Chapter 6

Today was going to be different. I could feel it. For one, when I woke up, my hand wasn’t hurting anymore. Taking off the fabric, I saw that my hand was healed and the stinging sensation was gone. Well, whenever I get to practice, that’ll be different. Another thing is that I woke up before the alarm went off. I noticed that the little hand on the clock above me moved, only an inch. That was weird. What was with almost all of the clocks pointing to the number 7? As I started to get out of bed, it was then that I realized that I left the flower outside on my balcony! I ran over to my closed doors with…the curtains closed? Odd…I didn’t close them last night. P-Goon! Before I could get to the flower, I ran back over to my bed and looked underneath to see that the bag was missing! My heart raced with fear that P-Goon somehow entered my room and found it. Without thinking, I grabbed my necklace with my key and ran out of my room, locking the door again just in case, and ran towards the lobby, praying that Sue was at the counter.

I kept pacing around the elevator like a lost puppy before it opened up to the lobby with Sue counting the keys with a clipboard and paper in her hand. The second she heard the ding of the elevator, her head snapped around to see me in my pajamas. Sue tried to hide her laugh as she covered with the clipboard. But once she saw my panicked look, she put her finger towards her lips. With her free hand, she pointed down behind the counter. I raised an eyebrow as I leaned over the counter to see the bag with the book tucked nicely underneath one of the shelves.

“So it was you?” I whispered.

“With P-Goon doing student checks, I couldn’t just have this lying around.” She whispered back. “If anything, I would take the blame.”

“Sue…” I started, but she shushed me.

“If you’re wondering how I got into your dorm room…” She started, but when she saw something behind me, she kept quiet as she went back to what she was working on. The door opened and closed and I could tell who was behind me just by the atmosphere that this person brought with him.

“Well, I see that you’re up…” P-Goon’s voice, which was powerful for being early in the morning, echoed behind me.

“Good morning to you, too.” I said sarcastically as I turned around and crossed my arms looking at him in a disgusted, yet embarrassing way. Remember, I’m still in my pajamas.

“Sleep well?” He asked.

“Like a baby.” I answered bluntly.

“How long will you be?” Sue asked.

“Not long,” P-Goon answered as he made his way towards the elevator. What in the world was going on?

Sue hesitated as he entered the elevator and pressed the up button with a serious look on his face. I gave him a good glare when the doors closed.

“What in the world is going on?” I asked Sue.

She sighed and put down the clipboard. “There’s a student meeting. He’s making sure that everyone is up.”

“Why can’t the alarms just wake the people up?” I wondered.

“Because student meetings have to be before classes. A student meeting hasn’t happened in years.” Sue said as she quickly looked down at the bag that was hidden away.

“I think I might know what it’s about, too.” I said as I went back to the elevator. Before the doors closed, I looked at Sue and said a simple “Thanks.” As I made my way down the hallway, I saw that P-Goon has made it down my hallway. All of the students were standing at their doorways, looking focused, yet groggy, turn their heads towards me. Some of their looks were glares like it was my fault that they had to get up early. And they were right. But they didn’t know that…nor did they have to. P-Goon, unnoticed of my presence, was talking to them, his back posture was straight, almost perfect, his head was held high and his hands were held behind his back.

“All of you will get ready and meet in the auditorium building. A student meeting will happen before any of your classes. And since I see that I see you awake, I will report back to the teachers that everyone is present.” P-Goon said. He got to the end of the hallway and when he got to my door, he looked at it and I could see a sneer appear on his face. I cleared my throat and finally I got his attention. He turned around and faked a smile, walking back towards the elevator. “Well, well, there you are.”

“Quit the fake sweet talking, P-Goon.” I glared at him as I made my way towards him, when in reality I was making my way towards my room. All of the girls gasped at my way that I was talking to him, but like I could care at this point. P-Goon was making me pissed off because of his attitude; and just when I thought that he was sort of nice when I first met him. I think it’s safe to say that I’d take Hansol’s attitude over P-Goon’s any day…and that’s saying something!

