chapter XV
The Task of PandoraSumin ended up in a room with that girl from Valcadas: the one who seemed like the female version of Chanyeol, which was actually quite correct.
"Hey, my name is Yoon Jeanne!" the Magive introduced herself, smiling cheerfully as she extended her hand toward Sumin.
Sumin stared at Jeanne's hand for a moment, debating her options inside her mind. Instead of accepting her hand, Sumin only nodded as Jeanne brought her hand back awkwardly. "I'm Sumin."
"Just Sumin?" Jeanne asked, her smile bloomed over once again.
"Lee Sumin," Sumin answered curtly as she put her trunk at the front of her four poster bed.
"Ah, I see!" Jeanne said, nodding her head enthusiastically.
Sumin stared at Jeanne, observing her. Jeanne had a short light brown hair, just reaching top of her shoulders. She had big brown eyes, kind of the doe-like type, similar to Luhan. Her cheeks were a little bit puffy and it made her look younger, despite being the same age as Sumin or probably even older. Jeanne was also a little taller than Sumin, which made her even more similar to Chanyeol.
"What's your ability?" Jeanne suddenly asked again, probably feeling awkward by the silence.
Sumin didn't reply, and proceeded to take out some of her clothes on to her bed. Their room had three beds, with Sumin taking the left at the corner and Jeanne taking the one next to Sumin's. There were a couple of things that represented Hawthorn, with the obvious blue colours around the room. There were two blue banners, each with a symbol of a sword ㅡ the symbol of Valcadas.
Hawthorn, Suldon, and Reomir had the Kingdom's second symbols as their representative symbols. Hawthorn with Valcadas' sword, Suldon with Quaris' cape, and lastly Reomir with Otrera's crown.
Sumin silently hoped she would get to be in Reomir. Probably just because she liked her own Kingdom's symbol the best. But it was likely because of a mere favouritism.
"Hello?"
Sumin snapped her attention back to Jeanne, whom was sitting on her bed with a disatisfied frown. Not that Sumin kind of cared, though. She didn't want to deal with another Chanyeol in her life. One was enough, and two would be a recipe for disaster.
Instead, Sumin wrapped her dagger belt around her waist and put her dagger into the sheath on the belt. She walked out from the dorm, ignoring Jeanne's obvious annoyed complaints.
Sumin wished they wouldn't get into the same Class.
"Sumin."
Sumin turned to her left, but then stood rigid in surprise once she locked gazes with Kai. He looked the same as usual, but Sumin noticed there was still something off about him.
"Can we...talk?" Kai asked softly.
Sumin didn't find any reasons to object, and the way he asked for her permission was kind of adorable. Not to mention that she had already noticed Kai was most likely to pursue her or have feelings for her. However, there was still another possibility that all of these could have been wrong, and she had her hopes high for nothing.
Something stirred inside her stomach at her last thought. Did she just admit that she hoped Kai's feelings for her were true? That was just, not her at all!
"Sure," Sumin replied, hiding her vigorous beating of her heart inside her ribcage.
The both of them walked out from the dorm to Hawthorn's Common Room: a shared lounge for Hawthorns which was located in the dormitory. The Common Roon was also filled with all sorts of blue things: the sofas, armchairs, banners, and even the carpets. There was a fireplace in front of the sofas and two armchairs, which would be very useful in Winter.
Surprisingly, there was no one in the Common Room. Sumin at least expected two people would be here; but they could have decided to tour around the Academy, which obviously included Luhan to go out and explore the Academy. Sumin wouldn't be surprised if Luhan remembered the whole Academy's places in just three to four days.
Kai walked toward one of the two sofas there, and Sumin followed suit. They sat down together, with a small distance from each other. Sumin could feel the crackling warmth of the fire and she was instantly reminded of one certain bubbly person.
She instinctively smiled a little.
Kai cleared his throat awkwardly. "So..."
Sumin turned her gaze to him, and their eyes locked with each other. Kai immediately dropped his gaze down to his lap, which annoyed her a little. Sumin quickly frowned, and looked at the fire instead.
"Were ㅡ are you okay?"
The frown on Sumin's face instantly disappeared and her annoyance was replaced with surprise as she turned to him. She did not expect that question out from Kim Jongin.
"What do you mean?" Sumin asked.
Kai sighed as he slumped his back on the back of the sofa. He started to hesitate and he stared at the fire. Sumin waited for a few seconds, knowing that Kai would soon answer anyway. She just, knew.
"I ㅡ I saw you crying, on our last night at the Palace," Kai finally confessed.
Sumin remembered about Kisoom immediately and she pursed her lips. This time, the pain was lesser than that night, yet it was still heavy to think that Kisoom would disappear in a matter of time. Thinking about Chanyeol made it even heavier.
"Why?" Kai asked, quietly, as if he was whispering.
Sumin looked at him, then slumped her back too. "It was...nothing important."
"Nothing important?" Kai snapped all of the sudden, straightening his back and turned to look at her with a furious expression. "You always said that when something is clearly important!"
Sumin was half surprised at his sudden outburst, but half not. It was not really a surprising thing to see Kai get mad easily, and she knew that she would get mad at herself as well if she had been in his shoes.
From his tone and the way he talked, Sumin knew he was worried. It shouldn't have really mattered because she already realized there was a big chance that Kai had feelings for her, but her heart betrayed her own brain.
She could understand many things easily and quickly, yet not her own feelings.
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