I got up from my chair.

"Excuse me," I said. "I'll be right back."

I hurried after Shinwoo, trying to catch up with him. I pushed through people, mumbling sorry's as I passed them. At last I caught sight of him pulling open the door that leads to the soccer field. I followed him outside and caught his arm.

"Why did you follow me?" He said, turning around to face me.

"Why did you leave so suddenly?" I asked breathlessly.

"I just wanted to get some fresh air."

"What's up with you and Zelo?" I asked. "Do you know him from somewhere? Why do you hate him?"

"I never said I hated him," he said, looking away.

"You didn't have to, I can see it in your eyes. The way you look at him. As if you wanna kill him."

"I do wanna kill him."

"Why? What did he do to you?"

"It's a long story. You don't need to worry about it."

"I do, in fact, need to worry about it. You're acting very strange," I said. "You can trust me with anything, you know."

It's weird. It was only yesterday that he properly introduced himself, but it feels like I've known him forever. I feel connected to him somehow, and I don't know if it's good or bad.

He sighed. "Zelo is also an assassin. He is the son of a prestigious family that is on close ties with ours, and they also live in Japan. His family were one of the families that felt oppressed by the leader and escaped his rule. I was specifically instructed by my father to try not to kill Zelo if I ever happened to see him again, and I sure hoped I didn't," he said. "Zelo and I were good friends up until three years ago. At the age of fifteen, for the first time, I fell in love with this girl. I finally mustered up the courage to confess my feelings to her and ask her out, and she said yes. You don't know how happy I was, even though I knew she didn't like me as much as I did, I was fine with it. Then Zelo came along, charmed her, and the next thing I knew, she was his. He took her away from me. It destroyed me. It took me a year and a half to get over it, and I still feel the pain everytime I remember it, that's why I prefer not to. I can't help but hold a grudge over what he did to me, but that's not the only reason I treated him like that. Assassins are experts, he knew I came here, he knew I go to school with you now. He came here for one reason: to repeat what he did to me three years ago."

I didn't know what to say, I can't even believe what he just told me. Zelo seemed really nice, though. I don't know what to feel. But I know Shinwoo wouldn't lie. The sadness and despair are written all over his face.

"I-I'm sorry," I said, feeling guilty. "I shouldn't have asked."

He smiled. "Don't worry about it."

"But I don't understand. What do you mean he's going to repeat what he did three years ago?"

He looked away. "Like I said, don't worry about it," he said. "Let's get you back inside, you're shivering."

By the time we went back in, lunch was over and the hallways were empty.

"Crap! Class already started! I never skip classes," I exclaimed.

"Oh well, too late now. We don't wanna go in right now and get dirty looks from the teachers," he said. All of a sudden, his eyes lighted up and a mischivious grin creeped up on his lips. "Wanna ditch?"

"What?! Of course not! Let's hurry, we don't wanna be any more late."

He grabbed my arm. "Pretty pleaaaaase," his puppy eyes look got me.

"Fine," I said sulkily.

He guided me out of the front entrance of the school and into his car, smiling the whole time. I couldn't help smiling too even though I was supposed to be mad about what he's making me do.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"It's a surprise," he said mysteriously.

We drove in silence. I kept glancing at Shinwoo from the corner of my eye, and I always saw that hint of a smile playing at his lips. I'm starting to get impatient, and the way Shinwoo was acting, all mysterious, wasn't helping at all.

Finally Shinwoo parked and got out the car, and I followed suit. We walked side by side for a while. I kept asking where we're going, but he wouldn't even give me a hint. We hiked up several hills and followed a trail and went through several tunnels, none of which I knew existed here, considering that I've lived in this city my entire life.

Finally, after going through the last tunnel, we emerged into a vast space. The first thing I saw was bright sunlight, then my eyes adjusted to the brightness...

 

And I gasped.

We were in a garden of some sorts. Flowers and trees elegantly decorated the space, and grass softly rustled beneath our feet. It looked as if it were a picture taken out of a fairytale book, not an actual place; I never even knew such a place existed in real life. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

"What is this?" I breathed, awed by the beauty of the place. Birds flew around, softly singing their melodies.

"I was looking around the area yesterday and found this. I thought this would be a great place to train in since there's no one around," he said.

"How can no one know about this amazing place? This could be a place for tourists, we can tell people about it and it could become something big."

"Or," he said. "It could be something just for us. Our secret hideaway."

"W-What?" I stammered. "What do you mean?"

"I was thinking of making this our training ground. I will train you here."

"I don't feel like it's fair to keep this from everyone else," I said.

"Well, I'm sure someone knows about this. There's no way the flowers and trees and grass could be this healthy without someone taking care of them."

"Then this must be someone's property. This is considered trespassing. What if we get caught?" I said incredulously.

