When I come to, colors swim in front of my eyes and pain radiates from my shoulder, ribs, and head. Noise fades in and out. I crack my eyelids open a little farther and can just make out a patch of navy fabric . . . a couch maybe?

I try to sit up, but I'm already sitting. I force myself to blink, and it takes me a moment to make sense of the shapes in my vision. I catch sight of my arms, which are bruised and cut up. My wrists are zip-tied to the arms of a wooden chair, and since I can't move my feet, I assume my ankles are tied to the chair legs as well. If I struggle or move around, the tie slice into my skin.

Suddenly I'm inhaling something awful that's reminiscent of ammonia, and the fog in my brain starts to clear. A man stands in front of me, waving a small glass vial under my nose. My chair is against a wall, and now I can make out a heavy desk to my right and a fireplace to my left.

I cough and turns my head away from the smell, fully awake.

The man corks the vial and slips it into his blazer pocket. I focus my eyes on him and it suddenly occurs to me where I am, who he is. Oh no.

Yoo watches me curiously as the events of the night begin to come back to me: Rosé, Sehun, Jimin . . .

"Well, there you are," Yoo says, perfectly at ease.

"What did you do? Where's Sehun?" The fear in my voice is apparent and I'm sure he doesn't miss it.

Yoo smiles. "It's amazing to me that you would worry about someone who was helping to kill you." He makes a tsking sound, as though it's all such a shame. "Just like her father," he says under his breath, but I can tell it was meant for me to hear.

I freeze at the mention of appa.

Yoo gives me a knowing look. "And that's another thing. You're far too easy to read. It's actually disappointing. One would think the Strategia in your blood would have manifested itself more, but alas." He clasps his hands behind his back. "Yes, I know your father, Suzy. And when I saw you, the exact image of your mother, I was expecting someone polished and poised. A true opponent. But you?" He laughs. "I'm not saying you're not like them. After all, you've certainly managed to inherit their worst qualities."

I hate the way he's talking about my parents. He's clearly trying to get a rise out of me.

"It makes you angry when I talk about your father?" Yoo says in answer to my thought, and puff out his chest. "Well, then I imagine you're not going to enjoy our time together very much."

My fists clench, making the zip ties dig uncomfortably into my skin.

"Now, Suzy," he says slowly. "Where is your father?"

I struggle against the restrain, pain be damned. "I don't know," I say, because it's the truth.

I look at his desk on my right, but it's too far away to get the knife Rose said was hidden under it.

Yoo sighs. "You may not know where he is at present, but you can tell me where you live."

Suddenly it's hard to breathe. If I give him my address in Jeongseon, the people I love are in danger - Appa, Jisoo.

Yoo smiles. "I see you understand the question now. Based on the assessment I gave you and your skills sets, I'd say your father has hidden you away in some sleepy town in the country that you don't leave. Probably has a mundane job that never raised any flags. Near a forest - lots of light and trees.

I cringe, remembering the yellow and green I chosen on the color test my first day here - what else did I give away during my interview with him?

"Your uncle wasn't easy to find, either, even in a small city," he says casually, like he's merely commenting on the weather. "But your father . . . he has managed to elude us for a very long time. Then again, our Family always was excellent at deception and disguises."

My chest tighten at the mention of Uncle Jin and tears sting my eyes. "I'll kill you!" I blurt out.

"Right. Right. That would be an excellent idea," Yoo says, and he has the same amused expression he wore when he thought he was catching me in a lie. "Now that you've said your piece, let's get back to the question at hand."

I've never wanted to hurt someone so much in my life. My skin is practically crawling with the need to punch him. But Yoo isn't the only one who can read people. The more pain he thinks he's causing me, the happier he gets. So losing myself to anger is going to get me exactly nowhere. If there is one thing I've learned here, it's that you can't think your way out of a situation when you're overrun by emotion. I take a calming breath. He doesn't know where Appa is, I reassure myself. He doesn't know about Jeongseon.

"Silence? Is that you choice?" he asks.

