Array of Tales (Michaeng)

STUCK 1

Studying penguin's wasn't exactly what she'd gone to college for. At the ripe old age of 29, Dr. Myoui Mina is the world's foremost authority on Penguinology. Well, one of two but she didn't want to think about the other one. Her PhD was actually in ornithology but a spotlight article in Zoology Today had led to the moniker and now she was stuck with it.

She loved her work, had dedicated her life to it but as she sat perch on the edge of a frozen cliff in the South Pole, she finds herself questioning the decisions that led her to this moment.

Antarctica was fucking cold, it was the end of winter but it was still a shocking -45 °F at 11:00am and daylight would last only a few more hours. The vivacious brunette doctor was shivering despite many, many layers of the thickest clothes known to man.

She was huddle under several blankets as she press her trusty binoculars to her obsidian eyes, watching dozens of Emperor penguins mating.

They were serial monogamists, something she simultaneously pitied and envied. As she heard a snowmobile come to a stop behind her, she was leaning toward pity. Looking over her shoulder, she groans. If she had to spend her entire lifetime with that arrogant dimpled asshat, she'd throw herself off the cliff.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

"It's a free tundra" Dr. Son Chaeyoung, the world's other leading Penguinologist, responds as she flashes a devilish smirk.

"And of all the icebergs in Antarctica, you just happened to choose this one?" Mina mocks with a raised brow.

Chaeyoung shrugs as she settles herself beside Mina and starts taking pictures. "It's the best spot to catch the mating rituals."

"Which is why I picked it, go somewhere else." Mina grumbles

Chaeyoung chuckles at the petulance in her tone, always amused by her intense dislike. They'd both been up for the Zoological Society of London's prestigious Frink Medal three years prior.

Mina had won and Chaeyoung had never gotten over it and thus a rivalry was born. Their relationship was equal parts competition and academic rivalry with just a dash of thinly veiled sexual tension.

Zoologists all around the world had suggested they team up on the Emperor penguin project but they were too stubborn to ever admit they'd work well together. And so both doctors had acquired funding for trips to the frozen continent and both intended to publish alone, each determined to have the better findings.

Ignoring her wishes, Chaeyoung flashes her a charming smile complete with a dimple. Mina narrows her eyes and hatefully glares at her before returning to the binoculars.

An hour past as they sat there competing for the best shots, each making dramatic comments when something noteworthy happened across the water. It had been lightly snowing for days but they both knew what it meant when the flurries began to pick up. "You know sweetheart your cabin is much farther from this spot than mine."

"Yeah because you had your ambassador sister make sure you got it!We both know I had it booked first." Mina fires back clenching her fists around her binoculars.

Chaeyoung waves her hand dismissively. "Booking accidents happen all the time." she lies with an amused smile playing about her strawberry lips. "The point is we're headed for a blizzard best get going."