chapter twelve

The impending big sting operation in comission. with two suspects left, but with my curiosirty barely intact.

        On Friday night, I sat with Sehun at dinner—inside this time. A blustery snow shower earlier in the day had given way to a cold, still evening, and the new drifts gleamed white outside the windows. It would;ve been romantic—if weren't surrounded by hundreds of cavorting kids, and if I weren't more nervous than a hen in a fox's den.

Oh, and then there was that small possibility that Sehun could still be the bad guy. 

The big sting was going to go down that night, provided I could catch Jongin dealing at the party.I felt like I was hovering on the brink of something huge. Tonight was my night. I was either going to fall flat on my face or go home a hero. I just hoped it would be the latter. 

"So, what're you gonna do tonight?" Sehun asked, pushing his empty plate away. 

My heart thumped. Was he asking because he wanted to do something with me? If so, life was really, really iniquitous. 

"Why?" I asked, delaying the inevitable. How was I going to explain to Sehun that I was going to be living large with a group of people he couldn't stand? I had a feeling I was in for an earful. 

"My dad sent me a couple of new DVDs. I thought you could come by. If you want," Sehun said as if it were no big deal that he was asking me to hang out alone in his room on a Friday night. Probably in the dark... 

Ugh! That sounded sooooooo good! 

"And I've been hoarding those chocolate chip cookies they've been giving us for dessert. I've got a couple dozen stashed in my refrigerator," Sehun added. 

Wow. He really knew the way to get to me. Those cookies were like heaven on a baking sheet. 

I took a deep breath. Sehun wasn't going to like what I was about to say, but I had to be candid with him. What was the point of lying? This time tomorrow, I was out of here anyway. 

And you're never going to see this guy again. I thought, feeling lower than low. 

"Actually, I was going to go to that party in the gym," I said, averting my eyes. 

Sehun snorted a laugh and looked at me like he was waiting for the punch line. I watched his face change as he realized I was telling the truth. 

"Wait. You're serious? Why the hell would you want to go to that?" he asked vehemently. 

I blinked. I knew he didn't like Jongin, but I thought he would throw a few gibes my way, not get all worked up. I didn't believe my announcement constituted such a terrible offense. 

"It sounds like fun," I said, lifting one shoulder and hoping my mellow attitude would mollify him. "You should come with." 

"Yeah, like that's ever going to happen," Sehun said, sitting back hard in his seat. "Those guys are superficial, idiotic losers with nothing better to do on a Friday night than get drunk and talk about how cool they think they are for getting away with it." 

"They can't all be that bad," I said. "Why do you have to be so hidebound about them?" 

"I'm not being hidebound. They are all that bad," Sehun said, scowling. "Trust me. You haven't been here as long as I have. And the more you hang out with them, the more likely it is that you'll turn into one of them. Everyone else has." 

Well, that was a disconcerting thing to say. 

"Wow. I'm glad you have so much confidence in my character," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. 

"Whatever, if you'd rather hang out with them, I can't stop you," Sehun said, getting up from the table. 

Suddenly, I realized that he wasn't so much upset that I was hanging out with Jongin and his friends, but that I wasn't hanging out with him. I couldn't believe it. Our feelings were mutual. Sehun liked me! He really liked me! 

Giddy with glee, I got up and followed Sehun out of the room, wanting to reassure him that if I had my own way, I would be hanging out with him in his room every damn night of the week. But how could I? What was my excuse going to be? It wasn't as if I could tell him the truth. 

Sehun shoved through the door of the cafeteria, and I heard myself shout his name. He stopped, sighed and turned around, fixed me with his piercing dark eyes. 

Okay.... now what? 

"Um... listen," I said, stepping closer to him. "How about a compromise? I'll go to the party for an hour or two, and then we can watch the movies." 

"We're banned from each other's rooms after eleven on weekends," Sehun chided me. As if either one of us cared about the rules, I could tell I had already conciliated him. Now he was just trying to be difficult. 

"I don't think I'm supposed to be in the gym at midnight either," I reminded him. 

Sehun sighed again and eyed me like he was trying to decide whether my desire to be with him was genuine. It was. It so was. 

