Seryung lay in bed, and stared at the ceiling. She imagined she hallucinated the whole day. Had it really been Hana’s birthday? Had she really visited Everland? Did she actually mend her relationship with Sehun and Hana? How?

Her guard had been up against all of them, yet Tao had managed to wriggle his way through; lowering her defense and in the process bringing Sehun and Hana with him.

Seryung eventually crawled out from under the covers. She sighed a yawn before catching her unruly appearance in the mirror. Clumps of untamed hair and half open eyes made her smile. She opted to tranquilize her demeanor before setting foot outside the room.

-

Tao was awake too, actually he was the first one to wake up. He had already started training in the garden long before Sehun and Hana had decided to get started on homework. He envied them. He imagined homework was taking longer than it should have.

Tao had other things on his mind. Adrenaline whooshed through him as he practiced moves he was insistent on perfecting; each of the arm, each of the fist, each conveyance of the legs, and each bend of his joints were calculated with precision. His breathing was one with movement. His turbulent thoughts aimed to break laws of fluidity, and flow in a streamline, painfully trying to polish what would remain unrefined.

Social classes.

There were levels to everything. Some overlapped, and others were unreachable. An unbreakable chain of unwritten constitution. ‘High,’ ‘middle,’ ‘low’ were classed into prefixes ranging from ‘upper,’ ‘middle’ to ‘lower.’ Sliding above and below a class was to be expected, but anymore than that resulted in severe consequences.

Where did that leave him in a country so diligently based on the class-system that it willingly split from its ‘lesser half?’* He stood on two plains so far apart that there was a risk of falling. A commoner wearing the mask of a noble.

His benefactors were wealthy. He himself was nothing but a commoner. It would come as a joy for some to discover his biggest flaw was so laughable that he was trying to conceal it.

‘You’re a liar.’

Tao gasped and lost his balance. He tripped. His foot twisted to cushion his fall, saving his from the impact. Pain shot through his now-sandwiched foot. He raised his rear from the inflicted injury. He winced and quickly freed it using his hands. He held his foot while gritting his teeth at the pain that made it throb.

After cradling it in his hands he inspected it for damage subtly by pressing his thumb into his flesh and hissing each time an inflamed area was aggravated. He cursed under his breath and plucked himself from the ground. Gingerly, he attempted to shift weight onto his foot without much success. He lamented under his breath.

-

The breakfast table had been ambushed by an array of different sized books that lay with their pages open. At the table sat Sehun and Hana, both of whom were busy writing while consulting textbooks.

Homework was mandatory while the project sat in hiatus eyeing them watchfully. Very few words were exchanged during this process. However, silence was anything but golden as the housekeeping maids continued to work as soundlessly as the washing, drying, and putting away of dishes allowed.

Hana sighed and took a quick break to inspect Sehun’s serious expression. He continued to write mechanically, his mouth moved silently and would occasionally pause with his pen before resuming.

Hana placed her pen onto the table. Homework, and schoolwork in general, tired her. She wondered what gifted capacity Sehun was blessed with. He didn’t seem lethargic at all. His invariable frown-of-concentration never left its place. At least not until he opened his mouth to speak.

“You’re done?”

The frown melted when he looked up with confusion illuminating his eyes. He glanced from Hana to her copybook and gave her a knowing smile.

“My hand’s cramped up,” Hana excused herself from any further interrogation.

Sehun’s eyes flicked with amusement. He took her hand in is and inspected it. Hana braced herself for a sarcastic retort of some kind. She was tempted to pull her hand out of his reach before he could give her a meaningful look tabulated with satire.

She almost choked when he clasped it in his. Holding her breath she locked eyes with him. His lip curved upwards and his eyes danced with an emotion she hadn’t seen before.

Sehun watched her blush and break eye contact. He found it rather riveting whenever she flushed and avoided him as if she were trying to convince herself she wasn’t completely dazed by his small gestures of affection. It was almost like she didn’t expect them. He smiled and massaged her hand indulging the evident hues of pink to red shades that colored her cheeks.

Hana squirmed internally, and her heartbeat accelerated. Heat rushed to her cheeks, and her ears were also burning like a day spent in the sun without protection. She pressed her lips together. She half expected him to joke about it since he would be able to see through her obvious white lie, but if he had; he didn’t show it. She imagined him smiling at her while his eyes twinkled in mirth at her expense, and she silently cursed herself for being apparent. She heard him fumble with something before squirting a blob of hand cream into his hand.

Sehun massaged her palm. The unforeseen gesture caused her to stiffen. He stole a glimpse at her and smirked. She was trying so hard to look away. He could practically see her peeking from the corners of her eyes.

