Jessica froze when she saw Sehun and Luhan dash toward Tiffany. The blonde quickly snapped back when she saw Tiffany in the brothers' possession. She too ran like her life depended on it, I sort of did though, to Tiffany. Jessica reached her and tried to free her charge from them. Luhan held onto Tiffany's wrists and pushed the blonde away with a kick and Sehun smirked at Jessica. 

 

 

The blonde groaned as she stood herself upright. She went to charge at the twins when someone pulled her back, Yunho. The master pulled her out of his way and he and Boa attacked the twins instead. Yunho landed an aura encased fist on the side of Luhan's head and Boa nearly kicked Sehun's arm off. The punched stunned Luhan enough to loosen his grip on the captive and Yunho pushed her back too. 

 

 

Jessica caught her charge and frantically looked over the redhead's state. Tiffany was fine, just a little shocked. She took ahold of Jessica's face in her hands and smiled at her. "I'm fine, Jessi."

 

"I'm glad! But I should have done my job better!" Jessica cried out before running over to the masters and lunging at the twins with a fist to each of their faces. Both brothers groaned in pain as Jessica continued to punch them. She was eventually brought back by Boa, whom was trying to calm her down. Yunho was placing some sort of cuff on the brothers' wrists. Jessica exhaled heavily as her adrenaline levels slowly returned to normal. 

 

 

"Sit down, we'll take care of these demons," Boa instructed and pushed the blonde to sit down. Jessica sat burning holes into the twins. Tiffany rushed to her side and hugged her from the side. 

 

 

Boa called someone on her cellphone and Heechul suddenly appeared. The girly man bent down to Jessica's eye level, "Hey kid. You did good!"

 

Jessica shifted her glare to Heechul, "Good? I left her alone for like two minutes and she was captured by demons!"

 

"Hey calm down. You really did good. Don't you think there was a reason I sent you to these specific masters?"

 

"What would that be, almighty spirit girl?"

 

"I'm gonna ignore that because I know you're upset. Jung and Kwon Masters are tied very closely to the spirit world. All the Martial Arts masters are. But these specific two are even more close to the sprit world than the others. They're retiring soon and this little competition was so we at HQ could figure out who is after Tiffany. 

 

 

"Those two are part of some syndicate, we'll find out later. The masters held this to help us. I didn't expect you to win, just make it far enough to bring these guys out into the light. You did your job, kid."

 

Jessica held her impassive face as she processed all the information. Tiffany too, who was being ignored, flipped through everything she was being told. 

 

Turning his attention to Tiffany and bowing, "Hello. Nice to finally meet you, princess."

 

Tiffany nodded shyly and Jessica's eyes nearly fell from their sockets. "H-Hello. Who are you?"

 

"I'm Heechul! A spirit guide! I'm also the spirit world's king's right hand man. Did you understand everything I said to this sour sprout?"

 

"I think so. Those twin guys are demons from some syndicate, presumably to take me out or away. I'm a princess. Jessica is... Well, I don't know what she is," Tiffany said calmly. 

 

"Jessica is your protector from now on. Do you know why?"

 

"I'm a princess?"

 

"Not that. Do you know how she ended up your protector?"

 

"N-...Y-...No!"

 

"She saved your life." Heechul looked at the both of them seriously. "She died about a month or so ago, by pushing you out of the way of an incoming truck."

 

Tiffany looked at Jessica, who was avoiding eye contact. She didn't know Jessica was the person that saved her. After she was pushed away, her father's men took her away before she could even process what had happened. She was told that everything was fine with the other person. "You... saved me..."

 

Jessica wanted to wring Heechul's neck. She wanted to find out on her own time and pace about Tiffany. "Yes."

 

"When she died, no one in the spirit world could have predicted it. You know what she was like, not nice at all. We made a deal for her to return to the human world alive, only if she protects you. She obviously chose to protect you. Princess, I'm not sure about the extent of your knowledge about the other worlds, but I do know that you know about them. You should know that you are precious, to both the demon and spirit worlds. You need Jessica as your protector."

 

Yunho came from behind the spirit guide and tapped his shoulder, "You should get going with those two. You-know-who doesn't like to wait long."

 

Heechul nodded and bowed to everyone before leaving with the demon twins. 

 

 

Sangchu finally woke up and Jung Kwangjangnim kicked him out, claiming on the basis that he forfeited his match by sleeping through it. The buff man grumbled like a little kid, but left regardless. 

 

 

 

******

 

 

 

 

Yunho and Boa looked down at Jessica and Tiffany. Kwon master to the initiative, "Tiffany was it? I'm glad I finally know who you are. I had my suspicions, but it was all speculation until now."

 

The two girls stood up and bowed. Tiffany spoke first, "Thank you for all of this."

 

"Yeah, Jung Kwangjangnim, thank you. Boa master, thank you," Jessica added. 

 

 

Yunho had a mysterious smile playing of his lips, "Where do you girls think you're going?"

 

"What he means is, why do you think you're leaving?"

 

Jessica raised an eyebrow, "Wasn't this all just a rouse? We're leaving because it's all over."

 

"No, no, no!" Jung master said as he wagged his finger in their faces. "You two are out last pupils! Congrats! You'll stay here and train. You both need it. We can't be around that much longer, of course we need successors to our trades."

