In every class, there’s this one girl who dons the title Prima Donna. The wealthiest. The most beautiful. The most popular. Superlatives. You either love her, hate her, constantly gossip about her over the way she breathed yesterday and compare it to the deed done today, or fantasize ways to get her corpse mangled in the middle of the class when the teacher isn’t being too keen on you.

Mina is the second, the third, the fourth – all towards Jeon Somi.

Jeon Somi isn’t an Asianized cardboard cutout of Regina George. While she still holds the reign over the first-years (or the whole school? Then again the second-years have Sejeong already), she couldn’t be pinned down as a full-on chick flick Queen Bee. Mina considers her an aired down version of the ever-popular school idol trope.

No shoving chums down to toilet bowls. On the contrary, she’s a poster girl for a hero in the making. She saves people.

She makes sure people know she’s the one doing the saving.

There are more abhorrent qualities of Jeon Somi she specially handpicked throughout the last two months of being in the same class with her. Her blinding star aura, for example; she knows how to be the prom queen. She knows how to strut down the hall and make it a personalized red carpet. The glimmers follow her footsteps. Nobody knows the secret behind the trick.

When they’re grouped together for an art project, Mina inwardly curses her luck (or lack thereof).  At least she has Yeonjung, who looks equally dreaded.

They’re tasked to perform a mini-musical, which means there’s going to be a protagonist, the center, the main everything, and even though Younseo sounds the unavoidable “who wants to be the protagonist?” question, everyone already knows the Cinderella who suits the shoe.

Yeonjung plays the role of the step-sister. “Um, I’m kinda confident with my singing. Can I try for the role?”

Mina sounds a tiny bit too enthusiastic over something that doesn’t have anything to do with herself. “Cool! Yeonjung’s the MVP when it comes to singing. No argument.” The others look hesitant. Mina tried to sound convincing, but Yeonjung has never showcased her singing prowess.

Sadly, no step-sister could win over a Disney princess.

“Um,” Somi starts, and Mina mentally readies her shotgun, “I kinda want the main role, too.”

The alarm’s set off. Mina could feel the many tiny Minas in her head screaming profanities.

Somi is totally oblivious to Mina’s earliest signs of blowing up. “I mean, I’m no singing master, but. I’ve always… wanted to try being the main vocal of a singing performance?”

Yeonjung looks uneasy, and she wants to tell the poor step-sister that every step-sister in the world should hold their ground if they want to survive a Cinderella story. Hesitance spreads along the other members.

The quiet is laced with tenseness, but before Mina could break the ice, Somi rams her Titanic on it first. In a somber tune, she casts her eyes down and, “Like, there was this one time in my preschool where I wanted to be the lead, but people much preferred the other girl who was the singing diva in my class, and I got casted into the evil witch instead, so I was like…”

Mina doesn’t really tune into trip down the memory lane (as she’s too busy plotting murder plans), but the story picks up fast and ends in a humorous note and everyone sans her crack  up at the way Somi presents the recount. Somi’s built-in charisma is something she envies. Even the most mundane of a story can turn into a Sunday headline when it’s told by her; Mina, at the very least, admits this.

Still, the story tips off the balance. Yeonjung asks Somi if she wants the lead role, and Somi gleefully accepts the role and starts another epic recount while the others listen. Mina leans back into her chair and crosses her arms and tries to look not too bitter. She shouldn’t be. Yeonjung should be.

When she asks Yeonjung about it later after the class is dismissed and the first break is well on the way, Yeonjung tells her, you can’t eclipse a sun that bright.
 

After school, she decides to grace Nayoung a visit. The Ferris wheel incident is the sensation and the bad men being on the loose makes it an even hotter topic to talk about, to speculate, to gossip over chocolate frappes.

She was inside the atrium at the time, oblivious to the mishmash outside, so all she has is the others’ accounts. From what she has heard, the incident basically goes like this: a group of terrorists terrorized a theme park (sounds suspiciously like a detective cartoon plot?), a bomb blown off parts of the Ferris wheel, resulting in the ride’s fall, Kim Sejeong saving the day and Ki Heehyun’s flashy heroic dive-save of Yeonjung. Civilians were injured, but the body count was surprisingly kept at zero. Right now, Mina’s entering the room number told by Nurse Hyemin, a… casualty from the unfortunate Ferris wheel wheeling incident. Knowing Nayoung though, Mina bets she’s just as involved in this.

