Grandpa’s waiting room, similar to his office, was decorated with a mix of traditional Chinese elements and stark modern contrasts.

There were some cool, little jade statuettes to look at, some on a shelf and a bigger, phoenix-looking one on a corner table. A horizontal calligraphy scroll high on the wall bore down on her with strong, inTiMidaTing words.

And for the modern... Shay sat on a hard-angled chair made of beautiful dark wood. Its black leather cushion looked smart and neat, but it didn’t have springs and... the padding material was really thin. If Grandpa didn’t like someone, he probably made them wait for a long time.

Despite the room being specifically designed to be unwelcoming, Mrs. Fu more than made up for it. Grandpa’s secretary was an older woman who’d been working under him for literal decades. And she radiated so much warmth and kindness, that Shay felt almost unworthy.

Mrs. Fu shared pictures of her grandkids-- they were sooOoo cute.

But then she had to answer the three or so phone calls that she put on hold. (She was working so hard, even on a Saturday.) And after those calls, she power-walked out of the room like she had somewhere to be. Ladies’ room, maybe?

So Shay sat quietly in her flat-cushion seat, just... waiting.

She didn’t know what Tyvan and Grandpa were talking about. During the car ride over, her and Tyvan’s conversation stuck to mundane things (regular couple things) like buying fresh groceries and pointing at restaurants that would be nice to try together.

The biggest plausible thing in her head... was that maybe-- just maybe... Tyvan was asking Grandpa permission to date her.

The Song family was a very old, very traditional family. So that kind of thing was expected! --maybe.

But wasn’t that too fast? Shouldn’t they go out for a while first?

--not that they didn’t go out. They went out all the time? But they didn’t really go out, go out.

A door opened, but not the one to the office. Mrs. Fu walked in with... huh.

“Xue'er,” she said. “I believe you’re familiar with our guests?”

They were the three other guy-members of ❴The Kingdom❵.

Rook was a white guy about Tyvan’s height. It was the first time she’d seen him without his cowboy hat, and he had his long, sandy blonde hair tied into a ponytail. He was actually kinda pretty-- but cowboys were supposed to be rugged. That fact never really sat right with her.

Then, there was Bishop, a super-tall, also-white guy who wore dark glasses to hide his blind eyes. He was Raia’s twin brother, even though he stole all her height and she was mad about it.

And between them, half-dragged, half-carried... was Montgomery Jiang. He looked... almost completely different, though. He shaved off his stupid moustache. Most (but not all) of his cheek fat had slimmed down, and his eyes were dark like he hadn’t slept in days. He also looked a bit thinner, overall...

Was that the effect of Heidi’s magic tea? If so, that was something she could potentially learn!

All three of them wore matching, white martial arts uniforms? It wasn’t the Korean one like when she practiced Tae Kwon Do. Maybe they were for Karate?

She could see Bishop being a Karate master-- the other two, not so much.

“Hey, it’s the youngest!” Rook said, “Haven’t seen you since grillin’ out at Elysium. How ya doin’?”

“You mean the barbecue?” Shay asked innocently.

“Nah, that ain’t right,” Rook chuckled. “Was too small to be a proper barbecue. I’ll let’cha know when we fix up another. Summer’s comin’ real soon.”

Bishop waved with his free hand. “Nice to see you.”

“N-nice to see you too, Bishop,” Shay smiled.

“ErrRrgh,” Monty groaned.

“What are you guys doing here?” Shay asked, “And why does Monty look like he’s half dead?”

“We sprinted most of the way,” Bishop grinned sheepishly.

“THIS,” Rook interrupted-- “two-eared giraffe over here only had’ta take three steps.”

“Well, they sprinted most of the way,” Bishop corrected himself. “But we’re here to do martial arts stuff! Boss’s orders!”

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“Is our youngest ready to show off the ol’ razzle dazzle?” Rook laughed.

“I can’t wAiT to see the youngest kick so much ass!” Bishop said.

Shay had questions. After a bit more prodding, she found out there was a friendly exhibition match scheduled. But... she wasn’t expecting to fight, not against the other disciples-- and especially not against a cowboy with flawless skin and a permanently-smiling telephone pole.

Was it too late to run away? She’d memorized the buses in the area.

The other door opened, with Tyvan and Grandpa Wei entering together.

