HELLHOUND.

( ... )

“damn. that sounds, just. damn. who’s got the demon physio, i’m gonna start, like, staying away.” she takes a mental note of what the older girl says, nodding. she’s well aware of her many weak spots, and even if she’s working on them ( see: training with jiyul, lotus training, her own personal practice, just about as much time as she can afford whenever ) she’s still very much exposed, and she knows it’ll only be worse in the watch. it’s unlucky that her ability’s not quite well-developed enough for proper combat, but she’s working on it. she hopes it’ll be enough when she actually applies, but for now – “the monster hunt was tough, though. shit, i’m gonna haf’ta like, up my game this time. damn it.” she takes another sip of her coffee, then runs her tongue along her bottom lip. she tries her luck. “d’you have tips?”

personally, she has no qualms with killing the creatures. it’s for the better good. it’s better to get rid of them before they touch ground rather than just waiting for some damage to be done and fighting them then. she doesn’t really see them as animals, unlike what katie said. she considers them to be lesser than animals. so she only shrugs at her roommate.

“better safe than sorry, y’know?”

there’s a soft voice in her head bugging her about katie’s parents. they seem pretty involved in the whole monsters thing, perhaps their involvement is much more deeper than just researching the creatures - no, there’s no way they’re involved like that. they’re just a pair of renowned monster scientists, that’s all.

“uh, fuck - i forgot his name. the anthropology professor that always wears those funky ties.” she laughs a little and takes a sip from her coffee. “it was your first year anyway.” when she asks for tips, yujin purses her lips and thinks for a short while. she fucking sucks at giving advice, but she’s gonna try anyway. “i mean, developing your power’s already a given, and so is training. but maybe find someone whose power conflicts with yours? also for the guys,” there’s a cheeky smile on her face now. “just hit ‘em where it hurts the most.”

( ... )

she takes a drink of her coffee, then leans her head against her palm. “the watch sounds exciting as hell,” she says, grinning. “i kinda wanna join, y’know? the application process looked killer, though.” katie bunches her lips to the side, in mock thought. “what’d you think of it?”

yujin nods, taking a sip from her mug. she can tell that the girl is a little disappointed by her lack of input. it’s not that she doesn’t want to tell her, she just doesn’t have much to say yet. she imagines her roommate would be a lot more appreciative after her first mission. the word ‘mission’ still feels weird to say, let alone think. she is just a university student after all.

“hopefully, it is.” she laughs. “it’d really suck shit if it turns out we’re really just gonna end up fighting the fish things from summer camp and all those simulations were just fake.” it’s not that she’s doubtful of the programme, but seeing those monsters is almost unbelievable to her. almost. she’s always been aware of the existence of the monsters, more so since attending gumi, but she still has no clue how they came about to be.

freaks of nature, some lab experiment gone horribly wrong, she hasn’t got the slightest clue.

at the mention of the training she did to make it into the team, she lets out a groan, running her fingers through her hair. “so y’know how they pick you from your track record in the monster hunt, right? i thought it was just gonna be like that. fight a bunch of smaller monsters for a while, go to the gym more often, maybe strategise. but geez, was it a pain in the ass... like the stuff with the coast guard wasn’t too big of a deal, but the bootcamp, god.” she takes a drink, then starts to lazily gesticulate as she complains about the training. 

( ... )

“i’m going to a party this friday.” the hellion announces casually, fingers tracing over the curved edge of her phone. “you wanna come with?” as a date. by now, danbi figures she didn’t need to clarify the rest. just as sure as she is that yujin’s answer wouldn’t be the one she’s hoping for.

“or should i just ask someone else?”

sometimes yujin wonders when danbi will give up and leave, but the girl is just as stubborn as she is. personally, if she was in danbi’s position, no matter how stubborn she is, she couldn’t be patient enough to deal with this. so she has to commend the other for her patience, even if she’s the one testing it.

hell, someone could walk in on them making out in a broom closet and yujin still would still say she isn’t interested in danbi.

she’s working on it.

“wrong. i made him cry, not almost cry.” she points out, chewing on her bottom lip as she highlights something from her textbook, which honestly isn’t the most helpful, but it’s great at making her feel like she knows what she’s doing. and she does - she’s just scatterbrained as usual.

she lets danbi’s question sit unanswered for a moment, distracted by both her assignments and the thoughts in her head about the possible situations that could happen as a result of saying yes or no. unfortunately, she’s very familiar with the latter. she says no, danbi goes with someone else that proceeds to make their mark on yujin’s shitlist for something that could’ve been avoided if she had just said yes. rinse and repeat.

now is the time to change their routine.

