“You’re lying.” 

His two words ring loud and clear, hitting sharp and hard like a pebble hitting the surface of a pond.  D.O. squints his eyes as he points his gun at the figure sitting in the chair with her hands tied behind her back.  Yes, they sent a group of girls-- 5 in total--  in short little skirts at them, who somehow managed to steal the money that a group of gangsters in Macau were supposed to hand over to them from that drug trade.  The question is.. who are they?

The girl with glacial, impassive eyes gazes back at D.O., unfazed by the fact that her skull could be blasted off cold any second now.  Unfazed by the fact that her four friends were now lying on the floor, dead.  All 5 were somewhat sworn into secrecy, Kai presumes.  They all preferred to keep their mouth shut rather than keeping their lives. 

“Who.. sent.. you?” D.O. repeats menacingly, stinging her once more with an electric taser.   Guys, girls, it doesn’t matter to them.  They all get treated the same way, with the same amount of torture. 

The girl jolts and her head rolls backward, her eyes squeezed shut in agony.  Kai sighs impatiently.  He always knew D.O. was good, alright, D.O. always knew how to read people and figure out if they were lying or not, but this time—it’s getting pointless.  This girl is as stubborn as a mule and she isn’t going to last much longer.  He pushes himself off the wall he’s leaning on and walks over to the pair. 

“D.O., just finish her off already.  We’re wasting too much time.”  Kai says in a bored voice.  “We need to report to Boss.”

“Last chance.  Who did you come from?” D.O. breathes, his gun on temple of her head.  His finger lingers leisurely on the metal-made trigger, ready to pull it anytime.

“D.O!” Kai yells.  “I don’t have all day!”

Suddenly, upon hearing Kai’s voice in a louder and clearer tone, their hostage looks up.  A thin, psychotic smile forms on her bloody, bursted lip. 

“Your father.” She says, almost in a sneer, looking at Kai with taunting black eyes.  Her hypnotic black orbs hold no trace of fear in them, only a mocking glint of amusement. 

Something clicks inside Kai.  Kai spins around and bores his gaze right into her, his eyes steelier, more ruthless than ever.   His lips curl in a disgusted manner, and without a second thought he pulls out his gun and shoots once—because once was all it took when you’re as skilled and precise as Kai. 

And just like that, she is gone.

But the haunting smile on her thin lips stays.

“YOU!” I gasp, thoroughly flabbergasted.   But… but… how can this be?!  Why is he here?!  So do you mean to tell me that a) the idiot I met this morning who gave me a MAJOR headache goes to SNU too, b) THE IDIOT IS ACTUALLY MAJORING IN MATHS! *dies*, c) …the idiot has classes with me but I’ve never noticed him before!  I don’t even know how that’s possible.  I always notice everyone.  I don’t know how I do it, but I have a very good memory for people’s faces.  “You’re that noisy driver who just won’t shut up!”

“YOU!” He shouts back, pointing at me.  “You’re that.. Passenger!  Why are you here?!”

Excuse me?!

I huff and climb back into my seat.  “Why are YOU here?”

“I asked you first.”

“Fine.  Because I study here, smarty.  How bout you?  Drove someone here?”

“No, I’m here because I study here!”

Wow, this cannot be happening.  Do not tell me that I will be seeing this deranged IU fanboy slash drama lover slash part time crazy taxi driver slash MAJOR IDIOT a lot from now on?!  

“How come I’ve never seen you before?” I ask.  To my dismay, Mr. Driver pulls out the chair beside me and plops down, placing his backpack on the desk.

“I rearranged my time-table.  I asked the dean to switch some classes around because they interfered way too much with my work hours...  Have you always been in this class?  Have you always been studying math?  How come I’ve never seen you around before?” he asks, squinting at me.  “Or were you stalking me?”

I look at him and shake my head.  I will never get used to his stupidity. 

“Kidding, I know you weren’t stalking me~!” he sings, poking his tongue out.  “So what’s your name?” he asks.

“Sssh!” I place one finger on my lip and pointed at the professor up in front.  You see?  Now I really have no clue of what he’s talking about.

I feel him moving a little and a moment later he pokes me twice, before pointing down at my table.  Oh God, he’s hyper!  He’s a hyperactive idiot!  I shoot him an irritated glare but look down nonetheless.  On my table, I see that he wrote ‘WHAT’S YOUR NAMEEEE?!” in messy, big Korean alphabets.

“Why do you want to know?” I ask back, whispering.  “Be quiet, I’m trying to learn something here!” 

