Chapter 8:

Friday

“Eye colors? What do you mean?”

“I mean, there have been a few times when I noticed people’s eyes changing colors,” Yoomi repeated to her two friends. They were currently at breakfast Friday morning and she was asking them a couple more questions about vaeli now that she had almost completed her first week of classes at the academy semi-successfully. This particular question was something that she had been curious about for a while now, but kept forgetting due to the other events in her now slightly hectic life. “Like, one minute someone’s eyes are brown and then the next they’re pink or something,” she clarified, recalling Lay’s odd eye color since it was one of the most abnormal she had noticed and therefore stuck with her. At her example, recognition finally flashed across her friends’ faces.

“Ohh. It’s totally normal!”

“For vaeli, of course,” Jinwoo intervened, taking over the explanation as usual so that Yoomi could actually understand it. “Our eye colors reflect our powers. Every vaeli has a unique vaeli eye color that only appears when we are experiencing strong emotions.”

“Mine’s kinda like this misty white color that looks like fog, almost. And Jinwoo’s is this super cute baby blue-”

“It’s called sky blue, for your information,” Jinwoo cut his friend off before she could finish, wanting to give Yoomi the correct information. He already had Sumin teasing him about his eye color, he didn’t want Yoomi to embarrass him as well.

“Strong emotions?” she echoed, tilting her head as she tried to remember each time she had seen the strange occurrence happen. Sehun, she understood since he had been angry at her for spilling her drink on him, and maybe the boy from the green house was really annoyed with her, but what about Lay? Or Baekhyun? Both of them had been nothing but nice to her, kind and friendly.

“Yeah, like when you’re nervous, angry, sad, excited, but to a very high degree.” Sumin nodded, shoving her spoon in as she talked.

“Oh.” Yoomi blinked.

“I also hear it’s common with mates, but that’s really rare,” Jinwoo added dismissively before scolding Sumin gently for trying to speak with a spoon shoved down .

“Mates?” Yoomi frowned at the word but stored the newly learned fact away for later- it would help with her history project. Thinking about the project just stressed her out as she realized they hadn’t made any progress on it since that day in the library, and even then they didn’t get anything done. Kai was far too distracting. “You know Jinwoo, you’re more helpful than my actual project partner,” she muttered under her breath to herself. However, her friends heard her and Sumin jumped on the topic change in a flash.

“Oh yeah, you and Kai are doing your history project on mates, right?” she asked, already knowing the answer. She didn’t wait for Yoomi to reply, the question completely rhetorical, before she continued on with a smirk. “How’s that going? Anything interesting happen between you two?”

“Sumin,” Yoomi groaned, wanting nothing more than to bang her head against the table, which she would’ve gone ahead and done if there wasn’t a bowl of cereal in front of her at the moment.

“Stop harassing Yoomi,” Jinwoo threw in as he tried to hide his amused smile.

“What?” Sumin blinked exaggeratedly in a show of innocence, though the smirk still lingering on her lips contradicted her false tone. “It’s just a harmless question.”

“Speaking of questions,” Yoomi broke in quickly before Sumin could keep teasing her, “what’s this weekly battle thing listed on today’s schedule?” She really was curious about it, having heard it mentioned briefly before in her tour with Lay. She wondered what it was exactly, despite the name sounding pretty self-explanatory, and what it would mean for her. Would she have to participate? Would she get to watch?

“Well, it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like,” Jinwoo answered, both of them ignoring Sumin as she pouted quietly to herself about Yoomi changing the subject once more, making her unable to get her gossip. “Each week, students sparr in the arena. It’s sort of an evaluation of their powers and abilities.”

“Come on now, Yoomi-ah, let’s go. We can explain it to you more once we actually get there,” Sumin said hurriedly while tugging on the girl’s elbow to get her to stop eating.

Soon after they put away all their dishes, the three friends were on their way, headed to The Spire which housed the battle arena. Yoomi was astounded by how many students were already there, looking around at the filled bleachers with awe. She was dragged to a rather empty section by Sumin, which she and her friends then claimed as their spot. They were about halfway up the steps on the bleachers and had a clear view of the open field below that would be the battle arena once the matches actually started.

“So, how does this work?” Yoomi asked, bouncing a little in her seat with excitement. It was easy to get swept up in the atmosphere.

“Well, a different year level competes in the battles each week,” Jinwoo began explaining first, always the most helpful one. “This week, it’s the second years. Their names are randomly paired up from some generator system. Then they have to fight till one student wins and the judges, who are a panel of teachers and trainers, time them and give them scores and advice on how to improve.”

“How-”

“Yoomi-ah!” Suddenly, Yoomi was tackled by a blur of brown, blue, and too much energy. Baekhyun pulled back enough so that she could see his wide grin but still kept her held in a loose side hug. “I missed you!” Yoomi couldn’t help but laugh and return his smile with equal enthusiasm despite her shock at his appearance and tackle-hug. She was admittedly flustered as well, squirming a little in his hold. She wasn’t uncomfortable, but she wasn’t used to such signs of affection from guys, and especially not out of the blue like that either.