That would be logical, seeing the cast around her right arm. For something that has happened the day before, even with the help of Nurse Hyemin’s healing, the injury looks… bad. As much as an understatement ‘bad’ in this context means. By Nayoung’s bedside is Heehyun, fiddling with her phone.

Nayoung perks up at her appearance, quickly fixing her slumped sitting position. “No food?”

“No.”

“Just a civil visit to a comrade, I assume?” Her laugh is dry. “Not the evil eye! I’m sick. I also don’t accept questions. Food, however—“

Mina doesn’t even bother to grab a seat. “What happened this time?”

Heehyun still doesn’t look up from her phone, seemingly disinterested in supporting Nayoung. The latter looks a notch less goofy this time. “Stuff happened. It should be all over the news already.”

“Yeah. Kim Sejeong cut the fall of a Ferris wheel. Ki Heehyun performed a heroic dive-save and photographers, amateurs and pros alike, snapped a cool filtered pic of her doing the deed. Where’s Kim Nayoung in this equation?”

Nayoung’s tone is deeper, frown withstanding. “Leave Kim Nayoung out of this. She’s injured and sad.”

While Nayoung still holds onto her hardened stare, Mina revisits the rumor mills and the source-less reports. None of them really mentioned a Kim Nayoung, and Nayoung herself doesn’t have the strength to cushion the fall of iron leads and metal carriages. The four years they have spent as friends tell her otherwise. Nayoung’s too nosy to sideline herself when people are in mortal danger.

Hero complex or is it the ugly desire for recognition rearing its ugly head?

“Have a seat. Sitting might damp your anger a bit.”

Following Nayoung’s suggestion, she pulls the stool from under the bed and fancies herself a seat at Nayoung’s other bedside. “What are you and Heehyun up to?”

“Planning for an impromptu visit to a certain orphanage.” Nayoung answers for Heehyun, who’s still busied with her phone. “You and Sejeong aren’t invited.”

Of course. Nayoung is at it again with her agenda. Sometimes Mina will be inevitably roped into whatever Nayoung’s planning. Most of the times, Sejeong has already clocked into the matter much to Nayoung’s chagrin (and relief, since Sejeong is almost always the helping hand she needs). This time around doesn’t surprise Mina anymore. “By orphanage, you mean the one Heehyun used to be in?”

Nayoung doesn’t really answer a yes, but they both move their gazes onto Heehyun, who finally puts her phone down. “What do you know about the Ferris wheel fiasco?”

“You saving Yeonjung, Sejeong saving the day, a terrorist group running around the town? And, uh, they have a heli. Not much?”

Not even a beat after, Nayoung scoffs. “Journalists sure are real selective.”

“So you’re involved!”

“Yeah, I was one of the journalists uploading cool shots of Heehyun ripping through the sky with a girl in her arms on Instagram. Thank god for filters.”

“What did you do this time? Tell meeeee,” while she is far from a good persuader, she knows a way to loose Nayoung’s tight lips. Nayoung’s weak to her childish pestering, especially when she’s shaking Nayoung’s shaking Nayoung’s body while her tell me’s grow a pitch higher every time. Mina detests this method, but it’s surefire. Done for years.

Shakened by the syrupy whines, Nayoung spills the bean, Heehyun waters the sprouts, and Mina watches the story grows into an ugly plantation with vines enough to scare even the world’s most daring Jack and the Beanstalk.

A terrorist movement similar to the cult exterminated by the government years ago cropped out in broad daylight. The red helicopter meant they’ve been around for a while. Heehyun’s father is involved and, should the more confidential part of the news got leaked into the public, Heehyun’s going to be pulled into the spotlight for sure. A daughter of a feared leader of a terrorist group running around the city playing hero makes a good story, not a good reality.

Mina goes back into her dormitory with the heavy knowledge. Nayoung made her vow to never tell a soul, “I only told you this so you can stay out of the danger. Use this knowledge as your self-defense switchblade.” The worst thing is, she knows for sure Nayoung and Heehyun (and possible Sejeong?) are already knee-deep into this, and they might overtake the police department in the process of investigating as the trio are pretty much in a death-race with their pasts. The incident ten years ago… once was enough to left an everlasting crater to remember. No human heart could survive the two or three. But, what left a bigger lasting impact on her would be not the epic dive-save person, not the legend who cushioned the hulking ride’s fall, but the lone figure left out – intentionally or not – by the media.