He would have clicked his tongue in humor but he refrained in case she mistakenly thought he was making fun of her. He wasn’t. He didn’t just offer anyone a free hand massage.

Sehun glided his hand in sweeping movements to enhance circulation before gently turning her hand around, and massaging her wrist bones in circular motions with his thumbs slowly making his way down the metacarpals in small thumb frictions then sliding back up. He also took the time to massage her fingers when he became embroiled in the task.

Hana relaxed her shoulders and whisked her head to take a look at him. She held back a giggle. His classic frown-of-concentration had rece again. She reached out and poked his forehead causing him to look at her with perplexity.

“You’ll get wrinkles,” Hana explained with a small grin.

“Thank you for worrying,” Sehun replied punctuating his sentence with a kiss on her cheek.

“I see study is going well,” a spectator remarked rolling her eyes. Seryung crossed her arms and tilted her head at them. She was met with two guilty faces both of whom immediately drew apart.

“What are you working on?” Seryung teased inching closer to them. “An essay?”

Hana nodded and searched for the ‘essay’ in question. She found a rough first-draft and furrowed her brows at the slow pacing she and Sehun were working at. Quickly she flipped the notebook shut and gave an uneasy smile.

Seryung pretended not to illustrate her humored disposition as Hana began to dictate the contents of their essay as if she and Sehun had been working the whole time, and not doing sickly-sweet-couple things. Despite the extreme sarcasm she had intended to embarrass them with she found herself actually engaging in the plot.

“How did you come up with something like that?”

Hana opened to speak, but Sehun squeezed her hand warningly. Hana closed , and blinked. Sehun’s sister was still patiently waiting for an answer. Her demeanor highlighted her awareness of their secrecy.

“It was Hana’s idea,” Sehun announced shooting Hana an affectionate smile to which Hana had no reply. She was left to speculate why Sehun would chose to hide such a thing from Seryung. Although she didn’t like it, Hana nodded anyway.

Whether she suspected something or not, Seryung didn’t question the statement any further. She did arch her brows for a moment to grasp the situation before deciding that she didn’t really care enough to know more.

“Do you want to read some of it?” Hana offered the short, rough work she and Sehun and been working on.

Seryung shook her head vehemently as if she’d been asked to touch a snake, “There’s a reason I chose not to do English as a subject.”

“Seryung is direly hopeless at languages,” Sehun elucidated to Hana whom seemed lost. “She got an exemption.”

“I didn’t know you could get an exemption from English,” Hana furrowed her brows at the revelation and searched her mind for similar stories of exemptions.

“You can’t but she managed to.”

“Hey! It’s not like I’m going to cheat! I won’t be applying to colleges that have English as a minimum requirement. I can still get accepted, but I won’t so therefore it’s not cheating.”

“I wonder if I can get an exemption.” Hana pursed her lips. She could have sworn that high-school English was sort-of compulsory.**

“Only if you’re acing everything else and English is the one thing holding you back.” Seryung sighed and seated herself beside them.

Hana’s expression reflected her muddled thoughts. “I don’t get it,” she murmured aloud.

“The school has a reputation it likes to uphold. They want to produce students who ace National exams. Seryung is the top-student in her class so she’s likely to score very high in college exams next year. The school is depending on her to win awards. English is the only thing that brings her down so they’ve made an exception for her. It’s a subtle way to cheat and the school won’t be getting caught for it either, not if the school board has anything to say about it. The Minister for Education won’t let anything happen.”

Seryung flinched at Sehun’s way of presenting an explanation. He hadn’t distorted the truth but Hana’s shocked appearance made Seryung uncomfortable. She shuddered and sent her brother a reproachful look for revealing something that should have been kept secret, but then realized that it was she who’d blurted the truth first. She kicked herself mentally, and prayed Sehun would ask Hana to keep the information secret because she felt ashamed to do so.

‘It’s not like I asked for it. They’re making me do it!’  Seryung pouted.

“Well good luck with your essay, oppa. I hope you fail. No offence unni.” Seryung waved and excused herself hurriedly.

Hana replied with a smile followed by a nod. She wondered if Sehun had ever failed anything. He was the schools favorite to top National exams this year. It was no surprise if Seryung were to walk his steps the following year. Producing the ‘nations best student’ was a merit each school across the country desired. The title brought prestige, importance and publicity, as well as a crafty rise in tuition fees.

Sehun rolled his eyes. His sister was undoubtedly speaking to him again after a cold war. He mused how to react to the fact that she always joked about wanting to see him fall.

