i am severely underequipped for this prompt but whatever
At ten, Chaewon swings her legs off the ledge of their stone fence. She swirls a gust of air, then another, until two tiny tornadoes twirl around each other in her palm. It looks like they're dancing. Gowon wishes she had someone to dance with.
Someone appears at the end of the street, an older lady with a little girl's hand clasped in hers. Chaewon lets her tornadoes dissipate. Her mom always gets angry if she accidentally lets people notice her or her windy thing. Air, Chaewon, her mother's voice scolds in her head.
Chaewon is a very good daughter but her mom's warnings stay somewhere at the back of her mind when the little girl and her mom (probably?) get closer. They're not looking at her, so she decides it's not so bad to stare this time.
Then the girl looks up, eyes impossibly, unnaturally, orange - almost amber but not quite - and staring right at her.
"You're like me," Chaewon whispers. She's never seen someone like her before but she's never been more sure of anything in her ten years of existence.
The girl grins at her and Chaewon slaps a hand over her mouth. She couldn't have heard, right? It was too far. But she's like her. Chaewon raises her hand in a tentative wave, and the girl waves back immediately.
Chaewon still has no one to dance with when they disappear down the street but the sun seems brighter, somehow.
εїз
At twelve, Chaewon meets the girl again. They're older now but it's not that much, and the amber eyes are kind of a big giveaway.
"You look a little like a wolf," Chaewon says once they've exchanged names. Hyejoo. She makes herself remember.
She hasn't seen a real wolf but looking at Hyejoo, it kind of seems fitting.
"Maybe I am a wolf!" Hyejoo proudly announces.
Chaewon laughs, a small puff of air hidden behind her palm. She has been going to a special school, one where they help people like her, people with powers. It's a little hard to find common ground with her classmates but at least Chaewon is allowed to talk to people there. Her mom also lets her take walks sometimes, as long as she doesn't stray too far from their block. It's how she ended up at the playground she used to watch from her window as a kid. It's how she found Hyejoo there, swinging off the swingset that's definitely not made for twelve-year-olds.
Hyejoo is special, and Chaewon wishes she went to her special school, too.
"You seem pretty human to me," she says aloud.
Hyejoo's nose scrunches up in disgust. "I am a wolf," she insists. On the ground behind her, a small dark cloud creeps forward. It leaves a trail of dry grass behind itself and Chaewon can't tear her eyes away. Eventually, Hyejoo follows her line of sight and the cloud immediately disappears.
Chaewon contemplates the cloud for a few seconds, then goes to sit on the swing next to Hyejoo's.
"My power is speed," Hyejoo says when Chaewon stays quiet for too long. "See?"
She jumps off the swingset, runs a lap around it so fast that had Chaewon not been looking at her, she may have missed it.
"Cool," she says. Hyejoo grins.
("Mom, can people have more than one power?" Chaewon asks at home, over dinner.
Her mom drops the fork she was holding and it clatters on the kitchen tiles. "Does anyone in your class have two powers?"
No, it's Hyejoo. "No, I was just curious...?" Chaewon trails off.
"They can," her mom says after the silence stretches far past comfortable. "But those people are dangerous and you should avoid them at all costs.")
εїз
For the first time in her twelve years of existence, Chaewon disobeys. Hyejoo does not seem dangerous, not at all. Sometimes there is dried up grasss in the park around them if they've been arguing for longer but that's fine, there is plenty of grass in the park. Hyejoo is nice.
εїз
Hyejoo stops coming to the park. Chaewon is thirteen the first time she cries for someone other than herself.
εїз
By twenty, Chaewon has graduated with honors, has sort-of-friends, a fancy, purple bodusuit with an inconvenient but pretty matching cape in the shape of butterfly wings. And, most importantly, a job: the city's newest, up-and-coming superhero.
She gets congratulatory messages from Sooyoung and Jiwoo, the sort-of-friends, once she graduates which feels nice. A part of her expected them to forget her once they graduate and it's a nice thing to be proven wrong about.
Sometimes, late at night, she still thinks about swingsets and amber eyes and dried grass.
εїз
At twenty-one, Chaewon and Hyejoo meet again.
Chaewon was summoned to fight the newest villain on the block, a fresh addition to the assortment of issues Chaewon had to deal with daily. It's fine, she tells herself. How bad can a villain called The Wolf could be?
Her eyes are amber.
She's covered in black from head to toe, a thin black strip wrapped around her eyes, the biggest villain cliché Chaewon has seen in her life so far. The stupid strip of black does a piss-poor job at concealing her face. But that might be just Chaewon.
In the end, The Wolf is too fast and Chaewon is distracted. The backup finds her tied to the door of what was a perfectly nice bank vault half an hour ago, and is currently a mere pile of broken steel. The clouds were everywhere and Chaewon could only watch, entranced, as he room around her fell apart.
"This is what dual powers do," her mom mutters when Chaewon gets discharged, voice glum. "You asked me once when you were little. This is what they always do. Destroy. We're not meant to hold so much power."
But Hyejoo was nice, mom.
Chaewon stares at her bandaged arms and keeps quiet.
