The Evolution Hall was packed with hopefuls, all eager to discover the powers that would define them as "Hunters or Apothecaries" while both together are called as Evolutionist, . I stood at the edge of the crowd, watching each person step up to the Awakening Orb, feeling the sharp sting of comparison with every passing moment.
Min-Ah was beside me, her soft gaze scanning the room, her eyes a mixture of excitement and anticipation. I wanted to say something, to reach out to her and feel like I wasn't so alone in a sea of strangers, but I couldn't. My heart pounded in my chest, drowning out all the noise, all the excitement. I was painfully aware of the fact that I wasn't like everyone else here.
"Yun Wei-Li," the officiator's voice echoed, and I was snapped out of my thoughts.
I froze. It was my turn.
I stepped up to the Awakening Orb, my hand trembling as I extended it toward the glowing sphere. Everyone watched in silence, the weight of their eyes pressing down on me, and I could hear my pulse in my ears.
'Please... Please let me awaken something. I needed it. I needed something, anything, to prove that I wasn't just another failure in the crowd. ' I thought to myself
' I am already 20 and it's been 2 years since I am qualified to enter the Evolutionary Phase ceremony ' I thought with an dismal stature over my face .
The Orb shimmered under my touch, pulsing once, then twice. And then it… faded.
There was no light, no grand explosion of power. Just silence. The crowd shifted, murmuring, and I felt every one of those whispers like daggers in my skin.
"No System," the officiator announced, her tone flat. She didn't even have the decency to look at me with pity. "Yun Wei-Li, no Awakening detected. You may step down."
I stumbled back, my legs shaking. A mix of humiliation and anger twisted inside me. 'Why? Why couldn't I have something?'
The laughter started before I even reached the back of the room. Some students snickered behind their hands. Others openly mocked me, their words like acid. "What once again preety much wasted our time"
" But I wasn't nothing. I was someone—" " wasn't I? " My voice timid and uncleared filled with hesitant
Min-Ah was standing there, her gaze not on me, but on someone else. Her eyes glittered as they locked onto Jung-Ho, the golden boy of the class. He had awakened a Tier 2 system earlier, fire swirling around his hands like it was second nature to him. He was powerful, someone people looked up to, admired.
And I was just… me.
I wanted to scream at her. 'Why are you looking at him?' But my voice was too weak to carry my thoughts, so I just stood there, feeling smaller and smaller.
Her voice was soft when she finally spoke to me, but there was something hollow behind her words. "It's okay, Yun. You'll figure it out. Maybe next year…"
She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to. I saw her looking at Jung-Ho, her gaze locked onto him like she had found her true place. I didn't know what it was that drew her to him, but I had seen it in her eyes before—admiration, longing, something that wasn't meant for me.
"Min-Ah, what…" My voice broke as I called her name. I wanted to ask what was going on, what was happening between her and Jung-Ho, but the words caught in my throat.
She glanced at me, her eyes soft for just a moment. "Yun, I'm sorry… I will call you at night I have some work to do"
Her words sliced through me. 'oke' but I only nodded
I couldn't look at her anymore. The sight of her soft features, the faint trace of pity in her eyes—it was too much.
Without another word, she turned away and walked toward Jung-Ho, her fingers grazing his arm as she smiled. And that was when I saw it. The way Jung-Ho looked at her. Not just as a teammate, not just as a fellow Evolutionist—no, his eyes held something else. Desire. Possession.
He leaned down, whispering something in her ear, and she smiled back at him, her hand reaching up to touch his chest. I didn't need to hear the words to know what was happening.
Min-Ah… 'she's with him now.'
I felt something cold sink into my chest, and the ground beneath me seemed to disappear. My vision blurred, my heart raced, and my thoughts spiraled into chaos. She had — not with words, but with her actions. She had discarded me as easily as one might discard an old, broken thing.
I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand her walking away from me, from everything we had shared. I had given her my trust, my love, and now… now she was with him.
