SCHOOL 2020 ▷ bts

1.2

Chao left before I woke up. The note on my bedside table was hurriedly scribbled, and more curt than usual. Last night I'd woken up to the sound of his low tones conversing on his cell phone; no doubt he had some new task from the yakuza and was under strict orders to attend to it immediately. In the yakuza world, there was a certain point when you'd climb up high enough, and the missions and orders began to fall thick and fast, along with the rewards. Chao had reached that.

While I was still stuck on guard duty. The lowest of the lowest.

Looking around the apartment, I let out a heavy sigh. This mission should have been my free ride up the yakuza ladder. If I hadn't screwed it up.

Emphasis on "if".

As I cleared up my things, my eyes fell on a stray flyer. The same flyer I had seen earlier, before the missions began. An advertisement for interested students to apply and join the prestigious, one and only, "by the elite, for the elite" institution of education - School 2020.

The same school all my targets were enrolled in.

I stared at it for a long moment.

I had no idea what the current status of the mission was like. It was over for me - but was it over for the yakuza? Had we given up on investigating those six devils entirely? Or had Lord Taikan already assigned someone else more qualified for the job?

Even if he had, it would take time - a week at least, for this new agent to assimilate all the information Chao and I had collected and commit them to memory. After that came the necessary phase of reconnaissance that was vital to spot and observe any other signature quirks or patterns in the six guys' daily routines.

But whoever this new agent was, he didn't have the time.

Because written on the flyer, right under the large block letters forming the school name, was the sentence - new school semester begins on 20th July.

And today was the 17th.

In three days' time, those six devils that had posed significant threat to our organization would finish their semester break and vanish into the comfort and security of their posh college. And the yakuza would have a much harder time going after them.

Unless of course, they had someone within the walls.

No one would notice I was gone. I was a trainee, a nobody; the only possible person to wonder about my whereabouts was Chao, and if he had a new mission from the yakuza then he would most likely not be curious about my whereabouts until it was too late.

Picking up my phone, I keyed in the school address into Naver. The directions and estimated time of arrival popped up immediately.

Let's hope the school accepts walk-ins, shall we?

<⊗>

Turned out they did.

Judging from the way the principal clasped his hands and how his eyes kept darting around the room, I had a feeling he had never seen a walk-in like me. After all, it was the day right before the first day of the semester, and my lateness was rather ridiculous.

"Well then err - Miss Anis." He shuffled some documents aimlessly. "You do realize that our institution has a rather high tuition fee, in accordance with the academic excellence we provide. Seeing that you claim to have no guardian or financial backing whatsoever, how do you ah, propose to pay us?"

I threw a significantly thick folder onto the table. "With these, of course."

The principal reached for it with a expression on his face that suggested he was only doing this to humor me. When he flipped it open and saw the documents inside whoever, all trace of amusement fell away to be replaced by a sickly shade of green.

"H - h - how did you - "

"Three accounts of possible money laundering, and embezzlement of school funds for personal use," I announced, leaning back lazily into my chair. "Also you turned a blind eye to a drug ring operated by students two years ago for a share of the profits, and you did not report on the three students who cheated on the national exam to protect School 2020's reputation."

I let out a disappointed cluck of my tongue. "That's a very heavy list right there, isn't it?"

The principal stuttered and his face took on a beetroot shade. "You - this is blackmail!"

"Which is yet another term you're well-acquainted with. About two semesters back, by hacking into a student's Facebook account you obtained her nude photos and used them to blackmail her parents, who at the time were threatening to report the school for fee-fixing, which no doubt you're very guilty of - "

"Alright, alright!" the principal growled. "Fine. Now get to the point - what do you want?"

"I want free education and lodging here until I leave or graduate."

The principal eyed me suspiciously. "That's it? You - you went through all the trouble just to ask me to give you a scholarship?"

I shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a studious girl."

"Well - what major do you want to do?"

Shit. Of course, I had to pick a field to study in. I had to be a "master of something", just like how all my targets were.

For half a minute I racked my brain. And when the answer finally came, I almost smiled at how befitting it was.

"Investigation," I replied, "I wish to become a Master of Investigation."