Yeri took a deep breath before answering. “Well, personally, I believe last season’s favourite was actually contrasting colours, not floral appliques. If you look at the most popular lines from last season, out of both Paris and Milan, and even Shanghai, New York, and other fashion capitals, the designers relied on dresses of one colour with accents of a contrasting colour. While only some lines featured floral appliques. As for why this trend lasted only one season, well, it made matching shoes, hats, and other accessories difficult, because you had to choose whether or not you wore the main colour, or the contrasting colour. Not only that, but assembling a dress with so many different pieces of different colours takes more time than this season’s trend, jeweling, does.”

The girls around the room that had been watching, and snickering, now looked bewildered. Professor Flora looked very interested now, instead of annoyed.

“That is a very interesting point of view.” she said. “I hadn’t thought of something so simple as a trend, but I can appreciate where you are coming from. I look forward to the work you do in my class.”

With that, Yeri sat down, breathing a sigh of relief. Wendy and Irene smiled at her and gave her thumbs up, while Joy and Seulgi looked impressed. Besides that, their second evening class went smoothly. After they were dismissed, Seulgi informed them that their last evening class was dancing with Professor Bethany. While Yeri was not bad at dancing, she also didn’t particularly enjoy it. Especially since it usually involved boys.

“Ugh, thank god boys don’t attend our school.” Yeri sighed, as they made their way up the staircase again. Seulgi gave her a pitying look that Yeri missed completely. Wendy didn’t, and somehow managed to contain her laughter.

“Anyways,” Irene continued, glaring at Wendy, “Good job, saving your .”

“Thanks, honestly I kind of already knew all that stuff, so it wasn’t like I was put on the spot or anything. I was more surprised by the fact she knew my name, considering that’s the first time I’ve ever met her.” Yeri said, as they stopped at the seventh floor and walked down a longer hallway than the others had been.

“I’d guess that teachers are probably warned when new students enroll.” Joy reasoned.

“That’d make sense,” Seulgi agreed. “Anyway, we’re here,” They made their way into a very large ballroom. As soon as Yeri entered, she tried to turn and walk right back out. Unfortunately, Wendy grabbed her by the wrist to keep her from doing do. Standing in the middle of the room was what Yeri assumed was Professor Bethany, and around her stood about fifteen boys. Yeri looked like she wanted to kill someone. Instinctively, seeing Yeri’s extreme discomfort, Joy stepped closer to her and linked their arms. After all, if something happened to Yeri, Joy couldn’t get home. It was Joy’s duty to protect her until then.

“Good evening ladies!” Professor Bethany said excitedly as the girls filled the ballroom. “As I had promised, I have brought some Tenebris students to practice our dance with.” After she spoke, the room was filled with hushed gasps and whispers. The girls’ excitement was obvious, but the boys looked bored, if anything. Some of them were eyeing certain girls and elbowing their friends, while others were just outright not paying attention. And that was when the three of them spotted Irene’s brother. Irene caught his attention, looked him straight in the eye, and then discretely flipped him off. He looked over to Wendy and Yeri who just shrugged while Wendy was trying really hard not to draw attention to herself by laughing. Seulgi and Joy just watched the exchanged, confusedly.

“All right, enough chatting!” Professor Bethany got the girls’ attention. “Get into groups of five, we will practice what I taught you last class, only this time, one or two boys will be infiltrating your groups.” Yeri had no idea what she was talking about, but she listened to the rest of her explanation anyway. Once the professor finished explaining that they would be in pairs in their group and that the boys would rotate through them, they formed their groups. Yeri, Wendy, Irene, Seulgi, and Joy were obviously a group, and just Yeri’s luck, Ian and one of his friends were assigned to their group. Before anyone could say anything, Seulgi spoke up.

“Okay, so you three already know him, so what’s the deal?”

“That is my brother, Ian” Irene said, pointing to him. Yeri and Wendy giggled.

“Uh, the brother part is silent?” Ian said, grinning. “And this is my friend, Lucas.”

Yeri narrowed her eyes at Lucas as Irene proceeded to introduce all the girls. Apparently, Lucas caught her staring, because he smiled at her, and she just glared at him, moving even closer to Joy, who she was still clinging onto.

“I don’t like him.” Yeri whispered to Joy. Joy gave a small nod like she agreed.

