Day 275, 09:23 - November 7, 2030

  Throughout the past 2 weeks, besides normal training, Seohwa had been busy absorbing the poison of many patients daily. And each day she came to visit, more people woke up and reunited with their families.

  Seohwa breathed in as she became more skilful in absorbing poison. When her purple veins absorbed the poison of her 55th patient, she looked up and saw Hawk humming cheerfully. She removed her hands and saw Herb check the patient’s vitals before giving a thumbs up.

  Herb shook her hand, grateful. Seohwa grew tired of people thanking her 24/7 as of late considering she was just training.

  Hawk who stood quietly then stepped forward eagerly, “8-33. There is still one last patient. Are you still good to go?”

  Seohwa smiled as she looked down at her arms filled with purple veins, “Give me a few minutes to settle first.”

  Hawk chuckled, “Take your time. I’ve waited many years, I can handle a few more.”

  Seohwa knew that he was referring to this ‘Goldie’ person but she never had the chance to ask considering Hawk always looked down at the mention of her. Though now, he’s been growing brighter by the day.

  After 30 minutes had passed, the purple veins disappeared in Seohwa’s arms as she looked at Hawk, “I’m good to go.”

  Hawk hummed a tune of a song she’s never heard before. She then noticed how neatly dressed Hawk looked compared to his usual attire, “You look nice.”

  “Really? I made sure to put in the effort just in case she wakes up.”

  “You know she probably won’t until a few days later, right?”

  “…True, but, you never know~” Hawk whistled before stopping, “Seriously… Thank you cadet 8-33. You’re an amazing gal.”

  Seohwa froze as she got goosebumps from his cringey sincerity, “Sir Hawk, I think you should consider not being this genuine than usual… It’s a bit creepy.”

  “Hey!” Hawk ruffled her hair out of spite. He stopped after a while and glanced at the private ward labelled ‘Goldie’. He whispered, finally feeling the reality settling in, “We’re here.”

  Seohwa followed him in the special ward. Before she went to the woman with golden-locks, Hawk stopped her for a moment. He sat beside the lying woman and traced her pale cheeks, “Hello, love. I came today with a very special person… you might know her as the cadet I’m mentoring… the one I’ve been telling you about… she might be able to heal you.”

  Seohwa stayed quiet, a bit surprised that Hawk could make such a tender loving face. She watched him kiss the woman’s cheeks softly before he pulled back.

  He faced Seohwa and smiled, “…Cadet 8-33. I want you to meet my wife. Her code name is Goldie, a rare healing awakener. And the forefront saviour of the whole Grey army who purified the most poison back in a mission a few years back.”

  Seohwa’s eyes widened when he revealed his relationship to Goldie. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Thank you.” Hawk stepped back as he allowed Seohwa to get close to Goldie.

  Seohwa gently touched Goldie’s hands and closed her eyes to begin finding the poison in her body.

  She frowned when she checked Goldie’s body. She checked again and again as she muttered, “I… don’t understand…”

  Hawk observing her urgently asked, “What don’t you understand? What’s wrong?”

  “I… I can’t find any trace of poison in her body.” Seohwa glanced towards him feeling like she just disappointed him.

  “What?! Check again!” Hawk urged. Seohwa did as he said and checked again but the results stayed the same. She shook her head, “I’m sorry… it’s still the same…”

  “No. No. If there’s no poison, that means she should’ve woken up by now…. Maybe she got a stronger poison? We should increase your poison detection training… it's still flawed if it can’t find it…” Hawk was panicking as Seohwa didn’t say anything.

  Seohwa wondered why there was no poison in her system.

  Hawk sat on the chair tugging his hair as he muttered, “Herb definitely said she had poison back then… So why… why…”

  With his words, Seohwa had an idea as she asked, “You said she was a healer type?”

  “Yeah, she is… why?” Hawk raised his tired gaze towards her.

