A/N: Assume Korea and Japan are separated by physical land boundaries. Also, disclaimer: if you're looking for pure michaeng fluff here then this is not a fic you would want to read. I was inspired to write this becauseI just wanted to explore Feel Special's mv setting and the song's ideas of loneliness and vulnerabilities before going into the relationship itself. If this is well-received, who knows I might take the time to continue this. XD Thanks for reading as always and let's continue to support their comeback! #GetWellSoonMina (P.S. unedited, will edit once I have time to look through this again)

---

There are ten suns that lie beyond this universe. If you look close enough, the rays of two always, always touch each other until it looks like they are one.

It’s somewhere in between shallow breaths and hurried steps against the soft crunch of the grass that Chaeyoung realises how surreal all of this is. The feeling of being able to step onto fresh grass, feel the morning dew dribble past her ankle, and to breathe the sweet crisp oxygen again. Never would she have ever imagined that ten minutes ago that her hand flat against the toughened glass which barricaded her from the vast outside world would be removed in a blink of an eye and she would be able to touch more than just cold concrete and chill glass now. The sunlight filtering in through canopy leaves brings her out of her thoughts, gently caressing her face as finally, finally, she feels the real warmth of the sun on her cheeks again, and she realises she is still running, with another hand enclasped in hers.

Never would she have ever imagined.

---

She’s blinded by the surgical lighthead as it shines luminously. Even when she shuts her eyelids tight, she still feels its rays drill into the back of her skull. But the blinding light is the least of her worries when she can feel her limbs splayed taut against the metal operating table, her wrists and ankles chafing painfully against the ropes wound around them.

“The less you move, the better,” said a stern voice through his mask.

And then she feels a sharp pain dig into the back of her palm, and she winces before she hears a doctor speak.

“Her vein’s too thin, let’s move to her medial cubital vein instead.” She is given no chance to refuse before she feels a needle poke through her thin skin, drawing blood out steadily into a thick syringe.

“We’ll take this back to the lab before running some tests to check out the components in her blood. Hopefully we’ll find out what is it that makes her different from all of us,” spitting out the word venomously because she was simply born and endowed with particular talents that few others had.

Like moving things with her mind.

Telekinesis, they called it.

At least today was bearable and she felt like she didn’t have to hold her breath so hard she thought she would suffocate and die. Chaeyoung had faced worse days when they would attach steel-looking wires onto her temples and ran electricity through it, hoping the currents would activate the ‘powers’ in her brain to react and reveal more information about itself so the secret agency could exploit it for illicit purposes. Knowing nothing about the voltages, Chaeyoung was put under extremely high voltages it would have definitely killed a human being, but Chaeyoung couldn’t die. And she didn’t know which was worse, because the pain that coursed through her as they upped the currents caused her brain to surge with such torment she was sure she would lose consciousness.

All she remembered was the harsh glare of the surgical lighthead looming ominously over her as she felt more currents surging through her body before she out, waking up later in the day to find herself back at her isolated space in the biodome, dazed and confused, where her powers do nothing against the reinforced glass.

---

She can hear the muffled chattering of her parents at the far corner of the park, sitting idly and turning their heads once in awhile to ensure her daughter is still playing safely in the sand pen. She is building sandcastles with the limited materials she has: a baby shovel, some water in a bottle, one small bucket and one bigger bucket. An impish boy runs over and kicks over a small mountain of sand she had just made with her small bucket, laughing uproariously before running away. Feeling rage in her veins, she remembers imagining herself picking up the small bucket and aiming it at the boy, hurling the bucket at him so hard he falls with a thud and clenches his head in pain. She suddenly hears a loud cry and is snapped out of her enraged trance, confused at why the small bucket was lying guiltily beside the boy and he was indeed clenching his head in pain. Then he pointed accusingly at her.

“YOU! You threw the bucket at me!”

Her parents insisted she had to apologise, but she went home adamant on the fact she did not physically throw the bucket at him at all. Her parents reprimanded her for her insolence, and it was only in high school she realised she had unwitting been dug a hole far too deep to be retrieved from.

---

Mina clicks her pen repeatedly while she listens to her tutor drawl on about world politics, much to his dismay as he sighs, “Miss Myoui, please stop clicking your pen. It’s distracting and unbecoming of a lady from the Japanese monarchy.”

In what seemed like a small but final act of defiance for that day, she clicks her pen one last time loudly, letting the end cap smack noisily against the barrel of the pen.

