“I can’t believe I flunked my first ever high school midterm.” Mina sighs, but there’s no stopping her trek to the training ground. Especially not with Sejeong beside her, walking alongside her with a worried mommy expression present.

“You could’ve studied, but you didn’t. Your loss.”

“My loss,” Mina sighs bitterly, and her frown only dips lower when the lush green protection forest greets into her view, “arrrghhh, I really should’ve studied…”

Sejeong pats the shoulder farthest from her side. “Then again, you had Zeus Somi as your opponent. Tough luck! That girl could zap and fry anything… if it makes you feel slightly less murky, it’s alright to lose to her. Not everyone was born a genius, you know.”

Clearly she looked down upon the situation, expecting a test way easier to barely pass. The written test wasn’t that hard (unless you’re Dani-level book dumb), but the moment she panicked over not even being able to effortlessly answer the first question, she blanked out everything she crammed from the previous three days.

Needless to say, she flopped both her written and practical exams and now she’s stuck in a remedial exam full of Danis and Nayoungs. While it’s possible to lose the duel without getting thrown into the list of remedial-goers, one must score at least above average on the written test to pass. Mina mentally beats herself in the head for the umpteenth time.

They stop in front of the tall gate separating one of the academy’s several training grounds and the walkway to there. Some fellow flunkers have gathered there, alone or in groups, all carrying moderately large-sized backpacks with their personal belongings for the next two nights.

Her upperclassman must have noticed how she’s looking really antsy, as Sejeong pinches her cheek lightly. “It’s not as bad as the rumors go, but stay cautious. Then again, Nayoung is still alive and her remedial exams attendance is a Perfect A! And it’s definitely not because she lucked out.”

Comparison with Nayoung where she’s one half of the subject only amps up the self-loathing brewing inside her. She shows her protest through her knitted brows.

Sejeong only laughs it off (though it sounds rather forced), especially when a familiar friend docks close to them.

Mina sulks even more following Nayoung’s arrival, and Nayoung, noticing her somber mood, makes a face. “Mina hates me more than usual. Someone needs to stop sabotaging my image, I’m a well-known loser now.”

At Nayoung’s baseless accusation, Sejeong hurls a dirty look to Nayoung. “So, Veteran Remedial-goer, can I entrust my small puff to you?”

Before she could disagree with the embarrassing nick, Nayoung already hooks an arm around Mina’s shoulders, attracting her closer. “I can look out for her in expense of my own well-being.”

She wriggles out of the older girl’s grasp anyway. “You can’t even look out for yourself!”

“I prepared something beforehand,” Sejeong then rummages her handbag while Mina gulps back her own spit, “things might happen. Can’t eliminate the possibility of near-death experiences just because Nayoung managed to scrape her way out of remedial exams. So! I got you this.”

“You told me not to worry, like, five minutes ago!” Mina clams up quickly as soon as Sejeong takes out the thing she’s been looking for.

An aerial firework isn’t exactly a viable solution to mortal worries.

Mina, in disbelief, talks back. “Listen,”

“Oh right. I know you wouldn’t have the matchbox beforehand so being the caring friend I am, I bought one for you – “

“No. No! Listen,”

“No, no, let me explain,” Sejeong forces the whole artillery shell onto Mina’s panicked hands, leaving no room for her to decline it, “when you’re in trouble, fire this to the sky. Once, twice, or however much you want – I think the pack said something about it carrying eight shots.”

Nayoung interrupts sagely, “Or you can fire it onto whoever or whatever that’s bugging you. It might save time! I could’ve been taking a dump when you fired it.”

“I’m not gonna fire this crap!” Mina tries to force the firework back onto Sejeong’s hands, but her surrogate mother isn’t having any of it. Instead, what she gets a disappointed frown. “Sejeong! What can Nayoung do anyway? Even a rooster could beat her in a fight!”

“Hey, that was one time!”

Sejeong then produces a long-winded explanation about how Nayoung is more experienced than her when it comes to dealing life-or-death crisis (not exactly something to be proud of) and her reasoning speech is so airtight Mina couldn’t stab a hole in it. At last, Mina could agree with one of Sejeong’s many points: Nayoung makes a good meat shield.

And that’s how Kang Mina finds herself dragging her steps into the training ground, carrying a moderately small-sized carrier bag, carrying clothes for two days, a matchbox, and an artillery shell for when the situation calls for it.