When asked about it, Nayoung’s dimpled smile told her, “A hero isn’t like a firework. That’s an actor. Nobody should expect a hero to come and save their asses, ‘cause nobody should voluntarily get into life- situation and a hero’s save shouldn’t be so planned. I liken a hero to an explosion.”

‘Cause a hero should go out with a bang. Of course. When her dorm room clicks shut she chortles at her own thoughts.
 

Her in-built distaste towards Jeon Somi keeps getting watered by the little things she does in class. Maybe it’s the way she talks so overbearingly loudly, with grandiose body gestures, in the most visible spot in the class, even though the story’s only reserved for her close-knitted gang. Maybe it’s the way she has her hand permanently up in the air whenever the teacher’s looking for a pet. Maybe it’s the way she handpicks people she deem to be worthy enough to walk alongside her. Only a miniscule portion of the class gets the luxury.

Haeyoung is the Gretchen to her Regina. Dani is probably the Karen. There’s also Park Soyeon from the neighboring class, who’s very gung-ho with her, though she’s a generally friendly bunch who’s also everyone’s “girl crush”. Mina is fond of her whenever she isn’t with Somi.

The rest of the gang doesn’t stand out much, but they’re all generally popular among the first years – or even student body – for one thing. They’re all pretty.

Mina doesn’t want to be petty, but wow, to think that this kind of caste system still exists in a high school tailored for heroes-in-training!

School’s over with the ringing of the last bell, and she’s packing her things amidst the ever-rising riot of people’s chatters filling the classroom. Yeonjung asks something, but Mina couldn’t quite hear it as her voice is drowned by the hullabaloo of Somi’s gang erupting into a joint laughter. Her pair of very sensitive ears couldn’t take on the torture, and she hurries her packing.

Yeonjung leans closer into her to make sure she’s heard. “You’re free today right? I’m not gonna take ‘Visiting Nayoung’ as a proper after-class activity.”

“Uh. No. But I’m thinking of hitting the sack early—“

“Oh gosh, c’mon! Lady-bond with me!”

She admits Yeonjung is a natural when it comes to puppy-whines. “Pay for my ticket?”

“Nope.”

“I’m gonna visit Nayoung.”

“Minaaaaa, today’s the last showing of it! Dodo knock some youth into her!”

Doyeon approaches them, her bag already slung, ready to quit the hellhole that is their class any second now. “Us three, the theater. No no’s.”

“I don’t wanna pay for a ticket just to sleep through the movie.”

Yeonjung pouts, but she lights up the next moment. “Today’s Wednesday, though! Discount Day over there. What say you?”

Mina thinks, Wednesday is a nice day to sleep in. And remembers some important bit triggered by the word Wednesday. “Doyeon? It’s Wednesday.”

It’s Wednesday, Mina lapses into thoughts. It’s the day where the peculiar pair of Kim Doyeon and Choi Yoojung bolt out of the class together, bags still halfway slung, as they race downtown, hop into a busy subway, and drop themselves at a go-kart place at the outskirts of Seoul. It’s their own lady-bond thing that’s exclusive to Kim Doyeon and Choi Yoojung. To vent out school stress, Doyeon once explained.

Not today, which demands a questioning.

Doyeon shrugs. “Dude, we aren’t conjoined at the hips.”

Yeonjung latches onto the opportunity to tease Doyeon mercilessly about it, blablabla lover’s quarrel, while Doyeon swats Yeonjung’s puppying away by playfully backhanding the prying girl. Mina’s eyes peer over to the back of the class, to the rowdy bunch, who calls out Doyeon loud enough to gain everyone else’s attention.

“Doyeon! You’re skipping on us?” It’s Jeon Somi. Mina isn’t good at managing her face, and it probably shows.

Doyeon’s friendly with the bunch. Doyeon is friendly with everyone. Anyone who possesses two legs with the brains of advanced Homo sapiens would be smitten with Doyeon’s out of the world jokes and stunning appearance. Plus, she’s nice. It’s only natural for Queen Jeon to take a liking to the famed Arthur, Kim Doyeon.

