LOADING...

Call it a sixth sense, but ARINA KIRARI knew when people were talking about her.

It had been approximately one hour and fourteen minutes since Eom Hyemi was called into Headmistress Moon's office. Arina had broken into Hyemi's dormitory twenty-four minutes after Eom Hyemi was called into Headmistress Moon's office. Arina had expected Hyemi to return promptly.

It had been far too long of a time to spend in the principal's office, and Arina had never been patient. She rolled over from where she'd been lounging on Hyemi's bed, patting around the nightstand before finally unearthing her phone. There were exactly zero messages from Hyemi—or anyone, for that matter—which was more than a little annoying at this point.

But luckily for Arina, fate stepped in. Gameunjang-aegi was hallowed in these halls, and the Korean goddess of destiny and fate would never let her students down. The intercom buzzed, and soon the words Arina Kirari to the principal's office were sounding around the room.

Arina got up, tucking her phone into her blazer's inside pocket and slipping out of Hyemi's dormitory. The message repeated a few more times before finally cutting off—Arina took her time heading to the second floor, mulling over ideas in her head.

There was no way picture-perfect Hyemi had gotten into trouble, so if something was up, it probably had to do with whatever she'd been worried about earlier in the day. Arina couldn't figure out why they'd want her in the office if it had to do with Aeji shutting down or the headmistress getting booted, though—something that made her reasonably uncomfortable as she turned the final corner to the office. The door was already open.

"Where's Hyemi?" Arina asked when she stepped in, not even allowing a moment for its occupants to address her. Her question was answered a second later, though; the older girl was in the corner of the room, sitting on one of the couches beside an underclassman who looked extremely satisfied about being in the room. Arina had no idea what her name was—she wasn't exactly in the habit of making friends, especially not of those younger than her.

"I'm glad you could join us, Miss Kirari," Headmistress Moon said, a soft smile on her face. She was about the only staff member that didn't use code names when addressing students—while Mr. Jung or Ms. Zhou always said Acidic, you're late or Acidic, work with Ruby for this assignment, Headmistress Moon seemed to prefer the more... human alternative. "Unfortunately I can't explain the matter to you as it's currently classified, but, well." She glanced around the room. It wasn't a show of worry, or uncertainty. It was calculated, maybe to make Arina feel more at home. "We're putting together a team of Aeji girls for a mission."

"Why me?" Arina asked bluntly. She could feel Hyemi's eyes on her—already, she knew the answer. "You're just taking Iris's word for it?"

"Miss Eom let me know that she wouldn't be interested in participating if you were not with her," Headmistress Moon answered. Arina had to suppress her eye roll. "So are you in or not?"

Arina actually did roll her eyes this time. "I'm in," she said, then glanced over at where Hyemi and the other girl were sitting. "Who's she?"

The girl looked insulted by that. "Madeleine Park. Thorn. First grade."

"We're recruiting freshmen?" Arina asked skeptically. Madeleine scowled at her. She had a thin knife in one of her hands, and was palming it between both her hands—invisible one second, back in grasp the next.

"Thorn was a bit of a... special exception," Ms. Zhou quickened to say. "Look, we've just got to get a few more students assembled and then we'll be able to do the first briefing. Do you have any recommendations?"

"Not really," Arina said, then nodded over at two teenage boys slumped on the opposite couch to the Aeji girls. One of them was sleeping. The other was paying too-close attention to what was going on in the room. Arina disliked both of them immediately. "Who are they?"

"We'll explain in a bit," Headmistress Moon said, then turned to the rest of the staff members. "I was thinking SOUR GRAPES; she'd be a good asset with how smart she is. We also need someone good with technology and a pavement artist."

"Perhaps VOGUE?" Mr. Jung inquired.

"She already knows everything that's going on," Arina said bluntly. She had no idea if she was invited to speak, but they'd brought her in the room, and Arina was going to say whatever was on her mind. "I mean, she refused to tell anyone, but I think it's pretty clear that she knows." VOGUE had always been like that, though; while Hyemi was the original spy kid, VOGUE was just... a spy. She knew everything, and it was more than a little disconcerting.

"Her brother attends Dongsun, so she does already know," Ms. Zhou said, glancing over at Headmistress Moon. "She had clearance and was told." Then she turned and gave Madeleine a look. Arina didn't even bother to try and figure that out.

The first part of Ms. Zhou's sentence seemed to catch the two schoolboys' attention. Or at least the one that wasn't asleep. "An Aeji girl is related to one of us?" he demanded. "Who?"

"Clearance," Headmistress Moon said calmly, and the boy glared at her, parting his lips to argue—and that was enough for Arina to cement her opinion of hating him. He shut up after a quick glance from an older male Arina didn't recognize beside him, who was wearing tweed for God knew why. "Okay, VOGUE, then. Professor Kim, do you have any recommendations for technology and gadgetry?"

"Er, yes." Professor Kim peered down at a tablet he held in his arms, scrolling through what Arina could only assume was a list of Aeji girls. "THE DREAMING is one of my top students. She's got an eye for gadgets and coordination; ideally she'd only be helping behind-the-scenes. As for an on-fielder, I'm thinking—"

He cut himself off. The room suddenly became very, very quiet.

"Professor Kim?" the headmistress prompted.

"Why is the portal saying that Stargirl is a senior?" he eventually asked. Arina turned to Hyemi, who just shrugged. Beside her, Madeleine stifled a cackle, hiccups of laughter escaping as reedy breaths through her nose.