With the time closing in on 8 AM, Mina could hear the croaking of a megaphone as the bearer tests on it. Not long after, they’re told to gather inside the training ground, specifically on the helipad (that lost its main functionality ever since the academy began cutting budgets). Mina holds onto the handles of her carrier, tightening the hold it has on her shoulder, and walks off forward. Nayoung stays behind for a private chat with Sejeong.

Both being megaphone-personified, Mina unwillingly overhears:

“Nayoung… for real, take care of Mina. You know she can’t really control her power just yet.”

“Well, well,” Nayoung’s tone drips with the confidence of someone who asks for a punch, “I’m a wholly world more useless than Mina could ever be, but you can count on me.”

“Oooh. You better be. Don’t mess up, I don’t hold resentments well.”

“So you would rather see me in the hospital wing than Mina.”

“Isn’t the hospital wing, like, a second home to you already anyway?”

“Touché.”

The short 8 AM skit punctuates the lurking danger she might come across in the next few 48 hours. Done with the “private” chat, Nayoung lightly skips to her side.

As they walk, Nayoung talks about how she’s sad that she couldn’t pass her exams for the umpteenth time (though she doesn’t look like she’s emotionally down at all), about how she wishes the sky could be pouring heavily so they’ll have to stay indoor most of the time, and a quip on how depressed their supervisor – Jang Geun Suk – looks today.

He’s a weird joe, but usually he’s a wack with a dash of narcissism. Far from the gloom-doom emo with bad bed hair image he’s serving right now.

“He looks dead. Will he cut us some slack? I mean, funeral discount.”

Nayoung’s reply comes a bit later than usual. “Doubt it…”

Before they reach the middle of the helipad where they have to line up according to their year, Mina asks Nayoung the most important question. “On a scale of one to ten, how murderous is this remedial regiment thing?”

Amidst the sea of sleepy, dead, or sleepy dead people buzzing around them, Nayoung’s deriding laugh is an unwelcomed contrast. “Only up to ten?”
 

Lining up at 8 AM. An aerobic routine until 11, lunch time with the present staffs distributing packed lunches until 12 (Mina could tell it was just cafeteria foods; the half-assedness is very much the same). Seminar concerning one’s “inner strength” until 3 PM which she slept on halfway through (Yeonjung’s shoulder was too comfy of a pillow to pass up on!). Then they were instructed to do what basically amounted to community service: picking up litters in the wood, but with a flair of Illiad Academy (Seoul branch!).

One, everyone was given a personal trash bag where they’ll put the litters they collected.

Two, there’s a punishment looming for those who couldn’t collect enough trashes.

Three, you’re allowed to fight fellow remedial-attendants to steal their trash bag.

Three, you’re allowed to fight fellow remedial-attendants to steal their trash bag.

Three, you’re allowed to fight fellow remedial-attendants to steal their trash bag.

Mina leaves her hiding spot in the shrub as she hears the loud noise of someone’s back forcefully cracking apart a tree branch, a screamed pain, and the sound of someone cackling. For the last five minutes, she has been hiding from trigger-happy second year Baek Yebin shooting out laser beams at the unoffending people, who unfortunately come across her field of vision.

She looks back one last time as she shuttles away from the shrubbery. Yebin has her back to her as she approaches another second years who’s begging for her dear life, taking the losing girl’s trash bag in a fist. The laser-nut second year right now has four trash bags with her and Mina has no intention to give her fifth.

Until she turns her back and glares straight at Mina, that is.

“No escape! I wanna get out of this hellhole ASAP!”

Her eyes widen as Yebin moves the trash bag to the other hand and her now freed right arm glows a bright blue. Mina sprints her fastest, breaking out personal record, and she’s sure she hears the sound the whoosh of the beam fired. Nothing explodes on her feet and she turns to her left only to see Yebin already flung beside her, catching up to her effortlessly by shooting her beam backwards to propel herself forward.

Mina quickly stops her track and assumes a defense position while Yebin lands half a meter after her. She couldn’t run.

Like it or not, she has to use her power. The question is whether she could even let it out.

