Her hands brushed against his as she handed over his book. His eyes were still on her without her noticing and he indulged every moment of it. How she seemed relaxed than her usual president persona, how serene her eyes glisten through the morning and just how everything fits in her way like it was meant to be. Kwon Jiyong must have lost it somewhere along the way, his sanity that is. ‘Love is futile, isn’t?’ often he condemned himself for whenever the idea of love swooped his mind, and ever since that red letter day. Subsequent to what have ensued him throughout his life, how can love possibly be taken in his selflessness? Seeing is believing, and he have witnessed all the way through, by deaths and betrayal. Love has failed and deceived him countless times. Except for her, the one he was with right now. The only one who could set his heart in various ways, the one when she smiles it’s like the sun rises from behind her. The one, the one, she’s the one.

Love is futile, isn’t?

“Jiyong-ah...” her engaging voice shook him back to where they were. Still with that smile, and those eyes.

Jiyong cleared up his dry throat and dimly answered, “What?” He averted his stare on hers, how shameful could it be if she caught up on him.

“I didn’t know whether you were staring at me or,.. day dreaming?” she bit her lower lip confounded to the fact that he was actually gaping at her for the entire time they were sitting at the cafeteria. Jiyong had her at a standstill as she was still puzzled by his unruffled expression. “Wait, is there something on my face..?” she abruptly said while touching her face. Jiyong was hushed with her sudden behavior, and was clueless to react or say a word to her.

“Was it a snot?” said Yumi. Uncannily, Jiyong’s crooked smile emerged as a respond to her unexpected aegyo.

“I was thinking...” said Jiyong with his slim fingers drumming on the table creating soft rhythm.

“About..?” asked Yumi with a soft voice and prying expression. Not once, did she take her eyes of him. He was, stunning. Have she ever knew or came across someone like him. His eyes, gaze or whenever he stares off at a distance, he displayed this alluring charm around him. What’s more, each time he speaks, Yumi’s heart pounds diversely in a way she can’t define. Almost a heart attack, except she found it irresistible towards the sensation. Was he her only exception? Whatever it is, he sure was one of a kind.

“Your cafeteria is so big,..”Jiyong scanned through the spacious cafeteria. He was trying to make an effort on changing their conversation.

“I bet this can’t be compared to Canada’s, right?” replied Yumi. She folded her arms and inspected the cafeteria judgingly.

Jiyong snickered to himself and too join with her inspection, “Yea, of course it’s much bigger.. But, there’s too much white.” He hoped the unplanned joke might work well with the flow or could at least put a smile on her tensed face.

Rather than a smile, she looped into laughter. Jiyong marveled at her child-like behavior, and he took pleasure in every second while it lasts. ‘Snap out of it’ his self-conscious reminded him and instantly he got up from his seat. Oblivious to what he was supposed to do, Jiyong remained on his two feet with nothing on his mind.

“What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly standing?” questioned Yumi and immediately she too stood up from her seat.

Struck by her question, Jiyong quickly replied, “I’m… Thirsty.”

“Coffee or fresh tea?” she asked back. At the exact moment, Yumi presented Jiyong with two cans of drink.

Bemused with the sudden circumstances, for the first time he wasn’t sure nor didn’t he know what should be done. Why was she so straightforward? How can she literally be dense but audacious at the same time? No matter how hard he tried to analyze her feelings, or how much he tried to interpret her expressions, he still couldn’t figure out the answer.

“Are both of them for me?”

“Sure,.. If that’s what you want. I mean,…”

“I’m not that greedy.”

“Yeah, of course.. So, coffee or fresh tea?”

Actually, coffee was and is Jiyong’s life-long enemy besides the-one-that-should-not-be-named. He loathed the only drink which was enjoyed by his friends, and her. Sometimes, he would take time to reminisce his hatred for coffee and mostly ended up with nausea. Just the thought of it can wear out his mood. As he was about to deliver his answer and make a choice, their so called awkward conversation was bothered by none other than the green-eyed Kibum accompanied by his loyal advisor, Byunghyun.

Kibum purposely coughed up as he arrived and interrupted, “Nothing for me?”  He snatched one of the canned drinks from the table. Yumi saw the irritating side of Kibum and in a blink of an eye she flicked his forehead because of his impulsive rudeness.

“YAH! Go buy your own drink.. Can you be more annoying, Kibum-ah?” Yumi scolded the childish Casanova after reclaiming the captured drink.

