Chapter 6

Three years later…

            The sun was just beginning to set as Minseon began her daily practice of Taekwondo.  She chose an isolated spot in the corner of the Comet Academy campus surrounded by a small, dense population of trees.  Summer had just begun its typical heat wave across South Korea, and the shade from the trees always provided an ideal refuge. 

            In only a few weeks, Minseon and Minjin would be celebrating their fifteen birthday.  This would be their fourth birthday spent without their parents.  In fact, it had been almost four years since they saw their parents at all.  Youngbin and Ms. Ko had promised to work hard in order to get them home, but this proved to be a difficult task for them.

            Minseon always tried to push her parents to the back of her mind.  Whenever she would think of them, she would remember that they had aged just as much as she had.  They could look nothing like what she remembered them to be.  She couldn’t even remember how their voices sounded.  Everything was so messy inside her mind.

            “Heo Minseon?”

            At the sound of this stranger’s voice, Minseon looked up at the dark sky.  The moon was full and bright.  She didn’t realize how long she had been training.  She turned to the stranger and noticed his bright, cheery smile.

            “Hello,” she greeted, slowly catching her breath.  She had been trained in martial arts for over seven years now.  Every time she practiced, she pushed her body to the limit and rarely realized she was tired until she finally decided to rest.

            The stranger looked at her with his big, friendly eyes and smoothed out his grey jacket that the teachers usually wore.  “Hi, Minseon.  I’m Professor Oh.”

            “Ah, it’s nice to meet you, Professor,” Minseon smiled.  “I haven’t seen you around before.”

            “I’ll be teaching the two of you Trigonometry for a few months,” Professor Oh informed, adjusting his jacket again.

            “Trigonometry?”  Minseon’s eyes opened wide with interest.  “Ms. Ko has never even mentioned it before.”

            “Well, the school just thought it was time to learn about it,” he explained simply.  “I’d like to formally introduce myself to you and Minjin tonight, if that would be okay.”

            “Oh, sure!  I’m think Minjin unnie would like that.”

            “Alright.  Let’s go to the classroom and wait for Minjin.  I’ve already sent Ms. Ko to fetch her, so we can just wait together.”

            “Okay.”

            Walking with Professor Oh to the classroom was pleasant and refreshing.  He wasn’t like the professors they had before.  Instead of immediately quizzing her on random trigonometry questions she could never know the answers to, he asked her how she liked the school.  He asked what her favorite hobbies were, if she had a favorite subject, and what she wanted to be when she was older.

            “Actually…I really like to sing,” Minseon admitted as they entered the big classroom located in the Language building.  It was called the Language building, however, every single subject they ever took was taught in the classroom in this building.  A soft moonlight illuminated the room, and neither Minseon nor Professor Oh felt obligated to turn on any lights.

            “You like to sing?” Professor Oh questioned with a bright grin.  “That’s incredible.”

            “A few years ago, the guard here started teaching my sister how to sing the new, popular songs,” she told excitedly.  “Now we all sing together.”

            “Up we go!”

            Suddenly, Mr. Oh, who was far taller than Minseon, placed his hands under Minseon’s arms and lifted her up.  She laughed in shock and wonder as he carefully placed her on a nearby desk.

            “Ah!” she cried happily.  “You’re the funnest teacher we’ve ever had!”

            “Really?”  He took a seat next to her on the desk and smirked.  “But you were saying…”

            “We all sing together.”  Minseon gleefully kicked her legs back and forth, lightly tapping the desk with her feet.  “We sing all sorts of songs.  I like g.o.d. a lot.  Both unnie and I like Shinhwa.  There’s also a new group that came out a little while ago.  I haven’t heard their music, but Youngbin brought us a picture of them.  They’re handsome.”

            “What makes a boy handsome, Minseon-ah?” Professor Oh asked.  “To you, I mean.”

            “Hmm…”  Minseon looked up at the tall ceiling of the classroom.  “I think I like…boys who sing.”

            “I can sing.”  Professor jumped off the desk, struck a dramatic pose, and belted out a loud, wild note.