Yeonjung looks expectant. Doyeon’s contemplative silence doesn’t last long. “Sorry! I’m reserved for the day!”

It surprises Mina, but she isn’t given the chance to poke Doyeon about it, as the latter already has her arms around her and Yeonjung’s shoulders, pulling them into a trio of The Musketeers and guiding them to the sliding door, ready to

It surprises Mina, because she’s pretty sure in the Den of Queen Somi, nestles a Choi Yoojung, who looked at Doyeon with equally expectant eyes. The fact that Doyeon chose them over her bestie slash childhood crush…

“Dodo? You sure?”

“Only the surest. I’m making it official, we’re buddies.”

The sliding door couldn’t fit three people at once so bumping happens and Mina ends up taking the short end of the stick. Still, Doyeon’s words tickle the mushy side of her pink, and the movie trip suddenly worth the ticket price.

--

“You’re not a fan of Somi, aren’tcha?”

During P.E, Doyeon decides to fall behind just to run beside her. Running laps isn’t her forte. Doyeon, however, is one of the class’ ace athletes.

She slows down her running even more so she could answer Doyeon without sounding too breathy. “What gives you the idea?”

“Oh, I dunno. My two eyes.”

Mina couldn’t help but snicker a bit and tops it off by lightly shoving Doyeon’s side. “Not a fan of her. I’m an anti.”

“That’s news to me! Gossip.”

“Noooo. You aren’t Yeonjung.”

“You gossip with Yeonjung but not with me! Some buddies!”

They take a sharp left turn. Mina stabilizes herself first before she answers Doyeon, feeling a bit out of breath. “I mean, uh, you’re sorta friendly with Somi. I don’t want to ruin bonds.”

“We aren’t that close, gee.”

“Yeah.” Mina couldn’t really say much else. She needs to focus on kicking up dusts and running steadily till she’s done with her laps without dying on the way, and her breathing doesn’t allow any more chatter.

“I don’t really like her either.”

It shouldn’t surprise her, really, but they look like they belong to the same social caste, they’re both attractive, and both have this outlandish sense of humor people flock to. Still, Doyeon puts down her stance, and Mina’s relieved at the prospect of another ally.

“For real?”

“Much real.”

So, P.E is suddenly their makeshift gossiping forum. Mina appreciates the latest willing ally, and she knows Doyeon appreciates the nice distraction. Since, lately, Yoojung seems to be very jolly with Somi and her gang…
 

The worst thing about Somi’s personality is: she has the talent to back it up. Jeon Somi’s crazy blessed with the look, the brains, the strength, the everything. Hailed from a family with an enviable status, Jeon Somi is the complete package.

Which doesn’t sit well with Mina. ty personality aside (subjectivity alert!), any nigh-perfection is almost always flawed by a drawback. Sejeong’s life is a whirlwind of mess after one another. Heehyun is a miserable person. The student council president Im Nayoung doesn’t have a personality to speak of (Heehyun’s words, she doesn’t know the president well enough). Doyeon is an idiot. The list goes on.

So, Somi’s nigh-perfection is rather… unfair, for the lack of better term.

This train of thought sprang up from Somi’s voluntarily raised hand when Mrs. Kim Sungeun asked for anyone to share their view about something with the rest of the class. Something about… politics and one’s personal vision. Mina doesn’t care enough to promise a contribution to the society, so.

“…I’ve always wanted to get into the government. The system’s in need of a proper wiping and flossing.”

At Somi’s statement, Mrs. Sungeun inquires further. “Such as…?”

“An easily relatable example would be this school, since we are future governors. There are much more faults, but I have to say nepotism is the lowest of the crimes. Like, this academy’s famed for producing quality heroes and saviors to lead the future of this nation. But, well, we still see people undeserving of a seat in this academy.”

Mina doesn’t like the direction it’s going. She directs her building anger onto her ballpoint instead, aggressively clicking it on and off.

“Such as, well, I don’t think there’s a need to drop names. We all know that one upperclassman who couldn’t even fight for herself, but got into the academy because of her family’s influences. It’s concerning to see someone like her be spoken in the same breath as someone who actually deserves it, like upperclassman Kim Chungha. All because of her privilege—“

“You don’t know anything about her, so shush.”

