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Ji-a stared at her hand, thinking that her eyes were playing tricks on her. She started to feel hot and removed her hoodie, fanning her face, panicking.
"Am I infected? What is happening?" She questioned, wiping the sweat from her face. She tossed the hoodie on the floor whilst pacing on the rooftop.
She took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. She reached over her shoulder into the back of her gray tee, feeling a tingling sensation.
"Ah!" She winced, dropping down on her knees and balling her hands into fists.
She sat on the floor leaning on her side. She closed her eyes, biting her bottom lip and taking deep breaths in and out. Ji-a didn't know when, how, and why she had the marks on her back, but everything changed when her mom turned.
She crawled to where she hid her backpack behind a pile of stacked boxes and pulled out a small container that had painkillers she had stolen.
People would've started questioning why she always needed painkillers when she wasn't visibly hurt, and she didn't like explaining herself, so she opted to steal even though it was selfish.
She swallowed the painkillers with some water. After a few minutes, she stood up, feeling a bit better, although her temperature was still high.
Ji-a walked over to her hoodie, where she had tossed it on the floor. She bent over to pick it up, wincing as she stretched the skin on her back.
The moment her hand made contact with the fabric of the hoodie, it sizzled like it was being burned. She quickly dropped it on the floor, inspecting her hand.
Smoke was coming out of her hand like she was on fire. She frantically waved her hand in the air and went to grab the hood part of her hoodie.
It instantly lit up in flames. She gasped, throwing it on the floor and stepping on it, trying to put off the fire. She stared at her hands in disbelief as flames danced around her skin.
"What the fuck!"
_____________
Ji-a went back into the shelter using the secret tunnel. She left her now burned hoodie on the rooftop and was left in a light gray cropped long-sleeved tee and baggy dark gray cargo pants.
Chief Ji, Ye-seul's mom had a job that day, and that was repairing the outer wall, which was very dangerous, but people wanted the job so that they could at least have something to eat.
Ji-a walked into the open area next to a staircase Ye-seul was sitting on obsessing over her looks in a small mirror.
"Um... Ms... Ms. Jung?" Seung-wan stammered looking at Ye-seul.
"Um, could you, um... Could you put in a good word to the chief for me so I can go out and... " He stopped when Ye-seul scoffed.
"Why do you keep bringing this up with me? Everything they said was legitimate." She scoffed.