            “Ah, Professor Oh!” Minseon exclaimed, snickering with delight.  “You sound…beautiful.  But you’re not a boy, you’re a professor.”

            “But does that really matter?” 

Professor Oh leaned towards her and pressed his hands against the desk on either side of her.  She stared at his face, perplexed by his beaming smile.  No teacher had ever been this close to her before.  She felt her heart beating violently in her chest, and she quickly leaned away from him.

“What are you doing, Professor?”

“Did anyone ever tell you that you had to date someone your age?”

“That’s how it is in the dramas, isn’t it?”

“Dramas aren’t realistic,” he snickered.

            His eyes didn’t seem as friendly as before.  They were filled with something else.  Something Minseon had never seen before.  She tried to fight the paralyzing feeling that crawled up her spine.  Before he could move any closer, she started to scoot back on the desk.

            “Professor, I-”

            “Hold it.”

            Minseon’s heart stopped as Professor Oh grabbed her arms and slammed her whole body down onto the desk.  She looked up at his strange, terrifying eyes, feeling his fingers tighten around her biceps.

            “What are you doing?  Let me go!”

            “Don’t be scared, Minseon-ah,” he said quickly, pressing her onto the desk.  “It’s going to be okay.”

            “Let go!  Help!  Someone please help me!”

            “Minseon-ah!”

            Both Minseon and this obstinate professor froze immediately at the sound of Youngbin’s voice.  The sound of heavy footsteps filled the room, and Professor Oh was suddenly thrown off of Minseon.  His body hit the ground with a thunderous bang, and Minseon watched in horror as a shadowy figure stooped over him and began to beat his face.

            “Minseon-ah!”

            In the dim, moonlit room, Minseon could only hear her sister’s frightened voice.  She sat up on the desk and searched through the darkness, but her search swiftly ended as two, small arms wrapped around her.

            “Unnie!” Minseon screamed, tears filling her eyes.  “Unnie, help me!”

            “I’m here, Minseon-ah!” Minjin cried, pulling her sister off the desk and holding her tightly in her arms.  “Minseon-ah, what happened?”

            “He’s our new professor, Minjin!” Minseon informed with a petrified, shaking voice.  “But I don’t like him, unnie!  I don’t want him to teach us!”

            “He won’t teach us, Minseon-ah!” Minjin promised urgently.  “He won’t!”

            “Youngbin-ah!” Ms. Ko called frantically, suddenly entering the room.  She the classroom light and gasped in horror at the sight of Youngbin mercilessly beating Professor Oh.  Her heels clicked on the hard floor as she ran over to the both of them.

            “Youngbin-ah, get off him!”  Ms. Ko’s hysterical voice echoed through the classroom.  She took hold of Youngbin’s heavy jacket and helplessly tried to pull him off of Professor Oh.  “Stop it!  You’ll kill him!”

            “Soomin!”  Youngbin jumped up from Professor Oh, leaving him bleeding and nearly unconscious on the floor.  He looked straight at Ms. Ko with dark, burning eyes.  “Who is this?  How did he get into the base?”

            She stared back at him with true terror.  Her tense body took slow steps away from him.  “I…I’ll explain it to you later.  Minseon-ah.”

            “Ms. Ko, is he really our new professor?” Minseon asked tearfully.  “I don’t like him, Ms. Ko.  Please don’t let him teach us!”

            “He’s not your new professor, Minseon-ah,” Ms. Ko assured quickly, kneeling down and wiping the tears from her face.  “He’s just a very bad man.  He won’t come near you again.  I’m so sorry this happened.”

            “I want to go home, Ms. Ko,” Minseon wept.  “Please let me go home.”

            “Let’s go back to the dorm now, Minseon-ah.  Come on, Minjin-ah.  Quickly, let’s go.”

*          *          *

            “Ms. Ko, please don’t let him near us!  He was so scary!  Why was he talking to me like that?  I was so scared!”

