After 2 hours of driving, Hyewon and the rest finally arrive to Seoul. They quickly pay the driver before getting off at the park.
"Huh, a big fight must have happened" Yujin concludes from seeing the big craters in the ground. "We know they're safe though, right?" Nako asks Hyewon, who checks her phone for text messages. "Yup, 3 hours ago, Wonyoung told me that they fought against a believers of the Flowerlife?? What ever that is" Hyewon returns her phone to her pocket. "I'm guessing they're at the base right now"
"How ironic. A month ago, Hyewon told us to protect Eunbi and now she betrays us" Sakura chuckles bitterly, leaning back on her seat. They are in the meeting room, trying to figure out what to do now that Hyewon is an enemy. Nobody knows what to do, since they usually have Hyewon to lead them. "Where are Yujin and Nako now? Weren't they with Hyewon?" Hitomi asks. To answer Hitomi's question, the door opens, revealing Yujin and Nako. Nako is carrying Geumbi. "Hey guys!" Yujin waves, along with Nako.
"Where's Hyewon" Chaeyeon stands up. Yujin and Nako step aside to let Hyewon in, who sighs in relief after seeing that her team is safe. "I'm glad you guys are saf-"
"What are you doing here..?" Chaeyeon points at Hyewon, pushing her finger against Hyewon's chest. Her tone sounds mad and her stare is intimidating. Hyewon is taken aback by this question. She expected a warm welcome, but instead she's being treated like a bad guy. "Uhm... I'm here because you guys are my team..?"
Chaeyeon points her finger upwards, slightly lifting Hyewon into the air with her wind powers and restraining her movement. "If we are your team, then why'd you attack us?" Sakura questions, crossing her arms. Hyewon's eyebrows crease at the mention of attacking. "Huh?" Hyewon tilts her head. "Don't play dumb, you tried to kidnap Eunbi and you tried to punch Chaeyeon" Sakura continues, glaring at Hyewon. Hyewon looks at Eunbi, who seems to be mad and disappointed. Yujin and Nako are confused, since they've been with Hyewon the whole time and they never saw her leave their sight.
"I have no idea what you guys are talking about.." Hyewon says, looking at all her team members. She makes eye contact with Wonyoung, who nods sadly. "I attacked you guys..?" Hyewon questions. She's talking to Chaeyeon and Sakura but the question was for herself. She doesn't have any memory of it happening. "Hyewon unnie was with us the whole time" Nako explains, Yujin nodding in agreement.
"Hyewon is unpredictable, she has teleportation powers" Sakura talks back. "You know more than anyone that she can disappear and reappear like it's nothing" Chaeyeon tells Yujin, who could only stay silent.
Hyewon is deep in thought. Did she really attack them? Maybe she was controlled by someone, which isn't entirely impossible. They did get to Sokcho because of someone with pollen powers, after all. She looks at Chaeyeon and speaks. "Look, I don't have any memory of it happening, but if you say so. Put me down and I'll leave" Hyewon says, her tone is sad and deep. Chaeyeon looks at Hyewon, who could tell that Chaeyeon was getting sadder and sadder by the second. She releases Hyewon from her wind powers before turning away and looking up, trying to prevent herself from crying.
"Well, I guess this is it. See ya. Sorry for attacking" Hyewon waves good bye, leaving the room. The ones that hurt the most are Wonyoung, Yujin, Chaeyeon, and Minju, since they've been with Hyewon for the longest out of everybody else. The group sit in silence, processing the fact that Hyewon left the team. Chaeyeon has tears flowing from her eyes while Yujin only bows her head in sadness. Wonyoung bites her inner lip, preventing herself from crying. Minju wipes her eyes with her sleeve, sobbing silently. The rest are all also sad, which is visible due to the frowns on their faces.
"Hyewon, where are you going?" Yena grabs Hyewon's arm, pulling her back in. "And why do you look so sad?" Yuri asks, crossing her arms. "I..." Hyewon looks at Yena. "I attacked them" she continues, pulling her arm away from Yena. Yena gasps, along with Chaewon, whose eyes widen. "What?" Yuri shouts in disbelief. "I tried to kidnap Eunbi and I tried to punch Chaeyeon!" Hyewon replies, looking away.
