Chapter 11

“These look hard,” Hyewon said, scrunching her face as she looked over the literary topics the past exams covered.

“You can do it,” Hitomi said, taking her role as one of the Hyewon’s cheerleaders to heart. She sat on one side of Hyewon, also looking at the list of topics.

“Eunbi Unnie said that you’ve got the best memory and you’ve read the most books. This should be a piece of cake for you,” Yuri added in as the other cheerleader assigned to assist Hyewon. She sat on the older girl’s other side, looking at the list as well.

“How did I get roped into doing this again?” Hyewon asked aloud as she again wondered how she got put in the upcoming friendly competition between the famous Korean schools. “I need to focus on martial arts right now.”

“Too much studying of the qi arts is also bad. Just like rest is important for building your physical body, rest is important for cultivating your qi,” Hitomi said, shaking her head. “This is a good chance for you to take a break.”

“And you’ll be helping us make a name for ourselves. If we do well, we might get invited to the big martial arts tournaments. It’s not a given that we’ll get in just because our school is famous, you know. All of our seniors have left the school to go back to their original schools, so nobody really knows us.” Yuri frowned as she said the last sentence. She never liked bringing up the temporary nature of their school as it always upset her to know that her fellow members would eventually all leave.

Hyewon lifted an arm and put it over Yuri’s head almost unconsciously. She had an innate sense of when the younger members needed cuddling. “How is a non-martial arts competition going to help us?”

Yuri smiled almost immediately as she felt Hyewon’s arm envelop around her neck. “Think of it as a preliminary round of a martial arts tournament. You can definitely get an idea of which schools are strong simply by showing up. And you’d be surprised how many people believe that strong martial artists display cross functional skills. A strong qi arts master for example, could probably be a literary genius, since it means they’ve read a lot and have an enlightened mind.”

Hitomi lifted Hyewon’s other arm and squirmed until she got herself into a hug with Hyewon like Yuri. Like everyone else, Hitomi had become protective of Hyewon ever since they found out how the older girl was hurting herself to improve for the sake of the school. “Which is true with you. Well, you’re not a strong qi arts master yet, but you are improving amazingly fast now that you’re actually putting in the effort to go along with your knowledge of qi arts texts.”

Hyewon sighed as she as she looked back and forth at the two girls in her arms. These two were the clingiest of the girls. “You two just want me to do it, right? I guess I’ll do it.”

“Which ones you need us to help you with? Between me and Hitomi we’ve read many of the Chinese classics that the exams are based on.” Outside of martial arts manuals, Yuri mostly read musical manuals, but she still wanted to be one of the ones that helped Hyewon.

“I’ve read all of the ones on this list already,” Hyewon answered while shrugging at the looks of surprise from the two younger members.

“All of them? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You read all of the books that me, Nako, and Sakura brought from Japan in a couple of months,” Hitomi said, shaking her head in wonderment. “How can we help you prepare then?”

“I’ll just wing it. I’d rather just work on my martial arts. Yes, yes, I heard you about resting. If I can’t cultivate my qi, I can always work on other things like physical arts and divine skills. I’m the worst at all of those too, so I need to catch up in those areas too. I’ll think better if I’m not worried about losing ground to you and everyone else, so you can think of it as me preparing for the competition.” Hyewon was firm in her commitment to becoming a better martial artist the right way this time. She gently lifted her arms up around the two younger girls and put the study list for the competition down. She then got up and walked back to the training grounds without looking back.

Nako swayed to the beautiful music as she listened to Chaeyeon play the gayageum flawlessly. She was really looking forward to the upcoming competition among all the schools. She didn’t really know much about everyone in the school outside of their martial arts abilities and personalities. The competition had given her a chance to learn more about everyone that she loved. “That was amazing, Chaeyeon.”

“Thank you for listening.” Chaeyeon got up and bowed in an extravagant fashion.

“That was great. You can play the gayageum too?” Minju asked as she clapped enthusiastically.

“Just a little,” Chaeyeon answered modestly. “Like all girls that come from well-to-do families, me and my sisters are well versed in all the traditional skills such as playing various zither like instruments. I don’t think I’m as good as Yuri, but I think it’s passable for the competition.”

“Yeah, I remember practicing in all those skills that proper ladies should have. But then I saw a martial arts tournament and I knew I wanted to do something different.” Nako looked wistful as she remembered the path she chose all those years ago.

“I think the story is similar for almost all of us,” Minju said as she remembered her past. “I was just practicing being a lady when a friend of mine became a martial artist. I remember thinking how cool I thought she was and how I wanted to be able to match her.”

“I’m just glad I can still do it. I started my martial arts training pretty early, so I didn’t get as much practice in the other arts as I would have liked for this competition.” Chaeyeon had been a little nervous when she was chosen to be one of the school’s representatives, but some of that nervousness was alleviated by her practice session.

