Chapter Text
Saebyeol does not have friends. She's come to accept that after all the years she's lived on this Earth. She remembers her father telling her on the ride to Riverfield that this school could be a new start for her. That, although she's living on campus and will be away from him and Seho, her brother, she'd be just fine on her own.
"You're a very competent and independent girl, Saebi," her father says with a bright smile. "I know you'll make it on your own through this school. It might even be good for you, considering you're practically nocturnal anyway! So the people in your night class will talk to a less crankier version of yourself."
Even back then, she knew that her father was just saying things to get her nerves out. But she knew deep down that she wouldn't make any friends in this school. She's always gotten into fights and issues with the kids at her school whenever she tried to make friends. She was fortunate enough that her older brother was able to help her get into this school through his connections. If they knew about her history...
No matter. Because of the Decelis Academy's high reputation, she's tried her best to keep to herself. Whenever people tried to interact with her, all she would do was laugh at them before rolling her eyes and walking away. Surely, if she acted like she was better than everyone else, people would leave her alone... right?
Well, that was the case until today... when the girl she bumped into suddenly tried to start talking to her. And now she wouldn't stop bothering her.
Saebyeol originally thought nothing of the first interaction, glaring at the other and telling her to watch herself before flipping her hair behind her shoulder like she always did. But it seemed that this specific girl... couldn't take the hint of Saebyeol not wanting to interact with her. Because the girl then approached her during their English lesson... and then their science lesson... and in the hallways while she was going to the library to eat lunch.
"I didn't know that you could bring food into the library!" the cheery girl with the brown bangs said with a smile. Now that she's looked at this girl's face up close for... more than once in a day, she's beginning to recognize her. She remembers hearing everyone chatter about her a few weeks ago when she first came here... something about her being new... and also getting really friendly with the popular boys. Is this the same girl? Why is she bothering to talk to Saebyeol of all people?
"Well, yeah. They don't let anyone bring in food to the library. But the librarian and I got into arguments over me bringing in food and telling her that I wasn't going to listen to her because she'd be on her knees for me one day." She bites a piece of the salad with her fork from her lunch tray. "I wouldn't dare get crumbs in the library anyway. I'm a lady, and ladies eat properly."
"Oh, I see!" she says with a smile and takes the seat in front of her. "Do you usually eat in here by yourself?"
"Why is it any of your business what I do and what I don't during my lunch period?" she rolls her eyes.
The girl gives a pout, as though she looks like a kicked puppy, and it does make Saebyeol feel some remorse. "I just wanted to know... You seem lonely walking around school by yourself."
This girl seems to be very naive and sweet... surely, people would take advantage of such kindness. She almost pities her for that... Why is she even worrying about her? This girl has nothing to do with her!
"I don't need your pity, girl," she huffs before taking another bite of her food. "The only reason why I am left on my own is because no one is WORTHY of my attention, do you understand? This academy might have the most intelligent and most prestigious students, but they do not even COMPARE to me!"
"My name's not girl, it's Sooha," the girl in front of her scrunches her nose. "And surely, you must feel a little bit lonely with no friends here. I remember on my first day of school, I was just excited to meet people who wouldn't treat me differently compared to the people in my hometown."
Sooha... the name is starting to sound familiar now. Now and then, she hears the name being thrown around. Clearly, this transfer student is well-known by their peers here. She respects her for that... but only that for now.
"Well, I'm not like you, Miss Sooha," she says in a mocking tone. "I'm much more upper-class compared to you. You may be new to the city of Riverfield and what goes on around here, but you should know not to even bother trying to interact with me because you aren't on my level!"
"Well, to correct you, I'm not new," Sooha starts with a small smirk. "I've been here for about a month already, and I know enough people who were able to tell me about you, Miss Saebyeol. And I'd like to think that you and I are more similar than you think."
Saebyeol scoffs. This girl MUST be joking. "You know my name. Impressive. But I don't think you can tell me that you and I are alike." Saebyeol pulls her tray towards herself, as though she were moving away from the table she decided to make herself comfortable at. "You know nothing about me. Nothing about my story. I've made sure to become someone much more refined than I was in the past. So, what image do you have in your head that makes me think you can be my friend? Save yourself the effort and get rid of it. Just listen to everyone else who calls me a snobby bitch and avoid talking to me."
And when she took her tray and walked away from that specific table to go all the way to her dorm room to eat by herself, she thought that was it.
But then Sooha bothered her again the next day, calling out her name to try and get her attention. But no matter what, Saebyeol walked by her as though she did not exist. Even during physical education class, when Sooha was trying to run at Saebyeol's pace, Saebyeol would purposely speed up but then run out of stamina... making Sooha catch up to her again! So she had to slow down at some points so that Sooha's other friends could run up and distract her from trying to talk to Saebyeol so much. The girl even tried to say hi to her when Saebyeol passed by her locker, only for the blonde girl to walk by without even batting an eye.
