Chapter Six

Tuesday

Yoomi woke up the next morning to aching muscles and Sumin’s loud blabbering.

“Rise and shine, Yoomiiiiiii!!!” Sumin was once again up early and screaming already. Yoomi had never been a morning person, so she couldn’t understand how her roommate was so energetic at such a terribly early hour of the day.

“Ugh, it’s too early to be screaming, Sumin-ah,” she groaned into her pillow, muscles still aching from all the vigorous exercise and fighting she did yesterday.

"If you don't get up now, I'm gonna jump on you!" Sumin threatened. Hearing that, Yoomi let out a little yelp, shot out of bed, and ran into the bathroom as fast as she could, not wanting to be crushed into her bed, while Sumin giggled behind her.

After a very lovely breakfast with various amazing cuisine, Yoomi felt much more awake and ready to start her second day of school. Physical Training was a little easier today since she already took all the tests the trainer had prepared for her the day before. Free from the skills placement tests, she could finally stick with Sumin and Jinwoo, which made the class twice as enjoyable as it would’ve been without them around. Sehun seemed to be in a strangely bad mood today, and didn’t bother her at all, which she was extremely thankful for, not wanting to deal with his unpleasant attitude at the moment. Physical Training was over in no time, and then she was on her way to Power Training class with Sumin and Jinwoo leading the way, still not trusting her to get anywhere safely on her own yet- and with good reason too, considering she had gotten lost on her way back to class from the library yesterday and worried them with her disappearance.

“Here it is. Have fun, Yoomi. And don’t worry too much, just familiarize yourself with all the powers you see for now. We’ll see you at lunch!” Jinwoo smiled at her comfortingly and left with Sumin, who was waving enthusiastically at the nervous girl. Power Training had been one of the classes that she was dreading the most, seeing as she still didn’t know her power and was sure that wasn’t going to go over well. She didn’t want to hear everyone whisper about her again, but knew that it was coming and tried to brace herself for the judging looks and maybe even the trainer’s disappointment at her lack of knowledge. Taking a deep breath, she came to the conclusion that she was as ready as she could ever be and then went inside.

The Spire where power training class took place was huge and she was once again in awe of it. The top five floors of the humongous tower were built especially for power training, with the topmost floor being the main training area as well as battle arena for the weekly battles like Lay had first explained to her. She was excited to see the advanced training system he had mentioned in action, as well as finally getting to see people using their powers. However, as mentioned before, she was also nervous, and those nerves were currently overriding everything else, her palms sweaty and stomach tied in knots. She didn’t know what her power was yet, and some of the other kids already gave her a hard time because of it. What would it be like now, in a whole class period dedicated to practicing and using a power she didn’t have? It was frustrating, not knowing what it was she could do. In fact, it was something that had been bothering Yoomi for a while now, a concern that just floated in the back of her mind and bugged her if she thought about it too long.

“Gather around, class.” The trainer clapped loudly twice to catch everyone’s attention. She was a middle-aged but youthful looking woman with light colored hair and a kind gaze, though her eyes also looked tired. “Like usual,” she sighed, “sit down anywhere you want. Backs straight, even breathing, and relax.”

Once the instruction was announced, everyone began looking for spots to sit with their friends. Since Yoomi still didn’t know that many people and couldn’t spot any of the people she did know, she just chose a random spot to sit at somewhere in the sea of students. Luckily, some 4th year girls noticed her situation and were friendly enough to invite her over to sit with them. From what the trainer had said, she guessed that they were going to begin class by meditating, and her assumptions were confirmed when all the students around her sat cross legged with their hands resting on their laps. She fumbled to follow suit, her back straightening, breathing evening out. She released a sigh and then focused on allowing her body and mind to relax. The trainer signalled the start of the ten minute meditation session, and she closed her eyes.

She felt much more calm and focused by the time the first five minutes were over, but she couldn’t stand staying still for another five minutes doing nothing, so she peeked an eye open. The sight that greeted Yoomi left her gasping in amazement and she opened her eyes wider. The other students all had their wings out, and their whole bodies were glowing. They all had their own distinctive auras with different hues and colors, some stronger than others, some brighter. Swirls of light travelled all throughout the outer glow of their bodies to even the smallest little twirls on their wings. It was beyond mesmerising, and she couldn’t wait to learn how to do it herself.

Not too long after that, the ten minutes were over and Yoomi could see that a few of the louder and hyperactive students were seemingly calmer as well. Everyone seemed to be glowing with energy from whatever weird thing they did earlier- which she was still insanely curious about.

“Good job, you all,” the instructor praised. “Now you may head to your respective training rooms and get to work with your personal trainers. I’ll be coming around to help out and give you some pointers. Now, get to it.”

