also looked up to the doors. A man that seemed to be in his sixties stood in the path between the seats. He was sweating and his clothes were torn. "Can I help you?" I asked. The man looked at me, his eyes were dark. "You!" he said. I raised my eyebrows. "I'm sorry sir, do you perhaps know me? I don't recall meeting you?" "Oh, I don't know you," the man answered, "but I know your kind. Young people that have never worked a day of their lives. And do you know what they do? They go around stealing jobs, my jobs!" The man seemed really angry. I stepped of the podium and took a few steps towards the man. "Stop!" he screamed. I stopped and looked at the man. He opened his bag and took out a gun. The students started screaming. The guy pointed the weapon towards a girl close to the door. She screamed. "You!" ordered the man, "Close the doors, lock them. Now!" The girl got out of her seat and walked towards the door, she was shaking. "Sir," I said, "maybe you should put your gun down, this isn't going to help you get anywhere." The man pointed his gun at me. He started screaming again. "Everyone throw your phone at the door, if any of you keeps their
phone this woman is dead." All the students threw their phone at the door. Well, at least they care about me. "Sir.." I started again. The man took a step towards me. "You shut your mouth. I can only take revenge. That is my only option. You killed my son, all of you!" I was beginning to understand what was happening. I tried to negotiate with the man again. "Sir, why don't you let the kids out, you can keep me. A life for a life, that would be fair wouldn't it?" The man looked at me and for a moment I thought he had taken the bait. Then he spit in my face, a strong smell of alcohol hit me. "You think you're smart!" he screamed. "You think I'm dumb enough to not realise that the police would be here in three minutes then? Do you honestly think I'm that dumb!" As he said the word dumb he aimed the gun and shot my leg. An aching pain hit me. "You should shut your mouth now, next time I'll hit you a bit higher." I stopped talking and looked at my leg, blood was fighting it's way through the thick fabric of my clothes. "Everyone on the podium, now!" The students ran to the podium and stood there in a group. Professor Nam Ji Hyuk walked towards me, but immediately the gun was pointed towards his head. The professor put his hands above his head. "If I don't help her now she might bleed to death." The man hesitated and then lowered his gun. "Someone can help her, but not you. A girl. The one that closed the door." The girl that he was talking about stood on the outside of the group of kids. The man walked towards her and grabbed her arm. He dragged her to me and then nearly threw her on the floor. "Stop that woman's bleeding. If you can't do that I might just make sure that you are bleeding yourself." The girl was shaking and sat down next to me. "Ma'am," she whispered, "I don't think I can do this, we haven't learned about bullet wounds yet." I smiled at her. "Don't worry, I've done this before."

With those words I ripped my pants around the wound and looked at the place that had been shot. It didn't look like the man had hit any main arteries, but I really had no clue about the build of the human body. I threw of my jacket and ripped a piece of off the shirt I wore underneath it. The girl sat next to me, totally shocked. I looked at her name tag. "You're name is Lee Ji Won right?" She nodded. "I need you to help me a little bit. Just try to put this shirt around my leg. Just block the blood from pouring out, that should be enough." Ji Won nodded again and grabbed the piece of cloth. She took a deep breath and ripped my trousers open even more. Very securely she applied the shirt and tightly knotted it. Then she looked at me again. I smiled at her. "Now give me a hand please, I need to stand up." she gave me a hand and immediately after the man dragged her back onto the podium.

I looked at my watch. After Ji Won had bandaged my leg the guy had kept screaming threats and pointing his gun to students. If class had actually taken place it would have ended 10 minutes ago. As if it was planned I heard a knock on the door a second after I thought that someone might have noticed that the students hadn't left yet. I hoped the man hadn't hear the knocks on the door. I started talking very loudly. "Sir," I said, "Is there any use in keeping us here? Keeping us hostage won't do you any good. People will notice that we're gone pretty soon. When they can't open the door the police will most likely come. You're only making matters worse for yourself." The guy pointed the weapon at me again. He kicked my leg on the wound. "No talking." I didn't mind, I just hoped that whoever was outside of the doors had realised that they should call the police. This was taking too long. I had learned from experience that the longer someone threatens people, the more nervous they become. When people are nervous and scared they make wrong decisions earlier. My prediction came true. The man had started walking around and was hitting the students. I sighed. This was supposed to be an easy job to get me back into business. I got to my feet and tapped the man on his shoulder he turned around and immediately shot me in the stomach. That hurt. "I told you not to move or talk." The man said. I ignored him and proceeded with my plan. First step was to take his gun. I kicked him in his crotch area and immediately the man dropped his gun. This was surprisingly easy. I kicked the gun and a second later the guy was on the floor with my knee in his back. Step two, knock him out. "Professor Nam Ji Hyuk," I called, "could you maybe give me your heaviest book?" I heard an uttering of surprise and then some noise. A few moment later I was handed an extremely heavy book. I kept the guy, who was still struggling to get out of my grip, down with one hand and hit him with the book. "Mission completed. Now professor if you were to help me out? I don't think this stomach wound is that easy to be fixed."

It was only three minutes later when we heard sirens in the street. Two male students had tied the man down and Professor Nam Ji Hyuk was fixing me up. Most of the students were surrounding me, confused as to what happened and to why I didn't try to disarm the guy earlier. I couldn't answer. I felt my hands getting sweaty and my head started to hurt. My breath was getting heavier and my vision went blurry. "Are you okay?" I heard professor Nam Ji Hyuk ask. I nodded and tried to breath. The doors opened and a team of soldiers ran inside. They stopped when they saw the man tied onto the desk. Their leader lifted his helm and I was so relieved. So relieved.