one. aphrodite jieqiong (1/?). lust.

Amidst the festive mood, crisp chatters, zooming sceneries, well air-conditioned executive bullet train and anticipation for their long-awaited school trip, Nayoung shuns herself away from everything entertaining and chooses to drown herself in thoughts, theories, and plans instead.

Though, she’d drag two (out of three) of her trustee comrades with her. At the very least, she won’t be the only one devoid of any joyous vibe that should be radiating off a stressed school kid going on a four-days-three-nights trip. The three of them form an askew triangle – makeshift leader Nayoung, unwilling ace member Heehyun, and the token sidekick Suhyun. The train’s seating, 2-2 seats facing each other in pairs, makes it easier to hold a cultish conference without the potential danger of anyone eavesdropping.

“So,” she starts, and Suhyun’s ready with her pocket notes to jot down all the important details, “to kick it off to a start, we’ll go back to the “possession” case back then in the remedial camp class. Jang Geunsuk and the other two victims didn’t get wheeled into some government medical facility for days just for them to label their case as a hocus pocus incident with vengeful ghosts at its core.”

Heehyun’s quiet, and what fills the suspenseful silence Nayoung purposefully left (for the suspense!) is Suhyun’s hasty scrawling. That is, until it stops. “Uh, is the vengeful ghosts bit important?”

“No.”

“How about the hocus pocus—“

“Oh my god, no! Those are just the preambles!”

“Okay.”

Heehyun’s glare prompts her to continue. “There must be a major cover-up going on. To think they’re trying to fool the pres to believe this Grade E Bull, whatever they’re hiding must be a game changer. So I’ve been digging around with the help of an anonymous source that’s going to reveal himself sooner or later, had a long mulling last night that costed me my beauty sleep, and finally, was able to strung this matter with a theory we already knew by heart.”

A group of classmates passes by them. Nayoung waits until they’re already in the presence of the seats behind them before continuing. “Every hero has a fire in them. Scholars have likened it to the hero’s soul, as the fire corresponds to the hero’s emotions. The more intense the emotion one feels, the brighter the fire burns… emotions like fury and love fuel it ablaze. On the other hand, negative emotions like despair dampen the soar—“

“Wow, I didn’t ask for Heroes for Dummies 101 exposition though. Get on with it.”

“Press X to skip the scene.”

Nayoung frowns at Heehyun’s fit of impatience and Suhyun’s follow-up. “Going by that theory, someone whose fire is dwindling to death will have certain characteristics to them: the obvious negative emotions they’re sporting, and their skin turning cold, pale, and in reminiscence of a corpse.”

An apprehensive hum comes from Suhyun. “I’ve never seen it with my own eyes beforehand, so… okay, this is going down the notes.”

It doesn’t surprise Nayoung that Suhyun’s yet to witness it in her whole life. This “darker” side of the theory is seldom talked about in class, and only a… select few of the academy have had experiences with it in their greenhorn years. She checks up on Heehyun, who doesn’t even show the slightest reaction.

(Ki Heehyun – or Test Subject #5 – has probably grown numb from it.)

“Yeah. Mr. Anonymous Source said the three – Jang Geunsuk and the other two victims, to jog anyone’s goldfish memory – were in that condition when they were taken to the facility. Pale, cold, easily mistaken for dead bunches.”

“Wait, wait wait wait, hold up,” Suhyun’s high-pitched whip interrupts them, “I wasn’t there at the time, but I’d do a ‘lil digging for the gossips. According to the theory, someone whose fire is in critical danger would begin to lose their power, as well as their consciousness. So okay, the two girls were knocked out at the time. They were pretty much goners. But you fought Mr. Jang yourself. Have to say he sounded too kicking for someone who’s supposed to look dead.”

“That’s something I’ve yet to figure out.” She adds a sigh to look convincing. “Gimme and my brains a coffee break.”

She does have ideas.

Bad ideas. Something taboo. Something that will tear the stitches apart and leave the old wounds agape; unhealed, fresh flesh.

Suhyun an eyebrow. “Might as well share?”

“We’ll need to retrace our steps back to the experiment 10 years ago, and I’d prefer if we do it in some place that doesn’t have a Kim Sejeong lurking around—“

“Hm? What’s this about me?”

Nayoung finds herself frozen at the familiar voice. It takes her a little bit of craning her neck to see Kim Sejeong in flesh, staring down at her, twinkling not with amusement.

