When Tao finally bucked up the nerve to walk downstairs, he passed the living room and grimaced when he saw the wreckage. He could just IMAGINE what the nosy neighbours would say about it. Even worse, what his PARENTS would say about it when they got home from work.

He walked into the kitchen, and the sight of the angry assassination chick sitting at his table eating a bag of chips nearly gave him a heart attack. He gave a frightened squeak and jumped about a foot into the air.

"What's your problem?" Ming grumbled at his reaction, shoving another handful of salty chips into . "Ohh, this feels good. They NEVER let me eat junk food, you know ..."

Tao felt curious despite himself. "W-who's 'they'?"

"Freakin' Triple-Zero, that's who!" Ming snapped, scaring poor Tao once again. "They keep me on a strict diet. No junk food, no fizzy drinks, no late-night movies, no sleepovers, no parties. No friends. I can't even act like a NORMAL teenager! It's been like that since I could remember! It's BULLCRAP, I tell you! BULLCRAP!" To emphasize her point, she smacked her fist loudly onto the kitchen table, frightening Tao to tears.

"And it gets me SO PISSED sometimes, especially when those bastards Kris and Lay just tell me to deal with it and -- hey, what the hell's wrong with you?"

"H-huh?" Tao stammered, shrinking away and wondering what did he do to piss her off this time.

"You're crying!" Ming said, her voice sounding almost shocked, as if it's been a while since she saw tears. "Wh-what're you crying for, huh?"

Tao felt his face heat up and embarrassedly wiped at the liquid welling up in his eyes. "N-no ... it's just that ... you're very l-loud and ... and violent ... and I g-get s-scared easily ... so ..."

Ming grumbled and slapped a hand over her face. "I can't believe this ... you call yourself a man and you cry this easily? Huh?"

"S-sorry ..." Tao hung his head.

"N-no, that's not what I ..." Ming gritted her teeth, and it took her a few moments to struggle out the words, "I ... I don't really ... interact well with people. I've known the same people all my life, because I never talk to people outside Triple-Zero. So, sometimes I ... I don't know how to say something? I dunno, it's annoying, that's all."

Tao just stared at her. "... What?"

"GOD DAMMIT, I DON'T KNOW! SHUT UP!" Ming slammed her fist onto the table again and stood up, scarfing down the rest of the chips with gusto and crumpling up the empty bag. "We have to go to school, right? Well, let's go!"

Tao looked at the clock. "Aw, crap! I'll be late!" He grabbed his backpack and rushed to the door, pulling on his shoes. He hesitated before turning to the assassin girl behind him. "Um, M-Ming xiaojie, I-I don't mean to be r-rude ... but h-how are you supposed to enter SM? You haven't registered y-yet, and ..." he trailed off nervously.

"It's fine, I'll do the necessary hacking before we arrive," Ming said casually. Tao felt his face pale. She'll do the necessary WHAT?

*♦*

Tao grimaced as he entered SM High, the creepy assassin girl right behind him. She had wridden on the back of his bike as he rode to school, balancing herself and her ultra-thin laptop with incredible dexterity. The typing and clicking of the computer finally ceased when they were less than a minute away from the school.

"M-Ming xiaojie, what did you d-do?"

"Nothing. Let's just say the school has a new transfer student."

He felt someone poke his back and turned around. Ming was glaring at all the students uneasily. "Why are there so many people here? Any of them could be Liu Fang's son."

Tao shrugged. "I don't know. We'll have to find out and see." He honestly had no idea how he could be of any help to this girl. 

He checked his watch. Good, five minutes before the bell. He thought for sure he'd be late. 

Suddenly, the three hulking bullies from the day before stepped in Tao's way. Tao inwardly groaned. 

"So, your stupid taekwondo friend isn't around, is he?" One sneered with a grin.

"Oh?" Another noticed Ming behind him and smirked. "You even brought a friend with you?"