The trio could only watch in silence as Hyewon leaves the building. Yena, who has been long-time friends with Hyewon, simply doesn't believe that she actually attacked them. She thinks it's a misunderstanding. Yuri also doesn't believe it, she knows that Hyewon is a good person.
"Hey..." Chaewon enters the room, trying to be cheerful but failing. Yena and Yuri also enter, sitting on the vacant seats, followed by Chaewon.
"So, now what?" Wonyoung says. Yujin shrugs, and nobody replies. "We can't just keep moping around, right? We still have that Maxibloom problem to handle" Wonyoung continues, glancing at everyone. "We barely have any leads" Chaeyeon replies, stomping her foot out of frustration. "Maybe the Maxibloom is dead, y'know?" Minju chides, earning a nod from Chaeyeon. "Maybe we're looking for something that isn't even alive. It's probably decomposed by now"
———
How much more wrong could they be? In the depths of somewhere, the Maxibloom is planning it's next move. A row of Overbloom incubation cells lines the wall, which seems to be made of wood. 1 out of 12 incubation cells is empty, and the inhabiting Overbloom is currently facing the Maxibloom which is sitting on it's throne. "Yellow, your power is electricity" the Maxibloom says, it's voice is deep and husky, it doesn't sound human.
Yellow, who seems to be an exact replica of Yena, nods as it activates it's powers. Electricity runs all over it's body, making the Maxibloom smirk.
———
"What about the Flowerlife people? Don't you think they have some sort of connection to the Maxibloom?" Wonyoung scoffs in disbelief that her teammates are losing hope. "In a world full of flowers? Yeah, I doubt that. They're probably just some cult" Minju shakes her head, smiling bitterly. Wonyoung opens her mouth, about to speak, but decides against it.
"They did talk about making a new world with their so called 'master'" Eunbi says, recalling what the opponent said earlier. "Sounds like a cult to me" Yujin shrugs, agreeing with Minju. "Come on, guys! We can't just give up!" Wonyoung stands up, facing all of her members. They don't make eye contact with her, only lowering her confidence. She didn't expect her team members to be this hopeless. "I know Hyewon unnie isn't here anymore, but do you think she would've wanted us to give up this easily?"
Nobody replies, causing Wonyoung to sit back down awkwardly. Chaeyeon sighs, getting up from her seat. "I'm going home" she says as she leaves the room. Sakura looks at the door as Chaeyeon leaves, furrowing her eyebrows. "Yeah, why don't we just call it a day?" Eunbi sighs, looking at Wonyoung with remorse in her eyes. Minju is the first to stand up and leave. "Come on..." Wonyoung pleads, tugging on Yujin's arm as she notices that the older was about to stand up. Yujin looks at Wonyoung, her face is expressionless. Yujin pulls her arm from Wonyoung before also walking out of the door.
"You can't be this hopeless, right?" Wonyoung shouts, but all of them have made up their mind. They just wanna go home after the stressful events of today. "Yena unnie?" Wonyoung looks at Yena. Even the usually cheerful girl is feeling down. One by one, they start to leave, leaving Wonyoung in the room. She sighs in disappointment, slamming her hand on the board in anger. "You guys suck!" she yells out of frustration, pulling her hair. She doesn't really mean it, she's just really angry. She sits back down, choosing to stay for a while to collect her thoughts.
After a whole 10 minutes, she finally decides to go. After turning off all of the lights in the base, she leaves. The sky is already dark. She wipes her tears with her sleeves as she just finished crying due to frustration. She then walks home, which isn't really far.
———
"We're home!" Eunbi forcefully puts on a cheerful voice for her cute companion, Geumbi. Eunbi puts Geumbi on the ground before going to the kitchen to eat something.
Sakura, Hitomi, and Nako return to their apartment, which they haven't been to for a whole month already. "I missed this place" Nako deadpans, earning a nod of agreement from both Hitomi and Sakura.
Chaeyeon turns the knob on her door and enters the house. "Chaeryeong? I'm home!" she shouts, looking around for her sister. "Unnie?" a voice comes from upstairs. "Chaeryeong!" she grins as she sees her sister walk down the stairs. They run to hug each other, but when they hug, Chaeryeong could feel her shoulder becoming damp. She hears silent sobs coming from Chaeyeon. "Aw, unnie..." Chaeryeong consoles her sister by caressing the back of her head.
