"Minseo!" the tune of the familiar voice cried out, standing outside the gates of the football field. A smiled grazed her lips, dropping all her bags and jumping into the arms of leather sleeves. She couldn't care if her jersey was still a tad dampened, or if her face was red from holding back tears, she fell into his embrace and the scent that reminded her of freshman year.
"All the exits are blocked off, I had to run around the entire school." she panted whilst pulling away. Seongbin plastered a smile, taking his hand into hers. "Is that so?" he questioned. He then began leading her past the gate, into the confides of the football field. Minseo trailed along as he gripped her wrists that felt horribly bruised after the game, nodding in response.
They walked along the sidelines, along the perimeter of the field he used to play on for a brief moment. Memories rushed back to her, ones of stolen kisses and midnight adventures of jumping over the gate. The grass gathered along the soles of her shoes. It was dewy. Jaegu was all the same, just like them two.
"What do you think happened?" she asked cautiously, stopping in the first row of bleachers to sit. Seongbin sighed, shaking his head at the ground. "I'm not sure. The exit right there- it's blocked off by rock." he pointed to the one she attempted to come out of at first. Minseo's eyes widened, bewildered at who would do such a thing. "You don't think..." she trailed off, bottom lip pursing outwards.
"Minseo, this was an attack from the Republic. Those shifters wanted to intimidate us." he scoffed. He never liked shifters, not a single bit. Though, he always made sure to stick close to the Choi's, the flame about them somehow mysterious in the city of Jaegu- and Minseo was the heart of it.
"You're right. I hate it there, I hate everything there." she laughed bitterly, biting down on her lip to distract her from the tears welling up in her eyes. "I wanna go home." she choked out, the heels of her rubber shoes tapping against the metal of the bleachers. Seongbin lifted her chin up, facing eye to eye with the girl he was far too familiar with.
"Come back, Minseo. Stay with me, I love you." he spoke out in a whisper, his roughened thumb brushing against her cheek as she leaned in closer— this time willingly. "I love you too." she exchanged. The space between them was slowly disappearing, nothing but the light of the full moon beating down on her sparkling features. Before her amethyst eyes that had always entranced him fully closed, she paused, breath hitting his lips before they could touch.
"It's a shame I have a bad habit of lying." she smirked, a hot fist impacting his face instead.
Seongbin stood up, cupping his cheek in pain. With a snarl, he looked down at her who was now planted in her feet, fists balled up. "You bitch," he grunted, attempting to take a hit right back at her. Luckily, he miscalculated, leaving her almost wobbling backwards. "That's not the first time you've ever tried to hit me." she commented, her tone harsh and blended with the hurt that she had held to herself for too long.
"So you can shift fire? Just like your family? How exciting." he let out a malicious laugh, lifting his palms up. He rubbed them together, and before she could attest, a flame came blazing out of them— eyes turning a burnt red shade. Minseo gulped back the shock, spontaneously jumping off the fence of the bleachers and back onto the grass field. She took big steps backwards down the halfway line, the fire in his hands only growing. Right as she attempted to spark a flame of her own, nothing erupted. Her eyes slightly widened for a moment, but it wasn't like she didn't know this would happen.
And that's why she wanted to do this alone; she was the only one fit for the job.
"You manipulated my shifting." she growled, gathering up every droplet of dew in the grass to form a whip of water. "Took you long enough to figure out, babe." he smirked, shooting a tail of fire beneath her feet. Minseo's reflexes were faster, jumping over it and burning it out with the bubble in her right hand, throwing a jab of the sharp liquid towards him with her left.
It brushed against the denim of his jeans, cutting through all the threads and leaving blood to ooze out of the cut she made. Seongbin winced slightly, holding his thigh in surprise. With no more words to say, he formed a whip of his own, striking to her side in a slicing motion. Minseo stepped the opposite direction, fire grazing her jersey enough to set it on fire. She panicked for a moment, drowning the flame with her water.
Just like she would on the court, she took three bouncy steps towards him, jumping up and wrapping the long rope of liquid around his neck. She pushed him down with her foot in the process, now hovering over him as he laid in the grass, choking on the air that wouldn't enter his lungs. Minseo gritted her teeth, shutting her eyes as she turned the water into ice, hardening the grip on around his throat.
Wrong move. Seongbin brought his blazing hands around the handmade necklace, melting away the ice quickly and pushing her off with a thud. He was now on top of her now- and it was one of her most vulnerable positions. "Remember when we'd be like this in bed?" he taunted, the timbre of his voice heartless and low. No matter the situation, no matter the urgency, you couldn't stop trauma. Memories of him on top of her, ripping apart the fabric of her clothes flooded through her mind, tears welling up in her eyes at the remembrance. Seongbin was never good to her.
What rung her out of the flashbacks was his fist, hot and aflame and about to ram into her face. Spontaneously, with no need of an element, her knee jabbed in between his legs before his flame could touch her. He groaned out in pain and Minseo rolled over attempting to stand, but rain began pouring down and her rubbery shoes slipped on the artificial grass. Her vision was blurred, but the water could now be used to her advantage.
Before she could trek over to him and gather up a mass amount, his next move took her by surprise. Seongbin shot a hard gust of rain to her face, resulting in her falling onto her back at the impact. Minseo coughed harshly as it went into her nostrils, rubbing the droplets that escaped into her eye sockets that were burning too. Before she could act, she felt her body being dragged across the grass, leaving a rash on the back of her legs for sure. She looked down to see chains of water around her ankles and he was dragging her by the handle.
