“Get up.”

Raelyn jumped from her slumber as a set of gii robes were thrown on her. Blinking a couple times in the bright light that now filled the room, she sat up.

“Why?”

“Because it’s five in the afternoon, and you have been sleeping all day.” Leo answered. “Get dressed, and come meet me out in the field.”

“Um… neh.”

After changing into the gii, Raelyn did as she was asked and met TaekWoon out on the field, expecting yet another day of humiliating herself in front of one of his classes. When she arrived, however, she found that only he inhabited the field, sending a wave of confusion over her.

“So… what exactly are we doing?” She asked, stepping off of the porch and onto the grass below her.

He was facing away from her, and as she approached him, he let out a sigh.

“If you want to keep playing it off that you are my assistant, you are going to have to actually know what my students are being taught.”

He turned around to face her, his face sharp and determined which made Raelyn twitch only slightly. As he approached her, it took all she could not to waver her gaze into his eyes, no matter how much she wanted to. She stood strong though, until he reached her.

“From here on out, you will practice every evening what we will be teaching my students the next day so you can act like you know what you’re doing.” He said. “And you will start by catching up on everything that we have done so far.”

Raelyn blinked a couple of times. “I don’t understand….”

“This weekend, you will practice and perfect every basic move that I have taught my classes up until this point, so you don’t make me look like an idiot once again.”

His words finally processed in her head, and she took a step back.

“Hold on now, you were the one who decided to lie and tell them that I am your assistant!” She defended. “You could have just told them that you took me under your wing and gave me a place to stay.”

“If word got out that I was letting people live in my doujen, my clients would find out, and I would lose business.”

“What, as if you and your family didn’t live here before?”

Her words caught him like a rusty nail. His eye twitched slightly, but he kept his stern glare.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You act like I don’t know how to go wandering in my spare time.” She explained. “I’m a woman. Call us snoopy, if you will. But when I see an open closet on the forbidden side of the doujen, I get curious.”

His anger began to flare. “You went in there…?”

“I found a bunch of woman and baby clothing, as well as a family portrait.” She said. “I immediately recognized the baby as you. Was the woman holding you your mother? What about the man standing next to her? Was that your father? Where are they now?”

Before she could even finish her sentence, he turned his back on her.

“My parents are dead.”

The words took Raelyn a back, sending a wave of guilt over her.

“I’m so sorry….”

“You are to have the basic steps learned and perfected by my next class.” He said as he began walking away.

She stared at him for a moment, but then pointed at him. “You’re leaving me here to do this all by myself? How am I supposed to learn all of the moves by myself?”

“You should have been paying attention in class.”

“But you kicked me out of the room!”

“Not soon enough for you not to see the lesson I was teaching.”

“But-”

“I’ll be back in the morning to check on your progress.”

The next second, he disappeared down the trail, leaving Raelyn in silence. After a moment, she huffed.

“TaekWoon pabo…. Jung TaekWoon pabo….”

She stanced herself in the grass and began practicing.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

His breathing was heavy, yet faint as if he was losing it. The blood pulsed in his ears with his rising adrenaline, the hot sweat trickling down to his brow. He frantically paced his room like a caged animal, clawing at his hair and covering his ears. The room was spinning, yet miraculously he was able to keep his balance.

“Stop it… Stop it….”

He words were hoarse from the cold breath that rapidly passed through his air passage. He stumbled for just a second, falling into his dressed and a knob hitting his side hard. He fell to the ground and clutched his side in pain, his breathing picking up and his temperature rising.

“Control it… control it…. It isn’t real….”

All around him, he could hear wailing and screaming. No matter how hard he covered his ears and pounded on his head, they would not go away. He opened his eyes to stare down at the ground, which was spinning beneath him.

He rocked himself back and forth, his body trembling.

“GO AWAY!” With one swift movement, he knocked everything that had been residing on his dresser onto the ground and pulled himself off the floor. He looked up into the mirror that sat in front of him, seeing his sweat-soaked hair clinging to his damp face. His lip trembled, his shoulders heaving up and down as he tried to catch his breath. He stared at himself, but it was not his own reflection that he saw. Instead, he saw the reflection of a man who was much older than him, with sagging features and a permanent scowl on his face.

“Leave me alone…” He said. The reflection suddenly twisted into one of anger, and a booming voice screamed into his ears.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” Leo whirled around and grabbed his bed, flipping it over just as the door to his room cracked open.

“TaekWoon…?” Came HakYeon’s low voice. “Are you okay?”

Leo only stood in the middle of the room, hiding his face from the older so as to not be seen.

HakYeon gulped and dared to take another step further.

“TaekWoon, what’s wrong?”

“Is everything okay?” Ravi asked as he burst into the room.

“Everything is fine, WonSik. Go back to your room.”

Ravi stared at HakYeon for a moment, but then looked around the the chaos that was now Leo’s room. Looking up at Leo, he could see that he was not well, and that he was ready to snap at any moment.

“HakYeon come on.”

“I’m fine, WonSik.”

Ravi reached out to grab the elder’s hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

“I said everything is fine, Ravi! Leave me alone!” He slapped Ravi’s hand away.

The screaming made Leo double over and place his hands over his ears, beginning to tremble once more.

The fighting between HakYeon and Ravi attracted the attention of Hyuk, who appeared in the doorway just moment later.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“LEAVE ME ALONE!”

SangHyuk was shoved out of the way as Leo bolted out the door and down the hall. TaekWoon was making a beeline for the front door of the apartment, but he was suddenly cut off by running into a figure who blocked his path.