Heehyun dives in to save. “—so I say, okay, we might be sorta friendly these days, but I ain’t gonna separate Sejeong and Chungha just for your thirsty . Call me a mush for playing the loyal hoe, Chungha is my bud. Pride can my tat.”

There’s a beat of silence but it’s quickly followed by Suhyun’s yodeling and Sejeong’s weary sigh. She isn’t sure whether to thank Heehyun for the improvisation or to skewer her alive once they’re safely snug at the hotel. “What Heehyun said.”

Instead of veering away in disgust, Sejeong seats herself on Suhyun’s lap and leans into Nayoung, ignoring Suhyun’s loud squeak from coming in contact with Sejeong’s bony bumper. “Like I would buy that. Not even on bargain.”

“C-cool.”

“I see that you’re excluding me on something. Certainly nobody told me about the love potion agenda and I had to be intoxicated with your scent twice. Imagine realizing liking you, waking up from it, saving your arse from the major beatdown you were about to receive, breathing in said scent for the second time, and unwillingly liking your pathetic .”

She blinks at Sejeong’s pre-empted outrage. “My condolences…?”

“Suhyun ratted on me after I cornered her yesterday, though. Something about wanting to peek on some reports in the student council office so y’all had to lure the dogs out with the whole love potion fiasco. I could’ve helped.”

I don’t want to involve you further. “O, oh. Silly me! I forgot to ask—“

“I was never a part of your plan, wasn’t I?”

Nayoung holds a considering breath. “Not this one.”

What she gets as a repercussion is Sejeong’s pointer finger jabbing at her forehead. “Even though I’ve always been a big help?”

“You could say you’re a big help. We have no more room.”

“Nayoung—“

“Um, I get that y’all are in the middle of a couple quarrel, but,” Suhyun croaks from under Sejeong, “my legs are giving up on living!”

Suhyun’s valiant attempt at freeing herself by rocking her legs manage to shoo Sejeong into standing. Conveniently, their cultish conference is officially put to an end by Eunwoo’s arrival from the toilet, who quickly re-seizes the empty seat beside Heehyun. The sourness permeating Eunwoo’s face probes the curiosity of the four, so Heehyun voluntarily fires the question. “Did you menstruate?”

“Oh, hell naw! But my good friend probably does. It was hellish trying to keep a convo with her I had to use a bathroom break alibi to escape. When she excused me, I slithered out. Zilch!” Eunwoo sighs, the sound isn’t fond.

Something pings in Sejeong’s head. “Jieqiong, huh? I tried to spark a topic with her, but she looks like she’d rather inhale gray socks than talking to anyone ever… that isn’t her girlfriend, anyway.”

Eunwoo groans as she sinks deeper into her seat. “They’re having a couple discourse.”

“Couple quarrel.”

“Couple discourse!” Eunwoo snipes back at Suhyun. “It’s sorta bad. To add fuel into the fire… Nayoung’s kinda neck-deep in her student council president business to remember she’s actually in a relationship. What’s in her head beside work? Rocks?”

Speak of the devil, the sliding door to this car skirts away to reveal the president, in the middle of a call, power-marching through the car while half-shouting into the phone. “You can’t find a budget but comfortable hotel for all the students to the point where you resort to that? That is your excuse? Are you aware of how much of a failure you are as a teacher and our moral guardian?!”

They couldn’t catch the rest of the call as Im Nayoung disappears into the teachers’ car, presumably to surgically remove the teacher’s kneecap.

Eunwoo sticks a tongue at the door separating theirs and the teachers’ cars. “See? I wish she could take a chill pill or two. And chill with her girlfriend. Honestly, Jieiqiong is rivalling the third Ramses in the scale of deadness. Tried to flick her forehead and she reacted coldly! Metaphorically and physical-literally.”

That one manages to make Nayoung’s eyes bulge out in alert. “What? Wait what?”

“Uhh, to sum it up, Jieqiong’s been looking deader than your classmate Jang Sojin from the choir club.”

Heehyun’s light kick to her shin kicks her into action. “Go check on her.”

“Be right back,” Nayoung stands, brusquely walks to the other car, backward walks back to the 2-2 seats with the others, pulls Sejeong with her, and retraces her steps to the other car.

Out-of-the-loop Sejeong naturally protests against the hold she has on her wrist. “Okay, an explanation first, please? I thought I was never part of the plan?”

