The Adam & Eve Project

Two [New Eve]

Three Years Later

"Look, fresh meat."

I follow the gazes of the other women to the coach coming down to the road towards our facility, the silver top gleaming in the mid-day sun. The glare stings my eyes and I immediately push my sunglasses from the top of my head over them. The others around me are excited at the prospect of new comers, but I don't think it's exciting at all. I feel nothing but sympathy for these girls coming to join us after being ripped away from their mother's and their friends because I know exactly how they must be feeling. Scared. Vulnerable. Unsure. Nervous.

But they would adjust, just like I did.

My own coach ride to this facility three years ago had been awful. I'd kept my tears in check, had refused to cry like some of the other girls had, but that didn't mean I was any less afraid. To them I must have seemed as heartless as I do now - there was a reason they all called me 'Cold-Rene' behind my back. I wasn't concerned with what they thought of me, though. My only concern was doing my duty as an Eve and fulfilling the role that was meant for me. In just under a year I'd be completing my placement as an Eve-In-Training (E.I.T) and would continue the Eve legacy as a Bringer Of Life.

"So what do you think, Irene?" The girl next to me, Suzy, asks. I turn to look at her blankly and she sighs. "You weren't listening, were you?"

Irene... It was the name the facility had given me. Being accepted during the Eve project and boarding that coach meant leaving behind the life you had before - and in my case, the life as Bae JooHyun. Suzy liked to get her nose in everyone's business and prided herself on being better than other E.I.T's because of who her Eve was. Unlike the rest of us, Suzy had always known she would be an Eve, because her own Eve had birthed a male when Suzy was thirteen. A girl who's Eve birthed a male was given a special card from the Government to automatically admit them upon their 21st birthday without the need of the Eve Ceremony.

Suzy from day-one had some kind of weird respect for me, probably because I didn't react to her mind-games when I first arrived... Though most likely it was because of my unusual hair and eye colourings, something which always took people by surprise when they first saw me - and in particular, our tutors here. They all gushed over the 'foreign' colours and I knew what they were thinking; would those features transfer to her child? Suzy liked to keep those who were well thought of close to her and because of my hair and eyes, that included me.

"I'm sure you said something very interesting." I responded with a small sigh.

"I asked whether you thought any of the new E.I.T's would be promising." She stressed. "You know. To join our group?"

I rolled my eyes behind my sunglasses. Suzy had created a small 'group' of what she called the 'Best of the best E.I.T's'. I'd told her time and time again I wanted nothing to do with her ridiculous group, but Suzy truly was a force of her own. It was easier just to accept the unwanted status as a member of the exclusive group than waste my breath refusing. Membership didn't include anything except Suzy wasn't outwardly hostile to you and was instead passive aggressive, but that alone seemed to motivate girls to want to join.

"I'm sure they will all make amazing Eve's."

Suzy scoffed. "God, you're so uptight."

The coach rolled to a stop and I watched the doors open and the newly appointed E.I.T's begin to step off the bus, their anxious gazed looking around the huge grounds and a few gaping as they spotted us watching them from the balcony. I wanted to smile, to reassure them everything would be ok, but my mask refused to budge. Instead I watched them gather in a small group like a scared pack of puppies before following the instructions of the teachers inside the facility. Everyone but one girl, who stood apart from the group and kept her eyes focused on the road the bus had traveled down. I watched her closely, trying to figure out what she was thinking.