I could have asked Joy why the Headmistress had called her. I could have been sure that Mom and Lisa had handled everything. But when suddenly, the rest of us, including Jennie, were asked to present ourselves at the office, I didn't know what to expect. So we just walked silently with our feet echoing on the cold floor of the hall.
As soon as we reached the Headmistress's office, I could hear that their conversation was still going on. And I heard their last sentence before we reached the door.
"I'm sorry, we can't do that."
I felt my chest tighten, and I sort of dreaded walking inside when Joy knocked. Did the Headmistress refuse to let me stay? When we entered the room, I saw Lisa was standing at one corner with her back to the bookshelves. Her expression was a grim mask. Mom and the Headmistress were sitting face-to-face on the sofa. But when they saw us entering the room, everyone stopped talking.
"Mom?" I said. Mom rose to her feet and walked up to me. I looked at her face, she seemed like she had been crying. "What's going on?"
"It's okay, honey," she said in a scratchy tone. Did the Headmistress refuse to let me stay? I just wanted to ask her, but didn't.
"What is it, Mom?" Joy turned to her mother. She probably got the same feeling I had.
"Don't use that kind of tone with me, Joy," the Headmistress said, rising out of the cushion and walked towards the four of us. Something about her voice told me she was resuming the power of a mother rather than a school headmistress, and that was even scarier. "How dare you break something as important as the rules?"
"Break what, Mom?" Joy said, playing an innocent card.
"I'm your mother," the Headmistress said. "You think I don't know you've been sneaking out?"
"Mrs. Park, don't blame Joy, it was my fault," I said hurriedly.
"No," Jisoo stepped in. "It was my idea."
"This is the mistake that can't be forgiven," the Headmistress uttered in a harsh voice, we all flinched.
"Mom!"
"I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in my school," the Headmistress went on. "You each have to be punished by writing me a report of what you did, but for my daughter," she turned to Joy. "You write six reports in different languages."
"Awww!" Joy cried in protest, but also didn't dare to complain further. I found myself breathing again. In fact, I thought I was going to get expelled from the school, but writing a report was like a reward in this case.
"Honey," my mom said, "What you did was wrong. You shouldn't have hidden all these from the adults."
"I'm sorry," I said again.
"Anyway, I decided to keep you here as part of the punishment," the Headmistress said, looking at me.
"Oh Rachel, I couldn't thank you enough," Mom said to our Headmistress.
"It's my duty, Doc," the Headmistress said with a laugh, "We are protecting every Ultara genius. I won't let any evil force interrupt the harmony of my school."
I blinked so hard at that. I must have misunderstood the words.
"Mom, does she know? I mean really really know?" I whispered to my mom.
"Of course, I do, young lady," the Headmistress answered my question. "I've known everything about you since you were still a butt naked baby."
My cheeks reddened. I guess some adults really know how to keep their secrets way better than we do.
"Chaeyoung," Mom said. "The Headmistress saved our lives, honey."
I was too stunned. I should have suspected why I could become the exception in the Ultara Academy and be treated as equal to her daughter. Her Mom has the kind of friend that is willing to help whenever troubles arise, just like mine.
"Oh, mom! You knew it all along!" Joy said. "Why didn't you tell us that you knew?"
"The same reason why you didn't tell me, kiddo," The Headmistress said in a motherly tone again. "I'm just so proud that you didn't abandon your friends, and I didn't mean just you, but all of you." She looked at the rest of us.
"What a relief," Joy breathed. "I thought you wouldn't let Chaeyoung be with us."
"Oh, Joy, dear," the Headmistress breathed, "Why would I do that? I just wanted to let you know if problems are too hard for you to handle, you shouldn't hide them from us. Besides, I also wanted to ask Jennie for a tiny favor."
"Me?" Jennie said with a puzzled face. I almost forgot she was even here.
"Yes, you- Jennie Kim," the Headmistress clarified. And I swear that what I heard next was: 'Don't expect that I don't know what you did, young lady'. Jennie blinked. I guess she probably heard the same thing I did. Ever since Jennie walked into the Ultara gate, she had made a mysterious epidemic of students losing consciousness. The Headmistress was just turning a blind eye on that.
"Well... um... what can I do for you... ma'am?" Jennie stuttered alarmingly, looking embarrassed.
"For the last century, the school has been very peaceful, but now we want to have the best protection necessary for some emergency case in the future. We need you to activate the Kim Shield. It's the most advanced security systems of our school."
"But I don't know how to activate it," Jennie said with a helpless shrug.
"Believe it or not," the Headmistress replied. "It only requires the touch of a Kim descendent."
The architect who built the school had a weird sense of humor. She had designed the Kim Shield, which was a secret system that no one could operate besides the Kim generations or at least that's what the Headmistress told us. And the Kim family was another school founder besides the Park and the Ultara. Which means Jennie wasn't just any stranger dropping off from the space. And now Jennie had become the Chosen One. It's quite funny when your famous foe turns out to be someone who could save your life.
