So before I start just wanted to assure you guys, I don't think of writing as punishment. I realized that might have sounded a bit negative in the last post, but I just meant that if I allow myself to get off of a schedule, I will continue to do so. So, to try to keep up with my self-imposed promise, I needed to add another upload so that I don't continue to put writing off. It would probably be better to just write everyday, but that can go wrong easily, and for me, if I don't hit the markers I set for myself, I just give up… It's something I'm working on…

Didn't work like I wanted it to, but it did make me type over a span of days instead of the last five hours. So… progress.

Shi-Woon stared at his feet as he sat on the infirmary bed, watching his feet swing above the linoleum floor. He could hear the raised voices of Mr. Wooseong and the principal outside, though it was impossible to tell what they were actually saying.

Shi-Woon wasn't sure what would happen after this. He didn't think any of this would actually be noticed by the teachers. Chang-Ho and his group were always so careful to avoid detection, Shi-Woon had never expected them to be exposed. Especially by him.

"Are you feeling better?" A teasing voice asked him.

Shi-Woon turned his head to look at the new infirmary nurse. She was even more beautiful in person. The camera had darkened the sparkle that seemed to dance in her eyes, and it definitely hadn't shown a single part of her long legs, that peeked out from underneath the long white doctors coat that she wore over her revealing blouse. Her long hair was long, reaching all the way down to her hips, like a secondary jacket.

Shi-Woon nodded mutely, feeling unnaturally shy in front of this beautiful woman.

The woman raised a hand, hiding the bottom part of her face. It gave her any inexplicable look of innocence and youth, with the way the bottom of the sleeve covered over palm.

"Oh that's good!" She shifted closer to him, her eyes narrowing with delight. "I was worried when you first came in here, what with all the bruising." She lowered the hand concealing her face, revealing two bright lips pushed into a pout. "Is there anyway I can make you feel better?" She reached out and touched Shi-Woon's leg, her eyes locked on to his face in mock pity.

Shi-Woon's eyes slid down to the hand resting innocently on his thigh and felt all moisture leave his mouth. 'Holy crap…'

Shi-Woon slowly slid his gaze back up to the smiling face of the doctor. The smile was bright and welcoming, but the eyes were sharp. It made him feel uncomfortable, like he was on the wrong end of a practical joke.

Shi-Woon made an unintelligible noise.

"I'm a doctor, so I know how to make people feel better," She murmured.

Shi-Woon tried to think of something to say. But his mind sent back static. He had never been in a situation like this before! Normally girls didn't think of him like that! They didn't look at him like that! They weren't interested in a –idiot- loser.

Shi-Woon stumbled out some syllables, maybe getting some consonants in there. The doctors eyes glittered as a slow smile brushed its way onto her mouth. It was taunting in its sexuality.

The door opened suddenly, spooking both the student and doctor.

Chun- Woo stamped into the room, his eyes sharply focused on the commotion outside. "Shi-Ho, is he alright?" Chun-Woo asked, closing the sliding door behind him with a snap. His eyes slid back to the other two inhabitants. The eyes were shockingly cold, and more than a little dismissive.

Shi-Ho seemed to bounce up to the tops of her toes, stepping away from the sophomore. "Oh, he's fine! It looks like it's just some bruising and maybe a small concussion." She flounced over to the older man, her hair twitching with each step.

"Good," Chun-Woo sighed out, before giving her a pointed look. "Stop bothering the kid."

"Huh?" The doctor gasped, pressing a hand against her chest dramatically. " What do you mean bother him! I was just talking to him! Just like I'm talking to you!" She parted the white coat, pressing the middle section out and around her hips so that her hands were tucked behind her back, holding the cloth at bay. It revealed her very small skirt, and the position of her hands emphasized her chest and already revealing shirt. She leaned forward suggestively, as if the rest of her appearance and body position wasn't enough.

Shi-Woon felt his mouth pop open in shock. She was so… forward! He had never seen a woman act so brazenly before. Sure, they might wear revealing outfits, but the never acted like this! Wasn't she embarrassed?

Shi-Woon glanced up at Chun-Woo expecting to see the man practically drooling over this gorgeous woman.

