Chapter Text
Seoul South Korea - Three years before the debut of the New Avengers:
It was after 3am when most fifteen-year-olds were deep in slumber. A dance studio was still awake as three girls danced to perfect their moves. Seol Hee led Ami Han and Jae Hwa Kwak through the choreography she meticulously planned for their new song, Starlight. The three high schoolers formed the pop band, 3Soul. They had a small following from doing shows at local restaurants, malls, and talent shows, but they were preparing for their first real show.
Their producer, Seol’s uncle Duri, managed to book 3Soul at the Seoul Arts Center. Finally, they would be performing in front of a real audience instead of whoever happened to be walking by. Now if only Ami and Jae would stop messing up and get the dance moves right.
“Again.” Seol commanded when Jae stumbled on the one-minute mark of the song. The music of Starlight started over at her command from the Web-Ware sitting on the chair behind them. They got in a line, spread out, Ami took the center where she started the song, they’d change places for Seol to give the second line, then again for Jae to give the third line, then they’d line up for the chorus, and--
Jae stumbled again. “Again!” Seol’s face felt hot from both the frustration and exertion as they started again. This time they only got thirty seconds into the song when Jae stumbled once more. She fell into Ami, who stumbled and knocked Seol off center. Her frustration boiled over at last. “Rah!” She screamed. “I am the only one who wants to do this show! Why are you just sitting there!?! We have to get it right! Start again!”
Jae stared at the floor where she sat, her white shoes turning red. Ami scowled at her. “We’re going home.”
Seol snapped back: “No you aren’t! We can’t stop until we get it right!”
“We got it right five hours ago, Seol Hee! We’re exhausted! We’re bleeding! We’re going home!” Ami pulled Jae to her feet, blood leaking out onto the floor from their worn shoes.
“You aren’t going anywhere, Ami Han! The show is in two days! Two days!”
“We’ve practiced enough!” Ami bit back. “Jae is bleeding! I’m bleeding! You are bleeding, Seol! Tell me you can’t feel that!”
“If you think a little blood in your shoes is too much, then I don’t think you have what it takes to be a star!”
Ami stiffened and her scowl turned into a thin smile. “I never wanted to be.” Then she took the black wig off, revealing the natural white hair underneath, and dropped it on the floor. “Happy birthday, Seol. And good luck with your show.” Then Ami brushed past her and left through the studio door.
Left stunned, Seol turned to Jae. “Sorry, Seol. This used to be fun.” And Jae left after Ami, leaving a bloodied spot on the floor.
Seol grit her teeth and ran to the door after them. “Fine! I don’t need you! Everyone knows I’m the talent! I’m the one they're all coming to see! I don’t need you!” She slammed the door shut and sank to the floor, hot tears burning her eyes. “I don’t need you.” She pulled off her shoes, and blood-speckled socks. Was it really her birthday? Had it really been a year already?
One year earlier:
“Come on Ami, please.” Seol begged her on the rooftop of their school. “We need three people, and your singing voice is beautiful.”
“Why do you need three?”
“Your voice is a little deeper than ours, so it will give us a richer harmony.” Jae answered, looking at them through her pink sunglasses.
“Please, Ami. Please, please! It’ll be the best birthday present ever!” Seol and Jae begged her together. “Please!”
Ami crossed her arms and tried to ignore them both, but their big, pleading, black eyes were just too much to ignore. “Fine. But only if you get me a wig.”
“A wig?” Seol asked, looking at Ami’s white ponytail. “But your hair is lovely.”
“Really pretty.” Jae agreed.
Ami sighed and petted her ponytail self-consciously. “It’ll be too distracting. People already think I’m a... You know.”
Seol shared a look with Jae before saying: “Okay, I can get you one.”
“Then I’ll do it.”
“Thank you, thank you!” Jae clapped.
“It really means the world to us, Ami.” Seol hugged her, and so did Jae. Ami stiffened, but didn’t fight back against it.
“What are we singing?” Ami asked, hoping they’d let her go.
“Jae and I were thinking, I2I.”
“Yeah!” Jae grinned. “Disney songs always kill in talent shows!”
Ami sighed again. “Isn’t that a one-person song?”
“Now it’s a three-person song.” Seol took them both by the hand. “Lets start practicing!”
“Now!?!”
The three of them practiced for two weeks trying to get their performance just right. Jae made them matching jump suits, blue for Seol, green for Ami, and Pink for herself. Seol worked them through the dance they were going to do, and they practiced around the clock to be able to sing at the same time. Ami ended up writing out the lyrics and dividing them between the three of them, and recording the music with her keyboard.
Then the day of the talent show came. They wore the jumpsuits, Ami wore her black wig, and they went out on stage in front of their whole school. They sang their hearts out, they danced not quite perfectly, and Ami ended up forgetting one of her cues, but by the end of it, they received a huge round of applause. They didn’t win, maybe if they started weeks earlier they would have, but it was fun. It was one of Seol’s best birthdays.
It was the start of something special.
Seol stared at the time on her Web-Ware, 4:30am. About an hour after Ami and Jae walked out on her. How could they after everything she did for them? Was a little blood really that bad?
