It was Nayeon's third year in The Academy. 
 
Monday, training mission day and Nayeon was as excited as she could be. Training missions were her absolute favorite, especially because they all went out of the academy to the outsides of the city, where she used to play as a child, imagining she was slaughtering demons.  
 
There was also the fact that she could get to actually train her skills, out of the classroom. Classes bored her to death. 
 
No one doubted she would get into the academy. She was Im Nayeon, and the Im family were well known for being one of the strongest demon-hunters.  
 
Even so, she had spent years torturing herself and worrying about it before her abilities surfaced, or sort of. But they had surely came and, by the time that happened, Nayeon (albeit a little scared) was more than ready and determined to get into the academy. 
 
They were currently on the bus that would take them to the mission. 
 
Nayeon was sitting next to Mina, whose gaze was transfixed on the world outside the window, even when the other girl talked to her. Despite that, Mina was Nayeon's best friend. 
 
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Mina despised her. She never hated on people, even if they thought she did. It was just that she didn't really care about any of them, but it was different with Nayeon. She wanted, she had, to beat her. 
 
Ever since their first year in the academy, Nayeon had been the top student in all of their classes, leaving Mina always in second place. Clearly, that bothered Mina, but what specially got to her nerves was the fact that Nayeon seemed to never have to put effort into anything, as if she was a natural (which she probably was), while Mina spent her full time trying to be the best.  
 
Of course the universe would deprive her of that and, on top of it, make Nayeon her roommate. Mina always kept a blank face but she almost threw her entire cool out the window the day they assigned Nayeon as her new roommate. 
 
But she kept calm, even after all of that, she didn't hate the girl. Not yet at least. 
 
It all came down the day of the annual hunting skills competition. Despite being practicing for it for the entire year, Mina had gotten second place, once again beaten by the powerful Im Nayeon. Seeing the look of disappointment on her parents face, Mina knew that she had to beat Nayeon next year. She would.   
 
They were holding a party after the competition and Mina had decided to go. Just because the fact of spending the night after her defeat alone, inside their room, watching Nayeon's trophy, sounded pathetic. And who knew what she’d do if she lost her composure next to all of the annoying girl belongings. 
 
And speaking of the devil, she was already there by the time Mina had arrived, and she seemed already pretty drunk even if the night had just started. She was surrounded by some other girls who she vaguely remembered from their class, with a toothy smile on her face, laughing at every word she heard. They were in the middle of a truth or dare game as Mina decided to go grab a drink. In the midst of it she caught a glimpse of what they were saying and suddenly she was next to the crowd observing the game. 
 
“So Nayeon, when...”, the guy, who seemed to be a freshmen, started saying then hiccupped and continued, “...did you get your abilities?” 
 
Nayeon, with cups stuck to both sides of her head reminiscing demon horns, seemingly way past a little drunk, snorted, ”that's an easy one, I think it was..”, her words trailed off as she started counting with her fingers, her body falling a little to the side, “... oh yeah, it was like seven years ago I remember now I was given...”  
 
At that moment Mina ‘tripped’ over someone in the crowd and spilled her drink on Nayeon before she could finish, “Oh my god, I'm so so sorry. Come on, let me help you clean up” and with that, she dragged a confused, and very wasted, Nayeon out of the party. 
 
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Nayeon had already sobered up as Mina ordered a second coffee, “how are you holding up?” 
 
“I’m a ” she heard Nayeon’s muffled voice, her face against the table’s surface. 
 
“I mean, I already knew that but at least you could lift your head from the table, loser” she took a sip from her dark coffee as Nayeon slowly raised her head, her hair being a mess but smiling anyway. 
 
“Listen, I just wanted to thank you. You saved my back at the party. But how did you know...” a pause, confusion mixed with a tinge of fear were painted across Nayeon’s expression. “You talk in your sleep, you know” the younger girl answered looking at her coffee, “and sometimes you have nightmares. Having super hearing is great when hunting, not that great when you’re trying to sleep” 
 
A small “oh” escaped an embarrassed Nayeon as she realized what this meant, but another question popped in her head, “okay but if you knew all along, why did you never say anything? I know im not your favorite person in the world so, why did you kept this?”  
 
The other girl looked up at her for a second, and that was the first time Nayeon had ever saw Mina look at her with anything but hate in her eyes. It looked like guilt, maybe she had thought about telling people before but considered not to.
 “I know we’re not friends, and it’s a fact that I don’t necessarily stand you, but I wouldn't like to see your head on a stick either” She observed the way Nayeon slightly recoiled after she said that, looking pretty vulnerable and, for the first time, Mina had felt bad for her. The girl at being nice but, in an attempt to make Nayeon forget about her sensitivity lacking answer, she offered her a cookie.  
 
Nayeon, surprised by this act of kindness coming from a mayorly hostile Mina, released the tension she didn't knew she had been holding, and her laugh filled the empty coffee shop. She could have sworn she saw the smallest of smiles growing on Mina’s face.  
 
