The two people suddenly became silent.
Arya turned around to see Jin standing in the doorway.

"Hey!" Arya instantly greeted him,
"You are not around much these days."

Jin didn't answer, just nodded a little.

The two people bowed a little and left the room.

"Here for food?" Asked Arya.

Jin entered the kitchen where Arya laid two plates on the kitchen table.

The breakfast was quiet with Jin remaining silent like usual.

"I am thinking about wandering around the city today." Arya broke the silence suddenly.

Jin looked at her.

"Gonna need a job and a place to stay," Arya said, "I can't be a lifetime guest in your house."

"Stay as long as you want," Jin assured her.

"And Jin..." Arya started but stopped immediately when Jin placed a credit card in front of her.

Arya smiled widely and took the card in her hand and cheered, "You are a lifesaver, Jin. But I need to keep it with me for quite a few days I warn you."

"Mnn."

"Don't worry, I won't rob you." Arya smiled, "I'll pay back once I get a steady job."

"You don't need to pay me back." Jin was indifferent.

"How chivalrous of you." Arya teased, "You know I can drain your bank account in one day."

"I am not complaining." Jin quietly said.

"Anyway," Arya flipped the card in her hand, "Thank you for this one. By the way, are you going somewhere?"

Jin nodded a little.

"Where, may I know?"

"Soojin noona. It's her wedding reception."

"Huh?"

"Problem?" Jin frowned a little seeing Arya's puzzled expression.

"She is married?? Is it forced or something?"

"Which century do you think we live in?"

"Not that, it's just..." Arya didn't know how would he say that she was thousands of percent sure that that woman had feelings for Jin which he reciprocates. Otherwise, why would Jin have a slightly different attitude towards that woman? And her encounter with that woman just confirmed that. She was fighting with her from her insecurities. Was she not?

"I thought you two have something going on." Arya was ready to get a laugh.

But instead, a frown covered Jin's expression that almost seemed like he was enraged.

"Hey! What can I say when she is protective that much about you? She threatened me to stay away from you!" Arya instantly jumped on her defense.

Jin didn't respond to that statement and got up from the chair, his expression is unreadable.

"Jin? May I ask who she is? If you don't clear it, I still got trouble figuring out her actions." Arya hurriedly stopped him.

"I was her wingman."

"What??? She is a jet pilot??" Arya never had been this surprised before.

"And she was your role model in the academy."
Jin was calm.

"Then why is she so hostile towards me??"

"You two were very close, closer than me and her," Jin said taking his suit from the backrest of the chair.

Arya instantly knew how close Jin and Soojin must be. Depending on and trusting each other for dear life makes you closer more than anything in life.

"I am not sure about that." Arya shrugged hearing Jin's last words.
The pure disappointment and resentment she saw in that woman's eyes were still in her mind. What did she do to provoke her this much?

Jin put on his suit and looked at her plate, "Are you done?"

"Yes." She agreed though the food was barely touched.
She has been living on instant noodles and ramen these days but Jin doesn't need to know that. He doesn't even need to know that the usual foods on the table scare her to death nowadays and she has suspicion that she has probably developed an eating disorder.

Arya spent the whole day scouring through the busy city. When she returned home, she was spent. But somehow she was contented and relaxed. It's been a long she walked this free without looking over her shoulder every single second or thinking about surviving from prying eyes or avoiding any CCTV cameras.
It has been eons that she could go out without any mask or cap or scarf around her face. She finally could let the cool breeze of the spring ruffling through her let-down hairs and could enjoy the mild sunlight without any shades on.
Guess trusting Jin finally started to pay off.

When she entered the house, three males were sitting around the dimly lit warm fireplace.
Among them, one chirped happily,
"Sunbaenim!"

"Hello, Taehyung."

Arya instantly realized these boys all were wearing formal dresses, mostly tuxedos and if not, formal white shirts and jacket suits. Probably all were coming back from the reception.

