Chapter 6

Hyewon felt extremely shy as she sat while the three Japanese girls surrounded her. Sakura, Nako, and Hitomi were staring at her all over her body. She was not used to being in the center of attention and the intense scrutiny was making her extremely self-conscious. “We’re supposed to be practicing two against two today.”

“Hyewon unnie, stay still and be quiet,” Hitomi said strictly as she focussed her senses on Hyewon.

“Unnie, let us take care of everything. It’s more important that we help your internal injuries,” Nako added.

“Hyewon, do you feel any pain when I do this?” Sakura asked as she pressed two fingers rapidly against the younger girl’s pressure points.

“Only a little,” Hyewon winced as she did indeed feel a sharp stab at each of the places that Sakura touched.

“Hyewon Unnie,” Nako whispered softly. She placed two fingers on Hyewon’s wrists to check how the girl’s qi was circulating. She didn’t need to hear the answer to Sakura’s question to know how much it must have hurt. She could sense Hyewon’s qi wildly fluctuating as her meridian points all seemed to be blocked and preventing her qi from flowing as it should.

“Hyewon Unnie, you idiot.” Hitomi’s face was as livid as Sakura’s was when the older girl found out about Hyewon’s secret technique. As angry as Hitomi was, she nearly broke Hyewon in two as she hugged the girl fiercely. “Why would you do that do yourself?”

“I didn’t come from a famous school,” Hyewon sighed as she explained herself again while gently patting Hitomi in the back. “My old school was small, and I never once thought I could be a great martial artist. A chance came when this school opened its doors to anyone that wanted to apply. However, from the start, I came to understand how much weaker my skills were compared to everyone else. Almost immediately, I thought I had to give up on my dreams.”

Hyewon looked wistful as she remembered their time as examinees a few months ago. “Then I became friends with all the girls who were in the lower brackets like I was. I started to think that I didn’t need to become a great martial artist anymore because I had found comrades and a family that I cared a lot about. I felt my priorities change from being a martial artist to being a great friend. Nothing great seems to last though. Each one of my friends began to fall one by one in the exams. As they lost their chance to fulfill their dream, they turned to me and asked if they could place their hopes and dreams on me.”

Hitomi felt a lump in at Hyewon’s talk of hopes and dreams. She had also been friends with some of the examinees that had failed. When they failed to make the final group, they had all still been happy for her and had also hoped that Hitomi would continue their dreams for them.

“That’s when you started to use that qi art more and more often?” Sakura asked, remembering how Hyewon shot up through to the final round of the exams.

“Yeah, I started to use it more often. At first, I was only going to use it a little since I knew it was only meant for experienced practitioners. It was a technique where I could increase my strength, speed, and reflexes incredibly for a short amount of time at the cost of expending my qi. However, if one doesn’t yet have the necessary qi to use it, it takes the power from one’s life energy. After I made it into the school, I tried to stop using it, but I again I couldn’t. I felt if I stopped using it, everyone would reach a level I could never catch up to.”

“Unnie, why didn’t you say anything to us?” Nako rarely ever cried outright, but now she was bawling like a baby as she joined the two hugging girls.

“What’s done is done,” Sakura said, answering for Hyewon. Now that her anger had run through her, all she cared about was helping her friend recover. She also suspected that she was the reason Hyewon was trying so hard to keep up. The girl was always trying her best to help others in her own way. And she knew that it was Sakura’s dream for the group to be at top of the martial arts world.

“Thank you.” Hyewon had been worried that things between her and her fellow group members would be different after they found out she had been ‘cheating’ by using her technique. She’d been worried that they would have thought of her as a fraud. However, all of them had been understanding and supportive of her. Her relationship with Sakura had been the one that Hyewon had desperately wanted to remain the same. Fortunately, it did and even better, it seemed to have gotten stronger.

“My ‘Sakura Sake’ skill is designed to fire a beam of concentrated qi. While I’ve used it as an attack, it can also be used to heal by clearing the blockages to your internal qi circulation. Luckily, your meridian points are not as damaged as ours is. They should be able to withstand my qi arts and heal quickly after I clear the way.”

“Sakura,” Nako started to say as she peeled herself off of Hyewon. Before she could say anything else, she caught Sakura’s little shake of the head. The ‘Sakura Sake’ as a healing ability was much different than as an attack. As an attack, the user used short bursts of focussed qi. As a healing ability, the martial artist needed to sustain it for a longer period of time which quickly ate away at the user’s qi power. Even though Sakura had managed to cultivate her qi again, there was no way she was strong enough to heal Hyewon without hurting herself.

“Saku-chan, what can I do to help?” Hitomi asked as she finally released Hyewon from her bear hug. “And don’t say you can’t do it by yourself!”

Sakura smiled at Hitomi raising a warning eyebrow. Among all the group members that made it, she’d been worried the most about this cute quiet girl. No, not quiet, she corrected herself mentally. Since they were both from the Forty-Eight schools and Sakura was the senior, she thought there might have been some unnecessary distance between them. And there was at the beginning as the girl kept tripping over herself in agreeing with everything that Sakura said.

