Chapter Thirteen

Yoomi and Jinwoo were now on their way to flight training, the class that Yoomi both looked forward to and was reluctant to go to. If she attended flight training, then she’ll be able to practice how to fly, and the sooner she could do that, the better it would be for her. And another plus was that she would also get to see Trainer Moon. The only flight trainer of the academy was good looking, caring, and super charismatic. Plus he was always patient with Yoomi when teaching her, and would keep pushing her to try again no matter how many times she failed. The young girl couldn’t help but to admire the kind trainer and look forward to seeing him again in class.

However, she was also more than a little nervous to go to the class again after what had happened before— while she had mostly recovered from Jihoon’s stunt on the first day of class, his punishment with the Inhibitor would be up today. That meant both his power and his ability to fly would be back, allowing him to attend all of his classes as he normally would, and although she was pretty sure Jihoon was smart enough to avoid a repeat of his punishment and not mess with her, she also had the feeling that he wouldn’t just sit quietly and leave things as they were either. She fully expected him to say something to her at the very least and she wasn’t looking forward to dealing with the arrogant boy that, for some reason, had singled her out with so much dislike and anger. It would also be the first time she saw him since moving to S-class the previous day, and Yoomi was certain that was just going to set Jihoon off even more, especially seeing how it had upset some of the other students, leading them to pick on her and spread more rumors as well. Honestly, Yoomi was so done with everyone’s attitude towards her that she now drowned them out and hardly paid attention to her fellow classmates at all. All she needed were her two best friends, and now maybe the S-class boys as well. She liked them, and they treated her well and never insulted her, at least not seriously. Apart from Xiumin of course.

Shaking off all of the worries and thoughts that plagued her, Yoomi tried to remain optimistic for the class that day. Maybe this time she would finally be able to make some progress and learn to fly higher than a foot off the ground. She really, really wanted to learn how to fly like everyone else. Not only was it cool and practically every kid’s dream growing up, but after her conversation with Xiumin earlier that morning, she was really motivated for all of her training and vaeli centric classes; she was determined to prove him wrong and to reassure herself that she was, indeed, not useless.

When the two friends arrived at the field where their class was held, one of the first things Yoomi noticed was Jihoon and his sharp glare. His jaw was clenched tightly and his angry eyes narrowed even further when he caught sight of her staring at him. His mean gaze scrutinized her, sliding up and down as he took in Yoomi’s new royal blue uniform.

“So, the rumors are true,” he hissed, sneering at her harshly. “I wonder which one of them you had to sleep with in order to get into S-class. Was it you...” his gaze moved to someone else on the other side of the grassy field, smirk blossoming on his face, “Oh Sehun?” He practically spat out the name, venom clear in his voice.

Yoomi followed his line of vision, eyes widening as she saw Sehun staring back at him with an intense glare of his own on his face.

“Huh, Sehun?” Jihoon pressed, angling his face upwards as if he was trying to show off some type of superiority, acting like he knew their so-called ‘secret’. “That must have been the reason you saved her the other day, right?” he mocked, provoking Sehun further. Yoomi subconsciously held her breath, prepared for Sehun to snap and a fight to break out. Instead, all he did was ball his hands into fists by his sides, turn his head away, and let out his trademarked scoff.

“She’s not my type,” his monotone voice answered, though she thought it might have been laced with some annoyance. Yoomi herself was feeling annoyed as well, not having had the best day so far, to begin with, but refused to comment and get dragged into the situation any further; she just wasn’t feeling up to it.

Luckily, before anything else could happen, Trainer Moon came onto the field and gathered everyone around. Yoomi was glad that a crisis had been averted since she would really rather not get into another fight with Jihoon after what she’d been through today, but at the same time, she was upset by what had happened the more she thought about it and allowed the exchange to playback in her head. Is that what people thought of her? That she had bribed or seduced someone in order to get into S-class? Those girls at lunch had asked something similar, so that must be it. Yoomi was both mortified and extremely angry knowing that those were most likely the prominent theories and rumors going around about her. After all, how often would a girl who supposedly had no power or rank suddenly become an S-rank overnight?

Yoomi tried to push it to the back of her mind and focus on learning how to fly, especially when Trainer Moon dismissed everyone else and came over to help her with private lessons like usual, but it was hard not to feel bad about it. Even though she had already decided to dismiss everyone else and focus on the positive influences in her life, it still wasn’t so easy to just wave away the judgemental stares and completely ignore the bad things people thought about her. No matter how strong she was, it still hurt.

“Okay then, Yoomi, are you ready to learn how to fly again?” Trainer Moon asked, smiling down at her and snapping Yoomi out of her thoughts. “Call out your wings, and we’ll get started.” Yoomi quickly did as he said, and this time it was much easier to draw out her wings than it had been before.

“Now, I know you have tried your hardest judging from our past few lessons, but there is something else that you need to overcome before you could ever fly,” he started. “Flying is all about overcoming your fear. Even if some claim not to, everyone has a little bundle of fear in them. Be it the fear of falling, fear of heights, fear of dying. In order to be able to fly, you have to let go of that fear completely. Simply saying, flying is all about ‘just doing it’. You following along?” Yoomi nodded enthusiastically; everything he said had made sense to her so far.

