Irene crawled into the pod after Seulgi. Compared to the frigidity of the outside air, the interior of the large orb was absolute heaven. The transparent door shut itself behind her, sealing out the last of the breeze, sending Irene’s body into a series of relieved shivers. She took a seat on the floor beside her partner. They both sat silently and watched in amazement as the vehicle pressurized itself before descending below the waves, its transparent body allowing the two girls to view the cloudy ocean around them. Irene wondered how the machine was being operated; it seemed to be made entirely of some sort of thick, glass-like substance. She looked down to see a large motor encompassing the bottom of the vehicle and came to the conclusion that someone was remotely operating the pod. Whoever had found them was very mindful of security.

Irene looked over at her companion, who was unloading her weapon and slipping the bullets onto her belt.

“What do you think of all this, Seul?” the older girl asked, reaching over to wrap an arm around Seulgi’s trembling form. The younger girl tilted her head so that it rested on Irene’s shoulder.

“It’s definitely interesting. Whoever these people are, they’re far more advanced than anything we’ve seen since the reset.”

Irene agreed and began absentmindedly picking away the clinging wet strands of hair from Seulgi’s face and forehead.

“The reset” was their term for Irene placing the crystal in the Living Mountain. What they had learned in the past year is that it had, indeed, been a complete reset. Since they’d woken back up in the newly formed world, the girls had been searching for the Living Mountain again; Irene was plagued by dreams of the mountain speaking with her, but she couldn’t remember anything the mysterious boy had said. Despite everything, Irene hadn’t given up hope that one day they would be able to return home. And in a way, she felt like she owed it to their fallen friends to find some sort of answer to the insurmountable question of their existence in this world. Especially Yerim.

Their travels had taken them across entire lands. They’d met both wonderful and horrible people in the villages they’d come across. They’d lost a few friends along the way. They’d traversed arid deserts, wandered into thick forests, slogged through hazardous swamps, and forded raging rivers. Eventually they ended up at the point where the land met the sea, and had joined a village of explorers in order to cross the seemingly endless ocean. A storm had swept them off course, and the two girls were forced to escape on a lifeboat. They’d only been floating for a few short hours before the underwater camera had spotted them. On some level, Irene was aware that the events that happened to them couldn’t have all been coincidences, and that they were meant for something greater.

Somewhere along the way, Irene and Seulgi’s relationship had advanced beyond friendship. Irene had no idea whether this was a bond forged from necessity or true love for one another, but she’d given up on trying to figure such trivial things out a long time ago. Seulgi’s companionship helped to fill the physical and emotional void that plagued Irene’s heart ever since she’d lost Yerim.

Irene was snapped out of her reverie when their transport vehicle descended far enough to break through the top layer of murk near the surface of the ocean. Aided by what was easily a several hundred-foot distance of visibility, the two girls watched in awe as a large dome-shaped construct came into view. The dome dominated most of the landscape. It appeared to be made of the same transparent, malleable glass that the pods were made of. Protruding from the body of the dome were twenty-four long, slender, tunnel-like structures that dug into the earth below. Small metal drones darted back and forth around the curvature of the structure, disappearing into the darkness beyond and reappearing as they went about their mysterious duties. There was an abundance of wildlife around the dome as well: there were crabs, lobsters, whales, sharks, and many other common fish. The periphery of the dome was surrounded by a large bed of coral where the smaller, less capable fish took refuge.

Irene and Seulgi’s pod appeared to be heading toward one of the tunnel-like structures connected to the dome. As the girls drew closer, it was apparent that the tunnel-like structures contained docking holes; their pod made a beeline for the nearest available one. All light immediately left the pod as it entered the dark tube, causing Irene to let out a quick gasp of surprise to which Seulgi answered with a tender kiss on the older girl’s hand.

“We’re gonna be okay.” the younger whispered.
Within a few seconds the pod was filled with light once more, and the girls found themselves in the center of an artificial pond. The pond was located in a high-ceilinged, almost entirely white room. There was a semicircle of metal flooring out in the distance which the pod was floating lazily over to. The only distinguishing feature of the room was a slit in the center of the wall before them that had to be some sort of door.

The slit opened as Irene and Seulgi’s pod ceased its movement a few feet away from the metal flooring. The two girls stood up, eyes locked on the figures that were emerging from the gradually opening doorway.