            Minseon cried and pleaded with Ms. Ko as the three of them rushed back to the dorm.  No matter what Minseon managed to say through her tears, Ms. Ko would always reply with panicky, trembling apologies.  Minjin held her sister close, not letting go of her for even a second.

            “Ms. Ko, was that man trying to kill Minseon?” Minjin asked nervously.  “I don’t understand how he got in the classroom with her.”

            “He was…Bad…Just…”  Ms. Ko took a deep, feeble breath.  “He’s just a bad man, Minjin-ah.  You won’t see him anymore.  I won’t let him near you again, Minseon-ah.”

            “Maybe I shouldn’t have talked to him,” Minseon whimpered helplessly.  “I shouldn’t have followed him into the classroom.  They taught me how to recognize bad people.  Was it my fault, Ms. Ko?”

            Ms. Ko suddenly kneeled down and grabbed Minseon’s hand.  “Minseon-ah, please listen to me.  This was not your fault.  If you want to blame anyone…please blame me.  But don’t blame yourself.  It wasn’t your fault at all.”

            “Minseon-ah, you’re tired,” Minjin interrupted, looking down the hall towards their dorm.  “Ms. Ko, let me take Minseon-ah to the dorm.  I’ll take care of her.”

            “I…Okay.”  Ms. Ko gave one last remorseful look before she quickly rose up and walked down the hall away from them.  Minjin led her delicate sister to their dorm and took her hands.

            “Minseon-ah, what happened tonight?” Minjin questioned cautiously.  “Was he really stronger than you?  Why didn’t you use your training?”

            “Unnie…I don’t know how to explain it,” Minseon began, sitting on her bed.  “He was a nice man, and he was being very fun.  He seemed like such a good professor.  But then he started saying weird things…And he got very close to me.  But I thought he was nice!  I didn’t want to hurt him!”

            “Of course you didn’t, Minseon-ah!” Minjin confirmed adamantly.  “Like Ms. Ko said, it isn’t your fault.  You thought he was a professor.  If he was a professor and you hurt him, you may have gotten in a lot of trouble.”

            “If he really was a professor, then, should I have let him hurt me?”

            “…What?  No…Of course not!”

            “Then what do we do, unnie!”

            Minjin observed the helpless, terrified expression on her little sister’s face.  She seemed to sum up their entire experience at the Comet Academy.  They were always walking on thin ice.  Whatever they did, it always received a punishment.  Their agreement to only work hard and ignore the suffering seemed harder each year.  What other horrors lurked in this Academy?  Even with Youngbin and Ms. Ko watching over them, could they really be safe?

*          *          *

            On the first floor of the Administration Building, an office door opened slowly.  A weary, defeated Ms. Ko lethargically walked out and leaned on the wall right next to it.  She covered her face in her hands and let out a long, rumbling sigh. 

When she uncovered her face, she looked to the door of the Administration Building and saw Youngbin glaring at her with impatient eyes.  His fists were still stained with the blood of Minseon’s attacker.  She felt her aching heart pound angrily against her chest, and finally headed towards the door to the emergency staircase.

“Tell me what’s going on, Soomin-ah,” Youngbin demanded, swiftly following her up the stairs.  “How in the world did that creep get in here?  Who is he?”

Soomin waited till they reached the rooftop of the building before she began to speak.  She untied the bun in her hair, kicked off her heels, and let the warm night air embrace her.

“His name is Oh Joohae,” she finally explained.  “He’s a convicted e.”

“A convicted e?”  Youngbin said the words with utter disdain.  “Why is a convicted e in this base?  And why was he allowed anywhere near the girls?”

“He’s here because he’s one of the five people known to be immune to the Hades Virus.”  She took the thin, purple scarf from around her neck and played with it in her hands.  “Essentially, he’s useless.  But since he’s immune, my father is convinced we can find some use for him.”

Youngbin took a long step towards her as anger continued to fill his eyes.  “But why was he allowed near the girls?”