Ming raised an eyebrow at them. "We aren't friends. And who the hell are you anyway?"

"Lady, you need to be taught some manners," the closest bully sneered, reaching out to her with one meaty hand. "Is that any way to greet a strang--"

The second his fleshy fingertips made contact with her arm, Ming lashed out and had his arm pinned behind his back. Before anybody could register what had happened, Ming's foot twisted around his ankle and shoved him, hard. The bully gave a loud choke in surprise and crashed to the ground.

There was a long, deafening silence. People nearby were staring and whispering to each other. Tao felt his blood freeze when several pointed in Ming's direction.

"C'mon!" He panicked and grabbed her wrist, dragging her away from the front of the school and inside. Once they were safely inside the almost-empty hallways, he let go and clutched his chest. "Oh man, I thought I'd have a heart attack ..."

"What was that for?" Ming demanded angrily. "I was going to twist his shoulder out of his socket!"

"Ming xiaojie, p-please calm down!" Tao whimpered. "You c-can't go around doing stuff like that!"

"And why the hell not?" Ming demanded. "It's called self-defence, and I can do it if I want to!"

"N-no, Ming xiaojie, you c-can't! High school girls can't do stuff like that!"

Ming paused and frowned, looking more confused than angry. "Really? Why?"

Tao faught the urge to smash his head through a wall. "B-because they can't. Not normal ones, anyway."

Ming frowned even more. "I'm not ... normal?"

Did you seriously think you were??!!! Tao groaned in his head.

Suddenly, a hand clapped on Tao's shoulder. Tao squeaked in a very unmanly manner and turned around, blushing when he saw who it was.

"Oh, L-Luhan gege ..."

"Jeez, Tao, you sounded like I was an axe-murderer or something," Luhan rolled his eyes. A few girls blushed and giggled as they walked by, bowing and murmering hello to the handsome school president. Luhan nodded and bowed back with a polite smile, making the girls blush and giggle harder as they scampered away.

Ming watched all of this with a twitching eyebrow.

"Where were you, anyway? Chen and Baozi were growing frantic, you always meet up with them thirty minutes before school at the library. They kept texting me, look." Luhan held up his phone with a grimace. Over Tao's impossibly tall shoulder, Ming saw there were about twenty-something text messages from people labelled as 'Peacemaker' and 'Baozi'.

"Wow ... I'll make sure to apologize to them in class later ..." Tao mumbled, looking ashamed.

Luhan smiled and ruffled his hair. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure you had a reason." He looked over and saw Ming. "Are you the reason?"

Ming froze, not quite sure what to say. How was she supposed to greet him? Blushing and giggling like those girls? No thanks. But that strangely pretty face of his was making her lose focus. She never acted this way around Kris or Lay before, although she knew they were handsome -- she heard the other female Triple-Zeroes talking about it sometimes.

Then again, maybe she knew her best friends way too long to notice their looks.

Tao, thank god, saved her. "S-she's the new transfer student, Ming xiaojie!" He said quickly. "Um, Ming xiaojie, this is Luhan gege, my friend. He's the school president, and the smartest student in school. He's the one you should go to if you ever need help."

Luhan smiled and bowed. "Nice to meet you, Ming xiaojie."

Ming nodded, not bowing back. She was completely confused. She turned to Tao and hissed, "Am I supposed to bow?"

Luhan heard her and laughed. "Oh, you must live in a more Westernized place. Here," he offered her his hand. Ming hesitantly shook it. "Yeah, um, nice to ... meet you ... I think ..."

Luhan laughed again. "You're quite interesting, Ming xiaojie. How do you know Tao?"

"I ... um ... uh ..." Dammit, brain! Think! You scored ninety-three point two in your Intelligence training, you can make up a simple lie! You lied your way out of the dungeons of Siberia, you can make up a little backstory, can't you?

Once again, Tao saved her. "Uh, she's an email buddy! W-we met online and we became friends, and -- um, y-yeah ..."

