"Why did we leave the parlor? Rose's still there," I whispered to Sehun in the middle of an empty hallway lit by a single torch.

Sehun pulls me into the shadows and talks so quietly that I can barely hear him, and I'm right next to him. "Because I saw Jimin tell her in sign language that he would meet her."

"Meet her where?" I ask, a pit forming in my stomach. Sehun's nearness isn't helping with my nerves. I'm sure if anyone came through the hallway the would think we were having a romantic moment. But the last thing I need is more marks. I'm probably going to be scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush as it is.

"I'm assuming her room," he says.

I pull back slightly to get a look at him. "What are you saying right now?"

"I'm saying I want to hear that conversation," he whispers, and I can tell by his tone that he's serious.

My eyes widen as I realize what he's implying. "No. Forget it. That is so not what I signed up for, Sehun. I'm not breaking into . . . I'm not doing that."

"Then stay here and be scared," he says. "Any minute now they could come out of that parlor and we'll lose our window of opportunity. But that's okay; you go to bed. I'm sure you'll sleep well knowing that you will likely be blamed for a murder you didn't commit." And he walks away.

For a second I just watch him with my mouth open. I've clearly met my match in Sehun when it comes to being creatively pushy.

"Damn it," I say under my breath, and walk quickly down the hall to catch up.

When I reach him, he's wearing a small smile, like he knew exactly what the result of that conversation would be. I scowl and consider saying something biting, but as we pass into the stairwell, my annoyance with Sehun is covered by my fear of what we're about to do.

Sehun stops in front of the second-floor entrance to the girls' dormitory, checking for guards, and I immediately get a feeling of deja vu from the other night. Only then it was all still a game.

Sehun gestures me to follow him and we dart into the hallway, keeping our steps silent. He stops at the fourth door on the right and silently lifts the latch of Rose and Lisa's door. We slide inside, my heart beating a zillion miles an hour.

I've never considered how easy it is to get into someone else's space at the Academy. The doors can only be locked from the inside. But then again, I'm not sure what use locks would be with this group. Instead of making it harder to break in, I suspect locks would incentivize this group to try.

"What now?" I whisper, scanning the common room, which is the exact same as Sejeong's and mine. Between the stone floors and antique furniture, the only good space to hide is under the beds, and there is absolutely no way I'm risking getting trapped in one of their bedrooms.

"What's now is that you pick up that piece of grass you tracked in," Sehun says, looking at the floor like he can't believe I'm so careless. "Unless you want to immediately alert Rose that we're here, and if that's the case, I hope your fighting skills are enough to handle a three-on-two fight."

I look down at the floor, and sure enough there is a single blade of grass that must have been stuck to the bottom of my boot. I pick it up and shove it into my pocket.

Sehun makes his way across the room to the window blotted out with a heavy curtain. "The sill is big enough. Go from below and try not to pull the curtain out too far. If light gets through, the guard outside might see it and come up here. Don't sit down on the sill - stand and press your back against the side of the window arch. And get yourself into a position that you can stay in for a few hours and where you have flexibility of movement without making any noise. If someone pats the curtain, you have to be ready to move so that the fabric doesn't touch your body and give us away."

For a moment I just stare at him, thinking he can't possibly mean what he's saying. but he gives no indication that he is anything but serious.

I gulp. "So I'm going to be hiding for hours against a second story window in a room with someone who probably wouldn't think twice about pushing me out of it? And there is a real possibility that some is going to check the curtain, and I'll have to avoid their hand?"

"Yes," Sehun says, as if it's the most normal thing in the world. Then he pulls out the curtain just enough for me to shinny under it. "You first."

"How are we going to get back out?" I ask, and realize I've taken a step back away from the curtain, not toward it.

"We wait until they go to sleep and we're quiet about it," he says.

"And if someone sleeps on the couch?"

"Then we're stuck here for the night, or we have to take our chances with sneaking past them," he says, and pauses. "You need to get under this curtain now, unless you want them to walk in and catch us outright."

I walk toward him, dreading the moment when Rose returns.

Sehun watches me carefully. I bend down, hesitantly touching the curtain.

Sehun sighs. "Go back to your room, Suzy," he says, and I stop what I"m doing.

"Excuse me?"

"Seriously, go back. You can't do this if you're confident. You'll give us away in a minute. Go. Quickly, before this is all a waste."

I stand, pushing my hair back from my face, and he gives me a hard look. I want to say something, to protest, but he's right. There's no time. And the only thing that would make this whole thing worse would be getting caught because I'm lingering stupidly.

I peek into the hall and, luckily, it's empty. I slip out of the room, closing the door behind me. It's not the silent exit Sehun would have made, and that only makes me feel crappier about the whole thing as I dart into the stairwell toward my room. This is the first time anyone has ever suggested that I'm not confident enough to do something, and it's messing with my head. He didn't say I wasn't good enough. He wouldn't have brought me if he didn't think I was capable. But that piece of grass was a huge oversight.

I tiptoe down my bedroom hallway, careful to avoid all the creaky boards. I drop to my hands and knees and crawl across the living room floor until I get to the back of the couch.

"I can hear your breathing, my onesie-wearing spy," Uncle Jin calls from the couch, where he's playing cards with Appa.

I stand up. "Dang it."

"And I saw you slinking around the floor, Su," Appa says. "What have I told you about that?"

I put my hand on my hip, annoyed that I have to repeat things back to him like a little kid when I"m almost eight. "That my small size is an advantage, but not if I can't stay completely hidden."

"And how would you have stayed hidden?" he asks.

I huff. "By staying in the hallway and not coming all the way to the couch."

He nods.

"But I couldn't hear you as well from there," I protest. "And the floor in the hallway is cold."

"But you could hear us," he says. "And yet by coming all the wall into the room, you've been caught, letting Uncle Jin and me know that we're being spied on. So what good did it do you?"

"None," I say, annoyed.

"It was a bad effort, though, little one," Uncle Jin says, and put his elbow over the back of the couch to get a better look at me. "And I'm entirely flattered that you would go through all that trouble to get out here just to overhear our conversation. I won't leave you empty-handed. For your efforts, I'll reward you by letting you know that I'm beating pants off your father in cards."

Appa shakes his head. "The imagination is an amazing thing, Jin." He looks at me. "Now, back to bed, Suzy."

"Fine," I grumble, and Uncle Jin gives me a kiss on my forehead. He looks down at my ankles and laughs because I've unevenly cut the noisy skidproof plastic feet off my onesie.

At seven years old I was more confident, more willing to take risks, than I just was in Rose's room. And I know better than to track things in and linger indecisively like that. Appa told me a million times that you either do something or you don't, but hesitating is never an option.

When I get to my room, I immediately check behind the curtain and under the beds. Jisoo always thought it was weird the way my family encouraged me to be better at sneaking around, instead of scolding me. I used to tell her it was because Appa believed that survival skills were just that - for survival. But until I came here, I didn't actually realize how right he was.