CHAPTER TWO; SHIVERING NIGHTS

It was a quiet Saturday morning.  At least Yeonhee thought so since she was having a peaceful sleep, until she heard someone barged into her room and loud running footsteps that soon jumped into her bed.  Without turning nor opening her eyes, she knew who was the culprit.

“-oni eg-up, Noni eg-up!”

Yeonhee was smiling with closed eyes upon hearing the voice.  With the strange accent and the persistence to wake Yeonhee up by punching the girl’s arm and slapping her face, it was enough to make Yeonhee’s day.  Soon enough, there was someone else who came into the room and held the culprit away from further hitting the sleeping girl.

“Dahyun, no violence!  Don’t hit Yeonhee like that!”  She heard Myungeun’s stern voice and her aunt was most likely picking up her daughter in her arms.

“Noni no eg-up!”  said a 4-year-old Dahyun sadly.

“You’re right, she’s not waking up!  It’s okay, I know what will wake her up!”  Wearing mischievous smile, Myungeun stepped closer to the bed and reached out her hand when suddenly-

“OKAY, OKAY, I’M UP!  No tickling please!”  Yeonhee sprinted up and spun to face her aunt while holding her arms up in the air, begging for her aunt’s mercy.  The reaction went beyond Myungeun’s expectation that it was absolutely satisfying.  The elder woman was laughing at how funny Yeonhee was, and Dahyun was also giggling just by seeing her mummy laughing despite not understanding anything.

Losing her parents at young age, Yeonhee never thought she would feel what it was like to have a happy family ever again.  She knew her grandmother, Queen Jiae wasn’t exactly accepting her into the family.  In fact, the Queen Mother was unhappy whenever Yeonhee’s eyes met hers.  The scary gazes told it all.  However, Her Majesty the Queen, Queen Anne and her wife were more than just nice aunts to Yeonhee; they had been her parents-figure since they got married.  She had become a happy child with an extremely perfect childhood again.

The trio soon were set to come down to the royal dining when Myungeun stopped her steps right before the stairs.  She turned to the older out of the two little girls with a meaningful smile.  “Yeonhee, take Dahyun downstairs with you first.  I’m gonna go get Yein and join you together soon.”

The 10-year-old Yeonhee nodded her head and took smaller Dahyun’s hand into hers when Myungeun had put her down.  The pair then descended down the stairs holding hands with Yeonhee took careful steps so not to trip down and hurt the queen’s daughter.  Myungeun watched with keen eyes until they disappeared from her sight before moving towards the corner of the floor where the queen’s room was.  She peeked inside and saw her wife was still in the bed, sleeping. 

“Yein, wake up and let’s go down to breakfast!  The kids are waiting!” hollered Myungeun.

The queen groaned and slowly got her upper body up and sat in the bed tiredly.  Her wife saw the state she was in and made her way towards the bed to join the queen beside her.  “How late you stayed up for another midnight hunting with Yeonhee last night? Seems like a tough round this time, since even Yeonhee looked more battered than ever,” asked Myungeun in concern.

Yein chuckled subtly, more like humming in light amusement, before answering her wife.  “It was indeed quite a tough round.  We stayed up very late than we originally planned.”

Shuffling towards the closet to grab a towel, Myungeun said, “Well, you’re lucky Mother is away for vacation.  Or else, she’ll be furious to know how you had another long night spent with Yeonhee.  She’ll accuse you of doting your niece over your own daughter again.”  She handed the towel so Yein could take it.  The latter accepted the towel and hugged her wife.

“And I’m lucky that my wife is always here to cover up for us!” she said with a hint of enthusiasm and leaned in to kiss Myungeun’s lips.  They had a moment of heated kisses before Myungeun pulled away and lightly slapped Yein’s chest.

“Oh, don’t mean you’ll get away from me every time.  I get jealous of you and Yeonhee too,” she said in a low and alluring voice.  She put her hands on Yein’s shoulders, while the latter circled her arms around Myungeun’s tiny waist.  The couple smiled and quietly stared at each other, before closing the gap and kissed again.

It was a rainy summer night in August.  They had celebrated Princess Diana’s 4th birthday three months before the season.  It wasn’t a huge party, but rather seclusive with only relatives and close friends were invited. 