“I’m Mark!” he chirps animatedly, deliberately ignoring my question.  Funny, I don’t remember asking him his name!

And Mark is.. Is he like… Half American or something?  I silently ponder and continue to take notes on whatever is being explained up in front.  

 “Yah, answer mee!  I’m Mark Tuan.” he smiles, holding out his hand.  “And you are?”

I sigh and shake it.  “Seo Iseul.”

“Iseeeeulll~” he sings. 

Jesus CHRIST!  WHY!  WHY LORD, WHY?!  Why did you put this little crack-driver beside meee?!!  Why is he even here in my life?!  Why him?!  He has the mental age of a 5 year old.  He’s so noisy! Even Jongguk is more mature than this creature!  He.. look at him!  He got here late, and now that he’s here, he doesn’t even bother paying attention! 

“Aren’t you going to pay attention?” I say.  “You missed out a pretty good deal, you know.”

“Oh, no worries.” Mark waves a hand around dismissively.  “You know what, I’ll call you miso.”

My eyes widen and I can’t hide my horrified expression as I turn to look at him.  “As in the soup?!”

“Mmmhm.  Seo Iseul, miso soup.  There’s a good ring to it.”

“Mark, take it back.  Take that stupid nickname back.” I glare.  “Or else I’m naming you poopy!”

Mark bursts out laughing, slapping his hand on his knee.  "That's sounds stupid."  Mark makes a face.

"That's because you ARE stupid.  Now excuse me, I'm going to go ahead and pay attention to this lecture, because now thanks to you, I've missed about 30 minutes' worth of it."  I say crisply, really annoyed by him now.

Mark smacks his lips and then suddenly, like he ing owns this school, he leans back and slouches, and then swings his legs over, placing them on the desk.

"Mark!" I reprimand, but he only wiggles his eyebrows in response, clearly conveying that the number of s he currently gives is zero! 

"Put your feet down, you're gonna fail!" I whisper, horrified by his terrible manners.

"I won't." Mark says, shrugging.  "And I don't need to pay attention to all this because I actually know all this like the back of my hand."

"Ohohoho.  Woooow." I say sarcastically.  "You?  Really?"

"Mmhhmm." He nods, taking out his earphones.  I try to contain the shriek that is almost escaping me.  Is he... Is he even allowed to be this confident with his own brain?!  I mean, isn't he.. Supposed to be.. An idiot?!  Even all the smart kids in this class are paying attention.  I mean, this is completely new material.  We didn't have mathematical philosophy when we were in high school.

Oh, maybe Mark failed!  So that's why he's here!  He's not even supposed to be in our year, which is why I've never seen him before, but—

"Professor Tuan is my dad." He explains, as if reading my mind.

Instantly, my head whips towards his direction and now my full, undivided attention is on him.  "He's.. Your.. Dad?"

"The one and only!"

"You're Mark Tuan?"

"Awesome job, Sherlock!  I believe I’ve mentioned that before." He grins.  "You have unlocked the secret of the campus!"

"Wow." Is all I manage to say.  "I've always known that Prof Tuan had a son but.."

"But you had no idea that it was me?"

"Of course not!  I didn't even know you existed until this morning!  Well it really is a small world!" I muse, still mesmerized by the facts that are being laid out in front of me. 

"Shh, pay attention." Mark points at the powerpoint presentation, which I'm guessing he has read only about 40 times.  I jut my lower lip out and wrinkled my brows.  The table has been turned and now he's using my line.

....the theorem...until it began to unravel back in the late 70s..

"60s." Mark suddenly speaks up, his voice ringing clear in the silence.  "You mean the late 60s."

I look up at him.

Prof Tuan knits his brows and looks down at his textbook, flipping around a few pages.  "Oh-" he clears his throat.  "Yes, that is correct.  Forgive me.  I meant the late 60s.  Thank you." Prof Tuan smiles at Mark before turning back the presentation. 

I can only stare at Mark in awe.  Here he is, with his feet up on the table and one plug from his earphones in his ear, yet he's still listening and has even managed to correct the Prof. 

"Focus, Iseul." He says with a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

I blink twice and zoned back in.  Okay, I have newfound respect for whoever this Mark Tuan guy is. 

Shortly after, the clock strikes half past twelve, which only means one thing.  Lunch!  And the end of this dreadfully boring lecture.  No offense Mark, but please.  You know I'm right.  If I can bottle up his words and put it in a capsule, it'll be a hard-hitting sleeping pill. 

I pack my bag and stand up slowly, still debating on what to do with Mark.  Do I just... run off? 

