On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Jisoo was sitting by the fire working on her needlework when Madame Park came in and called her name. "Yes ma'am," she responded, looking up from her work.

"Come with me to my office," Madame Young said. "We have something to discuss."

Jisoo put her needlework on the bedside table and followed Madame Park. Once they were in the office, Madame Park shut the door behind them, indicated that Jisoo should have a seat, and poured tea for both of them.

"Well," Madame Park said, "let's skip the mindless small talk and get straight to the reason I've called you here: It's time for you to go out on your long-term assignment."

"Ma'am?" Jisoo asked, suddenly terrified of leaving the academy.

"Next Wednesday you are going to leave the academy and return to your parents' home. Soon after you arrive there, you will meet your future husband, and you will be married to him within the month."

"My future husband?" Jisoo asked.

Madame Park nodded. She reached for a file folder on her desk and handed it to Jisoo. "He's a captain in the navy with a very promising future. We expect him to be promoted to commodore within the next year and to admiral within five years."

"And I'm to attempt to influence him?" Jisoo asked.

"Not at first," Madame Park said. "At first your assignment is simply to be a good wife to him, getting him to rely on your emotionally and to trust your judgment. This will be made both more difficult and easier by the fact that he'll spend more than half his time at sea in the early years of your marriage, so your relationship will largely be carried out through letters."

Jisoo blinked rapidly, but was unable to prevent a tear from rolling down her cheek. She attempted to wipe it away without Madame Park seeing, but was unsuccessful.

"Is something wrong?" Madame Park asked.

Jisoo shook her head. "No ma'am. It's just, the academy has become like home to me, and the other students are like the sisters I didn't have growing up. I shall miss you all terribly."

"I'm sure you shall," Madame Park said gently, "but this is the nature of our world. It is, of course, expected that a lady of your station would maintain a lively correspondence with her old schoolmates, and that she would visit with them from time to time while her husband was at sea. I know it's not the same as living with them full-time, but it will have to do. It's certainly an improvement over the protocol when I graduated. At that time, a student going out on assignment would sever all ties with her classmates, and even if they happened to meet during the course of their missions, they were not to acknowledge their previous acquaintance."

Jisoo nodded. "I'm very glad that that has changed."

"Madame Young and I were instrumental in getting that change passed. We kept bringing up in our debriefings that our husbands found it very odd that we had no school chums who we wished to maintain communication with."

"Thank you, ma'am," Jisoo said, bowing slightly.

"You're very welcome," Madame Park said. "I hope that it makes your time on assignment more pleasant than mine had been. Now, from now until you leave on Wednesday, you are excused from all classes. Your assignment is to study that file on your future husband until you know him as well as you know yourself."

"Yes ma'am," Jisoo said with another bow.

Madame Park laughed and waved her hand. "Well, go on with you, then. I imagine you're just about bursting to tell Jennie about your new assignment."

Jisoo got up to leave, but stopped as she reached the door, her hand on the knob. Turning back to Madame Park, she asked "I hope you won't think me impertinent for asking, but why am I getting this assignment? Why isn't Jennie getting the first assignment, since she's head girl?"

Madame Park nodded. "A perfectly reasonable question. And the answer is that missions aren't assigned based on class ranking. They're based on personality and aptitudes. My supervisors believe, and I agree with them, that you are better suited to be a wife to your Captain Lee than Jennie would be. Now, no more questions - you've got studying to do."

Jisoo bowed as she left the room. "Yes ma'am."

Jennie rolled over and faced Jisoo. "I just can't believe you're leaving already."

"I know," Jisoo said. "I always figured you'd leave first. I mean, you've always been first girl, why would I get a mission before you?"

"Apparently there's something about you that the supervisors think will be irresistible to Captain Lee," Jennie said. "I know I've always found you irresistible." She smiled weakly and then flopped back on her pillow.

Jisoo reached out and took Jennie's hand. She was still trying to figure out what to say when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Jisoo called.

Rose came in, followed by the remainder of their schoolmates. She was carrying two bottles of wine, and the others were carrying bottles and glasses.

"We figured we should have a party to celebrate you getting your long-term mission," Solar said, "so we raided the wine cellar and here we are!"

"Aren't we going to get in trouble?" Jisoo asked.