Yebin coughs as she walks two steps closer which prompts Mina to take five steps backwards. “Hey, um, I’m usually a peaceful person even though I sorta hang with Heehyun – never mind she’s actually harmless when she isn’t ticked off. Anyway, I’m a nice kid but I’m not nice enough to take this easy. I neeeeed to get outta this ty remedial class, so,” Yebin plows an arm out, palm asking, “give it up. I ain’t gonna stay here for another day.”

Mina has no intention of staying either. The punishment for the losers of the academy’s twisted up version of “community services” is two more days of remedial classes, and the first day usually carries the easiest activities. More days on top of the initial two days stay is enough for everyone to take winning or losing seriously.

So, instead of handing Yebin hers and begs for her to spare her life, Mina shakes her head meekly and tightens her hold onto her trash bag. “No.”

She isn’t even sure whether she could win the game with just her personally collected trashes. She might even have to get others’, but fighting is out of the question when she couldn’t even control her power. Denying Yebin is, in a way, a suicide, but…

“Well… you got the answer horribly wrong. What are you on?”

Mina squints her eyes at the offhanded response. “I’m high on my will to live.” She wants to say more, maybe a cool one-liner, maybe an apology to backspace her firm “no”, but Yebin’s already firing beams of light at her, which Mina barely avoids by ducking low.

Claiming the window of opportunity, she turns around and runs to the opposite direction, even with the risk of getting a clean hit on the back, her blind spot.

She isn’t personally close with the upperclassman, but the manifest of Hyperion is usually far from the serial murderer persona she’s adopting right now. The things you do to survive!

Mina is alerted the moment she hears the rustling whistle of light gathering. Yebin might fire at her anytime. She turns around at the last moment, just before the light beams descend upon her.

“Have a flick!”

She manages to side-step to the left, avoiding two beams only for one of them to hit her in the forehead.

Rather than a flick, it feels like someone just bricked her. Mina falls over from the pain, landing on her rear, and Yebin s forward by firing the beams to the back.

She closes her eyes and the last thing she saw before she has her eyes shut is Yebin descending upon her, ready to drop-kick her.

The impact never comes. Instead, she hears someone shouting in part pain, part surprise, in Yebin’s voice, and Mina quickly uncaps her eyelids to see Yebin on the ground while holding her side. Two figures jump into the scene.

Doyeon handles Yebin by shooting her own beams from her palm, shaped into a gun-finger with the pointer and middle cocking outwards, in the same way Yebin does while Yeonjung runs towards her, pulls her back to her feet, and takes her further away from the dueling two.

“What the hell – you’re Hyperion too?!”

“Nope,” Kim Doyeon stands her ground, a hand on her hip while the other close to her lips, as she mock-blows imaginary smoke coming from her finger-gun, “manifest of Zelos here, kicking by day, spanking by night.”

“Dodo, that’s kinda inappropriate.”

Zelos is one of the abilities she envies. The power to temporarily copy others’ power is handy, and most of all, seems effortless. Doyeon marches forward while firing light bullets on Yebin. Mina tears her eyes away from the ensuing fight and focuses on her steps and her now safe trash bag.

When she looks down to avoid stepping on a particularly pointy pebble, she finds her body half translucent. Yeonjung’s, too, judging from the hand that holds tightly onto her arm.

Yeonjung must have noticed her questioning look. Without tearing her eyes from their lush green surrounding, she informs her, “It’s okay, it’s just that we’re invisible now. Like, real gone.”

This isn’t the first time she has witnessed Yeonjung’s power. The manifest of Echo has the ability to turn herself and the anything she touches invisible along with her. Possessing a stealthy power that provides not much offensive advantage, Yeonjung’s disadvantaged at practical dueling. Hence her attendance today.

Far enough from Yebin, Doyeon, and humanified Gundam intergalactic laser fight, Yeonjung lifts up their invisibility cloak.

“Thanks,” Mina mutters lowly, confidence dry from getting her served for the hundredth occasion.

“No worries! Me and Dodo were wondering where you are.” Yeonjung stops to catch her breath first. “Why did you run off by yourself? We should stick together, us three. Better than going solo!”

The answer is a tad too personal for Mina’s liking. Holding onto what left of her pride, she shakes her head and stays mum. Yeonjung and Doyeon don’t need to know how for once she wants to try on her own. Yeonjung and Doyeon would never understand the sentiment of having a power she couldn’t even use freely.

Mina flexes her right arm, opens and closes her right fist, and silently reprimands it for being so useless.

