Yerin held Yuju’s hand as they walked to the cafeteria, Yuju leading the way. The leader was still undecided on what to do, would she drag the two freshmen who had just started their academy lives into this fight? Was it worth it to ruin their lives? Surely Sowon had taken into consideration that Umji was her little sister before she asked right? If that was the case, then wouldn’t it be okay to accept Sowon’s request?

Mumbling quietly to herself, Yerin let Yuju place a food tray in her hands and push her along to get all the dishes and side dishes available for today’s menu. Sitting down as Yuju pushed her to an open seat and pressed on her shoulders to get her to sit, she even put the utensils in her hands before sitting across from her. Taking a bite of her own food, Yuju sighed and called Umji.

“Muji ah, are you almost at the cafeteria?”

“Almost, I think I see Eunbi in front of me.”

“You mean SinB? Or Eunha?”

“SinB, I don’t dare call Eunha unnie without honorifics you know!”

Yuju laughed and told her to hurry up so they could eat together before turning back to Yerin who was still, frozen in place with her eyes focused on something in front of her, but nothing at all.

“Yerin unnie, you should just make a decision and go with it to the end.”

“It’s not that simple!”

“Then tell me. Tell us why it’s not that simple.”

The hesitation that appeared on Yerin’s expression made Yuju falter, in case Yerin was really considering something really important, she reached over to hold her hand reassuringly.

“You’re our leader, we will follow you no matter what decision you make.”

“Why don’t you just tell us if you can’t decide on your own. We can all be part of the decision.”

Yerin looked up as SinB sat beside her, clanging her food tray on the table obnoxiously as if declaring her leader was a slow-witted fool. Her side smirk didn’t help Yerin relax, but Umji’s quick foot connected with SinB’s shin making it disappear in a flash.

“I just don’t want any of us to die.”

“Hey, don’t go killing us off that easily, we’re team one after all. You haven’t even seen my full potential.”

SinB comically flexed her arms as Umji giggled. Yuju smiled and rubbed her thumb on the back of Yerin’s hand gently, catching her attention again.

“See? SinB’s even being a dork to cheer you up, come on. Whatever it is, we can handle it.”

“Fine.”

Giving into Yuju’s pleading voice, she pulled her team together for a quick mini meeting, her arms around Yuju and SinB’s shoulders to put their heads close and keeping things confidential.

“Sowon unnie has a trouble, one that the headmaster has been keeping secret from us. This school is under attack and Sowon unnie is the only one dealing with it and doing her best to protect the school. I don’t understand why this has to be a secret, nor do I know why Sowon unnie is alone in this issue, but I do know that we are not helpless people who need protection.”

She looked each of her members in the eyes carefully, getting a nod of confirmation from each of them.

“There’s a chance that we may get hurt, do you guys understand that?”

“Unnie, you’re making it seem like we’ll really lose a limb or something.”

“Because it’s possible. You saw how Eunha was, do you think you could’ve been in her position and made it out alive?”

They remained quiet for a bit at that. Yerin sighed and hugged them tighter just a little.

“This is why I was worried, if you’re afraid of fighting against people, against humans, let me know and I will tell Sowon unnie.”

“Someone once said that our demons are always within us, I don’t think that’s an issue.”

“Yewon ah, it’s not that simple we might have to-“

“I know, but I want to be useful to my sister.”

“And I just want some action.”

“And I just want us to be us.”

The group remained still as Yerin sighed and hung her head. She looked back up and kissed each girl on her side’s cheeks before attempting to reach across to Umji who squeaked and backed away, breaking their little protective circle they had over their lunch table.

“Let’s just relax and hang back until Sowon unnie needs us then.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eunha bounced on the balls of her feet gently, warming up for her lessons with Sowon. After yesterday’s session of igniting her fingertips, she was wondering what today would be, as long as it wasn’t more igniting flames, she wouldn’t mind it much. Stretching to reach her toes, she stood straight when she heard a giggle.

“Mwo, you got shocked by hearing me? You should’ve noticed me entering, haha!”

“Sorry.” Eunha gathered her hands in front of her and stood at attention to Sowon, but the senior was still laughing terribly. “Why are you laughing?”

“It’s just-ahah! You seemed so-hahaha! So small!”

Puffing her cheeks out in annoyance, Eunha crossed her arms and huffed.

“You’re just freakishly tall okay, I’m not short by any means.”

“True, but it’s not like I interacted with another student this closely before, our height gap is uncanny.”

Sighing with a given up small smile, Eunha allowed Sowon to have her laugh. When Sowon was done snickering to herself, she sat Eunha down in front of her, legs crisscrossed, and body relaxed.

“What are we doing today?”

“Today, we’re going to learn more about each other, just a little bit before I get into the physical experience part.”

“Why?”

“Hmmmm I just think that the more comfortable with each other, the better our communication would be, not that I would know of, seeing as I have been soloing all my years.”

“Yea, why is that actually? I’ve never heard of any student that attended this academy to ever be alone.”

Sowon hummed and twiddled her hands together carefully, swaying lightly back and forth as she collected her thoughts.

“I…how do I say this, I was taken specifically under a certain professor’s wing to be taught, much like you are to me. For some reason, the other kid who was supposed to be under mentor, I never met him, and I still haven’t because he went away for some reason. I don’t know if he went back home or quit school or died on the battlefield, I just never met him and was never associated with him, somehow.”

“But even after that? They didn’t pair you up with anyone.”

“Of course, they did, you.”

“But I-I-“

“You’re plenty enough company to make up for the time I spent alone, come on. Light a flame on your little finger tips.”

“They are not little! And we’re doing flames again?”

“We’re doing it until I can’t put it out in three minutes.”

Eunha pouted but concentrated on bringing the heat to her fingertips, during the training times, Sowon had offered different styles and ways of creating fire, the way you imagined it or felt it traveling through you to direct, or simply making it happen out of experience, the older memory of flames making it easier to make it appear.

Sowon blew a cold gust of air that instantly put out Eunha’s little flame.

“I hope you don’t run out of patience, Eunha yah.”

“I hope I don’t as well Sowon unnie.”

=============

unformatted because I'm a snowman of blankets :P

So YYUS has now joined the fight, Eunha is still training despite the huge secret she's keeping from the others *that note she got previously is very important and Sowon is still trying to become a more sociable mentor, looking at the bright side, the girls are getting more comfortable with each other which will be great and bad for their futures.