"Stargirl? That's Watanabe Asuka, isn't it?" Headmistress Moon asked. Professor Kim nodded, though he didn't look up, too busy pressing buttons on his tablet screen.

"Yeah, she's a freshman. It's saying she's a senior, for some reason—let me check the audit logs." He paused, squinting his eyes and peering down at the screen. "Manual override by Mr. Kim. That's impossible; Mr. Kim hasn't been on campus since..."

He trailed off.

"She hacked into the mainframe."

This time, Madeleine really couldn't hold in her laughter. Arina shared a dubious look with Hyemi. We need to talk, she mouthed. Hyemi nodded, bottom lip caught between her teeth. She looked uncertain, though about what, Arina wasn't entirely certain.

"Well," Headmistress Moon said smoothly. "I suppose someone should go get her and bring her to my office. Miss Eom, Miss Kirari, if you'd go retrieve VOGUE for us? We'll regroup in board room two."

Hyemi nodded, getting up from her seat without even a glance in anyone else's direction. Arina quickened to follow her out, sparing a glimpse over her shoulder at the two schoolboys. Dongsun. The word didn't sound familiar. "Do you know what's going on?" she hissed at Hyemi as the two exited the room.

"Vaguely," Hyemi said, a soft wrinkle between her eyebrows. "All Headmistress Moon told me is that there's an actual mission, and for some reason there's those boys involved. I don't really know who they—"

"They're from the Dongsun Institute," a happy voice chirped from behind them.

Arina startled, spinning around to glare daggers down at Madeleine. "Why are you following us?"

Madeleine shrugged. "Ms. Zhou told me to take a walk and regroup later. I don't think she's super fond of the fact I'm here." She paused, wrinkling her nose. "Actually, I'm pretty sure none of them want me here."

"They were saying no freshmen," Hyemi said with a nod.

"Wait, so how did she—" Arina glanced at Madeleine, then at Hyemi again. Madeleine was ridiculously small compared to the rest of them—probably around 5'2" compared to Hyemi and Arina's much taller 5'8" and 5'6". She tried to calculate the measurements in centimeters, but quickly gave up—the Canadian in her was too strong to fight. "Why are you here again?"

"I sort of kind of maybe forced myself into the mission," Madeleine said, not sounding too guilty about it.

Arina stopped walking to give her a dubious look. "A bunch of South Korea's top spies seriously just let you push them around?"

"More like I..." Madeleine made a face, gesturing with her hands. Hyemi had stopped walking, glancing behind her at the two younger girls with a look of uncertainty on her face. She hadn't stopped looking worried since Arina had first seen her this morning. "Demanded why Dongsun boys were here and barreled my way into the office, and then Ms. Zhou vouched for my skills so they decided to put me on because of security reasons. Or something."

"What is this generation coming to," Arina muttered.

"You mentioned the Dongsun Institute?" Hyemi cut in, voice soft but still sharp. She started walking again, gesturing for the other two girls to follow her, which Arina did so obediently. "What's that?"

"It's the male version of Aeji Academy," Madeleine said casually, like she was announcing that she'd accidentally shot a bullet through the P&E room's east wall or that her calculations in Chemistry had ended up turning her solution into acid.

Arina and Hyemi turned to gape at her. "There's a male version of Aeji Academy?" Hyemi demanded, sounding rather faint.

"Yeah. My dad went there," Madeleine said. "That's why I know about it. I don't know why they're here or anything, though, but I recognized the uniform. Ours is better, by the way." She eyed Hyemi's outfit, who was the only one of them wearing the uniform to a T—white button-down blouse with a blood red tie, a black pleated skirt, white knee socks and black mary janes. She sported her blazer, too, black with red silk lining and the Aeji crest emblazoned on the left breast. "I can't believe their school color is light blue. Like, what about that screams spy academy?"

Arina didn't think blood red exactly screamed spy academy either—perhaps something in the vein of vampire school might be more fitting—but she didn't say anything. "Where do you think VOGUE is?" she asked instead, glancing over at Hyemi. The girl was an enigma, and she was either nowhere to be found or in the center of chaos, so she could be anywhere.

"Ugh, I'm going to say roof," Hyemi said. Madeleine took that as a signal to bounce off in front of the older girls, practically running through the halls to get to the elevator. Arina and Hyemi shared a look, but Arina tugged her back, slowing their paces so Madeleine was out of earshot.

"Are you really certain about this?" Arina whispered. Hyemi swallowed, but she nodded, the black of her hair fading in and out as she bobbed her head up and down. "Because if you want to pull out, I'll talk to the headmistress for you. But if you're in, I'm in."

"Thanks, Rina," Hyemi said, giving Arina a reassuring squeeze on the arm. "But I'm sure. Aeji is our home. And I don't exactly trust anyone besides you and me to protect it."

Arina nodded, setting her jaw. "It's agreed, then. We're in for the count." The worried expression didn't melt entirely off of Hyemi's face, and Arina nudged her in the shoulder. "Come on, Hyemster. Lighten up!"

In front of them, Madeleine was waiting by the elevators, impatiently gesturing at them to pick up their speed. Hyemi laughed, quickening her pace, and Arina followed after her.

This'll be a school semester to remember." 

WELCOME TO GIRLS, ARINA KIRARI

EBBIE'S NOTES: anddddd congratulations thala for getting the kingdom come slot! not like that's a big feat considering nobody else applied (lol) but i love arina SO DARN MUCH so i hope you guys do too!! and three of our girls are together now,, the plot is starting to form!! okay i gtg to work now bye mwah