Still sitting down and completely lost, Seungho squeezed the soap harder. Holding onto it as if it had answers for him.
This is unfair.
He bent his torso to place his elbows on his knees and hold his head. He couldn't breathe. His head was spinning and he needed to stabilize it.
Why do I always miss how things work? Why things I want always slip away like this?
He kept asking himself questions that didn't lead anywhere. Tears began welling up.
Something inside of him began to rise, something familiar that he had known for a long time.
He stood up, dropping the soap to the floor.
The brainfog returned silently, enveloping him, numbing him down.
Seeking any kind of comfort, he opened his screen again to search for Minjun's stats.
.
[ NAME: Kwak Minjun ]
[ AURA: 5 ]
[ IDOL RANK: E | COMBAT HUNTER RANK: C ]
[ TEAM : BEAR TEAM ]
[ B-CLASS ]
[ WEAPON: CLAW STRIKE ]
.
And that made things worse.
Minjun has been assigned a weapon. He was the first one in their year to be assigned one. That made Seungho feel smaller, and a bigger gap with Minjun. He was falling behind by the minute.
But he also remembered the promise he had made himself not long ago. The day he went to the ex-hunter fights and incidentally became a hunter.
To change his life. That the only way to improve his situation was to act differently, to break his old cemented patterns. So if now he felt desperate, he should change that by shaking it off. Instead of sitting down, he should act. Instead of wanting to cry, he should choose meaningfully.
What was he going to do next?
Yes.
He dried himself quickly, and got dressed.
I know who to ask for help.
He was thinking of Sanghyun. They shared a bond. When he had told Seungho to picture the strike, clearly, he wanted to help. But Seungho hadn't understood, not at the time.
I took the easy route and stopped listening. I should have tried harder. Now I am.
He needed to learn at least the meaning behind the technique.
Yes, that must be the reason I am not advancing. That I am falling behind.
He headed for the training rooms, where everyone was busy getting ready for next week's official performances.
Everyone on the same schedule.
Although the Duke had strictly prohibited him from joining the training, even entering the rooms. She said nothing about hanging outside the training rooms. He wandered corridors in attempting to get a glimpse of Sanghyun.
Unfortunately schedules were not made public to trainees and he didn't know where he usually trained. So he had to find another way to find him quickly.
Seungho was lucky, he spotted Sanghyun right outside one of the rooms at the very end of the main corridor. He was gesturing an explanation to someone else, a trainee. He was precise going over every detail to make the trainee see how every detail, even minor, actually mattered in hitting the opponent.
Then Seungho noticed the trainee was wearing a red tracksuit. He had been so focused on Sanghyun he hadn't occurred to him to really see who he was talking to. That color tracksuit...was the same as Minjun's.
Sanghyun didn't take not of Seungho waiting a little afar. But Jaeha did and appeared right next to Seungho using his stealth tricks.
"What are you watching? Or should I say who?"
Seungho didn't jump or react to his sudden appearance.
"I just wanted to ask a question."
Jaeha got closer to Seungho's ear, looking in the same direction.
"Why to Park Sanghyun-trainer? If you have a specific question on how to use your powers or about training in general you should ask to Cha-trainer-nim instead. I bet he will get offended if he knew you would rather ask another trainer. He is top-notch, you know...Cha-trainer-nim, I mean."
"I know, but this is different?"
"How?"
If I tell Jaeha-sunbae now about the bond with Sanghyun-ssi, he will keep asking questions....
"Plus, why would you ask him? I thought you were not in good terms with Minjun-ssi, so are you sure?"
"What do you mean?"
"Isn't it obvious? He trains Minjun-ssi, and Minjun-ssi is now candidate to become the superstar of your class… with the weapon and all."
Seungho squeezed his fists tight without taking his eyes off Sanghyun. He needed to think quick on what to do, if he wanted Sanghyun to help him.
Jaeha observed Seungho closely, the rhythm of his breaths and the way his forehead was getting wet with sweat.
"What is most surprising is just what a great trainer he is. Isn't he? Within a few days of his arrival...it is not only Minjun-ssi, most of his team has been getting visibly better, more skilled, like in a crazy way. I wonder why we, the Duke, didn't get him…"
As Jaeha was talking, Seungho abruptly greeted him and left.
***
Seungho walked the same corridor back to the main hall, where his team was training in the main gym. And he didn't know what to do. He put his hands in the pockets of his sweater all zipped up to the top, covering his mouth. He stood there thinking for a while, unable to focus on anything.
People were hurrying around him to get back to training. Doors were bolted again. Seungho was the only one left outside.
The windows were again obfuscated, he couldn't watch the performance of his team. He felt lonely.
He walked closely to the wall and put his hands on like he had done earlier in the week. This time was different though. The surface was smooth but also soft, squishy. He pushed in a little as if it were slime. The wall was inviting him in. He closed his eyes and focused.
Energy began to flow between the wall and Seungho.
From the dark, the landscape began to take shape. A thick wide forest, then a mountain chain, a valley, and then a sea.
Monsters began to appear far away into the horizon. First a flying monster, shiny and too far to tell what it was.
Then the Apelox again. Closer than the other monster, Seungho could distinguish its features. He wasn't sure how it could float on the water. Yet from afar it didn't possess the same menacing presence from when he fought it with Sanghyun. It moved slowly, waving from one side to the other at each step.
Another monster appeared, too far away. But Seungho felt it. It was charging, running towards him at high speed. He couldn't tell what it was, yet he could hear it. It didn't make any sense. Seungho listened closely. In its threatening growling there were words. Then he realized the monster was traveling right below the surface of the water.
It was coming for him. To destroy him.
He snapped out it. Pulled his hands off the wall, and left. Seungho still had the feeling that monster will soon find him. He ran outside to take a deep breath.
***
On the other side of the walls, inside, there was non-stop noise from the performance orchestrated by Cha-trainer, the Duke and Lee Jinseo, the new choreographer.
The team was divided into three groups, to attack each other in order to showcase each individual hunter's abilities. It was a performance for the human public after all. Spectacle. And the Duke knew how to deliver it.
The Duke held her strikes to allow first all the members to show their strengths and diverse weapons.
Bae Ara pulled out a small hammer, made of jade wrapped in a lace ribbon. She blew on it, and its size grew many times over to reveal a phenomenally intricate structure inside. It landed on the ground upright on its handle. She had complete control over it.
With her hand on the handle she couldn't grab, it was so big. She simply pulled it down from its standing position. It hit the floor full force. The Mask underneath pulled out in the blink of an eye. His glass mask began to glow with mana. He pulled out two sword he had by his sides.
The Duke jumped up moving backwards onto an unsteady platform perfectly balancing her power and speed. Now ready to throw her strike, which only the Mask and Bae Ara were capable of avoiding. Everyone else cleared the area below.
The Duke took her double-pointed lance, ice-blue and sleek, a new one designed for the occasion. She braced it and began charging its speed.
Right then a shake. She stopped.
She felt something coming from deep within her, blurting out screaming. She heard it. The walls started shaking.
Are the walls shaking...no, are they about to scream?
That made no sense to her.
She looked around whipping her head wanting to find the source of such energy.
The walls continued shaking. She then felt a presence.
Outside the walls of this room...what could it be?
She jumped onto another platform and then again into the gallery. She stopped for a second.
Not what…who?!
She dropped the lance still in her hand. She rushed to the door, opened it. And rolled outside looking for whomever was causing the room with reinforced walls to tremble.
The hall was empty. Not a single person around.
She ran towards each corridor to see if she could at least glimpse a presence. She suddenly stopped.
It was gone. All of it.