I turned away, trying to hide my trembling hands. But nothing could stop the sharp ache in my chest, the crushing weight of betrayal. 'What was wrong with me?'
'Why couldn't I be more like Jung-Ho? Why didn't I have a system, a power to make her stay? ' I knew the reason she called me off in the ceremony but i didn't have that thing— System.
I only ran to my apartment
---
Later that night,
I sat on my small apartment, staring at the text messages on my phone. My parents hadn't called to ask about the ceremony but asked my well being. They probably already knew the outcome. And I could imagine my father shaking his head in disappointment, my mother shaking in disbelief once again .
I only say at the age , isolated by my thoughts , till a notification clanged the room with repetataive sounds .
Sitting on the edge of my bed, my phone in hand. Min-Ah had sent me a message,
[Min-Ah: We need to talk.]
I swallowed hard, my throat closing up. 'Talk? About what?' Was she going to tell me everything, that it was over, that she had moved on? That I wasn't enough for her anymore?
I opened the message thread, my hands shaking. The next message wasn't text. It was a video file.
I didn't want to open it. But I couldn't stop myself.
The video loaded, and I saw Min-Ah's face, but something about it seemed wrong. She was in a dimly lit room, her cheeks flushed, her body pressed up against Jung-Ho's.
And showed Jung-Ho's, her arms draped around Min-Ah neck, their bodies pressed together in a way that left no room for misinterpretation. Jung-Ho's arrogant smirk was directed at the camera,
The sound of their breathing, their soft laughter, it filled the silence of my apartment.
"Yun," Min-Ah's voice came through the recording, her tone was only huffing, almost as if she had gone crazy with too much work , but I could hear the determination in it. "I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore. You're not… you're not enough for me. I need someone who can protect me, who can fight for me. Jung-Ho… he's everything I need. He has a Tier 2 system, and I'm sorry, but I can't stay with you."
The video ended or shal I say I ended it, It was of 25 mins but I had broken my mobile at 220 seconds .
I didn't even realize I was crying until the wetness on my cheeks made me blink. I'd never felt so alone, so abandoned in my life. 'How could she?' After everything we had been through, after all the promises, all the moments we had shared.
But she had chosen him. She had chosen power over me. And now, as I lay in the darkness of my room, I felt it—a crushing weight, an unbearable emptiness. I wasn't enough. I would never be enough.
' I had known something was wrong from that time why had I had to have expectations ' I cursed my self to the point of choking till I came to a conclusion.
I stood up, and founded myself on the rooftop of my apartment building. The cold wind whipped through his thin jacket, but he barely felt it. The city sprawled out below him, its lights twinkling like stars.
I leaned against the edge, staring down at the abyss. My mind replayed Min-Ah's words, Jung-Ho's smirk, the laughter of his peers. It all felt unbearable.
"I'm nothing," he whispered. His voice cracked, swallowed by the void. "No system. No power. No one who cares."
Tears streamed down his face as my vision hazy, my body moving on autopilot as I stumbled toward the balcony. The cold air hit my skin, but it did nothing to numb the ache in my heart.
"I'm nothing… just like I always feared. And this pain? It will never go away." I cried as I broke down by pieces
And sooner or later i feel the sensation of being pushed downwards and feeling nk weight .
" If only I was braver I would have accompanied my parents " I told myself , i regretted the fall but want I could I do now.
I recalled their face .. my mother had wrinkles on her face not because of her being old but due to the worry of me , she had black hairs and had an pinking yellow skin with hazal eyes .
While my father he had long brown hairs with wrinkles on his forehead due to worries on maintaining the family ,while he had an albastar skin .
Me on the other hand was neither of their colors I was like a drained human , some parts of my body a otherworldly while some are looking that of my mother but I resembled my father's face and my late grandfather's eyes .
I recalled my grandfather and grandmother who told me about how they had encountered the first Evolutionist Type Hunter , when they were only 10 .
Finally something happened, I could see my self but a child of me so childish it resembled me when I was just borned in 2056 Feb 14 .