"Miss Han, it's nice of you to join us." My professor, Mr. Nam, said as I walked in. I sent him a tight lipped smile. I was only running a couple minutes late, which usually he would let slide, but since midterms were around the corner he seemed to be more on edge. It was as if he was the student with how he was acting recently. "What happened to your face?" Students in the back of the class, who couldn't see the little cuts on my face and big swollen state of my lip, laughed. It was hard to resist the urge to flip them off, especially when I turned my head and saw who it had been. 

"I fell." The lie felt almost natural after having told it so many times. It wasn't like I was sent out to fights every week or anything, it was more like every other week to a few times a month. There were always more things to be done around headquarters, but in order to not draw suspicion to ourselves, we'd been told to be mindful of injuries whilst we were still in school. Which in a way intelled that as soon as we were out of this place, our 'trips' would be less scarce. I don't necessarily dislike that prospect, fighting was something I was good at--by no means was it something I planned to continue my whole life. As soon as my debts were paid, I could be on my way. Which is why I even bothered taking these stupid classes. 

"You seem to be quite clumsy, Miss Han." Mr. Nam said an odd look in his eyes that I didn't like. "Take a seat--oh, and next time, let's try to be on time. You wouldn't want to make a habit of lagging behind others." He gestured towards all the students who had been on time. All I could do was bite my tongue and nod, along with hope he couldn't read my thoughts. Because, they were currently swarmed with unkind things directed straight at him. Mr. Nam was the kind of guy who...wanted everyone to do exactly as told, but wanted so badly to be liked that he would just make jokes or snide comments when people were watching. It wasn't hard to tell that he wanted to crack under the pressure of his current workload and just scream at me. 

My seat is all the way at the top, it was more relaxing not to have anyone behind me. Usually, It was perfect being up where almost nobody else sat; but the downside was that I had to pass by all the other students on my way up. Which included the tiny trio of boys who'd laughed at Mr. Nam's joke. "Wow, your face really does look rough." Park Jimin snickered as I passed, his two friends Kim Taehyung and Seok Jin holding back their own laughter. 

"Wow, you're already acting like a douche this early in the morning?" I shot back, not even bothering to come to a stop as I walked past him. I kind of wish I would have though, just  to see how he and his friends took not being praised. Don't get me wrong or anything; I'm not someone who has to go against what others like--heck, I have some very basic interest--but something about those guys has always ticked me off. How does a college student garner the kind of attention they have? By being rich, throwing parties, and also being surface level with all of those 'friends' they have. Never in the two years I've known of them have I heard anyone speak about them as if they were insanely close. Maybe I just don't pay enough attention. Whatever the reason is, I don't want to find out. 

~~~

"My professor has the absolute worst opinions ever!" Roni fumed as she joined our lunch table, expertly taking a piece of bread off of Hansol's plate. I saw Hansol open his mouth, ready to yell at the bread thief, but Roni raised the volume of her voice so he'd give up. "He dragged me into an entire lecture about how 'pretty girls' should avoid getting their faces hurt, when I tell you I almost took my foot and threatened to shove it so far up hi-" 

"Okay!" Minwoo exclaimed, taking a carrot off Hansol's plate and shoving it into Roni's mouth. I had to stop myself from laughing as Hansol finally snapped and stood up from his seat. 

"I'm eating with my other friends, you guys don't know how to leave a man's food alone." He grumbled all the while collecting his stuff and storming off to who knows what table. 

"You do realize threatening your professor would probably end with you getting in heaps of trouble, right?" Minwoo asked, I opened my mouth to defend Roni, but he just put his hand up to shut me up. "I understand why you are angry, I'm just saying you need to stay calm and think rationally."

"That's why I didn't just do it! Though, really I should write a complaint because he's always making little comments like that. It's so annoying!" She crossed her arms, "that's less satisfying than beating him up though." She mumbled. 

"Mr. Song would lose his crap if we started a fight with one of our professors..." I said, trailing off as I realized I wouldn't care if I made that old man mad. If I had a penny for everytime I should have landed a punch square in his face I'd have...I mean it would have to be at least a dollar's worth of pennies. Which as that settles in I'm not too proud to admit that may be an anger management issue on my part. "We really need to find a better way to hide these-"  I pointed at the scratches on my face, "-I think people are starting to catch onto how often I 'fall'" 

"Agreed, maybe we should take your professor's advice, and be more careful about harming our pretty faces~" Minsoo said, backing away before Roni could slap him. 

"Shut up." She warned standing up from the table, "you guys can leave first today, I have a group project to work on." Roni said before walking away. 

Minwoo and I started clearing off the table. "Hansol and I promised to play some baseball with our friends tonight, so I guess you can just head out alone." Minwoo told me, patting my head and walking away in the direction of the exit. I also had things to finish up around campus before heading home. I'd somehow spaced a test that would be taking place Monday, which means since it's currently Friday I only have today to check out a book from the library. Since our dorms were technically off campus, I could just use the city library, but then I'd have to go all the way back to return it. I'd rather stop myself from procrastinating and just grab the book today. I sighed as I headed in the direction of my next lecture room. 

~~~

After having spent the last two hours in the library, hunched up over books about cognitive psychology, I finally walked back out into the dimming sunlight. It was already five o'clock, and since fall has just arrived,  the sun was beginning to set earlier. That's why it was already down low enough to be shining directly in my eyes--which by correlation is the reason I didn't see the group of guys walking towards me from the side of the building. "Han?" One of them asked, stepping directly in front of me. My brain sprung into action as soon as I saw the three winged butterfly tattoo on the man's wrist, as he waved at me with a smirk. The thing about the gangs that ran through Seoul was that they all had a number in their names. The gang that I work in is called the Five Maned Lions, a stupid name in my opinion. The bad thing about this whole situation was; I'm out numbered by members of our second biggest rival gang. 

"What's it to you?" I asked, steadily walking back, and they continued to follow me closely. My main goal at the moment was to get out of the line of sight of others, then I could figure out how I was going to handle this situation. In most case scenarios, I would fight, or never let myself get put in a situation like this because I wasn't usually as relaxed as I had been moments ago.

"Well, a little birdy informed us that you were the one that got Chanwoo taken in by the cops." I cocked an eyebrow, finally coming to a stop at the secluded side of the library building. "I can assume you understand why we can't just let that slide." He smirked, rolling his sleeves up in an attempt to appear intimidating. 

"I'm not sure where you got your information, but I can assure you it's false." As I looked at the man closer he started to look familiar. "I don't set people up with law enforcements unless It's necessary, I  assume you understand that's not how our gang works." I threw the main form of his threat back at him. The law wasn't something any gang enjoyed messing around with, as soon as you set one guy up with the po