The other two men were another example of stunning beauty.
The younger one had very delicate and soft features with contrasted with his eyes and his quirky smile at the corner of his lips.

The next one...wait, Arya stopped on her track.
The man on the other side had no less shocked expression on his face either.

Fragments of memories flashed before Arya's eyes with a bright smile of the sunshine. The face that could brighten her days anytime she put her eyes on, the pieces and fragments of memories were so incomplete and the feeling of the emptiness was so hollow that it immediately formed a thin layer of gloss over eyes.

"Ho...Hobi?"

Before she could master any more words, she was lifted in the air and crashed in between the arms of the said man.

Strangely, this felt so right and so expected that she almost broke down into tears.

"I am...I..." His voice was muffled.

Arya didn't know how much time she was clinging to that familiar body before they both separated.
She was surprised when she realized that she was crying. Neither was Hoseok indifferent, neither his eyes were dry.

"It's impossible, how? How??" Hoseok desperately looked around for a solution but nobody could give him any.

"Seokjin hyung, say something?" Hoseok addressed the man who was entering the room with another two men.

He slowed his pace and silently looked at Namjoon beside him.

"I'll tell you later, hyung." Namjoon calmly assured Hoseok who was still in denial to let Arya go.

After almost half an hour, Arya was now sitting with the boys with Hoseok on her side.

Some snacks were scattered on the table with laughter echoing through the room.

Jin was sitting among them and surprisingly enough, though he was quiet and the most gentle among the ruffian of the loud team, somehow his cold aura was gone.

"Let me introduce you, Sunbae," Taehyung was most enthusiastic among them, "This man child here you see, he is Park Jimin. He is from the naval intelligence, still serving as Lieutenant in the Navy."

"This caveman here, he is Min Yoongi." Hoseok participated, "He was in Army. Don't mess with him Arya, he is the most decorated commando they ever got."

"Excuse me." Jin politely got up and looked at his wrist, "I gotta go out for a few hours. "

"We ain't going anywhere hyung." Jimin stretched his legs and closed his eyes, "go ahead."

"I'll be off then." Jin looked at Arya and with her nod of approval, he took the jacket from the chair and went out.

"How you guys all came together? I mean, with Hobi, it's normal, we were coursemates. But the rest?"

"Maybe you don't remember," Namjoon leaned in, "but there was a special force formed years back when you first joined NIS. We were a team."

"Special force?" Arya frowned, "But you all are from different forces."

"It was a joint force," Yoongi added.

"All six of you?"

"Yes." Namjoon added, "Me and Yoongi hyung was from the Army, Hoseok and Seokjin hyung from the airforce, Jimin from the navy, and Tae was from the special attack division from the police."

"Who was the team leader?" Arya looked at Yoongi. It was normal to look at him cause he was the oldest here and of course, it was natural that a special force would be led by an army officer.

"Not me." Yoongi shrugged, "It's Seokjin hyung."

"Impressive."Arya genuinely commented.

"You can say, he was our mentor." Jimin added, "Mainly me, Tae, and Jungkook were directly trained by him."

"Jungkook? Who is he?"

"He is our junior. Cute boy," Added Yoongi. "He finished his training last year. Seokjin hyung himself taught him when he was sent to The Pit."

"The Pit?"

"The special training camp in Jeju. If you name any decorated agents out there, be sure they were trained there somewhere in his life. They make the killing machines."

"What are you doing, Arya?" Hoseok asked suddenly.

While Arya was in awe seeing the invincible group of men, the sudden question caught her off guard, "Who? Me?"

"Hmm."

Arya laughed, "I am a waitress in a coffee house."

"Huh?"

Arya enjoyed the different looks shot at her and quipped, "Got a new job today. Gotta make a living though."

"Why don't you come back?" Taehyung chirped, "I still get whipped whenever I enter our server and security interfaces knowing you made it with your own hands. So genius, sunbae."

"Drop the formalities. Call me noona instead."

"Noona." Taehyung showed his wide smile, "Can I ask you some questions regarding the security firewalls in the server? I still am a bit puzzled about some codes you have done there."

