*Warning! Mention of Blood, violence and abuse in this chapter!!*

Emory's POV:

   “Emory hurry up!” I could hear Allissa yell from the bottom of the stairs. “We need to get there early so we can enroll Heejun who, by the way, has already finished eating breakfast!”

“I know! I’m Sorry!” I yelled back with panic. “But I can’t find my Math book!”

“Didn’t you forget it at school last Thursday?” She yelled back making me pause.

“O-oh yeah!” I stuttered nervously. “Hehe! Forgot!”

      Looks like I’m going to have to borrow Addie’s today...

    Quickly grabbing my backpack, I made my way down stairs and waved good morning to my sister who was waiting for me. She just rolled her eyes and gently pushed me out the front door. “Come on. They’re already waiting for us in the car.”

     Walking out to the driveway I saw that N was already in the driver’s seat and smiled sheepishly when he narrowed his eyes at me-annoyed by how late I was making us. We quickly climbed into the car and I tried my best not to blush when I first saw Heejun wearing my school’s required uniform. His long, thin legs fit well in the grey slacks that matched nicely with the blue blazer and white button down. His once long hair, which we cut last Friday, was now neat and styled so that it swept across his forehead to the left.

Ok… so… yeah, he looked really cute at the moment…

   “Good Morning, Heejun!” I greeted as I shut the car door and buckled my seatbelt. He didn’t reply back nor did he smile, instead giving me a small bow before looking back to the front.

“You excited for your first day?” I went on, hoping that he’d keep on the conversation.

“No, not really.” He deadpanned, still not looking at me. I laughed nervously to myself but didn’t say any more.

    “Alright. Should we go over the plan again?” N must’ve sensed the awkward atmosphere behind him and wanted to break the ice. “Heejun! If someone asks you why you are living with Emory, what are you to say?”

   “That my parents are working overseas and since Emory is my childhood friend, they thought it would be better to live with her and finish high school here.” Heejun said automatically like he was reciting words from a study guide.

“Nice!” N gave him a thumbs up. “Now, Emory!”

“Since Heejun’s parents are working overseas, I begged Allissa and you to let Heejun stay with us so I wouldn’t have to separate from him.”

“Good!” I could hear the fake proudness in his voice. “Now, if you two would get rid of the robot voices, then it would sound a lot more convincing!”

    Five minutes later we drove into the parking lot and climbed out once N parked near the front office. After entering through the front doors, N told the office lady that he needed to speak to the Principal, and then we sat down and waited; which we didn’t have to do for long.

    The Principal came shortly after and we all followed him to his office. But before I entered it, he quickly recognized me and told me to go to class. Knowing that I still couldn’t be too far away from Heejun, I just found a bench near the door and sat down. A little over twenty minutes later, they came back out with N and Allissa laughing at something that the Principal said.

    "Well it was sure nice to see you two again!” The Principal laughed while shaking N and my sister’s hands. “Mr. Oh here seems like a very bright young man! We’ll be happy to have him as one of our students!”

“Thank you very much, sir!” My sister smiled. “You’ve always been so kind to us.”

“Ah ah ah!” The Principal cut her off. “I’ll have none of that now! Every child deserves a chance to have an education as long as they are willing to learn.”

    “But I still think I should somehow repay you for what you’ve done for us.” My sister insisted. “Can I at least make you a batch of my famous choco-chip cookies? Please~?”

“I wouldn’t reject that offer, sir.” N smirked. “Her cookies are really amazing.”

   The Principal quickly looked around before leaning towards them and whispering.“Just don’t let the secretary know, ok? I’m supposed to be on a diet.” Then he let out a rumbling laugh as he rubbed his belly.

“Yes sir!” My sister ‘saluted’ with a laugh of her own. 

   “Alright, now, Mr. Oh.” The Principal turned to Heejun and handed him a few slips of paper. “This is your class schedule and a list of the school rules. Very simple to follow and if you have any questions just ask your teacher- Miss Cleus! What are you still doing out here? I thought I told you to go to class.” I quickly stood up from my spot on the floor and scratched my head awkwardly, thinking of something quick to say.

“Umm… well… you see, sir…” I went up to Heejun and wrapped my arm around his. I could feel him instantly stiffen at my touch, which I felt bad about, but this was the only way to look convincing.

