[South Korea, Eminence Headquarters]
[Afternoon 1:30 pm]
...
"I'm bored!" A white head with her eyes covered with bandages complained, waving around a book she read, for the 8th time, this week. You cannot blame her as reading the same book over again does get duller by the 5th time.
As for why she doesn't get another book to read, well she has. In total, she has read over thousands of books these past months. 8 of her personal offices in Eminence holding hundreds of books. Not including some of Eminence's libraries that can hold tens of thousands.
If she wasn't occupied with reading, she'd be helping her subordinates train. Overall, teaching, giving them tips and tricks, etc, in order to prepare them for what's to come in battle. And when she's not doing that, she's obviously spoiling her oppa or occupying herself with whatever nonsense she's thinking of.
All in all, she was busy preparing for war. But that was mostly done by the elder twin, leaving her with nothing much to do around there. Other than spend quality time with her family, which wasn't much considering that their mother was practically off the grid, their oppa still in school, Yulius busy planning for the future, leaving Chelsea to sulk alone in a corner.
At times like this, she felt really alone. Sure, she has everyone from Eminence to accompany her, but it's not the same. No matter how friendly or kind they are, it's because she is one of their bosses. And that won't change.
Not that she really cares much about it, as it all comes down to her boredom. She's bored. That much is obvious. But nobody in Eminence can cure her of it as they're all busy preparing for war. Sure, she can use her special privileges to order them around, but that's plain bullying.
She's not a big fan of abusing power. Moreover, they aren't her personal jesters who can and will entertain her whenever or whatever she wants. They are awakeners. Eminence awakeners. And she is one of their chairwomen.
There are no room for mistakes, nor could they afford it as a lot was at risk. Which was why Chelsea didn't want to bother them. Maybe after the storm has passed, she wouldn't think twice about annoying her people, but for now, she must sit tight.
Which was precisely what she couldn't do. Sitting still was hard. Very hard. Too hard. Especially for an energetic white head cracked on cocaine, type of sh*t. Sitting still was not and still isn't, a word in her dictionary.
She cannot sit still. Odd, because reading requires one to sit still. Probably the only time you will ever see Chelsea sit still unless she is order to. But that privilege belongs solely to those she's close with. Currently being her twin and elder brother.
However, Jiwoo would never demand anything of her as he's too much of a softy. Yulius on the other hand, is ruthless and doesn't take any one's sh*t. Especially Chelsea, who has a lot of sh*t. So, it's no surprise there, that Yulius has to sometimes- most of the time, order her twin to do sh*t.
Orders she would gladly follow without hesitation, as to not get on her sister's bad side. Because Yulius is really scary when she is very annoyed. Worse when she's mad, but she rarely ever gets mad. The only way to not get her mad, in Chelsea's own word, 'is to not get her mad which shouldn't be that hard.'
Doesn't help at all, as everyone question what could possibly tip their master off. She's too calm and mature for her age, so pissing her off shouldn't be that easy. Nonetheless, Eminence awakeners hoped to receive a clear answer from the younger twin, in order to completely avoid angering their other master, only to receive nothing but a sh*tty response.
No help at all. Literally. So now, they're on their heels, paranoid at every little thing they do, that could possibly piss their mature miss off. Slightly annoying Yulius, who was quick to notice their change in attitude.
It's funny, because they're trained awakeners to keep secrets and remain hidden in the shadow unless their required to step out of it. But the second Yulius reached for a folder residing in one of their hands, they flinched crazily before slapping her hand away.
Yulius was appalled by their action, and she wasn't the only one. As the slap rang throughout the halls, gaining everyone nearby attentions. The offender quickly got down on both knees, bowing their head repeatedly as they apologized for their rude action and requested a punishment of any sort, they are sure to accept it without any resistance.
Even as they beg, the white head just stood there, thinking. Many thought she was thinking of a suitable punishment, but what she said next spooked them as they expected her to lash out and yell at them, but she didn't. Instead, she asked, "what the hell is going on with all of you?" Making eye contact with everyone present.
