C H A P T E R  3 ~ THE NEW WUSHU SCHOOL 

"i really think that you should take wushu again. it's been four years since you've quit." your mom pleaded. you groaned, "but i think i'm too old." i replied. "there's a wushu school that teaches kids your age. please just go. there's a lot of girls from your school that go there." your mom added. you sighed, "fine. as long as tao isn't in my class."

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

"welcome back!" someone yelled from the door. your mom squealed and screamed in surprise. walking down the stairs you craned your neck to see who it was.

"tae-hee!" a woman squealed and ran to hug you. shocked you patted her back, "hi..." she parted the hug and looked at you, "wait-you forgot me?" she asked.

you raised an eyebrow and looked over at your mom. tao was talking to her with that smile of his.

ew.

"oh, tao's mom.." you replied. she laughed, "aye, you can call me mother too." she joked.

you giggled. yeah right.

tao grinned and walked towards you, "zhitao, tae-hee has really grown." his mom said. tao chuckled, "really." you looked away. what did that mean? was he over what happened earlier?

you smiled at him, "zhitao has grown too!" you replied. he blushed...again. his mom laughed, "oh boy he did." your mom walked over, "enough with the small talk. let's make it a bigger conversation and take it over to the dining room." she said and lead everyone into the dining room.

"oh, tao brought tae-hee a welcome home present. how cute is that!" your mom exclaimed.

your face reddened in embarrassment, and you sighed. he looked at you, and pushed the small box over to you. "open it." his eyes said. you raised an eyebrow at him, but opened the box anyways.

your eyes widened, and you gasped. it was the charm bracelet you have ever wanted since you were twelve.

you remembered looking in a cute boutique seeing this charm bracelet in the window. sparkling in the sunlight. you even told your mom about it, but it was very expensive. almost one hundred dollars just for a bracelet.

"ohmygosh! thank you!" you squealed and hugged tao. he immediately wrapped his arms around you holding you tightly. "ooh, look at them." both of the mom's snickered.

you pushed him off of you, "um, well, thanks." he nodded embarrassed of the long tight hug and looked away.

after the celebration with food and presents, your mom and you cleaned up the house. "i didn't think they would do that." your mom suddenly said. you shrugged, "surprise.." your mom looked at you, "tae-hee, do you think that tao might still like you?" she asked. you laughed, "yeah right. we're just close friends. nothing more than that." you replied. she clicked her tongue, "you better be nice to that boy. i see the way he looks at you." she smiled and walked upstairs.

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

the next day, you went out to get some food. steamed buns, ramen, maybe some ingrediants for fried rice...

as you walked down the market street next to the creepy dark alley, someone dragged you into it.

you tried screaming, but hands covered your mouth tightly, and other hands held onto your arms and legs. you struggled to get away, but they had gotten you good. as soon as you were in the middle of the alley, they all were shouting in cantonese. you could only understand mandarin and korean.

they dropped you roughly and your got wet with mud. "aish." you shouted.

as you turned to see them, they were crowding around a person, and were all in fighting positions.

you got up and dusted yourself. you noticed how out of shape you were after not taking wushu for the past four years. as soon as the two guys-who blocked your way of seeing the person-were knocked down, you gasped in shock. tao smirked at you and began to fling a yo-yo at the guys. how can he fight with a simple yo-yo? he kicked one guy in the stomach, and twirled the yo-yo in the air hitting a guy-really hard-in the skull.

he collasped and touched his head. he was bleeding? you cocked your head watching tao twirl and kick the 'gangster's' butts. you thought they were gangsters.

after the last four ran away, he walked over to you, "are you okay?" he asked breathing hard.

you stared at his yellow yo-yo that was dented already, "how did you defeat them with a yo-yo? when did you learn that?" you asked.

he chuckled, "it's all in wushu. if you continued you would've defeated them a looonnggg time ago." he said. you snarled at him, "i'm going to take it again soon so shut up!" he laughed, "cute and funny as always."

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

"this is the school?" you asked eyeing the building. it looked like some presitgious dance school building. your mom smiled, "go! you're going to be late for your first class!" she exclaimed.

you sighed and walked in the building by yourself. there were numerous trophies in the front and you looked around. it was so different from your old wushu school.

you entered the room your mom told you to go in and looked at the girls. there were two from your class over at the nunchucks, and then...ying!

she looked over at you and screamed running into your arms, "YAY! YOU'RE TAKING WUSHU AGAIN?" she asked jumping up and down. then she stopped, "wait-you're taking wushu again? ohmygosh, you can't! NO!" she said. girls looked over their shoulders at you, but then opened the door. "what's so wrong about taking wushu again? and why are there so many girls? what happened to all of the guys?" you asked.

you looked at the person who entered.

tao?

"welcome. now, everyone meet our new student, heo tae-hee. tae-hee, i'm your new master, master huang. or as you know me, tao." you felt like killing yourself, but instead you stared.

screaming mentally in your head.

HE'S MY WUSHU MASTER?!?!?!?!