All the attentions divert onto her. Mina can’t say she likes it – because half of them are of confusion, the other half are scrutinizing her for her counter statement.

She could already imagine the look on Somi’s face, and she isn’t sure whether she wants to see it with her own eyes or not.

Somi’s reply is scathing, “In your friend’s defense or your pride’s?”

“In response to your big head.” Feeling their exchange steering into an argument, Mina gives in and stands from her seat, facing Somi who’s sitting three rows in front of her. “You talk too big for someone who idolizes Kim Chungha. She’s a humble soul. You, however—“

“I’ve never seen you this talkative so I thought I might have offended you with the Kim Nayoung comment. Y’all are friends after all.”

“We’re friends ‘cause she’s nice.”

“I dunno, we aren’t buddies? Point is, there’s a whole lot of other people to name, but I handpicked the most famous case – no power whatsoever.”

“Doesn’t give you the excuse to crap on her when she isn’t even here.”

“Your eagerness to jump on me makes me think that you’re the one offended instead.”

Me?

“Did I strike a chord?”

The question catches Mina off-guard.

Somi struck a home run. And she’s the first base person left agape in the wake of the rumbling applauses.

The worst thing is, Somi might be true. Not a hundred percent of course, but the girl deserves a half ding. While she’s not a lost case like Nayoung… she’s Kang Mina, the first-year who still couldn’t even wield her power. Nayoung doesn’t have the power in the first place, but she couldn’t even fully tap into her potential.

Mina could perfectly visualize how she looks right now – guarded movements. Emoted eyes. Mumbling lips. Driven by emotion, she opens .

…only for Mrs. Sungeun to intercept. “Um, this isn’t a fisticuff ring. Class is still on.”

Though she hates to admit it, Jeon Somi intimidates her. She has the power. She has the everything to back up her Himalayas huge pride. Mina has nothing.

She has nothing to justify her hate, except, perhaps, envy.
 

At 1 AM that night, she rings Nayoung’s cellphone, only half-expecting for her to pick up.

The second-years picks up at the fourth ring, voice thickened by sleep, muffled over the line. “This better be important.”

“It’s not going to be, but—“

“Can I hang up?”

“No.”

“Ohhhhh boy…”

“Nayoung?”

“Hmmmm?”

“Why did you become a hero?”

There’s a static silence, and Mina understands. She’s calling in an ungodly hour asking a question that might take a millennia and a thoughtful philosophical thinking to answer, and Nayoung is… Nayoung.

“I… I mean, there’s a lot of reason for everybody. Some need the fame that comes with it. Some need the checks so they could buy their own… Jacuzzi pool? Some just need the recognition.”

“How about you?”

“How about me? Why me? Why specifically me? I could’ve slept till morning undisturbed. Just me and my imaginary teddies. But you just had to—“

“Why did you join this academy, knowing you couldn’t even choke a cicada? There must be something.”

A weak laughter shakes the line. Still, it ruffles Mina with a dose of Nayoung. “No one’s born a martyr. I’m in it ‘cause I feel like it’s the thing I must do. I must save people. After the things happened ten years ago, I feel like I must become a hero. Force-feed yourself with the; you’re gonna believe in it in no time. No one’s born a martyr, but you can turn yourself into a… a, thoughts manmade martyr.”

“Are you high?”

“Do you wanna be a hero?”

“I’m already a hero in-training… so,”

“Heroes aren’t fireworks. We’re explosions.”

“Explosions are flashy as heck too.”

“Oh. P-point is,”

“YOU’RE STUTTERING,”

She reflexively clamps shut when she hears her roommate, Hyeyeon, mumbling a shut up with an obscene the bridging the two words.

“Explosions have a purpose. Fireworks are only there for show. You get? We aren’t actors. We’re real players. You do it for the saving, not for the cool action flick bang-bang. That’s Bond actors’ job. You get?”

“I sorta…”

Mina expects Nayoung to end it with her punchline, and she’s not wrong this time around… either. “All they got is one shot. Heroes go out with a bang.”
 

