[Novel] The Mirror [Chapter 2 (1/2)]

CHAPTER 2

"Welcome!"

Myungwoo steps into a beautiful cafe and a smile instantly forms on his handsome face as he knows the person who just greeted him. It's Lee Daesun, an owner of CAKE AND BISTRO, his favorite cafe. Daesun is behind the counter, standing side by side with their handsome and popular barista. 

"May I have..."

"Cold americano, sir?" guess the barista.

"Right. You remember my favorite drink!"

"I do. With an extra espresso shot?"

"Extra two shots today. Thank you," Myungwoo then facing Daesun, "such a gift to have a barista like him here."

"I agree," Daesun chuckled, "what happened to you? You look tired. Did you have a lot of overtime work lately?"

"Is the dark circle under my eyes so visible? Well, it's not exactly overtime work but... I do have some extra work to do lately."

"I won't be surprised if you'll move into a new apartment soon."

"Well, I don't need a big apartment since I'm mostly just by myself since Minseong is too busy with his group."

"You're right. I see Minseong's face everywhere."

They both are laughing. Lee Daesun is Myungwoo's high school friend. He was quite popular in the school because of his rather dark exotic skin, tall figure and his singing and dancing talent. He also can make really nice coffee.

"I rarely see you here. Busy with other things?" asked Myungwoo as he paid for his coffee.

"Right. I have some other plans for the cafe."

"Excuse me! May I have your time?"

A bright young man with a pretty smile walking closer to the counter. In his hand, he holds a cup of coffee while a camera is hanging on his neck. On the other hand, he is holding some kind of pamphlets.

"Sure. What can I do for you?" asked Daesun.

The young man gives them the pamphlets, one for Daesun and the other one for Myungwoo. Myungwoo quickly read the pamphlet.

"Oh, is the festival time already? Alpha School's birthday?" asked Myungwoo with big eyes.

"Yes. And this time we'll celebrate it merrier because it's the 20th birthday!" answered the young man with a bright smile, "I hope you will come and visit us."

Of course we will come. I have been a student of Alpha School since Secondary," said Daesun.

"Then you must be my sunbaenim! Sunbaenim, nice to meet you. I'm Park Minsook, a 3rd year student of Alpha University, majoring in Arts."

He bows to them.

"I'm Kim Myungwoo and he is Lee Daesun. We'll come and enjoy the celebration!"

"Thank you so much, sunbaenim!"

And the cheerful Park Minsook left the cafe.

"Myungwoo, look! THE TOP will be performing too! It will be super crowded then."

Myungwoo is feeling excited as he sees the bottom part of the pamphlet where the picture of Minseong and his group members is placed.

Myungwoo swings his ax once again and kills the last imp. As the imp screams and falls to the ground, the environment around Myungwoo changes from a virtual forest to the castle's yard. Myungwoo sits on the grass while breathing heavily. He is getting used to his ax, at least it doesn't feel as heavy as the first time he used it. He grabs a bottle of chocolate and is still trying to normalize his breath. He just finished his first training session for today, and is thinking of having more training sessions since it's still 7 PM in the real world. But suddenly, Bonhwa appears beside him, he is sweating from top to toe, and he falls to the ground, and doesn't even mind sitting. He let go of his spear while breathing heavily too.

"Bonhwa! I didn't know you were here either!" said Myungwoo in surprise.

"I'm just sleeping on my couch in the office," said Bonhwa slowly, then swallowing his saliva before continuing, "I think I came earlier than you. And finished later. You're such a fighter hyeong."

Come to the mirror world, that's how Myungwoo named this place, it has already become a routine for him, Bonhwa and Minseong. They really need to come to have a training session. It has been a week since the incident of Ok Halmeoni and until now, they haven't encountered another accident. Minseong is the only one who comes here the least because he is really busy with his schedule. Bonhwa rolls a little to take another bottle of chocolate.

"Wanna continue?" asked Myungwoo.

"Maybe I can take one more session."

"You two are improving a lot."

Sungmi the princess walked closer to them while smiling. She is still the same pale as before. 

"If you two keep improving like this, I have nothing to worry about."

"But princess, don't you think... is it too quiet lately?"

"I agree with you, Myungwoo. Before I awakened the three of you, I was fighting for almost everyday. I just hope it doesn't mean a bad sign, when it's this quiet and peaceful."

"Is there any bad scenario about it?"