Her politics tutor ends the lesson, before yet another tutor steps into the study room adorned with a wide range of books stacked neatly on Victorian-style wall shelves. She sighs as the tutor starts commenting on her posture and reiterates the importance of behaving with propriety, starting from one’s dressing to the way one sits, walks and talks. Taking out a thick book with the word ‘Etiquette’ sprawled in gothic font against the hardcover, the tutor begins to turn to its relevant pages before she admonishes Mina for her sloppy posture and Mina is sick and tired of it all. She looks up at the chandelier and silently groans at the way the pendalogues sparkle blindingly, the clashing cold brightness a sore to her eyes. She wants to feel the warmth of the sun and the chill of soft grass, her feet free from the binds of hard clacking heels that make her tall enough to be a Myoui lady, make her tall enough to talk down to the people of her country.

She rubs the leather of her heels against each other in boredom.

She doesn’t want any of these at all.

---

The television rumbles on endlessly as Chaeyoung packs her bag for school.

“It has been revealed that among us lie mutants who have a genetic mutation called an X-Gene that causes their bodies to develop abilities that regular humans are unable to. Some mutants begin to display powers, while others after puberty… Mutant powers vary seemingly without limit. Examples of powers shared by many individuals include: hypnosis, telekinesis, flight, energy projection, accelerated healing or all to variable limits. As mutant powers can grow and increase as the mutant grows and develops, it is important to report any signs of mutant by calling 1800-X-MUTANTS as soon as possible. We do not want our society to be destroyed by sub-humans who cannot control their powers, or worse, abuse them for their own gains instead. Do your part for society, report them now.”

She hears it drone on and on before finally switching it off and heading for her classes.

Sporting a short boyish cut she felt proud of, Chaeyoung sauntered into school ready to flash her new hairdo to her friends. Her friends had always pegged Chaeyoung to be adventurous and impulsive, constantly trying out things on a whim. As she steps past the gates of her school, heads are turned as students gasp at Chaeyoung’s drastic change in looks. She basks in her one minute of fame as she walks towards her friends.

“Woah Chaeng… might just ditch Sana and date you instead.”

Sana huffs in jealousy before wrapping her arms more tightly around Dahyun’s waist. “Can’t leave me even if you wanted to, babe.”

Chaeyoung giggles lightly, “don’t worry Sana-unnie, I don’t want her even if she wanted me.”

Dahyun grabs her own chest in faux hurt and they all chime in laughter before Tzuyu mentions grimly, “Ugh look who’s back”.

“Eh…” He says as he builds up anticipating for what’s to come, “dyke.”

Chaeyoung rolls her eyes, knowing this infamous boy just likes to ask for attention and trouble. Chaeyoung knows better than to react but something in her stomach turns when he continues to pester her despite her complete disregard of him.

He follows closely behind her, probably unhappy of the attention she’s been getting for her new look, persistently throwing out insulting words to get on her nerves, and the something in her stomach continues to bubble and brew into a savage beast that Chaeyoung can’t control when she turns around and snaps.

“Stop it.”

“Can’t make me, can you?” He sneers back.

She looks briefly at the red metal reel box where the fire hose is wrapped snugly inside. In her head flashes an image of her breaking the box and taking the high-pressure hose out to spray it at the irksome student until he is drenched to the bone, his face flushed from the water’s high pressure and also embarrassment.

“Oh my god stop!”

And she blinks her eyes open to see the boy in front of her, clothes soaking and eyebrows furrowed in confused fury. She looks around briefly to see everyone staring at her in fear as she realises her hands are bare, but the fire hose reel has been dented open, with its hose now hanging limply outside the box, the last remnants of water dripping lazily onto the floor.

She doesn’t know how it happened but the air is taut with tension as everyone is silent. Somehow, she, like the others, has some idea of what’s going on.

It’s somewhere between the boy shouting “she’s a mutant!” and her friends trying to pull her away from officials that she realises there would be little to no chance of escaping her fate.

There isn’t any time for tears as she hears the van’s door slam shut and the wheels crunch on gravel. She feels the van ride on bumpily as she starts to get sick in the stomach, her eyes trying to blink itself into familiarity but to no avail as they are bound shut with a blindfold. She tries to imagine herself escaping but seem to fail with every exhausting attempt, not knowing that the van has been sealed with some kind of material that prevents her from reacting against it. As she feels herself dragged towards a cool room and her blindfold removed, she opens her eyes and blinks rapidly, trying to get used to the sudden pouring of fluorescent light from all around. A door is clicked shut and she realises she is trapped in some kind of white room with only the cold concrete floor and a single steel recliner as her source of comfort.

