You know those friction burns you would feel after you scraped your knee when you were playing catch or something like that. Your skin had felt like it would fall off completely. The pain that I was currently under however, is ten times worse than that. My skin felt like it was being ripped apart rather than just minor chafing from the rough cobbled grounds of the alleyway. I cursed my wonderful luck of choosing to wear t-shirt and shorts -which exposes 60% of my skin to injuries- on today of all days.

Slowly I tried to get up from my position on the ground, but quickly realized how futile it was when I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out. Sharp pain stabbed at my head and bright spots crowded out my field of vision, it felt like my whole body had been beaten and every minuscule movement caused some muscle or bone to ache. Regardless, I needed to get out of here... away from that thing.

Wincing in pain I started to run through my internal database for any useful spells that can be easily casted to help me get away. I grabbed onto the cracks in the brick wall, pushing myself to stand up with the support of the wall behind me. In the half light of the alley, my surroundings was dim and it was difficult to discern the location of the other witch.

Having taken advantage of my surprise from seeing unnaturally glowing green eyes and not due to my nonexistent physical capabilities, he or she repeatedly toyed around with me using kicks and punches, not giving me any chance to fight back.

Wearing dark clothes combined with the effect of the shadows, Green eyes blended in perfectly with the surroundings like the dark knight. And thus I was unable to catch a glimpse of any distinct facial feature that I could use to identify and charge this person for assault -whoever it was- when I get out of here alive.

'Who are you?' I coughed out.

But the rude witch -if he could even be considered as one- just sent another kick to my curled up self. Then, the air had suddenly stilled leaving me in my current situation, stuck here by myself in this dead silent alleyway.

Other than my shallow breaths that was puffing out at a hundred miles per second, the entire place was quiet. Drinking in a deep gulp of pungent stale air to put a dam on my fear, I was careful in keeping an eye out for any sudden movements in my surroundings as I struggled to remember how to cast an apparation spell to get out of wherever this was.

Without warning there was a shift in the atmosphere, when a flock of crows started circling above me, round and round the edge of the too high walls. Their incessant squawking and the beating of their powerful wings seemed to have brought down the temperature of the alley. And with it, the smell of rotting garbage had become even more prominent. But what had caused my breathing to hitch was not that, instead it was the sight of the hooded figure standing in front of me once more.

Seeing those set of eerie green eyes again made my already thundering heart threaten to hammer out of my chest. The sound of rustling clothes signalled to me that he or she or it was walking towards me. My senses were sent into overdrive, with my brain screaming at me to run. My fists curled up by my side, nails digging into my sweaty palms, desperately trying to think of something, anything.

Green eyes took another step closer. 

'No...' I breathed out as I lifted my hands to block myself from the attack that I could sense coming.

A low, anguished groan along with a sickening snap disrupted the still tension, causing me to look up when I did not feel the pain that I had expected to come. The sound had not escaped from my mouth but had instead originated from in front of me. Green eyes had his fist pulled back, ready to slam that down my face but had stopped short of a hair's breadth away from my cheek. His fist now looked much larger than it had been, having since swelled up to the size of my face.

In my state of hyperventilation, I had unknowingly created a force field before me, blocking the incoming punch. The shield had taken the shape of a dome, arching outwards, with Green eyes' fist planted right smack on its surface a few inches before my cheek.

Defendere

I casted the spell without even knowing the necessary steps or having the essential materials.

Woah! I had only saw this spell once while snooping around my mom's books. Deeming it as uninteresting I had flipped past it without giving it a second thought. Who knew that said spell would come in to save my now?

Casting the spell without any pre-preparation came as a shock to me, and it apparently shocked my attacker too. Remembering that I was currently in danger, I snapped out of my internal celebration at my new found powers, to find that Green eyes was gone. Again.

Quickly, I pictured the image of home and channeled all my magic into trying to apparate, praying that Lilith did not let me cast a spell like defendere by fluke.

Once again, what is fanfiction without giving you more drama, in the form of a hooded figure with glowing green eyes that screamed bloody murder, charging towards me with- is that a knife?

This time, due to my pendulum of emotions like fear, surprise and other feelings that you have while you are on the verge of death, I had not kept a lookout for him. My life however did not flash past my eyes. And I was not even given the time to reflect on my 18 years on this planet before the world went dark.

X

'... your bleeding'

'Fine...' 

'...helped out in school'

Snippets of conversation echoed everywhere around me. But the only thing that I could clearly discern was the splitting headache that was cracking open my skull. My brain felt like mush, coupled with badly aching muscles and blurry vision, I wondered if this was what being dead felt like.

I could not command a single limb in my body to move, to get past this haze that was hanging over my vision, clouding my view of heaven. It was as if every eye lash weighs more than it should and gravity has been turned up ten fold. With the tiny crack through my eyelids, the things that I could see all just looked overly bright and unfocused.

I drifted into consciousness. And then back out. Even so, the soft murmurs that were engaged in a discusssion piqued my interest as they seem to be talking about someone. I tried to tune in on their conversation even when my ears felt like it was heavily stuffed with cotton.

'She needs help...'

'She...'

