The very next day she comes to practice earlier that she absolutely has to. If only to project the image of a leader that has her together. A not completely true statement.

In reality she’s been freaking out since she left the CEO’s office the day before. Despite the exhaustion from a day spent training she was unable to sleep and spent most of the night tossing and turning until it was late, or early, enough to get ready for the day.

With a cup of coffee that is at least 40% sugar in hand she opened the door to the practice room and moves to her usual spot in the side were a bench waits for her.

Not much after, Sujeong arrives in casual clothes unfit for training and smiles when she spots Yong.

“Good morning Yong Sun”

The younger bender startles at the sound of her voice and almost drops her precious coffee.

“Oh god, good morning Sujeong-ssi, I wasn’t expecting anyone this early”

“I’m just here to say goodbye to everyone, it would be rude to just disappear” She shrugs casually, in that relaxed way she has always done things that Yong wishes she could emulate.

“Right, to be honest I’m surprised to see you leave you know, you’ve always done great during evaluations and training” Yong is more relaxed now, eased by the conversation and Sujeong’s relaxed posture.

The older woman nods and looks to the side as if she’s remembering the moments Yong is talking about.

“Yeah, well- I’m kind of surprised too, in a way” Yong tries to understand what she means and the confusion is shown in the tilt of her head and the furrow of her eyebrows.

“Its just that I’ve wanted this for so long but now that we- I am so close to it I realize that I no longer want it, the fights, the power, the spotlight”

Her eyes open and her eyebrows rise in astonishment, she can’t really understand how Sujeong feels. Her own story is the complete opposite, having spent years trying to ignore her own wishes in favor of someone else’s, has put this drive in her that pushes her every day to keep working in spite of everything.

“I’m sorry for putting you all in a tight spot but I know you will succeed and I’ll be cheering you from the stands” With so much conviction in her words Sujeong’s hand finds her own.

Yong can’t help but look down, unable to maintain the eye contact, still unsure of her own leader   abilities.

“I’m not sure why they chose me to be the new captain, I’ve never done anything like that”

“I’m not sure if I should be telling you this but they asked me who I thought was the best option and I told them you -and no, it’s not based on age, just because you’ve never done it doesn’t mean you’ll be bad at it”

Before Yong can say something more Sujeong keeps talking.

“Let me remind you of one of the very first lesson I had -I’m pretty sure you had it too-. To succeed in this sport, you must have a certain awareness of other’s bending, to catch the way the way they move when attacking and defending, that way you can ensure your own attacks will land, remember that?”

She does, all the way back to middle school when the gym teacher finally let them fight with other elements. Everyone knows this. So she nods, without knowing what Sujeong is traying to say.

“Great, but remember that this principle is especially true for firebenders. Of the four elements ours is the easiest to turn against us when fighting other elements, that is why most captains are firebenders, because we have to see everything, you already have this or you wouldn’t have made it this far”

That does the job in giving a little more confidence than what she started with. But the next comment brings her back to freaking out.

“The hardest part is being a captain off the pitch and truly becoming a team, but you still got time to make it work”

Sujeong leaves her after that, going to the front of the room seeing as almost everyone has arrived, including the CEOs.

She knows they must be breaking the news to everyone and suddenly everyone is looking at her with smiles on their faces.

“Yong Sun-ssi, is there anything you’d like to say as new team captain?” The CEOs beckons her to the front of the room and she automatically walks as people nod to her in congratulations.

“Uhm- uh I- I’m very thankful for the opportunity and believing in me, I’ll wok extra hard to be the captain you all deserve” She gives a deep bow first to the CEOs and then to her new teammates and training staff standing in front of her.

After that everyone gets back to their daily routines, everyone but the three other benders and their former captain. She sees them talking on the other side of the room while she warms and when she sees them all hug, she approaches them.

“Kids, be good for Yong Sun and don’t miss me too much” She looks at Yong a few steps away and says directly at her “You will do great, I’m sure of it”