"Ariel...Ariel. Ariel!" 

"Wang Chiang!" The girl hissed, burning him with deadly stare of annoyance."Stop it."

He's been trying to feed her, her "favourite" rice cookies, but all his efforts were in vain - the girl seemed to become more and more irritated instead of feeling loved.

"But Ariel, don't you...dont you like them?'' He flustered his doe eyes. ''I know you said you do the other day, so that's why I ordered them straight away from one of the boulangeries in Province." He cooed, giving her one of his warmest smiles he could ever muster — free from excessive pretence he was taught of since he was little.

She was being the second lady that owned his heart, and those affectionate smiles were reserved exclusively for them. 

But Soon Deok wasn't of aware of such a high privillige bestowed upon her, that was why she allowed herself to snap at the boy ever so harshly, ignoring his sad puppy eyes and sniffling sounds altogether. "I never did so! Your ears must be clogged all the time I am telling you to stop following me around! Can't you understand, I am not interested in your pathetic self and most surely not in your stupid cookies, so leave me alone!" 

"Ariel!"

Angrily, she stormed off the cafeteria leaving behind her the boy with a hurting pang in his chest all alone, to pick up shattered pieces of his broken heart and an unusual witness of the scene, who was watching Wang Chiang pitifully the whole time.

_---_

That prominent year, the winter has taken a tight grip on the city and its habitants, marking her newly acquired territority with icy covers of snow and pulling blizzards all over the place rather so cheekily. It's has been one of the coolest winters so far and it did cause many strange accidents along its way, no one thought of.

However it didn't stop schools from continuing with their lawful duties of giving youths the foundation of universal knowledge and practically, the sea of headaches before the official holidays would kick in.

Many students at Moorim College, one of such schools that deeply "cared" for its diligent schoolers, complained about the harsh weather conditions preventing them from getting on time for their lessons, but teachers were stubborn as ever and still get off attendance points from time to time.

It was a very rough time for all, but another incident has automatically declared the war between corrupted teachers and poor children, who never thought the College could literally resemble the Arena from The Hunger Games trilogy. 

The incident had occurred when one of the dark side squad teammate's, to be precise — a gym teacher Daniel, had decided to show his true colours and torture his students by using illegal marital arts during lessons. Those who refused to cooperate were blackmailed afterwards. 

"I don't care if you were one of those guys who took Taek Won Do or Karate lessons, kids. These are not sports, its just messing around. " That said teacher looked over the clutter of innocent 'daisies' lining up at the back of the room. Then proceeded cornering them, giving each, creps all over their bodies with his sinister vibe and animal-like body movements.

"Did you to break little boards with fist and dream of becoming baddest man on earth?

Everyone swallowed hard, shaking their heads. He pretended not to hear their answer, continuing.

"Well consider your dreams shattered like so many bones.There are marital arts around the world designed to break the people not boards, and you've still got some learning to do, kids." He his lips in anticipation of a huge "NO!"

"NO!"

Then continued. "Its called MCMAP."

The students went rigid. Some knew that it was something deadly, others were just scared for dear life but no one said anything against, for this man was dangerous.

"Let's start with a brief showcase." He smirked. 

Apparently, his despise towards flower boy tendency was growing each day anew, as he, on different occasions, made them repeat the tasks and do the push ups twice as more, stating that they lack manly attitude and had thin arms, that prevented them from doing it correctly.

At the end of scrutinising auditions, fortunately for girls, the boring looking fella was picked up like a cocktail stick,and thrown into the bin of his not-so-lovely destiny. 

"Chiang," the coach sing songed, trailing his eyes over the boy's slender figure.

Wang Chiang wasn't scared, not a single bit. However something in his stomach told him that he should have been.

"Yes, sir.''

''Stand front.''

The boy proceeded to do what was asked and found himself more and more entranced by the eery aura oozing from his coach. Nonetheless, he put on his usual expressioneless face and stared directly into his predator's eyes.

''I dare you to use your weapon wisely, boy.''

He went closer and bent down a bit to Wang Chiang's face, whispering so no one could hear. ''You stand no chance to me, you little punk. Get on with you act. By the end of this lesson, you will be broken.'' A creepy smile appeared on his face. ''And I do tend to keep my promises.''

Even if he was feeling strangely vulnerable right now, Wang Chiang kept going. He never once turned down an offer to show off his non-existent combat skills, probably because he never once was asked to. ''Omma''.

His mind was blank and the images of his family flashed in front of him. What could he do in this situation? ''Stay strong, son!'' A voice of his mother enveloped him in deep embrace and he courageously picked up the wooden stick on the table near by.

The coach laughed and blew the whistle. ''Prepare.''

As he was contemplating how to smack this bulky man in front of him, the latter already launched himself onto him and grabbed the stick, pinning him to the cold floor with it.

''Ah...'' he screamed. His chest started to hurt as the coach was pressing the stick on it, trying to break his limbs, as he was dangerously hinting at the idea earlier.

Deciding to break through a tight hold, Wang Chiang used the fact that their legs weren't tangled to his advantage, and briskly kicked the coach with both legs to the front of his hips, forcing a load cry from him. In a second, the coach got up and sent him a silent threat 'to not let him go that easily' and tried to jump on the boy again, however Wang Chiang already leaped on the former and they started wrestling fiercely.

