The first thing Solar saw was the beautiful scientist’s face up close, removing the helmet from the girl’s head. “There you go. There’s no reason to have that on right now.” She set it delicately in the floor because there was no other place to put it. Then the pretty girl in the white lab coat helped the younger, exhausted girl onto the hard mattress. “It was a hard day, and I’m sorry for that. They don’t seem to understand that performance would be better if they pulled back and let you breathe.”

The girl let out a bitter laugh knowing full well that there was no chance they would pull back. She wanted to reply but she was too busy trying to get comfortable in the sorry excuse for a bed. She only had enough energy for one thing at a time.

Her attempts were seeming to be fruitless, so she paused for a moment to reply. “I know you have little control over what goes on… They sure like to see performance under stress that’s all I know.” The girl said and looked over at the woman who now had her hands stuffed in the pockets of her coat, looking a lot smaller than usual. Wendy was still questioning the scientist’s motives.

“Yes, that seems to be a major objective of theirs. My guess is that they want to see if stress will cause an instinctual survival mechanism that will enhance your powers... Here – let me.” She bent over to fix the pillow behind the girls head and tucked the blanket in.

She felt a lot more comfortable, and the exhaustion was starting to ware in, maybe that’s what made her state what was on her mind more bluntly.

“You know, I don’t know whether or not I can trust you. I heard what you said to your colleague the other day, about not calling me by my real name and keeping a distance between us, but you seem to have no problem with either of those things. It just has me confused.” She blinked up at her, heavy lidded.

“Oh, you heard that? I just… I just- It’s too late for me, and I was trying to keep him from it. You are… I care about you too much, and it hurts. It makes everything harder, and that doesn’t help when I know there’s nothing I can do to help. No matter how much I want to. No matter how much I…” She cleared and turned towards the door. “I’ll be back later to put the helmet back on. They won’t be happy if they found out that it was removed, and it’s not likely it will be me they punish. For now, just get some rest. I’ll see you soon, Wendy.”

Despite everything, the way her name left the woman’s lips made her heart do a little flip. Which only made the girls eyebrows crinkle. She really shouldn’t be having these feelings. Not from anyone in here, and yet…

The worn out girl watched the woman leave, closing the heavy door behind her. She desperately wanted to believe that she had at least one ally on her side, yet in her situation she’s having a hard time trusting the scientist’s true intentions. She did recognize that she missed the calming presence that girl seemed to provide. It was definitely wrong to feel that, but there wasn’t much else to look forward to. Just her and sleep. Right now she needed sleep, so she turned away and closed her eyes. She fell into a dreamless sleep in just moments.

“Do you trust her?” I asked Moonbyul after telling her about the vision and the girl’s mixed up feelings for the scientist.

“I don’t know. There’s really no way I could. I don’t know anything about her except your secondhand accounts.”

“I know but if she is as honest as she seems, maybe she can be our way in.”

“Can’t you just check her intentions by empathically connecting with her?”

“That’s- That’s a fair point. I guess I could give it a go tonight, but is it worth it if there’s no way to get to her?”

“Well if anything, she has more access to the compound then Wendy, so maybe she’ll see something that’ll help us.” Moonbyul said as she was getting up. I was about to pull her back into the warm bed, when the realization hit me.

“Oh MY GOD!” I said as I hopped off my bed and went straight towards my computer to turn it on.

“Woah, what? And shush, you’re going to bring your parents in here.”

“Sorry.” I turned around and covered my mouth. I didn’t want to explain why Moonbyul was in my room this early in the morning. “But I just realized that we have a name. A first one at least.”

Moonbyul’s eyes widened. “Oh yeah.”

There’s no way we’re going to get anywhere at this rate. Nothing that could help us was being revealed in the visions, and from what we could find on the internet, there was no missing Wendy. There had to be something else that we could do. I looked outside my window once again to see if Wheein and Hwasa were anywhere to be found. The only thing I noticed was a black car parked across the street and the usual empty driveways at this time. Apparently, Wheein and Hwasa had something they wanted to tell us, and since Moonbyul was already at my place, we decided to have the meeting here.

“What’s taking them so long? Didn’t they want to tell us something?” I blurt out exasperated.

Moonbyul chuckles lowly from my desk chair, where she was scrolling through her phone.

“Patience, Solar. We don’t exactly have anywhere else to be right now anyway.”

