[.十九.]

"I can see you anticipated something like this," she mumbled, her tone partially disillusioned. Maybe life didn't get any better or worse than that.

She let her stance shift in a way so that about three fourth of her weight changed it's course to the left side of her body. She thought over it, maybe everyone's got only what they were willing to find; small wonders where crises grew and fluttered as though they were snowflakes meaninglessly ranting their sob stories out to the dead; dead "beings" that were known to breathe. It was simply foolish.

This abrupt lull in the air got the two agents hesitating for a moment, a side of them wanting to just let everything in their minds evaporate into nothingness.

But, there's a but to this too.

The feral beasts resting in each of them got them staying silent. Dangerous traits aren't always hinted out in expressions, neither are they nasty.

If thought over, serenity was far more of use then anger could ever be. ( fah be trippin, in short) The two CIA agents kept themselves tight-lipped.

Something Seulgi wouldn't be. A daybreak back when the trainer was wandering about among the woods here in Jirisan she could swear on the fact that she felt the pulse of something bigger hiding here as if all things animate were beating in unison, a glory and a connection that swept her out of herself, out of her consciousness, so that nothing had a name, not in Latin, not in English, not in any known language- nah now those memories could wait.

Her body was urging her towards her motive and she agreed with its plea. She couldn't let past happenings push her down, not for now at least.

She pointed to her left. "The complex is down that way. Only a few miles, although it does get chilly in the last mile. You will follow the Humvee. We will keep to a six-minute-a-mile pace.

If you drop back from that for longer than five seconds, we will have a serious issue abruptly disturbing us because of which we won't let YOU be undisturbed. I suppose that's understood well enough. "

Their work along with her potential to touch every corner of life including every area of energy enticed them to agree. From improving energy efficiency to bolstering grid security, all of it was important in the eyes of their department.

Seulgi ascended back into the Humvee and signalled for the driver to get the engines roaring back to life. He spun the vehicle around and headed off east.

Despite everything, the pilot felt a sensation on his back, a weird sensation. It felt somewhere between being pricked, electrified, and wriggled in shock.

Jeongguk and Jimin exchanged one more glance and then fell in behind the vehicle at a swift pace. It was as though their body automagically flowed along with their frenetic conception of body discipline.

"Good thing we figured they'd start to kick our asses from the get-go," exclaimed Jeongguk before winking. The skill-packed duo's political acumen was clearly beyond what others saw.

"And dressed accordingly," he added trying to cajole Jimin into expanding his limitations and break the ropes constraining his speed.

A slow speed without a drive was deleterious for the agreement they had back in the plane. "Six-minute pace isn't a killer. But the hills might make it seem like a five-minute pace, maybe less."

Jimin eyed the Humvee, his intellect gauging its distance and speed. Despite being egregious throughout his school life, he'd always been bagging the top scores in anything and everything that involved numbers.

Not even half a second passed and the striking speed of his calculations was proved to be of good use. "Figure fifty feet back will keep us from having an issue."

Jeongguk was right, a single mistake from their side would abjure their allegiance to the entire department, more painful than that would be their conscience eating them up inside.

Jungkook ran along, his feet kissing the land over which lay a thick layer of lush hybrid grass. "Right."

Perhaps both of them would've barked at the idea of running up a distance so far at the speed they were running in, yet now they were somehow relishing this prospect.

Their legs were made to move at speed and their footings were light as the paws of a lion. Breathing steady, heart strong - these skilled human machines were born to sneer at realistic running speeds.

Running felt like a living, it was feeling the power to leave anytime they needed to, to escape the confines of walls and feel the open road.

In time they hoped to run not away yet toward, not from happiness but for it, for then they will have found refuge in their selves and only then will their drive towards this mission be the very thing coursing through their arteries.

Seulgi's eyes were as though taped at the two boys running uphill, their hair pushed backwards, one of them had his hair moving in the wind as if it felt the need to add an exclamation point to how the two never let the pads of their feet barely have contact with the grass beneath, each one sprinting forward, their flights escalating as though each stride they took got them springing forward in big leaps.

She adjusted her John Jacob's aviator-shaped sunglass at a lower angle so that it now faced south, her sift brown eyes keenly noting the way their limbs moved, the form they maintained while their bodies cut through the warm but commanding wind.

The run was not three miles, though. It was six. And the last mile wasn't mountainous.

The last three miles were. Exactly four seconds short of thirty-six minutes later they reached the sprawling complex set on a plateau surrounded by forests of mostly evergreens.

The Korean CIA loved putting facilities in the middle of nowhere, it was only so that they could see someone coming from miles away.

Its main job was to gather, analyze, evaluate, and pass on intelligence on foreign countries to South Korea heads of security and the president.

That included information on foreign industries, the political landscape of foreign countries, and terrorist cells

The Humvee's engines stopped, wheels barely kissing the earth. Seulgi jumped out as Jeongguk and the aqua eyed male reached her.

They kept running in place, letting the lactic acid in their muscles reduce down, their lungs cool off and while also letting their heartbeat grow unhurried over time.

"Now, that wasn't so bad was it?" Seulgi mocked, brown eyes almost shimmering under the sun frustrating them all over like this was too easy but to be honest, it just had to be done.

"No. I'm sure your Hummer ride was very warm and comfortable," taunted Jimin, bitterness clawing at his tongue, patiently waiting to ooze out in loads by means of his words.

Joengguk paused for a moment. How long have they got to deal with this bullshit now? He questioned himself, looking at the faintly passive quarrel almost budding out between the two.

He quickly chalked it up to a couple of months, his cheeks hollowing at how nasty it was gonna be without sleep, starting from the epic starless nights to the many tiring and overflowing days.

"So when you said you'd be with us every step of the way I guess that was metaphorically speaking?" He questioned before fishing his phone out; scrolling through some details.

A smile painted Seulgi's face as she noted something tickling her vein of thoughts. They were amicable without even trying to be.

Personally, that character of theirs got her delightfully cheerful but she made sure her body language didn't let that emotion slip out through any reaction of hers.

She finished zipping up her bag before throwing the backpack over her shoulder. "You'll see far more of me than you ever wanted to," she announced.

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I'm honestly excited bout' this plot. It gives me these weird vibes. This chp needs editing too.