LOADING...

Three things in life were certain: death, taxes, and the fact that MADELEINE PARK would be late to the first day of school.

Not that she was that late. No classes had started yet or anything; the gates opened at eight AM, that was all. It wasn't Maddie's fault she wasn't through them until twelve noon. Most of Aeji's girls had already entered by now, girls chattering around the courtyard as she scanned for her friends. Or—well, people she knew. Madeleine wasn't exactly the most popular girl, but that was, by all means, fine by her!

Finally her eyes landed on two girls across the quad. SOUR GRAPES and Watanabe Asuka. She'd been partners with Asuka for their hacking class, and SOUR GRAPES—well, Madeleine held a distinct distaste for her, but no matter. She was already barreling towards the pair, tackling them in one forceful thud until all three girls had fallen to the snow.

"Madeleine!" It was Asuka who shrieked, getting all fussy about her phone falling. Madeleine just snickered, not even bothering to brush the snow that had ruined her skirt as she rose to her feet. SOUR GRAPES made a face, offended at something the two of them said in their quick exchange—and then she was walking away, so no harm done. Madeleine turned to Asuka.

"Why're you here so late, anyway?" Asuka asked, brows furrowing. "Everyone already had lunch and fixed up their dorms. Actually, that's a lie. All that's happened is a lot of gossip. Did you hear?"

"I'm only four hours late," Madeleine claimed, wrinkling her nose. "Flight issues, that's all. My sister's school started yesterday so they were all up and busy about her flight during the week. I didn't get to leave home until the last minute yesterday; took a nonstop flight. Also, hear what? Is something happening?"

"Are you straight from the airport?" Asuka demanded, horrified. "Isn't that like a fifteen hour flight? How are you even functioning?"

Madeleine shrugged. Truth be told, jet lag didn't really work on her; her older brother had always said it was because of the boundless energy and adrenaline in her veins, but Maddie wasn't so sure. "Do you want me to help with your bags?"

"No, it's whatever," Madeleine said with a wave of her hand. "And hear what? Don't leave me hanging, Asuka."

"Honestly, I'm kind of surprised you don't know." Asuka made a little face, nose wrinkling and the edges of her lips dropping down into a half-scowl. "Even I knew about it, and I'm not from a legacy family or anything. There's talk about... well, nobody really knows."

Madeleine's brows furrowed, skin practically buzzing. Her heels lifted up off the ground, as if the energy pulsing inside of her defied the very laws of gravity in itself. "Come on."

Asuka shook her head. "The whole scoop is something weird's going on at Aeji. Like a big national disaster or something. I think some girls are betting on Headmistress Moon getting deposed or Aeji getting shut down—"

Madeleine's heart stopped.

"How can you say that so casually!?" she demanded, managing to stop the free-fall her most vital organ had plummeted into. Her heart bounced off the insides of her skin, squishing against muscle and bone and lodging itself stuck somewhere between her guts. "Aeji getting shut down? Asuka, what—"

"Well, nothing's been confirmed," Asuka quickened to say, her tone hasty. "Like I said, mostly just rumors. Something's up, that's all. Don't worry, I'm sure Aeji will be fine—if it was an actual possibility, they'd have told us, right?" There was a tone of worry edging into Asuka's voice, and Madeleine swallowed hard, trying to soothe the concern that curled deep in her stomach. "I'd say don't worry about it. I'm gonna take the opportunity of the general disturbance to get away with school crimes."

"That's... probably a good idea," Madeleine said, although she didn't exactly read that off the younger's general demeanor. Asuka didn't seem the type to commit school crimes. Asuka just shrugged. Madeleine tried to put a smile on her face, but she couldn't keep it up, the stress of Asuka's words tugging down at the corners of her lips. "Ugh. I'm going to go unpack. See you!"

With that, Madeleine was off, darting into the school building and heading off to go find her dormitory. The Aeji attendees had already gathered up all of her belongings, so when she entered, she was met with a pile of her suitcases. Madeleine closed the door, breathing out a sigh. Bliss.

Not for long, though. Madeleine eyed her untouched luggage, mulling over her options. One: she could leave everything here and try to figure out more about whatever the fuck was going on. Two: she could leave everything here and commit school crimes. Three: she could... actually unpack.

Yeah, three wasn't even an option.

She opted instead to change into more practical clothing. She had donned her Aeji uniform before boarding the plane in the morning, just to prepare herself in case—but it didn't seem like anyone particularly minded right now, considering all the chaos going on. She switched out her heeled mary janes in favor of a pair of Doc Marten loafers instead, and pulled a white cable knit v-neck sweater over her blouse, tucking the front in so her waist was still accentuated. It was cold, the winter weather still haunting the halls and frosting over their windows, so the added layer did well to warm her up. Seoul was much more chilly than Washington DC, and Madeleine always forgot it after a while back at home.

After she was properly outfitted, Madeleine marched out of her dorm room to survey the surroundings. The majority of the girls were all unpacking, although all doors were left wide open, girls gossiping amongst themselves. Maddie departed the hall in favor of something more appealing—if there was someone who knew what was going on, it would probably be one of the staff members.

She sought out the P&E teacher first, but Mr. Cheong, who taught all the Aeji girls basic martial arts skills, was nowhere to be found. She darted to the gym next, searching for the weapons arts teacher, but Ms. Zhou had similarly disappeared. Madeleine pouted for a moment, debating on whether to give up her search or not. Already her mind was wandering to more appealing topics—she could try out a few weapons while in the gymnasium, or go back to her dorm for a nap.

