"fuck off. i don't need to deal with you or your opinions about me."
she stuttered, "that's not-"
"i don't need to hear your lame excuses either. i know your type. you think you're better than me. well you're not."
she whipped her head around and walked down the hall.
that wasn't what she expected her to say.
✰ ☾ ✰
earlier that evening everyone was settling in on the ship. chaewon was wandering around, hoping to find her group room, and after a couple minutes she found a room with her name and 3 others on the door.
chaewon walked in to see sooyoung sitting on the couch looking at her nails, and heejin putting her things into her room.
they didn't seem like the type of girls chaewon would get along with, so she planned to give a polite smile if they happened to make eye contact.
she was packing things up when she heard sooyoung and heejin whispering.
"what do you think about the jinsol girl?"
"i dunno, she seems kinda fake. also doesn't seem to have much of a personality."
sooyoung laughed.
"sounds like every girl that used to go to my highschool."
heejin snickered, "basically."
chaewon didn't want to be pulled into the drama that was already taking place, so she quickly left and acted like she didn't hear anything.
she found her way to the main commons, and spotted the black haired girl named hyeju sitting at a table.
chaewon was intrigued by this girl. she had a presence about her that made her seem powerful, but chaewon also felt like she already knew her.
"hi! i'm haseul!"
chaewon turned to see the girl, and recognized her from the slideshow.
"and this is kahei!"
haseul moved a bit to reveal an orange-haired girl that was hiding behind her. she waved to chaewon, but didn't say anything.
"i'm chaewon, do you guys know what's gonna be happening when we're all packed up?"
she glanced at hyeju again, but this time she was looking at chaewon. as soon as hyeju saw that chaewon noticed her, she quickly turned her head away.
"uhh, i'm not sure. i think there's supposed to be someone that's gonna go over everything."
chaewon nodded, "yeah that makes sense."
"do you know that girl?"
haseul gestures towards the black haired girl that chaewon was looking at earlier, and she shook her head.
kahei pipes up, "i think i've seen her on the news. for petty thievery though. there were a couple tvs in the airport and i saw the news saying some stuff about how the people in charge chose a thief for the experiment."
"why would she steal though? she's in the upper middle class, i don't think she'd need it."
haseul started twiddling with her hair as her eyes scanned across the room. chaewon turned her attention to the people in the room as well. there were five other girls there other than the three of them, the black haired girl in the corner, the two youthful girls from the slideshow, and then a blonde and a girl with sharp features and dark hair.
chaewon tried to put names to the faces, but only succeeded in the black haired girl and the two youthful girls, hyeju, yeojin and jiwoo respectively.
a voice came over the intercom, "everyone please report to the main commons."
chaewon prepared for the rush of people, and the grow of voices coming towards the commons eventually died down when everyone arrived.
once all of the girls had arrived, a wall lit up with a video of mina.
"welcome girls, tonight is your first night in this ship. congratulations!"
there was a lame attempt at a celebration from the girls.
"onto the information about how this ship will be running."
mina relayed the daily schedule and timing for everything.
"the trip there is three days long, and you will be on the moon for four and a half weeks, the entirety of august. the trip back will be three days long. thirty seven days in total. at the end of this mission you will be gifted a quarter of a million dollars. right now is your last time to back down."
there was an awkward silence as everyone looked around at everyone else, but no one left.
"moving on, if you cause any damage to this ship, it will be taken from your reward money. there will be extra food and items available for purchase with your reward money. any theft will result in double the cost of that item removed from your reward. we will know if something has been stolen. the store runs like a self checkout. also, keep in mind that this is an experiment to keep track of how you guys interact and live in tight quarters on the moon. cameras and wiretaps will be in the store, cafe and testing room. we are aware of your need for privacy. also, romantic involvements are expected, but not encouraged. if any relationships among this group hurt our experiment, we will have no choice but to separate you. does this make sense."
there was a laugh from the back corner. "of course they tell us to not fuck each other once they've already given us our last chance to leave."
everyone looked back to see sooyoung, a smug look on her face. heejin chuckled with her, while the awkwardness thickened among the rest of the group.
"now that everyone has agreed and we've gone over everything, it's time for take off. please find a seat at one of the tables."
everyone stumbled to find a place to sit, to find that there were 2 tables of exactly 6 seats, leaving no chances for people to sit alone. another annoying aspect of the experiment.
"when this video is finished, we will countdown the last 30 seconds before takeoff."
the screen went black, and then a voice started counting over the intercom.
"t minus 30 seconds.
t minus 29 seconds..."
chaewon glanced around to see if anyone else was nervous, and made eye contact with hyeju again. she didn't turn away instantly this time, almost fascinated by chaewon. chaewon was about to wave, but hyeju broke eye contact before she could and her face returned to its normal annoyed expression. chaewon recognized the girl next to her as yerim. her face was blank, almost like the reality of this hadn't hit her yet. there was a certain lightness to her eyes, and the way she smiled at chaewon when she saw her looking at her. chaewon smiled back and waved, thankful for the slight distraction from her anxiousness.
"t minus 20 seconds.
t minus 19 seconds..."
the nerves started to hit chaewon again, and she turned to see haseul and kahei holding hands. they both seemed as nervous as chaewon.
sooyoung and heejin were whispering among themselves again, and chaewon saw the blonde and the girl with sharp features trying to calm each other down.
"jinsol. we're gonna be in space. fucking space. what the hell, why'd we agree to this?"
"just think of it as a vacation, we've always wanted to do one just the two of us right?"
"there are 10 other people here jinsol."
the girl took a breath and sat with her mouth open for a little bit, before recuperating.
chaewon didn't hear how she continued, but at least she knew the name of the girl with the sharp features now.
"t minus 11 seconds.
t minus 10 seconds..."
chaewon's breath got stuck in her throat. it was so close. there was no backing down. did she tell her friends to walk bbomi? are they gonna remember to check on her dad?
desperate for something else to think about, chaewon turns to see jiwoo comforting her sister. she could see the poor girl shaking, and chaewon put her hand on her shoulder.
"i'm scared too. we can be scared together."
yeojin exhaled and put her hand on top of chaewons, and they braced themselves for the liftoff.
"t minus 3 seconds.
t minus 2 seconds."
chaewon almost started crying.
"t minus one second."
"liftoff"
there was a slight tremble to the ship as it moved. a couple of the girls gasped, and yeojin's hand grew tighter on chaewon's.
everyone was tense for a couple seconds, before the voice came over the intercom again.
"liftoff successful. you may leave your seats. dinner will be provided soon."
there was a collective sigh, and a couple people left their seats.
chaewon didn't notice that her hand had lost circulation until yeojin turned around and apologized, while she looked at her purple hand.
"oh, hah it's okay"
yeojin smiled. "thanks by the way."
"of course."
the two of them were interrupted by yerim, who gave a warm smile to chaewon, but then introduced herself to yeojin.
curious, chaewon started looking for the mysterious black haired girl. she wasn't in the main commons anymore.
chaewon excused herself and said that she needed to go to the bathroom, but instead walked down the halls to the group rooms.
she saw the girls hair from around a corner, and sprinted to catch up.
when she turned the corner, hyeju was glaring at her.
"what do you want."
chaewon was flustered, she hadn't planned that far ahead.
"i've seen you looking at me, judging me. fuck off. i don't need to deal with you or your opinions about me."
"that's not-"
"i don't need to hear your lame excuses either. i know your type. you think you're better than me because you have more money than i do. well you're not. you're all the same. disgusting."
she whipped her head around and walked down the hall.
that wasn't what she expected her to say.
✰ ☾ ✰