The next week went by incredibly fast.

I had quickly recovered from my injuries, and began to train myself as soon as I was able to move around.

I looked to my parents lessons as a guide to how I should train myself. My days always started off with some meditation. I would follow up by running and random exercises to improve my fitness, so using the bracer would be easier on my body. Around mid-day I would read the books Mr. Hwang gave me, and grew a sudden interest in philosophy.

The days seemed short, but each was eventful and progressive.

 

It seemed like a good idea to teach my sister how to defend herself, so I decided to let her shadow me while I was training – well, at least until she left to hang out with her friend for the rest of the day. My sister didn’t question why I was training, but just figured that I was doing it to keep myself busy

After my first time using the bracer, it became easier to function: I didn’t feel the same pressure when I put it on. My body was starting to adjust to the stress, and I could use it for a good ten minutes before feeling discomfort – which was apparently great progress.

 

Tiffany’s adjustment to this new lifestyle wasn’t as seamless.

She was able to grasp the intellectual side of things and learned everything relatively easy. Her main problem was with learning how to fight. Nothing was wrong with her technique, but her footwork… that was another story in itself.

 

I had never seen anyone stumble so much with the simplest steps. She consistently landed on the floor while attempting to transition, but each time she fell, Tiffany became more determined.

Mr. Hwang explained Tiffany’s problem as a lack of rhythm:

“Fighting is supposed to be like a sort of dance, or song: It works best if you just let the movements flow out of you.”

 

…Back when my parents first started training me, my mother mentioned to me that my soul was naturally melodic – which is why learning to fight came easy to me. I wasn’t able to understand at the time, but I was now starting to see what she meant…

 

By the end of each day Tiffany and I were completely exhausted, but she insisted on me helping her improve her footwork.

…

“How are you able to do it so easily?” Tiffany asked with a frustrated expression.

“Ummm…” I knew how I felt when I was fighting, but explaining it seemed difficult.

“Well… when I fight, my movements are like the parts of a song…”

“Huh…?” Tiffany started at me with a blank face.

“Yeah… Just imagine that each step is like another tune…”

 

Tiffany cut me off by vigorously shaking her head.

“I think you’re the only person who can feel that way about fighting, Tae.”

“You’re probably right…”

“I need something that is going to help me move around more effortlessly.”

“Hmmm… I’ve got it!” I pressed my fist into the palm of my other hand.

“What’s your idea?” Tiffany asked, suddenly curious.

I moved over to the radio that was sitting in Tiffany’s room, and turned it on. After a little time of searching, I was able to find a station that played slow songs.

“Tae… what are you doing?” Tiffany asked as I grabbed both of her hands and raised them up. She became flustered as I moved in very close to her.

“I’m going to teach you how to dance.”

…

“1, 2, 3… 1, 2, 3… Now stop, and… spin.”

Mid-spin, Tiffany lost her balance and stumbled to the floor.

“Are you okay?” I was concerned because she had already fallen many times before, but this time she didn’t get right back up.

Tiffany sat on the floor and sulked for a second.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She responded, frustrated. “Let’s try again.”

As Tiffany stood up, the door to her room slowly creaked open.

“Mr. Hwang?”

The tired looking man poked his head through the doorway before walking inside of the room.

“What do you want?” Tiffany snapped at her father. Her frustration about the situation was apparent.

Tiffany’s father understood why she was upset, so he didn’t poke at the situation.

“I just came up to let Taeyeon know that: I was able to decode her father’s TimeLine.”

“Wow that was pretty fast.” It caught me off guard how quickly he was able to decode the book while training Tiffany at the same time.

“I haven’t really been sleeping the past few nights.” He chuckled. “That being said, I feel like all of us need a short break. You two have been training for a week straight without rest. Even with the supplements I’ve allowed you to take, it’s still not good for your body. I think one day away from any labor will do us all some good.”

Without allowing us to respond, he continued to speak

“No objections? Okay! We’ll start back up the day after tomorrow!”

Mr. Hwang tossed the TimeLine in the air and slid out of the room with a flash.

“Uh…” Tiffany was stunned by her father’s sporadic idea. I, on the other hand, had to dive forward in order to catch my father’s TimeLine.

“That was close.” I was barely able to get a hold of the book before it hit the floor.

Tiffany snapped out of her shock and looked over to see me staring at the book.

“So what are you going to do?” she asked

“What do you mean?”

“Well I’m sure you’ve realized that once you open that book, there’s no turning back. The contents of it could easily change your opinion about your dad… Do you really want that?”

I hadn’t thought of that…

Tiffany’s statement unintentionally brought up another factor of becoming a Liner. Taking off our blindfolds didn’t only mean seeing the world differently, but our lives and our families.

“I’m still going to read it.” I decided. “I’m aware that reading this may change how I view my father, but I want to know the truth…. Regardless of how shocking it may be.”

“Alright, let me know if you need anything.” Tiffany said as she headed towards the door.

“You’re not going to read it with me?”

