23 JUL 33AE

Seoul, South Korea

Camilla had been sleeping rather peacefully before she was rudely awakened by someone incessantly knocking on her hotel room door. But as much as she wanted to send them flying with a shockwave of air, she was way too tired; as it was, she barely had enough energy to contemplate her revenge.

When they had arrived in South Korea a few days ago, they were greeted by the news that the US west coast had been hit by another round of attacks from Exodos. Since then, Camilla had been working around the clock to revise a security plan, and this was the first time she had been allowed and able to sleep in days. In fact, it was possibly the only chance she would get to have a good rest for a while.

"Whoever that is needs to shut the hell up," Elsie mumbled groggily from next to her. Unlike Camilla, Elsie's exhaustion was due to binge watching Korean TV shows as a way to kill time while confined to the hotel as a security precaution. They had been watching one such show on Elsie's laptop in an attempt for Camilla to forget the stresses of work for long enough to fall asleep; it must have worked, given that they were only now waking up about six hours later.

When the knocking grew more incessant, Camilla tiredly sent some energy towards the door to make a barrier of air right outside of it. Immediately, the knocking stopped.

"Was that you?" Elsie asked, and the one arm she had around Camilla's shoulders was quickly joined by another one as she pulled Camilla into a lazy hug. "My savior."

Camilla could only grunt since she was too tired to think of actual words.

Elsie must have misinterpreted her reply, because she quickly pulled back, or at least tried to. While she could easily remove the arm she had just wrapped around Camilla, her other arm was still stuck under Camilla's neck from where it was left the night before.

"Sorry," Elsie mumbled, a little more awake but not much more coherent. "I didn't mean to hug you without asking."

"It's fine," Camilla mumbled. Since they had made the room extremely cold again, Elsie's hug had provided some additional warmth that Camilla didn't realize she needed, and she unconsciously shifted closer to Elsie to try and regain what she lost.

"Alright, alright," Elsie said, slightly amused, then wrapped her other arm back around Camilla with her chin resting on top of Camilla's head. "That better?"

Camilla hummed in approval and quickly began to drift back to sleep once more.

Of course, as soon as she fell asleep, her barrier outside the door dropped and the knocking began again.

"Oh my god," Elsie groaned. "Who is that?"

It wasn't until Elsie asked the question that Camilla actually thought about it, and then she realized that it was likely Lee or Perez at her door. And she hadn't just ignored them; she blocked them from bothering her.

"Shoot," Camilla muttered, literally rolling out of bed from the comfort of Elsie's arms and tumbling onto the floor.

She didn't care how she looked as long as she was wearing clothes, so after she verified her low standard dress code, she scrambled to the door to answer it.

Thankfully, it wasn't Lee or Perez, or even another guardian. Rather, it was Minyoung, and somehow that made Camilla even more irate.

"What?" Camilla asked, probably more viciously than she needed to.

Her tone didn't seem to have much of an impact on Minyoung though, and he seemed unphased as he tried to look past Camilla and into her room.

"Have you seen Elsie anywhere?" he asked. "She didn't answer her phone or her door."

"Minyoung?" Elsie's voice sounded confused from behind Camilla. "What are you doing here?"

But Minyoung seemed to have lost his voice at some point in the past few seconds because he simply stared between Elsie and Camilla with his eyes and mouth wide open in shock. When he didn't answer after a while, Camilla moved from the door to let Elsie take her place, and she didn't bother hanging around in favor of going back to bed. She could hear Elsie and Minyoung arguing in lowered voices for a few seconds before the door closed, and Elsie poked her head into the main room.

"Sorry, can we borrow your bathroom for a bit?"

Camilla grunted in confirmation, and she heard the bathroom door close soon after. She had an idea of what they were discussing, based off Minyoung's face when he realized Elsie had slept over, and she didn't really care if Minyoung misread the situation. People had assumed things about Camilla all the time; one more instance wouldn't make much of a difference.

