The blaring music from the hallway wakes Seulgi up with a start. She sighs when she realizes it’s some kind of an alarm and nothing else before sitting upright and stares at the door of her room, clearly not amused with the loud music.

Really? This early in the morning?

“Wake up first years, it’s the cluster sorting day today! Get ready in 30 minutes!” She hears someone shouts from outside, seemingly shouting that sentence every 5 meters they walk across the dorm hallway.

Seulgi stretches her body, bringing her arms up before getting out of her bed. She takes a cold shower and wears a black shirt and jeans as per the academy dress code, with the new jacket that she just got yesterday.

She’s preparing her stuff when suddenly there’s a loud banging from her door. The banging doesn’t stop, resulting in her working faster inserting the things she probably needs later into her bag before flinging it over her shoulder.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming!”

Jaebum’s face came into her vision when she opens the door, closed fist hanging in the air before he inserts it inside his jeans’ pocket.

The corner of his lips twitches, forming a smirk when Seulgi’s expression turns into an annoyed one.

“Let’s go.” 

He turns and walks away before Seulgi could say anything. Nevertheless, she catches up to him and walks together to the cafeteria. They took the paper bag consisting of food from the cafeteria table before scanning for any familiar faces until they spot Yongsun waving her hand to them. It’s a table full of fire students, Seulgi realizes when she walks towards the table.

“Get enough sleep?” Yongsun asks as Seulgi sits beside her while Jaebum sits across from her.

“Kind of.” Seulgi gives a small smile. Truth to be told, She didn’t sleep well last night but she’s not really in the mood to talk much this early in the morning. As she unwraps her paper bag of food, she makes eye contact with the person sitting beside Jaebum. 

“Ah, Seulgi, this is Suho. He’s three years your senior, our new leader from the Fire element.”

Seulgi takes the offered hand and shakes it, got a hell of a grip just like the senior sitting beside her.

“Jaebum, Suho.” 

He lets go of Seulgi’s hand before switching to Jaebum. 

“You got some nice muscles over there.” Suho nods his head toward Jaebum’s arm, causing the latter to smile widely at the unexpected compliment. “Can be an asset for us.”

“Thanks, Sunbaenim.” Jaebum reply.

He lets out a small smile.

“Just drop the honorifics with me. Everybody just calls me by Suho.”

The senior munches on his hamburger without closing his mouth, Seulgi inwardly cringes at the sight, suddenly recalling the incident yesterday with Jaebum getting called out about it because of the same thing.

They surely are compatible with each other, it seems.

When they’re done eating, they follow Yongsun to the fire classroom. They are introduced to the other fire students and one thing that Seulgi notices after meeting with most of them is that at least more than half of them do have a loud voice. Her ears are buzzing after she’s done exchanging names, clearly not used to it.

The classroom is big enough for them to have some space to run around, even with tens of people here. Seulgi sits at the empty table on the corner, in front of Yongsun while Jaebum sits beside her.

After waiting for a few minutes, a woman suddenly enters the classroom, carrying a clipboard like how miss Sunny did yesterday as she walks to the front of the classroom. She clears and the whole classroom becomes silent as if on cue.

“Okay, first years and second years, the cluster sorting will start. Whoever names that gets called out will follow me outside of the room, okay?”

She tilts her head down a little bit, eyes roaming around the classroom while her eyeglasses slide down her nose. She clears again before bringing her eyes to look at her clipboard again.

“Mark Tuan.”

It’s the guy with the striking red hair. Her eyes are on the tall guy until they left the room. After they left the room, some people instantly start chattering again with each other. 

“So we’re going to wait here until we’re called?” Jaebum asks, crossing his arms over his table before putting his chin on it.

“Yup,” Yongsun replies.

It was about 5 people getting called and probably 45 minutes before Seulgi’s name came out from the woman’s mouth. She instantly gets out of her seat, following the woman’s quick steps outside of the classroom and across the wide garden courtyard until she assumes she has arrived at her destination. 

Seulgi thank her before entering the room.

When she opens the door and peeks her head inside, she realizes that there’s already a girl sitting on one of the waiting chairs beside the door. Her long, black hair covers her side profile so the only thing that gives any information to her is the white scarf tied on her arm, with a “#2” written on it. 

So she’s her senior. 

Seulgi walks slowly towards the unoccupied chair beside the girl, careful not to make her surprised because it seems like she doesn’t realize her presence yet. it was a good few meters between them before the senior snaps her head to her and Seulgi can finally see her face.

Oh.

It’s the girl from the cafeteria. The one where she accidentally made eye contact with.

Now that she’s looking up close, the girl is pretty. Like, really, really pretty that made Seulgi pauses in her step momentarily before getting a grip and continue her walk towards the chair.

She bows her head a little, sending a little smile hoping for a little ice breaker but the girl’s eyes are already fixed on her right arm, where her patch symbol is located at. Her face turns into a frown gradually, nostrils flaring a bit and Seulgi feels confused as to why the girl looks like she wants to murder her right then and there with the glare she’s throwing at her when Seulgi doesn’t even know her name yet.

“You’re a Fire student?” She asks, coldly. 

Seulgi can only tighten her lips, freezing at where she’s standing while she locks her hand with each other, placing it in front of her as if she’s done something very bad.

“Uh… yes.”

She closes her eyes, hand massaging the area between her eyebrows as if she can feel a headache coming.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Seulgi, never really experience a stranger that she just met for a few seconds ago seemingly hating her for God-knows-what, can only stand there awkwardly on her spot. 

