When Jisoo and Yeri came down to breakfast before the first bell the next morning, Jennie, Solar, and Irene were already there. Seeing the intense look on Jennie's face as she came toward them, Yeri peeled herself off to talk with Solar and Irene, letting Jisoo and Jennie have some privacy.

"Good morning," Jisoo said. "You look pretty this morning."

"Th- thanks," Jennie said. "You too. I- um- I-"
Jisoo had never seen Jennie at a loss for words before. She waited patiently for Jennie to decide what she wanted to say. 

"I need to talk to you, alone. Can we go for a walk after morning classes?" Jennie looked like she had never had this much difficulty stringing words togethger.

Jisoo nodded. "Sure." Looking around to see that Madame Park wasn't around yet, she leaned forward as if she was going to whisper something in Jennie's ear, but turned at the last minute and kissed her on the cheek.

Jennie placed her hand on her cheek where Jisoo had kissed her. She appeared to be blushing.

"What did you want to talk about?" Jisoo asked.

Jennie shook her head. "Not until we're alone."

Jisoo nodded. She reached out and took Jennie's hand, then led her over to where Yeri, Solar, and Irene were talking. Joy and Lisa joined them soon after.

"Well Joy," Irene said, "you look like you had a good night."

Joy smiled. "I did indeed. Lisa has the most talented fingers. You should see if she'll show you."

Irene looked at Lisa, arching one eyebrow. "Is that so?" she asked.

Lisa blushed and scooted closer to Joy, her eyes demurely cast down.

"Oh, and so shy as well," Irene said, clapping her hands. "That really is a delightful combination!"

Just then the first bell rang. The other students began trickling in in ones and twos. Jennie grabbed Irene's hand and took her place at the head of the line. Jisoo and Joy lined up then, then the rest in their places. Soon, Madame Park arrived and looked them over, nodding her satisfaction at each one. 

"Who knows today's schedule?" Madame Park asked the room at large.

Moonbyul was the first one to raise her hand but, as usual, Madame Park waited for someone else to respond, in this case Hwasa.

"We've got medicine and cryptography this morning," Hwasa said, "then mathematics and geography with current events after lunch. We have an hour break between the end of morning classes and lunch, and then an hour and a half between the end of afternoon classes and dinner."

"Very good, Hwasa," Madame Park said. "I can see you've been paying more attention than usual to your studies." She stopped pacing and regarded Hwasa for a moment. "I don't think this is worthy of a perk, but I do want to encourage it." She paused, deep in thought. "Hwasa, am I remembering correctly that IU had assigned you to spend the morning break today down in the kitchen sewing strips of beef together?"

Hwasa nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"As a reward for your exemplary performance this morning, I'm reducing that to from an hour of suturing practice to half an hour."

Hwasa curtsied. "Thank you, ma'am."

Madame Park smiled at her, the cold smile of a predator. "Don't thank me," she said. "You earned this. Just see that you continue to keep your mind on your studies."

Hwasa curtsied again. "Yes ma'am."

Just then the second bell rang. They filed into the dining room and took their places at the table. At Madame Park's signal, they all sat down. 

Breakfast this morning was pastries. Jisoo knew that this particular breakfast all too easily turned into a trap - choose the wrong pastry or, even worse, take a second one, and one could find oneself forfeiting desserts for the rest of the week. Jisoo carefully selected the smallest pastry on the platter in front of her and opted for tea instead of juice. But apparently having visitors had altered Madame Park's mood: She encouraged Whee-in to have a second pastry and poured Jisoo a glass of juice herself. 

"Scientists haven't figured out exactly what it is," Madame Park said, "but there's something in orange juice that makes it a particularly healthy beverage."

"Thank you ma'am," Jisoo said, taking a sip of the orange juice and reveling in its sweet-tart flavor. Oranges were one of her favorite foods, so she was particularly pleased to not end up missing out on the orange juice this morning.

The morning's classes passed in something of a haze. Jisoo kept enough attention on the instruction to never get called out for inattention, but really a large part of her mind was looking ahead to her walk with Jennie. She wondered what Jennie had to say to her.

After cryptography class, Jennie took Jisoo's hand and let her out to the back garden. She picked up the pace so that Jisoo had to rush to keep up with her. She led Jisoo past the rose garden and the koi pond, then deep into the hedge