εїз
She finds her. It's not all that difficult, which makes Chaewon think that Hyejoo may have wanted to be found.
"You could be one of us," Chaewon says.
Hyejoo laughs at her. "You don't believe it either, do you? Your precious order of good doesn't like unusual things." She gets closer, lifts Chaewon's chin with a pointy nail. "Careful, pretty butterfly, or you'll become unusual too."
She got taller. All the carefully constructed words fly out of Chaewon's head, replaced by this one, simple sentence. Hyejoo doesn't have the stupid mask this time - her eyes are mesmerising.
Hyejoo is mesmerising.
"But you're the villain," Chaewon says, an empty reasoning for an argument that doesn't exist.
"And you're the hero!" Hyejoo laughs. "So what? Tell me this, Chaewon," she says, stepping closer again eyes dropping to Chaewon's lips then back up. "What did they ever do for you? I can tell you what they did for me. Took my mom for hiding away a "criminal". And I could control the clounds then, too! You remember, don't you?" Chaewon thinks of the swings, doesn't reply. Hyejoo grins like she didn't need to. "They didn't see it coming and you best believe I left that fascility in ashes. You call me a villain - I'll be that, if you want. But the truth is, I just don't care for your stupid system."
Hyejoo is long gone by the time Sooyoung finds her.
"She's gone?" Sooyoung asks, frowning and out of breath. "You should've called for back-up sooner!"
Chaewon feels a pang of guilt. It's gone as soon as it appears. "I'm sorry, I thought I could handle her myself."
Sooyoung narrows her eyes. "A rookie mistake. You're not a rookie anymore, Chaewonnie."
Chaewon nods. "I'll try harder next time."
It rings empty.
εїз
What did they ever do for you?
Give her Sooyoung, again. Sooyoung is nice. But Sooyoung would've been nice in any of the other divisions, too. Chaewon is not special.
What did they ever do for you?
Chaewon is ten and swinging her legs off a stone ledge. The tornadoes are in her palms, then they're not. They're on the street and they get bigger, bigger, bigger, until they swallow her whole and take her far, far away.
What did they ever do for you?
"Brought me back to you," Chaewon says and Hyejoo laughs, tearing into her stupid, purple butterfly cape. A black cloud swallows the scraps and all that's left is the smell of burning fabric.
"Your cape was stupid," Hyejoo mutters as she watches the cloud recede into the shadows. "We'll make you a new suit. You make a pretty butterfly but the purple has to go."
"A monarch butterfly," Chaewon blurts out. She's been researching. "It's kind of amber, it will match your eyes."
no subject
At ten, Chaewon swings her legs off the ledge of their stone fence. She swirls a gust of air, then another, until two tiny tornadoes twirl around each other in her palm. It looks like they're dancing. Gowon wishes she had someone to dance with.
Someone appears at the end of the street, an older lady with a little girl's hand clasped in hers. Chaewon lets her tornadoes dissipate. Her mom always gets angry if she accidentally lets people notice her or her windy thing. Air, Chaewon, her mother's voice scolds in her head.
Chaewon is a very good daughter but her mom's warnings stay somewhere at the back of her mind when the little girl and her mom (probably?) get closer. They're not looking at her, so she decides it's not so bad to stare this time.
Then the girl looks up, eyes impossibly, unnaturally, orange - almost amber but not quite - and staring right at her.
"You're like me," Chaewon whispers. She's never seen someone like her before but she's never been more sure of anything in her ten years of existence.
The girl grins at her and Chaewon slaps a hand over her mouth. She couldn't have heard, right? It was too far. But she's like her. Chaewon raises her hand in a tentative wave, and the girl waves back immediately.
Chaewon still has no one to dance with when they disappear down the street but the sun seems brighter, somehow.
εїз
At twelve, Chaewon meets the girl again. They're older now but it's not that much, and the amber eyes are kind of a big giveaway.
"You look a little like a wolf," Chaewon says once they've exchanged names. Hyejoo. She makes herself remember.
She hasn't seen a real wolf but looking at Hyejoo, it kind of seems fitting.
"Maybe I am a wolf!" Hyejoo proudly announces.
Chaewon laughs, a small puff of air hidden behind her palm. She has been going to a special school, one where they help people like her, people with powers. It's a little hard to find common ground with her classmates but at least Chaewon is allowed to talk to people there. Her mom also lets her take walks sometimes, as long as she doesn't stray too far from their block. It's how she ended up at the playground she used to watch from her window as a kid. It's how she found Hyejoo there, swinging off the swingset that's definitely not made for twelve-year-olds.
Hyejoo is special, and Chaewon wishes she went to her special school, too.
"You seem pretty human to me," she says aloud.
Hyejoo's nose scrunches up in disgust. "I am a wolf," she insists. On the ground behind her, a small dark cloud creeps forward. It leaves a trail of dry grass behind itself and Chaewon can't tear her eyes away. Eventually, Hyejoo follows her line of sight and the cloud immediately disappears.
Chaewon contemplates the cloud for a few seconds, then goes to sit on the swing next to Hyejoo's.
"My power is speed," Hyejoo says when Chaewon stays quiet for too long. "See?"
