First Day, First Discovery

Chp. 02

I wear my school uniform; the white buttoned up shirt and vest, black skirt, the black and blue coat with a black tie. The school's badge logo sewed on the left chest area of the coat as I put on my name plate above it. I let my red hair down, neatly combing it and with one last look in the mirror, I take my bag and walk out of the room with Jihae in tow.

We walk towards the academic ground together before we separate to proceed to our years quarters. Thanks to the tour Jihae gave me yesterday, I managed to not get lost to my first class. I slow down my pace when I get near the class, wondering whether to simply walk in or wait for the teacher to arrive. There are students walking pass me, entering the class. I notice the students who are already in the class, chattering among them.

Nearing the class, I also notice a boy who if I am not mistaken rode the same bus as me yesterday, that had taken the seat behind me. A new student as well and he is standing in front of the same class as I'll be entering, leaning on the wall at the opposite side. Is he my classmate?

He has his bag on his shoulder, casually and lightly kicking his shoes on the floor as he waits, leaning his back against the wall. He has his eyes at his shoes but when I'm nearing, he raises his eyes and stares at me. There are a few moments of pausing and blinking before he gives a small smile and a head bow which I bow back.

"We rode the same bus yesterday, right?" he inquires and I nod, softly answering him a "Yes"

There is that awkward bubble around us as we stand next to each other (with a bit of a gap), waiting for the teacher to come. Not even a minute later, a petite looking woman walking towards the class with a few books and files in her arm with a briefcase in her other hand. All dressed up with a light pink blouse tucked inside her light beige pencil skirt that hugged her curves with equally beige coloured high stilettos. Her light brown hair is in wavy, flowing down towards half of her torso.

When she sees us, she immediately smiles. "Hi, you two must be my new students. Kim Jungwoo and Lee Ahri, right?" she greets gently yet excitingly. When both of us nod at her, her smiles widen, showing off her pearly white teeth. "My name is Kim Taeyeon. Call me Ms. Kim, I'm your homeroom teacher" she introduces before she nods to the class door. "Come"

I follow her with the boy following behind me

I can feel that nervousness bubbling inside me. That nervous 'new student' phase wouldn't be disappearing for a while. The both of us follow the teacher, standing at the front of the class near the whiteboard. The class went quiet, looking at the teacher and at us.

“Class, as I had mentioned last week we’re going to have new students in our class" Ms. Kim starts, standing at her desk and looking at all the students in front of her. "Hope you all treat them well, arasso?” Ms. Kim adds, with a few nodding heads from the class. She turns towards us, "Well, can you both introduce yourself to the whole class”

With a nervous breath, I stare at the guy next to me and he stares back. "You first” I say quietly at him. He simply says nods before bowing to the whole class.

“Annyeonghaseyo, I’m Kim Jungwoo. You can call me Jungwoo”

I bow after him, “Ne-ne..Annyeonghaseyo, My name is Lee Ahri. Nice to meet you all"

The introduction session ended quite fast, even though there were few questions here and there from the students but Mrs. Kim dismissed them all because she wanted to start the class.

We both walk to the unoccupied desks left – there is one beside a guy, which Jungwoo sits on. His seatmate sends him a friendly smile, a black haired guy with cute eyes. The other empty desk is beside a girl which is where I sit. A rather bright grinning girl with brown hair greets me.

“Hi! Ahri, right?" she holds out her hand as I sit down on the chair. "I’m Hayeon, Im Hayeon. Nice to meet you” my seatmate brightly introduces herself. I nod, smiling back. “Nice to meet you too” Both of us shake our hands.

I take out my book and my writing materials as Ms. Kim stands at her desk at the front of the class. I can't help but notice how poised, relax yet strong she appears, just by standing and breathing. Her energy is spread out, pulsing in calming waves and it gives me a bit of a goosebumps at how strong her aura is.

I don't know what her ability is -- or anyone that I've noticed -- but up until now, almost every older people I've met (like the seniors, the teachers and even Jihae) emits strong energy and aura in their own respective level.

In class, I can tell the difference with the students too. Everyone has different sort of energy level yet I can still sense they are softer and milder, almost too subtle to notice, a different from the older ones. Probably it is because we're first years with the most less experience so yeah, it's very shocking and fascinating to be able feel the differences. And I've only been here for almost two days. At home on Earth, the rest of the town's people appears the same, no any stark contrasts from one another.

While I'm wide eyed trying to smell and sense the rest of the energies in the classroom, Ms. Kim already telling us to open our textbooks on chapter four. History...she teaches history in my class and I didn't know I would be intrigue to listen to a history subject as this is. And because I enrolled late, the class is already at chapter four.