“Not today, but tomorrow you have to be gone to help your Aunt’s friend with her car, and that could really set us back. This isn’t exactly something that can be put off.”

“Alright, you’re right about that, but helping my Aunt’s friend shouldn’t take too long. If what Wheein and Hwasa tells us helps in any way, we’ll get working on it as soon as we hear it, and from there we’ll think about the little intermission. There’s nothing we can do right now but wait.”

I can’t do anything but sigh and fall back onto my bed.

“I’m just feeling listless. That’s all. I felt more proactive last time. I knew where to start, at least.”

“I know, babe. Don’t worry, we’ll get there. I know we will.”

My mouth involuntarily quirks up at her positivity, and I turn my head to look at her again.

“Where is all this optimism coming from?”

“Well, someone’s got to pick up the slack around here. There’s way too much negative energy.”

“Alright, alright. Point taken.”

”Good. Well, I can hear Hwasa’s bike, so they should be here any second now to give us the news.”

~~~

“Well, did you get a response?” It seemed too simple. Too simple that the person we were looking for was just waiting there on the internet, and yet it really was plausible that the person they emailed was behind the experiments. It would be easy enough to put up a front, especially on the internet.

“Not yet, but it’s only been two days.” Wheein answered.

“I can’t believe it took you that long to tell us.” I shake my head disapprovingly. It’s a bit hypocritical considering my track record, but hey, I never claimed to be fair.

“We were going to wait until we got a response, but it was taking too long.”

I sighed. I guess it didn’t really make a difference.

“And what exactly did you put in the email?”

“Hwasa and I just put a bit about Moonbyul’s story to make it seem genuine.”

I looked over at Moonbyul who was reading the blog on her laptop with a skeptical eye.

“Well, there’s not much to get from here, but I think it was a good idea to write an email. We can only hope that it will lead somewhere.” Moonbyul finally put her laptop down and turned towards the two younger girls. “It’s better than what we’ve got right now.” She said referring to her and me.

The admission hits me hard, and I involuntarily wince. I really hate having such an incredible power that can still lead me to a dead end, but I guess that’s what friends are for. To help you when you need it.

“Thank god. I was afraid you were going to be mad we used your story.”

“Eh, she wouldn’t dare yell at me.” Hwasa grinned at Moonbyul, who glared back at her. We all knew it was the truth though.

~

“I just checked the email, Solar. Refreshing the page isn’t going to make it come faster.” Wheein said hovering over my shoulder.

“I know but oh-” I freeze shocked to see that my impatient actions were actually rewarded, and I feel the other three girls freeze behind me too. There in the inbox sits a bolded email with the subject line ”I’m so glad to have received your email”.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Click on it.” Hwasa broke the silence and nudged my shoulder, and so I do.

I’m so glad to have received your email! I’m sorry if I seem too enthusiastic, but it’s always nice to get the opportunity to help another like you. You seem hesitant to reveal much about the powers you’ve obtained, and I suppose I can’t blame you, can I? Maybe, now that you’ve seen that I’m still active and willing to help, you’ll be more open to sharing. Well, regardless, I did promise you some knowledge, didn’t I?

What happened isn’t mystical or supernatural, it’s purely scientific. I’ve been working with some others that I’ve found who were just as curious as I about what happened to my brother and others like him and you. It seems that the effects it has on a person vary depending on the gift that they have, which really makes things a lot more interesting, and the possibilities endless. So there’s really no way for me to tell you what happened to you specifically. Unless, you want to come in and find out, but rest assured that I do not expect that at all. I’m sure I can answer some things if you care to share with me. If you don’t feel comfortable with that, don’t worry about it, just let me know.

Your new Friend,

Minji

“This is the person responsible, isn’t it?” Moonbyul breathed out in disbelief. “You guys really found her.”

“We did? How do you know it’s her?” Wheein asked like she didn’t believe it herself.

“The experiments.” Moonbyul and I said at the same time.

Moonbyul continued, “She’s being a lot nicer about it, but this is the girl responsible for those terrible experiments. She gets all her information on these powers from her unethical practice on us.”

“So… How do we find her with this? Should we email her back? I bet she abducts people when they set up a meeting with her to find out more about their powers.” Hwasa mused. “Should we like… set ourselves up?”

