PROJECT: SEVENTEEN. seventeen au

PROJECT: SEVENTEEN-briefing

"emilia, you're late again,"

a middle-aged man (complete with a receding hairline and a protruding beer belly) says in his deep crusty voice from the meeting table. did i over-exaggerate his description? i'll leave that up to your imagination.

now, a small, dark-haired girl is hurrying across the room as we speak, striding as fast as she can toward the center of the room in her wobbly stilettos. she should not have worn them, especially when they were too big and too high. too late, she groaned internally.

"i apologize," the dark-haired girl— or emilia, rather- says with her fakest smile. the crusty middle-aged man nods, clearly displeased with the late arrival of this ratty intern. he observes the other board members and they nod in reply, signaling the beginning of this long meeting. "you may proceed." C.M-A. Man says, almost sneering.

emilia stands on a podium with a laptop open on top of it, a big white screen behind her. she opens her PowerPoint presentation with a mere flicking of fingers over her keyboard, then she claps twice. the board members almost faint in fright. she smiles, pleased to have their attention.

"so, the time has come again." says emilia in her usual loud voice, "when the government sends some sixteen to eighteen year-olds between the months of april to september on a mission for them to complete. as we all know, this is kind of a coming-of-age thing. so far, the latest batch, batch sixteen, has not accomplished their mission due to technical difficulties-"

"That's because they were led by you," a Karen-looking woman seated near the front of the table mumbled under her breath,

"no, that's because they almost died a bloody death in the hands of ten overseas gangsters." emilia snapped. the karen looked frightened that the girl had managed to hear her, but she tried to hide it from the others nonetheless. that girl was scary.

"anyways, moving on," she waved and flashed a smile again, "we all know that these missions are beneficial for them to experience the world at its realest, harshest state, and for them to become functioning members of society. and by functioning members, I mean-"

"-politicians and the like?" a man with his mouth full of suspicious-looking crumbs interrupts. he shakes his head and laughs. "emilia, what you're doing is nearly impossible-"

"please do not interrupt me again, Jonathan, if you want to go home early." the girl says through gritted teeth. she said 'if you want to go home early' as if she was saying 'if you don't want to lose your head, as one would do. emilia cleared her throat warily. "as i was saying-" she switches to the next slide-"when i say functioning members of society, i mean people with experience and enthusiasm to make this world a better place. that could be about anyone. and because batch sixteen failed, we now have to work fast on improvements for the next batch, which I would proudly like to call-"

she switches immediately to the next slide, which shows a small, cream-colored telephone with its old-fashioned dials, and the words PROJECT: SEVENTEEN plastered in a font (thankfully not comic sans,) with a creative visual. The board members were quite pleased. Even Karen, Jonathan, and good old C. M-A Man.

"what mission do you intend to give this group, miss emilia?" a woman with short black hair like hers says in her smooth voice. emilia smiles, and that might be the first genuine smile she has sent to a person that day.

"thank you for your question, miss gemina," she hurries on and switches to a next slide, which showed the key points to the team's mission and who would be required to be recruited. "for project: seventeen, i simply plan to do one thing: eliminate a certain criminal group."