She heard a whisper that seemed to come from a distance, like it had been traveling through a cone and it reached her ears only when the first few syllables had died out: "...ny-ssi." She ignored it. She was probably just dreaming. But it came again, this time a bit louder: "Tiffany-ssi..." She was still convinced that she was dreaming. No one had ever called her 'Tiffany-ssi.'

"Tiffany-ssi, wake up! It's time for—"

Her hand easily found the handle of her whip as soon as she felt the weight on her shoulder. She quickly slid her thumb sideways along the handle and out came a long blade from the end while her whip wound itself inside the space where the blade had originated. She brought the longsword up with a flexed arm, aiming to slice at whatever was inches away from her person.

"Seohyun!! Look out!"

Taeyeon pushed Seohyun out of the way just in time and caught the edge of Tiffany's longsword with the hilt of her dagger. She almost fell to her knees from the force of the slash. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Tiffany was awake now. This was definitely not a dream. She loosened her grip on her weapon and let it fall to the floor. An apology was forming in her head, clashing with the ringing of Taeyeon's voice in her ears. "I'm sorry," she managed to say.

But Taeyeon and Seohyun had already gone.

Tiffany picked her longsword up by the grip and, with a sideways flick of her thumb, the blade retracted into the hollowness of the grip and pushed the length of her whip out in its original form. She decided to clean up before searching for Taeyeon and Seohyun, and she eventually found them eating at the cafeteria.

"Seohyun, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"It's okay." Taeyeon spoke up before Seohyun could get a word out. "It's only fair that you don't trust us back. We don't know each other after all."

Tiffany had lost count of how many times Taeyeon had brought this up. Normally, she would've lashed out by now, but she was capable of having a little tact too. "I'd like to change that, if it's possible."

"Maybe so. But it won't be easy around here. Everyone—Well, let's just say everyone here has their own reasons for not trusting you."

"Because I was with Sunny?" Tiffany asked, as if she didn't already know the answer.

"And because you attacked our friends while they were nearly defenseless!" Seohyun didn't mean to shout. She rarely did. She didn't realize that she had risen from her seat until Taeyeon motioned for her to sit down. "We understand that you were just trying to survive at the time. But we are too. All of us have a valid reason for fighting. It just depends on whether or not we're on the same side. And right now, we don't think you're on ours."

"When you guys give me a reason to be, then I'll be on your side. But for now, you're right. We're probably not on the same side. You guys have a mission after all, and I don't."

For reasons that none among them could explain, there was, at that moment, an agreement forged from silence that they knew they would honor. Taeyeon and Seohyun offered Tiffany a seat and food from the extra tray they grabbed for her earlier. Seohyun insisted that they do so even when they were seemingly angry when they left her in the room.

"Uh, our friends are at that table over there." Taeyeon pointed at the table nearest to the food line. "You already know Yuri. The one beside her is Jessica—"

"The ice girl?" Tiffany made sure to remember the name of the girl who put her through the trouble of scraping frozen shards off of her cloak.

"Yes, her," Taeyeon answered. "The one with all the sweets is Yoona. The three of them are teammates. Sitting across from them is Sooyoung and that's her partner, Hyoyeon. Uh, I think you'll recognize them just fine. This isn't the first time you've seen them after all."

Embarrassed, Tiffany diverted her eyes from the group of friends and minded her food instead. She hadn't eaten for a while and it became obvious when she went to the food line for seconds while Taeyeon and Seohyun were finishing up their dessert.

When the students started to file out of the cafeteria, Taeyeon and Seohyun stood up to follow. Tiffany stood up as well, unsure of what to do. "So... what am I supposed to do now?"

Taeyeon and Seohyun exchanged glances. Seohyun could only shrug.

"We don't know," said Taeyeon. "We're going on our scheduled patrol. Didn't the professor tell you anything?"

"No, she didn't. She just told me you guys are going to be accompanying me."

"Well, okay then. I guess you can help us go on patrol."

+

As per usual, Seohyun sent a scout ahead and stayed behind while Taeyeon walked a few paces forward. Tiffany fell into step with Taeyeon, although she was admittedly a bit distracted as she looked around the campus. She noticed the big cracks on the ground and the soot that had accumulated on the surface of the once-white tiles of the courtyard. How many times has this place been attacked?

