Bomi couldn’t sleep. It was two in the morning and she was wide awake.

She groaned and sat up in her bed. Maybe it was because she wasn’t used to her new surroundings. Her room in the palace was bigger than her entire old apartment, and the bed was nearly as large as her old room. She was fairly certain that the mattress itself cost more than a month’s rent at her old place, because it was the softest, most comfortable bed she had ever laid on. 

Despite how expensive it was, however, Bomi still couldn’t sleep in it. It just felt so different and not fit for someone like her. She had spent the past two years hopping from one shabby apartment to the next as she chased down the Shadow Clan and the One-Eyed Man. Never in a million years would she have thought that her next bed would be one in the royal palace.

It also didn’t feel right that her teammates were dead and yet to be avenged, while Bomi was enjoying a luxurious, oversized room.

Bomi swung her legs over the side of her enormous bed. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t stay there.

But she did know where she had to go.

Bomi stood up and walked over to her closet, which was also oversized and much larger than what she was used to. She got dressed, slipped on shoes, and was out the door in less than five minutes.

Earlier, Eunji had given Bomi a very brief tour of the palace, and though it hadn’t lasted very long, it had still been sufficient enough for Bomi to be able to find the gym on her own. It didn’t take her long to get there, and when she did, she wasn’t surprised to find it completely empty. It was two in the morning, after all.

Compared to the rest of the palace, the gym was modest. That wasn’t to say that it still wasn’t a very nice gym; the floors were spotless, it had all the latest equipment, and it smelled faintly of lavender. Bomi knew that the gym was only so humble because it was separate from the training room, which was ten times its size. She would have gone to the training room, but she only really needed one thing: a treadmill.

She needed to run. Away from her sorrows, her shadows, her nightmares―all of it. She didn’t even bother to warm up before she stepped onto the treadmill and began running immediately.

Bomi didn’t have a set distance that she was going to run; she never did. She just had to get away from it all. Her body was still sore from her injuries, but it was manageable enough to ignore. So she ran like all of her demons were right at her heel, and she continued running until it felt like she had left them in the dust.

Minute by minute, she ran. Eventually, she had increased the speed of the treadmill so high that she was sprinting her heart away. Each time her foot collided with the treadmill, she felt some of her thoughts slip her mind, until her mind had been completely cleared and she was running without a single troubling thought.

Or so she thought.

Unnie, please. Live.

Yookyung’s voice floated through Bomi’s clear mind, and Bomi nearly stumbled. She gritted her teeth and kept running, trying to clear her mind once again. But no matter what she did, thoughts of her teammates and the One-Eyed Man always found a way to infiltrate her mind, like they always did. No matter what, she could never outrun her demons, and she was scared that she would never be able to. 

But that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t try. Running had always been therapeutic to Bomi, but it hurt. A lot. Her chest felt like someone had lit it on fire, and although she was gasping for air, it felt like she was getting no oxygen into her lungs. Her body was screaming for a reprieve, but Bomi didn’t listen. She never did.

She probably should have listened this time, though. When the bottom of her heel hit the treadmill, the impact seemed to jar her entire body, and her knees buckled from underneath her. Desperately, Bomi threw her arms out to catch her fall, but she failed.

Just as Bomi’s face was going to smash against the moving treadmill, she felt a hand grab by her armpit and pull her off the machine. 

Bomi stumbled back into the arms of her mysterious savior, gasping and heaving like there was no tomorrow. Sweat encased her entire body and her lips was unbelievably dry. Her legs felt like jelly, and she had to rely on the person behind her for support as she waited for them to regain some feeling. 

When some of her strength had returned to her, Bomi exhaled and straightened up. The treadmill was still whirring with incredible speed, and Bomi found it difficult to believe that just a few seconds ago, she had been running at that speed.

“Thank you,” Bomi said. She turned to face her savior and froze when she saw who it was. “Chorong-unnie.”

“What were you trying to achieve?” Chorong demanded as she walked over to turn off the treadmill. She was dressed in very loose sweats and a large jacket, but they did not take away from the authority that emanated off of her body.

“A good workout?” Bomi replied jokingly, but Chorong didn’t seem amused. Bomi pulled off her shirt and used it to wipe the sweat on her face. “I had a lot on my mind, so I came here to run it off.”

“Did you think to consider your body’s limitations?”

“That wasn’t exactly the first of my concerns,” Bomi said. “Why did you come?”

“I wanted to speak with you.”

“At two in the morning?”

Chorong sniffed, but she seemed otherwise unphased. “I went to your room, but you weren’t there, so I searched the palace for you. When I passed by the gym, I saw that the lights were on. I found you by chance.”

“You searched the palace for me? Was what you needed to speak with me about that important?” Bomi asked, and the moment the words left her lips, she immediately realized what had happened. She regarded Chorong defensively. “You thought I had abandoned the team and left.”

“I was wrong,” Chorong admitted.

“Eunji went through all that trouble to convince me to join the team. Did you think I would just give up and leave on the first day?”

“Eunji-ah went through all that trouble to convince you to join our team,” Chorong said sternly. “I wanted to make sure that her efforts hadn’t gone to waste.”

“Well, they didn’t. I’m still here.”

“For how long? Can I trust that you won’t run off to pursue your own personal agenda?”

“Don’t you trust your teammates?”

Chorong glared at Bomi, her gaze so intense that Bomi almost shrank back. “I trust my teammates. But I don’t know if you’re going to be our teammate or just someone who’s going to run away later. Can I trust that you won’t run away?”

Bomi hesitated. She knew what the right answer was, but for some reason she couldn’t get her lips to move.

Chorong took a step closer to Bomi. “Can I trust that you won’t run away, Bomi?”

Bomi glanced at the distance between her and Chorong―or rather, the lack of distance between them. Chorong was so close to Bomi that she could see the leader’s long lower lashes and the small white scar on the edge of her jaw. 

Bomi gripped her fists and forced herself to reply, “You can trust me.”

Chorong studied Bomi for a second longer, like she was searching for any signs of lying. When she found none, she stepped back and said, “Good.”

Bomi let out a breath and mumbled, “Good.”

Again, Chorong’s eyes analyzed Bomi. “Are you alright?”

That certainly threw Bomi off. “What?”

“Are you alright?” Chorong asked again. “You seemed quite shaken up when you fell off that treadmill.”

“Maybe it’s because I fell off a treadmill,” Bomi replied sarcastically.

“Your legs looked very weak and you could barely hold yourself up. Your face was pale and your lips were dry. You also spent quite a while bent over and gasping heavily,” Chorong listed out. “It was worrisome.”

Despite herself, Bomi let out a scoff. “You waited until now to ask me that?”

“We were already on a different topic,” said Chorong. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Bomi sighed. “I just overworked myself, though I can’t remember the last time I ran so hard that my body gave up on me.”

“It seems that you had a lot on your mind to run off,” Chorong observed. Bomi couldn’t tell if she was just saying that or if she was actually genuinely concerned.

“I did,” Bomi said. “But I’m done for the night. I can’t run anymore.”

“Did you succeed in clearing your head? Is whatever was keeping you up still bothering you?” Chorong questioned, and this time, Bomi was sure that there was a hint of concern in the leader’s voice. Bomi didn’t want that. She didn’t want people worrying about her. She also didn’t want to admit that she felt some warmth in knowing that Chorong was genuinely concerned about her.

Bomi smiled grimly at the leader. “It’s always going to bother me, Unnie.” She threw her damp shirt over her shoulder and glanced down at her feet. “It’s all that’s been bothering me for the past two years.”