At first, they were not only four. They were maybe 12 or 16 others, she doesn’t remember the others too much. Only remembering her own group of firebenders competing for a position in the debuting team, or at least a spot as a substitute. 

Yongsun was one of the oldest there, only a few months younger than Sujeong, so the pressure to succeed kept her up at night most often than not. But she continued in spite of not having her parents’ approval and getting in so much debt just by training with Rainbow Bending World (RBW).

She tutors kids and babysits on the side just to get enough money for her daily commute to and from the training gym, on particularly rough weeks she walks and says it’s because she needs the extra workout.

She does odd jobs using her bending to pay for her training equipment and borrows from her sister when she’s too low on money. She's always low on money.

That’s ok, she will make it and one day she’ll be the one giving expensive gifts to her parents, she’ll show them this is not a waste of her time.

*

Going into Probending wasn’t something she’d dreamt her whole life, unlike most of her peers that starter training when they were barely out of puberty.

For her, at least in the eyes of everyone else including her parents, firebending was just something more she could do in between her other skills, not something to base a career path on.

She knew she was good enough to impress the middle school teacher that taught moody teens not to burn their houses down in a rage fit, enough to offer her some extra practice sessions if she wanted.

She takes them in secret, knowing her parents would surely disapprove such waste of her time, after all, she should be focusing in her grades not playing around with literal fire.

So she does as told and focuses on getting into college, one without a bending team, and forgets about the thrill of bending beyond lighting up a candle or reheating her tea in the mornings.

Until one day during a small tournament at her workplace to win an air fryer, which she easily wins mind you, Yongsun is approached by a scout, a probending scout.

That event completely changes the path she was on. While finishing school as fast as possible she starts trying out for different companies trying to build their own probending champion team.

She fails. A lot. Until almost at the end of her rope she is finally accepted into a company.

Her parents cut her off when she finally summons the courage to tell them, but that’s ok because she is prepared for that reaction and has saved every last won that she could.

At least they didn’t kicked her out, so she still has a roof over her head to go with her parents disapproving gaze and harsh words.

It also helps that her increasingly successful sister is supporting as much as she can on the side, not only financially, but with encouraging words and being there as much as she can.

So that is how one day, after almost a year of training, she is rotated around different mixes of what could be the perfect combination for a winning team. Getting to practice for a couple of weeks with each combination she gets a sense of the other benders around her.

There are a lot fresh faced teens that have a lot of potential and the fear of getting cut in fa