Yujin’s mother had always kept Yujin away from water growing up. Though Yujin had won multiple swimming competitions when she was younger, her mother suddenly pulled her out of her classes and tournaments without any reason. Yujin had never been allowed to visit aquariums either. It wasn’t that Yujin didn’t mind, but she just found it strange why her mom was so averse to anything involving a lot of water.

Now, she had an idea.

Her father was Poseidon, god of the sea. Maybe, her mother had felt spiteful of Poseidon leaving them alone after she was born. That would explain why she wouldn’t so much as consider going to beaches or riding boats.

Poseidon being her father would explain a lot of strange things in her life as well like how she would sometimes hear voices whenever she walked by rivers, why she was so good at swimming in the first place, and most recently, how she managed to avoid getting wet when Wooseok had thrown that goblet of water at her last night.

While many of the questions she’d been asking herself for a long time were finally answered though, they were simply replaced with new ones; the one she thought about the most being why her father had chosen now of all times to claim her.

That was something she’d have to dig deeper into later as right now, she had a delivery to make.

“And who might you be?” a good-looking guy with dark eyes and styled black hair asked as she approached the Aphrodite cabin.

Yujin took out the thermos to show. “I’m here for Wonyoung. She wanted me to get this for her.”

At this the guy’s eyes lit up. “You actually got it? That’s crazy. I did not think you were going to come through. Mind if I have a cup?”

“Yah, Hyunjin, if you want some, go ask someone else to get it for you,” the voice of Wonyoung suddenly interjected as the cabin door swung open.

Hyunjin grunted, but definitely didn’t appear to want to say anything back to the younger girl.

“Must’ve gone through a lot of trouble to get this, didn’t you?” Wonyoung said with crossed arms.

“Well, according to Yuri, I would’ve had my soul taken away if I didn’t, so I kind of had to,” Yujin replied before handing the thermos over, which Wonyoung accepted happily.

“I heard you were claimed by the way. Suddenly, you’re a big shot like that Chaewon girl. Don’t let it get to your head, okay?”

“How did you find out already?”

Wonyoung winked. “Gossip is our specialty. Anyway, I don’t say this often, but thanks for this. I’ll ask you to get something easier the next time I have an errand to run.”

“Wait, what?” Yujin protested, but Wonyoung ignored her and walked back into the Barbie house.

“Looks like Wonyoung has a new favorite,” a new voice chuckled from a distance. When Yujin turned, she realized it was Nako- the girl who brought her and Chaewon to camp.

“And what is that supposed to mean?” asked Yujin.

“It means she finds you cute. Wonyoung always bosses around her crushes with that charmspeak of hers,” Nako replied while playfully spinning a bronze dagger around her finger. Yujin would’ve thought it was a safety hazard for a sharp object like that to just be dangling around but decided not to mention it.

“No way that brat likes me. I almost got killed because of where she sent me. I think she’s still upset about when I bumped into her yesterday,”

Nako shrugged. “Well, if that’s what you think it’s not like anyone has a choice once Wonyoung decides she wants you as her personal errand girl. Anyway, I was actually coming by to pick you up for sword training. Since you’ve been claimed and Chaeyeon has her hands full with the Hermes cabin, Seunggi told me to step in. You should be thankful because I’m the best swordswoman here. I’ll have you know though, my father has never been too fond of Poseidon for reasons I don’t know, so don’t expect me to go easy on you.”