"What do you think, Rose?" Madeleine murmured. Her hand slipped under her skirt, pulling out the knife she always had with her, resting flat against the skin of her thigh. The holster had been uncomfortable when she first started carrying it wherever she went, but now it was like a second skin—and Maddie felt weird when it wasn't on.

Rose wasn't particularly ornate; she was small, enough to fit into the palm of Maddie's hand comfortably without being weird to wield. The blade was simple and flat, tapering down to a sharp point. Madeleine made a point to polish and sharpen her every two months, so the silver glint of the handle and blade gleamed like it'd never been used. Which—well, was true, Madeleine supposed. As much as she'd practiced with Rose, she'd never actually stabbed someone with her. Occasionally casualties happened in weapons class, but they always practiced with dummies, so Rose hadn't ever touched blood before.

Madeleine slowly spun her knife between two of her fingers. Her eyes grazed the walls of the gymnasium, at the racks of other weapons she could play with before classes officially started. But—

"You're right," Madeleine declared, glancing down at Rose again. "Aeji is more important. Let's go. Principal's office, then. Let's find the Headmistress."

Madeleine doubted the fact Moon Hyora even knew of her, actually. To be fair, Aeji had a fairly small-sized student body, boasting only about four or five hundred students over three grades. The South Korean government didn't want to push their luck at training teenage girls to become killers, she supposed. (Spies, killers, whatever. It was all the same.)

She wandered to the second floor, glancing around the mouth of the hallway wherein Headmistress Moon's office lay. Nobody ventured inside whether called to the room, so it felt vaguely illegal to step a foot onto the plush velvet. But Madeleine had never let laws stop her. She headed down the corridor, still clutching Rose in one hand—you don't need a weapon out, Thorn, Ms. Zhou would say as they ran through the practice gauntlet on Friday nights, there's no immediate threat in your area, after all. Put it away.

But Ms. Zhou, Madeleine would whine, fingers still clasped around Rose's handle. I—

Ms. Zhou would just roll her eyes. She was Madeleine's favorite teacher. Anyway, the point was that Maddie didn't tuck Rose back under her skirt, and instead kept her in hand as she made her way to the end of the hallway. She was just rounding the corner to where the door was when she abruptly stopped, hearing the soft sound of breaths and silence.

Carefully, Maddie pressed against the wall, eyes darting around the area to find something she could watch the scene with. There was a mirror at the end of the hall—it reflected onto the closed door of Headmistress Moon's room, which was densely surrounded. All of the staff were milling around, none of them speaking to each other as they waited. There were also a pair of boys Madeleine didn't recognize, but she took in the crispness of their uniforms and the color that was most certainly not red on their ties.

She knew that uniform. She'd seen it in her dad's old yearbook photos.

Why were there students of the Dongsun Institute here?

Madeleine wasn't entirely certain of the level of classification she had surrounding South Korea's training facilities, but she knew she probably wasn't supposed to know about Aeji's male counterpart. But Maddie had always been a curious child, and breaking into the attic and looking through her parents' old stuff wasn't considered illegal if it was in her house. The majority of the Aeji public murmured about a boy's school as sort of a ghost story, so Maddie kept her mouth shut upon hearing rumors. But to actually see students? In Aeji's halls, no less?

The door opened, snapping Madeleine straight out of her thoughts. Her grip on Rose tightened, knuckles going white with pressure—but it was just an upperclassman, demurely dressed in a picture-perfect Aeji uniform. Her ink-black hair was pin-straight, but it was her big brown eyes that gave her identity away. Iris. No—Hyemi, was her real name right? She was the most skilled girl at Aeji; the most revered student, who had actual field practice behind her. Nothing special, as some of the (frankly jealous) upperclassmen liked to say—just some honeypot and bait work. Honestly, she hasn't been in any combat or anything, she's not that cool—but still. On-field experience was on-field experience.

Madeleine considered her options. One: leave, in case everyone dispersed and turned towards the hallway Madeleine was standing in. Two: wait for everyone to file back into the meeting room and get closer to eavesdrop, just in case. Three: make herself known.

Madeleine had never been one for much rational thinking. She tucked Rose away and turned around the corner.

"—So we'll just have to select a few more students for the missio—" Mr. Jung abruptly cut off as Madeleine appeared in the hallway, turning to stare at the young girl. The titters that had filled the space—murmurs between Hyemi and one of the teachers, grumbling between the Dongsun boys—all quieted to a stop.

"Hi," Madeleine blurted. "Why are there Dongsun Institute students here?" 

WELCOME TO GIRLS, MADELEINE PARK

EBBIE'S NOTES: one: i am so sorry it took so long for me to publish this chapter. it was really really hard to pick an OC for tiger eyes. also college and work suck ass. two: we are going to pointedly ignore the fact that although each of these introduction chapters are getting progressively longer, they also have less and less plot. I PROMISE once i get everyone rolled out i will write a VERY LONG first chapter that sets everything up actually properly. i promise. ANYWAYYY know that my disclaimers are done: congratulations to sky for getting the tiger eyes slot! it really was super hard to pick; i got so many good forms for tiger eyes that the deciding vote ended up being my sister, whomst i forced to read all the forms (lol). i LOVE hanako and jihye very much still, so if the admins are okay with it, they will still be showing up in this story!! thank you <33