Tao followed her to her locker, "So, I take it that you are in the art department."  She raised an eyebrow at him, "How did you know?"  The boy smiled smugly, "What am I going to get if I tell you?"  She tapped her finger on her chin, "Umm, not a black eye."  Yi held up her first and Tao laughed.  "Alright, I'll tell you, but only because that was cute." He said and she rolled her eyes.  "Well you said you were friends with Lay.  Well Lay has already graduated and is just helping in his mom's class."  "Really?" she was kind of surprised.  Tao nodded, "Yeah, his mom has a heart condition, and he has to be there just incase something happens."  Yi made an O shape with .  She pulled her math stuff out of her locker and started towards the classroom.  A hand s around her wrist and suddenly she was heading into another hall.  "My locker first." Tao said and stopped.  He opened his locker and got his stuff, all without letting go of Yi's wrist.  The girl could feel the death glares on her and wondered if she could play them to her advantage later on.  Tao didn't let go of her wrist until they were properly seated next to each other in the classroom.  

The bell and the class quieted as Mr. Lou walked and glanced over the class until his eyes fell on Yi Lin.  "Mrs. Ju, it is nice to see you again.  I hope the school is treating you well."  The girl nodded and he smiled, "And I see that you have made friends with the top of the class.  That is a feat in it's own."  Yi smirked,"Wasn't that hard.  Actually Mr. Man was the one to approach me."  Mr. Lou raised an eye brow, "Hyun Zi Tao?  Interested in a girl?  What did you do?"  She shrugged and ignored the glares from the other girls in the class.  Mr. Lou eyed the boy in question for a second before starting the lesson.  Yi half paid attention because she already knew what he was teaching.  "Yi Lin.  Do you know the answer to the question on the board."  Mr. Lou had caught her off guard and she glanced up at the board.  "Uh, that would be 23.  Right?"  She said slightly unsure.  Mr. Lou glanced at the problem then back at her.  "How?  I made a really hard problem because you weren't paying any attention and you answer it in a couple of seconds!  What kind of sorcery is this."  He threw his hands up in the hair and Yi chuckled, "Sorry my brother is kind of a closet genius."  She turned to Tao and giggled at his surprised face.  The rest of the class period went by and afterward Yi quickly packed up her stuff and ran out the door.  

Yi had scarcely gotten to her locker when Tao showed up.  "You didn't tell me that you were harboring a large intellect."  He said while leaning against the locker next to her.  She turned to him, "I didn't know that you needed to know."  She closed her locker and walked towards her next class.  Tao followed, "I didn't mean it like that.  It's just that all the girls here aren't particularly that smart."  She stopped and glared at him, "And where I am from if you aren't smart you are useless and useless people are just extra baggage that we don't need.  I can't afford to be stupid."  Tao eyed her, "Where exactly are you from?"  Yi shook her head, "I never knew my real dad, and Dae, my step-brother, his mother died when he was little and was just left with his dad.  Our parents got married and they died when I was about 6 and Dae and I have been on our own since then."  He bit his lip then hugged her.  Yi felt bad, she wasn't totally lying, but she wasn't totally telling the truth either.  The bit about not knowing her dad and her mother dying when she was 6 was truth, but Dae still had both of his parents and they raised up the two of them.  They may have raised them up to walk in their own footstep as some of the best assassins in the world, but they still raised them.  Yi shifted uncomfortably in Tao's grip and he loosened up.  "I'm sorry."  She shook her head, "It's alright.  I already dealt with those demons a long time ago."  He released her and she quickly made her way to class.

