Chapter 8: "There is nothing else I can do."

"ANDY?!" Leifang screeched. "Oh no! Please let it not be him! I'll take anyone but him! NO!" checking the list once, twice, multiple times didn't help the situation. The name next to hers still read Andy, a grueling fact she would have to face.

Swiveling around to face a shocked and almost envious Melody, she said defiantly, "I'm not going to the dance."

"What?" Melody cried. "But you have to! I'm only going because you are!"

"I can't go with Andy though." Leifang sighed. "I wanted to go to. I had my dress and everything picked out like months before. But, I'm with Jann now. And it doesn't feel right."

"Well then can't you just go with Jann instead?"

"I can't!" Leifang grumbled, her shoulders slumping. "I don't think he's even into dances and besides, you can't take someone there already. It's all about meeting other people."

"But then what about the other couples?" Melody insisted.

"You have to make reservations from before since you're not going to be on the list and stuff."

"There has to be some other way." She muttered, looking thoughtful. "Let's first just go and talk with the organizers of the dance and if they can't do anything about it, we'll think of something else."

"Okay," Leifang mumbled without much hope.

They headed towards the room where the dance committee used as their office when they bumped into Lisa.

"There you 2 are!" she said, looking relieved. Grabbing their arms, she began tugging them towards the main office. "Mrs. Xu needs to talk to you."

Leifang paled once more, but before she could say anything, Lisa interrupted.

"Hey look! The dance list is up! I have to remember to check it later. Right now we have to go to the office. They sent me to go and look for you guys."

"It's going to be okay Leifang." Melody assured her, who looked like she was about to puke.

"Yeah," Lisa joined in. "She was shocked at first, but she knows what to do. You'll be fine - promise - quit worrying."

Leifang took a deep breath to calm her nerves and nodded to the girls. They took either side of her and the 3 of them hurried to Mrs. Xu's office. When they entered, all 3 girls were already sitting down with Mrs. Xu at the head of the desk looking very calm and confident.

"Ladies," she greeted them, nodding to them as they responded with different choruses of 'hellos.' Mrs. Xu stared intently upon Leifang who immediately cast her eyes down, feeling her cheeks warm up.

They settled down and for a couple of seconds and the room was quiet except for the dull tick-tock sounds emanating from the grandfather clock.

"Leifang," Mrs. Xu said softly and Leifang was forced to look up from her lap. She sighed, her eyes kind and gentle and filled with years of wisdom.

"Is it true?" she paused. "Your dreams…?"

"Yes," Leifang answered reluctantly; her voice small.

She paused again, looking at her entwined hands that sat upon the desk. "Can you tell me to the best of your abilities what happened?"

All the words seemed to tumble out of Leifang's mouth like a waterfall and she was forced to stop and take breaths while her audience practically swallowed in all of the information. When she finished there was another longer pause and Leifang stared at her hands, anxiously playing with the hem of her sweater or brushing her skirt down.

"When did these dreams start coming to you Leifang?" Mrs. Xu asked quietly.

"Right when I came to this school." Leifang admitted grudgingly, hearing Ella and Melody gasp.

"Leifang! Why didn't you tell anyone?" Mrs. Xu admonished, her eyebrows furrowing.

"I didn't think it was anything important or weird." Leifang whispered, feeling close to tears. "I just thought it was nerves or something. That these dreams just happened to everyone."

Mrs. Xu sighed again and sat back in her chair. "The best I can do for you now is just to put in more security. There really is nothing else that I can do. It's in your hands now. I'll do what I can, but…I can't guarantee much. I'm sorry Leifang."

Leifang nodded, refusing to meet anyone's eyes still. "Do you know what will happen?"

"No." she answered painfully. "I can't predict anything of what will happen or will not happen."

Leifang nodded once more, her shoulders slumping.

"Wait," Mrs. Xu said suddenly, sitting up straight. "Does Mr. Jann Lee know about this?"

"No," she answered slowly, unsure of where she was heading.

With that, she promptly pushed a button on her desk and a speaker phone built into the desk answered her back.

"Yes?"

"Fetch Jann Lee for me. It's urgent."

"Alright."

The speaker phone closed and Mrs. Xu returned her attention back to the girls. "If Jann Lee is also having these dreams then we can take this dream seriously. If he is not having any sort of dreams then it is best if we never spoke about it again. Am I clear?"

"Yes," the girls chorused in unison.

She nodded her head.

They waited a few seconds in silence until the door opened with security escorting Jann in through the door, who looked irritated - that is until he saw Leifang and her friends. His eyebrows rose but Leifang was too embarrassed to say anything or look him in the eye.

"Please have a seat Mr. Lee." Mrs. Xu said in a business like tone.

He grabbed a seat nearby and brought it close next to Leifang, sitting down and ignoring her friends. He touched her arm slightly in effort of trying to comfort her when Mrs. Xu spoke once more.