She expected a response to her question but received none. Sighing, "really?! Not one of you is going to tell me what the hell is going on with you guys?!" Everyone lowers their gazes to the floor, as one thought processed throughout everyone's head, 'she's angry!'
Seeing their lowered gazes, only annoyed her further. "Haven," she called out to the one reliable voice she knows will response to her, "yes Yulius."
Yulius: "Why are these idiots behaving like their tip toeing around shattered glass?"
Haven answered, "it is because they are worried about angering you."
Yulius frowned, confusion laced in her tone, "why?"
"Because in Chelsea's own words she said, 'you are much scarier when you are angry' and when they asked how to not get you angry, she gave a vague response, leaving many anxious." Haven robotically answered, causing shades of red to plague the faces of many listening in.
Embarrassed that the reason for their odd behavior up until now, was because they were afraid of angering Yulius, even though they had no clue what could possibly anger her. Not like it matters anymore since now that they've been found out, with one of them having the nerve to slap away their chairwoman's hand, they definitely made her mad.
Quickly, following in suite of the kneeling offender, they got down on both knees, lowered their heads to the ground, and prayed- apologized for their ridiculous behavior up until now, and promised to not do it ever again. Moreover, they pledge to accept any punishment she grants, as they fully deserve it.
Sighing furiously, rubbing the back of her head, she said, "get up." Shocking many as they didn't know whether to follow through with her order. Was it a trap? No, it can't be. But women- now is not the time to stereotype women, especially one of their chairwomen who may or may not be mad with them. Likely the former.
But who cares!
They must obey her, in order to get out of this place in one piece. Literally. Which shouldn't be the case as Yulius has no intention of shredding them into millions of pieces or punish them for that matter. Gosh, what did Chelsea say that could possibly spook everyone this badly.
Yulius tried to think of some, but most contained scary mischievous stories of unsolved murders. Didn't surprise her when she thought of this, as the unsolved murders she described just a minute ago, were committed by yours truly, Chelsea.
So, they shouldn't be worried about her, but the younger twin. Then again, they do not know that. Nor do they know how to follow simple directions. Seeing as they are still begging, down on their knees.
Yulius: "Must I repeat myself? Get up."
And they stood.
The awakeners tense as they made eye contact with her blue ones. Sighing, Yulius explained, "I'm not mad." Yet even as she said this, many didn't believe her, and she knew it too, judging from their anxious expressions.
She couldn't help but rolled her eyes as she thought, 'she must be enjoying herself right now, isn't she?' Knowing that her sister purposely created this misunderstanding to entertain her bored self. She's probably watching from one of the cameras, or their A.I is broadcasting this live for her.
Clearly, Yulius is tired of her twin's childish antics sometimes, but she can't help but admit, that this was kind of funny. Amusing at that. Seeing her men run around like mice chased by cats, jumping when someone creeps up behind them, not on purpose though, as their footsteps are just naturally silent after learning the master's way of moving within the shadows.
As a result, Eminence awakeners relying on pure instinct to sense stuff, unconsciously and accidentally attacked those that didn't mean any harm when approaching them, became a common occurrence around headquarter. Thankfully, most managed to avoid the attacks either unscathed, or obtained a couple of scratches, nothing major really.
Admittedly, it was entertaining to watch at first, but now it just troublesome. Everyone's on guard, when they have no reason to be, for a petty reason like that. The elder twin couldn't help but chuckle out loud, surprising many as they didn't expect that sort of reaction from her. It was good, but they sort of expected a bad one.
Once her laughter dies down, she explained that this was all a ploy, an act. An act of entertainment for her idle twin. She purposely brought up the possibility of angering her, to scare them. To keep them on their tippy toes, in the presence of the elder twin.
In addition, even she had fun with their apprehensive reactions. It was enjoyable while it lasted, she thought. And she wasn't the only one, as everyone else thought so too. How foolish they behavior was, unbefitting of an awakener, but they couldn't help it.