Both of the women that stepped into the room were taller than Irene and Seulgi, but not by more than a few inches. They wore identical black bodysuits that were vaguely familiar to Irene. The first woman had a full, sort of boyish face that would have been cute had it not been dominated by a deep, disapproving scowl. She held a pistol in her left hand and looked more than prepared to use it at a moment’s notice. The other woman looked much friendlier, with baby-like cheeks, a pair of large black glasses, and shoulder-length hair that gave her an innocent vibe. She carried no weapon, and instead clutched two large, fluffy-looking towels to her chest.

The pair came forward and the pod’s front hatch opened.

“Don’t move.” the angrier-looking girl demanded, stepping into the pod. She bent down and scooped up Seulgi’s revolver off the ground. She stood there for a few seconds, eyeing both of the newcomers down.

For some reason, Irene found that she was unable to meet the formidable-looking girl’s gaze. Seulgi, on the other hand, stared right back. Irene couldn’t help but feel proud of how brave her Seulbear was.

When the angry girl seemed satisfied with her inspection of them, she turned around and departed without a word, moving to stand behind her partner, still holding Seulgi’s gun lazily in her hand.

The other woman stepped forward and handed the towels to the two sopping wet girls before her. Irene wasted no time in beginning to dry herself off.

“My name’s Seohyun, and this is Yuri. Welcome to our colony!” she said, smiling radiantly.

“I’m Irene.”

“Seulgi. Thank you for allowing us to come here.”

“No problem,” Seohyun said, “I couldn’t just leave you up there to freeze to death.”

Yuri muttered something that was inaudible to Irene and Seulgi, though Seohyun seemed to have heard just fine, as her smile shrank ever so slightly.

“Let’s go get you guys warmed up and changed,” Seohyun said, “It’s pretty late right now so you’ll just have to stay at my place… if that’s alright with you guys?”

“It’s fine with us,” Irene answered, bowing her head in gratitude, “You’re really too kind.”

Seohyun giggled, blushing slightly at Irene’s words and causing Yuri to her click her tongue loudly in annoyance.

“L-let’s go then.” Seohyun said, nervously adjusting her spectacles.

The four girls then entered the doorway together, Yuri walking several steps ahead. Seohyun stood next to Irene (perhaps a little too close to her, as Seulgi wrapped a possessive arm around her senior’s elbow) and chirped away merrily in her amicable, soft tone. The hallway they walked down was unremarkably spartan, similar to the room they’d just left; it appeared as though it was an offshoot of the tunnel they’d docked in, one that connected directly to the main body of the dome-like structure.

As they walked, Seohyun explained that their underwater colony housed over five-thousand inhabitants. They lived off the sea, using advanced filtration systems to generate freshwater, which they used to grow crops. They hunted for fish around the coral reef. The older girl also revealed that her and Yuri were apprentices to two of members of “the council”, which was essentially the ruling body of the colony. Yuri didn’t appreciate her partner’s openness, leading to her shooting an angry look back at her junior, who quickly shifted the topic to more benign things. Irene was only half-listening, anyway; she was tired and more than ready to go to sleep.

At the end of the hallway they came to another door. They were met with a cacophony of voices as Yuri opened it for them. Before them was a massive rectangular room with two long, thick hallways to either side that curved into the distance. The architecture had a refined, antique feel to it - the walls were covered in exotic paintings, the floor was made of a rich, sable hardwood, and the ceiling was segmented by frilled, perfectly angled stripes of gold-painted metal. People dressed in similar uniforms to Yuri and Seohyun milled about, disappearing into the hallways or stopping at one of the many desks that sat on the periphery of the room. The people that took notice of the four girls stared shamelessly.

“I’m going to go report to Tiffany,” Yuri said to Seohyun, completely disregarding Irene and Seulgi, “If they give you any trouble, you know what to do.”

“I don’t think they’re those kind of people,” Seohyun said dismissively, “If I did think they were, I’d have gone with your suggestion and just thrown them in holding.”

“And I still think that’s the best option here. They could be dangerous. You can’t be so trusting of people.”

“So I’m gonna assume that I’m not getting my gun back?” Seulgi asked.

Yuri only offered the younger girl a sideways glance and a snort before departing.

Irene stepped forward, intending to follow and make the rude girl apologize for being so curt, but Seulgi put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her. The monolidded girl then gave Irene a swift kiss on the cheek, effectively conveying that it wasn’t worth the trouble.

