Chapter 116 - The Test

Sunye took a deep breath and scanned her surroundings. The place she was dropped off was the hub of delinquents. It was a ghetto behind the main city where the poverty stricken population lived. She passed by the graffiti laced walls while some people stared at her. They were eyeing her expensive dress and shoes, envious of the stark contrast with their own shabby clothes and hard life. There was a stench of sewage water in the air and Sunye had to stop herself from gagging but she maintained a straight face.

With every step, she could feel the gazes intensify on her. She was not sure where SD was because he simply dropped her off at that place and drove away. Did he really abandon me here? She wondered.

"Look here lassy!" one guy catcalled at her but Sunye ignored him. SD had instructed her to head straight for a basketball court which was only a few blocks away. A group of thugs who seemed to be in their teens wheezed at her, calling her names. Sunye kept her gaze straight, her senses highly alert.

She took in everything she could absorb. The small number of vehicles running on the roads were mostly second hand or perhaps stolen while the houses were closely packed together. Some children were playing in the yards and she could hear either the whistling of a kettle in the kitchens as she passed by the houses or bickering couples shouting in different dialects.

"Remember to note down everything you see and hear in your head," SD had told her. "Keep all your senses open."

A bike swooshed past her but she moved aside on reflex. The men on the bike made kissing noises at her and laughed. Sunye did not curse at them because SD had told her not to stir up any trouble which she might not be able to handle. Keep your head in the game, she told herself.

Feeling a little more confident, she walked on until she reached the basketball court where four men were playing. They were much larger in build than her and clearly belonged to some gang.

Sunye calmed her nerves and entered the court.

"Excuse me!" she called out to them. The men stopped playing and turned towards the pretty woman who entered their territory. Grinning to themselves, they waited for her to speak.

"I'm lost here," Sunye lied. "I was told that someone named Mrs. Yang Seojun lived around here somewhere but I can't find her address. Where's house number 15A?"

"15A?" one of the men leered. "Why care about that old woman? Hang out with us, babe!"

He lecherously grinned at her, gazing at the voluptuous beauty who was unfortunate enough to enter their turf. 

"She looks loaded too," another man said. They were very much interested in the woman, their aura beginning to turn intimidating. But Sunye kept her head cool.

"Never show them that you're scared," one of SD's many prep talks swirled in her head. "No matter what happens, keep your fear in check."

"I want to go to 15A," she said coolly. "If you can't tell me the way, then I might have to force it out of you."

"Feisty," a third man leered. "Let's see how you'll hold up-"

He reached out his hand to touch her but in a quick motion, she grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back with full force. Before his friends could retaliate, Sunye pushed him on them, causing the men to fall on the ground.

"GET HER!" 

Two of them lunged at her but Sunye took out a knife which was hidden in her shoe and lunged it in one of their arms while using her other arm to elbow the other guy on the nose. They screamed in pain but she went on to punch their balls, making them topple on the ground.

The other two men also tried to disarm her but she dodged their attacks and kicked one of them in the groin. The fourth man tried to hit her with a heavy pot but she threw the knife at his knee, slashing his knee with a well aimed attack. He tripped and the pot fell on his chest and the man yelled in agony. All of them took hits to critical areas, knocked out by a mere woman.

They struggled to get up while Sunye wiped the sweat from her forehead. One of them tried to attack her again but-

BANG!

The sound of the gunshot scared them and the man fell back. A bullet swerved past him, missing him by mere inches as it hit the wall behind them. Sunye turned around to find SD standing there with a gun in his hand, pointing at the men. They looked terrified and all of them scrambled up to run away.

"Sixty percent," he remarked. "That's your score. Not bad."

"I beat up all of them," she frowned. "I deserve more marks."

"Yeah, but you didn't knock them out completely," SD stated. "So I deducted marks for that. Besides, you had to use your weapon. If the Cho's get to you, your weapon will get confiscated. It's for safety but don't rely on it for attack."

But he was beaming. He had not left her alone. Instead, he drove around the ghetto and entered through a different route to hide from her. He watched her from afar as she took on the men on her own, ready to jump in if she fell into any serious trouble. 

To his relief, she handled the men on her own but there was still a lot to learn. 

"You can handle street ruffians but the Cho clan members are trained fighters," he went on. "This was not even one percent of their skills but you'll get there."

"Weeks of practice and not even one percent?" Sunye frowned. 

