Hoen let out a brief sigh of relief as he grabbed his backpack, the weekend was beginning and he was glad to have the break from this place. Steel grey orbs shifted from one side to the other as Hoen's gaze absorbed his surroundings, around him several of his grade 10 classmates hurried frantically to gather their items and rush to their waiting parents. "Pfft." Hoenhime huffed at the air. Something about the scene bothered him, sliding his slender pale hands into his pockets he shifted through the halls at a slow leisurely pace.

Suddenly a tap on his shoulder caused Hoen to straighten his back and turn to meet the disturbance, it was Jonathan, the 'ace' of his class. Hoen didn't have a particular liking of Jonathan, a few times he had approached Hoen in regards to cases where Hoen had upset others. Such a nosey and bothersome person he was, "What do you want?" Hoenhime offered coldly.

"Well, I heard a rumour that you got one of those weird old parchments... is that true?" Jonathan responded.

"And if it is?"

"I got one as well not long ago, but it had an odd note with it. I was wondering if you knew anything more about them?" Jonathan asked in a friendly tone.

"A note? Mine was found just as is. Regardless I know don't anything. Is that all?" Hoenhime asked in reply seeming impatient. In actuality he had as much time as he wanted, however, Hoen found acting impatient made others uncomfortable and he didn't mind leaving such an impression on Jonathan.

"Actually, something about my parchment got me thinking... I wanted to arrange a little get together with everyone who got one to try and see if we could figure anything out about them." Jonathan responded with a smile. He was quite a patient person to no be discouraged by Hoen's attitude.

"I'll pass." Hoenhime responded flatly.

"Oh come on, aren't you curious about what the parchments mean? Clearly someone went to a lot of effort to get the paper looking so old and I bet there is something to them!" Jonathan insisted in protest.

"I have no interest in chasing some stupid riddle. But if it'll get you to leave me alone, I'll just give you the piece of junk." Hoenhime offered in return.

A sly smile fell across Jonathan's face, one that made Hoen feel uncomfortable. "Great! Drop it off behind the gym here at school tomorrow around 2PM yeah?!"

"What n-" Hoenhime was cut off.

"Great thanks! See ya' there! I'll be waiting! Remember, behind the gym at 2!" Jonathan shouted as he distanced himself from Hoenhime.

Hoen moved to pursue the charismatic 'ace', but stopped when he noticed Jonathan was already talking to another person, Sarah Smith, the gossip queen from one of the other year ten class groups. Hoen let out a sigh, he wasn't keen on having another run in with Sarah, they weren't exactly on the best of terms. She had tried to get close to Hoen once when she heard his family was rich, assuming having a rich friend would make her more popular, the relationship was short lived when Hoen told her she talks too much about useless 'crap' as he had said it. Never the less, they have been at odds ever since. Hoen shrugged his shoulders as he turned his back on the pair and continued his route out of the building, continuing his journey he stopped only to sip from the drinking fountain. As he followed that familiar route home Hoen felt displeased, he'd managed to avoid his brothers this morning, it was a great start to his day he thought, but there was no avoiding their smug gaze when ever he returned home from school. "Oh well..." Hoen muttered to himself while keeping his relaxed pace.

Shelley stood in front of her locker at the end of the school day, taking any materials she would need for weekend assignments and leaving behind anything she wouldn't need. It had been a bad week. She had found a strange parchment and the people in her class created a rumor of how the mysterious note came for a psychopathic stalker. Before people usually ignored her, but now she had a lot of unwanted attention, and could only hope for everything to blow over. Still, as silly as the rumor sounded, the possibility of being stalked put her on edge and made her feel unwell and slightly paranoid. Out of a strange fear, Shelley hadn't yet thrown the parchment away, which spawned another ludicrous rumor that she actually wanted to meet her stalker. She closed her locker and hoped that everything would be back to normal after the weekend and the class' short attention span would find something else to latch on to.

As she made to head out of school, an older student stood in front of her. "Are you Shelley Cao?" Jonathan Hyre asked, mispronouncing 'Cao' as 'cow' instead of correctly as 'tsao', which is what everyone did anyways.

