I walk down the hall to my room, my brisk pace fueled by my uneasiness. "Sejeong?" I say as I unlatch the door and walk in, but there's no response.

I close the door and head for my bedroom.

"She's in the library," says a voice, and Sehun steps out from behind my door, sending me flying two fast steps backward. 

"Aish, Sehun. You almost gave me a heart attack!" I say.

"Then stop being so easily surprised," he says, and I cringe inwardly. An image of him telling me to leave Rose's room last night flashes in my thoughts.

"You're right. You're totally right. I need to stop being so jumpy. I need to stop being a lot of things," I say, and head for the window, patting the curtain with my hand.

"I already checked there," Sehun says, and I walk toward Sejeong's room. "And I checked your bedrooms."

"Oh," I say, and stop.

He takes a good look at me. "You're practically shaking. This isn't just about finding me here. Something happened."

"Rose knows I was in her room," I say. "She claims she found a piece of my hair." I look at him for some signs as to whether Rose might be bluffing, but he gives nothing away.

"I warned you about covering your tracks," he says.

"Believe me, I definitely learned that lesson. Not that I think I can stop hairs from ever falling from my head. But I agree on the grass. I won't be making that mistake again. Or hesitately the way I did, either," I add, frowning. "I could have gotten us caught by Rose. I did get myself caught."

"Mmm. I see. And you're scared of her?"

"She's completely unpredictable."

Sehun shrugs. "True. But Lisa is a better fighter. If I were you, I'd be more worried about Lisa."

"This really isn't a joke."

He plops on the couch. "Welcome to our Hidden Academy, Suzy, where the scheming never stops, and where someone is always trying to push you off a ledge. You're in a dangerous situation. You're taking calculated risks to get out of it. But risks are still risks." I rub my hands over my face.

"You need to get yourself together," he says, his voice serious once more. "I'd like to think that this is just you getting out your emotions in private. But I'm here, so clearly it's not. Unless this display means you've decided to start trusting me, which as of yesterday I would say wasn't the case."

I study his face for a few seconds, but his expression is as calm and hard to read as usual. "Can I?"

"Trust me?" He laughs. "You're actually asking me if you can trust me. You're a fascinating girl, I'll give you that."

I sit down next to him on the couch. "I'm serious. Sejeong's a good person. You, on the other hand, are less of a good person. Everything is a game to you," I say, and Sehun starts to respond, but I stop him. "The other night in the trees, up on that sky bench, you told me that you're a Wolf and that Wolves are loyal. And I asked you who you're loyal to, remember? I know that at the very least you're loyal to your twin. Two minutes with you guys and that's obvious. Now, Sejeong has decided to help me. Who knows why, as I've proven to be troublesome ever since I got here. But she has anyway. And I don't know if you're on board  just because Sejeong is making you, of if it's because you were out past curfew and helping me helps you, or if maybe you do hope I get blamed and get the hell away from your sister."

Sehun watches me curiously.

"But what I do know is that every single thing I tell Sejeong, she tells you. Even if I wanted to filter information to you, I can't without filtering it to Sejeong first. I won't make it on my own without her. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm too vulnerable. So yes, I'm asking you if I can trust you."

For the first time since i met Sehun, he actually looks unsure. "That depends."

"Okay, I can work with that," I say quickly, relieved that he's at least taking my question seriously now. "What does it depend on?"

He looks at me for a long moment, searching for something. "Well . . . you're the one student at this school I know nothing about. I don't know where you stand on important issues or where your immediate family stands or even what kind of people you're aligned with. Rule number one isn't a joke. Handing out information about yourself and your family at this school is dangerous. But that doesn't stop us from trying to learn the basics about one another. Not knowing anything about you makes you more interesting for sure, but it also poses a potential problem."

I'm reminded of the way Sehun looked at me after Sejeong repeated Jennie's accusation about Sejeong being less neutral. "Then why was Sejeong so adamant about me not talking about myself?" I ask. "If you guys don't know who I am, wouldn't Sejeong be trying to figure it out?"