Lately, however, Hitomi started to show more of the spine that got her into the school over everyone else. Nothing made Sakura happier than being told ‘no’ by the younger girl. In her mind, they were both starting from scratch in Korea and therefore equals. “Hii-chan, can you and Nako-chan go on either side of Hyewon and help her keep her qi in check?”

“Sakura, are you sure this is okay?” One of Sakura’s greatest skills was the ability to lie with a completely straight face, but Hyewon asked the question anyway. She had caught the glance that Sakura and Nako had shared and knew there was something that the woman was not telling her.

Wonyoung raised her hand just in time to deflect Eunbi’s punch. She felt her hand start to sting even though she managed to avoid the full force of the punch. Their leader was freakishly strong indeed. She glanced over at Yujin to see if she had bought enough time for the older girl to prepare her move.

Chaewon gasped as Yujin grabbed her arm. Try as she might, she could not shake the other girl’s grip on her. In seconds, she started feel her qi power drain from her as Yujin used her special move. “Eunbi Unnie!”

Eunbi reacted instinctively at Chaewon’s yell. With a twist of her body, she dropped to the ground, picked up a rock, and flicked it towards Yujin’s hand.

“Ow!” Yujin cried in pain as the rock unerringly hit her hand forcing her to let go of Chaewon.

Chaewon used Yujin’s momentary distraction to close the distance between them and swung her hand at the younger girl’s throat, just stopping before connecting.

“I yield,” Yujin said, holding her hands up. She looked back at Wonyoung and saw that their leader also had her hand pointed at her partner’s throat.

“I yield too,” Wonyoung said, holding up her hands as well.

Eunbi breathed a sigh of relief as she got out of her battle stance and immediately gave their maknae a big hug. “As expected of our number one ranked member.”

“I should have won if I’m really the number one ranked member,” Wonyoung pouted, but couldn’t keep it on her face with Eunbi giving her such a pleasant hug. “And yes, I know they were based on potential not on real combat ability. But when am I ever going to reach that potential.”

“At least the teachers saw that potential every step of the exam. I still feel like I’ve stolen someone else’s spot,” Chaewon said half-jokingly. Half of her still couldn’t believe that she’d been chosen.

“Better than me,” Yujin interjected. “I was so happy when they ranked me as high as second, but then my ranking kept dropping. I keep thinking they made a mistake the first time.”

“Girls,” Eunbi said firmly, stopping them from continuing the pity train. She let go of Wonyoung and then sat down where they were and motioned the other girls to join her on the ground. “Do you know how long I’ve trained before I entered this school?”

“About five years and a few months?” Chaewon said, a little sad that she didn’t know exactly even though they were from the same original school. She’d only heard it from the other students at the school and not from Eunbi herself. They had not really been close before they entered their current school.

“Yeah, a little over that. The three of you have trained for less time than me combined. But here you are standing toe to toe with me. You three have nothing to worried about when it comes to whether you deserve to be here or not. Everyone believes each of you belong on this team.” It was times like these where her babies were filled with ideas of self-doubt that Eunbi’s maternal instincts kicked in.

“Unnie!” Chaewon exclaimed, looking at Eunbi lovingly. While she was considered to be part of the ‘older sister’ group within the school, she was the youngest of them. She childishly craved praise sometimes and especially from her senior, Eunbi, who seemed to give it to her the least.

“She like a mom rather than a sister,” Yujin joked.

“She and Chaeyeon are the moms of the group,” Wonyoung agreed. “In our dorm, Chaeyeon is always listening to us vent ourselves like this.”

“Chaeyeon is definitely more motherly than me. I think I’m more of an older sister,” Eunbi protested futilely. Trying to get the kids to see her as one of their own generation had not worked at all.

“Shouldn’t Sakura be the mom in your dorm?” Chaewon asked. The girls only really got together for practice and meals. Living with someone brought out a lot of things you didn’t know about a person.

“She’s more like the dad than the mom. Chaeyeon is pretty strict with us in making sure we keep everything clean. She’s also the one that we go to if we just want someone to listen. Sakura on the other hand lets us do whatever we want and even joins in sometimes. She’s like the dad that always brags about his kids to other people.” Wonyoung, Yuri, Nako, and Hitomi would never say dad to Sakura’s face though.

“I’m glad that you’re being looked after over there,” Yujin smiled at her junior. “When it was just us, you used to cling to me all the time at the other school.”

“Hey, they didn’t need to know that. And I only followed you around because you were great at sneaking in food.” Wonyoung had heard from the Nako about how Yujin almost had a serious practice accident. The girl had been feeling a little lonely and it had affected her concentration. Wonyoung forgot that Yujin was the only ‘kid’ among adults in the other dorm. She decided she would stop avoiding her senior because of whatever awkward feelings she had towards her, so had recently made more of an effort to spend more time with Yujin.

“Look at how close they are,” Chaewon cooed. “I wish my senior was like that with me.”

“We’re close too,” Eunbi disagreed while she tried to grab Chaewon in a bear hug.

Chaewon only resisted a little before allowing Eunbi to hug her. “Only now and only occasionally. You ignored me when we were in our last school.”

