Chapter Text
Life began moving a little more strangely in the weeks leading up to Mina's 28th birthday.
Admittedly, Mina's life was never quite normal to begin with given that she was an alien— or rather a benevolent metahuman with extraterrestrial ancestry— by Jihyo's classification. Mina preferred the simpler term, but Jihyo's experience with aliens hadn't exactly been stellar, so her resistance to the word was understandable. Nevertheless, regardless of what she classified as, she managed to adjust just fine over the last two decades.
There have been a few hiccups in which Mina dealt with a few of Earth's idiosyncrasies in a less than graceful manner, but she had managed to craft her own sense of normal throughout it all. A steady routine. A solid job. A fulfilling second job that made use of the metahuman abilities she were granted.
But the closer her 28th birthday loomed, the more strange things began feeling. The more strange she began feeling. Like something was missing. Out of place. Or plainly just wrong. Which wasn't possible since everything was normal, or at least on the surface level she thought it was normal.
She still worked as an independent contractor transcribing paperwork into foreign languages for a few companies. She still answered her earpiece for requests from JYP; the South Korean sect of the governmental organization tasked with monitoring the extraterrestrial presence on Earth. She still had her regular lunch breaks with Jihyo in her office at Park Industries.
Everything was in every sense of the word normal. Yet, something felt off. Greatly so. And Mina couldn't put her finger on what exactly but the gnawing sense of unrest at the back of her mind wouldn't let up.
The first time she noticed something it was easily brushed off. An emotional blip of sorts. It happened while she was with Jihyo and Jeongyeon for wedding cake testing. It wasn’t really anything of deep concern at that time. She couldn’t describe the feeling exactly, not really, but when she glanced across the table to see her sister and soon to be sister-in-law feeding each other some overpriced sponge cake— their eyes gleaming and smiles wide— something just dropped in her. It was like a sinking stone in her chest, weighing her down, for reasons she didn’t know.
Seeing Jihyo so obviously in love and her having it reciprocated left her feeling a pang of want so strong her stomach clenched. It was foreign. Weird. And entirely unwanted. Unwanted because she felt disgusting for feeling even remotely jealous over something Jihyo had. It was Jihyo. Her adoptive sister and bestfriend for the last two decades. The person who's happiness mattered most to her.
So she shrugged it off with a mock disgusted groan, threw a rumpled up napkin at them, and tried not to think about it again. A love like that wasn’t in the cards for her, and dwelling wouldn’t do any good. As bleak as it may have sounded, it was a truth Mina had long resigned herself to. It was when the most alien parts of herself reared it's head. She couldn't love and form genuine romantic relationships the way her sister could. The way humans could.
Mina was an anomaly of sorts; Thilian in body and soul but yearned to be human. She was raised on Earth, yes, but before then she had spent her first eight formative years on planet Thilia. She was born from the Cocoon, like every other Thilian, and plucked like a ripened fruit from an artificial chamber.
While she very much felt much closer to being human, she couldn’t ignore that she was a product of the Cocoon, with a hand-picked selection of genes and traits that would best represent the House of Myōi. There was one perk to this genetic selection though, a perk that inevitably ended up being a detriment to Mina. And that was the custom of Thilian arranged matches.
There was an old tale on Thilia, and Mina didn’t know if it was true or not, but she couldn’t help but believe in it. At least a little. She knew that it could just be a story, a convenient myth made up to encourage compliance in the arranged matches, but still. She believed. It was said that before the Cocoon— before Thilia focused on genetic superiority— all Thilians had a soulmate.
One person that was perfect for them that the Gods deemed they were destined to be with. When the Cocoon was created, they accidently messed with the Gods plans, and so none of the babies born from the Cocoon ever grew up and found their soulmate. To fix this, the Gods were consulted and the tradition of arranged marriages between the High Houses of Thilia was started.