Yeonjung guides the way, getting deeper into the woods, supposedly to an area famed for a huge tree, the size greater by twice or thrice than the other trees there. Along with an abnormality is a string of rumors. Ghost stories, possession cases, something about angering the ancient deity that resides in the tree…

“Someone’s there. Wait, I think another? I hear murmurings.”

Mina nods, her ears picking up the murmurings too between two people. “Should we?”

Yeonjung nods and activates her power once again while holding onto Mina. They make sure they’re shrouded in Yeonjung’s invisibility cloak ability before they proceed.

When they arrive, Nayoung comes into view, gym shirt dirtied and there are visible minor cuts along her arms. The second-year isn’t alone. Before her is a man she recognizes as none other than Jang Geunseuk, sitting slumped against the huge tree with his face down. There’s still a meter of distance between her and Yeonjung and the two near the tree, but she taps on Yeonjung’s shoulder as a signal to turn them visible again. Her friend does as she’s told.

Nayoung notices their arrival and the low chatter comes into an abrupt halt as she turns around, and she couldn’t have looked any more nonplussed. “Oh crap – Mina?! And… her friend. Some sneaky feet you guys got there.”

The second-year’s tone is unsteady, and even more suspicious is their remedial supervisor, whose head is still locked downwards. Nevertheless, Mina stashes her suspicion away.  “You’re still in the game…?”

Nayoung’s grin exudes proudness. “Years of being a chum made me a decent runner and blessed me a top-notch durability.” She uses her free hand to point on her lower lip. The area around it is reddened and the pointed area has traces of blood red. Mina isn’t even surprised anymore.

“This is Yeonjung, a friend. Nayoung, be nice.“

Yeonjung bows slightly and Nayoung acknowledges her bow with her own. “I’m nice. Sorry, I’m a bit shy to new people.”

The first-year mumbles pleasantries while Mina’s eyes wander to their supervisor’s slouched figure. When the mandatory introduction conversation dies down, Mina readies her questions. “Hey, Nayoung – “

A sudden eardrums-busting noise cuts her off as her ears ring in immediate response to the disruption. She isn’t the only one experiencing the sound with a threateningly high frequency – Yeonjung and Nayoung are both stumbling to cover their ears too, their trash bags abandoned to the ground.

Obviously, skin and bones aren’t enough to block out the sound. Mina forces herself to talk even when her ears feel like they’re getting punctured by invisible needles, “What the heck is happening?!”

“Crap, this must be Taeha!” Yeonjung jerks her chin towards the opposite direction of the noise. “We need to get outta here first.

Like it or not, they have to let go of their ears to get pick up their trash bags. What surprises Mina is the fact that Nayoung forces her own bag into Mina’s hands.

“Nayoung, what – “

“Take this with you!”

Mina’s jaw goes slack.

“I collected quite a lot, so survive for me. Good luck girls! I need to get Haebin’s body. She out somewhere and she needs a proper burial!”

“Wait. Oh my god. Nayoung – “

And she’s gone among the shadows of the trees, shrubs, and overgrown branches. Yeonjung pulls her to the direction opposite of Taeha’s screech, but not the path Nayoung took. Mina takes a look back one last time to their supervisor who begins to stand up to his heigh, slowly. As they get farther away from Jang Geunsuk, Mina wonders how the man could withstand the screech as he stares into the direction of the sound.

She has a lot of questions she intends to pursue – but that can wait. For now, she focuses on getting away, plotting a perfect murder plan to end Taeha after this is all over, and curses Nayoung for her idiotic White Knight move. (She’ll thank her later.)
 

The game ended somewhere at 7 PM. After that was dinner time, where they were force-fed cold and bland cafeteria food with unbalanced proportion of rice to dishes. As a domino-effect, a ruckus of people stealing another’s dish happened that ended with Mina peacefully finishing her dish in the restroom and coming back to Doyeon greeting her with a black eye.

They were only allowed to sleep at 11, so a staff was sent to each barrack, tasked to lull them to sleep with heroic pep talks. Twenty minutes into the thing, Yeonjung was snoring hard against Doyeon, who was also fast asleep. She didn’t forget to snap a pic with her phone. Yoojung might want to see this.

At 11, the gear begins to move.

