"Who are you?!"
Shin Areum could feel her heart thumping wildly as she asked the question.
The lights in the room were turned off, and the curtains were drawn. With the exception of the glow from the screen of the phone in her hand, the only light in the room came from a small partition in the curtains on the other side of the bed. However, that was enough for her to make out that she was not alone.
The soft light that made its way into the room was a pale shade of orange, probably indicating that it was still quite early in the morning. But Areum did not care about that. Her mind was alert, and her eyes focused sharply on the figure of the man next to her.
In the semi-darkness of the room, Areum could still make out that he was well-built but lean. The light landed on the contours of his muscles, giving off a powerful aura. His hair was jet black, and nicely trimmed, with a few bangs covering his face. He was currently rubbing his face with his right hand, seemingly calm. Almost too calm.
"Hey! I asked you a question, who are you?!" Areum shouted, frowning a bit more deeply. She was not accustomed to having to repeat herself. If he weren't a civilian, she would probably have expressed herself in a different way. But the Code could not be broken for trivialities like this.
The man exhaled, and brought his fingers to his eyes, rubbing them. He then softly pressed against the bridge of his nose, before finally dropping his hand from his face.
Although he was still staring straight ahead, Areum could feel her heart skip a beat looking at his profile. His skin was pale, but seemed to glow in the darkness of the room. His cheek-bones were sharp and nose bridge high, adding to his sense of assuredness. His jawline was strong, while his eyes seemed dark, but Areum couldn't be sure in the dimness of the room. He seemed to be around 27 years old – which would make him the same age as her. Almost involuntarily, she started bringing her fingers together, before she suddenly realised what she was doing and stopped herself.
'I almost activated my Aura!' she thought, aghast, 'That was a close call. Shin Areum, get a grip on yourself. This is only a civilian. You've brought yourself enough trouble anyway, now handle this properly!'
With a start she noticed that the man had started to get up. She saw that he was still wearing trousers, even though his torso was bare. As realization of what might have happened last night dawned on her, she looked down at her body, fearing the worst. However, she saw that she still wore her sports bra from her workout last evening, and was fully clothed in a pair of jeans from the waist down.
Although she couldn't be sure, she felt a little less tense internally. There was no way she could hook-up with a mere civilian. She was the first daughter of the Shin family, she needed to live up to the responsibilities that that brought with it. Normal civilians were to be strictly kept away from getting to know about their world: the System.
She suddenly recalled that he had still not answered her, and her temper finally started to get the better of her. She had to work hard to keep her Aura from coursing into her fingers in a deadly spur of energy.
"This is the last time I'll ask you this, who the hell are you?!" she said, in a menacing tone, "Don't try acting cocky with me, you punk."
"I'm not trying to act like anything."
His voice was deep, but he spoke languidly, as if he weren't pressed for time. He picked up his dark gray shirt from the arm of the chair by the bedside, and started putting it on.
"Even I'm trying to understand how we ended up here," he said, slowly turning around as he finished buttoning it up. He looked up into her face, and stared straight into her eyes without blinking.
Areum felt the breath hitch in her lungs for a second, before managing to get a grip on herself. Was that … nervousness that she had just felt? That was absurd!
"This wasn't supposed to happen," the man said calmly, "I'm going to have to ask you to forget that we found ourselves in this position."
Areum felt a nerve on her forehead twitch, "That's my line. Are you trying to condescend on me, bastard? You have no idea who I am."
The man started walk towards the other end of the room, and did not reply immediately. Areum saw him pick up something from the tabletop in front of a mirror at that end: a cologne. He sprayed a couple of puffs on his shirt.
"I can't be sure about anything else, but I can assure you that nothing happened between us yesterday."
"How?" Areum asked dubiously.
"I've got a couple of active Restraints. I can't get involved with anybody like that, this week."
"Huh?"
Restraints? Areum thought. She suppressed the flash of anxiety that had risen within her a second ago. He probably meant something else. There is no way a random civilian could know about-
"That's exactly what I meant, Restraints with a capital R," he said calmly, looking back at her with bored eyes, before smirking suddenly. "I also see that you're itching to activate your Aura. You're not very good at concealing it are you?"
Areum's eyes widened. A second later, she had stood up, and furrowed her brows in annoyance.
"This time, I'm going to ask you to answer me seriously," she said gravely, "Who are you?"
Restraints were suppression devices that Users normally put on themselves, to prevent any unintended display of their Aura. It kept them from unwittingly exposing themselves to civilians, and, depending on the expertise of the User, could sometimes even conceal their Aura from other Users of within a certain class.
However, Areum was not just any ordinary User. She was the Baroness of the Shin family. How had he kept his presence subdued without her realizing?!
He stood looking at her with a provocative smirk on his face.
Areum's lips curved in hostility.
"You'll get severely injured if you don't reply to me now, given what you've just revealed. I should warn you; I don't go easy."
"I think I can manage."
Areum's temper snapped.
Blast!