She seriously couldn't understand... why couldn't this girl take a hint?!
"She's seriously so annoying, Seho. I don't understand why she wants to be my friend so badly. Surely she's heard from everyone that I'm not a good person or that I prefer to be alone," she complains to her brother on her phone. It was a stupid rule, in her opinion, for Decelis Academy students not to bring their phones to class. But thankfully, she didn't really have much of a social life to begin with... so perhaps it never mattered at all.
"She can't be that bad, Saebi. It sounds like, if anything, she really wants to be your friend," the boy with brown hair and hazel eyes said. Compared to Saebyeol with her much paler complexion, blond and lilac hair, and gray eyes, it's no surprise that everyone does not see the two as siblings. Especially moreso when they see her father... Regardless, she still trusts the older boy with her life. He's her only friend in this cruel world. "Why don't you give her a chance? Dad told you that Decelis could be a new start for you. We're even further away from Mom, so it's not like she'll get to you again."
"I know that, stupid. Do you think I believe the lady will find a way to stick attack me?" Saebyeol scoffs at her brother. "I know that the doctors and security guards are making sure she doesn't leave."
"Then why are you scared of making another friend?"
"I'm not afraid of making friends, oppa. I genuinely think this girl is annoying!" She glares at the phone. "Do you really think I am that weak that I would worry about something like that? I'm more capable than you think I am."
"I just don't think you deserve to live the rest of your life on your own. "It'd be unfair to you and the people that you care about."
"Oh my god, you're the most irritating person in the world," She rolled her eyes. "I'm going to dial off on you. I don't have the motivation to keep on talking to you about this."
"But you understand too, don't you?" he asks her. "You know that being alone will only get you so far. And regardless of how you view yourself, you don't deserve to punish yourself for existing in other people's lives."
She groans. "You are the most annoying older brother in the world."
"If that's how you want to see me caring about you, then whatever floats your boat." He sighs and shakes his head. "Get back to your homework. It'll only be a matter of time before the morning classes come and you have to go to bed."
"And where are you going to go? To your business job in the office?" Saebyeol snickers. "Wow! Look at my big brother going to his prestigious job!"
"Just get to doing your work before the sun comes up, please." He rolls his eyes. "Or when the sun goes down. I don't know. You're the type to pull an all-nighter."
"Ugh! No, I'd never! I don't want there to be dark circles underneath my eyes!" she squeals.
"Then get to work, Missy!"
And just like that, the phone clicks off, and she stares at nothing but his contact name, and she grumbles. "Tch..." she says before putting her phone to the side of her desk, looking back at the workbook that she had in front of her. But before she could even get to writing, she heard a knock on the door.
At least, she THINKS she heard a knock on the door. There were times where she'd hear a noise and then look back or look out to see that nothing was there. Granted, with her power of clairvoyance, such trivial moments of the future could trip her up. It's like she has no choice but to see whatever will come in her future... as boring as it could be.
She turns her head back to her work, mumbling on how it could just be that power messing with her... until the knock sounds firmer this time.
Okay. This time, she was NOT having a vision.
She stands up from her chair and walks over to the door, opening it to see who it is (although she wishes her dorm room had peepholes). She wants to laugh at the irony of this situation in general. Out of all the people who would be outside her dorm room, it was the person she was complaining about minutes ago.
"Are you stalking me now? Is that how you were able to find my dorm room?" she sneers. "Wow, Sooha. You must be so obsessed with me! Truly, I'm touched!"
"Saebyeol, please," she starts, looking with a serious yet concerned face. So she's past the point of begging with a smile to be her friend. Now she's looking as though she wants to hug Saebyeol... that's not a good sign. "Listen, Saebyeol. Before I came to Decelis, I was ostracized in the many places I've moved to. I want to give you the good experience that I gained from coming to this academy! Because this is the first school with students truly accept me for who I am, but I want you to experience it too! You're special!"
"Well, I'm glad you can acknowledge that I am of a higher level than everyone else here," the blonde says with a smirk... to which Sooha rolls her eyes.
"I mean that you aren't like the other students- you and I are among the few people here that is different from everyone else!" Sooha says with an annoyed sigh.
Saebyeol's face returns to an unimpressed expression. "Oh. You just lost my interest. If you excuse me..."
She was fully expecting to close the door normally, and that being the end of their conversation, but the door didn't even get to close all the way before Sooha was able to block it. But with whatever force she was using to block the door from closing, it somehow swung quickly back to the wall it came from. While it made a loud sound that startled the girl, it thankfully didn't break the wall. Saebyeol stares back at the girl in awe over her impeccable strength, while Sooha doesn't look at all bothered.