"I'm just afraid the information about the three of you getting awakened is being known by the evil side guardians. But maybe I'm just worrying too much. I guess nobody knows yet."

"I hope so too then."

"Let me tell you some other things that you guys need to know."

Sungmi is sitting in front of Myungwoo and Bonhwa - who are already sitting too. 

"Myungwoo, as I already said before, you are the leader of the Element Guardians. Do you know why? You're the only person who has the omega ability."

"Omega? What is that?"

"The ability to cut the string that absorbs human's energy. You remember I told you to cut the halmeoni's string last time, right? And once again, you are the only one who can do it," Sungmi staring at Bonhwa with a very fierce stare, "so the other Guardians must protect Myungwoo no matter what will happen."

"So how did you cut the string before you awakened Myungwoo hyeong?" asked Bonhwa curiously.

"I had this power for a while before, but it's really wasting my energy, so when I awakened Myungwoo, I erased this ability."

"Now we really sound like we are in the game world..."

"And you, Bonhwa. You also have ability."

"I do? What? Is it as cool as Omega?"

"You can turn into an animal. We call these people animorph."

"Wow! So I can change into any animal I want?"

"Well, not really all animals... as far as I can remember, you can change into... a rabbit."

"Rab... what? Rabbit?"

Bonhwa just let his bottle roll down on the ground while Myungwoo doesn't know whether he can laugh or not in this situation. 

"And as you become a rabbit, you can communicate with the other rabbits. This is really useful, it can help you gain information and also hide in a very dangerous situation."

"I wanna see you as a rabbit," said Myungwoo, finally can't hold his giggles.

"I'm not sure it's that useful."

"You will know once you get trained. So instead of just training with your weapon, you can try to train your animorph ability today."

"Alright. Just... tell me what to do."

"I really can't wait to see the rabbit Bonhwa."

"Hyeong, please stop teasing me."

But until the end of that day, Myungwoo hadn't seen the rabbit version of Bonhwa. Maybe he has a really hard training session for that ability.

"Myungwoo, I'm here!"

Myungwoo can see the tall figure of Daesun, waiting for him in front of the Alpha School's gate. Myungwoo walked faster to him.

"What a sad life for us. We should've come here with a girlfriend but instead of girlfriend, we come with a friend here," said Daesun while laughing.

"Rather than come alone, right?" teased Myungwoo as they got in together, "you know Cho Bonhwa, right?"

"Of course. He is that young CEO who graduated from our university too, right?"

"Right. I invited him to come here but he is stuck in a meeting today."

"That's sad. By the way, it has been three years since I visited here."

"I still come here regularly as Minseong's guardian."

Alpha School is a school consisting of elementary, secondary, high school and university. The area they occupied is so big. And for the festival which is held for 2 days and 1 night this year, almost all areas of this school are occupied. 

"What time will be THE TOP performance?" asked Daesun while looking around.

"It will be at 7. Still quite long, anyway, so let's play games or eat?"

They're walking leisurely around the tents. As the time goes by, more people come to the festival.

"Hey Myungwoo, how about playing archery?"

"Sure."

They walk closer to the archery tent.

"Oh, two sunbaenim!"

The person who is in charge of the archery tent is the cheerful Park Minsook. He is smiling brightly and makes his two dimples visible. 

"Do you wanna try archery? If you can shoot 5 times in the bull's eye, you can have a voucher to eat!"

Myungwoo giggles, "that sounds good. I also feel hungry."

"So both of us will try."

They pay for the archery ticket and in instance, Minsook gives both of them the bow and prepares some arrows on his hand. Both Myungwoo and Daesun are now in their position. 

"You go first."

Daesun takes the arrow from Minsook's hand confidently and gets ready to shoot the arrow. Once he sets the target, he quickly releases the arrow and... it hits the bull's eye! Myungwoo can hear the loud gasps and clapping hands around them.

"WOW SUNBAENIM!" scream Minsook while clapping his hands together.

"Have you ever played archery before?" asked Myungwoo in awe.

"No, this is my first time," answered Daesun while giggling.

"Please teach me so I won't look too stupid."

"You never do bad in sports, Myungwoo, but yes, let me tell you the basics."

Following Daesun's instructions, Myungwoo finally shoots his first arrow, but it only hits the outer circle of the target. 

"I can say that's not bad for the first try, sunbaenim."