The door to their barrack creaks open. Mina expects it to be the staff forgetting to inform them a piece of information, so when a panic-stricken looking Kwon Chaewon from the other first-year barrack claps her hands asking for everyone’s attention instead, even those who have lied down on the gym mattresses raise into a sitting position to hear.

“Um, just wondering if any of you have seen Taeha? She hasn’t been with us since the trash bag battle royale, so we thought she was… here with you guys?”
 

A quiet search party was issued. First-years group into a group of a two to three people, each group carrying a flashlight since as far as anyone can remember, only a few garden lamp was installed in the woods on certain areas. Some stayed behind to guard the barracks. Some went to inform the staffs and the supervisors.

“Thank god for full moon,” it seems like Doyeon wants to say more, but she quiets down as her right leg barely avoids a thick over-surface tree roots. Their lighting shakes along with Doyeon’s off-balanced steps as she’s the one who’s carrying the flashlight.

“Taeha? Shout back if you hear us!” Yeonjung is their pigeonholed human megaphone. Plus, she’s friends with Taeha. The MIA girl might recognize her voice better.

Mina puts herself as the brains. Doyeon is a fearless cookie, but she can be a bit of a dumb dough at times. Yeonjung is fine, but she’s already their designated megaphone, so Mina tries to add two and two.

It’s not possible for her to escape the training grounds. The gate isn’t a tall fence, rather, a literal huge gate. The training grounds itself is surrounded by tall walls, the forests as a whole shaped like a semi-circle with the other half separated by a taller wall dividing the academy for girls and boys. So, Taeha running off would be out of question, especially because she isn’t the manifestation of some flying snitch.

“Hey,” Doyeon collectively gains their attentions, “do you think she angered the ancient tree spirit thing? It’s full moon tonight after all.”

Yeonjung’s voice fades away, sapped by the chills running down her back. At least Mina thinks so, though it’s obvious from the way her voice trembles. “Ha, haha, you’ve gotta be kidding me! Ghosts don’t exist, silly!”

“Should we… check out the huge tree? I don’t think any of the groups go there.”

She receives a disbelieving stare from Yeonjung. “You want to crap your pants that bad? You’re just as bad as me!”

“I know! But might as well leave no stone unturned.”

Some seconds pass as they consider the idea. “Sure. I’ll guide the way for you scaredy kitts.”

“Dodoooo!”

Yeonjung’s plea and reasoning fall on deaf ears. She gives up on her reasoning immediately when Doyeon warns her that noises might wake the vengeful spirits up and tells stories about bony hands rising from a thick bog. Yeonjung kicks her shin, but loops an arm around Doyeon’s anyway.

At first, Doyeon tries to wriggle off from Yeonjung’s tight hold, but she submits not too long after. “Let’s pray that your friend didn’t anger the creepy legless grandmas in the tree. Did she do something real bad during the day?”

“She, um you know, let out her high screech. Maybe the l-l-legless grandmas are angered by it?”

The area with the huge tree has two garden lamps installed, so it’s easier to track. Why no one volunteered to get the area covered is a matter of bravery. Superpowers could only do so much against spirits… as Yeonjung put it.

“Hey, isn’t that?!”

Doyeon bites her tongue as she hurriedly turns her flashlight off. Taeha’s there, sitting slouched against the huge tree, before her is a familiar figure of a man in black suit, his back facing Mina and the others. The wavy hair gives the identity of the man away easily, and Yeonjung quickly calls their supervisor out.

“Mr. Jang? What are you doing so late with Taeha and why is she – “

Mina seizes Yeonjung’s wrist fast. “Something’s off.”

From the looks of it, Taeha is out. Her face is facing down and her back is hunched low. Their supervisor shows no sign of helping the student, instead he begins to turn around.

Chills run down Mina’s back the moment Jang Geunsuk’s eyes meet hers. It’s not the eyes of the flamboyant man who decorates school duels with ty commentaries and jokes from the 80s that nobody finds funny anymore. Mina sees void.

Exactly a second after, a mind-splitting screech originates from Jang Geunsuk and the three of them quickly cover their ears, Doyeon abandoning the flashlight.

“Hey, isn’t – Teacher Jang, a manifest of Achilles or something?! He’s no Taeha!”

She doesn’t answer Doyeon’s shouted question. It’s weird enough for their teacher to use Taeha’s ability, but everything about his movement calls for suspicion.

