Siyeon felt like dying. Her legs hurt, just like her back and she didn't know how long she could bear with it anymore. “Ah, don't! It hurts too much!” she called out but Mao only rolled his eyes at her week attempts to get him down from her. “Shut up, it is not my fault that it is so tight here! Bent down a bit more!” was his growled his response while his knee hit her lightly. He tried to regained his balance by placing his hands next to her head and Siyeon didn't even dare to move.

If she had to be honest, she didn't even know how the two of them got into a situation like that and she really wanted to kick herself for saying yes to such a stupid idea. “I have an idea. Can you move your legs a bit and lower your head a bit so that I can have a better grip on the stones?”
As if that would be so easy, Siyeon thought, but she kept it for herself and tried to do what he told her to. Finally, the walls around them moved to the side like plasticine and Siyeon nearly fell face forward against the wall on the other side, if Mao wouldn't have pulled her back just in time. “Remind me that if you ever tell me again to look after something that supposedly is hiding between two walls, that I never should do it again. Like ever!”

Mao had tried to help her out as she had been stuck in the small gap and he had ended like her stuck between the walls. “You needn't to listen to me, right?” he grumbled back while letting go of her and stepping back.

They had been together in the wild for about one week now but up until now all they had done were strange exercises, which should increase her physical and mental strength though Siyeon actually doubted that they were good for anything. “I still can't believe that you actually made my parents believe that I am invited to some kind of prodigy camp, which is sponsored from the school.”

It had been a ridiculous idea and it had been even more ridiculous that her parents actually had believed him. Secretly, Siyeon was very sure that Mao had worked some kind of magic on them or else they never would had taken his words for the truth as fast as like that.
“Well, it worked, sweetie, so quit complaining and continue exercising.”

100 push ups, 150 sit ups, 50 squads and that three times a day, sometimes four or five times. Mao was quite merciless when it came to that but he always had a lot of food for her ready whenever Siyeon was near death. “But when are you going to show me... well, real magic?”
Usually, Siyeon was not very impatient but the fact that the school would turn into a battle ground after the holidays scared her a bit.

She maybe was physically stronger than some of the female students at her school and maybe even stronger than some male students, but if they would use their other abilities against her, she would lose against them every time. “Tch, if you can't even win against me in a normal fight without magic, then you never could win against me in a fight with.”

Siyeon's face darkened because he had hit the nail with the hammer. At first, she had thought that he was some kind of a normal guy and those she definitely could fight against. He had proved her assumption to be wrong though. At the end of their fight she Siyeon had looked up to him and that literally. Mao had thrown her to the ground so fast that Siyeon hadn't had anytime to react and he hadn't ended their fight after that.
“My back still hurts like hell,” she mumbled and Mao only grinned. “Up for another round today?”

A groan escaped Siyeon's lips while she sat up, staring up to him and his wide grin. “You surely behave differently from the first time we met. How come?”

His grin disappeared and he sat down as well. “Or is the Siyeon I came to know only a facade with which you deceive people?” There was a small reaction from Siyeon, only for a split of a second but it was enough for Mao to know that he was right. Even her body language showed that he had been right, and that she didn't want to talk about it. Stiff, uncomfortable and even scared.
It was highly unusual to see Siyeon that fidgety, and especially scared, so that Mao decided not to ask further questions even if his curiosity killed him on the inside.

“So, I guess this is your real personality? Snarky, y and stubborn?” Mao but Siyeon was too exhausted to react. “Not quite, but I wouldn't call myself y.”

Mao already had his response ready but he noticed how absentminded Siyeon looked – absentminded and lost – and he only responded in his mind. “Siyeon.”
As soon as she heard her name, Siyeon turned her head to Mao and blinked a few times. She still felt uncomfortable that he had found out that she was trying to hide something in front of him and in front of everyone.

As she finally looked at him again, he ruffled her hair with a sigh. “Don't look at me like that. It's fine, whatever it is,” he grumbled, before he pulled her up on her