Amethyst Saga University

Wednesday, September 17th, 2025

“I can’t believe, you chose rooftop as a place to talk.” Eunbi folded her hands in front of her chest and shook her head.

“Do you think we will obediently accept your dinner invitation and sit happily with you, talking about the past?” Yena asked back, not even trying to be nice with her tone. She made a balloon with the chewing gum in , ignoring Eunbi’s frown at her. “You should be grateful that we remained silent when Wonyoung was so enthusiastic about her meeting with us here. Heck, we even agreed to meet you.”

“You really mad at us?” Eunbi’s eyebrows raised at Yena’s words. “You guys are blaming us?”

“You’re the second, The Elder is the first we blame. Do you really think we are in good terms with you?” Hyewon smiled slightly, the tone of her voice remained calm. “What do you want to talk about?” She asked to the point.

“The Elder asks you to be her guardians. The Ruler’s guardians,” answered Eunbi.

“Now we’re the Guardians of the Ruler, huh?” Yena narrowed her eyes, not liking the sudden request. “Why not you and your team? Aren’t you guys like, well, her Guardians for the past five years?”

Beside them, Hyewon just drink her soda, have no interest with this meeting. She could only think of Yujin right now. She was about to go after Yujin when she returned home first. If it wasn’t for Kaeun and Eunbi’s arrival shortly after Yujin left and invite them to talk, Hyewon would be with Yujin now. The sudden appearance of Jang Wonyoung must be surprised Yujin, but seeing how she was so calm is making Hyewon so worried. But now, she had to hold back and talk with The Leaders in front of them and she won’t pretend she liked it.

“Easy, Wonie have to make a visit to Astreaia and we know the Delta team can’t get into Astreaia. That’s why the ask us to return to be her guardians, Yena-ya,” Hyewon said, but then she realized something. About the gate. She quickly composed herself before Eunbi could notice anything. She made a mental note to talk about it with the others later.

“I see you’re getting more annoying for the past five years,” Eunbi rolled her eyes, who got a shrug from Hyewon as the reply.

“We are not kid anymore. We can be evil too if we want, Miss Kwon. Even to you.”

“You–!” Eunbi glared at the oldest girl among The Pillar. “You are the leader of this team, you should be able to behave like a leader.”

Hyewon shook her head. “There has never been a leader in The Pillar.”

“Then who should I talk to if I want you to listen–”

“Chaewon.” Hyewon and Yena answered in unison and made Chaewon raise an eyebrow. She did not expect to get that answer from her unnies. But seeing the look of surprise in front of her made Chaewon enjoy her role.

“Don’t you feel ashamed of giving responsibility to Chaewon? Both of you are older than Chaewon.”

“Why not? Someone as good as Chaewon is our best choice if we should pick a leader between us,” Yena answered.

“Why did you ask us to be Wonyoung’s guardians again? We failed to protect her five years ago,” Chaewon asked, remind them of the purpose of this meeting.

“It’s The Elder’s order, they asked you to return to Gallia and join the other members. There is a new mission for you and you are free to use all the accesses The Elder has. For the next six months you will be in intensive training program and avoid contact from the outside,” explained Eunbi.

Yena and Hyewon groaned.

“With all the responsibilities we have here, I’m afraid we can’t do that, Miss Kwon,” Chaewon answered, remained calm. “Can you tell The Elder to make a better offer that doesn’t require us to set a foot in Gallia?”

“Then what do you want?” Kaeun, who had been silent the entire time, finally spoke. Next to her, Eunbi tried to hold back a smile, thinking that The Pillars would feel intimated as Kaeun spoke. These girls could (or enjoys) annoy Eunbi as much as they want. But they always be obedient childs in front of Kaeun.

But Eunbi was wrong. Five years seemed changed too many things. Instead of feeling intimidated, Chaewon just smiled at them and Kaeun and Eunbi realized that something had happened.

“We will protect Jang Wonyoung by staying on her side in turn. We are busy and still have a job. I and Yena Unnie still have to finish our last game. Hyewon Unnie will be busy marketing our products, and Yujin,” Chaewon chuckled remembering her conversation with Yujin this morning, “Yujin has a regular job as a Radio DJ that she has to do every week. In addition, Yujin must attend classes and complete her assignments.”

“No way, An Yujin never cares about her studies. She even almost dropped out because she skipped too much class.” Eunbi shook her head, disagreeing with what Chaewon said.

“Everybody changes. Like you, like us.” Chaewon smiled calmly. Seen to enjoy every change in expression from The Leaders.

“And you can’t keep us locked up in Gallia. Six months perhaps like a short time for you, but for us, even one day in Gallia is too much,” Yena chimed in. “About the training schedule, you should follow our schedule and maybe we can invite you to go to Astreaia.”

Eunbi tightly closed her jaw, she want to shout at Yena, but Kaeun rubbed her back gently, asking her to hold back her emotion.

“One more,” Chaewon’s voice took over their attention, “if you want us to protect her, we want Wonyoung to leave Gallia and move to Chrysalis. Do you know the Chrysalis Village? We have a basecamp there.”

This time, not only The Leaders, but Hyewon and Yena were also stunned with what Chaewon said. Chrysalis Village? Basecamp? Since when they have a basecamp in Chrysalis Village? Even Hyewon and Yena just heard about Chrysalis Village from Miss Lee and Casey Kim’s conversation this afternoon. But both of them stayed silent and entrust this conversation to Chaewon. However, the missions they succeeded in carrying out so far were the result of Chaewon’s plan.

