Seulgi immediately tenses once she feels a presence looming behind her but relaxes the moment she feels a hand on her . “Unni,” Seulgi sighs. “I may have been injured last night but I don’t think my needs healing.” She gently removes the hand off of her before turning around to face the older girl.

    “You don’t know that,” Joohyun grins before reaching behind Seulgi to shamelessly palm her again. “There’s only one medical expert here right now and I’m pretty sure it’s me,” she explains slowly, as if speaking to a child. “So listen to your unni, Seulgi-yah,” she commands with a sleazy grin on her face, loudly patting Seulgi’s .

    Seulgi grimaces, but past experiences have lead her to learn that it’s better not to do anything. Resistance just makes Joohyun even more aggressive. But still, Seulgi can’t help but mutter “e” under her breath. “What were we called to headquarters for anyways?” Seulgi asks curiously, looking around to see if anything was different. Seulgi has training scheduled daily at the headquarters, but usually she isn’t specifically called in unless it was time for the monthly performance evaluations or there was some Very Important News (which had to have capitalization because there was almost never anything serious enough that it needed the intervening of the company).

    “I think I might know,” Joohyun says seriously, the previous humor on her face gone. “Jinri texted me about it and..” she trails off with a frown and says nothing else. Seulgi doesn’t ask.

.

    “Shim Changmin is dead.” Not a sound was made and that silence speaks louder than any words could have. Seulgi’s face remains stoic but inside, her mind was racing faster than anyone ever thought it could. Shim Changmin- otherwise known as the superhero Max- was a first generation superhero (the very first, belonging to the pioneer superhero group DBSK), and was one of the greatest superheroes of all time. The last Seulgi had heard of him he was retired, but still healthy and not too old to be near death, and considering that there weren’t any news of him contracting any terminal illnesses or anything that means- “Last night, Shim Changmin was murdered.” And suddenly, the silence broke like glass shattering. People were getting up out of their seats and shouting over each other and amidst all of the chaos, Seulgi feels sick to her stomach.

    “Silence!” Another board member commanded and slowly, the noise died down. Once order was restored, holograms of the crime scene were pulled up and Seulgi averts her eyes at the gruesome sight. God, why did it have to be in 3-D?

    There was blood pouring out of his ears and eyes and his mouth was- a hand softly grips hers. “Stop looking,” Seulgi hears Joohyun whispers from beside her.

    “I did,” Seulgi replies quietly. “I still can’t get the image out of my mind.” Joohyun frowns but says nothing. Her grip on Seulgi’s hand tightens.

    “It looks like he was killed with a supersonic scream,” Park Sojin- Skylark, Seulgi's mind automatically connects- states as she smoothly takes over the presentation. “His autopsy shows burst eardrums and the deterioration to the temporal lobes of the brain matches all the signs of the typical damage from a supersonic scream.” If Seulgi had been a more sardonic person, she’d note how ironic it is- that Changmin was killed by the exact same power that he has. Besides the whole gruesome murder going on, there was still one more thing bothering Seulgi.

    “I don’t understand.” All eyes turn to Seulgi as she speaks. “If this is a murder case, then why are we being debriefed about it? Shouldn’t the police be handling this?”

    Sojin looks over at the board member and he hesitates before saying, “This isn’t the first murder.” Seulgi freezes in her seat as whispers broke out throughout the meeting room. She can feel Joohyun’s nails digging into the skin of her hand and only tightens her grip. “At least two more retired heroes from the European league was murdered as well,” he starts lowly. “The UN has been trying to keep this under wraps, solve this quietly, but it’s been months and there hasn’t been any leads. And now,” he looks at the hologram that’s still showing pictures of Shim Changmin’s murder, “this happens.” He turns back to them. “This isn’t a debriefing; we don’t want you to involve yourselves with the investigation. This is a warning: be careful out there. There’s someone hunting you down.”

.

    “Save me!”

    Seungwan laughs as Seulgi hisses that at her before trying to hide behind the shorter girl’s back. Seulgi had spent all week trying to avoid Jung Soojung after the girl had confessed to her, and had been mostly successful until now. “You know you’re going to have to face her at some point,” Seungwan remarks, eyes twinkling in amusement. “And it might as well be now.” Before Seulgi can really register her words, Seungwan shoves Seulgi out from behind her. Seulgi stumbles and falls in a pile of uncoordinated limbs right in front of Jung Soojung. She looks up with eyes wide in fear and hopes that Jung Soojung doesn’t kill her.