“Are you daring me, miss president?” Kibum said with a smug and was supported with Byunghyun’s unintentional laugh. Both of them settled down and took a sit next to Yumi. Somehow, the situation remarkably changed into gauche. A silent Jiyong wandering himself in his own world, Byunghyun carefully tying his puma sport shoes and Yumi who was still on the edge with Kibum. The naughty blond haired guy was already engrossed in Yumi’s morning face, thinking deeply on how she could still manage to look absolutely beautiful despite her hectic schedule. He was never ever once or will be bored or get tired of her. In fact, watching her or teasing her was his ultimate guilty pleasure. It will never suffice him, by no means can satisfying his desire to always be near her and make her laugh. He could go on and on till the end of the world to fulfill this need of his.

He went near her until their shoulders met each other, “So, when’s this year’s school carnival?”

At once upon hearing Kibum’s sudden question, Byunghyun busy-bodied himself towards the conversation. Never be the last one to hear the good news, or any irrelevant juicy gossip around school was Byunghyun’s policy and did he stick to that since day one. Besides, the school’s carnival has been a long awaited tradition which only comes once in four years. Four DAMN years it took for this to arrive and be celebrated.

“Yeah, when’s the day? The date? Soon?” Byunghyun whispered quietly over Kibum’s shoulder and both of them showcased their well-known ‘puppy-face’.

“Oh, how your faces had devour my innocent heart… That’s never gonna work.. Maybe you guys wanna restart again?” Yumi let out a small sigh and suddenly she hit Kibum’s arm like how she always did.

“Kibum..! Thanks for reminding me, I almost forgot about it..” she expressed her gratitude by slightly hugging him and took out a bunch of papers from her blue file. Yumi rushed off towards the school info board and with the cluttered papers in her hand, she appeared clueless on how to attach them as it should be on the board without looking like a silly little girl. Kibum witnessed her struggle attempts with the papers so at once in a less than a nano second he paced sprightly to her and helped her with the bloody papers.

“The heck is all of this…?” Kibum snatched half of the papers from her hand alongside a bemused scowl expressed.

“Thank you Almighty Kibum for the help, but sorry you can’t touch those,..” she thanked and warned him together. She flung a sideway glanced towards the bothersome guy and carried on with her wriggling attempt to post the papers on the info board. Another one of her tedious job as the head of the student council, posting some bunch of papers around the school to inform news regarding the student council itself towards the members of it, aside from announcing the information during every morning assembly. Carefully, she positioned the paper on the center of the board and attached it with a small pin.

“Can I join the meeting too?” Kibum catechized with a sassy smirk, leaning against the board.

Yumi rolled her eyes in frustration, completely bushed with his mischief endeavors. She turned towards his side, revealing her most annoyed look.

“You’re not even in it, so that’s absolutely a no for you.” She spun around away from him, grabbing her blue file and paced towards the table, without even making eye contact with him.

Kibum permitted himself to a mellow chuckle, “Well, as far as I know, you won’t accept me to your little group.” He was now beside her, staring at her with no shame. Believe him, he had sent the student council his application form as much as possible that he could, but to his disappointment he was never accepted. How could she reject him?

“I mean,.. I’m smart, awesome and an honor student.. What does those make me not be in the council?” he whined dejectedly, frowning the best he could make. If he could just be accepted for once, then he would always have the golden opportunity to be by her side at all times. Oh how he needed the chance to be with her.

“You over qualify that’s the problem.” She sneered producing a glorified smug as a result to her inside joke. For the record, she just can’t accept him into the student council for a whole bunch of reasons. Mainly, it’s because he’d just use the given authority to get away from any stupid mistakes he’ll do later in the future. Kim Kibum was not only known for his ‘heartbreaker’ reputation, but he’s also a notorious troublemaker. Heedlessly getting into nonsense fights, skipping classes whenever he feels like doing so and most of all involving himself into stuffs that are none of his business at all, which was of course and eventually became Yumi’s. How the heck did they ever ended up as best friends?

“Hey guys, gotta go to the field for some early practice. See ya guys later in class.” Byunghyun waved off towards them, and sprinted away from their table. It was just 15 minits away from the official time of when the school starts, students began to amble their way towards school and some of them even had arrived early. As on cue, Jiyong felt as if he was out of place being around Yumi and her annoying so called best friend, slowly he got up from his seat trying to bolt from the scene unnoticeable. However, Yumi had it all figured out before he even got the chance to take off.

