Chapter 4:

Seohyun walked from her dorm room to the Social Sciences building of her university. Her messenger bag was slung over one of her shoulders, a folder in her hands. Her long, straight brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail, so it wouldn't go into her eyes.

Things for her weren't bad. She had always been quite fluent in English, even when they were still in Korea, so speaking wasn't much of an issue for her. The thing that dragged things down for her was the fact that she entered the school late. It's been two weeks since school started, and she's only starting now. Her professors understood, and they helped her with whatever she missed, but her classmates were a little different. It was a little too late for her to be joining in the cliques. Maybe the organizations, she could join, but that would have to wait until next year. Membership applications were over. At least everyone she'd met was nice. They were amiable enough to her and lent her a helping hand.

But what really frustrated her was the thought of Yoona. She didn't know how her friend was doing in school. Yes, they got to talk, but in the distance that separated them, things were simply very different. She couldn't poke, prod and wheedle for Yoona to tell her things because Yoona, though she was nice, could easily end the conversation where she wanted with a simple click of a button and never speak to her again (though that was unlikely). Kai was a different story. The young man always told her about the things going on in Yoona's life that she neglected to share, as he was her accomplice in dragging Yoona from being a social hermit to someone who appreciated being outside. That was still a long ways away, but they were getting there. Yoona had become their link to friendship. Recently, though, Kai did not have much to tell her.

She was supposed to be studying for her mid-terms, but she found her mind wandering. She furiously tapped the end of her pen onto the book, as if trying to get herself to re-focus when a shadow blocked her light source.

Her head snapped up and she saw a young man stand in front of her. He was tall, she gauged that he was even taller than her father, and he had a concerned yet amused look on his face. He looked Asian, a rather comforting thought for her since majority of those she saw daily were very Western-looking.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Y-yes," she stammered. She was still reeling from the shock of his sudden appearance and his concern though they were obviously strangers.

"Are you sure? Would you like some?" he asked. He offered her a can of coffee. It was still closed and it seemed warm and he was gesturing for her to take it.

"No, thank you," she replied. "I couldn't impose."

"You're not imposing. I'm offering," he said. "Mind if I sit with you?"

"I don't mind," she replied, seeing as the other park benches were also full. She scooted over to give him room and from his hoodie pocket, where his other hand was hidden, he procured another can.

"See? I have extra. You can have it if you want. Or would you prefer this?" he asked, offering her the other can as well.

"No, no, no thanks," she replied. Her three no's came out together in a string of words unintentionally, and he chuckled at her flustered expression.

"Kindness from a stranger?" he offered, placing the warm can in her hand.

"But-"

"Come now," he began. "I'd be offended if you didn't."

"Alright, thank you," she replied, and held the can in her hands.

"Studying for an exam?" he asked after taking a sip from his own can. His was chocolate.

"Yeah."

"You can do it."

"Excuse me?"

"It's still a little early to be studying for those exams around here, and for you to be showing such dilligence just tells me that you can do it," he explained.

"Thank you. But I don't recall ever seeing you around here before," she mused.

"Do you come here often?"

"Yeah."

"Then you're new around here, aren't you?"

"How do you know?"

"When I was a kid, I used to come here often. But I went back to China. My parents are still here, though. So whenever I come visit them, I come by here just for the sake of the good old days," he explained with a smile. "I was pretty shocked to see you here. I came by for three days, and in those three days, you were always here. With that book of yours."

"I'm sorry if I took your place!" she apologized as she began keeping her things.

"Don't," he said. "I don't mind. I don't come here often, just for visits, and this bench has become quite lonely without me. Would you mind taking care of it for me?"

"Okay," she replied with a laugh. "But is that okay? To entrust something like this to a stranger?"

"Yes. 'Cause you don't seem like the type to destroy it," he replied. "By the way, I'm Kris."

"Seohyun," she replied.

"Korean?"

"Yeah."

"From the South?"

"Yes," she replied with a smile.

"Jal butakdeuribnida," he said.

"I thought you were Chinese."

"I am. But it never hurts to learn another language," he shrugged.

"Then Kris-xiansheng, hao," she replied with a playful smile. She never expected to meet a random stranger here, nor did she expect to make friends with him, but that simply seemed to be the case.