As tired as she was, Camilla still couldn't go back to sleep. She wasn't interested in eavesdropping on Elsie and Minyoung's conversation either, so she went on her phone instead. After verifying that she hadn't received anything work-related while she was asleep, she checked her social media for any major updates.

Camilla still hadn't posted anything since she received the Org's message through Lee. In fact, her last post was from over three months ago when she was just leaving Japan after the Games. She remembered sending the photo to the Org's public relations team, then getting back almost an entirely different one to use instead. Apparently, they thought being in a coma for two weeks wasn't a good look on her, and they ended up editing it so much that the result was more a product of photo manipulation than photography. They had even added in a pair of sunglasses to conceal her tired eyes.

Since she didn't want to think about how she had fallen behind in meeting her social media presence quota, Camilla looked at other people's posts instead. She didn't know most of the people she followed personally since most were other US guardians she followed at random to fulfill another requirement of the Org. Like her, most of those guardians were only moderately active, if at all, since they were all probably busy with Exodos. Recently though, Camilla had added the Song brothers, and their latest posts were at the top of her feed, showing their arrival to their home country no more than two hours ago.

While Camilla was commenting on one of Hitomi's posts, since the least she could do was show the public she was still alive and active, Elsie and Minyoung finally emerged from the bathroom. Elsie looked to be a combination of exhausted and exasperated, and Minyoung appeared to be stressed and stern. And when he directed that look at Camilla, she was only mildly surprised.

"Are you two dating?" Minyoung demanded, gesturing firmly between Camilla and Elsie.

Camilla only needed to pause for a beat before answering. "Not that I'm aware of," she answered blandly.

"See?" Elsie exclaimed, then let out a frustrated groan. "Why are you so embarrassing?"

"This wouldn't have happened if you answered your phone like a responsible adult," Minyoung replied, not the least bit apologetic.

"What're you even doing here anyway?" Elsie asked. "Last I heard, you were kicked off the film's travel list for being 'non-essential.'"

"Haven't you heard?" Minyoung asked, incredulous and probably bitter about Elsie's jab. "Exodos is going up and down the west coast attacking everything like crazy!"

"Of course we've heard," Elsie replied, offended. "We've only been traveling the world, not living under a rock. But how does your presence here make a difference?"

"Well..." Minyoung began to argue but faltered, and he took a few moments to continue at a much lower intensity. "We were concerned."

"Wait, 'we'?"

When Minyoung took too long to answer, Camilla showed Elsie the brothers' posts on her phone. "The other one's here too."

"You've got to be kidding me," Elsie muttered angrily.

"Jordan thought he could... offer more insight on the terrain," Minyoung said, though he didn't seem entirely convinced by his own argument. "You know, for security purposes. And I wasn't going to let him show up alone, and Khan refused to go with him. Apparently, 'babysitting' isn't part of her managerial duties."

"Oh, please," Elsie said, rolling her eyes. "I know you were only worried about being bored and missing out on your job. Seriously, you need a hobby. And if you're so worried about Jordan, then where is he?"

"He's..." Minyoung glanced warily at Camilla, "in a meeting."

"So he's with Mack," Elsie clarified immediately. "Well, it sounds like you both had ulterior motives."

"Okay, fine," Minyoung surrendered. "Yeah, we're only here because we're bored and nosy and have no lives outside of work. Happy?"

Elsie thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I am."

Another set of knocks at the door put their loud discussion on hold and signaled Jordan and Mack's arrival, along with the indication that Camilla was definitely not going back to sleep anytime soon. Ultimately, she probably wouldn't have been able to sleep without their presence anyway, so she simply sat back and let them cause a ruckus in her room, distracting her from the stress that the remaining weeks would inevitably bring.

"Sorry about the impromptu gathering," Elsie apologized when she sat next to Camilla on her bed a few minutes later. "Do you want me to kick them out? I know you wanted to sleep."

"They can stay here," Camilla assured. "At least until I have to leave; we have a briefing in a couple hours. And they can't get too loud."

Elsie nodded with a grin. "I can keep them in line. Just let me know if you change your mind and want all of us gone."