"Sejeong cares too much and is far too moral, if you ask me. Plus, she already told you. She thinks you're reckless," Sehun smiles. "Not that that's always a bad quality. And even though she doesn't know why, Sejeong knows you were paired with her for a reason. Nothing at the Academy is random, especially not roommate assignments. It's likely that our immediate families are aligned in some manner, so by revealing unknown information about yourself in the middle of a hallway you could be compromising not just yourself but her, too."

I nod. "I actually really appreciate her shutting me up. I'm not sure what would have happened if she hadn't."

He leans back but doesn't take his eyes off me. "See, that kind of naïveté is exactly what confuses me about you. I find it nearly impossible to believe you really didn't know what would happen to you. Strategia are never clueless. Yet the entire time you've been here, you've been asking questions everyone else knows the answers to, performing brilliantly in some classes and blundering you way through others. Sejeong told me what you did in mind games and that you fretted about it for an hour afterward. She said she she couldn't tell if you'd actually planned to win the challenge or won by default because you were simply running away from Taemin. Sometimes I think you're the worst liar I've ever met and other times I think you might be a genius."

I exhale. I got lucky when Sejeong and Sehun thought my naïveté was intentional.

"I'm going to need you to tell me the truth," Sehun says. "Not the abridged version, or there can't be any trust between us. Why don't things add up about you?"

I steel myself and I look him directly in the eyes, so that he can read me, so that he knows I'm not lying. "I am really good at some things," I start, "and completely untrained in others. Sejeong guessed correctly. I did run from Taemin because I don't known hand-to-hand fighting the way you guys do. All those questions I asked you, I asked for real. My cluelessness isn't an act."

He listens intently, frowning. "That's exactly the problem. How could you not know how to fight or not know the answers to basic questions every Stragetia learns as a child?"

"Because I wasn't raised the way you were raised," I say carefully.

"And how were you raised?" he asks.

I take a deep breath. Time for the truth. "I had no idea I was Strategia before I came here. I still don't believe it."

He stares at me for a long time, his invasive look on hyper-drive. He opens his mouth to say something but closes it again and frowns more deeply.

I tuck one of my legs under me on the couch. "I only ever heard the word Strategia once before, as a kid, and even then I was eavesdropping. I swear I didn't know what it meant, or who they were, until you told me. And I absolutely no idea why I'm here."

His frown is practically scowl. "But you recited the Eagle Family attributes the night we stuck out."

"Because of a game I played with my mother when I was little. I had all these stuffed animals, and we used to group them into families. The three words that described each family were something I thought my mom just made up. No one was more shocked than me to discover that those words actually mean something in real life." I level my eyes at home. "Admit it: you must have suspected something was off with me then or you wouldn't have had me recite them."

This time Sehun's brows go up. "No. Asking a Strategia to recite their Family attributes would typically have resulted in a snarky response. I was just feeling you out. I suspected something was off when you actually took me seriously."

"Yeah, well, see what I mean?"

He stands up and walks around the rug in front of the fireplace. I can almost hear him replaying our conversations in this thoughts, looking for discrepancies. After a good minute or so, he turns to me with a serious look. "Your behavior matches what you're saying, but how in the hell did you get in here? We're prepped from before we can speak, and lots of kids don't make the cut. Only the very best get in, with some exceptions made for ruling families and their firstborn children. And if you belonged to one of those, even if you were a distant cousin, everyone would know who you are."

"Well, that's not me," I say.

"I know."

"And there are things I'm not trained in."

"Yes. Obviously. It's just so odd." His seriousness doesn't disappear, and his intense look returns.

"Knock it off with that look, Sehun. At this point I'll tell you anything you want to know, just ask me," I say.

He doesn't respond with a sarcastic remark or a laugh like I was expecting. "You're certain you're part of the Eagle Family?"

"Well, my mom was American and, yes, I'd say she was definitely an Eagle. At least based on the games we used to play. But my dad is Korean, from Gangwon," I say.

"From Gangwon?" Sehun says like he has a bad taste in his mouth. "But still Strategia? Not a lot of Family members are from that specific province."

"Honestly, I didn't think so when I first came here," I say. "He's just a regular guy. But he used to be part of an intelligence agency, so -"

Sehun groans and shakes his head.

"What?"