“You guys are so lucky. You get the represent us and our school,” Nako said enviously. “I wish there was more I could do to help us get recognized.”

“Me too!” Minju felt bad that even though she had become older recently, she felt she still wasn’t really contributing to the group as much as her unnies were.

“You two are helping us everyday. All the hard work you’re putting in matters,” Chaeyeon replied with a smile. “I just can’t wait when you two, Yuri, and Hitomi appear at the competition. Even though you won’t be participating, don’t think for a second that people won’t notice the four of you. The strength you emit for your age group will stun everyone.”

“If we don’t get overshadowed by our two maknaes,” Minju said, though she still blushed at Chaeyeon’s praise.

To that Chaeyeon had to agree. She doubted there were any two girls the same age as those two that could outshine them. “They are special. But so are you. Just remember that even though it’s not a martial arts tournament, everyone there is a martial artist. They will be able to sense how strong we all are and it’s important that both of you are there for that.”

“Minju, you will be the star of our group of four I think. I think if people are really watching us in the crowd, you’ll stand out the most,” Nako said after giving it a bit of thought.

“What? There’s no way people will notice me over you, Yuri, or Hitomi.” Minju’s eyes widened in shock at the very thought of it.

“I hope you’re not thinking of how you ranked compared to us again,” Nako admonished. “It’s been months and your skills have exploded since then. I can feel that your qi levels have increased again. Your every movement shows much more grace and power than before. We haven’t fought against each other seriously in a while and I think it might be closer than you think.”

Chaeyeon nodded in agreement. “Remember what I said last time when we had our one on one. You just lacked the confidence. But I agree that Nako is being way too modest herself. She will shine just as bright as you,” she said as she got up to smother Nako in a giant hug.

“Thanks, but I agree that Nako is too modest. She never believes any compliment about how great she is,” Minju said, trying to divert the attention back to Nako. She went to Nako’s other side and joined in the group hug.

“Ah-choo!” Sakura sneezed and wondered if she were being talked about. “So, anyway, what do you think?”

“Uh, it’s unique, that’s for sure,” Eunbi answered honestly as she looked over Sakura’s painting.

“I think it’s special myself,” Sakura agreed as she admired her portrait of Yujin.

“But I think maybe they will be looking for more traditional styles in the competition,” Yujin said quickly, trying to dissuade Eunbi from caving into Sakura’s insistence on what the judges would be looking for. Where Sakura got her incredible confidence in her painting ability from, Yujin had no idea.

“Yujin is probably right,” Eunbi agreed as she tried to admire the painting that Sakura was so proud of. Yujin was drawn disproportionally larger than the background items and seemed to resemble a puppy more than a human.

“Hmm,” Sakura pouted. “I think the judges will be looking for whether you can capture the essence of what you’re painting than some traditional boring ‘accurate’ painting.”

“Well, I guess I could practice both styles,” Eunbi said, wavering in the face of Sakura’s absolute confidence.

“Right, let’s practice both!” Yujin agreed whole heartedly while giving their leader a glance and rolling her eyes. Eunbi Unnie always had trouble saying no to Sakura for some reason. “Sakura Unnie, can you paint in the traditional styles?”

“Of course, but I don’t like to. I prefer my own style, but if that’s what you want to practice, I guess we can do that.” Sakura made a face to show her intense dislike for what she considered to the norm of classic painting.

“What should I practice painting first?” Eunbi asked, glad that Yujin was here to keep the situation under control. She had hoped that their school would be entered in some of the more physical competitions like horse back riding or archery, but their school ended up getting entered into the ‘classics’ category which consisted of music, go, poetry, and art. Unfortunately, nobody in their school could claim to be great at art except for Sakura who claimed to be amazing, but wasn’t invited to participate. Eunbi ended up volunteering as she considered herself to be creative and great with her hands.

“Portraits are always popular. If we think the judges really are traditional art loving old uncles, then I think they’ll really like pictures of beautiful girls,” Sakura answered mischievously.

Yujin could sense the situation about to get out of control again as she could see the gleam in Sakura’s eyes. However, this time, she felt excitement and wanted to let it play out. “Ooh, I like that idea. The judges do always seem to pick pictures of beautiful women. Do you want to paint something to demonstrate?”

“I don’t like where this is going.” Eunbi could feel a headache starting to form as Sakura and Yujin eyed her up and down like erts. She could still remember the image she saw of herself in Sakura’s mind. Eunbi still hadn’t sat down with Sakura and had a talk with the younger woman about what she saw and every day that she delayed made it more awkward to do so. I am not the y bombshell you see me as! I’m still a young innocent maiden! she wanted to say to Sakura, but somehow she never did.

“Eunbi Unnie, why don’t you go and take Yujin’s spot. I’ll paint one for you to look at and then you can try it. How about that?” Sakura said in what she thought was a very reasonable tone.

“Okay. But remember, we’re going for traditional,” Eunbi was skeptical but did as she was told. She sat where Yujin had sat and wondered if there was any point. Sakura’s first painting barely resembled their maknae.

