Treasure tales

Jaehyuk #14: Wearing masks

"How about this. I will go scout the area and see who it is," Yoshi suggested, obviously ignoring Jeongwoo's comments. "Maybe even ascertain how much of a threat this stranger superpower user is. Then I will teleport back and report."

"Too dangerous," Jihoon immediately dismissed it. "Don't forget what happened when we entered the portal. They easily cancelled our powers. What happens if you cannot come back?"

"I am a spy," Yoshi responded after a while. "After all, that's the name that was given to my power. If I am careless enough to let them detect my presence for them to use that on me, then I will have failed my duties."

"Too dangerous," Hyunsuk repeated. "We don't even know the extent of our enemies' powers. Perhaps its not your incompentency, but more of because they are too overpowered. We should still stay together, just in case."

"Then what do you suggest?" Yoshi argued helplessly. "As you said, we don't know anything about them. If I go and they are indeed too overpowered, then only I will die. If we all go together, the size of the group will alert the enemy very quickly and we will all die. Is that what you want? I thought better of you, Choi Hyunsuk."

"You don't understand," Hyunsuk fired back. "I am the leader. I cannot allow anybody to die."

"Oh, stop with that crap," Doyoung argued. "What did your leadership lead to last time? Did you know how many sleepless nights Yedam and I had afterwards?"

"Stop arguing!" Mashiho exploded. "Hyunsuk is already trying very hard as the leader. I know tensions are high right now. Nobody expected to suddenly be thrown back in after we thought we were finally free of the mess. But will fighting do anything?"

Hyunsuk groaned. "Why must this happen," He said in despair. "We were utterly powerless the previous time. What do we do! Oh, what can we do..."

"I suggest we all take a rest," Haruto said. "Let's discuss again while we are calmer. Talking like this will worsen things."

The members unanimously agreed with Haruto's suggestion. Everyone but Asahi appeared shaken. The last time I witnessed an argument like this, it was when we were locked up. What reason would make us this stressed now? Especially since everyone was so much more in harmony previously.

"It's simple. Trauma," I murmured. It was not the external environment causing all the tension, but the memories. We were terrified of being locked up like that again.

I walked to Jeongwoo, who was staring listlessly into space, and sat down beside him. 

"Are you okay?" I asked him, noticing that he had very big eye circles.

"I'm not," He confessed. "I've been feeling terrible, Rin. Terrible. You know the masked guy of Bigbang? The only one who always has a mask on? I don't know why his voice sounds so familiar. It's been bugging me since the day he finally opened his mouth and spoke. It's been keeping me awake day and night."

"Familiar?" I asked in surprise. "Maybe because he spoke twelve years ago?"

"That's not it," Jeongwoo said confidently. "That's definitely not it. I'm sure he has the voice of someone who means alot to me, but I cannot place a finger on who it is."

"I know this may sound rude," I said after a while. "But is it part of the reason why you refuse to make up with Jaehyuk? He seems really sad about it. I'm sure you mean alot to him."

"That is a separate matter," Jeongwoo responded stubbornly. "Jaehyuk is too selfish. I got sick of that."

Selfish? I was confused. If anything, he was the most selfless person I knew.

"You won't understand, Rin," Jeongwoo said after a while. "You really really like him. Everybody can see that. You'll turn a blind eye to everything I try to say."

"What?" I said, turning red. "What do you mean? Why would you say that? No matter how good of a person Jaehyuk is in my eyes, I know how to be objective, you know?"

Jeongwoo shook his head. "Jaehyuk has always been like a big brother to me," He said after a while. "For the longest time I was also really taken by him. In fact, I probably still am. He gave me love at a time when I needed it the most. He was always there for me. He chased away loneliness before it could get to me, and always protected me. He was like a hero to me."

"Then, why?" I asked.

"That is why you cannot understand, Rin," Jeongwoo responded angrily. "I only know because I've known him for so very long."

"Then, why are you telling me all this now?" I asked. "After stubbornly staying silent about it all this time?"

"Who knows?" Jeongwoo said quietly. "Maybe I just wanted to let it out to someone."

Jaehyuk stood up abruptly after about one hour of silence. Some members had already gone off to play video games by themselves. As for me, I had settled with reading a novel. By the looks of it, nobody was ever going to discuss anything. Nobody was in the mood to deal with the crisis at hand.

"Don't mind me," Jaehyuk said. "If we're just going to sit around and do nothing, I have to go back to work. Sorry, people. I really hope there is a way my power could benefit us. I promise I'll give my best in brainstorming for how I could do that. We are twelve, and that's how we will fight."

"Keep trying," Jeongwoo said cynically.

I watched helplessly as Jaehyuk left, and the meeting was effectively dissolved.

Jaehyuk took a deep breath as he left the neighbourhood. He looked into the sky. He had lied to the others, to Rin. He wasn't going back to work. He had seen the location of the enemy on Jeongwoo's computer, and he was determined to hunt them down himself.

Furthermore, he did already know how to use his powers without killing anybody:

"Your power is celestial manipulation," Taeyang had said to him once during the procedures to restore his powers. "Twelve years ago, I sealed your powers because you could easily destroy the earth with them, and you were too young and immature to take anything seriously. But you are old enough now, so I can restore them. Listen carefully, Jaehyuk. Anything big enough could cause large scale destruction. Especially if you don't know how to handle your powers. But say, what if you first broke celestial objects into small, perhaps even microscopic pieces and sent them to earth. Could you have some use for these things? Think carefully. You have the power to crush them however you like, after all."

"Why are you telling me this?" Jaehyuk asked in surprise. "Why are you restoring my powers? Weren't you all planning to harm us?"

"Yes, and we still are," Taeyang said after a short pause. "It'll be boring if the battle ended so quickly, though. Maybe if you could help, we'll have an more exciting time destroying you all."

"Not a chance," Jaehyuk gritted his teeth. "I'll destroy all of you before you can even touch those precious to me. Everybody will live. Rin will live. I'll make sure of it. I will be useful, for once. I've always depended on them, but now...only I have to die, if it must come to it."