November 2012               

“Hyunnie.” His eyes are closed, he’s still blissfully asleep. But he smiles, because the warm touch is so familiar to him and her voice is full of the joyful memories they created together. “Hyunnie, come on.” She sounds more urgent now. Her voice is pressing. He tries to wake up but his eyes are so heavy, he can’t open them. He can’t see, he can’t move. “Help! Where are you? Hyunnie, please, I love you, help me!” He’s never heard such distress in her voice before. His beautiful girl has never sounded in such pain and so broken.

                “Miyoung!” he bolts up, his body damp and tears beading at the corners of his eyes.

                The small room he owned was dark, the green numbers on the clock by his bed flashing 4:32. He let out a sigh, flopping back onto his pillow. He couldn’t even cry anymore. He had no tears left.

                All that remained was a constant aching in his chest. A pressing suffocation that made the memories appear easily behind his eyelids. He’d seen too much death. He’d seen too much.

                He wasn’t going to get anymore sleep, that much he knew, so he threw the covers off himself, instead opting to get up and prepare for the day. The Director was sending him away to Japan within the week for more training.

                “More training.”

                More like punishment for what he did with Miyoung. Although the fact that she’s not here with him anymore should be punishment enough.

+++

                “I can’t believe you’re studying abroad!” Hyosung whined at the news.

                Studying abroad, Daehyun scoffed in his head. What a pathetic excuse. But even so, something was needed. The Director can’t risk having the cover of one of his agents blown.

                “Damn hyung, I’m jealous,” PO agreed, sighing. “Do you even speak Japanese?”

                Daehyun shrugged. “Enough.”

                “So sudden,” Victoria tsk-ed. “When will you be back?”

                “By senior year. Second semester,” Daehyun answered. He was at a café with his school friends, PO, L.Joe, Hyosung, Amber, and Victoria, dropping the news about his…leave of absence. The six of them attended Seoul University together and had been tight since freshman year. Daehyun definitely couldn’t get away with just leaving them.

                “Ah Dae, we’re gonna miss you, man,” L.Joe sighed, throwing an arm around Daehyun’s neck.

                Daehyun laughed, pulling out of L.Joe’s embrace. He’d never been one for skin ship. “Yeah, it’s crazy, but I’m…excited.” Excited. Excited to be worked to the limits, challenged every day in the form of torture, be taught the regime over and over until he could do it in his sleep, and if he couldn’t, well then he wouldn’t get a chance to redeem himself.  “It should be something new.”

                “Yeah, you’ll have one hell of a time,” L.Joe agreed, smirking slightly.

+++

Early 2013

                I let out a long sigh, tossing the Korean curriculum book onto the ground.

                “Kira…” My tutor says warningly, as he calmly picked up my book. “You’re going to college in Korea. I don’t care how fluent you are you need to improve your vocabulary.”

                “This is stupid…” I replied, ignoring everything he said to me. “Minho, we’ve been on missions together! You know I’m capable! What the hell am I supposed to do at a stupid college in Korea!”

                Minho let out a slight laugh. “Kira believe me, I’ve trusted you with my life and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. But…this is incredible. In the life…in this life that we chose…we don’t get a chance like yours. To step away and be normal for a second. To make friends because you don’t have to worry about them getting killed and find someone to…you know, be with. So be thankful you little brat and keep working,” Minho finished with a small smile, tossing my book onto the table in front of me.

                “I don’t want friends and I don’t want a boyfriend and I don’t want a life other than the one I have now,” I growled, opening up to the right page.

                “Then all of Nikita’s lessons have obviously flown right over your head,” Minho murmured without looking up from a sheet of paper he was checking over.

                “What are you talking about? I’m a good student,” I disagreed, only slightly miffed.

                “Then prove it,” Minho said bluntly, setting his paper down and looking at me dead on. “In an essay in Korean using only Level 7 vocabulary.” He sent me a cheeky smile before pushing a notebook and a pen towards me.

                I glared at him. “Sneaky little bastard…”

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oh ps at the end her tutor guy is LEE minho like the y actor from city hunter and boys before flowers not SHINee's minho yeee just a psa^^