“Aww,” Eunbi gushed at her cute junior. “I was just a student in the old school, so I didn’t really know how to talk our new star recruit. It may have been a little weird for me back then. And if I’m a little strict with you now, it’s probably because I don’t want to show favoritism.”

“Really? You don’t want to show favoritism?” The three girls asked as one while looking at each other doubtfully. Their unnie seemed to praise and smile at certain students more than others.

“Well that was a mess,” Yena said to the others as she caught her breath on the ground. The other three girls were similarly on the floor also catching their breath.

“I didn’t think it would go that badly,” Chaeyeon shook her head wonderingly.

“We should have stuck with the original pairs,” Minju wheezed and choked out the words.

“That wouldn’t have helped us grow or improve. I pair up with Yena Unnie and you pair up with Chaeyeon Unnie all the time.” Yuri had suggested they try pairing by dorm rather than choosing partners to make it interesting. Interesting wouldn’t be the word she would have chosen after the fact.

“I’m not sure what we got out of that other than that we now know our synchronization ,” Yena said. “Minju, didn’t we say that I would take their left side while you came in at their right? And why didn’t you wait for me?”

“We did? I thought you meant our left.” Minju had been confused from the get go. She was used having a partner with Chaeyeon’s speed and she expected to enter a fray that was already in progress. Yena was not quite as fast and had a move set that tended to be slower, but more powerful. Minju ended up going in by herself to meet an equally surprised Yuri.

“Unnie, I thought you were going to draw their attacks by taking the charge?” Yuri complained. She was used to having a partner who basically stood in front to keep the attention away from her.

“Sorry, it was a force of habit.” Chaeyeon’s standard pattern of attack was darting in and out of combat during a fight. So as soon as Minju had charged in, she naturally used her qing gong to fly out of the melee to look for an opportunity to strike. Unfortunately, that left two people who were unprepared to face each other.

“How we going to be able to learn formations we can’t even team up with just one person?” Minju asked worriedly.

“Learning formations is not hard, but generally formations are only as strong as the weakest link. If one link is removed and the rest of the group can’t cover for it, then it will fail. Let’s learn from what happened today. We’ll do better next time,” Chaeyeon assured Minju.

While Yena talked a good talk, nobody was more upset at failure than she was. She would have liked to share Chaeyeon’s faith in their group members, but how could she when she doubted even herself. “What can we do to make sure we do better next time?”

“Like Yuri said earlier, we tend to pair up with members we’re already comfortable with,” Chaeyeon said after giving it a thought. “You don’t really grow if you don’t challenge your comfort level. If you look at the members who have been doing well recently, they’ve all been doing just that.”

“We should go somewhere away from here. We should switch up the dorms and groups,” Yena suggested.

“A special training session? Like to the beach or the mountains?” Yuri asked excitedly.

“That sounds like you guys just want to play around,” Minju said suspiciously.

“We need to improve our bonds. We can’t do it here where there are worldly distractions. Many of the top martial artists in the world use secluded training in order to have a break through,” Yena pressed on confidently.

“I don’t know if we’ve reached a point in our training where we need to do such kind of training.” Chaeyeon gave Yuri and Yena a doubtful look. While she would like to enjoy some time with the girls, she also didn’t want to waste any of their precious time.

“I think some of us are still awkward around each other. If we had more opportunities to be alone together, we could become more relaxed and natural,” Yuri said while looking meaningfully at Chaeyeon. The mom and dad of their dorm haven’t really been spending much time with each other recently which worried the kids greatly.

Chaeyeon blushed. It was true that she and Sakura hadn’t been able to spend much time with each other. Sakura was no longer that lonely girl who was always by herself during the exams and desperately needed a friend. The Japanese girl had managed to worm her way into the hearts of every team member by sincerely treating everyone like they were family. Chaeyeon had begun to feel like she wasn’t needed anymore and wasn’t sure what she could offer Sakura now.

Minju also felt Yuri’s words hit close to her heart even though they hadn’t been directed towards her. Part of her was still that awe-struck girl who wondered how she was able to get into a group filled with amazing members. She knew the awkwardness only came from herself as everyone else in the group was welcoming of her. “Okay, I think we should do it too.”

Sweat dripped from Sakura’s brow to the ground as she continued to focus her qi into a narrow beam that shot from her fingers into Hyewon’s body. With each passing moment, it became harder for her to hold onto her concentration. Her vision blurred as she fought to keep her eyes open.

Nako smiled triumphantly at Hitomi who sat across from her on Hyewon’s other side. She felt another one of Hyewon’s meridian points become unblocked. Just one more, Sakura-chan.

Hitomi couldn’t believe the amount of qi that Sakura was pouring into Hyewon. It made her giddy to think that her senpai’s power may return to what it was before. Senpai, you can do it!

Hyewon gasped as she felt the last of her blocked passages being removed and her qi was once again flowing smoothly. She opened her eyes to see a wobbly, but smiling Sakura staring back at her. Hyewon felt her eyes become moist and blurry as she became overcome with emotion. “You’ve healed me.”

Authors’ note:

I’ve always enjoyed the relationship between the older and the younger girls in the group, especially how the older girls take care of the younger ones.

Let me know what you thought!