After Baekhyun lashed out like that, Ara hadn’t spoken a word about their past even though she was curious. They needed time to cool down, and something that personal required a much stronger bond than they had now. Sehun and Baekhyun hadn’t even made up yet, and Ara took it upon herself to first mend their relationship and spend more time together.

Which thus led to now.

Sehun was in the far end of the couch while Baekhyun was at the other. Ara had left for the kitchen to prepare a large bowl of popcorn for movie night, as well as a few drinks. She came back to see Sehun still flipping through the movie options on the TV while Baekhyun silently watched.

“Could you help me, please?” Ara used her head to nod over to the coffee table since her hands were full. Sehun had finally chosen a movie when Baekhyun helped her to arrange the table. She plopped onto the middle of the sofa, popcorn in her hands. “What did you choose?”

“A horror movie,” Sehun shrugged as he went back to his seat. “Have you watched it?” the blonde asked as the title of the movie appeared on the screen. He wanted to choose something that neither of them had watched before.

Ara shook her head, and the movie started.

Ara wouldn’t say she was a big fan of horror movies, but she wasn’t super terrified of them. The plots were usually quite intriguing, but she hated the jump scares that came out unexpectedly.

The lead was currently looking under her bed to find the source of the weird voice that was calling her, and Ara’s toes clenched up as she curled her legs on top of the couch. The bowl of popcorn was sitting between her thighs and her stomach, while her hand had paused halfway from throwing a piece of popcorn in . Her other hand gripped the edge of the bowl tightly, and she waited anxiously for the scare.

The lead turned her head to the right. Seeing nothing there, Ara’s breath hitched, and she was certain that the ghost would appear on the lead’s left. Ara had only prepared for her body to flinch, but she found herself screaming along with the lead.

And it was because of a certain someone.

“Boo!”

The popcorn in her hand dropped, and the rest of it jumped from the bowl that was nestled in her lap. Ara placed a hand on her chest, trying to calm her heart down as she sent a glare towards the culprit.

The cackling belonged to none other than Sehun, who had a hand on his tummy as he howled with laughter. Baekhyun had only giggled, his hand covering his mouth.

“You should’ve seen your face!” Sehun tried to say between breaths as he continued to laugh. Annoyed by his antics, Ara grabbed a handful of popcorn and threw it at his direction. The blonde didn’t even try to block it.

“Haha, very funny,” Ara’s voice oozed with sarcasm, although her face said otherwise. She tried to hide her smile as she watched the blonde laugh. His laughter was strangely similar to a certain red-haired character from Sesame Street.

Picking up her bowl of popcorn, Ara stood up and moved her seat to the left.

“Now I’ll sit here because I know Baekhyun won’t do that to me,” Ara gave the quiet boy a cute grin before sitting down beside him. There was a bit of space between their bodies, but their knees were lightly grazing each other’s. “Right, Baek?”

“S-sure,” he didn’t know why he stuttered. 

It wasn’t exactly a very close contact, but the way the faint scent of the girl’s fruity shampoo invaded his senses and the way he could feel her body heat from the little space between them made Baekhyun flustered.

“Whatever,” Sehun childishly retaliated before he stuck his tongue out at the pair. Ara did the same, and Baekhyun could feel a little tingle up his leg when the girl’s knee grazed over his as she fought with sehun.

They had gone back to watching the movie after a while, although a little longer on Baekhyun’s part because his mind was somewhere else. Or rather someone else.

“Could you pass me my drink, Sehun?”

Ara had gotten each of them different drinks. Soda for Baekhyun, chocolate milk for Sehun and a banana milk for herself. At one point in time, Sehun had already finished his drink, and made a go for Ara’s. Ara had protested, but she decided to let it go upon seeing the pleading look on his face.

After picking up her drink from the coffee table and taking a sip, the boy had placed the carton on the small table beside him.

Sehun looked at the pair before looking back at the milk carton. A mischievous smile crept up his face, and he wrapped his fingers around the drink before raising it high above his head.

