o28
Prometheus“How the hell do you wrestle so well?” I demanded.
Jongin gave a shrug. “I’m not that good,” he said modestly, though it wasn’t modest at all because he was grinning.
“You’re terrible,” I grumbled. “I got ripped apart during the unit and you’re like beating everyone up. The teacher tried to use you as a demo and you managed to beat him? Do you take martial arts or something?”
“No, everyone else just .”
“I count in everyone, you know, Jongin?”
“You especially.”
Chapter 28
The truth was not that I wanted to be a brave Athanatoi, go with Eunhae and Kai, and kill the berserker faes.
No, I wanted to go home, eat food, hide under my blankets and sleep.
I was already tired. Training was going to push at my limits, but fighting monsters? That was a huge no.
Dressed in combat gear (all black, with some flexible material thing that I wasn’t quite sure what it was made of) with my short sword strapped to my waist wasn’t exactly the best thing ever. Sure, it looked kind of badass when I looked into the mirror, but after looking at the mirror for over ten seconds, it began to seem less badass and a little depressing. I wasn’t as short anymore (as in, like, two centimeters taller), and a little stronger than before, but I wasn’t a fighter. I would never be a fighter. Maybe Kai was — he was tall, he was strong, he was fast and he wasn’t the kind to hesitate in front of a kill.
I’d never killed, and the thought of having to — even if it were just a monster — was nauseating.
I wanted to ask Eunhae if I could push back the date or something, but the words wouldn’t come out. Was it really proper of me to ask that? I was an Athanatoi whether or not I liked it, and I’d have to make do with the circumstances. Started training late? Too bad. Didn’t know how to use my power? Oh well. Couldn’t quite fight? Too weak? Didn’t want to kill? it up.
I took a deep breath and stepped out of the room.
Eunhae was waiting for me outside. Unlike me, she was wearing simple shorts and a tank top. “Ooh,” she said. “You look cool. Did you take a picture?”
I wasn’t sure how to tell her that it wasn’t something I wanted to remember.
Baekhyun saved my life. He apparently just finished doing the dishes because at that moment, dragged himself up the stairs grumbling something about never wanting to do dishes ever again. “We should eat take out everyday,” he griped, and then nearly crashed into Eunhae.
“Sorry,” he apologized, then his eyes went to me. “Woah, you’re already ready?”
I stared down at my outfit. It didn’t look very good now that I looked at it again, and I was beginning to feel very self-conscious. I would rather go kill the berserker faes wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt.
Baekhyun whistled. “I’m going downstairs with you just to see Kai’s expression when he sees you in that.”
I felt very self conscious at that point. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He gave me a knowing grin that didn’t mean anything well, and I decided to completely ignore Baekhyun. “I hope you get dishes duty for another week,” I grumbled at him before going for the stairs. “Screw it, I hope Kyungsoo uses a lot of dishes to cook this week that you’re washing and you spend hours doing the dishes.”
Baekhyun only gave me an impish grin and I fled downstairs with a very confused Eunhae on my heels.
Kai was downstairs too, though he was dressed more casually than I was (seriously — why did I have to wear some combat gear? He was wearing track pants, it wasn’t fair). He was scrolling through his phone.
“Kai!” Baekhyun bounded towards him like an overly excited puppy and I fought the urge to bolt and hide behind Eunhae. “Look at what she’s wearing!”
He looked confused for a second, then pocketed his phone and looked up properly.
“Uh…” I really wanted to duck behind Eunhae by now. “Can I change or something?”
I saw Kai glance towards the side, face ducked. “You look fine,” he mumbled, voice barely comprehensible. “You might want to wear a jacket over that right now, though. It’s still going to be a while before we actually leave and you might get cold with that on.”
“Nonsense,” Eunhae said. “The combat gear can keep her warm. It’s designed like that.”
“Still put a jacket on,” he mumbled. “Someone turned the AC on and it’s pretty cold.”
Baekhyun rested his chin on Kai’s shoulder. “Can you take me along tonight?”
Eunhae stared at him. “What the hell? I’m not taking you! I’d rather grab Luhan, but that’s already Mira’s choice.”
“We’re fine,” I said meekly. Baekhyun gave one last killer pout before he figured that it wasn’t any use. He reverted back to his normal expression, gave both of a shrug, and then turned to go for the stairs again. With one last good luck! he disappeared up the staircase.
I had long figured out by then that I needed way more than luck, but I could leave Baekhyun in his own oblivious world as I headed off to my doom.
“Well,” Kai said. “You might want to rest up before we go? I’ll wake you up if you want to nap or something right now.”
***
I ended up sleeping for a little over two hours on the couch in the living room, and it wasn’t Kai that woke me up — Kyungsoo had started to prepare dinner (and he was in a rush) and the kitchen was so loud that I woke up. Someone had draped a jacket over me — it looked like Kai’s, and that thought made my face flush — though sadly I still had on the black combat gear that was beginning to look a little ugly.
For a little while, I sat on the couch, very disoriented and tired. There was a loud crash in the kitchen followed by a string of profanities, and I figured Kyungsoo had dropped something.
Eunhae chose that moment to poke her head through the door. “Are you awake already?” she asked. “I was just going to wake you up. I’ll grab you a chocolate bar or something from the pantry, but we’re going to be leaving pretty soon. Are you ready?”
I nodded, though I figured she was pretty oblivious if she was actually buying me pretending that I was fine with everything. Probably everyone but Eunhae knew how downright terrible I was at fighting, and Eunhae would learn soon. Still sleepy, I shuffled out of the living room, thought twice, then went back and retrieved Kai’s jac
Comments