Eminence is different. A distinct feeling all together. Not in an odd sort of way, but unique. To allow yourself the freedom of living in the moment is something many cannot bring themselves to do. There's always something that gets in their way, scaring them, frightening them, and finally, scarring them for life.
Which was why many kept to themselves. Made a cage to inhabit, that not only trapped them, but protected them. But for how long? How long can these steeled fancy fences they built up, protect them. On the long run, they'll eventually shatter, ripping them of their security blanket.
And when that happens, they'll be left to fend for themselves. Against the many predators eyeing their prey, like a hunk of delicious meat. But who's to say the individual won't build another cage. A stronger, thicker, and fool proof cage.
Therefore, isolating themselves completely. Must be lonely, don't you think? The said prey doesn't necessarily believe so, as they couldn't help but find comfortability in their loneliness. Because it never judges them. It only ever listened. Not once had it betrayed them either, like others.
It stood with them from the very beginning, till the very end. And not once, had it ever voiced out their none required opinion. It's just silent. As it listens to your inner turmoil, floating to the surface, revealing your frustration, sadness, anxiousness...
All your emotions really. As it's your true feelings.
Feelings you cannot and will not share to the world. Fret that the vulnerability you display, shows how pathetic and weak you are. And there's nothing more humiliating than having your flaws taunted at and tested. Fueling your mistrust even more.
But must that be the case? Allowing yourself to be free? Having the freedom to do the things you love without any form of consequences following through? All in all, enjoying the moment. Living in the current moment as if it were your last. Is that really a crime?
No.
No, it is not. Preventing yourself from enjoying yourself, is a crime. Holding back because you are scared of what others may do or think of you, is a crime. Not living in the moment, is a crime. Is it selfish to be yourself, without it being perceived as a crime?
Must it be a crime to be selfish?
When there's nothing wrong with being selfish. We're all human. We are not perfect creatures. Yet, why do people strive for perfection when such a thing does not exist? No matter how much you change yourself in order to fit other's criteria, you will never be perfect. At least in their eyes.
And as you continuously change yourself recurringly, you become someone you cannot recognize when you look yourself in the mirror. All this change, just to be perfect. Was it worth it? Was it? Was it worth it to throw away your true happy self, because of what others thought of you?
No. That shouldn't be the question you should be asking yourself. Not was it worth it. But was it right? Was it right of you to alter your entire being, throwing away any 'imperfections' as you strive for perfection? Was it right of you?
Makes you think that isolating yourself in a fortress is the right way to go. There in your lonely cage, nobody will hurt you. Nobody will even come close to it. But once again, is that truly how you want to live your life? In a prison you built? Alone.
Sure, it protects you, but for how long? How long before it breaks again, just for you to rebuild your walls again. Walls that will naturally come down once again, no matter how many times you rebuild it 2 times, 3 times, 5 times, 10 times, the strength than the previous. It will fall apart. Come apart, no matter what.
So, if not a cage, then what? What could possibility protect you better than a cage?
The answer...
The answer to that is...
No one. No one but you. No one could protect you better than yourself. The temporary cage you built was only temporary. It was an automatic defense mechanism that provided temporary protection until you recover back to full health.
The problem with that is, many can't help but hold onto it like it's their lifeline. The security, comfortability, and warmth it temporary grants you. It's addicting. And soothing. Which made it hard to let go of it.
The feeling of safety it grants you, shooing away the bad things for you, so you don't have to face it.
But once again, it's only temporary. Its protection is temporary. Its warmth is temporary. Feeling safe, was only a temporary feeling. All was temporary, locked in so called stronger, thicker, and fool proof cage.
So, it was up to you to protect yourself. Find a permanent protection. Without relying too much on the temporary cage that does nothing but hinder your growth. But where do you even begin? Where do you start? Where and what, can you find something, someone, or some place, that could possibility provide permanent protection without holding you back.
And yet all that occupies the awakened world, are organizations where your every move, reflects their precious reputation. That's right. You, as a sole individual, represents the entirety of an organization.