“We don’t really know what we’re up against though. We already know she has scientists working for her, but I somehow doubt that’s all. She’s been abducting people until now without getting caught, and I don’t think that’s exactly an easy task.” I respond while swiveling around so I could face them. It seemed like I was curious about how they felt about what I’ve said, but I knew. I always know.

“Everything we do is going to be dangerous. No matter what. We just have to pick our best option.” Hwasa points out.

“She’s right.” Moonbyul nods and looks me, and I nod back like I’m giving in.

I know they’re right, I just want everyone to know the stakes anyway.

“Maybe we can just get the address to the facility. We don’t have to show up, at least not the way she would be expecting us to, right?” Wheein responds as she settles into my bed. Hwasa follows suit, and Wheein automatically leans into her.

“So we can set up a sneak attack…” I immediately follow what she’s throwing down. “I like it.”

“It seems like a reasonable idea, but if she wants to meet somewhere other than the facility, what do we do?”

“We can make sure to set it up in a public place. I don’t think she’s going to want to snatch someone up when there’s people around, right? That’d be dumb.” Wheein provides a simple solution.

“And then, from there we can try to get ourselves a ticket into the facility. Easy peasy.” Hwasa adds, wrapping an arm around Wheein’s shoulder, clearly satisfied with the plan.

“Alright, but since you’re her pen pal now, you reply.” Moonbyul stands up from the desk chair and walks over to where I am standing, grabs my hand, and starts leading me out of my room.

She was suddenly anxious. I felt her heart drop into her stomach the moment before she stood up.

~

“Alright fine, you punk!” Hwasa yelled out. “What’s suddenly wrong with her?” She turns to me with a bemused look, but before I could even respond, the realization hits her and it shows on her face.

“What? What’s wrong with her?” I turn back to the empty doorway for a second, still a bit taken aback by their quick departure. I turn back to Hwasa, expecting an answer. What I get instead is her commenting to herself.

“I can’t believe I forgot. I can’t believe she forgot. Her poor Aunt.” She murmurs sadly.

“Why? What’s wrong with her Aunt?”

“It’s the anniversary of her husband’s death. Of course she’s going to be struggling today, especially when she’s trying to stay clean.”

We sat there for a moment reflecting on her situation. This is my first time hearing of it, but it’s isn’t hard to understand how hard it must be for her.

“Well,” Hwasa retracted her arm and moved towards the desk. “I guess we better write that email. The sooner the better. It’ll make us look desperate, like easier bait.”

"Good. Do it fast, I’m hungry.” I lay back on the bed as she gets into the desk chair

“What? You’re not going to help me?

“Just make it simple, I’m too hungry to think. I skipped breakfast this morning and it’s catching up to me.”

“You overslept again, huh? I should just call you every morning to make sure you’re not slacking.” I can hear the smile in her voice and it automatically makes me smile in response.

“Uh, sleeping is not slacking, it gives me the energy to put up with you every day.”

“Oh?”

I hear the chair get pushed back, and before I know it, she’s on me tickling my sides like her life depends on it. I let out a squeak, and try to push her away while laughing hard enough to feel a burn in my abs already.

“Admit that you aren’t just putting up with me and I’ll stop.”

“No!” I say trying to roll away from her, but she has me trapped securely between her legs. I try pushing her away again, but it’s useless.

“Say it, Wheein. Your face is already red.” She says grinning down at me. I don’t want to give into defeat, but my abs are killing me at this point.

“Fine!”

She stops, leans closer stilling smiling and she says, “Fine what, Wheein?”

My hands slide down from her stomach to settle on her thighs, and I stare at her eyes trying to catch my breath. It’s an oddly intimate situation.

“Fine, I don’t just put up with you.” I admitted with a frown.

“Ah, I think you can do better than that.” She raises her hands like a threat.

“Fine, I like you!” I yell out before she can move her devil hands any closer.

She freezes above me and holds eye contact that I can’t look away from. My heart that just started to calm down form the exertion picks up again, and I feel a blush coming on once I’ve realized my mistake.

She lets out a long breath that hits my face, and it’s enough to get me talking again.

“I like you in general, ya know? As a person-friend.” I clear my throat realizing it’s just as weird to explain what I meant. “Aren’t you supposed to be writing an email, Slacker?”

The smile that was wiped away as soon as my admission makes way back to her face, albeit a bit smaller.

“Slacker? I guess when you’re with someone long enough, you start picking up their habits. It’s not something I’m going to complain about, not when they come from you.”

