School Trip

Every year your school would organize a school trip for just the senior class; of course, taking nearly two hundred students on an optional week-long vacation over Spring Break typically meant that the trip was to some shoddy, mosquito-ridden campsite or some off-brand amusement park. So, essentially, no one came on these trips; as they should be, why would anyone want to waste their precious Spring Break on a trip that'll bore them out of their minds? You and your friends had been planning on skipping the trip for your senior year as well. Well, at least you were planning on skipping until you heard the trip was an all-expense-paid excursion to another country. While they hadn't announced what country they'd be sending you to, the announcement was still enough to make your jaw drop. There wasn't a single person that would be missing out on this trip; you couldn't possibly fathom what the budget for this trip even looked like; there's no possible way a mere high school would ever agree to this, unless of course there was an outside influence. When it came to rich people with a lot of influence, there was only one person that came to mind. Rebecca.

You walked through the halls; the school day was nearly over. You had two more periods before it ended; the class that you were ending up in as of now was English IV, though your academics were far from the thing that was preoccupying your mind as of now. Besides your excitement for your upcoming trip, you are currently on the search for Rebecca, wanting to thank her. This was surprisingly selfless of The Cheerleader; you wouldn't have imagined she'd pay for anything like this in a million years when you first met her, but you guess something in her changed. As you made your way over to your class room, you scoured the halls for Rebecca since you hadn't seen her all day.

Eventually, you found her; she and Candy had just stepped out of a class room, nearly bumping into you as they did. "Ah, Rebecca!" You exclaimed with excitement upon seeing the Cheerleader.

Rebecca gave you an annoyed looked, "Oh, it's you." She acknowledged in disgust, clearly not a fan of your presence. Candy also gave you a disdainful look, which you ignored. "You need something?" Rebecca practically demanded an answer from you.

You gave the widest and most endearing smile you could manage before answering her, "Just wanted to thank you-"

"Wasn't me." She interrupted, not even bothering to look you in the eyes as she checked out her nails. You stood there stunned, your smile not faltering but your eyes narrowing in response, a confused noise escaping your mouth. "I've had, like, fifteen people come up to thank me over this stupid trip. Normally I'd be more than welcoming to accept all this appreciation, but I wasn't one to pay for it."

"It wasn't you?" You mindlessly repeated what she had just told you. Okay, while it did make sense that Rebecca wouldn't go out of her way to do something like that, she was the only person that could possibly have paid for something like this.

"No, if I wanted to go on a vacation with my friends, I would have just gone privately. No need to get the rest of you losers involved." The Cheerleader explained with an eyeroll before walking past you.

Candy quickly followed her friend, "Later loser!" The Cambodian girl shouted at you as she passed by. The smile on your face quirked into a frown. Well, that bummed you out; at least you still had that trip to go on by the start of the next week. Letting out a sigh, you made your way to your English class.

Upon walking into the class, you noticed it was nearly empty. There were a total of two people inside the class; there was, of course, Mr. Kexel, who was never not the first person to be in the classroom; the middle-aged man was sitting at his desk reviewing a paper, one of many from a stack in front of him; he wouldn't have to do too much teaching today given that you were mostly just finishing up an essay that you and the rest of your class had started in the middle of last week; this meant the class was rather leisurely, nothing to really stress over. The other person was, surprisingly, Madison, who typically always showed up to class late, but here she was stuck in the left corner of the room. If you had to guess, she was probably acting like a good girl for now so that she could join the rest of the senior class on the trip. It was surprising to see how many students decided to clean up their act just to get a chance to go to another country.

You walked past Mr. Kexel's desk and went over to your assigned seat, plopping yourself into the small blue chair. You then went into your bag and pulled out your laptop and put in your log-in information, to which the laptop opened up to an already-opened tab that contained your essay. You looked over at the timer in the bottom right corner of your laptop, five minutes before class started. You heard footsteps approaching the door and glanced over to it; Anthony Chen, Denise's boyfriend, entered, giving you a small wave as he did. Well, with him, that would now make five people in the classroom. Mr. Kexel over at his desk, Anthony making his way over to his seat, Madison in the corner, you at your seat, and Han sitting with legs crossed over another on top of the desk directly to your right... You whipped your head over to face the Chinese man, who, like always, gave you a wide smile.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" You questioned, for one, that he wasn't in Mr. Kexel's class, nor did he even have English in the period either. Second, you didn't even see him enter the room—not much of a feat given who he was—but it still bothers you that he can sneak up on you whenever he wants.

Unaffected by your rude question, Han smiled wider than before and slapped his hands against his muscular thighs. "I'm here for that is what pleases me, for I am the only one that can determine where I go!" Han proudly announced, causing him to get looks from everyone in the room. There was a bulge in his left cheek; he was most likely sucking on a piece of hard candy.

"Yuh huh." You sarcastically remarked before turning away from the martial artist and calling over to your teacher, "Yo, he's not supposed to be here!" You pointed toward Han, who was once again unaffected by your action, shifting the candy in his mouth over to his right cheek.

Mr. Kexel let out a sigh of annoyance, partially due to your informality but mostly because he wasn't a fan of involving himself in others disputes; you were supposed to be adults, were you not? "May I ask you to please leave?" The English Teacher politely asked the Chinese man.