I'm too far from the fireplace to burn these zip ties off. And even if I could somehow get over there, I would seriously burn myself before I could melt the ties.

Yoo his chin and paces in front of me, seemingly relaxed. "I knew when I offered you those two chairs during our first assessment that you didn't like having your back to the door - you don't like being vulnerable to the unknown. You prefer details, information. You gauge your surroundings and exists, like you're doing here right now," he says. "But you also didn't want the chair that I was standing behind - you don't like being pushed by other people or dominated in my any way. So you made your own seat."

I swallow. It reminds me of what Appa told me about thinking differently. He knew I would go up against other Strategia eventually - and the only real advantage he could give me was to not think like them, not fight like them.

I want you to think of unusual and creative solutions. And I want you to see the world in your own unique way. If you learn to hit a certain way in boxing or to jump a certain way in wushu, your brain will immediately default to them as an answer. I don't want you to rely on the same answers every other person does. I want you to make up your own. If you learn how to approach a fight from an unexpected angle, you will become the weapon you opponent can't predict.

"Again I will give you two choices," Yoo says, and watches me. "Only this time you will not have the simple luxury of choosing your own seat."

"You know, it's weird," I say, stalling for time. "You tell me I'm a weak opponent, and yet you've failed three times to kill me. And yes, I figured out you were behind all of those attacks before you got me in this chair. So if I'm bad, you must really ."

Yoo's lip curls and he slaps me across the face. My head whips to the side and my ears ring, but I manage not to make a sound or show him that he's hurting me. My mouth fills with blood and I spit it toward him.

"We have lots of time, Suzy," Yoo says with a flash of annoyance. "How painful you make this entirely up to you."

Yoo steps behind his desk and presses on a panel. Just like Rose said, a door behind him swings open. He watches me as Jimin limps into the room, dragging Sehun.

My hands grip the chair arms so hard my fingernails gouge the wood.

Sehun's hands are tied behind his back and his ankles are bound. He's bloodied and covered with scrapes and bruises, but he's breathing. Jimin dumps him on the stone floor about ten feet away from me.

Yoo chuckles and the hair on my neck stands up. "It's seems Sehun betrayed us both. But judging by the concern on your face, I'm a lot less forgiving of his betrayals than you are."

Sehun told me we need to leave the trees. He told me he had a plan to fix things. But I wouldn't listen. I insisted an arguing with him there. My stubbornness gave Jimin the opportunity he needed to ambush him, and now . ..

I strain against the zip ties on my ankles, but there's no give.

"Now, this is an easy choice," Yoo says, and the one side of my mouth twitches upward - the microexpression of contempt that Taemin showed in deception class. He goes to his desk ad pulls open a drawer. I watch as he removes a false bottom and pulls out a small green glass bottle. Rose's warning. My stomach tightens nervously.

Yoo returns to Sehun's limp body and takes the vial of smelling salts out of his blazer pocket. He removes the cork and waves the salts below Sehun's nose. Sehun's eyelids barely flutter.

"You're going to have to choose a seat this time, Suzy, with no option to make up your own," Yoo says. "The question is, are you going to watch Sehun writhe in pain, dying in slow agony? Or are you going to tell me where my brother is?" He says this last part slowly, making sure he has a full attention.

I can't breathe and I can't make sense of what he's telling me. "Brother?" I choke on the word. "But. That can't be true. I'm not . . . You're not . . . No."

Yoo's eyes brighten happily, like this is the moment he's been waiting for.

"Appa doesn't have a brother," I say, willing it to not be true. I refuse to be related to this manic.

For a split second Yoo mirrors my confusion. "Oh, now this is just depressing." He waves the smelling salts under Sehun's nose again and Sehun's eyes flutter slightly more than they did the first time.

Anger flashes across Yoo's face he looks back at me. "Off he ran with that witch of an Eagle after she murdered our uncle . . . in front of me, no less. And who do you think got blamed for not stopping her? Then he chooses her over his own brother, leaving me in the wake of destruction and ruining my reputation in our Family. And he as the nerve to pretend I don't exist?" Yoo's voice is getting louder by the second. There's something dangerous about the way he looks at me, like he's seeing not me, but someone else.

