11 years later (and where the story officially picks up-thanks for your patience!)

Yoona woke up to her mother’s voice outside her bedroom door calling her down to breakfast. She squinted against the early morning light filtering pink and golden rays through her bedroom window. More than anything, she wanted to roll back into the covers and bury her head under her pillow, but with a willpower she didn’t even realize she was capable of possessing, she sat up, and stretched. With a reluctant sigh, she rolled out of bed and slouched into the bathroom to take a shower. Jang Geun Suk who had to sleep in the branches of the cherry tree outside, and Lee Joon who had claimed a bed on the flat part of the roof over Yoona’s bedroom, made their way through Yoona’s bedroom window which didn’t have a lock. Joon made his way to the far wall and leaned against it trying to shake the sleep from his now muscular twenty one year old form. His dark hair fell in a messy halo around his face. His dark eyes squinted irritably at his ‘partner’ in otherworldliness.

Jang Geun Suk perched on the window seat he had used as a bed many years before. His thin, prominent eyebrows, as always, raised at Joon’s scrutiny. He raised his black leather clad arms in a satisfying stretch releasing the tense muscles that had left him cramped while sleeping in the tree.

As Yoona had gotten older, it had been quickly decided that they couldn’t just sleep in the same room as she did. Perhaps normal, G.A-Devil-Princess relationships would have been alright with it, but since Yoona was now sixteen, definitely not a baby anymore, and could still see them, they had decided that it would be more…appropriate if she had her privacy. It was safer that way for both her and them.

Joon pushed himself off the wall and made his usually quick survey out the window to make sure there would be nothing to inconvenience Yoona on her way to school.  It was more habit than because he really thought there’d be danger. The only thing that he or Jang Geun Suk had lately had to protect her from, was the occasional bully, and (although it was not part of the job description) secretly running off all the annoying human boys who glanced at her with anything more than friendship…heck, running off any boy period.

Yoona had finished showering and dressing, and stepped into the room. She smiled slightly at them, before she left the room. As one, the two shadowed her to the breakfast table and acted like overprotective bodyguards standing back in the shadows, but always there while she downed her breakfast. Yoona knew she was running late, so with a hurried goodbye to her parents, she grabbed her bag and dashed out the door. Even though she was a decent runner, her two invisible companions didn’t break a sweat keeping pace with her. She didn’t have to look over her shoulder to know they were there. She trusted them to always be there. They’d never just left before.

The school was in sight, and putting on an extra burst of speed, she sailed through the gates and onto the smooth, cobblestone courtyard right as the gates shut behind her. Joon and Jang Geun Suk didn’t even hesitate as they leaped, cat-like over the fence and then slowed down to match Yoona’s trot always staying slightly behind her. Yoona hurried down the quickly emptying hallway and made it to class just as her teacher called her name on the attendance list.

“Here!” she called as she dashed to her seat and promptly sat down. The teacher glanced up at her over his glasses as though asking her why in the world she would be almost-late to his most all important class. She smiled apologetically. Yoona’s smiles were legendary. They always seemed to turn whoever she directed it at too, weak in the knees (girls excepted of course). The teacher found himself blinking confusedly for a second before shaking his head and continuing down the list of names.

All the Devils and Angels of all the girls in the room slumped against the far walls. The Devils stayed on one side of the room and the G.A.’s on the other. Over the years, Yoona had grown very skilled at ignoring the supernatural. She had once when she was seven, actually tried to break the rules, that her G.A and Devil had given her; that is talk to another G.A. of a friend. But before she could even start, the two who had seemed to read her mind, interfered and she’d gotten in BIG. TROUBLE. Ever since that little experience, she had steered clear of that which she could see. Of course she wondered why she was the only girl who could see the supernatural, but since there was no answer, she eventually forgot to care.

Chewing the tip of a strand of hair thoughtfully, she took careful notes on what the teacher was saying. The teacher droned on and on and Yoona stifled a yawn. The Devils and Angels in the room shifted restlessly and some perched themselves in the open windowsills or slid to the floor leaning against the wall to take a brief reprise or in other words a nap. With this boring lecture, there was no freaking way that they would get to influence their charges, because all their charges were sleeping!