“Wait, are you going to class already?” her placid voice was too adorable to resist from walking away from her, now he was standing dumbfounded to how he should respond to her gullible question.

“Let’s go together then,” Kibum always the meddler, intercepted whatever Jiyong was about to say and made a revolted face without both of them aware of it. He seriously wanted to punch a big hole on that bastard’s face for having her undivided attention since his first day here. On the double he tugged his bag from the table and beckoned Jiyong to follow him,

“Well, c’mon do I have to drag your along, geez…”

“Kibum, for once be nice will ya?”  Yumi criticized with a shrill voice signaling how mad she was with his insolence approach towards the new kid, why can’t he be friendly with everyone without starting a fight. Ugh. Never leave Kibum on the socializing department, he at those.

For some unknown reason, even though the irritating blonde haired kid was openly insulting him like he was above than him, but he wasn’t affronted at all. Not even once. He felt nothing towards the threatening look he gave him, or the hostile tone in his raspy voice. The kid may as well try all that he can to be livid with him, Jiyong won’t even give the slightest damn at all. His unusual fascination or worse, obsession towards her was interesting. How much further can he drive the boy towards the edge for her was amusing to see. Or will they both jump off the edge for her? He pondered silently.

They walked through the congested hallway, crowded with students from left to right, at the start till the end. The chattering sound of their animated conversation teemed the hectic surrounding, not to forget the copious noise of their robust laughter that also rumbled along the place. All through the way, it was surging with youthful liveliness. The way their vibrant smiles fitted rightly to their faces, the exchange of friendly jokes between each other and the overflowing of exhilaration across everywhere. Seeing those dimwitted children reminded Jiyong of the one’s back at home. His heart was suddenly tauten with the rush of memories when he was young, those remembrances of his green experiences of life. Playing under the warmth of the sun, bright with smiles and lost in contentment. The time of his life when he had nothing to worry about and he couldn’t care less of what may happen sooner or later. Time took all of those solace from him and he would do anything, everything to have those moments back. Enough with the sentimental disputes, anger build up within him and then he realized something. The reason to his hatred of being here, surrounded with high school students. He was jealous. Envious of their naïve hearts, resentful of their conviction towards an optimistic future, and to spare, the grudging he had for their age, being young and free. He loathed this kind of feeling. Clenching his fists as tightly as he could and trying to calm his uneven breathing, it seemed impossible. Damnit all, he cussed. Meanwhile, Kibum was dawdling in front of the agitated Jiyong, steering the way to the direction of their class. What a pain in the , he thought. Well, at least this was better than having Yumi to walk with him to class. Their class was at the end of the hallway, near the boy’s toilet but far away from the cafeteria. That was his only complaint, as soon as the lunch bell rings, he had to race his way towards the cafeteria. Those pizza buns were the death of him, besides Yumi. Arriving quietly, this was his signal to warn the new guy about the limits he can go or do with Yumi.

“Hey, look I gotta tell you about a few things around here.” Kibum confronted, his voice was low and even, trying to sound tough in front of the new kid. He had to do this, for the sake of his uncertainty towards himself. Since his arrival, Kibum’s popularity was somewhat diminished by him, the mysterious hot looking guy. His fangirls can get the heck away from him, like hell he would care about them, they can replace him with the new guy, but the one thing that pisses him of the roof was how did he managed to get her attention too. Please, let it be anyone but her. He can’t control his intensifying temper when things get in the way between him and her, nor could he restraint his ty attitude with everyone. There was no way in hell could he restrict the sense of jealousy plus the possessiveness that he had for her. He just wanted to throw his across the hallway if that was allowed without Yumi yelling at him. Jiyong was glowering at him, composed and at ease. He was not shaking in panic, he was not pissing himself in fear and he even was not cowering away from him. He stood his ground, hands relaxed in his pocket and was observing Kibum’s pretense.

“You know Yumi right? Yea, she’s beautiful and everyone wants a piece of her. Half of the male population of this school worships her,..” he grumbled in frustration, hating the fact that some of his friends was secretly in love with her, even though they deny it. No one can love her like the way he loved her, he was the only one capable of loving everything about herself. And everyone understood it, including the teachers as well.

