DIVINITY ♛ LEE JENO

TWENTY ONE

Before they knew it, February was among them. Winter was finally coming to its last breath, pushing out whatever chilly air it had left. The sun was beginning to shine a little longer and the air grew less dry. A month full of anticipated love and a stubborn one's birthday— who wouldn't be excited?

Well, no one was excited. Everyone except for Minseo, of course. She was surprisingly the only person amongst all of them with a stable relationship with their partner and Park Jisung. Who knew maintaining both could be such an accomplishment?

"Good job today." she patted the sweaty girl's back. Meilin looked up at her as she downed another bottle of water, closing her eyes shut as the saltiness dripped down her face. "Really?" she breathed out in exhaustion. Minseo chuckled with her hands on her hips. In comparison to the Princess, she was barely breaking a sweat.

"You beat your mile time by ten seconds." she shrugged, a smile twitching at the corners of her lips. Meilin's turned into a frown, dropping to the ground of the indoor track. "Ten seconds? That's barely anything." she groaned. The rubber beneath her was cooling as she laid in the middle of the floor of the training facility in Capitol Square— the NETF building, as they'd call it. It's where every leader and higher official received their training, Minseo included.

"Ten seconds is a lot. You're finally under eleven minutes." Minseo insisted. Let's just say, the Princess was far from in shape. It's not like princesses did any training in the kingdom. Meilin couldn't remember the last time she ran a mile, or even played a sport. The most she had done was ballet in her high school years and she wasn't the most graceful swan. She was more of a frantic goose on stage. Yangyang wouldn't let go of the night she performed as a rat in their production of 'The Nutcracker'. Not one of her proudest moments, she'll admit.

Minseo, on the other hand, was extremely active. Even after her volleyball career came to an end, her and Hyerin still found time to play with each other in college every now and then. Her job as a physical therapist kept her knowledge on sports and the harms of them mint. Therefore, she knew Meilin had a long way to go before she even thought of trying to shift.

"You're doing fine, Meilin. It's only been like over a week and you're showing improvement. That's all that matters." Minseo kneeled down next to the panting girl. "You know, Seorin was much like you. She hated exercising, but she had to train to become a leader. She failed her physical entrance exam four times. That's not even allowed." she stifled her laughter, remembering how stressed the blue haired girl was every time she came home covered in sweat. Meilin stared into the ceiling as her chest fell up and down, a defeated feeling lingering in her gut.

"Why did the leaders have to train anyway? It's not like they're the ones on the battlefield." she questioned. She felt Minseo's wavy hair graze her arm as the girl laid down next to her, staring up at the same gymnasium ceiling.

"A lot of people think it's because of self defense, or setting a good example. I mean, who would want their elemental leaders to be shitty at shifting?" Minseo began. "While that's all true, a leader's job is to also maintain the energy in the Republic." she felt Meilin's face turn towards hers. She was intrigued in the conversation all of a sudden. "There's a reason the Republic has such a unique energy in it. It's in the heart of the river." The story of the Moon River was folklore to some, but it was true to many.

"Legend has it that the Moon River was the birth place of the First Divinity. Before the Republic was built, Seoul was all grasslands and hills. On the night of the first eclipse, the world went dark. The only light that shined came from the river. A woman emerged from the water in all white— she brought light back into the world." her knowledge on the folklore was rusty. She only remembered Uncle Jin explaining it to her once. Nevertheless, Meilin was eagerly listening.