No, I don't think so.

Or should I tell him I'll get going first and... I mean, he surely has his own friends right? 

"Aaah~ That was a nice little nap."  Mark yawns, patting down his hair.  "I'll see ya around Iseul!"

Oh? 

And then like that, in a flash, he's gone.

Alright, fine.   He'll be doing the speaking.  Not that it bothers me anyway.

I walk out of the hall and into the cafeteria, order some takeaway food and head over to Suzy's side of the campus.  We don't eat at her side, we usually meet up and find a nice, quiet little garden table and eat there. Suzy is majoring in Computer Science or something to do with computers and all those other wired .  She knows how to code and all that other difficult stuff that I don’t even know how to name, even though I took some CS electives in my second year (dropped them by the third, by the way), and she's superb at it.  She once hacked into some government website and changed all the names in there, replacing them with both of our names and our friends’ names.  As a result, Suzy was the president of Korea and I the prime minister for about 2 hours. 

And then!  We nearly got caught and arrested and all that, and I was so freaking scared I even thought of writing my death will already, but Suzy somehow managed to wipe all traces of us away—leaving only all trace of us immaculately clean.  Basically, if you’ve seen the Hunger Games, she’s the Beetee here in South Korea.  She’s that good.

“Iseul!”

I turn around and see Suzy holding a plastic box, probably filled with sushi because that’s the only thing she ever eats, walking towards me.  

“So how was it?” she asks, panting as she fixes the beanie she is wearing.  It is mid-March, and things are finally beginning to warm up, but for people like Suzy and I who can’t stand the cold that well, we’re still all wrapped up in puffy parkas and scarves. 

“It wasn’t a ion home.  Surprise.” I say sarcastically. 

Suzy rolls her eyes but smiles playfully.  “Geez, I was just looking out for you.”

“Thanks, but everything’s great actually.  The people are nice, the kid’s nice..” I say with fake enthusiasm.  Actually, no.  Kai doesn’t really fall into the nice category.   Suzy and I walk to our usual bench we eat on every day, only to find it occupied by some dude lying on it, seemingly asleep, with a cap on his face.

“Aish.” Suzy begins to pull me away.  “But it really seems kind of suspicious to me, you know?  I mean, some unknown person hires you for any sum of money, and—“

“Sue, it’s okay!  But you know what’s not okay?  The fact that there’s a crack driver beside me now in math-philo lectures!  And he never needs to pay attention because he’s Prof Tuan’s son, amazingly enough, so all he does is sit beside me and disturb the living crap out of me!!”

And all of a sudden, the sleeping figure rises like a mummy awaking from the dead, and pulls the cap of his face.  The guy in question, much to my horror, is the crack driver Suzy and I were just discussing about.  Oh !  I knew those clothes looked familiar!!

“I heard that!” Mark shrieks, pointing at me.  “I’m not on crack!”

“That’s him?” Suzy asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“The one and only!”

“Why do you haaaate me so muchhhh!?”  Mark wails, like a giant oversized baby.

“Because you disturb me!”

“I do not!”

“Yes you do!”

“What?!  When?!  The only thing I do in class is listen to music with my earphones on!”

“You mean your super-loud EDM and dubstep music?!  I could hear your entire ing playlist, including that song you replayed about 50 times!  At least turn down the volume Mark!” I rant.

“TURN DOWN FO WHAT!” Mark hollers, and immediately he cups his hand above his mouth and begins to beat-box.   And let me tell you, he isn’t good at it.  

“You see?!  He’s on crack!” I point to Suzy.

“I shall disagree on this one because as you know Seul, EDM and dubstep are my babies!” Suzy grins.  “Can I see your playlist?”  she asks Mark, much to my dismay.  Mark’s eyebrows rise and he fumbles for his phone.

“You’re Suzy!” he exclaims.  “Right?”

“If you’re talking bout Bae Suzy, then… yes I am.”  Suzy shrugs.  “Why?  Want my signature?”

“Sure!  It’s for my friend though-- he has a huge crush on you.”  Mark laughs and pulls out a random notebook.

Suzy’s jaw drops.  “I was kidding!”

“Well, I’m not.  Can you add Jackson below it please?”

“I’m not doing this.”  Suzy says, quickly backtracking.  “I don’t want some random dude coming up to me saying thank you for my signature!  And then I don’t want him to start hitting on me.  Tell that to Jackson.  Don’t add me on Line either.”

“Why not?  Jackson’s cool!”

“I..” Suzy falters.  She adopts a serious expression.  “I just don’t.”

