AN: Hey guys, I'm in sort of a slump right now due to school in approximately 10 or so hours, but I'll use this time to put up another update :) 

*Me trying to fit in as much as possible before the break is over*

It's not as long as usual (I think), but yeahhhhhhhh... schooollllll 

Anyways, hope you enjoy! I'll try to update as consistently during the school year too~

Ten hours later, Seungyeon made good on her promise. She marched into the cafeteria at dinnertime and took a seat across from Sunggyu at one of the Android tables. I don’t know exactly what Seungyeon told him, but I know Sunggyu never said a word. A minute after Seungyeon’s lips started moving, Sunggyu’s eyes left his guest and found me on the other side of the dining hall.

There was no expression on his face. He just stared straight at me until Seungyeon had finished what she’d come to say. Then Sunggyu walked out, leaving a tray full of food behind on the table.

That was two and a half weeks ago. I waited as long as I could for Sunggyu’s anger to cool. But the Immunity Phase ends in three days, on the first of June. Then the slaughter will commence, and I need to make sure he’s prepared for the horrors to come. He’ll finally look at me again. Sometimes we even share the same sofa in the Wolves’ Den.

Sunggyu’s quizzed me about the workings of the academy, but it’s the only subject he’ll ever discuss. I can’t utter a word of warning out loud—and Sunggyu refuses to join me on the roof where we could speak in private. I write long, detailed notes instead. Not like he reads them anyways. He reads my letters, rips them to shreds, and never replies.

Sunggyu told me he was here because I never said goodbye.

Maybe he came looking for me. Maybe he once wanted to save me.

But now, he’s determined to punish me.

• • •

The evening after he was named Dux, Sunggyu paid his first visit to the Wolves’ Den. I’d just finished making sure that every beast was accounted for when he made his grand entrance. It was all the more remarkable because I don’t think anyone actually saw him arrive. The chatter in the lounge just faded away. One by one, the Wolves discovered him sitting among us.

I don’t know where he got his hands on a pair of tight jeans. Or a T-shirt that said Don’t Mess with Me. Surrounded by sleek, designer-clad Wolves, Sunggyu stuck out like a rocker at a polo match.

But when I scanned the room, the rest of us looked like little kids dressed up in their parents’ clothes. And I could see I wasn’t the only one who suddenly felt ridiculous. It was one of Sunggyu’s most brilliant moves.

“Hiya,” he said.

No one replied. It didn’t seem to bother him, but I spoke up anyway. “Welcome to the lounge.”

“Thanks, Flick. Nice to know one of you has some manners.” If he hadn’t ended the sentence with a laugh, it would have sounded like chiding. “Cool clubhouse you got here. It’s like one of those sets down there in the Incubation Suites, doncha think? Remember those? When you first get there, all the rooms feel like cages. Then Jungyeop puts up those weird sets and you think you’ll never get used to them. But the longer you’re down there, the more normal they seem.” The observation was met with another silence that Sunggyu had to break.

“So which of you has been here the longest?” he asked.

Everyone looked at Tablo, who took his time answering. Although his plan to seize power had failed, he didn’t seem ready to admit defeat. “I have. This is my seventh semester.”

“You’re human resources. Am I right, Tablo?”

His nostrils flared briefly at the mention of his name. “I’m the top student in human resources, that is correct.”

“Not anymore,” Sunggyu replied. “But you’re still qualified to answer my next question. Since you’ve been at the Woollim Academy, how many people have been named Dux in their first week at the school?”

He didn’t want to say it. “None.”

Sunggyu nodded. “Which means we’re all in uncharted territory now. So I think it’s a good idea to start mapping out some rules. You may have noticed that I’ve been interviewing the lower-ranking students. As Dux, it’s my job to assess the student body. And I want to make one thing absolutely clear.” He slid to the edge of her seat and leaned forward with his hands on his knees. “Until I’m finished, you’re all going to keep your grubby little fingers off those bodies. Nobody gets touched till I say so.”

Tablo’s eyes opened and shut in a lazy, lizard-like blink. “Has Mr. Jungyeop approved this study of yours?” he asked.

“He made me Dux, didn’t he?” Sunggyu responded. “I think I’ll take that as a sign of his approval. Unless you disagree. Do you?”

“No,” Tablo demurred.

“Excellent. Second, I want to be kept up to date on all of your school projects. In other words, I would like to see your homework every evening before you leave this lounge.”

“That’s a rather unusual request, Alep—” Tablo started.

“Sunggyu. That's my name.” he corrected him. “Like I said, we’re in uncharted territory. Everything is going to feel a bit strange at first.”

