Project IZ*ONE II

Chapter 2- Surprises

"Minjoo~ Hurry up or we'll be late for the meeting!" A voice calls out to a girl taking a shower in the bathroom.

"In a minute, Chaewon! I'm almost done!" Minjoo says back, turning off the water, about to dry her hair.

"Come onnnn, you always take the longest time out of all of us. Don't make me barge in there and drag you out!" The older girl teases. Minjoo could only cringe, remembering one of their first interactions a couple months ago. So much has changed since then, and Minjoo was glad that they were able to move past that incident and become close.

"Yah, at least I don't spend the whole time singing in the shower like Yuri!" She jokes back with a laugh. Somewhere in the infirmary, Jo Yuri sneezes. Someone must be talking about me... She thinks absentmindedly.

When Minjoo finally dries off, she puts on a plain white blouse and a pair of jeans before stepping out of the bathroom to the sight of Kim Chaewon who let out a whistle.

"Well, hello, beautiful. Got any plans for later?" She said with a wink. Minjoo could only scoff, trying to hide her blushing cheeks, as she walks past the short-haired brunette who was laughing to herself. With all the flirtatious moments these two had, you'd think they were a couple, but nothing was actually set in stone yet. The only real couples so far among the twelve girls were Yuri and Yena and Eunbi and Hyewon, yet people around campus felt like it was only a matter of time before one of them cracked and confessed.

"So, have you heard any news from Yena-unnie about the mission?" Minjoo asks as they step out of the dorms, on the way to Lee Seunggi's office. Chaewon only shakes her head.

"She passed out the second she arrived, but I did see a news report with Yujin about it. Let's just say their stealth mission went up in flames...literally." She says before relaying what had been put out to the news:

Seoul Apartment Building goes up in flames due to rogue mutants. Four dead at the scene. Survivors report two mutants who had broken into the building to possibly rob it. If you see these mutants, please report them to the proper authorities. Thank you. A reporter had said. The channel then proceeded to post a quickly drawn sketch of two people who appeared to be Yena and Yuri along with a couple blurred photos of the two fleeing the scene.

"That doesn't sound good..." Minjoo says after gathering her thoughts.

"You think?" Chaewon responds sarcastically. "The masses' opinions are very fickle. It looked like people were finally starting to change their minds about us, and then this happens." She continues with a sad tone.

"It's not Yena's fault though, right? It can't be. She's never that reckless." Minjoo argues.

"You're right. Which is why we need to get to Seunggi-sunbaenim's office right now, to find out what really happened."

~~~~

"I see that everyone is present and accounted for." Seunggi, the head of the produce facility says seeing IZ*ONE sans Sakura's group arrive.

"So, the other day, we received word from Miyawaki Sakura of a hidden lab in Seoul containing some information on the Syndicate." He begins. "We dispatched Choi Yena and Jo Yuri to retrieve it, but due to unforeseen circumstances, the mission failed. Yena, would you please give your report on the situation." Seunggi was never the type to get angry at trainees, and even now, it just sounded like he was more worried about their welfare than what mess had been caused. Yena clears her throat, turning on her serious mode, before stepping in front to speak, while Yuri observed from her seat, still recovering from the events of last night.

"Yes, sunbae. We definitely had the right place in mind, but we ran into a problem. We were ambushed by a group of five mutants, who stole our usb drive by force." At this, everyone takes a second to catch their breaths, surprised at the new information.