Chapter 8

            In the middle of the afternoon of one chilly September day, the field of sand that Minjin had once tried to keep so neat and clean appeared an utter mess.  Hundreds of footprints were scattered across the field.  Drops of sweat and blood could be spotted if one looked closely.  The Comet Academy didn’t care to keep up appearances anymore.

In the center of the sandy field, and in the midst of several massive guards, Minjin stood wearily.  Her lungs burned within her chest.  Sweat dripped down her face.  Small scrapes and bruises stung on her arms and legs.  All of her energy had been spent nearly half an hour ago.  Now she existed only on her desire to survive.

“Attack,” Mr. Ko called from the edge of the crowd.

One of the guards rushed towards her, and Minjin immediately anticipated his moves.  He reached for her arm, but she quickly jumped behind him.  She grasped his wrists and wrapped them behind him.  With one push, he was on his knees, struggling to escape her hold.

“Hold him, Minjin,” Mr. Ko ordered softly.  “Don’t let go.”

Minjin felt her arms begin to shake.  Along with her lack of energy, she also felt the pain of yesterday’s practice.  Her lungs fought to take in enough oxygen to fuel her aching body.  She and Minseon had gained incredible strength over the past few years, but even her muscles seemed to be waning.

With a great cry, Minjin felt the guard slip out from her grasp.  He turned around quickly, grabbed her body, and threw her down onto the ground.  Her face hit the ground with painful force, and her arms were firmly held behind her by the guard.

“What a shame.”  Minjin watched as Mr. Ko took long strides towards her.  She couldn’t look up to see his face, but his enormous boots were daunting enough on the course sand.  “You lasted over an hour yesterday.  Today you lasted only…forty-eight minutes and five seconds.”

Minjin couldn’t help but breathe in the sand upon which her face rested.  She gave a great cough, and her lungs throbbed inside her. 

“I…I’m sorry, Mr. Ko,” she breathed.

“Since you can’t seem to take anymore of this, you can relax for the rest of the day,” Mr. Ko sighed.  “Please, don’t let yourself become this weak again.”

“…Y-yes, Sir.”

“Let her go.”

Even after the guard released her, even after everyone left her alone in that field, Minjin remained on the rough sand, attempting to catch her breath.  Her whole body felt like it was on fire. 

For the past few months, these practices, or “tests”, as Mr. Ko liked to call them, had become routine.  Every day, for as long as she could, Minjin endured unending attacks from the school’s guards.  She had to incapacitate each guard as quickly as she could.  Often times, several guards would be sent to attack her at once.  If she failed to subdue them, they would either restrain her for a moment, or else actually injure her.  Her left ankle was still wrapped up in bandages from being sprained last week.  Her skin had become rough and scraped from the sand.  And her mind never rested, always anticipating a fist flying towards her, a gun pointed towards her.

Finally, after a few minutes, Minjin rose from the ground and limped towards the shady corner of the campus.  Tall, dense trees filled this part of the school.  It had become even more forested as the school failed to keep up with t the trees.  Minseon used to love visiting this spot.  But ever since meeting Professor Oh, she never dared to walk near it.

Minseon hadn’t been the same after her encounter with the Daghanian terrorist.  Every single night, she would wake up from her nightmares and scream.  Even when Minjin held her tightly and promised her everything was fine, Minseon would continue to scream: “Мне очень жаль ( [Russian] I’m sorry)!”  She hardly ate during meals.  She hardly spoke to anyone.  She completed every duty silently, with no comment or complaint.  Not even Minjin could make her speak more than a few words a day.

Mr. Ko had assigned both Minjin and Minseon to train separately since that incident.  They only saw each other during meals and when they returned to their dorm.  The thought of Minseon being alone was worse than the relentless “tests.”  Whenever she was apart from her sister, Minjin heard her words echo so stridently in her mind.  I want to die, unnie.  I want to die.  Did she really want to die so terribly?  Would she try to take her own life?  Would she leave her sister here all alone?

“Minji-”

Before this mysterious stranger could continue, Minjin turned around, grabbed his arm, and threw him onto the ground.  She held him there for a few moments, her muscles trembling within her.  Suddenly, she recognized his soft, friendly eyes, and jumped back from him.

“Oppa!” she cried, looking at Youngbin with horror in her eyes.  “I’m so sorry!”

“Minjin-ah,” he replied weakly, struggling to get up from the ground.  “Why did you do that?”

“I…I thought you were one of them…I’m so sorry…I’m…”

As tears filled her eyes, Youngbin quickly shook his head and smiled.  “Minjin-ah, it’s okay!  Don’t worry about me.  I’m fine.”

“I couldn’t even control it!” she screamed, turning away from him.  She threw her hands up to her face and tried to hold her breath.  “I…can’t…control it.”

“Don’t cry, Minjin-ah,” Youngbin pleaded.  He slowly reached out and tugged on her arm.  She reluctantly turned to face him, and he swiftly observed her scrapes and bruises.  “Aigoo.”

“They just wouldn’t stop coming, oppa,” she sobbed as he took a small first-aid kit from his pocket.  “Every minute of every day, I feel them grabbing me.  I have dreams of them.  They never stop coming, even when I can’t feel my body anymore.  My muscles are always hurting.  Ah!”

“Shh, it’ll only sting for a minute.”  Youngbin carefully applied alcohol to the fresh scrapes on Minjin’s arms.  He wiped the sand from her skin and pushed the wet hair from her face.  “This is too much for you.”

“Oppa,” she called feebly.  “Back on that day…you know that day…You called Mr. Ko ‘general.’  Why did you call him that?”

“Because…Because he is a general,” Youngbin admitted hesitantly.  “He’s a military general.”

