[h3]Su-Cheong[/h3]

Her breathing was quick, her heartbeat was pounding. Cold sweat perspirated on her skin even though her apartment room was air conditioned. The nightmare was so vivid, bringing the past memory Su-Cheong had been trying to forget. The clock showed how early it was in the morning; for a civilian, of course. Su-Cheong’s military life had adapted her body to quickly get active at this hour. The sleep was enough, but the awakening was stressful. Indeed, Su-Cheong believed that to forget such memory was a mistake. She immediately got herself up and went to the washbasin inside the attached restroom, splashed the water to her face then back to her room. She pushed a button on the wall and immediately, all the furnishing folded itself, retracted to the wall. This made the personalized studio apartment room where Su-Cheong lived turned into a wide space with a body-sized mirror on one side of the wall. Yes, ordinary soldiers might sleep on a bunk bed in a barrack, but not for a Raven Squad specialist.

Su-Cheong then walked toward that mirror, the space she considered fitting as a personal altar, or even maybe a temple for her spiritual journey. The young woman loosened her night robe and looked straight into that mirror. Her now exposed skin shows the visible scars, the remains of her past life, the memento that was still be brought until now. Su-Cheong then sat with her legs folded, beginning her meditation. The nightmare was vivid that she could still remember it, the same traumatic sequence she ever faced. The visage of her torturer, the searing hot metal which was his torture device; and the pain when the metal was shoved into her navel. Su-Cheong flinched every time such memory played itself in her brain, the stress was enough to raise the tension in all her muscles.

[i]“Let it pass, let it liberate itself from any repression, let it be accepted, let myself be accepted, let myself find peace from accepting my past.”[/i]

Just as a baby coming out of her mother's womb with her umbilical cord cut from her, Su-Cheong began to see such dream as a symbol of her rebirth. Long ago, she needed to kill in order to survive, now she needed it to safe more lives. Long ago, she came into such way of life not from her own choice, now she took her choice to live like this. The method might look similar, the skillset required might not be different in its entirety. The means likely stayed same, the meaning diverted significantly. Besides, now Su-Cheong had a steadier moral basis in her line of work.

[i]"The universe placed me right here, right now, for a reason; my life has its mean that I have to keep learning to understand it; when I understand it, I shall be liberated from any restrain, and I shall find peace."[/i]

Su-Cheong ended her mediation session and pushed another button on the wall console. A segment of the wall opened itself and showed the world outside through the bulletproof glass. Su-Cheong made a personal choice of her apartment room to have the view of sunrise. The day welcomed Su-Cheong as she checked her routine; it was swimming pool this time. She then changed into her two-piece sport swimsuit, layered them with her yesterday's crop-top shirt and track pants. Su-Cheong tied her long hair into a bun, wrapped her head in a tight cap and soon she was on her way to the indoor pool by the gym. [color=violet]Su-Cheong met Laura on her way but said nothing as she did not want to disturb the behemoth mid-training.[/color] Su-Cheong went straight to the pool, changed into her swimwear, and put her things inside a locker, then immediately started her warmups, out and in-water in the shallow part of the pool. As her body adapted itself, Su-Cheong climbed and moved to the deeper pool, the Olympic-sized one. She stood on a block, bent her hip forward, then made her jump into the water.

Su-Cheong broke the water surface smoothly and let the hydrodynamic flow to swiftly swim her body forward. Her graceful strokes continuously moved her body in sequence of undulating waves from her shoulders, her midriff, her hip, and her legs. As the drag increased, Su-Cheong pushed her arms downward then backward, bringing her head out of water to inhale and push her body further forward. The undulating sequence restarted as Su-Cheong spun her arms and put them back in front of her as her body returned into the water. This butterfly stroke, Su-Cheong's favorite, really put all her muscles into test.

After several back-and-forth repetitions, Su-Cheong called it enough. She ended her session with cooling-down sequence and a nice warm shower. She returned to her room and dressed for the day. Most of her activities were facilitated inside the building, ranging from writing and reviewing her private journal, testing some equipment, also studying some military treatises, procedures, and international law. The digital archive and library could be accessed from the network connected to the building, secured from any potential external manmade threat or natural disaster.

Some hours passed, the clock eventually marked the end of Su-Cheong's routines for the day. It was already evening and Su-Cheong had just finished her end-of-day meditation. Su-Cheong then got herself ready for the unscheduled gathering the squad usually had during dinner. Some of her teammates might have already been there with their favorite drinks or just chilling in the lounge. Her choice of dress was rather casual as this was never a formal kind of event, a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of cotton pants. She decided to give the lower part of her shirt a knot and let a part of her midriff cooled by the air-conditioned hall. As she raised her hand to tie her hair into a low ponytail, Su-Cheong could notice the visible mark of the scar from her past torture.

Su-Cheong went upstairs and gave herself a chance for small talks she rarely took. [color=violet]"Good evening"[/color] said Su-Cheong short as she entered the lounge. She then took a single glass of warm water. The young woman then casually approached the buffet and raised her eyebrows. [color=violet]"Everything we need is here without any of us ever going out for grocery,"[/color] she remarked. [color=violet]"I wonder how the maintenance for this base works, Commander, who are the staffs?"[/color] Su-Cheong raised her question.