"Is that fairy bread?"

 

The girl with the pigtails glances at the food on her hand before nodding her head. "Uh-huh."

 

"How did you even get that?"

 

"Yeah, I thought we're required to stay within the academy 24/7 except for semester breaks."

 

"I have my connections, guys." She chews happily on her food, a wide smile etches on her lips like glue.

 

"Give me some of that." Joy snatches one of the brown-colored food from her bucket of food, instantly earning a complaint from the youngest.

 

"Hey! I haven't said yes yet!"

 

"You'll still give it to me anyway." Joy proceeds to bite onto the said food before humming some melodies as she munches on the food happily while Yeri pouts.

 

While the Lightning student and Wind student are bantering, Seulgi's eyes are already peeking inside the bucket full of the famous bread. The combination of warm colors inside it makes waters.

 

"Can I have one too?" Seulgi asks.

 

"No!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Uwah," 

 

Wendy puts her hand in front of while her eyes widen in shock. Seulgi probably has that expression too on her face.

 

The bread is much more delicious than she expects it to be. explodes with flavors, totally different from the bread that she grows up to eat. No wonder the reputation that it gains from it.

 

It is that good.

 

"This is so delicious."

 

"Yeah, no joke." Wendy agrees wholeheartedly.

 

"You're welcome." Yeri chimes in.

 

While Seulgi and Wendy are gushing about how tasty the bread is, Joohyun merely nods along to whatever they are saying, munching on the food silently.

 

They usually would always gather together like this on Saturdays for them to just deepen their bond because as weeks pass by, it became a fact that teamwork is a pivotal role if they want to succeed. And so far, things are really going great, actually, including her relationship with the particular water teammate of her. After what happened to them back then at the lake, their relationship is much better compared to before.

 

Joohyun didn't give her any glare anymore. One time, she even receives a smile from her when she offers the senior a water bottle after their practice.

 

The beef thing going on between her and the three fire senior is still very much alive but it gets tone down a little bit as weeks pass by, which is a very good thing. She hasn't received any major wound since then as far as it goes.

 

So. Yeah.

 

Despite things going pretty well these days, she can't ignore the fact that some things are bothering her, like how her body is acting a little bit weird lately. Her sleep doesn't come easy and it's growing a tad bit harder for her to control her ability.

 

Talking about sleep, her dreams these days consist of her reliving that incident that she had when she first awakened her elemental ability. Which in results, her body did get some rest from the slumber but there are those days that her mind is plastered with the unwanted memories.

 

It shouldn't have affects her that much, but it subconsciously affects how her body works, she thinks. 

 

"Okay, stop."

 

Seulgi slaps her gloved palms onto her knees, chest heaving as she struggles to control her breathing while sweats are rolling freely on her body. Miss Bada writes down something onto her clipboard while she waits for the fire student's breathing to go back to normal.

 

"6 minutes in and you're already this exhausted. You're not managing your energy wisely, and it seems like something is bothering your mind, Seulgi."

 

She plants her bums onto the grass without a word while her elbows are propped by her knees, still panting a little bit but it's much more stable now. A cool gust of wind suddenly hits her burning body and she looks up slightly to see Yeri sitting beside her other teammates, her fingers moving in discreet and Seulgi knows that it was Yeri's doing.

 

Seulgi sends a grateful smile to her.

 

"I can see that it's always after you make your flames bigger that you've become kind of distracted. Your flame movements are not stable too after that."

 

Seulgi nods her head.

 

Agreed. She notices that too.

 

"Are things happening like this whenever you did that normal for you in the past too?"

 

Seulgi ponders for a second. "No…? I mean I'm not sure myself. I never try to use my element before attending here."

 

Miss Bada hums.

 

"I see. Well, from the first test report that I received, you were okay with making your flames bigger but these days your energy management is not like how it used to be. Something is bothering you, I can tell." Miss Bada softens her eyes. "Do you want to talk about it?"

 

"Uhm...well…" Seulgi swallows, her eyes fleet to her teammates all sitting on the side for a second before she looks back at Miss Bada again.

 

"I have some trouble... sleeping lately…?" she rubs her nape while looking slightly downward, feeling hesitant with voicing out her problem. It's harder for her too when all of her teammates' eyes are on her. But at one point or another, she knows she eventually needs to be transparent, especially to them.

 

"Oftentimes my dreams are about.. the uhh.. incident that I had when I was 8 years old."

 

Miss Bada nods in encouragement. The last part of what Seulgi said surely plays as a major hint on where this is going. She peers down at her clipboard momentarily.

 

"...Since when did you start having trouble falling asleep?" Miss Bada asks when the raven-haired girl didn't continue to talk.

 

"Maybe since about… a week ago?"

 

"Okay," miss Bada writes something again on her clipboard. "Do you know what triggers you to have that problem?"

