Lisa

The hardest moment was when I saw you for what you really were…a liar.

My feet swung off the tiny seat my ass perched on. "Come on, little man! You got this!" The kid looked about seven, lifting his leg off the ground as he wound for the pitch. The ball released, sailing through the air, but fell short of the target.

He looked devastated.

"Hey, Dad!" I called out. The guy raised his eyebrows at me, and I tilted my head to the side, motioning to the lever that would dunk me.

He smiled in gratitude and carried the kid up to the red-and-white-spiraled target. "Go ahead, Brody."

The boy's eyes lit up as he looked at me beneath his Iron Man face paint. "You sure?"

"Show me what you got!" I took a deep breath as his little hand flew out, pressing the lever. The seat dropped out from under me, and I plummeted four feet into the tepid tank of water. I surfaced and gave the kid a thumbs-up as I climbed the ladder.

Lee held open the cage door. "Your shift is up."

"Thanks, man." I jumped out of the dunk tank, sluicing the excess water off my hair with the towel he handed me. "I have a couple hours off."

"Why the hell would you sign up for two shifts of this?"

"The kids are cute."

"And that had what to do with Wang skipping out?"

"We got tasked. It's for charity. The guy never gets to see his girl, and I don't mind getting dunked for two hours. He's done far worse for my sake."

Lee nodded. The guy was harder to crack than a nuclear code. "You might want to get your shirt on. The CG is wandering around here somewhere, and you know how he feels about ink." He started to motion to his arm and then his pecs, then gave up and generally gestured to his torso. "You're kind of…colorful."

"What do you think he'd have to say about this?" I flicked my tongue stud across my teeth.

"Jesus, Manoban. It's like you're asking to get kicked out."

He reset the lever and climbed into the tank. Montgomery, a warrant officer from our class, took the money, and the next shift started. Shit, my toes were pruned.

The fair was in full swing behind the CG's house. Guess he didn't mind loaning out his helipad for the day. People wandered the booths, bouncy things had squealing kids, and the smell of fried food made my stomach grumble.

I changed into my cargo shorts in the dressing area and then walked behind the booth where I'd left my shirt and shoes.

"Manoban." Shit.

"Major Davidson, sir." He wasn't in uniform, but he stood between me and my shirt, snacking on a bag of peanuts. They were fucking mad about peanuts down here.

"Staying out of trouble?"

"I haven't recently relocated any giant bears, if that's what you mean."

He cracked a smile. "Yeah, that was along the lines of my thinking."

"I was debating one of the stationary helicopters, but you've made me see the error of my ways."

"I somehow doubt that, but I'll take what I can get when it comes to you." He popped another peanut and motioned toward my shirt. "Please."

I walked around him, cursing as water splashed me from Lee getting dunked.

"Well, Manoban, this takes casual to a whole new level."

Fucking Taehyung. My fist flexed automatically, and I swallowed the need to force his West Point ring down his throat. If he tapped it on his desk one more time… "Just grabbing my shirt, Taehyung. Nothing to worry about. When are you working?"

He checked his watch. "I'm up after Lee in about an hour. I came by to see how it's going."

I had half a mind to hide his clothes while he was in the tank. Mature? Nawh. Fun? Yup. "Have fun with that." I reached around him and grabbed my shirt.

"Yeah. I'm supposed to be meeting Nini here. You haven't seen her, have you?"

I shook my head, pulling my arms through the shirt. "Never met her, so zero chance of me recognizing her."

"Right."

I put the bottom button through the hole and started on the second.

"We dress for the festivals around here."

General Kim. Fuck my life. "Yes, sir. I was just getting out of the dunk tank."

"General, sir, this is Lisa Manoban. She's another lieutenant in my class." Taehyung introduced us, looking all chummy with the CG.

The general's eyes looked like they were about to bug out of his head. "Manoban?"

Why is everyone all over my last name today? "Yes, sir."

His jaw flexed, and he folded his arms across his chest. That was not the answer he wanted. "Exactly what are you doing here?"

"Working the dunk tank, sir," I repeated, gesturing behind me like there wasn't a huge fucking dunk tank in eyesight. "Our class was tasked with it."

He looked at Taehyung. "He's still in your class?"

Taehyung nodded, and a gleam came across his face. Prick. I had to give it to General Kim. Other than his arms and that tic in his jaw—there it was again—it was hard to tell he was angry, but I'd grown up with a man skilled at hiding emotion. Yeah, the general was more like livid.

"Major Davidson?"

The major stepped forward. "Yes, General?"

"Can you explain why Manoban is still present on my post? I asked you to handle this."

Well, shit. My stomach dropped fourteen stories and landed in the realm of nausea.

Major Davidson stopped chewing those peanuts. "You told me to handle it, sir. I tasked the lieutenants accordingly. Manoban was willing to take the fall for all three, and the other two came forward of their own volition. I felt obligated to give them another chance."

"I want her gone. Now." He left no room for argument. Taehyung had the gall to look a little shocked, and then fucking ecstatic. Prick.

"Daddy?" That voice soothed me like nothing else could. Jennie, dressed in the sexiest white sundress I'd ever seen, walked around Taehyung toward General Kim. "What's wrong?"

Wait. "Daddy?" My eyes narrowed, and hers widened as she saw me. Her eyes lingered before dragging them to my face.

"Lisa?"

