•PART 1•

it was a bright day in the city of Verona, Italy.

the people left their habitats to go to work, the shopkeepers were busily setting up their shops.

the youngsters were either rushing to their schools, or universities or were just taking the gush of nature in the morning.

and down the street,

in the white emerald building, a young lad had just woken up.

getting out of the bathroom she stepped into her closet, finding herself her fit she walked into the drawing room picking up her backpack and mobile from the charging point.

It was a daily routine for her to wake up, shower, dress up, skip breakfast half of the time, take her backpack, and move out for the university.

Stepping out of her apartment, the automated door beeped locked behind her as she left for the stairs.

according to her lifts were for emergency situations only. if you have any heavy stuff with you, like groceries, new equipment, a drunk friend, or whatsoever.

using the stairs she walked out of the building and started moving towards the university. while moving around the lane, she thought of picking herself an iced coffee and she turned towards her usual cafe. the bell dinged, alerting the staff about the customer.

"oh hello, yeon! good morning!" a man in his mid-30s waved at her.

"yes, good morning jerry." she replied.

──── jerry was the cafe's owner yeon got to know about when she had just moved to the city. yeon chose the cafe because of the dark and silent ambiance, but it turned out that it had the best iced coffee in town.

she started going there every morning sitting at the same table near the counter ordering the same coffee, and the owner was starting to get fond of her silent demeanor, he would start small talk, ask her to try the samples of new recipes now and then and she sometimes helped him when he used to be stuck with the high technologies of the world.────

"oh, did you have a late night again?" he asked as he was wiping the counter island.

sitting on the chair near the counter she placed her hands on the table, "it's that obvious?"

jerry smiled, "yes, totally. your face changes its color from golden brownish to pale whenever you do so."

she looked up at him, touching her face, "oh it's just the face? that's fine."

"well, your face is one, your voice is another. but obviously, anyone who knows you well will know it's your daily voice."

yeon sighed and slumped back into the table.

"i'll just say that stop being up till late! it ruins your beautiful face."

she looked at him with a scrunched face and jerry laughed.

"okay fine, i'll shut up. your iced coffee coming right up."

after a minute he kept the coffee in front of her. she picked it up and got her card swiped at the cash counter.

"don't want anything to eat or you're skipping breakfast again?"

"i'll eat later, see you in the evening jerry."

"okay, eat something at the cafeteria then!" jerry waved at her dispersing figure and she waved back.

┊ ➶ ｡˚ 　　°┊ ➶ ｡˚ 　　°┊

leaving her neighborhood, she turned to the main street where other students were walking down the same trail for the university.

after a few minutes, the massive gate to the academy could be seen.

──── the heritage academy ────

when entering you could see the cars and bikes parked in the assigned parking lots. yeon goes straight for the IT block and heads for her department.

at the entrance of her department building, the building guard wished her.

she waved at him while entering the building.

moving towards her class she put on her earbuds and turned up her music playlist.

stepping into the classroom she took a seat in the corner and kept her stuff on the seat next to her.

when her classmates saw her they waved at her, knowing she was wearing her earphones as usual. she nodded her head in their way and took out her laptop.

After a minute or two, the professor came into the class and the lecture began.

it was some 10 minutes into the lecture, when there was a knock at the door. The professor stopped and checked who it was. Then he came in with a slip in his hand.

"Yeon? The dean is asking for you, please go."

the class and the professor turned towards her together. she looked up awkwardly, and nodded while getting up and leaving the class.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

leaving the IT building, she entered the administration building and stopped in front of the reception desk.

the lady sitting behind the table rang the intercom as soon as she saw her.

"you can go inside, he's waiting for you."

yeon nodded and knocked at the door twice.

a faint 'come in' was heard from the inside, so she opened the door and stepped inside.

"you called for me, sir?"

"yes, have a seat."

the dean replied in a deep, gruff voice and stood up from his chair, moving towards the couch.

"you were in your class? did i disturb you?"

"yes, you did." yeon replied while sitting on the couch in front of him.

────The dean, Mr. Vinc Dario, is in his early 40s, a normal built but fit physique. most importantly, a Mexican. yeon has known him since her high school days because of her brother. Vinc was famously known for being a hard-headed and tough guy. but as she got to know him, it turned out he has a soft space in his heart somewhere.

He clearly has some extra business other than running a group of universities. A university is just a good cover.

This is all the information he doesn't want yeon to know, but guess what.────

oh, I don't care, you had to be here." he took out some papers from a folder he had with him.

"all fine?" she questioned.

"yeah, kind of. firstly, the order you made is delivered. here's the list." he passed her a paper which was supposedly the content list.