Kris chuckled and nodded. "It seems we've got more in common than just English."

Kris' phone beeped with a message. He took a look at it and said, "Excuse me, but I have to go. My Mom is apparently inviting our new neighbours over for dinner and she's asking me to help. Maybe I'll see you around?"

"I guess I'll be here," she replied with a smile.

"Great. It was really nice meeting you, Seohyun. I hope to see you again and all the best for your exams!" he said as he got up.

"And you, too," she replied with a smile.

"See ya!" he said, before jogging off to the nearest grocery.

Seohyun smiled. She'd made a friend in that stranger, she knew. He was simply nice and friendly, so much so that by the end of the conversation, she felt like she'd known him for ages. She shook her head at that thought and took a sip from the can. It warmed her up, and definitely gave her some caffeine to get back to her schoolwork.

"Hey, Mom, I'm home!" Kris called as he dropped a large brown bag full of things from the grocery his mother had asked him to buy on a counter.

"Good!" he heard his mother reply. "I'll be right there."

His mother arrived, her medium-length hair pulled into a bun with a stick poking through it, keeping it in place. She had already donned an apron. She handed him one as well, so as not to soil his clothes.

"Ready?" she asked.

"I'm just your assistant, Mom," he reminded her with a chuckle.

"Yes," she replied with a smile, and they proceeded to prepare dinner.

A few hours later, Kris' father arrived home after another day's work. The scent of the two's cooking wafted into his nose.

"Working hard, I see," he said, striding into the room, giving his wife a kiss on the cheek and his son a pat on the shoulder.

"Welcome home," the two said, upon his comment. They'd been too preoccupied by their cooking, they didn't notice the door open.

"What time did you invite the neighbours over?" he asked.

"Six-thirty. They should be here soon," she replied.

"I'm going to start cleaning up," Kris said as his mother fried the last batch of dumplings. She nodded in agreement.

As Kris was gathering the utensils they'd used, after he'd set up the table, their doorbell rung, signaling their visitors.

"Early birds," his father chuckled.

"I'll get it!" Kris announced, since he was the closest to the door. He opened it to welcome the visitors when he instantly recognized one face--Seohyun.

"Seohyun!" he reacted. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Fancy seeing you so soon as well," she said. "I didn't know you cooked."

"Huh?" he asked. She pointed at his apron and he just laughed. "Caught, then! But I'm not really the cook; Mom is. Please, come in."

His father arrived at the door and greeted the Joo family. Seohyun had handed Kris a basket of fruits that her parents had bought just for the occassion, whatever the occassion was.

"You shouldn't have. But thank you," Kris said as he received the basket from their guests to bring to his mother. He was sure she'd already cut it up as soon as it was brought in the kitchen.

They all sat down for dinner, and finding out that Kris and Seohyun had met each other just this morning delighted the parents, it saved the awkwardness of misunderstanding. The two could've jumped to the conclusion that their parents were setting them up otherwise.

"It's good you get to visit your parents, Kris. Where do you study?" Seohyun's Dad asked.

"I don't study any more," he began. "But I work in China."

"Work? How old are you?" Seohyun's Mom asked. Seohyun herself was a little shocked at this, she'd mistaken him for a student studying in China just this morning.

"Seventeen," he replied.

"Aren't you a little too young to be working? Shouldn't you still be studying?" Seohyun blurted in surprise.

Kris was taken aback for a moment, having expected the comment to come from her parents. Then, he smiled and said, "Maybe? But I'm working and studying on the job. It's not bad, I get paid well, and I learn a lot. It's like an apprenticeship. But you don't get a degree, you just get the qualifications."

"Isn't that restrictive to your future?" she asked.

"Isn't it like going to college?" he asked. "I learn, I get trained, then, I go to work. Isn't it the same if you went to college?"

Seohyun nodded a bit reluctantly.

"That sort of apprenticeship is very much a lifetime job," his father explained. "It's a good, honest job. It's just different from what most people are used to. Besides, Kris gets to come visit us anytime he wants, as long as it's not unreasonably long and he does well."

"I see. I guess it's different, isn't it? South Korea's a republic while China's a kingdom," her father mused.

"Yes. Though there are universities there as well," his father reminded.