After school Yi made her way back to the bus stop.  She groaned, "I have never had to work this hard for a job."  Suddenly a hand was on her shoulder and she jumped.  She turned to find Lay standing there with a goofy smile, "You should come hang out with us."  She turned and eyed the group of guys that she had eaten lunch with and raised an eye brow.  "Uh, sure."  They lead her down the street and chatted along the way.  When they had gotten about half way down the block a voice called for them to wait.  Nobody paid much attention, but soon Tao was among the group.  He gave a questioning look to Yi, but she dismissed it and kept talking to Lay about ideas for the painting.  They group went to a large building and the sign said Exo.  Yi glanced around the building, "So what exactly is this?"  Sehun smirked, "It's officially a practice place for Wushu, but it's more like our hang out."  They walked down a hallway and into a large room where there was a group of six guys there already.  Yi walked in uncomfortably, and glanced at each of them until her eyes landed on a tall boy with blonde hair.  "Hey, you're the guy from the other day."  She said and he turned and looked at her.  "You're the girl that made fun of me the other day!"  Three of the other boys laughed, "He has been fuming about that since it happened" One of them said.  She giggled a bit and everyone gave them questioning looks until the tall red ish haired boy started, "Kris tried to hit on her the other day and she was very straight forward that she was not interested."  Yi stood there awkwardly next to Lay before poking him, "So who are all of these people?"  "Well the one over there with the big cheeks is Xuimin, but we all call him Baozi.  The guy that hit on you is Kris, and the one that just told the story is Chanyeol.  The one over there is Suho, and the kid sitting next to him is Baekhyun.  Then the one that Sehun is is practically a tumor on is Luhan, but if Sehun could have any say in it then you would never get to talk to him."  Yi chuckled and waved, "Hi I'm Yi Lin.  It is nice to meet you all."  Most gave a slight wave, but none made any move to come talk to her.

Lay and Yi sat down and started talking once again about the painting and Yi bit her lip, "Do you think that a katana would do for me?"  "You have hundreds of possibilities, but you want to paint a katana, why?" He shook his head.  She glared at him, "Excuse me for like traditional methods of assassination better than modern day ones."  "Hey don't say that too loud or your have Tao's parents in an uproar."  Xuimin called from across the room.  Yi raised an eye brow, "Why would his parents have anything to do with me having a preference on murder techniques."  Tao turned to her, "My dad is an investigator of them and right now is working on one called X.  From what my dad can tell X is a tight knit group of a few maniacs with a large following.  Granted nobody has ever seen of caught onto him or them, but my dad is sure that he is out there.  And, he caught a thread of a trail about a week ago."  Yi inwardly chuckled at how far off the guesses were and wondered if Investigator Hyun would keel over just finding out that this sweet little girl that was sitting here talking to his son was the infamous killer.  "This X guy sound like he's good."  She said and Tao shook his head, "My dad says he the worst kind that is out there because he never has a motive besides that they are big names."  Lay leaned towards Yi, "Are saying that they are good?"  Yi shook her head, "No I am saying it's natural.  It's like a game of cat and mouse.  The good chases the bad, and the bad runs in circles around the good, flaunting that it's there.  I think that they kind of are a vital part of our daily lives, because sometimes the bad have great cat costumes and are chasing around a good hearted mouse that can see what's inside of it.  So you never know who the good and the bad are.  Like what about that teacher that was killed four years ago and everybody thought it was the worst thing to ever happen.  Until they went through his home and found that he had a room full of ography.  And not just any children, his own students.  Lets say that the assassin that they executed last year who had the title Red was the one who killed him.  When Red was sentenced to death people cheered, but they also cheered for the person who killed the teacher to keep up the good work."  Tao shook his head, "You do not voice this opinion if you ever meet my family."  Yi sighed, "Whatever floats your boat."

After hanging out for a while it started to get dark and Yi stood up.  "Well boys, this was fun, but I should probably get going before my brother eats me for being so late."  Tao hopped up, "I'll walk with you.  Don't want you to get hurt."  Kris scoffed, "I think she can handle herself."  Yi laughed as she headed out the door.  Tao and her walked a little ways in the silence before he broke it, "You are one odd girl."  She smiled, "Normal is over rated."  Once again the silence surrounded them until they got to the end of Yi's block.  "Well thank you for walking me home.  I'll see you tomorrow."  She waved at him and then ran quickly into her building.

Tao stood and watched the apartments for a minute before turning on his heals towards his own house.  He had a little bit of a bounce in his step as he walked.  When he opened the door to his house, he was surprised to see that it was just his dad sitting in the living room.  Typically his mother was there too.  Tao's dad turned to him and sighed, "Your mother's in the hospital."  The boy froze, "What do you mean?"  His dad stood, "She fell today while at work and broke her leg.  Luckily it's nothing major, but we'll go visit her tomorrow."  Tao nodded and went to his room and crawled in his bed, having a feeling that something big was about to happen.