Noah was unhappy when Jess left him at the parking lot, and not just because she was going to be gone for weeks, but also because she refused his offer of helping her with her suitcases.

She was worried that they would meet the other members of the team and they would see the COO of ANAT, pulling her suitcase. It would be difficult to explain.

She insisted she can pull her two suitcases since she has two hands. And she has a backpack that doesn't need to be held by hand.

After an exchange of words on why it was unnecessary for Noah to come with her inside the airport, Jess pulled a trick in her sleeve that would make Noah stop arguing and shut up.

"I'll call you first before I call Luke," she said with a straight face.

She knew it was petty but it works!

Noah with his crumpled face reluctantly agreed to her proposition. Hence, she was now struggling with her heavy suitcases as she fell in line for security inspection.

She was still thinking of Noah when she felt a tap on her shoulder that jolted her. When she turned around, she met a familiar smiling face of a woman.

"I was running late, didn't expect you to be too," Jung Soo-Jung has a friendly smile on her face that Jess couldn't help but smile back at the woman.

She felt awkward when she heard what she said, and was thinking of how to respond. Since she can't be honest and tell the other girl that she was just right on time, and no time to spare for airport shopping because their big boss made sure of that.

She ended up just smiling at the girl.

They stood in line waiting for their turn to be frisked by buff airport security personnel in silence. And when they finally passed the rigid security check, they both laugh, breaking the awkward silence because they both sigh with relief at the same time.

"Good thing to know that I wasn't the only one who hates airport security," she scoffed lightly. "Jessica Joy, right?"

She jokingly rolled her eyes at the other girl who called her in her full name. "Please, just call me Jess. My parents got a bit excited when they were naming me."

"Jess it is. Good thing you weren't nicknamed JJ," she rolled her eyes at Jess too. "My parents call me SJ. Talk about a tacky nickname."

"I would assume you don't want me to call you SJ?"

The other girl laughed heartily. Jess realized that she looked quite pretty when she laughed. Soo-Jung has a resting bitch face like hers, and she found it fascinating how her whole face transformed whenever she laughed.

"No. God no! Don't call me with that disgusting nickname. If you call me that, we aren't going to be friends," she said, still laughing.

She laughed too. Soo-Jung has an infectious laugh. "How should I call you then—for us to be friends?"

"June."

"June as in the month of June?"

"Yup, it's my birth month and since Jung has the sound 'Jun' in it, I chose to be called June."

"Nice to meet you again, June," she extended her hand for a handshake.

"Nice that we are getting chummy here."

They both turned around at the same time to see who was the owner of the voice they heard and found the other team members.

June suddenly became quiet and crossed her arms over her chest.

Jess was the one left to respond to the guy that from what she remembered—was named Gareth.

He has blond curly hair and brown eyes that seem to be always smiling. His aura was pleasing to the eyes but then, Luke warned her about this guy as the one who called her as the chosen 'pretty face' for Dr. Sison's assistant.

And with how June reacted with him, she has a feeling that she truly needed to be careful of this man.

"Hi," she accepted the guy's hand. She glanced at June and she had a stoic expression on her face, gone was the playful woman she was talking to a while ago.

And with her arms crossed tightly over her chest, it was quite obvious that she had no plan to shake Gareth's hand.

"Hello. I'm glad there's another pretty face in the team other than June because I'm quite tired of seeing Schull's face every time I lift up my eyes from a microscope."

June didn't even bother to smile or laugh at Gareth's obvious joke. Jess was forced to laugh awkwardly for the two of them.

"Stop pestering the girls, Gareth."

June put down her arms on her sides when she heard the other voice.

Jess followed the voice and saw Jake Hale's face. He was the other man that would fly with them but on a different airline. She realized that Patrick Schull was the one accompanying Dr. Sison on the private plane of ANAT.

"Come on, Jake! Don't tell me you aren't curious about our new pretty face," he smiled broadly at Jess.

Hearing Gareth calling her 'pretty face' Jess started to hate looking at his face. If he said, 'pretty face' one more time, she has a feeling she won't have a good working relationship with him for the duration of their stay in India.

With a tight smile on her 'pretty face', she said to Gareth, "Please call me, Jess."

"Hello, Jess," Jake grabbed her hand, smiling apologetically then pushed Gareth away from them.

She followed the two men with her confused gaze when June finally spoke after taking the vow of silence since Gareth approached them.

"Don't mind him. The jerk was just trying to get under my skin." she clicked her tongue in frustration. "Which always happens, however, I tried not to."

"Hmmm," she nodded, no plan to ask why Gareth was trying to get under June's skin and why she let him.

But then, she didn't have to ask because June told her.

"I dated that jerk for a while and he won't stop pestering me for he doesn't believe that I can dump his sorry ass!"

Jess looked at June's annoyed face and her mouth formed a shape of a silent 'O'. She doesn't like drama, that's why she doesn't know how to react to what June said.

"Gareth is a god-damned good scientist but he's a major jerk! Be careful around him and I'm not telling this because I'm bitter that our relationship didn't work out."

She gave June a small smile, " Don't worry. I won't think badly of you. With regards to Dr. Llano, I already got a fair warning about him, beforehand."