He hasn’t talked. He doesn’t really see them. Yeojung’s calls for him to stop go unanswered. Instead, their supervisor barrels them with sonic torture.

“Do you think he’s possessed?”

“What the hell? Ghosts don’t exist!” She closes , and Mina guesses that she’s having flashbacks. “Oh god you’ve gotta be kidding me!”

Jang Geunsuk certainly doesn’t look like himself. A case of possession isn’t out of the question, but it’s disheartening to believe.

“We’ve gotta get outta here!”

“And leave Taeha alone?! He might take her!” Yeonjung barks back at Doyeon’s suggestion.

Mina, in the middle of the two, doesn’t bother. None of them can fight an offensive battle right now – Doyeon couldn’t just copy Taeha’s ability, as the only one unaffected by the noise is the user, which means she and Yeonjung might get their ears instantly killed off. Yeonjung’s invisibility will push them to a close-combat strategy, and with the screech, getting too close sounds like a suicide plan. Mina has no plan to kamikaze herself so early.

“, stop it teacher!” Doyeon swiftly grabs the flashlight she abandoned and hurls it hard towards the teacher. Something unbelievable then happens.

A black hole opens up and swallows the flashlight. When the offending object’s gone, it zips up and any trace of the hole disappears.

“What… the …”

Though she and Yeonjung don’t voice it, they’re just as taken aback as Doyeon.

“Did he just, uhh, sap a ing solid object away?”

“But Teacher Jang’s power is that of Achilles! A physical immunity!”

The three run far back to minimize the aural damage. As Yeonjung and Doyeon argue over what strategy they should adapt, Mina rummages her bag for the firework Sejeong packed for her. With her personal belongings unloaded in the barrack, it’s easier to fish out the artillery from the very bottom. Doyeon, of course, scrutinizes her questionable action. “What the are you gonna do with that thing?”

Mina fishes out her matchbox, not bothering to look up at Doyeon to answer her as she fumbles around trying to tear the sealing duct-tape apart. “I want to test some stuff – “

“Hey, what’s going on—!?”

Doyeon answers for them. “Don’t get too close! He’s, uhh, possessed, I think!”

Yeonjung screams at her. “You said ghosts don’t exist!”

“They sorta do now.”

With the screech, they couldn’t pick up even a riot of footsteps, so the three are surprised to see the other first-years arriving, crowding around from the left and right wing of the area. They must’ve been signified by the screech.

“The is this noise—“

“—someone make him stop!”

“Got it!”

Mina looks up to Eunbean getting into a defensive stance and a hum of rumbles. Thick tree roots shoot up from the ground towards Jang Geunsuk, who doesn’t even move an inch to avoid Eunbean’s assault. Doyeon’s warning comes too late – a bigger black hole opens up and devours the roots and branches as a whole, pulling it out of the ground and vacuums it into the black void inside. Then the hole clams up and disappears, leaving a gaping Eunbean and gasps resounding throughout the crowding students.

Different from the experience with the flashlight, the hole reappears and zips open and the crawling roots is spat out, but this time to the direction of Eunbean and the rest of the students there. Some manage to jump out of its way, but Eunbean, who stands in the frontmost, is thrown back as the roots hit her in the side.

As if an all-gobbling worm hole isn’t scary enough as it is, it could send back the stuff it has . With the screech still in full effect, it’s impossible to get too close to the man. Now, with so many students around, she couldn’t shoot the artillery at him, too, in fear of him sending the explosion to the other students…

“I can’t get too close to him – I might bust my ears!”

“Call the teachers!!”

Mina has had enough. “Don’t get too close to him! Also don’t use your power!” Her voice seems to not reach the panicking crowd, even when half of them have escaped the area in fear of going deaf, but she couldn’t abandon her artillery right now. If only the match could light itself faster…

Jang Geunsuk begins to show some movement. He drags his feet towards Eunbean, who’s getting up. When her classmates immediately fall on their feet ready to stop him from getting close to Eunbean, he lunges forward and crouches in front of the first-year. His hand shoots up to her head and Eunbean begins to convulse. When he lets go, Eunbean falls to the grassy floor like a rag, limply, her eyes closed.

“Uhh, what is this, The Possession?”

“Dodo, this isn’t the time to make pop culture references!”

