Why No One Should Wish That They Had Duck Feet
Exploding Dishes and Other Reasons Im Nayoung is TiredEunwoo loves to cause reactions. If she hadn't woken up one day when she was little with cloven hooves, she might have been an actress. Or a comedian. Maybe even a singer. Sungyeon tells her sometimes that she has a pretty good voice. And that's something, coming from the resident songbird. When Eunwoo had first heard Sungyeon sing, she thought the girl was a siren. Eunwoo's favorite hero is a siren, so she was thrilled with the prospect. As it turns out, Sungyeon is just a very gifted singer who can do impressive things with her voice. That, or she hasn't fully developed her siren abilities. Sungyeon is sensitive to the term banshee. She says it makes it sound like she can't keep on key. And she can. Again, Sungyeon is a very good singer. Who can break glass with her voice.
Eunwoo had come to the organization older than a lot of kids did. Her mom had powers too and had wanted to train her at home, but there wasn't much an empath could teach a shapeshifter. So off she went. Pledis, her mom said, was the place to go. They were making a new squad, Pledis said. School Girlz had been active for a long time and New Establishment had been registered as an active team the previous year. In truth, she had wanted to see if SooMan would accept her. Her favorite hero, Era of Maidens' siren Jessica Jung was her idol. She had always wanted to meet her. Now that Eunwoo thinks about it, her mom might have chosen Pledis precisely for that reason. When she had gotten to Pledis, she had been placed in a group with five other girls. Eunwoo can't believe she ever thought they were cooler than her.
"Give me my stupid hairbrush!" Sungyeon is trying to get her hairbrush back from Minkyung who is struggling to keep upright from the onslaught of punches and slaps from the other girl.
"Admit it. You stole my Skittles." Minkyung is doing a valiant job of fending the other girl off, mostly due to her height.
"Skittles? This is about those? I told you I didn't take them! Give me my brush!" Sungyeon's hair is a mess, probably because she had wake-up duty for Kyla. She continues her attack.
"You so took them! I smelled them on you!"
"You what? You smelled me?"
"It worked. I found you." Minkyung has backed into the kitchen counter and Sungyeon is now jumping to try and reach the brush, but Minkyung is holding it at such an angle that Sungyeon can't get it. It's in this position that Minkyung, and then Sungyeon, see Eunwoo. Both of them freeze, Sungyeon landing on Minkyung's foot and Minkyung wincing a little at the pain. Sungyeon's hair is even worse looking when she's standing still.
"Good morning to you too." Eunwoo tries to make a cool entry like she doesn't have webbed feet, which are making awkward flopping noises on the linoleum tile. She grabs the cereal and a bowl before heading to the table, where Nayoung has been watching the whole thing in silence, probably making sure no one broke anything. Or anyone. Nayoung nods to her and hands her the milk.
"New feet?" Nayoung nods at Eunwoo's feet. Eunwoo flushes in embarrassment. And to think that she just bought new shoes yesterday. She can't wear them today.
"Yep."
"Good for swimming." Eunwoo wonders how Nayoung is able to make everything awkward. It must be a power of hers. Nayoung nods and turns back to her bowl. Eunwoo turns to her own. Sungyeon punches Minkyung in the gut and Minkyung doubles over. Sungyeon grabs her hairbrush and makes her escape while the taller girl is recovering. Probably to go back to sleep. Yebin waltzes into the room, singing loudly off key and unintelligibly. Eunwoo might not know a lot of English, but she know what it isn't, and whatever Yebin is doing isn't it.
Yebin slides on her socks past the table and stops at Minkyung. Yebin boops Minkyung on the nose and the two smile at each other. Eunwoo takes this as an opportunity to retch loudly. The two turn to her. "Sorry. I didn't know I got cereal with Splenda." Nayoung mumbles something about not messing up the kitchen in while she's getting ready and leaves to get dressed.
Minkyung blinks. "Huh?"
"It's sweet, sure. But it's unnatural." Eunwoo grins at her own line. She's too clever for herself sometimes.
The two flush and make their way to the table. Yebin catches sight of Eunwoo's feet and grins. "I heard you bought new shoes yesterday. They're a lot bigger than I expected."
Eunwoo leans forward and narrows her eyes at Yebin, who has settled across from her in Nayoung's seat. "I will slap you with one."
Yebin wiggles her eyebrows. "Is that a promise?"
Eunwoo grins. When Nayoung's away the cats will play. "I didn't know you were into that. Better warn Minky."
Minkyung turns beet red. "H-hey! That's-Hey!"
