Even though she had ran down several corridors, the guards kept coming. The Ice Princess gritted her teeth as she made a sharp turn. Still, she couldn’t shake them off.

As she ran, the Ice Princess pulled the gun out of her holster. Please, let those lessons on gun shooting be worth it.

When she reached a T-intersection, she shot the wall on the left as she veered the right and continued to run. Immediately, smoke rose from the special concoction of her bullet, allowing her to run away with less visibility to her chasers.

From the sound of the metal clinging against the linoleum, her bullet ricocheted, the way she planned it to.

“Look! She ran to the left!”

The Ice Princess spotted a hallway to the right and hid behind the wall. Peering past the corner, she watched the guards take off in the opposite direction.

She turned the opposite direction to find an emergency exit. She quickly ran down the stairs and found herself in a sparse parking lot. She quickly hid behind a column and examined her surroundings.

At that moment, a delivery guy was putting a box in his truck. He turned and went to the left, leaving the trunk door open.

He finally returned with the delivery slip in his right pocket. He closed the door and got into the driver’s seat.

The Ice Princess remained huddled among the boxes as the engine growled into life. She kept still as the vehicle rocked back and forth as it stopped for traffic and turned.

Finally, it made a stop and the driver came out in the back to grab a box. As he left, the Ice Princess managed to open the door and peered out carefully.

She realized that the truck was only three blocks away from her apartment. She crept out and walked down a hidden street.

No one finds the Ice Princess.

*

“Stephanie? I’m home.” Soo-yeon entered the apartment, wearing a pair of green skinny jeans and a white lace sweater.

“Hey! You’re back early.” Stephanie stood at the stove.

“Yeah, my project session ended early. I still have to make up the lectures I missed though.” Soo-yeon set her bag on the counter. “Where’s Soo-jung?”

“Unnie!” The young girl ran in and hugged her sister.

Soo-yeon hugged back. “So what did you do when I was gone?” She said, mussing her hair.

Soo-jung shrugged. “Just some reading.”

“Maybe if you don’t mind, could you research some schools? I’ve asked around, but I don’t think a lot of them satisfy you.”

“Sure. What did you hear so far?”

“Well, there is a Think well program, but apparently it’s disorganized. Have you heard of CTY?”

Soo-jung crinkled her nose. “The summer talent program?”

“Exactly. It’s not worth it for you. So why don’t you do some research and tell me what you think? Then I’ll look over it.”

“Okay! I’ll go look up it up right now as we wait for dinner.” She started to walk away, then turned. “Unnie, do lots of guys smoke at your school?” She wrinkled her nose again.

Soo-yeon sighed. “Well, they don’t usually inside the building, but some of them were smoking outside and there was nowhere else to sit.”

“Second-hand smoking is bad you know.”

“I know, Soo-jung, but sometimes the only thing you can do is put up with it.”

Soo-jung smiled. “You could get a fan unnie! That way you can wave the smoke away from you and you won’t smell like you smoke as well. And you can prove a point. Anyone, I’ll go, I’m sure Stephanie unnie wants to talk to you.” She then left the room and there was a sound of a door closing in the distance.

Soo-yeon sighed as she turned back to Stephanie. “She makes me feel ancient.”

“Me too.” Stephanie peered down at the oven door and stood up again. “Why don’t you go wash up? The  chicken is going to take a while.”

Soo-yeon and nodded for the bathroom. She definitely needed a shower to wash off the smell, especially if Soo-jung smelled it. Her heart clenched as she knew a fan wouldn’t solve her problem.

Soo-jung, forgive me…