"Oh, yes, yes. I was actually thinking of sending Seohyun to study in China if we hadn't moved here," he replied.

"You were?" Seohyun asked, shocked.

"Considering. It wasn't sure, dear," he clarified with a smile. "Part of the decision would've still been up to you."

~°~

For the first time in quite some time, Yoona did not appear on the riverside with Lu Han, and that was the first time he fully realized he'd gotten attached to her. It made his heart twinge, knowing this, whatever this was. It would definitely make things harder for him, but it also made him relieved. At least Yoona would not have met anyone who could, or would, ever wish her harm. And harm was something that seemed to find its way towards people that Lu Han cared for.

"Lu Han?" Tao asked tentatively.

Lu Han looked at him and saw confusion written on the younger boy's face.

"What is it, Tao?" he asked as he gestured for him to sit beside him.

"Where are we?" he asked as he sat beside Lu Han.

Lu Han had forgotten that. He'd forgotten that the only person who has ever entered this place, aside from Yoona, was Kris. He'd also forgotten that neither Tao nor Lay have ever heard of his dreams and his own little world, though he was in every sense, a sane man. He had no psychiatric problems, except maybe for his unreasonable fear of falling short of expectations, and he wasn't sure if that was a clinical illness.

"The riverside," he simply explained.

"In our sleep?" Tao asked. He knew he was sleeping; Tao was the only one who could, oddly, tell when he was sleeping or not. They all thought it was an odd ability, but it was definitely cool.

"Yeah," he replied.

"That's weird."

"For you, but I'm always here," he said.

"So that's why you're still sane," Tao muttered.

"What?" he asked with a laugh.

"That is it, isn't it?" Tao asked. "That's why you're still sane. This is why you can still think straight, why you can take all the challenges and duties thrown at you without breaking even if you don't have time to go anywhere peaceful or do anything to calm yourself aside from writing in that journal of yours. It's because you have this place."

"I guess so," he replied. "But how did you know I wrote in a journal?"

"You left it behind in the library once. I was about to look at it to see whose it was when Kris snatched it from me and told me it wasn't something other people should be looking at. I asked him what it was, and he said 'It's a journal'. I asked him whose it was, he said 'You don't really need to know'. He only says those things when it's got to do with you," he narrated with a soft laugh. "I don't hold it against him or you, though. I understand it's hard. I might just be your guard, but I can understand things."

"But that's the problem. You're not just my guard," Lu Han said. "You and Lay. You're my friends, too."

"Of course we are," Tao replied. "Which is why we always have your back and we'll do anything not to get fired!"

Tao grinned a big, happy grin, erasing all the tiredness that had become a part of his features. As Lu Han's main guard, Tao was always quite busy. He always had to accompany Lu Han wherever he went, especially if he was to leave the country. Aside from that, he and Lay (since both of them were Lu Han's guards) had to learn foreign languages. They had to be capable of conversing and understanding people of other tongues in order to keep Lu Han safe.

So far, he and Lay have learned and mastered three: Korean, English and Russian. Though sometimes, Tao had problems with Korean and Lay with Russian. However, the two envied Kris, who had, by now, learned Korean, English, Russian and French and had a formidable grasp of those languages, aside from his native Cantonese and Mandarin.

Tao was, by far, the youngest of the four of them. He was born in 1993, where as Lu Han and Kris were born in 1990, and Lay in 1991. Tao was recruited at a very young age--10. He had been studying with the monks ever since he could walk, as his parents had wished, so he could serve in the police forces or perhaps the army in the future, to serve the country, but never in their dreams did they think that little Tao would be recruited for a position far more grand.

When Tao was 10, an official had visited the temple on a pilgrimage, and he had seen little Tao's unbelievable grasp on the martial art known as Wu Shu. By then, Tao had amazed his masters as well, for he was almost at the level where he could compete with them. His determination and dilligence, combined with his early start, had pushed him farther than the others, farther than anyone would think. The official, then a high ranking man in the service of the military who handled many affairs in the peace-keeping force, had asked to talk to his parents. He wanted Tao in. The boy was an asset wherever he was to be placed, and in the end, he was placed with Lu Han roughly three years after then. He just had to finish his training and polish up on his Mandarin, as he had spoken with an accent (from his native dialect) then.