02
Nothing's Over
--
Two
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Lunch was usually a quiet affair. You spent most of lunch chatting with some of your friends or working on your penmanship. People always complimented you for your script-like handwriting, and you were secretly very proud of it.
Two
--
Lunch was usually a quiet affair. You spent most of lunch chatting with some of your friends or working on your penmanship. People always complimented you for your script-like handwriting, and you were secretly very proud of it.
“Oh, Hoya’s coming this way. Bye, guys!” All of your friends got up and high-tailed it out of the cafeteria, leaving you to sit there alone with your half eaten lunch. You didn’t even look up when you heard chairs pull out around you and other people sit down.
Hoya had a reputation for being extremely grumpy. Most people were terrified that he would open up the ground beneath them and let the ground swallow them whole. You knew differently though, just as long as you didn’t yell and speak too much, he was an agreeable person.
Someone cleared their throat, making you stop writing and look up slowly. You recognized the boy sitting across from you as the boy from earlier with Sungjong. Hoya was sitting on the other side of him, head resting on his arms.
“Hi. I didn’t get to introduce myself this morning. Nam Woohyun, Class B. Mind reader.” He grinned at you, trying to catch your eyes. You averted your gaze, smiling off into the distance.
“Nice to meet you, Woohyun.”
“This is Hoya.” He gestured to the boy with his head down, but you already knew who he was. You were dealing with his crankiness long before Woohyun had even transferred into the school.
“She knows who I am, dimwit.” Hoya reached out and smacked Woohyun in the back of the head before lifting his head up and sighing as he leaned back into his chair. He glanced towards you before giving you a rare smile.
“It’s been a while since we’ve talked.”
“I’ve been busy,” you said lightly. You didn’t make an effort to talk to anyone from Class A anymore. Some of them dumped you like yesterday’s news as soon as you were demoted to Class C. There were others like Sungjong that extended your courtesy and said hello to you occasionally.
“You look good.”
“Thank you. Sungjong said the same thing.”
“Oh, you talked to Sungjong? Kids annoys me to death,” Hoya grumbled, rubbing his temples. You rolled your eyes before glancing at the people on either side of you.
“This is Dongwoo. And the person on the other side of you is Myungsoo.” They both greeted you as you said hello. You already knew Myungsoo from the Council meetings. He was the representative for Class B.
“So, I’d like to talk to you about what I saw in your pretty, little head this morning,” Woohyun said with a smirk, tracing circles into the table. You opened your mouth to say something until the cafeteria doors slammed open, revealing none other than Class B’s Lee Sungyeol.
He was very well known around campus as the resident trouble maker, especially because of his power. He slid across the floor with ease before running up the wall as the teacher chased him.
“Sungyeol! Get down here this instant!” You heard Myungsoo sigh next to you before getting up and heading towards the door. Sungyeol laughed from across the cafeteria before running across the wall and jumping over two tables to run for the door.
Myungsoo caught his hand as he ran for the door, and Sungyeol dragged Myungsoo as they phased through the door.
“When I catch those two, I swear, heads are going to roll!” the teacher fumed to himself as he passed by your table. You couldn’t help but snort a little bit as he kicked the doors open and stormed out.
“Damn, they didn’t let me in on it this time,” Dongwoo said, staring at the swinging doors until they stopped moving before getting up and leaving through them.
“He means, if he ever catches them.” You turned back to your papers before shuffling them around.
“You think Sunggyu is cute.” You stopped moving. Woohyun rubbed his chin and grinned.
“Well, you’ll be glad to know Sunggyu thinks you’re cute too. He wants to get to know you. Does Junhyung know about this?” he asked you, his smirk turning into a lopsided grin. At the mention of Junhyung’s name, your anger flared up.
“What does it matter if Junhyung knows? He’s not my keeper, my dad, my brother, or my boyfriend.” You stuffed your papers into you book bag, slightly annoyed that you wrinkled the pages.
“He acts like it. People are scared to talk to you because of him,” Hoya said, yawning.
“What a surprise,” you said with a sigh. You’d talked to Junhyung about this before, but he always denied it and changed the subject. One of these days, you were going to kill him.
“It must be nice though, having someone to protect you.” You let out an angry sigh before looking straight at Woohyun. He stared into your eyes before his own widened. He laughed and sat back in his chair, breaking your eye contact.
“Or not. Damn, that’s scary. Maybe it’s just you people are scared of.” The more Woohyun talked, the more you wanted to reach over there and punch him.
“Well. This was a fun chat. I’ve got to get to class.” You bid them goodbye before sweeping your things up and leaving in a huff.
