The morning was ordinary as Seol Hwa went about preparing for school.
She walked out of her room, her focus slightly on her inner body as she adjusted her jacket.
The spiritual essence within was in a seemingly infinite cycle, constantly being refined and perfected.
The slaughter… those dregs had pathetic blood qi as usual.
Their numbers didn't help much either.
The value of mortal blood had decreased the stronger she got.
Technically, slaughtering millions of mortals through a forbidden sacrificial array could yield both quantitative and qualitative results.
It was a pity the Heavenly Demon had principles and boundaries.
Such a case of mass slaughter was something she was already used to in Murim, and she was not one to reenact what trash demon cultivators did.
It was also not wise to act in such a barbaric way in a foreign universe whose overall structure she was still learning about.
In the kitchen, Min-Seo had stuck her mandatory morning greetings on the fridge.
Seol Hwa was starting to get used to it.
She poured some hot water over the tea leaves, discarded the water and poured another over them.
The art of tea-making was also part of Culinary Dao. And she quite enjoyed it.
Old habits that stuck with her.
Min-Seo had told her she had acquired the fresh tea leaves from a local Chinese market in the city.
'It seems I'd have to make a habit of exploring more of this city. Who knows? I might find something as interesting as that sword,' Seol Hwa thought as she sipped the hot tea.
She briefly closed her eyes, savoring the taste, before sighing in slow satisfaction.
Her inner critic had already graded the tea leaves as barely passable, but it was still good enough for her palate.
She walked over to the kitchen window and stared down at the busy streets.
People walking to work, cars honking and sirens blaring non-stop.
The mortals had single-minded purposes written on their faces, their lives like open books to her.
Survival. Relationships. Animosity. Hatred. Worry. Health. Regrets. The future.
'It's all the same,' she mused while taking a sip.
Soon, she finished her tea and washed the cup in the sink.
She hadn't bothered to even switch on the television this time around.
It was going to be the same old news.
The law enforcement officers wouldn't find anything substantial except for the fear of the unknown.
Locking the door behind her, Seol Hwa began her walk to school.
She noted Gwen wasn't there that morning waiting for her.
She was probably already in school since Seol Hwa's spiritual senses hadn't registered her after scanning the area.
'Already tired of your servant duties?' Seol Hwa thinly smiled in amusement before entering the elevator.
~~~<>~~~
The hallways were filled with noise among the students with occasional banging of lockers.
Seol Hwa gracefully walked down the hallway.
Someone dramatically hushed, gradually turning the focus to her.
Her path was cleared, an invisible red carpet laid fitting for her regality.
The gazes never ceased. How could they resist?
What was more enticing than an untouchable flower whose radiance bordered unreal?
"Heck, she makes Tuesday feel like Friday night. This is the reason I pray every day," a boy with freckles murmured to his friends.
"What do you pray for?" one of the friends asked jokingly.
The boy with freckles remained silent for a few moments.
"That she will one day be my girlfriend," the freckled boy finally answered confidently, looking at his friends.
His friends were rendered speechless until one of them said, "Dylan, do you have that therapist's name?"
The one named Dylan replied, "It's actually a psychiatrist. Yeah, I've got it."
"We book an appointment?"
"Let's do that."
"Does he practice lobotomy?"
"I think so…" Dylan said before whispering to his friends, "I heard he's illegal and nothing is beyond him. Crazy, right?"
"That's perfect. If he can lobotomize this fool and help him wake up to reality, I would gladly use all of my savings."
They then all laughed at the freckled boy.
The freckled boy could only hide his embarrassment inside his locker.
Something like that, between those boys, was beneath Seol Hwa's notice.
The same could be said for Peter Parker as he absentmindedly walked to his locker.
Dark circles hung around his eyes making him look like a sleep-deprived sloth.
He hadn't had a wink of sleep for the entire night, barely squeezing an hour before school.
The conflux of police sirens and rapid messages from his custom-built radio scanner was all it took for him to swing into the night.
He just couldn't ignore it.
For the safety of New York, Spider-Man had to lock in.
But what he saw, and what he could get from preliminary eavesdropping, had proven too much for one night.