Well, sort of saved her.

Luhan raised an eyebrow. "Tao, you should know better. What if she was lying and turned out to be some ic creep who likes teenage boys?"

"Y-yeah, but she wasn't, so it's okay, right?" Tao defended himself nervously.

"That's true ..." the bell rang, saving Tao and Ming from any further horrification. "Well, I better go. Get to class, Tao! And Ming xiaojie, the head office is right down there, you can go there to get your uniform."

Tao gave one last look at Ming and desperately mouthed the words, Behave yourself and, although it was hard to make out, Try not to do anything too stupid.

EXCUSE ME??!!! Before Ming could flay him alive, he had disappeared, and a horde of students in matching uniforms had swarmed into the school, melting him away.

Fuming, Ming followed the handsome president's directions and found a sign that labeled the small, air-conditioned room as the head office.

She walked in and went to the desk. The receptionist, a middle-aged lady with a bad perm, nerdy glasses, and a chocolate stain on the collar of her too-tight T-shirt, said in a flat, patronizing tone, "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, um, I'm the new transfer student." Ming struggled to keep her voice professional. It was all about the acting, Triple-Zero likes to say. 

The receptionist blew a bubble with her bubble gum, popped it, then slurped it back into with a frown. "We don't have any new transfer students."

"Uh, yeah you do. I'm here, aren't I?"

The lady shot her a look, and Ming beamed angelically back. "Give me a second." She stared at the computer screen, frowning and typing away. A moment later, a look of shock passed on her face.

"Well, what do you know ... but how ... I swear we didn't ... sir, come here for a moment please!"

A passing Chinese man paused and headed over to them. "What is it?"

"Look." The recptionist pointed at the computer screen. "It says here we have a new transfer student arriving today. I didn't get a notice about that. Did you?"

"No, I didn't. How odd." The man frowned at the screen. "Maybe I forgot, age must be affecting me lately ..."

Ming hid back some laughter as a well-disguised cough.

The man looked up. "So, you're the transfer, huh? What's your name?"

"Wu Ming Xia," Ming said immediately. It was a name she made up on the spot when she was hacking into their system software.

The man glared at her and muttered in a perfectly audible tone, "Just appearing here out of nowhere, aiyah, the nerve of kids these days ..."

Ming felt anger bubble up in her stomach at his unreasonable annoyance. "I think instead of bagging on me, you should focus more on getting better computer systems instead, old man!"

The receptionist shot her a warning look as she blew another bubble. The man raised his eyebrow. "Really? Well, this 'old man' is your principal, so watch your mouth, Wu xiaojie!"

Whoops. Ming cringed. Of course the first adult she loses her temper to would be SM High's Xiaojang. She really needed to learn how to keep shut. Back in Triple-Zero, she could say whatever she wanted. Respect only came to you once you've earned it, most preferably through a fistfight. She still had a lot to learn about normal life, apparently.

"Well, once you're done being rude, Wu xiaojie, you can get your uniform and start classes. And I don't want to hear any more disrespect from you again, you hear?"

"Yes, sir." Ming remembered Luhan bowing earlier and did the same thing. She didn't like it one bit, it made her neck feel exposed to any sort of danger: a knife, or a well-placed karate chop. "I lived in a very uncivilized place before moving to Beijing. I will learn from my mistakes while I am staying her, Xiaojang."

The Xiaojang nodded, looking satisfied. "Well, at least you can answer me decently enough."

Ming straightened up, breathing a sigh of relief. Looks like Tao had his work cut out for him.

*♦*

LOL in case anyone was wondering with all these weird Chinse pinyin words, "xiaojie" is a way of saying "miss" to a young or unmarried woman. "Xiaojang" is obviously the "principal".

Sorry, but since this IS in Chinese and I DO speak Mandarin, I just feel it's necessary to put in as much Chinese words as possible.