#[tw: skateboard collision]

[warsinmyhead]

[Musing] Dance? Or Disaster

“Kumiho, thank you for agreeing to come in early,” Merlin said as he leaned back in his seat once the camera was in focus. He folded his hands on the long table in the conference room at the UK headquarters and peered at the camera showing him the conference room in the Seoul building. “Is Go on her way?”

Jimin’s eyes drifted to the door and sure enough, the blonde strode in with her usual piping hot cup of coffee in her left hand. She noticed Merlin on the screen and she greeted him politely before taking a seat at the conference table. 

“Sorry about that Kumiho and Merlin,” Amelie apologized. She raised her cup and explained that she did leave early, but didn’t account for the cafe near the shop to have some difficult tourist customers holding up the line. “I’ll maybe stick to the cafe by my place.”

“Ah we were just starting Go,” Merlin replied. He fixed his glasses and used the remote in his conference room to pull up the information on the international mission. “Now seeing as all of the branches are short-staffed due to V Day and some recent injuries, I’ve communicated with our partners in Japan to loan you one of their recent recruits to assist on this mission. He should be arriving shortly. Go, both you and Agent Kitsune will be paired up as dance partners for an international ballroom dance competition. Kumiho, you are to be their eyes and ears from a distance. The target in question is one of the judges – we believe she may be the victim of an assassination attempt.” 

Amelie tried to hide her wince behind her coffee cup and Kumiho forced himself to not laugh. The former was not a fan of any type of dancing and there was no way that she could learn the complicated routines in a couple of hours. Why was she chosen? Off the top of his head, Jimin recalled that Amelia from the German I.T. department had a better knowledge of ballroom dancing and he seemed to think that maybe Roxy had some experience too?

“I’m guessing there’s going to be some guides to help the pair pull off the illusion that they can dance?” Kumiho guessed. “We would have to be careful to avoid possible disqualification if the judges check.”

Merlin changed the screen to reflect a presentation of two different shoes – a man’s dance dress shoe and a lady’s dance heel. “I’ve programed the shoes with a few routines and they will sync up with the motions of the wearer. I’d advise Go and Kitsune to wear the shoes for at least an hour so they can properly sync to your movements.”

“조심해!” 

The pair snapped their attention to the door when they heard the male voice shout the warning in the hallway. Amelie strained her ears to figure out who the speaker was and Jimin excused himself to check what was going on.

“Excuse me, we’re in a briefing meeting,” Jimin stated as he looked out into the hall. He first spotted Da-bin, their newest agent, on the floor with his skateboard nearby. Then the quartermaster saw a familiar guy opposite Da-bin who was trying to resume a standing position as quickly as possible. 

Da-bin made a face and pointed to Takeshi in annoyance. “Kumiho, he ran into me while I was trying to get to the training center for warm-up exercises. I told him to watch out, but that didn’t work.” 

“Sorry, I didn’t quite catch what you said,” Takeshi apologized as he tried to offer a hand to Da-bin. 

The younger agent rolled his eyes and dusted himself off, ignoring the older male’s help. He retrieved his skateboard and mumbled that he was going to train now. 

Jimin held the door open for Takeshi and gestured for him to enter the meeting room. “Merlin said you were on loan to us for a mission. Not sure how much info you got before you arrived.” 

“The basics I guess,” Takeshi shared. He greeted Merlin and took an empty seat opposite Amelie. 

“Good to see you Kitsune,” Merlin noted. “I’ll send over the rest of the mission information to Kumiho shortly. The competition is at 8 AM in Canada tomorrow morning, which means you need to get a move on now.” The UK quartermaster signed off and Jimin checked his tablet which flashed an alert saying that he received the mission from Merlin. 

“Takeshi, this is Amelie, otherwise known as Agent Go,” Jimin said as he introduced the pair. “Amelie, this is Agent Kitsune from our Japanese branch. I hope you two have brushed up on your acting skills, because this mission is going to require both of you to pretend that you’re long-time dance partners.” 

Amelie shook the other male’s hand and added that she was definitely going to rely on the shoes Merlin designed for both of them. “Guess I shouldn’t have turned my nose up at those dance lessons Umma wanted me to take,” she sighed. 

@sovrumana​