“He’s been like this since morning…”

“Huh?” Doyeon turns to her. “Now that you mention it…”

He interrupts their chat by adopting the same defensive stance Eunbean did a few moments ago. Then the screech stops, replaced by the rumbling from the ground, and before anyone could voice out another “what’s going on”, huge roots shoot up from the ground to the the left and right wing, some even fly to where she, Yeonjung, and Doyeon are rooted. Doyeon side-steps to the right while Yeonjung pulls her to the left. One of the sharp branches grazes her feet, but Mina pays it no heed.

“Oh god, Mina, it… it has the same power as Doyeon? Copying ability?”

“Doyeon!” Mina calls out to Doyeon, who’s on the other side of the branches and roots dividing them. “Try copying Eunbean’s ability!”

“Sure…” Doyeon focuses on Eunbean. Instead of smirking with her newfound power, Doyeon’s pupils dilate. “I… I can’t!”

“Why?!”

“I dunno, it’s like… there’s nothing to copy!”

So her theory, one of the worst head scenarios, is proven correct. Jang Geunsuk, or the angry spirit, or whoever, just devoured Eunbean’s power and claimed it as his own.

Now that the screeching’s gone, Mina’s sure her shout would be heard clearly. “Everyone run! He steals powers. Run if you still wanna enroll here!”

Others begin to scramble away. Some of them carefully drag knocked out Eunbean away with them. Jang Geunsuk doesn’t stop them, as his eyes are on Mina.

Mina feels chills. In her hand is an artillery and a match with small fire flickering on. Doyeon and Yeonjung are still by her side. She needs to plan her way out now, and they still need to retrieve Taeha.

“I’ve copied the ability from him. For your information.”

“Good. Doyeon, direct his—its attention away from me. Yeonjung, take me behind him, or anywhere that’s his blind spot. Make me invisible.”

Both of them word out affirmatives. Doyeon quickly gets down to work, producing out threatening roots to their “possessed” supervisor’s way, and he counters it with a wall of branches and leaves. The woods collide and cracks, debris fly away, and Mina and Yeonjung, invisible to his eyes, are halfway to his back.

Perhaps noticing the other two of his students—or rather, its targets have disappeared, it begins to blindly shoot up pillar of roots to the left and right while still handling Doyeon.

As soon as they’re sure they’ve reached the spot, Mina lights the artillery, maims at him, and holds onto the shell with her two hands. The firework flies out and makes crackling noises, and she expects a black hope to swallow the artillery before it explodes, but instead, it explodes right at him, fire in the color of kissy red and bright pink lighting up the dimly lit forest. He—it screams in pain as the fire shapes into the sentence of ‘Be Mine?’ at his back.

Mina questions Sejeong’s choice of firework. Fireworks for Valentine’s Day is definitely not an aesthetically pleasing one to use in a fight.

Jang Geunsuk whips around to the general direction of her and Yeonjung, face crumpled into an anger rivalling the burning fire’s intensity.

At that exact moment, Mina tears herself away from Yeonjung, making herself visible.

Yeonjung tries to reach out to her, but Mina steps back and fires towards the sky. A beat later, she fires towards the man, and the artillery’s easily sapped before it could explode. Mina gets what she wanted though; to distract the man further from Yeonjung as Mina runs deeper into the wood.

She ignores Yeonjung and Doyeon’s cries, gives all her attention to the looming darkness before her. Without a flashlight, she needs watch her steps, avoiding stray branches or even more of those rising pillars made of nature.

She notices something opening up near her leg and lunges forward, ducking low as the artillery she fired before is summoned near her feet. Mina wastes no time getting back to her feet, firing the rest of the shots to the sky. She must have noticed by now…

Her ears are still ringing from the screech before, but she could faintly hear rustling among the bushes. To the left. Mina follows the rustling of leaves, feels the ground rumble beneath her feet, and throws her body sideways to avoid getting herself pierced by tree branches surging upwards from behind her.

She unwillingly lands on the bushes, the small branches prickling her skin. Mina couldn’t care less; especially when she sees a silhouette of a person she knows all too well running past her, shouting out profanities, and a loud thwack following her spit of prepare to die jackass.

Mina rolls to the right, falling to the ground, thanking the grasses for making the landing softer. Between her and Not Jang Geunsuk is Nayoung, her back to Mina, her sling bag dropped beside her.

“That was fast. In italics. With sarcasm. You fail as a hero.”

