Jisoo walked into her old room and was surprised to find that, far from being asleep, Suyeon was wide awake and excited. She had changed into her nightgown and was sitting in the middle of the bed with her eyes ablaze. "I thought you'd be asleep," Jisoo said. "We had a long day of traveling, and Irene didn't let you get much sleep the night before." Suyeon blushed. "You heard that?" Jisoo nodded. "You were quiet, but I heard you talk as I drifted off to sleep. I couldn't understand what you were saying, just heard a murmur of your voices. Then I woke up in the middle of the night, and when I did I heard you doing something other than talking. I could tell you were trying to be quiet, but there's only so much you can do in a standard room at an inn." Suyeon's blush deepened. "I'm just so excited to be here," she said. "You've told me so much about this place, and it's so exciting to actually be here!" She was quiet for a second, pouting a little. "I wish there were other students here, though. I mean, I understand why there can't be, but still..." "I know," Jisoo said, as she got undressed and put her nightgown on. "Maybe once this business with Jin-Young is finished, you'll be able to train here along with Madame Park's new students when I go out on my new mission." Suyeon looked stricken. "I wouldn't be going with you?" Jisoo climbed into the bed and blew out the candle, then she and Suyeon climbed under the duvet. "I don't think they'd let you go with me," Jisoo said. "Long-term missions are a solo thing. Or at least, all the ones I've heard of have been." "Oh," Suyeon said, managing to pack a world of disappointment into that one syllable. "What?" Jisoo asked. "I knew I was going to be separated from you, eventually," Suyeon said, "but I always thought it would be after I finished my training. I never imagined being at an academy while you went out on a new mission." "There's still a chance it might happen that way," Jisoo said. "You never know what our mutual friends are going to do - even with everything I've been able to learn about them, they're still very mysterious. Sometimes I can catch a glimpse of their thought processes, but other times it seems like they might as well be ordering things at random. At our level we never get to see enough to see the big picture." Suyeon scooted closer to Jisoo and put her arm around her. "So, what's my training going to be like now? I mean, now that we're at the academy. Is it going to be the same sort of things we've been doing?" "Some of it will be the same," Jisoo said, "but we'll also be able to do a lot of things that we couldn't do at the house in Busan. Plus, you won't be cooking or cleaning here, so we can train you that much more intensively." "So, for example, what about tomorrow?" Suyeon asked. "Do you have some idea of what you'll be having me do?" "I do," Jisoo said, rolling over so that she was facing Suyeon. "I'm going to stick with the pattern that Madame Park had for most of our days: Physical classes in the morning and academic classes in the afternoon, then a free period between class and dinner, then dinner and spending the evening in the drawing room. So tomorrow I'm thinking scientific boxing and fencing in the morning, then geography and current events in the afternoon, plus probably a little training in accomplishments, then the next day will be riding in the morning, then math and cryptography in the afternoon, plus time for accomplishments." "That sounds like a lot!" Suyeon said. Jisoo laughed. "That's just the start, and it's going to seem impossible at times, but you'll get through it and things will go up a level, and then another level from there, until you're doing things you can't imagine doing now. For example, we'll start scientific boxing and fencing tomorrow, and I don't expect you to master them right away, but once you do, I'll add in gwonbeop, firearms training, and improvised weapons. Then once you've started to master those, I'll do away with the divisions between combat types and you'll just have a class in combat, where you'll never know in advance what weapon you'll have, nor what weapon your opponent will have." "Do you really think I'll be able to do all that?" Suyeon asked. "It sounds like a lot." "It is a lot, if you try thinking of it all at once at the beginning," Jisoo said. "That's why we start out with individual arts: Tomorrow you'll learn the proper stance for scientific boxing and start learning the varieties of punches and blocks. Then in fencing, you'll learn how to hold the sword and how to lunge." Jisoo thought for a moment. "I suppose I'll also have to teach you combat medicine, since IU isn't here," Jisoo added, "plus lockpicking, toxicology, forgery. . ." "And what about accomplishments?" Suyeon asked, hoping to head Jisoo from adding any more things to the curriculum. "What will that include?" "Drawing and French, of course," Jisoo said. "Your needlework is already than mine, so there's not really much I can teach you there. Your singing voice is already good, it just wants a little formal training." She paused for a second