“Don’t mess with her. Don’t like her, don’t look at her, and goddamnit, don’t even think of being friends with her. She’s the nicest most gorgeous thing ever existed, so god help me don’t ruin that. Are we clear on this?” Kibum taunted, sounding so aggressive with the nasty look he invoked by thinking about the way some of the erted boys who will talk about her in the most lewd way. He kicked all of those sorry asses once in a while, reminding them about the sinister consequences that would happen to them if they dare do it again. Going once with him was enough to be sent to the hospital, nobody wanted to risk their lives for the second time going up against him. He was her protector, and he was glad to be one for her. He would defend her honor, even if everyone would hate his guts. She was the only being ever created that only matters to him. Anything else can go to hell.

“…You’re hopelessly in love with her,..” Jiyong boldly stated, half smiling, hiding his wicked smirk.

“I am, so you better stay away from her.” Kibum retorted, something inside of him snapped upon hearing the bastard’s forward answer. The nerve of him to simply declare right up to his face about his love for her made him wanted to slam his face to the wall next to him.

Jiyong sniggered, totally entertained with the uncalled-for situation ensuing him. He found it cute, the boy was actually smoldering with fury, his rage was reverberating around them. Should he test his anger or just walk away, ignoring his childish outburst. Giving his attention towards him again, without saying a word or agreeing to his coercion, Jiyong made his way into class obviously fed up with Kibum’s outlandish fuss over the girl. The boy was way into deep for her. On the other hand, Kibum was taken aback with what just happened. His mind was trying it’s best to function normally, coming up with a logical explanation for the unforeseen actions from the new guy. Was his extortions too plain and simple, was his rage not enough to accentuate his seriousness regarding Yumi’s wellbeing or was the guy too bloody ignorant with the urgency in his words. Well, he can’t do a thing yet to him, for now. Let’s just wait and see then, if he overstep his boundaries around her, then that can be the only reason he can kick his for. Why can’t he just concede with his rules, with what he wanted. After a while, he went inside the classroom, his eyes fixed on Jiyong and the forgotten ferocity heightened again as he briefly looked back at him, grinning the implicit discussion they had a moment ago. It may seem like he was making fun of him, but he didn’t push it further. Jiyong settled down to his seat, his head turned to his left, viewing the scene from his window. That was a good sign isn’t it? Feeling a tad bit relief washing away his worries, he took his place and sat there. Yumi was nowhere to be seen, where was she, what was she doing, why isn’t she here yet, he slouched languidly on his table already missing her presence. Instead of Yumi, it was Byunghyun who sat next to him, mimicking the exact position Kibum was doing.

“I’m tired as hell man,.. Ugh, I wanna go home,..” he whimpered, the terrible ache was extremely unpleasant.

Kibum sat up, propping his body against his chair. He tilted his head facing the exhausted person his best friend had become. He looked like he’s aged 50 years ahead, and that was such a disturbing sight to witness. “What did satan made you do over there?” he demanded, feeling really pitiful for Byunghyun, the school’s all-star champion in sports. A legend in the making. At the same time, he’s sure damn proud of him for all of the efforts he’d done. His friend was a fighter, and one day he’ll be a true sports hero for their country.

“All sorts of torture,.. Bet he’s as nervous as I am for the upcoming tournament next month..” Byunghyun silently confided, his voice was muffled by the hard desk he was covering his face with. “Hey,… heard some whispers of busy body s saying you were having  a bromance moment with the new guy,..” he ramble on, hissing at his sore shoulders for hurting so much.

“He’s a , I officially hate him for life.”

Byunghyun frowned, confused and shocked at Kibum’s sudden revelation. “What did he do, he had a little crush on her too? Wow, you set him off didn’t you?” as expected Byunghyun guessed, he then progressed into a deep chortle by accident. “What a , god you’re sooo hopeless, this is rich, I can’t even,..” Byunghyun’s body vibrated with his jovial laughter, for a moment he entirely forgot about his pain. Kibum sighed heavily, completely aware of Byunghyun’s ‘splendid’ reaction. It didn’t bother him much, because he was his best friend for life, the only person who could get away with anything without getting beaten half dead. Kibum will never hurt him on purpose, he valued and cherished their friendship.

“You’re one funny bugger man, don’t ever change okay? So, did you scared him less?”

“He,… wasn’t scared at all,.. He,.. what the hell is wrong with him, I don’t even know,..”

