i. premonition

The sound of an aluminum cup colliding with the floor resonated all over the cafeteria.

“Tiff, are you alright?” Jessica placed a hand above her friend’s forehead. The temperature is normal. The onlookers who had witnessed the incident, upon realizing nothing really news-worthy was happening, shrugged their shoulders and continued on with what they were doing.

“Hey, what happened?” another girl asked right after she picked up the rolling piece of tableware. She placed the cup into the remaining space of the table which was then half-laden with the food they have ordered. “Have you seen anything again?”

The girl named Tiffany seemed to snap out of a trance. She blinked a few times before she faced her friends that were eagerly waiting for an answer. “Guys, I suddenly thought about Mom.” Her face paled as she uttered the words.

Apparently, Tiffany’s paleness was contagious as all the colors seemed to drain away from the other girls’ faces too. “Y-your Mom?” Jessica stuttered.

“Guys, I need to go find Mom!” The blank look on Tiffany’s face was replaced by an expression of quiet dread. She swiftly snatched her bag from the table and ran towards the door of the cafeteria.

“TIFF!” The two girls shouted behind her back. The shorter of the two faced her friend with a look of distress before reaching out for her handbag. “Sooyoung, I’ll follow her. I don’t really trust that dork whenever she is panicking.”

“I understand. Go and ran after her. I’ll cover for you in our next class.” The girl named Sooyoung smiled understandingly despite the lines of worry written on her face. Jessica gave her a quick smile before she her heels and followed after her other friend. “CALL ME IMMEDIATELY, OKAY?” Sooyoung cried hastily after her.

She watched her friend disappear through the door and unto the burning daylight. When the black speck that was Jessica's retreating back finally disappeared, Sooyoung drew out a deep breath and looked helplessly at the pile of burgers and fries before sinking herself into a chair.

“How nice is this? Three burgers, mounds of fries, and poor old, me left alone.” She took a glance at her surroundings and saw a group of girls looking at her direction with mocking faces. “Now everyone will think I eat like a construction worker.” She put a fry in and chewed it slowly. “Oh well, it’s not like it isn’t true anyway.” She dove for the tuna burger and was reminded of the girl who ordered for it. Tiffany. She felt something that might have been as heavy as lead drop inside her gut. The sandwich tasted good but her mind was somewhere else. She remembered Tiffany’s face and the look of absolute horror all over her features. She closed her eyes and bent her head, as if on prayer.

I hope everything will be alright.

Standing on a wall beside the counter, a tall man was carefully observing the girl who was already chewing on her second sandwich. At first glance, he would come off as someone that would garner interest with his ensemble. He was wearing a white robe which looked like a cross between a monk’s habit and a kimono. His garment was half-hidden by the ash-colored cloak draped on his shoulders; its edges inked with runic symbols which seem to change shape whenever it hits the light. A long earthly pendant hung from his neck; the only flash of color against his monochromatic wardrobe. The utter simplicity of his clothes was a stark opposite of his face. High cheekbones, long nose, and deep-set deer-like eyes, he was, in a precise description of the word, painstakingly handsome. He might as well be wearing casual clothes but would still look dashing nonetheless. However, people were merely passing by him as if his oddity was something invisible to the eye.

“I’ve done it, Khaka.” A voice broke his line of thought. He dropped his gaze from the girl chomping down mountains of saturated fat to face an equally beautiful boy standing beside him.

Despite the small difference in height and the similar tacit appeal brought by their modest clothing, the newcomer’s tone of voice and look of collected respect was a clear indication that the man was someone who commands seniority over him.

“Well done, Kris.” The taller one commended.

“But I felt pity for the girl. I never thought she might react that way.” Kris replied. He possessed a voice as low as he is tall; a face sculpted to perfection, dark eyebrows and a piercing gaze.

“Aren’t you used to it yet? You’ve been trained to be a Whisperer since you were seven.” He threw the younger boy a look before he continued. “Besides, females usually react that way.” His eyes flew once more to the girl sitting alone at the table a few meters away from where they were standing. Kris noticed and his gaze landed on hers as well.

“Khaka Changmin, what do you see in her?”

The man did not reply. Instead, he stepped into the shadows. A long stretch of silence passed between the two before it got broken with a question.

“What about you, Kris? What do you see in her?”

Kris said nothing. Changmin gave him a thin smile before he started walking towards the direction of the girl. He was a few steps away when the girl’s head snapped up and she looked directly through him. He stopped in his tracks; cold sweat forming on his brows. From his back, Kris straightened up; a vibrant cue that he noticed something off.

The girl stood up and walked towards the direction of the counter.

Changmin looked as if he was nailed on the ground. He stood immobile even as he saw the girl striding towards his direction. They were only a few paces away from each other when she suddenly took a side step, as if intentionally avoiding him, and kept walking until she reached the idle counter.

“Miss, two cups of Pepsi please.”

He heard her say yet he was still pegged on his position and was only pried off his feet after he felt Kris’ hand on his arm.

