“Yen-Yul?” Yuri asks suddenly with a questioning tone while the two wait for the crowd to disperse.

“What? I just came up with it on the spot! I’ll make sure to announce your name first next time then, Ms. Superstar.” Yena replies with a contagious laugh that gets the hamster cracking up too.

“Anyway, you notice the masked singer watching in the distance, right?” Yuri queries after calming down.

“Yeah, as soon as our song finished, she was gone. I’m not sure yet if she took the bait though.” Yena says with a nod. With the crowd gone, the two began walking in the direction they’d seen the masked singer. For around 15 minutes, the duo snooped around the area to no avail. It was like she just disappeared.

“Hmm… maybe we got too ahead of ourselves, Yena. I think we should take a break.” Yuri says as she stretches. When she turned around though, the duck was nowhere to be found.

“Yena? Where’d you go?” The idol’s danger senses were beginning to tingle again, and they were especially heightened now that her girlfriend was the one who might be in grave danger.

“Unnie! Please answer me!” She shouts as she runs around the block to no avail. Eventually, she changes tactics and begins asking people in the area until one said they saw a blonde woman turn towards an alleyway.

“Oh no…” Yuri quickly thanks the person who gave her the tip and runs off to where Yena was last seen. Once she got there, that’s when she began to hear it- a melodic whistling that sounded eerily familiar to what she heard a couple days ago.

After a couple turns, the hamster finally sees her beloved slowly walking towards a masked woman in black clothing. As Yena begins to inch closer, the woman unsheathes a knife from her waist. Yuri couldn’t let this go on any further.

“Yah, you aren’t going to get the jump on me this time!” Yuri yells as she runs in between Yena and the masked singer.

“Oh, it’s you again.” The woman says, her voice a bit muffled from behind the mask.

“You got a cheap shot on me last time, and I’m not going to let this be a repeat. Now let me hit you!” At this, Yuri lunges forward to swing a punch, but she was surprised at her attack being blocked. She was sure she’d put charmspeak into her words. It appeared that her target was immune to it.

Is that why the singing doesn’t seem to affect me either? Yuri thinks momentarily.

“Don’t try to mess with me, child. I’ve been in this game way longer than you. Your voice won’t work against me.” She replies in a condescending tone before swinging her blade.

“Why are you even doing this? Killing off musicians and singers? What did they ever do to you?” Yuri asks while dodging each attack. Her strength wasn’t the same as the masked woman, but her smaller size did give her a speed advantage. The hamster’s goal was to simply stay in between the assailant and Yena.

“You wouldn’t understand. You’re a pop star with thousands of fans. I was going to let you off because I can sense you have some type of voice power too, but you’re forcing my hand!” The woman yells before faking an attack just to spin and connect on a swing that leaves a cut on Yuri’s forearm. The idol screams in pain, much to the delight of the masked singer.

“I could never feel that my music and singing was genuine because of my power. Every time I would perform, people would cheer no matter what, even when I tried to mess up on purpose. Because of that, I just hate all of you singers who are free to use your voices however you want!” These words strike Yuri hard as someone who had the same worry for a long time. At least for her, she had control of when she could use her charmspeak. That didn’t excuse any of this woman’s actions though. Yuri steels herself, taking a deep breath, before standing up straight, blood dripping from her arm.

“Just because you couldn’t have something doesn’t mean you could resort to killing people! You’re crazy!” She says, grabbing a piece of plywood next to her and tossing it right at the woman who had turned her attention back to Yena. The strike was right on target, leaving the woman’s mask cracked.

“Yah! You just don’t know when to quit. Fine, you can die first, but at the hands of your friend here.” The woman says before repeating the tune she’d whistled earlier. Yena’s body begins to stir at this, eventually getting her to stand up like a puppet. The masked singer then changes melodies, causing the duck to charge her hands, electricity beginning to build up.

“So it seems your partner is a mutant too. It's a shame how you’re both going to die. All you had to do was shut your mouths.” She sneers.

“Yena, don’t do this. Please, it’s me, Yuri.” The hamster tries to say calmly. The blonde girl slows for a second which forces the masked singer to increase her own volume to take back control.

“Your voice won’t beat mine, child!” At another whistle, Yena fires a bolt of electricity that Yuri barely manages to dodge.

“No, you’re wrong, and I’ll show you why.” The idol then turns to Yena again, and takes another deep breath.

“No more holding back…” She thinks before speaking.

“Yena-ya, you’re the love of my life, and I know you’re somewhere in there. When did you ever let anyone control your actions? I’m not going to fight back because I know you don’t want to hurt me!” Yuri says, putting every ounce of sincerity into her words.

“You just signed your death warrant!” The woman replies with a laugh, commanding Yena to deal the finishing blow. Yuri closes her eyes, but the attack never comes. Instead, the duck manages to snap out of her spell and quickly direct a thunder strike from the clouds onto their assailant. When the dust clears, the woman is unconscious with her mask completely shattered.

“Yuri-ya, I am so sorry! Are you okay?” Yena asks after rushing over to her girlfriend who was on the verge of collapsing from blood loss.

“Officer Hwang is gonna kill us, isn’t he?” Yuri replies with a chuckle as she sees the damage caused by Yena. She could already hear the sirens approaching from a distance.

“Yah, that’s not important right now. We need to get you to a hospital!” The duck responds, tearing off a piece of her shirt and wrapping it around Yuri’s wound.

After a few minutes, the police finally arrive, and while officer Hwang did look displeased at the state of the alley, he decides to focus on apprehending the serial killer who was starting to regain consciousness.