“Jeeze, what’s her problem?” Woohyun asked, staring after you as you left. Hoya groaned before getting up and running after you.
“And what’s up with you? You don’t chase after people either!” Woohyun yelled after Hoya as he disappeared through the doors.
You were halfway down the hallway before you felt someone grab your arm. You turned to see Hoya standing there, looking at you with tired eyes.
“Don’t take anything Woohyun says to heart. That’s just how he is. He’s not really that bad all of the time.” You scoffed and rolled your eyes.
“Well, if you can tolerate him, then I guess he isn’t.” Hoya let go of your arm.
“I’ll walk you to class. We can... catch up.”
--
Junhyung was waiting for you in class. He narrowed his eyes at you when you laughed at something Hoya said and said goodbye. Hoya glanced into the class room to meet eyes with Junhyung. They two of them stared at each other while you sat down and dropped your things.
“What was that all about?” Junhyung asked, leaning onto the front of your desk.
“What? I can’t talk to people? We used to be friends. We still are.” You were still miffed at him for blowing you off earlier that morning. Whatever that something he needed to talk to someone about better have been important.
“You’re not still mad at me for this morning, are you?”
“No.” Sometimes, you really hated that he knew you so well.
“You’re not usually this angry at everything until it’s that time of the month. Is it that time of the month?” he whispered. You shoved him off of your desk.
“No, it’s not. What? I can’t be a little bit irritable for no reason? I’m a girl.”
“Oh yeah. I forget that sometimes,” he said with a grin. You rolled your eyes again before pulling out your papers and starting to write on them again.
“No, really though. What’s bothering you? Do I have to talk to someone?” Your mind immediately flew to Woohyun, but you shook your head. Junhyung gave you a look that clearly said that he didn’t believe you, but he dropped the subject anyway.
“Anyway, I’m excited for Friday.” You just nodded, continuing to write on the paper.
“You’re not going to ask me what’s on Friday?”
“No,” you said, “because when I ask, you’ll be all ‘oh, it’s top secret. I can’t tell you, you’ll find out Friday’.”
“Pfft. No. That's not how it would've went.” But the both of you knew you were right.
--
As you walked out of the gates, you felt someone grab your shoulder. You turned to see Sunggyu’s shy, smiling face. You hadn’t seen him all day at school since he stopped to say hi to you in the morning.
“Hi,” he said again, awkwardly. A nervous feeling settled in the pit of your stomach as he smiled at you.
“Do you... I mean, can... Can I walk you home?” You blinked at him a few times before grinning.
“I don’t know, can you?” you asked, crossing your arms over chest.
“Well, yeah, only if you want me to- Oh. Wait. May I walk you home?” You couldn’t help but chuckle at him. He was so cute, the way he stumbled over his words like that.
“Yeah, sure. If you want.” The two of you walked side by side down the sidewalk. The air between you was awkward.
“I know we don’t really know each other, but I heard from the others that you used to be in Class A too?” Everyone was curious about why you were demoted from Class A to Class C. You were definitely tired of explaining it all of the time.
“Yeah, I used to be in Class A until the Commander discovered all the limitations of my powers and kicked me out after using me.” Sunggyu’s eyes widened as his jaw dropped slightly, but he quickly regained some composure.
“That really ... I mean, it’s better than not being able to control your powers at all...” You glanced at him out of the corner of your eye to see him frowning at his hands.
“You did pretty well at the showcase,” you said, swinging your arms back and forth.
“You were at the showcase?” he asked, looking at you in surprise. You nodded before rounding the corner of the sidewalk.
“I was the one Junhyung sent the metal rose to in the crowd.” He took a few fast steps forward in surprise to look at your face.
“What? That was you? You don’t look like her. I mean, you don’t look like you... did... that day,” he finished out as you laughed. You didn’t notice the stupid smile on his face when you laughed.
“Yeah, well. Junhyung decided he wanted to change up my life a little bit by breaking all of my glasses and dying my hair a completely different color.” Sunggyu frowned.
“You shouldn’t let him do stuff like that to you.” You just shrugged.
“We’ve known each other since we could walk. He’s my best friend. Unfortunately.” You stopped in front of your house with a smile at Sunggyu.
“Oh. We’re here? You live really close to the school,” he said, turning his head back. The two of you could still see the tip of the school.
“Yeah I do. Where do you live?”
“I stay in the dorms.” You gave him a weird look.
“Then why did you offer to walk me home?”
“I just wanted to get to know you a little better... That’s all. Did Woohyun already bother you with his mind reading?” Your face immediately went sour at the mention of Woohyun’s name. Sunggyu laughed and scratched the back of his head.