Each Thilian that was designed in the Cocoon had a match. With the blessing of the Gods, a soulmate was made for them. Genetically engineered to be compatible, most Thilians were paired before birth and then married by their mid-20s. Mina, being of the House Myōi, had such a match. Although, she never got to meet them. Their family, along with their entire house, had perished in an enemy Gthylian attack long before Mina could even talk. Mina had never even gotten their name. Nor their house name. Just the sad reminder of what could've been in the form of the initials M.S. engraved along the side of her pinky.
When she landed on Earth; she mourned the loss of her soulmate's gravesite she had made and habitually visited on Thilia, mourned her life, mourned her people, mourned her planet, mourned everything that she had lost when Thilia exploded. Her life would never be as the Gods had destined.
Even though Earth didnt seem to have such beliefs, Mina liked to believe that Jihyo had Jeongyeon as her soulmate, that they would've found each other regardless of any circumstances. It made Mina feel just a little bit better knowing that Jihyo had that. Even if it did occasionally sting when she was reminded of what she lost.
So in attempt to shake off any random bouts of longing, Mina used to repeat the one truth she told herself since she got to Earth, despite how melancholic it might've sounded. And that truth was, that Myōi Mina had already been granted her most perfect match, and she had lost them before even meeting them. And now she could never know if she were capable of the love and desire that seemed to come so easily to others. That was just how it was.
The second time she noticed something wasn't quite normal was a week before her birthday.
She had jolted up in the middle of the night, covered in a thick sheen of sweat, heart drumming in her chest, and eyes erratically glancing around her room looking to neutralize the perceived threat. Her hands were bunched up into fists in her sheets and she sat upright, focusing her hearing for sounds of distress. The city of was quiet. Just the sounds of the regular Seoul night life. She wasn't sure what exactly had awoken her, if she had dreamt anything, or if she heard someone in distress despite her ability to muffle most auditory stimulus.
She took a few settling breaths, but the unsteady rhythm of her heartbeat did not calm in the slightest. She couldn't slip back into sleep regardless of what she tried. She felt wary and on edge, the hairs at the back of her neck standing on end as though she were awaiting an attack, but in the quiet of her room there was none.
Mina spent the rest of the night alternating between playing on her Switch and scrolling aimlessly through her phone— both of which did nothing to ease the hypervigilance she felt. It wasn't long before the sun began peeking through her windows letting her know that her day was about to begin and likely going to be insanely crappy.
As expected, she was irritated all day and could barely focus on the hoard of emails and excel sheets she was in process of transcribing. She had even snapped on poor Mr. Kim— the head of foreign relations at T-Corp— on the phone over something silly, before she managed to pick up on her sour mood and told him to call the following day after mumbling an apology. Clearly her lack of sleep, and whatever it was that made feel ready to fight at any given moment, was starting to get to her.
Unfortunately, she had a pre-birthday date planned with her friend Lisa that afternoon, that she couldn’t postpone with a flimsy excuse since it was one of the only times they saw each other. It had become somewhat of a tradition to go out to do something for their birthdays since they were in the same week. It had been about a month since she last saw Lisa, so she did want to see her, really, she just wasn't sure if her mood would allow for normal conversation.
She had mulled over canceling the date for a solid hour before she told herself that she was being ridiculous and went to meet up at the sushi place. Thankfully things were going normal for the most part. They spoke about work, home life, and Lisa’s fiancé. It felt good to catch up, even if Mina knew she weren't feeling entirely okay.
Everything was smooth until the dreaded topic came up. "So, Mina, gone on any dates lately?”
All peace that Mina had acquired until that point in the conversation got dashed away in an instant. Something dark settled over her as she looked into her cup of tea. This was the part she dreaded most about hanging out with her friend.
"Oh, you know, I haven't really had the time. Relationships never work out for me anyways.” she attempted a lighter tone towards end, hoping it would prompt Lisa to drop it.
Lisa wasn’t going to give up that easily though. Mina loved that Lisa was happily engaged, that she had met her person, but now she seemed to be under the impression that the same could happen for Mina. Mina knew that it wasn’t possible, but she had never explained it to Lisa, as that would entail explaining the fact that she was an alien.