 

"Yes. You two need this training as much as we need to train successors." Boa nodded and gestured to the compound's buildings. "Let's get started, shall we?"

 

 

 

 

******

 

 

 

 

Jessica groaned when she reached the bottom of the mountain. The blonde collapsed on the ground and used her backpack as a pillow. She's normally a prim girl, but right now she's too exhausted to care. The blonde was about to finally drift into a long awaited, peaceful sleep when someone kicked her side. Jessica's eyes opened and immediately glared at the sleep offender. 

 

 

"Yah! How are you going to sleep there when you need to protect me?" an equally drained and not as chipper Tiffany said. 

 

"You took so damn long to get down the mountain, I thought I should reward myself with a nap." Jessica held out a hand for help to get back up and Tiffany anchored her. 

 

"Oh, I'm sorry that my body has been beaten to a pulp, replenished, then beaten again." Tiffany had gotten a lot better at the use of sarcasm by the end of their training. 

 

"Whatever. When's the bus getting here?"

 

"We still have to walk a bout two kilometers to the streets."

 

Jessica let out a high pitched whine, "I'm gonna be dead before then!"

 

"Let's go, Jessi!" the redhead grabbed her arm and dragged the-girl-whom-was-supposed-to-be-protecting her towards the road. 

 

"I hate Jung Yunho," Jessica declared. 

 

"And I hate Kwon Boa."

 

 

 

 

******

 

 

 

 

"Woah! You guys were gone for like a month!" a very loud Yuri exclaimed as her redheaded friend and new blonde friend came into the classroom. Yoona sat next to the loud Yuri and smiled widely at her friends. 

 

 

A month indeed. Jessica and Tiffany stayed a month up in the mountains training with the two masters. Jessica trained with Yunno and Tiffany with Boa. 

 

 

Jessica barely managed to wave at the two waiting eagerly for them before a doe eyed girl tackled her to the ground. The blonde was still physically fatigued and just let herself be crushed by the strength that was Im Yoona. Tiffany helped her protector with Yuri's assistance and pried their maknae off of her unnie. 

 

 

"Unnie~" the maknae whined. Yoona's whine and aegyo aren't things either the blonde or redhead find endearing. Jessica clamped a hand over the girl's wide mouth and said harshly, "I still feel like a sack of crap and if you keep making that noise, I swear I'll make your pretty little face end up on a milk carton. Got that, Yoona?"

 

Yoona nodded and dejectedly walked back to her seat. There, Yuri comforted her. Tried to anyway, all she said was, "You should know better than to use that voice."

 

Tiffany and Jessica took their seats, one of them waiting patiently for class to start, the other knocked out cold on her desk. 

 

 

 

 

******

 

 

 

 

"Yoona, I'm sorry I was mean to you earlier," Jessica said to the maknae at lunch. Tiffany had berated her for acting that way to the girl when she just wanted to show Jessica she missed her.

 

Yoona's face lit up so quickly, one would think a switch was simply flipped. "That's okay, unnie! I forgive you! Tell us how your trip went."

 

Tiffany and Jessica technically did take a trip, of some sort. Their one month trip was said to have been a business trip Tiffany's father need her to go on. Jessica went along because the blonde didn't actually need to be at school until their graduation. 

 

 

"It was fine. Nothing too exciting," Tiffany eye smiled at her friends. She didn't like to lie, but how could she explain that her princess self was in an intensive King Fu  training. "Right Jessi?"

 

"Huh? Oh... Um yeah. The food's great."

 

"Babo! I was talking about out trip. Wake up, will you!" Tiffany slapped her shoulder. 

 

"Could you take your Valhalla woman strength somewhere else? I don't appreciate it one bit," Jessica snarked. 

 

"If you can't handle this, how are you supposed to protect me?" Tiffany mumbled. 

 

Jessica leaned to Tiffany's ear and whispered, "I can handle all of you and so much more, princess."

 

Yuri and Yoona clapped in unison. "Wow, great show. You guys look like such a cute couple. Like those bickering couples," Yuri teased. 

 

Yoona joined, "Yeah unnie's, I could feel the love from this side of the table." The deer grabbed at the air. 

 

"I hate you all," Jessica grumbled as she laid her head on the lunch table. Tiffany kept mum. Her friends never said things like that before. 

 

 

 

 

******

 

 

 

 

"You graduate in how long?" the girly spirit guide asked. He and Jessica were in the roof of the school building again. 

 

"Two weeks. Thank God, or whatever supernatural powers are out there." Jessica said. 

 

"I'll have you and Tiffany look into something for me after that then."

 

"What is it?"

 

"Something that can wait. I'll send Taeyeon to you as well."

 

"I don't want that source of pure evil in monkey form anywhere near me."

 

"Too bad. Sunny said so."

 

"I hate your boss."

 

"She's your boss too."

 

"Whatever, missy. I'm leaving."

 

"The Jung master says hi and to visit them sometime."

 

Jessica glared but then smiled playfully. "Tell that ahjussi, when I visit him, it'll be to determine which old folks home he prefers."

 

Hecechul chuckled, "Will do. See you in two weeks and a day!"