'...thank you'

After that, I could only hear faint steps coming closer towards me, before a familiar cooling wave washed over my whole body.

'...Taetae...'

I tried to keep my eyes open to see who it was. Who was it that dared said my childhood nickname. Who was it that said it with such affection. I really did try my best.

But it was so hard, and I was so comfortable, especially when it felt like the torture that my mind and body were under finally vaporized, leaving behind a feeling of floating on the clouds. Soon that was all that I was aware of, the cool but warm feeling that flooded every pore in my sore body, relieving me from my misery.

X

A series of vibrations jerked me awake from my heavy slumber. My eye lids that were shut tight and laden with sleep were forcibly pried open with those dreadful pings. The growl that was on its way out my throat halted in its tracks once I realised that it was not my alarm that disturbed my much-needed sleep. Instead what shone brightly on the screen was a 'good' morning text from Hyung Don.

Morning jelly😆!!!

Lemme ask u a qns

U noe who i hate?

                      This better be good

Ans the qns^

Who?

The inventor of the alarm clock

Noe who I luv?

                             Me

Haha...

No

The inventor of the snooze button!

I was going 2 strangle u 4 waking me up

Now I dun think I would let u off with jus tat!

😠😠😠

This was our new found tradition, to send a joke to each other to kick start our day. This morning's joke topped the charts as the worst of the worst. It was not even funny. He must have stopped trying. But still, I found myself chatting up a storm with Hyung Don at 6am in the morning.

Unconsciously, my face had split wide open into a broad smile as I went about my morning routine. An unusual sight as I was known to be a zombie in the mornings. On the contrary, I could be seen busily tapping on my phone while brushing my teeth, and even snapping pictures to ask Hyung Don what I should wear to school today.

The smile was wipped off my face once I settled down to have my breakfast -a bowl of rice with kimchi and fried eggs- and Mom asked me.

'Go invite Miyoungie over for dinner later.'

The spoon that was on its way to my mouth and the phone that I was holding onto had all dropped onto the table along with my jaw. The resulting thuds were not enough to drown out the loud 'WHAT!' that tumbled out. But Mom had a built-in filter to sieve out my protests, developed through years of raising me since I popped out of her. And she chose to insist upon her stand, saying that it was to repay her beloved Miyoungie for safely bringing me home last night.

'What?' This time, the word came out as a question, vastly different from the objecting tone that I had taken on just moments ago.

'She brought you back last night after you injured yourself in school.' Mom explained. 'And Miyoungie only went back home after I finished healing you. It's only right if we treat her to dinner...'

What she had said following that was dialed down to background noise, as the events of last night suddenly came crashing back to me. 

Looking at it now, it was no wonder that I had woken up in my pajamas, something I had not done since the day I stepped up to the role of the class rep. The nagging feeling at the back of my head even when I was texting Hyung Don, those had all been signs that I had forgotten something important.

The memories of getting kicked and punched. The lingering feel of undescribable pain. The thoughts that I was going to die. And the image of haunting green eyes. All these had instantly rushed back to me with Mom's words.

The rush of those memories also brought along countless speculations on last night's events. Namely: why in the world was the mushroom in that alley or what did she do to me and why in Lilith's name was I attacked.

Confiding in Mom was out of the question. She would not believe that her Miyoungie could be capable of such cruel acts. I need to dig into this.

The tsunami of unanswered questions and to-dos were piling onto my stress from the events of the past few weeks. Not only did I recently discover that Hwang might not be human. Then I had to be part of the executive committee for Prom that was fast approaching. And now I had just barely survived a near death experience with that witch thing that may or may not be Hwang herself.

'URGH!' Slamming my head onto the table was not the best idea at the moment as my headache from last night struck my brain at full force.

Mom halted her speech on that pink monster, looking like she finally remembered that I too was in the room with her. Not wanting to deal with anything else right now, I decided to mull over last night's events on the way to school. So I stood up, grabbed my bag and headed for the door, but not before pressing a kiss to her cheek and giving her false promises that I would push for Hwang to have dinner with us. 

'Remember to ask Miyoungie to join us for dinner, its been so long since I last saw her.'

Letting out another defeated yes Mom, I left for my usual route to school.

X

'Hwang Tiffany.'

Not even bothering to look up from the attendance sheet, our homeroom teacher, Mr Kang just marked her as absent before moving further down the list.

'In Hwan Jae'

Here.

'Ji Chang Wook'

Here.

'Jung Hyung Don'

The sound of pen scratching on paper stopped, as Mr Kang paused in his attendance taking to finally look up to check for any signs of the new student.

His gaze swept over to mine, directing a questioning gaze at me from my seat at the back of the class. But I just gave a shake of my head in response, showing that I too did not know where Hyung Don was and why he was not in school. With that, Mr Kang penned him down as absent before moving onto the rest of the students.

From our morning of conversation, up till my sudden leave due to Mom's jaw dropping request, Hyung Don had not mentioned anything about being sick or needing to take a leave from school.

I stealthily took out my phone and tapped out a quick message to Pudding -our favourite foods as our nicknames for each other- asking him if he was alright. However, there were no signs of a reply even after 6 hours in school.