“Just get back to your room and get ready.” The fake smile disappearing on his face with a serious tone in his voice. As he passed me, he bumped me in my shoulder, indicating that he was upset with me. And I wouldn’t doubt it. “You all have ten minutes,” P-Goon said as he entered the elevator, “I’d get moving.”

With that all of the students went back into their rooms, some of them groaning in response. Well, I didn’t have that much time, so I decided to go back to my room and get ready. I thought of a second to bring the flower inside my room, but the sun was already shining bright outside; I decided to let it go. Putting the necklace around my neck after locking the door, I headed down the elevator to see that Sue was still behind the counter. She saw me and nodded.

“Take care of it,” I whispered before she shooed me away to make sure that I wouldn’t be late for the student meeting. The autumn air didn’t bother me as much as it did the other day, but the minute I entered outside, students were either speed walking or running towards the back of the Academy. I decided to join the crowd, following the students as we went passed the cafeteria. Behind the cafeteria was a little path that leads further down into the woods. I followed them as we had to dodge some branches that were sticking out in front of us and soon enough, there as a building, that actually looked practically brand new. Its steel walls and curtained windows were free of any spots. The building itself was simple, but it was huge. The more that I looked at it, the more it looked like a safe haven if a natural disaster would happen. I looked around in the huge crowd before entering the building to see if I could find Hojoon, or at least Hansol. But they were nowhere to be seen. I frowned as I got pushed by a student to head inside. God, these students must be impatient! The inside was just as it was with the outside; steel walls and the curtained windows, but here was the thing; the only thing that was inside was a staircase and a balcony surrounding the top, and I wasn’t going to lie when I said it was crowded up there with students. What kind of auditorium was this?! As the students piled in, I noticed P-Goon and his group, standing at the edge of the balcony, looking down at all of us. They definitely stood out amongst the rest of us. With their white shirts, blue jackets, and jeans, it wasn’t hard to spot them right away. I noticed Hojoon leaning against the railing along with A-Tom and Yano at both of his sides. They spotted me in the crowd, but they didn’t dare to raise a single hand to wave. I felt saddened by this act, but with P-Goon there with them…it would be difficult to really do anything. A boy with short brown hair and sunglasses on was standing next to P-Goon, whispering something into his ear. P-Goon’s head will nod slightly, keeping his eyes on the students. The sudden sound of the doors closing made every student become quiet as there were footsteps coming from the back of the building. Above the students’ heads, I could see teachers all on a stage; wow, it was so crowded that I didn’t see it coming in!

“I know that you are all wondering why you are here.” One of the male teachers started to speak into a microphone. “Due to some circumstances happening during the school hours, new rules will be taken upon the Academy. For instance, students are supposed to be in their dorm rooms at 9:30 at night; if a student is caught outside their room, detention will take place. Caught twice outside their room and it’s an immediate kick out. Another thing, the library will be closed two hours early. So students who have projects to work better not be messing around if you don’t have a laptop.”

“Well that won’t be that much of a problem,” I thought. But then what about returning the book? I decided not to worry about it now as the teacher kept going on.

“The library will also have more protection as in who is taking books. Students will now have to check books out of the library and will have a due date on when to return them.” He added.

What was this?! This was middle school all over again! P-Goon…he told the teachers and now the teachers are acting out on this! Thank goodness they didn’t say why they are doing this. I took a quick look at P-Goon and I could see him smirking. A look of triumph was plastered on his face thinking that he’s won. Ha. He’s wrong. P-Goon thinks that he’s overpowered me and made me weak. He doesn’t know that this will make me stronger into knowing things more.

“But what about late classes?” A student asked out in the crowd.

“We will make exceptions for those who have late classes at night, which we know is not many of you, we will make sure of that. As for the rest of you who don’t have late classes, I would advise you to go and do your homework before the library closes and head to your dorm room.” The teacher said. “One more thing before you leave. If you have questions that are not on topic in your classes towards your teacher, you will be suspended for a month tops. That is all. You are excused to go to class.”

