FORTRESS 'kailisa'

o10

The view from the top of what Sunmi called a deck, had the view to what I believed to be the entire Busan and what it had on it's outside. There were broken down avenues and buildings, cracked roads and what I believed to be shopping districts.

It all looked destroyed. Not like anything I'd see in Pure Seoul.

Outside Busan had been nothing but sand with wrecked roads, from the deck, I spotted two hovers — racers running along the sand and creating waves as the sped up.

It was quite an amazing sight, Sunmi kept laughing whenever one of them surpassed the other.

"What's the layout of the racing lane?" This now reminded me of when Chaeyoung and I would watch the boys from the rife higher-tiers race each other's and having the crowd of Pure Seoul go mad over them and cheer them non-stop. They did it in order to get attention from the girls, Chaeyoung and I being among them but we never paid any mind to them.

Sunmi raised her arms above her head, her eyes following the two racing hovers.

"Two laps beneath the broken avenue and then the first to get the flag right there," Her fingers pointed to the white and red flag that flung in the hot wind, from where I had been standing it was barely visible asides from its colours. "It's stuck right beneath cracks."

My eyes widen slightly. "Wouldn't that be dangerous?" What if it falls?

But no, Sunmi laughed. "They like it that way. Taemin has a passion for danger and so does Kai, my little brother takes the effort to just keep adding new pieces to every single racer — no wonder even Irene has him do most of the racer adjustments." But then Sunmi let out a sigh.

"I guess every person had a different way of naming our racers, that girl calls them rovers and now that I think about it, it's similar to how you call it." I try my best to smile.

My eyes then pick up on the quick turns that one of the hover have made, and Sunmi gasps before jumping on her spot.

"Is Kai finally going to win against that brat?!" She cheers with laughter. "Look at this, Lisa my girl!" She grabs me by the arm and had her arm slumped against my shoulder.

"In all the years ever since Taemin took his first racer and turned into his own, Kai has never beaten him! Will this be the year the great Kai will take over the competition?" Sunmi reminded me of how Dahyun used to be speak back in the Hover Racing days.

I continued to watch them, one hover going over one another until they started to reach the broken down avenue. I saw one of the hovers go up in the air and it startled me — our hovers have not gone up to that extent and we have the ASA, which stands for a name that only Chaeyoung can remember.

But then, it was the hover had been turnt off and it started to fall, making my heart skip a wild beat and my breath get stolen away from how scared I felt.

"Sunmi—!"

"Aw, Kai lost again!" She exclaimed. Right then, another hover went right above — Kai's hover — and snatched the flag away in a quick motion.

My chest felt tight but my breath came back when I saw both hovers starting to make a sharp turn and race their way down once again.

Sunmi was grinning non-stop and looked at the watch attached to her wrist and gasped softly before turning around.

"Oh! Just in time for lunch they finished this!" She chirps and starts to drag me back to the elevator that brought us up to the deck.

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The moment their hovers slowly settled to the ground, whilst Sunmi went out in the sun again, I stayed back inside and had covered my eyes with the goggles that the older girl offered me.

Now I could see through the gusts of sand, though it still seemed like they tried to penetrate through my skin in some parts, this time I managed to handle it.

I saw Taemin coming out of his hover first, his brown locks were a mess as he laughs and sat on the top of the hover while waving the flag over his head in victory.

"Aha! Another win for Lee Taemin!" He laughs and Kai comes out of his hover right then, running his fingers through his dark hair which was also a mess and resembling Taemin's. "Next time Kai?"

He grins in determination while patting the hover when he jumped out of it. "Always!"

Sunmi walks to the both of them and claps her hand. "Alright you guys! It's time for lunch!" They excitedly come our way and I then thought of the times when I was younger and used to run around by myself past maids and into the kitchen, until Yang Hyungsuk would appear and scold me for not behaving properly.

Taemin had ran inside first while Sunmi went right after him, Kai walked past me and glanced down at me, I did the same to him. I smirk a little when remembering his loss.

"Quite happy you are to lose." I remark as he make our way to the door that the siblings had walked into.

But instead of reacting like I thought he would, Kai simply shrugged his shoulders and sending me into a slightly disappointment before wiping the sweat off his brow.

"Sometimes it's good to lose." He looks at me now instead of glancing. "Everytime I learn something new." My eyes widen and somehow that made me stop on my tracks.

My mind went blank for a mere moment before memories started to ring back into the old days once again. I was taught by the head mistress Lee Chaerin to never lose. That losing meant losing dignity and the view others had on you, I was always taught to be a winner, I was raised to be one.

"You should never lose, Lalisa. If you lose, not only do you lose your dignity but also your pride, you wouldn't like to be pathetic, do you? So wipe that smile off your mouth and the next round you better win against Hirai Momo."

Those words rang inside my head for a second along with Lee Chaerin's scolding scowl and her accusing finger, I looked ahead of me and I saw Kai walk through the door and heard footsteps as if he had been going up stairs.

"Sometimes it's good to lose."

"Everytime I learn something new."

I started to head towards the same door he'd gone into.