Byunghyun’s expression changed in a heartbeat, he was no longer enjoying where their conversation was going to. In fact, he was startled with Kibum’s little assertion. This sure was new to him, because usually when he warns someone to not mess with Yumi or lay a finger on her, they’d either piss their pants off or ted themselves in fear. Nobody, no one messes with Kibum, that was the deal everyone was accustomed here at this school.

“He didn’t run away, or begged for mercy from you? Whoa, what a rare guy indeed..” Byunghyun was surely amazed with the feat that the new guy had accomplished. Maybe he really was not that into Yumi, or he was fearless of scary hormonal guys like Kibum. Things are finally getting interesting around here. He realized how Kibum seemed like he was having a hard time admitting to his words,

“Hey, cheer up buddy. Looks like he doesn’t give a over her. Kim Kibum still owns the girl, right?” he coaxed, like the nice friend he was. Kibum was still moping in his seat, avoiding Byunghyun’s kind flatter.

“If it makes you feel a whole lot better, I’ll join your little anti group for him, how does that sound to you?”Byunghyun suggested, offering a genuine smile but reserved a teasing grin. “Whatever, I need to see her,..”  Kibum collapsed back to his seat, sulking like a freaking girl on that time of the month. Watching Kibum’s girlish reaction towards his joke was seriously hilarious, he laughed inwardly because Kibum was too honest with everything. He was more of a girl than Yumi or any other girl he ever knew. No wonder people ship them both, he often felt like he was in some kind of a relationship with Kibum by which Kibum was obviously the girlfriend and he’s the boyfriend. They’d make one heck of a pair.

“Dude, don’t you think we’ll be the hottest couple in school?” Byunghyun still wasn’t satisfied bothering the distressed guy, he totally enjoyed disturbing him. Kibum glared at him with such aversion, his eyes were ablaze, converging at Byunghyun. The heat of anger was still burning in his heart.

“What, c’mon man, you never vision us together? Damn, and here I thought we could make things work between us,..” Byunghyun acted as if he was hurted by Kibum’s irritation to what he had mentioned earlier. “Shuddup Byunghyun…” Kibum sighed.

While they were busy squabbling with each other, Yumi entered the classroom just in time for their first period. She skim through the classroom, looking for a place to seat, seems like Byunghyun had already occupied her place beside Kibum where she usually sat. The only vacant seat available was the one next to Jiyong and in front of him. Would it be regarded as rude if she sat in front of him instead of next to him, or would it be more scandalous if she sat next to him? The school’s president and the hot new kid sitting together, the controversial gossip of the week. Once, when she was in her third year, she had some trouble with biology so she had asked her teacher who was Mr. Siwan, the young and handsome practical teacher. He had agreed to help and teach her after classes in the evening, and some of the students saw them in a room together and suspected them to be in some kind of student-teacher relationship. Kibum was just moments away to beat the crap out of the innocent teacher when she explained of the real situation towards everyone. Gossips were the worst thing in school, and she had vowed to avoid being the main topic of gossip around the school. She shunned away from all of those like a plague.

“Yumi, hey take a seat here next to me,…” Kibum called out to her, as he was shoving Byunghyun away from where he was sitting. Byunghyun pouted as it seemed like he was a bit offended with Kibum’s forceful push. Those to can never be enough for each other it appeared.

“Kibum, that’s a douchy move, can’t you see how much Byunghyun misses you? Let him sit there, I’ll just go over there.” Yumi assured both of them and made her way towards the empty sit in front of Jiyong.

“For ’s sake, what the hell was that, why are you being such a today?” Kibum chided, he was clearly annoyed with how his day was turning out for him today. And Byunghyun’s riling up on his nerves was surely not helping at all.

“Calm your man, in another 10 minits I have to go for another practice, so make her seat here later on. Geez,..” Byunghyun spoke, cracking a silly smile for his own entertainment. Truthfully, he’d rather be here torturing his best friend instead of wasting his energy to push his limits on the field. Plotting and scheming devious ways for Kibum’s demise was a hella lot of fun than, everything.

Kibum stared at Yumi, he absolutely loved the way her hair looked like today. Unlike other girls, she doesn’t need any kind of makeup to highlight her features or enhance her beauty. She’s already as beautiful as she is without none of those, and that was just her thing. Her originality and simplicity was something he admired and he cherished that part of her so much. If only she could take time and realize how beautiful she is, she won’t have to worry or ever feel apprehensive about herself, the way she looks like and so on. He worshipped every part of herself, every atom, every molecule, every cell and nerves that makes her up. All of her curves, edges, every flaws and imperfections was something he appreciated from her. He treasured them all inside the depths of his heart, valuing everything that creates her into this amazing person. He loved her. Goddamnit, he loved her so much that he could even love the dusts that fall onto her skin, the tiny droplets of water that had ever touched her surface. She was his special one, the one he would think of all the time.

