5 years ago...
"Oppa, I'm home!" A young girl's voice announces as she enters her home after a long day at school. A couple seconds pass, but no response comes much to the girl's confusion. The house was empty, the only sign of human presence being a half empty bottle of sprite left on the dining table. The girl takes out her phone to call her brother only for the contact information of her father to flash on her screen first.
"Appa, what is it?" She asks after accepting the call.
"Eunbi..." He begins to say in a broken tone that she had never heard from her father before.
"It's your brother...there was an accident..." At those words, Eunbi freezes, the color draining out of her face.
"Appa, where are you right now?"
"At the hospital, but Eunbi, you shou-" Her father wanted to tell her to stay at the house, but Eunbi cut him off.
"I'm on the way." The college student leaves her bag behind and runs off to the hospital. She ran as fast as she could, but by the time she arrived...it was already too late.
~~~~
Present day...
It was another busy day at PD campus. Some students were working in the library for classes, some were practicing their abilities in the training rooms, and others were simply eating at the cafeteria.
Meanwhile, in one of the offices in the admin building, Kwon Eunbi was quietly typing away on a computer.
"Operation: Cat and Mouse..." She mumbles to herself as she labels a file and drags it to a folder labeled 'Secret Files'.
"You done with the report?" A new voice suddenly asks, which causes Eunbi to jump in her seat in surprise. "Woah there, unnie. It's just me." The woman says with a laugh.
"Oh, sorry about that, Hyewon. There's just been-" Eunbi begins to say before her girlfriend interjects.
"-a lot going on. Yes, I know." The older girl reclines in her seat, letting out a loud sigh. Once Seunggi named her as a point person for restructuring the campus' educational system, her workload increased drastically. She loved what she was doing, but juggling that with being the leader of IZ*ONE did make it a bit draining at times.
"I brought some ramen, to get your energy back up." Hyewon says after a couple seconds of silence, taking out and showing a plastic bag she'd been hiding behind her back. Eunbi smiles, turning off her computer before walking up to Hyewon and giving her a peck on the lips.
~~~~
"So, that report you were writing up, it was for Sakura's incident, right?" Hyewon asks while mixing the contents of her ramen bowl.
"Yeahp, it's still not completely closed though because we don't know what happened to Seoyoung's memory." Eunbi replies frustratedly. They were so close to finding this new big bad guy, and now their only link was gone.
"Are you sure it wasn't a microchip? Maybe it could be some new form of hypnosis gas." The younger girl suggests, but Eunbi only shakes her head.
"Sakura ran a tech scan on her and couldn't sense anything. As for the gas theory, we ran a test with Kazuha to see if we could get a match on any properties from the ones from Busan, but that was negative too. We don't have any leads..." Hyewon tried to think of another explanation, but she was drawing blanks too. People didn't just suddenly lose their memories.
"Why can't people just learn to coexist with mutants? Instead, they have to create weapons or take control over them to try and deepen the divide. If they just spent a couple minutes trying to get to know you girls like I did, they'd see that mutants aren't the bad guys here."
"Unnie, I'm a mutant, and even i can see why some people are still wary. People like that guy, Hunter Geun, amassed their following by harnessing everyone's fear. I may have control over my powers now, but there was a time I didn't and hurt others." Hyewon replies, sensing her girlfriend getting worked up.
"I'm not saying they're right. I'm just saying it's not a view people can just change overnight. Not everyone can have a heart of gold like you." She then teases, pinching the older girl's cheek affectionately.
"Heh, well it helps if you've been around mutants your whole life." Eunbi says which piques Hyewon's interest.
"What do you mean 'your whole life'? You've only known us for a little over a year." Eunbi quiets at the question, contemplating if she should say more.
"If it's something personal, it's okay. You don't have to tell me." Hyewon says reassuringly.
"No, it's fine. I think it's time to tell you the reason I've fought for mutant rights so hard." The older girl begins to say.
"You see, my brother...was a mutant too."
—------
Growing up, Eunbi had always thought it was cool that her brother had powers. Whenever she would get in trouble, he'd swoop in like a superhero and save her, and the way he did it had variety. His abilities were elemental, but based on the weather. When it rained, he could control the water droplets like Yujin did with other liquids. When it was hot, he could harness the heat to cook their food or start a fire. When it snowed, he could create the biggest snowballs. Eunbi didn't have any powers herself, but for her, it was enough that her brother did.
It wasn't until they both started growing up where Eunbi began to see how these abilities could also be a curse. Her brother, who was a grade ahead of her, would get targeted by the bullies in school. They'd tease and take advantage of him knowing that if he ever retaliated, he'd be sent to a mutant rehabilitation center.
"Don't worry about me, Eunbi. I can take care of myself." He had told her when she tried to fight on his behalf.
"It's not fair, oppa! They wouldn't be doing this to you if you fought back. Just freeze one or burn their clothes off to teach them a lesson!" She replied angrily.
"I can't. That isn't the right thing to do, and I hope you know that. Give it time. I'm sure they'll come around." He said, though Eunbi could see through his smile. There was a lot of pain he was hiding that the younger girl couldn't alleviate, which only made Eunbi feel guiltier.
