10

It's a dewy morning. Yoon still crumples in the blanket. It's so cold in Hidden Meadow, especially after the rain yesterday. It's the best condition to pull your blanket and fall asleep again.

"Wake up, rise and shine!!!" Jein's voice vocal out, filling the silence all across the hall. Yoon grunts on his bed. The last time he wake-up like this was when he first entered the academy. Since then, he never let his ears get the vocal abuse.

"Yargh.. can you please be gentle when you wake me up? I almost this close to being deaf..." he slowly strolls towards the hall.

"Oh, morning! I thought you're dead!"

"It's still early Jein!"

"Oh yeah? It's almost lunchtime," Yoon's eyes getting widened. How long did he fall asleep? He supposes to follow Joon to pick some supplies at the storage. Looks like he missed it!

"Where's Joon?"

"At the storage with Justin," says Jein. He is busy picking lemons for lemonade.

"Huh, never mind. I'll help you cook.."

"Superb!" Jein feels excited. He seems to be tired of cooking every day. He knew he can count on Yoon instead of Joon, who probably burn the kitchen intentionally.

Yoon dragged his feet to the kitchen. Yes, he loves to sleep so much. But he is also hungry. And they got lots of things to do today, like study about the Maze City and other related documents.

He enters the kitchen when he notices Byul, holding a kitchen knife.

"Wow! What are you doing? Put that knife down!" he stutters as he stares at her. She maintains her poker face looking at Yoon, without feeling guilty.

"I'm hungry.."

"Yeah... yeah. But no need to kill people. What are you, Hannibal Lecter?" asks Yoon.

"Who said I wanna kill people?" said Byul.

"The way you hold the knife state everything, missy. Now put the God damn knife down," Yoon charges forward slowly. His mind was just set to be in alert mode. She puts the knife on the counter. Yoon grabs it and slide it farther from her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Jein asked me if I can help him cut some lemon for LEM..mo..nade? So, I was looking for any board that I can use as the base," and that explained everything. Yoon pulls a super deep heavy sigh. He thought that Byul wants to stab someone with that.

Although she's in control and comfy around them now, still he has a little trust issue. Well, if you are almost choked to death of course you will! Don't say that you can trust her so much if you haven't experienced a life and death situation like him.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just... The way you hold the knife is wrong.."

"Hmm... I just wanna help.." Byul sounds devastated.

"Let me teach you," says Yoon. He opens the kitchen drawer and pulls out a clean chopping board and places the knife on the chopping board.

"Come here.." she getting close to Yoon. He grabs a lemon, roll it on the board for a few moments. Then, he cuts the lemon in half.

"You need to grab the holder like holding a spoon. If necessary, use your index to make it stable. Try it," he passes the board to Byul. She holds the knife again.

"No..not like that.. here.." he grabs her hand slowly, pushing her finger so she can grab the handle correctly.

"Okay.. now cut the lemon.." says Yoon. Byul holding the lemon using her finger.

"Nope, don't hold it like that. You might cut your finger. Roll your finger in, make it like a paw.." again, Yoon held her finger, roll it like a fist but not too tight, place the left hand on the lemon.

Byul struggles in the process, but the way Yoon patiently teaches her makes her heart feel warm. It's been a long time since she felt like that. Somehow, she feels fluttering inside.

Using his right hand, Yoon grips Byul's right hand which still holding the knife. Then he put her hand on the chopping board. This position makes him almost look like giving Byul a back hug. His head now is on her shoulder. She's slightly short, so Yoon effortlessly can look at the chopping board.

"So, you cut the lemon-like this.." his voice... Ooh.. smooth and creamy, abused her hearing! She can feel her heart pumping so fast, making her cheek burn. Her eyes waver, unsure where to look at. So, she keeps on looking at the lemon.

Yoon makes Byul practice the knife skill using the lemon pieces. He doesn't know why he decided to help her and end up hugging her like this. He couldn't help but accidentally sniff on her neck. She smells so nice, vanilla and a bit of lavender touch. Almost lose focus because of that. He talked slowly, praise her every time she makes an effort to learn. He feels.. happy all of a sudden.

"I'm working my ass off, and looked at you...having a nice beautiful morning date!" Joon's deep voice makes them startled.

"Ah..!" Byul accidentally cut her finger. She immediately put the knife down.

"Are you okay?" she nods and put a pressure on the finger. Yoon quickly grabs the kitchen towel on the countertop and dab her wound.

"Can you at least knock or say hi, good morning? And I'm teaching her how to cut lemon. Not a date!" says Yoon. Joon just smirks at him, looking at them with naughty eyes.