-

Seryung peered through the kitchen window. The Kim’s garden was smaller than the Oh’s but very much like the Oh’s it was built on gardeners experience and rich havens. The plants basked in sunlight, savoring what they could in the round shaped vicinity. A terraced pathway perimetered the garden. At the heart of the radius gushed a large, intricate, tiered, solar-powered, fountain mounded on an artificial hill of Mahonia and gravel. It was chic and powerful.

Luscious green grass spread as far as it was allowed inside the perimeter. Beyond it was a frontier of colored flowers growing proudly in front of laurel hedging and completed with tall varieties of trees to shroud the walls. In the furthest spot from the main house sat a large shed with laminate glass windows. A BBQ stood not too far from it hidden under an outdoor umbrella. As if to complete the set, there was also an outdoor brick floor table coupled with a set of four chairs.

However it wasn’t the gardens allure that made her stare. It was Tao. Seryung was ignorant to the types of martial arts, and therefore was unable to catalogue them into their categories. Whatever his progress, all she saw was a stern face and fast paced movements combined with brute force.

Seryung winced when he lost is balance and accidently flung the nun-chuck narrowing missing his own face. He hobbled on one foot before resting his hands on his knees to relax. From his damp exterior she deduced he was reaching a threshold. The sight made her click her tongue in distaste, and caused her heartbeat to speed up. She held her hand over her head to calm it down, and ruffled her hair in annoyance. He was all the way over there, she was all the way over here, yet her heart panicked for him.

A towel caught her eye rendering the rest of her movements impulsive. She picked it up and hurried outside.

Tao growled under his breath, and reached for the weapon. His foot was being highly uncooperative. He pressed down on it as if to punish it, and winced slightly at the agitation pinning back. He exhaled slowly and ignored it; solely centralizing his mind onto training.

Tao swung the device alternating his footwork to match the move. He mind was slowly becoming detached. He lacked the sharp knife-like precision he wanted to achieve, and instead became a blunt knife. He clenched his teeth, and narrowed his eyes until nothing but slits were left. He ce more with move vigor than he intended, and almost hit Seryung who was waiting on the path he’d intended to veer towards.

“What are you doing standing there?” Tao snapped letting the weapon flick against his taped wrist. “I almost hit you!”

Seryung clicked her tongue before responding, “I know you wouldn’t.”

“I’ve done it before.” Huang Zitao countered with a snarl stomping his inciting foot, thereby causing it to send a flurry of rapid pain through his nervous system.

“You were fighting a mob that time, and mistook me for one of them.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I hit you!”

“Stop getting annoyed. I never blamed you for it.”

Tao sneered with a frown clenching his fists, half tempted to amputate his foot for causing grief. “Why? Do you like me or something?” He spat.

Seryung furrowed her brows, and pressed her lips into a thin line before they could blurt an unintended confession. Instead she spoke with her actions bringing the towel to his face, and gently wiped the trickling sweat.

Tao grit his teeth and alleviated his weight from the throbbing foot. The idea of resting made his facial muscles twitch, but he was rendered without a choice. As if to express his dissatisfaction he swiped the towel from her and snidely remarked, “Can’t even use a towel.”

He brushed the towel against his forehead, and ran it over his head in aggressive sweeps before tossing it in the grass and finishing with a glare. Seryung stared in disdain at the abandoned towel.

“Go back inside.”

“I can’t! Oppa and Hana are working.”

“So you’ve come to bother me? Don’t you see I’m working too?”

Neither party was willing to coincide. Both of them sent each other a stubborn stare to ensure their stance. One was wounded by the other whilst the other was wounded by his fall.

Seryung traced the nun-chuck and wrapped her fingers around it. The action caused their fingers to brush and send a tingle of electric currents. Tao’s fingers withdrew as quick as lightening. He inched away from her shocked from the charge. Seryung mewled tightly gripping the weapon whose weight she had underestimated. She grimaced at the surprise it had given her but held it nonetheless. An idea began to unfold in her head.

“I’d like to learn martial arts.”

Tao didn’t need to think about the request let alone humor it. He responded with a flat, “No.”

“Please~” Seryung elongated the word as cutely as she could.

“You’ll hurt yourself.”

Seryung smiled sweetly and tilted her head slightly. “That’s why I need a teacher, so I don’t hurt myself while learning.” She elucidated with emphasis.

Tao rolled his eyes. She was doing agyeo again and while she was trying hard to be convincing. He was reminded of the time he was tricked into visiting the haunted house. “Why do you want to learn Wu Shu anyway?”

“I want to pay back everyone who dared to pick on me.” Seryung complained with a sigh. A flash of dangerous emotion struck her features like lightening assaulting a tree.

“Wu Shu is not meant for offense,” Tao expressed cautiously.