“Are you crazy?” her words were more of a statement than a question. “Anything in a coded book should only be read by those meant to read it… Plus I need to go soak in the bath for the next twenty-four hours.” With that, Tiffany left the room.

…

Once you open that book, there’s no turning back.

Tiffany’s words echoed in my head.

With all of the courage I could muster, I forced my fingers to flip over the cover of the book. I knew that if I didn’t do it at that moment, the book most likely would have remained closed.

 

The first page of the book seemed fairly simple. It resembled the cover page of any journal or diary.

 

Kim _______’s

TimeLine

 

>,< He didn’t even fill in his name… Just like my father.

I flipped through the first set of pages, and became surprised by what I saw – rather, a lack of what I saw.

The entire beginning portion of the TimeLine is blank…

 

After spending some time searching, I was finally able to find the first entry that my father wrote in his TimeLine.

 

I didn’t feel that it was right to start my entries until I became a Middle-Liner… Because this is where the real journey starts…

… I’m not exactly sure what to write at this time… But I’m sure, in time, I’ll get better at this…

 

“It seems like he was pretty awkward when he was younger.”

I continued to read on through the entries of my father’s early journeys…

A lot of the pages only contained a few words, while some contained complete descriptions of the events he went through. Other pages were filled with random foods that he tasted. Beside the names of the foods were the countries where they originated.

 

Today was a good day…

 

I really wish I had some sweet rolls right now…

 

Half of the stuff my father wrote seemed like nonsense, but the other half taught me a lot. I was able to learn a lot of the lessons that had taken him years to learn, within a few hours.

Reading this was a good idea.

 

Tiffany walked into the room from her bath. She noticed the calm look on my face, and realized that everything was good on my end.

“I’m assuming things are going well.”

“Yeah… So far: so good.”

I wasn’t done reading, but I decided to turn off the lights and go to sleep because it was clear how tired Tiffany was.

…

I hopped out of bed and immediately grabbed the book – I was itching to read more of my father’s adventures. Tiffany was still sleeping, so I headed to the living room to make sure that I didn’t wake her.

Without getting anything to eat, or paying attention to my surroundings, I continued where I left off.

 

I found the perfect place town to settle down in…

The people are kind, the weather is nice… and it’s even nameless…

 

So far, nothing that I had read affected the way I looked at my father.

 

The fox slipped through our fingers again…

Another day, another chance…

 

“Who is this fox person my father keeps writing about?”

One thing that caught my attention during the reading was the fact that there were multiple logs mentioning a person called the fox.

My father first started mentioning the fox around the time he became a Headliner. Apparently this person was a major threat, which required him to go out into the field.  Up to where I read, the fox was able to get away clean from any run-in with the Liners.

The whole ordeal with the fox intrigued me, so I figured it would be a good idea to see if Mr. Hwang knew anything about it.

…

“I didn’t know there was a pool in this house…”

“You also didn’t know about the secret room under the house… You should be more attentive.” Mr. Hwang joked as the inner tube he was sitting on slowly spun in the water. “What can I help you with?”

“In his TimeLine, my father keeps mentioning the same name over and over again: the fox. Do you know who this person is?”

“HAHAHAHA!” Mr. Hwang laughed hysterically, causing him to fall off of his inner tube and into the pool.

  I don’t understand what’s so funny…

As the soaking wet man carried himself out of the pool, I noticed that he was trying to stop grinning, but to no avail.

“So, I take it you know who I’m talking about.” My voice came out flat, but I was more impatient than upset.

After he was able to control his grin, Mr. Hwang finally responded to my question.

“This fox person you keep reading about was the Liner’s biggest problem for a few years. They worked for a powerful family that was trying to control all of Eastern Asia. This person was able to thwart all of our actions against the family… without killing anybody.”

“How could anyone pull that off?” It perplexed me that any one person had the ability to make the Liners look bad at their job.

Mr. Hwang pointed to his mouth before replying.

“The fox had the ability to lull people to sleep by singing…”

“…But seriously, what really happened?”

“As unreal as it sounds, the fox was basically able to sing people to sleep.”

 

Author’s note: Sounds like a wild Jigglypuff has appeared. (I’m sorry, I know I’m lame…………….…. back to the story!)

 

“How is that even possible?” Nowadays, every time I thought I understood something, things became more complicated.

“I still don’t know to this day.” He responded. “…But what matters is that we were able to stop this person, and the family they worked for.”

“How did you manage that?” It seemed like all I had been doing the past few days was asking questions.

“I don’t want to give too much away before you read on, but… I can tell you what happened to the fox…”

There was a long pause…

I nodded my head and raised an eyebrow to alert him that I was ready to hear the information.

“Your father married her…”

 

Well that escalated quickly…

 

…

I sprinted back to the living room and hopped onto the couch; eager to continue reading where I had left off.

There is no way that mom was the fox…

In my haste to make get back to the TimeLine, I hadn’t noticed that my sister was in my spot; already flipping through the book.

 

“AH!” She yelled as I landed on top of her. “Unnie, why are you so fat?!”

“I am not fat! ... Wait, what were you just doing?”