Instead Chun-Woo kept his eyes completely focused on the woman's face, not even sliding past her jaw line. His eyes were cool, and he leaned back from her, hands resting inside his pockets. "I'm telling you, Shi-Ho, stop toying with him."

Shi-Ho stood up, the playful smile that was on her face morphing into a smirk. "I wasn't doing anything bad." She explained. "It was just that he turned so many different colors. I didn't think people could turn that red!"

Her eyes flicked to Shi-Woon who was still sitting on the bed. The look in her eyes was like a fox, playful but mean-spirited.

"Don't let her get to you, kid." Chun-Woo instructed, "She just likes to see people squirm."

Shi-Woon looked at the older man uncertainly. Not let her get to him? How was he supposed to do that?

It was weird though. It seemed these two already knew each other. Well enough to know each other personally.

"I only like to see people squirm when they're under me," Shi-Ho giggled, her eyes focusing their gaze on Chun-Woo's face, seeming to search for something.

Chun-Woo sighed at the innuendo, as Shi-Woon felt his face fire up in mortification. Without another look at the new doctor, Chun-Woo stepped past the woman, walking over to his seated student.

"What the hell were you doing?" Chun-Woo asked, not sounding nearly as angry as the wording hinted at. "I thought you didn't get into fights like that."

The sexual discomfort was quickly taken over by embarrassment. Shi-Woon returned his stare to his shoes. " I don't, usually."

Chun Woo let out a chuff. "And what changed this time, kid? That other dude nearly beat you unconscious. What the hell were you trying to do?"

Shi-Woon chewed on his bottom lip, feeling stupid. "I was trying to help Sae-Hee."

Chun-Woo scratched his head at the name, trying to remember where he had heard it before. "Sae-Hee?"

Shi-Woon nodded at the rhetorical question. "They had grabbed her. I thought they were going to hurt her."

"That girl," Chun-Woo remembered, thinking of the crying girl who was standing there when he had arrived at the scene. He remembered her because she had so many teachers standing around her, all of them trying to ask her what happened. It had seemed rather ridiculous to have five teachers trying to talk to one student, especially when each time the girl tried to answer a question one of the teachers asked, another teacher would try to calm her down as she started to tear up. It seemed counterproductive.

Chun-Woo had ignored the congregation once he realized that Shi-Woon had been led away to the Infirmary, and that the other boys were already being carefully watched in one of the teacher offices.

"You were trying to protect her?" Chun-Woo prodded.

"Trying to." Shi-Woon agreed, sullenly. "I don't even know what I was doing, I was just trying to make them let go of her."

"Yeah, you should have waited for me to at least teach you how to punch," Chun-Woo pointed out, dryly.

"Punch?" Shi-Ho asked, her eyes flickering with interest. "You were going to teach him how to punch?"

Shi-Woon glanced over at Chun-Woo, uncertain about if he should answer that. The teacher seemed to be staring deliberately at the wall, like if he didn't look in the other adults direction she would cease to exist.

The purposeful ignoring just seemed to make Shi-Ho more interested. Shi-Woon felt like he could literally see a tail start to wave as her eyes focused more and more directly on Chun-Woos back. The intense "stare down" seemed to finally break Chun-Woo.

"I was going to teach him how to fight," Chun Woo half-explained, waving his hand like he was waving away the situation.

"Teach him?" Shi-Ho parroted, the thought seeming to amuse her to no end. "Maybe this school is changing you."

Chun-Woo turned around to give her a put-upon glare. "I was just gonna get him in shape and then teach him how to kick someone in the balls."

Shi-Woon jumped at that. "What!? But you said you would teach me that-"

"I never said what I would teach you specifically. I-"

Shi-Ho watched as the two argued back and forth. Chun-Woo's face was a mix of unimpressed and attention. His entire being seemed to be focused on the sophmore sitting in front of him.

Her eyes landed on Shi-Woon, weighing him carefully. The cheery smile that donned her face dimmed as her eyes slid down and up the young boy's body. She opened her mouth, hesitated, and then closed it again, her eyes flickering tactfully to Chun-Woo's back.

"You'll have to train everyday!" She cut in to the two's bickering, her face back to a mask of jovial taunting.

