Entry 02

CODA

T.E.A.M Tower, Korea
04 February, 23:45 KST

She was staring out at the sky, a blanket on her shoulders. Her face was smooth, emotions sliding off as though nonexistent but they had known her too long to not recognize the complex feelings she was hiding. 

"Hey," she said in greeting even before they had gotten close. She turned to them with dry eyes and a wry smile.  

Their hearts broke. 

They gathered around her, unable to reassure her without breaking into tears themselves. What could they say that wouldn't sound like lies? No different from the fabrications circulating around the world. 

They were silent, only able to join her in watching the stars pass over their heads. 

The clock struck twelve.

"Happy three year anniversary," she whispered, turning to them. She glided like a spirit, exchanging quick embraces with each of them before she left the balcony, leaving them alone. 

They couldn't follow. 

They couldn't bid her that final goodbye nor contact her further.

They couldn't even watch as she was exiled from the home she built from the dust to live a life full of ashes. 

T.E.A.M Tower, Korea
05 February, 02:45 KST

"By my calculations, at least one Team member should be asleep. Is something the matter, Mistress Jinae?" an automated voice questioned, distinctly female. 

"Not now Jihye," Jinae grumbled, not looking up at the Javascript Integrated Hybrid Y-z-plane Encrypted Tower Interface complete with its own personality modeled after one familiar chap. The entire interface was what the Team jokingly called Hyelim and Jinae's brain baby but Sooyeon had been the one to help them come up with a suitable acronym. 

"If everyone continues to stay up, I am sure that a certain someone will be upset when she returns home," Jihye hinted firmly, that bored yet caring tone making tears spring to Jinae's eyes. 

"System override code J073," Jinae stated. 

"But Mistress Ji-"

The system faded to silence, having been shut to semi-permanent sleeping mode. 

It was unreasonable, she knew, to take her frustration out on the AI but she couldn't help it. She needed control back and though it was cruel and unfair to Jihye, she was glad to know that at least she still had some semblance of normalcy; her brain was still functioning. 

But what about her heart?

What about the entire Team?

Because what was any team - the Team especially - without a leader?

Author's Note

So originally I wasn't going to update this without the next chapter but then I'd have one less chapter in reserve. Thus, as you can tell, I just updated them separately. If you can't tell, this chapter is a peek into the future of the Team. I finally made an actual plot! Whee! Hope you were...surprised by this chapter. I shall hopefully be writing (and publishing) more soon.