Which was something she never got to tell Lisa. Even if she did eventually decide to tell Lisa the truth— that she was the superhero Seoul called Torpedo, that she was an alien from the planet Thilia— she didn’t want to see the look of pity once she explained exactly why relationships didn't work for her.
“But what about Minnie? That seemed to be going well, what happened? She really likes you.”
Something about the idea of her and Minnie made something in Mina's chest react almost violently. Her blood boiled, her face flushed, and her hand clasped around her tea bowl slammed down on the table in front of them with a muted thud.
Her voice came out low and rough and she didn’t even consider what she said before she said it. "No."
Her nostrils flared and her breath came out in a short huff. She felt the need to assert herself, to make it clear that her and Minnie were not happening. No ifs, ands, or buts. Which was ridiculous. Minnie didn't do anything to her. She actually enjoyed her company but something in her just didn't like the implication of them together.
Lisa looked understandably confused at the outburst. "Why not?"
"I can’t be with her. I don’t want to be. I never wanted to be. She's not mine." she replied without much thought. She blinked back when her words settled between them. Huh? What was she saying?
Lisa seemed to be wondering the same thing, as she stared at Mina with wide eyes. "Where is all this coming from? You were just fine with it when I set you guys up on the date the first time."
"I just don't want to be with her."
"Did she do something or—"
"Just let it go, Lisa. " Mina gritted out, trying very hard to contain herself when she noticed the chef eyeing them uncomfortably from across grill.
"Okay, fine, it's a no on Minnie." Lisa breathed out a huff, turning to her salmon platter. "I just wanted to know if something happened since you tell me nothing about what goes on in your life anymore."
Lisa sounded hurt. And that snapped Mina out of whatever the hell it was that overcame her.
Mina took deep breath, deliberately removing her hand from the table and folded it with the other in her lap, clasping them tightly together. Feeling both ashamed and embarrassed at her outburst. Lisa didn't mean any harm. And she wasn't being attacked. Mina just needed to chill out.
"I'm sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. I just, I don't... can we talk about something else?"
"Mina…" Lisa’s tone was much softer, careful, almost a bit wary after the way Mina reacted before.
"Please, Lisa, I really don't want to talk about it."
Lisa nodded and thankfully left it at that. Their next course came, which broke the tension slightly but it was clear that the air wasn't entirely fixed and Mina felt terrible about it. But relationships were always a particular point of debate between them. Lisa wanted Mina to experience love and Mina didn’t know how to explain that she couldn’t. So they were at an indefinite stalemate.
Mina had never really been that interested in relationships, so she was a bit hypocrite to occasionally long for something she wasn't even interested in. Nor was she interested in sex. She just didn't seem to have that type of natural desire in her. She didn’t dislike it or anything, just never really understood what all the fuss was about. As a teenager she had no interest whatsoever, which was more than fine with her adoptive family.
The last thing they needed to deal with was a horny teenage Thilian that didn’t know how to control herself. Mrs. Park had fondly dubbed her 'a late bloomer' which Mina had accepted as the truth, not wanting to face the ideas of what it could be otherwise. She had dated men and women, mostly just to try it out, but the experience was rather embarrassing so Mina just shrugged it off. Though, she did notice she didn't dislike it as much with women though, so she at least knew her preference.
It probably would have been much better with M.S since they were meant to be. Maybe she was only capable of feeling that way for one person, or maybe she was just as Mrs. Park said: a later bloomer. She knew, in the back of her head, that Thilians didn’t go through sexual maturation until much later in life anyways.
It was a bit disconcerting sometimes, admittedly. She could tell when someone was attractive, obviously, she just felt like she were missing something. She never felt the desire others could describe so well, never felt the want, never felt the need for physical affection as much as others.
Jeongyeon had once brought up the possibility of asexuality to her. But that didn't feel right. She didn't feel like that was quite exactly the box she belonged in. Deep down, she felt like she had the capacity, there was just something blocking it. Something she didn't understand. After some years of trying to figure it out, she had just accepted the fact of it having something to do with her deceased mate.