She wanted to ask Taeyeon that but the latter seemed to be preoccupied as she followed the orb of energy into a thicket of trees.

"Seohyun, get ready," Taeyeon whispered.

Tiffany thought it was strange until she heard Seohyun whisper "okay" back. The voice came from the orb, much like how sounds can travel through wires. But she saw nothing of the sort. It was only that lone orb.

"There's something ahead," Taeyeon said, signaling with a wave of her hand that Tiffany should come closer to her position. The latter complied. "Careful not to hurt yourself, y ."

"What did you call me?!" Tiffany's outburst reached no one. Taeyeon had already sprinted on ahead. The trail of leaves that littered her path caught fire from a spark she left behind with the friction that formed between the soles of her boots and the ground. Tiffany stomped on the flame before it could grow larger then walked on. It wasn't long before she heard the scuffle from beyond the thicket.

"Oh my god—" She sidestepped and took out her whip in one quick motion. She barely dodged the King Taijitu's enormous mouth. The serpent-like creature slithered backwards and drew its head back, preparing for another strike. Whip at the ready, she ran toward it and aimed for its jaw. The whip, at its extended state, reached the neck and she pulled the whip hard just as it landed. Due to the sudden force, the loops along its extended length created one sonic boom after the other, hitting the King Taijitu several times along its neck.

"There's more than one of them!!" she heard Taeyeon shout from somewhere beyond her vision. She was probably moving around at top speed judging from the blur of her speech.

And indeed there was one more King Taijitu. It came toward Tiffany from behind, its tail smacking against the ground instead after Tiffany managed to evade it. The other one seemed to have recovered from Tiffany's earlier attack and she was now being stalked by both. She considered using her blade instead but she knew she wasn't fast enough to dodge a counterattack at this close distance. Having no more room to maneuver properly with either of her weapons, she broke into a running leap and landed on the coiled body of one of the serpents. Its head was quick to meet her with an open jaw and a full set of fangs. She leapt down and activated her semblance in mid-air. The dome began to envelop her and her opponent.

"Hey there!"

Taeyeon appeared by her side and she smiled, confident about the way she was handling the situation. She was about to make a joke when Taeyeon suddenly fell on one knee.

"Why... would you do—Get away from me!!"

"What?!" Tiffany caught on late. She was about to apologize when a streak of light flew past her arm and seared it. "What the hell?!"

Taeyeon had sprinted away from her position at this point, leaving Tiffany with the two serpents and the burning light that came out of nowhere.

"Taeyeon!! Where are you? What the hell is going on?"

There was no reply. Instead, she took another burning blow, this time to the leg. She stumbled sideways then broke her fall by curling her body into a roll. She managed to stand back up just fine but she still felt the distinct heat on the surface of her skin. Good thing I had enough aura to defend against it somehow.

When she lifted her head, she saw the serpents chasing Taeyeon in turn, unaware that their bodies were slowly getting tangled together. Taking this as an opportunity to strike, she ran along their coiled bodies with her longsword in hand. She dragged its tip along the surface of their bodies while pressing down with her weight, cutting through with every step. It didn't take long for the creatures to react and they gave up on chasing Taeyeon with open-mouth attacks only to redirect them at Tiffany. "Why won't these things just die already?!!" She changed her weapon back into a whip, let one end dangle on one side of the serpent's body, slid sideways from her position to reach the serpent's underside then grabbed the dangling end, bringing down the serpent's long neck to the ground with a loud thud. She took her blade out again and it hard into the exposed neck and followed through with an upward slash, finally dealing the finishing blow. She saw Taeyeon jump from the other serpent's head and land a few meters away.

"Taeyeon!" she called out but no response came, and Taeyeon was out of sight again. She ran toward the direction she thought Taeyeon took but another beam of light came right at her, missing her nose by inches. "Seohyun! If that's you, please stop! I'm not trying to attack—Woaaah!!" She stumbled backwards when the ground below her feet shook with more force than when the second serpent slammed its tail against it earlier. "A third one?! You've gotta be kidding me!!" She steadied herself and tried to call out to Taeyeon again, but the latter was still engaged with her own enemy.