A step away from the other car, Nayoung looks at her in the eyes, “I need a mood-maker, I can be really awkward when dealing with troubled teens. You’re hired.”

Though she’s sure Sejeong will harpoon her with questions when they’re done, right now, Sejeong has comfortably slid into her role. With gritted teeth, Sejeong nudges her side, “Like it or not you’re owing me an explanation and a lunch set.”

“Only if you don’t eff up your role.” She balls up a fist, rises it before , coughs into her thumb, and imagines herself as a sophisticated honor student. Sejeong skips on the ritual.

They spot Jieqiong quite easily, as a girl looking out the window with the seat next to her empty (she assumes it’s Eunwoo’s) is a conspicuous sight when the rest of the world isn’t in a downer trance. Seeing a careful approach is necessary to nurture Zhou Jieqiong’s teen-angst-plagued heart, the two opt for an easy, impressionable facial expressions on top of loosened muscles as Sejeong fills the seat across Jieqiong while Nayoung stands and switches her weight on a leg, seeing the seat beside the one Sejeong seized has Kyungwon sleeping in it.

Jieqiong barely notices their (probably) overbearing presences. Nayoung has to admit she herself isn’t a good smiler.

Sejeong is unsurprisingly commendable at setting a light mood to cover up their intentions. “I’m here for two reasons. One, this loser here has to interview people for some assignment, and the other… just checking up on a friend.”

The response they get is far from what they’re hoping, but Jieqiong cooperates still, plucking her gaze away from the moving scenery to the duo before her.

It’s finally her cue to do her part. “Well, you see, I have to do a census on… couple break-ups.” Sejeong’s glare and not-so-subtle shaking of head is her cue to backspace. “Uh, near break-ups.”

The laugh they derived from Jieqiong sounds almost too bitter. “She should just date her job as a student council president or something. That would save her future partners from feeling like utter crap.”

“So you’re feeling like an utter crap right now,”

Nayoung gets a hardened stare from the supposedly depressed girl. “Yeah.”

And a bonus of remark through Sejeong’s gritted grin. “Good guesswork there Sherlock.”

Sejeong tries to salvage the situation by joking about the teacher while she reinforces the act by pretending to look at her phone for her prepared questionnaire. Normally a “beagle” – an overused sugarcoated term for noisy, feisty, and not to mention attention peeps – today Jieqiong isn’t as talkative, her eyes meander unfocused lots of time, and the subsequent conclusion might rearrange her insides. One way to find out.

“I have more questions, but I wrote them down the traditional notes. Paper notes, not that Samsung invention with misleading name, just in case you thought I was tech savvy enough to know how to operate one.”

Sejeong laughs and it sounds derisive. “Wow, I smell impending trouble.”

The moment she’s standing, she shakes her own body to imitate the act of someone tumbling over, “Oh, ohhh I’m tripping—“

“Nayoung you haven’t tripped yet,”

“I’m tripping on thin air!” She falls forward, letting the upper half of her body free-falling onto the seated Jieqiong. Spider limbs all over Jieqiong, Nayoung makes sure to purposefully land a palm on the girl’s exposed skin (but an exposed skin that won’t net her into a home-wrecking scandal). She acts like she doesn’t purposefully cup Jieqiong’s forehead. And hurriedly pulls herself back. “I am deeply sorry, I was born clumsy—“, and topples backward from uneven footing, landing on her backside. Now that hurts.

“Aaaaand thanks for the cooperation Pinky, I’m sure Nayoung has enough data to start a groundbreaking paper now so I’m gonna cart her away,” she takes a breath to continue her no-period sentence, and slips in her trade-mark laugh, “so you can continue on with your mulling. Just don’t think of turning to the knife. You’re too pretty to do self-harm.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Promise me?”

“Okaaay, mom.”

“Good!” And with that, Sejeong pulls her to her feet and drags her away by the forearm. Out of Jieqiong’s earshot. Just three steps away from the door to the other car. “Nice role-playing there! It’s totes natural for someone to talk about Samsung when they were just about to retrieve their notes. And not to mention your good acting of tripping over, what was it? Nothing?”

“Are those all sarcasm?”

Sejeong laughs into her ear. “So, what’s this all about?”

Fear overcomes her. It shows through her frown. “Sejeong… Jieqiong was cold.”