    “I was worried about Heejun!” I did my best to look sad and concerned. “He’s my BESTEST friend ever! And I worry for him all the time since he’s such a trouble maker.” I tugged Heejun a bit closer and grinned.

What I didn’t expect was for Heejun to tug his arm away and instead wrap it around my shoulders tightly.

    “Sadly, she’s right, sir!” Heejun said in the happiest sounding voice I’ve ever heard from him. “I have to admit that I can be a trouble maker sometimes, so she’s always looking out for me.”

“Sounds like you two have a very deep bond.” The Principal commented and raised his brow. “Now, I trust that no trouble will actually happen?”

“Oh don’t worry, sir.” Heejun grinned and tightened his grip on me. “With her around, nothing goes wrong!”

    “I sure do hope so.” The Principal nodded. After talking to Allissa and N a bit more, he said goodbye to them and told Heejun and I to go to class. Thanks to N, he allowed Heejun to be in the same class as me along with having the same after school cleaning schedule too.

     As I led him to our classroom I went on and on about what the day would consist of according to the daily schedule. To be honest, I don’t know if he was really even listening to me, but it did help me to get over the shock that he gave me earlier. Where did that personality even come from? He went from showing absolutely no emotion to chirpy in less than a second! And it seemed just so natural!

    When we finally arrived to the classroom it was five minutes before class would start so I waited with him until our teacher came and then slipped into the room after introducing them.

    “Ems! Where were you on Friday!? Do you know how worried we were when you didn’t even text us?!” Star yelled as I sat down in my seat. I gave her an apologetic grin. “Long story, can I tell you at lunch?”

She blew a raspberry and rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Whatever. But you BETTER tell us everything.”

“I will! I will! Promise!” I looked at Addie. “Hey~ Do you mind if I-“ But before I could say the rest, she held something up to my face.

It was my Math book…

“OMGosh!” I grabbed it with wide eyes. “Where did you find it?!”

“Last Wednesday.” Addie explained. “You left it on your desk after school. I was going to give it back to you on Friday, but you didn’t come.”

Huh… so I DID accidentally leave it at school…. So glad Ravi isn’t here to know that.

I screamed in delight and leaned over to hug her. “You’re my savior, Addie~!”

She let out a soft laugh and patted my back. “I know.”

When the classroom door opened and out teacher walked in I quickly let Addie go and sat back in my seat.

   “Good morning, students!” Our Teacher sang, her eyes glancing over all of us. “Before we start our lesson, I am going to introduce to you a new classmate!”

    Hushed whispers flew around me and from the corner of my eye I could see Star giving Addie an excited grin. If the Teacher could hear them, she didn’t let it show. Instead she just turned to the door and gestured for the person to come in.

Slowly, Heejun revealed himself, making the girls in my class talk even louder than before.

“Holy COW! He’s so CUTE!” I could hear Star whisper loudly and I ignored the itch to send her a glare.

    When Heejun finally came up to the Teacher, she told him to introduce himself. Turning his body so that he completely faced us, he didn’t say anything at first, but his eyes roamed around until he spotted me. He looked a little nervous so I sent him an encouraging nod, hoping that he could understand. 

    everything’s going to be alright. You’re doing fine.

Then, after taking a deep breath, he spoke.

   “My name is Oh Heejun and I am Seventeen years old. It’s nice to meet you all.” Then he gave a quick bow and looked back at the teacher, who clapped.

   “Good! Now does anyone have a question that they would like to ask Mr. Oh?” Hands didn’t hesitate to shoot up after she asked that. While humming she picked one of them. “Yes, Mr. Lee.”

The student, Lee Seungjae rested his hand on his desk. “Why did you transfer here?”

   “Because my parents are working overseas and, since I didn’t want to leave, they are letting me stay with my childhood friend.” I let out the breath I was holding in relief. Compared to this morning, his response actually sounded normal.

More students raised their hands.

“Miss Shiller?” The teacher pointed. The girl, Mary stood up next.

    “Do you have a girlfriend?” She giggled after the question flew from . I knew that he didn’t know what that even was because he looked right at me in alarm. Thinking that I would explain to him about it later, I mouthed the word ‘No’ which he seemed to understand.

