Chapter Text
It had been a long day.
Cell 4 had trained with Juni in the morning, then they went on patrol, then they had to chase rapture dealers through the streets until the sun was setting and soon Sayeon would have her training session with Min until, finally, she would pass out in her bed.
She couldn’t complain. In fact, she felt the opposite. It was good to work hard. She could already feel both her essence control and her physical condition getting better. She chased one of the criminals through several blocks before feeling out of breath, and even though she had rewinded 3 times today, as well as used some essence in combat, she felt her reserves were still full enough to have a pretty intense sparring session.
Sayeon was getting stronger. Getting better. She still wasn’t good enough, not nearly, but she was on her way. Her efforts were paying off, and after hardly doing anything else other than working her ass off for most of her lifetime, she had developed a taste for seeing the fruits of her labour. All her blood, sweat and tears. Working hard was something that felt good and was simple to do.
…And it gave her a break from having to think.
Thinking. That was what truly tired her. Having to plan out the life or death situations that her team would no doubt eventually face, making sure that all their advantages were used to the maximum and that their weaknesses were nullified. Also, she had to plan for what happens after she gains her red tie. Her Cell will no longer be working together all the time. She will need to be ready to work with whatever Aberrants she is partnered with during her future missions.
She would need to learn which of them will be allies in her new Aberrants Corps and which of them will have to be uprooted alongside all the other weeds that plagued this place.
Sayeon needed to be ready not just for the next day, the next week or the next month, but for her entire future in the Corps. It was nothing that she hadn’t done before, she had her entire life planned out since she was 10 years old. Although, to be fair, this future was much more complex to plan compared to a career as a criminal prosecutor.
It was a tiring and stressful process. Training was much easier.
So, at this moment, she only wanted to go with the flow and leave the thinking for later. Just wash her hands, brush her teeth, take a breather and prepare for the rest of the night.
“Hey, Glasses.” Ryujin greeted her and took her place in the sink next to Sayeon.
Ryujin. She…she was probably the person Sayeon had the most trouble figuring out how to talk to. She wasn’t easy to deal with, like Iseul, who just needed a dependable leader and positive reinforcement, and neither was she like Min, who Sayeon had her suspicions about, and thus required careful probing to confirm if she was right about where he came from.
Ryujin was both simple and difficult to deal with. Sayeon always knew what to expect of her, she didn’t make a habit of hiding her intentions and if she had something in mind she would say it straight to her face. But at the same time, Sayeon had no idea what she could say to the angry girl that would make her listen. Interacting with Ryujin should be a guaranteed way to multiply whatever stress Sayeon had on any given day.
But, somehow, that was not what happened whenever she talked with the girl. For some reason that Sayeon just couldn’t understand, whenever she interacted with Ryujin she felt more…relaxed? No, that would be wrong. Interacting with her was, most of the time, an intense ordeal. But at the same time it didn’t make her tired. Rejuvenated could be a better word for it.
She couldn’t quite figure out what was the thing about Ryujin that made her feel this way, or maybe she should try to see it as something in herself that made Ryujin feel like that.
“...Hey, Baldie.” Sayeon greeted her cellmate back.
The two stood in silence afterwards. Sayeon because she was thinking about what to say, Ryujin, likely, because she did not care and didn’t want to speak.
“So…you did a good job finding that rapture user.” Sayeon finally said, wanting to observe if she would react differently to a more friendly, positive approach. “It was thanks to you that we were able to track down the sellers. To be able to detect such a weak aura, your detection skills must be quite good.”
A useful discovery. Even though Ryujin refused to use her Gift and approached violent encounters lazily, she seemed to have no trouble working as a tracker, since that took little effort. If Sayeon never convinced her to work harder on missions, at least she still could use her in a supporting role. That being said, she wouldn’t give up on trying to make Ryujin use her Gift quite yet.