Yoo rises and kicks Sehun in the stomach. I wince and want to yell at him to stop, but I know it will only make things worse. Sehun coughs and Yoo kicks him again, harder. Sehun groans and opens his eyes.

I start talking fast, trying to bing the focus back to me. "No. Nothing. He didn't mention you once. I mean, I don't really blame him. I wouldn't mention you, either."

Yoo hurls the vial of salts and it smashes against the wall next to me, spraying me with the pungent liquid and burning my cuts so badly that my eyes tears up. I look at the glass from the broken vial on the floor and Yoo follows my line of sight. He nods at Jimin.

Jimin walks up to me but still won't look me in the eyes. Nevertheless, his right arm twitchs, and I brace myself as he punches me in the stomach. The impact is so hard that I gasp for breath.

"Suzy?" Sehun mumbles, his eyes widen.

"Now," Yoo says in a calmer voice, and smooths his hair, like he didn't just have a freak-out. "As I was saying before. Location or Sehun?"

Sehun looks from me to the glass bottle in Yoo's hand, and the realization of what's happening shows on his face. "Don't do it, Suzy," Sehun says, and I can tell by his voice that he's in pain. "Whatever you do, whatever he does to me, don't tell him what he wants to know."

Yoo nods like this is all playing out beautifully. "Are you really going to let someone who cares about you so much die?"

I take in  a ragged breath. "Sehun . . ."

"No," Sehun says resolutely. "This was my fault. I screwed up, and he's playing us both. Just look at him. It's all over his -"

Yoo kicks Sehun again, and he coils in himself in pain.

"It's a simple choice," Yoo says as he uncorks the poison.

I open my mouth but no sound comes out. I'll never be able to forgive myself I let Sehun die. But if I tell Yoo about Jeongseon, who's to say they won't find Appa or kill the people I love as revenge?

"I can't hear you -" Yoo starts, but stops abruptly because there's scratching sound that seems to be coming from the door.

Jimin slaps his hand over my mouth and nose, making it impossible for me to scream.

"You breathe a word, and he dies," Yoo hisses. "Do you understand?"

"I nod and Jimin lets go of my mouth.

There's another scratch, almost like a cat asking to be let in.

"Go handle it," Yoo says, and Jimin makes his way to the door.

He opens it just a crack and looks out. "There's no one out here," he says in a confused voice, and closes the door again. But the second it clicks into place, there's another scratch.

Jimin opens the door a little wider and a hand reaches into the room, grabbing Jimin by the collar and slamming his head into the side of the doorway. Yoo's eyes widen as Jimin collapses on the floor.

Yoo recorks the poison and moves quickly to his desk.

"Well, now, y'all are havin' a party and ya didn't even invite me?" Rose says in a terrible cowboy accent as she drops down from above the doorway. She leans against the open door as if she doesn't have a care in the world.

Yoo runs his hands under his desk.

"Looking for this?" Rose asks, and twirls a knife in her hand.

Yoo's jaw tightens. "You don't want to pick this fight, Rosé," he says. "There are people in this school you don't want to lose."

Rose nods. "You're right. I don't want to pick this fight." She pulls back her arm, but instead of throwing the knife at Yoo, she turns and throws it at me. I gasp as it lodges in the arm of the chair, close enough for me to slide the zip tie on my left wrist along its blade and snap it.

"But she does," Rosé says.

Yoo darts toward Sehun. I grab the knife and quickly slice through the remaining restraints. I stand unsteadily, knife in hand, as Yoo grabs Sehun's jaw, forcing his mouth to open and letting the bottle hover his lips.

"Think carefully, Suzy," Yoo says. "You won't get to make this choice again."

I focus on Yoo.

"Is it really worth it if you also kill Sehun in the process?" Yoo says, like suddenly he's a reasonable person.

"Suzy, throw it," Rose says.

Don't fight like them, Suzy, fight like you.