“Uh… No.”

The girls all giggled and squealed in so much delight that I almost regretted making him say that.

After hushing them, the Teacher picked another student. “Miss Shima?”

Tsubasa, a friend of mine, stood up.

“Who’s your friend? Do we know them?” She asked. He gave her the most innocent look I’ve ever seen before pointing right at me.

“Emory. We grew up together.”

    In an instant it felt as if my name was a grenade and the loud classroom gossiping was the blast. I was now cursing at N for making us use this kind of excuse. Especially when both Addie and Star shot looks at me that said ‘we want answers!’

I gave them an awkward smile in reply.

“Really?” Sabrina turned around to meet me with surprised eyes.

I nodded. “Uh… yeah. His Parents used to babysit me and my sisters when we were little.”

I cringed as more squeals rang out and from the corner of my eye I could see Heejun smiling. He was enjoying this for some reason.

    “Alright, Class! Settle down! Settle down!” Our teacher yelled over the noise. “You’ll have plenty of time to ask him more questions later, but for now Mr. Oh, why don’t you sit in the empty seat next to Miss Cleus.”

“But that’s Dongyeon’s seat!” Minho, Dongyeon’s best friend, protested. “Even though he’s out sick you can’t just give his seat up like that!”

Our teacher gave him a nod. “I know… but it was a request from the Principal to keep them together. Not sure why, but I have to follow his orders.”

Minho didn’t say anything else as Heejun made his way over to me and sat down. I could tell that he didn’t really want to sit next to me either.

     The lesson began and the whole time up until lunch Heejun was quiet, copying everything I did so he wouldn’t look like he was as lost as he probably felt. I was the only one that knew about his lack of note taking knowledge.

      When the bell finally rang for lunch I grabbed both him and our bags full of food that Leo had made for us and scurried out of the classroom. Our destination was an unoccupied room where Star, Addie and I usually liked to eat in. They followed us in just a few seconds after we sat down in some of the old, unused desks.

“Alright, spill! What’s going on?” Star roughly pulled out a chair and sat right in front of the desk I was in

“What do you mean?” Heejun smiled and I could tell he was ready to put on an act.

“It’s ok, Heejun.” I sighed. “They know.”

He turned to me and raised his brow. “They ‘know’? Know what?”

“Everything.”

“You mean!” He shot up in his seat and stared at me with wide eyes. “Even about Cards?!”

I nodded.

“How?!”

“It’s a long story…” I hesitated, but Star scoffed.

   “Long story my ! We were at her house one time and Allissa didn’t know, so we witnessed her summon Leo out of his card. Now!” She bent forward so she was closer to the Warrior. “I want answers. Who are you really and how do you know Emory?”

    Addie, who has been quiet through the whole ordeal so far, just sat down and waited for his answer. Heejun, not knowing what to do, looked at me with furrowed brows. I gave him a short nod which he took as permission to speak.

“I’m her Destined Card…”

For a moment, it was quiet as both Star and Addie let that sink in.

“But…” Addie finally spoke. “Emory’s not a Deck Master. So… how is that possible?”

     “I don’t know.” I replied quietly, buying their attention. “Last Thursday, we found his Card in one of my text books. We didn’t know if he was my Destined Card or not, so we decided to try making me bond with him to see. Turns out, he is. The reason why I wasn’t here on Friday was because we used that as our day to talk about what happened.”

“Ok…” Star said slowly. “But what about our texts? You still didn’t reply back to any of them!”

I scratched my head, embarrassed. “There was so much going on at the time that I… kinda… forgot to reply? Hehe…”

    They both rolled their eyes and mumbled a quick ‘Of course….’ which made Heejun raise his brow at me in question. He was probably judging me on how forgetful I was.

“Well… Why is he attending school with you?” Star asked after a long pause, but Addie cut me off before I could answer.

“Isn’t it because you two just bonded? So you have to be near each other so the bond can grow stronger?”

I nodded as Star looked at her like she grew a second head. “How’d you know that?”

    Addie instantly replied with. “Because I actually remember what Allissa and N told us when you asked then why Jungkook was always hanging around Rori like he was a love sick puppy.”

