touch of nature ＊ JIYOO

7. "Tasks and Goodbyes"

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Yoohyeon had finally woken up after her slumber thanks to her alarm and the first thing she did was stretch her body like a lazy cat, then walk to her sink to drink water. But to her dismay, the water wasn't running. She lowly groaned out of displeasure and walked out of her room to complain to the other outcasts about it.

"Guys..? Why is the water off?" Yoohyeon grumpily said, walking towards the opened door to the subway's main water station. Bora and Namhyuk were already awake, trying to fix some valves and when they saw Yoohyeon up early again, they were definitely surprised.

"Oh wow, someone's an early bird this morning as well." Namhyuk joked, earning a little giggle from Bora, but she sighed out of annoyance afterwards. Yoohyeon walked up to them and leaned forward, trying to grasp the situation.

"What's up with the valves? Did something happen?" Yoohyeon curiously asked, earning a nod from both. She scratched her head and then suddenly hummed, noticing something that Bora and Namhyuk must have missed.

"The pipes we usually have are a shade brighter than these ones here.." She hummed, widening her eyes. "Someone must've broken in while we were sleeping and changed them with sketchy ones.." Yoohyeon said while pointing at a pipe, getting a pleased look from Bora and Namhyuk because she managed to find the problem. But that look didn't last for long as they soon realized what Yoohyeon said and were shocked to say the least.

"Wait.. Does that mean someone could possibly know we are here? Could they know about.. Yoohyeon's secret now?" Namhyuk asked with worry, looking at the two girls who were as worried as him.

"If they read through our outcast journal.. Possibly yes.. If that's true, we will have to move away from this city." Bora said while sighing, making Yoohyeon widen her eyes and shake her head in disagreement to the oldest's words.

"There is no way we are moving out. We got used to living here for almost 5 years now and you're saying we should move out because of that? No way, I'm staying here." Yoohyeon argued, sounding a bit upset. Bora tilted her head, confused by the latter's reaction.

"You were begging us to move out of here a few months ago because of bad memories and now you want to stay?" Bora asked, wondering what could've changed the girl's mind. "Yes I want to stay and that's final." Yoohyeon scoffed, feeling defeated and she left the two to continue whatever they were doing.

"What's up with her all of a sudden? She wanted to get out of here as soon as possible and now she wants to stay? Since when?" Bora confusingly asked, earning a shrug from Namhyuk. The boy had a slight suspicion that it could've been because of that Icebreaker, but what was worrying him more was that a big secret could be out.. which would definitely cause chaos, not only amongst the factions, but around the whole country.

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Yoohyeon put on her training clothes and was going to leave until she got stopped by a panicking Jisung. She tried to calm him down but he just pulled her to their security room and sat her down on his chair to look into his computer screen. Jisung was something like the tech guy amongst the outcasts and all of the electronic equipment they found during expeditions were mostly in his possession, since he was good with coding and technology.

He typed down something on the keyboard and last night's footage popped up, which made Yoohyeon stand up and stare at the boy in shock.

"The Bulldozers found our base!? Were they looking through our data?" Yoohyeon asked while whisper-shouting, not wanting to get the other outcasts' attention.

"Yes, but they didn't see our journal thankfully.. You have to see this too.." Jisung added in defeat, showing a clip with sound, which made Yoohyeon get goosebumps all over her body. "I-I have to go somewhere.." Yoohyeon said and dashed out the room. She immediately ran out the outcasts' base without any further notice.