"H-how did you do that?" she gasped, to which Sooha looked at her with a furious look.
"Cut the crap, Saebyeol. I saw your past life when staring right into your eyes in the library."
... No. Immediately when she hears her, she only blinks at her and looks baffled. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Your sixth birthday," she starts. "When you woke up in the evening to your mom with a fire poker—"
"SHHH!" Saebyeol immediately covers the girl's mouth and looks at her with wild, angry eyes. "What the hell?! Were you going to blurt it out in the middle of the hallway? What the hell?!"
Though her mouth is covered, it doesn't stop Sooha from replying to the other girl. She shakes her head, making Saebyeol furrow her brows. She looks left to see an empty hallway... then the other way to another empty hallway. She takes her hand off the other's mouth before pulling her into the room by the wrist. When the door closes, she looks back at Sooha, crossing her arms and looking at her with a stern look.
"Who are you? And how did you find that out about me?" She demands from the other.
Sooha lets out a sigh of relief. "I'm just grateful that you're FINALLY getting into a conversation with me that you're interested in."
"Uh, yeah, asshole. You almost told this whole school about the most traumatic part of my life!" she grumbles. "How did you do that? Did someone tell you?"
"No, someone didn't tell me. I don't think anyone else knows," Sooha says calmly, as though it was a way to reassure the other. "I meant it when I said you and I are similar. We have powers! And I saw that when looking into your past, you also have clairvoyancy!"
Holy shit. This was stressing Saebyeol the hell out. She covers her face with her hands as she groans in them before dragging her palms up to have her fingers run through her hair. This girl, who's NEVER interacted with Saebyeol until today, can recount a big event that she tried to keep private about... telling her she ALSO has superpowers?!
"So... you're a freak who has super strength and ALSO clairvoyancy, I'm assuming? And you have retrocognition at that?" Saebyeol asks, looking at Sooha’s expression carefully when she said that.
"Well, it seems that you have precognition AND retrocognition, so you seem to have a better grasp on the power than I do," she says with a little smile, as though teasing happily. "You seem pretty powerful, Saebyeol." She tilts her head. "How do you do it? Do you stare at someone's eyes and just know? That's how I sometimes do it... or if I'm just near them, I know."
How can this girl talk so freely about their powers? It doesn't make any sense! This whole situation feels so absurd! Is this real? It does not feel real in the slightest! "Wh-hey! You aren't answering my question, you freak! "she shrieks. "How do you know this much about me? Why are you saying this to me?"
"Well... demonstrate your powers and you'll learn a bit of information!" she says with an expectant look.
Saebyeol groans, and she huffs. "Are you usually this annoying? Is this how you set up first impressions?"
She laughs and shrugs her shoulders. "I think I'm just influenced by my best friends at this school." Wow. She's flexing how loved and popular she is. That doesn't make Saebyeol wanna roll her eyes at all. But as she suggested, she goes up to the other and grabs her hand to hold it.
"Look at me," she orders a bit hesitantly. It's not often that she... performs this power for other people. She can't really name a single person who knew about her power besides her family. Her father and her brother helped her move to another country so that she could live her life in peace with no other family bothering her... So this girl, being the first one to ask her about it, let alone KNOW about it within the first day.
As instructed, Sooha looks into her eyes, and the moment she sees the pink orbs, she sees more than she signed herself up for. As though it were a quick sequence of scenes, including a more ethereal version of the girl she had just met. She sees the "princess" version of this girl with seven men... before she sees her dying in the arms of one of them.
When she thinks it's over, she sees another flash of scenes of Sooha in the familiar uniform, lying on what looks like a large version of an altar. The seven boys appear again, wielding powers instead of their own weapons like they did before. Sooha's hair is ash white, a blonde boy with a menacing expression on his face, hovering over her weak and unconscious body. She sees fire, wolves, blood, lightning... and a kiss that brings the girl to life.
She pulls away, gasping from the overwhelming vision that she had seen play out in front of her eyes. She stares wide-eyed at Sooha as she pants, who stares at her apologetically. "I know it's a lot. Are you okay?"
"That's your life?!" Saebyeol shouts, looking at her as though she were crazy.
"The important parts of it, anyway," she answers with a shrug. "You didn't even see Dardan, so I'm relieved that it only showed the people who mean the most to me in my life right now."
She frowns. "So... what? Are you like some reincarnated goddess or something?" she asks, walking over to her bed to finally sit on it. She didn't feel any exhaustion when she was working on her homework earlier, but oh boy did she feel it kick in after she essentially experienced this girl's... existence within the span of a minute. "And when you met with... the popular boys of Decelis, they helped you awaken your true potential?"