“……And you’re so not listening to any crap I said, right?” Byunghyun reproached, throwing his hands up in the air showing how he just can’t even stand Kibum, how unbelievable he was behaving right now. “Whatever dude, whenever she’s around your always out of the zone, so can’t really blame ya for it,..” Byunghyun fathomed the way how Kibum operates around Yumi, so scolding him will seriously have no effects on him. In fact, he actually feels sorry for him, Yumi’s obviously had him wrapped around her fingers, it’s quite scary thinking about how much she totally owns him at the palm of her hand. In other words, Kibum is Yumi’s in every sense.

“Well, my time’s up, I really gotta go or else the demon’s gonna come and drag me back to hell,..” Byunghyun joked, standing up and took his bag of from the floor. Kibum also stood up, “Hey, sorry man really, I feel kinda bad though,..” Kibum proffered a chagrinned smile, ashamed of his obtuse attitude with him just now.

Byunghyun playfully punched Kibum, and waved him of as a sign it didn’t really matter what he did. As soon as Byunghyun was out of the door, Kibum turned around to look at Yumi, and his heart was stung as he saw her talking to that new kid. This has to stop, he cogitated. He marched off towards them, and called out to her, “Hey, watcha guys talking about seems like fun over here,..”.

“Nothing, just some stuffs that’s all,..” she smiled, and his heart literally almost stopped beating for a while. And now, he was stunned to what he was supposed to do with her at the moment. Damn her gorgeous smile, damn those cute dimples, damnit all. How the hell he can stay mad at her when she does those stuffs at him, it was unfair.

“You’re coming with me, bye new kid.” He averred, his eyes were dark and menacing as his hands grabbed Yumi by her wrists, but he didn’t do it hard just a slight tug. Yumi followed him to his place and was forced to sit next to him.

“Okay,.. where’s Byunghyun and what did you do to him?” Yumi voiced out her concern for him, as she looked around the classroom.

“He’s fine, had another practice,” Kibum placed her bag down next to her and adjusted his seat, he wanted to have the best position to be able to watch her as he please.

“I don’t like you talking to him, or be anywhere near him. There’s something weird about him,” he divulged, repressing the incalculable worriedness from his expression at the same time maintaining his voice low and firm.

“And who are you again to suppress me from talking to anyone that I want?” she questioned, arms crossed implying that she was protesting at him and how disagreeable they are for not being in the same page.

“I can talk to whoever I want Kibum, you’re not my mom.” She opposed, clearly stating her stance regarding the matter. The wrathful words coming from her hurt Kibum, but what was pricking his heart was not the fact that she was annoyed with him, but the evident truth that she did wanted to talk to the new kid, and she was mad with him for dragging her to him.

“Please, just don’t…” he begged, suddenly holding her hands with him.

“What’s wrong, really what is it Kibum? Tell me or I won’t understand,…” she demanded for his actual intention, as Kibum was holding her hands, she went on and rubbed  her hands against him as she raised her issue for him.

“He,.. I,.. You know, I don’t…” he hesitated on telling her the truth, of what had happened between the head and him a while ago. He had to delay this, he can’t continue on knowing his voice was faltering like a little , shaky hands against hers and the unsteady heartbeat was bothering everything on his mind.

“Kibum….?”

“Alright, get back to your seats and settle down please,..” someone entered the class and instructed all of them to behave and be quiet. “Ah, it’s so nice to see all of you once again, although Greece was amazing. You will be missed greatly oh Greece,” the man said dourly but he seemed as he was glad though to be back.

“So, how’s our progress around here, have you all finished the syllabus yet?” he inquired and hold up the literature book in his hands. Majority of the class said with a chorus of no’s and shook their heads showing they still haven’t finished the syllabus.

“Who took over my class when I was away in paradise?” he prodded, eyes examining each and every one of his students present in class and Jiyong had caught his attention immediately.

 “My oh my, do we have a new student in this class? you young sir, are good looking. Nice to meet you, Mr…?”

“Jiyong, it’s nice to meet you too sir.”

