Mission J

The air was tense, the nervous vibe streaming through the space. I was about to ask about all the tension when a smooth voice spoke out.

“---Yah.”

The three of us looked up and saw a guy…a very tall Asian man. This one, unlike the nervous one was fairly young, in his early or mid-twenties.
He was wearing a pair of white baggy sweatpants---and no shirt. His upper body was completely bare, save for the towel he had hung over his shoulders to catch the water droplets from his freshly showered hair.
I frowned.

What, the guy couldn’t find a shirt decent enough to put on for this very fine occasion?

His posture was very relaxed and almost overly confident, and his expression was rather bored and nonchalant. His body, from what I saw of the bare skin was very toned, with a six-packed abs that any hormonal-crazed girl will ooze and drool over.
And he was handsome.
I squinted at him in scrutiny, trying to jog my memory as to where I had seen the man.
It was just very recently, and I remember feeling that the whole display was rather obnoxious…

Recognition shot through my mind and my eyes flickered over to the wall with the mega-large black-and-white portrait of the handsome man.
As I had thought; it was the same man.
…if the real thing was here, why even bother with the picture?

“Yah,” the guy repeated. “Manager, who are these people?”

Manager??

I snorted, and I saw the half-naked guy turn to me. He gave me a look of disgust, looking me up and down as if to say ‘where did we pick up this trash into our home?’
I happily returned the look. It seemed like the polite thing to do.

But of course, Jun didn’t seem to agree.

Our client got up from his seat at the sight of this young jackass, and it was clear in that moment that this client worked for him. Jun also stood up, obviously to be respectful.
I was comfortable right where I was.

Jun gave me a quick but hard kick to my ankle that made me jolt. Grudged, I got myself to my feet.
The nervous Asian man nodded at the guy and turned towards us.
“Jae-Sung, this is our hired hand…uh---” he started, glancing back at me.
“K,” Jun filled in for him. “Her name is K.”
The man nodded gratefully before turning back to the douche.
“She is going to help with the protection detail we requested.”

“Deh?” the young guy said, looking unimpressed. “She’s the bodyguard?”
He then scoffed, shaking his head while staring at me.
“I thought she was some vagrant that wandered into my home.”

I felt my mouth twitch and a vein throbbing at my temple. But before I could start kicking and throwing things, Jun stepped in.
“Ah…I know she isn’t much in appearance, but believe me, she packs in serious heat. And she will prove to be of great use soon enough.” he said.
I turned to him to look at him, trying hard to contain myself.

Was he intentionally trying to piss me off, insulting me one after another?

I heard the young guy scoff again. He was starting to rub on my last nerve.
“Her, this one little girl? What is she going to do, huh? Cry and scare them away?” he retorted. “No offense, but it’s hard to believe that she can protect a top-star from the screaming fan girls, the snooping reporters, the paparazzi, and stalkers.”
The older client grimaced at the guy’s stinging remarks, and turned towards us.
“I am sorry, but I have to agree that we have no ways to believe that she is as competent as you say.” he said.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Jun smile.
“Ah, that problem can be fixed right away.” he said. He then looked down at me.
“K can just show you a very small view into what she is capable of.” he said, sounding confident. “Your agency president requested that discretion was vital to Mr. Seo’s career and stresses that we are to adapt to any situation and events his unpredictable schedule may bring.”

I gave him an incredulous look, and he stared back.
“Earlier on, we had to be cleared by the security guards to enter this restricted part of the apartment complex.” Jun went on.

Oh no…

“K?” he said, prying. “Would you show them the weapons you were able to sneak through security?”

I looked at him, and he looked at me.

“Ha,” I let out once, as if he was joking.
But then I saw the stone-cold seriousness of his face. I frowned, and turned back to the client man and the arrogant ass. The nervous Korean man just nodded, waiting to see what I would do. The ass was smirking at me, as if he was waiting for me to fail.
“Go on,” he egged on. “Strip.”

My jaw clenched angrily, and I glanced back at the guide again. He just motioned toward the coffee table before us.
“Come on.” he said.

I scowled, hating the heavy weight of defeat on my shoulders.
My skin crawled at the eyes that stared at me as I unbuttoned my snug-fitted overcoat and reached into the inner pockets. Swiftly, I produced my arrangement of throwing knives and smoke bombs from the slips I had sewn into the inner lining of the coat, and I laid them out in a row on the coffee table. Ten in total.
Jun was still looking so I reached up my sleeves to retrieve my close-combat blade from my left arm, and the striking baton from my right arm.
These, too, were set down on the table.

With that, I turned to my guide in conclusion.
But he just raised his eyebrow.
“Take off your coat, K.” he said to me flatly.
I scowled at him, disbelief running through me. What the hell was he trying to prove?
He took a warning step towards me and I quickly retreated. I gave him a warning glare and I turned to the others present. The nervous older gentleman looked rather unnerved at the amount of blades I had produced. The other, the ass, on the other hand seemed to be enjoying my humiliation.
I snarled internally, gritting my teeth in irritation.
My hand roughly yanked at the open flaps and in one huge sweep, my coat was off my back and thrown on the couch. This revealed the gun harness I had around my shoulders, strapping on two 9mm beretta handguns snugly to my ribs. I took one out, engaged the safety and pressed the magazine release to pull out the current load. The full clip slipped right out with a click and I threw that unceremoniously on the table with the blades. I pulled the slide back to check the chamber for any bullets.
When the chamber was cleared, I threw the unarmed gun on the table. I repeated the process with the other gun.
After the gun was disarmed and added to the pile, I shrugged out of the strap holster and threw that on the couch with my jacket.