Seems like sitting beside her is not a good idea anymore.

The silence that follows is very awkward and suffocating enough that makes Seulgi contemplate to just go outside and let the girl fume alone until the other members arrive but thankfully, her thought is cut short when the door opens, revealing a familiar face that Seulgi is happy to see. Both girls smile brightly at each other when they make eye contact. 

Another two students come in not even 5 seconds after Wendy enters the room, followed by a man none other than Mr. Yang himself. They immediately stand upright, bowing to him as he makes his way to his chair.

He sits down with a slight grunt, putting his hands together on the table as he looks at each individual inside the room. When he finishes his scanning, he leans back against his chair wearing a proud smile on his lips as if he had won a prize.

“Yup. You guys will make a great team.” He states.

Seulgi glances at the girl standing beside her as if on cue after hearing that. Clearly, someone’s not happy with the team, or to be assigned with her, to be exact.

“Excuse me, sir,” Sure enough, the girl chimes in, ready to disagree as she puts her palm up. “Last year, I agree that I don’t mind teaming up with first years, but you said that you’ll team me up with Yongsun. not her.”

Seulgi shifts her weight from one foot from another. She can see one of Wendy’s eyebrows shooting upwards from her peripheral vision but at least now she knows that whatever her problem is, it’s not a personal matter.

It’s not like she gets to say anything about the member arrangement anyway.

“I know. I did say that to you, but the teams are fixed now, Joohyun. We didn’t expect you and Yongsun to be improving really fast for the past year, and it’s not a really great strategy to put two powerhouses in one team together.” He says as he opens the drawer on his left side under his table, rummaging for a little while before taking out a stack of papers onto the table.

“We’ve analyzed every one of you meticulously, be it about personalities, compatibility with each other, or your potential skills, including ‘her’,” Mr. Yang’s eyes move to Seulgi for a few seconds before bringing them back to the only second-year student in the room.

“I know you and Yongsun are close with each other, but based on personalities, if we put you two together, at one point or another you guys will clash with each other, especially with how stubborn you two are.”

Mr. Yang pauses. When he’s sure she’s not going to retaliate, he continues. 

“See, all your soon-to-be teammates here,” he shows them the pages where Seulgi assumes has all of their data statistics written on it. “Has a strong potential on how fast they can improve their skills, especially miss Kang Seulgi here.” 

“But-”

Mr. Yang stops her only by raising his palm.

“So, what I’m saying is, just try to trust in this team okay? Learn to know more about each other. If this team passes the final practical test at the end of the semester, you can begin your fieldwork immediately.”

At this, the girl’s face turns into more of a pleased one, slightly. She nods and doesn’t say anything else.

“Okay, now, you’ll report to team assignments tomorrow morning, gather at the Greenfield A and you’ll begin your lesson there along with the other newly formed teams. For the rest of today, you guys may have some free time. I recommend you all to go talk and know more about each other. Thank you for your time, girls. You’re dismissed.”

They bow their heads at the principal before exiting the room one by one. Seulgi’s the last one to exit, not forgetting to close the door behind her before turning her body towards the others.

Wendy’s the first one to break the silence. 

“Shall we go somewhere else?” 

“I have a place in mind, follow me.” The girl with the pigtails smiles brightly. Her feets excitedly bouncing up and down, walking a few steps ahead before turning her head back.

“What are you all waiting for? Come on”

The first one to follow is the tallest girl among them. She has long black hair that flows elegantly when she walks. Seems like she’s from the Lightning element, based on the patch on her jacket.

“I’m Son Seungwan by the way, but just call me Wendy, I’m from Earth,” Wendy says with a smile, smiling at all of them and Seulgi reciprocates it with her own at the ever-so-friendly person walking beside her. 

“I’m Park Sooyoung by the way, but just call me Joy.” The girl with the long black hair copies her, along with a smile too as she turns her head back slightly, acknowledging Wendy and Seulgi walking behind her. 

“And I’m from Lightning. The girl walking in front is Kim Yerim, goes by Yeri, she’s from Wind.” 

Joy looks at Seulgi. “And you’re Kang Seulgi, from Fire, I presumed?” 

Seulgi nods her head. “Yup”

The place that Yeri chooses is the garden courtyard. Seulgi’s not going to complain though, the place has a nice atmosphere overall. The weather is nice today too, it’s sunny but not too hot. Birds are chirping, some brave enough to be on the ground, while some perches itself on the tree branch. Unlike yesterday, there are not too many people chilling at the courtyard. Some people are sitting on the bench, but Seulgi can still count them with her hands.

Yeri skips her way before sliding smoothly to sit under the tree, away from the direct sunlight and covered by the tree’s shadow. Joy chuckles at what Yeri did, clearly amused with the child-like behavior from the girl as she too, proceeds to sit down beside her.

"What about you, sunbaenim?" Wendy asks as she sits down on the grass. 

"Joohyun…?" 

"It's Bae Joohyun." She replies, wiping the dirt off of her hand before cleaning them with water. Seulgi stares in awe at what she's witnessing. Instead of using the water from the water fountain at the center of the courtyard like how a student did yesterday, her palms just magically wet by themselves as if the water comes from her own body.

"She's famous here. One of the best students from the Water element in the second year," Joy smirks. "or so many people say."

"Yeah, I've heard my teacher mentioned your name a few times in class. Even among us students from the Wind element you're famous," Yer