Shelley nodded weakly and replied, "Y-yes..."

"I heard you got a strange parchment," Jonathan said.

"I-I did. It's not from you...is it?" Shelley asked, shifting backwards apprehensively.

"No, no. I got one too, so have others," Jonathan replied, trying to calm Shelley, knowing that the rumors surrounding her parchment involved a stalker. "I take it you don't know anything about the parchment then?"

"I don't," Shelley replied.

Jonathan decided to be blunt, "Everyone I've talked to doesn't know anything about these parchments, so I wanted to gather everyone together tomorrow at 2PM, right here at this school." Sensing a bit of emotional vulnerability, Jonathan dialed up the pressure a little, "Everyone's going to be there, so if you don't come we'll all have wasted our time. You'll come, right?"

"I-I..." Shelley hesitated. She had planned on finishing her homework quickly and vegetating the rest of the weekend. But she was also a little curious. Maybe the whole thing was just an elaborate prank, but maybe at least after Saturday, the rumors would finally stop. "Y-yeah, I'll be there..."

"Great! I'll see you at 2!" Jonathan said as he went on his way.

"He didn't even introduce himself," Shelley thought, feeling suddenly a little used.

The sun was kissing the horizon by the time Hoen made it to the rather large estate he begrudgingly called home. Marching up their long drive way Hoen paid the lavish garden beds full of flowers no mind, the sight would no doubt draw awe from others, however, living in the estate he found their appearance more superficial than anything, just another decoration aimed at showing others that Hoenhime's family had what others did not, or so he thought anyway. Hoenhime stopped briefly and looked over the place he called home, it was a large three story building adorned in a pale yellow white, complemented by marble pillars that held up a small covering protruding from above the front door. From the front you could count six rooms by their large windows dotting the structure in two vertical rows perfectly symmetrical from one another. The house contained a basement, attic, large kitchen and dinning room, three bathrooms, a huge living room as well as two studies, a dedicated entertainment room an ensuite and several other rooms, however, had you asked anyone who lived in this building for these details, save for the housekeeper, you'd likely get a very different response.

Hoenhime's parents worked a lot, their illustrious careers keeping them from home for prolonged periods of time, this made the estate an unpleasant place as it often felt quite empty without a proper commanding presence. For this reason Hoenhime and his brothers tended to keep to their own areas of the house. Though without fail most evenings his brothers would have guests over causing a mess in the living room and entertainment room on the first floor. It was for this reason Hoen felt blessed to be have the only occupied bedroom on the third floor, this was also where his father's study rested, housing several old and worn books covering the greater part of two walls.

As Hoenhime entered the estate a slim women in her twenties, dressed in a black frilly blouse with black dress pants rushed from down a hall to welcome Hoen. "Good evening Hoenhime." Marie said politely. Her long blonde hair sat tied back into a bun while thin square rimmed glasses sat elegantly on her face. The housekeeper always seemed to have a professional look about her, despite her rough and sometimes brutal nature.

"Hello Marie, it's quieter than usual, please tell me my brothers are in the hospital or some similar fortunate situation has come to be." Hoen stated sarcastically. His disdain for his brothers and theirs for him was no secret.

"I'm afraid not, Marcus is in his room listening to music while Wayne has yet to return home." Marie replied quickly. A concerned look grew on her face, she too wasn't a big fan of Hoen's older brothers, their spoilt nature and position of power often came to ill effects for Marie, though she knew how to enforce a degree of respect from them when ever they stepped too far out of line. That said, she was clearly chosen for this position due to her ability to handle Hoen's brothers rather than any particular skill in regards to housekeeping, this often meant that she'd come to Hoenhime for help regarding certain matters. Although an annoyance, Hoenhime didn't mind too much being relied on, it gave him a sense of responsibility and he appreciated the idea that there was someone who needed him in the world, even if it was for such minor affairs.

"Looks like it'll be a good day after all. I'll be heading to my room now." Hoenhime stated as he began walking towards the stairs.