"They've been killing for years, Sunye," he said as they walked towards the car. "There's still a long way to go. Next lesson is shooting practice. You've mastered the knife pretty well but guns are a different thing."

Sunye nodded but she felt extremely proud of herself at the same time. Only a month ago, she could barely hurt a fly but now, she beat up four men twice her size. She used to think that fighting was all about size and aim but SD taught her that size did not matter as long as she knew the critical points of the human body. Adrenaline rushed through her veins and she wanted to learn more from him.

"Since you passed this test," he said. "You deserve a reward. What do you want?"

"Reward?" Sunye echoed. 

"You don't want any?" SD mused.

"I do!" she exclaimed. "Er…"

Sunye thought hard. This was a rare chance because SD rarely gave any rewards for his lessons. Most of the time, he would do something perverted if she failed but now that she had passed one test, she could ask for something.

A thought crossed her mind. She had been deliberating for weeks whether to ask him about his eyes or not but every time she backed out. What if he became angry and refused to talk? She thought fast about how to approach him.

"I want you to answer something honestly," she finally said. "But not here. Let's go somewhere. Like...the beach! Let's go to the beach. Now."

"It'll be late by the time we get there," he pointed out.

"Doesn't matter!" she said. "Let's go. I want to ask you something and you can't lie nor get angry. Understood?"

"Fine," SD smirked. "I'll answer your most burning question. Although I'd prefer to get your body burning up for me instead-"

"I'm gonna aim my knife at you now."

"Make sure I bleed," he winked. Sunye groaned in annoyance. Somehow, the masochist turned every little thing into his perverted fetish. 

"Moron," she muttered.

….

"Ugh!" Orea scowled. "What is it with these flashy stuff? Can't a girl get a decent t-shirt?"

She was scavenging through the clothes at the women's section and to her disdain, all of them were either too sparkly or too bright. Orea preferred light colored clothes or ones with idol's faces on them. But the designer clothes at the mall were pissing her off.

"Lame," she muttered and walked off to find something else. Minwoo was in the trial room, testing out different clothes so she was stuck in the mall for hours.

"Should I check out the gadget shops?" she wondered. "But SD told me that if I dared to spend any more money on useless gadgets, he would stop my pocket money for a month."

It was true. Her room was cluttered with many useless gadgets which she eventually broke apart and reconfigured them to her needs. It drove SD up the wall because of all the noise she created and also because she did not sleep for days when she was in her inventor mode. So he occasionally stopped her pocket money to keep her from spending too much.

"Go do stuff normal teenagers do!" She mimicked him. "Go to parties and get drunk or something! Git! Unlike you, I'm a good kid!"

Scowling, she wandered aimlessly and was about to knock on Minwoo's trial room when suddenly, a pair of hands came out and pulled her into the other trial room. On instinct, Orea twisted the assailant's arm and pinned him against the wall. 

"OI!"

"Myung?" Orea frowned. "What the hell are you doing?"

Myung was wincing in pain. How did this tiny girl get so strong? Her hands gripped him so hard that it felt like she was a professional fighter!

"Don't ever sneak up on me otherwise I'll end up killing you!" she warned, letting him go. "I'm a blackbelt in mixed martial arts!"

"I can see that!" he grumbled, massaging his arm. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Orea shot back.

"You're with that guy!" Myung accused her. "Why?"

Orea froze. Myung saw her with Minwoo! Shit!

"I was helping him," she stated. "He wanted to see the city but couldn't do so freely so I told him he can come here. It's a pretty celebrity friendly place. And he needed clothes so he's checking out the shops."

"Liar."

Myung stepped closer to her. Orea was a little nervous being trapped in such a small space with him. She stepped back until her back was against the wall. 

"Do you like him?" he softly demanded. Myung could not help but ask her what she felt for Minwoo. The way the guy was hovering around her, Myung felt his heart being torn into pieces. He never felt so strongly about a girl before and seeing her with any other guy was driving him mad with jealousy.

"Minwoo?" Orea asked. "Hell no! We're just friends! My heart belongs to all my idols-"

"No."

"Eh?" 

"No," Myung whispered. He held her cheek, looking directly into her eyes. Orea blinked in confusion but her heart was beating fast. He was gazing at her with such intensity that she could not look away at all. What was this strange feeling?

"I don't think I can share your heart with anyone," he softly said. Before Orea could ask what he meant, he leaned forward to capture her lips into a kiss.