[CONTENTID1]

thirty: csi mysteria

[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

["I just shoved my hand into a bear trap to get this goddamn button."]

[/CONTENTID2][CONTENTID3]

Chanyeol returned to normal after a few days, but Juyeon fancied she could still see a jittery, haunted look in the depths of his dark eyes. Or maybe it's always been there, from his countless punishments, and she just never noticed. It worried her, but what could she do?

Sumi was absorbed in sharpening the blade of her sword when Juyeon walked into their room. "You're early," the pink-haired girl said, not looking up.

"Didn't go to the library after dinner," Juyeon explained. "Not hungry."

She fell onto her bed with a heavy sigh, staring at the ceiling. Sumi set down her sword carefully on its stand on her desk, then swung her legs up to sit cross-legged at the foot of her own bed. "Alright, what's up?"

"How can the Academia punish the students this way?" Juyeon immediately began to complain, cleaning her glasses to give her fingers something to do. "PCs are bad enough without detention making them even crazier! I don't understand why Donovan is doing this."

Sumi shrugged her shoulders, tossing her pink hair away from her face. "To be honest, me neither. I trust Donovan in all sense of the word, but I can't figure out why he thinks this is a good idea."

Juyeon slipped her glasses back onto her face and turned her head to look at her roommate. "Have you ever been to detention?"

"Nope. Never needed to."

"Anybody with a brain in their head knows that purposefully pushing someone into a situation they're psychologically affected by would just make them worse! Who knows how messed up Chanyeol's mind is after all the detentions he's got …"

"Eh, Chanyeol was always a little messed up," Sumi said with a disdainful snort, although her expression showed that she was taking everything Juyeon said seriously. They almost never interacted, so Juyeon sometimes forgot that Sumi really was friends with them, and had known them years longer than Juyeon did. "Look, don't get me wrong, Juyeon. I agree with everything you're saying. But what can we do about it? Half the teachers already hate us enough, the other half couldn't care less. Do you think Donovan would listen to a normal?"

"But if I presented a rational argument―"

"They're Problem Children. They don't listen to anything. You can't do anything about it, I can't do anything about it."

"Haven't you heard about the power of one?" Juyeon argued. "If, say, I stand up to him, maybe others will feel inspired to do the same, and we can suggest a better alternative to being grounded―"

"In a perfect world, maybe. Come on, Juyeon, you've been here long enough to get what the situation is here." Sumi's eyes glittered with a fierce light. "Don't you want to go to a great university? Get that recommendation letter from Donovan?"

"Yyyes," Juyeon said hesitantly. "But―"

"You've already become Exo's babysitter. They're mischievous to a default, but they haven't done a single thing out of line since you showed up. You kept your promise to Donovan and even got accepted into Class 44. You've done everything Donovan wanted you to do to get that letter, now all you have to do is survive two years here. Don't screw up your chance and dig in too deep with this PC mess when you're just going to leave this world after you graduate."

There was silence for a few moments. Juyeon finally spoke up.

"It's so strange," she said, in a half-whisper. "All I ever wanted was to make the most out of my scholarship and get to a good university. Study some more, get my fat paycheck job. Now … I'm not so sure."

"What's wrong, tin man? Growing a heart?"

She threw one of her pillows roughly in the girl's direction. Sumi easily caught it and tossed it back. "Ha ha, you're ing hilarious. I'm being serious here, Sumi. Getting a high-paying job is all I've ever wanted and all I ever came here for. I entered High Class with the idea of keeping my head down and minding my own business. Now I'm getting second thoughts about just standing on the sidelines. What do I do when my priorities start changing?"

"Dunno―probably not make a big deal out of it like you're doing right now."

The two girls caught eyes and then laughed.

"Okay, I'll just tell it to you straight," Sumi finally said. "Donovan is following the traditions and rules set down by the Academia. This is the way things have been for decades. There's nothing he can do about it even if he wanted to, and the upper brass don't like things changing."

"Upper brass?" Juyeon shot up at the sound of that. "You mean, like, PC upper brass?"

"We don't all just graduate from the Academia and then become army dogs, Juyeon, jesus. We have our own PC politicians and councils, too. They are the ones who decide everything."

Juyeon was shocked and intrigued by this new discovery. "You should have told me! Now I feel kind of like a for blaming Donovan."

Sumi shook her head, a little sly grin on her face. "You never asked."

"Did you know about D.O's trigger too? That he flips out when you say his real name?"

"Of course."

"You should have told me that too! It would have saved me from a lot of trouble!"

"You never asked."

"God