Eunbi felt the hairs on her neck raise as she watched Yujin’s reactions from watching Sakura paint. Yujin was giggling an abnormally high amount and would often cover her eyes as if she was watching something scandalous unfold. A part of her had to admit that knowing that someone found her extremely attractive and desirable felt nice even if she didn’t see herself that way. In truth, she was getting on to old maid territory, not that she wanted to ever get married or anything, and that meant that she was starting to not really care about how others perceived her appearance.

“Okay, I’m done,” Sakura said, putting down her paint brush and motioning Eunbi to come look at her handiwork.

Eunbi walked over to where Sakura and Yujin were admiring the former’s work. She gasped as she saw Sakura’s portrait of her. It was hard to believe the woman in the painting was of her. The woman was a literal goddess. Her hair was black as night as it contrasted with her porcelain skin and ruby red lips. And there was a lot of skin as the woman was also much more scantily clad than she was. Eunbi had to look down to make sure that all of her own clothes were still on her body. “Sakura!”

“What? Oh,” Sakura started to ask but then saw their leader holding her hands across her chest. “Uh, I got a little creative with the clothing. Even if I’m using a more traditional style, I still feel it’s important to get the essence of the subject across.”

“And you see me like that?” Eunbi asked incredulously.

“Argh! I lost again,” Chaewon said as she mashed the go pieces on the board together.

“Yay! At least there’s one person I know I can beat,” Wonyoung cheered giddily as she scooped up the white pieces back into her bowl.

“Are you sure this is the best way we can help you?” Chaewon asked as she grumpily scooped up the black pieces.

“Yeah, you guys are doing great. I learn a lot by teaching you two the basics of the game,” Yena said as she moved towards the board. She then pointed at various points on the board quickly as she went over how the game went. “White did a good job here being aggressive. Black should have gone here instead to protect this area.”

Chaewon felt as if the advice just went straight over her head. “Huh?”

“Unnie, you’re so bad at this. She said you should have gone here because when you went here, you left this area open for me to attack.” Wonyoung repeated Yena’s actions and advice as she moved her hands around the board.

“Hey, it’s not my fault that I can’t get it. It’s just that I was never interested in games before,” Chaewon pouted.

“If it isn’t directly related to martial arts you’re generally not interested, are you?” Yena asked.

“Growing up, I was only really interested in music. But even that didn’t last long. I tried to find something else I could get into since I didn’t just want to get married off. Fortunately, I found martial arts. It was something that I felt I could not lose to anyone to if I worked hard at it.” Chaewon could still remember the excitement she felt when she entered her original school and watched all the students hard at work.

“If you only understand martial arts, you can kind of think of the strategy like a fight,” Wonyoung said as she moved the pieces again. “You can think of these spaces as your vulnerable points. Your pieces are your attacks and defense. They kind of just move around like so.”

Yena shook her head. There is no way that Chaewon would understand something so abstract as Wonyoung’s explanation...

“Oh, I see,” Chaewon said as she grabbed the pieces. “So, if I move like this when you go like this I’m attacking you and blocking you at the same time.”

“You got that?” Yena asked, flabbergasted.

“Yeah, our Wonyoung is a genius at explaining things,” Chaewon said as she and Wonyoung set up the next game.

Yena blinked as she watched the two girls go at it again. This time she felt a faint trace of qi flow around her. She could almost see the qi flows circulating between the three of them and the go board. And all of it was originating from Wonyoung. Yena blinked again as she watched their youngest’s aura glow strongly. She turned to Chaewon to see if she could see the same thing she was seeing, but the other girl was completely engrossed in the board.

Yena had seen this from Wonyoung before when they first teamed up together during the examinations. She knew that the school that Wonyoung and Yujin originated from held some secret arts and one of them was Yujin’s special ‘Energy Sap’ ability. Wonyoung seemed to be able to unconsciously do something similar but different. Instead it seemed as if Wonyoung was transmitting her aura to everything around her and sharing a part of herself. Of the people in the school, probably only Sakura, Yena, and the teachers, who all had a high level understanding of qi flows, could see such a subtle technique.

“Hey, I won,” Chaewon said as she lifted her arms in a cheer.

“You did it, Unnie,” Wonyoung said, not at all upset that she lost. Rather, she was completely elated that her explanation helped Chaewon improve so quickly.

“I changed my mind. I’ll play this next one with Wonyoung,” Yena declared. To her, it didn’t seem like Wonyoung had any control over her ability or even know that she was doing it and that fascinated her. The qi arts were probably passed down to the students secretly without them knowing and only after a while could they start to control it. Yujin probably learned her ability the same way.

Author’s note:

My bias list is constantly in flux it seems as I’ve mentioned. Not that I mind, but it means I spend more and more of my days reading about every member and every ship instead of writing.

Let me know what you thought!