“Good to see you too, Baekhyun su-” she paused at his playful glare and quickly corrected herself with another chuckle, cheeks dusting with a light pink, “oppa.”

“Oppa?!” Yoomi could faintly hear Sumin whisper-squeal in the background, though it barely registered with her at first. Oh, she was so going to hear about this later in their dorm room. At the moment, however, she was still trying to calm her heart, which had rapidly picked once she realized Baekhyun was here, hugging her and smiling at her so happily like that.

“Yah!” A new voice called out, catching everyone’s attention. “Why’d you just run off like that?”

“Sorry,” Baekhyun laughed, sounding not sorry at all, as he finally released Yoomi, allowing her heart to beat at a normal rate again. Now that she was a little more relaxed, she curiously looked over at the newcomer that was clearly friends with Baekhyun. It was yet another boy in the royal blue uniform screaming S-rank. This one was just the slightest bit taller than Baekhyun, with fluffy, dark hair, a beautiful, slightly lopsided smile, and playful dark brown eyes. Yoomi was seriously beginning to think that it wasn’t fair how attractive some of the vaeli she had met were, namely the boys from the S-class. When he glanced her way, feeling Yoomi’s gaze on him, his eyes flashed a brilliant, electric blue. They could almost be considered cobalt, they were so vibrant, with little white flecks inside. Yoomi wondered what strong emotion he must be feeling at that moment, but her unvoiced question was answered not even a second later when he tackled her in a tight hug very much like Baekhyun had.

“New girl!” he shouted with more excitement than Yoomi thought was possible, throwing his arms around her. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to meet you.”

“W-what?” If Yoomi had been flustered before from Baekhyun’s actions, then she was definitely shocked now. Her face had exploded into a light shade of red, she stuttered, and she could feel her heart pounding so fiercely against her ribcage that she was sure it was going to break free. Unlike before, she couldn’t control her reaction at all, because this wasn’t her new friend hugging her, but a complete stranger- an attractive complete stranger. Not to say that Baekhyun wasn’t good looking either, because he definitely was, but- Oh god, what are you even thinking Lee Yoomi?! She freaked out in her head.

“Yah, Jongdae!” Baekhyun protested, whining at his friend as he tried to pull the other boy off her. “Yoomi’s mine.” As if realizing what he said, his eyes widened and he quickly backtracked, laughing nervously. “I mean, she’s my friend. A-and you’re freaking her out!”

“Right, sorry!” The boy, Jongdae, who apparently had no concept of personal space, let her go with a happy laugh. Like Baekhyun, he didn’t sound apologetic at all. He had a nice laugh, very musical, Yoomi noted somewhere in the back of her mind, still a little dazed. “I’m Chen, third year, Hand of Lightning, and you’re Lee Yoomi!” he spoke excitedly still, as if she was some sort of celebrity he had been anxiously looking forward to meeting. She blinked, not sure how she was supposed to respond and fighting to even hear his introduction over the sound of her still too-loud, racing heart.

“Hello, sunbaes,” Sumin’s and Jinwoo’s voice sounded from next to Yoomi, the both of them bowing their heads in greeting at their seniors. Yoomi didn’t miss the look Sumin sent her way either as she raised her head from the short bow, though she wished she did because it did not help in calming down her flustered mind or sort out her jumbled thoughts at all.

“Can we sit with you guys?” Baekhyun blurted out, a sheepish grin appearing immediately after the question.

“Of course!” Sumin agreed quickly before either of her friends could do anything about it, sending what she probably thought was a secretive wink Yoomi’s way. However, the gesture was obvious and made Yoomi want to die, the poor girl really wishing that she could make the lingering heat vanish from her cheeks and get her complexion to return to normal. To her further embarrassment, and very slight horror, Jinwoo seemed to agree with their meddling friend.

“Of course, sunbaes,” he smiled at them politely. “There’s plenty of room next to us for you to sit.”

“Thanks!” Chen plopped down next to Yoomi like it was nothing. His eyes were still sparkling, although now that she was able to get a closer look at them, she could see a spark of mischief underneath all of his excitement, leading her to believe that he knew exactly what he was doing when he hugged her.

“Oh!” Baekhyun’s voice dragged her attention away from her new acquaintance and she turned to see him waving frantically at someone walking by in front of them. Following his gaze, it wasn’t hard to spot who he was calling out to. There was a whole group of other boys dressed in the same royal blue uniform that he was, most of whom she recognized and some of which she had never seen before. “Over here, guys!” he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth to make his voice louder.

Yoomi could hear Sumin squeal from beside her, sounding even more excited than she was about soufflé earlier that week. “Oh my gosh, Yoomi-ah! You should’ve come sooner if you were going to bring such good luck to me!” Yoomi would have given her friend a strange look for her comment if her attention hadn’t already been caught by someone else first.

“Hello, Lay sunbae,” she greeted with a friendly smile, which he returned, flashing his cute dimples at her.

“It’s nice to see you again, Yoomi-ah.”