"oh that's good, what's wrong with it?"

he sighed and handed her another bunch of papers,

"check for the order M201, you asked for 15 units, right?"

she looked into the papers looking for the order and frowned when she couldn't see it anywhere.

"it's not here?"

dario shook his head, "no, not a single unit is delivered."

yeon looked again at the content list, "but how's it possible? i myself confirmed the orders and they said that they have shipped all of the items!"

"i know, and that is what's wrong here," he passed her the iPad he was holding, "the delivery truck was supposedly stopped midway, and those specific order crates were taken out of the truck."

yeon took the iPad from him, on which a video was playing showing some people dressed in black, taking the crates out of the truck.

"what the hell? what did the driver say?"

she asked as she zoomed into the video, looking more closely.

"he said that some people jumped out on the road, and he had to stop the truck abruptly. They threatened him with a gun so he had to open the truck for them."

yeon breathed out in annoyance. "is he for real? how come he didn't think of reporting it to us the very moment?"

dario simply sighed, "but what was in the crates? something important?"

she stood up and took her mobile out, "yeah, they were important."

"what was in there?" dario asked again.

"monitor security systems. i ordered them for the servers because of the tech expo which we are hosting." she then clicked on a number in the contacts, quickly typing something into the mobile.

"oh, are these the ones you were looking so hard for!? you literally troubled my staff for the whole week for finding the best sellers of those systems!" Dario stretched back on the couch, "we can't order more of them?"

yeon sighed, "no, we cannot. those were imported from the Netherlands, and those were the last batch from the creators directly. shit, this is bad."

"we can order other models, we still have time for the expo to begin. yeah?" dario offered.

"no, we cannot. those were the most secured batches of all the server systems. and, looking at the constant threats the academy was getting, i thought of them as the last peaceful resort."

dario was now seated in his chair, he folded his arms and looked towards yeon.

"and when were you planning to tell me that? also since when do you resort to peaceful ways?"

"firstly, i wasn't. secondly, since i came back from the vacation you forcefully sent me to." yeon replied not looking up from her mobile.

"who's threatening us?" he leaned onto the table.

she paused with the typing, "we're not sure yet. i'll let you know when i know about it. okay, i'll leave now, i have a class ongoing──"

"Who is it, yeon?"

and──── shit.

yeon stopped in her tracks and sighed. turning around, she saw a strict stare coming right at her.

"it's a group or association, whatever. you might know about them, the black knights, was it? yeah. the black knights."

dario's eyes widen slightly, and yeon seems to notice that.

"don't worry about it sir, i'll get it handled." yeon waved him off.

dario abruptly stood up from his chair, "no, you'll not. you are not going to engage with them. you understand?"

yeon sighed and stepped toward him and folded her hands, "you don't have to worry about me, i'll be fine, they don't know anything about me."

"so you do know about them, then why are you still trying to get involved with them!?"

he banged his hands on the table, making the coffee cup fall onto the ground breaking into pieces.

yeon winced at the sight, "come on dario! someone's literally threatening the academy and you want me to do nothing?"

before he could interrupt, she continued, "and you don't have to worry about me, no one knows who i am."

after a moment of exchanging stares, "so, i should get back to my class."

yeon then stepped back having a look at her watch, "which is probably over by now, so i should go and pick my stuff from the classroom. see you later."

she waved at the dean, and he half-heartedly waved back. she stepped out of the office and heard him say something else but she closed the door before he could complete the sentence.

the reception lady gave her a sympathetic smile, and before she could say anything, her intercom started ringing.

she picked it up and then after listening to it, she kept it down.

yeon stayed there as she knew it was for her. The lady then gave her a file.

"sir said that some of the participants and the guests for the tech expo have arrived early and the rest are yet to arrive, here's the list of the guests, and of those who have arrived. they will be staying in the academy dorms."

she nodded and took the file from her. then as she was leaving, the receptionist called her back,

"the dean is rude, but he still cares. use the list to be away from the expo guests."

yeon nodded at this, "thank you, Maria, I will." she waved at her and left the administration block, to get her stuff from the classroom.

she turned towards the IT block and entered her class, only to see her backpack and laptop missing from her seat. She looked at the seats beside her chair, and at the teacher's desk too but couldn't find them.

unable to find it, she stepped out of the classroom, looking for her classmates or the janitor, if they might've seen her stuff. But something crashed into her roughly before she could step out of the corridor.

she lost her balance and tumbled down onto the ground. before she could look up at the thing that crashed into her, a very annoyed voice spoke up,

"oh for god's sake, is everyone fucking blind here?"

.・..・゜✭・.・✫・゜・.. ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ

<2045 words>

~ mad.k

•author•