She jumps off the swingset, runs a lap around it so fast that had Chaewon not been looking at her, she may have missed it.
"Cool," she says. Hyejoo grins.
("Mom, can people have more than one power?" Chaewon asks at home, over dinner.
Her mom drops the fork she was holding and it clatters on the kitchen tiles. "Does anyone in your class have two powers?"
No, it's Hyejoo. "No, I was just curious...?" Chaewon trails off.
"They can," her mom says after the silence stretches far past comfortable. "But those people are dangerous and you should avoid them at all costs.")
εїз
For the first time in her twelve years of existence, Chaewon disobeys. Hyejoo does not seem dangerous, not at all. Sometimes there is dried up grasss in the park around them if they've been arguing for longer but that's fine, there is plenty of grass in the park. Hyejoo is nice.
εїз
Hyejoo stops coming to the park. Chaewon is thirteen the first time she cries for someone other than herself.
εїз
By twenty, Chaewon has graduated with honors, has sort-of-friends, a fancy, purple bodusuit with an inconvenient but pretty matching cape in the shape of butterfly wings. And, most importantly, a job: the city's newest, up-and-coming superhero.
She gets congratulatory messages from Sooyoung and Jiwoo, the sort-of-friends, once she graduates which feels nice. A part of her expected them to forget her once they graduate and it's a nice thing to be proven wrong about.
Sometimes, late at night, she still thinks about swingsets and amber eyes and dried grass.
εїз
At twenty-one, Chaewon and Hyejoo meet again.
Chaewon was summoned to fight the newest villain on the block, a fresh addition to the assortment of issues Chaewon had to deal with daily. It's fine, she tells herself. How bad can a villain called The Wolf could be?
Her eyes are amber.
She's covered in black from head to toe, a thin black strip wrapped around her eyes, the biggest villain cliché Chaewon has seen in her life so far. The stupid strip of black does a piss-poor job at concealing her face. But that might be just Chaewon.
In the end, The Wolf is too fast and Chaewon is distracted. The backup finds her tied to the door of what was a perfectly nice bank vault half an hour ago, and is currently a mere pile of broken steel. The clouds were everywhere and Chaewon could only watch, entranced, as he room around her fell apart.
"This is what dual powers do," her mom mutters when Chaewon gets discharged, voice glum. "You asked me once when you were little. This is what they always do. Destroy. We're not meant to hold so much power."
But Hyejoo was nice, mom.
Chaewon stares at her bandaged arms and keeps quiet.
εїз
She finds her. It's not all that difficult, which makes Chaewon think that Hyejoo may have wanted to be found.
"You could be one of us," Chaewon says.
Hyejoo laughs at her. "You don't believe it either, do you? Your precious order of good doesn't like unusual things." She gets closer, lifts Chaewon's chin with a pointy nail. "Careful, pretty butterfly, or you'll become unusual too."
She got taller. All the carefully constructed words fly out of Chaewon's head, replaced by this one, simple sentence. Hyejoo doesn't have the stupid mask this time - her eyes are mesmerising.
Hyejoo is mesmerising.
"But you're the villain," Chaewon says, an empty reasoning for an argument that doesn't exist.
"And you're the hero!" Hyejoo laughs. "So what? Tell me this, Chaewon," she says, stepping closer again eyes dropping to Chaewon's lips then back up. "What did they ever do for you? I can tell you what they did for me. Took my mom for hiding away a "criminal". And I could control the clounds then, too! You remember, don't you?" Chaewon thinks of the swings, doesn't reply. Hyejoo grins like she didn't need to. "They didn't see it coming and you best believe I left that fascility in ashes. You call me a villain - I'll be that, if you want. But the truth is, I just don't care for your stupid system."
Hyejoo is long gone by the time Sooyoung finds her.
"She's gone?" Sooyoung asks, frowning and out of breath. "You should've called for back-up sooner!"
Chaewon feels a pang of guilt. It's gone as soon as it appears. "I'm sorry, I thought I could handle her myself."
Sooyoung narrows her eyes. "A rookie mistake. You're not a rookie anymore, Chaewonnie."
Chaewon nods. "I'll try harder next time."
It rings empty.
εїз
What did they ever do for you?
Give her Sooyoung, again. Sooyoung is nice. But Sooyoung would've been nice in any of the other divisions, too. Chaewon is not special.
What did they ever do for you?
Chaewon is ten and swinging her legs off a stone ledge. The tornadoes are in her palms, then they're not. They're on the street and they get bigger, bigger, bigger, until they swallow her whole and take her far, far away.
What did they ever do for you?
"Brought me back to you," Chaewon says and Hyejoo laughs, tearing into her stupid, purple butterfly cape. A black cloud swallows the scraps and all that's left is the smell of burning fabric.
"Your cape was stupid," Hyejoo mutters as she watches the cloud recede into the shadows. "We'll make you a new suit. You make a pretty butterfly but the purple has to go."
"A monarch butterfly," Chaewon blurts out. She's been researching. "It's kind of amber, it will match your eyes."
Hyejoo laughs again, longer, a little breathless.