  “…She must have purified it on her own.” Seohwa explained, “But because, as you know, awakeners need stamina to use their abilities, she had to heal it slowly throughout the years. She must have purified everything recently, about a month ago, considering her body’s condition…”

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  “Then, why isn’t she waking up?” Hawk stepped closer to Goldie and held her hand.

  “She used too much stamina… I can only absorb poison. What you need is a healing awakener that either speeds up her recovery or boosts stamina recovery.”

  Hawk sighed, “That’s unlikely…”

  “What do you mean? Surely, there should be other healers?”

  Hawk chuckled hopelessly, “There were only 20 healers among all of Gen2 and Gen3… that’s how rare healers are. And all 20 of them were among the ones you saved.”

  Seohwa paused, realising the implications, “…But at this rate, she’s not going to make it…”

  Hawk sighed as he glanced at Goldie’s sleeping face, “8-33, do you mind giving us some space?”

  Seohwa clenched her fists as she bowed, “It was nice meeting you, Ms Goldie.” She left the ward room and bit her lips. She didn’t like this. To give someone so much hope, only to disappoint them. Seohwa walked back to the cadet training hall wanting to work out her stress.

  ***

  Same day, 10:25.

  Siiiiiiiiiggggghhhh.

  Jiho peeked at Seohwa who had been in a daze since coming back from the Ward. Yerin nudged Jiho, “Hey, you know what happened?”

  Jiho shrugged.

  “You’re useless then.” Yerin clicked her tongue in irritation.

  “Huh?! Seriously, can you stop that?!” Jiho stood up as the two had a glaring contest. Taeseok, who was nearby, calmly separated them, “Saaay, let’s be friends… want some munchies?”

  “…”

  Jiho crossed his arms and huffed, “No thanks, hyung.”

  Yerin crossed her arms and turned the other way, “I’ll get fat, so no thank you.”

  As they did their usual skit, Hwayeon walked towards Seohwa and sat next to her, “…Want to talk about it?”

  “…Just feeling useless.”

  !!!

  Everyone was startled by Seohwa’s sudden confession. Jiho and Yerin glanced together and had a temporary truce. Jiho said, “But you're not though?”

  Yerin nodded, “I hate to agree with Jiho, but he's right. You’re a tri-awakener, a hard-worker and you’ve been saving so many agents as of late. You’re not useless. You’re incredible.”

  Seohwa knew they were trying to comfort her as she retorted, “But, I couldn’t save the person that mattered…” Especially to Hawk.

  She continued, “What’s the point if the strength I’ve gathered can’t protect what’s important to me?”

  Jiho, Yerin and Hwayeon couldn’t find a response but Taeseok, who was listening in, asked in a nonchalant tone, “Then, are you saying the people you’ve saved aren’t important?”

  “… No, that’s not what—!”

  “They’re pretty important, if you ask me. They have families of their own and what you just did helped them reunite with their families, isn’t that important?” Taeseok munched on his snacks as if Seohwa’s problem wasn’t even a problem.

  “But, what if it’s a personal problem of someone close to me?” Seohwa lowered her head.

  “I think you’re underestimating the value of hope.” Taeseok replied and noticed he ran out of chips, “For example, this packet only has a limited amount of chips and every time I finish one, I despair. But then, I remembered…” He searched his pockets and got another unopened packet, “Tada! I still have another and I’m happy again.”

  Jiho incredulously asked, “What does that have to do with hope?”

  “Shut up, buffoon.” Yerin sighed.

  “It’s not like you understand it either.” Jiho rebutted.

  Yerin hesitated before grumbling, “…shut up.”

  Hwayeon was flabbergasted at the chip packet example as she chuckled, “I think what he’s saying is, if a person has a difficult problem and the standard solution doesn’t work, the hope of finding another solution can cause a person to keep going. They will think, ‘This might be it!’ and if it doesn’t, they’ll keep searching. Is that right?”

