Seven

Training the untrainable

Hara waits until the last girl has entered the dorm before shutting the door.

"Hara-ssi, are we really going on a date?" Bomi asks, her eyes glistening dreamily.

Hara looks at the six girls that stand around her, all smiling widely at her and she can't help but smile in return as she nods, eliciting squeals of excitement from the girls as they dance around the room.

"I can't believe it!" Hayoung says, her smile covering half her face, "I've never been on a date before!"

"Do we choose our own date or will they choose?" Eunji asks, taking a break from dancing with Chorong to ask Hara.

"Please don't say it's a date with our "partner"!" Naeun pleads, looking forward to spending more time with the boys.

"No, your date will be male." Hara says, laughing. "And you will partner up naturally, as I think you all have some idea of who you would like to date! I mean, six boys and six girls ... I know the thought already occurred to you all from the first moment you were all together!" Hara adds.

"But what should we wear, Hara-ssi?" Bomi asks, already contemplating different outfits in her mind.

"I can help you choose an outfit if you'd like?" Hara suggests as all six girls nod enthusiastically, "But I think that the most enjoyable part of going out is getting ready and doing your hair and makeup! What do you girls think?" Hara asks.

The girls cheer in reply, squealing once more in excitement when Hara makes a mini beauty salon in the centre of their dorm, complete with a beautiful vanity tables covered with makeup and five manicurists standing behind five very comfortable looking chairs. There is even a little hairdressers corner.

"Just give me a shoutout if you would like help!" Hara says, leaving the girls to study style magazines and marvel at all the makeup.

"Namjoo, shall we get you ready first?" she asks, making sure to speak gently to the shy girl who nods slowly in return, following Hara into her bedroom, the others jumping into a chair each to be pampered.

Hara opens up Namjoo's wardrobe as Namjoo shuts the door behind her. 

"You know, there's no need to be nervous. You can relax." Hara says, turning to face Namjoo who stands by the door.

"Yes, Hara-ssi." Namjoo says quietly, bowing as she tries to relax and walks over to sit on the edge of her bed.

Hara laughs gently at her before walking over to join her on the bed, sitting with her back against the headboard, gesturing for Namjoo to sit next to her.

"I meant that you don't need to be nervous about tonight." Hara clarifies, as Namjoo thought Hara meant to not be afraid of her.

"But, I've never done something like this before and I can't talk to people." Namjoo says softly, her eyes welling up with tears as she imagines being left on her own yet again, while everyone else enjoys themselves.

Hara always avoids trying to make a personal connection with her trainees, but reasons with herself that Namjoo is unable to use her powers as she is too upset, and Hara tries to comfort her. Wrapping her arm around Namjoo's shoulder, Hara pulls her closer and lets Namjoo's head rest on her shoulder, taking a deep breath before continuing.

"It's not that you can't talk to people, it's that you never try. You're very clever and a very lovely girl, I think you may surprise yourself with just how well you can socialize: there are many people that wish to be your friend but they're just as worried as you are about not being liked. Promise me that tonight you will put aside your fears and just speak your mind, okay?" Hara asks, looking down at Namjoo whose tears are streaming down her face, waiting for a response.

Hara wipes Namjoo's tears away with her hand as Namjoo nods and manages to croak out, "I promise, Hara-ssi."

"Sweetie, don't cry! There's no reason to be sad tonight. Tonight is all about celebrating who you are and what you will achieve. There's a bright future ahead of you, one filled with happiness and laughter and romance. Yes, romance." Hara adds as Namjoo looks up at her, doe-eyed. "I know you've noticed the way he looks at you. And you think he's cute, don't you?" Hara asks, as Namjoo shyly smiles.

"Don't you?" Hara repeats, tickling Namjoo until she starts giggling and nodding excitedly.

"Well, we better get you dressed then, cry baby!" Hara jokes, Namjoo laughing at herself as she grins in excitement.

