UPDATE

For anyone out there patient enough to still be reading this, believe it or not, I'm still writing it! I'm afraid I've had a very busy year, and I decided to write the whole third part before I uploaded it, to give me the freedom to edit, since tying up all the loose ends is proving challenging! (not that I hadn't already thought it through or anything… *ahem*) You lot have been so great to keep on favouriting me and giving me feedback, so I feel like you deserve more than a slapdash ending that I rushed through for the sake of getting this finished. Once again, thank you for being so patient. I will keep trying to write whenever I have a free moment, and hopefully you'll see the next chapter go up within the next few months.

The Warning

'Chang.'

She stopped, and looked into the doorway from which the voice had come. It was dark, but a covered bulb above the open door cast a pallid cone of light on to the porch, illuminating a set of knuckles clutching a cigarette, which they pushed towards a mouth. Smoke swirled in drifting ribbons up into the starless sky.

'Who's there?' she asked, her voice steady. The nameless man blew a stream of smoke out between pursed lips, and took a step forward into the circle of light.

'Hwoarang.' She said in a low voice.

The smoked curled around his features, ghoulishly distorted in the harsh light. His eyes, hidden in shadow, made Julia think of a skull's empty sockets, and she found herself tensing slightly. He laughed to himself and said,

'Hmm, didn't think I'd see you here. I mean, we get a lot of tournament fighters down this way but,' he laughed softly, 'didn't expect you.'

'What do you want?'

'Fuck, why the suspicion? I'm not gunna rape you or anything.' He laughed again, more at the distaste in Julia's expression than anything else. 'Here' he thrust a cigarette through the spotlight, but Julia did not move to take it.

'I don't smoke.'

'Your choice.' He said, flicking his cigarette butt casually out of the doorway. He tilted his head backwards slightly, so that his face was fully visible in the light, and Julia saw that he was regarding her with a cool interest.

'So, you and Jin?' he said. Julia had to check her surprise, but her anger was more difficult to conceal as she stuttered,

'How do you –'

Hwoarang motioned to the open doorway with his thumb, 'A lot of these buildings are abandoned, you know? You can go all the way to the tops of some of them.' And a sneering smile crept briefly on to his lips.

'How long were you listening?' she growled.

'Oh, long enough.

You're in love with him, huh?' he said this with a sardonic smile. Julia felt her cheeks flush with anger. She felt invaded. Hwoarang had stepped on something which was secret and precious, and now he was taunting her with it.

'Listen, Hwoarang,' she said treading forward ' you don't know what you're talking about, so I suggest you keep your mouth shut.' And without anything more she turned and began to walk away. But the next words that sliced through the still night air,

'My family don't have any concept of love. They use marriages only to make alliances of power.' froze Julia to the spot. She did not turn for several seconds. Finally she faced Hwoarang and said slowly,

'How do you know about that?' The man, who had been lighting up another cigarette in the brief pause, laughed, grand furls of smoke pluming with every breath.

'He spins the same line to every girl he fucks. It's a kind of,' he took a drag, 'routine he's developed. He picks out a new chick at the start of every tournament and then feeds her all this bullshit about his family disapproving.' Julia's expression remained unchanged, but she stood in stunned silence,

'It's pretty damn clever actually. All this secrecy crap means that once she's fucked off home he doesn't have to so much as write an E-mail and his reputation remains intact. I'm a little annoyed I didn't think of it myself actually.' And his eyes flashed with a sinister knowingness.

'I don't care what you say. Jin loves me.' But Julia felt embarrassed by how pathetic such an attestation sounded. Hwoarang smirked,

'And I thought you were smart. Why would he give a shit what his family thinks? He hates the fuckers. He's already been disinherited anyway.

Seriously, Julia, I'm trying to help you here. He only puts on that pathetic 'tortured soul' act so he can use you.

There is one thing I don't understand though,' Julia cut him off,

'You know what? I'm done. I don't have to defend my relationship to you.' And once again she walked on, but once again she stopped. Grudgingly, but almost without being able to prevent herself, she turned and said,

'What?' There was a sickening silence.

'I don't understand why he picked you. Don't get me wrong, I mean, you're a nice piece, but, he could have had someone like Xioayu, you know? She's a fucking hot little thing and then there's the added bonus that there's not too much going on up here,' he held a finger to his temple, 'When he could have had someone like that, I don't get why he chose you. What would he want someone smart for?' Julia's stomach lurched at a sudden notion which swept through her mind without warning. She was glad the shadows hid her face, or Hwoarang would have seen that the colour had all but drained out of it, as she stood unmoving.

Overcome by revulsion, Julia darted away, her footsteps ringing through the dark alleyways, mingling with Hwoarang's low laughter, which cut like a blade into the city air.

