A/N: AH! I'm sorry it's so late! It is still technically Thursday where I live so ... Anyway. Next week's might be late too, my weekend is packed with events so I likely won't be able to rest up until Monday. But, who knows!

Chapter 36

Yeong In's sword was struck down to the muddy, blood-soaked earth beneath her feet where it shattered and disappeared. "My King, I have failed you!" she shouted over the clanking of metal armor and cries of pain to the elderly man fighting behind her. "With my last breath, I shall use my body as a shield!"

"Nonsense," he shouted back. "Take my sword, you're better with it than I am."

"I couldn't, that sword only obeys one master, the true king of Camelot."

"I had Merlin photocopy it, so now I have two."

She reached for the bejeweled sword in his gnarled fingers and just before her fingers clasped the metal hilt . . . her nose itched. "Hang on." She reached up to scratch it, but her arm wouldn't move. It itched again, and again she tried to move it but her fingers merely twitched. Summoning all her strength, she reached up to scratch her nose, and her hand finally obeyed, coating her face in bloody-mud . . . but it smelled sort of like sharp citrus. And it tasted horribly bitter!

Her dream fog cleared and her hand and face oozed with a squishy, sticky mystery substance and she bolted upright in her bed. Wheezing sounded from the ground beside her, but she didn't open her eyes. "Young Do! This had better not be shaving cream!"

He exploded in laughter as she spit in a fruitless effort to get the taste out of her mouth. She stumbled out of bed and zombied her way to the bathroom sink, running into the doorframe and tripping over the bathroom mat along the way. She heard him lumbar into the bathroom and slump onto the toilet seat next to her. She flicked gathered water in her hands and threw it at him, only earning her more peels of laughter. As she dried her face, the seriousness of the situation hit her.

"How could you! Excalibur was this far from my fingers!"

He stopped laughing. "Excalibur?"

"Yea, King Arthur himself was about to hand it to me so I could save Camelot . . . and you woke me up!"

"Wait, this is about a dream?" He laughed all over again. Yeong In stood in front of him for a moment, lost in her rage until she just couldn't take it any more.

"Choi Young Do I'm going to murder you!" she shouted, her hands reaching for his neck. He yelped and grabbed her shoulders, his longer arms keeping her hands from touch him. No matter how she pushed against him, he'd grabbed her shoulders solidly. She stepped back away from him and he let go, but didn't look away nor lower his arms. She fake-lunged at him a second time, and as he moved to counter, she kicked his shin. Hard.

As she made her way back to bed, she caught the time from the clock on her nightstand. 2:27 AM. "Young Do," she called. "Please don't tell me you woke me up in the middle of the night just for a prank."

He limped out of the bathroom. "I couldn't take the chance that you'd wake up before me."

She crawled under the covers, hoping she could find the same comfortable position she had earlier. "You'd better pray I don't," she muttered darkly, and closed her eyes.

The mattress shook under her as he climbed in on his side. "It was your fault anyway."

Her eyes shot open and she glared in his direction. "How in the world was it my fault? I was asleep!" Her alarm clock ticked away menacingly and sleep felt so far from her mental grasp The weight of all the things she had to do in the morning was crushingly heavy.

"I was settling into bed, minding my own business and then you farted at me."

"Ugh! You are such a kid!" She threw a pillow over their divider.

"I am not! I'm nearly eighteen." He threw her pillow back, but her blood chilled. She'd almost forgotten for a moment; he was still a kid. Her self-loathing returned and she resigned herself to the fact that sleep probably wouldn't come at all.

~.~

Her ringing alarm clock came entirely too early and Yeong In forced her tired body out of bed. At some point through the long hours of the night, her tired mind had decided to just take the day one hour at a time. She'd worried enough about how it looked to be married to a teenager and it was all said and done anyway. As long as she didn't cross the line, that's all that mattered. Besides, people got married young all the time. It wasn't like she'd pressured him into it . . . if anything, it was the other way around.

She stepped under the shower and shook her head. She'd spent enough time stressing over it. She had more important things to focus on at the moment, first of which: Getting Young Do back. Regardless of how he'd interpreted who started her late-night torture, she'd heard him snore all through the night. Even if she had been tempted to let it go before - which she hadn't - she certainly wasn't now. She just wasn't sure how. She was well-versed in pranking shenanigans, but the most effective pranks growing up involved someone being caught by Aboji and given extra chores or having to run laps. No, those were pranks meant for an audience. She had to come up with some enjoyable in private.

OooO

Young Do was straightening his tie in the closet mirror when he heart Yeong In exclaim "Who broke my laptop?!" He smiled at himself and chuckled at her frustrated muttering. "I can't believe it broke! How did it break? I always keep it . . . wait. Is that the background? YOUNG DO!"

He exited their closet wearing his best innocent expression. He was so happy to have been able to witness his handiwork. So happy, his self control slipped and his face cracked into a grin once more. She set aside her computer, glaring at him with murderous intent. He snatched his briefcase and all but ran down the stairs. "Driver Yoon should be here by now. If we don't leave soon, we'll be late!"

She stumbled behind him, hurriedly cramming things into her bag. "Actually, I've been off of my prescription pain meds for almost a week; I'm pretty sure it's safe for me to drive."

He stopped, his hand on the doorknob. "Why would you drive?"