“Hyung?” JaeHwan asked, grasping onto the older’s forearms. “What’s wrong?”

TaekWoon tried to pull away, but the younger had a firm grasp on him. He looked up at JaeHwan, looking into the concerned eyes of the younger. JaeHwan stared down at him for a moment, but suddenly a lightbulb went off in his head. He was the only one who knew the whole story… the only one who knew anything about the truth.

JaeHwan’s expression softened into one of sympathy.

“TaekWoon….” He said, making Leo’s frantic expression drop. “Calm down. It’ll be okay.”

He looked up into JaeHwan’s eyes, his anxiety suddenly begin to melt away.

“It’ll be okay….” He repeated.

It was then that he took notice of the drunken slur in the younger’s voice, as well as the haze of alcohol in his eyes, and suddenly TaekWoon’s irrational anxiety came back. He shoved JaeHwan to the floor, snatched up his shoes, and bolted out the front door, leaving it wide open.

A silence passed through the apartment as everyone tried to figure out what just happened.

“What just happened?” Hyuk voiced. There was another pause as everyone contemplated this.

“He must be upset about HongBin….” HakYeon finally said.

The words filled the room with an uncomfort that made everyone’s muscles tense up. Although they tried their best not to look over at JaeHwan, they couldn’t help but glance, and JaeHwan knew this. After a moment, he stood up and walked back into his room, closing it with a small click!

They sat for a moment before HakYeon finally let out a sigh.

“Everyone, just get back to bed. It’s two in the morning. And we need to clean tomorrow.”

Without a word, HakYeon and Ravi went to their perspective rooms, leaving Hyuk alone in the hallway. He took a moment to look back at Leo’s room, which delivered almost a kick to his stomach, making him feel sick. After a moment, he closed the door and went back to his room.

Where is it… where is it….? TaekWoon rummaged through the stuff, his mind jumping to every possibility over where it could be. It was right on top…. He let out a soft whimper when he heard the screaming, one hand going to cover his ear.

Pushing the stuff around, he tried his hardest to figure out where it could have possibly gone. No, it wasn’t overly big, but it had been right there. He pushed through more stuff, gritting his teeth as the screaming started getting louder in his ears. He pulled stuff away, digger deeper to find what he was looking for. That damned woman! What was she going through this stuff for?! He threw some of the stuff out of the way, flinching when he heard the screams get louder.

Moving a bit of clothing out of the way, he finally caught sight of it. The little blue and white blanket with little strings coming off all of the edges. Snatching it up, he wrapped his arms around it with a large sigh of relief. He buried his face into it, breathing in the scent of it.

Slowly the screaming came to a halt, replaced instead by the sound of a woman’s voice. She was singing gently, her voice light but melodic. He breathed in slowly, bringing the blanket as close to him as he possibly could, feeling his muscles relax slightly. Standing up, he let out a sigh against the cloth of the little blanket. It wasn’t as soft as it used to be, and probably needed to be washed, but he didn’t care, just glad that it hadn’t been taken or something.

Turning so he could make his way out of the room, he was brought rudely back to reality when he heard a shrill cry, his arm suddenly twisted behind him as his feet were knocked out from under him. Falling to the ground, he landed with his face on the blanket, at least glad that he hadn’t hit the hardwood floors face first. Shaking off the initial shock, he let out a loud yell, trying to figure out what was even happening as he tried to push himself from the ground.

This action was followed by a swift kick to his head from a bare foot, a groan escaping him as the pain spread through his skull. “YAH!” He yelled after coming back to his senses, rolling away before getting another kick to the head. Sitting up and looking up to see a terrified look on the face of his attacker, it took him a second to even realize who it was. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” He screamed, one hand going to his head and pressing against where she had hit him.

Suddenly, the expression on the attacker’s face dropped, and she sniffled only slightly.

“TAEKWOON-SSI I AM SO SORRY!!”

“WHY DID YOU ATTACK ME?!”

“I THOUGHT YOU WERE A BURGLAR!” She defended, bowing deeply to him.

“Why would you think that?!”

“Because it’s four in the morning, and you never come up here this early, and this place is out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains! My actions are justified!”

“Are you crying?”

Raelyn blinked a couple of times, but then brought her hand up to her face and wiped away her tears. “No.” She sniffled. He stared at her in disbelief, but then she threw her hands down. “I was alone and I was hearing strange noises and I got scared, okay? What did you expect me to do?”

“I wasn’t expecting you to attack me for one.” Still staring at her in disbelief, TaekWoon blinked, still trying to gain all of his senses back from the blow to the head. Eventually he stood up, shaking his head slightly.

“I’m sorry.” Raelyn cried again, looking down with her head but still looking up at him with her eyes.

Holding the blanket under his arm, TaekWoon rubbed his head to try and rid himself of the throbbing. He moved closer to her before he reached out, patting her arm lightly. “It’s alright, I guess….” He murmured, understanding why she did attack him in a way. He watched as she looked up at him, surprise in her eyes. Taking a breath, his hand darted down to her forearm, grasping it tightly before he kicked her feet out from under her and flipped her onto her back, hearing the air leave her when she hit the ground.

Releasing her arm, he let out a small huff, shaking his head at her. “That’s the next move you can learn.” He told her before stepping over her, bringing the blanket closer as he started walking away, leaving her on the ground. “Oh, and stay out of this room.”

“Will do.” She huffed, trying to get to her feet and chase after him. Regaining her composure, she cleared . “So, what’s up with the blanket?”

“Don’t touch it.”

“But-”

“Don’t touch it.”

“I was just-”

“Don’t touch it.”