Hara smiles too, thankful that she doesn't need to use her powers to make Namjoo happy.

"Now, I know that you're used to wearing clothes that don't draw attention to yourself, but I think today it would be best if you were able to just blow everyone away with your beauty, right?" Hara asks.

"Oh, I think I would rather not draw attention to myself. And I'm not beautiful." Namjoo says, glumly, her mood slumping once more.

"You're thinking of that boy you had a crush on when you were 9, aren't you? The boy who told you that he thought you were ugly?" Hara asks, as Namjoo looks to be on the verge of crying again.

"No more crying, it's only smiling from now on." Hara pouts, using her aegyo to cheer Namjoo up. "Anyway, that boy had a crush on you too. Young children can be so foolish, thinking that they need to mistreat their crushes in order to hide their feelings, out of a fear or being rejected! In any case, you ARE beautiful and I know that your head is filled with all these romantic notions and you secretly want to experience that moment where a guy takes one look at you and is left speechless." Hara continues, not needing to read Namjoo's mind to understand her. "So, we're going to transform you today, not because you need to change, but because I think it will be easier for you to come out of your shell this way, right?" Hara asks as Namjoo slowly nods. "Great!" Hara says as she begins looking through the wardrobe once more.

"You're so nice, Hara-ssi." Namjoo says, truly touched by what Hara has said and rather surprised that Hara is actually nice.

"I'm not nice. I was just telling you the truth." Hara says bluntly. "I can see the future, and I merely told you what I saw in your future. As for your past, I only needed to take one look at that memory of yours to see that you were totally oblivious to his feelings! Oooh!" Hara suddenly squeals in delight, "What do you think of this dress?" she says, pulling out a beautiful gown and dropping the subject.

"It's beautiful! But I've never seen it before! It must belong to one of the other girls." Namjoo says, worried.

"Actually, the design just came to me so I thought you should wear it!" Hara explains, holding it out to Namjoo.

"It "came" to you? What do you mean?" she asks, confused.

"I just thought of the design and so I made it appear!" Hara says, smiling.

"You don't think it's too ... extravagant, for an evening out?" Namjoo asks.

"Honestly, you are like the most trusting person ever. We need to work on that, but I think it's perfect for tonight!" Hara says, encouraging Namjoo to take it.

As Namjoo gets dressed, Hara looks for shoes and accessories to match with it, making several different collections appear as she can't make up her mind.

"What's wrong with trusting people?" Namjoo asks, not enjoying the silence after having such a long conversation with Hara.

Hara frowns, her back still turned to Namjoo, as she marvels at the girl's naivety. 

"There wouldn't be anything wrong with it if the person deserved and earnt your trust. It's dangerous to have such blind faith in everyone you meet." Hara explains gently.

"Well, the way I see it, everyone deserves to be trusted until they've proved otherwise, which is rare. And it comforts people to know that you trust them without them having to prove their worth." Namjoo retorts.

"Oooh, it looks like someone is starting to come out of their shell!" Hara says happily, before continuing, "That's a really cute thought, Namjoo! You're wrong, but it's cute!" she says bluntly.

Namjoo finishes putting on the dress and asks Hara to help her zip it up.

"Say what you will, Hara-ssi, but I believe that trust is the basis of a healthy relationship and that there is good in everyone. And I, personally, wouldn't want to live my life believing that everyone else is evil or whatever." Namjoo says, feeling comfortable enough around Hara now to actually speak her mind.

"Honey, your blind faith in humanity may actually become your fatal flaw." Hara says, before starting to zip up Namjoo's dress, stopping halfway as Namjoo replies.

"And your obvious distrust in humanity is yours." Namjoo says quietly, gulping nervously when Hara stops zipping up the dress.

Hara finishes zipping it up and smiles warmly at Namjoo, admiring her creation.