"Intelligence agency? Suzy, your dad's Strategia. Please tell me that you can see that." He gives me a concerned look. "Being an intelligence officer is one of the most basic covers for our particular . . . skill sets if we're ever caught doing something."

I frown. When he says it like that, it all makes sense. In fact, it all seems terribly obvious. But the idea that Appa lied to me all these years isn't funny in the least.

Sehun sit back down next to me. "There are some Strategia in some provinces in Korea, but mostly are near the well-known provinces, but they don't tend to settle there. As I told you, most Families are originated near Seoul, in the Americas, and Europe. It's not that it's never happened; it's just rare. We do our job, whatever it is, and then we go back to our Families. I would have heard if there was a highborn girl from the Eagle Family who ran off to Gangwon. It would have been a huge scandal." He pauses. "It was your mother who Jungkook recognized, right?"

I nod. I've thoroughly broken Kang's sacred rule number one, and I still don't know anymore about my family, except that apparently I don't know them at all. "Okay, wait, back up. Start from the beginning."

"The beginning?"

"Am I right that you're a secret society?"

"We, Suzy," Sehun says gently. "You're a part of this, too." There is amazement in his look. "And yes, I suppose that's what most people would think about us."

"And . . . are we assassins?" I say, and almost choke on the word.

"When we need to be, but we're also so much more than that. We can be selfish and competitive in advancing our own agendas, for sure. But we also help the world avoid catastrophe. Most people look forward, without ever bothering to consider the cyclical nature of history, and inevitably recreate the same disaster over and over again. Strategia stop the mechanisms that create those disaster."

I nod and jump into my next question before he decides to stop answering them, because for the first time since I got here, some of what I've observed at this school is starting to make sense. "So there's a system in each Family, right? Different jobs within Strategia - governing, leadership, servants, guards?"

"Yes," he says slowly, and he sounds different, like for once he's present and not five steps ahead. "Strategia Families grew in numbers after they stopped working for the rulers of their given empires and became independent. Everyone needed to pitch in to keep the Families functional and hidden."

"And what about us specifically, what about people who go to this school?" I ask.

"I can't believe we're having this conversation," he says, more to himself than to me. "We're the heartbeat of Strategia - the best strategists in our Families."

I hear him, but it still feels like he's talking about other people, not my family, not me. "Sejeong was saying something about the firstborn kids of the leader of each family taking over for their parents. So that means you have to be born into Strategia, right?"

"Well, most of us are born in, yes. But outsiders can be approved by the leaders of any given Family," Sehun says.

I think about that. "And you said that Sejeong and I were likely paired as roommates for a reason?"

"Well," he says, and pauses. "When I said that, I meant that generally the Eagles and Wolves don't have any animosity between them, and there's every likelihood that our immediate relatives have some kind of an agreement. But I'm not so sure anymore."

An image of appa's favorite whittling knife flashes through my thoughts; the hilt looks like a silver wolf. He said his childhood best friend gave it to him when he was growing up in Hwacheon. But now I'm pretty sure the Hwacheon part was total bunk.

"And when you asked me if I was "for, against, or neutral'?" I say without fully explaining what I want to know.

Sehun exhales audibly. "It's complicated."

"But it's also important and something I need to know," I say.

He's quiet for a moment. "I won't tell you the nuances of Family politics because we would be here all night if I did. But I can tell you that there are Families and individuals who support curbing the Tigers' activities, which essentially means curbing their power, through force if necessary. And you can probably guess what neutral and against are. Strategia Families don't regulate one another - it's just no who we are. But historically we've also never experienced this type of power imbalance."

I open my mouth to ask another question, but Sehun starts speaking again.

"The fact that you were admitted is shocking," he says. "How did someone who doesn't know anything about Strategia pull that off?"

I shake my head. "I honestly don't know. I've been trying to figure that out since I got here." I pause, feeling exposed, but also closer to him somehow. "So now that you know the whole truth, can I trust you?"

Sehun looks at me, and he's more relaxed than he was before, but he's also still hesitant. "I don't think you have a choice at this point except to assume that you can."

"Really? That's all I get after telling you my secrets?" I shake my head. "You're such an ."

