chapter six

cop lesson #101: desperate times calls for desperate needs. Applies anytme.

        “I… uh…”

Hadn’t I just had some plausible excuses lined up? My mind was completely devoid of words. No poise under pressure—not a good quality in a cop.

“I just...lost!” I exclaimed, completely unintelligible.

“You just lost,” he said, his brow furrowing over his seriously piercing dark eyes. Somehow the made my heart pound even more furiously. “How caveman of you.”

“Look… I’m new around here,” I explained. “And I just...I’m trying to make friends, and to be honest, you seemed… interesting.”

What the hell was I saying?

“Really?” he said, ushering me back out into the hallway. It seemed he didn’t want whomever was dowm below doing the cavortin and smoking to overhear us. “I thought I just saw you eating lunch with the Kainites. You seem pretty much acclimated to the situation around here.”

“Um… Kainites?”

“Kai and his friends?” Sehun said like I was some sort of doofus for not having inherent knowledge of his nickname for them.

“Right. Well, they’re okay, but—”

“No, they’re not. But that’s not exactly the point. The point is, you don’t hang out with the Kainites and find me interesting. The two things don’t mesh.” His face growing hard as he spoke and took a menacing step closer to me. I felt my pulse speed up. Was this kid dangerous? I mean, I could definitely take him, but the last thing I wanted was to get embroiled in a sparring match in the middle of the hallway—especially not with Cos potentially lurking around here somewhere.

“So I repeat,” Sehun said. “Why were you following me?”

“You know what? I don’t have to stand here and take this kind of invective from you,” I said, deciding to cut my losses. We were in a deserted hallway, and his behavior was getting more and more disquieting. “We could have been friends. And who knows, you may have found me interesting. But now we’ll never know.”

“Gee, I’m real broken up about it,” Sehun said, narrowing his eyes.

“Fine,” I said.

“Fine,” he replied, shoving through the door again.

I stormed away, fuming, my face hot with anger. Oh Sehun was infuriating.

“I can’t believe you were hanging out with Kai!” Minseok seemed anguished by the new development as he paced our room later that day. “Actually, wait. I can believe it.” He paused and looked at me. I was sitting on my bed with my tail between my legs. “Don’t you hate it when people say they can’t believe something that’s totally believable?” he asked.

He sat down right across from me and sighed. He looked so distraught, I felt the need to beg for absolution. But what was I going to say?

“Gee, sorry Minseok, but I have to hang out with Kai, because he could be a drug dealer and I might have to bring him in?”

Not likely.

“I’m sorry,” I began, feeling like evil incarnate. This was insane. I’d come here to solve a case, not break the heart of some poor vulnerable kid. I was suddenly, acutely aware of just how much Minseok needed me. And she’d known me for only two days! What was he going to do when I up and left?

Okay, don’t think about that right now. You’re not responsible for this boy’s social life. Still, he was so disappointed, I felt the need to explain.

“He asked me yesterday at karate, and I just though...you know...that it would be good to get to know some other...people,” I told him.

Oh, God. I was faltering here. I sounded like a totally insensitive social-climber. I would hate me if I were him.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said finally. “I completely understand. If Kai asked you to sit with them, then you have to sit with them. Only the strong survive around here.”

He looked up at me, his eyes sad. “We’re still gonna be friends, right?” he beseeched me. “ mean, if you don’t want to talk to me in front of them, I totally get it. Just don’t start ignoring me when we’re here. I don’t think I could handle that.”

“Of course we’re still going to be friends!” I protested, getting up and plopping down next to her. “Look, I have never let any clique define who I am and I’m not gonna start now.”

“Really? Cuz I hadn’t had a real friend in so long…”

My heart went out to Minseok. He was such a cool, sweet, smart guy. Why did everyone have to treat him like a pariah just because she excelled in his classes? Didn’t everyone around here excel in their classes? Who cared who was paramount among them? They were all going to get into Ivy League schools anyway.

“I promise I am not going to change just because I’m hanging out with Kai,” I told him firmly.

Minseok smiled, finally accepting my assertions. “Cool,” he said, bouncing up from his bed. “So, I was going to go to the library to work on history. Do you want to come?”

He sorted through his books, painstakingly organizing each subject’s notes and texts on his desk. My heart tightened as I watched him. In that moment, he reminded me so much of Wei that I was consumed by nostalgia and sadness. Wei had been slovenly in every facet of his life, but when it came to