    A small patch of pink drew across Star’s face as she looked away in embarrassment. “Errr… well then!” She tried to think of something to change the topic. “Heejun! How are you liking everything so far?”

“What do you mean?” Heejun looked at her strangely.

“What do you think about everything? Emory, her family, being out of your Card, school. Just… everything.”

His eyes rolled up as he thought of what to say.

“I still don’t trust my Master, I don’t know how I should feel being out of my Card… normal I guess, and school and my Master’s family are all weird…”

I laughed awkwardly as their faces grew in surprise at his answer.

“But…” I quickly grew quiet at that and waited for him to continue.

He looked down at his hands that were laying on the desk. “I do have to admit that… it is better… than before. I get to sleep in a bed, I get to eat really good food, I get to go to school that…” He coughed and changed his sentence.

“Yeah, it’s definitely better.”

I gasped as something flashed in my mind…again.

   I opened my eyes and saw a woman. She was beautiful, with long blonde hair and sea green eyes. She wore a long dark Victorian era dress with one arm hiding behind her back and the other raised in front of her. In that hand was a Card.

      I recognized it as Heejun’s.

    “My… my….” She looked me up and down, pride decorating her face. “What a handsome boy… and with such a young face for such a powerful card; It almost makes me sad to use you.”

Then, she moved her hidden arm to reveal the whip she was holding, raising it above her head.

“But, like I said, ‘almost’.” Her smile grew into a crazy grin and she slashed down the whip where a loud, agonizing scream followed.

    “Emory? Are you ok?” Addie’s voice made the scene change back to the classroom that we were in. I blinked and saw her, Star and even Heejun looking at me like I had just tripped over nothing.

“Huh? Y-yeah… Why?” I asked, tilting my head.

“Well, you sort of just spaced out for a while…” Star spoke slowly. “And now you’re crying.”

“What?” I reached up to my cheeks and felt that they were wet. Why was I crying?

“Oh” I laughed awkwardly as I wiped the tears away. “Must be tired or something. It’s been a long week so far.”

    My friends, still looking concerned, didn’t press any further. I was happy they did, because I didn’t want to talk about what I just saw; it was horrifying. But… just what was it exactly? It’s the second time that it’s happened and the only thing I could understand was that it had to do something with Heejun. Was it a vision? Or a memory? But… why would I be seeing Heejun’s memories though? Deck Masters can’t see inside their Warrior’s heads! Can they?

     We changed the topic and I tried my best not to meet Heejun’s eyes. I could feel them on me like lasers trying to drill holes into the side of my head. He knew that I was hiding something and I felt guilty because he was right.

     After finishing up lunch we went back to class and spent the rest of the day like any other. Wait; scratch that, almost like any other. The only change was the girls in class giggling and giving Heejun googly eyes whenever he answered a question right (and even wrong). It was getting kind of annoying to tell you the truth.

When school ended for the day, we said goodbye to Addie and Star and headed back to the house.

“So!” I cheerfully tried to start a conversation. “What did you think about your first day of ‘normal human’ school?”

“…” He didn’t answer me.

     “Er…. Well… I guess there’s not much else to expect from it.” I went on. “Unlike Deck Master Academies, normal human schools have similar daily schedules; have lessons, eat lunch, then have more lessons and then go home with a backpack full of homework. It can get kind of boring sometimes, but there are some days that are exciting and fun! And-“

   “What happened during lunch?” Heejun stopped walking and turned to me, cutting off my nervous rant. I stopped too and tried my best not to look like I knew what he was talking about.

“What do you mean?” I asked in the best ‘I’m so confused’ voice I could muster. He narrowed his eyes at me.

    “Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” I slightly winced at how my plan didn’t work. “Something happened during that moment didn’t it? You either saw or heard something that made you cry. What was it?”

   “Oh that?” I pretended to be embarrassed. “I was just tired. Seriously! Haven’t been able to get much sleep with all these questions popping up in my head!”

He gave me one last narrowed look before turning around once more.

“You know…” He spoke over his shoulder. “You keep on telling me how I can trust you and that there is nothing to worry about…but…

“How can I trust you when you don’t even seem to trust me?”

I watched, speechless, as he walked away.