A lost from you, is a lost to them. A lost they cannot afford. Therefore, the pressure is on. But how could one person hold so much weight by themselves? At any given moment, they could collapse. Break.
Yet, why does nobody step forward to help them? Why would they not worry about the person's well-being? Aren't they from the same organization? Shouldn't they be helping each other?
Why is that? Why?
There's only one answer to those questions. And it's greed. Human greed. Human greed for power. Human greed for money. Human greed for fame. Human greed for protection. They all have something to do with human greed, their selfish desires.
But isn't that hypocritical? They're just being selfish. And there's nothing wrong with being selfish, right? That's the problem though. There's a fine line between being too selfish and being too greedy.
As when your selfish, your prioritizing one's own needs and desires without regard for others. Greed on the other hand, involves an intense and excessive desire for more than what one needs, particularly in terms of wealth, resources, or possessions.
In essence, while both traits involve self-interest, greed goes beyond mere self-prioritization to an excessive and often harmful accumulation of resources.
And that's what occupies the majority of the awakened world. Greedy awakeners. But in order to get to where they are right now, in terms of having lots of fame, money, power, protection, etc, they had to be greedy. Very greedy.
But in amidst of their selfish desires, they threw away their principles, betraying their colleagues, friends and family, all for it. They let their greed consume them whole, and thus ruining themselves. With that in mind, how could awakeners be sure that where they put their trust, won't be returned with a knife stab in their backs.
Makes Eminence all the worth. Awakeners, organizations, all alike, have heard of Eminence. But not for the same reasons people would think naturally of when they hear an awakened organization, astonishing many. As many assumed they were popular because they were a newly created organization rising in power very fast.
Which isn't far off. But what garner the most attention, was their demonstration of kindness, and how much of a pacifist they were. Causing many to greatly underestimate EAO as they tried to overtake Eminence.
It was only after many repeatedly fail assaults did others understood that Eminence was not one to be mess with. And underestimating them will do you no good. Moreover, there were some rumors about spies infiltrating EAO, just for them to be never seen again.
Whether those rumors were false or not, put many on guard as they stopped their miserable attempts at gathering more information about this newly created organization. As 1, it got them nowhere, and 2, they were just going to continue wasting their resources.
So, it was not shocking that some well-known organizations became wearily of Eminence while others, who strived for an opportunity to understanding the awakener world as newly awakeners, wanted to join Eminence. Because unlike other organizations they heard of, EAO was indefinitely different from others. A good difference.
Which was why even known awakeners were quite curious of EAO, and thus joining them. Of course, it wasn't as easy as ABC, as they actually had their background checked to make sure they weren't inviting some cracked sh*thead, as Chelsea likes to call them.
Cause some actually stupidly thought they could join Eminence, not thinking twice on whether or not EAO would do their research on them. Unlucky for them, their A.I has been a real helper in cracking and catching, each and every one of them.
As a result, Eminence has a total of 334 members. 90 from adding the wolves, foxes, and white tiger survivors, 64 from griffons, 77 from hydra, 86 from phoenixes, 4 known awakeners and 13 newly awakeners EAO somehow managed to recruit.
If you ask any one in Eminence if they regret choosing that organization, you'll get an immediate answer. A no. No, because the difference between Eminence and other organizations is their awakeners are allowed to be selfish.
They're allowed to have their freedom even after being affiliated with Eminence. They're allowed to use Eminence's unlimited funds. They're allowed to throw parties. Allowed to make friends, connections, without being punished for it. All in all, you get the point, EAO is just better.
The 2 founders of Eminence just continue to prove their point with how lenient, kind, and chill they are. Lenient because even after accidentally assaulting their chairwomen, they were forgiven. Kind because they willingly stayed up late nights developing different force controls for each individual. Chill because, well, what kind of boss actually parties with their subordinates willingly, 24/7.
Not many, I'll tell you that.
