On The Other Side Of Earth In New York, America...

I stood by the front door impatiently, waiting for my older brother to finish his breakfast. Leaning against the front door, I tried to dent the smooth tiles with my shoe as I kicked the floor. Letting a sigh escape from my lips, I straightened my clothes.

"Chunji! Are you done dining in a five star hotel yet?!" I let out an exasperated sigh and blew my hair out of my face. "The time is ticking and before you know it, we'll both be late for school!" I turned around and kicked the door, wincing in pain. I felt a hand land on the top of my head, ruffling my hair.

"I don't see why you're so eager to go to school. What's so good about it anyways?" He scoffed, messing with my hair. I swatted his hand away from my hair and glared at him, yanking open the door before leaving the apartment.

"Well, I actually get to learn things at school. Unlike you." I stuck my tongue out and made a pitiful attempt to fix my hair. Pressing the elevator button, he rolled his eyes.

"If you really want to learn something, let me teach you something." He bent his knees a bit so that we could talk to each other face to face. "My name is Tyler and not Chunji." I opened my mouth to refute and he clasped his hand over my mouth. "And for the last time, I don't look anything like that girl."

"No, you look exactly like Chunji. And he's a boy." I pointed out, slightly irritated at my brother's stereotypes with anybody being pretty had to be a girl, claiming there were no such things as a pretty boy.

"Yeah, keep thinking that way." He responded as the elevator door opened with a tiny 'ding'. We stepped into the elevator and I moved to the back, glaring at him and making faces at him. Whoever the security guard was today, he was up for a show.

The elevator stopped at the fourth floor and a girl boarded, noticing my facial expressions. As the elevator traveled to the lobby, the air in the elevator grew thicker and became more suffocating as the girl attempted to contain her laughter. The elevator door opened and my brother (I'm still going to call him 'Chunji') grabbed my backpack and proceeded in pulling me along.

"What are you doing?" I struggled to escape his grip as he continued to pull me along.

"Don't think I didn't notice you making faces behind my back. You're so predictable and oblivious." He replied coolly, dragging me to the bus stop. "By the way, didn't you say we were going to be late?" 

"Hmm, sure." I rolled my eyes and turned to look at the girl who took the same elevator I took. "Who was that by the way?"

"Who?" Chunji asked, humming a bit as he moved ahead.

"The girl. You know the one that rode the elevator with us. Is your memory span that short?" I insulted, jabbing his arm with my finger.

"It's Ava. You know the Chans that live on the fourth floor?" I nodded and he continued. "Yeah, she's their daughter. And yet, you think that I'm the one with short term memory." We arrived at the bus stop and stood there, waiting patiently for the bus.

"I can't believe that's Ava though. Didn't she have her hair cut short? Like really short? And didn't she have a bit of acne and a bigger face?" Chunji rolled his eyes and made eye contact with me. Feeling my forehead, his eyebrows furrowed together.

"Sera, can you remember me?" Gagging at his sickeningly sweet voice, I swatted his hand away and glared at him.

"I'm not sick. Jerk."

"Well, then I concur that you've gone crazy. I've always known you were crazy. Mom and dad just wouldn't believe me." He huffed, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Ava's always had clear skin and long hair. Honestly, I think you should stop trying to remember everything about Koreans because you're starting to forget the people who actually know you exist." The bus halted in front of us as I cocked my head to the side, deep in thought.

Really? Is she really the same Ava?

At School...

I allowed my head to rest on the palm of my head as I watched my Physics teacher scroll through her presentation, boring nearly half the class into sleep. The door to the classroom suddenly flew open as Hailey came in with a cup of coffee, sheepishly sliding into the seat in the back.

"Hailey, thank you for that wonderful disruption." My physics teacher said with menacing tone. Hailey muttered an apology and waited for her to turn back to the presentation before she let her head rest on the table.

"I can see that you guys are enjoying my presentations a lot. Especially after I stayed up half the night to complete this." She hit the dry erase board with her ruler and glared at us.

"It's not like we don't stay up for half a night trying to do your impossible homework!" A boy named Jim blurted out. She narrowed her eyes at him and scowled.

"Instead of homework, why don't each of you make a presentation? And each of you will present it." She pulled her notebook out and flipped a few pages.

"Oh, come on! Physics is so hard! Can't we work with a partner?" Another kid piped up as she tapped her chin in thought.

"Fine." The class broke down into cheers and she quickly silenced them. "I will be choosing your partners. For now, you guys still have homework tonight." The class was silenced and sounds of people groaning were audible. Looking towards the back of the classroom, I caught sight of Ava.