"I need to check that if I made it, you know can't remember most of my days in the past." Arya joked.

"Sure, but noona, you know..." Taehyung eagerly started but was smacked on the head by Jimin sitting beside him, "stop it now. Don't start again. Not everyone likes your bland and dry computer stuff."

Taehyung rubbed his head while Namjoon explained to Arya who was in charge of what in the agency.

Namjoon was the head of operations. She knew that already, Taehyung was in charge of the cybercrime and IT division.

Yoongi and Hoseok both were trainers in The pit and were working as undercover assets in NIS.

Jimin was in naval intelligence but was an honourary agent under NIS special force too.

And for Jin, He was the legendary and exemplary agent working on the field, retired from the airforce early for joining NIS, and one of the top and toughest mentors the force ever produced.

"And me..." Arya grinned before pulling off funny remarks but Namjoon stopped her, "You were working as the officer in charge of the whole Eastern Asian divisions before going undercover, one of the top ten agents of NIS."

Taehyung instantly sat straight and looked at them with puzzled eyes.  Jimin and Yoongi's expressions were more or less the same. But before Yoongi can say anything obviously, Namjoon stated, "It would be great if I could have alcohol now."

"Why?  Are you going in abstinent?" Arya teased.

"No. Cause alcohol is banned in this house." Namjoon fake sighed,
"Seokjin hyung is so strict."

"Banned?" Arya was surprised and mischievous at the same time, "He is just fooling you. I saw a whole load of Soju in the cellar."

"What? No way!" Yoongi denied. "He doesn't even drink!"

"Lie! I saw him drinking beer before." Jimin protested immediately.

"Nonalcoholic beer," Hoseok yawned, "how do you expect drinking from an upright and righteous strict person like him? Seriously, Jimin, use your brain!"

There was no sign that the argument was going to be ended soon, so Arya got up and raised their voice, "who wants Soju?"

"Me!" the voices were in unison and Yoongi chuckled lowly, "Seokjin hyung is probably gonna kill us later."

Though the team was so well bonded together, the respect and the well-maintained mentor-mentee relationship were somehow prominent. They were friends, but it was clear that Jin still had his solitary position with which he gained unanimous respect and boundary.
And that too was a very big change from Jin's side.

"I'll help you," Hoseok got up and followed Arya.

After they left, Yoongi was the first person who spoke in a very low tone, "I swear to god Namjoon, if she is the one I am thinking she is..."

"She is," Namjoon assured.

"She died! I brought her back!" Yoongi protested, "I checked the body. She died, Namjoon. There is no way..."

"I'll tell you later, hyung!" Namjoon tried to pacify a confused Yoongi.

"Holy shit!" Jimin scoffed and looked at Taehyung who was in his deep thought.

"She seems... So different and straightforward." Taehyung remarked quietly.

"Yeah." Namjoon leaned back on his couch, "She is the total opposite of Seokjin Hyung. While hyung will never express what he wants or what he is thinking or dealing with, sunbae lives on the total opposite side of the coin."

"That shows." Yoongi agreed.

"She is so straightforward and bold." Namjoon added, "While hyung lives his life by strict rules and principles,  she is just a person who breaks every rule possible. She is a person who lacks prejudice and ego. She'll befriend an old man, a child, a street vendor, a monk, or even a street dog on her way. She is expressive, she will express anything on her mind without even thinking twice. She will cry, shout or laugh whenever she wants, she doesn't believe in hiding. And she doesn't mind saying whatever she wants to whomever she likes. Call it shameless, disrespectful, or audacious, she just doesn't care. A free spirit."

"But..." Jimin was about to say something when both Hoseok and Arya came back with really loads of Soju bottles in their hands.

"How deceiving!" Hoseok almost shouted, "You guys should see how many bottles hyung has reserved in his collection, "We have been fooled all these years."

"Fool. He has not been hoarding those for us, Hobi." Yoongi scolded him softly.