( ... )

“ home sweet home. ” 

fingers dive to reach for his phone, pulling up google. “ what do you want for dinner ? i’ll pay so don’t worry. ”

yujin nods at the offer of dinner, cracking the ache out of her neck from peering down at web samples for the past few hours. as much as she would love to head back to the legacy house and just pass out on her bed, she’d rather get some helpful insight before they start running around in circles again. “dinner and coffee would be great.” she follows him to the office. “i feel like i’m ‘bout to start snacking on the fucking webs anytime soon.”

hooking her lab coat up on the stand beside his, she takes a seat on the other side of the couch, practically melting into it as the exhaustion starts to settle in. if only her workplace was generous enough to give her an office, but then again, she works at a gs25. at least she has an endless supply of candy to snack on during her late shifts. “god, i wish the convenience store had a couch.” she mutters, shutting her eyes for only a few seconds knowing that she could easily doze off here. 

( ... )

“a pen? sure, wait lemme just get…” the boy starts rummaging through his bag, obviously full of useless junk that he’s to lazy to bother and take out, “my pencilcase,” and with that he slides his tottoro pencil case filled with pens and pencils to his tutor, the art kid really loved his stationery and found himself hoarding them, “pick anything you want – you can keep it too if you’d like.” he mentions, unmistakably more comfortable than earlier, as he opens his book trying to search for their class’ topic.

he doesn’t seem to mind her terrible first impression ( that just gets progressively worse ) and her horrible pep talk skills, if he does, she can’t tell. she supposes that’s a good thing, on her end.

the corners of her lips tug upwards into an amused smile when he takes out a totoro pencil case. somehow, she isn’t surprised by this at all. in fact, she can’t help but feel a little amazed given that she’s constantly losing pens. it doesn’t help that she likes to go the extra mile and buy the more pricey ones. “cool, thanks.” she says, finally settling on a plain black pen after rummaging through what felt like an endless supply of stationery.

( ... )

“ah wait… i didn’t even actually ask if this was even okay with you,” the nervous freshman spoke only truth because he really didn’t bother asking the female. his professor simply suggested the other and told him that the professor himself would talk to her about it and here they were, “i mean, you’re potentially going to be stuck with me for the whole term…” his voice started to falter as he explained, “i’m not really the brightest bulb, i know that,” sungjin started to nervously pick at his shirt now, looking down avoiding the latter’s gaze, “it’s a surprise i was even able to graduate high school… i really wouldn’t want to burden you with someone like me, that’s why i wanted to ask,” he spoke softly but words were slurred with lingering self-doubt.

it becomes a little difficult to maintain that small smile when he clearly doesn’t look comfortable, something she definitely wasn’t prepared for. empathy, or just dealing with situations like this, has never really been her forte and the fact that she’s had zero hours of sleep leading up to this and is running on a triple shot americano really doesn’t help her either.

she can only muster up what she thinks is a reassuring smile and not a grimace.

“this is totally fine with me, don’t worry. you seem like a decent dude anyway.” ah yes, where is her well-deserved award for being the absolute worst at comforting someone? “if anything, you should be worried about being stuck with me for the whole term. but you’ve already seen me at my worst, so it can only go uphill from now on, right?” she attempts to joke, trying to laugh the awkwardness she’s currently feeling away.

“you aren’t gonna be a burden, trust me. now, let’s get started...” she trails off when it occurs to her that she literally showed up with only her phone and wallet, nothing else. “um - do you have a pen i could use?”

( ... )

just as he had mentioned his alarm, his voice blared out of his phone, “ahn sungjin!!! go to the library!!! find your tutor!!! or you’ll fail psychology!!!!!!!!!” the said boy then frantically got his phone out of his pocket and stopped the repeating alarm, all eyes in the room on both of them.

“well… th-that explains it.” the boy spoke in a low tone, cheeks warm.

suddenly, she realises the implication behind his question and the surprised tone, slightly offended by it. there’s no way she looks that bad right now. oh well, perhaps this will make him realise that university is definitely not what it seems like.

“yeah, i am.” her tone is flat, unamused, tired. maybe she’s taking his reaction a little too seriously, coming off a little too mean. she blames this on the sleep deprivation.

as he explains himself, she nods, letting out a short yawn and apologising for it softly afterwards. “that’s fine -” his alarm cuts her off and her cheeks flush in secondhand embarrassment when she feels stares burning into her back from the other students in the room. from the corner of her eye, she spots the librarian frantically looking around for the source of the noise.

( ... )

“hey,” she starts, turning to look at yujin fully. no segue, then; she’s just going to bite the bullet. “how’s the monster watch been? i’ve been…” insanely curious, she thinks, but says instead, “i think it’s really cool, like, obviously my parents are all, y’know,” she waves her hands around, “but i’ve never actually, like, gotten to see them proper, y’know?” a white lie, but an easy one, something few people would be able to disprove. “what’s it like?”

as she waits for katie to return, yujin suppresses the urge to quickly look the girl’s parents up and do a little more research. she was told about them during the early stages of the training camp, but never really looked into them after that. mainly because she just didn’t really have the time to, with the welcome-back assignments and the final stages of the bootcamp drawing closer.