    Soojung glares at her, frown tugging at her lips, before she continues walking. Seulgi almost sighs in relief but then she hears Soojung say “Come with me,” without breaking stride or looking back. Seulgi frantically nods even though Soojung can’t see her and scrambles to follow after the other girl. Before rounding the corner, she shoots a pout to Seungwan, who looks more amused than she should be, considering she probably just sent Seulgi to her death.

.

    Soojung leads her to the rooftop and Seulgi wonders how much time does she have left until the other girl throws her off the ledge and to her death. “Relax. I’m not going to throw you off the roof,” Soojung grumbles playfully, a cute pout gracing her face. Seulgi’s current thoughts are interrupted and she’s reminded that at some point, she had thought she was in love with the other girl. (At least, until Seulgi had bumped into her and had a taste of Jung Soojung’s infamous glare. Seulgi seriously thought she was going to freeze on the spot.)

    “Of course,” Seulgi says with a polite smile. (She still keeps her death grip on the knob of the door leading to the stairs.)

    “I don’t expect you to do anything, you know,” Soojung starts. “About what happened on Friday, I mean. So you can stop avoiding me like the plague already.” Soojung’s ears are red and even someone as oblivious as Seulgi can tell that she’s embarrassed about her confession to Seulgi. A small part of Seulgi thinks that it’s kinda cute but a bigger part of her can’t help but think about how uncomfortable Soojung makes her feel (how uncomfortable the whole situation is, really) and how much she wants to run away.

    (Seulgi keeps expecting Soojung to break out into flailing arm movements and awkward laughter like Seungwan does whenever she’s embarrassed but she doesn’t; Soojung just crosses her arms and looks away and somehow the atmosphere gets even colder.) (All of a sudden, Seulgi deeply misses Seungwan and the ease of her smile.)

    “Then why did you?” Seulgi blurts out before she can stop herself. “Confess, I mean.”

    Soojung shrugs with an ease that Seulgi can’t tell is faked or not. “Just.. because.” The answer settles between them and Seulgi knows that “just because” wasn’t really the reason. But still, she can’t help but think how nice that must be- to do something “just because”, as if there isn’t any consequences.

    “Sorry.”

    “It’s not your fault,” Soojung shrugs again. “Like I said, it’s not like I expected anything out of it. Everyone knows you’re already dating Wendy-ssi anyways.”

    Soojung walks away and Seulgi doesn’t bother to correct her.

.

Seulgi falls in love easily. Her mother had always complained that she fell in love too easily, and Seulgi wants to rebutt that because she doesn’t anymore but at some point, she used to. She fell in love the way Jinri’s lips curled whenever she smiled, fell in love with the way Soojung’s hair flows whenever she runs, fell in love with all of Joohyun’s grace and softness. But as easily as Seulgi falls in love, she falls out of love just as easily.

The lips that Seulgi was so in love with were always talking about boys (which Seulgi finds kind of gross). Joohyun’s graceful demeanor and the sparkles that Seulgi always saw when she was near the older girl faded the very first time Joohyun had d her . And Soojung- well, Seulgi fell out of love and straight into fear of her.

But for some reason it was different with Seungwan. It wasn’t like Seungwan doesn’t have any flaws because she totally does. Her laugh is so loud that it once got them kicked out of the school library, and her eyebrows are so expressive that Seulgi is pretty sure that scientists would classify them as independent life forms, and Seungwan nags. A lot. More than her mom, actually. But somehow Seulgi’s okay with it? (More than okay with it, really. More like in love with it, really.) Seungwan’s laughter is warm and earnest and it always makes Seulgi feel like the funniest person in the world, and Seulgi likes Seungwan’s eyebrows. She thinks they’re cute; charming even. And the nagging- well, it’s still pretty annoying. (After all, who would actually like being nagged at.) But Seulgi may have fallen in love with the way Seungwan’s eyebrows knit together and how her bottom lip juts out whenever she nags, and dear god, she’s so far gone it’s not even funny.