Twenty men had been killed, left in ashes at a pretty discreet warehouse near Laurel Hill.
What had concerned him at that moment had been the person behind the killing, no, extermination.
He had no interest in forensics science but Biology… that he had solid fundamentals in.
And those men had been like pests to whoever or whatever entity had decided their lives no longer mattered.
With no answers to the mysterious crime, Peter had been forced to work through the night to keep the streets safe and also hoped to find the killer.
'What's truly happening? Has a new vigilante arrived in the city? Wait… the MO is similar to that one case I saw in the news a week ago,' Peter contemplated with a subtle frown as he opened his locker.
'A new vigilante that kills in mysterious ways, then leaves the bad guys in ashes? Was it pyrokinesis? Ugh, I'll leave that to the detectives,' Peter concluded with a tired sigh, his shoulders slumping even more.
Any more unanswered questions in addition to the inadequate sleep, would make him go crazy.
Peter took out the books he was going to use for his lessons and closed the locker.
From the corners of his eyes, he caught sight of Flash who had been silent lately.
The old Flash Thompson would have been loud, making sure everyone acknowledged his presence.
But now…
'Is he becoming a model student? Did Seol Hwa really have that huge impact on his psyche?' Peter thought.
'He's the least of my concern.'
It was then that his spidey senses tingled briefly.
They only did that when a specific someone was nearby.
Peter scanned the area, filtering faces in the hallway, until they subtly landed on Seol Hwa who was slowly walking away from her locker.
HER.
There was always something about her.
'Could she…' Peter thought, stopping himself before he could weave insane theories.
He lightly shook his head, his gaze momentarily trailing to her immaculate back before diverting his eyes.
'Yeah, yep. It's not her. Definitely not her, Pete,' he convinced himself… Or was rather convinced by "something else."
It was then that Peter felt a sudden shift in the air currents coming from behind his head.
With a gentle tilt of his head, a slender hand smacked the empty air.
"Can't you just stay still, Parker?" MJ spawned right next to him, pouting in mock annoyance.
She looked… just like the usual MJ.
Peter arched his brow.
"I'm not a practicing dummy for those slaps. By the way, you look… different? Who are you?" he asked in a clearly impressed voice.
The dark eyeliner made her look slightly goth in a cool way.
'The rarefied goth baddie but not yet there.'
"Switched it up in the right way, yes? The new me is a Work in Progress," MJ said with a wide smile.
"What do you think?"
"You look hotter," Peter replied instantly, no breaks in his thought circuitry.
"Hehe, that's some first-rate honesty, tiger," MJ said with a light chuckle, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear.
"So… what were you looking at?" MJ's green eyes shone with a mischievous glint.
Peter pretended to be oblivious, shifting the books in his hand. "What do you mean? I was just mapping out a way to class in this overcrowded hallway."
"Boy's a liar," MJ scoffed before opening her locker that was just beside Peter's.
Peter groaned helplessly.
MJ already had suspicions.
The seed had already been planted and that was enough for her.
MJ took out her books and grinned at Peter.
"Let's go to class, nerd."
They began walking to class.
Peter rolled his eyes before saying confidently, "I'm not a nerd. I'd prefer charmer."
"Ooh. Which girls have you charmed as of late?"
"In the future."
They both looked at each other, humor in their eyes.
"Please don't laugh. I know I'm lame," Peter pleaded, wincing funnily.
"Yeah, totally lame. But… you'd have some luck if you weren't distracted half the time. Sometimes I wonder if you have ADHD," MJ commented with faint encouragement.
Peter's face beamed with surprise.
"You think I have potential?" he curiously asked.
"Sheesh, I'm not answering that, Pete," MJ responded with a smirk.
~~~<>~~~
The first period was Chemistry and just like that, a few other subjects followed before the lunchbreak bell rang.
Gwen, who had been MIA throughout the morning, quietly sat on her seat, contemplating whether to carry out her plan or not.
In the morning, she had deviated from her usual routine, afraid of seeing Seol Hwa.
Not when she had a lot in her mind. A lot of mini versions of Seol Hwa, to be specific.