Outside the sun is eclipsed by the overcast sky, rain heavy and threatening to spill from the heavy dark clouds.

---

Twilight strikes and Mina is certain she is able to make it out. Being insightful and observant do have their perks even if not for supposedly ‘refined’ purposes. Myoui Mina had spent much of days locked up in her palace tracing a blueprint of getting out, in hopes of one day experiencing a life much more than satisfying the expectations of the gentility and exploring and pursuing the things she was truly interested in, which she in fact, has yet to have a clue of.

In the safe blanket of the night sky and the stars as her guide, she sneaks out of her window and tiptoes her way around the peripheries of the palace. Being forced to be good at everything meant her athletic skills were now being put to good use as she crawled under small caverns and sprinted past well-lit places to avoid being seen. Panting softly as she hid behind one of the walls of the palace, she tried to catch her breath before going for the last lap: getting out of the main gates of the palace.

As she prepared to dash and climb up the palace gates, a guard turned a corner and came face-to-face with her.

“Uhm, Miss Myoui, what are you doing?”

Stunned into silence and fearful of being forced back into the prison of her room with a high possibility of being even more secure than before, she pleads with the guard.

“Please let me off this time, I’ll be back soon.”

“I don’t think I can… Miss Myoui, if I get caught for letting you out without permission I will face severe consequences…”

In her head, Mina wrecks her brain for a way out of this predicament. She looks at the guard who looks equally put in the spot as he tries to be civil with her but also firm about not letting her leave, his hands gripped tight around her wrists.

Please let me go, I just want to see what the world has in store for me.

Strangely enough, it is as if the guard heard her thoughts and pitied her, for Mina was sure she felt his grip on her loosen.

No one will know if you let me go now, you can let me leave and go about your duties as per normal.

The grip loosens completely as the guard stares at her blankly, arms hanging limp at his sides. Confused but definitely not going to let go of this wonderful opportunity to escape, Mina makes a dash for the gates and leaps over before running into the vast unknown, with the soft moonlight as her guide.

---

She had lost count of how many sunrises she has experienced from inside her biodome already, but Chaeyoung was still in complete awe every time the guards let the concrete tiles of the biodome slowly open up to reveal the reinforced glass which allowed her to enjoy the sunrise as she walked towards the glass of the biodome, serenely waiting for the yolk of the yellow sun to slowly climb up the clear blue sky shrouded by the lush green canopy. She waited patiently for the sunlight to seep in, its warm rays sending small tingles on her skin as she closed her eyes and imagined the sun embracing her and telling her it’s ok, you’ll get through this.

It’s not much, but this small effort made by the guards to “give her some air” kept her sanity in check, and she’d take what she can get.

---

The natural course of action is to seek shelter in the undergrowth of the jungles which are dense enough to keep her hidden before the palace guards can catch up to her.

As she comes to a slow halt she takes time to observe her surroundings. The trunks have vines that dangle over her and the ferns and grass grow unkemptly beneath her. It seems unsightly, but Mina takes pleasure in the wild nature that is not confined to a neat mould to grow in. Mina loves the idea of going and growing where one wants to and the disarray in front of her ironically calms her frazzled state at just having escaped the palace.

She makes herself comfortable in a dry spot on the ground and lays a big piece of leaf to take a short nap. She doesn’t know how much time has passed until she feels the chill set in and is sure that the day is closing when she opens her eyes and scours the area for some fruits to satiate her hunger.

She stops short in front of a glowing biodome as she munches on a banana. As she stares in curiosity at the biodome gleaming in white, she notices a few guards changing duties at some entrance of sorts. She wonders what they’re guarding so tightly that the biodome is tightly sealed with no gaps or transparent spaces for her to peer into.

Fatigued from her escape, she brushes off her curiosity and returns to her previous spot instead to retire for the night. Mina looks up at the night sky filled with twinkling stars and tries to join them up into constellations she’s learnt before. She spots Andromeda, slowly joining the sparkling dots together as she recounts in her head how Andromeda was caught and almost left to die but in the end was saved by Perseus. She falls asleep dreaming of unclicking cold chain, feeling warm sun rays and another’s hand in hers as the wind brushes past her hair and she runs freely across lavender fields.

