Sleep-deprived in the few weeks that followed, I crawled into bed early Friday night in the hopes of making up for what my health was worth.

English had been torture. We'd been asked to reenact the life of Jane – or was it Julie? or Jamie or whatever – Austen. I hadn't bothered studying her biography; it was just for bonus points after all. Baekhyun initially volunteered for leading man, but when he learned he wasn't going to end up with the Austen girl, he backed out and joined with Jongdae to do the opening song instead. Yixing was automatically tasked with the background music, and I thought – though he would never admit it openly – all those piano pieces were original compositions of his. Tao settled for some random mailman or something. And well, as you'd probably already guessed, I was leading man.

The Austen character was depicted by this shy classmate of mine, Shizo. She was a foreigner of Japanese lineage, and if not for the fact that she was that fluent in English, there was no way in heaven she'd ever take on the role. Well, we had two Filipino classmates who were literally naturals in the language, but they'd rather forego the incentives than memorize a script marked with lengthy monologue narrations.

I used to like Shizo in first year. I even contemplated asking her out but through weeks of observation, I figured she was too shallow for my type. During play practices, my initial judgment only strengthened.

Meanwhile, I was still deeply disturbed with Sojin. She hadn't stopped her intermittent side comments in class. Once or twice, her attention was called and she blamed me – blamed me – and said I kept asking for clarifications. I didn't dare argue despite my heightened aggravation. I was determined to ignore her existence, which was near impossible considering my and her intertwined circumstances.

First of all, she determined to sit beside me in all of our classes and as result, we always ended up being paired in seatworks and lab works. My only consolation was that she was so brilliant we always finished our work way ahead of time. Based on experience, I'd be dragged to a slower pace with my previous partners; I needed to explain practically everything before moving on. Not that any of my classmates were dull. Maybe I was just too fast, too eager to finish.

Second was that not a week passed when she wasn't involved in any form of trouble. Either she was the cause or the victim or a witness, trouble always found her in the midst of it. One afternoon I nearly lost it. We were busy sketching a pack of wolves – thank heavens it was an individual requirement! – in our Arts class when a piercing sound broke the silence. I turned left to find Sojin's fist covered in blood and the glass window beside her, badly shattered.

The teacher had been out so I sent the Class Secretary to inform the PMD and brought Sojin to the infirmary myself. When the nurse asked her what happened she said a large spider was straddling a 'poor little fly' and she was just gripped with the need to do something.

"So you punched the glass because a fly was being eaten by a spider?"

She had smiled in reply. Behind the curtains while I waited, I had smacked my forehead in frustration. If that didn't drive you mad, I didn't know what would.

Last of all was the fact that Sojin presented me with an able academic rival. If before I had topped all our quizzes single-handedly, now Sojin was sharing the pleasure. It's intriguing and challenging, threatening and terrorizing, maddening and irritating all at once.

My mind was starting to drift in dreamland when my phone went wild – wild in the sense that sirens wailed through the speaker.

In our school, Prefects were required to assign specific ringers for certain alerts. Four consequent beeps meant an urgent meeting. Three meant that you'd just been put on patrol. Two meant a request for replacement. Sirens, on the other hand, meant an emergency.

I reached for my phone beneath my pillow. Of all times, seriously. Barely awake, I read the message from our Senior Prefect.

"11:47 PM. Break-in at the Testing Center. Mutilated jamb and two broken windows. No sign of any collateral damage. Culprits seemed to have escaped. School security is already on it but they need a Prefect for additional documentation. Anyone available please beep back. [Head Prefect]"

I was about to disregard the message when the postscript caught my eye.

"A certain Yang Sojin was discovered near the scene two minutes after the alert."

Unblinking and fully awake now, I scowled at the screen. The terms 'break-in' and 'mutilated jamb' and 'broken windows' hardly spurred my interest. 'Yang Sojin' though...

What the hell was she doing in school at this ungodly hour? Oh, I knew perfectly well what the Head Prefect was implying. A break-in at the Testing Center with an ace student nearby, I'd be surprised if Sojin wasn't going to have all her perfect scores questioned first thing the next morning.

At that moment, all my prejudices vanished. As I put on a casual coat, beeped our Head and rushed back to school, I clung only to one truth in mind: Yang Sojin was innocent. Yes, she was insanely annoying and consistently weird, but I had always credited her brilliance to pure talent. No one could ever fake such cleverness, right?

The campus was dark and deserted but right ahead, the third level of the Administration Building was blinking with flashlights. I almost flew towards it.

Sojin was dangerously positioned over the pane of an open window along the corridors when I finished speaking with security. Panic-stricken, I dashed to her side and grabbed her arm. She barely protested of my hard grip.

"Get out of the window," I demanded.

"You should join me. The view's really nice."

"Sojin."

She hummed, not moving an inch. Now that I was close enough to peer outside, the altitude her dangling feet were from above the ground was alarming. I didn't realize the third floor was already this high. I shivered.

"Get out of the window or I swear I'll make you."

Sojin snorted but finally