"Looks like it's just me and you, ugly face," she told the third serpent. Its tail swept across the ground. Her jump to avoid it wasn't high enough and she was knocked over with a hard shove against the back of her legs. The serpent's next attack came fast. She barely held off its large fang with the edge of her blade while the other threatened to pierce through her forearm. She wasn't strong enough to push the creature off of her person and she knew that her aura wasn't going to last any longer. She breathed out a strained cough and activated her semblance once more. The dome rose around her and the King Taijitu, reaching as high as the trees that surrounded them and as wide as the clearing itself. The force behind the serpent's jaw slackened, giving Tiffany the opening she needed. Struggling to flex her arm, she turned her longsword from its horizontal position to a vertical position. The serpent grew heavy within the dome, no longer able to control its muscles. Its head fell and Tiffany's blade went right through.

She blinked and everything was dark for a few seconds. After that, she saw a dome of light extending to the heavens. Then everything went dark again.

+

An exhausted pair made their way to the infirmary. Neither of them had been unfortunate enough to end up here due to their particular fighting style. They had always been able to get out of a nasty situation in a blink of an eye. Taeyeon would run back to Seohyun's side while the latter distracted the enemy with a barrage of attacks from afar. Taeyeon's teleportation helped too but only for shorter distances, depending on how far she could throw her daggers.

They stuck to their strategy during the fight with the King Taijitu and here they were on either of Tiffany's sides, holding her up as they walked to the infirmary. After they laid her down on an available bed, they waited for the school medic to attend to her. She had clearly ran out of aura and, with nothing left to defend herself during the final moments of her struggle with the third serpent, she had a few bleeding cuts on her forearms.

"Do you want me to call you once she wakes up?" the medic asked.

Taeyeon took a moment to reply, thinking that she didn't know Tiffany well enough to determine whether she was wanted at her bedside. She turned to Seohyun who nodded and smiled. "Yes please. We'll be in the waiting area."

The two sat in silence, exhausted from the fight and from carrying Tiffany to the infirmary. Taeyeon's head fell on Seohyun's shoulder and she immediately fell asleep only to be woken up much later by a gentle pat on the arm.

"Unnie, she's awake. We should go talk to her," Seohyun said.

Taeyeon stood up without a word and off they went to the recovery room. They found Tiffany already sitting up on the bed, all cleaned up except for the dirt and blood on her clothes. She turned to them and offered another apology.

"I'm sorry for earlier. I'm just used to fighting alone. I forgot to set my targets. I'm so sorry! I swear I didn't mean to attack you."

Taeyeon scratched her cheek, a bit embarrassed that she overreacted when she felt her aura being depleted while she was next to Tiffany during the fight. "I kinda figured that out when you finished off the third King Taijitu for us. It would've caused a lot of trouble if you didn't. Thank you, by the way."

"I'm also sorry for attacking you all of a sudden." Seohyun placed both hands on Tiffany's bedside and bowed her head. "It was partly instinct and—"

"And you don't trust me," Tiffany continued. "I get it."

"You're right," said Taeyeon. "And maybe we still don't trust you. But that doesn't change the fact that we're grateful for what you did to finish off the Grimm. They're a threat to the school so I'm okay with whatever as long as they're done away with." She smiled slightly before heading for the door.

"Get some rest, Tiffany-ssi," said Seohyun as she was about to follow Taeyeon out. She faced forward again when Tiffany placed a hand on top of hers.

"Please. Just 'Tiffany' is fine."

Thought a bit hesitant, Seohyun answered: "Okay, Tiffany unnie."

+

The rest of the gang heard about the fight just past the courtyard from a group of underclassmen. Yuri quickly sent a message to Taeyeon who replied that they had just left the infirmary and were on their way back to their dorm room.

"Okay. We'll meet you guys there," read Yuri's reply.

Taeyeon and Seohyun told everyone what happened during their patrol with emphasis on how Tiffany almost drained Taeyeon but took down two out of three of the serpents with little help.

"She what?! That's amazing!!" Sooyoung almost crushed her half-eaten cookie inside a clenched fist. "I mean, I don't like her and all but I can't deny that what she did was awesome!"

"Just a bit more and you're gonna sound like you wanna marry her," went a remark from Hyoyeon as she rolled her eyes at her partner.