      He was right; if I wanted him to trust and open up to me, I would have to show that I trusted him first. But… I was scared. Scared of what he would think when I told him about the visions. What would I say? ‘I think I’m seeing your past memories! Tell me! Did you ever get abused by a crazy lady with a whip?’ Yeah, that sounds like the perfect start to a good conversation.

I sighed and followed him. We didn’t talk the rest of the way home.

     For the next two weeks my relationship with Heejun didn’t prosper. Every day was the same; he would walk me to school, pretend that we were besties in front of our classmates and teachers, ‘study’ together, then he would walk me back home and we would go to our separate rooms. I knew that I had to do something about it, but I just didn’t know what. The tension between us was so strong that even Leo would raise a brow whenever he saw us together.

And just when I thought that things couldn’t get any worse… it did.

“Emory….” Allissa called out to me one, almost rainy, afternoon after Heejun and I came back from school.

“Hey, sis! What’s up?” I asked curiously. She beckoned me to sit down at the kitchen table.

“Now…” She started off while taking my hand into hers. “I want you to be calm and listen to what I have to say… ok?”

Even though I was questioning at how weird my sister was being at the moment, I nodded. “ok? Sure…”

“It’s about the anniversary…” I in a breath as she said this. “It’s this weekend…”

I quickly stood up from my seat. “I’m not going.”

    She sighed at my reaction. “Emory, you’re going to have to this year. It’s not on a week day so we can’t use ‘school’ as an excuse for you… The council will be expecting you to be there this time.”

“Th-then just tell them that I’m sick!” I started to yell. “I caught the flu or something!”

   “Do you really thing that they’d believe that?” Her voice rose also. “Even when we used ‘school’ as an excuse, do you know how nagging they were when they didn’t see you there? They questioned me the whole time and told me how terrible I was as the oldest daughter for choosing your education over your daughterly duty!”

    I could see the stress that she was suffering from clear as day, but the anger in my heart didn’t want to acknowledge it. Outside I could hear thunder roaring in the distance as rain started pounding hard against the walls of the house.

“I am not going.” I said through my teeth. My sister’s eyes grew with a mix of anger, annoyance and concern.

“Emory-!”

“I’m not going and you can’t make me!!!” I yelled then bolted for the front door. Once I was outside, I ran.

   I ran as the rain started pouring harder and harder. I ran despite getting uncomfortable in my now wet uniform and drenched hair. I ran without even caring where I was going.

    I ran and ran until I came to a random street… and tripped on a curb.

Once again, I expected to fall and scrape my knee; like always.

But it never happened…. Because Heejun caught me before I could.

     He must’ve fallowed me out and used his long legs to catch up. Now, here he was, standing in the rain; one hand clutching my arm, pulling me back while the other was out and ready to catch me. For a while, we stayed in that position. Staring at each other, not saying a word. My shoulders moved up and down as I tried to catch my breath. I could feel his hand tighten around them in response.

    Then, without a word, he lifted me up and walked me to the nearest shelter; which happened to be a bus stop. When we sat down on the bench, he let go of my shoulders- making me shiver from the sudden lack of heat.

After another moment of silence Heejun spoke first.

“Of all the days to throw a tantrum you HAD to choose a rainy one?”

If I wasn’t in such a bad mood I would’ve snorted at that.

“Did Allissa send you after me?” I was too tired to joke at the moment. From the corner of my eye I could see him shake his head.

“More like the bond did…”

“Oh….” My heart dropped a bit in realization and I started to feel bad. We still had to stay together in order to strengthen the bond.

He’s out here getting drenched because of me…

There was another moment of silence.

“Wanna tell me what happened back there?” He asked while watching the rain fall down. I looked up and did the same.

“My parent’s death anniversary…“ I started off. “…is coming up.”

“And you don’t want to go?”

I shook my head.

“Why?”

I paused before speaking. “I didn’t really have a great relationship with them…”

I took his silence as a sign to continue.