Chaewon is now walking to her place, and the route she's taking is very familiar. She chuckles as she recognizes it as the place where she disappeared. She smiles at the thought of Eunbi looking for her after she was 'crushed' by a car. Finally, she returns to her apartment after a whole month of being missing from it. She sighs, mostly because the place has gotten dusty since she's last been here. Too drained to do anything, she directly goes to her bed and lays down, slowly falling to sleep.
Minju reaches her house, sighing out of relief. Now she's opening the door, only to stop in her tracks when she senses movement behind her. "Yuri?" she turns around, shocked to see the other girl. "Can I stay here? I don't have a house" Yuri smiles, trying to make Minju fall for her charm. Come to think of it, Minju does have an extra room. "Uh- sure!" Minju hesitantly agrees, letting Yuri come inside. "Thanks bestie, always knew I could count on you"
"Mom, I'm back" Yujin says with no energy in her voice. "Yujin, welcome back!" her mom greets her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "How was work?" her mom questions, letting Yujin take off her shoes. "Pretty tiring, honestly" Yujin replies, sighing. "I'll skip dinner for today, I'll go to sleep now" she tells her mom before going up the stairs.
Wonyoung, entering her house quietly, is noticed by her mom. "Hey Wonyoung!" her mom says from the kitchen. Wonyoung doesn't respond and only looks at her mother. "What's wrong?" her mom asks as she could sense something is wrong with her daughter. "Nothing" Wonyoung replies, going up the stairs directly to her room. Her mom brushes it off as a mood swing that teenagers commonly have, so she continues to cook the food.
Now Yena is walking away after buying a sandwich from a convenience store. Unbeknownst to her, she's being followed. After eating the sandwich, she scans the area for a trash can, but finds none. She ends up putting the wrapper in her pocket, but she drops the wrapper in the process. Only then she notices the man a few meters behind her.
She thinks it's just another bypasser, but immediately changes that thought as she hears footsteps behind her, and when she stops, the footsteps stop as well. She walks a few inches forward just to make sure, and sure enough, the footsteps follow. She exhales out of nervousness while exerting her Oneirium into her feet and legs. Without a second thought, she dashes forward, leaving the man in the dust....
...but she makes the mistake of looking back, seeing the man holding a knife. Yena is taken aback, stumbling to the ground after losing her balance. Knives only bring back bad memories for Yena, which is why she's so scared of them. She stands up, trying to dash forward again, but her nerves aren't helping. She can't run again because of the sight of a knife in the hands of someone who is following her. She breathes heavily as her eyes dart around.
The man is getting closer, but Yena can't move at all. "O-okay Yena, you c-can run aw- away with yo-your powers" she stutters as she mumbles to herself. She's shaking heavily as memories of the knife incident fog her brain, invading her thoughts. She tries to run again, but fails and almost trips. The man is now in front of her, smirking deviously as he points the knife at Yena. "Give me all your money"
"N-no" Yena, despite being nervous and scared of the thing that's pointed at her, refuses to lose to a thief. The man clicks his tongue and shakes his head, bringing the knife to Yena's neck. She gulps nervously and when she does, the man notices a little scar on her neck, almost like a slit for his knife to enter. He traces his knife along her neck and reaches the scar, which plays an instant flashback in Yena's mind.
Yena is on her way to exit school when suddenly she crosses paths with her bully in the hallway. Oh Nari smirks at Yena, who only stays silent, gripping her book tighter. She walks away, but Nari grabs her hand and Yena doesn't even try to fight back. She drags Yena to the back of the school, where it's quiet and nobody really knows that they're there.
"What do you want, Nari?" Yena says, bowing her head down. "You come from a wealthy family, right?" Nari pushes Yena to the wall. "Yeah..?" Yena nods slowly as Nari grabs something from her pocket. It's a knife, and Nari smirks at Yena before bringing the knife to her neck. "Bring me 50,000 won tomorrow" she threatens to cut Yena, who only gulps. "Wh-why..?"
"None of your business" Nari pushes the knife closer to Yena's neck. The cold metal hitting her neck makes her shudder a little. "Do we have ourselves a deal?" Nari speaks again. Yena, too nervous to say no, hesitates to answer. She doesn't wanna give Nari the money but she also doesn't want to get stabbed. Deep in her thoughts, Yena doesn't realize that Nari is counting to three until it's too late.