  Taeseok nodded as he ripped open that same chip packet, “And besides, a funny thing about hope is that it comes at the oddest times…”

  Seohwa was pondering his words when Rhino came in with a thin boy who had light brown hair and light green eyes. Rhino yelled, “Line up! This is cadet 6-27, he is a healer type awakener using plants.”

  Seohwa quickly stood up shocked and looked at Taeseok who smirked while shrugging. Seohwa ran towards 6-27 and held his hands, “Please come with me.”

  6-27 was flustered at the girl’s boldness “Huh? Don’t hold my hands… I haven’t taken a shower yet!” He blushed, conscious of the fact he may stink.

  Pfft!

  Jiho, Yerin, and Hwayeon held their laughter as Taeseok murmured, “He’s a good guy…” Taeseok continued to chew his chips.

  Seohwa shook her head, “I meant, come with me to save someone.” 6-27 paused before he nodded.

  She then faced Rhino, “He’s needed to save Ms Goldie…. Please let us go there.”

  Rhino flinched at the name of Goldie as he felt conflicted considering he isn’t supposed to let them enter the Ward without permission. He groaned as he ruffled his hair, “…Just this once, I’ll ignore the fact some cadets infiltrated the Ward and stole my keycard to get there.” He turned away as Seohwa pulled the keycard out of his pocket. “Thank you, sir!”

  Seohwa pulled 6-27 and used her wind to boost their speed.

  Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!

  Poor 6-27 felt a gush of wind on his face as he couldn’t keep up with her and was pulled along.

  10:40 - The Ward, Goldie’s Room.

  Hawk kissed Goldie’s knuckles softly when he jolted at the sudden, loud entrance of Seohwa and one other.

  Hawk was flustered, “What are you doing here again? And who’s this? You know you can’t bring random peo—!”

  “He’s a healer!” Seohwa panted. She looked back and saw 6-27 retching on the floor from the roller coaster ride. She looked back at Hawk, “Just… give him a few minutes.”

  Hawk sighed, “Look I appreciate what you’re doing but, I’m already… it’s just too lat—!”

  “This is the other chip packet!” Seohwa interjected.

  “Chip packet?” Hawk tilted his head.

  “Sorry, I mean, how do you know unless you don’t try?” Seohwa stood up straight with a determined gaze, “Please give it one more try… You told me to do my best to save these people and return them to their families. That includes Goldie… well here, this guy is my best.”

  Hawk saw she wasn’t backing down as he sighed reluctantly and clenched his fists, “Alright. Go on.”

  6-27 got up from the floor with Seohwa’s help as she said, “Sorry about this… it was urgent.”

  6-27 glanced at Goldie and smiled, “That’s alright. I can see why. I’ll do my best but I can’t guarantee anything since it's my first time healing someone.”

  Seohwa then assured, “It’s ok if you can’t, all you have to do is try. Someone told me that.” She briefly glanced at Hawk.

  Hawk flinched as he chuckled, feeling his chest becoming full. He looked at Goldie meaningfully.

  Right, if even this doesn’t work, I’m already content with the fact I did everything I could and I have a stubborn cadet who is, if not more, stubborn as me… so, if you’re still here, love, let’s try once more.

  6-27 stood in front of Goldie as he raised his hands. A light green glow appeared on his hands as small life-giving vines appeared and began to pump something on Goldie’s body. Hawk and Seohwa stayed quiet while he concentrated.

  After a few minutes, 6-27 removed his hands and held his knees, panting after depleting all his energy.

  Hawk slowly stepped closer to Goldie. Her once pale skin returned to her olive rosy cheeks and her purple lips returned to its pinkish hue. Hawk sat beside her as he traced the contours of her beauty.

  Haa!

  Goldie opened her eyes revealing its golden hue. She turned to face Hawk who seemed to have aged and weakly murmured, “…Hawk?”

  Tear droplets smudged her hands before she traced his cheeks, “…You look… older…” Hawk chuckled at her comment as he closed his eyes and leaned on her hand, relieved. He gently caressed her hand with his as he greeted “Hey, love.”