The short girl didn’t even wait for Yujin to respond before walking away, which forced her to follow.

~~~~

Yujin had gotten a glance at the sword arena when she first passed by yesterday, but it still didn’t prepare her for the real deal.

Standing alone in a fenced off circle with nothing but a sword by her side was daunting, especially with all the eyes now on her. Yujin usually loved the attention, but for once, she wished she could’ve been allowed to practice in secret first.

“Fix your stance, Yujin! I can see you shaking!” Nako taunted from the other side. Yujin stiffened herself immediately, slightly embarrassed for letting her jitters show.

Nako then raised her hand and made the universal gesture for ‘come at me’. With the crowd starting to get restless as well, Yujin decided to try going for it. She could only hope that Nako would hold back.

Yujin’s first sword swing was parried easily. So were the second and third. Though Yujin had a height and reach advantage, Nako was definitely more skilled. Thirty seconds into the engagement, Yujin was already starting to tire from the effort while Nako didn’t look like she’d broken a sweat.

“Is that the best you got?” Nako teased again after deftly dodging another attack.

“You know I’m also not trying to hurt you, right?” Yujin tried to say between breaths.

Nako sighed. “That would be a rookie mistake.”

Like a switch was flipped, Nako went on the offensive and clanged her sword against Yujin’s. This caught Yujin off guard, and in that moment of hesitation, Nako twisted her sword to flip Yujin’s out of her hand.

“1-0.” Nako said with her weapon pointed right below Yujin’s chin.

“In a real fight, your opponent will be trying to kill you. So, in training, you must fight with the same intensity. You should worry about defending yourself.”

Yujin was breathing heavily. That tiny girl just had her on the brink of death without trying. It made her wonder if all the Ares kids they’d be facing tomorrow for capture-the-flag would be this good. If they were, she had to be better.

“Let’s go again then,” Yujin said determinedly.

Nako raised her eyebrow curiously. “If you say so.”

The duo went back and forth for another hour with Nako winning all the sword fights easily. It wasn’t for lack of trying though. Yujin managed to make Nako stumble a couple times, but never ultimately disarmed her. By the time their training was over, both girls were sitting on the ground and sweating profusely.

“Not bad,” said Nako. “You almost made me try for a couple fights.”

Yujin laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“I won't be going easy on you tomorrow when we’re actually on opposite sides, okay? You better be ready.”

“You say that like you’re going to try and kill us,” Yujin replied, though, the way Nako stared back at her made her question how seriously the camp takes this event.

“Rest up, Yujin. The first capture-the-flag is always the most intense,” Nako said before getting up and heading back to her cabin.

Yujin took a deep breath and looked around. It was surreal. Even in her wildest dreams, she couldn’t have imagined a scenario like the one she was in right now.

~~~~

“Yah, Yujin-ah! There you are!” the voice of Yena called from behind Yujin.

Yujin kept her eyes trained on the sea in front of her as her friend approached. After training with Nako, she’d decided to take a visit to the beach on the edge of camp to collect her thoughts. Aside from that thought, there was a part of her that hoped she could feel a connection with her father by being here.

“What’re you doing all the way out here?” Yena asked when she arrived next to her.

“The ocean… apparently my father is the god controlling it. Doesn’t that still sound a bit crazy?” Yujin asked back.

“As if anything else we’ve seen in the past 48 hours hasn’t?” Yena replied sarcastically.

Yujin chuckled. “Explains why my mom didn’t let me go to Sokcho for my class’ field trip all those years ago. Explains why she made me quit swimming too.”

“But you think there’s something more to it?”

“I want to know why he chose to claim me now. You heard Seunggi earlier at the Big House. Hades and Poseidon aren’t supposed to have kids, and yet, here Chaewon and I are. There has to be a reason.”

Yena nodded. “I agree. I talked it over with Chaewon earlier. Something doesn’t seem right, but I think that’s a bridge we should cross when we get to it. You’ve had a long day, and we’re going to need your sword skill tomorrow.”

“Yah, you were watching me?” Yujin asked in an embarrassed tone. After all, she didn’t manage to beat Nako even once.

“Aish, I can’t worry about you? You’re still the youngest among us three. You weren’t even that bad!” Yena said while imitating some of Yujin’s moves from earlier.

Yujin rolled her eyes and moved on to another topic. “How’s Chaewon-unnie? You said you talked with her.”

“Mhm, she seems to be doing fine. She said she was having a cool sword made by a child of Hephaestus. I do suspect she might be catching something for Minju though,” Yena said, which raised Yujin’s brow,

“Really? I get that they’ve been hanging out a lot since we’ve gotten here, but how are you sure?”

Yena smirked. “Exactly, she never hangs out with anyone other than us. I smell something fishy.”

“And you?” Yujin then asked. “How are you feeling right now?”

“Aside from slight acid burns from the giant ants, I’m just peachy. I did some training with Yuri earlier too. Did you know the rock-climbing wall has an earthquake option?”

Yujin let Yena tell her story for the next few minutes. It was always calming for her to have the older girl by her side. For a second, she imagined they were just two normal college students on a vacation at the beach.

She returned to reality- or well, her new reality- fairly quickly though as a new voice began calling her from the ocean.

Blessed be the daughter of the Deep…. When Yujin turned, no one was there. Instead, washed up on the shore was a shiny necklace with small pearls attached to it.

“Woah, is that from…?” Yena let her voice trail off.

“I think so. Thanks, dad,” Yujin said to the ocean as she put the gift on.

 

A/N: Hi and welcome back to another chapter! It's a bit on the shorter side this week, but I just wanted to fit in Yujin's perspective on things after being claimed.

Next chapter, we will be back with Yena to finally start the capture-the-flag haha, please look forward to it!

Thanks again for all the support! If you haven't seen my other series, Project IZ*ONE, you can check them out while waiting for updates for IZOlympians.

Have a nice day, and I'll see y'all in the next one!