 

She has no idea, to be honest. It just suddenly happened in one night and since then she keeps on having that same dream every night.

 

"I'm sorry miss, I don't have the answer to that."

 

She nods in understanding, giving her that smile adults always have in their pockets, the one that says they feel sorry for you in a way you can't understand yet. "Do you want to talk about it more? It seems like you're not quite ready yet so I'm not going to force you."

 

Seulgi lets out a small smile at this, mostly for her gratitude in miss Bada's act of consideration.

 

"I'm afraid so, miss."

 

"It's alright. You can come to me whenever you want okay?"

 

Her inside feels warm when she sees the kind smile on miss Bada's face.

 

"Thank you, miss."

 

 

•

 

 

This week has been hard for her, that's obvious. She's not doing well, based on most of her class results. She lost to a student from her year in sparring class, which is a first. Her results in her elemental practices are not good either. It's a bit hard to focus on things when sleep still didn't come easier too. By now, not just her teammates but her friends from the same element notices these changes in her too. 

 

The dark bags under her eyes from the restless nights of sleep are to blame for it, Seulgi concludes.

 

Sometimes she gets some questions about how's her wellbeing from her teammates and Yongsun, or sometimes Jaebum tries to lighten her mood by cracking some jokes here and there. ( Seulgi's grateful for that. )

 

But the Water senior slash one of her teammates probably had enough with her. They've just finished their team class when Joohyun suddenly grabs her wrist and drag her along.

 

Seulgi's pretty sure that their other teammates are sending them a confused look but no one calls for them. And it feels like deja vu when she’s dragged to the same spot where she confronted the senior back then. Only now the role is reversed. 

 

“Hey,”

 

She can’t help but feel a lingering cold sensation on the spot where Joohyun grabs earlier, even after she lets go of her wrist. She doesn’t know if Joohyun’s palm is just cold or her body is the one that’s warm.

 

“What’s wrong with you? you’re not acting like normal.”

 

She can say the same thing about her. Grabbing her wrist all of a sudden and asking her like this as if she's concerned. Seulgi stares at the brown orbs for a couple of seconds without a word.

 

Oh.

 

Is she?

 

Even though her face looks annoyed, she can see a hint of it on her eyes. 

 

“It's because I'm having trouble sleeping sunbaenim, that’s all.” She simply says.

 

“For two weeks straight?”

 

Dang, it’s been two weeks since then?

 

“I… guess..?” Seulgi offers an unsure smile at her, averting her eyes when the older girl's expression contort into unamused one instead.

 

“Why, you still got that dream you mentioned back then?”

 

Seulgi nods her head.

 

At first, she says nothing. Joohyun is quiet for a moment, and when Seulgi looks up she notices the flicker of emotions that Seulgi can't quite place swimming inside her eyes. And then her face visibly softens.

 

“You know, maybe talking about it will help. It can’t go on like this forever, I know it’s hard to talk about unpleasant things that had happened in your life but if you keep on keeping this to yourself, your problem won’t magically go away.”

 

It sounds a bit harsh, she can't deny that, but she knows that the girl in front of her is just being realistic. She can feel that she’s being genuine by the tone of her voice and her expression, which results in her lips to tug upward slightly.

 

It’s nice to see this side of Joohyun.

 

“You’re right…” A light chuckle comes out of . “I’m kind of surprised that you would talk about this kind of thing with me though, but thanks sunbaenim.”

 

“I-” Joohyun opens , closes it again, and then opens it again. 

 

“I only do this for the team because if you keep on being like this, we might not pass the final practical test later.”

 

Seulgi's face falls at this. The smile on her lips takes a gradual fall while her palm makes its way to her nape, rubbing it as a habit. 

 

"..Oh.."

 

So that's the reason.

 

"..Right.. haha"

 

Guess she's being too confident in herself. Or maybe she's just too sleep-deprived to think that the senior is the least bit concerned for her.

 

It doesn't surprise her. What really caught her off guard is the fact that she felt THIS disappointed at Joohyun's answer.

 

"Okay, sunbaenim, I'll try not to be a burden to you guys."

 

She manages to give a small smile to her, the best one that she can give to reassure her, although she can't hide the underlying hurt in her voice and maybe Joohyun notices it too because now the corner of her lips is tugged downward. Sensing that Joohyun is not going to say anything else, she turns on her heels and makes her way to her next class.

 

"Seulgi,"

 

The said girl stops in her track and turns around at the call. 

 

She's hesitating. Her eyebrows are furrowed while her eyes are having a staring contest with the ground under where Seulgi is standing at. 

 

"I-"

 

Seulgi can see that Joohyun wants to say something but is conflicted. She waits patiently but the senior only shakes her head at the end after leaving hanging open for a couple of seconds.

 

"...Nevermind."

 

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