"What should I do if Wayne doesn't return before sun down?" Marie asked with a concerned tone.

"Don't mind him, hopefully he wont return at all." Hoen replied.

"I'm serious, should I call him?" Marie snapped. After all this was not a joke to her, it was apart of her job.

Feeling somewhat annoyed at her incompetence, or maybe at the fact that even when he wasn't here Wayne was still in some way demanding his attention, Hoenhime responded sternly. "I doubt he'd answer, if he doesn't then..." Hoenhime looked at his watched. "Call mother in an hour and she'll take care of it."

"Are you sure it is okay to pester Mrs. Exentia with something like this?" Marie responded. Her inexperience was abhorrently clear, but it couldn't be helped, she was hired only a few months ago after all and she wasn't yet used to how things operated in this household. She'd no doubt get a response from Hoenhime's mother that Wayne told her he was spending the night at a friends house and that would be that.

"Well what would you prefer? To leave Wayne to his antics or pester Mother to find out what he is doing?" Hoenhime responded sharply. He turned back towards his path leaving Marie to weigh her choices. As he shifted towards the stairs on the 2nd floor leading to the 3rd Honehime could hear loud rap music resonating from Marcus's room down the hall, he felt relieved that his brother had decided to keep to his room this evening. Between the two Marcus was definitely the more obnoxious while Wayne was more conniving.

Hoenhime shifted his way to his bedroom, it's door nestled to the far east of the house. This is where his today would end and the his tomorrow would begin, he'd dwell on the happenings of his day as he did his homework, then he'd go to sleep expecting a similar experience tomorrow, after all Jonathan's sly little antic seemed to impose a degree of responsibility onto Hoenhime, whether it is warranted or not.

"I'm home," Shelley said in Cantonese upon entering her house. Shelley's mother and grandmother were in the middle of some sort of argument, so her mother simply gave a short nod of acknowledgment.

Her grandmother, on the other hand, stopped the argument for a moment and turned to Shelley, "Welcome back, Shi Ling," she said in Cantonese, "How was your day at school today?"

Shelley's mother gave Shelley a look that said, 'just indulge her, but not too long; I'm not letting her weasel her way out of this argument just because I'm winning'.

"It was fine..." Shelley said non-noncommittally.

"Did you meet any nice boys?" her grandmother prodded.

"Mom..." Shelley's mother said in exasperation, "Shi Ling's too young, and needs to focus on her studies."

As their argument resumed, Shelley quietly made her way upstairs to her room. Because of the thin walls, she could still hear the argument downstairs, a cacophony that always made her heart sink. She booted up her computer and put on her headphones. Randomly, her grandmother's question popped into her head, and she realized that she had in fact met a boy, Johnathan Hyre, but she doubted that that really counted. But then again, he did ask to meet up on a weekend, but it wasn't like he was asking her out; Shelley wasn't really 'dating material', people hardly looked at her. She didn't really want to go tomorrow, she had just purchased an empire management game during the recent Steam Sale and was ready to waste her whole weekend pouring hours into attempting to conquer the galaxy against a bunch of AI. As if to provoke her, the parchment stuck out awkwardly from a stack of unsorted stationery. She'd be glad to be rid of it along with the dumb rumors that had been circulating. She sighed and booted up the game; she would play until her mom called her down to an awkward dinner.

Heon's morning started on routine, Wayne had returned sometime in the night and was snoring in his room while Marcus sat at the dining table with a stupid grin as he glaring at his smartphone. The smell of fresh bacon and eggs tantalised Heonhime's taste buds as Marie cooked up his morning meal while humming an unfamiliar tune. Sitting at the large dark wood dining table, Hoen resting his cheek on one hand while he peered into the world outside the window. As Marie laid out Heon's breakfast before him he paid her no mind as he started to eat. He felt so far away from that world outside as he picked at his expensive thick slices of bacon with finely crafted silverware.

"Hey peasant, what is that dumb look for?" Marcus said with his mouth full of bread and bacon.

"Dumb look? Are you sure you're not projecting again Marcus?" Hoen offered back quickly.