The doors opened up and the students started to pile out. I stayed in my place and looked up at the group. P-Goon smiled in triumph as he straightened up and talked to the guy with the sunglasses again. He nodded and noted for the group to leave. I glared up at P-Goon, making sure that he got my message. This wasn’t over. I could see Hojoon look at P-Goon and, with a nod, Hojoon made his way down the balcony, and I took that as a sign that he wanted to talk with me. Going towards the end of the staircase that was on the side of the doors, Hojoon opened up the doors for me.

“Thanks,” I said walking out. Hojoon was right on my trail as we headed back towards the Academy.

“You know…your leader is a real , you know that right?” I asked Hojoon in a serious tone. “It’s like he runs the school!”

“You’d be surprised…” Hojoon whispered. “But don’t be surprised if you think that this is the only time that he is like this. As long as I’ve been here, he’s always been…controlling in a way.”

“I kind of wish that he wasn’t the way that he was sometimes…” I sighed. “He entered my room without warning! Scared the hell out of me!”

“HEY!” We heard a voice behind us before Hojoon can say anything else. Hansol was running our way with A-Tom and Yano followed closely behind.

“Now what…” I whispered as they stopped in front of us.

“What is it?” Hojoon asked.

“I hate to break up your little conversation, but,” He started.

“Yeah right…” I thought.

“P-Goon wants to talk to you.” He continued. “He wants to know more about your power.”

“I thought we covered that at the meeting last night!” Hojoon’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Well, he wants to see what you can do.” He nodded.

“Really?!” Hojoon looked saddened. I put my hand on his shoulder and he looked up at me. Hansol raised an eyebrow as he took in my action.

“Don’t worry,” I smiled at him. “If you can do it before, you can do it again.”

“Thanks,” He smiled back at me. “It’s going to hurt like hell though. Alright, I’ll see him and I’ll try to repeat what I did yesterday. I’ll see you in class, Trinity!” Hojoon ran off back to the building. I looked at him worried that he might hurt himself if he did what he did yesterday during practice…I don’t want him to hurt himself again. As I wanted to call out to him, Hansol turned me around, taking my eyes off of Hojoon as we headed back towards the Academy.

“HEY!” I shouted to Hansol.

“Wouldn’t want to be late for the first class of the day now, do we?” Hansol smirked.

“Are you doing this on purpose?” I asked as his hand didn’t leave my backside, so that way I could keep walking forward.

“Oh, he’s totally doing it on purpose.” A-Tom smiled over at Hansol. Hansol gave him a glare as a warning to stop.

“He just wants to spend more time with you,” Yano said unemotionally, not even in a sarcastic way or annoyed way. Strange…even for Yano that seemed odd for him. Something was on his mind…

“One more word from either of you and I will-” Hansol warned.

“What are you going to do? Tell P-Goon?” A-Tom asked. “He’s already hard on us, anyway.”

“Would you stop guessing?” Hansol sighed.

As A-Tom and Hansol were arguing, I looking over next to A-Tom and saw that Yano was looking at the ground, biting his bottom lip here and there, and furrowing his eyebrows. I tilted my head thinking as to what was going on through his mind. Slowing my pace, I snuck behind Hansol and I tapped Yano’s shoulder, which made him jump in surprise. But when he saw me, he relaxed and followed my pace. I put my finger towards my lips, indicating for him to be quiet. Letting Hansol and A-Tom walk in front of us, totally oblivious to the fact that we weren’t there with them, I walked with Yano the rest of the way towards the Academy.

“Hey,” I started as we got closer to the building, “are you alright?”

“Yeah,” He answered bluntly.

I nodded, but I knew that something was up with him. Grabbing his arm, I led him and I away towards the side of the sidewalk.

“What are you doing? We don’t have much time-” He started, but I had to know if something was wrong.

“There’s something that you want to say, don’t you?” I asked him.

Yano bit his bottom lip and then scratched the back of his head. Was he getting embarrassed? And if he was, what in the world was it for?

“Um…” He started.

“Look, I know that we didn’t go off on a good start, but I want to make it up now. I don’t know what I did to make you not like me sort to say, but…” I trailed off, and when Yano looked my way, his head facing the ground, I could see his face getting red.

“Iwanttosaythankyou.” He said way too fast for me to really understand.