“He can be a little bit obnoxious at times, but he’s a good friend. My best friend too, unfortunately. He’s like a less violent version of Junhyung.”
“Some best friends we have, huh?” The both of you laughed until a comfortable silence fell on you.
“Well. I’ll see you at school tomorrow?” You could hear the hope in his voice. You couldn’t help but smile at him. Your cheeks were starting to hurt.
“Yeah, I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” You opened the front gates and stepped inside, leaning back to watch Sunggyu’s retreating back as he headed back towards the school. He glanced over his shoulder to catch you staring at him. Embarrassed, you gave him a small wave before hurrying inside.
He stopped on the sidewalk with a large grin on his face.
--
When Friday morning came, all of the students were packed into the auditorium. You were wedged in between Woohyun and Hoya again, listening as Woohyun gossiped around random people you’d never meet.
Junhyung didn’t meet you to walk you to school that morning. It was nice to take a leisurely walk without any distractions, but at the same time, it felt weird without Junhyung bothering you about something you didn’t care about.
“So I noticed you’ve been getting pretty buddy buddy with Sunggyu lately. The things he’s been thinking in his mind. You pop up quite often.” You turned to raise an eyebrow at Woohyun.
“Are you always in other peoples’ business like this?”
“Yes,” Hoya said with a slight smile on his face. Woohyun shrugged his shoulders and leaned back on his chair.
“What’s the point of being able to read minds if I can’t share anything I read? I think I’d go crazy with all these voices in my head.”
“But don’t you have to make eye contact with them before you can read minds? Your logic is flawed,” you said, smoothing out some wrinkles in your skirt.
“Yeah, you’re right. I’m nosy by nature.” He grinned at you and poked you in the cheek.
“Hoya! There you are! What are you doing out here?!” Hoya winced slightly before rubbing his temples. He turned to glare at the person who yelled at him.
You waved to Sungjong, who stopped glaring at Hoya for a second to wave back with a smile.
“You’re supposed to be dressed and on stage! I swear one of these days...” Sungjong hurried down the row to grab Hoya’s hand and drag him away. You watched them leave, Sungjong’s mouth still moving while Hoya closed his eyes and frowned.
“So... None of Class A is sitting in here?” You stood up and looked around, scanning for red badges. It was nothing but a sea of blue dotted with yellow. You sat back down as the lights in the auditorium dimmed.
“Hello, students of the Academy.” You felt a chill go up your spine when you heard the voice. You squinted your eyes when the curtain on the stage went up, revealing none other than Class A sitting in the Academy’s ceremonial uniforms.
The Commander was at the podium, his face hidden beneath his hat. Your whole body shuddered as his eyes swept over the crowd.
“This year, the Academy and the Institution have a special treat for the students. This year, we will be engaging in a competition of sorts.” You saw Junhyung leaning back in the seat with a smug look on his face.
“Students eighteen and over will be able to compete, provided that they pass the Academy’s survival program. The Games will be dangerous, and though the Institution and the Academy will have safety precautions, we cannot guarantee that everything will go as planned.” A collective whispering started to move through the crowd of students.
The more he talked, the more disgusted you started to feel. “So basically, The Games are just pitting the strongest, most destructive super powers against each other to see who wins.”
“Well, don’t forget,” Woohyun whispered beside you, “that they’re going to be stranded on a deserted island too. Survival skills come into play.”
“Did he say how many to a team yet?”
“No. Why? Are you interested in joining?” The smirk on his face as his eyes flicked to the yellow badge on your chest made you want to knock him out on the spot.
“No. Like a Class C like me has any chance. I just like to know these things.” As the Commander talked on, you yawned, wanting to get out of there already. You heard ‘teams of eight’ before nodding slightly and closing your eyes.
--
“Teams of eight? What the hell kind of Game is this?” You were absentmindedly drawing and tracing over an infinity sign as your friends talked.
“That must be one big island...”
“But they’re only sending three teams right?”
“Is all of Class A entering?”
“I know some of them are for sure. I don’t think they’re all allowed to be on the same team though.” You sighed and picked up your stuff before getting up to leave.
“Oh, you’re leaving?” one of your friends asked you as you pushed in your chair.
“Yeah, I’m not hungry.”
--
You felt someone staring at you as you stirred from your sleep.
“Good morning, sleeping beauty.” Junhyung. Of course.
“So? What do you think? Doesn’t it sound exciting?” He sat down on your desk as you rubbed at your eyes sleepily.
“It sounds barbaric. They’re basically just using you guys to see how strong you are, and if you live, then they’ll probably employ you full time in Special Services.” Special Services was a division in the Academy much like a military. Everyone in Special Services spends their days training their powers to an overwhelming level.
