When I walk into history class with Sejeong, I'm surprised to find I'm now doing all the things I thought were so weird my first day - walking silently, keeping track of the other students through subtle glances, and speaking in a low voice. And since we woke up this morning, Sejeong has gone silent on me again. Not her normal thinking quiet, either. She seems agitated and upset but refuses to talk about it. I can't help but wonder if it has something to do with revealing her relationship with Taehyung. Even in the short time I've spent with her, I know that must not have been easy for her. And I'm almost positive that if I bring it up, I will only make things worse.

Taemin is already in the room and looks like he got as little sleep as I did. Sejeong is practically scowling, and everyone seems on edge - the kind of vibe that has you wanting to look over your shoulder or jump when something grazes your arm.

"Shall we begin?" Küre says, even though it's not really a question. She's standing near her globe and drums her fingers on it while the students take their seats.

Jimin and Rose are the last in the door, and their body language makes me think they might have been fighting.

"Sit," Küre says to Rose, and I can tell she doesn't want to.

Her fists clench but she drops into her chair.

"Now then . . . The Knight Noir were trained to fight to the death and to the very last man, not matter the odds against them," Küre says, and looks at Rose. "And they were geared up to do just that in 1271, when Rook Blanc attacked the Noir castle Black N' White in Chess. Over the course of the moth, the rook gradually drove the knight within the castle walls. But the rook knew that the cornered knight would never surrender. So he cleverly crafted a forged letter that was supposedly from the Grand Master of the Knights Noir and sent it to them."

She looks around the room and for a brief second her eyes land on me. "The letter told the knights that they had permission to surrender and even contained instructions on how to do so. And wouldn't you know it, the brave knights fell for the forgery. In exchange for their surrender, the rooks spared their lives." Küre smiles. "It's history's stories of near misses that I love so much - the ones where you think a certain outcome is in inevitable, only to be proven wrong. From the outside, the rooks faced what looked like an inflexible situation. But the rooks was creative; he thought past the conflict. What was the key here? What did the rook do that is worth remembering?"

The class is strangely silent. Where everyone would usually be competing to answer and one-up each other, they now look lost in thought or tired. In the wake of everything that's happened, I wonder more than ever if there is a subtly message in Küre's story.

"Suzy?" Küre says.

My attention snaps back to class. "He didn't take the knights for granted."

"Explain."

"Well, like you said, the knights were known to fight to the last man," I say, trying to think my way through the strategy psychologically - the way Sejeong does when she talks about history. "So a typical approach would be to consider that an immovable truth and prepare to meet them in battle. The rook was special because he gave the knights an opportunity to act differently, to change what everyone else assumed could never be changed."

Küre spins her globe. "Yes. Very much so. It's not always the situation that's immovable, as you said, but the way people think about the situation. A fresh perspective is often needed."

The door opens then and everyone's head turn as if on cue. Kang walks in, and there are two guards behind her. The anxiety in the room noticeably rises.

"Sejeong and Suzy," Kang says. "Come with me."

Sweat immediately breaks out on my forehead, and Rosé gives us a look. We slide our chairs back and follow Kang into the hallway. As I pass the guards, I expect to get a needle in my arm and be dragged to the dungeon, but it doesn't come. Instead they walk silently behind us.

I steal a look at Sejeong, but she's staring forward, looking as frustrated as she has all morning. The extensive list of rules we've broken and the dead guard in front of our room scroll through my head as likely reasons for being escorted out of class. Kang clearly wanted everyone to see, like she's making an example of us.

I take several long breaths the way the deception books recommend, to slow my heart and loosen my muscles. The last I need is for Sejeong to attempt to get us out of something and for me to give it away by fidgeting and looking panicked.

One of the guards opens the door to Kang's office and we take our positions, Kang behind her desk and Sejeong and I in the armchairs in front.

"Well," Kang says after a long moment of looking from me to Sejeong. "I'm surprised, Sejeong. And I'm not surprised often."

I look at Sejeong, but her face is neutral.

"I spoke with Dr. Yoo a couple of days ago. Do you know what he told me?" she says.

Oh, this is not going to go well. I can already feel it.

"He told you that he saw us coming from the boys' dormitory hallway," Sejeong says without pause, like Kang asked her how her breakfast was. "He suggested that he found our answer suspicious when he asked us about it."

"Yes. He did," Kang says. "As he should."

Sejeong doesn't respond, and I don't blame her. If she says it's the hallway her brother's room is in, Kang will say that she also knew Sehun wasn't there. And if she says we were just walking, it will look like she's trying to justify herself, suggesting guilt.

"Are you aware that Jungkook has class when you did not?" Kang asks.

"I am," Sejeong says, still with the same poker face.