The Headmistress led us out of the office. At first, I thought we were going to the Ancient Hall, but then we just stopped in front of the founders' holographic forms that stood under beams of glowing lights. We looked at all the faces of the Ultara founders- each of them bore the expression of serenity and wisdom.
I noticed below one of the statues emblazoned: Josephine Kim.
My eyes widened, remembering the name I had come across at the Hobbit house. I turned to look at Lisa who was also staring at the stone head of the woman. Our Headmistress walked up to slide the head backward. Suddenly, we saw the school's symbol carved on the marble stand underneath the head. The Headmistress turned around and smiled brightly.
"Voila!" she said, looking at us and then beckoned Jennie to come forward. "Please, come to put your hand here," she pointed to the round shaped Ultara crest.
Jennie stepped forward and did as she was instructed. And once she placed her hand on the symbol, the thing started to glow with a blinding light.
"Ow!" Jennie winced and pulled her hand back as if she got burned.
"It reads your fingerprint and tests your DNA," the Headmistress told her. After that, the siren blared, the ground under our feet shook a little, and the electricity seemed to flicker off and on. But before anyone could scream, "earthquake", everything went back to normal again.
"Whoa, what was that?" Jisoo murmured, looking around herself as if to see any change.
"Alright," the Headmistress clapped her hands together and smiled at us. "From now on, any intruder who wants to get into the Ultara campus will find the school as challenging as a minefield. This security system doesn't just prevent anyone from getting in, but also from getting out." She didn't miss to make a meaningful eye contact with the three of us. I exchanged a look with Lisa, now that I wasn't just hiding here but I was also trapped.
"Thank you very much, my dear Jennie," the Headmistress said. "We couldn't do that without your help."
"You've done us a lot of good, thank you so much," Mom said to Jennie who was blushing bright red.
"My pleasure," she managed to speak. My mom turned to the Headmistress again.
"We owe you a lot, Rachel," she said.
"Please, don't say that, doc. We're best friends," the Headmistress laughed. "Chaeyoung is like my daughter, too."
Then Mom came to put her arm around my shoulders.
"Be a good girl, and take care, okay?" She said.
"You won't stay with us?" I asked.
"I can't leave my patients behind, kiddo," she replied with a saddened face. "But don't worry about me. I'll be spending more time at the hospital anyway."
Lisa came to stand by us. "The place has a lot of people, so it's okay. I'll take times to check on her if you want."
"You all can go back to the mansion now," the Headmistress came to say. "Oh, by the way, Chaeyoung and Jennie, I guess you two will have to share a room..."
"With her???" Jennie and I cried at the same time, pointing at each other.
Great, even Jennie and I had met some sort of agreement, having to stay with her was beyond my functional mind. Obviously, Jennie wasn't too happy about that. And if I wasn't mistaken, Lisa wasn't either, she just left without saying anything, but I would have to let her be for now.
And as we were walking along the hallway to the suites, Joy started listing a series of crimes that Jennie would commit against me.
"What if she absorbs your energy while you're asleep?" She said, looking unusually paranoid. "What if she makes you lose your memory and you forget who you are? What if-"
"Joy," I cut her off. "I'll be fine, don't worry."
"Yeah, don't worry," Jennie mimicked. "Because the one who should be worried is me. What if your friend gets thirsty in the middle of the night and starts drinking me like a coconut?"
Joy shot her a deadly look. Then she turned to me again, "We can't really trust this girl, can we?"
"Joy, it's alright," I reassured her again, "She can't hurt me, besides I have my secret weapon, you know." And just to prove my point, I flashed a toothy grin at her. Joy considered it for a moment and then decided to let it slide.
"Okay, just take care then," she said.
"We'll see you in the morning," Jisoo said and came to peck me on the cheek.
"Good night, guys," I said before hurrying to catch up with Jennie, who kept walking without waiting for a soul.
Jennie had the entire suite all to herself- the room was just like Joy and Jisoo's, but it seemed more spacious and decorative. There were pictures of landscapes and artistic objects hanging around.
"You can take that bed," Jennie gestured at an empty bed by the window.
"Jennie," I said, "When the Headmistress talked to you, did you hear what she said in her mind?" She looked at me as if I was crazy, but then she seemed to remember the scenario.
"What? You did too?" She asked me back.
"Well, I sort of picked up some thoughts from her, and I had heard yours too," I told her.
"Aw...looks like you've been developing your own psychic ability," she said with a mocking smile. "Well, reading minds, feeling other people's emotions and predicting the future are nothing new in the human history. There's a lot of things your mind can do."
"So you can read minds?"
"No, but just don't think too loud inside your head," she said.
"Anyway, thank you," I said. "for helping me today."
Jennie just shrugged. "We're even."
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Please no one take offense to what I'm about to say, I'm merely stating my thoughts
Why do Koreans have to have common surnames??? It's so difficult to emphasize on one surname when you're writing. For example, this secret belongs to the Kim family. Oh? But this other girls surname is Kim too. So does the secret run in her family too?
Or
Only the Park family is invited to this party. Does that mean a million people are invited? Because half the population is fucking named Park.
IT'S JUST SO DIFFICULT!