“I’ve laid out a protective mat over here, in case you fall,” he said and lead her to it. “Okay, we’re going to start. I’ll go over the very basics again, in case you have forgotten. Flying takes a lot of focus and concentration for beginners. Are you ready?”

“Yes, sir.” Yoomi answered firmly, hands in fists by her side, determined to get it over with.

“Flapping your wings should be just as easy as calling them out. It’s supposed to be like a primary instinct born within you. Just will them to, and they will. In the future, once you are good enough, you should be able to do it without even thinking about it. Now, why don’t you have a go.” The trainer instructed and Yoomi walked over to the center of the mat. She prepared herself, and thought hard, willing for her wings to flap. Not even a second later, Trainer Moon interrupted her. Having already undergone similar one-on-one lessons the past two classes, she had a pretty good idea of what he was going to say next.

“No, no, Yoomi. For the hundredth time, you are trying way too hard. This is supposed to be a natural reflex. Relax and try again.”

She nodded at him, letting out a disappointed sigh. She couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated as well, because every lesson so far she had been told the same thing and kept making the same mistake. However, now the scolding held another meaning for her— she remembered Xiumin having told her that she was trying too hard earlier in power training as well. Gritting her teeth at the thought, she scoffed and then forced herself to relax. She inhaled deeply and then let it out. She tried again, this time telling herself not to try so hard. She didn’t realize she had closed her eyes, but when she opened them again, Yoomi felt the gentle flurry of wind on her back. She instinctively craned her neck back as much as she could to see her wings fluttering gently. It was weak, but she had done it! Grinning widely, she felt accomplished. Excited since this was the fastest she had ever overcome her mental block during their lessons, she looked up at Trainer Moon, awaiting his approval. He gave Yoomi a kind smile, and she felt even happier.

“Good, Yoomi, now make them beat with more strength and speed.” She wasn’t very good at doing that either, but she had to keep working on it. She willed them to move again, this time not closing her eyes. It took her a few more tries to get the hang of it and establish a steady rhythm, but she succeeded and her wings were beating slightly harder and faster now.

“You will need them to be stronger than that to fly, but that will have to do for now; good job. Normally, vaeli train their wings to be strong enough to pick themselves off the ground, first. But at this rate, you will never be able to fly, so I have thought of another method to use with you. Bend down your knees a little, and push yourself off the ground. Or you could just jump. The rest of the work should be done with your wings. Try it.”

Following his directions, Yoomi bent slightly at the knees, and jumped off the ground. The first time, she came right back down on the ground. Realizing that she had forgotten about the wings part, she tried again. Her wings flapped this time, and she hovered slightly above the ground— for approximately two seconds, and then she was back on the ground again. Her wings couldn’t beat strong enough to hold her body weight above the ground yet. Yoomi heard a little sigh from the trainer, and he told her to keep trying. She went at it over and over again like that for the rest of the duration of the class.

***

By the time Yoomi had made it to her next class, she was still sulking and disappointed in herself for not being able to fly correctly. No matter how many times Trainer Moon had repeated the instructions and tried to help her, she still couldn’t get more than a foot off the ground, just like her last class. She was without a doubt frustrated, but Jinwoo had reminded her after class that these things took time and that she just needed to be patient and keep practicing. Patience wasn’t exactly one of Yoomi’s strong suits, but, keeping in mind her new motto since coming to the academy, which was ‘be positive!’, she agreed to follow his advice and try not to beat herself up over her failure too much.

“What’s with the sad face?” Jongin asked after appearing next to her. They had stealth and survival class together as well, which was the period that they were currently in. She didn’t currently have the energy to entertain him, but he wasn’t entirely an unwelcomed presence either. For the most part, she considered Jongin to be good company— when he wasn’t in one of his flirty moods that is, which, unfortunately, was never.

“Nothing,” Yoomi sighed heavily with a frown. “I just at flying, that’s all.”

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Jongin assured her. “It just takes practice. Speaking of practice,” he began dragging her over to their seats on the edge of the field, “you’re supposed to start coming with us to special S-class training from now on. It’s every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so we’ll head over there after this.”

“S-class training?” Yoomi repeated hesitantly. She knew that she was going to have to go, since she was now a part of S-class, and the days and times were listed on her new schedule, but she didn’t think she would be thrown into it immediately. In fact, she kind of expected to skip it this week, since she had already missed the first two days, and just start next week. She was a bit nervous for it since she was still getting the hang of the whole vaeli deal and all. Plus, her confidence wasn’t the best right now— it was practically rock bottom. If she couldn’t even fly or use her power like a normal vaeli, then how was she supposed to survive special training meant for the superior S-rank vaeli students?

“Cheer up, kitten,” Jongin bumped her lightly with his shoulder, a smirk on his face like always. “I’m here now, so your day has to be a thousand times better just because of that.” Yoomi huffed a small laugh, shaking her head, and he started whining overdramatically.