She took the cookie, split it in two and held half of it for the short haired girl to take, “Here. Did you know splitting a cookie means we’re gonna be friends forever?”. Mina, arms crossed over her chest, looked at her, looked at the reduced cookie, and looked at her again, “you just completely made that up didn't you”, Nayeon didn't have to answer, her smile gave her away, but Mina took the cookie anyway, ”just cause I'm hungry”, she tried to look uninterested even though she was visibly amused by this. 
 
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The next year Mina won first place at the annual competition. She suspected Nayeon had something to do with that but the girl denied it everytime she inquired her. 
 
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Because of her attitude and coldness, that besides a resting face, most of the kids there were afraid of her (not that she cared anyways). But Nayeon was the only one who didn't give a about it, and she stuck around her since the minute Mina made her that favor.  The older girl meant what she said the day they split that cookie. 
 
And she always kept her promises. 
 
Mina really appreciated Nayeon, despite never really showing it, and even less giving Nayeon the satisfaction of hearing it. That's just the way Mina was with everybody and she was not willing to change it anytime soon. 
 
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It took them 30 minutes to get to the city, and an hour to get to the periphery.  
 
As Nayeon descended from the bus she was approached by Jihyo, whom she had known since primary school, and Dahyun, who she quickly bonded with at the academy. 
 
"Hey Nabongs, need some backup today?” Jihyo said remembering how in the last two missions Nayeon had asked them to cover her back. They never asked why and just went along with it (partly because they were good as a team but also because Nayeon had seemed a little shaken from the last mission before those, and they didn't want to upset her). 
 
"No, thanks. I think I'm going solo today" Nayeon smirked, she felt much more confident than she had felt in past missions and she was happy she got through that. 
 
"Okay, but if there's anything you need, just whistle" and with that Dahyun took off jogging backward, while trying to control her laughter, turning around as Nayeon gave her the middle finger. 
 
The er knows damn well I can't whistle, thought Nayeon, still with a grin on her face. 
 
"Here", Jihyo handed Nayeon a walkie-talkie "We'll have it on at all times so... you know, I know it's just training but, you never know what might happen" 
 
Nayeon was grateful to have them as friends. Dahyun, always lightening the mood, and Jihyo, taking care of them. 
 
"Thanks, Jihyo. If anything happens I'll let you know" placing her arm over the younger girl's shoulders, Nayeon walked with her towards Dahyun, Mina, and Tzuyu (Mina's friend which Nayeon suspected hated her. But then again, she got the same vibe from Mina when she first met her and they ended up being best friends). They were heading to the bunch of students circling the mission supervisor, and headmaster of the academy, Park Jinyoung. 
 
"Listen, kids," As everyone gathered, he started with the directions for the training "we have an easy field recognition task today, you will divide as you please and explore the area. We’ve chosen this place where you will be safe but you're also not given the comfort of the city. Study your surroundings and try to remember the path you've traveled because we will be tracing a map when we come back" With a clap of hands from him, everybody parted their ways and ventured into the intricate area of the city's periphery. 
 
Nayeon seemed to be the only one to go on her own. She couldn't blame anybody though, this was unknown territory and most people preferred to be in groups for this. But the girl loved to do this on her own, even if she enjoyed being around people, she also needed to be alone from time to time and missions like this were perfect for that. It was just her and the forgotten city to explore. 
 
The sky was clouded, but it wouldn't be for long, the clouds were dissipating and there were no chances of heavy rain soon.  
 
The path Nayeon took was pretty abandoned. It was the old part of the city which laid now before her, destroyed. When the demons started roaming through that part of town, the people living there started to move out. It was either that or living in fear. As there were no humans to hunt down or have fun with, demons had nothing to do there anymore, so it was soon deserted and now all you could see were old, broken down buildings. Nonetheless, Nayeon liked it, she was tracing a mental map of every pile of dirt she saw, every long-gone house, it fascinated her. 
 
The excitement was running through her veins. Even if they told her this was completely safe, she knew how demons liked to play and sometimes ended up in places they shouldn't be, but she wasn't scared... or that's what she was telling herself after she heard the sound of what sounded like someone tripping and falling on the floor (or at least that's what she could pick up from it), coming from the one building that wasn't completely in ruins. Yes, the only thing left was the structure, but even so, it was the best you could get there. 
 
She gathered courage from wherever she could find it because she wasn't going to let what happened last time happen again. Carefully she approached what was left of that place, not that it was much anyway. There were no walls beside the one she was sneaking behind. 
With the utmost silence, she got to the corner and peaked her head from the right end of the wall to try and catch a glimpse of what could have caused the noise. 
 
Lifting from the ground (Nayeon's assumption was right, somebody had fallen), there was what seemed to be a pretty shaken girl wearing a dark, military green jacket with the hood on. Acting out of impulse, Nayeon rounded the corner of the structure she was hiding behind and jogged a little so she could get to help her, thinking it might have been one of her classmates that got separated from their group. 
 
As she got close she held a hand out for the girl in front of her to stand up, "Hey, umm, need help there?" 
 
The girl, a little hesitant at first, grabbed it and lifted her head to look at the owner of the hand. That's when Nayeon saw it.