The Villain Of Arise

xiii: students of the program

"Oh! Lo siento," came a voice from the distance. "Am I interrupting something?"

Jaehyung turned and stared at a short, pink-haired girl who peered at them curiously. Another student at the program. As they met eyes, she immediately blushed under his gaze.

He could see Yuna rolling her eyes at him.

"No, of course not," Jaehyung replied back smoothly, speaking in Spanish. The pink-haired girl stared at him in surprised, her violet eyes twinkling with wonder.

"Stop looking so blatantly at my brother," Kim Yuna snapped towards the girl, also speaking Spanish now.

Jeongsuk looked lost. Of course he did - he was not using a translator. But neither was he either. In fact, the translators were only available during class time.

"Ah, but he's the most handsome man I've ever seen, how could I not?" The pink-haired girl replied, winking. With a laugh, she sat down on the chair next to Yuna. His sister looked discomforted at the fact and did nothing to hide her distaste.

"I'm Melinda," pink-haired girl said spontaneously, staring at him in expectation.

Jaehyung responded with silence, unsure what to say. Did he have to say his real name or was an alias being used? Yuna, taking his behaviour as personal disinterest, smiled in satisfaction.

"Look how callous you are, brother," she spoke, reverting back to Korean. "Really, you truly haven't changed in the slightest."

"Same goes for you, Yuna."

"Well, don't bother with her. She's still competition."

"You'd think anyone would rival me?"

"Y-you know I can speak Korean too!" Melinda spoke in broken Korean. "I'm good!"

Yuna gave her a contempous glance, "Truly, your Korean was terrible. How did you even manage to get into the program?"

"You're underestimating my talents!"

The two began arguing in Spanish.

Eating his breakfast, Jaehyung noticed Jeongsuk staring at his food despondently. "Why the glum look?" he asked.

"I thought my elemental was special," he admitted. "But in the last two days of lessons I've had, they've all barely given me a glance. I know they think I still don't deserve to be in this program, and even when I told them about the circumstances behind my powers, they looked down at me even more."

"Truthfully," Jaehyung said, "I agree with them." He took a bite of his breakfast. "You're lucky to even be on this program. Even I had to apply months prior."

He noticed that Melinda and Yuna were listening intently.

"However despite your luck in your elemental prowess, it doesn't show your experience. You can have the most rarest elemental powers in the world, but in the face of experience, you are one to nothing."

"I agree with him," came a voice from the distance. "You've shown nothing but dissappintment ever since you've arrived here, Seo Jeongsuk."

Jeongsuk looked down at his plate, ashamed.

"Ah," Jaehyung said. "And you are?"

"It's Leo," the stranger said. Another person also accompanied him, staring at Jaehyung curiously. "From Australia."

"And I'm Mark," said the other man. "I'm from America."

Leo took a seat, "You must be the hospitalised person - Kim Jaehyung and Kim Yuna's alleged brother."