As she starts explaining at the front, I brisk through the first chapter to chapter three; trying to see what it is about in this subject. Clearly, it is different from what I've learned on Earth but it doesn't run far from the usual history matters. The beginning of the chapters covered about how the world began to create, how it had evolved, about the monarchy system of this world and so forth. There is also quite a number of pictures in the book.

As I go through the chapter Ms. Kim is telling, I stumble on a picture of a big white wolf, a human-like fairy with colourful big wings on its back, a big bird like creature with green eyes, a skinny-bony-like-creature with its leather like red skin and sharp teeth -- there's a lot of real-like pictures, black and white illustrations, and so on.

Mythical creatures

My mind adds in to my understanding to all of those things I discovered. Most of them I've known them when I was on Earth. Mythical creatures...that's what they're called and they are myths on Earth stories.

According to the book, we are from them and had evolved. There's a lot of back story going on in the paragraphs but Ms. Kim had shorten it up for our easier understanding; we are the descendants, an evolvement product from the majestic mythical creatures that we knew about. But here they’re real and not a myth.

And there is magic involved in the process, a lot of cultural and political agreement and disagreement, multiple cross breeding until centuries later the end product or the current line of the generation, is us.

"We unfortunately can't transform into our ancestors' forms anymore" Ms. Kim says, arms casually around her torso as she explains more. There are a couple of students who look bored but majority still tentatively listening to her. "It's now a rarity because of the multiple cross breeding throughout the generations”

"Our ancestors back thousands of years ago, were very fond of the human race. They were curious on their looks, their eating habits, their walking, running and all of those humans like anatomy. When magic came, when there was that second explosive happening to all over Atheia, the magic had granted them all the same ability," Ms. Kim continues, walking slowly through the students' desk. She pauses to a moment, turning her head to look down at a student's desk. The boy, sitting behind Jungwoo, confusedly looking up at whatever he was doing at Ms. Kim. His face red and probably caught on doing something he shouldn't.

"Looks great Haechan-ah, that's a nice drawing but this is my class, not a drawing class" Our teacher said, even when she was speaking so calmly and gently, there was that tinge of strictness that we do not want to disobey. She picks up the piece of paper from the boy's (Haechan's) desk and folding it up in her hands. "So Haechan-ah, what ability do you think that our ancestors was gifted when that explosion of magic happened thousands of years ago?"

Haechan scratches his head as he looks back and forth, seemingly trying to find answers from his friend and at the book he has forgotten on his desk. I can see he his lips, eyes moving about and a couple of seconds passed before his eyes go wide and he opens his mouth. "The...the ability to turn into a human!" then he blinks up at Ms. Kim, his fingers going to his mouth in confusion, "W-was it...right? Am I wrong?"

Ms. Kim stares him down before she hums, nodding. "Yes, you're correct, Haechan-ah. But if you had been focusing on your textbook and to my words then you'll be able to answer it in a snap" she crossed her arms again before she resumes walking and explaining like nothing happened. The piece of paper still in her grasp, folded neatly. "What Haechan said was right. Our ancestors had been gifted the ability to turn into a human. Their curiosity and their excitement on a new body had led to its new form. The human form as we called it and we are that generation from the product of evolutionary. And it's also been recorded up to our great great grandparents marked the very rarity of transformation to our original ancestors’ forms”

"Ms. Kim but the royal families can still turn right? I heard that they can still transform" One of the girls sit at the front raised her hand. "Aren't they pure bloods or something"

"They're not pure blood" One of the boys at the side interjects her even before Ms. Kim could say something, "They have a fairy and a mermaid in their family tree"

Ms. Kim apparently nods and hums at that, "That's true Jeonghan. The Byun family indeed have a fairy and a mermaid in their bloodline" Ms. Kim hold up a finger, "But their blood wasn’t dominant. I think no family has that really pure blood anymore. Everyone's blood already has mixtures of multiple creatures passed down through the generations" she says. The more this topic goes on, the more oddly fascinating all of this is. I've been staring and listening to the class, hands stayed silently on my textbook.

"There is a lot more explanations regarding this transformation. I don't think we have any pure bloods families now. Maybe there are some families who are half-bloods or that they still keep their bloodline as pure and dominant as possible like the royal families but most and majority of the population has so much mixture in their blood it's hard to achieve such transformation. What we can conclude is that if your blood is dominant enough, then you might be able to transform"

I blink, figuring if the royal family, like what people said about them, that they can transform into those mythical creatures.

