Nine

Do Extinguish My Fire
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“You’re not doing it the effective way.”

 

Joohyun said after merely observing how the younger girl started and maintained the flames on her closed fists. Seulgi turned her head at her, sending a confused look to the older girl who was sitting on the grass a few meters away from her.

 

“What do you mean?” Seulgi asked, putting off her flames before readjusting the gloves on her hands. 

 

The older girl had been silently watching her for the past 15 minutes, peacefully munching on her fairy bread in the shadow of a tree and she can’t help but notice something. Joohyun leaned her body forward slightly with her knees crossed, her eyes glancing down to Seulgi’s hands for a second before bringing it again to her eyes.

 

“Are you tired now?” Joohyun asked back instead. Seulgi tilted her head in confusion but nodded her head a little anyway.

 

"Uh yeah, kinda," she replied, wiping the sweat rolling down her forehead with the back of her hand before it can reach her eye.

 

Joohyun dusted off her hands after taking the last bite of the food. She stood up and walked toward the younger girl.

 

"When you lit up your flames at the start," She grabbed Seulgi's hand without any warning, facing it upward and opening it with gentle insistence for her to see her palm.

 

"Where do you focus your energy at?" A shiver ran down her spine involuntarily when Joohyun's cold index finger grazed her gloved but warm palm, making a little circular motion in the middle of the younger girl's palm with it. "It's here, right in the middle isn't it?" 

 

"Y-yeah." Seulgi stuttered.

 

Joohyun didn't notice Seulgi's stammer as she kept her eyes fixed on her palm, totally focused on her thoughts. 

 

"Now, instead of focusing your energy at just one point which is at the center of your palm, try flowing it to your fingertips." She dragged her finger lightly from Seulgi's wrist to the end of her thumb, and then back from her wrist to the tip of her index finger and then to all of her fingers to show the younger girl where the energy should be flowing through.

 

"By spreading the outflow of your energy to 5 different points, you won't be as tired as focusing it to only one point." She brought her face up and was met with Seulgi's own eyes. Too close to be considered a normal distance.

 

"U-uh,"

 

The older girl immediately took a step back, realizing the close proximity between them. She released her hold on Seulgi's palm at the same time like it burned her hand while her eyes flickered to the ground for a split second before it rested on Seulgi again. 

 

She cleared . "Just try this method. You'll understand why after you try it."

 

Seulgi nodded her head and did as what Joohyun said earlier. She opened her palms facing upward before closing her eyes. Unlike usual, this time she focused her energy to flow to her fingertips. She felt that familiar feeling of her energy transforming to her element as it let out a few sparks before igniting to a flame, and only then that she opened her eyes.

 

"Well?" Joohyun asked when Seulgi didn't say anything for a few seconds, merely clenching and unclenching her fists, eyes never leaving the flames dancing on her hands. "How is it?"

 

"...it was much smoother than usual." Seulgi replied. 

 

"Smoother..?"

 

Seulgi nodded. "I felt like I don't have to use the usual amount of energy to light up the flames. Much easier, so to say. I feel like I can keep my flames alight up to 30 minutes."

 

Joohyun lifted her brow at this, amused with the girl's optimism and she can't help but let the corner of her lips tugged upward.

 

"30 minutes is a long time, almost twice your record."

 

"Yeah. I don't know. I feel like I can do it, using this way of controlling my element." 

 

Seulgi smiled, finally taking her eyes off of the flickering flame around her closed fists and to Joohyun. "How do you know about this kind of thing though, sunbaenim? I thought that every element is different in terms of controlling them and all."

 

Joohyun let out a small smile at this, and Seulgi didn't miss the glint in her eyes. 

 

"Well, you can say that having a fire best friend for a decade has its own perks."

 

"That must have been nice," Seulgi replied with a smile of her own. "So you used to practice together with Yongsun unnie?"

 

"Yeah, we used to do that since we were still a kid, but we don't really meet up to practice anymore after attending this academy, given the fact that we already got our lessons from our own elemental classes."

 

"True," Seulgi nodded her head. "But that means that you still know a lot about Fire element, right sunbaenim?"

 

"Perhaps," Her hand reached to the pocket of her jacket where she put her gloves inside earlier as she walked to the side of the lake. Seulgi followed.

 

"I can teach you a trick if you want."

 

Seulgi tilted her head slightly. 

 

"Trick? What trick?"

 

"Well, I'm not sure if it's called a trick or not. But maybe it's more like, a thing that Water," Joohyun put on her gloves, her hand hovering above the edge of the lake and when she turned her body to face Seulgi, a stream of water had already floated above her opened palm.

 

"and Fire can make, together."

 

 

 

 

When Seulgi flutters her eyes open, she's greeted with a foreign face looking down at her. Seulgi's vision is blurry but she manages to catch the person's long blonde hair.

 

Her eyes feel very heavy, and she can't manage to open them completely, it's as if she's half-awake and half-sleeping at the same time.

 

She feels a cool palm rests on top of her warm forehead and her eyes manage to blink a few times drowsily. 

 

"You're not supposed to wake up yet."

 

She hears the gentle voice resonate in the quiet room. Seulgi can't put exactly who this person might be but oddly, she doesn't feel the slightest bit uncomfortable with her presence. Or maybe she's just too tired to care.

 

"You're in a safe place. So close your eyes again and rest, Kang Seulgi."

 

And then it's dark again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Do you know that apples give you more energy than coffee?"

 

"...What are you trying to say?"

 

"That you should stop drinking coffee every day and start to live a healthier life."

 

"You're just saying that because you hate the smell of it, Yerim-ah."

 

"Well, yeah. That's one of the reasons why but as your friend, I'm just reminding you of your unhealthy consumption of coffee. Or maybe you could drink ginger tea instead, it's healthier for your body."