“If you want it, come and get it.”

Huffing, Ara removed herself from her seat and made a grab for her drink. Baekhyun realised that he strangely missed the warmth beside him as he tried to keep his eyes on the movie, a tiny, unconscious pout on his face.

With a scowl on her face, Ara’s knees pressed against the couch as she reached for the drink in Sehun’s hand. “Give it, you brat.”

“Nuh-uh,” Sehun tried to move his hand further. “Because you called me a brat.”

Sehun found joy in annoying and bickering with Ara. It was fun. Entertaining. Human-like.

But for some strange reason, his body felt lighter at the fact that she was paying him attention instead of touching knees with someone else.

♤ • ♡ • ◇ • ♧

Ara stared up at the building that used to be her house.

She had dreaded coming back, even though her uncle was considerably nicer to her now that she had a Warrior of her own. Her aunt was still rather indifferent, but she didn’t comment as much.

Uncle Chae had contacted her occasionally when she was at the Academy, which was a surprise because he usually didn’t care about what she did. He asked about her classes and how training was progressing, but never asked how she was doing on her own. Whether she was having enough sleep, having difficulty with adapting to her new life or making new friends. Ara had been quite delighted when Uncle Chae first started calling to check on her, but after a few calls did she realise that he was calling to check on her progress and not exactly his niece.

Which was why she refused to return to her house even though students were allowed to during the weekend. It was more relaxing spending time with her new friends than her relatives, because this building was not a home, and just a house.

“Are you going to go in, Ara?”

The girl didn’t turn her head to look, but the voice that registered in her head was Baekhyun’s. She hadn’t told him about her aunt and uncle, so his confusion about her hesitation to enter was understandable. Sehun just gave the shorter a look that told him to drop it.

The girl took in a deep breath, and twisted her key into the lock.

“Ara! Finally, you came,” the deep, gruff voice that only belonged to Uncle Chae greeted her as she stepped through the front door. Sehun and Baekhyun stood behind her, their guard up once they saw the rigidness in the girl’s shoulders. She mustered a small smile.

“Yeah,” Ara paused as her eyes flitted to her aunt who was getting off the couch. “I was busy.”

“Training hard, I presume,” Aunt Chae had finally stopped behind her husband, her arms akimbo. “To make up for your lack of contribution the last few years.”

Ara felt a vessel pop in her head, but kept her cool. She was only going to be here for half an hour.

Uncle Chae’s eyes flickered past his niece’s shoulder, a satisfied grin growing on his face. “I see you found yourself another Warrior.”

Ara turned her attention to Baekhyun, whose gaze had hardened upon making eye contact with the fifty-year-old. He didn’t like him already.

“This is Baekhyun,” Ara's eyes flickered between him to her uncle and aunt, and then turned to the blonde. “And this is Sehun. You’ve met him already.”

“I heard its another S-rank,” Aunt Chae’s voice piped up again. “We’ve heard many things from the school.”

“You’re keeping tabs on me?” the girl asked a very obvious question, although she had expected the school to say nothing until some parent-teacher meeting. These two had a very prominent lack of trust in their niece, and now that she wasn’t living with them anymore, it became even more obvious.

“Why of course,” Aunt Chae’s tone was mocking. “How else would I have known that you are still behind Somin?”

That was a blatant jab, and Ara’s strong face crumbled a little.

Witnessing the whole situation in front of him, Baekhyun now knew why Ara had been hesitant to visit.

Ara cleared , trying to calm her emotions. “My purpose for coming here was this.”

She pulled out her approval slip from her shoulder bag and handed it to her uncle. They probably already knew about her trip, but she still felt obliged to inform them about what it was about. “Field trip to the Labyrinth Forest.”

“That is quite a dangerous place,” Uncle Chae commented as he looked over the paper. Ara’s eyes widened a fraction at his tone. Was he worried?

“But you’ll have both of them with you,” Aunt Chae added on as she peeked over her husband’s shoulder to look at the paper. She then snatched it out from his hands and grabbed a pen to sign it. “It’s a good opportunity to train better.”