"I already had that investigated. Whoever's taking care of the place only comes once in a while, and I'll know when they come. So, simply we won't come when they do," he said. "Okay, now let's get to training."

We started off with basic martial arts, and, to put it bluntly, I failed miserably. I practiced kicks and punches and gradually improved, but apparently not enough to satisfy Shinwoo. It's gonna take me a lot of time, at least a year, to learn everything. What am I saying, it's not like we have all the time in the world. Our time is very limited. I have to work hard and do whatever I can for my family; it's my mission to save them, I thought.

Shinwoo let me practice on him, but he dodged my kicks and punches very effortlessly, which made me feel hopeless. He probably noticed that because I can tell he purposely let me land a punch on his chest. That hurt my hand.

"She's worse than I thought, this is gonna be hard," he mumbled to himself.

"I heard that!" I exclaimed, punching his shoulder playfully.

He laughed. "You have sharp ears," he said. "But with your skills, you won't be able to fight off not even one unskilled assassin like the one who attacked you in that alley yesterday."

I can't believe that was only yesterday. It felt like it was a million years ago; how did I get so close to Shinwoo in only a day?

"That was considered unskilled?!"

"Yes," he said.

"My god. That's just great," I said.

He laughed and moved on to teach me the proper fighting position. I didn't seem to get it right so he moved closer and placed his hands on my shoulders, righting their position, then he slid them to my waist, which really tickled me.

I released a small squeal followed by a giggle. He looked at me, confused.

"I'm really ticklish," I explained.

A mischevious smile found its way to his lips, and before I knew what was going on, he started tickling me. I erupted in a laughting fit as I tried to release myself from his grip. I finally did and started running as fast as I could, trying to get away. Shinwoo instantly started running after me. We kept running for a while until I started getting a bit tired, which slowed me down a bit. That gave Shinwoo the perfect opportunity to grab my waist, sending us both tumbling to the ground and rolling around, laughing. I remembered a similar situation with Jonghyun the night before he disappeared, with him tickling me trying to make me tell him about Shinwoo. I didn't know his name at the time, nor did I know that Jonghyun and Shinwoo actually knew each other.

We finally stopped rolling around in the grass. I opened my eyes and found Shinwoo on top of me. He made no effort to get up, and I was sure I was blushing like crazy. He supported his weight with his arms on either side of me as he looked at me through his glasses, his smile softening.

"You're beautiful, do you know that?" He said quietly, softly my cheek.

I was taken aback; I didn't expect that at all. I couldn't help blushing furiously. I lowered my eyes, as if that would hide my flaming cheeks.

"Thanks," I said awkwardly. I can tell he meant what he said, and it made me extremely happy.

He rolled off me smoothly, got up, and offered a hand. I took it gratefully.

"Let's take a break," he said.

We sat on the soft grass. "Did you find anything new about my family?" I asked.

"We are currently tracking them down. All we know is that they are kept in an isolated island, but they keep moving, which makes it harder for us to track down. We also know that they are currently alive, but we don't know their condition. We don't have enough skilled assassins to penetrate their tight security, but we'll keep close watch and eventually we'll come up with a plan by the time you're trained enough. It's gonna be just my parents, our assisstant, you, and I."

"What about Zelo? His family could help too."

His eyes darkened. "No. Let's not get Zelo or his family into this. I'm confident that we can do this on our own."

I didn't say anything else about it. I didn't want to make him any more upset. I still can't believe that the nice Zelo I met today actually stole Shinwoo's first love, but then again, I don't know Zelo enough to judge. To be honest, though, I'm glad he did. If he didn't, Shinwoo would probably still be with that girl now.

"We should probably go home now," Shinwoo said. "It's getting dark and a little bit chilly."

As soon as he said that, I noticed how cold I was in my thin clothes. "Yes, that's a good idea," I said. Shinwoo took off his jacket and placed it around my shoulders, warming me slightly.

We started walking back to the tunnel when we heard movement. Someone is here.

"Do you think it's the owner of this place?" I whispered.

Shinwoo placed a finger on his lips and shook his head. We listened quietly until we couldn't hear anything anymore. Shinwoo grabbed my hand and fast-walked toward the tunnel, cursing under his breath.

"That bastard. I didn't know he'd go that far," he mumbled quietly to himself as we walked through the tunnel.

"Who?" I whispered.

"Don't worry about it," he said.

I didn't press. As soon as we got into the car, Shinwoo drove off, impatient to get away. We drove silently to my house.

We finally got there and Shinwoo walked me to my front door.

"Are you okay?" I asked softly, concerned.

He smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. No need to worry," he said, putting his arms around me.

He waited for me to lock my door before leaving.

What just happened?