Initially, Camilla doubted that Elsie could entertain three adult males between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-two. But she was quickly proved wrong when, in a matter of minutes, the three of them were staring at Elsie's laptop as if they were in a trance, with Elsie monitoring from behind them. The whole scene was intriguing to Camilla since she, the youngest of the group, was playing host to essentially a bunch of overgrown children and their babysitter.

As it turned out, Jordan and Minyoung's attendance was necessary after all when both of the crew's translators called in sick the morning they were supposed to resume filming. While the illness was reportedly a bout of food poisoning, Elsie was convinced it was a cover-up for how much soju they had the night before.

"I saw their posts last night," Elsie told Camilla and Mack on the side when they heard about the delay. "That's what happens when you hang out with the sound crew."

Thankfully, both Minyoung and Jordan were staying in the same hotel and had been planning on tagging along anyway. Both were more than happy to help; Camilla was just relieved that the assignment would give them something to do and hopefully keep them out of trouble.

The day's set had been one that the Song brothers helped Camilla and Mack research back in LA, and Camilla was surprised at how accurately the brothers had described it. It was a historical-looking village, as if it came straight out of the shows Elsie had been watching, and there weren't many obvious landmarks besides the mountains in the distance. Many of the old-fashioned houses looked the same, as did the paths that ran between them, and if Camilla hadn't studied their security notes she could've easily lost her bearings. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for her entire squad, and Camilla caught Perez comparing his surroundings with the map that Camilla had included in the security plan as if it would magically point him in the right direction.

A portion of the crew had arrived the night before, so the set only needed another hour of finishing touches before it was ready. The scene was supposed to be that Elsie and Mack's characters followed the villains to a rural South Korean village in the middle of a cultural festival. The flashy colors and jubilant noises were supposed to add tension to the foot chase that Elsie and Mack go on, while also showing how different the lives of the two heroes were from the rest of the world.

They started filming in the late morning, and for a while, both Minyoung and Jordan were hard at work translating the director's instructions to the local extras. Most of them were well-behaved and professional, but a few were clearly distracted as they fawned over the former and current pop stars. Eventually, Camilla spotted Jordan slowly making his way over to her, looking slightly dejected.

"Sorry, but do you mind if I hang out around here?" he asked. "My micromanager of a brother says I wasn't 'translating correctly' or whatever. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm distracting some of the extras, but they actually like him more!"

"Sure," Camilla answered simply, not really paying him much attention.

"I'm not bothering you, am I?" Jordan asked, sounding a little nervous. Was he scared of her? "If I am, you can tell me and I'll leave."

Camilla made a point to shake her head and actually look at him when she answered. "You're not."

"Okay..." Jordan said, still a little skeptical. "Well, if you're sure..."

He stood to the side and slightly behind her, leaning his back against a low stone wall. For a while, he was completely still and silent, at least from Camilla's perspective. But after a few minutes, he began emitting an energy that was so full of nerves that it stood out amongst the rest of the set and surrounding area like a sore thumb.

Camilla sighed, frustrated. "If you're going to be that nervous, then maybe you should go somewhere else."

"Sorry!" Jordan suddenly exclaimed, as if he got caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do, then paused. "Wait... how'd you know I was nervous?" He gasped. "Hang on, you can't read my mind, can you?"

"No, I can just feel your twitchiness."

"Oh," Jordan said simply, now sounding slightly impressed instead of extremely worried. "Wow."

As they stood in silence for a few minutes, Jordan's nervousness eventually dissipated and Camilla was able to focus again. It still seemed like something was on his mind though, and he asked his next question shortly after.

"I don't want to bother you, but how do your powers work? Like, whatever you're doing right now?" he asked, then immediately added, "Of course, you don't have to tell me."

Camilla thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "It's no problem. I'm supposed to be the lookout. If I transfer my energy to the air, I can sense changes that happen to it. So if I just spread my energy over a large area, I just keep an eye out for anything unusual, then let the rest of my squad know."