“Well I was about to start reading this book... until you pounced on me.”

“Why aren’t you hanging out with your friend?” I asked as I snatched the book away.

“She’s at school…” Haeyeon said with a sense of sadness in her voice.

I keep forgetting that she just had to up and leave all of her friends and classmates… It has to be tougher than she lets show.

“You miss your old friends, huh?”

My sister nodded in agreement as water started to line her eyes.

Her sadness made me all the more determined.

I have to become stronger, for her.

I leaned over and wrapped my arms around my sister; letting my body warmth comfort her.

“So, I have an idea…”

“What is it?” She asked; raising her head to look at me.

“We can try to get you enrolled in a school here… under a different name, of course. It’ll just be temporary – until we can go back home… What do you think about that?”

“I like that idea.” My sister responded as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“…But for now” I continued. “We’ll get Mr. Hwang to teach you, so you can stay up to date with your studies.”

“Okay” She removed herself from my embrace and then ran over to the kitchen to wash her face. “Thank you, Unnie.” The brightness that constantly occupied her, returned as her mood went back to normal.

“For what?”

Haeyeon didn’t respond, but started walking down the hallway that led to the pool room.

…

With the living room being clear of all people, I figured it would be a good idea to finish reading. My eagerness had died down a bit, but the whole situation still intrigued me.

I have to find out what happened.

In a split second, I flipped open the book and returned to the page I was on…

 

We’ve heard rumors of the fox being somewhere in Seoul…

I hesitated the first time we came face-to-face; giving her a chance to start singing…

With everything that was going on, I could only think about how beautiful she was…

 

That being said… I still have to stop her, somehow…

 

 

My team has located where the fox is staying…

We’ve set a perimeter around the hotel, and I’ve decided that we’re going to capture her when she’s trying to leave…

 

Everyone is upset with me because they think it would be best to just kill her…

It is true that killing her would be more efficient, but my gut is leading me in another direction…

 

Something tells me that she is not doing these deeds of her own free-will…

I will stop her without killing her, and I’ll get to the bottom of this…

 

 

…

It has been a long day, but our mission was successful… or should I say – my mission was successful…

 

We followed the fox as she left her hotel and made her way into an alley. This move was suspicious, but we continued the plan in spite of that…

 

She began singing as soon as we cornered her – which I assumed would happen…

I had put in some earplugs in my ears prior to her leaving the hotel (You would’ve assumed that someone would have thought of this before). I hadn’t informed the rest of my team because I wasn’t too sure if they would have tried to kill her or not…

 

With my comrades sleeping, I confronted the fox…

Even with my earplugs, the girls singing made me drowsy…

I did my best to pretend like I was wide-awake, and she eventually stopped…

 

“Why are you doing these things?” I asked her…

“…” She didn’t respond; just stared at me with sad eyes...

After some time of silence, the fox began to move…

She appeared to be struggling with herself before lunging and attacking me…

Her moves were deceptively quick and had a certain rhythm to them…

We traded blows for some time until I let my guard down…

I allowed her to punch me in the face in order to get closer to her…

As her fist collided, I twisted my arms under hers, and grabbed her wrists…

 

“Who is making you do this?” I asked with all of the passion I could muster…

Water formed around her eyes as she struggled to motion her head towards a spot behind me…

 

I turned around and looked over at the position she pointed out…

At first glance, I didn’t see anything substantial… But after another look over, I noticed someone standing there; watching our altercation…

 

I swiftly jumped from the alley-way and ran towards the person; who was now on the move…

After taking in a few deep breaths, I was able to get my bracer to activate…

 

With my enhanced speed, I was easily able to catch the runner…

“Arghh!” The man grunted as I grabbed him by the throat…

My bracer stopped working as I let my anger get the best of me…

The man must have realized that fact: he immediately began to fight back once it turned off…

 

I was eventually able to subdue my opponent, and get a good look at his face…

It was the head of the crime family we were after…

In his left hand was a small remote-like device…

“So that’s how you’re doing it…”

*

 

 

Ah man…

The next few pages of my father’s TimeLine were illegible.

Things were getting so good too.

 

I flipped through some pages until I was able to find one that I could read…

 

Things are peaceful for the time being…

The fox is no more – she has been replaced by a Liner…

We have protected the people once again, but each victory is short-lived…

I have heard rumors of something otherworldly in Africa…

I have to be very cautious with something like this, especially since it is out of my region…

Hopefully, things will be stable one day…

 

 

The next few pages were ripped out.

Everything afterwards was blank, except a few small excerpts…

 

She said yes!

 

 

I never knew happiness like this existed…

 

 

Happiest day of my life…

 

 

 

I decided to stop there because I didn’t think there would be much information after that.

 

I can’t believe that happened with mom… I’ll have to bring it up once I rescue her…

Reading about my father’s adventures made me think about what was in store for me and Tiffany. I was scared, but excited at the same time.

Life is a mystery, but in this line of work it would be difficult for things to be uninteresting.

“Things are already crazy enough…”

________________________________________________________

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!