"You look amazing, Namjoo." she breathes, beaming at her, passing over the pair of heels that she chose, along with a diamond necklace and earrings.

"Thank you, Hara-ssi." Namjoo says, bowing, having recovered from the shock of seeing her own reflection. "And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. And thank you for the beautiful outfit." she says, bowing once more.

"Don't worry, honey. Let's just agree to disagree, shall we?" Hara says, smiling at her.

Namjoo smiles back at Hara, giggling from excitement in anticipation of her date.

"Now, time for a haircut!" Hara cheers, taking Namjoo by the hand as she leads her back into the common room.

 

"So this is what we look like when you freeze time?" Namjoo asks, looking at the other girls curiously as they are frozen, mid-action.

"Precisely. I sort of forgot that I had frozen time though... whoops!" Hara exclaims as she unfreezes the girls, hearing them squeal as they admire Namjoo's new dress and hair.

Namjoo quickly looks in the mirror and sees that Hara has already given her a fringe and tied her hair up, turning it into a light shade of brown as well.

 

The other girls then argue over who will get to experience the next transformation as Namjoo sits down for her manicure, Chorong deciding that the youngest should go next.

Hara then spends the next half hour giving each of the other girls a makeover: creating new outfits for them and changing their hair. Once they are all dressed, the queue up on a couch for Hara to do their makeup for them. They blast music and dance around the common room when they're done, super psyched for their date night.

"Okay girls, let's go now!" Hara says, turning off the music and walking towards the door. She can already hear the boys on the other side, grumbling about the wait. She looks the girls over once more, satisfied with her work.

 

"But Hara-ssi, you haven't gotten dressed yet!" Bomi points out, gesturing to Hara's school uniform and makeup-less face.

"I'm not going on a date though!" Hara says.

"But don't you like Joon?" Naeun asks.

"No! And what does that have to do with anything?" Hara says, laughing, as she opens the door to let the other girls out. The girls squeal as they see the boys looking very chic in casual clothes, including Joon who has also dressed up; the boys totally shocked at the girls' transformations.

"Boys, you may ask your dates out if you'd like." Hara says, leaning against the doorframe as she watches them.

L.Joe approaches Namjoo straight away, his mouth still hanging open from when she first walked out. He takes a deep breath and clears his throat, looking up into her eyes as she blushes deeply.

"You... you look so beautiful Namjoo! Wou-would you do me the honour of being my date this evening?" He asks quietly, as a smile spreads over her face and she nods in reply.

Learning from L.Joe's example, Ricky steps forward and approaches Hayoung, using his aegyo to ask her out. She giggles as she accepts. At the same time, Niel approaches Eunji coolly and asks her on the date, having had enough experience with girls to know how to ask one out. Eunji grins at him, excited to be going on her first date.

The remaining three boys, however, don't move from their spots againt the wall.

"Girls, perhaps you could help the shy boys out a bit?" Hara suggests, gesturing for Chorong, Naeun and Bomi to ask the boys out themselves.

Chorong immediately approaches CAP, who looks like a deer caught in headlights, and asks him to ask her out. CAP just looks stunned as he slowly stutters his way through asking her out, Chorong smiling up at him and saying that she would be delighted to.

Hara laughs at Chorong and then decides to take photos of all the couples first, walking back into the dorm to grab a polaroid camera. As she comes back out, she sees Bomi approach Changjo as Naeun approaches Joon, everyone else falling silent.

"Would you like to be my date this evening, Joon?" Naeun says sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes at him. He returns her smile before remembering Hara and looking up to see Hara frozen as she walks through the door.

She suddenly shakes her head and glares at the two of them.

"What the actual f***?" Hara exclaims in English, Namjoo and L.Joe flinching while everyone else stares at her curiously.

"Naeun, you're meant to ask one of the other boys out." Hara explains.

"But Joon is a boy and I wanted to go on a date with him! And you said you weren't going on a date so I thought that would mean that he would be free!" she says innocently.