Suddenly, Jordan seemed slightly worried by her words. "So... what kinds of things can you sense?" he asked, unsuccessfully trying to put on a casual tone.

"Well, I can tell you're acting suspicious," Camilla pointed out. "But I don't need my abilities to figure that out."

"I—I'm not hiding anything," Jordan said defensively.

That sounded exactly like what someone would say if they were hiding something, but Camilla didn't mention that.

"Well, to answer your question, one thing I can sense are temperature changes." She looked at Jordan pointedly. "Like when someone around me is nervous and a bad liar, they give off a little more heat than normal."

"Okay, okay, fine!" Jordan surrendered. Apparently, he gave up even more easily than his brother. "I was just wondering if you detect things like, I don't know, sound waves."

Camilla hummed as if she was thinking seriously, but really she just wanted to make Jordan nervous. "And why would you want to know that?"

"It's just..." Jordan groaned. "Aw, come on, can you just forget I asked anything?"

"No."

Jordan's frustration was a little amusing, and Camilla couldn't help the smile that appeared at a corner of her lips. She tried to hide it as soon as she realized what she was doing, but she wasn't quite fast enough.

"Hang on..." Jordan paused. "Are you... you're messing with me, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not," Camilla stoically denied his accusation. "But if you keep up this suspicious behavior, I may have to take you in for questioning."

"I can't believe you would make fun of me," Jordan said bitterly, ignoring her last threat. "I thought you were supposed to be an honorable guardian that protects us."

"I'm protecting you by letting you know what your weaknesses are," Camilla said, dropping her serious tone. "Anyway, why are you worried if I can sense sound waves?"

Jordan could only hold his tongue for less than five seconds before giving in. "It's nothing bad, but it's just... a while back, when you were guarding Elsie, we kind of... mentioned you when you weren't in the room."

"So you were talking about me behind my back," Camilla summarized. "And that's 'nothing bad'?"

This time, Jordan only had to look at Camilla for a few moments to realize she was joking. "Seriously? You do know that I'm older than you, right?"

Camilla nodded once. "Noted. Would you like me to refer to you as 'Grandfather,' 'Granddad,' or 'Grandpa'?"

As Jordan rolled his eyes, Camilla added, "But to address your concerns, yes, I can tell what people are saying from the sound waves they make, but no, I didn't listen to what you were saying behind my back. That would be an invasion of privacy."

"Really?" Jordan asked skeptically.

"What, is that hard to believe?"

"Well..." Jordan began then immediately trailed off, earning him a slight glare from Camilla. "No, no, what I meant was... well, we still don't know you very well... I mean, me and Minyoung don't. But Elsie said to give you a chance, and even Mack vouched for you, so..."

His confession surprised Camilla a bit. "They did? Elsie and Mack, I mean. They said that?"

Now it was Jordan's turn to grin. "What, is that hard to believe?"

At first, Camilla thought it was. She knew she was getting closer to Elsie, but she didn't realize that Elsie felt the same, let alone enough to talk positively about Camilla with her other friends. But after Camilla really thought back at all the times Elsie helped her, how she let Camilla stay in her condo and how she would lull Camilla to sleep on more than one occasion, she realized that maybe it wasn't really a surprise after all.

Before Camilla could gain her bearings again, Jordan's phone rang, and after conversing in irritated-sounding Korean for a few seconds, he waved bye to Camilla and headed back into the middle of the set. Camilla was left staring at the buzzing set in a daze, not knowing what to do with this newfound information.

And then she spotted Elsie through the mass of people as she listened intently to whatever the director was telling her. At that moment, Elsie's eyes met Camilla's, and the actress waved with a gentle smile. Without even thinking about it, Camilla returned to gesture, right before she watched Elsie get scolded for not paying attention.

It was a small exchange, and Camilla actually felt a little guilty about getting Elsie in trouble, but it proved how much had changed in a few short months. Thanks to Elsie, Camilla had changed, and she was surprised to realize how much she liked her new self.

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NOTES

At last, the Song brothers are back! Whether the others want them there or not! But Mack's definitely not complaining!

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