“The train’s air-conditioned. Our school spent quite the budget on the transport, I have a feeling we’re gonna sleep on a parking lot with picket fences around us.”

“The train’s well air-conditioned.” She parrots Sejeong. Then alarmingly looks around the surrounding. “Is it just me or is it warmer in this car?”

“The temperature? And why the need to emphasize on warmer?”

This car – the one supposedly for Class 2-2 before the students mingled into a disorganization anyway – is almost the same as the car she’s been in. Festive mood, joyous vibe, Minkyung French-kissing a girl in broad daylight, everything is almost the same. Except the fact that it’s warmer, and it’s noticeably warmer. “It’s warmer here.”

“That’s ‘cause Minky’s making out with a third-year she snooped in here just adjacent from us.”

“And… the others are kinda touchy with each other. Why’s Eunseo feeling Cheng Xiao’s boombas?”

“They’re huge. Girls have been pleading to cop a feel.”

“Anyway, point is,” she gulps, but the lump in sticks on. “she’s depressed. She’s cold. She’s been feeling blue. I don’t think this is just your usual teeny-weeny relationship angst thing.”

“If it isn’t… well, it’s doing a good job at looking like it,”

“Sejeong, something’s killing her fire.”

“I don’t think a quarrel would be that much of a wham for her. Leave it in the past, Nayoung… things like that won’t happen again. The government is over it. Tell me the rest later, I wanna check up on Mina first. Thank god they joined the first years’ trip with the second years’.”

Sejeong leaves her for the other car, and she appreciates the time to think. Jieqiong’s cold. It’s getting uncharacteristically warmer. A dying fire makes a frozen hero. Yet, the case with Jang Geunsuk ed with a rampage. Things are not adding up.

They’re half an hour away from arrival. Her heart leaps at the rampant deductions swarming around her worst fear. What she knows is that the trip is shaping up to be something she’s going to include in her autobiography.
 

An hour into the real start of their trip, they, a herd of sheep with oversized bags are led to the front of a flamboyantly red building, shaded with hues of pink, decorated with neon lights breathing out retro vibes. What doesn’t settle with them is the plain sighting of how the building has no windows, which could only lead to one unsettling conclusion.

Haebin voices out the discomfort of many. “Is the school seriously gonna throw y’all ually-confused teenagers into a, a den of sin?”

Nayoung is too unfocused to join the impromptu protest against the teacher in-charge of the trip in the first place. Either way, Jang Geunsuk’s livelihood is already in grave danger even without the little contribution she could contribute with, judging from the angry riot boycotting his questionable action of dumping them in a “cheap, but immaculately furnished fancy hotel”.

“Hey,” Haebin pulls her back from her thoughts with a nudge at her arm, “we submitted a group of four for each room before, but with this arrangement a room could only hold two people. Guess we’re stuck with each other.”

“Nice.” Rooming with Haebin makes things more convenient. There’s a whole tome of stuff she wants to ask to the girl regarding the matters of fire, and no one’s any more ask.com than the manifest of Asclepius when it comes to the matter of the heart, soul, and spiritualism.

“Let’s just hope we get the more normal room. Without the spinning beds. Or vibrating toys. Or rubber leotards.”

“Round up your prayers.” her eyes descend to the messy lines of Class 2-2. Particularly on a long-time friend. “Be right back.”

She makes her way to the neighboring class, fighting the uneven files of students going on and on about the bizarre experience of staying in a love hotel for a school trip. Sejeong is with her classmates, and in a fair contrast with the protesting girls, she’s more or less nonchalant over the situation. Or, it might be because she’s probably rooming with Chungha.

“Hey,” she directs Sejeong’s attention from a blabbering Eunwoo and a doozy Kyungwon, “so, who’s your bedmate for the next three nights?”

“If they’re splitting the original groups into two-two, then it’s Chungha. We’ll have lively nights.” A sigh rolls out and the back of her hand dramatically slides along her forehead.

Nayoung deadpans in response. “Oh wow, .”

“It’s not gonna be the first time.”

“Too much information!”

Sejeong barks a laugh, but it quickly dissolves away. “I assume you didn’t come here just to talk about who am I going to room with?”

“Yeah. Who’s gonna room with Jieqiong?”

“Not sure…” Sejeong quickly pats Eunwoo’s shoulder to gain her attention. The other girl freezes mid-blabber, mouth agape. “Any idea who’s the lucky gal Jieqiong is gonna room with?”