"Three"
Nari then stabs Yena in the neck before laughing and hiding the knife in her pocket and leaving. Yena struggles to breathe, falling to the ground. She resorts to crawling, and eventually finds a yellow glowing flower hiding behind a rock. Panicking about her blood pouring out her neck, she immediately grabs the flower, thinking that because it's glowing, it can probably heal her. But that seems to be another mistake she makes.
Lightning strikes from above, hitting Yena and electrocuting her. She passes out, smoke exiting her body while the flower crumbles into nothingness. She wakes up after 8 hours, looking around. "What time is it?" she wonders, checking her watch. It's 11 pm, and Yena is baffled by this. How could she have fallen asleep behind the school? Neverminding it, she quickly returns home, her parents are probably worried sick.
Yena shakes her head in an attempt to free her mind from those thoughts, but the knife pointed at her just keeps reminding her of the past. She suddenly feels angry from thinking about the Oh Nari incident, and something in her snaps. She looks at the knife, grabbing it from the man before throwing it away. She points at the man's neck, her pointer finger pushing against his throat.
That's when suddenly an electric claw grows from her finger, stabbing the man directly in the neck. She glares at the man and her eyes are glowing yellow. She exerts Oneirium into her pointer finger, giving the electric claw more power. The man starts to twitch uncontrollably as waves of electricity enter his body. After a few seconds, he stops and drops to the ground. But what shocks Yena more is that his whole being turns to ashes as soon as he collides with the ground.
"W-what did I just do?" she asks herself, staring at the pile of ashes in front of her. Did she just kill someone? Shocked at her own power, she dashes away.
the next day
Eunbi is peacefully watching TV when someone knocks on her door.
"Who is it?"
Unnie, it's me. Yujin"
Eunbi, although she wasn't expecting Yujin to visit, opens the door. "Hi unnie" Yujin waves, smiling slightly. "Come in!" Eunbi lets Yujin in, and the latter does so. The place hasn't changed since she last broke in with Wonyoung. "So, what made you come visit?" Eunbi asks, letting Yujin sit on the couch. "I just kinda wanted to check up on everyone, y'know?" Yujin explains, earning a nod from Eunbi.
"Well how are the others?" Eunbi questions, turning off the TV to focus on their conversation. "Actually, you're the first one I visited" Yujin says. "Oh, I see" Eunbi nods slowly. If it isn't obvious, the atmosphere is very awkward. Yujin and Eunbi aren't even making eye contact. The silence only adds more to the awkward atmosphere.
"Unnie, what's that door there?" Yujin asks, trying to break the awkward tension between them. Eunbi looks over to where Yujin is pointing, a door under her stairs. "That's nothing!" Eunbi awkwardly smiles. This only makes Yujin more curious as she stands up to open it. "No, don't!" Eunbi blurts out, immediately covering her mouth, and Yujin looks at her suspiciously.
She opens the door, and it's a stairway leading to a dark basement. Eunbi's eyes widen as Yujin quickly goes down stairs. "Yujin come back!" Eunbi chases her down, but it's too late, Yujin has already reached the basement. She turns on the lights, revealing Eunbi's secret business.
"So..." Yujin turns to look at Eunbi, whose face is full of regret. "You sell Radiant Flowers..?" Yujin points at the box full of Radiant Flowers. Eunbi only stays silent, there's no point to try to disprove it. The proof is right in front of Yujin. That's when it hit Yujin. The night they found the big surge of Oneirium in the forest must've been a night where Eunbi was searching for flowers.
"I'm sorry unnie, but you have to go to jail" Yujin looks at Eunbi, frowning. Eunbi doesn't fight back, nodding as she accepts her fate. It's only fair for her to be put to jail as she's been doing something illegal for a long time already. Yujin calls the cops since she didn't come prepared with handcuffs. It's her job and she's doing it properly.
Soon after, the cops arrive to take Eunbi away. "Yujin, please keep Geumbi safe" Eunbi tells Yujin before getting in the back of the cop car. Yujin sadly nods, picking Geumbi up from the ground.
In their groupchat, Yujin chats.
Bluejin: Eunbi unnie went to jail
Joglass: Huh?
Bluejin: I found out that she sells Radiant Flowers
Minju Angel: You aren't pranking us, right?
Bluejin: No, it's real
Chaefeather: First Hyewon, now Eunbi?
Kkura: What's next, one of ya'll kill someone?