   “My parents… they were perfectionists. Everything had to be perfect to them. They had to have the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect children…

   “They saw me as a mistake…” I started playing with my hand nervously. “Unlike my sisters, who were so good at everything, I was just… clumsy. Instead of getting A’s on tests, I got B’s and C’s. I couldn’t run a mile or score a point in Tennis. I just couldn’t do what they wanted me to do. So they thought that punishing me whenever I messed up would teach me a lesson…”

I grabbed my scarred up shoulder, silently thanking God that I had my uniform to cover it up.

   “But…” Heejun’s brows furrowed. “Don’t Deck Master Families rarely ever do that? I thought they saw harming their own child as horrendous and unrighteous.”

“They do.” I bitterly smiled. “That’s why they thought up a way of punishing me without even having to touch me.”

I could feel the heat of his gaze on the side of my head, but I was too caught up in my memories to look back.

    “I don’t remember when it first started, but every single time I did something wrong, even if it was on accident, my father would get… almost furious. So he would use one of my mother’s Warriors to ‘teach me a lesson’…”

     The memories of that time were as clear as ever. My mother’s Warrior wasn’t really tall- he was shorter than my father- and never talked. When my father would give him an order he would only bow in response, but not say a word. Even when you don’t take account for his height he looked young; straight, dark brown hair, plump pink lips and big brown eyes that, like other Warriors, held no emotion.

     “He was my mother’s Destined Card…” I continued. “A light type Warrior that specialized in transforming light into any form that he wanted. My father would take us to a secluded place and then order him to use a certain weapon to punish me with…”

Another brief pause.

“Is that one of the reasons why you and your sisters are so against treating Warriors like slaves…?” I could hear the slight caution in that question.

“No, actually…” I shook my head. “In fact, that’s what made me hate Warriors…”

“You… hated us?”

    “At first, yeah.” I admitted. “They were always so… obedient and did everything without complaint. Back then… I wasn’t taught that Warriors were being held against their will. So I always thought that the Warrior that hurt me was doing it because he agreed with my father about me needing to be punished. Whenever he did it he never hesitated or flinched, and he always had this unreadable face that caused me to have nightmares.

I hated him for that. Just…. So much. But everything changed… the day that my parents died…”

I leaned back against the wall of the bus stop and closed my eyes.

      “It was a car accident. They were driving me home from after school tutoring and they were too busy yelling at me for not getting a good enough grade on a recent report card to notice the light changing from green to red.” I flinched as the image of headlights danced across my eyelids, they were so clear that it seemed like it happened yesterday. “Someone hit the car, making us roll a few times, and we ended up tossed a few feet away upside down. I was the only one with a seat belt on.

     “My mother died on impact but my father, who was driving, was still a bit conscious so he took out her Destined Card and summoned him. But, by the time that the Warrior had fully materialized, my father was already gone; dead before he could even order the Warrior to save him.

   “ Even though I was still upside down and a bit hurt, I could still see him look around, trying to figure out what happened and why his Masters were dead. Then he looked back and saw me. By this time I was thinking that, since my parents were dead, he was officially free. He could do whatever he wanted and I thought for sure that he would just take his card and leave. But…. He didn’t. Instead, he got down on his knees, gently helped me out of the car and stayed with me until paramedics came. I had fallen asleep by the time they put me in an ambulance and only woke up about ten hours later after they patched me up and called my sisters. He was there with them, standing next to my bed. Like always, I was a bit scared at first, until I saw his face; he looked worried. His eyebrows were scrunched up, his hands wouldn’t stop fidgeting and he kept biting his lips. I’d never seen him that way before! It was like he was a different person now that my parents were dead!”

“Did he say anything to you?”

I nodded, opening my eyes.

     “He apologized to me…” Heejun’s eyes grew in surprise as I continued. “When he saw that I was awake the first thing he did was fall to his knees and start crying. Then he started to apologize profusely about… just everything. He told me that he was sorry for hurting me, that he didn’t really want to but he had no choice since it was a direct order from my father. He apologized for hurting me with certain weapons; he had tried to think of ways to make weapons that don’t hurt as much, but he knew that if he didn’t do his job right then my father would have just used a different Warrior.

    “He also told me about the many times that he would kick himself for not being able to do anything and just making my pain worse. He went on and on like that for a while. Not even caring that my sisters, who didn’t even know about what my father did, were standing right next to him. But I listened to him; every word that he said I took to heart and finally understood what he had to go through. I understood that none of it was his fault; he was just following my father’s orders. No matter how evil they were, he just couldn’t go against them. So, when he finished, I forgave him.”