Daesun quietly focuses on shooting again. He doesn't really need a long time to set the target before he releases his second arrow... again to the bull's eye! People are shouting and clapping their hands again and it attracts more people to come and watch them. Myungwoo got his second chance and he hit one circle closer than the first time. But he still can't surpass Daesun's archery skill, as if he becomes one with the bow.

"For the last one, do you want the harder target, sunbaenim? I can push the target further."

"Sure, do that to me."

Minsook goes across the tent to move the target further, for around 1 meter more. Suddenly all people are quiet and concentrate on watching Daesun. Daesun takes a deep breath, being focused and...

"NOT ANOTHER BULL'S EYE!" scream Minsook like a commentator.

Daesun giggled as he received the voucher from Minsook.

"Thank you, Minsook! It was fun!"

"Please don't come again hyeong, or we'll go bankrupt."

"Come to the cafe tomorrow if you aren't busy, or the day after tomorrow and I'll treat you!"

"Thank you sunbaenim!"

Minsook bow politely as Daesun and Myungwoo walk away together.

"What do you wanna eat?" asked Daesun who still can't stop giggling.

"I think you need to change your job now. Just be an athlete."

People around Myungwoo and Daesun keep talking about Daesun and his skill, it seems that the news spread so fast. They even still can hear people talking about it when they finish eating two large bowls of udon - each of them two bowls. 

"Myungwoo, do you wanna visit our old classes?" Daesun pointed at the third floor of the high school building which is rather dark, "I just miss our old time."

"Sure, let's go there. We still have enough time before the hall opens for THE TOP."

They go to the elevator and Daesun presses the number three. Soon, the noise from the crowd gets quieter as they don't use second and third floors for the festival.

"I forgot that the school is usually this quiet at night," said Daesun as he stepped out of the elevator.

"You were just staying late at school near the exam time. But for me, it was almost everyday."

"Right. I remember you like to hang out at school in the music room or just play random sports. Ah, that leisure time..."

"You call studying as leisure time? I can't understand how your smart brain works..."

The two men keep walking around the corridor, turning on the lamp randomly before turning it off again after they walk away.

"They have a bigger and nicer lab now," said Daesun with an envious tone in his voice.

"I remember we need to share the lab equipment between 5 to 10 people," Myungwoo sighed before he took out his phone, "oh I got a call from Bonhwa. Excuse me for a while."

Myungwoo walks away to the elevator area in a hurry while Daesun keeps walking around. Then something interesting taking Daesun's attention. There are voices from the women's bathroom area, but the area itself is dark. Then Daesun hears a scream, not a very loud scream, it is short but sharp, before it ends so quickly as it appears. Daesun really wants to check if something happens inside, but he knows he shouldn't enter the women's bathroom. When he considered what he should do, a young woman in uniform stepped out of the bathroom area.

"Oh hi, is something happening? Are you the one who is screaming just now?" asked Daesun carefully.

But the young woman kept looking down while walking slowly, her  long hair covering her face, while on her hand, she held a short knife... and Daesun just realized there was blood on the knife. Daesun steps back in confusion and in fright while his eyes focus on the knife.

"I can feel... the excitement... the dark excitement... a lot of it here. It will be a good power source for the lord..."

"What are you talking about?"

Daesun knows he doesn't sound so brave now, his voice sounds trembling. But he can't just faint here right? 

"You! You have a lot of energy! I should get yours!"

Daesun is screaming and his legs are giving up then his back leaning against the wall. As the young woman raises her knife, transparent and bloody people appear out of nowhere behind her. Daesun wanna scream "ghost" as he knows exactly what that is, but he lost his voice. The ghost, there are 4 of them, now surrounding Daesun. The young woman waves her knife and suddenly he feels so dizzy, his body weaker, and he can see a bright string appear from his chest to the nearest big picture on the wall. He wants to cut the string with his hand, but he has no power to even raise up his arm, or to scream... He lost his energy as time went by...

"DAESUN!"

He still has a little energy just to realize Myungwoo is the one who screams and runs from the other corridor. The young woman screams loudly and the ghosts are flying towards Myungwoo. He can't believe what he sees, Myungwoo is fighting with his ax, swinging it to the ghosts. The ghosts scream louder as they try to avoid Myungwoo's attack. Myungwoo slid on the floor and reached Daesun shorthly, then he used his ax to cut off the string. Myungwoo looks cool, Daesun thought. And he just realized that he can think now. He isn't as weak as before.