“Khaka, let’s leave this place. Bhafa Soumm might be waiting for us already.” His tone was calm but one could ear the faint note of concern in his voice. Changmin was brought out of his reverie. He threw one last look at the girl in the counter who was happily sipping her Pepsi before he walked with Kris quietly towards the door.

Sooyoung put down the cup quite noisily on the table before taking a seat beside her humongous backpack. She was still confused about what had happened earlier. She was sure she felt something different from her surroundings; something which felt as if someone was staring at her. As if the presence was something one could only feel and not see, the air seemed to grow thick like it was being blocked. She threw a look at the spot where she felt the force come from and the invisible solidity disappeared as soon as she felt it. She swallowed a lump and felt the dryness in making her realize that she has forgotten to buy herself a drink. She once again felt the magnetic pull, albeit a bit weaker than before, of an unknown force at the same spot she had surveyed.

“Man, I think Tiffany’s ability is rubbing on me!” She massaged her temples with her forefinger and then took another sip from her cup.

Sooyoung was twelve years old when she first met Tiffany. It was her first year in middle school. Growing up in an orphanage, she was used having the same people around her all her life. Hence, when she was admitted for a scholarship program in a private secondary school, Sooyoung brought with her the few belongings she owned and the immeasurable blessings and prayers of those who took care of her in the orphanage as she started on her first steps of independence.

It was a chirpy Monday afternoon, first day of class, when this cheerful, pretty young girl who introduced herself as Tiffany Hwang asked for her name. It was the start of a beautiful friendship. Despite their contrasting childhood backgrounds, Tiffany and her family never made her feel left out. She was always welcome in their huge mansion and everything Tiffany has, she shares with her.

However, her friend’s merry and mirthful disposition was a mask for a deep, dark secret; Sooyoung learned three years later. Tiffany can see things. She did not understand it the first time she told her; yet everything fell into pieces one rainy night in September when she found Tiffany crying on the corner of their room. Her parents met a terrible accident and the mental image made its way on her mind hours before the accident happened. It was only then that it registered to her why Tiffany can exactly guess when her next allowance would arrive or what day would their licentious Biology teacher show up for class. Tiffany can see and feel things that are yet to be. Though both of them saw it as a good diversion (because Tiffany still can’t guess the right answers in their Trigonometry class) every premonition her friend received, may it be good or bad, never failed to come true.

From what she remembered, the only negative premonition Tiffany had in her life was that omen about her parents’ accident. Mr. and Mrs. Hwang survived the tragedy but not after the elder lady spent seven months in a coma. It took quite some time before she was nursed back to health though she had not recovered the vitality she once possessed. The accident had taken away a significant part of the elderly lady's life. She had been paralyzed.

Sooyoung felt another gush of clamminess in her gut. “I don’t want to think about it but I’m scared.” She didn’t notice the streams of tears that had rolled down her cheeks. Mrs. Hwang had always been a wonderful woman. Beautiful and vivacious just like her daughter, she never let the thought of having her lower body debilitated beyond repair stop her from being the lively lady she once was. She always had in her that infectious smile and bubbling gaiety. She was always so full of life.

“I wish… just for today. Tiff’s prediction wouldn’t come true.”

Sooyoung buried her head on her arms and silently cried.

They were already on the edge of the university quadrangle, the cafeteria building looking like a squashed cupcake in between the clumps of small trees, when Kris spoke again.

“I think they should start teaching us teleportation. Humans have altered this planet too much it feels like we’re walking inside a huge hearth.” He commented as they passed under a heavy canopy of trees. Changmin was still silent, probably immersed in his deepest of thoughts. The younger one noted the reticence and didn’t probe on. They kept walking until they arrived in front of a gigantic hackberry tree.

Kris stepped forward and inspected the tree; his touch ghosting over the bumpy bark of the trunk. He grinned upon finding a concealed knot in the tree trunk. His palm was a few centimeters from the knot’s surface when Changmin suddenly spoke.

“Kris. The girl from the cafeteria… what have you observed about her?”

“Which girl? The one who got the Whisper?”

“No.”

“Oh, the one who eats a lot? She’s pretty. She needs to comb her hair more frequently, though. But she’s tall,” he paused and tried to suppress a smirk, “and hot.”

Changmin simply stared at him, the straight line that was his lips remain unperturbed.

“Apart from that.”

Kris had a full-blown smirk all over his face. “I thought you won’t notice.” His expression turned serious soon afterward. “To say I didn’t get nervous is a lie. I was afraid she might have seen us but it looked like she didn’t.” As if the words made him realize something, Kris glanced at Changmin with a look of subtle excitement. “She isn’t a Seer, is she?”

“Seers cannot see us but they have the ability to feel our presence, yes,” Changmin said as if reaffirming a doubtful statement. “But that wasn’t what I noticed about her.”

A rather strong gust of wind blew, shaking a clump of leaves from the tree.

“Kris, that girl, she does not have a Mark.”

A/N: Good day, earthlings! Apparently, something has triggered me to go into an ambitious journey of writing this fic. To be fair, I shall warn you about unintelligible words and random trolling. But yiz, let us all hope that my sane-self remain powerless so I can continue on with this fic. –xoxo, Other-Self :))