Heejun shifted a bit. “What about your sisters? What did they think?”

     “Like I said before they didn’t know about the punishments. They knew how strict our father could be, but when I told them about what he did they were furious.” Not to mention shocked when I showed them the scars on my back as proof. Never have I seen Allissa look so mortified and ashamed, like it was her fault that it kept on going for so long. And poor Rori… she wouldn’t leave my side for two weeks after that. Worried that something else would happen to me.

  “That’s when we figured that Warriors are just like us…” The rain, though still sprinkling a bit, was finally letting up. “Even though they have powers and can heal fast, they still have feelings like remorse, shame, happiness, and fear. They can feel pain, both mentally and physically, along with hunger and fatigue. They are just like us so…. Why can’t we treat them with the same respect?”

      Heejun didn’t say anything after that, but I could tell that he was thinking over my words. I just hoped he could understand how much I really meant them. Sighing, I looked around and saw that the rain finally stopped. The heavy storm clouds were gone, leaving a vast starry sky in its wake. The moon luminated brightly in the sky and I looked at my phone to see that it was almost 8:00. We’ve been out here for a long time.

“What happened to the Warrior?” Heejun’s voice finally broke the silence. I shrugged.

“Don’t know. After we talked a bit he wished us all well, took his Card, then left. Haven’t seen him since.”

   “He probably went to hide his Card.” Heejun stood up and brushed off his pants. “Warriors without a Master can only live outside their Card for only 24 hours, which gives them plenty of time to hide it and wait until another Master finds it.”

“He’s most likely with another Master by now, huh?” I sighed sadly.

Heejun nodded. “Probably.”

   I shook my head in shame. “To think that you guys have to go through life like that; from one master to another without even knowing if the new one is better or worse than the last. No wonder you still don’t trust me… I wouldn’t if I had to live like that either…”

Heejun stared down at me in thought. Then, slowly, he held out his hand.

“Come on.” His voice was soft. “Let’s go home.”

     For a minute I just looked at his hand; hesitant because this was the first real time that he was so open to me. It felt like he was allowing me to take another step closer to him-which I was happy about. When I finally placed my hand in his, he gripped it gently and pulled me up from the bus stop bench. Then he let it stay there for a bit before letting go and leading the way back to the house.

I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t disappointed, but the way that he allowed me to be near him for a bit was enough to lift my spirits.

     Like usual we walked in silence. The only sound being our shoes scraping against the pavement. Though, unlike before, the distance between us was smaller. Usually he would walk so fast that I would have to struggle just to keep him in sight. But now it seemed like he was trying to match my pace so I wouldn’t be too far away.

    I thought that it was the best time to tell him about the visions, but just as I was about to call out to him, I got interupted. 

  By a very rude wold whistle.

   We both stopped and turned to see three men walking toward us; they all looked to be in their mid-twenties, with unruly hair and wearing casual street clothes. The worse part about them was that they seemed to be drunk.

VERY drunk…

“What do we have here~” One of them slurred. “Bit late to be out and about ain’t it? ‘Specially for two highschoolers~”

“Lookssss like they got caught in de rain~” Another added on, his drunken red eyes looking me up and down. “Got a nice figure there sweet cheeks~”

       looked down and gasped in horror. Because I didn’t have my school blazer on the rain had soaked through my white blouse, even though it had dried a bit you could still through it. I used my arms to cover myself and ran to hide behind Heejun. The Warrior was currently giving the three strangers the evil eye.

“What’s the look for? Eh, boy?” The third one, who looked like the oldest, stepped closer with a mischievous grin. “Scared we might… DO somethin’ to ya?”

“Stay away.” Heejun growled, making the man howl.

“Woohee! Bit feisty now ain’t he?” The two goons behind him laughed in agreement. Nervously, I reached out to grab the back of Heejun’s blazer and softly tugged it.

“Come on. Let’s just go.” I whispered but the man had heard me.

“Go? But we’re just startin’ to have fun~!”

  By the time that I realized that one of the goons was missing it was already too late. Two rough hands grabbed me and pulled me away from Heejun, locking me tightly around my neck and shoulders.