 

"What? ew, no thanks."

 

"Dude, it's delicious!"

 

"You just have a weird palate for drinks, and you know I've tried it before. It's just not my cup of tea," A snicker comes out from after a few seconds. "Did you notice the pun?"

 

The sudden creak sound from Seulgi's bed silences them in an instant.

 

"Oh, I think she's waking up."

 

The previously unconscious girl opens her eyes slowly, the bright light that enters her eyes blinded her momentarily, making her grimaces in protest as she blinks a few times to adjust her eyes.

 

"I'll go call sir Yang."

 

The first thing that she sees is the white ceiling of the room. Definitely not the same as the ceiling from her dorm's room though, that's for sure.

 

"Hey, Seulgi." Wendy greets her first, helping her to sit upright immediately when Seulgi makes a move to do the said action.

 

"Hi..." Seulgi replies groggily, her voice hoarse and raspy from the lack of use. She clears .

 

"Where am I?" She voices out the first thing that came to her mind. 

 

"Our Academy's infirmary." Wendy simply replies, and then Seulgi realizes that Joy is in the room too, sitting on a stool at the foot of her bed. The Lightning student sends a light smile when they make eye contact.

 

"How are you feeling?" Joy asks. 

 

"Hm.." Seulgi her slightly chapped lips. "Thirsty."

 

A chuckle comes out of Wendy's mouth. 

 

"Of course. Let me grab some water for you." The blonde said, making her way to the water jug on the table at the end of the room. Seulgi takes the time to observe the infirmary and she can't help but notices how organized the pieces of furniture in the room are. Everything is white, be it the color of the ceiling, wall, and even floor, giving it a clean ambiance overall. Well, it's the infirmary after all.

 

"We thought that you would just be out for a little while, but it turns out to be a few days that you fell unconscious."

 

"Days??"

 

"3 days to be exact."

 

Her eyes widened like saucers at this in disbelief. "What?? I was unconscious for that long??"

 

"Uh-huh."

 

Wendy comes back with a water glass on her hand and weirdly enough, she doesn't give it to Seulgi for her to drink it on her own but instead, she directly helps her to drink. Like, literally helping, putting the water glass in front of her lips and tilting it gentle enough for her to drink the water.

 

She gets the reason why Wendy did that a few seconds later after she's done gulping all the content down . She knows that Wendy is very kind, but that's not the main reason behind her action earlier. She realizes this when she feels the pain on her palms, even from when she's just trying to grab the glass.

 

And it was at that exact moment when she remembers what had happened to her back then before she lost her consciousness.

 

"What.. happened? Back then.." Her stomach twists in a bad way when she takes in the sight of her hands, wrapped up in bandages up to her wrists that she can't even see the skin underneath them. 

 

"..it's best for sir Yang and the other teachers to explain that to you." Joy frowns, feeling bad for her Fire teammate when she sees the look on her face. "Yeri left earlier when you first woke up to call them. They should be here any minute now."

 

As if on cue, Yeri enters the room, followed by sir Yang, sir Lim, Miss Bada, and someone that Seulgi doesn't know. She points a thumb to her back to give them some kind of a signal.

 

"They're here."

 

Her teammates nodded their heads. Wendy puts her hand on Seulgi's shoulder and gives it a squeeze, as if to give her reassurance before she walks away to leave the room.

 

"We'll see you again later." Joy says, shooting her a small smile as she follows Wendy to exit the room.

 

The white door slides shut with a thud. Miss Bada’s the first one to approach her, walking to her bed with quick steps and Seulgi feels her eyes shut when Miss Bada hugs her. The warm embrace from the adult relaxes her body and a relief sigh comes out of involuntarily.

 

The mentor is worried. That much is obvious to Seulgi from the expression etched on her face when she pulls out from the hug. 

 

It must've been kinda a serious matter, Seulgi thought to herself when all of the adults are here in this room with her at once, especially Sir Yang. And they don't really look too happy right now either. 

 

Seulgi assumes the one that she doesn't recognize is the Academy's doctor, judging from the white knee-length overcoat that she wears. She introduces herself to Seulgi when she notices her stare, and her assumption turns out to be right. 

 

My name's Mrs. Hana, she said.

 

"I'm the one that checks up on you for these past few days." The doctor says with a comforting smile.

 

And it is at that moment that Seulgi realized the familiar long blonde hair. 

 

She bows her head politely afterward as she thanked her, feeling grateful to her for taking care of her. The doctor's smile widens slightly at her good manners.

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IndonesianPotat
Heya guys! Just want to tell you that this story will mainly focus on their character developments so it will take some time for them to grow on each other, I hope you enjoy the journey! :D

Comments

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_rtempest
1002 streak #1
Chapter 12: waiting w/ respect authornim! hope you comeback! 😞
Juxptier
88 streak #2
I’m still grieving, but I hope you’re at least well author-nim!! It’s alright if you don’t come back but please be well!!
Juxptier
88 streak #3
Damn it’s been over a year 😪
Juxptier
88 streak #4
Nah I guess I’m annoying but I just miss this, I guess I gotta accept the fact that this story will never be continued 😒😞
dancingseulo
#5
Chapter 12: Joohyun was jealous of Jb and Seulgi 😭 The cutting scene though whew!!!
Juxptier
88 streak #6
I’ll forever be bitter about this one 💔😩
Juxptier
88 streak #7
Chapter 12: I miss you!!
Softtacos #8
Chapter 12: And... there you go I just finished the last chap. Ahhhhh plot is so great. To he honest this fic is so good. Will patiently wait for your next chap author-nimm
Softtacos #9
Chapter 4: I’m liking this story! But I’m scared to finish it right away!!!!! :(