"Mr. Lee, it has come to my attention that one of my students is having visions about you." She said rather bluntly and immediately saw him stiffen and grab Leifang's tiny hand in his own.

"Visions?" he asked in a bored tone, but everyone could see him tensing up.

"Possibly. She claims that although she did not see your face in past dreams, she believes it to be you." The director saw him squeeze her hand gently, but his face remained carefully composed. "She states that in her most recent dream that you were there and possibly killed in the act of saving her. She said that she herself was not able to escape the hands of The Black Hand."

With that, Jann sucked in a mouthful of air, his once carefully composed face now distorted and full of agony. He tried to speak but Mrs. Xu beat him to it, her expression much softer than it was before.

"So it's true." She said softly, studying his face. "You have been having visions too."

He looked at his hand that still held Leifang's hand and glanced up at her solemn face. Her brown eyes were shining bright but no tears were seen on her cheeks. He turned back to Mrs. Xu who was waiting for his agreement.

"Yes ma'am." He answered quietly.

"About who in specific?"

"Leifang," Jann looked at her when he said her name, feeling it hard to breathe.

"The best I may be able to do for you children is by adding more security, as I said earlier to Leifang." Mrs. Xu said in a grave voice. "There is nothing else I can do."

Another realm of silence seemed to envelope the room.

"Ma'am?"

"Yes, Jann Lee?"

"Shouldn't we have kept this a secret?" he asked pointedly, trying not be too rude, although it usually didn't bother him to be so.

"It is." She turned to face the other girls, a stern expression on her face. "I want no word about this to anyone. Am I clear ladies?"

They nodded their heads, shooting Jann venomous glares while he simply ignored them.

"Then you 7 are dismissed." She said promptly and all 7 of them got up. "And Leifang?"

Leifang stopped to turn back to Mrs. Xu.

"Come to me if you have any other problems. I'm here anytime you need me to talk about your visions. Or of anything else. Alright?"

"Yes ma'am." She said so quietly that even Jann hadn't heard what she had said even though he was standing right next to her.

Mrs. Xu, on look of seeing her lips moves, said, "Take care then."

Jann was at the door first and held it open for Leifang and for the others, reluctantly. They left the central office with a security guard passing by, shooting Jann Lee a stern look, but otherwise ignoring him and giving the girls polite nods.

Right when he was out of hearing, Amber burst out, "I'm so sorry Leifang!"

Leifang looked at her in surprise, unsure of what to say.

"I'm sorry for being a such a jerk to you! I didn't know about that. You should've told us earlier about it." She said breathlessly as is she had been waiting all throughout the meeting to apologize.

"It's okay," Leifang smiled sweetly, her cheeks turning pink.

But Amber rushed her, giving her a big hug that forced an irritable Jann to unwrap his arm around Leifang's waist.

Then all 4 of the girls were giving Leifang hugs, saying words of encouragement that did nothing but sting her heart more. When they finally let go of her, Lisa stepped up to Leifang and gave her wink, smiling widely.

"I have some extra homework I still need to do. Can you girls help me?"

"Sure," the girls said to her, giving Leifang secret smiles and left for the dorm rooms, laughing.

"They're so immature." Leifang giggled softly but stopped when she saw Jann's somber face.

"Jann," she whispered, touching his arm.

He stared back into her eyes, his eyes harder than ever before to read.

Do not cry! I order you to not cry Leifang! Not in front of him! You will not -!

Jann had swooped down and planted his lips firmly on hers, but the kiss was too hard and Leifang was forced to pull away in fear of his actions.

"Jann?" she asked sadly, stroking his face while he wrapped his arms around her tightly, bringing her close to him. "It'll be fine. Everything will work out."

Still he said nothing and she was about to continue when she choked and burst out crying, unable to control herself anymore. Who am I kidding? Nothing is okay anymore. They don't let anyone survive.

Jann kissed her softly this time with some effort, not breaking the kiss until they were both breathing raggedly. He hugged her to his chest, resting his chin on her head, kissing it briefly. They stood there for a moment together with their arms wrapped around each other, swaying ever so softly.

Jann brought her chin up and kissed her again and again, but nothing could take away the sorrow and agony that filled his chest. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you." He vowed, quieting Leifang with a touch of his lips to hers when she tried to object. "They're not going to take away the only person in the world I care about. They can rot in h*** for all I care for. No one is going to hurt you Leifang. I promise." With that, he forced her up against a nearby wall, but being gentle about it, and kissed her tear streaked face.

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The shadow watched as the tall handsome man advance on the fragile beautiful girl, kissing her hard and pushing her up against the wall. It stared at the 2 with cold emotionless eyes, saying nothing as the 2 finally pulled apart and walked hand-in-hand back to the boy's dorm room where they would probably stay for a while.

It followed them with quiet footsteps until indeed the shadow was right and the 2 of them entered Jann Lee's room. The door locked behind them and the shadow dissipated abruptly as quickly as it had appeared, leaving no trace behind.