“Probably Nayoung, since I’m with Kyungwon. Unless Pres has to camp out after her needy jealous wife kicked her to the streets.”

While it’s an entertaining idea, Nayoung doubts Jieqiong would have the will to kick anybody out – or the will to do anything for the matter. The girl has been looking disconnected for the most part. Detached. Resigning.

Eunwoo returns to her long-winded rant about chickens and vegetables and how the world is being unprecedentedly unfair to “good people like her” and mostly about how hot the weather is today while Kyungwon feigns the role of a patient listener. Feeling the closest thing they would have to privacy amidst unkempt files of students, Nayoung leans a little bit lower to match the height of Sejeong’s ear. “Keep an eye on Jieqiong. I owe you an explanation, but I’ll fill you in tomorrow. For now we can get some rest.”

“Nayoung?”

“Yes?”

“Stop breathing into my ear! It tickles.”

“O, okay.”

“What’s going to happen now?”

“Stuff… we’re already on a highway to ty stuff.”

Sejeong’s voice tastes of steel, a defense mechanism against the unstitching of old wounds, “Just great.”

“It turned out alright the first time. It’s going to be okay this time, too.”

Then, at first, it’s the back of Sejeong’s hand grazing against her own knuckles, then a palm cakes flat against her own, and Sejeong’s holding her hand tightly; fingers filling each other’s gaps, and she hears the way Sejeong is breathing hard through the vacuum of her lungs, and the subtle tremors hidden in the cracks of the steel she donned, in her whispered it’s gonna be okay’s. “It’s gonna be okay,” Sejeong says, without meeting her eyes, preferring to stare into some distance she couldn’t fathom instead.

Nayoung heaves a tactless laugh for stress relief. To keep some sanity intact. And holds Sejeong’s hand tighter, mingling their cold sweats, possibly nearly crushing the skin and bones together. Yet, it couldn’t wash away the dreads, as her surrounding goes bleary in her eyes, swimming in and out of focus.

Is it just her or is today much warmer than the usual?
 

“We got a -themed room.” The chirp in Haebin’s tone sounds satirical. “Lady Luck is quite the sadist today!”

She offers her bothered bedmate a slanted smile and walks into the room first, eyeing the red and black dominating (snickers) the wall, the grandiose king-sized bed with its leopard-printed cover, and the rather out-of-place, submissive (snickers) blue door separating the bedroom from the bathroom. The room is very well furbished, Nayoung notices, with the furniture gleaming a sleek kind of black that screams y (as y as furniture could be), and Nayoung leans her bag on the front of the large wardrobe. “If it’s any comfort to you, Heehyun is stuck in a room with spinning heart-shaped bed and fairy princess-y curtain with Yebin.”

Haebin’s sharp intake of breath indicates surprise. “Holy Sodom, that’s gay.”

Nayoung motions a chin to the king-sized bed and as if on cue, the two cannonball themselves to the quality spring bed. “Anyway, I have something important to discuss.”

“Alright…” Haebin leaves a hanging pause, “…whip it.”

A session of laughter over an admittedly corny pun later, they’ve calmed down enough for a sober discussion. Coincidentally, the door clicks open as Nayoung has previously left if unlocked since she’s expecting someone, and Heehyun walks into the room with brows raised at the interior. “So you got The Red Room.”

“Hop on here, we need to sort out things!”

Heehyun joins them minus the cannonballing. Haebin reaches for the remote on the nightstand and dims the light by a notch.

“Wait up, before you start,” she’s sure Haebin and Heehyun are throwing her questioning looks right now, but in order to multi-task both Haebin’s lecture and an update from Suhyun’s side, she opens her messenger application and leaves the chat window between her and user Suhyunnieee open.

Suhyunnieee: so far so good
Suhyunnieee: eunwoo is egging her on with recent school gossips
Suhyunnieee: dr. wonshik is bi

An explanation is underway. “Before y’all ask, let me explain. I’ve told Suhyun to keep Jieqiong company. Eunwoo’s also there, though she doesn’t know anything about our agenda and hopefully she won’t suspect a thing. Suhyun will give us report on how Jieqiong’s doing – I have a feeling she might hit her all-time-low depression soon.”

Heehyun gives a series of nods. “That’s convenient. I thank your brains.”