Minseo almost gasped, lifting up her hands to grab a jumble of rain for herself- but it seemed like he manipulated it before she could take control of the element. Her teeth gritted, cursing the skies and the tears down her face for pouring down so harshly. Thankfully, she had enough energy to sit up in the shackles, jumping upwards to grab his wrists with burning palms.
The contact was enough to leave a definite burn on his wrists, but it didn't stop there. Her fist came into contact with his face once more and slammed into his left eye— also bound to leave a scar beneath his eyebrow. Seongbin hissed at the pain, mercilessly punching her right back across the face. Minseo barely stumbled backwards, but the lack of friction on the slippery ground hindered her from performing as well as she anticipated.
"Give up, Princess. Is that what you're gonna be now that you're twins with the fire leader?" Seongbin grunted out as they dueled with fire and water running all the way up to their elbows, both of them attempting to take jabs at each other's body. She dodged an incoming one to her side, the fire she was shifting efficiently starting to burn out under the rain if she didn't continuously fuel it with energy. "Aren't you just an asshole who can only shift with the power of his ex girlfriend?" she retorted.
The fight went on like that for a bit, thrown punches landing nowhere but the air, their elements going nowhere. Seongbin was at a slight advantage with the water, slicing some of her exposed flesh with sharp droplets, blood trailing down her right leg. Although, Minseo's experience was definitely in her favor. Even if she hadn't been training for long, or at all, the instinct came easy to her. She landed good enough punches onto his neck and gut, holes burning through the fabric of his shirt. It even exposed the symbolized scar that adorned his chest— but that wasn't news to her.
"Your tears have always put me at an advantage." he chuckled sadistically, striking her across the cheek. Minseo lost her balance, fingers brushing against the sting that would leave a cut on her gentle skin. She fell backwards with a splash, the rain finally starting to flood the field— and water wasn't in her control. She tried to crawl backwards, shooting flames aimlessly through her palms, but it seemed like he was getting the hang of using water. Each shot she took, he refuted it with more of it's opposite, and it seemed almost useless.
Minseo was exhausted. After playing an overly intense volleyball game, the last thing she wanted to do was get into a fight with her boyfriend—no, ex boyfriend—and the last thing she needed was for it to get physical. She didn't even notice she was sobbing weakly with every punch she threw, the thunder in the distance drowning it out. She wasn't just crying because of the aching in her skull from falling backwards too many times. She wasn't just crying because of the blood staining her jersey enough for the number 23 to be fully painted in red. In front of her, towering over with enough water in his hands to drown her small figure, was her worst nightmare.
Minseo felt useless. He finally closed the distance between them, straddling her hips between his knees that got muddied up in the grass. She was back in her bed, the striped sheets that wrinkled beneath her just like the torn up jersey he destroyed with his hands. She was back in Jaegu where he would whisper that he loved her as he ripped her apart, reaching into her chest and tearing her heart out of her ribs. She was back beneath his breath and the bare chest that would block her vision as the pain became too much to endure.
Seongbin gathered up as much rain was in his hands as he could carry, creating a mini whirlpool above his palms. His messy black hair fell over his eyes where a scar was already beginning to form at the charred skin, and they were flooding with the deepest shade of black. Nothing about him was gentle, nothing about him was kind. How could it have taken three years to finally see past his manipulation? It seemed like he was going in slow motion as he brought his hands down to her face, the water levitating just above the tip of her nose. She knew if it went any lower, he would win. He would drown her in the palm of his hands, suffocate her with her own element.
She didn't want that to happen, she couldn't. It was too soon. It was too soon for her to die. Even if she wished it too many times upon herself in the past, she could barely look death in it's pitch black eyes if she tried. Minseo had a friends, ones she never thought would accept her. She had a family— a mother or three, a father, the best siblings she could've ever asked for. Minseo knew love, and it wasn't him.
The next couple seconds were a blur.
Light, a lot of it. An ominous, booming sound that rumbled sinisterly in the grass as if an explosion went off. The feeling of his weight being flown off of her. The feeling of energy surging through her veins, each and every one of them, traveling up to her palms. His screams, even over the thundering noise. Her screams that mixed with salty, bitter tears and the storm was was soaking every part of her.
When she finally gained the energy and courage to open her eyes, the sight of the clan member trembling yards away from her in the end zone made her jaw drop. He wasn't just trembling because of the cold rain, or the pain she inflicted upon him. It looked like he was buzzing, bolts of lightning radiating off of him with a purple hue, holding himself in a fetal position.
Feebly, she pushed herself back onto her feet that were beginning to grow wet in the grass that was squishing beneath the soles of her shoes. Her glowing amethyst eyes moved from his helpless figure to her palms that had remnants of orchid light, illuminating just like the wisteria she saw from the lake.
Choi Minseo shifted electricity.
sixty nine — lightning
smh y'all were really on her ass last chapter but she knew what she was doing LMFAOOO
quite the break up, i know. also she FINALLY shifted electricity. im sure none of you guys thought i'd leave her abilities to just fire and water (considering the name of this book is literally electric).
how do guys feeeeeel? :)