As depressing as it might've sounded, Mina believed she were perhaps meant to only love one person. A person that no longer existed. And she didn't want to dump that on Lisa. So she'd rather they veer off the topic entirely.
Mina bought Lisa an apology gift later that day, still confused and embarrassed on what was bringing out this side of her.
It was undeniable that something was very much wrong with her a day after that incident with Lisa, when her mood didn't ease any. Eventually at odds with herself, Mina had decided to take a lap flying around the city, hoping that the fresh air would help with her mood. She took off her apartment's balcony without further thought.
Mina wasn't easily irritable, nor were she the type to take out her mood on others, so this new side of her scared her a bit. She was mild mannered naturally. Never took up too much space. Composed. Rarely raised her voice to anything above a few decibels. She gotten so used to having her emotions under control at all times that when it began to slip, she didn't know what to do besides just lock herself in her apartment and stay away from people. And that's exactly what she planned on doing until she felt normal again.
The wind in her face helped for a few a seconds before her damned earpiece vibrated in call. Groaning, Mina pushed down on the answer button behind her ear.
"Torpedo? " Came the voice of her fellow agent at JYP, Kim Dahyun.
Mina took a deep breath when she felt the crackle of the transmission begin to grate her irritation. "I'm here. What's the situation?"
"There's another one." Dahyun sounded as tired as Mina felt.
"Crater?"
"Yup, as big as the rest. Down at Gangnam this time. North residential. We have a witness here with police claiming she was saved by you after getting attacked."
At that Mina furrowed her brows, not recalling ever setting foot in Gangnam this week, nevertheless saving anyone from an attack. "I'll be right there."
Not wasting any time, Mina pushed the activator buttons on her suit wristbands which caused her nanosuit (courtesy of a certain scientist by the name of Park Jihyo), to materialize over her clothes within an instant. She zoomed off towards Gangnam, hoping that she wasn't dealing with another copycat alien this time. They were a pain in the ass to deal with.
Despite Mina feeling off kilter for some time now, this new case was not a reason for it. At least not yet. They just had a rouge alien on their hands. And that was something she didn't mind dealing with.
No one had seen it yet, no one had reported any extraterrestrial behavior as of late, and there was decidedly no reports of missing people or occurrences of heavy property damage. But there was an alien on the loose. That much Mina was sure of if the bowl shaped craters which had been sporadically spotted across multiple districts in Seoul were anything to go by. Coupled with the strange new scent that permeated the air Mina began picking up on whenever she was within a ten mile radius of a crater, she was almost entirely certain that it was the same alien causing these craters.
Things had been calm before the first crater was reported in Hongdae. Quiet almost. In hindsight, Mina should've known that something was afoot, because nothing about her life in Seoul had been calm nor quiet since she had punted the Craxian warlord— that had attempted to kidnap Jihyo and a few other women— right into the Han River.
An event which had catapulted her right into taking up the mantle of Torpedo— Seoul city's one and only superpowered guardian from threats as human as a derailing train to intergalactic like invading alien warlords unfortunate enough to choose Seoul as the city to start their conquest in.
Mina touched down in a nice suburb a few minutes later, where she found a police squad car and a black van that she recognized as belonging to JYP. Dahyun was there, looking more serious than Mina was used to, speaking to a man wearing a police uniform and a wide eyed woman that couldn't have been much older than Mina herself. A blanket was strewn over her bare shoulders and brown hair messy.
A few paces ahead of both cars, behind some bright yellow police tape, was the bowl shaped crater in the middle of a crosswalk. It was wide enough to fit a regular taxi, much like all the others. Mina sighed.
Before making her way over to Dahyun, Mina squared her shoulders and tapped down on her irritation, adapting the more regal superhero posture her alter-ego called for. She fixed her cowl, making sure it only left her mouth visible as she stalked towards them in confident strides. Her normal self had much less confidence and superiority than Torpedo, but her role called for certain mannerisms.