Seol stopped staring at the clock and opened her photos. Stopping at the picture they took on her birthday last year. They were all wearing the brightly colored jumpsuits like they were Sentei Rangers, glitter dusting their eyes. Couldn’t Ami and Jae see that she was just trying to make them successful? That they needed to work harder than anyone else to stand out? It was the only way three nobodies like them could be something. The only way.
This used to be fun.
Seol tugged at her collar, feeling warmer. She unzipped her hoodie and threw it off, but still the heat kept building. She was sweating, and her breath was shortening. Seol stood and checked herself in the mirrored wall. Her dark eyes were glowing blue.
“What?” She touched her reflection, steadying herself with both hands. It was so hot she felt like she was going to explode. Seol yelled as she burst. A rush of energy poured out of her every pore, freezing everything in the room. She felt like it had torn her apart, but she was still whole.
“No. No, no, no!” Seol caught her reflection in the cracked, frozen mirror. All of the hair on the left side of her head had turned snow white like Ami’s, while the right remained black. And her left eye was no longer dark gray, but an icy blue. “No!” Tears rolled out again, but froze as they fell to the frosted floor.
Seol curled up into a ball in the corner, broken and alone. Her frozen tears piling like diamonds.
Seol had managed to get a few hours sleep on the dance studio floor. She hoped it was just a nightmare, but her hair was still white. Her eye was still blue. She pulled her hoodie back on and drew the hood. She ran home, leaving the thawing studio as quickly as she could.
She snuck past Uncle Duri, who slept soundly on the couch, and locked herself in her room. She checked herself in her mirror, nothing had changed. Seol went to fall into bed, but there was a box in the middle of it. She picked up the black box, which had a red bow and a note attached.
For the show. Happy birthday, Jae & Ami.
Seol opened the box to find a black, cropped leather jacket. She had her eyes on it for a while, but couldn’t afford it. They must have spent everything they could spare to buy it for her. She clutched the jacket to her and cried, her tears staying a liquid this time.
“I’m sorry.”
Two days later, Seol waited backstage at the auditorium of the Arts Center. She wore the jacket, a cropped blue shirt, white shorts, long white fingerless gloves, and long back boots. Hoping that it made her hair seem like a theme instead of a mutation.
There were almost five hundred people waiting for the bands to start, and more were still filing in. Seol was going to perform Starlight on her own. Behind her, the event organizer was arguing with Uncle Duri. They were expecting 3Soul, not 1Soul, but Duri was doing his best to convince the organizer that she could do it solo.
“I can do this. I can do this.” Seol chanted to herself as she waited.
Seol centered herself. She ran through her lines, and her moves dozens of times. She could do it. “Put your hands together for 3Soul!” The announcer cued, and Seol went out on stage to applause and some confused murmuring.
The music for Starlight started to play over the speakers and Seol started dancing. She kept dancing and realized it was going too long. She stopped dead in the center of the stage under the lights and gaze of the crowd. She didn’t know the words. Ami always started this song. Seol stood frozen in her spot as the music kept playing. The crowd’s confused chorus reaching her ears.
Seol couldn’t breathe, the ice beneath her skin threatening to burst out again. She did the only thing she could do, and ran. She ran backstage and out the back door, dropping to her knees hoping that the hot pavement would stop the ice.
“I can’t do this... I can’t... I can’t...” She doubled over, icy tears hitting the pavement and melting on the hot ground.
“Wow. That was terrible.” Seol looked behind her to see Ami and Jae.
Seol laughed bitterly and turned back to the ground. “Come to watch me fail? Well, you got what you wanted.”
“We didn’t want this, Seol Hee.” Jae said.
“Does it matter? I’m ruined. A failure. I can’t do this.”
“Without us.” Ami added.
Seol turned back to them. They weren’t laughing at her, or sneering. They just frowned sadly. “I... I’m sorry. Ami, Jae, I’m sorry. I just wanted us to be perfect, but...”
“We can’t be perfect.” Ami said. “That isn’t why we started.”
“I know.”
Jae knelt down next to her and wrapped her arms around her. “Can we go back to having fun, Seol?”
“Yes... I would like that, Jae.” Seol hugged her back, grateful for the second chance. They both turned to Ami, expectantly.
“I don’t even have my wig.”
“You don’t need it.” Seol assured. “You never did, Ami.” Ami clenched her jaw and pulled Seol to her feet.
“Don’t make me regret this.”
“I won’t. Not again. I need you. Both of you.”
Uncle Duri rushed out the back door. “Did you make up? I managed to hold them off, but you gotta go on now.”
“We’re going right now, Duri.” Said Jae, but Seol stopped them.
“Wait. Let’s do I2I.”
Jae and Ami shared a confused look. “Are you sure? We worked so hard on Starlight.”
“I know, I know. Starlight can wait. I want to do something fun.”
Uncle Duri sighed. “I’ll talk to the DJ.”
“Together?” Seol asked.
Jae put on her pink sunglasses and smiled brightly. “Together.”
Ami took off her hoodie and tied it around her waist. “Together.”
3Soul took the stage and wowed the crowd. Whether they were perfect or not, Seol, Ami, and Jae had fun, and so did the crowd. Their performance was recorded and shared all over, even to other countries.
Seol never felt happier.