“And the belt.” the guide continue to say.

I scowled at him and unclipped my belt. I threw it over to him with a snappish flick of my arm.
Of course, he caught it without causing him any harm. Immediately, he slipped two fingers into the clasp and tugged it out of the dark leather, revealing a nice, sharp 4-inch blade.
My guide raised any eyebrow at me and I glared back, whilst holding up my baggy pants. He threw a glance towards the client and the ass. But I didn’t spare them a glance.
He placed the belt onto my growing pile of accessories before turning to me.
“K…” he started.
“Alright! Calm down!” I hissed, finally snapped.

I reached around behind me to the small of my back, and from there I pulled out my back-up 9mm sig handgun, disarmed it like the rest before dumping it into the pile. With that, I pulled out four full clips of bullets and a silencer from the small pocket on my right thigh pocket of my cargo pants.
I didn’t need the prying eyes of my onlookers to keep on going. I lifted my right foot up onto the white couch, not caring if I got some dirt stains into the flawless covers. I reached into my boot and pulled out yet another knife, my back-up combat knife.
I pulled back and lifted my other foot up, this time, pulling the pant leg up my calf to pull off the taser that was strapped to my leg.
I threw the knife in the pile, but kept the taser in my hand. Oh, how my hand was itching on that charge---

I turned to my clients. Both of them had the most amusing, funniest look of disbelief on their faces.
The ass looked completely stunned, his jaw partially dropped.
Eh, that was satisfying enough.
“Done.” I said, and I gave them a million-dollar smile. Note on the sarcasm.

I turned back to my guide.
“Jun, savvy?” I asked.
Jun looked at me, looking skeptical.
“That’s all you got?” he asked me.
I tossed the taser into the pile, and took a step forward.
“What do you mean, that’s all I got? I’m not going into war, why should I pack more?” I demanded.
Jun was still looking at me.
“I feel like I should give you a pat-down---”
“I am now completely disarmed, but I can still come up with twenty different ways I can kill you.” I snarled.

“Wait a minute---what the hell was that?”

Jun and I turned to see that the young douche had stepped forward.
“What the hell is this girl? Isn’t it illegal to be carrying so many weapons?” he demanded.
He looked at me, still with disgust.
“I don’t hire criminals. Get out.”
Jun gave him a stern look, looking calm as ever.
“I can assure you, she is no criminal. She knows what she’s doing.” he said.
“I don’t care. She is savage, violent, and way too unkempt. Just look at her.”
The ass motioned at me with a dismissive flick of his wrist.
“She won’t do. She’ll just ruin my reputation.”

I rolled my eyes and breathed, blocking it all out for once. I leaned over to the couch and reached for my coat.
“Hey, I wouldn’t be here if I had a choice.” I said, as I fished through my coat pocket.
My fingers brushed against something cold and metal. I pulled it out of the jacket.
I was already undoing the cap of the flask when the ass started whining again.
“And she drinks?” he scoffed, shaking his head. “Unbelievable.”

I shifted my stance so I was facing him. With that, I brought the flask to my mouth and took a long, big lazy swig.
Just. For. Him.
“Cheers,” I muttered.

The young ass made one of those pissed-off angry faces that was all-too very adorable...ha.
He looked like he was going to start yelling when the nervous client man stepped forward and put a hand on the kid's bare chest.
"Calm down, Jae-Sung! Please..." he said warily. "We should discuss this more into detail---"
"No need; I want them out of my home." this Jae-Sung declared. "I don't want her to work near me."
"And I don't want to work for you." I retorted.

Jun stepped forward then, and he gave me a stern look. One of many.
"I understand that you are wary of having strangers working to watch your back---"
The ass scoffed, looking away as if in disgust.
Jun continued.
"But K here is your best bet to keep you safe. And we both know you can use the best here."

The young Asian man turned his disgusted gaze from the ceiling and back to us.
"Don't worry; I think I can take care of myself. I'm a big boy." he said in a mock, childish voice.
It suited him very well...

I heard Jun sigh heavily next to me.
"Alright...I suppose then that we are left with no choice." he said.

YES. I will be liberated---

"But I will have to ask for your patience. You see, a personnel exchange order will have to be submitted, and there will be some paper work that needs to be fixed.” Jun said.
The young guy shrugged.
“All fine with me. Where do I sign?” he asked.
Jun held up a hand as if to tell him to hold.
“The only issue here then is that the paper work will take three work days to sort out.” he said.
I frowned and looked out the window.
The sun was already starting to set…it was Wednesday evening---

“Three work days.” the nervous Asian man echoed.

I looked at Jun. He was just smiling politely at our clients.
“I’ll start on the paper work first thing tomorrow morning.” he said. “Until then---”
He glanced at me, giving me a silent command.

“I’ll see you then to pick you up, K. Monday evening.”