Yenergy: Hahaha that's funny
Joglass: Don't laugh unnie, it's a serious matter
Ghost: It is kinda funny tho
Hiichan: True
Yako: But seriously though, if any one of you guys killed someone, you better speak up
Yenergy: Yeah! We don't want a murderer in our team!
Joglass: ...
Yako: No offense, Yuri
Yujin only chuckles as she reads the groupchat before speaking to the cops. "Thank you, officer" she says to the cop. "Couldn't have done it without you, Yujin. You always catch the sellers" the cop says back, shaking hands with Yujin. Yujin is very well-known in the police department. Since she works as a Radiant Flower investigator, she always ends up finding Radiant Flower sellers. She can't take them away by herself, so she lets the cops do that.
"We'll take it from here" the chief police tells Yujin, who then leaves with Geumbi in her arms.
Bluejin: Any of you wanna take Geumbi for the time-being?
Minju Angel: I can do that
Bluejin: Okay I'll drop Geumbi off, see ya
Yujin then goes to Minju's house, where instead of Minju, Yuri opens the door. "Oh, Yuri unnie?" Yujin says, surprised to see Yuri. "Can't you just take care of Geumbi?" Yuri asks as Yujin puts the dog on the floor. "I would love to, but..." Yujin pauses and looks behind herself. She sees Bluejin acting sulky and jealous as it looks at Geumbi while growling. "Bluejin's a bit jealous" Yujin chuckles nervously.
———
The doorbell rings, and Wonyoung's mom opens the door. It's Yujin, who smiles. "Hi Ms. Jang!" Yujin greets. "Yujin, come in!" Ms. Jang lets her in, and she does so. "Are you here for Wonyoung?" Ms. Jang asks, to which Yujin nods in response. "I don't know what's wrong with her, she's been staying in her room for the whole day!" exclaims Ms. Jang. Yujin then takes a few steps up the stairs. "I'll go talk to her"
Wonyoung could hear a knock on her door. "Mom, I'll eat lunch later. I'm not hungr-" Yujin opens the door, surprising Wonyoung. "Unnie? What are you doing here?" Wonyoung says in a disapproving tone. She's still mad and disappointed at her teammates for what they did yesterday. Yujin doesn't respond directly and instead closes the door before running and jumping on Wonyoung's bed. "Wonyoungie~" she cuddles with Wonyoung, trying to tease her. Wonyoung tries to move away from Yujin, but ends up stuck while Yujin is cornering her.
"What do you want?" Wonyoung furrows her eyebrows, avoiding eye contact with Yujin. Yujin hugs Wonyoung by the waist before replying. "Just wanted to make sure you're okay" she says, closing her eyes to the warmth and coziness of Wonyoung's bed. Wonyoung feels a blush creep up her cheek, and she tries to fight it. She fails, ending up smirking and looking away to hide her blush.
Wonyoung clears her throat before speaking. "Well, I'm okay" she says, crossing her arms. "Good" Yujin speaks quietly, hugging Wonyoung tighter. She's still closing her eyes. "Your bed is really comfy" she says, making Wonyoung scoff.
"Eunbi unnie went to jail by the way, I noticed you haven't read the group chat messages"
"What?! What did she do?"
"She was selling Radiant Flowers"
"First Hyewon unnie and now Eunbi unnie?"
"That's exactly what Chaeyeon unnie said"
"Who else could be a bad guy in our team?" Wonyoung wonders, turning to lay on her side and shifting her attention to Yujin. "Yuri unnie technically, but she didn't mean to do it" Yujin says, now half-awake as Wonyoung's bed is really comfy. Wonyoung nods, smiling at the sight of Yujin fully asleep. She can't move because Yujin is hugging her, so she ends up not moving at all, admiring Yujin's beauty.
A few minutes later, she also dozes off. Now the two are hugging each other as they sleep, Yujin hugging Wonyoung on purpose while Wonyoung hugs Yujin subconciously.
———
Sakura clicks away on her computer, looking for any place suspicious of Oneirium activities. She can't get Wonyoung's sad face out of her head. She feels bad for the kid, so she's trying her best to look for the Maxibloom. If it's still alive, that is.
———
yeah that was a sad chapter i think... and yes i picked oh nari (yena's character from her web drama 'world of my 17') as the bully, just imagine it as someone with a different face 😁
thank you for reading and voting!