“Yup. Now we’ll be getting live feed of infos as we go on with our discussion. Effective, huh?”

Suhyunnie: dr. wonshik is a bi AND hes a gambling addict
Suhyunnie: and he has a pet mosquito

She receives doubtful looks coming from the other two.

Suhyunnie: mannn we cant focus even with the aircon on its kinda hot in here

“Uh, we should get on with the discussion I guess.” She offers, and the two return her the looks that translate to definitely. “Haebin, what kills the fire?”

A pensive silence invades between them, marking the change in atmosphere. “Your fire kills itself. It’s all your doing, consciously or subconsciously. The fire represents the hero’s will to live… when the hero themselves wish to end their journey, then there’s nothing fueling the fire.”

Your fire kills itself. It’s finally time for a trip down the memory lane. She turns to Heehyun. “Are you okay with a trip down the memory lane?”

“Sure. It won’t break me.”

It can’t break an already broken thing. “Ten years ago, the government conducted an experiment on the topic of fire. Children were involved in the research, made test subjects, cooped up in an isolated facility for nearly three years,” she vacuums fresh air for her lungs, trying to neutralize the toxic emitted by the disgusting recount, “they tried to tamper with the children’s emotions. Using machineries. They gave them nightmares… quite literally. Connected their nerves to man-made nightmare generators.”

Haebin slowly nods. “Or so I’ve heard.”

“Three years of being a bunch of lab rats, rehashing nightmares over and over again, pushed over the limit. The government also forcefully input practical knowledge into their brains – driving, how to operate firearm, how to pilot an airplane, militarized martial art – by injecting the knowledge as kilobytes into the temporal part of the brains. These sick bastards nurtured them into a platoon of factory goodies. It was stressful for the children… and not a lot survived. Those who succumbed to the despair died along with their fire. They—they froze over. Except one.”

Haebin hums, thoughtful. “Those without their fire to keep them alight will be gradually frozen. But, eh, except one?”

Suhyunnieee: jieqiong is really quiet today wtf and she looks??? Real sad wtf is this teen angst drama its just a relationship for gods sake
Suhyunnieee: just??? Kill some steam off by casual frick frack
Suhyunnieee: id volunteer

“One of the test subjects broke. She clearly gave into despair, but as if possessed, she lost control of her power and went on a rampage. The staffs managed to… calm her down after she stabbed some casualties. Then the freezing process began…. though she lived on. That story is for another day. Now, remember Jang Geunsuk’s case?”

Suhyunnnieee: jieqiong undid a button cuz its too hot
Suhyunnieee: OKAY gotta admit my blood is rushing south

Heehyun leans closer. “But the girl’s power went awry while Jang Geunsuk were suddenly able to steal others’ powers.”

“I know, but I lurked around and found nothing indicating Jang Geunsuk to be in a deep depression or something. He was fine days ago. It took the experiment girl nearly three years before her fire died and Chaos invaded.”

An imaginary light bulb lights up above Haebin’s head. “That’s it. It’s Chaos. It slips in-between the ribs and worms its way into the body with a weak, or even no, fire. The Chaos then masks itself the hero’s fire and puts the hero under control. That might be it.”

Suhyunnieee: so its not just me……. both jieqiong and eunwoo are feeling the heat too
Suhyunnieee: feelin the heat
Suhyunnieee: what the heck is this lil triangle of in-heat es cuz im feelin a lil bit TOO roamy

“I fear that this might be the case with Zhou Jieqiong.” Nayoung takes another deep breath. To think that it’s beginning to get to her. It might be the heat.  “Gosh, it’s really grilling today, but something is kinda off with the heat, I think? Like, it’s making me feel… moist. For the lack of better term.”

She gets Haebin to agree with her. “I get you. It’s making my shirt sticky, though as much as I want to rip my shirt off right here and now, that’d be too gay.”

“Yeah. I mean – okay, to be honest, you’re definitely not that bad looking.”

“Y, yeah but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not gonna bone a gal. Something something hetero something.”

Suhyunnnieee: god they smell so good
Suhyunnieee: ok i know im getting off topic but really nobodys really talking abt anything cause everyones sorta BOTHERED
Suhyunnieee: by idk hormones???
Suhyunnieee: eunwoo is whispering my name under her breath what is this sudden thriller development

She and Haebin are taken aback by Heehyun, who suddenly hops off the bed while sounding a loud !, and before any of them could demand an explanation for the unaccounted cursing, Heehyun runs frantically sniffs the air. Loud enough for it to alert both her and Haebin.