"After you were spotted coming out of that hallway, Dr. Yoo inspected Taehyung's room," Kang says. "He noticed something wrong on Taehyung's nightstand. Do you know what I'm going to say now?"

Sejeong shakes her head. And I can't help but think of Gupta, who would point out that he had answered every other question with a verbal response and no head movement, and that suddenly that had changed.

"He said there was a missing match that Jungkook and his butler confirmed had not been used by them," Kang keeps her eyes on Sejeong. It's strange the way she's only looking at and addressing Sejeong and not me.

"The case of the missing match, dun dun dun," I say. Kang's intensity toward Sejeong is almost overwhelming, and if it's making me uncomfortable, it must be getting to her. I figure I can at least buy Sejeong a second to gather her thoughts.

And it works. Kang turns to me. "You think this is funny?"

"No. Not at all. I just thought someone needed to lighten the -"

Kang holds up her hands; she's clearly annoyed. "I'll get to you. Until then, remain silent." There's ice in her tone.

"Copy that," I say, and I swear if her eyes were weapons I would be dead.

Kang focuses back on Sejeong and her expression is unreadable. "When the first homicide occurred last week, I thought that we were looking for one individual. But I now know that assumption was incorrect - that a network of persons is responsible for the recent events, and that if I miss one, the chaos and deaths are bound to continue. Sometimes strange things happen on purpose; coincidences aren't coincidences."

My chest tightens. Küre said almost those exact words in my first class with her - strange things happen on purpose. And she was talking about coincidences that weren't coincidences. I feel oddly relieved that I was right in suspecting that there was some sort of message or code implicit in those stories and that it wasn't just my paranoia running the show. But now I'm wondering what I might have missed or overlooked by not taking the doublespeak seriously enough. In Appa's game he used to say Look for the subtle things that are different, a pattern. They'll point you in the right direction.

"It hasn't escaped my notice that you have been angling to get closer to Jungkook and Taehyung these past few months, Sejeong," Kang says, and snaps me out of my thoughts.

Sejeong tenses.

"Interesting that you would embrace a roommate whom Jungkook so passionately dislikes," Kang says. "And then you're conveniently in the dining hall when they get into a fight in the hallway." She rolls a pencil on her desk, and besides the crackling wood in the fireplace, it's the only sound in the room. "Then you sided with the roommate whom you barely knew. Seems cold for someone who's supposed to be Jungkook's friend."

Kang looks up at us, and I can tell by her expression that she's closing in, like a hawk about to swoop. "While you brother and Suzy were in the vine courtyard, where were you?"

"Sleeping," Sejeong says. Her calm tone remains, but I can hear the slightest difference in it, like she's physically tenser and, even with her great control, it's coming through in her voice.

"Right. Of course. You said that last time."

I want to jump in and defend Sejeong, but a distracting comment at this point would likely do more harm than good.

Kang shifts her eyes to me. "Suzy, did you break your bedside water glass the day before the guard was murdered?"

Oh no. "Yes."

She sits back, like she knows she's won. "Did Sejeong help you clean it up?"

Sohee saw Sejeong help me. There's no way around this. "Yes."

"Did you see Sejeong take any of the glass?" Kang asks, and folds her hands.

"Take any of it? No, definitely not," I say.

Kang straightens the ruffles on her blouse. "The guard who was killed in front of your door had his throat slit with a piece of glass," she says, and I'm fairly certain that if I were the fainting type, this would be my moment. "And your glass is the only one in the entire school that has broken all year."

I can tell Sejeong's scared.

"Now, did you take any glass, Suzy?" Kang asks.

"No," I say too fast.

"Then the only conclusion I am left to make is that it was Sejeong."

"It wasn't," I say to Kang. "Sejeong didn't take the glass. I didn't, either. But I'm sure it wasn't Sejeong." I know I'm not helping, that I have no proof to back me up, but I can't just sit here and let Kang corner her.

"As much as I'd love to listen to your endless sputtering, Suzy, I'm afraid I must get on with it. You're going to the dungeon, Sejeong, for the murder of an Academy guard," Kang says, and I almost fall out of my chair.

"What?" I say, practically spitting the word. "You don't have proof that Sejeong did anything!"

Kang's look is dangerous. "You are sorely mistaken if you believe I need to justify my decisions to you. And if you continue arguing with me, I can promise you that will only make things worse for Sejeong." She looks past us, liek she's done with our conversation, and raises her voice. "Guards!"

They open the door, and Sejeong looks at me with genuine fear. I jump in front of her, blocking their path. The guards look at Kang. She nods at them and a split second later they have us both pinned and are sticking needles in our arms.

My vision blurs and the world goes black.