Xianghua sprinted as fast as her petite legs could take her, given the forest's obscurity and the obstacles in her path. Her wheezes sounded like a heated kettle, and her mouth was as dry as the Gobi Desert. She was dead tired. Something drove her to bolt into the forest on a whim, without a thought as to why in the first place. It was good of her to say she ran into the German wilderness in the still of the night for Kilik---but then she'd be lying to herself. She ran in there because of Kilik and that other girl. Seung Mi Na.

She gave up running altogether, and reduced her pace down to a sluggish walk, using the trees she passed for support. A myriad questions flooded her mind like a wave: What was she going to do? What if she did catch up to the young adults? What then?

There really was no need for her to chase after the two, she realized. Kilik was a cool-headed young man with the natural ability to calm others with just his speech. He was more than capable of handling a girl who seemed paranoid, at least in Xianghua's coffee brown eyes.

But that was not the outcome Xianghua desired.

She wanted the girl to run away from Kilik. Forever.

Xianghua ran her hands through her chocolate strands of hair, sighing out loud. Gods preserve her. She was jealous. It made her think forbidden, cruel thoughts. Thoughts she was not accustomed to having. She'd always thought of herself as a good and kindhearted person, and she knew many people would agree. Yet she blatantly wished for a stranger's misfortune...?

It made her stomach churn.

"Mi Na."

Xianghua's ears picked up the sound like a bloodhound picks up a scent. It was undoubtedly Kilik's voice. As if her feet had a mind all their own, she found herself tiptoeing along the grass that led to a small, open space within the forest. Within that space were Kilik and that girl, Seung Mi Na. From her hiding spot behind thick bushes, she espied Kilik's limber arms ensnared about the Korean girl's thin waist from behind.

Xianghua had to restrain herself to not scream out. Instead, she anxiously awaited the outcome of their so-called private exchange.

"I never felt this way about anyone," Kilik went on to say. He ran his hands along Mi Na's belly, oblivious to the fact that he and the current object of his affections were being watched. "I don't know exactly what this is, but it's a good feeling."

Much to Xianghua's surprise, she saw Mi Na try to jerk herself free from Kilik's hold, but to no avail. Despite his lean form, he was rather powerful, too. And there was something else. A well, but not entirely, hidden yearning in Mi Na's hazel eyes told anyone that peered into them that maybe she shouldn't resist the one holding her.

No, Xianghua thought with a hiss. Fight it... Leave him.

"Mi Na. You're going after the Sword of Salvation, aren't you?"

Xianghua blinked. This girl was going after the Soul Calibur? The sword her mother told her about?

"Yes but I---"

"Then come with us, Mi Na," Kilik sighed out Mi Na's name as if it was the most heavenly word his vocabulary.

Kilik, what are you doing? No!

"I can't." Mi Na shook her head, hiding tears.

"Why not? We can help you. We have the same goal... Maxi, you, Xianghua, and I... We're all going for the same thing."

Stop it Kilik...

"I'm too busy with my own problems; I can't bring them upon you and your comrades, Kilik."

"It's nothing to worry about," Kilik argued, firmly. He appeared to be set on having her join them. His arms released her and his hands fell onto her shoulders, gently turning her around so that he can gaze longingly into her eyes; his leaned in to such a proximity with her that Xianghua had to squeeze her eyes shut. "We can help each other. Just give us a chance."

Mi Na chewed on her lower lip to keep it from quivering. "Are you sure about this...?"

Stop it!

"Of course. I lo---"

"STOP IT!"

Everything about them fell silent. Deathly silent. Alarmed, Mi Na and Kilik turned to look in the direction Xianghua's deliberate shout came from.

Xianghua was incredibly mortified. She felt as if a bright light was shining down upon her for all to see despite the forest's obscurity. However, she kept her ground, remaining where she was and ignoring the faint urge to run out of there as if the hounds of Hades were on her tail.

Almost immediately, Kilik removed his hands from Mi Na's shoulders. He peered at his friend, his eyes slightly widened with his surprise. "Xi-Xianghua... I thought I said that I'll return soon..."

"I thought so too," she said softly yet with a bitter edge to her voice. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, reforming her thoughts and separating them from the indignant words a darker side of herself wanted to say. She fixed her gaze onto him and him alone. "...You were taking long and I became worried..."

"...Everything's fine." Kilik rubbed the nape of his neck.

"I can tell."

