Bold = English

Italics = Thoughts

Normal = Korean

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A young lady clutched her passport tightly as she passed through the customs with a younger boy who looked a lot like her. They were Song Airin and Song Junho, who were currently on the run from “The Agency”, after “The Agency” discovered that their deceased parents were spies and moles within “The Agency” four months ago and they have been on the run ever since. They succeeded in escaping to Florida but were soon chewed out by one of their late parents’ co-workers barely six weeks later. They managed to contact Lee Min Young, who was an old family friend and she agreed to bring them over to Korea. They couldn’t use their real passports and were using fake IDs and passports prepared by Min and Min was the only person they could trust at the moment. The two siblings heaved a sigh of relief as they passed through the customs without any problems. The two siblings boarded their flight to Korea’s Incheon Airport.

The Song siblings exited the customs at Korea’s Incheon Airport and looked around for a woman holding a sign with “Lee Eunji and Lee Eunhyuk” written on it. Lee Eunji and Lee Eunhyuk were to be Airin and Junho’s fake identities in Korea. A woman with short hair waved the sign and the two siblings headed over to her. The woman was Lee Min Young or simply called Min, she was going to be their caretaker, she was going to act as their cousin. Min hugged them before leading them to her car.

Min lived by herself in a pretty large, four bedroom apartment. Min prepared a room for Junho and Airin each. Junho and Airin’s rooms were just opposite of each other.

“I’ve registered you guys for school and you guys start tomorrow.” Said Min.

“Thank you, unnie.” Whispered Min.

“Leave your luggage in your rooms, I’m bringing you two to the mall to change your appearances. After all, I don’t want you guys to get caught again.” Said Min.

Airin and Junho left their luggage in their rooms before hopping into Min’s car. Min drove them to the mall to buy clothes and other things as well as to get their hair cut. Both Junho and Airin dyed their hair to black. Junho opted to have his hairstyle stay the same, except for t his hair a little. Airin cut her hair short until it stopped just slightly above her shoulders and left her fringe split, Airin’s hair used to reach until her waist level.

Min smiled as she admired the two siblings before she paid for the haircuts. Min drove them home and prepared dinner for them. But before she started preparing dinner, she handed Airin and Junho their new school uniforms and bags.

“All of the books and materials that you will need are in here. I have spares of your uniforms as well.” Said Min.

“Thank you, unnie. You don’t have to do this, you’ve already spent so much money on our clothes and haircuts.” Said Airin.

“Nonsense! I hate seeing you guys being on the run, you guys shouldn’t be involved just because your parents are.” Said Min.

Min ruffled their heads affectionately, which made Junho smile slightly.

“Noona, we have a request though.” Said Junho.

“What is it?” Asked Min.

“Please call us by our fake names now, we need to adapt to our new surroundings as soon as possible. If we don’t, we’ll just ruin all of the effort that noona put into to take care of us. Not to mention that you’ll be in trouble as well.” Said Junho.

Airin nodded and Min happily complied with the request. After dinner, Airin retreated to her room and stared at her new hairstyle in the mirror she had in her room.

“From today onwards, I’m no longer Song Airin but Lee Eunji.” Thought Airin.

Airin glanced at her uniform and gave a frown, wondering what tomorrow will bring.

Airin mentally slapped herself, “It’s no use thinking about it right now, for now I’ll just go along for the ride, no matter what obstacles that life throws at me.”

With that mentality in mind, Airin prepared for bed, she wanted to be awake and refreshed for school tomorrow.

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The next morning…

Airin woke up when her alarm clock rang, she made her bed and went to shower. Airin changed into her uniform and tied her hair into a ponytail with a black scrunchie. Airin also slipped on her black glasses, she didn’t need any glasses and they were non-prescription but they were part of her new look. Min had already prepared breakfast and lunch for both her and Junho. Min insisted on sending them to school, but she will only drop them off at the school gates.

Airin stared at the sign which read, Seoul High School, before entering the school, earning her several stares since she was new. Airin headed to the principal’s office to get her class schedule, she already looked through the school plan last night and she knew where she was at the moment.

“May I help you?” Asked a lady in her early forties, when Airin entered the room.

“I’m here to get my class schedule.” Replied Airin, simply.

“You’re the new student then. May I have your name?” Said the lady.

Airin simply nodded, “Lee Eunji.”

The lady flipped through a thick file before pulling out a card. She handed the card to Airin. Airin took a good look at her schedule and she saw her name printed at the top as well as her class, 3-A.

“Your classroom is on the third level. Walk towards the staircase located at the start of the lockers, it’s the first classroom that you see once you walk up the stairs. You’d better hurry, you wouldn’t want to be late on your first day.” Said the lady, kindly.

Airin thanked the lady for her help and she headed towards her classroom. Airin walked up the stairs before seeing the sign, 3-A, just outside her classroom. She made sure that she had her poker face on before she carefully opened the door and the teacher, Miss Park, welcomed her in warmly. The boys in the class hooted, they knew she looked pretty, despite the fact that she wore glasses. The girls in her class had bright smiles, seemingly to welcome her.

“Class, we will have a new student joining our class. Her name is Lee Eunji. I hope that all of you will welcome her to the school.” Said Miss Park, after writing Airin’s fake name on the board.

“Now let’s find you a seat.” Murmured Miss Park, to herself.

“There’s a seat next to Mark Tuan, at the corner. He will also be your seat partner for the rest of the school year.” Said Miss Park.

Mark raised his hand, so that Airin could spot him. Airin said nothing as headed to her new seat. Airin maintained her poker face and Miss Park began her mathematics lesson. Airin took out her textbook and listened to Miss Park, although she wasn’t fully concentrating on the lesson. Airin could be thinking about something else while still half-listening to the teacher during lessons, it was one of her traits.