She scanned the area, but nothing seemed to be amiss, there were no obvious signs of alien activity or even of a struggle. The neighborhood was quiet, kids were playing, and while there were people sneaking curious looks over at the tape prohibiting access to the crater, nothing was out of the ordinary. But her nose did scrunch up when she got that familiar foul stench from the crater. Only stronger this time.
“Hello. How can I be of assistance?” she directed towards Dahyun who had waved the police officer away after he seemed to freeze up at her appearance. The woman, however, watched her in awe.
Despite her previous serious demeanor, Dahyun cracked a smile at her, which eased some of Mina's nerves. Dahyun always managed to look so easy-going regardless of how dire a situation appeared.
"Torpedo," she nodded towards the woman who still looked to be frozen in awe. "This is Ms. Cho. She was here when the crater was formed and got a positive ID of what we think may be the cause of these craters."
Mina turned her attention to Ms. Cho, who looked a bit intimidated at the sudden attention on her. A little guilty, she made an effort to soften her voice a bit. She hated making women uncomfortable. "And you said I apparently saved you from this attack?"
"Well, I thought it was you at first," Ms. Cho's eyes glided down Mina's suit. "But now I'm realizing that the suits don't match. Theirs were all black, different style too, and they wore a mask that covered their entire face. With how fast and strong they were, I assumed it was you. They also had your eye beam thingies and burned the thing that attacked me before it scurried away."
Ms. Cho pointed to piece of charred asphalt, referring to the heat vision that the person likely used, or eye beam thingies as she called it. That raised immediate alarm bells off in Mina's head. Someone with a similar powerset as her meant trouble if they weren't on JYP's radar. But she tried not to show her unease by simply just nodding. She didn't wanna spook the poor woman even more.
"Can you remember anything about what attacked you?"
Ms. Cho perked up and gestured towards the camera that Dahyun held along with what appeared to be a blouse stuffed into one of the JYP evidence ziplock bags. " I was in the middle of snapping some pics of the garden over there when I noticed this worm thing crawling over, and I thought it might've been a good idea to snap a pic of it, yknow, just in case. Then it hopped on me! It didn't really do anything besides wriggle around and let my camera fall. Got all it's sticky slimy stuff all over my blouse too."
Worm? Mina surpressed a scowl. She wasn't familiar with any alien species that took on that form and she was fairly well versed in extraterrestrial species types. Not so much their flora and fauna though.
Dahyun gave her a look that let her know she was feeling the same confusion.
Clearing her throat, Mina managed a smile which she hoped was reassuring. "Well, thank you for all the help Ms. Cho. I apologize for the distress this must've caused, but with the information you've provided I'm sure this investigation became much easier for us."
"It's no problem, really. I just happened to be here." Ms. Cho's cheeks flushed a deep red as she relaxed slightly. Good to know that Mina could still be charming when she wanted to. Sometimes she wondered if she could still talk to people given how little she went out. "And please, call me Miyeon."
After that, Dahyun led Miyeon to a different JYP agent who took down her statement and began discussion for reimbursement for her ruined camera and blouse. When Dahyun got back to Mina, her expression had soured slightly as she held up the fractured camera, frozen on the last image that was taken.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?"
It was definitely a worm, but none like Mina had ever seen before. It's was about the length of an average person's forearm, a gray-green translucent colour, and had it's hydrostatic skeleton visible as though it were only covered with layers upon layers of mucous membranes. It also had it's body striated with ridges that left it looking like a cross between a large maggot and the tail of a rattlesnake. Mina was stumped. Was this the thing that had managed to cause all these craters? Undetected too?
She shook her head. Though it was mandatory for every Thilian to read up on all inhabitants of their neighboring planets in preparation for possible sieges (ironically), her mental rolodex of species types couldn't even find anything remotely similar to this overgrown worm.
"Nope. Though, it may have been a type of animal from another planet. I'm not exactly familiar with those." Mina relaxed her shoulders when it was just her and Dahyun, as they began walking towards the crater. "What are your thoughts on this?"
Dahyun hummed for a moment, brows pulled down. "I'm honestly more stuck on wondering whether or not whoever saved Ms. Cho is someone we need to worry about."
