CHAPTER 1: FIRST ENCOUNTER

            Yoori never imagined herself getting involved with those types of people. She has her own rules on who she should hang around and so did her family. Growing up with an overly protective family, she knew well what was right to do and what was wrong. It was something she always thought she’d never get herself into. Her parents and older brother have always told her to know which crowd to hand around. To not hang out with those that can influence you negatively. Don’t bother with people who can potentially hurt you physically and emotionally. She always believed that she knew a good or bad person when she sees one. Ironically, there really is no way to perfectly tell who is good or bad.

            The 20-year-old girl has lived in Korea since she had graduated high school at age 18. Born in America, she lived there all her life and graduated high school there. She then moved to Korea by herself to attend university there. Allowing a young girl move to another country alone is a risky move but Yoori pleaded her family so much and assured them that she’d be fine on her own. Living on her own made her feel independent and she could do everything by herself. She gets to experience total responsibility in Korea. Her family is back in the States but she often gives them phone calls. For someone who’s living alone in this country, she’s doing well. She works as an English tutor for high school students after their school hours. Aside from that, she also worked hard to own her very own art studio just for the fun of it. Art meant everything to her and to own her very own studio and teach others, it just feels amazing. Her dream is to become successful in computer science.

            Everyone around envies her intelligence when it comes to studying and doing well in education. Among her classmates, everyone comes looking for her whenever they need assistance with one of their lessons. Back in high school, she had graduated as valedictorian and was offered numerous scholarships from multiple universities. She’s always had a passion for technology and she was just so incredibly interested in computer science that it must become her occupation. Yoori is a bright, friendly, artistic, she’s just someone others look up to. Being an English tutor and teaching others art, each and every one of her students were very fond of her and respected her. Yoori just had such a bright and amazing path ahead of her.

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“Wow, Yoori noona, that looks so awesome!” Sanha was in awe as he watched her continue to paint a portrait.

“Thanks, kiddo.”

“Noona! Stop calling me that, will you? Geez, I’m 16 already, I’m not a kid anymore.” He whined to her. He doesn’t really have a passion in art but being a student that she tutors for English, he was convinced by her to try out art just for fun. So ever since, he and his friends would come to the studio just to mess around and have fun with art. Most of her students came for that same reason. They would come to support their favorite English tutor and would come to have fun. Seeing them come made her happy, it’s the very reason she wanted this art studio. She just wanted to let others have fun with art without forcing them to possess marvelous skills.

“Sure, whatever you say.” She said with a chuckle. Sanha tilted his head, staring at the painting as he bent down to be able to see it better. Although he’s much younger than her, he was incredibly tall and he had to bend over a bit to have a better view of what she’s doing.

“What are you painting? I’ve been trying to figure out who you’re painting but I just don’t recognize it.” She was painting a portrait of a boy with only black and white paints. He could tell she was purposely making the portrait and the brush messy. He’s always impressed by her skills.

“To be honest, I don’t know. I just happened to go with the flow and create some random portrait of an imaginary person. And it just so happens to turn out better than I thought.”

“Wow. That’s just so cool.”

“Thank you. Hey, Sanha. It’s 10 o’ clock, shouldn’t you get going already? Your curfew is at 10:30 and you’re not even heading home yet.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I just wanted to stick around a bit longer. I guess I’ll be heading home then.”

“Bye, Sanha!” She waved at him and received a wave from him in return. He suddenly paused and his heels back over to her before he left the studio.

“Noona, I almost forgot, I accidentally put your textbook in my backpack the other day. Seriously, you shouldn’t leave them all around this place, I keep thinking they were my own.”

“Yeah, I should fix my habits. Thanks for bringing it back, you can set it on that stool next to me.” He headed for the door once he placed the book on the stool.

“Have a good night, noona!”

“Goodnight!”

            Sanha was the last student left at the studio for today. Now, Yoori’s the only one left in the studio. She usually likes staying behind after everyone leaves so that she could work on her paintings even more. Staying out late isn’t too smart but Yoori’s apartment is only one block from the studio so she should be fine. She finished her painting up with a few more brush and then stared at it for a while, feeling satisfied with the result of it. Her head quickly turned and focused onto her door when she heard it suddenly open. No one should be here at this time though. A bloodied man dressed in all black limped his way into the studio. She didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know who this man was and what he was going to do here. He approached to where she was and she froze.

“You never saw me here. Act naturally and continue what you’re doing. If a guy comes in here, asking for me, tell him you never saw-“ The door swung open and the man’s eyes widened. A boy, also dressed in black entered her studio with a gun. Yoori was speechless, unable to think. She saw the boy’s lips form into a smirk. She gulped, afraid of what could happen to her.

“I found you.” She heard him say to the man. The boy snickered as he inched closer to the man and Yoori. He began to whistle a tune [A/N: The song he's whistling to is Begin, like how it's whistled in the teaser] as he kept his gun pointed up at the man. A chill was sent down her spine as she listened to his whistled song. The tune was whistled slowly and creepily as he inched towards the man.

“P-Please spare me!” The man begged.

“Aw, but no can do.” The boy once again sneered at him.

            Out of panic and fear, the man used his arm to get a hold of Yoori and he held his knife up to her neck. Her eyes widened and she was freaking out. “She’s an innocent girl, having nothing to do with this. Are you really going to get her killed? If you try to kill me, I’ll kill her!” The man threatened the boy standing before him who still had his gun pointed straight at the man.

“That’s too bad if she dies, you’re right, she has nothing to do with this. But I really don’t care if she dies or not.” He smirked at the man and pulled the trigger at him. Out of panic, she closed her eyes shut, afraid of what could possibly happen. What if today is the day she’ll die? The bullet zipped through the air and shot the man in the head. His blood splattered onto the portrait that she painted. The grip that the man had on her loosened and he fell back wards onto the fl