The discrimination reached its peak around five years ago when the two were now in college. At this point, their parents had advised their son to hide his powers since they were going to a place where not a lot of people knew them, but that only delayed the inevitable. Once the rumors began to spread, they were impossible to stop. The stares and whispers he'd feel directed at him followed him until the day he unfortunately passed away.
Eunbi remembered that day like the back of her hand. Her brother had told her that he'd stay home for the day to catch up on assignments, which she didn't think was that farfetched. When she came home in the afternoon though, he was gone. Shortly after, she received a call from her father that said her brother had gotten into an accident. He'd gotten into a fight with a group of anti-mutant protesters and was blindsided by a man who knocked him out with a metal bat. They tried to hide him in a meat-locker, but the owner of the place found out and reported it. By the time Eunbi arrived at the hospital, he had already passed on.
Eunbi was left scarred and devastated from that day. She couldn't believe people could be so heartless. It was because of this that from that day forward, Eunbi committed herself to mutant rights. She didn't want to live in a world knowing that there were people like her brother who suffered for something they couldn't control. It was this purpose that motivated her to keep going, trying to turn around the lives of mutants who thought they were just monsters.
—------
"Aaand...that's what led me to the PD Campus. You already know the rest. After meeting you all, I'm even more sure than I was before that this is a cause worth fighting for." Eunbi says. Hyewon had been listening intently the whole time, and the more she heard, the stronger an itch at the back of her mind became.
"Your brother, what was his name?" She asks.
"Kwon Eunsang." Hyewon tries to think of a time where she heard that name, but couldn't think of anyone.
"Maybe I'm just imagining things." She thinks to herself.
"Well, I'm sure he's proud of the wonderful woman you've become today. I wish I could've had the chance to meet him." Hyewon then says.
"Thanks, Hyewon. That's something I needed to get off my chest. I still miss him today, but I hope the work I'm doing will carry on his legacy." Eunbi replies with a melancholic smile.
"You're doing that and so much more. Now eat your ramen. It's getting cold." The younger girl says before digging into her meal as well.
~~~~
The two ate and talked for around half an hour. There was always a comfortable vibe they shared where they could converse about anything from what clothes they should wear on their next date to whining about the latest antics of their younger teammates.
"Yujin and Chaewon have grown a lot. I can see their leadership style in you." Hyewon comments, slurping the last bit of her soup.
"I can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing." Eunbi replies with a joking laugh.
"You underestimate yourself too much, unnie. The others look up to you so much, especially Chaewon."
"I know. It just makes me feel a bit old sometimes seeing them run around with their team members. I was talking to Leeseo one time, and she told me she was born the year after BigBang debuted."
"Okay, that just made me feel old too." Hyewon chuckles.
After a few more shared stories, the couple decided it was about time to clean up and get back to work. Unfortunately, like fate always has it, the telephone in the office begins to ring. Eunbi stares at it, really not wanting to answer it, but the look on Hyewon's face reminded her of her duties as an IZ*ONE member.
"Hello?" She asks after picking up the phone.
"Is this the PD campus? This is Hwang Jinseon of the Seoul Police department, and I'm calling to ask for some assistance." Eunbi had heard of the officer's name before. Yuri and Yena had mentioned him in the past.
"Uh, what kind of assistance? We can be over in maybe an hour." She replies.
"It's about a case where we think a mutant is involved. Come over as soon as you can." Officer Hwang says before hanging up.
"Who was it?" Hyewon asks curiously to which the older girl responds with another question.
"You're free the rest of the day, right?" When she nods, Eunbi continues saying,
"Alright. The police department asked for some help. Everyone else is busy with schedules and training, so I think we should stretch our legs and go on a mission for once."
~~~~
When the couple arrived at the station, they were greeted by a middle-aged man with well-kept hair. He simply bows without a smile and leads them to a meeting room.
"So, who's the baddie?" Eunbi asks, looking around the room that was filled with whiteboards detailing a case.
"We don't know yet exactly. Over the past week, we've been getting reports from tech-firms and computer shops about technology being stolen. Yesterday afternoon, we had a stakeout and managed to catch one of the robbers. When we brought him in for questioning though, he couldn't remember who he was or where he came from. The reason we called you is because this morning, we had another case. Bandits raided a store, we captured one, but he suddenly loses his memories. Do you know any mutants that can have the abilities to do something like that?" He asks. This information causes both girls to think back to the mutant list Sakura had made recently that was stolen. What bothered Hyewon though was that the itch at the back of her head from earlier had come back and was becoming more annoying.
"No, not ringing any bells." Eunbi replies.
"Well, in any case, we need to apprehend whoever this is so we can get to the bottom of these robberies." Officer Hwang summarizes.
"I guess that means we're going to go on the next stakeout?" Hyewon surmises.
"Mhm, we'd appreciate the help. You two are certainly easier to communicate with than your other friends who love to give me paperwork." He says in a sarcastic tone before briefing the couple on all the facts of the case.
A/N: Helloo and welcome to the first chapter of the KangBi chapter! Finally delving into the past of Eunbi and her motivations of wanting to help mutants. For clarification, siblings aren't guaranteed to have powers. Same case as Sungmin and Yena.
This will be the final short story for this book before moving on to Project IZ*ONE III, so hope y'all are excited for that!
Thanks for all the love and support! This story just crossed 1k views and I'm extremely grateful.
Don't be shy to comment any questions, reactions, etc.! I'll see y'all in the next one!