The jealousy she had after seeing Jean Grey act cozy with Seol Hwa was what had made her think of something—a strategy to prevent losing her Seol… no, she wasn't hers.
Not yet. It was still an almost impossible dream.
But she could defend her position. She had to, as vague as it was.
Gwen slowly inhaled and exhaled, trying to regulate her breathing and her own beating heart in anticipation of what she was about to do.
It was lunch on the dot and students had already begun moving out of class.
'The lesser the better,' she thought, not a fan of many people being present.
Seol Hwa was also putting her books away, preparing to go.
'Now.' Gwen stood up from her seat and tentatively walked to the left.
Seol Hwa was only a couple of seats away.
"Hey," Gwen said, her voice almost a murmur, while standing next to her.
Seol Hwa looked up at her and calmly replied, "Hey."
"H-How are you doing?" Gwen slowly asked, mentally bashing her head.
"I'm doing fine. What about you? Are you going to stand there forever?" Seol Hwa asked in a neutral voice, before turning her gaze to the front.
"Oh, sorry," Gwen nervously apologized before taking a seat on the chair in front of Seol Hwa.
Seol Hwa subtly shook her head in slight disappointment. "What did I say about that?"
Gwen briefly lowered her head in embarrassment, immediately remembering how Seol Hwa had touched her chin, scolding her.
Just the memory of it made her mind temporarily forget what she had intended to say.
A pink blush spread on her cheeks.
"Raise your head," Seol Hwa ordered.
Gwen obediently did as told.
It just felt… natural to be commanded by her.
Seol Hwa was a natural at that.
"Now tell me what you want. I can see a lot in your eyes," Seol Hwa said, looking at Gwen.
'Damn, even eagles aren't that sharp-eyed,' Gwen thought, almost panicking.
Her left knee was restless, shaking in anticipation.
She clamped her hand down on it to suppress the anxiety.
'You can do it, Gwen,' she bravely reassured herself.
"Um, so… I have been thinking, uh…" Gwen stuttered a bit, her brain's Wi-Fi signals temporarily disconnecting from coherent thoughts and what she had intended to say.
Seol Hwa patiently waited.
Gwen briefly closed her eyes to control her "chakra" or that type of shit she read in some random self-help book.
She needed to re-calibrate and re-strategize.
'You know what? Ugh! Fuck it!' she abruptly opened her eyes, fully facing Seol Hwa.
Seol Hwa arched her brows wondering what Gwen was trying to say.
"So… I've been thinking that you're new to the area and you don't really know New York very well and I know it well enough," Gwen said, her hands tightly clenched below the desk.
"I have some cool places in mind that I think you might like. You can rest assured there are some of my favorite places. I just… I just wanted to share that with you on Saturday."
"Saturday. I want to show you the city. It would look bad on me as your 'guide' if you suddenly got lost due to my own negligence."
Gwen inhaled deeply, using all of herself to not break the eye contact.
Those dark amber eyes…
"Will you… come with me?" she concluded with a hopeful voice, anticipation on her face.
Seol Hwa silently observed Gwen.
Seconds elapsed but Gwen felt like time had stopped.
The silence was slowly eating her.
Seol Hwa suddenly had a small, amused smile.
"It seems you're really committed to your role. For once I thought you'd grown tired of it," Seol Hwa said.
"Those places had better be interesting, Gwen."
Gwen couldn't stop the giggle that escaped her lips for a split second.
She quickly cleared her throat with a fake professional demeanor.
"I guarantee you won't be disappointed," Gwen assured her.
"Fine." Seol Hwa nodded. She was also curious about the city anyway.
Gwen's face was practically beaming like the morning star.
A date was secured.
'Wait… will that be a date or a hangout between friends? Gwen, don't overthink. The moment, the moment is what matters, okay?' she corrected herself, trying to nerf her own excitement.
'DEETO!'
She totally didn't learn that from Pokémon and Digimon.
Seol Hwa rested her cheek on her fisted hand, wondering why the mortal was flying so high into the nine heavens.
Was she going crazy?
~~~<>~~~
Yuner note:
I know I disappeared for a minute there😭but life happens.
___
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