“Well…” Mark starts, looking genuinely confused.  “Okay.” He looks at me and raises an eyebrow, as if to ask ‘why in the world…’

I shrug lazily in response.  I’ve always been in the dark too.  Suzy doesn’t want guys hitting on her and even if some guys still do, she never responds to them.  Some were even really cute!  It’s like.. she has a heart of steel and I’m like WHY CAN’T GUYS LIKE THAT COME TO ME?!

Oh right.  I’m a weirdo who actually likes math and still doesn’t know how to do her own makeup properly with no s.  None, I tell ya!  I mean, if my body was Google and you type in ‘s’ in the search box, the only page that’s coming up is Error 404: Page Not Found.

Okay maybe not to that extent but!  I fall into the flat-chested girls category.

“So can I see your playlist?” Suzy asks expectantly.

“Oh!  Of course!”  Mark hands her his phone and I watch Suzy’s eyes brighten as she scrolls through a lot of songs.  “You’ve got all the remixes I listen to!  You even have some rock and grunge!  Okay, let’s be friends.  I’m Bae Suzy.”

“I’m Mark Tuan.” Mark replies.  “So you make friends based on their music taste?”

“NO!” Suzy rolls her eyes.  “It’s just rare finding people who like EDM and dubstep as much as I do. So.. yeah.”

“Please!  This morning it was IU and NAL BOMYEON DUGEUN DUGEUN NAE GASEUMI!” I roll my eyes.

“I listen to a variety of music.”  Mark says defensively. 

“You should’ve heard him sing, Sue.  You’ll karate chop his throat off.”

“I’m not that bad!”  Mark protests.  “It was still early in the morning, and my voice hasn’t been warmed up yet, which is why I sounded like that..”

“Of course.”  I smirk.  “Now scoot will you?” 

“Or get up and leave.” Suzy adds, pretending to glare at him.

"Seul, you sure your schedule won't clash with your work hours?" Suzy asks as we sit down. 

"I don't think so.  I've made a few.. Compromises."  I say, giving her a thumbs up. 

"But there could be some sudden changes right?  I mean, being a babysitter and all.."

"Babysitter?!" Mark echoes, and I quickly looked at him with pitiful eyes, ones that says 'please just be quiet even though you're confused as hell'.  Mark looks at me with both his eyebrows at the top of his forehead, before looking at Suzy, and then looking back at me.

Yes, I know what he's thinking.  What was I doing at the HOC earlier today, because that obviously isn't a place to babysit anyone! 

"Yeah, she took a job as a babysitter for some unknown family." Suzy explains.

Mark's eyebrows rise up even more- if that's even possible.

"Ah.." Mark finally says.  "Interesting.."

"Ah right, you took her there earlier today right?   Since she was in your cab?  How did the house look like?  Convincing?  Safe?  Creepy?" Suzy asks, the questions shooting out like a fast and steady like a bullet.

"It was..." Mark looks doubtfully at me.  "Definitely luxurious.  Really expensively-made, elegant... Probably some rich, high-end family." 

"Where is it?" Suzy asks again.

"Seriously, Suzy." I cut her off.  "I know you're just looking out for me and I love you for that but please!  I'm not a twelve year old!  It's safe and I know it and I can manage myself!!" I burst out.  Sometimes, being mad is the only way to stop her.  Mark looks a little taken aback at my sudden outburst, just like Suzy, and honestly, they both have good reason to.  I feel extremely guilty now.

After a moment's consideration, she nods and resumes eating.  "You're right.  Okay."

And that's it.  There's the thing about Suzy, she never apologizes.  She's just... stubborn and for some reason she strongly dislikes admitting defeat and saying that she's sorry.

"Sorry." I squeak instead. 

Suzy remains impassive.  Damn, she's really scary sometimes, and why am I even the one apologizing?! 

"Look, it's 1 already!  Iseul, what do you have after this?" Mark says, obviously trying to ease the tension.

"Applied probability." I made a face.  "You?"

"Woah, same!  Okay, let's go together!  Let's go!" He beckons enthusiastically.  "We'll get going first Suz.  How bout you?"

"My next class starts at 1.30 so you guys head off first.  I'll just stay here and finish eating I guess." Suzy says, fixing her high ponytail.  "Bye Seul.  Bye Mark."

"Bye Sue!" I wave, before walking away with Mark.

Once at a safe distance away, Mark looks at me with a look that signals that he's going to begin with his interrogation.

"Why did you lie to her?"

"I didn't lie." I