Now Taehyung and General Kim stared her down and called her out at the same time.

"How do you know her?"

"You know each other?"

My teeth ground, more pissed at her betrayal by omission than General Kim threatening to kick me out of flight school. "You're General Kim's daughter?"

"You're in flight school?" Her mouth hung slack. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I told you I was in school here. You assumed college. You?"

"You never asked for my family pedigree."

"Nini, how do you know Manoban?" Taehyung asked his question over again, and this time I put it together. Taehyung Carter. Taehyung was Jennie's V.

The blood drained from my head, leaving me feeling drunk, and not in a pleasant-buzz kind of way. Oh, no. This was an I've-done-twelve-shots-of-tequila-before-a-game kind of way. I would rather have been cross-checked into the boards with no helmet than hear this.

She gave her forced smile to Taehyung, the one where she didn't show her teeth. "She's teaching me how to swim."

"She what?" Her dad growled.

"Manoban?" Taehyung's mouth turned down like he'd tasted something disgusting.

I knew the feeling well.

I buttoned up the rest of my shirt. If I was getting kicked out of flight school, I was at least going to have clothes on. "Hard time believing I can swim, Taehyung?"

"Wait, you know her, too?" Now it was Jennie's turn to look incredulous.

"She's in my class, Nini! She's Manoban!"

Ah, so he'd been talking about me. Nice to know.

Her gaze snapped toward mine. "You're the one he's competing against?"

"Yes." And I'll win…if I stay.

"Get her off my post, Major Davidson. I won't have her here." The general's jaw was set, just like his opinion of me.

"Sir, all due respect, but you told me to deal with her, and I did. She's completed her extra duty and then some. She made a stupid mistake."

"She put that damned polar bear on my lawn!"

I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes before I could see Jennie's reaction. I could handle everyone's disapproval, but not hers. The silence got to be too much for even me, and I manned up and opened my eyes.

Jennie didn't look disgusted. Nope. She had a shit-eating grin on her face. The general may as well have not existed—I couldn't pry my eyes off Jennie's thousand-megawatt smile if he'd told me I was on fire. Then her expression fell, and she glared over at Taehyung. What the hell was that about?

"Process her paperwork. There's no chance she's staying." General Kim delivered sentencing and turned on his heel, making it a couple feet before Jennie stopped him.

"Daddy, no! You can't kick her out! She saved my life!"

"Jendeuki, what on earth are you talking about? Because of the swim lessons?" He shook his head. "I love you, but you don't get a say in these matters."

She glanced at me. "I went to Florida. When I told you I had that appointment with my academic advisor? I really went to Florida with Ho-Jung."

Man, if I thought he'd been pissed before, the shade of mottled red he turned was far worse.

She cleared her throat. "I needed to go. It's hard to explain, but I was thrown into the water. I would have drowned if Lisa hadn't jumped in to save me. She's the only reason I'm still here. She pulled me out of the water, and then she took me to the doctor even after I told her I didn't need it. Thank God she did, because I needed…" She blushed, the color just…enchanting. Shit, there's that word again. "I needed to be seen. She saved my life twice in the same day."

She hadn't said a thing. Had she had an asthma attack when they'd taken her to be examined?

The muscle in his jaw flexed once. Twice. "Is this true?" He asked it like a dare.

I wanted to lie, for the sheer satisfaction of letting him believe I was the asshole he thought I was. But I wouldn't make Jennie a liar. "It is, sir. She'd been thrown in by some asshat who didn't know she couldn't swim."

"Language," Taehyung growled.

I ignored him. "I was just in the right place at the right time, sir. But it's the best thing I've done with my entire life." Her indrawn breath was all I heard.

A splash broke my concentration and jarred General Kim, too. He looked past me to where I knew Major Davidson was standing. "She stays under one condition."

"Sir?" Major Davidson sounded as confused as I felt.

"You all stick together, Lieutenant? You and your fellow delinquents?"

"Yes, sir." My stomach dropped and my mouth watered, like that second before puking. I really didn't want to see breakfast again.

"How about this—your position on the Order of Merit list for aircraft selection can stick together, too. Wherever you place after the primary phase of flight school is where they do. Fail, and you drag them down with you. Enjoy primary." He walked off, dismissing us all without a word. Major Davidson clapped me on the back and followed.

Enjoy primary. He wasn't kicking me out, but he'd tied Jackson and Taeyong to my epic-fuckup fate.

"Taehyung Carter, you get your rear in the house. We're fixing to have a few words that shouldn't be spoken in polite company." Jennie shot a glare at Taehyung and stalked off, leaving him to trail her like a wounded puppy. We really needed to talk, and I moved in her direction until I remembered that Taehyung was the one with the right to her time. Not me. We were just friends. My shoulders drew up, and my torso tensed with my jaw.

Taehyung. V-fucking-Carter. He touched her. Kissed her. Damn it, he knew how she tasted. And he didn't deserve any of it, that ring-tapping asshole.

I spun and slammed my fist into the Plexiglas side of the trailer. My knuckles split open, the blood streaking a garish line across the white material. Pain radiated up my arm, but it never reached my chest, where I desperately needed it to quell the fire like it usually did.

"Manoban, don't do it. That one will sink your career," Lee called from the dunk tank. Jennie Kim. If my career was the only thing she sank, I'd be a lucky one.