Julia's mind whirled with Hwoarang's accusations. There was no reason she should trust him, and she felt less than favourably towards him after the way he had spoken about Xioayu, but that was a different matter altogether, and one she would consider when she had dealt with her own problems. No, she decided, it was to Jin that she owed her loyalties; and when she thought of those dark earnest eyes, fervent with belief and sincerity, Hwoarang's claims seemed utterly impossible. And yet, she couldn't shake the slight doubt he had planted in her mind.

These and more thoughts ticked through Julia's head as the first eager birds began to sing outside her bedroom window in anticipation of the coming day. Grudgingly she glanced at the clock on her nightstand and saw that it was almost time to meet Jin. Her sheets were so warm though, and her pillow so soft. For a very brief second a thought fluttered into her mind that she wouldn't go, a thought which she shook off with an aggressive surge of love. She reluctantly tore herself from the mattress and proceeded to change her shirt and head out, stopping at the bathroom on the way to relieve herself and splash her face with cold water. She grunted apishly at her reflection, with its hair unwashed and dark circles under its eyes.

Treading across the lawn towards the trees, Julia felt thoroughly exhausted from the strain, both physical and emotional, of the night before, and a lack of sleep. Even if she wouldn't be much help this morning, she had to show up, which served only to add to her irritation. She was oblivious to the soft calls of the birds as they echoed across the lake, to the cool damp mist which hung above the water like a beautiful shroud over the distant trees, whose silhouettes emerged black and intricate as a latticework screen both against the pallid grey of the morning sky and its reflection in the glass-like surface of the water. Oblivious to the delightfully cold feel of the sand in which Jin had buried his toes as he sat patiently, content to observe and absorb all the beauty of his lake, of their lake.

He turned as he heard her treading across the sand, and the smile with which he greeted her arrival was enough to melt away Julia's frustration as she allowed herself to sink deliciously into his warm embrace. He kissed her several times on the top of her head, and then her forehead and both her cheeks, laughing,

'You're so cold!' Julia felt an irrational anger rising in her, and said calmly,

'Jin, I don't think today's the best day for this.' Jin raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise,

'Is everything okay?' he asked.

'Yeah, I'm just a little.' She touched her hand to her forehead in a brief, inconsequential gesture.

'Did you find out anything about that scientist?'

'Please, Jin,' she replied, trying not to betray what she knew was an unreasonable annoyance, 'I'm just not in the mood this morning, just let me get some sleep and we'll talk about it tomorrow.'

'Okay, okay.' He murmured, drawing her to him. She responded stiffly, feeling the weight of tiredness as he stroked her hair and lulled her softly. 'At least stay here with me' he went on, 'just for a while. It's okay, you can investigate that scientist later.' his hands slipped to her waist and his lips sought hers. Julia pulled away angrily,

'Fuck you, Jin!' she yelled. He stood opposite her, his arms still extended in the broken embrace, his face a mask of shock, 'Did it ever cross your mind that I might have more important things to do? Did you ever think about the fact that I have to spend every minute I'm not with you or thinking about you or sorting out your fucking problems training so that I can stay in this tournament? If I lose all the work I've been doing for the past three years will have been for nothing.' She was shouting now, her voice echoing across the lake, stirring a flock of fitful birds from the nearby trees. Jin moved towards her, shushing and hugging her anxiously,

'Julia, what if someone hears?'

'Oh yeah, because that would be just tragic!' she shouted, struggling free from his arms. She could feel the heat rising in her face, and she was panting hard. 'I'm sick of this, Jin! And I'm sick of you! What have you done, huh? What do you do? You just show up here and expect me to have some magic cure for your problem. But I don't Jin, I don't!' he voice cracked as she shouted these last words. Jin was staring at her, blankly; it was as if a door had closed from her suddenly, and her heart strained at the thought. She felt a strangely familiar sickness rising in her gut. 'Was any of it real?' these last words were almost whispered, and her hand flickered forward involuntarily as if to touch him, but before it could be withdrawn, Jin had grabbed it fiercely. Julia cried in shock and pain as she felt nails, no, claws, digging into her flesh. She looked up in distress at Jin's face, which was a knot of cold dark rage. She saw the blood fill his eyes, saw his nostrils flare with heat and fury, saw his forehead split to reveal a horrible gash-like third eye. Screaming wildly, she thrashed to be free of his grasp, but it was too strong. She punched with her free arm, and kicked as hard as she could, but it was like hitting a brick wall, and that heat! Jin's body throbbed with an intensity the like of which Julia had never felt before. And the sickness, the primal, horrible revulsion was so strong now she felt certain that something would happen to her too, something beyond vomiting or fainting.

With a wild screaming fear she knew she was about to die.