"Yargh! Look at your shoes! Oh, man.." Jein who comes in with a basket full of lemon smacked Joon's back. He immediately watches his muddy shoes. Luckily he didn't step inside the house yet, but he left such a nice muddy shoe print in front of the back door.

"Opsieee..."

" Throw that away before come in!"

"Sorry bae.." he teases Jein. That man fuming like crazy. Yoon swears he can see fire on his head.

"Ah!"

"Stop it! Okay.. okay.." Jein almost break the world record by killing a person using lemons. Joon giggles a bit. It's fun to tease him, but he needs to pay for the consequences.

"You two make a nice couple.." says Byul. Jein and Joon look away from each other, feeling shy all of a sudden.

"Nah.. he's too messy to handle!"

"He's rough!"

Byul couldn't help but smile when she witness the cute reaction from these two idiots. She can see the love between them behind that bickering.

She doesn't aware that someone is looking at her right now, with ease!

***

Three men and one-half alien, the half-human lady standing in front of the storage compartment just not far from the cottage house. Jein is talking on the phone with his friend, so he might probably join them later.

"So, anything else?"

" I think we're good.. this is enough for two weeks.." says Joon.

"Why do you guys have this at your property?" asks Yoon. He finds the storage house creepy and weird. It almost can be a shelter.

"Yeah, Jein is preparing for apocalypse," it's sarcastic but short answer by Joon.

"It's true.." they were startled by Jein's voice at the back. He was done talking to his friend and right on time when he heard Joon's answer about the storage house.

"I found this along with this property. It is a bomb shelter, but I make it a storage house because of its humidity and resistance. But lately, I think we should live in this for our safety. The alien attack was not over yet," says Jein. They look at each other, understanding the situation so damn well.

"I got a phone call from my friend. He said that his area got hit so badly. Lots of casualties and it seems like it won't stop. I am worry about here too. Although Joon already activate the shield.. still there is no guarantee," says Jein

"Jein is right. Even the main building like Black Wolf had been taken over by them in just one night," Justin agrees with him

"Don't forget the secret safety house of Black Knight," adds Yoon.

Byul feels a knot in her chest. All of the place mentioned connects with her. She knew they must be looking for her right now.

"So, as preparation for any worst situation, I keep this storage. Who knows maybe we need them one day," says Jein, patting the building wall.

"I hope we never use it. Let's pray that Hidden Meadow will stay safe forever," Justin closes his eyes and pray.

"You like living here, boy?" asks Jein. Justin nods and smiles, showing his bunny teeth. They giggle a bit looking at how innocent he is.

"Byul, what's wrong?" asks Yoon. She just looking at him with worried eyes. She feels like she needs to tell the truth, but she's just afraid that they might get freak out or worst, banish her away. She feels safe here, especially around Yoon.

"Byul? So, you know your name finally?" asks Justin. He walks backward facing her.

"No, actually Yoon is the one who gave me that name.." she says while looking at Yoon.

"It's a beautiful name!" says Joon.

"Well, thanks to Yoon.." answers Byul. He looks at her with smiley eyes. He's glad that Byul loves that name.

"Hey.. looked at that!" Justin excitedly points towards a cherry blossom tree. It is full of flowers all of a sudden. He ran towards Jein's front yard only to find all the flowers blooms.

"Wow!!" says Joon. He can't believe his eyes.

"Byul, come!" Justin grabs her hand and brings her towards the cherry blossom tree. She saw it in real life before. It is so beautiful and fascinating. She knew that she is the one who causes this. But, it is too complicated to explain. And lately, she can't control it.

"Weird.." says Jein.

"Why?" asks Joon.

"It's not spring yet.." Joon chokes when he heard that. It is true. Now it's summer. He looks at Byul who playing with Justin under the cherry blossom tree. She got pink cheek and radiant skin.

"Put that aside, just let them enjoy the moment," says Joon. He puts his hand on Jein's shoulder.

Yoon looked at Byul and Justin from far. As much as they look cute together, he suddenly feels uneasy and...jealous. But he can't just grab her hand and walk away like that. He still doesn't understand why he had that feeling. He has never acted like this before. He feels happy and relieved when Byul is at his side, worried and afraid if she losing from his sight.

Byul stares at him now, their eyes connect. She smiles as Justin slips a flower behind her ears. She looks so delicate, beautiful, and mesmerizing at the same time. Yoon lost in his thought. He can't take his eyes away from her. Again, he saw galaxies and stars around him.

Now, he's hundred percent sure...

He is her Guardian.