She loathes the self-study session where they’re hauled to the academy’s library. Even the air-conditioning couldn’t win her – she couldn’t stand sitting for hours pretending to study. Mina likes her studies private. A public place such as the library doesn’t facilitate this, as reading in the long table basically means a war of bumping her neighbors’ elbows with her own, at every flip of page.

Complicating the negatives, there’s no separate library for the guys and girls. The library itself is located on the border between the male and female sides of the academy. On some days, the “boys” will be towed there too by their own self-study session.

Coincidentally, the day’s today.

Most of the girls in her class dwindle to a long table joined with another one. She comes to almost all the seats taken, since she fooled around with Yeonjung over thousand years-old manuscripts written in funny-sounding Olde Korean. Her eyes land themselves on two empty seats with books sitting the cushioned wood instead of people, and a muted Doyeon waving hard to them.

“Saved these for you. Have a seat, ladies.”

The two empty seats consist of one beside Doyeon’s and the latter directly across it. Yeonjung claims the latter, while Mina reluctantly claims the former after noticing the fact that they’re sharing a table with Somi and The Lackeys.

“Doyeon,”

“Don’t say it. Be civil.”

“Wow, my fists are vibrating.”

“Act civil.”

They’re shushed by Yeonjung whose eyes are already skimming her reading material.

Abiding the grand rules of the library, Mina attempts to act civil, ignoring Somi’s hushed giggles she shares with Yoojung, Doyeon’s annoyed clicks of tongue, her own annoyed clicks of tongue, Eunbean’s non-discreet chewing of some bubblegum, and Yeonjung shushing them louder by each shushhhh.

Still, she couldn’t uphold her show of fake-reading, especially with the loud ruckus coming from between the towering bookshelves. The voices reek of obnoxious testosterone, and there’s an awful lot of banging and the thudding of books’ spines hitting the carpeted floor. Mina lightly elbows Doyeon, trying to gain her attention. “Boys being boys?”

“I guess so. The librarian’s out so there’s no stopping them.”

“They’re… noisy.”

“Not any noisier than my best friend.”

Mina switches her gaze to Somi for a second. She and Yoojung look like they’re sharing the best of Seinfeldians with the head-banging laughter and vulgar thigh slaps. “Tell your bestie to keep it.”

“Can’t be helped, they’re having the time of their lives—“

Doyeon’s cut off by a louder banging, followed by books spat out of the crevice between two towering bookshelves and a boy thrown (kicked?) out not long after, joining the pile of deserted books on the floor. The boy wheezes, but before he could get up, an aggregate of boys walk out from behind the bookshelf, fence him inside a circle of tormentors and Mina notices one of them setting their foot on the floored guy’s head.

Everyone’s eyes torrent on the bullying. Heroic Jeon Somi is the first to jump out of her seat, power-walking to the unfolding scene with balled up fists, taut brows, and lit anger.

Mina smells troubles. She, Yeonjung, and Doyeon share a three-way confused look.

Somi barks a warning, and the guy – a third-year, famous for his aloof bad boy nature and various academy crimes under his belt, Jin Sungho – only barks louder, basically calling Somi a “little girl” and telling her to scram under the same breath.

It only infuriates the manifest of Zeus even further, if the crackles of electricity going off around her body is any indication.

“Hey, is she gonna be okay?” Doyeon, amidst the ensuing tense silence, asks Yoojung.

“It’s Somi, so she surely can finish those punks off, I guess…”

To Yoojung’s unsure answer, Mina bears her eyes harder on Somi, Sungho, and his Lackeys. Just in case.

“Leave the guy alone.”

Sungho scoffs at Somi’s seething warning, a foretaste of the dangers lurking upon him. Nayoung once said, in a drunken state of affair, (not of alcohol, but of sorrow; a day after a handsome senior asked Sejeong out) that his kind of boys are hard-wired with the nerves of steel and the ability to grate on people with common sense.

Anyone would’ve sidelined themselves as the crackles around Somi turn into visible surge of electricity. His boys did. Not Jin Sungho and his wetted bangs, three sets of silver piercing, and thuggish intonation. “Make me.”

She isn’t notified, but apparently Jin Sungho must be a manifest of a Greek figure capable of telekinesis. The bruised boy on the floor’s pulled up by a force not visible to the eyes and he’s launched to the table in the far right, pushing the table and the people seated along with him into a drive-thru to the wall.