"Then what?" Hoseok disagreed and instantly shut his mouth seeing the looks on Yoongi's eyes. He well knows the language of those eyes which were telling him "Not Now."

The night was deepening with thousands of stories encircling in the short group. Arya didn't know why she was feeling so much at home with these boys. They were warm and inviting.

They asked her about her little
"Adventure" After the plane crash.
She carefully avoided the time she was in solitary confinement in the boot camp.

The night was deepening with the increasing of the drunk heads among which Taehyung was dead drunk just after the second round and was fiddling with the hairs of Jimin.

"You sure, you wouldn't miss your adrenaline days, noona?" Jimin said in a lazy voice to Arya who was drifted to probably another world.

"Of course I will," Arya answered even more lazily, sipping Soju from the bottle right away.

"Then why are you running away from it?"

"You won't understand." Arya took another sip.

They say alcohol intensifies the emotions you are feeling.
Arya understood what they mean by it now.

Looking at the innocent yet matured face of Hoseok, she felt sad.
The last time she could remember, he was just a curious bubbly boy who had an immense curiosity about every mystery of the world around him, and at the same time, he was careless about everything around him. That immature boy who was younger than her in age but managed to keep his pace with his elders as coursemates now turned out to be the mature and logical guy in front of her.

So much has changed- Arya thought. No matter how destroyed she was, no matter how much she couldn't remember, she still could feel the void in her heart seeing her friend changing into someone else behind her back.
She thought of herself like the Rip van winkle, getting up from a long sleep only to see the world changed so much that he has no place left for him anymore.

"Why that stiff bastard is not home yet?" Arya mumbled sipping the Soju again.

"He is probably taking a walk alongside the Han river," Jimin mumbled.

"Or he is sitting at that table again, waiting." Taehyung groaned in his half-sleep state, "It's March again, remember?"

"What table?" Arya asked absentmindedly.

"The table he always goes to." Taehyung stirred up and yawned,
"Waiting for..."

"Tae..." Namjoon suddenly budged in and eyed Taehyung sharply.

Taehyung immediately shut up and leaned on the couch once again.

"What were you saying?" Arya nudged a little to Taehyung's side but that boy giggled a little but stayed silent.

"Namjoon?"

"Yes, sunbae?"

"What was he talking about?"

"Alcohol talk. Ignore him." Namjoon sipped on his drink and hid a little sigh.

"You know where did Jin go?"

"Probably, probably not. I am not sure, sunbae."

"You are hiding something."

Namjoon smiled nicely, "Seriously, sunbae. It's nothing. I guarantee you, whatever the reason was his to go out, he'll not be needing that anymore."

"You all talk in riddles, you know?" Arya sulked a little.

"That's our specialty."

"So, you were..." Suddenly remembering his call sign Arya quipped, "What did they call you in the special force? The gray what? Wolf?"

"Wolf grandpa." Taehyung giggled from his sleep.

"Old dog." Hoseok has dimmed down already, but he finally did decide to talk in.

"You were Mr. Hyde." Arya looked at Hoseok who bowed towards her sarcastically, "At your service, wild eagle."

This name was because of his duality before and after drinking inside the aviation club.

"He is cypher." Namjoon pointed at Taehyung, "It was supposed to be cyber as he was in the team for all tech support, but he changed it."

"This one, he is the Merlin." Namjoon pointed at Jimin, "Goes with his swimming skills at navy like the sailfish."

"And he," Hoseok pointed at Yoongi who was literally enduring all the kicks and punches almost throwing at his direction from the cuddling Taehyung and Jimin right beside him, "He is the caveman. I already told you."

"And Seokjin hyung..." Namjoon started but Taehyung again snatched his words, "The bitter frost."

"Not That, Tae." Namjoon scolded him, "He is the lonely eagle."

"What is with the frost one?" Arya caught on the word.

"It's nothing. It's just a nickname people gave him."

"Suits him well though." Arya chuckled, "the heartless cold monster."