“I’m…I’m sorry? Can you repeat that?” I asked.

This time he looked up at me, his cheeks were fire truck red and his eyes connected with mine right away. “I want to say thank you!”

I stood there in disbelief, blinking my eyes for a little bit and my mouth slightly agape. “You…you’re thanking me? For what?”

“For…standing up for me. And A-Tom, too, against Hansol about using our powers.” He confessed.

I smiled and put my hand on his shoulder. “Awe, Yano, you’re welcome. I always stand up to what I think is right and fair.”

“I’ve wanted to tell you since yesterday, but not in front of the others.” Yano added. “When you said you wanted to hang out with us, I wanted to say it then, but I didn’t.”

“Why not?” I asked tilting my head in confusion.

“Because…” Yano shuffled on his feet, with his hands behind his back, trying to think of an answer. “I thought it would be better to tell you alone. I was afraid that the others might add in something to what I would say or tease me.”

“Oh…” I elongated the word. A little laugh came out of my throat as I scratched the back of my head. “I understand where you’re going with that. I think I would do the same thing, to be honest. I wouldn’t want my words to get twisted around. Besides…telling me alone, being yourself and sincere is the best way to go.”

And right before my eyes, Yano smiled the happiest smile I’ve ever seen. It looked sincere, too! The smile was a bigger and happier version of the small smiles that I saw him give.

“I’m sorry about the way that I treated you when you first came here…” He apologized looking down.

“It’s ok. I forgive you.” I smiled as he looked happy at my response.

“I think…I think I treated you the way I did was because I think you are a Libra like me. And I think that you might’ve been better than me if you were. Also, I do tend to get jealous. When I first came here…I was the best Libra around. I was scared that I might lose that title, although it didn’t really matter to me personally, but to the group… Anyway, that’s why I gave you the cold shoulder. But now I see how you are, I don’t see any harm.” He confessed. I lightly hit him in the arm at that last comment, but he just laughed away.

“You…you really think I’m a Libra?” I asked.

Yano nodded and looked me over, which, even though he was younger than me, it still made me blush. “I really do. You want to know how I can tell; you are like me. Although you are a bit…oh what’s the word…spoken out than I am. You find justice in things that you truly believe in and you want to make a balance.”

“I…I do, don’t I?” I smiled knowing that he was right, I mean, look at when I spoke up for Yano and A-Tom.

“Yep!” He nodded. “But, to make this more fun…”

I sighed and crossed my arms. Of course, this was Yano we were talking about, of course that after the apology, there would be a catch.

“I’m going to pretend that this never happened, and that we can still do our little attitudes towards each other, but we know that we’re just joking.” Yano crossed his arms and smirked.

“Yano…” I sighed.

“Come on! It’ll be fun!” He nodded reaching out his hand, waiting for an agreement.

I bit my lip and, knowing that I wouldn’t win against him, I nodded and shook his hand. “Ok, yes, I agree.”

“Alright!” He pumped his fists in the air.

“Trouble maker,” I whispered as he lightly punched my arm.

“But just wait until you see the others faces when we reveal that everything is fine!” Yano laughed.

“You know what…” I said as we entered the Academy, “That sounds like it’ll be fun.”

“I knew it,” Yano smirked.

“Wait,” I said before we left for class. “How did you know about me already knowing about Hojoon from yesterday?”

“You are so full of questions,” he rolled his eyes playfully. “Ok, so I overheard you guys in the garden when I was in Study Hall. I wanted to spend some time outdoors and I had nowhere else to go.”

“Wait…” I was putting the pieces together. “You helped me know where to go, didn’t you?”

Yano had a playful smile on his face. “It was my silent way of saying thank you from earlier, and yes, I overheard your conversation with Hojoon after Elements class. That’s how I knew.”

“Why you little sneak,” I laughed.

“They don’t call me trouble maker for nothing!” Yano laughed with me.

We made our way towards the History room and as soon as we entered, there was another teacher, an older man, maybe in his late fifties, was in a nice white suit and his clock stitch was gold. Another thing, other than having a new teacher, was that the students were all sitting down in their seats, even Hansol was sitting up with his hands folded in front of him.