“Good. You’re here,” Tyvan said. “Let’s make our way to the martial hall.”

Shay raised her hand politely. “T-tyvan... I won’t have to fight too, right?”

Tyvan shared a weird look with Grandpa Wei.

“Not unless that is your wish,” he said.

But then, in an infinitely frustrating but heart-stoppingly gracious manner, he offered his arm. “I did, however, hope you would sit with me to spectate. Shall we?”

----------------------------------------

Shay changed into her martial arts uniform before entering the training hall. She wasn’t going to fight, but she didn’t want to be the only one in casual clothes.

--not that they were actually casual. She spent a lot of time picking out her outfit... and she spent a long time putting on makeup (but that was mostly because she wasn’t great at it.) Bleigh.

She was still a little mad at Tyvan for springing that up on her so suddenly-- but it was just like him to take her someplace that was totally and utterly surprising.

9 times out of 10, she loved that. Also, 9 times out of 10, they went out to eat! (Also, most of those times was with some combination of Bishop or Raia or Heidi. She really needed to ask Tyvan for more one-on-one time.)

As a random, Grandpa Wei seemed to get along really well with Rook-- oh, he introduced himself as ‘Cal.’ His real name was Callum, so that made sense-- but ‘Cal’...

Yeah... she didn’t really like that. It made him sound like a certain kind of person.

Rook and Grandpa talked about old Western films while they were waiting for the Eternal Sun sect disciples to arrive. They had the same favorite movie-- Tombstone, she heard it was called?

Tyvan remained in his suit the whole time-- so maybe he didn’t plan on fighting either? He could definitely fight in his suit, though. She’d seen’t it.

In the past couple of weeks, Grandpa Wei had recruited a bunch of female disciples to the sect-- which was huge. Shay was excited to have junior sisters, of course... but exposing a group of single girls to Tyvan...

They kept looking over at him-- not that she could blame them for it. Shay countered that by scooting closer to where he sat and glaring back at whosoever dared look their way.

Tyvan was only going to get close to one Chinese martial artist and that was her!

Callum was talking it up on the other side of the hall, trying to be friendly and... Southern, as usual. He got... ignored by a majority of the girls, though-- which Shay found a little weird at first.

But, the reason...

Bishop sat a bit farther away, keeping to his tall self. He’d taken off his sunglasses, but he kept his eyes closed, smiling faintly and looking overall mysterious. Every female disciple that wasn’t staring at Tyvan had their dreamy gazes fixated on Bishop, instead... not that he could tell.

Oh, he looked over. He gave them a P-erfect smile.

Prince cHarMing-- the one and only.

One of the girls even let out a squeak of happiness, which got a stern glare from Grandpa. That shut them up.

“This is a martial arts sect, not a dating service,” Grandpa muttered.

That was true. But... still...

Grandpa was essentially forcing a bunch of physically fit guys and girls to spend time together. Romance was sure to blossom, regardless of how hard he tried to stop it! That was wuxia story knowledge 101!

--though usually the senior sister/female lead in those works tended to be flat and one-dimensional.

Shay furrowed her brows.

She was the senior sister.

Shit.

Did that mean her junior martial brothers all had eyes on her?

She swept her gaze on the crowd of sect disciples, collected in the martial hall.

And... not one of them looked over.

--but they were all dUmB, anyway!

That was fine, though! All she needed was Tyvan!

Once everyone was gathered, Rook went up first. Shay had seen him fight before. He dual-wielded axes like a stereotypical fantasy barbarian, so she was looking forward to seeing him without.

He fought against one of the older disciples... and it ended up just being a straight boxing match? That was interesting. Both fighters got beat up pretty bad... and it was weird, but Rook seemed slower than she remembered? But maybe after she underwent martial training, her eyes changed somehow? Or maybe having more battle experience let her keep up with his movements? Whatever the reason, it was exciting.

“Again,” Tyvan said.

“Yeah! Y’all wanted ta bring the thunder?!” Rook shouted. “Well, here I am!”

He pounded his fists against his chest like a big, brainless ape. That got a bunch of frowns and dirty looks from the other disciples.

“Err... how do you mean, Master Valorum?” Grandpa asked.

Tyvan leaned over, his voice lowered. “I need that one humbled, Master Wei.”