When Eunbi, Chaewon and Minjoo arrive at the auditorium, the place was bustling with energy. Most of the soldiers had been run out of the base already, and the trainees gathered inside were all conversing about the recent traumatic events. The leader scans the hall she'd sat in many times until she locks eyes with a familiar face.
"Eunbi-unnie! What took you girls so long?" Yujin greets as she walks up to them. When she talked to the younger girl earlier, she'd sounded a bit rattled, but the puppy now had her usual bright smile on her face again. Eunbi wanted to respond, but there were still so many thoughts running through her head. What could they have possibly told her?
"Unnie? Everything okay? Where's Hyewon-unnie?" Yujin asks when Eunbi doesn't immediately respond. There was this somber expression on the leader's face that she could tell meant something went wrong.
"Uhm, how about Chaewon and I explain it to you first and give Eunbi-unnie some time to rest a bit?" Minjoo suggests after a few more silent seconds go by. Yujin slowly nods, but still had concern etched on her face.
"Alright...I'll save my final reports for when we meet up with the others again later. Take it easy, Eunbi-unnie. We're all here for you if you need us." Yujin says before being led away by Minjoo.
"You gonna be okay?" Chaewon asks. She'd known Eunbi for a long time, but she'd never seen her like this before.
"Y-Yeah...I just need to think a bit more. I'll meet up with Saku-chan first before going to the mission debriefing." She replies. Chaewon looked like she was going to say more, but decides against it, turning to catch up with Minjoo and Yujin.
After a few minutes of making her way through the crowd, replying hello to the trainees who would greet her, Eunbi finds herself at the back area of the auditorium. She'd never actually been there before. This was normally the place where the trainers and Seunggi would stay before walking up to the front where they would address the trainees. Sakura was actually the one who found out about the place by looking at the campus maps the day before. After passing by a couple rooms, Eunbi arrived at the one she was told to meet up at and steps in. Inside, she saw Sakura who nodded at her, as well as Chaeyeon who was tending to someone laying down on a makeshift bed.
"Hey..." Eunbi greets. Chaeyeon, who hadn't noticed the leader walk in, turns at the sound of her voice.
"Why didn't you tell me right away?" She asks. Eunbi knew this would be coming. She'd wanted to tell Chaeyeon some other time, but she was too late.
"Why, unnie? Why didn't you tell me my sister was under the enemy's control?!" Chaeyeon yells angrily.
"I-I'm sorry, Chaeyeon. I...I just didn't want you to do anything rash. I thought I would've had time to tell you after this mission, but evidently, I was wrong." Eunbi finally replies, the guilt creeping up on her.
"Rash? What if I accidentally hurt Chaeryeong more because I didn't know it was her? We're lucky that Yena only stunned her. Did everyone else know?"
"Everyone except you, Sakura, Hii-chan and Nako..."
"Why didn't you trust me with that information? Don't you think I deserved to know that? I thought she was safe at JYP, and now I find out she was with the enemy the whole time!" Chaeyeon's words felt like daggers being thrown at Eunbi. She was already hurt about the situation with Hyewon, but seeing how hurt Chaeyeon was made her feel worse.
"Chaeyeon, calm down. She made a logical choice in the moment." Sakura interjects, trying to defuse the situation.
"You're really taking her side?" Chaeyeon replies.
YOU ARE READING
Project IZ*ONE II
Action*IZ*ONE superhero AU* A couple months have passed since the incident in Busan, but IZ*ONE's work has only just begun. A new threat is now looming and it is up to them to put a stop to it. Though separated for now, they still fight for the same cause...