“You probably taught Hana.” Seryung grumbled and searched his eyes for clues.

“It doesn’t matter who I teach,” came the automated reply.

“You did, didn’t you?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Why? Why won’t you teach me?!”

“You’re not ready to learn it. Come back when you’re less vengeful.”

“What if I have talent? Will you teach me if I show potential.”

“Those who want revenge don’t have much potential. Do you think you’re different?”

Seryung raised the weapon and pointed it in his direction. He didn’t so much as flinch. She arched an eyebrow and threatened to swing it. When that didn’t work she tossed it into the grass to accompany the towel. She wanted to say something hurtful to his rather smug face, but turned her back to him furiously stomping back into the house.

Slowly Tao reached for the nun-chuck and stared at it recalling the moment their fingers accidently touched. A contented smile illuminated his features. He glanced at the door she’d stormed through before resuming where he’d left off.

His foot was still antagonizing but it was manageable. The more he thought of her his moved became sharper. He’d undoubtedly fallen for her charm. All differences forgotten he recalled the trip to Everland.

-

Seryung continued to vilify everything in hushed whispers meant for her ears only. She narrowed her eyes in warning at the housekeeper whom was trying to eavesdrop on Hana and Sehun. The housekeeper nodded and scurried away before Seryung could say anything regarding the matter.

Just one look told her they were busy, in a scholastic sense. She clicked her tongue. It seemed Sehun wouldn’t be going anywhere else today. He was too engrossed in Hana, and the ‘project’ he was ‘diligently’ working on.

Seryung smirked and wondered if Sehun was aware he was wasting time on essays he found tedious. It was surely because of Kim Hana. Sehun would never in a million years bother if it weren’t for Hana’s sake. He was playing a new role – the caring male companion.

Seryung snickered. She decided to welcome the role-play and slip out of character too. He would be too busy to think of anything other than Hana. She assumed his charitable role and opted to fill in for his shoes for the day. Although she despised soup kitchens and graveyards she reminded herself it was only for today.
 

* The reference to North Korea is kind of an ideology. My knowledge on this is based from k-dramas set during the time Japan where there were really, really rich people and dirt poor people. Korea split into two around then hence my interpretation. I don't mean to offend anyone because of this. Back to EI, I'd like to point out that Tao is not 'poor' according to average living standards since both his parents are teachers. Any exaggeration is Tao being hard on himself.

** "English is compulsory to take in high school" << this is fictional and you've probably guessed it looking at your idols ability to butcher the term 'OMG' multiple times xD. EI is highlighting the issue of education, wealth and corruption.

 Sehun / Hana vs Tao / Seryung. I know you guys have your favorite pairings and biases but no more of the 'I want to see more W & X and Y & Z.' I am trying to tell a story. They will get their moments in due time. Don't make me send the Angel of Death after them.

Sehun's hand massage... I am craving... Hana is one lucky gal **sighs and pouts**
You know you're KO when your OC's make you jealous...

This update wasn't meant to be this long **cough** draggy **cough**... I swear I meant to keep this short so I could put in useful things but got carried away with pictures of gardens and stuff. "The grass was lush, green. There was a fancy, fountain in the middle of the garden. A path circled the garden. Flowers, hedges and trees were present too and this gave the readers an indication that numerous gardeners were needed to maintain such a well kept place. A shed, a BBQ and an outdoor table-chair set told the readers that the Kim's had lots of money and liked to spend it. This idea was then reinforced into the readers through the sneaky housekeeper whom was keeping a watchful eye on the daughter of the house. Readers were again reminded of how the Kim's were off on holidays. This linked back to the perception of child neglect-" Yeah...
 

First date will have to wait then but that doesn't mean this update was completely useless. There is subtle characterization going on: 

"Sehun is assuming the role of a loving boyfriend. He teases his leading lady by giving her a hand massage because he knows she will blush. After his conspiracy is proven to be true he decides to indulge himself." What a womanizer!

"Tao is busy sweating his stress away but then he hurts himself. Maybe it his inner EXO-Tao voice speaking but something compels him to break that foot. He continues Wu Shu anyway since he is badass." Why do these boys push their limits?

"Seryung is truly Sehun's sister. She likes to tease too. Evidence of this is shown when she ruins Sehana's moment and the idea is pushed forth when she tries agyeo with Tao. She can also be nice as seen when she decides to sub in for Sehun." She's just a spoilt brat.

"Hana is brought into Seryung and Tao's argument about Wu Shu. The readers are left wondering: Did Tao teach Hana Wu Shu? Whether she is a martial arts genius or not she is a genius at seducing Sehun with her blushing." I am done.

Comments, anyone?