"My thoughts exactly." Mina reigned in the urge to dig her nails into her palms. "They seem to have my powerset. Which narrows down the alien pool greatly. Not much of us out there that has the power to harness the sun."
"You think it's another Thilian?"
As much as she wished so, Mina knew that wasn’t likely. "No, I would've gotten their scent immediately."
"Ah, " Dahyun nodded, looking just as disappointed by that fact as Mina. It was no secret that Mina often times felt lonely knowing that she'd never get to interact with her people again, so Dahyun was likely feeling for her. "Since they saved someone, at least we know they're not on the side of whatever it is causing these craters."
"True..." she said, though she wasn't entirely convinced. There was no way of knowing whether or not this person was an ally or not.
Seeming to pick up on Mina's nerves, Dahyun bumped shoulders with her. "Hey, don't stress too much about it okay? Ms. Cho is a little spooked but unharmed. No one's been hurt. That much we should be grateful for."
Mina just nodded, deciding against saying anything given her sour mood. She actually considered Dahyun a decent enough friend and she did not want to snap on her purely because of her terrible mood spurred on by sleep deprivation and whatever else she was feeling. Things were already a little awkward with Lisa.
Instead of potentially leaking out some of her negative thoughts, Mina hopped into the crater, and activated her X-ray vision. She scanned the area for a solid ten minutes before she came up to something lodged between a small burnt pebble and a purplish translucent goo. Mina grabbed hold of it without second thought. It was a piece of fabric, black and slightly coated in the goo but the smell of the fabric itself was unlike the foul stench that permeated above it. It was a tad bit smaller than the palm of her hand and charred at the edges but it almost smelled. . . sweet?
Mina frowned down at the material, continuing to stare at it even when she felt Dahyun hop down next to her. "That's the same residue that's on Ms. Cho's blouse. Must've been a secretion from the worm. Non-corrosive and non-acidic so far. Fabric doesn't appear to be the same as the blouse though."
"Does this smell like anything to you?" Mina held up the fabric to Dahyun's nose who took a deep sniff, nose wrinkling.
"I've got nothing."
"Not even from the goo?"
"Nope." Dahyun shook her head solemnly, pushing up the frames of her glasses.
What the? Mina's frown deepened. She knew her senses were better than humans but this goo and the fabric both smelled too potent to not be something everyone could pick up on.
"But I can have this tested at the lab along with the blouse. This and the goo could be emitting some type of odorant or pheromone only privy to extraterrestrial beings. This can help us narrow down the search even more."
For some reason Mina felt reluctant to give off the fabric, which she didn't understand why. She stared at Dahyun's gloved hand for a few moments too long before inevitably deciding to give it off. Part of her wanted to sniff it again, purely because she hadn’t smelled anything like it before. There was nothing she could compare it to and that was bugging her.
Shaking off her weirdness, Mina said her goodbyes to Dahyun, narrowly missing breaking the sound barrier as she shot off into the sky set out to figure out exactly what was going on in Seoul and with herself.
The two days after her encounter in Gangnam, were spent holed up in the spare room of her apartment, barely finding anytime to sleep a proper time as she obsessed over the Thilian archive AI. It had been sent with her in the Pod she crashed landed into one of Parks wine farms two decades ago. She had long since brought most of the equipment with her to Seoul, installing it in her spare room. The hologram AI figure that took the form Mina's deceased mother used to bring her comfort as she used to just talk to it on a daily, imagining it was her mother and not just some programmed information system. She had long since stopped coming here often, the cold indifferent tone of the hologram with her mother's face didn't really help her homesickness. Quite the opposite actually. But it was useful for any information needed for extraterrestrial study.
In positive news, the AI gave her a few potential options for what the worm could've been and Mina sent the printed results straight to Dahyun so that they could ID it with the secretion sample. All the options were found to be non-aggressive and non-hostile creatures though, so Mina was a bit stumped on why it would've attacked a civilian. What stumped her even more was exactly how it got here, given that JYP reported no instances of random portals opening up anywhere near here.
