"please stay strong, and keep your spirits up. we will make it to the landing sight."
the room was smothered in silence.
the first person to make a move was heejin. jinsol watched as she stood on a table and cleared her throat.
"so we're probably all scared shitless about this."
a couple girls chuckled, and she continued.
"we're gonna be fine, ok? we took those dumb training classes that we didn't wanna take before this, so we know what's going on and how it's gonna be fixed. mina has like way too many people supporting her and this experiment so she will have as much help as possible. as long as you don't go batshit crazy and destroy this entire place i think we'll be fine."
heejin stepped down from the table and gave sooyoung a high five before they both left.
jungeun got up as well, and jinsol jogged to catch up to her. she wasn't sure where jungeun was going, but it was better than going back to her group room.
the two of them found another room that somewhat looked like a library, and sat on the chairs.
"i wish they told us what happened so we could try to fix it."
jinsol turned to look at jungeun, and saw her staring at the wall in front of her.
jinsol sighed. "if they told us what happened then we would try to fix it, which is what they don't want."
jungeun turned to jinsol and opened her mouth to respond, but jinsol continued talking.
"we didn't get as much training as an astronaut is supposed to, which i understand considering how advanced korea has become in space and how this is mostly a social experiment, but that means that we don't know enough information to try and problem-solve. we could make things way worse, and since there's no one in charge that's out here with us they don't want to risk that."
jungeun huffed and stood up. "i get that and all, but i feel useless." she grabbed a book off the shelf and looked at it, then did the same to the book next to it.
"you know what we could do,"
jungeun turned to her, and jinsol smiled. she knew she got her attention with that.
"we could study more and then know what's actually going on and feel smart."
jungeun turned and slumped into her chair again.
"i thought you were gonna suggest something exciting."
"well we can make it exciting!" a ton of ideas swirled through jinsol's mind and her smile brightened. "we can have study sessions and use those colored highlighters and give ourselves projects! it could be so fun."
"jinsol we've already graduated high school and i'm almost done with college."
"this would just be studying with all of the benefits and none of the negatives! we can do it on our own time, we can make it all pretty and we won't be tested on any of the material!" jinsol started scanning the books on the shelf in front of her, then pulled on jungeun's arm to try and get her to stand up. "c'mon! it could be fun!"
jungeun gave in, and the both of them returned to the main commons with their books and notebooks they bought at the shop.
they walked in to hyeju and hyunjin sitting at a table, and overhearing hyeju talk more than they've ever heard her talk.
as soon as they walked in she shut up and left, and hyunjin shortly followed.
"i guess they're friends now"
jinsol turned to look at the blonde, and was caught off guard when they made eye contact.
what is wrong with you, you've made eye contact with her hundreds of times. she's your best friend for fuck's sake.
jungeun awkwardly laughed as an attempt to clear the air, and jinsol opened a book in front of her and started reading.
they messed around and did a little bit of research, and then lunch came around.
chaewon sat next to them with her food, and they struck up conversation about what kinds of calculations the people in charge could be doing.
"they're probably calculating the speed of which we're off track, and what direction we're drifting."
jungeun nodded, and wrote that down while chaewon turned to jinsol.
"have you seen hyeju today? i feel like she's avoiding me."
jungeun looked up from her notebook to make eye contact with jinsol.
jinsol wasn't sure what jungeun was trying to tell her, so she avoided answering.
"why would she be avoiding you?"
chaewon turned to her food and started moving it around her tray with her fork. "i think she has some messed up views of how the world works. it might be the effect of bad parenting, and i confronted her about it and said i could help and she ran away."
she really just told me all that? this girl isn't very good at keeping secrets.
"oh, i mean it makes sense for her to run away from that. you might want to wait a bit before talking to her again."
both chaewon and jungeun sighed. apparently jinsol said the right thing.
"yeah, i know that, but i also think the sooner i talk to her the sooner i can help her."
jungeun sat back up. "she'll probably come to you eventually. if i was her i would be curious about how you would try to help me."
"thanks guys." chaewon gave them a warm smile and then left, throwing the rest of her food away in the process.
jinsol turned to jungeun, who was looking at her notebook again.
"why didn't you want me to tell her about seeing her earlier?"
jungeun sighed, "i can tell chaewon really wants to talk to hyeju. i know if hyeju hasn't approached chaewon by now, chaewon will only get bitten if she tries to talk to her."
"oh, i guess i wouldn't have thought about that."
"exactly." jungeun started packing up her notebooks and pens, "if the person who's hurting hasn't chosen to get help, then they won't be helped no matter how much you try."
is there something she isn't telling me?
"i guess that makes sense." jinsol finished cleaning up, and the two of them sat in silence for a bit.
"i'm gonna go to my group room."
"oh, okay"
should i ask her if somethings wrong?
by the time jinsol looked up, jungeun had already left.
✰ ☾ ✰
jiwoo knew her sister was scared, she knew she should be thinking about her and taking care of her, but something was stopping her.
maybe it was her suspicion that something was wrong. maybe it was seeing how her sister seemed to already have feelings for yerim. maybe it was because of how she already felt herself drawn to the second richest girl there. maybe she was scared too.
maybe she was more scared than her sister.
maybe she was scared she wouldn't be able to help her this time.
because she truly didn't know what was going on. she couldn't help, she wanted to comfort her sister but she didn't want yeojin see her older sister being scared too.
yeojin and yerim had already left the commons, unaware that jiwoo wasn't following them.
jiwoo was the last one to leave, but the silence of the commons wasn't uncomfortable.
she spent a couple minutes sitting at one of the tables, processing what happened and what's going to happen.
i really hope yeojin is okay, i shouldn't have left her.
as jiwoo was about to leave, sooyoung walked in the commons.
"where's your sister?"
sooyoung walked to the seat across from jiwoo, and jiwoo thought for a moment she was gonna sit down, but she just grabbed something off of the floor.
sooyoung explained, "heejin dropped this earlier and she's busy so she asked me to grab it."
"oh, okay." jiwoo remembered sooyoung's question. "oh, and yeojin is with yerim. i just needed a couple moments to myself."
"oh, sorry for interrupting then. and i hope your sister feels better, along with you. i can tell you're kind of scared, but it's gonna be okay."
isn't she supposed to be a bitch?
"oh, thanks. and same to you. if you're scared. i dunno if you are but yeah."
sooyoung giggled, but it was a different type of giggle than jiwoo was used to hearing. it was lighthearted, she wasn't doing it to be malicious in anyway.
it was nice.
sooyoung left the room and waved goodbye, and jiwoo was left with even more questions than before.
why was she not holding anything when she left?
✰ ☾ ✰