She gets off me, leaving me and my heart to calm ourselves down.

Moonbyul is clearly upset, and I want to know what’s wrong but I don’t speak until we make it down the stairs.

“Moonbyul, what’s wrong? Why are we leaving?” I tug her hand to stop her from taking me any further without an explanation.

“I told you the reason my Aunt started drinking, right?”

“Yes, her husband passed.”

“Right, and today’s the anniversary of that day. She’s doing so well, I don’t want her to relapse. We have to be with her. No wonder she was so adamant about me fixing her friend’s car tomorrow. I’m so stupid.” She turns her face down, ashamed.

“Hey, no you’re not. We’ll go to her now and be there for her. That’s what’s important.” I lift her face, and give her quick kiss. “Want me to drive?”

She smiles and leans her forehead on mine. “Even now, you’re trying to drive.” She takes my hand again and puts the keys in my palm. “Take me to her.”

Before I even pull up to her house, I feel Moonbyul’s relief. She must hear or smell that her Aunt hasn’t relapsed. Still, when I park, Moonbyul is quick to get off and help settle everything so she can get inside.

Moonbyul bursts through her front door and calls out for her aunt. “Aunt Seo?! I’m home? Where are you?”

Before her Aunt can respond, she’s pulling me towards the kitchen.

“In the kitchen. I’m setting up for lunch, you going to stick around to eat?” She calls out in response.

We walk into the kitchen before Moonbyul can answer.

“Oh, you’re girlfriends here. You should have told me.” She gives me a warm smile, and walks over to give me a hug, which I willingly accept. “You’re so beautiful and cute.” When she pulls back she gives my cheeks a soft pinch.

“Thank you.” I shyly reply. I’ve seen picture of Moonbyul’s parents, but if I didn’t know any better I would think she was her mom. They’re very similar as well.

“We’ll both be staying for lunch if that’s okay.” Moonbyul looks on with a soft smile. “Probably dinner too.”

“Of course, of course. The more the merrier! Besides, I hardly get to see Solar. I’m in for a treat tonight, aren’t I?” She smiles and moves back to where she was before we came in.

I break the comfortable silence that had wrapped around us in the dark, feeling safe and secure with Moonbyul’s arms wrapped around me and mine around her. “Your Aunt is so nice.”

“Yeah, she is. Isn’t she?”

“She’s seemed alright today, don’t you think?”

“She did seem a lot better. I’m so happy for her.” There was a long pause, but I knew she had something else to say. “When I first came to live here, we were both just two broken people coming together trying to make it through every day one at a time. Now, I think we’ve found some sort of peace with our loss. I just hope she can find someone like I have.”

“In due time, I’m positive she will.”

It frustrated her. Watching them put her through so much she passed out, and even then they didn’t give her time to rest, or to recoup herself. It made her grit her teeth in anger, but she stayed silent. No matter how much she wanted to help, there was no use. She couldn’t do anything. So she gazed on with steely eyes, and took the proper notes.

Sometimes, when Wendy would do something in rebellion, she would be there by her side to calm her down. The last thing she wanted to see was Wendy, her Wendy, being tortured.

Like now, when the scientist’s, who kept asking her to do things, coffee flew off the table and onto the ground. Wendy wouldn’t dare spill it on him, thank God. By now, Wendy knew he had a hot temper. The beautiful scientist was quick to the subject’s side, to put a calming hand on her shoulder, and she gave her a stern look. Another stunt like that, and you know what’ll happen.

When she saw the defeat in Wendy’s eyes, her heart broke. But all she could do was give her shoulder a comforting squeeze, and move away.

“Oh 22,” a deep laugh left the scientist as he shook his head in apparent amusement. “I had liked the fire you had in the beginning, it meant I could push you and you could handle it, but I must admit it’s beginning to be rather irksome.” He says as he watches some of the lower scientists clean up the mess. “I know you’ve tasted our punishment before, and I’m afraid it seems like it might not be threatening enough for you. Or maybe you’ve just forgotten. In which case, I have no problem reminding you.”

Such a powerful fear went through the quiet scientist that it caused her to do something out of the ordinary. Speak up.

“No!”

The older scientist turned to her with a surprised eyebrow raised. “Miss Bae?”

“What I mean to say, is that after watching her this morning and last night, I don’t think she’d be able to handle it. I would hate to see our efforts go to waste right now.” Her heart was pounding hoping that she sounded convincing enough.

“Is that so?” He was silent for a moment, thoughtful. “If my top student says so, it must be true. Take her to her room then. Today seems like a good day to go over what we have anyway.” He stood up and turned to leave, but once he reached the door, he turned back to address Wendy. “You should count yourself lucky, 22.”

