The bell rang, signalling the end of school, but nobody seemed ready to leave yet. Students milled around in the hallways, laughing and gossiping loudly with each other. A couple of boys were tossing a ball to each other as they ran past Ming and the boys.

Xiumin threw an arm around Ming as though they were old friends. The first time he did this, Ming almost flipped him, but a panicky warning look from Tao made her stop. It would take a while to get used to it, that's for sure.

"So, Ming, you've lived in a different country, right?" Xiumin said with a cute grin. "Where are you staying now?"

Chen shot him a look. "Xiumin, that's not exactly something you should ask a girl ..."

"Why? What did I say wrong?" Xiumin said defensively. "I was just asking a question, yeesh."

Ming opened to say she was staying at Tao's home, but Tao quickly elbowed her in the ribs. Due to his panicky state, he accidentally hit her a bit too hard. Most girls would cry out in pain, but Ming simply raised an eyebrow at him.

He shook his head wildly, emphasizing as much as he could for her to shut .

The boy she remembered as Luhan the Handsome School President appeared, girls giggling and blushing in his wake. "Hey, guys, sorry I'm late. I got held up a bit by the Student Council secretary." He turned to Tao. "What are you doing?"

Tao stopped shaking his head and blushed. "I, uh, was, um, hot. I was trying to see if my head would cool down."

"Did it work?"

"Uh ... no. That's why I was expirementing."

Ming rolled her eyes.

Then Xiumin invited her to watch them play basketball at the school court. They all laughed, even Tao, when she told them she didn't know what basketball was. She frowned. She was serious. 

Chen suddenly stopped walking and his cheeks turned pink. Ming followed his line of sight and saw he was staring at a cute girl with her long dark hair in braids, walking out of the building with her friends. She looked fragile, delicate, and sweet. 

"Who's that?" She asked.

Xiumin snickered. "That's Wei Meifong. Chen's had a crush on her since his first year at SM High."

"Hey, c'mon, don't talk about it," Chen complained, his cheeks turning an even darker shade of pink.

Ming squinted her eyes and peered closer. "Are those needles she's carrying?"

"She's in the sewing club," Chen whispered, looking like he wanted to go run and hide somewhere.

Ming looked even closer. "She looks like one good punch could snap her in half."

"I know," Chen sighed dreamily. "Isn't she perfect?"

Ming didn't really know what to say to that. SHE didn't consider fragility to be perfect. She turned to Tao. "Do guys usually like girls who are like that?"

Tao shrugged. "I guess ..."

She frowned a bit, thinking about it. She really couldn't see why. Maybe it was just a guy thing. 

The three bullies passed by them and glared at Tao, cracking their knuckles. Then their eyes slid over to Ming and widened in fear. They quickly hastened to get away.

"I do believe you've scared away Tao's tormentors," Luhan said with a laugh. "Good job, Ming xiaojie."

"Just 'Ming' is fine," she muttered with an embarrassed blush. Having honourifics used on her was making her feel itchy for some reason.

"Hey, you!" Someone called. Ming turned around to see a girl with a red headband in her hair waving frantically. "You, the new transfer student! Wu Mingxia, right?"

Ming nodded slowly. "Come here for a second!" 

She looked at the boys before slowly making her way towards them.

In the center of the group was a very pretty girl with long, perfectly straight hair and curvy legs. She smiled warmly at Ming. "Nice to meet you, Ming tongxue."

"Just call me Ming, please," she said, resisting the urge to scratch her tingly arm.

"My name is He Chunhua. You're in the second year, right? Oh, good! I'm in my third year, you can call me Chunhua jiejie!" She beamed at Ming as though it was a real treat. She linked her arm with Ming's and began walking her back to the boys. "Listen, if you ever need any help, don't hesitate to find your Chunhua jiejie, okay? I'll always be happy to help!"

She stopped in front of the boys and saw Luhan. She smiled and bowed, she and her friends turning rather giggly. "President, good afternoon!"

"Good afternoon," Luhan said with a polite bow.

Chunhua beamed and was about to say something else when she caught sight of Tao and faltered. Tao stared at her quizzically.

"U-um, maybe we should go now ... just remember to come for me if you have any problems, okay, Ming?" She shot one last fearful glance at Tao and scurried away with her friends.

"What in the heck was that all about?" Ming demanded.

"That's He Chunhua," Tao explained, looking a bit hurt that someone ran away from him again. "She's the most popular girl in the school and the Vice-President of the Student Council --"

"And she's hot," interjected Xiumin.

Tao frowned. "I don't think that's very relevant ..."

Xiumin shrugged. "Hey, I call it like I see it. But either way, what's with her being all super-friendly to Ming? She's probably exaggerating it because Luhan is here ..."

"Hey, are you guys going to just stand here talking?" Luhan laughed. "Come on, basketball court. A game. Now."