---

The first signs of the morning hit her lightly as a small dewdrop trickle off a leaf onto her face, kissing her good morning.

She stands up to brush stray leaves that have fallen on her during the night and takes a walk towards the curious looking biodome again, walking quietly so as to not attract attention. Curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat, she presumes as she brushes away hanging vines and hides behind a tree nearby to see the biodome open up its opaque walls. She sees her girl amble towards the edge of it and stares up into the sky, looking wistfully as the sun starts to beam radiantly after rising fully. Mina carefully looks around and realises no guards are within her sight as she takes measured steps towards the biodome. The girl feels a presence and looks down from the sky, perplexed at Mina standing in front of her. The girl’s eyes plead and twinkle with something that looks a lot like hope and Mina walks closer to the glass that separates them. They bask in the comfortable silence as the girl tries to figure out what is going on, but on the other side of the glass the girl’s doe eyes send a stream of warm light down to the pits of Mina’s stomach and Mina realises she’s been pulled in deep.

I have to save her.

With all rationality throw out of the window she corners the edges of the biodome towards the entrance, hoping the guards would be busy changing duties like the day before for them to not notice her slipping in. The entrance is empty so she rattles the door to try and figure out its locking mechanism.

“What are you doing?”

It feels like deja-vu all over again except this time it’s a lot more sinister. The cold steel of a gun barrel is pointed at the back of her neck. She raises her arms in surrender and turns around slowly, coming to face an armed guard who is sneering at her.

“I say again, what are you doing?” He venomously spits out and Mina struggles to find an appropriate response.

Think, Mina, think.

She stares into his vicious eyes and wonders what would make him change his mind to let Mina into the biodome.

Open the biodome and let me in. I need to save her.

She blinks out of her thoughts and realises he looks like he has somehow relented. She maintains eye contact with him before he lightly shoves her aside and unlocks the biodome, letting her in. Not taking any chances before he changes his mind, she runs in and into the far corner where she unlocks the door from the front and sees the girls whipping her head towards her.

“W-wha- How?”

“We have no time, let’s go!”

Everything is in a frenzy as Chaeyoung runs past the corridor filled with a chemical stench. She hits the lights switch on the way out, hoping the shutdown of fluorescent lights would delay the rest of the guards in locating them.

The minute they step out of the dome the guards are seen running towards them and Chaeyoung sees the nearest log and imagines flinging it at the guards. It happens in a split of a second and she heaves in relief that her powers are no longer impaired, now relishing the pain the guards feel from the weight of the log upon them.

Mina stares at her in disbelief but before Chaeyoung has chance to respond more guards come running after and Chaeyoung grabs Mina’s hands before tugging them towards the other direction, legs carrying them as fast as they can go.

It feels like forever and her lungs burn with a passion, the lactic acid building up in her muscles as she forces her legs to keep moving. When she turns around and she is only met with the calm silence of the jungles with the gentle rustling of leaves that hint how this part of the jungle is untouched, she slows down and turns to look at Mina properly.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” Chaeyoung states honestly.

Her husky voice is dripping honey and Mina can’t help but gaze into her eyes and so many questions are clouding her head as she tries to formulate a coherent response.

“I-I’m Mina…”

“I’m Chaeyoung, I’m not a bad person I swear. They’re just experimenting on mutants like me to exploit for their own gain and-”

Mina shushes her by putting a finger to Chaeyoung’s lips, “it’s ok, you’re here now”

Chaeyoung smiles. “Yes, yes I am.”

It’s a smile Mina learns she will love in time to come. It’s a smile that reminds her of the way warm light dips into the nooks and crannies of her heart the first time they met. It’s a smile that compares to the warmth of the sun shining overhead, nothing like the cold austere palace she’s forced to reside in. It’s a smile that looks a lot like a promise of a better tomorrow.

A longer gaze at her smile makes Mina wonder if her lips taste just as promising and before she can even collect her thoughts Chaeyoung is leaning in, looking bewildered as she is seemingly unable to control herself. A peck brings Mina back to earth as she furrows her eyebrows at what Chaeyoung had just done.

“I-I… did you just want me to kiss you?”

A rush of memories line up and play rapidly in Mina's head.

Maybe Chaeyoung’s not the only one with powers here.