Element - Loona

Chapter 7: Past

Jiwoo lays, her eyes closed, on the worn-out chair. The fresh, pine cone scent of the forest rushing from the window stirs her awake. She rubs her puffy eyes, blinking a few times.

"Did you have a nice time in your coma?" a voice says.

She grudgingly pulls herself up.

Her vision focuses.

Hyunjin.

"How long was I asleep for?" Jiwoo asks.

"About how long a normal person sleeps for," Hyunjin says.

"Very helpful," Jiwoo says sarcastically, stretching her arms out.

Her eyes glance at the clock on the wall.

6:23am.

Crash! A loud noise booms across the room.

"Shit," Hyunjin says.

"What happened?" Jiwoo says.

"The plate fucking dropped. Stupid plate. No one cares about you."

Jiwoo stands up and stares at the glass shards scattered on the wooden floor. Still half asleep, she sighs and flops herself over to the mess.

It doesn't take long for everyone, still in their ruffled pajamas and uncombed hair, to start entering the scene.

"Really? Again Hyunjin?" Haseul grumbles.

. . .

Yerim finally dumps the last shard into the trash.

"Y'all want to take a break from training today? Cause it's been-" Haseul asks.

"Hell yeah. Don't even continue," Sooyoung interrupts.

Haseul says, "I also have some leftover ramen in the fridge, do you guys want some?"

. . .

Yerim takes a bite of the steaming, spicy ramen and smiles.

Haven't had ramen in a while.

She finishes chewing the delicious noodles and notices the table is completely silent.

So, to fill up the silence, Yerim asks, "So Jinsoul, how long has it been since you started metal manipulating?"

"Only about a week ago. Know a few things, not much though," Jinsoul says.

"Jiwoo said you used it against the people trying to kill us. Do you know them?" Chaewon says.

"Those freaks? Definitely. I call them Evies and it's funny to just mess with them,"

Yerim pauses her eating.

Yerim says, "Wait, how much do you know about them?"

"Um, quite a bit."

"Tell me everything you know about them."

"Hm. Where to start. Well, some really obvious info is that they normally have underground bases. I only know 3 of their locations. One just south of Gwangju, one in Sejong, and one in Taebaek-si, the one Jiwoo was in. They take many hostages to join their army or whatever you want to call it. Also, their security system is nuts, I'm telling you. I tried hacking in once and was completely obliterated."

"Do you know the reason why they are doing this?"

"Hell no. That's what I've been trying to figure out."