“Sorry about the mess, officer. We’ll clean it up.’ Yena says with an apologetic bow.

“I already received a call from Seunggi. He’ll handle it. In the end, I may disagree with your methods, but you do certainly get results.” He begrudgingly says, walking back towards his vehicle. As the police begin ushering the masked singer away though, Yuri limps over and stops them.

“I may have a voice-related power, but instead of letting it control me, I’ve practiced trying to control it instead. Maybe if you tried to do that, you’d learn that you wouldn't have needed to kill anyone.” The idol says after some thought. Given that the woman’s mouth was being covered though, all Yuri got in response were aggressive grunts.

“Come on, Yul. let’s get you some treatment already. You can’t show up to your music shows looking like that, you know?” Yena says, pulling the hamster away

“Oh yeah…that reminds me.” Yuri pulls out her phone, finally seeing a bunch of missed texts and calls from her manager. She did conveniently forget to inform her company about the surprise busking, and when they find out about this fight, they’ll be even more upset.

~~~~

The next day…

“We’re live from WakeOne Entertainment for a press conference with rising pop star Jo Yuri regarding the arrest of a serial killer, now identified as Yoo Eun-kyung, last night. Reports say Yuri and her girlfriend, Choi Yena, had confronted and managed to apprehend Yoo before police arrived at the scene. The company has organized this press conference to give an official statement.” A reporter says as Yuri finally walks up to the mic. Yena had originally been against the idea, urging her girlfriend to rest first, but Yuri was insistent on having something important to say.

“Good morning. My name is Jo Yuri. Last night, I was involved in an incident with a serial killer who had been taking the lives of several innocent people for the past few weeks.There have been rumors going around with one of the recent attacks, and I will admit I was there, not as a perpetrator, but as a person trying to help. Unfortunately, I failed, but from that event, I decided I couldn’t let this killer roam free any longer. As many of you know, aside from being a singer, I am also a mutant, and as a member of IZ*ONE, I have a responsibility to protect people from threats.” The idol says, expectant eyes and flashing cameras in front of her.

“While I dislike the divide that society has for me and many others, I do understand to an extent the reasons for such apprehension. With this, I will also address the other rumor going around about what my power actually is. No, it isn’t a supersonic scream. Nor is it invincibility” At this, she shows the new scar she had on her forearm as a result from the fight last night.

“I have the ability to convince people to do what I say with my voice. Now, I know as a singer, this can be problematic. Many of my fans right now might feel like they were tricked or scammed, and I do not fault you for that. What I will say though is that I have the ability to turn that power on or off, and only really use it when I am on confidential missions. I hope being transparent and saying this secret out loud will show my sincerity, but I am willing to work even harder to show it.” Yuri concludes and opens herself up to questions.

“How can we trust that you’re not trying to fool us right now?” One reporter asks in a doubting tone, several others mumbling in agreement.

“Dance like a chicken.” The hamster says calmly. All eyes turned to the man who had asked the question, but he wasn’t reacting at all.

“You’re just going to have to trust that I mean no harm and that I’m being sincere. I understand that it’ll be hard to gain your trust, but I hope I do in the future.” After this, Yuri answers a few more questions that seem to just blur by. When the press conference finally ends, the idol gives a bow, and walks offstage, feeling significantly lighter.

~~~~

“Looks like most Glassy are still on your side.” Yena says with a smile as she scrolls through her girlfriend’s fancafe. It was full of support, and Yuri couldn’t have been more grateful. She’d been holding on to that secret for a while, but after their run in with the masked singer, she couldn’t run away from the rumors forever. She had to embrace who she was.

“Are you sure? From the looks of it, they all seem to be wanting to hear more performances from you.” Yuri jokes, referencing all the viral videos popping up from their busking the night before. Due to events of last night, the idol’s schedule for the next week was canceled which allowed her to rest and recover back at PD campus.

“Remind me to send my performance fee to your manager then.” The duck’s words end up making both girls finally lose it and laugh together.

“Choi Yena, I really love you. You know that, right?” Yuri says as the two lay on their bed next to each other.

“Yeah, you’re the love of my life too, Yuri.” Yena replies, grinning ear to ear.

“Come to think of it, your charmspeak has really grown. You managed to shake me out of the masked singer’s spell.” The older girl then says.

“Actually, the funny thing is I didn’t use my charmspeak for that. Everything I said was from the heart.” Yuri says which completely shocks Yena. She knew it would’ve been a risk, but the younger girl was banking on her sincerity being stronger than any spell someone could cast.

“Wow, I must’ve saved the world in my previous life to end up with a special girl like you.” The duck says, giving the hamster a big hug.

“You’ve already done enough in this one, dummy.” Yuri replies with a smile, leaning in for a kiss. In their hectic lives, anything could happen which made her savor moments like these even more.

A/N: Aaand that concludes the second short story, "The Masked Singer". I apologize for the delays as my laptop really did crash yesterday. 8 year old laptops tend to be pretty clunky, go figure. I had to borrow a computer to post these today HAHA.

 Anyways, I hope that the double chapter upload makes up for it. It was supposed to be just one, but I realized I couldn't fit everything in one chapter. The cut between part 3 and 4 may look a bit weird because of that, but thats the explanation.

Moving forward, i'm still deciding between which member i want to focus on next because I have ideas for several of them. I guess y'all will just find out in the next one.

Thank you once again for the likes and comments. I've really enjoyed seeing people's thoughts. See y'all in the next on and an early happy birthday to our Hiichan!