"What's she doing here?" I muttered. As far as I had remembered, Ava was a year older than me. The same age as Chunji- I mean my brother. Was I really going crazy? Or was I just turning forgetful? Biting my lip and ruffling my hair, I buried my face in my hands.

Seven p.m. At Night...

"Finally I'm done with sorting out the partnerships." The teacher yawned and stretched, leaning back on the wooden chair. "I finally get to go home after helping and teaching all those incompetent kids." Biting back the urge to scoff at her comment, the figure shot the clock in the empty and dim classroom a look.

Having had been here for a mere ten minutes and they were already bored out of their wits. Why was the past so much slower than the future? The figure couldn't help but think that it was because school didn't matter in the future. In fact, it wasn't even available. Evidently, they had cut out some unimportant things that people in these days deemed to be essential and necessary. 

The sound of the door creaking shut brought the figure back to reality as the figure pulled the thin sheet off and headed to the desktop sitting in the corner of the classroom. With their nimble fingers moving across the keyboard, it could feel their heart beat rhythmically.

"Hmm... Victoria and Lillian. Jim and Ava." The figure murmured, scrolling through the saved document on Microsoft Word. "How about we change things up a bit?" The figure's mouth was pulled into a smirk as they turned the computer off. Knowing that evidence of it being tampered with would show a tiny glass bottle glistened into the dark classroom. 

Pouring the transparent liquid all over the keyboard and computer, a puff of smoke was seen. The clear liquid evaporated in a flash as the evidence followed. Their fingerprints were identified and lifted from the computer and keyboard, leaving the figure to pick up the thin sheet of iguana skin (fake ones, since transporting iguanas into Korea in the years of 3000 wasn't possible). The figure immediately camouflaged with the classroom setting as it moved about.

The presence of a dark magic spell was unnerving for the figure. Upon all dark spells, the figure had yet to face such a powerful one. It seemed as if the person was desperate to stay safe from them or at least stay safe from something. If the figure hadn't known earlier, they would've mistaken the spell for the latter, but it knew. The person using the spell was trying to hide from them.

In fact, in the figure's knowledge, there wasn't just one person trying to hide under the dark spell. There were two. And very few people are capable of creating a dark spell. Let alone one that was powerful enough to conceal more than one of them. Not to mention, the spell had a very subtle feel to it. And if the figure didn't possess such observation skills, it might've just ignored the spell and moved passed it. Feeling the strangest urge to sleep, the figure hurried home and climbed into bed without changing.

When the figure opened its eyes, it was welcomed with a cozy and homely room. Unlike the owner of the room. Sitting by the desk, the figure could see him. A cold and distant look drawn across his face, his fingers planning with a picture. When he had finally noticed the figure's presence, he looked up from the picture, his eyes sparkling a bit. The figure knew well enough, that it was hope.

"If I'm not mistaken, it's been located." He leaned back against the chair to play it off cool as the figure managed to stay composed in his presence.

"Yes. I've arranged things to go your way."

"How long do you think it'll take?" The figure hesitated to answer, understanding that he knew how long it'll take. The only reason why he had bothered to ask was to make sure they knew of his deadline. 

"No longer than two weeks. We don't want any suspicion to arouse. Speaking of which, delays us by a full week as we have to lay low." He was silent as the figure spoke and the figure knew that it was longer than he would've liked it to be. 

"No longer than two weeks?" He faced the figure, making direct eye contact. "Make sure it's not longer than two weeks. I'm sure you know of my plans in America." The figure nodded as he sighed.

"It's about time for you to wake up, don't you think? I don't think you'd want to waste any more time talking about plans instead of doing the plans." He shot a look at the wooden clock by the window. "It's already seven in the morning. You don't want to be late, do you?"

"I'll be going then. Have a good night." The figure managed to say before its eyes snapped open. Sitting up on the bed, the figure looked out the window to see the city bustling with people, mustard yellow cabs, and bicycles. The presence of the dark spell came back to the figure as the figure bit its lip trying to figure it out. Most spells wavered, but this one didn't. It had a strange aura to it, not to say that it wasn't good. Rather, it was interesting.

"I can see why he wants her so much."

And with that, the figure left the bedroom and closed the door knowingly.

The plan had to be a success.

A/N: It's been a while since I last updated. I'm so sorry. >.< I have yet to update Arranged Marrige To... However, I'm so distracted by this story! It seems as if this story is getting more love than my other story, The Sound of the Fallen Leaves. Why is that? Boring plot, perhaps? Anyhow, a new character has been introduced. It's known as 'The Figure'. In the future, I'd probably call it Figure instead of 'The Figure'. xD. Please take this poll below!