"You marry her!"

"I'm not the one drooling over a story about her."

"Oh yeah?" Sooyoung shot up from her seat on the floor. "I'll prove to you that I don't like her then! Let's attack her in the infirmary!"

"What the? You're crazy! We can't—"

"Too late!"

Sooyoung might be skinny but she had a death grip. Hyoyeon couldn't have escaped even if she tried. And she did try, only to fail miserably. Her partner dragged her to the infirmary without breaking a sweat.

When they arrived at the recovery room, Hyoyeon expected Sooyoung to do just as she said. But her partner only stood there, staring at Tiffany sleep.

"So what were you saying about attacking her in the infirmary?"

"Shut up!"

Just as Sooyoung was about to smack Hyoyeon's shoulder, she saw Tiffany stir.

"Oh. It's you two." Tiffany shifted to a sitting position. "What're you doing here?"

"Uh, we were just—"

"We heard about what you did for Taeyeon and Seohyun," Hyoyeon cut in. "So, uh, thanks for helping them out."

"It was the least I could do after I accidentally drained that —I mean, Taeyeon's aura. Uhm, since you two are here, I also want to say sorry for attacking you before."

"Yeah, you crazy girl!" It was as if Sooyoung had finally remembered why she was upset with this person in the first place. "I could've died back then! You almost left me completely aura-less!"

"Ah, well about that..."

Tiffany merely repeated what she told Professor BoA about trying to survive on her own. Sooyoung and Hyoyeon reminded her that they heard everything when they were eavesdropping and that they sort of understood what she was going through.

"I guess you were having a rough time if you had to resort to stealing people's stuff out of nowhere," said Sooyoung.

Hyoyeon nodded and flashed a smile. "So, I guess we're good now?"

"Yeah," said Sooyoung and Tiffany in chorus.

"Awesome. I think this is the time for formal introductions. I'm Hyoyeon and this buffoon here is my partner, Sooyoung."

"Who're you calling a buffoon, you good-for-nothing—"

"Uh, Sooyoung?"

Sooyoung turned to Tiffany, giving Hyoyeon yet another chance to evade a smack. "Yo! What is it?"

"Since we're okay now, can I ask a favor?" Tiffany blinked slowly while holding a wide smile in place.

"A favor? Already? I guess it depends on what you want."

"Don't worry. It's not a difficult request. You own that white fluffy dog right?"

"Well, yeah?"

"CAN I SEE IT??"

Sooyoung almost laughed at how Tiffany bounced in anticipation.

"You really like dogs, huh?" Hyoyeon was also amused at how quickly Tiffany brightened up.

"Yes! Especially cute, small ones."

"How about we let Sooyoung summon her other dogs, too?"

"Oh. My. Gosh. Can you really do that? Can you? Can you?? Pretty please?"

"Ugh." Sooyoung rubbed the back of her neck, unsure if it was a good idea to use her summoning skills inside the building. "Here goes." She focused part of her aura on one dog at a time and they stepped out of her shadow as if rising from underwater. First came Suri then Mori and Bori.

"Hey, isn't there another—"

Sooyoung elbowed Hyoyeon's side before the latter could continue. Then she lifted her dogs up and settled them on Tiffany's bed.

"They're so cute and fluffy!!" Tiffany ran her hand down each of their heads and their backs, her smile growing brighter by the second.

"But I can't keep them out for too long," Sooyoung told Tiffany. "Or else I'll run out of aura. So I don't expect to be doing this for free, Hyo."

Hyoyeon let out a laugh. "Fine, fine. Whatever you want."

"I wanna try out that buffet in town! They only have it twice a week or something. They have high quality meat dishes and lots of those spicy rice things and those cakes that I like so much, and they have fancy bendy straws—"

"Okay, okay. Buffet it is." Hyoyeon caught a glimpse of Tiffany cradling Suri in her now-bandaged arms and there was something oddly comforting about it. She turned to Sooyoung and whispered: "She doesn't look as dangerous and annoying right now."

"You're right," Soyoung whispered back. "I guess she's just misunderstood. Kinda like every normal teenage girl."

"Like us, you mean?"

"Maybe. Sometimes," answered Sooyoung.

