“Oh my God Mi Yeon!” Krystal shouted at the top of her lungs as soon as my face popped out of the door. I peeked past her to look at Tao who’s guarding me today. He just shrugged like he doesn’t want to do anything with loud girls. I averted my gaze back to Krystal who already had both of her hands on her slim waist like a gorgeous nagging mother. “Are you or are you not going out with the jerk?!!”

                “Uhhhh…” I muttered unintelligently. “Good morning?”

                “Good morning,” she greeted back rather hastily and quickly added, “What’s going on with you and the idiot?”

                “Idiot?” I said, scrunching my eyebrows and acting dumb myself.

                Krystal rolled her eyes at me like she knew me too well to figure out that I’m not that slow to get what she’s saying. “Well I have a lot of curse words for Luhan but I’m trying to tone it down for you! So tell me, are you going out with him?”

                “Uhhh….” I made the same sound again, feeling the blood slowly rush to my cheeks. “I…guess?”

                “I knew it,” Krystal said, slightly disappointed. For a freaking moment, I thought that she has some feelings for Luhan. I was starting to feel the guilt in my nerves and a bit of jealousy when she added, “Do you even plan on telling me or were you expecting the whole school to know first before you approach me?”

                So this is what it’s all about. It’s not exactly me being with Luhan, but me not telling her. To be honest, with the way things were going, I didn’t have time to even think of confiding to a girl friend. Now that she’s saying it in front of my face, I felt shame and guilt eating me. I should have told her. She’s like Seohyun’s counterpart in this other world and I bet my life out she would skin me alive if I didn’t even tell her about my first, well...boyfriend.

               I cupped my cheeks and pretended I was just checking out my temperature. Just thinking of the term makes me want to hide in my closet forever.

                “I’m sorry,” I apologized sincerely to Krystal.

                “Oh well,” she said, easily dismissing the matter when she’s the one who brought it up in the first place. “I just hope you didn’t let that kiss you yet.”

                When she said that, I didn’t react and that must have been the biggest mistake I’ve ever done so far in my life. Krystal’s eyes grew wide and she even covered with her hand. I was beet red at the moment, and I didn’t know how to fix the situation.

                “You didn’t!!!!!!!” She yelled so loud that I’m betting it got through the faculty room.

                “Uhmmm…h-hey…” I said, stuttering, my fingers started to fidget against each other. I took a look at Tao who acted as if he’ didn't hear anything. “C-can we not talk about it now…?”

                “Oh my God Mi Yeon!!!!!” she exclaimed despite my plea. “That dear is going way too fast! Seriously!!!!!!!! Let me smack him in the face. Did he hurt you or something with his raging hormones?” She said and then checked out my wrist and neck as if Luhan could have pushed me already down the bed.

                Don’t hate me but sometimes, Krystal is so being a drama queen. I feel really embarrassed that Tao might think that Luhan and I might have already done something out of the way…

                “No seriously…” I said, trying to defend Luhan and pulling away from Krystal. “I’m fine…and we’re not going that serious. Just dating…”

                “That’s a relief, that is!!!” She exclaimed, as if she can finally breathe normally now.  “Don’t let him get to you. This soon, anyway.”

                “Why?” I asked. I didn’t understand why it wouldn’t be fine at all if we ever decided to. Okay, forget I even thought that. Shame, shame, shame. 

                “Just because.” Krystal shrugged. “Let’s go to class!”

                Krystal is just so random. I couldn’t understand her mood swings, but I still kind of felt weird, like there’s something I should know…

                Maybe I’m just overthinking things. I’m sure Krystal would have told me if it is such a big issue, right?

                “About that…” I said slowly, afraid that Krystal might get offended once again if I just dropped so suddenly another news that I didn’t get the chance to share with her yesterday. “Well, the thing is…we…I mean, I…am not going to attend classes anymore.”

                “You’re skipping?” she asked, perplexed.

                “Technically no…” I said and began to explain. “We're officially pulled out the whole week. There’s this training we have to focus on, and then next week, we’re out of the school.”

                “That soon?!” she said, her eyes getting wide again. ”You’re gonna train for just ONE WEEK?!”

                “That’s the idea,” I confirmed, dreading the thought myself. 

                “But that wouldn’t be enough,” she stated frankly. “One week’s just impossible. I mean, those who studied and graduated here get killed even, what are the chances?”

                “Very encouraging Krystal,” I told her, frowning.

                “That’s not what I meant!” she quickly reconciled. “I’m not saying that you’ll get killed the moment you go out, but your duires are not that mature yet. I’m not sure about this Mi Yeon. This is dangerous…this is too much for you…”

                “Well, I’m actually hoping that the government will help us in this…” I muttered. "Besides, I can't argue with the authorities. Even if I'm the heir, seniority still stands."

                “They wouldn’t,” Tao spoke for the first time, making me and Krsytal look hastily in his direction.  He shrugged. “I mean, think about it, the mortals wouldn’t want to get in our affairs. Having enemies that are beyond their capabilities would only put them in danger. They could provide for the school yes, but for such an expedition, I don’t think they would. Plus, it would be easier for the enemy to track us down if we use government-owned properties. I think we will have to keep moving once we’re out.”

                “And the school?” I asked, my positive feelings slowly going down the drain.

                “I would think they would only provide us some necessities, but they can’t help us out. As written in the prophecy, only the eight should interfere. Prophecies shouldn’t be thwarted. The school would have to leave us on our own or more bad things might occur.”

                “Great,” I said sarcastically. “Let’s just hope this training would give us something in the least.”

                “I agree with Mi Yeon,” Krystal said, frowning. “If this is your only chance, then you’d better start now.”

----------------------------------------

                With a newly-found positive energy that came straight out of hopelessness, Tao and I parted with Krystal. But as the day went on, my feelings of dread started to weigh me down again. 

                The eight of us have been spending several hours now in the arena (Yes, eight, because Luhan is still not around). There were no professors supervising us. My warriors only practiced against each other. I’m not disappointed in their duires, god, no. For all I can tell, they were working it all good. Still, I kept thinking that with proper supervision and guidance, they could improve more. It's not even fair that I couldn’t do anything but guess other people’s duire. I’m such a useless heir. Meanwhile,  Kyungsoo decided to just stay with me in just one corner. The reason for this, as he says, is so he could try to connect with me more, using proximity in his advantage. Maybe less space, he thinks, would make it easier for him to talk with me in my mind, and if possible, be able to read my mind as well. I didn't particularly know if the latter part of the bargain is such a good idea or not.