Over the next couple of days, Jisoo discovered that none of her classmates could tell her anything about Madame Young's Academy or it's students, and that Madame Park wouldn't tell her anything more about them.

"Just be patient, Jisoo," Madame Park had said, "You'll see what Madame Young's ladies are like when they arrive next week, and they'll be able to tell you far more about their academy than I ever could."

"But-" Jisoo started to ask.

'Do you need to copy the definition for 'patience' from the Oxford English Dictionary to help you pass the time until our guests arrive?" Madame Park asked.

Recognizing how close she had come to earning a demerit - and knowing how displeased Jennie would be if she did so - Jisoo stopped right away. "No ma'am, that won't be neccessary. If you'll excuse me, ma'am, I'd like to accompany Rose on her pre-dinner walk."

"Very well," Madame Park said, turning away from Jisoo, "Just remember what I said about patience."

"Yes ma'am." Jisoo curtsied and left to go find Rose before she left on her walk.

Once they had gone into the hedge maze, and thus were out of sight and presumably out of earshot of the house, Rose asked Jisoo, "So, did Madame Park tell you anything about our guests?"

Jisoo shook her head. "Not only did she not tell me anything, she very nearly had me copy the definition of 'patience' from the OED!"

Rose gave a shudder. 'I've had to copy that one a couple of times before - it makes my hand ache just thinking about it."

"I can imagine," Jisoo said sympathetically. "But that's not all, under the new regime, if I had to copy the decision, Jennie would have to copy it too, and she's told me that if I earned us any demerits, she was going to punish me."

Rose stopped short. Putting her hand on Jisoo's arm, she asked "Jisoo, are you sure that's what she was saying?"

Jisoo nodded. "She was very clear."

Rose looked around, to try to be sure they weren't being overheard. "Did she say how she would punish you?"

Jisoo thought for a moment. "No, not exactly. She was very clear that there would be a punishment, but didn't say anything about what it would be. . .  Maybe she didn't really mean it."

 Rose looked deep into Jisoo's eyes for a second. "I don't believe that, and neither do you."

"Then what can I do?" Jisoo asked.

"Try not to get demerits?" Rose suggeted. "Seriously, I don't know what else you can do. You can't talk to Madame Park about it - if she believed it at all, she'd probably take Jennie's side."

Just then the first bell rang to assemble for dinner. Rose looked up in a panic. "Come on," she said as she started heading for the exit to the maze. If we hurry, we can make it!" Once Rose saw the Jisoo was following her, she increased her speed to a run. In just a few minutes they burst out of the hedge maze and rushed through the rose garden. Coming in through the back entrance of the house, they hurried down some of the more disused hallways and slid into their places in line mere seconds before the second bell rang. Rose and Jisoo struggled to return their breathing to normal before Madame Park came to inspect them. 

As it happened, they were barely breathing hard when Madame Park showed up and walked down the line. She either didn't notice or else chose not to say anything about it. Finally, when Jisoo thought she couldn't take the strain of waiting any longer, Madame Park opened the dining room door and said "Come to dinner, ladies."

Dinner was in the Italian style: A salad of leaft greens and an entree of noodles in a tomato sauce with chicken. Jisoo wasn't terribly fond of Italian food, but as Madame Park had proclaimed "A lady must be able to eat whatever is placed before her, regardless of the cuisine," she made an effort to try to enjoy it. 

At one point during the meal, she felt Jennie reach out and pick up her left hand. Jisoo looked down and as a thin stripe of red across the back of her hand.

"What happened?" Jennie asked.

Jisoo looked more carefully at the scratch. "I must have brushed