(At some point, Seulgi tried to pinpoint why exactly did she start loving Seungwan. Was it her bright eyes or her soft voice or her kindness? Probably not because while Seungwan herself is unique, it's not like no one in the history of ever has some of the same traits that Seungwan does. Joohyun's eyes are pretty sparkly, and Kim Taeyeon has a really nice voice, and Jesus is famous for being kind but Seulgi's not in love with him.) (A theory Seulgi likes is that maybe all the parts that make up Seungwan aren't the reasons why Seulgi's in love, but rather it's because Seulgi is in love with Seungwan that she loves everything about her.) (But then it leaves her original question unanswered and the whole thing feeling like a non sequitur.) (It's not like it matters anyways, because in the end, Seulgi is in love with Seungwan and Seungwan is in love with Helios.)

.

Surprisingly, it's Seungwan and not Seulgi who falls asleep while they're studying. Seulgi rests her head next to Seungwan's and just studies the features of the girl beside her. Seungwan's head is resting on a textbook, cheek pressed so closely that it sticks to the pages, and is open. Seulgi thinks it's cute. (Seulgi thinks everything about Seungwan is cute.) Her eyelashes are long and dark, especially against her pale complexion, and her skin looks smooth. Seulgi wonders how Seungwan would feel under her lips, and saves that thought for another day.

"Stupid," Seulgi whispers, reaching a hand up to softly brush back Seungwan's bangs. "Why do you have to be in love with Helios when I'm right here?"

.

(Sometimes, Seulgi thinks about revealing that she was Helios to Seungwan, company policy about secret identities be damned. But then Seulgi remembers that Seungwan is in love with the hero and not the girl behind the mask, and scraps the idea.) (Still, it was a nice thought for a moment- Seungwan being in love with her.)

.

Eventually, Seulgi has to leave Seungwan and go home because her mom promised to make budae jjigae and her mom's budae jjigae is absolutely killer. About halfway through her walk home, Seulgi suddenly pauses. "Hello?" she calls out. Seulgi has a feeling on who the presence behind her might be but wishes it would be anyone else, even Joohyun unni and her greasy -grabbing hands.

Seulgi barely has time to dodge a blurred streak that passes by her and jolts to a stop. "Hello Helios," the person says with a feral grin as he turns around, twirling a knife in his hand. Seulgi growls as she clutches the shallow wound he managed to nick in her shoulder. Speedsters are so annoying to deal with.

The speedster launches a barrage of lightning quick attacks but Seulgi throws off a blaze of fire that pushes him back before he could cause too much damage. (It's not like her secret identity matters at the moment; the guy already knows who she is.) Seulgi's mind is racing and she tries to think back to her training. There was a boy named Minhyuk who sometimes spars with her and she remembers that he could run a lap around all of Seoul in under a minute. Speedsters are hard to deal with because even if they could be sensed, almost no one has the reflexes to catch them. But luckily, Seulgi remembers as the man in front of her gears up for another run, speedsters tend to run in a straight line. Something about their mind not being able to catch up with their speed and visualizing a start and end point, Minhyuk had once said. But straight lines are easy, predictable. Seulgi shifts her weight lower and balls her hand into a fist. She just needs the right timing.

Seulgi starts swinging her fist right before the man runs straight at her and manages to catch him across the face (by a of pure luck because wow, Seulgi did not see him at all.) Pain explodes in her fist and yeah, it's definitely broken. But whatever, Seulgi managed to take down this guy and maybe they can finally have a lead on the hero hunt thing.

Before Seulgi could do anything else, she feels a cold hand pressed onto the back of her neck and lets out a choked gasp. Pain blossoms in her neck and spreads through her bloodstream and it's fire and ice and it makes her blood sing in a way she never wanted it to. Seulgi slowly falls, onto one knee then another. It's still spreading and it's cold, cold, cold and suddenly she's face down in the ground and everything hurts. "Very good, Helios," she hears a voice say and it sounds so distant. She tries to conjure up some flames- even a little tiny one would do- but it's so cold and Seulgi can't seem to do anything right now except for die. (Seulgi had always thought she would die suited up, as Helios, but apparently this is how her life would end: as Seulgi, in her school uniform and with half-done biology homework stuffed into her backpack.) "You're a lot smarter than I thought. And so young too." The hand is still there, colder against her already cold body, and everything's dark and she misses the sun. "It's unfortunate you have to die." (She misses Seungwan.)

A/N: I wrote this when I was really tired and sleepy and towards the end I got really impatient so I didn't spend too much time editing it. I'll probably go over it and fix some stuff tomorrow but for now.. just take it.