“Alright, you know what class, lets skip all those boring stories about wars and the great battle,.. I’m sure everyone’s quite curious about the epic forbidden love story between an assassin and a princess, …” he smiled, and looked at Yumi. “Ah my lovely miss president, would you like to share with the class about the synopsis of the story, I’m sure you’ve read it ahead of everyone…”

Yumi returned his smile and stood up, and started to tell her own rendition of the story,

“ It’s a forbidden love story, as you’ve mentioned Mr. Hanada.. And it was epic, because it happened between an assassin who was supposed to kill his target who was the princess, but he fell in love with her the moment he laid his eyes upon her. The wolf, fell in love with the lamb. He was unable to kill her, as he loved her more than anything there is. And the princess, she gave up everything to be with him. They went through a lot together, and this story… has no ending. Nobody, no one knew what happened to them when they escaped and ran away together. And I think, it’s a genius. The ending depends on how we decipher the story, to those who love them being together, of course you’d want them to live happily ever after. And to those who think they weren’t meant to be, their ending would be tragic. And yea,.. that’s my take of the story for you..”

Mr. Hanada gave her a slight squeeze on the shoulders as he was really pleased and happy with her. As expected, everyone can count on her on everything. “Thank you, very much Yumi for the excellent explanation of the story. Alright, alright, let’s move on shall we. Turn to page 79, the story of their first encounter. Beautifully written, the type of vibe you would want to feel when you fall in love. Now, we also need a beautiful pairing for this one… Yumi, you’ll be the princess and,…” as

Mr. Hanada was searching around the class for his assassin, Kibum eagerly raised his hands, “Sir, please I’d like to be the assassin character, may I ?”

Mr. Hanada wrinkled his nose, as he was inspecting Kibum and shook his head, “You’re too stiff Kibum, sorry but I need someone else to be him,..” and as he turned around, he was delighted and called Jiyong to be the assassin instead. “Well, I sure do think you’d fit perfectly as the assassin character, new student,..” he pointed towards Jiyong, and Kibum swore intensely under his breath, as he glared heatedly at him. Jiyong could have just refused and insisted that the role should be done by Kibum, but to his disconcert that son of a agreed to do it.

“Okay, well let’s start people..” the teacher clapped his hands, and on prompt Yumi started her lines first,

Like any other nights, the wind was emotionless, very cold and bitter. Just the normalcy, the gusts were migrating from north ahead of the season as expected. Everything was fading, dreary and dry. Contemplating was her forte, and she needed to seek life’s purpose.

He was the shadow, the darkness was a part of his birth. His target was there, and he just had to go and welcome her with death. Closer, he went. And she stood there, a perfect position to kill her. But, she turned around and he was deceived by destiny. Her fate was supposed to die by his hands, but he was misled by either. She too, looked at him and felt as if she had found it.

Yumi looked directly and Jiyong and mouthed to him, “Your turn, continue”

Jiyong then read on,

The feelings were so strong, he couldn’t believe he still had that humanity part in himself left. As he was staring at her, he felt as if he was in a field of flowers, so beautiful just like her. The warmth was enveloping him and he was at ease. Love welcomed him with open arms, too scarce for him but serenity was there enough to quieten his tormented heart. She was just too beautiful to die this young.

Thinking it was oddly crude not to at least glance at her while he was reciting the story, Jiyong’s eyes sneaked a quick look towards her, hoping she wouldn’t peek back at him. But, to his discontent her eyes were staring back at him, not really staring though, looks more like she was ogling him with those gorgeous eyes of hers and the ‘badump’ move his heart made earlier this morning came back. Somehow, she seemed to become and look more lovelier, beautiful, dazzling, spectacular, stunning and other hundred more of adjectives he could possibly use to describe her. As if all of those could be enough to encompasses her beauty, because she was and is even without words to define. The thrill of his heart was crazy, and he was absolutely for sure this time, that these feelings were smothering his perceptions, his own common sense regarding the situation was hassled by the girl in front of him.

Her smile was killing him, oh it was destroying his mind slowly, and sooner or later the dangerous effect will before long be the death of him.

Kwon Jiyong was already addicted towards the drug of her smile, as he was voluntarily becoming her victim.

This time, will he die in this tragic but very beautiful story?

Because she was already too much for him to come to grips with, that he thinks he might die in the end.

He looked at her again, and reservedly smiled awhile his heart whispered,

“Bring it on”.