To thwart him, Somi pulls a coin out of her pocket and Mina sees flashes of lightning running along her arm for a second before disappearing. Then, she flings the coin towards Sungho with lightning-quick speed, her arm functioning as a railgun. Sungho barely ducks out of the lunging coin’s way and it grazes his shoulder and Mina lets out a small gasp as blood splashes out in its wake and part of the shirt the coin ripped through unseams itself.

Perhaps realizing the situation he’s in, Sungho plays defensive by moving a bookshelf between him and Somi as the latter flings another coin. That’s when she realizes she’s already halfway standing and Doyeon’s already leaning into her, “Hey, should we, uh, jump in and save the day and ?”

“And risk getting shot by those bullet-coins?”

“Fair enough.”

In the middle of the now-chaotic library, Somi gives out a hand at whoever tries to jump into the scene, “No need to get any closer, this will be over soon!”

The thing is, like his many piercings give away, Jin Sungho mustn’t be a fan of tidying up. Bookshelves are holed by Somi’s coin-bullets and wrecked to unshapely condition after Sungho threw them aside, tables are pushed aside and seats are piling up one atop another as Sungho javelin throws it one by one towards Somi.

“Arrrghh,” Somi’s frustrated groan signifies the upping of the ante. The light’s suddenly out, along with the air-conditioning, and there’s only one answer to this: Somi cuts off the electricity by holding the current up. “Hands up already, upperclassman!”

It limits Sungho’s vision (and hers too), but if anything, Sungho’s throws are now more randomized as he couldn’t pinpoint Somi’s location among the wreckages and the panicking audience. Moreover, some people already quitted the library altogether and left the door open, so the light seeping in from the hallway shows curious onlookers getting slammed by flung chairs in the face.

“Crap, Somi, what the hell!? Turn the light back on!”

Mina’s anger-infused petition is left unheard. She’s a hair-breadth away from fleeing the library entirely with Yeonjung and Doyeon, until a furniture flings past her, her nose barely missing from its track, and before she could let go the breath she’s holding, a pained cry resounds from her right.

Yoojung’s hit by the chair, and Doyeon, who’s already in the front most, runs to her friend’s aid.

With the lights off, even the most agile Yoojung would have a hard time noticing her surroundings. Which means she needs to knock some sense into Jeon Somi’s head, who sounds panicked, since Yoojung’s a familiar voice.

Along with the rising panic, the light’s turned back on. Mina runs off into the fray, ignoring Yeonjung who’s calling out her name. (Yeonjung follows after her anyway.)

“You !”

Offense washes over the panic in Somi’s face. “Excuse me?! I was trying to save y’all!”

“Next time you wanna save others how about you think with your head and not your pride or, I dunno, your !”

From her peripheral vision, she notices a huge object coming from her side – a bookshelf flung towards her – but Somi intercepts it by flinging another chair towards it, both chairs now flying away to a safe direction. At the close save, Mina forces out a mumbled, “Thanks,” before continuing, “end him already!”

“I’m trying to, but I can’t just full-on fight him! I might hurt people!”

Mina eyes Sungho beneath the cloud of dusts formed by the fall of the bookshelves. There’s a silhouette of a cackling young man. Mina sighs. “He’s lost it.”

“I could shoot out lightning bolts, but I might set the place on fire…”

Grimly, Mina frowns. “That would be an even bigger mess to clean up,”

And it hits Mina.

The students that filed out when the lights are out – they might call in the teachers!

Which would lead to one thing… the arrest of Jeon Somi. And her. And maybe Yeonjung, who’s been gasping and quacking at things five steps behind them.

“All they got is one shot.”

Mina lowers her body a bit before propelling herself forward into an urgent run, leaving Somi’s warnings and Yeonjung’s cries. She’s never a good runner, but she doesn’t have much time anymore. She barely dodges a flung vase, and feels the spine of a book digging her forearm, but it isn’t enough to stop her track.

Her intention isn’t to kill. Heroes don’t kill. Heroes save.

“All they got is one shot. Heroes go out with a bang.”

