He let go of my hand quickly and looked away, trying to avoid making eye contact. My heart started beating so fast. It's the boy I've been thinking about nonstop ever since that party, and now he's right here in front of me, just a step away, and I have no idea what to do.

"Sh-Shinwoo?" I stammered.

"That's right," he said.

"What're you doing here?"

"I expected a 'thank you,' for saving your life, but whatever. I was just passing by when I saw you go into that alley and saw another person, and a rather dangerous looking one, go in after you. I also noticed that he's been following you for a while."

"Why would he be following me?"

He looked away, not answering.

"Do you know something?" I tried again.

"Let's get you home," he said, changing the subject.

"I'm not going home until you tell me what's going on. I have a feeling that you know."

"Are you always this stubborn?"

"Stop changing the subject. The fact that you're doing so proves that you know who that guy was and why he was following me."

"So what if I did? I can't exactly tell you anything."

"And why is that?!" I almost yelled, frustration showing in my voice.

He didn't answer. Instead, he grabbed my hand again and started pulling me in the direction of my house.

"Stop. Let me go. I won't walk another step if you don't tell me what the hell is going on right now."

He sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you once I get you home. This is not something that should be discussed in public."

We walked until we reached my house and went in. I walked in the livingroom and he followed in behind me.

I sat on the couch and gestured to the one in front of me for him to sit. Suddenly I remembered the last time I spoke with Jonghyun, how I'd told him about Shinwoo, and how he told me that he'd be back for me. He sounded certain. And he was right, he is back, but not in the way I imagined.

"I'm not supposed to be telling you this. Not yet," he said, looking at me. "But it seems that you won't stop asking me about it until I told you. Personally, I think it's time for you to know, but you parents and brother--"

"My parents and brother?" I interrupted. "You know them? Do you also know where Jonghyun is? How? Who are you?"

"Okay. One question at a time. Your brother, Jonghyun, is with your parents right now. And yes, I know your family. And to answer the question about who I am, I thought it was made clear in class today, but I'll still remind you, my name is Shinwoo. You can either call me that or CNU."

"So Jonghyun is in Hawaii with my parents right now? But why? My parents are celebrating their wedding anniversary there and it was supposed to be just the two of them. And besides, why would he go so suddenly without telling me anything? Jonghyun wouldn't do that."

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. Your parents never reached Hawaii, your brother somehow found out about it and left immediately after he made sure you were asleep. He wanted to settle this without worrying you. He had hoped he would be back by morning. Unfortunately, he was captured along with your parents."

"Captured? What do you mean 'Captured'?!"

"This is the hard part," he muttered under his breath. To me he said, "Okay, what I am about to say right now is going to shock you, but I guarantee you that every word of it is true. I'm only going to ask of you one thing: listen to what I have to say, and don't ask any questions until I am finished. Okay?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay."

"Your parents descend from a great family of assassins. The role of the assassins is passed down from generation to generation. It is crucial to keep this matter a secret, otherwise... Let's say, things would get ugly. Very ugly. Every assassin is given a special sword before birth with their name etched on it in the assassins' secret code. There is a leader to the assassins, and before that leader dies, he assaigns a successor. His sword is to be given to that successor with the new leader's name etched on it, along with all the other previous leaders' names. In some cases, the successor is an unborn child. It depends on the leader's decision," he looked at me cautiously, waiting for a reaction of some sort, but I didn't show any. I gestured for him to go on.

"After that child is born, and after the family had decided their name, that name would be etched on the sword and gets put safely away until the time is right to give it to the new leader. Your family, as well as mine, were never very happy with the rules the leader of the assassins imposed on them and felt oppressed by him. That's when they decided that they would escape, along with my family, and try to live a normal life like all other humans. They tried as much as they could to keep you safe, to keep the secret of the assassins hidden in order for you to live a normal life. They made sure absolutely no one knew about their real identity, and that no one could track their new home. They tried as much as they could to keep you safe," he held up a finger as I opened my mouth to speak. "Before you ask, yes, Jonghyun knows about it. He was nine when your family escaped, and I was eight, and you were five. You were so cute, and you still are," he smiled, and I blushed. "Your parents didn't want you to remember, and chances you wouldn't because you were so young, but they erased your memory just in case. Both our families went their seperate ways, your family came to Korea, and mine went to Japan, so that it won't be easy to track us down if we were in two different countries. Not long ago, your dad called mine. Somehow, the other assassins have located you and were coming to hunt you down. Your parents told you that they were going to Hawaii for their wedding anniversary, but in reality, they wanted to stop the assassins before they get to you. Unfortunately, they were outnumbered by a team of highly trained assassins and were later captured by them. When your brother heard about it, he instantly went for their aid, which was a bad decision. He didn't stand a chance against them and was immediately captured along with your parents. Since your family and mine are close friends, my father told me to come to Korea and keep you safe until we've figured out a plan to rescue your parents."

"So, that day at the party..." I said, blushing furiously.

He smiled. "That was my first day here. I tracked you down and found out that you were at Yoona's party, so I came."

"Wait... so what you're saying is you weren't invited?"

"Nope," he said proudly. "I crashed the party. No one even noticed."

"What about your attitude towards me today at school?"

"Well, I decided that it would be safest if we stayed at minimum contact the first few days. There are spies around, you might not notice it or believe it, but it's true. Therefore, I can't risk anyone seeing you with me. At least for now. It's not safe for you."

"Okay, so let me get this straight. I descend from a great family of assassins, my family escaped the assassins to try live a normal life, we've been wanted and now my parents and Jonghyun are captured by some professional assassins. Now what do we do?"

"We train. I will have to train you on how to become an assassin. First we'll start with the basics, then we move on to more complex things, like discovering your power," he said.

"Power?"

"Yes. Every assassin has some supernatural power that would aid him or her in the job as an assassin. Your father can see the future, which is how he figured out that the assassins were coming for you. Your mother has the ability to camouflage. Your brother, Jonghyun, apparently trained on his own enough to figure out his own, since your family cut all ties with the assassins and didn't want to expose Jonghyun to the world of the assassins even though he already knew about them, and his power turned out to be telekinesis."

"What's yours?"

"I have the ability to freeze things and manipulate ice at my will."

That explains the cold breath, I thought, recalling how cold his breath was as he whispered in my ear that night at the party.

I looked at him as I tried to absorb all these information at once. There's this stranger who's telling me that I'm an assassin and that my family is captured, and I'm expected to believe him. But that's exactly the thing. I believed every single word of it and embraced the impossibility of it. It's strange, but it seems like I can feel it in my bones that he's telling the truth, despite how shocking it was.

"So now I train and try to figure out my power. Sounds easy enough," I said lightly.

"We'll see about that," he said. Then he smiled. "You know, I didn't expect that you'd take this so well. Other people, if put in your position, would probably freak out. I knew you were unique from the first time I laid eyes on you."

I blushed, looking at anything but him. Even though I wasn't looking at him, I can tell that he was looking at me, studying my face carefully.

Suddenly I remembered the dream that I had.

"I just remembered something. I had a dream right after I found out Jonghyun was gone that I was captured and tortured by some people. There was a crowd of people, among them were my parents and Jonghyun, and they looked as if they were being manipulated. They moved like robots and looked straight ahead without blinking. One of them came to me and tried to kill me with a sword. It was golden, with beautiful jewels embedded on the hilt," I said. "I think we need to hurry. I'm worried about my parents and Jonghyun. Will they be okay?"

His eyes widened as he in a breath.

"It may be already too late."