Eunha grumbled, angrily marching in the front of the group, almost stepping on Umji’s heels in her impatience.

“Eunha, calm down.”

“How can I? This kid knows where Sowon unnie is and she won’t bring us!”

Soeun pouted, holding SinB’s hand, the little demon had been behaving as a child, SinB could only wonder whether it had been a child who was transformed, or a resurrected being, but asking these questions would be rude, especially when Yewon told her not to.

“Yewon ah, are we there yet?”

“Almost, I can smell the gas of the city.”

SinB hummed, she had been initially afraid of being near Soeun, but her innocent demeanor and the idea that she was there to help them had her questioning her judgement.

“Soeun ah, are you tired?”

“I can’t feel tired, I don’t sleep, not anymore I think.”

“Not anymore?”

Soeun hummed, kicking the ground as she followed along, her hand still holding SinB’s tightly.

“I have the feeling that I know what it feels like to sleep. But I don’t need to? And I can’t anyways. I’ll just keep watch for you overnight.”

“Did Sowon unnie ever tell you that she needed to tell us something?”

“Mm, maybe? But she said this was an if.”

“An if?”

“If you see her and she isn’t nice. She told me that she might be mean.”

SinB was confused, spotting Umji talking with Eunha as they entered the clearing, she sat Soeun on a tree stump and looked her in the eyes.

“Why would she be mean to you?”

“Ohhh because she said that Ryan might lie to her or she might lie to me, but we need to save her.”

“Which is what we are doing?”

“Yea, but like if she says she doesn’t need saving she said that it means she needs help.”

This confused SinB greatly, Brian would lie to Sowon and make her mean? She would say things opposite to what she wanted?

“There was also this girl but I don’t know her name. I wasn’t supposed to talk about her though.”

Soeun got up and walked forwards, as if sniffing the air.

“Hm, if you go into the city I’ll stay out.”

“Why? You said you would protect us?”

“The city smells bad.”

SinB watched with a crooked eyebrow, raised in her confusion as Soeun wandered off. The other girls noticed and watched as well.

“Where’s she going?”

“Patrolling outside the city I guess. Shall we go?”

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

“Hey.”

The other girl didn’t respond.

“I don’t remember who I was, but my name was Sojung apparently.”

Again, silence.”

“Do you have a name?”

“No.”

“Weird, hey can I make you a name?”

“No.”

“That’s not very nice.”

“You just cant call me anything. Refer to me as hey, or you, or whatever, but I cannot be called by a name.”

Sojung hummed.

“Curse?”

The girl only nodded, silently handing over a cloak for Sojung to wear.

“Your appearance has changed, but your power has not. I suggest you go test them out before you get assigned to jobs.”

“I wonder what I could do.”

The girl didn’t respond, Sojung couldn’t tell how the other was feeling, perhaps a sadness? Notice a slight glow under her shirt, she peeked and frowned. Since when was having a glowing tattoo on your chest a good thing? Looking after the girl who was leaving, she was going to call her, but noticed that in the same spot, her shirt glowed slightly as well.

“Huh?”

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

Yuju flopped on the mattress of their hotel room, letting out a groan of relief at the soft texture of the linen on her skin as well as the softness of the mattress on her body.

“Ugh I’ve missed sleeping in beds!”

“Same. I’ll go ahead and shower.”

Eunha left the room, leaving the remaining three teammates alone, they all simultaneously looked at each other at the same time as if all knew that they needed to talk.

Waiting patiently until the water started to run, Yuju spoke with a hushed tone.

“Guys, Eunha is getting stressed just by knowing that Soeun knows where.”

“I know, but the kid is our only shot at finding her, what can we do? Poke the sleeping bear and hope for the best? I think not, we should just do as the kid says.”

Umji hummed, nodding her head.

“I think that the time limit is a prediction, before we can meet her, they are doing something. My suspicion is that the Sojung she speaks of isn’t my sister.”

“Why?”

“I asked her description. Sojung unnie is a tall person, super model body proportions, but she has dark brown hair, even if she could have gotten a scar over her eye, how could her hair become blond?”

SinB bit her finger as she thought, Yuju stared into space.

“What if, Soeunnie is an escaped experiment like in the tv shows? And Sowon unnie was conscious before getting into trouble?”

“You’re suggesting that my sister is being experimented on right now!?”

“It’s a possibility, I agree with Yuju unnie. It might be that the process of the experiment is taking a month long to complete and it could have side effects if it wasn’t done?”

Umji breathed an exasperated sigh.

“You’re both being ridiculous!”

“And you’re not grasping onto these straws with us Yewon ah, are you feeling alright?”

SinB reached to put a hand on her partner’s shoulder, but Umji moved from her reach. She huffed a deep breath and grabbed her things, taking the bathroom as Eunha got out. Eunha noticed Umji’s discomfort and let her be.

“She’s stressed as well.”

“I….”

“SinB yah, you should be more considerate that she doesn’t want her sister to be hurt.”

“You could hear us?”

“Well, you guys were yelling.”

Yuju sighed and flopped back on the bed.

“Do you think we’re doing the right thing?”

“Soeun did say that we needed to save Sojung unnie.”

Eunha looked up.

“She did?”

“Yeah, but with this one-month period, we should go visit Yerin unnie.”

Yuju seemed to protest, opening and closing .

“Now how did we arrive at that? We’re so close to the mountains.”

“Are you afraid of seeing her? Afraid to see her stuck in a wheelchair?”

Eunha covered SinB’s mouth, preventing her from saying more.

“You really need a filter sometimes Hwang.”

“No, she’s right. I’m afraid.”

Eunha sighed. She had originally been the one most conflicted with what to do, but these girls mattered to her just as much in some ways. Looking out the window, she noticed that snow was starting to fall.

“I agree with going to see Yerin unnie.”

“Why?”

“We’ll need winter clothes, besides, if Sowon unnie want’s me to wait one month for her, I will.”

Eunha’s grip tightened around the end of her towel.

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

we gotta gather them together to win back Sowon, right?