"Hara, there's no need to be jealous. I won't go on the date if you don't want me to." Joon says, looking at Hara, secretly hoping that she will forbid him from dating Naeun and confess her undying love for him.

"I'm NOT jealous. We are meant to be watching them, not dating them. And now Chanhee doesn't have a date!" Hara says, realizing that Bomi had already chosen Changjo, leaving Chunji by himself.

"It's fine, Hara-ssi. I've been on plenty of dates before!" Chunji sas cockily.

"Problem solved, then! I'll go out with Naeun and you can supervize everyone and Chunji can just be alone!" Joon says, smiling as he thinks he has solved everything...and if he happens to make Hara jealous by doing so, well, there's no harm in that!

Hara glares at him as she shakes her head.

"You're being a huge , Lee Changsun." Hara says in Joon's head.

"Chanhee, you can accompany me tonight. Everyone, let's go." Hara says, taking a deep breath before leading the way. She reminds herself that tonight is about creating happy memories to help control their powers, forcing herself to push aside the thoughts plaguing her mind. 

One limousine waits for them as they leave the school grounds, another pulling up seconds later.

"But that limo can seat 14 people." Joon says, confused, pointing to the first and wondering why Hara bothered to arrange for a second.

"Yeah, but it would be a tight fit." Hara says, sending Chorong, Eunji, Naeun and Hayoung into the first limo with their dates.

It doesn't occur to Joon until after he climbs into the first limo that Hara had just spontaneously decided to make the second limo appear, and that she only did so to avoid sharing a car with him. He worries that he may have really messed up this time, but tries to appear happy for the others, Hara reminding him that tonight is about the others, not them.

Hara waits for the others to file into the second limo, standing to the side as they climb in before finally sliding in next to Chunji.

"Alright! Let's make this night unforgettable, okay?" Hara says as the others cheer. Hara turns on the music as they dance in the limo, laughing and making fun of one another.

When they finally arrive at their destination, the door opens from the other side, so Hara remains seated as the others leave, squealing as they see where they are.

Chunji waits for Hara at the car door, deciding that even if she doesn't like him, he wants to make tonight perfect to compensate for what he said to her. He extends his hand to her to help her get out of the car and notices that she has changed out of her school uniform. He breaks into a grin as he checks her out admires her beauty and helps her out of the limo.

He notes how little effort she put into her appearance in order to not show up the other girls and he realizes that there's a chance she actually does care about them.

"Hey, Chanhee?" Hara says, making Chunji finally let go of her hand.

"Please, call me Chunji!" Chunji says, smiling at her.

"Okay, Chunji."Hara says, Chunji's smile widening as she says his name. "If we're going to spend the evening together," she says sweetly, Chunji nodding eagerly, waiting for her to continue, "would you mind not pushing your thoughts into my head? It's kind of distracting!" she says, her sweet smile turning into a smirk as she laughs at the blush that colours his cheeks. Turning away from Chunji, she addresses the rest of the group.

"I'll give everyone two hours at this amusement park before we move on. To not disturb the business here, I've decided to not freeze time, rather, just rewind it for everyone else later. Your wallets are filled with more than sufficient money, so that shouldn't be a problem. Avoid trouble, stick with your date and remember to have fun!" Hara finishes, gesturing for everyone to run along, which they willingly do. 

"So, what would you usually do on a date?" Hara asks Chunji as they slowly walk to the entrance of the amusement park.

"Oh, i'm not really one to kiss and tell." Chunji says, laughing.

"Come on! Just be honest with me, Chanhee ... I mean Chunji, what would you do on a first date?" Hara asks, walking backwards so she can look him in the eye.

"Hara-ssi..." Chunji begins, looking nervously at Hara, "Is this your first date?" he says quietly.

"It...It's not a date!" Hara says stubbornly before she walks off, leaving Chunji behind, smiling goofily.

 

 

 

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