She had managed to narrow down the race of Ms. Cho's rescuer as well: Zertmite, Craxian and Flynese. Those were the only aliens with abilities to harness sunlight given the ecosystem of their planets. They were similar to Thilia in that regard, with the multiple suns requiring its inhabitants to have the ability to take in excess UV rays. Mina suspected them to be a Zertmite, as they were the only benevolent race amongst the list. Nevertheless, that was the least of her concern as of now.
After fussing over the alien and the cause of the crater much too long, Mina tried a different approach. The sweet smelling fabric and goo had been bothering her for far too long.
"Are there odorants that can't be picked up by Humans but can by Thilians?"
"While Thilians do have a larger olfactory bulb with more olfactory receptors, this just heightens the natural odorants Human should be able to perceive. There are no odorants only perceived by Thilians. "
She thought as much. Sinking into her ergonomic chair, Mina pondered the information a little bit.
"And pheromones? Can they smell those?"
"There's no conclusive scientific proof that humans can detect pheromones the way other species can."
"Can Thilians detect pheromones?"
"Yes , but only after jaunēšana. Before then they can only pick up on subtle notes."
Mina mouthed the Thiliaes word a few times, it's been a while since she heard the term, so it took her a while to draw up a memory of it. It roughly translated to the Thilian's version of puberty. Her parents had told her about it, let her know that she would experience it someday but never what it entailed exactly. By her limited knowledge the time period for jaunēšana roughly occurred around 23-28 human years of age. Mina never thought much of it since she experienced no significant changes in her early 20s. So she had just assumed that it must've just not occurred here on Earth.
But with this scent thing, it got her worried. Could it be... ? Her thoughts were cut short when the buzzing of her phone caught her attention. She unlocked her phone and sighed when she saw from who it was from exactly.
Jihyo — 3:47 PM
Okay. I am officially tired of the little obsessive seclusion you got going on.
Jeong and I are coming over to make dinner. Be decent by 5.
Mina thought about the array of papers and pizza boxes she had strewn across her livingroom and groaned, shutting her eyes. Jihyo never left room for debate when she made up her mind about something, so a simple 'I'm not in the mood' or something like that wouldn't fly. Thus Mina resigned herself to fixing up her apartment, choosing to question the AI about her possible puberty some other day.
She really should've expected this though— given that she had skipped out on two of her daily lunches with her sister, and Jihyo was nothing if not a worrywart and knew that Mina was a stickler for an established routine, so the moment Mina stepped out of said routine she thought something was up. Well, something was up, Mina just didn't know how to explain it. Or even if any of it were even connected. Hopefully Jihyo was too distracted by birthday and wedding talk to press too much.
It was a fruitless hope.
After preparing the dinner together in the kitchen for about an hour, they had chatted about nothing in particular, conversation flowing easier than Mina expected. Then again, she enjoyed quality time with her sister regardless if there was definitely an impeding scolding waiting for her. And it had been a while since they sat down to have something home cooked. The peace was short-lived though, as it usually was with Jihyo and Jeongyeon. The three of them were sitting on the couch, a TV drama playing in the background that none of them were paying attention to, when Jihyo cracked.
"So, are you going to explain whats been wrong with you recently or what?"
Mina held back a groan and tried to stifle the irritation that was building up. Even Jeongyeon rolled her eyes at Jihyo’s lack of subtlety.
"I've been busy with Torpedo stuff and work and friends–"
"Yeah right, friends. Please think of a better lie Minari, I'm not that dumb."
Mina scoffed, offended. "Hey! I have friends besides you guys."
"Oh really?" Jihyo raised a taunting brow at her. "Who? Lisa who you only see once every few months? Your work colleagues who you barely see outside of work?"
"Did you come here with the intention of being an asshole or is it just coming out naturally?"
"So I'm an asshole for pointing out an obvious lie?"
"I really did see Lisa a few days ago. We went to that sushi place I told you about."
"And what about after that? You stopped texting me Sunday."
"I've... been busy."