"I'm such an because you don't like the truth?" He smiles, and his eyes twinkle with mischief.

"No, because you are, like, at your core," I say.

He clutches his heart like I wounded him. "I almost thought you meant that. But then I didn't, because I can read you and it's obvious that you secretly love me."

I laugh and realize it's the first time I've laugh in days; the weight of Taehyung's murder and the fear of being a suspect have darkened everything. "Well, you're not boring, I'll give you that."

He leans slightly toward me. "Never boring."

For a moment we are both quiet.

Sehun sighs, and his look is gentler. There's none of his usual analysis or distance. It almost seems like he's seeing me for the first time, and for just a moment, I get lost in his eyes. My stomach flips in a good way, and for once he's the one the break eye contact.

I clear my throat. "I asked you in the vine courtyard what I needed to know to survive here," I say, and readjust my position on the couch. "Well, now you know what I meant. So I'm asking you again."

He pauses. "If I agree to tell you what you want to know, I need you to also do something for me."

"It's always a trade with you."

"I'm completely serious about this."

"Okay, fine. What do you need me to do?"

His eyes get intense again. "Not tell my sister what you just told me."

"What?" I lean back slightly. "Why wouldn't I?"

He presses his lips together for a brief second. "Because it's dangerous."

"For me, sure," I say. "But how would it be dangerous for Sejeong?"

"The fact that you don't know who you are tells me that there's something to hide, something important. And once that gets uncovered, I don't want Sejeong to be at the center of it."

I look at the fireplace for answers. It feels wrong not telling Sejeong. And it puts me in a place where I have to potentially lie to her. Plus, I trust her way more than I trust him - don't I? If she had been here instead of Sehun tonight, I'd probably be having this conversation with her.

"The choice is yours, Suzy. If I help you figure out who you are, Sejeong can't know the truth. Or tell her, and I promise you neither of us will help you. You need us way more than we need you, and you know that, otherwise you wouldn't have told me any of this."

"Don't bother saying the choice is mine, if there's isn't a choice," I say.

I can't help but think about the talk Sejeong gave me in the library, when she said our new trust arrangement was completely unbreakable. I feel like I'm already destroying it.

Just then the door latch struggles against the lock. "Suzy?" Sejeong says, her voice muffled by the thick door.

"I still need an answer," Sehun says.

I huff. "Yes. Okay? Yes."

"Then we have a deal," he says, and there's nothing playful in his tone.

I get up and open the door.

Sejeong comes in carrying a huge stack of books. "Oh, good. You're both here."

Sehun takes them from her and puts them down as Sejeong removes her cloak and hands it in the closest. "I got a book on knives for you to go through, Suzy, to see if you can recognize the one that Taehyung . . . well, the one used in the murder. And a medical book that should help us pinpoint how long he'd been dead by the time you found him. And some just for you on deception and body language. No offense, but I think you could use a refresher."

"Great," I say. "Sounds like a plan."

She looks between me and Sehun. "Did something happen? You both look uncomfortable."

Sehun looks at me, daring me to break our agreement.

"Well, Rose knows I was in her room - at least she think she does. She found a piece of my hair," I tell her.

Sejeong frowns. "That's not good news. We'll need to be on guard. Rose's the kind who believes in retaliation for fun as much as anything else."

"And I met with Yoo again," I say.

"Dr. Yoo?" Sejeong repeats, and her tone is more worried.

"He claims that the guard who saw me used the same staircase I did, so it was impossible for us to both be in it at the same time. That I must have gone a different way," I say.

"What did you tell him?" Sejeong asks.

"Nothing. I said I don't know."

"Good," Sejeong says. "That was the right response."

"He also said that the guard used a different route than normal. I thought that was weird, considering how precise everyone is around here," I say, and Sehun and Sejeong look at each other.

Sejeong's brows furrows together. "It's not entirely impossible, but it's not typical, either. Although I'm not sure you could prove that the guard did or didn't do anything unusual that night, especially since they don't talk to students."

I exhale. "That's what I figured." I hesitate. "Tell me honestly, how bad a spot do you think I'm in right now?"

Even before I hear her answer, I can see the worry on her face. "Bad," she says quietly.