Of course, the only problem was there was a good possibility that I wouldn't be able to come to his room that night because I'd be enmeshed in police business. There was also a distinct possibility that Yifan might show up at his room tonight instead of me, to question him about his deliveries. 

But at that moment, I chose to ignore those possibilities. I chose to believe in the illusion of me and Sehun, alone in his room potentially sitting side by side on his bed while the TV screen flickered in front of us. As long as that was possible, there was also the possibility of a kiss. 

What can I say? My hormones got the best of me. It was impossible to be rational wih him looking at me like that. 

Besides, maybe it would all work out. Maybe everything would go smoothly .Sehun would be exonerated when Jongin confessed to everything, and I could still squeeze in a date before breakfast. 

Yeah, right. 

"Okay," he said finally, cracking a smile. "I'll try to stay awake for you." 

"Thanks," I said. "And I'll get there as early as I can." 

The music was audible from halfway across campus, and it felt like the bass beat was resonating in my heart, intensifying the tangle of emotions that had already taken me over. I was nervous, that much was obvious. But I was also excited. Afer all, if everything went well, tomorrow I would go down as the guy who cleaned up the Hereford Academy Ecstasy problem. Part of me was psyched to get the heck out of the staid school, but part of me was also sad about the prospect of leaving—saying goodbye to Sehun and even Yixing and Minseok.

Just call me a sentimental softy. 

With all these contradictory thoughts in my mind, I was a totally confused mess as I entered the gym, but I had to focus on the task at hand. Tonight I had to be all about business. 

Any preconceived notions I might have had about a lame party with a keg in the corner and a bag of greasy potato chips were eradicated the second I walked through the door of the gym that evening. The garish lights of the gym had been extinguished to make way for dozens of strings of white Christmas lights that were draped all over the room. A disco ball rotated in the center of the ceiling, and the music pounded unremittingly. A group of girls on the dance floor attempted to emulate Beyoncé's latest video for a crowd of cheering onlookers. Against the far wall was a snack table filled with hot hors d'oeuvres and mini-pizzas, and I saw Baekhyun dispensing beer from not one but three different kegs—one domestic, one imported, and one light. This was totally crazy. How the hell did they get away with it?

I circumvented the crowd and made my way over to Baekhyun as I scanned the room for Jongin. 

"Quench your thirst at the watering hole!" Baekhyun called out as I approached. His grin was huge, and he already looked as he if he imbibed one too many of his own beers. "What's your pleasure?" he asked me. "You looked parched." He waggled his eyebrows in a droll manner, and I laughed. 

"Nothing for me, thanks!" I said. 

"If you're worried if you can't handle it, I've got some of the lighter but harder stuff right here," Baekhyun said, pulling a flash from his cargo pants. He waved it in the air as if to entice me. 

"You think I should be worried about calories?" I asked, pretending to be miffed in an attempt to divert his attention from the alcohol at hand. 

As expected, Baekhyun turned beet red with embarrassment. "No! Of course not! You got nothing to be worried about! The first day you got here, I told Jongin you had the sweetest in the school. If you don't believe me, ask him!" 

I started at Baekhyun, dumbfounded by his rambling, and he seemed to realize he'd said too much. He snapped his mouth shut and pressed his lips together. 

"Where is Jongin anyway?" I asked as if nothing odd had been said. 

Baekhyun was so relieved he almost fell over. Or maybe he was just so drunk he almost fell over. 

"He's over at the stereo DJ-ing!" Jongin said, pointing across the room. 

I caught a glimpse of Jongin ducking away from the elaborate audio equipment. As I watched, he glanced around quickly then slipped out the back door of the gym. My heart hit my throat. He was sneaking out! This could be it! 

I started across the room quickly, dodging dancers and chuggers and one girl who was just twirling nonstop. The second I got to Jongin's exit door, I lifted the cuff of my shirt to my mouth. Tonight Yifan had insisted I use the wire Jongdae had given me at the beginning of all this. It made me feel very official. 

"Suspect exited through the north door. Stand by," I said into the tiny mic. Then I pushed the door open as quietly as possible and embarked on my mission. 

"All units stand by," Yifan's voice echoed in my ear. 

It was a cold, pitch-black night, and my breath made white clouds in the air. The area behind the gym was covered in thick drifts of gleaming white s