"I'm on Tao's team!" Xiumin yelled, racing Luhan down the halls, Chen following.

Tao sighed, looking depressed. "I wish people weren't so afraid of me."

Ming frowned but didn't quite know what to say to him. "Well ... um ... maybe --"

At that moment, her phone rang. She grabbed it and flipped it open. "Hello?"

Instantly, her face lit up in a huge, glowing smile that actually made her look positively pretty. "KRIS GEGE!"

Tao turned to stare at her, shocked.

Ming was so excited her cheeks were flushing pink and her eyes were shining like stars. "Kris, where the heck have you been? Did Boss tell you what was going on? How's Lay doing? Did you hear about what happened to me? Did you?"

Tao could faintly hear a male's voice on the other line chuckle and say, "I heard, all right. Boss has been raging about it all day long. You reall messed up this time, didn't you, Ming?"

Tao expected her to get angry and start swearing as usual. Instead she pouted slightly -- yes, POUTED -- and said, "Okay, so I KINDA screwed it up ... but it's okay! Boss gave me a new mission!"

"Finding Liu Fang's kid, I heard. Back here, we're trying to figure out where Liu Fang is hiding. He's thinking of sending me and Lay to be in charge of the project."

"What? Without me?" And then she started looking like a lost puppy. Tao nearly fainted.

"Of course not! Besides, if you succeed in this mission, we might not even need to go, he might give himself up. Are you doing okay in high school? No one's bothering you, right?"

"Of course not!" Ming declared. "I wish you and Lay were here, it would be so fun!"

"Maybe we'll pay you a visit when we have time. I miss you tons already."

"Yeah, I've been missing you guys like crazy too! Hey, has Lay --" 

Tao heard enough. He had a strange emotion trickling through his body. Ever since he first met her, she's been nothing short of a bully, being loud and rude and insufferably scary and ignorant. She pointed a gun at him, for heck's sakes! And now  she was smiling and laughing and POUTING on the phone with some other guy?

Tao didn't care if it was childish and silly -- he was IRRITATED.

Raising his voice, he called out loudly, "Ming, let's get going! They'll be waiting for us!"

He heard the guy say, "Who is that?"

"Nobody, nobody," Ming said impatiently. "So, what were you saying about --"

"MING!!! OUR FRIENDS WILL BE WAITING FOR US!!!!"

"I didn't know you made friends already, Ming. Good job! But, no ... wait ... is that a guy?" Tao felt strangely smug as he heard the suspicious tone in the guy's voice.

"Oh, that's Tao, he's part of my mission --"

"A civilian high schooler is part of your MISSION?"

"Yeah, nothing important --"

Tao leaned closer to the cell phone and shouted, "MING, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO SLEEP? SINCE YOU'RE STAYING AT MY HOUSE, AFTER ALL!!!!"

Ming yanked the phone away from him and glared. "What is your PROBLEM, Tao?"

Tao grinned when he heard the increasingly suspicious tone from the guy on the other line. "Ming, you're staying at a stranger's house? A stranger who's a GUY? Do you have any idea how dangerous that -- ah, crap. Sorry, Ming, the Boss is calling everyone for a meeting. I'll call again later, okay?"

"Kris gege, wait a se --" Ming started to say, but he hung up.

She snapped the phone shut, shoved it back into her pocket, and Tao, fuming so much smoke was practically coming out of her ears. "YOU WANNA DIE THAT BADLY, TAO?"

"Who was that?" Tao asked curiously, still grinning. For once, Ming's loud and angry voice wasn't scaring him.

"THAT WAS MY BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD, KRIS GEGE!!! WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM, WASTING MY VALUABLE TALKING TIME WITH HIM? HE'S BUSY, HE CAN'T CALL ME WHENEVER HE WANTS!!! NOW I DON'T KNOW WHEN HE'LL CALL BACK!!! AND WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GO AND SAY ALL THAT IN FRONT OF HIM, ANYWAY??!!"

Tao shrugged and slipped away before she could punch the daylights out of him. "Whoops, I don't want to keep my friends waiting. We better go, Ming."

"DaaaAAAAAMN YOU TAO!!!" Ming ran after him, shaking her fist furiously.

Tao ran even quicker so he wouldn't get killed. He felt a strange surge of adrenaline pumping through his body. For the first time, he wasn't scared, or timid, or meek, or shy. He felt strong, powerful, wicked, and confident.

He laughed a bit as he felt the wind fly past his face. He didn't know why he suddenly felt so confident, all he knew was that he liked it a lot.

Even at that moment, he felt the feeling dying away. He held on to it desperately as he raced to the basketball court. He wanted to hold onto that feeling, to remind himself that somewhere deep inside of him, there was something much more powerful and strong than a shy little crybaby.