The feeling of anxiousness from this morning chose not to leave me, rather it had upped its game. Now I sat in Math, almost time for the end of school, rapidly bouncing my leg while I sweat in places that I did not even know could sweat.

This morning while walking to school, I had looked through every gap between every building for any signs of that alleyway, but I turned up empty. Now not only was Hwang not in school -which was not unusual-, but Hyung Don was too. Coupled with what happened to me less than a day ago, I feared for Hyung Don's safety. 

A sharp sting on my leg caused my attention to whip back to reality, just in time to see Jessica retracting her arm and sending me her death glare.

'Stop it!' She hissed. 'Since when were you nervous about getting back our results?'

Before I could ask her what was actually happening, my name was called and Jessica nudged me to get my up and move towards the teacher. Not knowing what was going on, I cluelessly walked up to the front, before a set of papers was shoved into my hands.

I looked down to see that it was my Math test that I took a few weeks prior to last night's fateful event. Turning around to return to my seat, I scanned through my test while I was on the way.

91 points.

YES!

I paused my fist pump when my name got called upon again.

'Class rep, will you please hold onto the absentees' scripts and pass it to them when you see them.' Meaning it more as a statement than a question, she shove another stack of papers into my hands once again before I could even formulate a reply. 

And this, was also part of my job description as the class rep, to hold onto stuff that the teachers themselves do no want to hold onto. Sighing internally, I stalked back to my seat.

While shuffling through the papers, I came across Hyung Don's script. Peeking behind the corners of it was the name Hwang Tiffany written in her familiar ugly handwriting.

I know its not right to look into others test results without their permission, but my curiousity won over my reason. Flipping over to her script, a big fat 100 greeted me the moment my eyes landed on the corner of her test paper.

Holy was the only two words that I could think of, as my brain struggled to wrap itself around the fact that the Hwang had scored a full mark on the test. A test that was not even that easy to begin with and was part of our final grade.

'She did it again.' A voice sounded from over my shoulder.

Sica was now using my shoulder as her personal head support, mouthing her complement to Hwang with an uncharacteristically soft look on her face, sounding like a proud mother.

'She scored such results before?' I heard myself dumbly questioning Sica.

Nodding her head, Sica responded by saying 'Told you she's not such a bad person, she works hard for these.'

Sica's words rang true to the echoes in my head.

In the end, what do I really know about Hwang Tiffany.

X

Thoughts. Those are what occupy everyone's minds in every part of their lives. Be it simple thoughts like what to have for dinner or what to wear. To complicated thoughts like what kind of witch would have glowing green eyes and what was Hwang's part in all of this.

I sunk into my inner musings even as I walked to the staff room, believing my muscle memory would not fail me. As I slotted in the event schedule for Prom into Mr Kang's locker, I overheard someone mentioning Hwang's name. A group of teachers had huddled in front of my Math teacher's desk, discussing something related to Hwang in hushed whispers.

With my back turned, I casually sidled close enough to them to listen in on their conversation.

'She did it again...?'

'Yea. I don't get it, she doesn't seem to be paying much attention in class... And that's if she even shows up in the first place.'

'So, she's cheating then?'

'But even after 3 years, nobody's been able to find proof.'

Hearing such obviously discriminatory words come out of teachers' mouths just made me sick to the core.

Thus, I could not stop myself from blurting out 'Isn't that the embodiment of judging a book by its cover?'

The expected backlash from the teachers did not come. Instead their mouths seem to have suddenly sewn themselves shut as there was a pindrop silence in the staff room. Deciding that I have overstayed my welcome, I awkwardly shuffled out of the staff room, before dashing out of the school compound with my bag.

X

!

What the hell was I thinking, getting worked up by gossip like that. For all I know, Hwang could actually be cheating on all her tests. Just because she may or may not have saved my life last night, that alone was not enough to justify all her delinquent acts. From what I have said to the teachers, I woud be surprised if I did not receive detention first thing in the morning tomorrow.

Looking down at the test paper that I was clutching in my hand, it's presence alone had brought about a bigger need to pay a visit to the house next door. I thought I could just ignore Mom's request and head straight home. But now, there's this piece of burden that was stuck with me.

Letting out another sigh, I prayed that Lilith would tone down that mushroom's bite to make this visit easier, for the both of us. Other than returning her script to her, I would need some answers. Judging by the number of times we have actually talked to each other -with none of them ending well, I hope that we would still be able to hold a semi-civilized conversation, although that was something we have not done for quite some years.

Unbeknownst to me, I had already arrived at the Hwangs' residence while I was going on about my monologue. Standing in front of the thick brown door that was dull and spotted with years of wear and tear, it dawned on me that I was physically present at Hwang's house, albeit not with my complete consent.

Here goes nothing

in a deep breath, I steeled my resolve and brought my knuckles up to the smooth varnished surface, preparing to knock on the Devil's door. 

????

Finally, I finished this chapter after weeks of writing and rewriting. Thanks guys/girls for all the subs and friend requests. I really, really had fun writing this chapter and I hope to bring you all the next chapter asap. XD So excited for the upcoming events, WEEEEEEEE