The good Lord had to be smiling down on them though, because the teacher’s lecture was interrupted halfway, by a subtle knock at the door. It was opened to reveal the headmaster, and a young boy wearing the school uniform. He looked around the room with bright eyes. Yoona glanced at him and classified him with one look. Transfer student. No other kid would come to school in the middle of the day looking intimidated and out of place. He wasn’t amazingly beautiful like the G.A’s and Devils throughout the room and one or two of the mortal boys, but he did hold his own. That is to say, he wasn’t breathtakingly ugly. He had sandy-red hair tipped with brown, a round face with the slightest traces of acne, full lips that complimented his teardrop shaped eyes that seemed larger than they were due to the glasses he wore; not nerdy glasses, glasses that he certainly pulled off. Overall, she gave him a pass.

“Hello,” the boy said. Although he looked nervous, his voice held up fairly well, “I am Lee Yoon Sung. I just transferred here from my hometown. I hope we can all get along.” He bowed gracefully and the teacher gestured him to sit near the back. As he made his way toward the back row, he happened to catch the gaze of Yoona. He froze for a nanosecond, his heart stuttering before starting up again double time. She gave a small smile of welcome, definitely not one of encouragement, but it made his face flush and ducking his head, he finished his small journey to his desk.

No one else seemed to notice or care about the split second that Lee Yoon Sung froze as his gaze met Yoona’s, or that his face turned red….except her two shadows. Lee Joon sat up indignantly analyzing the kid from top to bottom. He didn’t look like a threat, but Lee Joon wasn’t the type to take chances. Of course he didn’t think the boy would pose any real danger to his precious charge, nothing of pain or anything. But that reaction had been dangerous. Lee Joon immediately ran through a million ideas flashing through his mind of how to discourage him so that he wouldn’t ever think about Yoona as a possible girlfriend. Ever.

Jang Geun Suk, although acting very calm and nonchalant about the whole thing, also kept his eyes, half-closed like he was half-asleep, trained on the newcomer in an appraisal. But because he’d been close enough to see Yoona’s welcome smile at the poor kid, his mind started along the same track as Joon’s. They both silently glanced at each other, finding confirmation in each other’s eyes. Lee Joon settled himself back against the wall, but he was not as content as before. They both watched how that punk stared at the back of Yoona’s head for the rest of the class period and completely ignored the teacher.

As the bell rang, the teacher asked loudly, “Yoona?”

Yoona glanced up from putting her notebook and papers back into her bag, “Yes, ma’am?”

               “Since Lee Yoon Sung is new here, won’t you please show him around to his classes?”

“Of course,” Yoona complied, giving a friendly smile at the transfer student who immediately blushed and grasped his own bag a little more tightly.

“If you’ll just follow me,” Yoona began to leave the room. Immediately Lee Joon followed her out of the room sticking his tongue out childishly at his new ‘rival’ as he passed him, and Jang Geun Suk didn’t even deign to spare a glance at the poor, stupid, mortal.

Of course, not seeing them, Lee Yoon Sung pushed out past the students filing up in his attempt to keep up with Yoona, “Your next class is Physical Education,” Yoona said glancing at his schedule, “You’ll need to get a slip from the main office for that. I guess they must’ve forgotten to give it to you. Let’s go. I’ll take you there.”

“T-thank you,” the transfer student smiled self-conciously.

“No problem,” Yoona felt a little sorry for him, since he was so nervous about transferring schools. Her heart went out to him, and she determined to help him any way she could. Giving his shoulder a reassuring pat, she continued toward the office.

At the pat on the shoulder, Lee Joon caught his breath and even the Devil seemed slightly put off. Both of their eyes narrowed identically at the young human. If it wasn’t obvious by now, their attachment to their charge had definitely grown since eleven years ago, and both were old enough to recognize it. Therefore, jealousy was a definite in any equation with Yoona + any other boy.

Yoona headed into the office and began talking to the secretary sitting at the desk. Lee Yoon Sung stayed outside in order to catch his breath from his overriding feelings. He told himself to calm down, because even though he liked her, he didn’t need to have a heart attack over every smile and friendly glance.

Meanwhile, Joon growled angrily (out of Yoona’s hearing), “I wish there was some way we could intimidate him. If we keep chasing off guys using the same methods, Yoona will get suspicious.”

“Well, what else can we do?” Jang Geun Suk asked him annoyed. He had been planning on using the prank that involved a baseball bat, the second story window, and a pile of whipped cream. Not getting to do it, put him off.

“Well….I don’t know if it would work or not…” Lee Joon’s eyes gleamed with a small hope.

“What? What is it?” Jang Geun Suk demanded not having the patience for this.

“Well…what if we tried ‘influencing him’? Like other G.A’s or Devils do to their charges, but aimed at him?”