I exhale and slowly drop the knife. It falls to the stone floor with the grip resting on the toe of my boot.

Rose moves forward.

"Stop, Rosé," I say with force, and she does.

Yoo looks at me like I'm a complete idiot. "Maybe you were right. I have no idea how we could possibly be related." He tips the poison into Sehun's mouth and squeezes a hand over his mouth and nose, forcing him to swallow.

"No!" I scream.

Sehun coughs and gasps on the floor. Yoo stands just as I slam my foot down on the broad side of the knife blade, flipping it into the air, where I snatch it by the handle and throw it so fast Yoo doesn't even have a chance to take a step toward me. It's a clean shot and lodges deeply just below his shoulder.

His eyes widen and he takes one stumbling step. I run at him and dive for his knees, tackling him to the floor. His back hits the stone hard and he groans. Rosé is by my side in a second. And she pins Yoo down.

I grab the poison bottle from the floor near Sehun, who looks like he's un untold pain.

"Now you get to choose," I say to Yoo. "Live or die?" And I pour what's left of the poison into his mouth.

I yank the knife out of his chest and he fights back a scream.

"Let go of him, Rose," I say, and she looks unsure but does it anyway.

Yoo's back arches and his bulge. His shaking hands immediately go to his inside blazer pocket and he pulls out a vial.

He struggles to uncork it and bring it to his lips, taking an unsteady swig. I immediately snatch the vial from his grasp and watch him closely to make sure it's the antidote and not more poison.

Slowly relief spreads across his face. Rose's eyes light up like this is the best gave she's played in ages.

I run for Sehun and kneel down next to him, carefully lifting his head. "Hold on. Just hold on, Sehun. Don't you dare die." I pour the rest of the antidote into his mouth and he chokes.

The moment I'm sure he's swallows it, I move to his hands and feet, slicing the restraints. Rose watches Yoo as he desperately tries to stop the blood he's losing from the knife wound.

"Holding a late-night assessment session, Dr. Yoo?" says a familiar voice, and Rose and I look up. Kang stands in the open doorway with two guards behind her, taking note of the entire scene. She steps over Jimin's passed-out body, but the guards don't follow her in.

I'm not sure if I'm relieved to see her or if I hate her for showing up when it's all over. Sehun did say she would assume no responsibility for it one way or the other.

"I'll take it from here, girls," Kang says.

Sehun pushes himself up into a sitting position, some of the pain gone from his eyes, but he looks totally spent. I try to help him stand, but he shakes his head and does it himself.

"Stubborn," I say under my breath.

I stay next to him to make sure he doesn't fall. He seems to be regaining his strength by the second, but he's still wobbly.

"I'm going to take this with me," Rosé says, and grabs Jimin's ankles.

"That depends," Kang says. "Was he helping you or was he helping Yoo?"

"Neither, really," Rose says, and for the first time ever, she looks vulnerable. "He stumbled into a situation he couldn't handle and got knocked out like a dumb -" Rose stops herself and coughs.

Kang turns to me.

I look at Sehun. He was once on the wrong side of this, too. And it didn't stop me from doing everything I cold to save his life. He could easily have been in the position Jimin is in right now.

I make eye contact with Rose and nod. "It's like Rosé says. He just got caught in the middle. Yoo has a bad habit of blackmailing people."

Kang nods at Rose, who doesn't lose a second. She pulls Jimin into the hallway and past the guards, whistling as she goes.

Kang makes her way to Yoo, who's dragging himself across the floor, leaving a trail of blood.

"One way or another we're going to find your father," Yoo says through clenched teeth. "And when we do, you'll wish I'd killed you in this room."

"Very moving last words," Kang says. "But I think the material point is that if someone finds him, it won't be you." Kang glares at Yoo like he's a loathsome parasite and she's trying to decide what to do with him.

I don't spare him another glance. Uncle Jin was right about Appa's family - good riddance.

"After you take Sehun to the infirmary, Suzy," Kang says over her shoulder, not taking her eyes off Yoo, "please meet me in my office . . . And close the door on your way out."