“All right class! Time to start!” Professor Bethany singsonged.

Before they had formed their groups, Seulgi explained to the four who just joined the lesson that their mission was to successfully pass a piece of paper between the five of them without the boys noticing. This would give them practice for stealthily passing information in the event it was needed. Luckily the dance they were practicing as a cover was one every girl was taught very early on in her life, and so the newcomers knew it. The starting pairs were Yeri and Ian, Irene and Lucas, Wendy and Seulgi, and Joy supervised.

“It’s been a long time, I hope my sister hasn’t been too much of a problem.” Ian said to Yeri as they started the dance. Because they were the ‘head pair’, Yeri started with the piece of paper. She planned to pass it on to Joy when they switched partners, since she was Ian’s next partner, and they would cross paths for a second.

“Don’t worry, she’s a gift as usual.” Yeri giggled. Their dancing was smooth, even though Yeri may or may not have purposely stepped on his feet a few times.

“You’re doing that on purpose aren’t you.” Ian raised his eyebrow.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Yeri feigned innocence, and smiled sweetly; fakely.

“You’ve been hanging around my sister too much. I’d expect that from her, but you?” He smirked, ignoring her pretense.

“Wendy’d do it too, you know.” She said, giving in.

“Touche,” Ian agreed. “So how’re you liking it here?”

“It’s been . . .” She paused. “Interesting.”

“Are you happy to have your aura sorted out? It must be a relief for it not to be white anymore right?” He asked. How was she supposed to tell him that it had been sorted out but was still white? Luckily, just as she was about to say something, Professor Bethany indicated it was time to switch partners. Yeri was relieved for a second until she realized her next partner was Lucas. Reluctantly, she stopped dancing, and as Joy came over, she slipped her the paper, their hand brushing for a fraction of a second, fast enough that if no one was watching for it, they definitely wouldn’t’ve noticed. Neither of the boys seemed to see it. Slowly, she made her way to Ian’s friend. Had Yeri been interested in boys, she would’ve thought he was particularly good looking, though as it was now, he set off every alarm bell in her head. Nonetheless, she introduced herself, and he did the same. Once introductions were finished, he held out his hand for her, as per custom. As soon as their hands touched, she felt a shock run through her arm originating from the strange ring that had fused itself to her hand. She immediately to a step back and gasped lightly, a look of shock on her face. Luckily no one seemed to notice, except for Joy. Joy was inches from Lucas within seconds. Only he could see the knife she had pushed against his throat as she warned him, “Try anything and I will kill you.” as she said that, her eyes shone bright green, and Lucas narrowed his eyes at her. As quickly as she had approached him, Joy retreated and went over to Yeri. Ian just looked confused.

“Are you okay? What happened?” Joy asked Yeri, taking her hands.

Yeri nodded. “I don’t know. When I took his hand, that ring thing shocked me.” she said quietly.

“Hmm, okay. We’ll have you switch with Seulgi.” Joy called the girl over, who was the current supervisor. Quickly she made up an excuse so that they could switch, and Seulgi agreed. Yeri mouthed ‘Thanks’ to Joy as they returned to their positions. After the shock, the girls let Yeri stay as the supervisor. Luckily, Professor Bethany didn’t seem to notice. Though he didn’t try anything that night, Joy caught Lucas watching Yeri more than once. This was more than enough to raise her suspicion. Something was up with this human, and he was clearly a danger to her ticket home. Joy was going to find out who, or what, he was, and get rid of him.

After a few more switches, Professor Bethany announced a five minute break. Yeri and Irene went to get drinks for their group, while Lucas and Irene bickered, and Wendy and Seulgi watched with interest. Joy, however, managed to corner Lucas.

“I don’t know who you think you are, but you’d better leave Yeri alone.” she threatened him.

Lucas smirked. “You should watch who you’re talking to, Lily.” He put his hand on her bare wrist, and pushed her out of the way. Joy hissed in pain, and when she looked at her wrist, she saw a red imprint where his hand was. She narrowed her eyes and watched him walk over to Ian.

This isn’t how I wanted to meet you, Uriel. Joy thought. This was a whole new problem.

Aaand here's part two~ Who is this mysterious boy who threatens them?!

Anyways hope you liked the double update~ I'd be really happy if yall would comment~!

-Elly