“It’s not necessary for partners to sleep in the same bed, right?”

Yuju nodded her head sleepily, waiting on their coffee machine to give her the caffeine boost needed to wake up.

“Then why do you think Sowon unnie and Eunha unnie do it so often?”

“Safety in numbers?”

“But then wouldn’t being close to each other be enough?”

Yuju sipped her coffee with the tongue of a cat, just barely touching it to her lips and taking in droplets at a time in a hurry to wake herself up. Hot stuff was bad for , but on a morning where Yerin had woken her up with the orders to watch home base for her, she desperately wanted her consciousness.

“I guess so, try sleeping in the same bed as Umji and report back to me about your discoveries.”

An uncanny blush spread on SinB’s usually cool demeanor, Yuju raised an eyebrow.

“You said that you two didn’t actually do IT, so why are you blushing? Don’t tell me you actually have feelings for our maknae?”

“I…uh…”

SinB fumbled for a good response, her words getting caught in as she tried to spit anything out.

“Good morning, Eunbi, Yuju unnie.”

Umji appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, a hand rubbing her face and her other hand gripping the hem of her large t-shirt that she wore over her short shorts sleepwear, creating the no pants look.

“What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing really important, Sowon unnie and Yerin unnie went out to do something and said they would be back before lunch, it’s a weekend, so we all don’t have classes. I do have something that SinB brought up that I wanted to test, if you would like to help me.”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Tonight, I want you two to share a bed.”

Yuju watched amused, as SinB didn’t move her eyes from the floor.

“I was wondering if partners that slept in the same bed developed the high level technique called resonance.”

“Resonance? A technique that not many professionally licensed warriors can’t do?”

“It’s just a theory, it’s up to you if you want to try it.”

“Alright.”

SinB grabbed Yuju’s mug of coffee and ran off, leaving Yuju just chuckling as Umji looked confused.

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

Having arrived at home base a few minutes prior, Yerin watched as Sowon wrote notes across their large white board that was for some reason provided by the dormitory. There were lines connecting each little detail to another, some stand alone ones were deemed isolated and circled, other’s looked like words caught in a spider web. The one that stood out to her particularly was “pink eyes”.

Connected to it was the notes on the kidnapper, the guy outside the window that looked in on SinB, the illusionist, only the illusionist had a dotted line, it was possible that she had made them appear pink with her magic.

“So, what is your first guess Sowon unnie?”

Sowon tapped her chin with the end of the marker, her left hand on her hip as she glared at the words on the board.

“First thoughts, I’d say this was some sort of possession technique. I haven’t heard of it being an actually ability derived from magic, but the closest thing would be hypnosis. If a person with that ability did exist however, our world would so much scarier.”

“Possession, just because the kidnapper doesn’t remember what he did?”

“Not only that, but because it’s the same pink on each suspect. Even if the illusionist had imitated it, that meant that she had seen them before. I have a nagging feeling that the answer is just on the tip of my tongue, or close to us at all times.”

Sowon turned around quickly, pointing with the end of the marker at the rest of team one who were staring from behind the couch Yerin was sat in, half crouched behind it, unsure whether or not it was okay to listen in on it.

“Thoughts? Tell me anything that comes to mind, suggests, doubts, anything.”

Umji raised her hand as if in a classroom, to which Sowon nodded.

“Could it mean that whoever’s behind this is close to us? Should we be more careful of the people around us?”

“A good idea, keep an eye on your surroundings wherever you go…wait where’s Eunha?”

Umji looked at SinB who looked at Yuju who looked at the door that belonged to Sowon’s apprentice.

“She hasn’t gotten up yet, I don’t think.”

Sowon marched up to the door and knocked politely exactly three times before opening the door, finding Eunha, admittedly adorably asleep in the land of the dreamworld. Checking everywhere to make sure that it was her partner and that she really was just sleeping, Sowon exited the room quietly.

“Any other ideas?”

Yuju then raised her hand, copying Umji’s action.

“Um, could you explain what you think possession is like? Because hypnosis and possession are very different. I get that they’re both intended to control a person, but are you perhaps leaning towards one of the two?”

Sowon hummed, that was a good question. Hypnosis was a natural thing that humans had been doing for a very long time, it was nothing magical.

“My guess is the eyes, hypnosis, if done the usual way, does not involve magic. Even if the eyes do change, for a change in their nature, they don’t usually change colors, so I’m leaning towards the more impossible idea, possession.”

“So, we’re dealing with a person who’s fighting using other people’s bodies?”

“Pretty much.”

Yerin groaned as Yuju then suddenly bounced up and down in excitement.

“We can tell each other a secret that no one else knows! Then we’ll know each other, no matter what!”

“But if they’re in control of you, do you think they have access to the memories?”

Sowon shook her head, a smile finally blooming on her lips.

“No, that’s the one thing magic cannot do, read minds, or manipulate them.”

“But possession is-“

“The taking over of one’s body, it has done nothing to the mind, just displaced it momentarily.”

There was nothing they could do right now but be prepared for whatever was thrown at them next, helping each other with classwork, the girls all took part in a small training session lead by Sowon.

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

congratulations -Timoteo- ! you guessed right! that is...if my google translate helped me understand you right...haha..ha.