After breakfast, it was time for scientific boxing class.

"We'll need to go change into our fighting clothes," Irene said. "We'll meet you in the dojang in a few minutes.

"You know how to find it?" Madame Park asked.

Irene nodded. "Jennie showed me the way yesterday."

"Okay. We'll see you there," Madame Park said.

Madame Park had just started them on some warmup stretches when Madame Young's ladies showed up in their fighting clothes. And what clothes! They were wearing white tunics and pants, with matching white shoes. Jisoo noted that their tunics were held closed with sashes: Black for Irene and Seulgi, red for Wendy, Blue for Joy, and Green for Yeri.

"What's this?" Madame Park asked.

"Irene took a step forward. "Madame Young said she'd explain it to you. Rather than training us in scientific boxing, she's trained us in gwonbeop. She thinks that by teaching a variety of martial arts, that we'll all be stronger than if we were only trained in one art."

Madame Park nodded. "Very well," she said. "Irene, would you like to spar with Jennie for a demonstration?"

Irene bowed. "Certainly."

Jennie walked out to the padded mat and waited for Irene to come stand across from her. Jennie assumed her scientific boxing stance. Jisoo noticed significant differences in Irene's stance: She was standing side-on to Jennie, her arms held closer to her body than in a scientific boxing stance, while her knees were slightly bent and she bounced slightly as she waited for the match to begin.

"Begin," Madame Park called out.

Jennie stepped forward and threw a punch at Irene. Irene around, kicked Jennie's arm off to the side, then reversed her leg's motion and kicked Jennie in the head, knocking her down. Irene stepped back and resumed her starting stance. Jennie got up and charged her, throwing a flurry of punches. Irene ducked from side to side, using her arms to knock Jennie's punches to the side. After keeping this up for a long moment, Irene grabbed Jennie's arm as she threw in forward in a punch. Irene pulled Jennie forward, unbalancing her, then wrenched Jennie's arm around, slamming her onto her back on the mat. Jennie jumped up again, her anger obvious on her face. She was about to attack Irene again when Madame Park called out "Stop!"

Irene bowed to Jennie, then to Madame Park, then stepped back in line with her schoolmates.

Madame Park nodded as Jennie returned to her place in the line.

Madame Park looked back and forth from her students to Madame Young's students. "Irene," she asked, "can gwonbeop be performed in a dress?"

Irene thought for a moment. "It might be impossible to do some of the kicks, but the punching and blocking techniques should work, as well as some of the locks and throws."

Madame Park nodded and considered this information. "While you're here, would you be willing to teach my students these techniques?"

"It would be an honor," Irene said with a bow.

For the remainder of scientific boxing class, Irene put them through a series of gwonbeop drills. At the end, Jisoo was sore in all the muscles she hadn't been using in scientific boxing.

Fencing class, on the other hand, was another matter. After a few minutes of sparring, Madame Park stopped them. "Wendy, what's wrong with you? You look like you've never held a sword before in your life!"
Wendy stopped and look inquisitively at her blade. "I haven't. Madame Young didn't teach us fencing."

Madame Park had her students teach Madame Young's students how to properly hold a sword, then started them all on quadrant drills. As she lunged and recovered, lunged and recoved, Jisoo took the opportunity to look everyone over and trying to figure out their mood. For most people this kind of thing seemed to come automatically, but for Jisoo it took a great deal of conscious thought. Jennie was looking over at Irene as she performed her drills. She could tell that Jennie was trying to figure out Irene, to find her weakness so that Jennie could assert herself as the head girl of both schools. As much as Jisoo liked Jennie, she was afraid that was pointless - in a head-to-head competition, she thought that Irene would beat Jennie. Jisoo then looked over at where Solar and Yeri were practicing. Even without being able to hear what Solar was saying, Jisoo could tell that she had her full "helpful Solar" persona on, doing her best to ingratiate herself to Yeri.

Jisoo then looked over at Madame Park. Madame Park had a lot on his mind. She was doubting herself, wondering if her techniques were the best to prepare her students for their missions. Thankfully, so far it looked like she was choosing to add Madame Young's techniques to hers, rather than digging in and insisting that her techniques were the only proper ones. Based on Jennie's performance against Irene in scientific boxing this morning, Jisoo thought that was probably the right thing to do.

Finally, when Jisoo didn't feel like she could lunge again, Madame Park called a stop to fencing class. "You've all got an hour until lunch, then this afternoon you'll be allowed to go out riding."

As they were putting her fencing equipment away, Rose turned to Jisoo and asked "Can you believe what Irene was able to do to Jennie during scientific boxing?"

Jisoo stopped in her tracks. "So you're talking to me again now?" she asked, her voice cold.

Rose nodded. "I talked with Wendy last night, and she made me change how I looked at some things. For all the Madame Park makes us compete with each other, at the end of the d