Once she dismissed them, the students began heading out the door to go to their respective areas and rooms as told. Yoomi was the only one that still stood there, tensely shifting from one foot to the other and wondering what she should do. The clueless girl noticed the trainer still waiting there too, carefully watching all of the students go out the door, so she headed over to the older woman with only slightly cautious steps. As far as Yoomi could tell, she seemed nice, but she was still worried about the fact that she had absolutely no clue what her power was. It really frustrated her, to say the least.

“Excuse me? But what am I supposed to be doing?” Yoomi asked with a wary smile as the trainer turned to look at her. “I’m the new transfer student, and I don’t know what my power is yet,” she explained while bouncing in place on the balls of her feet to get rid of some of her anxiety.

“Oh, the chairman told me about you,” she nodded, looking the girl up and down. “Lee Yoomi, right? I’m the head power trainer, Trainer Kang,” she introduced herself with a smile that put Yoomi a little more at ease before going into details on what she would have the girl be doing in class for the time being.

“Well, Yoomi, there’s not much I can do to help you if you don’t know your power. You shouldn’t force it either, but let it show itself naturally overtime. Don’t worry about it too much- there are occasional late bloomers, although I haven’t met many. I guess for now you can pick whatever power you want to see and observe the others while they train. Feel free to go around and watch all the powers if you want. Who knows, maybe you’ll have the same power as one of them and it will spark something in you? I want you to let me know immediately once you figure it out though, so that I can get working on helping you control and master it right away, okay?”

“Yes, thank you!” Yoomi let out a long sigh of relief and grinned widely, happy that she wasn’t getting scolded or scoffed at for not having a power again. She was glad that Trainer Kang was so understanding about her dilemma and with her worries dismissed, she was once again excited to see vaeli powers in action up close. “I’ll be sure to do that,” she promised, earning a nod from the older woman.

“Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to make my rounds and help the other students.”

“Oh, Trainer Kang, before you go,” Yoomi interrupted, remembering the strange glow around the students just minutes prior and her own burning curiosity about it, “could you please tell me what the students were doing during the meditation session earlier? With the glowing, wings, and all that?” She subconsciously leaned forward a little in her eagerness for an answer. Everything about vaeli was so new and magical to her and she wanted to learn about it all.

“Ahh, that. It’s a way to help vaeli focus and better connect to the powers deep inside of them. It’s like a warm-up for their powers,” she explained to her newest student. “It regulates the energy flow in a vaeli’s body, allowing them to control and enhance their abilities better when they use them.”

“Ah, I see. Wow, that is really cool! Thank you!”

“No problem, I am sure you will be able to do it in no time. Don’t hesitate to ask me about anything alright?” Yoomi nodded and thanked the head trainer again before she left the room. Her mind was still buzzing with the sight of the glowing students and she hoped that Trainer Kang was right and that she would be able to do it as well soon.

Now left to her own devices, Yoomi looked around at the banners hung around the room, each one with a word and a symbol on it. There were five in total: the four basic elements which were fire, water, earth, and air, and the higher element of Psychic. Yoomi figured these were the categories in which all the powers vaeli possess fall into. She stood unmoving in that spot for a while, wondering which element she should go see first. She was curious to see everyone’s powers, fascinated by the very idea of it and even more blown away by what she expected to see later. Unable to decide, the girl opted to just go down one floor, since it was the closest to where she was. When she got to the automatic glass sliding doors, her keen eyes noticed a symbol of what looked like a single flame of fire on the door. This must be the fire element.

Yoomi walked inside and instantly felt her breath taken away. All around her, there were kids with balls of fire floating above their open palms or objects on encased in colorful flames. There were also so many other powers stemmed from the fire element that she almost couldn’t recognize the element itself at all. All over the room were small individual training rooms with some kind of blurred invisible barrier for walls that ripples occasionally danced across. She also noticed the simulation drills that Lay had informed her about in some of the training rooms. Lastly, in the center of the big room stood a decent-sized, oval shaped arena for what she assumed to be practice matches or maybe even group drills and exercises.

What caught her attention the most though, was the beautiful golden light coming from the far left corner of the room. The fascinated girl found herself walking towards the light without even thinking, and when she finally sat down on a bleacher nearby to watch the students creating it, she was completely mesmerized. Beams of white, yellow, and gold flashed from their hands. Some of them had bouncing balls of solid light orbiting around them like mini suns. One of the boys closed his eyes and then disappeared and Yoomi gasped but was quickly distracted from her thoughts though by probably the most amazing thing her eyes had ever witnessed.

Even with everyone one else using their powers, the boy sitting on another one of the benches near the individual training rooms stood out. He had soft brown hair, a sharp, rounded jawline, and a cute, boxy smile on his face. His looks somehow made him both incredibly attractive and absolutely adorable at the same time. He was also wearing a blue uniform, which meant he was in S-class- one of the reasons that must have been why he had such great control of his powers. The light that danced around him only made it harder for Yoomi to tear her fixated gaze away from him. The light that escaped between his long, thin fingers was so bright and so pure, a gold color so soft it looked white. With a delicate twist of his fingers, the beams of light wove through the air in spectacular patterns.