Queen Jiae had gone to Netherlands for some time to have her own self-care time.  These days, Yein noticed her mother had been spending time with her friends alone, going vacation abroad, visiting various islands, horse-riding, even joining book or bible-reading club.  When the queen asked, the Queen Mother only said they were fun activities for an old and single woman like her.  Yein wondered if she didn’t like doing those fun activities with her daughter, daughter in-law, and grandchildren, but said nothing about it nonetheless.

Dahyun had gone to sleep the last time Yein and Myungeun checked.  The queen and her wife had changed into convenient outfits that fit the weather; admiral blue hooded cloaks on their heads; and got ready to step out of the castle.  When they were at the door, they e last time as Yein looked at the butlers who stood close by to send the royal couple off.

“Please take care of Dahyun for us!  If she wakes up crying, carry her up and pat her back to coax her, then give her some milk.  We already left her favourite banana milks in the fridge, those will do to cheer her up,” she said.

The butlers exchanged looks and wondered why the Royal Majesty was so serious when this wasn’t her first time going away on a short trip before midnight without her daughter.  It was just another midnight hunting during the weekends that she usually did, though this would be the first she’d bring her wife along.

The Chief Royal Butler, Lee Sungjong, being the oldest, most loyal and responsible servant, nodded his head at the queen’s commands and wished the royal couple a safe trip.

Yein and Myungeun formed a relieved smile before the queen shifted to Lee Daeyeol, her private secretary.  “Let’s go Mr. Lee!  We’ll not like to be late!”  she commanded.

Daeyeol escorted the family towards the car and sent them into the passenger seats before he went to the driver seat himself.   Myungeun looked out the window and stared at the exterior design in white, garnet red and golden walls of the Royal’s House with unknowingly melancholic gaze one last time, before the vehicle completely set off away from Daeham Palace and the gate was sealed behind them.

21 hours from then, Queen Jiae received a call from Wallgeum, when she was on a horse at one of the islands she visited in the northern Netherlands, saying that Queen Anne, her daughter, and her daughter in-law Park Myungeun, were found dead in Sowon Forest in Wallgeum.

Even the chief butler Lee Sungjong never expected that the queen’s commands were the last words he ever heard from The Royal Majesty.  Wallgeum Nation just had the biggest loss with the passing of their most beloved leader of the country ever. 

Rest in peace The Queen and The Queen’s Wife.  From 1979 - 2006.

11 years later…

Winter was very cold when it was near the end of the year.  The large field that was usually soil and grasses were fully covered by snow.  There were footprints everywhere.  The outside stairs were icy and slippery.  Students were scared to rush and were always careful unlike when it was other seasons.

Inside a dull-looking two-story was an old school building.  It was kept for practical classes and physical test purposes for many years.  Like right now, you wouldn’t tell there were students inside because of the dark room.  Their eye-sights currently only depended on the beam of the narrow laser lights that appeared once in a while.

Behind a wall, a tall girl leaned her back while poking her head out to study the movements of her opponent team.  As a moment had passed by, she decided nothing worth the wait and retreated her had back into hiding.  She crouched down and turned to her two team members who had been waiting for her signs.

“They’re hiding well, no one is spotted,” she whispered with hand gestures in case the members couldn’t hear her.

“We have to make the moves now or we won’t find the key,” one of them, second tallest after the former, responded also in a quiet whisper.

“We have only less than 30 minutes left,” the last of them said, eyes met with the twin towers of the team after looking down at the watch on her wrist

“Okay.  Get your rifles up!  We have a war incoming!”  The tallest had stood up with her gun and wore her black mask.  She set her weapon in its correct position and peered out of their defence wall.  “Ready, Rangers?”

“What?  What did you call-”

“Go!” the former instructed without wasting more time and ran out to the war ahead of her members.  The second girl snorted in disbelief for being left speechless but soon followed her steps out and wore her own black mask.

“That beesh!  She’s not Alpha! She’ll never be,” the last member mumbled and went out to back up her team while pulling up her mask as well.  The latter two had so much to complain about their team captain aka the uncertified Alpha of the Rangers but she didn’t hear them anyway.  It had always been like that.

One of those practical test days, the 4th year students of Baekjin Art High School were doing Hunt-A-Tag, a game of treasure hunt mixed with laser tag.  Their mission was to find a small, easily missed shining golden key in a dark room.  Divided into teams of three, each team was provided with a roughly sketched map of the building, and had to shoot the members of opposite teams using laser guns as though it was a real war.  And until a team found the hidden key, the game would end and the winning team would be rewarded with 30 extra points for their test marks.  The students were obviously battling for the extra points, enthusiastically.