“Let her go!” Heejun started toward us but the older man quickly got in his way. “Eh eh eh! Not so fast pretty boy~!”

      That’s how the fighting started. Heejun swung at the man who, even for a drunk, was quick enough to dodge and sock him in the stomach. I watched with worry as they kept throwing blows. This was the first real time I’ve ever seen Heejun fight and yet I could tell that he was trying his best to hold back. These men were humans and Heejun knew that using his powers would risk our secret.

     With worry tearing at my heart I struggled against the man holding me, but his hold was too tight for me to break through. He would laugh at every one of my attempts, making me gag at his drunken bad breath.

    I was just about to give up hope when I suddenly heard a loud THUNK! behind me and the man’s arms loosened before falling away completely. Surprised, I turned around and saw N holding what seemed like a baseball bat made of water.

“How dare you put your filthy hands on my Eminem!” N glared at the now unconscious man as the water in his hand dissipated.

“N!” I would have ran up and hugged him, but something shiny had caught my attention. Standing a few feet away from the fight was the second man… and he was holding a knife…

Twirling it around in his hands, he stared at Heejun with a sick, nasty smile on his face.

    “Heejun!” I yelled to him in alarm, but he didn’t seem to hear me. So I ran. I ran as hard as my legs could take me, praying that I would get there in time. My heart dropped as I watched the man slowly lift the knife up over his head. I let out a roaring “No!!!” before plowing into Heejun’s side right as the knife quickly came down. We both stumbled a bit before falling onto the hard sidewalk. Without skipping a beat I got up and hastily turned Heejun over.

     “Are you ok?!” I asked him once he was sitting up. I looked him over; other than a few bruises on his face, a busted lip, and bruised knuckles, he seemed to be ok. I sighed with relief as I sat back on my feet. With the adrenalin slowly leaving my body, we looked back and watched as N started taking down the two drunk men by himself.

     I couldn’t watch for long though because a sharp pain suddenly throbbed in my side, making me let out a soft yelp. I instinctively grabbed my side and gasped when I felt something wet. Slowly, I lifted my hand to look at it and saw that it was covered in glistening red liquid. I could feel energy draining out of me, making it hard to keep my eyes open.

    “H-Heejun…” I turned my head towards him, panting from the pain.

     When he looked at me it was like everything became slow motion. From when his eyes went from my tired face to my red hand, then to my bleeding side and back, everything seemed to go slower than it should have. Even when the energy to keep me sitting up left me, the way that Heejun caught me as I fell seemed long. Now, looking up at him, I could see him yelling something. But there was this loud ringing sound, so I couldn’t hear him. His brows were scrunched up, eyes wide with fear and worry.

    From my peripheral vision I saw N roughly land on his knees next to us.

    I could barely feel his hand cupping my face as he turned my head to look at him. I watched as his lips moved, speaking words that I couldn’t hear. From the way the two were acting, I think they were telling me things like “We’re going to get help.” And “Just hang on. You’ll be ok.”

    Thinking that’s what they were talking about, I tried my best to give him a short nod. That’s when N let go of my face and took out his cell phone. Slowly, I looked back at Heejun and decided that I didn’t like it when he looked worried. It was worse than his blank face.

Feeling tired I promised myself that, when I woke up, I would do all that I could just to get him to smile. Yeah, that sounds good. Right after a good long nap…

As my body was giving in to fatigue, I used up the last of my energy to smile up at the Warrior and say the words “It’s ok.”

   I couldn’t hear myself speak, so I’m not even sure if my attempt worked. My eyes grew heavier and right before they closed for good, I saw something small and shiny fall from Heejun’s eyes.

Darkness took over before I could question what it was.

 Dun, dun, DUUUUNN!!!!! Cliff hanger allert!!!! lol. I hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter 'cause I worked really hard on it. Especially the part where Emory tells Heejun about her past. You know how when you think up a moment that's so perfect but you have trouble trying to put it into words? That's what happened to me. But I think it's good. And sorry about my horrible attempt at a fight scene. Not quite good with action moments yet....

  And did ya'll watch KNK's Bi (Rain) MV????? It was amazing!!!!! XD