Eunwoo finishes her cereal and takes her bowl to the sink, ignoring Yebin's colorful threats. As she's leaving, Yewon stumbles into the kitchen. She's never glowy before coffee, but she still has the best reactions. Eunwoo slaps her as she passes the younger girl and Yewon squeaks in startlement. Just before she leaves, Eunwoo turns. "Tell me if you two need any help with your interests. Knots can be hard to master."
"Get back here and say that to my face!" Eunwoo barely dodges the empty mug thrown startlingly accurately at her head and quickens her pace down the hall, flippers flopping loudly. Jieqiong is out early for some PSA filming or something. The task force's popularity had made her a somewhat of the official spokesperson for the Government's various outreach and communication programs. This means two things to Eunwoo. One, Eunwoo has the room to herself to practice shifting in the morning. This is good. Shifting almost never goes her way and having the prettiest member, in Eunwoo's opinion, walk in on Eunwoo as half sheep is humiliating. Two, Jieqiong is gone more frequently. Bad. Having the prettiest member, in Eunwoo's opinion, as a roommate gave her daily eye candy. More absences mean less of a chance of walking in on her. She never tries, of course. She's just lucky. Very lucky.
Eunwoo shuts the door and leans against it, surveying the room. It's gross. Eunwoo hasn't cleaned her side in at least three months and she isn't sure Jieqiong has ever cleaned her side. Jieqiong really doesn't clean. They had tried to get her of vacuum once and the thing was filled with mold the next time they needed it. Part of Eunwoo thinks that Jieqiong did it on purpose. The other part of her knows she didn't. She's just that bad at cleaning.
Eunwoo takes a quick glance at the alarm clock on her nightstand. 9:00. No time for practice before, well, practice. They're set to register as an official team soon and Pledis has gotten a lot harder on them. They need to be perfect, Pledis says, and practice has gotten way harder, especially for her. Most days, she needs to take a breather to get rid of whatever extraneous or zoological anatomy has appeared in the midst of their mock battles.
Eunwoo shuts her eyes and focuses. She needs her feet back. She needs to wear shoes. Ah, there they are. Eunwoo wiggles her toes happily and pulls on socks. She looks for a clean pair of pants in the pile of clothes at her footboard. She finds a dubiously clean pair of leggings balled up in a bra she's never seen before. She really needs to clean.
"Hurry up. We're leaving." Kyungwon knocks twice and leaves. Eunwoo wonders how someone as normal as Kyungwon manages to stay sane living with the rest of the girls. Then again, Kyungwon isn't exactly normal. Anyone who enjoys Sungyeon's monthly rewatches of Dream High isn't normal. And Kyungwon's bad habit of throwing people at people during fights is definitely a little weird. Nayoung had to make a rule for her when she tried to do it in the dorm. Eunwoo will never try to slap her again. As she grabs a ponytail holder and slips on her shoes, she wonders how Minkyung survives making the lewd remarks about Kyungwon daily.
Eunwoo makes her way to the living room, passing by a frizzy-haired Kyla rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Even Kyla's eyebrows are a little frizzy. Eunwoo makes a not to steer clear of her today. Yewon greets her in the living room with a bright smile, holding a cup of coffee. She's still in her butterfly pajamas. Which means they aren't leaving yet. Yewon is always the first to be ready. Eunwoo narrows her eyes. She's been tricked. "Kyungwon!"
"Mmhm?" Kyungwon appears from the kitchen, dressed to leave. Eunwoo's confused now.
"Why am I dressed?"
"We're going out." Kyungwon disappears back into the kitchen before emerging a few seconds later with a bagel and a backpack. "You and me."
"Huh?" Eunwoo was officially confused now. Now that Minkyung wasn't constantly hitting on Kyungwon, did Kyungwon feel the need to have another habitual flirt by her side? Was this a come on? Didn't Kyungwon like-oh.
Kyungwon grabbed Eunwoo by the hand and dragged her into the hall, grabbing two coats from the hooks by the door. "You need to help me shop for Yewon's birthday."
--
A/N
I'm unhappy with this chapter. This doesn't feel much like Eunwoo at all to me, but I wanted to put a chapter out this week and between my English paper and my Shakespeare test, my brain was in low power mode. (Which is a classy way of saying I noped out. Not a good thing to do.)
I have a lot of difficulty pinpointing Eunwoo. She seems like a bib meme with deep thoughts, but that's a damn hard thing to write. I haven't paid nearly enough attention to her. I need to.
As always, ask me any questions about the universe. My brain is full of little details about it, so if you ask, I probably have an answer.
Thanks for reading,
Elly
(p.s. The title comes from one of my brother's favorite books.)
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