Suhyunnieee: ummmmmmmmm shes crawling towards me as we speak
Suhyunnieee: dude this is sorta weird and gay but ya kno not the cute kind of gayyy

“Uh, you okay, Heehyun?”

“Nayoung, we’re screwed. Jieqiong is the manifest of Aphrodite. She’s been losing control under the radar.”

Suhyunnieee: okkkk shes deff way too close for comfort now

“Mmmmm if I remember correctly, manifests of Aphrodite are bestowed with the power to, uhh, tamper with people’s emotions.”

“She’s been making her surrounding since forever.”

It finally sinks on her. The unnatural heat, the inviting scent that saturates the air-conditioned air, and the moisture dragging them down are the by-products of Jieqiong losing control of her power. It finally sinks on her that they’re way too late, that Jieqiong has given into the Chaos all along, and that the people in the building might be screwing each other like in-heat rabbits the entire time they spent on spiritual discussion. Which leads to questions whether the heteroual couple will have enough decency to get some rubber beforehand or not. Which leads to assumptions that the problem might be bigger than they think, because they’re in a tight race with time.

Suhyunnieee: OK I KNOW I LOOK RAVISHING AND I ALSO FIND EUNWOO HOT BUT CMONNN WHY ISBUS SHE
Suhyunnieee: She s kkISISSING M E
Suhyunnieee: w ithh tongu
Suhyunnieee: hle;;;;oopo

Heehyun’s voice is laced with alertness, “C’mon, y’all, we gotta get going before the entire city turns into Sin City for real!”

Suhyunnieee: JIEEQI IS GONE WTFFVFFF

Nayoung hauls herself out of the bed and Haebin, although reluctantly, follows suit, as the girl is uninclined to her and Heehyun’s beatdown approach.

“Haebin, Heehyun, the future of Jeju is in our hands. We either make it or break it. A failure on our part might cost Jeju its integrity as the go-to trip destination, and, hell, turn the town into a red light district.” Nayoung walks to the intimidatingly huge wardrobe, grapples the handles, and wrenches them apart, revealing an… array of instruments. “Heehyun being a manifest of Jacob Black aside, we’re lacking in the physical department. It’d be hard to hold our ground against Jieqiong.”

Haebin blanches, though she makes her way to the wardrobe still. “We’re and we’re gonna knock some sense into the horndog with nasty phallus toys.”

“Get that one.”

“The whip?! Is Ms. Zhou into this kinda stuff? I don’t want her to moan when I flog her good with the intention to kill!”

Nayoung’s having second thoughts now. Zhou Jieqiong is a charming lady, but if the medieval age is of any indication, often the charming duchess recorded to be aroused by getting “forcefully taken”. The whip might backfire on them. “Okay. You take the, uh, electric-powered phallus entertainment instrument, you can swing it around like a shortsword,”

Heehyun interrupts, “For Pete’s sake it’s a dil—“

“Aaaand I take the whip, you can choke people with it.”

She could practically hear the distant chirping of a cricket.

“Uh, she better not be into choking. Chokeplay. Whatever it’s called.”

Heehyun interrupts, “Breathpl—“

Her unnatural response is the brisk walk she takes to the door. “A, anyway, we gotta hurry before it affects the guys’ building too. Plus, c’mon, y’all are feeling it too right? I mean, the whole atmosphere is starting to get to me…”

Her two confidantes for the night perform a mixture of nod and sigh.

There’s a whole lot of questions unanswered. What drove Jieqiong to this vulnerable state, to the point where she gave into Chaos. How did Chaos envelop two people in the academy with the gap between the first and the second cases not too far apart. Whether she’ll manage to not involve Sejeong with the whole aphrodisiac( and jealousy towards the president’s predilection for works and responsibilities)-induced mayhem.

What she knows, however, is that they’re set on a race against time, and they hope no one’s sober enough to comment about their unorthodox weapon of choice.
 

Notes: [2} I’ll still be around, but university’s been bustling lately, and I couldn’t really find the time… I apologize that I haven’t answered the previous comments too, I’ll answer tomorrow’s night as I have a long day tomorrow. Do please leave your thoughts below, though! I love talking to yall :’)