“oh - thanks.” she offers katie a smile, then picks up the mug and takes a sip, not realising how hungry she is until she tastes the coffee. but alas, her priority to finish this damn assignment instead of putting it on the back burner will be not swayed by food.

“hm?” she stops herself from finishing the coffee to pay attention to the other girl. “oh, i mean, i can’t give much insight yet. i just started this year, so i’ve only been training so far.” her body starts to ache a little from the memory of their last training session. 

( ... )

was it not a scam more than anything to be stuck like this? in relationship limbo?

“some date.” her lips twist, near crude. and here, danbi knows this very well, here she’ll pick a fight just combat the boredom. 

“oh, i’m sorry. i forgot. you don’t like that word.”

“hey -”

a hand comes up to lightly swat danbi’s hand away from her face before she continues typing, nearly knocking her own glasses off in the process. her distraction is simultaneously welcome and unwelcome - maybe, yujin is a little scatterbrained right now.

but it isn’t enough for the implication behind danbi’s words to go unnoticed.

despite knowing that danbi’s just picking a useless fight, her lips form a small scowl and she almost resembles a defeated puppy. “don’t be rude.” she mutters, eager to avoid this topic as much as possible, knowing that the blame totally lies on her inability to simply own up to it and properly confess. even her therapist can only help her so much with this.

truth be told, yujin isn’t as headstrong and confident as she makes herself out to be, at least, not in this kind of case.

a case of a confusing, slightly frustrating relationship that also isn’t a relationship.

( ... )

he reaches behind himself and peels the slimy substance off his coat, shaking his head as he tosses it into the garbage. “ i think we need something stronger then nylon .. something i don’t know about. maybe doctor lim does .. ” he’s more rambling to himself then to yujin until eyes rise. “ but it also has to be biodegradable. i don’t wanna fuck up the planet with it either. needs to last at least an hour but no longer then that … ”

the prospect of coming up with something, inventing something, to further enhance one’s powers thrilled her. of course, it’s nothing she can really apply to herself since she does turn into a literal hellhound, unlike maddox who only possessed enhanced traits of a spider. thinking about it now, this does seem like she’s helping out the enemy, him being a jaeger and her being a lotus.

but hey, at least he isn’t an alpha.

as he talks, she tosses the remnants of the web into the bin and starts making adjustments on the notebook, cancelling out the next two plans seeing as this one failed. she taps her pen on the bench, trying to think of something that adheres to his standards. somehow, her patience doesn’t wear thin in this environment. most likely because she actually enjoys this experimenting.

( ... )

his inner monologue got stopped mid-way by a girl not far from where he was. a girl who may or may not have combed that afternoon, a girl who may or may not have been hungover that afternoon but he decided to ask her. “maybe, just maybe, she knew yujin.” his professor did tell him that she was one of the brightest students, so he thought his guess wasn’t too far off.

sungjin makes his way to the stranger and clears his throat to catch her attention, “hi, uhm, excuse me? sorry to bother you. do you know a yujin? we’re supposed to have a tutor session today.”

in hindsight, pulling an all-nighter to binge as many episodes of bojack horseman as possible when she’s scheduled to have a tutor session with some freshie the next day wasn’t one of yujin’s brightest ideas.

even the librarian asked her if she was feeling okay when she entered the university’s library, looking for her tutee. according to them, she looks under the weather. not that she blames them. it’s safe to say that she isn’t exactly looking her best, hair done up in a messy bun, clad in some old ( but clean! ) t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, dark circles for days. 

definitely tutor material if you ask her. 

she doesn’t know what the kid looks like, so she uselessly wanders around the library in search for someone who looks like a sungjin. it doesn’t help and she just decides to sit down against a bookshelf, the sleep deprivation starting to hit her. 

( ... )

she spots the other girl ceasing her work for moments, and grasps her chance.

“hey, want some coffee?”

it’s been less than a week since the semester started and yujin already finds herself cooped up in the library.

her demeanour is a lot more different than usual, a side that only ever really appears when she’s really in the zone. more concentrated, quiet, though her furrowed brows don’t disappear. so maybe she does take her studies a lot more seriously than she appears to, sue her for caring about her grades. besides, it’s not like she really has a choice since she is part of the lotus legacy.

her gaze lifts from her textbook when katie sits across from her on the other side of the table, but before she can greet her, let alone offer her a small smile, her laptop lets out a ping that echoes throughout the somewhat empty library. she cusses under her breath, greeting forgotten as she opens the email from one of her professors.

she doesn’t only recognise the girl as a member of the same legacy, but as the daughter of a pair of renowned ‘monster scientists’ so to speak. experts regarding the very monsters she’s sent out to get fight as part of the monster watch. it’s a strange coincidence, she notes, but it’s something she doesn’t want to bring up either.

‘cos sometimes, ignorance really is bliss.