"We're too far apart in prestige little brother, I'd never make such a mistake." Marcus huffed with a grin.

"I guess it would be hard to project when you're already so far up your own arse."

"Cut the pissing contest!" Marie shouted from the kitchen not far away. With her command Marcus shrugged his plump figure before glaring back at his smartphone once more while Hoenhime went back to eating.

With the morning pleasantries cut short by Marie, Hoen finished his meal before shifting to the third floor bathroom to clean up and prepare himself for the day. He pondered on his commitment to meet up with Jonathan at 2PM, though you could hardly call it a commitment, Hoen reasoned any excuse to stay out of the house was a good one. Shifting to his bed room Hoen eyed the rolled up parchment that sat on his desk, he'd contemplated throwing it away on more than one occasion and yet there it sat. Although he'd never admit it to his face, Jonathan was right, the parchment held an odd aura of curiosity that Hoenhime wouldn't mind getting cleared up.

It was 10:30AM by the time Hoen left the house, luckily for him Wayne was still asleep and besides a few snide remarks, Marcus remained primarily glued to his smartphone. Wearing an expensive long sleeved, black silk shirt and pants, Hoenhime made his way towards the school, intending to stop by the local library on his way.

Shelley woke up at 11AM. Her mother didn't like her sleeping in this late, but she usually didn't say anything about, thinking Shelley was old enough to manage her own sleep schedule. At any rate, it was a weekend, and Shelley didn't have anything she needed to do. Shelley groaned to herself. She had stayed up pretty late playing games, even though she kept telling herself she would finish her homework early so she wouldn't have to worry about it over the weekend.

She washed up, brushed her teeth, and headed downstairs where her mother was preparing lunch. Shelley usually skipped breakfast if she woke up this late.

"Good morning, Shi Ling," her grandmother said, "I used to wake up late when I was your age."

Shelley nodded, unable to count how many times her grandmother had said this in the past. "Hey mom, I'll be going out later today," Shelley said.

"Oh? What for?" her mother asked.

"Oh, umm...well, you know..." Shelley didn't have a good excuse, it wasn't like she had any friends that she was close enough with t ohang out with over the weekends. "There's this...game coming out..."

"Shelley, I swear, you spend too much time and money on those. I've a mind to forbid you from playing games until your grades improve," Shelley's mother complained.

Shelley bit her lip. She had slowly stopped buying at game stores, and started making more and more purchases online so her mother wouldn't nag her about it as much. "I...I know mom...but I really want this game...I'll work harder at school, so will you please let me...?"

Shelley's mom didn't say anything for a bit, but because she had argued with grandmother yesterday, and they had sort of reconciled, she felt that maybe today she should be nicer to Shelley, if only to make grandmother feel happy. "Fine."

"Th-Thanks...Mom..." Shelley said, wishing that she was actually going to buy a game because it wasn't normally this easy to get her permission.

After finishing lunch Shelley headed out. It was 12PM, and she had two hours to figure out how to get to school. She normally took the bus, but it wasn't running on a Saturday as expected. She also hardly ever went out without her mother who drove everywhere, and school was too far to walk to. Shelley wandered around, until she found a bus stop for non-school-buses. She had a hard time reading the bus lines map and determining which bus she should get on, and by the time she had figured it out, realized that several of the buses she could have gotten on to go to her destination had already come and gone. When the next one finally arrived, she got on, and then had a hard time paying the bus driver, fiddling nervously through her wallet.

The rest of the ride she sat through nervously, desperately afraid she'd miss her stop, and causing her to hit to 'next stop' button twice, coaxing some condescending giggles from the two younger boys sitting in the seats behind her.

She got off, seeing recognizable scenery of the area near the school. It was only 1PM. She had made good time considering she didn't get on the bus until 12:30PM, but now she was an hour early and had no idea what to do in the mean time. Well, almost no idea. She pulled out a handheld gaming console, found a place to sit and whiled away the hour playing, not even considering the possibility that the school gate might be locked for the weekend.