“It’s only my first full day in Korea and my seatmate is the son of one of the directors in “The Agency”. What luck?” Grumbled Airin, sarcastically in her head.

Airin almost rolled her eyes at the simplicity of the questions, she has already learned most of the topics when she was still attending school in America. Airin shut her textbook when the bell rang, signaling the end of the period. As soon as Miss Park left, a male teacher, Mr Kim entered the room. Apparently he was the English teacher for the class and he handed out a stack of papers, there was apparently going to be an oral test coming up.

“Who would like to volunteer? And no, Mr Tuan, you aren’t going to read this passage.” Said Mr Kim, firmly.

Mark simply smirked, he was from America and he had outsmarted Mr Kim many times during English class, much to the amusement of his classmates.

“Why don’t we have Miss Lee give it a try? Miss Park mentioned that you haven’t spoken ever since you arrived in class.” Said Mr Kim, having a feeling that the new student wouldn’t be able to outsmart him.

Airin said nothing and stood up to read the passage from the worksheet, in perfect and fluent English, much to the shock of Mr Kim and their classmates but to the amusement of Mark.

“That’s very good, Miss Lee. Your English is very good.” Said Mr Kim, after recovering his composure.

Airin gave a small smirk, “Thank you for your compliment Mr Kim, I was born and raised in America after all.”

Mark was even more amused, since Airin’s smirk was pretty much the only emotion she showed ever since she stepped into the classroom. Airin took her seat as Mr Kim finally started teaching. Mark glanced over at his new seat partner and gave a faint smirk, his new seat partner was definitely interesting.

When the bell rang again, signaling the end of Mr Kim’s lessons, Airin’s new classmates crowded around her desk, wanting to get to know her.

“Eunji-shi, which part of America are you from? Mark is from LA.” Said Park Jiyeon, the girl sitting in front of Airin.

“Hollywood, California.” Replied Airin, simply.

“Why did you move from America though? Was it because of your parents’ job?” Asked a one of Airin’s male classmates.

“I’m an orphan, my parents died a few years ago.” Replied Airin, she wasn’t lying but she wasn’t telling the entire truth either.

The male classmate who asked the question apologised for being inconsiderate but Airin assured him that it was alright, since he didn’t know. Airin’s next teacher, Miss, who taught the class physics, soon came into class. Miss Kim started class and Airin diligently took down notes in her exercise book. Mark glanced over at his seat partner and her notes before turning his attention back to his textbook. Mark yawned as the bell rang yet again, signaling the end of another period. Mark packed up and picked up his bag but not before glancing at Airin’s class schedule.

“You take Japanese too?” Asked Mark.

Airin simply nodded in reply while Mark grinned.

“I’ll bring you to the classroom. I’m your seatmate, I have to be responsible if you are late or absent, likewise you’ll have to be responsible for me.” Explained Mark.

But before Airin could even protest, Mark had literally dragged her out of the class and into the classroom at the end of the hallway. Taking a third language was a compulsory subject in Seoul High, Mark couldn’t take Chinese because he was already fluent and it would make things unfair.

Airin shot Mark a glare, “I can walk by myself.”

Mark returned Airin’s glare with a playful smirk and patted her head, “Feisty aren’t we?”

Airin frowned before taking a seat at the other end of the class, away from Mark who was sitting with three other boys. Mark simply grinned as he watched Airin take her seat.

“Who was that?” Asked Mark’s friend, Wang Jackson.

“My new seatmate.” Replied Mark, simply.

“It’s rare for you to take an interest in new students.” Spoke Im Jaebum, another one of Mark’s friends.

“She’s the ice princess type, I presume.” Said Park Jinyoung, the last of the quartet.

“She’s from America, I presume.” Said Jackson, remembering the short English conversation between Mark and Airin just a few minutes ago.

“Yup, she’s from Hollywood, California.” Said Mark.

“I wonder why she transferred though.” Wondered Jinyoung,

“She’s apparently an orphan, I suppose that she moved back here to live with her relatives. That was what she told us in class earlier.” Shrugged Mark.

Jaebum feigned a hurt expression, “I apologise that we ever asked.”

Mark didn’t reply, he was watching Airin, who was reading an English novel.

“She’s a bookworm eh?” Thought Mark.

Mark snapped out of his thoughts when the door opened, their teacher Miss Matsui, entered the classroom. Miss Matsui was a Japanese teacher, who started teaching Japanese as a foreign language a few years ago. Miss Matsui asked Airin to stand up and introduce herself in Japanese. Airin was already fluent in Japanese but Min had purposely left that bit of information out when she registered Airin for school. Airin introduced herself smoothly, but she purposely used an accent and made a mistake, causing Miss Matsui to correct her. But it was fine, as they were in school to learn, Miss Matsui didn’t expect her students to be able to speak perfect Japanese from the start, although she hoped that they would be able to hold at least a conversation with her by the time they were in their third year. Miss Matsui then proceeded to teach the class several new words.

Mark wasn’t paying attention to the lesson at all, he was looking at Airin. He noticed that Airin was left handed and that she had a habit of tapping her left foot twice every thirty seconds. Mark was a spy after all, he had to have good observation skills.

“Lee Eunji. No, Song Airin, show me what kind of a person you really are.” Thought Mark.

Mark was well aware that Lee Eunji was Airin’s fake identity, his father was a director in “The Agency” after all. His father had even asked him to keep an eye out for Airin and her brother since they are wanted by the agency, although his father has never told him the reason why. But Mark had no interest in bringing Airin and her brother to his father, he wanted to know more about her, he found her to be pretty interesting and their interactions this morning only heightened his interest.