So, it didn't really come off as a surprise when Yulius forgave their odd behavior and explained that Chelsea was right. You can't really anger her that easily. Annoy her, yes. A lot at that, yes. But she's not scary when she's annoyed. You should only panic when she's angry, like Chelsea said. Hopefully not at you, but you get the point. Don't get her angry.
Now, the answer everyone's been dying to hear on how to not anger Yulius.
Well...
The answer is...
Just don't anger her-
Just kidding.
The answer is...
Don't threaten, worse, harm the people she cares for and loves. Cause if you do, you're practically raging war with a beast. A beautiful angelic beast. Until she rips your heart out and eats it. Though that's more of Chelsea's style, who sometimes like to impersonate Klaus Mikealson, the Big Bad Wolf.
Adding on, it's the same for Chelsea. She's naturally playful, careless, arrogant or as she likes to call it, confident, so you'll rarely see her angry. When she is angry, they're warned to stay clear of her path, as she will tear anyone and everything into pieces, in hopes to quell her rage even just by a little.
Chelsea's rage may seem and sound scary, but it's nothing compared to Yulius. She's a different story. One you will witness in the near future. For now, Eminence awakeners understand that for either of the twins to calm down, they need one another or their oppa.
If neither of them is present, well then, good f*cking luck! Cause they'll need it. The only other way to quell their rage is if the object of all their anger is 6 feet under. Or if they have a special someone holding their hand.
Which is unlikely. As the current Seo twins have no intentions of giving their heart away or loving someone romantically for that matter. Perhaps in the distant future, but who knows.
All in all, they know now that they have nothing to worry about except for their future. With the mystery of how to not anger Yulius being solve, many can finally breath again. And the tense atmosphere can finally go away. Back to its cheerful one. Cause god, do they need it.
After how painfully quiet and jumpy everyone has been these last couple of days, a cheerful one seems like pure bliss. Even as they thought this, they couldn't help but grunt and feel slightly annoyed by Chelsea's prank. Cause she got them good. Real good.
When the sisters first revealed their identity, it wasn't really hard to differentiate the set of twins. Chelsea is playful, not serious half the time, and wore one earring with the sun symbol on her right ear. Yulius is calm, serious most of the time, and wears an earring with the moon symbol on her left ear.
So very quickly, at the mention of angering Yulius, the calm mature one, threw everyone on guard. They respect her too much to accidentally or intentionally disappoint her. Angering her might of been the way to go, so they tried to avoid it at all costs.
But in doing so, Chelsea receives a comedic performance from hers truly, Eminence awakeners, as they suffer at the hands of the great scary Yulius, while eating her warm buttery popcorn with delight. She sighs happily through her noise as she reminisces it.
*BAM*
Her blissful self-flew straight out the window the second her door flew right open from the newcomer's kicking it, as she pales at the sight of her twin. Creepily, she grins, "it's been a while since we spar, don't cha think?"
Chelsea: "W- wait- wait- wait- w- wait- a moment Yulius, let's talk about this!"
She tried to reason with her 'favorite' sister, but it all fell to deaf ears as Yulius pulled her by the ear, dragging her weight to the closest gym where the beating- spar will occur. Passerbyers who watched the younger chairwomen dragged around, couldn't help the sly grin forming on their faces, knowing karma was striking back.
Paying the younger twin back for pranking them. Using them as jesters for her own personally amusement. Occasionally, they wouldn't mind it. They still don't mind it, it's just that someone needs to pay that girl back for all the mischief she has caused and done to the place.
Not that they disliked it or anything as they too, had lots of fun and a good laugh from it. But nobody had the balls to prank either of their bosses. Chelsea knew this, so she used it to her advantage. Yulius on the other hand, knows that if anyone had the balls to prank her, it would be her.
And just the other day, Chelsea may, or may not, or may, have drew p*nises on a couple hundred post-its and place it all around her main office and room. Yeah, she was so not getting out of this beating alive, so she sucked in her breath and accepted her fate.
Praying to the lord, that her death will be quick.
Painless, not so sure about that.
Quick, hopefully since Yulius is quite merciful.
Yep, R.I.P. Chelsea.