"Just a bit of it. Not the whole potential," she answers with a sheepish laugh and a shrug. "But yes. Back in my past life, I was the vampire princess Selen. And I sent the seven boys into the future, but it wasn't until this specific time that we finally reunited. So it took about... a century, basically."
"And you're saying I'm more powerful than you?" she asks, looking... astonished, really. Was this girl just really humble? She knew that her life took a drastic month a month into the school, but still... she was a GODDESS, essentially!
"Oh no. I don't deny that I have a bit of an advantage compared to you," she answers. "And that's not just from bragging. That's from observation. What I'm saying is... You seem to have a more... developed ability of clairvoyance, where you can see into someone's past and future. You're able to regain all sorts of information about a person quickly, even if you've just met them! That's a pretty cool power!" She then has a pout on her face... as though she was displaying a look of pity. "But I can imagine it wasn't so easy because..."
"Don't pity me for what happened in my past if you were not involved." Saebyeol crosses her arms and looks away. "Just because you saw that one scene of me and my mother doesn't mean you were there. You don't know the situation or how I felt."
"But you can trust me," Sooha says with a more reassuring look on her face. "I know... You didn't enjoy me looking into your past."
"Yeah, I didn't! You at least permitted me to look into yours. You just looked into mine without even asking me!" She shouts at the other.
"It was an accident, but it made me see a part of you that I assumed you didn't show to others!" Sooha retorts, matching Saebyeol's volume. "You come off as someone who doesn't really regard the people around her, but that's not the truth. You were hurt at such a young age... and..."
Saebyeol stares into the other's eyes from afar, thinking to herself that she wants the other girl to be quiet. Among the abilities that Saebyeol has, one of them is also manipulation. She did not like using this one as much, as it made her feel... invasive to other people's actions. She didn't enjoy playing puppeteer... unless it was to silence people.
Sooha sighs, as a sign that whatever the girl did to her worked, and she was aware of it as well. "Please, Saebyeol," she says instead. "I may not know your intentions. I may not even know your heart and all of what you've gone through, but I see a girl who could use a friend." There's a small smile on her lips. "I'm not exactly a normal girl. Before I got here, people considered me to be a freak. They thought I murdered a boy because of my presence and also because of my powers. And until I got to this school and met my friends, I was convinced that there was something wrong with me. But I've learned more about myself through those special people, and even before then, they made me feel loved and appreciated because I had my powers. You deserve to have that sort of experience with others, too."
The way Sooha phrased it made her think of two things. On one hand, it's obvious why those specific boys were so welcoming and accommodating to her. They most likely had a special connection to her. She was a nice girl who came off as more polite... they were able to warm up to her within a day. Saebyeol's been at Decelis Academy since the start of the school year, just two or three months before Sooha, and no one wanted to reach out to her. No one even cared to befriend her... because she was afraid.
That's where the other hand comes in. With how she spoke so sincerely, Saebyeol is inclined to believe that Sooha understood her struggles growing up as a supernatural in a mortal world. Perhaps they weren't the same. Saebyeol doubts that Sooha's parents hated her to the point of wanting to get rid of her, but she understands the vulnerability of the situation. Sooha knew that Saebyeol, growing up, valued her existence less than others because of how other people treated her.
Her brother's and father's words echo in her brain. This could be a new start for the girl. She could put some space between this girl and herself? So that she doesn't get her trust broken, and she doesn't think of it as another reason why she shouldn't exist.
She lets out a sigh. "You are so stubborn. You can't take no for an answer at all." Saebyeol crosses her arms across her chest and then looks over at Sooha. "But... you were a princess in your past life. Hell, you even have boys following your every order. I might benefit from having you in my life."
Sooha looks at her, confused, before a look of excitement. "Does this mean you'll let me be your friend?"
"I'd like to think of it as me being an observer while you being my test subject," she quickly says, her face heating up. "I don't have friends. But if it makes you happier to put that label on me, knock yourself out."
"Oh, Saebyeol!" The brunette girl jumps excitedly, walking over to the other's bed with her arms spread open. "Thank you, thank you-"
The girl quickly dodges her, watching the other hug thin air and snorting to herself. "I have a few ground rules when it comes to interacting with me, though. No hugs. Not because I'm afraid of what you're capable of. I don't like hugs. It's gross and cheesy. Second, if you tell anyone about my history or whatever prediction you have on my psyche, consider this agreement over. Understand?"
Sooha stands up straight and nods eagerly, showing that she understood all of what the other said. "Anything else?" she asks, curious.
Saebyeol purses her lips in thought before shaking her head. "Just... don't be embarrassingly affectionate. Okay?"
Sooha laughs and nods her head before holding her hand out to offer the other's to shake. And, without hesitation, the other shakes her hand firmly before letting go.
And just like that, Saebyeol gained her first friend.