So, when she’s just steps away from Jin Sungho, she hooks a book from the floor up, lightly throws it to the air, and when it falls down, pulled by the gravity, she concentrates her strength to her fist and punches the book forward, imbuing an overly ample amount of kinetic energy into the book. It flies in a straight line, less than an inch away from the side of Sungho’s face, zips past him into the wall and the goes through the wall, the impact leaving a curiously huge hole on the wall, the rubbles trickling to the floor serving as a what could have been for the trembling Sungho.

“I c-can flatten you into a pancake if you want to. If you,” Mina tries to talk, feeling the voice leaving her as pain surges from her fist up to her forearm, “if you don’t want to end up like that… hands up, upperclassman.”

The rest is a whirlwind of fast happenings snowballing into a huge mess; Sungho still frozen in his place, a teacher going through the door furious at the sight of the royally ed library, and Mina shouting out a “Yeonjung!” as Yeonjung holds both of their hands and turn them invisible.

“Who’s – what’s – “

Mina relates to the teacher’s chopped sentence. Too flabbergasted to even know where to start.

“Okay,” Mrs. Kahi starts again, slower this time, with a hand over her heaving chest, “what the is this storm? Who’s fighting who? Anyone dare to explain? I feel like cuffing some punks.”

Mina turns to Somi, who while is visible to her and Yeonjung, isn’t to the rest of the world. Her face paling. Her lower lip tremored by the crippling fear of apprehension. Of being labelled the opposite of what she aspires – valiant, chivalrous, heroic…

But someone has to don the label. The bad seed label.

“So? Whose fists do I need to cuff beside that punk’s?”

Mina lets go of Yeonjung’s hand, and in a second, she turns visible for the rest of the world.

Gathering her voice, she tries not to sound and look like a nervous-wreck. Somi better me thank me later! “M-me. F-f-f-fist me.”
 

She now has criminal offenses filed under her report cards – wrecking a library inside out, accidentally blurting out inappropriate words in front of a teacher…

It nets her a priceless trip to the student council president’s office for a “consultation session”, all under Mrs. Kahi’s eagle eyes. Her parents are invited for the occasion.

“So,” Im Nayoung, the student council president, starts from her very comfortable and very CEO-looking office chair, “I presumed you would’ve gotten what I meant by “parents”, and I certainly didn’t expect you to bring them instead.”

"My parents are abroad. They, um, they will do,"

Kim Nayoung crosses her arms in front of her chest and assumes a huffing noise. “W-well, we don’t want to be here either! But Mina promised me a lunch, so…”

“I don’t want to be here!” Sejeong cuts in, breathing ragged and appearance disheveled. “Let me off, I have a tracks and field practice to attend!”

Between her parents’ (unwilling) stand-in, Mina stands there trying to play diplomat. “Fifteen minutes. Pretty sure the whole consultation talk thing is just for the sake of formality so they could finalize my suspension.”

The president, however, slips in a disagreeing cough. “I intend to take this matter seriously, as what you – and, ahem, Mr. and… Mrs. Kang, your child – have done cost the school a rather fair budget.”

Instead of replying to President Im, Nayoung turns to her instead. “I guess I have to scold you as your one-day-mother!”

Sejeong shoots the “mother” a dirty look. “I’m the mother. You can play the father, or the dog, or the house’s gnome. Your pick.”

Before long, the scheduled talk turns into a lip-to-lip warfare of who’s the mother and who’s the father between Nayoung and Sejeong with Mina being the poor child mashed in-between. There’s no sign of them stopping anytime soon. Mina shoots the president a look that translates to a help me.

“We still have to discuss on what to do with you, and your impending suspension might also affect your performance in Produce 101,” and she stops the moment her phone, upright on the table, rings and the screen lighting up. Mina not quite purposefully catches the name of the caller, Zhou Jieqiong. The president’s girlfriend. The president in question, in one succession, kills the call of with a red button.

“Um… your girlfriend,”

“Doesn’t matter. We still have things to discuss.”

Mina secretly feels bad for the girlfriend. Her sweetheart’s going to spend her next precious three hours trying to deal with her lame “parents”.

After a quick massage of her temple, Im Nayoung reassumes her upright sitting position. No matter how hard the president’s trying to make the situation formal and doable, it still looks too looney to Mina. “Now then, Mr. and Mrs. Kang, may I have your minute?”
 

Notes: [1] the beginning of the first years’ arc and one half of the pledis girlz’s arc. Thank you for reading and sticking with me!