“I don’t believe we have met,” a new, smooth voice stole her eyes away from Lay. Standing beside the dark haired senior was a handsome boy with perfectly styled, swooping brown hair and an ultra neat uniform, everything tucked in and crisply pressed into place. What stunned Yoomi about his appearance though, was that he looked familiar and it only took her a second to place him, recalling the boy in the blue uniform she had accidentally crashed into on the subway. Yoomi wondered if he remembered her as well and awkwardly shifted in her seat. “I am Kim Junmyeon, but please call me Su-”

“Subway boy?” she blurted out, unable to help herself. She mentally winced. Of course his nickname wasn’t subway boy, but she couldn’t help but be curious and wonder if he remembered her or not. There was also something else that bothered her, a familiar tugging in the back of her mind when she heard his full name. “I mean, uh, we, uh, ran into each other on the subway once. Sorry about that again.” Yoomi chuckled nervously to herself, wondering just what it was about him that made her act so flustered. Even back when they had first met at the subway she had been dazed by his presence and not acting like herself.

Before further introductions could be made, Yoomi heard Jinwoo’s sharp intake of breath from behind her, which then caused him to choke.

“Suho-sunbaenim!” Jinwoo finally managed out after he had gotten back control of his breathing. “I..I-I never ex-expected to, uh, it’s an honor to meet you, sunbaenim!” He all but yelled out, which was very out of character for someone usually so composed like Jinwoo. He and Sumin both stood up to bow at him, and Yoomi hastily followed, recalling that this Suho-sunbaenim was supposedly a very well respected senior, as well as the person Jinwoo had declared his role model.

Suho chuckled quietly at the sight of his juniors, the sound strangely sending tingles all over Yoomi’s body- the good kind of tingles. Yoomi decided she liked hearing his laugh and felt the urge to do something, anything, just so she could hear it again.

“We, um, met at a subway station a few weeks ago, Suho-sunbae,” Yoomi tried again, much calmer this time, though no less awkward. She wasn’t even sure what she was going on about anymore, but for some reason she couldn’t stop talking. “I bumped into you and we fell.”

“Yes,” Suho smiled at her kindly, amusement in his eyes. “I thought you looked a little familiar. That must be why…” he trailed off, though his voice had slowly gotten quieter and the look in his eyes changed to something almost- sad? Yoomi didn’t like it. She opened to say something, anything, that would cheer him up- she had never liked seeing anyone sad, and despite the fact that they had just officially met, she really disliked the idea of Suho being upset- but before she could, the rest of the group had finally caught up to them and she was interrupted by her fellow first years.

“What’s up, babe? Fancy meeting you here,” Kai joked, signature smirk on his face as he appeared next to his hyung. Sehun was by his side, but refused to look at any of them, arms crossed over his chest and a pout on his face. Yoomi, completely ignoring Kai, lit up at the sight of Sehun, getting ready to thank him again for saving her the previous day. However, Sehun quickly pulled Kai away and went up a few rows in the bleachers to sit with some of their other hyungs, who had settled behind her, Sumin, and Jinwoo. Somehow in the mess and confusion of shifting seats Chen was also removed from her side by a laughing Baekhyun and a grinning boy that looked like a giant Yoomi hadn’t met before, although he did look vaguely familiar so she must have seen him around campus sometime before.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” Suho asked politely from beside her as he took the spot Chen had just left.

“Of course not, sunbae,” Yoomi agreed, a fluttering feeling erupting in her chest as he smile at her in thanks that she tried to ignore.

“I’m a fourth year,” he started, a hand pointing to the four-star pin on his uniform vest, before moving on to another pin shaped like a golden crown next to it. “And the Student Union president. Please do come find me if you ever need anything.”

“Thank you. Oh! I’m, uh, Lee Yoomi, but you probably already know that. And this is Park Sumin and Kang Jinwoo. We’re all first years.” From the corner of her eye, Yoomi saw Jinwoo fidgeting nervously in his seat when she introduced him, and she could barely stop herself from laughing aloud.

Suho opened his mouth to say something, but a click sounded throughout the arena, interrupting him, and everyone in the crowd immediately seemed to hush as a noise similar to a microphone being and tapped came over the intercoms set up in the building. Yoomi herself fell quiet as well, curious about what was happening. Sumin grabbed her arm excitedly and whispered in her ear that the weekly battles were finally getting ready to start, making Yoomi become excited as well. She was really interested to see other vaeli using their powers again, aware that there were still a lot of abilities that she didn’t know of.

“GOOD MORNING, TRILLINS ACADEMY!” A voice practically shrieked out over the sound system, and Yoomi mentally winced as her new sensitive vaeli ears boomed from the volume of the voice.

“That’s a student doing the commentary. He’s from the radio club and god, he can use his voice,” Jinwoo quickly added before the guy from the speakers continued talking, or more like yelling into the mic, in Yoomi’s humble opinion.

“HAPPY SECOND BATTLE OF THE MONTH! Today we have our second years prepared to battle to the de