Jihyo scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked to Jeongyeon incredulously, as though to say 'can you be believe this?'. Jeongyeon just sighed and excused herself to a different couch.
Mina bristled, looking down at her clenched fists. "I'm serious. Nothing is wrong okay? I'm fine."
"Fine yet you barely ate."
"Yeah, well, you over-salted your pasta and–"
"Oh my god!" Jihyo narrowed her eyes, throwing up her hands in frustration. "Are you really trying to pick a fight with me to get out of this? Really?"
"I'm not." Mina gestured with her hand, irritation nearly at its peek. "You're just poking around for nothing."
There was a pause between them, the air tense and annoyed.
They stared at each other for a long moment, neither wanting to back down. Mina noticed Jeongyeon in her periphery shaking her head as she walked out of the room, clearly noticing that this was something she couldn't interfere in. It was rare that her and Jihyo ever fought, but when they did, they butted heads up to a stalemate until one of them decided to back off. Usually, it was Mina, since she didn't really enjoy conflict. Especially not with her sister and long-time bestfriend. But she's been cranky and irritated for the last few days now, and was not about to let it go. While the reason for her sudden aggression and irritation was lost on her, she was determined to ride it out.
Jihyo, for the first time in twenty years, broke first.
"Listen," she sighed, tone softening, hard sets of her brow and face smoothing out. "I'm not here to bully you, I'm just worried okay? You've been weird recently– sulking more, staring off into the distance, secluding yourself more, talking even less than usual. It just feels like something is bothering you and I want to help. You know that right? I'm here. Always will be if you need me. So please just talk to me. We can figure it out together."
Mina glanced down at her hands, jaw working a few times as her irritation fizzled away within a second. She couldn't be mad when Jihyo got all sappy and concerned. It just made her feel like an asshole. She couldn't explain her random bouts of longing for her past life to Jihyo, that much she was sure of but she deserved something at least.
"I honestly don't know what's wrong, Ji." she admitted, shoulders sinking. "My mood's been all over the place— I even lashed out on Lisa over nothing. My senses are going crazy, no matter how hard I try to control it. I've been struggling to sleep and when I do manage to, I get jolted by something I can't even sense and wake up in sweat. I just feel all wrong, I don't know. I've been trying to make sense of it, but I've been drawing blanks."
It felt surprisingly good to let it out. At least most of it anyway. She felt her shoulders rise, like a weight had just been lifted off them. A contemplative look passed on Jihyo's face, eyes focused in that way that let Mina know she was turning something over in her head.
Then finally, "Has it been cold sweats?"
"No," Mina shook her head, not sure what Jihyo was getting at. "I feel like a furnace."
"How's your smell?"
"Stronger than usual. "
"Hmm," Jihyo hummed, and Mina immediately realized she was falling into scientist mode. "Have you been using your heat vision recently?"
"I haven't needed to, why?"
"Just a suspicion." Jihyo moved off the couch to retrieve one of Mina's decorative candles and placed it on her coffee table. "Try lighting it."
Despite being confused, Mina did as she was asked. Or at least attempted to. Nothing came out— even though she felt the familiar warmth radiating from behind her eyes.
"What the?" Mina grabbed the candle, holding it directly in front of her face in attempt to light it.
Still nothing.
"Come to my lab tomorrow," Jihyo butted in before Mina could agonize over her inability to do something she's done plenty times before, head cocked to the side in thought. "I'm going to run a few tests to see what's going on."
Mina's blood ran cold, hairs at the back of her neck standing on end. "Am I losing my powers?"
"No," Jihyo shook her head, putting a reassuring hand on Mina's shoulder. "I'm not sure yet but I think your body is preparing."
Panic settled in before she could help herself. "For what?"
"I don't know," Jihyo said solemnly. "But we're going to find out."
Mina went to bed that night not quite concerned but not relaxed either. She felt disconnected from her thoughts. From her body. Just numb but aware that this was only the beginning of what was to come. The gnawing at the back of her head was no longer something that could be dismissed. It was a loud screech beckoning her, no, dragging her. Towards what though? She didn't want to find out.