“Ah, Yano and Trinity,” he started, his voice being a bit rough. He raised his hands towards the two empty seats, which were further away from the two seats that we sat at yesterday. I could see Hansol give me a weary look before looking back at the teacher. “Please have these two seats.” Yano and I looked at each other and we went towards the two seats in the back and sat down, copying everyone’s posture; back straight and hands folded. “As you probably know, this will be the new seating chart for the rest of the year. I arranged it to what I thought would be appropriate.”

I gave Yano a weary look, but he just kept his head straight, his eyes never leaving the teacher. I gulped and looked back at the teacher.

“I’m Mr. Edwards, your new History teacher. I was a teacher here for a good 20 years, then I went into retirement, but I realized that retirement wasn’t for me. It was way too boring. So now I’m back to teaching.” He nodded as he was pacing back and forth behind his desk. “For your first assignment,”

I was about to raise my hand before he could say anything, but then P-Goon’s warning came back in my mind, so I decided to tighten the grip on my hands to not make me ask any questions.

“You will partner up with your desk partner.” Desk partner? Were we in Elementary school now? This was Astronomy class all over again! Only this time my partner was tolerable and not ignorant. “And you will both write two paragraphs on one of the Original 12, one paragraph about what the member did towards the Academy, the other paragraph will be about their job in the group. Yano and Trinity, I will give you Ovan; A-Tom and Hansol, you will have Kaalud.” Mr. Edwards kept assigning the students which member they were going to work on as I got a text book from the lonely back shelf that held the text books. As everyone worked in silence, Mr. Edwards smiled as he sat down and observed the room. Seriously? Out of all of the teachers that they could replace with, they gave us this guy?! As I kept flipping through the pages, the sound of it started to get louder and louder with each turn. I looked over at Hansol, who was actually doing work with A-Tom, and he looked nervous; as though he might get in trouble. Right there I sensed something wrong. It was like he made a wrong decision… Decision. Reminder; talk to Hansol after class.

“Are you ok?” Yano whispered looking at the page that I was on, pencil ready in his hand to write down his paragraph. “I’ll do the first paragraph and you do the second, ok? I know some stuff already from P-Goon.”

I didn’t answer, but I simply nodded as I began to read what was in the skinny text book. Oh yeah, did I mention that these were super skinny compared to the ones that I saw in the library? They must not want to really have us learn what really happened with them until later. It was almost if they committed a crime or something and hid that away while the teachers taught the students facts that were sugar coated…heavily.

The book didn’t give that much, but a solid three paragraphs on the leader. He was an Aries, the ram, controller of Fire. His closest friend was Vandenis…I already knew these facts! But I kept reading on, but it was as if I was just reading the same things over and over. Yano started to write down on the paper, all the while not taking a single glance at the book as he wrote. I trusted Yano, for the trouble maker he was. I looked over the paragraphs. Of course, it was information that I already knew. He was the leader of the group; he did all of the missions, taking most of the members with him to gather up students. Ovan made the group work together as a team, although most of them didn’t get along. As I wrote down these facts, my mind went back to the book that was in my room.

How was I supposed to bring it back if the library was going to be closed two hours early? And secretly, too? Yano apparently saw my worried expression. He bumped my shoulder and tilted his head. I didn’t say anything, but just did a slight nod, trying to tell him that everything was fine. He furrowed his eyebrows and it was like he knew that something was wrong. I put my hands up and assured him that I was fine. This was the problem, I hated to hide my feelings, but sometimes I don’t like to show my negative side. I was finished with the last sentence of the paragraph when Mr. Edwards checked the clock, stood up, and clapped his hands.

“Alright,” He started in a booming voice, which made everyone look up from their desks. “It is almost the end of the period, so if you would, pass the papers forward and you will present them tomorrow with your partner.”