“Come on, Yoomi! At least a hundred times? Ten? Give me something to work with. I mean, you’re breaking my heart here!” he complained, hand laid flat against his chest in mock hurt. This time, Yoomi laughed for real, feeling a little better. Jongin nodded, pleased with himself for getting her to smile. She hadn’t been having the best of days, so she really appreciated him trying to cheer her up.

“Enough chit-chat, it’s time for class!” The subject’s teacher, Professor Yoon, clapped her hands together loudly and silence fell over the room. The professor for stealth and survival class was famous for being unpredictable and a bit eccentric. She looked young and unassuming, but there were rumors about her judo flipping students that talked back to her or other bizarre punishments for those that caused trouble in her class. At least, that’s what Jongin had told Yoomi on the first day. She never knew whether he was being serious or not and if she should trust him on his intel, but decided to be on her best behavior in the class just to be safe. However, so far Professor Yoon hadn’t done anything too drastic or remotely similar to what the rumors claimed, but Yoomi could definitely tell that she was unique compared to most of the other teachers there at the academy.

“Starting from this period, we’ll be focusing on a couple of survival exercises,” she declared, pacing in front of the class briskly with more energy than any of her students possessed. “The rules are simple. You’ll be partnered up in groups of two or three and over the course of the next few weeks during class, you are to complete various survival tests in preparation for our upcoming trip. As I’m sure you’ve all been made aware, our annual school fall trip is fast approaching.”

“A school wide trip?” Yoomi muttered in confusion. She shut quickly though when Professor Yoon whipped around at the noise and innocently pretended that she had never said anything or made a sound in the first place.

“Our destination is the forest and our activity this year will be camping,” she continued, laying out all of the details for the school trip efficiently and ignoring Yoomi’s accidental interruption, much to her relief. “Each day until we leave, there will be different assignments and exams for you to participate in, assessing your skills. Should you fail, well,” she paused, somehow managing to look intimidating despite her small stature, “then I’m sure it can be arranged for you to sit out on our annual trip. Your safety is most important, after all.”

A couple of the students groaned and next to Yoomi, Jongin rolled his eyes and frowned at the threat. Another thing about their professor for this class was that she was known to be a little harder on students than some of the others, having higher expectations and dealing out stern punishments when they weren’t met. Instead of being worried about it though, Yoomi was mostly still thinking about this school trip she had never heard of before. Of course, she did transfer in late during the middle of the semester, so maybe she just missed the announcement or something. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but her naturally curious and easily distractible nature latched onto the idea of a mysterious school wide trip and ran with it, mind coming up with hundreds of different scenarios.

“Pair up! We’re pitching tents today.” Professor Yoon motioned for everyone to get moving with a flick of her hand. “The tents you will be using on the trip will be enchanted to be bigger on the inside, but in class we will only be working with normal tents.”

Yoomi stayed where she was next to Jongin, admittedly zoning out a little with her thoughts still stuck on the school trip and perhaps also assuming that the flirt and her would just partner up together. They were practically the closest to each other in the class and Yoomi didn’t know who else she would partner up with if not him.

“What camping trip is she talking about?” she asked him curiously, unable to help herself from inquiring further.

“There are two annual school trips here at Trillins Academy,” Jongin answered while waving one hand around casually. “One in the fall and one in the spring. This year, our fall trip is camping for an extended weekend and the one in the spring will probably be longer,” he explained briefly.

“I was never told about it.” The girl frowned. In actuality, it was more of a displeased pout than anything else.

“It’s still a few weeks away,” he informed her with a shrug. “I think it’s supposed to be sometime in October.”

“But doesn’t it cost a lot of money to send the whole university on a trip? Especially if we all go on two a year?”

“Yoomi-ah,” Jongin stared at her for a second like she wasn’t understanding something, then proceeded to wrap one of his arms around her shoulder in a comforting way. He spoke slowly and slightly condescending as if he were explaining something obvious to a child. “We’re rich— Trillins is rich. Of course, we can afford it.”

“Still, why—”

“You two don’t mind if I join your group, do you?” The protesting girl froze at the mocking voice that had interrupted her, recognizing it right away. She looked up, praying that she was wrong about the owner of the voice, and groaned as she was unfortunately proved correct. Choi Jihoon was hovering over the two of them with a smirk on his face, his default expression it seemed. This was Yoomi’s second interaction with him today, and she found that to be two times too many. Talking to him wasn’t healthy, considering all the crap that he spits from his mouth every time he approached her.

He looked amused as his gaze went from Yoomi to Jongin and back. “Does Sehun know you're cheating on him? With his best friend for that matter?”

“Go find someone else to harass, Choi Jihoon,” Jongin demanded, eyes hard and expression no longer the playful one Yoomi was used to seeing on his face, which surprised her greatly. Honestly, since he had dropped her from the sky, she was more intimidated by Jihoon than she would have liked to admit. Of course, Yoomi wasn’t going to let him get the best of her or let Jongin or Sehun, or even Sumin and Jinwoo, fight her battles for her— that simply wasn’t in