She paused and looked at him with a curiously confused expression. "Because our work places are in opposite directions? I don't think it really counts as carpooling and since you don't think it's a good idea to take the bus . . ."

"I see your point. I'll look into hiring you a secretary."

"What? I don't need a secretary, I'm a school teacher!"

"I'm sorry," he lowered his voice, "did I say secretary? I meant bodyguard since you clearly aren't getting the situation." He didn't wait for her reply, but opened their door and headed toward the front door. He merely made it past the front entryway, however, before Lee Esther slid into view.

"Ah, are you two off to work at this hour?" Her smile was shallow and the crinkle of her eyes made it look more like a grimace.

"What a pleasure to see you so early in the morning. Don't worry, we won't tell anyone we saw you sneak out."

She gaped. "Sneak out - wha- As if I would ever sneak anywhere. Unlike you. I heard you two lived together while you were still a student."

Before Young Do could retort, his father joined them in the entryway. "Lee Esther and her daughter will be joining us for breakfast from now on. Our wedding isn't far away and it would be good for all of us to get used to each other before blending the family." Young Do forced a smile, but knew there was something more to it than that.

"Sorry, but I don't think we'll be able to attend. We have to leave for work so early that we barely get breakfast as it is. We wouldn't want to inconvenience everyone because of our schedules." He took Yeong In's hand, bowed and pushed past them toward the door.

"I'm sure work will settle down soon, until then we'll see you Saturday and Sunday mornings. I know you can at least make those," his father called after him and he made no indication he'd heard as they shut the garage door behind them. He didn't sigh in relief until they turned from their street onto a main road. The Choi home was already suffocating as it was, but he felt like it was about to get a lot worse. At that thought, he turned to Yeong In, but he stared at the back of her head, having no to know what she was thinking.

The ride to his work was silent. Not for the first time, Yeong In's silence made him uncomfortable.

He bid her and goodbye, to which she didn't respond, and walked into his second day in the management department. As he walked through the doors, a few desk attendees bowed to him, but most heeded his wishes and politely ignored him.

Instead of taking the elevator, he headed toward the main-floor bathrooms. He'd read a complaint that the bathrooms on the main floor were broken down and dirty compared to the ones on the upper floors - specifically, the ones used by board members and directors - and though part of that Young Do attributed to a simple class benefit, he wanted to see for himself.

The one off the main lobby looked well kept-up by his rather high standards, but the one farther back, by the staircases and call-center cubicles, was in complete disrepair. Nearly every receptacle donned an 'Out of Order' sign and the tarnished, tiny mirrors were cracked. There were also numerous cracks in the tiling and the sinks looked . . . untrustworthy. Even the service bathrooms at the main hotel weren't as bad. Sure, they had a few clogged toilets now and then, and you had to be careful which sink you used, but even then they looked palace-worthy compared to the grimy mess around Young Do.

He snapped a few pictures on his phone before he left the bathroom, careful not to touch anything needlessly, and used the staircase up to the third floor. He'd confirmed several of the complaints on his list, next he needed to know how it had gotten into such a state. Also, if the state of the bathrooms weren't exaggerated, what other complaints had been written off?

As he entered the office, it got noticeably quieter. His six co-workers hurried to their desks and immediately busied themselves while his boss hastily hung up his phone and focused on his computer screen.

This silence was uncomfortable too, but not nearly as unbearable. This was the kind of silence he was used to while he worked at the company . . . though the assistant cook from the main hotel was a lot less quiet about his sour opinion where Young Do was concerned.

He strode to his desk and unpacked his briefcase. He'd just logged into the server when Team-leader Min announced a meeting in five minutes. Immediately, there was a scramble of shuffling papers, muttering, printing and a few exclamations about how it was too early for a meeting. Young Do himself was confused. He had gotten to work forty-five minutes early and, while he'd spent a lot of time inspecting bathrooms, it was still twenty minutes before their work day technically began. He scoffed at how his boss was really trying to impress him.

OooO

Yeong In rubbed her temples wearily as she looked on at her class of twelve. Ten students had scored poorly enough in English to need summer classes. And over half of them were asleep at their desks. She had been trying to help them understand parts of speech for the better part of the morning and even those who'd started out taking notes looked like they were wilting.

She set down her chalk and clapped her hands. "Alright. I'd say that's enough about that. Everybody up! Come on! If the person next to you is asleep, wake them up." Her class groaned and a few of the sleeping ones shouted several expletives upon being woken. As they were getting up, she pushed the podium into the corner of the room.

Once they were all standing, she pushed her hands through the air and stretched. "Reach up, come on. I'm doing it, so can you. Reach up, to the side, to the other side, and down. Good. Widen your stance, put your palms together like this and say 'Sorry sorry sorry sorry'." A few of the girls in the back giggled and her spirits lifted.

She straightened and folded her arms. "What, you think because I'm a seonsaengnim I can't listen to music?" Several students stared at her skeptically, but a girl pipped up from the back.

"Sen! That song is so old."

"Old? It came out in 2009! That was three- four years ago."

"We were still babies back then," another female voice said from the back.

Yeong In laughed. "Aigoo, time must pass so slowly for you that four years ago seems like a lifetime. I have a game in mind which should hopefully help you pass the eternity until lunch. Let's push the front rows back and everyone come up here and stand in a circle.