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Since ten years of age, Kim Yerim has known only how well the government has treated the people. Raised on propaganda in exchange for her family's freedom, she was taken in by SM Corps, where from a young age, she was experimented on, to give her the acme of human potential, both physically and mentally. Brought up to be a perfect soldier and citizen, Yeri never expected her one form of solace and sanity to come in the form of one Son Seungwan, clumsy culinary art student whose belongings were all mismatched–including her eyes.
"Yes, Yeri?" Wendy asked as darkness overtook her vision, blocking her from the book she was attempting to read.
"How'd you know that it's me and not someone else?" The girl in question asked, the pout could practically be heard in her voice. Wendy sighed; her girlfriend may have been one of the highest ranking officers at SM Corps, but that definitely did not stop her from acting like a child at home.
"It's always you. It's always been you who does that to me." Wendy said as Yeri sighed and took her hands away from her eyes, causing Wendy to wince only a little as her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. Yeri plopped down on the sofa next to Wendy and kissed her on the side of the head, near her eyes.
"Your eyes are beautiful." She said as Wendy chuckled slightly, that's what Yeri said everyday, every moment that she could find.
Wendy's eyes were…unique. One grey, the other brown. It's how she earned one of her many nicknames. Husky, when her best friend drew the connections between her eyes and the dog and it sort of just stuck with her over the years.
In a society where imperfections were unacceptable, Wendy never felt very welcome, especially when Yeri brought her to company functions and her girlfriend's superiors stared at her as if she were some kind of animal that was dragged along out of pity. Since noticing this, Yeri took every measure to let her girlfriend know that she was loved and that her eyes made her more beautiful than she already was.
"Cuddle?" Wendy asked as Yeri allowed her to lean into her side, still reading as the younger girl absentmindedly stroked her hair, drawing nonsensical patterns into her scalp as she listened to the sound of pages turning and Wendy's quiet breathing. It never mattered how cold or how hard her heart had to be while she was on the battlefield, she was nothing short of soft and gentle when she was with Wendy.
Yeri would be lying if she said she didn't like some of Wendy's friends. Especially Kim Jennie and Park Chaeyoung, her study buddies and suspected resistance members.
She saw the way that they whispered to each other while throwing her dirty glances while they did their coursework, occasionally whispering to Wendy who would look up momentarily and continue with her work. She kept silent about it until the last study session before Wendy's midterms.
"Did Jennie or Chaeyoung leave something behind?" Yeri asked, holding up a cardboard box.
"No... That's their birthday present to me. They missed it when they were on their overseas exchange program." Wendy said, taking the box from Yeri and opening it.
"A beanie?" Yeri asked when Wendy pulled out a black floppy hat from the box and pulled it onto Yeri's head, giggling when it was snugly on. With her grey hoodie, sleeping shorts and socks, you would never be able to guess that she was the one of the captains of the government's defence forces.
"You look so cute and adorable!" Wendy squealed as Yeri pouted slightly.
"I'm trained in at least twelve different types of armed and unarmed combat." Yeri said Wendy tugged it off her head and put back into the box.
"Don't care, you still look adorable no matter what you wear or do." She shrugged as she batted at Yeri's bobcut, pawing it like a kitten.
"Good work, Captain Kim, Lieutenant Park, you have the rest of the day off." The head of the defence force said to Yeri and Joy after they had completed a mission that had taken them days. Both women heaved a sigh of relief as they walked off, exhaustion having taken over their body and was currently seeping through their bones. Yeri couldn't wait to go home and see her precious Wannie, she must have been so worried...
"Captain! Lieutenant! There's a demonstration along the main street." Yeri and Joy looked at each other before taking up their arms. After all, duty calls.
When they reached the main street, they were surprised at how orderly the rebels were. It usually took less than a few minutes to disperse them but this time was different. And were those drums Yeri could hear?
At the head of the large 'contingent' was Kim Jennie and Park Chaeyoung, she had always been right about those two but she didn't know who the person standing between them was. Their hair was covered by a black beanie, their left eye was covered by an eyepatch with the crest of the resistance embroidered on it and their mouth was covered by a black cotton face mask. Why did they look so familiar?
Without wasting any time, Yeri and Joy sprang into action. Joy was able to arrest Chaeyoung, causing the crowd to fall into discord while Jennie had barely escaped as Yeri went after the masked rebel.
Finally managing to corner them, Yeri loomed threateningly over them as they shook a little and Yeri would be lying if she said she didn't mildly enjoy the look of terror in their eyes.
Just then, the beanie slipped slightly, allowing a wisp of wavy blonde to escape. Something within Yeri seemed to soften as her hands trembled and swept the hat off the person's head, causing choppily cut waves of blonde hair to come cascading down their shoulders.
Suppressing a gulp, Yeri’s hands reached for the face mask and removed it, revealing the lower half of their face. Trying to withhold her tears, she reached for the eyepatch but not before the person beat her to it, revealing the steel grey eye underneath it.
“Wannie, why?” Yeri asked, barely able to keep the heartbreak and betrayal out of her voice as her tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Unable to formulate an answer, Wendy simply ran, leaving Yeri devastated.
After Wendy had run away, many of their neighbours said that something within Yeri had broken, the bright smile and bubbly, energetic personality had disappeared and if you looked closely into her eyes, you could barely see the light left in them.
Joy became more worried for her best friend as she grew more savage and fierce, so far as to even completely destroying the training modules beyond repair, but the final straw was when Yeri signed up for the cybernetic augmentation programme.
“Yeri, are you sure about this? Your body can only take so much strain.” Joy asked as Yeri glared at her, eyes boring holes through her best friend. “Okay, okay. Note taken.” She said, raising her hands in surrender as Yeri turned away, staring wistfully out the window.
“It's our third anniversary.” Yeri whispered softly, causing Joy to put a hand on her shoulder. Shrugging it off, Yeri stood up, muttering about being late for the operation.
“Yerimmie…” Wendy said, her hand brushing over said girl's cheek as Yeri smacked her hand away, an audible crack heard.
“You… don't… get to call me that anymore…” Yeri hissed through clenched jaws, gun aimed at Wendy's forehead.
“Surely you aren't going to kill me?” Wendy asked, head tilted to the left as a cold, metal fist connected with her jaw, causing her to spit out a tooth, blood dripping from her lips.
“Name one reason why the fuck I shouldn't! You left me for four years! Do you have any idea how many times I woke up, hoping to see you asleep next to me? How many times I hoped to see you home, safe and sound? But instead, this is how we reunite.” Yeri snarled, her grip on the gun tightening, tears of betrayal, anger and a flurry of other emotions spilled from her eyes.
“Oh… Yerimmie…” Wendy said, her hand reaching up to wipe away the tears on Yeri's cheek.
“These tears aren't for you asshole.” Yeri said, slapping Wendy's hand away and swiping at her cheek. “And you know what? They warned me about you. Joy, General Nam, General Han. They all warned me about you, and I should have listened. I regret not doing so.” Yeri growled as if mentally kicking herself for being so foolish. All Wendy could do was remain silent, eyes locked on the angry cyborg.
“And you want to know the worst part? I still loved you. I still loved you more than anything, you were the only ray of sunshine in this complete ruin of an earth. The only reason why I haven't gone completely insane yet.” Yeri howled in agony as tears dripped from Wendy's eyes.
“I loved you. But now I'm going to kill you.” Yeri growled, finger on the trigger of the gun as Wendy nodded.
“Thank you, for loving me like you did, for the wonderful times I had with you.” She said as the sound of a gunshot filled the air and Son Seungwan’s two toned eyes fluttered shut and she moved no more.