Nayoung snorts, but even though Mina couldn’t see her face, she knows the sound is fond.

“So he’s back…”

Mina stops dusting her off, awkwardly freezing in half-standing position. “What?”

“Nah. Anyway, give me an overview?”

“Well…” The ground shakes, and again, parts of tree shoot up from the ground but Mina has gotten used to it from the overexposure to literal nature uppercuts. She easily side-steps, pulling Nayoung along to the left. “It can swallow stuff into a worm hole, and opens up the hole anywhere to fling the thing it swallowed at you. Even powers… so I can’t get too close to it. I can’t use my power.”

“Oh. Oh crap. Basically it’s capable of creating black holes.”

“Yes.” They dodge to the right this time as vines shoot up to grab their legs.

Nayoung steps and kicks the snaking vines away, shooing it forcefully. “Can it swallow people?”

Can it swallow people?

If it could, it could’ve… made Eunbean, or Taeha, or even the other kids present, disappear once and for all. Gone.

“It can’t! Nayoung, it can’t!”

Mina glances at the older girl, and sees that smile back. The small smile whenever Nayoung has something figured out. It’s also a premonition of weird stunts she’s going to pull. Usually, she’s the one to reprimand the powerless. This time is different. Nayoung might be on the cusp of a suicidal plan. It might not work. It might result in actual death this time. It might cost a life. Endless possibilities; most of them, she would rather label as worst-case scenarios instead.

But this time, Mina chooses to believe.

“Get behind me!”

“... alright!” Mina gets behind the older girl’s back, the latter lowering her body, half-folding her knees, putting herself into a firm fighting stance.

“Use your power on me.” even though Nayoung’s commanding her, her voice is jittery, her knees on the edge of buckling, tremors are evident lightly vibrating her joints. The sight lures her into chortling. “C-c’mon, Mina, Pollux Mina, p-punch me hard in the back, a-a-aim me at him.”

“What if it doesn’t work? You know I can’t control my power just yet.”

“Th-then we can a-a-a-always try again, y-you know,”

Mina frees an open laugh, but she follows her upperclassman’s direction anyway, pulling her right hand back. “Ready?”

“Y-yeah. C’mon. Hit me with your one hit kill punch! Fling me outta this world!!”

With that, Mina gathers every bit of her energy, ignoring the way Jang Geunsuk summons pillars of trees in front of him, to guard him from the human catapult. To respect Nayoung’s sacrifice, she could only give her all. As soon as her fist hits Nayoung’s back, she could feel electricity surging from her center to the tip of her right fist, and at that moment, Nayoung’s body is flung forward with such force; the girl breaks through the wall of trees and through the hole created by the impact, Mina spots Nayoung’s body cannonballing against Jang Geunsuk, and the two fly off in a straight line to the depth of the night.

Mina sprints after, jumping over debris and branches and finds herself back at the huge tree area; there’s already a crowd around them. The others must have gathered there after Mina baited Jang Geunsuk away from the area, probably to tend to Taeha.

“Oh God, what the – “

“ – they’re still breathing! Haebin please continue to treat them – “

“ – on it! – “

Nervously, she pushes past the others to get to the center of the crowd. The huge tree has stopped Nayoung and Jang Geunsuk from orbiting around the globe, but the sheer force created a deep crater on the tree. She wonders if, when the others find out she’s the culprit behind the human meteorite, she’ll be charged for disrupting the environment.

Below the tree are Nayoung and Jang Geunsuk, their consciousness knocked out, bones askew and cuts permeating their exposed skins. The latter’s in worse state than the former, as his body cushioned Nayoung through the catapulting experience. Haebin, as a manifest of Asclepius, is tending to their wounds while the others contact the professionals.

Doyeon pops out from behind her. “Hey, Mina! Isn’t that nutcase your friend? Your favorite upperclassman? What the hell was that I literally thought someone fired a military projectile thing!”

A nutcase. Mina shrugs. “I dunno what you’re talking about.”

She really doesn’t know any nutcase, because right now, all Mina sees is a hero.
 

Notes: [1] Sorry for the boring chapter haha ^^; this is important to set the plot. Welcome to the first arc! Mysteries shrouding the whole "possession" case will be unraveled in the later chapters...

[2] We’ll be back to "romcom with a punch of superpowers here and there" in the next chapter LMAO