“Anyway,” Seohyun said awkwardly, her tone sounding much terser than it had before, “Let’s get going to my place, shall we?”

***

Irene sat at Seohyun’s dining table, wrapped in a towel, sipping at a cup of hot coffee while waiting patiently for Seulgi to finish her shower. The generous older girl had provided them with a meal of seared tuna and vegetables, along with one of the form fitting bodysuits that everyone around the place seemed to wear.

The interior of Seohyun’s apartment, although small, was as ornately decorated as the other sections of the colony they’d seen so far; they had gone so far as to install granite countertops and a stainless-steel refrigerator. Hell, they had a coffee machine that used tiny cups instead of grounds. Judging by the state of her home and the girl’s taste for lavish cuisine, Irene could tell that they were dealing with someone who either had a lot of money or a lot of political power around here. And that was good. She wasn’t sure what their next step was, but they seemed to be in an advantageous position. Still, Irene made sure not to let her guard down. The looks that she and Seulgi had received while travelling through the tunneled city were less than friendly.

Seohyun reentered the kitchen with an armful of paperwork, which she dropped down onto the kitchen counter before taking a seat and pouring herself a cup of coffee.

“A lot of work to do?” Irene asked, mostly just to fill the silence.

“Yeah… since I was the guard on duty who found you guys, I have to fill out a bunch of reports about it. We don’t get visitors often.”

“I’m sorry we caused you so much trouble.”

“Oh, it’s fine!” Seohyun replied, taking a moment to look up from her papers to smile reassuringly, “I don’t mind it. You seem like nice people.”

“Yuri didn’t seem to think so…”

“Yuri’s… something else,” Seohyun tapped her pen on the corner of her lip as she stared up at the ceiling, lost in thought, “She grew up very military-oriented, and she’s apprenticed under Tiffany, who’s known for being a hardass. Really though, she’s a sweetheart once you get to know her.”

Irene was about to make a joke as a rebuttal when a two-tone sound echoed down the hall from the front door. It took her a second to register the noise as a doorbell, and by then Seohyun had already risen to see who was calling at such a late time. She returned with a slightly shorter girl in tow. The unfamiliar woman was remarkably graceful-looking, but the thing that stuck out most to Irene was the color of the girl’s hair. It was the exact same shade of violet that one of her old friends had worn, so much so that Irene felt a tug of sadness at her heart at the sight of it.

“Irene, this is Tiffany. She’s one of the council members of our colony.”

Tiffany reached out to shake Irene’s hand, offering a firm a grip that the younger girl had a hard time reciprocating.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Tiffany said with a half-smile.

“Likewise. Thank you for having me and my friend at your colony.”

“Hmm, well, you shouldn’t be thanking anyone but Seohyun. If it were up to me or one of my people, we probably would have left you out there.”

Irene was taken aback by the older girl’s nonchalance as was struck silent for a moment. Tiffany took this pause to pour herself some coffee while Seohyun gave Irene a look of genuine apology.

“I guess we’re just lucky, then.” Irene said as Tiffany took a seat.

“I guess so. Now, as the Defense Coordinator of this colony, I’m going to have to ask you and your friend some questions. If you’d like, we can wait until she’s back to start our discussion.”

So that’s what this was - an interrogation. Over the course of the past year of traveling, there hadn’t been much organization to the people that Irene and Seulgi had come across. The villages had always either been welcoming or wary of outsiders. There had never been a specific agenda or any kind of politics involved. It had all been about simple survival. Things were clearly different around here. As much knowledge as she’d garnered regarding physical skills, her social skills and ability to perform verbal gymnastics were going to be very rusty. But Seulgi would be the same, if not worse. Irene tried her best to channel the old Irene, the Irene that was captain of the debate team, the Irene that had aced job interviews with her winning charisma, the Irene that had managed to get a full scholarship to Seoul University despite the “B” she’d received in Physical Education. She put on her cutest, most innocent smile before responding.

“No it’s fine. I think I can handle these questions all by myself.”

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Chapter 6, aka "EXPOSITION: THE CHAPTER". Yeah there's a lot going on here. Introduction of new characters and a whole new environment led to this being mostly descriptions more than anything else. But on the bright side, Seulrene :D

Thanks for reading<3