Hyoyeon held back a laugh, being careful not to disturb Tiffany's time with the dogs before Sooyoung decided to call them back.

+

It felt good to be visited, she thought. She thanked Sooyoung and Hyoyeon for dropping by and for letting her spend some time with the dogs. For the first time during her stay in Beacon she finally felt like giving it a chance. But her confidence wavered once she got back to the room she shared with Taeyeon and Seohyun. She remembered how strongly they put up their defenses when it came to her and she wondered why she couldn't have been sent to live with Sooyoung and Hyoyeon instead. Ah, of course. I did attack them. They wouldn't have wanted to spend time with me back then. And now I've accidentally attacked Taeyeon too. I'm an idiot.

She knocked before coming in and the door opened from the inside. Seohyun greeted her with a slight smile then let her in.

"Uhm, I got a bit of blood and dirt on my clothes. Do you guys know where I can get something to change into?"

"Well, how about a school uniform?" Seohyun turned and retrieved a pressed uniform from the rack in their closet. She held it out for Tiffany to see.

"I'm not really a student—"

"None of us are. Not right now, anyway," said Taeyeon. She was on her bed, lying on her stomach with a pillow under her chin. "Besides, it might look good on you." She ran her eyes down Tiffany's body from head to toe, imagining how she would look in the button-up top and the plaid skirt.

"Hey! What's that look for?"

Seohyun quickly turned to where Tiffany's glare was directed and found a stammering Taeyeon.

"What look?! There is no such look! Go change already!"

"Right here?! You really are a ert!!"

"What? Of course I didn't mean here! There's a bathroom over there, genius!"

"Ugh!" Tiffany grabbed the uniform set from Seohyun and retreated to the bathroom. It took her a while to remove her current clothes since she was still sore from the beating she received earlier. To her relief, the uniform fit her just fine. She folded her dirty clothes and stepped out of the bathroom to ask Taeyeon and Seohyun for comments.

Taeyeon gave hers the moment Tiffany had one foot out of the bathroom.

"Oh no! You're not seriously going to continue wearing that cloak around, are you? It's distracting!"

"I like it!" Tiffany argued, clutching the end of her cloak to her chest even though it was still a bit dirty from the fight.

Taeyeon sat up and shook her head, clenching her fists in front of her chest in visible frustration. "You stand out so much that you're gonna get us all killed in a fight!"

"If we were all in a fight, I'll just save that pathetic little of yours again!"

"My what?!"

"Unnies, speaking of that," Seohyun stood in between the two, blocking their view of each other, "we do need to work on battle strategies. If the three of us are going to be an effective team, we can't have a repeat of what happened earlier today."

Taeyeon was still gritting her teeth while Seohyun spoke but she drew out a long breath to contain herself. "You're right. And that's why you're the team leader."

"She's the what?" Tiffany narrowed her eyes at Seohyun then shrugged a few seconds after. "Well, okay. It makes sense that it's her."

"What is that supposed to mean?!"

"Okay, here." Seohyun ignored Taeyeon's outburst and called their attention to a formation she worked on just a few hours ago. She held her scroll up for them to see. "Tiffany unnie, I need to know exactly what you can do with your semblance. Other than drain our auras that is."

"Again, I'm sorry about that. But to answer your question, I can't drain aura from Grimm since they don't have any so the effect of my semblance on them is different. The light that comes with the dome sort of stuns them and sometimes even blinds them a little."

"I see." Seohyun added the information to her diagram on her scroll. "That'll be handy. And your weapon?"

"My whip can extend to twice its length and it can turn into a longsword in case I need to be at close range."

Seohyun continued to change the parameters of their strategy on her scroll as Tiffany spoke. "Got it. Thank you."

Taeyeon's eyes moved from Seohyun's scroll to meet Tiffany's. "Aren't you afraid that we're just gathering data on you so we'll know how to defeat you?"

"Of course I am," answered Tiffany. "But how can I get you guys to trust me if I don't tell you anything? Besides, I could be lying since I don't trust you two, either. Now all of us have to choose whether or not to believe that the other says."

A small grin appeared on Taeyeon's face. "Good point. You're smarter than you look."

"And you're not just a ert." Tiffany smiled back, earning one from Seohyun as well.

Taeyeon shrugged the remark off. "Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but that's a start."