“Team 5! It’s your turn.”

Seulgi gulps at the call. She tries to calm her breathing when they enter the field, thank God she’s not walking at the front so she still has some time to compose herself. Everybody besides her seems to be not panicking as much as she is, or maybe they are good at hiding them. Seulgi doubts it's the latter though.

They stand beside each other as they wait for their names to be called. A man is sitting on a rock and a woman holding a clipboard with an expression that doesn’t really seem pleasant stands beside it.

“The team before us probably didn’t do that well.” Joy whispers, but enough for the four others besides her to hear.

“It seems like it,” Joohyun agrees. “Hope we won't end up like them.”

Seulgi doesn’t need to ask further to know what the senior meant by that. She even feels Joohyun's eyes on her, probably to make sure she gets a clear message on who she's talking about. After the first team assignment about a week ago, they all spent their time preparing for today’s test that is held to know how far they can control their own ability.

And she can’t deny, last week’s practices are not really... her best days. Seulgi’s very grateful for Miss Bada’s patience in teaching her step by step but it’s not the same case with her second-year teammate. She can’t really blame her though, she lost control one time and the flames on her hands went wild, resulting in it to nearly touch Joohyun’s hair if not for the latter’s quick reflex to dodge.

It doesn't really matter whether Seulgi did it on purpose or not ( it was a pure accident ) because Joohyun already seems determined to hate on her either way.

The accident feels like adding fuel to a fire.

Before that, the senior only wears a stoic expression but now every time their eyes would meet, her gaze would harden and she would glare at her as if Seulgi had kicked her puppy or something.

Wendy is the first one that gets called. She walks toward the big circle at the center of the field or what Seulgi thinks of as the "bald" spot of the field. 

Why bald? Because there's green grass growing everywhere at the field except for that one circle-shaped spot.

Wendy did great, as expected of her. She manages to make a chunk of rock out of the ground as her hands trembles in an attempt to control it. It follows her hand movement when she swings it around, floating in the air for a few minutes before it crumples and merges back with the ground. 

She does it a few times more with the ground manipulation but the last one doesn't last as long as the first one. The object merges back like a liquid to the ground, and Seulgi can see Wendy heaves out a sigh when she puts down her hand.

"Very good. You may go back now."

Seulgi sends an encouraging smile when Wendy walks back to their sides, taking off her white gloves in the process.

"Good job," Joy says, her tone impressed with Wendy flexing on her ability just now. "Pretty sure miss Bada will be impressed when she sees your result."

"With OUR results." Wendy, being an optimist person that she is, corrects, wiggling her eyebrows at them before laughing a little.

The next one is Joy. Seulgi watches in awe when Joy puts out her palms outwards and electric statics comes out of her palm magically and towards a tree on their far-right. The distance to that tree is definitely NOT near and to think that she can reach it that far, just by training in that short amount of time.

Even the woman holding the clipboard seems to be quite impressed.

She only managed to strike it 2 times though before putting down her palms onto her knees, clearly trying to control her breathing caused by the amount of energy that she just lets out.

"Very good. You may go back now." The woman repeats as she writes on the paper on her hand.

Next is the youngest among them, Yeri.

"Be serious," Joohyun says even before Yeri could take a step.

"I will if you buy me a bucket of chicken."

Joohyun's nose scrunch in what seems to be disgust, but she nods anyway. "Ugh, fine."

Truth to what she said, Yeri uses her ability as best as she could, at least that's what Seulgi sees. She makes some movements with her hand and even from where Seulgi's standing, she can feel the wind shifting as it flows here and there.

It flows all around her body like a little tornado for a few minutes before it continues to expand in size and eventually dies down.

Much like Wendy and Joy, the woman repeats the same sentence to her.

"Well, that was kinda tiring." She says when she's already within their earshot, giving an expectant smile directly to Joohyun. She even makes a show of wiping the sweat on her forehead with an exaggerated movement that Seulgi can't help but chuckle.

Joohyun rolls her eyes at this but the tiny smile on her lips doesn't go unnoticed by them. 

"You'll get your chicken tomorrow." 

"As I should."

The next to be called is the so-called powerhouse on their team. Joohyun confidently struts her way towards the circle, wearing the white gloves and adjusting them at the same time until she reaches the middle part of the circle.

She takes a deep breath, her expression calm and serene as she put one knee on the ground while both of her palms are placed on the ground on each of her sides.

Nothing happens for a few seconds and Seulgi thought that Joohyun hasn't started doing anything until water slowly starts to comes out from the ground beneath her in the form of droplets. There are so many of them and it all scatters around inside the circle spot, floating above the ground and around her unmoving body as if the world has gotten to a momentary stop.

It isn't long before Joohyun stands up from her position, hands clasping and unclasping while the floating droplets of water all around her starts to merge and becoming flowing water. 

It doesn't stop there, Seulgi's eyes widen when another round of water droplets comes out of the ground, floating around her until it merges with the flowing water, making it bigger than before.

And then another round.

And then another.

Seulgi can't help but let out a 'wow' at the sight.

By now, the water floating around her has gotten bigger and she manages to control it ever so gracefully. No, rather than trying to control her element, Seulgi feels like Joohyun's dancing with it.

It's so beautiful.

Seulgi doesn't know how long she's watching in awe at the sight, it feels like she's entranced with how beautiful Joohyun is moving with the water like that. 

She comes out of her trance when the water disperses itself, breaking into its previous form which is droplets before it comes down back to the ground, very much like how rain comes down.

"Excellent." The woman said along with a nod of approval, seemingly very satisfied with her.

"You may go back."

Joohyun hasn't even arrived back to their side yet when the woman looks at Seulgi expectantly.

"Last student, Kang Seulgi." She calls.

Her heart instantly beats out of nervousness when she walks towards the circle. She focuses her line of sight on the ground in front of her for a moment but her eyes accidentally shoot up when she notices another presence coming towards her.

She comes face to face with the senior and even with some distance, she can see the sweats on the senior's forehead and a hint of tiredness on her expression. They didn't stop walking until they reach their own destinations, Joohyun back to the other side while Seulgi to the center of the circle.

She didn't know what to expect, but she definitely didn't expect for Joohyun to say anything to her.

Not at all. 

So imagine her surprise when the older girl drops a piece of advice to her when they pass each other just now.

"You may proceed."

Oops.

Guess she kinds of blank out just now.

Seulgi adjusts her gloves again for a few seconds and then cracking her knuckles afterward. It became a habit for her to do that since last week, she notices.

Taking a deep breath as she positions her closed fists in front of her, her gaze focuses to look forward. Focusing her energy on her right palm, Seulgi's not entirely sure how she manages to light a tiny spark of flame but she did that successfully before her hand is covered with red flames, dancing around it with a movement Seulgi finds satisfying to watch.

She can feel the energy flowing through her body. It kinda feels as if there's a trickle of water running down her arm down to her right hand which by now, her glove is covered by the red element.

After a few seconds, she focuses ber energy to distribute evenly to both of her closed fists.

She keeps going for a few minutes, still with the fire dancing around her hands before it flickers and the fire slightly goes wilder in terms of movement.

She lets her energy come out more gradually until the fire now reaches her wrists, the size almost twice as big as her skull and she can feel her energy draining as second's tick by with keeping the fire as big as it is.

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