Jisoo brought Jennie and Joy a bowl of rice crackers and took the bowl of crackers she'd brought them 15 minutes earlier back to the kitchen. In about 15 minutes, she'd swap them out again - none of them really wanted any snacks; they were just just an excuse for Jisoo to keep moving.

At about 9:30 they began quietly discussing the idea of going to bed - or at least pretending to - and how they could do this in a way that would still enable them to respond to the anticipated attack. This talk was put on hold, though, when Jisoo heard quiet voices behind the kitchen. When Jisoo reported this to the others, Joy and Jenny recognized that this would necessitate a slight change in plan, as all of their arrangements were made in anticipation of an attack from the front of the house.

"Jisoo," Joy said, "why don't you send Suyeon to bed. I doubt we'll have further need of her tonight, and she looks tired." Jisoo nodded in approval at this suggestion, as it would put her in a position to attack their attackers from the rear, once they'd entered the house.

It took Suyeon  a moment to remember that she was supposed to be Jisoo, but as soon as she did, she said. "Good idea. Suyeon, I doubt we'll have further need of you tonight."

Jisoo smiled at her and bowed, saying "Yes ma'am." This made Suyeon blush, so Jisoo decided to have a little fun with it. "Should I squeeze some orange juice for breakfast tomorrow?" Jisoo had noticed that Suyeon was quite fond of orange juice.

"Yes, I think that would be quite nice," Suyeon said, her blush deepening.

Jisoo bowed to Suyeon again, and then to Jennie and Joy, saying "Good night, ma'am. Good night ladies. I'll have breakfast ready for you in the morning." Jennie shook her head with amusement at the way Jisoo was throwing herself into the role.

Jisoo made her way to Suyeon's room, doused the candle's flame, and pulled the door almost closed. She stood a short distance back from the door, peering out through the crack, awaiting in the anticipated attack.

As it turned out, she didn't have long to wait. A mere matter of minutes after she had taken her position, she heard the sound of breaking glass coming from the kitchen. The others apparently heard it as well.

"What was that?" asked Joy.

"I don't know," Suyeon said. "Do you think I should ring for Suyeon and have her investigate?"

"No, let her sleep," Joy said. "I'm quite sure it was nothing. Probably just a cat in the garden."

Jisoo smiled. Joy's part in the conversation was very clever, managing to accomplish three things without letting on what was doing. First, it let Jisoo know that they had heard the noise. Secondly, it would lead the attackers to reduce by one the number of defenders they were expecting. Finally, it would make the attackers think that the inhabitants of the house were unaware of their presence. Jisoo made a mental note to discuss this with Suyeon when time permitted, to teach her about the sort of communication, both of truth and falsehood, that could be hidden in a conversation that gave the appearance of being about something else. 

Jisoo wished they had thought to secret some weapons in Suyeon's room, so she wouldn't be attacking the attackers from the rear unarmed. She also wished they'd thought of this possibility so they could have given Suyeon instructions of where to go in the case of an attack from the back of the house. But there was no use crying over that now. All she could do was to prepare herself to attack as soon as the situation presented and hope that Suyeon had the sense to get herself safely out of the middle of the fight.

As it turned out, she didn't have to wait long. The men broke the kitchen window so quietly that she almost didn't hear it, then climbed through with a bare minimum of noise. She would have appreciated their skills, if only they weren't being used against her. When they passed by on their way to the parlor, they moved with impressive quietness. At the last second before they entered the parlor, Jisoo noticed one of them peel off from the others and head toward Suyeon's room, evidently seeking to avoid just the sort of rear attack that she had planned. Just in time, she was able to slip away from the crack in the door and press herself against the wall next to the door. When the man opened the door and stepped into the room, she quickly jumped onto his back and wrapped her arm around his throat, squeezing so tightly that he was unable to cry out and soon was unable to breathe. It seemed like it took him forever to lose consciousness, but when he did, Jisoo did her best to lower him to the ground quietly. She quickly slipped out of the room and into the kitchen for two of the coils of rope. She used one of ropes to tie up the unconscious man in Suyeon's room, then headed for parlor to help in the fight there.

She needn't have bothered. She stepped into the parlor to find Jennie, Joy, and Suyeon standing triumphantly over the other two men, both of whom were unconscious and one of whom was bleeding severely from a nasty head wound. Jennie was in the process of binding his wound with the left sleeve of his companion's coat, which had apparently been torn off, either during or after the fight.

"Jisoo, come give me a hand tying this off," Jennie said as she struggled to pull the unwieldy cloth. "If we bind it tight enough, we might not have to get your rug cleaned again."

"No," Joy said, "it's going to need cleaning again. This one's bleeding out."

Jisoo glanced over and sure enough, one leg of the man's pants was about two shades darker than the other, soaked with his blood.

"How did that happen?" Jisoo asked.

"Suyeon gets all the credit for that," Joy said. "He was advancing on me, momentarily turning his back on Suyeon, and she grabbed the poker, hit him in the leg as hard as she could, and he went down like a poleaxed cow."

Jisoo turned to look at Suyeon, who was standing by the hearth, still clutching the poker, quivering, unable to take her eyes off the man she'd taken down.

"Is he going to die?" Suyeon asked.

Jisoo stepped over, took the poker out of Suyeon's hands, put it back on the hearth, then took Suyeon's hands in hers and turned her away from the carnage. "He might die," Jisoo said. "Not because you were trying to kill him - though someday you might be called on to