“Do you think The Elder will let you bring Wonyoung out from Gallia without the supervision of the others? Chrysalis Village’s securities are not as strict as Gallia’s. That place is no more than just an elite residential complex that currently is booming on the market. That idea will only harm Wonyoung.”

“But we also will be there with her in Chrysalis. Don’t you remember that incident? Those who in Gallia want us dead. Which one do you think is more dangerous, we stay in Gallia or Chrysalis?” Chaewon asked back, calmly but firmly stated that they will never set a foot in Gallia. “Besides, I think Chrysalis Village is strategic enough for our respective jobs. If you want to supervise us, I’m sure The Elder is rich enough to buy number of units there to make a basecamp for all your members on. Most importantly, don’t, no, never mess up our personal schedules.”

“That’s too much, Kim Chaewon. This mission won’t go well if we are not in Gallia.”

“’We’?” Chaewon asked coldly. “There is no ‘we’ here. The ‘we’ for me are Kang Hyewon, Choi Yena, An Yujin, and myself. There is no ‘we’ as in you –the Elder’s minions– and us. We don’t care about what you need and we are not offering a partnership or teamwork with you.”

Eunbi sighed. Never before had she thought it would be this difficult to talk to The Pillar, especially Chaewon. Chaewon has always been the best mediator between The Elder and The Pillar whenever the other three Pillars are being difficult to handle. But seeing how the conversation went, it seemed like there were many things that changed from Chaewon, her little girl, her favorite sister. At least, Eunbi doesn’t need to deal with Yujin and she was grateful for it. She can’t imagine how this meeting would have gone if the maknae of The Pillar was also here with them.

“Say anything you want, but we are still a team, Chaewon. If you refuse to cooperate, then who will take care of Wonyoung if you are not around?”

“The Delta Team, of course.” Chaewon returned the question with an unexpected answer. “And it seems I have to remind you again that we are not in the same team anymore. We don’t intend to work together in any form with you guys.”

Eunbi exploded. “Yah, Kim Chaewon! Don’t you feel responsible for her?! You are destined to look after her! To protect her!”

“Then what do you think we did in Astreaia that night? Drinking? Partying?” Chaewon laughed dryly, Eunbi’s question sounded funny and ironic to her. “We almost died there, and you were not there. And you dare to say that we are a team? You dare to think we are not being responsible enough to protect Wonyoung?” Chaewon bit her lower lip, looking at The Leaders as if they were asking the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.

“Kim Chaewon, you and The Pillars are and will always be responsible to take care and protect Wonyoung, and you know what kind of procedure you have to do and what kind of training you should―”

“You guys are really ridiculous. Are you serious talking to us about this and expecting us to obediently follow the orders as The Elder wants, after everything?” Yena tilted her head, looking at The Leaders with one brow raised. “Over my dead body, Miss Kwon. We’re leaving.”

“Don’t you want to gain Wonyoung’s memory back?”

Yena’s straightened up her body at Kaeun’s question.

“Is that a question that must be answered?” Yena asked with the coldest expression all of them ever saw. “I can’t believe five years has really made you like this. Really, you spent too much of your time with The Elder.”

When The Leaders kept silent, Yena continued, “You should ask that question to Yujin, because she’s the only one Wonyoung forgot. But if you asked me, Wonyoung doesn’t need to know what kind of sin you’ve committed so far. She doesn’t need to know what kind of betrayal you’ve committed on the night she was declared dead. Wonyoung doesn’t need to know how Yujin always blame herself and hates her birthday and all that because of you. Wonyoung will get hurt and I don’t want that.” Yena’s hand clenched tightly next to her body. The memory of that night returned and made her eyes red.

Control your emotions. I don’t want you to get out of control and create another problem here, Choi Yena. Hyewon’s voice echoed in her head and made Yena close her jaws tightly, trying to regulate her emotions.

“Don’t you want to know why it is only Yujin that Wonyoung forgot?” Kaeun asked, as if Yena’s outburst didn’t bother her.

“Wonyoung doesn’t remember Yujin, so what? You certainly didn’t expect this situation to happen, would you?” Chaewon asked with a faint smile. “Don’t use Yujin just to answer your hypotheses. We are not interested, and we don’t want to satisfy your curiosity by helping you find the answers.”

“Her memories of all of you came back gradually every year. But since last year, the progress has decreased. Wonyoung doesn’t remember anything else. We are hoping that if you stay in Gallia, it will make Wonyoung easy to adapted and help her to remember things she forgot.”

“Then why does she have to remember Yujin? What if she doesn’t want it?” Hyewon chuckled. “Seeing how you just told Wonyoung that Yujin is her last Pillar, I can read what you are thinking. I know what your hypotheses are. You think something happened when Wonyoung was hiding that night and you’re curious. Yujin was the last person she was with and she was the only one that Wonyoung couldn’t remember until now. This must be interesting for you, right?”

“We are not here to have fun, Hyewon-ah. What if the Necromancers comes back again and harm Wonyoung? Wonyoung’s life is at stake and it’s not fun at all.” Eunbi answered firmly. “We need everything that could prevent the same incident to happen again.”

“At least I’m glad to see you confused and upset. Our little happiness is to keep away The Elder from getting what they want.” A thin smirk was engraved on Hyewon’s face. She clearly saw the change in The Leaders’ faces. “Who guarantees that you will help us if one day the Necromancers return? No one.” Hyewon shook her head. “You ignored the sign that Wonyoung sent the night we were attacked. We needed help a