Wendy was glaring at him, but the young scientist stepped in front of her to interrupt her gaze.

“None of that, Wendy.” She whispered as she loosened her ties. “Do you have a death wish?”

“Not now, but maybe soon I will.”

The hands that were working on the ties, hesitated for a moment before pulling on the last strap.

“Don’t speak like that.” She fought the tears that burned her eyes. I have to do something for her. “Come on, let’s get you to your room before you do another reckless thing.”

There was nothing that could be learned from her route, just white halls leading to more white halls. Eventually, they got to her room, and there Miss Bae set her on the bed.

“Just get as much rest as you can. I wish I could stay, but I have duties to get to.”

Wendy was looking up at her with wide eyes, she nodded slightly but continued to stare.

“What? What’s that look for?”

“You do care.” Wendy said with so much relief, it broke the scientist’s heart all over again.

“Unfortunately for me, I do.” Miss Bae fought with herself a moment, but eventually gave in to her wants. She bent down and gave the subject a peck on the forehead. “Just get some rest. I’ll bring you something delicious later, I promise.”

“Wait, just one more thing.”

She turned back, and immediately she was enveloped in a strong hug. Wendy had broken down crying, and she could do nothing but hold on and rub soothing circles on her back.

“Oh Wendy, I’ll get you out of here. I will, if it’s the last thing I do.” She tried so hard not to make that promise because, God, she didn’t want to fail her. But now, how could she not? She wanted nothing more than to soothe Wendy’s pain.

“Wendy!” I yelled the moment I was pulled out of sleep. It was Wendy, choir Wendy, friendly over the top kind Wendy, my friend Wendy!

I reached to the other side of the bed to tell Moonbyul, but found it empty. Instead, in her place, sat a note.

Went out early to check on my Aunt’s friend’s car! I shouldn’t be gone long, considering I’m a pro and all. At least you can sleep in… Try not to miss me too much if you, by some miracle, wake up early. ;) Anyway, we can get down to business when I get back, but feel free to start without me if it takes longer than planned.

Your Love,

Moonbyul

I smiled a moment, caught up in the sweet note Moonbyul left me. But I pulled myself out of my reverie remembering what I had learned. I had to contact the girls. I made sure to text Moonbyul everything too because I couldn’t hold back the information. It was too big.

“No. No, are you kidding me? Another person we know, and it’s Wendy! Wendy is the last person that deserves this!” Wheein yelled in disbelief.

“Wendy has powers? Since when?” Hwasa asked calmly but with just as much surprise on her face.

“Who knows, but we have to find her. How is this not news?! Does nobody know she’s missing?” I threw up my arms in frustration. I mean we searched her name and we found nothing. Nothing that would tell us it was our Wendy.

“Well, isn’t she in college now? Maybe no one expected her to come home, and everyone there expected her to be here.” Wheein answered.

“That would explain it alright.” Hwasa agreed. It seemed to make sense to me too. Still, how unsettling was it that a person could be missing and no one even knew?

“Did you get an email in return, at least?” I asked with hope laced in every word.

“Well we haven’t checked. You called us pretty early after all.” Wheein says as she pulls up her email on her phone.

“How is it in anyway early?” Hwasa says with an amused smile.

Wheein simply ignores her. “Yes! There’s a response.”

I immediately get close so I can read it over her shoulder. There’s only a few sentences, but it’s all it takes to make my stomach drop.

Yes, a meeting? I think I can arrange for that. You don’t have to worry about a thing. I’ll handle it all.

Your new friend,

Minji

Moonbyul’s POV

It didn’t feel right, pulling up to the car. This was not what I was told I would find. I was told that something had gone wrong with her engine, not that all four tires had been sliced open. I hesitantly shut off my bike and got off to get a closer look. I listened out for anything, but the road seemed still. Why she was driving on the old empty highway was a mystery to me, but hey I did it once in a while.

I kicked the flat front tire, and huffed. Maybe I found the wrong car? I went over around to the popped hood, and what I saw made my blood run cold. There, where the engine was supposed to be, sat nothing. It was just a big empty space.

“What the-” I was interrupted by a small puff of air that I wasn’t quick enough to react to.

I raised my hand to my neck where I felt a jolt of pain, and pulled out a small dart with a now empty vial.

“Oh, damn.”

___________________________________________

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