From the corner of her eye, Xianghua noticed the color rush to the Korean girl's face. Mi Na bit down on her colored lips and left Kilik to do all the talking.

Much to his discomfort, from the way it appeared.

He glanced back and forth between both girls. If he hadn't known any better, he could have sworn he saw the tense sparks of lightning crackling in between them. This was not going to be easy, so he decided to digress, "Where's Maxi?"

Leave it to him to change the subject, Xianghua thought. "He's where we were before you decided to chase after her like some lovesick puppy."

Both Mi Na and Kilik sharply turned their heads to look at the Chinese; the former let out an audible huff and the look on Kilik's face registered his shock, and perhaps his disappointment. "What?"

Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about...

"N-nothing. It's nothing," Xianghua dismissed with a bright (and forced) smile. She really didn't want to berate Kilik, even if she felt heart-broken to see that he had unintentionally revealed his interest in another girl. Having another heated argument with him was something she did not want.

Kilik's eyebrows crinkled with his naïve confusion and he said nothing.

Mi Na, however, wasn't so quiet. Or naïve. She saw right through the mask the Chinese girl wore. A fraction of the emotion she had been holding in silence was starting to expose itself. "Oh, it's something alright."

The Korean took a single step forward and would have probably marched right up to Xianghua's face had Kilik not realized what was about to go on and stepped in between them. A hand was planted on her shoulders to keep her from advancing. "Mi Na... What's wrong with you? Calm down! Xianghua was just joking." He shot a glance over his shoulder towards the female in question. "Right?"

"Oh yes, of course. I was just kidding." Xianghua fluttered her eyelashes at them.

And Mi Na's fingers curled into tight fists.

Kilik faced Mi Na fully then. Slowly and reluctantly, he removed his hand from her soft shoulder. "No need to get worked up. Xianghua jokes around a lot. Just like Maxi."

The young man's words reassured Mi Na, a little, and she sighed softly to relax herself; her fists uncurled and she nodded. She uttered a barely audible, "sorry."

"Speaking of Maxi," the deliberately loud tone Xianghua had used captured their attention and they looked towards her (or glared, in Mi Na's case). "Shouldn't we get back to him? He's tipsy and in a strange village. Not a good combination. Especially for him."

"You're right," Kilik mentioned with a nod.

Mi Na sneered and muttered under her breath. "She should have thought about that before."

The expression on Mi Na's face did not go unnoticed by Xianghua, who, admittedly, did not hear what she had said. She decided to exploit that. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said in a syrupy sweet and innocent voice. "What did you just say?"

An equally sweet smile spread across Mi Na's lips. "Oh, I just said that this place is definitely a bore. We should get a move on."

Complete and utter surprise overcame Kilik so suddenly that his rich eyes nearly leapt out of their sockets. "Really!? You mean you're actually going to come with us...!?"

Mi Na simply nodded and continued smiling that sweet smile.

Xianghua wanted to slap her.

"YES!" Kilik's bellow echoed throughout the forest and mountains; it was loud enough to be heard for miles around. He was elated, to say the least.

No, no, no, no! Although Xianghua had learned from Maxi that Mi Na was in search of the rumored 'Sword of Salvation', she had to pretend otherwise. When Kilik was done expressing his absolute joy, she spoke up, innocently tucking a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. "I don't suppose Mi Na wants to get her hands on the Sword too, huh?" She laughed.

Oblivious to his friend's faux ignorance, Kilik nodded enthusiastically. "She does. She's going to come with us."

"...But you didn't ask me or Maxi..."

"Oh, I know Maxi wouldn't mind; heck, he was already traveling with her before we caught up with him. And," he shrugged, "didn't you say that we should start taking this journey more seriously? I mean, like you said, we're going to need all the help we can get."

Xianghua flinched. She did say those words, didn't she? She wanted to smack herself.

The Chinese found herself reiterating her thoughts from before. Why did things come to her in pairs of good-bad? Was she truly that unlucky? Was this that 'bad Karma' her friend Mei-Mei told her about? "Yeah. I did say that." She laughed softly again, though it was far less as phony as it was before.

"So come on! Let's get going!" A still jazzed Kilik clamped one hand over Mi Na's wrist and the other over Xianghua's. Both girls blushed at his gesture as he began to lead them on a path that would take them all back to the German village.

As they traipsed, Kilik chatted up a storm, mostly about what he thought their plans should be from that point on. Mi Na replied to him every now and then, offering some input. On a normal day, Xianghua would have chatted and offered her own ideas.

But this day was far from normal.