"In history, we have a few royal bloodlines. For the current one, the Byun family who had ever recorded to be able to turn into a full form creature is Byun Il Hoon in 1761 and Byun Jang Hyuk in 1867. And for those who doesn't know, the Byun bloodline is dominant on the creature wolf. So, they were able to transform into a full grown wolf during their time period--"

The bell suddenly rings, snapping half of us in surprised at the loud sound. Ms. Kim glance outside and down at her wrist watch before she shrugs, "We'll continue the chapter on the next lesson but for now, I'll be giving you work to do and submit it during our next class" Ms. Kim heads to her desk and gives us homework to do and by the time the teacher heads out, everyone is moving about at their place. Apparently, it's recess and students just chattering excited to themselves as they walk out.

I can see Jungwoo following his seatmate and Haechan out of the class before my attention go down to my class timetable.

And my next class will be…

“Combat 101 : First Years” Hayeon says for me instead, peeking through my shoulder at my timetable. I stare at her, startled and surprised at her sudden proximity. She moves away with her hands up, giggling a bit. "Sorry sorry, didn't mean to scare you"

I just shake to snap out and smile at her. “No, no it’s fine" I tell her before rearranging my stuff inside my bag. I hear Hayeon chuckling beside me with a cheerful 'Alright!' as she keeps her things as well. Strangely she reminds me of Jihae, a darker hair version of Jihae.

“So combat 101?” I decide to ask her, and notice that we're the few last students in class.

She hums, “Yeah"

"What is that class actually?"

"Well, it's basically a combat skills class. That’s where we are train to fight" she says, swinging her backpack on her back and stands up from her chair. I follow her. "We're basically learning the basic of fighting. First years are always the basic, though just be prepared if we ever need to learn more than that but it won’t be extreme cause that’s when we're in fourth year" Hayeon explains, "And don't worry too much about being left out or anything cause this is our first class too" She continues, waiting for me before we head out of the class.

"Really?"

She nods, "For first years, anything training related starts after two months of the term. The first two months we were mostly focus on normal subjects and introduction to the academy. This week is actually the start of our training practices and all the stress that we would be getting” she tells me with a light hearted and also sarcastic approach. Both of us heading towards the cafeteria for lunch. "You're just on the right timing for us to get into the physical classes. I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing though"

"Is it that hard?" I ask, holding onto the strap of my bag as we are walking down the hallway.

"Depends" she shrugs, "If you're fit and already learned the basics like punching or dodging then it might be a piece of cake but if you're not...then..." she gives a sarcastic laugh. "Just pray for your muscles cause mine really needs it!"

I let out a chuckle at her joke, feeling light and slowly getting comfortable talking with Hayeon.

"I'm such a loser to these physical things. Yeah I can run but if someone punches me then please just call the ambulance"

I shake my head, amused. "You're not alone, don't worry. I'm just as terrible"

Both of us lets out a chuckle

🌻🌻🌻

"So, where're you from? Neia? Maleia? Oreiane? or are you from here?"

I frown confusedly, just placed my tray of food on top of the table. We managed to find an empty spot beside the big windows in the cafeteria. The cafeteria seems more busier with people than from what I've seen yesterday at dinner. "Hmm none of those?"

"Oh" she picks up her chopsticks, looking at me. "Wait wait wait, are you from Earth?"

"Yea--"

"Wait really?!"

I blink, slowly starting eating. "Yes? Kim Jungwoo is from Earth too and there's more students from Earth. We came here yesterday--"

She shakes her head excitedly, "No, no--wait I mean, alright noted that you're from Earth. I know there's students from Earth, it's just that I'm just excited talking to a friend from Earth" she says, eyes gleaming as she starts to eat as well. "I came from Earth too"

That get my attention, "Really? You're from Earth?"

She nods, "I came here when I was 10 but I was born and grew up there. My parents from Enchantia but after they got married, they went honeymoon on Earth. Then, they decided to stay there then they got me" she shrugs, "We stayed there until they thought I was big enough to go back here" she explains, "We're now living with my grandparents" she ends her story there. "What about you?"

I purse my lips, quietly eating my rice. "I think I was born here" I start hesitantly. Hayeon pauses eating to look confusedly at me.

"You think?" she wonders

I nod, "Yeah" I nod again, "I was adopted" I say and I can see the slight widening of her eyes. "I was raised by my foster parents then on Earth. They took me under their care when I was around 4 years old" I gulp down, drinking water a bit. It's still weird talking about my life to other people beside my parents and aunt. First it was Jihae and now Hayeon.

Hayeon seems to understand that the topic is not a light hearted one. She nods in understanding. I can see that sympathy written on her face. "How about your real parents? Are they, I'm sorry if I'm being insensitive, but are they dead? Was that why your foster parents took you in?"

I shrug before I nod, "Very likely, yes, maybe they're gone" I tell her, chuckling awkwardly a bit. "I don't know what happened to them. Never