“Well, I’m not going to do something so idiotic. I mean it’s not like it’s going to work. You do it if you want.”

“Fine,” Lee Joon accepted the challenge. Then walking up to Lee Yoon Sung, he gazed at him in intense concentration before whispering, “You don’t want to get too close to Yoona. If you do, you will deeply regret it.”

Beside him, the boy stiffened. Lee Joon glanced at the Devil in surprise. He registered his own surprise in the Devil’s features. They were both shocked that it had actually worked. The boy had heard them. Grinning, Joon turned back to his poor target.

“Stay away from Yoona. You’re in way over your head.” He waved his hand in front of the boy’s face as though trying to hypnotize him. Obviously Lee Yoon Sung couldn’t see him though.

Lee Yoon Sung wasn’t sure if he was hearing things, or going crazy. He thought he had just heard a voice telling him to give up on Yoona echoing like powerful, dark, threatening music through his head. He shook his head and muttered to himself, “Yah, Yoon Sung, pull yourself together. There’s nothing wrong with liking Yoona.” There. He’d done it. He had barely known her for a few minutes, and he had voiced-though not to her- that he liked her. Unfortunately for him, two other, invisible ears had caught what he’d said too.

“Listen punk,” Lee Yoon Sung winced as the same voice as before pierced his conscience. He glanced around wildly for the source, but he was utterly alone in the hall since classes had started, “Back off. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

“Oh come on,” another, even darker, far more intimidating voice joined the second one as if it was admonishing the first voice, “Don’t give out stupid little threats that won’t work.”

“Fine, let’s see you do better,”  the first voice scoffed, as though not believing the second voice could.

Oh. My. Holy. Christmas! thought Lee Yoon Sung,  I belong to a nutty house! There are voices in my head! But instead of making me go crazy and killing someone, they’re talking about hurting me!!! Oh Sweet Heaven above, save me!” he shivered but then refocused on the situation as the second voice said quietly, calmly matter-of-factly,

“There is a special place in the burning pits of hell to those who even think of crossing me. Will you be one of those?”

Lee Yoon Sung freaked out, “I wasn’t serious! Just leave me alone. Okay? I promise never to drink again, or go to parties. Just get these voices out of my head!” His outburst alerted Yoona who glanced up sharply her gaze zeroing in on the trying-to-look-innocent G.A. and Devil.

Lee Yoon Sung might have been comforted by the fact that Yoona was looking at him, but then he noticed that her eyes were trained past him on some empty space. She looked as if she actually saw something in that emptiness. Was there really someone there? Was the reason he couldn’t see whatever it was because he was going crazy? Yoona shot an admonishing, scolding glance at the empty space and the heady presence from his mind disappeared instantly.

Yoona walked back out of the office handing him his slip of paper, “The gym’s this way,” she began to walk, but Lee Yoon Sung grabbed desperately at her arm, “N-no. I c-can go mys-self thanks. Nice to meet you,” and he was off like a shot as though ghosts were after him. Although if he knew what had really been whispering in his head, he’d have welcomed the ghosts.

Meanwhile, Yoona turned back to Lee Joon and Jang Geun Suk, “Just what did you do?” Her voice sounded angry. She placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head in a don’t-you-dare-lie-to-me look.

“What? Do you think I’m so immature as to scare some insufferable mortal, for fun?” Joon asked with wide, innocent eyes.

When that didn’t work, he the whole, “They’re just mortals. Why would a G.A bother with someone as lowly as that?” with a haughty, bad-boy swipe of his hand through his hair.

“Oh, so all us lowly mortals are beneath your notice?” Yoona asked cooly.

“N-no, nothing like that,” stammered Lee Joon, immediately horrified that he’d classified Yoona in the same class as Lee Yoon Sung. How could he be so stupid? His heart berated him angrily and he flushed embarrassedly, like a boy trying to impress a girl he likes, but then realizing the girl thought his performance had been dumb. The Devil smirked at the G.A’s mistake.

“And you,” Yoona whirled on the Devil pointing a finger at him, “You encouraged him, didn’t you?” Jang Geun Suk decided to play poker face and just looked intently back at her, though his heart sped up a little as their eyes locked.

Finally, sighing, she turned away from them, “Whatever. Just don’t do whatever you did to anyone again, arasso? That was uncalled for, and cruel.”

A quick glance of relief passed between the Devil and the G.A. behind Yoona’s back. They followed her back to class, realizing what a close call that had been.