A magenta surge of energy covered her right arm in the shape of a gauntlet. There was no need for her to use more strength than was necessary in this situation, just 10% worth of Aura would be enough. She stared at him with a look that was an odd mixture of calmness and hostility. The muscles of her torso went taut, and her skin glowed in a powerful manner, and the edges of the black sports bra that was covering her well-endowed bosom, made with special materials that the System had access to, started to sizzle as it contained the energy from her Aura.
"This is your last chance, bastard. I can't take risks with variables like this."
"No problem. I should point out that we should probably not break anything in this roo-"
In a split second Areum had launched herself and was right in front of him, her fist closing in on his face.
Take that you cocky little shit!
The man's smirk widened.
Slap!
Areum stared in shock as he slapped her arm aside with his bare hands, meeting the entirety of the superhuman strength that was coursing through her arm. With blinding speed, another arm of his wrapped itself around her waist, and a second later, he had her pinned to the nearest wall – his left hand holding the arm that she'd just forced her Aura through against her neck, while he held her other arm to the wall with his right. He pressed her into the wall with his shoulder, staring at her with a hint of amusement.
"You're quite the strong lady, aren't you?" he said, chuckling, "But I have no intention of fighting here right now. I just want to be on my way, and you can go on yours."
"Hah! You think it's going to be that easy?" Areum managed to spit out at him, futilely struggling against his strong grip, "You have no idea who I am. You don't even remotely know what I can do."
"Is that right?"
"That's right. I'm Shin Areum, eldest daughter of the Shin family, and heir to the Phoenix Conglomerate. If I had used even half of my strength right now, I think you can tell what would've happened. I don't know what kind of Aura cancellation gimmick you have got on your body, but nothing can withstand an Aura blast exceeding 10% from a Baroness. The only concern I'd had was not meddling with the civilians in this building as a 10% + blast from my Aura might endanger them, but you're pushing your luck, punk."
The man continued to stare at her for a moment, saying nothing. Then he sighed, slowly backing off.
Areum smirked, looking at him. That's more like it!
Her phone beeped from the bed.
Great! She thought. So, they're on the way.
The moment she'd realised that he knew about the System and Auras, and that he'd had the power to conceal his Aura from being noticed by a Baroness like herself with exceedingly high stats of Detection, Areum had understood that she could not take any chances. She'd sent word to have the nearest Regiment of the Shin family start coming her way. Mister Baek-Hyun was on his way with the R-13 Regiment. She'd raised a Grade D apprehension alert: this man had to be taken into custody. She needed information about how much he knew.
"Three things," he said. Her eyes snapped back to his face.
"Firstly, I was not using any Aura cancellation device. Apprehension is just a skill that I happen to possess," he said calmly, smiling at her.
Areum felt her eyes widen. Apprehension?! Is he joking around? That's a Grade A skill. There is no way that a User like that could be in Seoul without her being aware.
"Secondly, I'll have to leave. Mister Baek-Hyun is going to have to wait a bit before he sees my stunning face again," he said, his tone light and joking.
"You bastard," Areum growled. She reactivated her Aura and dialed it up to 14%. A massive burst of magenta Aura energy shook the room, cracking the marble at her feet. A heavy atmosphere descended on the room. Almost instinctively, Areum smiled.
Feel the strength of the 6th ranked Aura User in this country, you punk!
"Finally," the man's calm voice cut through her thoughts with an unnatural sharpness. Areum stared at him in bewilderment.
"Its almost like fate brought us here together, Areum," he looked at her like he was enjoying the moment, "I wanted to go meet Mr. Man-Shik shortly anyway."
Areum felt a shiver run down her spine. Then she felt her rage intensifying.
"How do you know my father?" she said with consternation, "And how dare you think you can get an audience with him – "
"You'll see," he said, unfazed.
"Tell him I, Lee Jun-Seo, will come meet him tomorrow evening."
"You're still on about that?!"
"I'll see you soon, Ms. Shin."
"Shut up-"
Crackle!
The words dried up in Areum's throat. It all happened in the course of a few seconds, but she stood there for at least a minute, staring blankly, and trying to register it all.
A surge of lightning-blue energy had covered the body of the man, before getting a sudden boost as he had pumped a bit more power into it. A second later, he was nowhere to be seen, the place where he had been standing until a moment earlier crackling from the remnants of his Aura. The curtains blew into the room, and turning slowly, Areum saw that the window was now open. Slight crackles of residue from the man's Aura sparkled in the room's balcony too.
A moment later Areum finally got to grips with herself. Turning slightly, she caught sight of her face in the mirror next to her. A film of sweat covered her beautiful features. Her dark hair was blown to a side from the man's Aura blast as he had left. Areum found herself blinking a couple of times, as she struggled to comprehend what had just happened.
"Lee Jun-Seo?" she muttered to herself.
She felt a shiver run down her spine. Oddly, it felt like a mixture of nervousness and excitement.
Something big was about to begin.