It was fifteen to two when Heon left the Library, his backpack hung over one shoulder weighed down by the tomes he had hired out. Looking at his watch he decided to head to school. 'Jonathan sure had an odd way about doing things.' Heonhime thought to himself as he marched towards his destination. But the location made sense, it was familiar to all involved and the fence surrounding the oval and gym had a section to it that was broken.

As he walked Hoen's mind filled with thoughts regarding the parchment, he wondered if they're really find out anything if they brought all of them together, nothing about Hoenhime's parchment seemed to indicate that that'd be the case. "Ahh well, no use in trying I guess." Hoen huffed throwing his hands behind his head and looking up to the sky as he walked. It was quite a nice day, or say Heonhime thought anyway; overcast and windy yet not a hint of rain, though this type of weather had a tendency to change quickly.

Coming into view of the school entrance, Hoen noticed a young girl seated with her eyes glued to a handheld console. Shifting closer he peered at her for a moment, she looked familiar some how and that bothered Hoenhime. "Are you one of Jonathan's peons?" Hoen asked abruptly raising an eye brow. He couldn't think of any other reason why'd someone her age would be here. "Got one of these right?" Hoen probed further as he rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a piece of square parchment with a glyph printed on it.

Shelley had noticed movement from her peripheral vision, but paid the approaching figure no heed as several people had walked by this street in the last 45 minutes. However when he talked to her, she looked up at him. "P-peon? N-no, I'm just..." she said until he pulled out the parchment, "Y-yeah...that..." It suddenly occurred to Shelley that she didn't remember grabbing the parchment on her way out. In a panic she looked through her purse, which her mother told her to always bring whenever she left the house even though she didn't like the idea of carrying a purse. She relaxed when she remembered stuffing the parchment into her purse the night before, and promptly located it.

"Whew...I-I thought I forgot to bring it..." Shelley sighed to herself. She looked up at Hoen, not recognizing him. "Y-you know what these papers are? Did your classmates spread rumors about you having a stalker as well?"

"Why would I care what they think?" Heon asked confidently as he stuffed the parchment back into his bag. 'So she's a student dragged here by Jonathan as well. No wonder I couldn't remember her, she seems so timid.' Heonhime thought to himself. "Anyway, if you're waiting for the gate to open you might be here awhile." Hoen stated coldly. "If you want to get to the gym, you'll have to cut through the oval, there is a hole in the fence." Hoenhime continued. He didn't want to be kept waiting if she didn't know how to get to the gym after all.

As was typical of his conduct with others, Heonhime turned back to his journey without offering his name or even a proper greeting. Sliding his hands into his pockets he followed along the school's border until he reached a large grass oval, the oval fence followed through to a small clearing of trees and untended grass, it was here that the fence was damaged most and a large hole could be found, produced by a split in the fence's links that were pulled back to produce an opening. Ducking through the hole, Heonhime took a deep breathe when he emerged on the other side. This hadn't been the first time he'd done this and he doubted that it'd be the last. Across the oval sat a large red brick building with a basketball court to it's side, Hoen could see some figures next to the large structure off in the distance and started making his way towards them.

"Oh!" Shelley remarked after Hoen told her of the hole in the fence. She stood up abruptly, then looked back down at her device, making sure to save her progress before putting it away. "T-thank you for telling me." She felt that it was fortunate he passed in front of her, otherwise, as had he said, she'd really be waiting at the front gate for a long time. She followed him to the hole, and waited for him to pass through. Shelley took her time going through, not wanting to get too many burrs on herself from the grass, nor wanting for any part of her clothes to catch on the chain link fence and tear; she'd have a hell of a time explaining how that happened to her mom.

"W-we should tell a custodian or janitor on Monday about this hole," Shelley said, for no other reason besides that it was 'against regulations'. Not really expecting Hoen to reply, she simply followed him to the rear of the gym where the others were waiting. None of the people here seemed to have that 'weak freshman' look, so she assumed they were probably all upperclassmen. She was really glad that Hoen passed by the front, because all these people had made it in here without her knowing. Shelley was surprised that a total of five people had this same parchment problem, though she didn't hear any dumb rumors about anyone else.