“It was no big deal. I just wanted to be done with the patrol, but someone got the location of the traffickers out of the guy and we had to run around for 2 more hours…”
“Oh. Sorry for that. It just…it was our duty to do our best and apprehend the criminals.” Sayeon explained herself.
“And it didn’t hurt that we got a bunch of points for doing that, right?” The shorter girl sarcastically talked back. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter.”
Was she angry at Sayeon for that? No, it seemed more like she was just annoyed. So maybe Sayeon should apologise? Or, perhaps she should try a different approach?
“You know what, how about I get you something tomorrow? You’re almost out of cigarettes aren't you? I could get you another…”
“Could you stop with that, please? I’m not in the mood right now.” Ryujin interrupted her. She didn’t seem angry, more so tired.
And there went another attempt of communication down the drain. It almost made Sayeon want to laugh. No matter what she said or what she tried to do, Ryujin would always dislike it.
“...You really hate me, don’t you?” Sayeon sighed
It was probably for the best to just undo this entire talk. She didn’t gain anything from it and Ryujin wasn’t up for a conversation. This was completely pointless…
“No. I don’t hate you, Sayeon Lee.”
Sayeon blinked several times, processing what she heard. Did Ryujin really say that?
“Ha, ha. You know you don’t have to lie to me, right? It won’t hurt me, I already know the truth.” She responded with a weak laugh.
Ryujin just shrugged, turned around and left the bathroom while Sayeon just stood there.
Now what did she mean by that? Was that some sort of joke or prank? Or was it an attempt to be comforting?
Sayeon couldn’t tell, and Ryujin had just left.
Should she chase her? Rewind back to right after Ryujin answered? Rewind as far as she could?
Quickly, she reached the conclusion that the last idea was the one that gave her the most options, and so she reached for her essence and raised her hand.
~SNAP~
“Could you stop with that, please? I’m not in the mood right now.”
There. Now she could test her further. Ask in a different way, question what she said more fiercely…There were a hundred different ways to do this. So, Sayeon opened her mouth to speak.
…But she couldn’t. The words got stuck in her throat.
Ryujin ended her nightly routine and exited the bathroom without saying anything more.
Why couldn’t Sayeon say anything? She was a quick thinker, she had already made great plans on the fly multiple times, she had thought on multiple ones right now, and yet something in her hesitated.
Should she rewind again? No. She shouldn’t waste essence before she went training, not to mention that she wanted to try another go at questioning Min tonight. She could question Ryujin at another time.
Sayeon soon left the bathroom and made her way towards the gym.
…Why did she even care about what Ryujin meant by that?
She had said the same thing a few days before, when she was drunk. It had thoroughly surprised her back then just like it had now because it was so unlike the Ryujin she knew.
But was it really? Ryujin was an angry person, but she wasn’t truly mean, was she? She didn’t verbally abuse others with the intention of actually hurting them.
She hated Sayeon and would always insult or push her back on the day to day. However whenever she felt more tired or not fully in her own senses she would lie to spare Sayeon from getting truly emotionally hurt, because deep down she is actually a pretty considerate person. That must be it.
Sayeon would have to test a little bit more, maybe pay more attention to how Ryujin interacted with others. If she was right about this, there could be new ways to convince the girl to listen to her.
Still…Sayeon couldn’t help but feel that she was missing something. Besides being angry and possibly being nice, Ryujin was above everything a straightforward person. She didn’t seem like the type that would lie to someone else, especially if it was to comfort the feelings of someone that she hated. It didn't seem logical.
Although, Ryujin was also a very emotional person, and being nice to someone else just because you are a nice person was a more emotion driven act, rather than logical. Her emotional side could be driving herself to ignore her internal reasoning of how Sayeon was untrustworthy. Yes, when she thought about it like that it made perfect sense.
It was something that intrigued Sayeon, just how much people could ignore logical thought and basic reason due to their emotions. How weird was it that some people could be driven to not see what was right in front of them?