Project IZ*ONE: Secret Files

Cat and Mouse: Part 5

With everyone now on high alert, Sakura assumed Seoyoung would bide her time until her next attack and she was being proven right thus far. There had been no reports for the past three days which gave the group time to prepare and plan their next move. Once they were all recovered from the fight, Eunbi gave them the go ahead to take over the mission while she worked on communicating with all of the other mutants who were outside campus.

"So, you find anything out from Goeun?" Chaewon asks the tech girl. The two were gathered in the war room with the other members of the group Chaewon had called "Le Sserafim" after spending all of yesterday training and working on their chemistry against Yujin and IVE. The two groups agreed that it would be good for both of them to be able to spar and train with each other. Their teamwork wasn't perfect yet, but it was certainly improved compared to the first time they ran up against Seoyoung.

"Mhm, she gave me enough information to figure out her attack pattern." Sakura replies thinking back to last night.

Goeun had left campus a few weeks earlier to pursue her personal interests. She ended up joining a band called "Purple Kiss" and was preparing for a gig that night when she decided to take a walk by the park to destress. As she was strolling through the greenery though, she felt someone following her...someone she couldn't see when she turned around. She'd gotten the notice from Sakura about Seoyoung being on the prowl and decided to activate the distress beacon just in case. A couple minutes of agitated walking later, she was blindsided by an invisible figure.

She managed to get some separation using her sonic screech, but Goeun was already bleeding from the earlier ambush. Seoyoung stalked her down like a hungry lion and pummeled her down. Goeun said that the rogue mutant could've ended her life right there, but she instead chose to drag her to the river after noticing the phone that had fallen from her pocket.

"Consider yourself lucky that I'm just using you as bait for now." Seoyoung had said. Shortly after, the blonde girl absorbed Goeun's power, causing her to lose consciousness.

"Wait, so you think she wanted to get to you?" Yunjin asks to which Sakura nods.

"Yes, and I have a theory on why. When I hack devices and locks, I don't actually end up knowing what the passwords and security codes are unless I actively look for them. I don't usually feel the need to do that because with a simple thought, the machine will move to my will. My guess is that even if Seoyoung stole powers, she didn't know them well enough to think of looking for my passwords. She just got used to commanding them to open until the powers she absorbed faded away. Now, if she or whoever she's working for wants to open my laptop again, they need me."

"Why can't they just hack into it normally or use a USB?" Kazuha asks which elicits a sly grin from the tech girl.

"I have safety measures installed that cause the laptop to self-destruct if anyone without my fingerprint tries to extract anything." Sakura says.

"Uh...remind me not to download movies on unnie's personal devices." Eunchae quips.

"Yeah, a little overboard, don't you think, unnie?" Yunjin adds, but the older girl shakes her head.

"My data and personal gadgets are very important. You can never be too prepared..." She begins to say until she realizes it was her overplanning that got them into this mess in the first place. "But...maybe you do have a point."

"Okay, with all that in mind, what's the plan to find her? It's not like Seoyoung will just show up if we ask nicely." Chaewon says, trying to get them back on track. She realized now as a leader that keeping everyone on the same page was a difficult task. How she managed to keep order with 12 girls was a miracle in itself.