The next day, Yujin and Wonyoung paid another visit to Chungnam high school after class time. It was quite easy to blend in given they were as old as many of the students there, but they weren’t having much luck getting information.

“Excuse me, would you happen to know a senior named Kim Gaeul?” Yujin asked one student after splitting off from Wonyoung, but she was ignored. The bunny also appeared to get be getting cold shoulder, the closest she could get to an answer being “That freak? How would I know where she is?”. The bunny tried very hard to keep her composure at that comment.

“No use, unnie. No one’s budging.” The younger girl eventually says after meeting up with Yujin again.

“Yeah, it’s either they don’t know she exists or straight up hate her. It seems kids aren’t much different from adults.” The older girl replies in an annoyed tone. At that moment though, a new voice calls out to them.

“Hey, over here!” When the duo turns, they see a blonde girl trying to hide next to the school gates.

“My name is Jiwon, but my friends call me Liz. I overheard you asking about Gaeul-unnie?” She asks when the two approach her.

“Yeah, we think something bad might’ve happened to her.” Yujin says quietly, and at this, the younger girl gasps.

“Is that why she was absent today? I’ve been trying to contact her all night, but she hasn’t responded.” Liz says worriedly.

“Yes, we were passing by yesterday when we heard some commotion coming from your school. We believe it has something to do with her being a mutant.” Wonyoung continued, but at the mention of the word ‘mutant’, Liz froze.

“You’re not one of them, are you?” She asks nervously, taking a step back.

“What do you mean ‘one of them’?” Yujin reaches a hand towards the blonde girl, but she turns and runs away. “Hey! Wait!” The puppy calls as she and Wonyoung try to catch up.

“We’re not here to hurt you. We want to help!” Wonyoung says as the three reach a dead end.

“No…No…you won’t take any more of us!” And at that, Liz steps backwards into the wall and disappears.

“Uh, Wonyoung, did you just see what I just saw?” Yujin asks, dumbfounded.

“Yeah, she’s a mutant too which means she might also be in danger.” The bunny replies. “What do we do now?”

“Hmm, since she goes to this school, we can probably get Sakura to find out her address. We have to let her know that we’re on her side.” Yujin says, absentmindedly swirling some water from a nearby fountain on her fingertips before speaking again.

“For now, let’s grab a snack before heading back home. This situation is getting me worked up.” Wonyoung nods at this and the duo turn back to head for the school’s exit. Little did they know that someone had been observing them from afar the whole time.

~~~~

30 minutes later…

Like Wonyoung had promised the day before, she let Yujin be the one to pick the place to eat this time. The puppy had then directed them to one of her favorite ice cream parlors that she used to go to after commercial shoots when she was younger.

“Mmm! This is delicious, unnie! We should’ve gone here sooner!” Wonyoung says happily as she bites another scoop of mint chocolate ice cream. Yujin normally would’ve made some joke about how picking that flavor was a waste of a trip when they had toothpaste at home, but one, she didn’t want to ruin a good moment, and two, she’d seen Nako and Chaewon’s ‘totally reasonable’ (read: violent) reactions to those jokes before.

“See, I can give good recommendations too.” She says with a smile instead, taking a bite of her own chocolate ice cream.

“By the way, about Liz. She said to not take any more of ‘us’. Does that mean she knows other mutants in the area as well?” Wonyoung asks, the little nugget of information bothering her since earlier. Yujin considers this for a moment, but before she could respond, someone walking inside the ice cream parlor catches her attention. He was a tall and muscular man wearing what appeared to be a thick bulletproof vest. He also had a hockey mask hanging on his belt and a duffel bag slung on his shoulder. What caught the puppy’s attention though was the hateful stare he was giving her as soon as he walked in.

“What’s wrong, unnie?” Yujin motions the bunny to look behind her, and with both of them now watching the suspicious man’s movements, he chooses to walk towards their table.

“Got a problem, girlie?” He says with a deep voice. Yujin and Wonyoung were definitely tall for their age, but this guy made both of them look tiny.

“Yeah, what’s with the getup? Halloween isn’t till the end of October.” Yujin replies snarkily.

“What? A guy can’t go around with protection against you dirty mutants?” At these words, Yujin’s expression falters.

“How did you know?” The short-haired girl asks, already looking around the shop for a liquid source to use in case things got hairy.

“Let’s just say I have a keen eye.” He says before turning to the other customers that had started looking over at the commotion.

“These two girls here are mutants! Threats to our society and way of living!” The crowd and staff begin to tense, suddenly looking at the duo as if they were monsters.

“Yah, we’re just here to buy ice cream like the rest of you! Can’t you just leave us alone?” Yujin pleads, standing up and stepping in front of Wonyoung.

“Can you blame us for being worried that you could kill us at any random second?” The man continued to goad, and Yujin was starting to lose patience.

“Have you not seen the news recently? It isn’t us you have to worry about, but the psycho adults who try to exploit us.” Wonyoung interjects, but her words fall on deaf ears as the man takes out a strange weapon from his duffel bag. It appeared to be a shotgun, but the ammo he was loading into it looked like vials of gas.

“Well, think about this. If you mutants weren’t around, there wouldn’t be crazy people creating armies of you freaks. I just want to keep my streets safe which is why I’ve been trying to clear all of you vermin out.” At this, he points the gun past Yujin’s shoulder right at Wonyoung, and the older girl loses it. She was trying her best to hold it in, but her emotions got the best of her. The pipes in the ice cream parlor burst and doused the man, causing panic to spread throughout the shop.

“Wonnie, we have to run!” Yujin says before grabbing Wonyoung’s hand and pulling her away. By the time the man regained his bearings, spitting out some water, the two were gone.

“See! Those mutants are nothing but trouble. Now, we even have them in the media and music industries! Why should we be funding their facilities when we should be either hunting them down or imprisoning them before they can do any damage!” He yells when he walks back on to the streets for all the people passing by.

