The Unsurpassed Maiden

The two of them decided to sit down a few feet away from the doors.

"Are you feeling okay now?" Hae Choon asks the moment he sits down beside the black haired girl.

Mi Young's shoulder was still a little tense but she can breathe now. The black haired girl nodded her head before saying, "Yes. Although there's still this weird feeling looming over me, I can breathe thoroughly now."

"That's good then." Hae Choon replies while nodding his head. He puts a hand on the girl's shoulder once more before giving it a small squeeze. "Don't be so tense. I'll be here watching over you."

Mi Young offered the other party a small smile for that. "Thank you."

After that, a comfortable silence took over the both of them as they watched the two closed doors in front with keen eyes. However, the black haired girl couldn't stop herself anymore and so she started to say, "It was so weird."

"What's weird?"

"Earlier, when I stood in front of the door, a woman's voice kept on calling out for me." Mi Young explained as she tried to recall the incident a while ago. She shivers at the thought of that cold and cunning voice again.

"What was she saying to you?" Hae Choon asks, suddenly curious.

"She said that if I step inside the door I will be able to find answers for all the questions I've been thinking of since day one." The young girl replies while slowly hugging her knees against her chest. "She said that if I find her, she will be able to tell me all the secrets I've been wanting to know."

"Did she tell you where you could find her?" The other party asks.

Mi Young shakes her head. "No. But she said that she knows all about the questions running inside my mind."

The black haired girl casts a side glance at the man sitting beside her and she sees Hae Choon biting his lower lip while looking at his own feet, looking like he was in deep thought. Mi Young couldn't blame him since she herself is confused about the whole incident earlier.

"It was so weird and my body was filled with such fear that I haven't even felt before. Not when I was suddenly brought to the past, not when I thought my friend was going to die. It was a different kind of fear." The black haired girl explains. She felt her body shaking once more as she remembered the voice and the black mist calling out for her.

Mi Young thinks that if Hae Choon wasn't there at that time, she would have gone to the voice already. She couldn't even help but think that if she ever entered that door, she knows she won't be able to see the light of the day anymore.

"Hey." A voice suddenly calls out beside her making Mi Young snap out from her thoughts. "It's okay. It won't happen again. I won't let whoever that was get you, okay? You're safe with me. I promise to Ning Gwang I'll bring you back to her."

Mi Young felt really grateful after hearing those words. The fear from earlier slowly vanishes as she tries to think about her friends back at the academy and her father waiting for her at their old and small home.

"You're right. I won't let the voice get to me this time." The young girl says while giving Hae Choon a confident smile.

"That's more like it!" The other party comments while giving the young girl a wink and a playful smile. "So? Shall we continue?"

The black haired girl nodded her head with determination. She stood up from her sitting position and dusted off her clothes.

The both of them went back to stand in front of the two conjoined doors.

"This time, we'll both stand in front of the door from the right." Hae Choon instructed while pointing at the door with the bright glow. "No more dark rooms and dark auras."

"No more dark rooms and dark auras." The black haired girl says while repeating the other party's words. She gives Hae Choon a thumbs up telling him that she's fine and she's ready to go.

Hae Choon grabs the doorknob and turns it around to open both doors. "On a count of three let's jump together. One!"

Mi Young can hear Hae Choon counting beside her. She can also see the bright glow coming out from the door in front of her. She wonders if they would find an exit through the other door.

"Two…"

Hae Choon was still counting beside Mi Young but the black haired girl could barely hear him. Everything felt like in slow motion for Mi Young as she continued to stare at the glow from the door.

"Three!"

She felt Hae Choon's presence vanish beside her as the other party jumps to the other side of the door. However, when Mi Young was about to follow the taller man, a voice suddenly stopped her.

"Mi Young? Is that you, my child?"

The black haired girl freezes on her spot. She was still looking at the other side of the door. Her mind was screaming at her to jump and that she was only hearing things. However, her body couldn't move. It's like she had lost control over her body and no matter how much she tries to tell it to move, she just couldn't.

"Is that really you, snowflake?"

This time, Mi Young couldn't stop herself as her body turned on the other side of the door, now she was facing the room with the dark aura.

"Who…are you?" Mi Young calls out as she stands face to face with a faceless woman. However, even though the black haired girl couldn't see her face, she had a huge feeling that she knew this woman.

The woman smiled at her as she replied to the girl, "It really is you. My snowflake you have grown so much!"

"Mother?" Mi Young calls out. She knows it was completely impossible.

She had never known her mother. Mi Young's father said that she died while giving birth to her and she would never come back. But somehow, Mi Young knew that this faceless woman standing in front of her is her mother.

"My snowflake."

Snowflake. That's what her father used to call her when she was younger. She remembered asking him  once why he kept on calling her that. Her father answered her with a small smile and said that snowflakes are beautiful. They are also transparent just like Mi Young. But most importantly, snowflakes are fragile. Even though they are made from ice and are used to the cold, they easily crumble once you give them a little warmth.

'Just like you. You look tough and cold to the eyes of the other's but once you are comfortable with someone and they give you their warmth, you become the most fragile and soft person.' Mi Young remembers her father's words. He touches the tip of the young girl's nose before continuing. 'So, don't let anyone say you are cold and heartless because you are a very warm person on the inside, okay my snowflake?'

The black haired girl snapped out of her thoughts when she felt a cold hand grabbing her arms. When Mi Young looked up, the faceless woman was already standing in front of her and gripping her right hand hard.

"W-What?"

"Come with me." The woman says. This time, the warm voice of the woman who she thought was her mother earlier was now gone, replaced with the cold and cunning voice who kept on calling out for her earlier.

"L-Let go of me!" The black haired girl manages to say while trying to push away the faceless woman.

However, despite her struggles, the woman's hands kept on gripping her. It felt like something was pulling her and helping the woman from letting her escape. Mi Young wanted to scream and run but her body couldn't move.

She tried to call out her mana energy but there was no response inside her. Mi Young panicked the moment she realized that she couldn't use her abilities.

"What have you done to me!?" The black haired student shouts as she looks at the faceless woman.

Even though Mi Young couldn't see her face, she knew that the faceless woman was smiling wickedly at her. "You're going with me."

"No! Let go of me! Give me back my mana!" Mi Young shouts from the top of her lungs.

The woman laughed at her before black mists started coming out from the door on the left. The black haired girl sees the black mist encircling around her legs as it starts to pull her closer towards the door along with the faceless woman who kept on laughing.

"No! No! Help!" Mi Young shouts in panic. "Hae Choon! Kwang Soo! Anyone!"

"No one is going to help you here.." The faceless woman says before a strong gust of wind enveloped the two of them.