"Yeah yeah," Chun-Woo rolled his eyes as Shi-Woon nodded enthusiastically.

Shi-Woon looked up at his teacher "Are we going to start today?" Shi-Woon asked, feeling excited and anxious.

"There's stuff I have to take care of." Chun-Woo dismissed.

Shi-Woon felt the energy rush out of him like hot steam, leaving him limp without its pressure. He looked up at Chun-Woo pitifully, hoping the other man would change his mind. The teacher lasted five seconds of his baleful gaze.

"Ugh, I can meet up with you in the morning. Come here at 6. We'll go through some exercises to see where you're at."

Shi-Woon perked up again, beaming at the older man.

"Go home, kid. Make sure you sleep tonight."

Shi-Woon walked out of the gates of the school, stepping into the daily traffic towards home. This week felt so hectic. It was like every time he had taken this walk this week he was feeling a different emotion. The mixture of routine and change was messing with his status quo.

Shi-Woon stepped into a crosswalk, glancing both ways carefully.

That's when he saw the girl across the street. He wasn't usually taken to looking at women, but there was something about her that was different from everyone else.

Her hair was true red color, shocking against the surrounding brown and black. She stood proud but disinterested, her eyes locked on a phone in her hand that she was fiddling with. Her eyes only left the phone to glance up and lock with Shi-Woon's.

The automatic reaction to look away was waylaid by how intense the green of her eyes were. He had never seen such an eye color before.

The disinterested look in her eyes narrowed into a look of annoyance. An aggressive challenge seemed to come from her, daring him to continue to look at her.

Shi-Woon did not take that dare. He quickly looked back to his feet, focusing once more on continuing home.

Shi-Woon was passing by her when a young man in a black hat, stepped next to her, his voice carrying. "Any news from gramps?"

"No." She sighed. "He's just saying that it was last sensed in this area."

Shi-Woon looked up, the conversation peaking his interest. What was in this area? A shrine? Were they lost?

The boy with the hat also had a tattoo covering his left cheek. It was shocking at first glance, but it emphasized the boy's unique look. And the two looked like they fit together. The boy had stylish but rocker style clothes, things that gave him an outsider look. The girl on the other hand seemed to have ripped her clothes for her own purposes. It made them look distinctive among the crowd.

The boy, leaned over the short girl's shoulder, pointing at something on her phone. "We'll look in Quadrant 4, see if we can find anything there. We'll meet up with Stone Mountain around here." The boy's eyes flicked up to meet Shi-Woon's blatant stare.

The look he gave him was just the same as the girl's look. Challenging, cold, sharp.

Shi-Woon looked away quickly, almost tripping over his own feet. Why were there so many people staring at him with daggers in there eyes!?

Actually, the street seemed filled with people milling around, looking at their cellphones, or loitering in groups. Usually the streets were messes of moving people, but now it felt like there were pockets of stillness that the river of people now had to walk around.

Shi-Woon turned his eyes to his surroundings, looking at teens and adults standing in the shadows of buildings, talking to each other as their gazes focused on the pedestrians.

Another woman drew Shi-Woon's attention. She was beautiful, like a princess from another age. She walked with a grace that he didn't see people use anymore, and her eyes were focused beyond him, like she was looking into a different world. Her long hair brushed down to her hips in a straight black. She was like the epitome of Korean beauty.

She walked with purpose, a cellphone perched to her ear, her face a bland disinterest.

"Yes I understand. I will make sure to look into it."

Shi-Woon glanced over his shoulder as the woman walking away. She sounded so professional and commanding. He never imagined that a girl his own age could sound like that.

Shi-Woon continued his walk home, carefully watching the silent onlookers. It was an eerie atmosphere, and Shi-Woon was all too happy to reach home.

Frankly, I should have added these people in an earlier chapter, to create a better sense of foreshadowing and movement. But I only just realized how I wanted them to work in this universe. I hadn't even thought I was going to get to them into this story until about chapter 3. And by then the story had momentum towards the Starting Event. But they are being added now, and I'm trying to plan farther ahead in my story so I don't get these weird character introductions again.

Hope you liked this new installment.