~~~~

2 hours later…

“They call him Hunter Geun.” Sakura says as she brings up some news articles on the burly man. “Daughter had ended up developing mutant abilities and accidentally burned down their house with her mother still in it. When he came home, his daughter had disappeared leaving him all alone. He’s hated mutants ever since, and has been at the forefront of anti-mutant rallies.”

“So, why have we never heard of him until today?” Wonyoung asks. The duo had to call in campus to get them back because it was too dangerous to use the bus like normal. Word was beginning to spread quickly online about the mutant that had flooded an ice cream parlor. It was just their luck though that in most clips, there was either no audio or a cut to when Yujin lost her temper.

“It seems that he’s gotten a hold of some advanced technology. He’s been way more active in hunting mutants recently because of it, hence the nickname.” The tech-girl then explains how when she looked into some of the missing persons reports the duo had sent over, a lot of them were actually mutants. Many of them had gotten by undetected because their abilities were lowkey like advanced hearing, heightened intelligence, and voice mimicry, but somehow, Geun was able to single them out. The reason he was never indicted of anything was because the police appeared to be in on it. They didn’t want mutants around either, so they would simply close the cases as missing persons reports.

“I think he has something that can identify if someone is a mutant or not. Whatever tech that is couldn’t have been developed by him.” Sakura says worriedly. It appeared the young duo had stumbled onto something big.

“That must’ve been how he knew we had abilities, and now that I think of it, he could have been the one to abduct Gaeul.” There was even more information swirling in Yujin’s head now that she almost felt dizzy.

“So, if we think he has something to do with it, why can’t we just go directly to him?” Wonyoung queries, wanting to get this ordeal over with as soon as possible, but Sakura shakes her head.

“He’s the head of the anti-mutant association right now. Any direct conflict with him like what happened today may only amplify his cause against us. I’ll talk with Eunbi about it later, but I think you two need some rest. I’ll also look for the details of that Liz girl you ran into earlier. You were right about her possibly being in danger.” And with those words from the older girl, Yujin and Wonyoung are shooed out of the room.

~~~~

“Ugh, they just don’t want us to be involved because we’re the youngest.” Yujin grumbles as they head back to their room.

“It’s not entirely because of that, unnie. They just don’t want us to do anything rash.” Wonyoung replies, trying to calm her girlfriend down. It wasn’t every day that Yujin would lose her cool, but it’s now happened on back to back days- first, after dinner yesterday, and today at the ice cream parlor.

“Is there anything else bothering you? You know you can tell me anything, unnie.” Wonyoung asks cautiously, not wanting the older girl to close herself up. The two walk in silence for a bit, and just when Wonyoung was about to drop the topic, Yujin responds.

“I guess…I’ve just been frustrated with things recently. We never get to live a normal life, and have to watch our backs 24/7. It’s connected to yesterday too because I wish I could be a better girlfriend and spoil you with things when I want to, but I’ve never had the money to do it.” The older girl finally admits. She wanted to walk around with Wonyoung without a care in the world. She wanted to shower her with love and affection the way it always seems the younger girl does for her, and she wanted to culminate that sentiment with a perfect birthday celebration on Saturday.

“Yujin…” Wonyoung says quietly, cupping the puppy’s face between her hands. “It’s okay to not be normal. In fact, I wouldn’t want anything in our lives to simply be normal. It’s never been our style, and the reason I fell for you specifically was because you were different. You’re the goofy, adorable, puppy I’ve always loved, and nothing’s going to change that.”

Yujin’s eyes begin to tear up as she takes Wonyoung’s hands into hers and holds them tightly.

“Thanks, Wonnie. I’ll always do my best to love you back too.” She says, planting a kiss on the younger girl’s forehead. At this, a sudden voice interrupts the two.

“Aww… you two will never not be cute!” Chaeyeon says out of nowhere.

“Yah! Unnie! What are you doing here?” Yujin asks, face as red as a tomato.

“Uh, you two are in the middle of the hallway. I was just on my way back from meeting Chaeryeong when I saw you two having a moment. I couldn’t just interrupt you in the middle of it!” The older girl says as she walks up and pinches both of their cheeks. “You two have grown up so fast, it makes me a bit sad.”

“Aish, we can deal without the teasing, unnie.” Wonyoung mumbles though she still secretly enjoyed being babied by Chaeyeon.

“You were right by the way, Wonyoung. Not being normal isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Our powers are what make us unique.” Chaeyeon says with a smile.

“I’m glad that I’m getting wiser then.” The bunny replies with a giggle. “We’ll head in now. You should go catch up with Kkura-unnie before she gets too engrossed in her laptop again.”

This time it was Chaeyeon’s turn to let out her signature laugh, ruffling the two younger girl’s hair one more time before entering her room.

“C’mon, Wonnie. We have to rest to have energy to find Liz tomorrow.” Yujin says, feeling a lot lighter now.

“That’s the Yujin I know.” Wonyoung thinks before grabbing Yujin’s hand and walking back to their room.

A/N: Hello again! I wasn't planning on releasing another chapter this soon, but I was really into it today HAHA

So, the bad guy has finally been revealed! I don't know how many of you have seen the show "Generator Rex", but I based Hunter Geun here around one of the villains in that show, Hunter Cain. Also, I didn't have any specific reason for choosing 'Geun' for the name, I just looked up Korean last names and Geun meant Axe, which i thought was fitting enough. That's your TMI for the day lol

Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed the Annyeongz so far! I appreciate all the likes/upvotes and comments. I'll see y'all in the next one!