Godfire: The Split Soul

"Walk normally," Jinx muttered without turning her head. Her lips barely moved as students streamed past them in a loose cluster. Some laughed too loudly, while their curious looks were cast at them.

"You're already attracting enough attention."

Kai glanced sideways, his steps slowing. "I'm just walking." His shoulders lowered when he noticed some of the ladies among the crowd pointing fingers at him.

"That's the problem," Jinx hissed. "You walk as if you're someone important." She giggled, lowering her eyebrow.

Lena stopped too abruptly, so that Kai bumped into her back. In front of her was a glass counter that had been fixed into the wall, a bronze plaque bolted neatly above it: Admission & Hunter Affairs.

Lena turned a sharp gaze at them. "Both of you, behave."

Jinx swallowed her laughter, then straightened herself. At once, she and Kai responded, "Yes, ma'am."

They exchanged looks, then turned their heads away like two enemies awaiting a signal to fight.

"Don't copy me," Jinx whispered, nudging Kai on the side.

Inside the office, the scent of polished wood, old papers, and herbal tea floated around. A middle-aged lady with square glasses perched low on her nose looked at the terminal. "Next."

Lena stepped forward. "Good morning. We're here to complete the application of Yung Chin and also enroll him in the Hunter training."

The lady's fingers paused mid-typing. She lifted her eyes, slid her gaze past Lena, and locked them on the boy who had the strange eyes. Is he a human? she asked in her thoughts, her brows rising slightly.

"Oh," she muttered to herself. "That explains the disturbance outside."

Lena's brow raised. "Please, you said?"

The lady raised her left arm and whipped it in the air. "Never mind." She lowered the arm, placed it on the grey keyboard, and continued typing.

"Has he already submitted his details?" She stopped typing, raised her head, and glanced with a curious expression at Lena.

Lena hesitated for a while, turned and looked at Jinx, then back at the lady at the terminal. "Yes, just yesterday."

The lady squinted, her fingers hovering over the keys. "Name?"

"Yung Chin."

Her fingers moved like a flash on the keys with clicking sounds. "Just that? No other name or middle name?"

Lena turned and leaned close to Jinx's left ear. "Should we add the letter K to it?" Jinx nodded in response.

Lena turned back to the terminal. "Add the letter K to the name."

The lady at the terminal tilted her gaze from the two ladies and stopped once again at the boy. That name sounds familiar. She focused heavily, locking eyes with him.

"Ahem."

Lena cleared her throat, catching the direction the lady's eyes had drifted to.

The clicking sounds continued as soon as the lady's eyes turned back to the LCD screen in front of her.

"You can have a seat there." She kept typing with her right arm, then pointed her left toward the red-colored chairs arranged at the corner of the hallway.

By noon of the first day, Kai had an ID card containing the name Yung Chin K, which hung around his neck.

The plastic edge of the card tapped lightly against his chest as they walked away from the admission receptionist side.

He folded the campus map he had been given into his pocket as they moved from terminal to terminal, listening to many instructions he knew he would forget the moment they stepped to the next.

The sun hung high above the open courtyard, its rays spilling over stone paths and trimmed grass.

Students arranged themselves, their voices overlapping in a constant hum as they watched the dancers showcase their talents.

Clicking footsteps echoed in the hallway, followed by gasps that seemed not to end.

In Jinx's arms, she held onto a tin sheet containing information about Kai's dorm assignment. "Dorm assignment pending," she flipped through the papers, laughing. "Wow, they really don't trust you."

Her laughter followed them as they exited the administration block.

Fresh air slammed into Kai's face, forcing his eyes to close for a second. When he cracked them open, he stared at the courtyard, at how alive it felt. "This place is loud."

Jinx grinned, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. "Hahaha." She brushed her left arm against Kai's shoulder. "Give it time. You'll start hearing only what matters when you start your thing."

Lena turned and threw a sharp glance at Jinx, then at Kai. "Per the details here, you're to go for your lectures tomorrow."

"Meaning we're done for today, right?" Jinx asked, a strange spark of joy igniting in her.

"Yes," Lena confirmed.

Jinx's heart hammered against her ribs as the face of Black reeled in her mind. Then I can go there like I promised him.

"Uhm," she mumbled, "I will have to join you later."

"Why?" Lena asked.

Jinx hesitated for a while. "I have to meet someone before I come back. But maybe I will come late."

"Come late? Okay," Lena stated, then tilted her gaze from Jinx to Kai.

Jinx turned to Kai. "You can now have the front seat like I promised." She stood by the side and watched the BMW leave the Vamus College parking lot.

"Yes!" she screamed, then became shy when she noticed her voice had drawn attention.

From a few meters away from her, broad-shouldered students licked their lips when they saw the white-haired lady's curvy shape appear as she wrapped a band around her waist.

"This is okay than at first," she said, exhaling sharply, then pulled out her Samsung Galaxy S22 from her small bag.

She dialed the number saved as B.B.C, with a wet violet potato at its side, then placed the phone to her left ear.

"Hello," she waited, listening to the voice from the other end.

"Are you around? I want to visit today too, if you don't mind." A smile shimmered on her face when the male voice stated he had just reached.

"So, can I come there, or will you come pick me up?" She squeezed her lips to the side, her eyes darting toward the broad-shouldered boy throwing gestures at her.

"I will be waiting."

…

That night, at around 9:00 pm, Jinx entered the estate, angry. She slammed her foot hard on the ground, her bag whipping through the air like a knife.

She entered through the doors like a ghost and threw herself on her bed, tears dripping from her eyes.

"Fuck you, Black!" she screamed heavily, slamming her clenched fist into the bed, letting tiny fur erupt from her pillow.