18 minutes into the dark battle, the Rangers team was on a roll and surprisingly leading in terms of amounts of members who were still playing and shooting enemies the most.  They managed to shoot every opponent team member whoever came in their way from claiming victory for getting to the unknown key to end this battle.

The shortest one stopped her tracks behind a wall away from enemies to look at the map in her hands again.  Turning off her laser light, she studied the map through the dim beam of the torch light from her smart watch.  When she finally could make out the real position of their treasure, she shuffled out to find her members back.

“Baek, the key is near here, around us!  We have to find it quickly before others would,” she said to one of them to which was responded to with a firm nod.

“Okay Kim, roger that.  Look out for Ahn-beach too.  She’s turning into a merciless dictator and just shot anyone like a mad woman,” the latter whispered to the shorter girl’s ear, pointing her chin out to their captain who was just shooting anything as she pleased, even at nothing.

The Kim and the Baek girls worked to find the infamous key together with their backs on each other as their defence precautions.  Any movement that was spotted and seemed suspicious they would shoot.  And they had 4 minutes left until the battle was over.

When it had gone down to two and a half, Kim’s sharp hawk-eyed like eyes caught her captain who suddenly stopped shooting and was struggling with her vest getting stuck to the stack of chairs that she was hiding behind.  Unknown to her, there was an enemy nearby the chairs.  Clumsily the said enemy tripped on her own and was so close to knock the tall chair tower over.

“Yuj- watch out!”

silence, Kim shouted at her loudest and ran to the captain of her team before pushing her to the ground as the former landed on top of the latter.

15 seconds later, they were caught and shot, until their last member standing Baek screamed victoriously.

“FOUND THE KEY! GAME OVER!”

They were gathered in the gym’s female changing room after the practical test.  Some of them had changed into their casual clothes, meanwhile there were two injured students while having their classmates surrounded and treated their injuries.

“Seriously Chowon, the first thing you did after discovering us under the chairs was shoot us?”

There were giggling and snickering.  The girl who was treating one of the two injured girls grimaced and scrunched her nose as guilt crept her up.

“Oh come on Sohee, I already apologized for that!  We were still in the game, and I hated to see you two ace-beaches scoring physical test all the time.  Well that was until Jiheon suddenly found the treasure and you guys won the game, again,” she said bitterly.  Chowon was a large-built, dark-haired and fierce bulging-eyed girl.  She had always been competitive even at the expense of her friends’ injuries.  But she’s also a high-mannered girl who always apologized for her wrongdoings.

“Yujin was funny though!  She was doing a drama skit despite Sohee saving her arse and got injured more than her,” Jiheon spoke while pressing the medical patch on the back of another injured girl.  “You’re lucky it was Sohee.  If it were me, I would’ve smacked you to death!” she said while slapping the girl’s body gaining cries from the tall girl.

After the fallen chair incident in the old school building, it took a moment for Sohee and Yujin to fully recover and get up from the ground, until Chowon found and shot them.  She received Sohee’s death glare in return, but Yujin made her rage worse.

“Why?  Why did you save me?  You could’ve just let me dead and kept fighting in the battle! Why? WHY?”

Yujin was screaming and shaking Sohee’s body with extreme strength as though Sohee was truly dead after sacrificing herself for Yujin.

“Dude, I just saved your life! Now get off me if you don’t want me to shoot you in the head instead!”

The chaos died down when their teacher came into the room.  A short, curvy, black-haired woman came in with documents - looked like reports - in her hands.  Her beauty and charisma were enough to shut her noisy students.  But outside the pretty face and cool demeanor, was a mischievous adult with a 10-year-old-child-like behaviour sometimes. 

“That was a great work everyone and I would’ve said more, but I’ll save it for another time.  Please write your report essay about today’s test and submit it to me in 48 hours,” she said and her speech received mixed reactions from her students.  Writing essay as a homework was the thing they dreaded the most after having such a fun time playing game as a test.  But they accepted their teacher’s command and answered positively.  “And Ms. Kim, while your comradeship is commendable, please beware of your safety as well.  I need to say no more about you having a priority taking care of your body,” she added while looking at Sohee.

“Yes, ma’am.  I’ll be more careful next time,” the girl answered politely.

Satisfied with the answer, the teacher smiled and clapped.  “Class dismissed. Have a great evening!”