The crowd of students were helpless, glued to the spot, not daring to make a move.

While the coach grabbed Wang Chiang's dark hair, before the latter jabbed him in the stomach. ''Stop being such a fussy boy. You not gonna win this round.'' The coach decided that he's had enough, raised his fist and swung it through the air, hoping it'd sent the boy to the ground, but his fist met nothing.   Maybe because it was Wang Chiang's lucky day or just because he was a sweetheart, nobody knew but in another minute he thought his beautiful face was going to be marred, a pair of delicate but strong hands yanked him backwards and he landed on to the girl's chest. She rolled him over onto the stomach and swiftly put him beside her, covering his whole body with hers, protectively.   ''Coach-nim, can I take his place?'' She asked boldly, tightening the grip on boy's shoulder.   There was a silence for a moment and then the coach burst into laughter. ''Of course, miss.''   Wasting no time, he sprinted off and twisted her around up there, bringing her down hard on her back. The shock of it all almost caused the girl to forget to fall correctly, but she did manage to slap the hard lower surface of the room and roll a bit with the fall. It was this that kept her from being knocked out.   Wang Chiang's heart started beating relently in his ribcage at the side of his protector being attacked so forcibly. He moved forward but he was pushed down again by some other girls, who carried him back to the safety of the crowd. He wanted to protest, struggle and run to help her...but when hus eyes found her, he felt a new rush of warm energy circling in his upper body as he saw the way she manhandled the coach so professionally and..he was relieved.

First, she grabbed the coach's right hand with hers by the wrist. Then her left arm slid up to his elbow, securing the arm. Her attacker immediately tried to pull away, which straightened the arm she'd secured. Then as he struck her in the face with his left hand -- boy did it hurt -- she pushed off of his hips with her right foot and transitioned her left leg to the other side of the man's face.

Then using her core and hip strength, she pulled his arm to her while using both legs to in essence push his body away. The man's arm straightened dangerously. He yelled as he fell onto his back. She both heard and felt three distinct cracks as the man screamed. She rolled him on his back using her legs and crept a bit, altering his words just like he did at the beginnig of the lesson. ''I do tend to keep my promises.The round is over.I won.''

Innocently, she flickered her eyebrows.

''I think everyone can leave now, can't they, coach-nim?''

''Yes..''

''Right, the class dismissed.'' She nudged the coach one more time on his hurt arm and went away with others.

All this time, Wang Chiang couldn't take his eyes off of the raven haired nymph, who he was admiring from afar. 

He was so entranced by her act of bravery that unknowingly it left sweet traces of a deep longing, that for now he pushed away to the back of his mind. He only met her thirty minutes ago and she already became the centre of his Universe. Is that real?  But Wang Chiang wasn't a damsel in distress, nor was she his 'Prince Charming' so that didn't mean that after she rescued him from the dragon's claws, they were supposed to get married and live happily ever after with their babies, did it?

No.  It was too soon to feel anything but gratitude, he settled. But to express it he had to find about her name, which was tricky.

The whole school was all over him and he never cared to ask for the name of his lab partner save to even acknowledge her presence. But now, he desperately desired to follow that girl and confess his love   express that gratitude.

By the time she approached him, he was still in trance presumably, as he didn't hear her saying something about 'taking care of himself' and definitely didn't feel a light pat on his shoulder, alongside the eluminiscent smile that lit on her lips at the sight of his dazed face. Nope, he would have fainted on the spot.

From that day onwards, he indeed, couldn't get her off his mind, since he never got to thank her properly.

Yes, that incident wasn't left unattended as the principal fired the gym teacher straight away after he'd heard of the unexplicable behaviour the coach exemlplified and how he terrorised the students even before, but the latters didn't intend to let it slip and threatened to tell their parents so that the school gets closed and the whole month teachers felt what it was like to be in their students shoes.Though the amends were made, the atmosphere in school was still uneasy. But if that horrendous fight didn't take place one student in particular wouldn't have met his destiny, so for him he wouldn't have it any other way.

"Grumpy teachers could be tolerated when the object of your attention is all you could think of." He was sitting at his usual table in school's canteen, hands prompted on cheeks and gleamy eyes admiring his dream girl. 

 

 _–_

It started off with simple notes he left on her table such as "Hello, lovely! How's your day?"

and transferred into something more meaningful, "Smile more, I like it. Your smile is the best in the world." 

Being consumed with unbearable amount of tenderness and want to shower his love interest with any sorts of attention, he settled for less at first simply because he didn't want to scare her off by appearing in front of her like a mad man declaring his feelings out of blue. No. He'd rather wear his grannie's bed pantaloons in class, thank you very much. Thus, his intentions stayed pure and nothing could spoil his romantic mood. 

Until he realised he had no idea what classes she attended nor her locker and that keeping bombarding her table with notes was risky and attracted lots of unnecessary attention, especially from his fangirls. He never cringed at word until now. Another reason, why he needed to use his father's influence and sneak in to the headmaster's office as soon as possible. 

That he did. Once upon at night, since all naughty things are done at night time, right? So did Wang Chiang think. He discovered her portfolio very quickly - she was the only beauty he had his eyes on so...then scanned the document more and found out that she was a total opposite of him, having her birthday in December