“I thought he was the principal of this school.”  Minjin’s eyes filled with anger, and she pushed Youngbin’s hands away.  “Is he the principal?  Is this even a school?  Oppa, what are we here for?”

“I…”  Youngbin closed his eyes tightly.  “I can’t tell you any more, Minjin-ah.”

“Tell me, oppa!” she begged desperately.  “I know this isn’t a school!  I know we’re not being trained to be successful citizens of Korea!  Please tell me!”

“Minjin-ah.”

All resentment left Minjin’s expression as this familiar voice filled the air.  Both Youngbin and Minjin turned to see Soomin step through the trees, her eyes full of compassion. 

“Ms. Ko!”  Before Soomin could step any closer, Minjin ran towards her and leapt into her arms.  She pressed her tear-stained face into her shoulder and wrapped her trembling arms around her.

“Soomin-ah?”  Youngbin gazed at her with utter shock.  “You’re back?”

“Are you okay, Minjin-ah?”  Soomin’s voice shook as she spoke.  Her remorseful eyes glistened with tears.  “Minjin-ah?”

“Ms. Ko, they made Minseon kill someone,” Minjin cried.  “She said she wants to die…And…I think…I think I feel the same way.”

“You want to...die?” Soomin asked, tears finally falling from her eyes.  “No, Minjin-ah!  Please, don’t think that way.”

            “We can’t…We can’t go on like this any longer,” Minjin sniffled.  “We can’t.”

            “Please, endure a little longer, Minjin-ah,” Soomin pleaded.  “Unnie is here.  Unnie will help you.”

            “Un…Unnie.”  Minjin’s voice quivered through the air.  “Please help us, unnie.”

            “I will, Minjin-ah,” Soomin promised fervently.  “Minjin-ah…your sister is finishing her Mandarin lesson.  Go get her and meet Youngbin and me in the cafeteria.  I want to see both of you together, okay?”

            “You won’t leave again?” Minjin questioned suddenly, looking up at Soomin.  “You promise you won’t?”

            “I won’t leave again,” she assured with a weak smile.  “Hurry, Minjin-ah.  Go get your sister.”

            “Okay…unnie.”

A whole minute passed before Minjin could let go of Soomin.  Her feet felt heavy as she began to leave her and Youngbin.  But she eventually began to run towards the Language building, eager to reunite with her sister and tell her that Soomin was back.

Youngbin took cautious steps towards Soomin.  “Soomin-ah…you’re really back?”

“Oppa.”  Soomin took Youngbin’s face in her hands and pressed her lips against his.  He felt her tears on his cheeks and quickly pulled her into his arms.

“Are you okay?” he asked, still in a state of shock.

“She just looks…broken.”  Soomin took a deep breath and shook her head.  “We need to get them out of here.”

“I know.”

“I heard Minjin asking you about the Academy.  What did you tell her?”

“I just let her know that your father was a general,” he admitted sheepishly. 

“We can’t let them know anything else,” she insisted desperately.  “If my father found out that we told them classified information, he’d kick us both out of here, and the girls won’t be able to go on without our help.”

“Soomin-ah,” he whispered impatiently.  “Do you know what’s been going on since you left?”

“I read a report when I arrived this morning.  I never thought my father would go this far.”

“Do you think it could get any worse than this?”

“…Yes.”

He looked down at her with wide eyes.  “What do you mean?”

“Oppa, my father is ready to make them official soldiers,” she explained anxiously.  “He’s ready to…make them disappear.”

“Make them disappear?  What do you mean?”

“He will send them off to Daghan, or Russia, or wherever he wants to send them,” she began hastily.  “And then the Comet Academy will disappear.  There will be no record of its existence.  Furthermore, there will be no record of the twins’ existence.  Mr. and Mrs. Heo will suddenly stop receiving monthly report cards from the school.  And then they’ll try to find out how they can visit the school to see their daughters.  But no one, not even the government, will be able to tell them, because it will have never existed on record.  And when they try to report their daughters as missing…there will be no record of them ever having children.  The government will do everything in its power to make them look insane.  And, in the end, they probably will go insane.  Their children will fall off the face of the planet without them even knowing!”

“Calm down, Soomin-ah,” Youngbin begged, wiping the tears from her eyes.  “Is this really what your father plans?”

“Yes,” she answered, her breaths becoming sharper and sharper with each word.  “This is exactly what he plans to do.  He told me just this morning.  There’s no more time to waste.  We have to get them out of here before he carries through with his plan.”

            “How will we do that?” he asked helplessly.  “What can we even do?”

            “My father doesn’t know about this…But while I was back home, I contacted the highest general I had access too.  Youngbin-ah, the rest of the federal government doesn’t know what the Comet Project is.  It just funds it.  I think if we can tell the important people what’s been going on here for the past eight years, we can have this whole place shut down before the twins are taken.”

            “This general, what did he have to say?  Did he believe you?”

            “He told me he’d investigate my claims,” Soomin sighed, looking down at the ground.  “It’s such an empty promise, but it was all I could do so far.  I’ll be in contact with him while I’m here too.  Hopefully we can organize some sort of visit from the important military officials.”

            “Do you know when your father plans to take the girls?”

            “I have no clue,” Soomin confessed nervously.  “But, oppa, maybe we could encourage the girls to be less capable.  Maybe if they seem incompetent, my father will delay his plan.”

            “Soomin-ah, you know that they are harshly punished when they don’t do what he wants,” Youngbin sighed in frustration.

            “Well…whatever pain they face now will be better than what my father plans for them,” she suggested earnestly.  “We have to be strong for them, oppa.  I think their freedom is drawing near.”

            “I hope so, Soomin-ah,” Youngbin said gravely.  “I really hope so.”