Jisoo, Joy, and Suyeon were eating dinner when Jisoo suddenly put her spoon down and sat quietly, staring straight ahead, obviously overcome by some thought she had had. When she didn't move after almost a minute, Joy reached out and gently took her hand. "Jisoo? Is something wrong?" she asked. Jisoo shook her head, not in negation but as if to clear it. "I just remembered something," she said. "It didn't seem important at the time - I was sure I was just imaging things, but apparently not." "What was it?" Joy asked. "Before Jennie left to return to Madame Park's Academy, she and I wandered the city," Jisoo said. "We ended up having tea at a tea house in the park. We were sitting at a table outside having tea and snacks, and I thought I saw Jin-Young. I laughed it off, certain I was jumping at shadows, but Jennie believed I had actually seen her. She even brought up the possibility of Jin-Young having escaped again." She laughed bitterly. "Jennie made me promise to write to Madame Park, telling her what I had seen, which I did, and now this letter comes today. It's all. . ." Suyeon reached out and took Jisoo's other hand. "It's a lot of deal with, I'm sure," she said. "But you've got Miss Joy and me to help you." Joy nodded. "And you've already bested her twice," she said, "so you know that you can do it." "That's true," Jisoo said with a weak smile, "and thank you, Suyeon." But then even her weak attempt at a smile failed. "But the fact that I have defeated her twice is what worries me about this." Seeing that Suyeon and Joy didn't appear to understand, she elaborated. "I know that I've bested Jin-Young twice, but so does she. Whatever else Jin-Young may be, she's not stupid. She wouldn't come back unless she had a new plan, which could mean a new way of going about things, or it could mean a new goal." "A new goal?" Suyeon asked. "Do you remember when I said that killing Jin-Young wouldn't be the preferred course, but it might be necessary?" Suyeon nodded. "It's possible that Jin-Young might have decided that killing me is the preferred course," Jisoo said, "either under orders from her society, or else because she's gone rogue." "That certainly would change things," Suyeon said, her face grave. "More than you know," Jisoo said. "If things have progressed to that stage, she wouldn't need to get close enough to me for hand-to-hand combat. A gun, a bomb, poison gas - there are another number of ways that she could kill me from a distance." "I don't think it's going to go that way," Joy said. "Why not?" Jisoo asked. "I don't think this is under orders from her society," Joy said. "If her society was involved and wanted you dead, they'd send a trained assassin, not an agent. And even if they did think an agent was the best way to deal with you, they'd send someone you wouldn't recognize. There's no way it benefits the society to send Jin-Young after you again." "That makes sense," Jisoo said, freeing her hand from Suyeon's so she could take a sip of her tea. "But even if we do assume that, how does that change the dangers we have to guard against?" "Because if Jin-Young has gone rogue," Joy said, "first of all, she won't have the resources of her society to call on. She'll be restricted to what she can procure by other means." Jisoo nodded, and Joy continued. "If Jin-Young has gone rogue to come after you, that means that this is personal for her, which means we can rule out any sort of anonymous death from a distance. She'll want you to see her. She'll want to gloat. She'll want you to die knowing it was her that killed you." Suyeon gasped. "It's like something out of a penny dreadful!" she said. Joy nodded. "It's exactly like a penny dreadful," she said. "In fact, there's a theory that some of the penny dreadfuls are actually covert training and recruitment tools for the secret societies." "How so?" Suyeon asked. "Well," Jisoo said, "for starters, every penny dreadful has a letter column. They receive many more letters than they print. If they receive a letter that points out a flaw in the plan of a story or that presents an alternative solution to that story's problem, and the idea is good enough, that letter won't get printed, but instead will get passed up the chain of command and the author could end up getting recruited." "But how do they know they'll be able to recruit the letter writer?" Suyeon asked, her brow furrowed in concentration as she tried to understand everything. "Who reads penny dreadfuls?" Joy asked. Suyeon thought for a moment, then shook her head. "I don't understand." "Do I read penny dreadfuls?" Jisoo asked. Suyeon shook her head no. "Actually, I do," Jisoo said with a laugh, "but I keep that a secret, and only keep the more fashionable magazines out where my guests could see them. Did any of the ladies you cleaned house for read penny dreadfuls?" "Not that they let me see," Suyeon said. "Now I've noticed," Jisoo said, "that sometimes when you've got free time you enjoy reading Park's Literary Magazine. Did you ever happen to notice the price on the cover?" Suyeon shook her head. "Let's just say it's quite a bit more than a penny," Jisoo said. A look of realization dawned on Suyeon's face. "The people who read penny dreadfuls are poor! So the deal that the societies offer will be better than what they're currently getting, and they'd be a fool not to take it." "And the fact that the society thinks they're worth recruiting is itself evidence that they're not a fool," Joy said. After Jisoo went to bed, Suyeon and Joy sat up in the kitchen talking over cups of tea. "I'm so worried about Mrs. Kim," Suyeon said. "Do you think Jin-Young really will come try to kill her?" Joy nodded. "I think that's exactly what Jin-Young is planning." "What can we do to help?" Suyeon asked, taking a sip of her tea. "For one thing," Joy said, "Jisoo must never leave the house alone. She probably won't like this restriction, but once we discuss it with her, she's likely to see the necessity of it." Joy paused for a second. "I think the fact that I'm here will prove exceedingly helpful with this." "I'm capable of defending Mrs. Kim!" Suyeon said indignantly. "I'm sure you are," Joy said, reaching out and putting her hand on Suyeon's hand in hopes of calming her. "I've seen you fight, and you fight exceptionally well for someone with as little training as you've had. No, the reason it's advantageous that I'm here lies in social position, not combat ability." Seeing that Suyeon didn't see the point she was driving at, Joy elaborated. "Jisoo can order you to stay at the house while she goes out. She cannot do that with me. She can forbid me to accompany her, but that just means I'd have to follow her from a distance." "But, why would she try to go out, knowing the danger she's in?" Suyeon asked. Joy paused for a moment, as if weighing what to say and how to say it. "Jisoo is a good person, and a good friend," she began. "But at her core, there's a piece of her that she keeps closed off and hidden. We may catch occasional glimpses of it, but there are parts of Jisoo that I think not even