Chapter Nine.

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There was a drastic change in atmosphere of Aeradias Academy after the departure of the Eleutherius boys that day. The school went back to its previous state of quietness as all the students returned to their respective dormitories for the rest of the evening.

Yoona stirred from her nap when Sooyoung entered their room. Seohyun on the other hand, had positioned herself at her usual spot by the desk, her head deep in the fat history textbook. “Hey, Sooyoung.” She glanced up to smile and returned to her book a brief second after. Sooyoung replied back just as Yoona sat up on her bed. “Where did you go?”

“I was walking around.” Sooyoung went with the safest answer, the incident of her meeting Im Jinah still fresh in her mind. Something about that incident made Sooyoung uncomfortable, she was tempted to ask Yoona if she knew about her cousin’s behaviour, but she dare not. “How was your nap?”

“It was good. But I feel sleepy again.” Yoona mumbled and closed her eyes again. She lay back down onto her pillow and stifled a yawn.

Sooyoung laughed before grabbing a pillow and throwing it at her friend’s direction. “Wake up, sleepy head! It’s dinner time soon.”

Yoona scowled and retaliated by throwing the pillow back towards the brunette. However, the latter ducked quickly enough to avoid the sailing pillow which eventually landed on poor Seohyun’s head. Sooyoung roared in laughter just as Yoona scrambled out from her bed to apologize. “Omona! Seohyun, I’m so sorry!”

The pious teenager stared blankly at her roommates, before splitting into a grin and throwing the pillow straight into Yoona’s direction. The pillow landed squarely on her forehead just as Yoona let out a shriek. “Seohyun, what on earth!”

Seohyun laughed, clutching her stomach as she walked across the room towards her bed and armed herself with her own pillows. She picked one up and attempted to throw the pillow at Sooyoung, but at the last second, she changed the direction of her aim and—

“Aha!” Yoona’s triumph yell echoed around the wall falls of their room as she clapped her hands in glee. Before Seohyun could hit Yoona with her pillow, the latter threw her own pillow at her direction to stop her from carrying out her devious plan.

“How did you know I was…” Seohyun’s sentence trailed off by itself as shaped into a small ‘o’.  Realizing that she knew exactly what Yoona was doing at the moment, Seohyun muttered as loudly as she could that hey, that’s not fair!

“Nothing’s not fair!” Yoona stuck her tongue out and jumped a step behind immediately just as Sooyoung’s pillow sailed past her. “Hah! Mind reader, remember? Clearly victory is mine!”

The pillow fight lasted for another half an hour. It ended only when there were knocks on their room and the voices behind the door telling them they were late for dinner. The trio hastily combed their hair and smooth the crease of their outfits before linking arms and hurrying out from their room.

All along the way to the dining room, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun were still grinning from ear to ear.

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“Headmistress, it’s the third time this month where Im Jinah tried to leave the school compound without permission.”

There’s a frown on the headmistress’ face as she remained silent, prompting the lady in front of her to ask; “What do you reckon we should do?”

“We can’t say it wasn’t predicted.” Mrs. Jung replied with a sigh, taking out her glasses and placing them on the desk gently. “It’s rather expected for Jinah in her attempt to escape, again.”

“She must have thought that we wouldn’t be keeping an extra watch on her since we have guests today.” Kahi nonchalantly said before shaking her head a few times. “I don’t think this will be her last attempt though.”

The headmistress frowned, not knowing what to do with the rebellious teenager. “Saeyoung’s daughter was the one who found her outside, right?”

Kahi nodded. “Apparently she was taking a walk in the garden when she heard Jinah.”

There was a pause before the topic shifted unconsciously from Im Jinah to that of Choi Sooyoung as the headmistress’ frown was replaced with a small smile. “How is she coping so far?”

“Well, Kangta has not started his extra lessons with her yet, but other than that, she’s still the same.” Kahi hesitated before adding, “Although, she has not shown any signs of having combustion as an ability ever since that day.”

“It’ll probably take some time for her to readapt, since she has always thought of herself as an empath before that incident.” Mrs. Jung reasoned out slowly whilst choosing the right words to say, knowing how her deputy was extra sensitive to any topic which may be related to her former best friend. “It must be difficult, growing up without a mother to guide her on her potentials…”

If Kahi was showing any sign of being uncomfortable, there was no indication. Her gaze, just as steely as usual, was directed towards the window beside the headmistress’ desk. There was a pause as Mrs. Jung noted the way her former student was furrowing her eyebrows, a hint whi