“Yeah. They’re sending some of the SS to help train Class A this year. I guess the Academy really wants to win the Games.” That reminded you that Powers Training was going to start on Monday, meaning you’d have to find something to do while everyone else was in class.
--
After school, you lingered by the gates. You weren’t sure who exactly you were waiting for, but you waited there anyway. You heard someone call you name in the crowd and saw Sunggyu waving at you before accidentally freezing a group of birds in the air.
You giggled and pointed at them. He looked up and sighed before unfreezing them and making their way over to you.
“I’m sorry, I swear I’m not really that bad at controlling my powers.”
“It’s okay. It’s a really strong power so I figure it’d be hard to master.”
“Are you busy right now?” You blinked at him a few times before turning your eyes up to think.
“I don’t think so. Why?”
“Wanna go out for some ice cream?”
--
You found yourself sitting across from Sunggyu outside with a bowl of ice cream in front of you. He wouldn’t let you pay, insisting that since he invited you out, it was his job to pay. The two of you talked about yourselves. Turns out Sunggyu didn’t even know he had powers until a few years ago when he accidentally blew up his mom’s car in a fit of rage.
You laughed at the stories he was telling you until a group of students from your school passed by your table, giving you a weird look.
“Isn’t he from Class A? What’s he doing talking to her?” Your smile immediately turned into a frown as you stabbed your ice cream with your spoon. Sunggyu looked at you with a concerned expression.
“Don’t listen to them. Class doesn’t mean anything, and you know that.” He was right. That was something Junhyung always said, especially when he got whispers. But then again, he also yelled that at them and threatened to pin them to the wall with knives if he ever heard them say it again.
“Yeah, I know. But I’m not made of steel. It gets tiring to hear day after day.”
“Not to mention, if you were made of steel, then you’d probably be stuck to Junhyung all of the time.” You blinked a few times and shuddered at the thought as Sunggyu laughed at you.
“So, how’s school going?”
“Fine. I hear you guys are getting SS to come down and train you for Power Training next week.”
“Yeah, I heard that too... I’m not excited, though. They seem scary, and that’ll just make me more nervous. And when I get nervous...” He made an explosion noise as his spoon dived into his ice cream.
You laughed, swirling your spoon in your now mushy ice cream.
“So what do you do during Power Training?”
“I hang out in the courtyard. Sometimes I study, sometimes I sleep.” You laughed again at the confused look Sunggyu gave you, but this time, it was a little bit of a bitter laugh.
“Class C doesn’t have to participate in Power Training. There’s not much of our power to train. And there’s not a ton of us, so we’re allowed to do what we want until Power Training is over.” Sunggyu frowned.
“I hate how they make it seem like your powers aren’t important.” You just shrugged again.
“There’s not much I can do about that.”
--
You were asleep when you phone vibrated underneath your pillow. Groaning, you pulled it out and squinted at the screen, ready to throttle whoever texted you.
From: Junhyung Almighty
u. i heard u went on a date with sunggyu. and u didnt tell me? wtf?
You grumbled before throwing your phone onto your other pillow and flipping over. A few minutes later it vibrated again. You threw your arm over to feel for your phone.
From: Junhyung Almighty
i kno ur awake. u sleep with ur fone 2in away from ur face.
You sighed before replying.
To: Junhyung Almighty
when did you change your name in my phone? and it wasnt a date. he took me for ice cream after school.
His reply was almost instantaneous.
From: Junhyung Almighty
don’t lie 2 me.
You rolled your eyes before texting him a ‘good night’ and turning your phone off.
--
You always hung out in the courtyard when Power Training was going on when the weather was nice. There was a light breeze, ruffling the leaves above you. The shadows shifted over your paper as you wrote various things to bring out.
There were various small objects surrounding you. Pencils, pens, a handband, a belt. You were about to bring something else out when a strong breeze blew at your papers, scattering them across the courtyard.
You swore loudly before getting up to chase after them. You didn’t see the van that pulled up, marked with the SS insignia as your were collecting papers. They trooped past you without a glance, except for the last person.
A piece of paper blew by him, making him stomp on it and pick it up. He glanced at your handwriting curiously as you slowly made your way over to him.
“Um, excuse me.” He was a little bit short, but he glanced over at you before looking down at the paper in his hands.
“This is yours?” he said with a smile. You jaw dropped as the paper glowed slightly and turned into a snow globe, which you had written on the paper.
“Your power wouldn’t happen to be lexiconicy too, would it?” He eyed all the scattered papers around the yard and the ones in your hands.
“I. Yes. Do you...” Your voice trailed off as he smiled at you.
“My name is Lee Junho. I’ll be training you from today on.”
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