"我拒絕!" Han declared without any form of hesitation. You didn't even speak Cantonese but still understood what he had just said. With that, Mr. Kexel gave a shrug and made no further attempt to make Han leave the classroom. You face soured at this turn of event.

"So, why are you actually here?" You asked, turning to face the martial artist once more. You doubted he was here to just fuck with you.

Han leaned in toward you, his nose nearly touching yours. "It's because I like you." He answered with that same wide, toothy smile.

You leaned back, way from him, a rather large blush present upon your face. Was he trying to make you flustered on purpose. You quickly waved a hand in front of your partially red face, "Careful man, you might make you girlfriend jealous." You joked which got a quick chuckle out of Han.

"No way, I like her way more!" He replied. Good fucking lord, he was like a goddamn child; it was almost weirdly endearing. Almost. "I'm also here because you wanted to thank me."

"Thank you?" You repeated, unsure of what he had meant.

Brining his voice to a whisper, Han began to explain, "You wanted to thank the one for the trip, so go ahead." Ah, so he was the one that paid for the trip; that was... Not a good thing.

"You paid for it?" You whispered harshly, "I should be worried shouldn't I?"

"Well, Bossman paid for it, but we still played apart in why we're going on the trip." Han responded, suddenly shooting his right arm out to the side, a soft thud followed soon after, Han then brought his back in front of him. Resting in palm was a crumpled up ball of paper. You had caught it without looking. The glanced over your shoulder in order to look at Madison, who was currently whistling while her head was turned to the wall next to her, The Tyrant playing innocent as if she wasn't the one to throw it.

Han tossed the paper ball up and down in his hand, "Right, so 'Bossman' paid for this. It doesn't make much of a difference; the why is more important." You interrogated, hoping to probe the martial artist for more answers. "Bossman" was some old Croatian sniper who happened to be Han and the rest of the Tranquility of the Extinct's employer; you couldn't recall his name, so you'll just go with "Bossman" for now. If he's involved, this is deeply troublesome.

"The why? That's easy." Han reached the hand that held the paper ball out to you, which you instinctively took. You weren't sure why you took it; it wasn't like you wanted it, but you suppose he didn't want it either, so you just placed the crumpled ball of paper on the desk next to you. "I begged." Han leaped off of the desk he sat on from his crisscrossed position, landing firmly on both his legs right in front of you with a loud thud. A confused look crept onto your face, both from the bizarre sight and what the martial artist had said; begging seemed rather uncharacteristic of him. "First, I went up to him and bowed," Han demonstrated by clasping his hands to his sides and performing a bow, lowering his upper body so fast that he nearly slammed his forehead into your desk at full ****. "And then said to him '喂, Bossman! You've been really killing us lately; how about a vacation? Oh, and let us bring Sam and all his cool friends.'" Han explained, raising his upper body back and smiling widely at you, holding the piece of hard candy in his mouth between his teeth.

Han's display had brought a lot of attention to both him and you, causing everyone in the room to give you a look; even the people who had just walked through the door were staring in your direction. "You really did that?" You asked, rather skeptical of the whole situation, all while covering your face with your hands in embarrassment.

Han opened his mouth, letting the piece of hard candy stick to his top, frontmost incisors, which he then scraped back into his mouth with his tongue. "Of course not!" He responded.

You removed your hands from your face to show the Chinese man a scowl. You had expected this already, but was he just trying to waste your time? Doesn't he have a class to get to? "Alright, Marie Antoinette, fuck you."

The martial artist then slammed his hands against your desk, leaning his face in close to yours once more; once again, a blush spread across your face. If this motherfucker doesn't kiss you already, you're going to be the one to make the first move. He brought his voice back to a whisper, a very low whisper, "We have to kill someone out of country. Normally, the guy is practically a ghost, barely having a presence in Laos. But he's making a rare appearance out of the comfort of his shadow. So, me and my pals are goin' to give him a big surprise." Han began to explain. Sweat began to race down your forehead. Was he insane? Han's voice was low enough for only you to make out what he was saying, but it was still crazy that he was dropping this information on you in a room full of people. You were already perfectly aware that he was a criminal due to Joyce's intel, but no one else besides the two of you knew that the ten new students were the Tranquility of the Extinct, members of an **** organization. "It would seem rather suspicious if the ten of us suddenly disappeared, so we decided to use your class as a way of hiding in plain sight more." He clarified

"You highjacked our trip to complete a contract? Just great." You muttered, your voice even lower than his. "How much did this even cost, you guys?" Your mind had wandered back to the insane price tag this little vacation would carry.

Han let out a short but cute chuckle which was loud enough to be heard by the rest of the class, "You'd shit yourself if I gave number." He joked. To be honest, you probably would. "Don't worry, the contract pays more than enough for the expenses of this trip." Han gave you wink; you weren't even going to bother asking what the hell that dude did to have someone want him dead so badly.

...That didn't mean you weren't going to ask no questions at all, "So, uh, where are we even going?" You asked, you wanted to prepare in advance for your packing. At the very least, the trip would be a normal trip for everyone that wasn't those ten, so you might as well enjoy the opportunity that lay before you.

Han's eyelids shot up in confusion. "Huh? You don't know?" He questioned. You simply shook your head in response, which caused the Chinese man to scratch his white hair. "Ah, alright, well, we'll be heading to..."