No way! It was the end of class already?! How did that happen?! Was I really in my own little world most of the class? Mr. Edwards went down the row of desks and collected the papers. As he headed back to his desk, he sat down in his desk and started to read them. Students then began to collect their things and talked to their friends. I looked down where Hansol was and he put his head on his crossed arms. I had to talk to him after class. A-Tom turned around and waved to us. Yano did a little wave and rolled his eyes towards me. Well, that was the agreement, wasn’t it? I looked at Yano in disbelief and A-Tom crossed his arms giving Yano a look before turning back to Hansol, putting a hand on his back. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what was wrong with him.

“Alright, class, you are dismissed,” Mr. Edwards told us, not taking a look from the papers. Everyone grabbed their belongings as they rushed out of the door. I could hear some of them whispering about their new teacher. He sure was…not as free spirited as the other teachers I had. Yano practically jumped out of his seat, gave me a quick wink before joining A-Tom at the door. As I got up, I noticed that Hansol was leaning against the doorframe, looking straight at me. He tilted his head quickly, indicating that I had to meet him outside. I found myself running to his side before we entered the hallway with bustling students. Hansol grabbed my hand, pushing his way through the crowd. All of the girls eyed me with jealousy, but I tried to ignore that. He stopped beside a door, which I noticed was the boy’s bathroom, and, before he could even think twice about it, he brought me in. Two boys were doing their business and I quickly covered my eyes, blush covering my face. I didn’t hear any words from Hansol, but I could hear zippers being zipped up and with a quick squirt of hand sanitizer, they were out of the bathroom, leaving Hansol and I alone. I opened up my eyes to see that Hansol’s back was facing me, his hands were balled up into fists.

“Hansol…” I started.

“It’s my fault,” he started.

I was taken aback by what he just said. “E-excuse me?”

“I’m the one who told,” Hansol said.

“It was you?!” I gasped realizing that I had a feeling that something was wrong.

Hansol turned around and got close to me, putting his hands on my shoulders. He bent down so he could be eye level with me. “Look, I’m not allowed to tell you, but…I was the one who told about Mrs. Port and you. I had to.”

“But why?” I asked.

Hansol bit his bottom lip and looked away from me for a second. “Because…in that class, I’m the oldest one of us in that class. I’m not only in charge of Yano and A-Tom, but I’m also the one who informs P-Goon about what goes down in that class, if anything happens.” He stood up straight, removing his hands from my shoulders, and I noticed little flakes were around his head again, only this time the flakes stuck to his hair. “It’s been a while since I had to report anything to him…Jenissi is usually the one who tells him. But I feel…responsible for the teacher change.”

I could tell that he was having a really hard time saying this to me. “So what you’re saying,” I found myself walking towards him slowly, my head slightly tilted. “All of the new rules…and that horrible teacher change…were all because of you? You were the one who told?” Hansol bit his lip and scratched the back of his head. I frowned and brought my arm up and hit him hard on his arm. “Idiot! Why would you do that?!”

“Hey, it wasn’t like I had a choice!” His voice rose.

“Like you had a choice?!” I repeated his words.

The sound of the door opening, made us stop. I turned around to see a student entered the bathroom, but Hansol glared at him. “Can’t you find another bathroom? Can’t you see that we’re having a moment?” The boy, confused by what was happening, bowed his head and closed the door. I looked back at Hansol in disbelief, crossing my arms.

“You did have a choice! You could’ve kept quiet about it!” I started to yell.

“Well what would you if you had to tell him everything?!” He yelled back.

“I would cover it!” I argued.

“He would know that you’re lying!” Hansol told. “I had to tell him, and then…” He paused and shook his head. “You know what; maybe it is better this way. To have a stern teacher like Mr. Edwards was probably a good idea by their standards. Considering that you ask all sorts of questions.”

Hansol pushed past me, bumping into my shoulder. I turned around to see him being in a stiff state. Before he left the bathroom, he stopped and turned his head. “You know…I kind of thought that Mrs. Port would be gone one day. I just never thought it would be from a student, though. Not someone like you, at least. Oh, and one more thing…” Hansol turned around and walked up to me slowly, his bangs going over his eyes, trying to look handsome towards me. My cheeks blushed at the vision that he was pulling off, but I just stood my ground. “Don’t you want to say something to me?”

“Uh…” I started, trying to think of what he was talking about.

