Vector || An Ryeji Adventure

Mt Misery

People in k-pop, both fans and idols, didn't know the real Yeji. She was elegant, pretty, graceful, and a great vocalist and dancer, but she was also funny, selfless, and caring. Had it not been for her, the others wouldn't have made it as trainees. She was both leader and mother in one.

But there were things she hid from them. She had had a tougher life than people knew, and it had made her scrappy and extremely disciplined. "Things hurt, but the trick is not minding that it hurts," she told herself often.

Finally she reached the base of the mountain. The marsh ended, and with great effort she pulled her boots out of the sticky mud. She looked around for the best route to climb, but everywhere she looked was a disaster zone of mudslides and boulders.

A strong woman doesn't run away from challenges. She runs through them.

The only issue Yeji faced was from her wet boots. The water softened the skin on her feet, and the brand-new boots weren't broken in and were beginning to peel away the skin, even though she was wearing socks.

So she pulled off her boots and her socks. She took a deep breath, and started to run up the side of the steep mountain.

She would climb the infamous Mt Misery her way. Barefoot. Slipknot and that wretched little man could go to hell.

"If there's a record for doing this, I'm going to break it," she said to herself.

. . . . .

After 45 minutes, she crossed into the cloud zone, and was running blind through the mist. She could tell that her feet were in bad shape, but she didn't stop. The fog was so dense that she almost ran into a low ridge of stone. She looked for a route up, but couldn't find one, so she took off horizontally, running just below the ridge.

Yeji was frustrated because she was no longer going up. Because of the mist, she had to proceed so close to the stone that she kept banging into it, receiving a cut on the shoulder. She touched it with her hand, and when she held it up to her face, there was blood on it. In a strange way, it energized her to run faster.

Finally she found a narrow gouge in the ridge that she could climb. Once she reached the top, she froze.

A large male buck, with enormous horns, was looking right at her.

Yeji held her breath as they looked at one another, only ten feet apart, both of them exhaling clouds of steam. The deer snorted and pawed the ground. Yeji's eyes narrowed as she decided whether to fight or go around it.

"Hwang, you can't fight everything. This deer is probably more like you than you think. You're both fighting this mountain. But it's his home, not yours. There are things worth fighting for, like family, like Itzy. But this deer isn't one of them. He's only asking you to leave him in peace."

Slowly she tiptoed around it, holding her breath, even though she could tell her feet were shredded. Once she was past, she took off faster than ever.

Finally there was no place higher to go. She was on top. She looked around and found a pole with an envelope on it. Wasn't it supposed to be a flag?

With trembling hands she opened the envelope and took out a letter:

Vector, there is no flag. You'll never be done. You're a failure. Bring this letter back to base, and by tomorrow night you'll be back in your mansion in South Korea.

Yeji screamed at the top of her lungs with her powerful voice. "No! You'll never break me. When I get back, people are going to start paying for treating me so cruelly."

She decided that she was still going to finish as fast as she could. The other side of the mountain had less stones, but was soft, loose soil that crumbled with every step. She didn't think going down would be harder, but it was. Her legs were shot from standing all night and from climbing up the mountain, and it took a tremendous effort not to tumble. But then she thought, "I don't care about myself anymore. I'm going to run down this damn mountain."

So she took off, taking enormous leaps and stumbling from time to time. "This is ridiculous," she thought. "It's going to take all day, and I'm hungry." Yeji sat down, tucked her legs close to her chest, and let herself roll down the hill.

The weight on her back caused her to wobble crazily as she rolled. But finally she came to a stop, and took stock of her injuries. Her feet were a mess of cuts, punctures, and blood. At one point, she hit her head on a boulder, and blood trickled down her face and into the corner of her mouth. Her shoulders ached from the heavy backpack.

Now it was time to run. Yeji loved running - on a treadmill. This was totally different, but Yeji had exercised so much that she had the cardiovascular system of a world-class athlete. You needed it in order to sing and dance for two hours. But at least she'd be on level ground, even though her legs wobbled as if they thought that she was still on a slope.

Now she could feel the 50 pounds on her back. She's been so pumped on adrenaline that she had almost forgotten it during the climb. She set off at a trot, trying to get a feel for her body before she kicked it into a higher gear.

She was running on asphalt. At one point, a school bus full of children drove past.

"SOCCER SUCKS!" she yelled. "That's right, punks, I called it soccer, not football." She knew it was pointless, even petty, but she was in more pain than she'd ever experienced, and yelling made her feel better.

Finally she stumbled past the guard at the entrance to the base. She saw Slipknot talking with a few soldiers. Suddenly she got dizzy, and fell to the ground, landing on all fours. She looked up and saw Slipknot staring at her, one eyebrow raised, and a smile on his face.

One of the guards rushed over to her. Just as he was about to put a hand on her, Slipknot shouted "Leave her alone. She is one of us."

Yeji crawled on all fours until she reached him. She spit on his boot and said "That's what I think of your mountain." Slipknot smiled.

She passed out.