Ara felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders once she got back her signed paper. She could finally leave!

“Thanks,” Ara stuffed the slip back into her bag and prepared to leave. But apparently, she wasn’t done yet.

“Wait,” Ara stopped in her tracks, her eyes staring at the ground below as Sehun and Baekhyun remained silent. Their eyes were saying lots of things, but Ara couldn’t decipher them right now. Her uncle’s next words almost made her heart stop.

“We’re sending you to the Training Centre.”

♤ • ♡ • ◇ • ♧

Ara fell on her bed with a deep sigh.

“Why do I have to go there?”

Flabbergasted, she had protested against going to the Training Centre. It was filled with rich and powerful kids, and she had enough of those kind of people at the Academy.

“Ara,” Baekhyun called out as he sat on a beanbag. “Isn’t it a good thing? It can help you get stronger,” the boy commented as he looked over at the bed. “Isn’t that what you want?”

Ara sat up as Sehun nestled himself against her door. His eyes followed her movements, still not saying anything.

Baekhyun did have a point, because when the blonde first got to know her, Ara was obsessed with getting recognition from her peers and relatives. So why was she refusing the opportunity now?

“I do,” the girl bit her lip and played with her fingers. “It’s just that…the Centre is filled with people that are on a much different league and have way more experience,” Ara covered her face with her palms. “Why would Aunt and Uncle Chae suddenly want to send a complete newbie there when they didn’t give a rat’s for half my life?”

“It’s because you have us now,” Sehun stated the obvious. It was simple. Her aunt and uncle were disappointed in her for as long as the years in which she didn't have a single card, and even if she did now, it was obvious that they still held some sort of scrutiny against her. Their opportunity to mold her into a useful chess piece in their chessboard for power came as soon as she acquired the Wind user, and sending her to the Academy was just standard procedure. But since Sehun was no ordinary Air Element, it was only necessary that her aunt and uncle send her for exclusive training to further enhance their power. Adding Baekhyun to the mix just further strengthened their desire for her to get stronger, just so their niece could become the perfect pawn.

Ara knew that, Sehun knows that she did. She knew that her aunt and uncle were superficial like that, it came as no surprise. But she had expressed that she was willing to do anything to get stronger and rub it in her relatives’ faces, so why wasn’t she more excited about this? The blonde gave Ara a questioning look from his seat at the door.

The blonde soon got his answer for his unasked question.

“I’m scared.”

That was certainly not an answer both Warriors expected.

“I feel like I just entered this world, even though I was kind of in it the whole of my life. I do want to prove myself, but after that whole thing with Somin, I know that I’ll never be good enough.”

So that’s why.

To be honest, Sehun had noticed that Ara’s confidence plummeted after the whole fight with her cousin. Outside of school, she hadn’t asked to train with him and Baekhyun as much as she used to. It looked quite the opposite when she duelled with Yeri, but her determination to do something for her friend was what fuelled her instead of her self-esteem. She had relied a lot on luck too.

Baekhyun was shocked. He never would’ve thought that the girl who pushed him to have more confidence in himself would have that kind of insecurity. She was always so bubbly next to them, but her insecurities really revealed themselves when they went back to her old house.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Baekhyun heard Sehun say. “Your worth isn’t dependent on things like that. Believe in yourself. It’s only important when you’re good enough for no one other than yourself.”

From the corner of his eye, Baekhyun could see that Sehun's attention was fully focused on the unconfident girl when he said that, and if he had looked away just a split second later, he would have missed the slight wandering of his eyes towards his own form.

The light-user felt his chest grow warm at the taller’s words.

Removing her hands from her face, Ara intertwined them together and put them on her lap. Sehun’s words did make sense. She wondered where he got his ability to give pep-talks.

Sending the blonde an appreciative smile, she swung her legs over the side of her bed and took a deep breath. He was right.

“Thanks, Sehun.”