As the spiraling light moved past her, Yoomi unconsciously reached out her hand to touch it, able to feel the gentle heat radiating off of it from where she was sitting. The boy caught her action and smirked, eyes flashing a brilliant gold, and then he pointed at her with his index finger. Yoomi blinked at the sudden action, surprised at being called out, and shot him a hesitant and slightly sheepish smile at getting caught. His thumb sprang up and he was now pointing a fake finger gun at the dumbstruck girl. He raised his arm at the elbow and a spark shot from the tip of his finger, exploding into shimmering white and gold particles that fizzled to the ground beautifully in front of her. Yoomi gasped, eyes wide in amazement as she stared at the display and a soft, unconscious smile on her lips. He had literally just made a small firework inside!

“I know, I’m pretty cool, right?” The boy grinned. He had made his way across the room and walked up to her while she was still distracted by the fading sparkles of light. He was obviously bragging, but the awestruck girl couldn’t help but feed into his ego a little bit after what she just saw.

“That was beautiful,” Yoomi told him with a smile, still dazed by the beauty of his power.

“I know. Everyone says my Hand of Light is just as beautiful as my hands,” he smirked and held a hand up to his face as if he was modelling in a photoshoot for her to see. A thick silver ring glittered from the index finger on his right hand, drawing her attention instantly. Clearly, he has a lot of admiration for his own hands, and she couldn’t help agreeing with him on that account.

“So, what’s a pretty girl like you doing sitting out?” he asked, plopping down casually on one of the bleachers a step below the one she sat on. “I mean, I totally understand why you were staring, but shouldn’t you be practicing?” He raised a brow with the question, but then his expression quickly changed back into a smile, his brown eyes shining with excitement. “Are you ditching class? Because I’ll skip with you, if you are! Training is soooo boring,” he groaned, drawing out the vowels to emphasize his point. Yoomi found herself laughing without meaning to, instantly relaxing as his arrogant attitude faded into something more playful.

“I’m Byun Baekhyun,” he introduced himself with a cute smile. He kind of reminded her of a puppy, and with her secret fondness for cute things, the resemblance instantly made her warm up to him- his obvious sense of humor also helped with that. Glancing down at his uniform again, she noticed that he had three stars pinned to his chest. Despite the fact that he was older than her, she felt comfortable around him, just like she did with Lay. It must have been because they’re both so open and friendly- and naturally cute, but she wasn’t going to ever admit that part out loud.

“Nice to meet you, Baekhyun sunbae. I’m Lee Yoomi,” she gave him her name with a genuine smile of her own and then explained her situation. She didn’t even think to feel nervous about confessing her lack of knowledge or abilities to him; she had a feeling that he was somebody she could trust. “Unfortunately, I don’t know my power yet. Trainer Kang said I could just sit out and observe everyone else for now.”

“Ah, greenhouse Frappé girl!” he exclaimed loudly with a bright grin and his ring clad finger pointed at her face. Yoomi blinked, dumbfounded.

“Huh?”

“Nothing, nothing.” He laughed, shaking his head. The sound was completely carefree and contagious, making Yoomi’s lips twitch up at the corners in a smile despite her confusion. “Wait,” he froze, face turning thoughtful all of a sudden, “it was a Frappé, right? Oh well,” he shrugged dismissively, “it’s nice to finally you meet you, Miss Transfer Student. I’ve heard a lot about you. In fact, I was actually really looking forward to meeting you.”

“Oh,” Yoomi mumbled, still confused and tilting her head to the side in thought. Did he mean Latte girl, the name Sehun called her by? And why would he be so excited to meet her? He must have heard all the gossip going around about her. By now, she was sure that everyone in the school knew all about the powerless no-rank newbie. She frowned lightly at that idea, unable to always pretend to be unbothered about the rumors circulating about her.

“Good things,” he assured quickly as he noticed the shift in her mood, waving his hands around in front of him a little wildly. Just like before when he was contemplating what type of coffee it had actually been, his mind seemed distracted and he wavered a little while thinking. “Well, not all good things,” he admitted and then perked back up again as he continued his frantic denial, trying to make her feel better, “but that’s not really the point. I mean, uh, you’re cute!” he blurted, babbling finally coming to an end. Yoomi’s eyes grew big, as did his, but he covered it up with a chuckle, raising one of his hands. “Want to see me make a firework again?”

Yoomi laughed once more, the amusement bubbling up and coming out on its own. She found his jumbled ranting adorable and she couldn’t help it. Right then and there, she decided that she liked Baekhyun a lot and that they were going to be great friends. His grin returned full force at the sound of her laughter and he climbed up a step on the bleachers in order to sit directly next to her.

“Don’t worry about your power,” he said, voice much calmer and evenly paced now. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually.”

“Thanks,