“Does your co-Dux support these new measures?”

“Absolutely,” I chimed in, as if I’d been informed far in advance. It was the first time I’d heard about any of it.

“So let’s get started.” Sunggyu’s eyes fell on Soul. He rose from his chair and positioned himself directly behind the girl. “What’s that you’re working on?” he asked, bending over the couch to have a peek at the screen of her computer. “Do you have Internet access?”

Soul grimaced like she’d been surprised with an . No one—not even Justin—had ever been allowed to look at her screen. “Only in class. I’m working offline right now. Developing malware. This targets online bank accounts. It skims a fraction of a cent off each transaction that’s made. But over time, we’re talking billions of transactions.”

“Fascinating. How much would you get paid for developing something like that?”

“I wouldn’t get paid,” Soul sneered, unable to hide her contempt. “After graduation, I’ll be a free agent. I’ll make my own money.”

“Maybe I should transfer over to technology,” Sunggyu mused. “I read in the newspaper that someone used a similar trick to target PayPal accounts. They don’t know how much the guy got. The best guess is around ten million dollars.”

Leila’s computer nearly fell off her lap when she spun around to face Sunggyu. “Someone targeted PayPal?”

“Yeah.”

“I did that for class last semester.”

“Really?” Sunggyu gasped with mock surprise. “Then I guess you’re closer to your goal than you thought. You’re practically a free agent already.” Even if Jungyeop had been eavesdropping, he couldn’t have seen the wink Sunggyu used to punctuate the word free.

“One more question.” Sunggyu took out a small scrap of paper and unfolded it. “Does this mean anything to you?”

No one but Soul could see what was written on the paper. "Yeah,” she said. “The instructors have a bunch of technology Androids hacking any websites that mention it.”

“That’s what I thought,” Sunggyu replied as he crumpled the note in her hand. “What about you?” Sunggyu asked, moving on to Justin. “What have you been working on?” Unlike Soul, Justin seemed eager to impress the new Dux. Or maybe he didn’t want to risk another trip to Flick’s barbershop now that his pixie hairdo is finally growing back in.

He opened a black binder and began to flip through its pages. “I’m finishing a business plan for a synthetic opioid that I invented last year. It’s as addictive as heroin and as easy to manufacture as methamphetamine. I’ve already outlined production and distribution. Now I’m working on marketing.”

“Your drug—smoke, snort, or inject?” Sunggyu inquired.

“All of the above,” Justin said proudly. “That’s what the consumer wants these days.”

“Do you have a name for your product?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I grew up in Hawaii. There’s a word, mana—”

Sunggyu cut him off. “It means ‘the power of the universe.’”

“How do you know that?” Justin looked crestfallen.

“Until I came here, I was living in the slums. They’ve been selling Mana on street corners there for the past three or four months. I never tried it, but it sounds an awful lot like the drug you’ve described. I think someone on the outside may have beaten you to the punch.”

“No—” Justin started to argue.

“Yes. Jeez, don’t you guys keep up with the news? Sounds like you’re all out of touch. Who wants to be next?” That night, it felt like Sunggyu took a torch to the Wolves’ Den and burned the whole set to the ground. Beneath the plaster and paint, the lounge was nothing more than a cage. And no one trapped inside survived the destruction unscathed. Their ideas were all old, outdated, or unoriginal.

But you needed to see Sunggyu’s face to get the full message. Without the benefit of his winks, nudges, and smirks, an eavesdropper might have misinterpreted the routine. It would have sounded like he was knocking the Wolves down a few notches. And he did, but that was nothing more than a bonus.

Everyone in that room understood exactly what Sunggyu was telling them. And I could see the fury and indignation on the top students’ faces that night. They were furious at the people who’d tricked them—who’d told them their school projects were homework when they’d actually been working for free. The all-powerful Wolves had been the alumni’s slaves since day one.

I sat on a windowsill and watched. Sungyeol was studying my face from across the room, trying to figure out if I knew what was happening. I gave him a shrug, and he inched his way across the tower like a commando advancing through sniper fire.

When he reached my side, he took out the notepad he always seemed to keep in a pocket.

‘I thought he was your boy’, Sungyeol wrote.

I borrowed his pen. ‘He was,’ I answered.

‘How long?’

’Bout 6 mo.’

‘What’s he doing?’

‘IDK.’

‘He going to get us killed?’

‘IDK.’

‘Is he crazy?’

‘IDK.’

‘You trust him?’

I didn’t even pause.

‘Yes.’