“About the flower? I returned it, didn’t I? Don’t you think you’re forgetting to say something to me?” He said, slowly getting rid of the look he was trying to pull off.

“Oh…about that…right…” I looked up to him and smiled. “Thank you.”

“Good,” Hansol smirked, “I was expecting it on our way back, but you could see how that went with A-Tom. Well, better get to class.” He walked back towards the door and opened it for me. Outside of the bathroom were several students surrounding the door, and when we walked out, they all backed away from us, the girls giving me glares as we ascended the staircase.

“You know…that was our first fight.” Hansol said.

“Excuse me?!” I gasped.

“Well, it’s true!” He shrugged.

“You’re acting like we’re a new couple that just had their first fight.” I rolled my eyes.

“Would you like to make it reality?” Hansol smirked.

“Once you get a change of actions, you can come back to me,” I answered.

“Heh, I didn’t hear a no…” He said.

“And I didn’t say yes.” I looked at him as we ascended the staircase towards the Elements class. Elements…Hojoon! I get to see him next! A smile appeared on my face thinking about seeing his positive attitude and smiling face. Hansol noticed and rolled his eyes.

“Like I said…boy doesn’t know his game.” He whispered.

“I’ll see you in lunch, Hansol,” I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah…if you are at lunch.” Hansol whispered as he went inside of his classroom.

I rolled my eyes as I walked in and my eyes were searching for Hojoon, but I couldn’t find him. A-Tom and Yano were sitting in the same seats that they were sitting at yesterday and they looked at me, A-Tom giving me a small wave. As I walked up to them, A-Tom scratched the back of his head.

“He’s still with P-Goon…” He held his head down.

“Still? It’s been an hour…what could P-Goon want?” I asked.

“He’s curious what Hojoon can do, power wise.” A-Tom answered.

“Sure…let him be curious…” I whispered.

“The meeting last night didn’t cut it for him. He needed to know more about it.” Yano said in a know it all attitude, but I knew that he was just kidding; but how come he sounded like he was a bit serious about it?

“Whatever the case may be, I hope that he’s ok… P-Goon wouldn’t make him push Hojoon, right?” I asked the boys.

They looked at each other as Yano shook his head towards A-Tom. A-Tom looked up at me and frowned. “Trin…P-Goon would never do that, not to someone who doesn’t know his Element at least. But what he told P-Goon yesterday...”

“You mean…he would?” I widened my eyes in horror.

“Are you guys talking about me?” A surprising voice said behind me.

Turning around, Hojoon was standing near the door, a small smile on his face. I sighed in relief and ran over to him and hugged him tightly. I seriously don’t know what came over me when I did that, but once I could see students eyeing us, I let go and looked at his hands. They were wrapped again in the same fabric that we used yesterday.

“Calm down,” Hojoon laughed, “you’re acting like I just came back from war.”

“Well,” I managed a laugh, “you can say something like that.”

“I won’t lie when I say that it hurt, but it wasn’t as bad as yesterday.” Hojoon looked at his hands again. He picked up my hand, making my cheeks blush, and examined it. “Looks like you healed quickly. That stuff really works well, doesn’t it?”

“Hojoon, was he easy on you?” A-Tom asked making Hojoon let go of my hand as he raised his own hands up.

“What do you think?” He asked.

“You should’ve seen Trinity,” A-Tom smirked evilly. “She was all worried.”

“A-Tom!” I shushed him as he laughed. “He really is a trouble maker.” But as soon as I looked at Hojoon’s face, he looked shocked with a bit of happiness mixed in.

“You…you were worried about me?” He asked, blush coming on his face.

“Well…” I started to think of words. Behind the desk, Mr. Eves stood up and clapped his hands, giving me a quick wink before doing so.

“Alright class, I believe it’s time for class to start.” He said as Hojoon and I made our way to our seats from yesterday.

“You know…” I whispered to Hojoon. “It’s true that I was worried. I didn’t know what P-Goon would have you do…”

“Well, if there is one thing I learned with him,” He whispered back, “Is that we sometimes have to push ourselves to prove ourselves of our abilities.”