The girls had changed and stepped out of the gym as Yujin approached the teacher with Sohee and Jiheon following behind them.

“Ms. Kwon, do you have any plan after this?  If you don’t, let’s go to Sohee’s place and eat ramen.  I’m craving for some now that the test is over!”

Sohee was sighing and she shook her head in disagreement.  “Sorry I can’t cook the ramen for you today captain, because I gotta run to my swimming training right after this!” she said.  The tallest among the group was the most dejected by the rejection, but she also understood that her friend had a more important thing to do.  The ladies promised to have meals together at the teacher’s place another time instead once they all were free from their busy schedules.

The three girls, Ahn Yujin – tall, skinny, dimpled-smile, Baek Jiheon, the second tallest, muscled arms, round cheeks with lovely eye-smiles and charming gummy smile, and Kim Sohee – similar smiles and features as Jiheon’s but rounder face shape and the shortest among the three, all attended Baekjin Art School - School of Nation Defence.  The test that they had done earlier was for the subject “Tactical Battling Arts” (TBA).  Once they enter fifth year next semester, it would be upgraded to “Advanced Strategic Battle” (ASB).  The test was a practical and one of the most draining tests they ever had.  The teacher for the subject, the older woman with long black hair, deadly gorgeous face and body, and absolutely charismatic, was Kwon Eunbi.

On the way home after her swimming training, Sohee felt her body ached as she strode along the neighbourhood of her residency area in Pungdang Bill-age.  It was already night and the streets were dark and lonely.  Probably because of the cold and snowy weather, her fellow residents rather chose to stay and get warm inside instead of playing in the cold.  As soon as Sohee got inside the door no. 8 of Pungdang Bill-age - her house - she shivered from the cold and shook the snow off from her head and thick winter jacket.

“I’m home!” she announced to her entire household while wiping her nose.  As she put away her shoes, she finally noticed that her family wasn’t alone.  There was a familiar visitor sitting in the cozy living room while reading some books or journals that she wasn’t familiar with.

“Ah ma’am, I didn’t know you’re coming tonight!”  she greeted the guest politely and offered her kindest smile that warmed the woman’s heart.

“I thought we’re good with you calling me Yeonhee, weren’t we?  I see you started calling me with such formality again.  Am I making you uncomfortable?” the woman teased with a cheeky but heartwarming grin on her face.  Sohee’s face turned pink in embarrassment as the older woman joked with her.

“My apology, ma’am- I mean, Ms. Yeonhee!  It’s good to see you again in such a long time!  Does this mean Suyun is at home too?”

“Of course she is!  I can’t afford coming down here shamelessly without the owner coming with me, wouldn’t I?” 

The both of them laughed with the joke as Suyun appeared from the stairs.  Sohee was ecstatic to see her sister’s face that she hadn’t seen since early fall.  The two shared a warm hug before pulling away.  “You’re back for Christmas break, didn’t you?  Will it be a long vacation?”

“Yeah, it’s Christmas soon and we’re on a holiday.  It’ll be quite some time, but I don’t promise a whole month!”

“It’s okay, this is nice too!  It’s harder to see Chaewon than you anyway.  Dad and I haven’t seen her since forever!” she said with a hint of disappointment.  Suyun shrugged with a little chuckle at her youngest sister’s words.

“Give her a break.  She’s about to be the world’s Prima Donna, so we should cut her some slack!”  the tall girl responded.  “Anyway, Yeonhee and I are stepping out for a while.  Dad went out earlier to buy some beverages, will you be okay alone for a little?”

Sohee blinked and stepped as though clearing the path for the other two as she took her jacket off and folded it onto her arms.  “Oh, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine!  While you out, I’ll be cooking us dinner!”

Yeonhee and Suyun grinned in sync at the word dinner.  “That’ll be great!  See you in a little bit Sohee!”

“Bye!”  the youngest waved to the pair and went inside her room in the upper floor to get changed before rushing back.  She began preparing dinner for her family and their honourable guest once she came down to the kitchen.

Chapter two is out! Sohee, Yujin, Jiheon of fromis_9, Chowon of Lightsum/Produce 48 and Eunbi finally made an appearance! You will surely see more of them in the future! Suyun has come out too, also a mention of Chaewon :) Do tell me what you think of this chapter in the comments section. And thank you and welcome to the new subscribers! I hope you guys will enjoy this story.