“Oppa, you’re a mess,” she replied quietly, her eyes staring only at his hands.  She carefully took his bloody hands and tried to wipe the blood with her scarf.  “He’s only supposed to be out when the girls are safe in their room.  Apparently some scheduling was off, and he was let out while the girls were having their isolated taekwondo practice.”

“Everyone should be fired,” Youngbin insisted furiously.  “Every single person here.  What kind of reckless endangerment are we trying to accomplish?  The girls are already experiencing the most intense form of training that any teenager could experience.  Now your father is going to let them be exposed to convicted felons?”

“It gets worse.”  Soomin held Youngbin’s hand tightly, still looking down at the ground.  “He wants me to scold Minseon for not using her training to deal with Oh.”

“What?”  Soomin suddenly felt her hands being crushed in Youngbin’s grasp.  “Are you serious?”

“Y-Yes.”  She quickly pulled her hands away and felt the cold, sticky blood that had managed to get on them.

“We should be grateful she reacted the way she did!” he cried.  “Those girls have been in this hell hole for almost half of their lives.  They don’t know what a e is!  If Oh had been less violent, I’m scared that Minseon wouldn’t have known how to react.  She may have become a victim without any of us knowing it.  And how do we know he hasn’t been able to interact with them before?”

“I understand, Youngbin!” she shouted, her bloody hands shaking at her sides.  “I know how ridiculous this is!  I’m just as scared for them as you are!”

“Are you going to scold her?” he asked coldly.  “Are you going to scold Minseon like your father wants you to?”

“Of course not!”  She began to wipe her hands on her white shirt in frustration.  As her motions became more and more uncontrollable, Youngbin grabbed her wrists and tried to hold her still.

“Calm down, Soomin-ah,” he pleaded, attempting to make his voice more gentle.  “I’m sorry…I know it’s not your fault.”

“I won’t scold Minseon,” she whispered shakily.  “But…I told my dad that I would.  If I didn’t, he would get someone else to do it.  And…Oppa…This will be my last order for a while.”

“What?”  He looked into her eyes and noticed her glistening tears.  “What do you mean?”

“My father says I’m becoming too insubordinate,” she murmured.  “I’ve been fighting his orders for the past few years, and he’s finally grown tired of it.  He wants me to take a few months to clear my mind.”

Youngbin’s rage quickly turned into fear and confusion.  “He’s really doing this to you?  Do you know exactly when you’ll be back?”

“I…I don’t know yet.”

“You can’t leave,” he stated sternly, slipping his hand into hers.

“I know,” she sniffled.  “I need to be here to help you protect the girls.”

“…Yes.”  He stared at her blankly for a moment before finally nodding in agreement.  “Just be good and come back soon.”

“You have to take care of them, oppa,” she begged fervently.  “They’re going to start training them with firearms next week.”

“Firearms?” he replied in shock.  “They’re only fourteen.  What could they possibly do with firearms?”

“They’re more skilled in martial arts than most veteran soldiers, Youngbin-ah,” she reminded.  “My father was saying very scary things when I spoke to him…I’m really concerned with what he has planned for them, oppa.  Please, please take care of them.”

“I’ll try my best.”

            She blinked hard, sending tears to flow down her red cheeks.  “Minseon was so upset, oppa.  She thought it was her fault.  I can’t let them think that way.  You can’t let them think that way.”

            “I really can’t do this without you.”

            Her heart fell into her stomach.  Not only were his words full of plain truth, but his face expressed utter helplessness.  She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tightly.

            “Just do the best you can,” she urged.  “We have to keep them safe.”

            She felt his lips brush against her forehead before he rested his chin upon the top of her head.  “Just come back as soon as you can.”

Author's Note: Just in case you were at all lost for time, this chapter takes place in June of 2005, just before the girls' fifteenth birthday. And the new group that Way mentions having just come out a little while ago is TVXQ, teehee. It could actually be whatever group you want it to be, though.  This chapter was intense and sort of PG/PG-13. I was definitely nervous to even write it, however, it was just the traumatic event to progress the story in the direction it needs to go. I hope you enjoyed it!