Sejeong walks one step ahead of me into the cafeteria, which looks like it was modeled after a royal banquet hall. There are three tables. The one at the front fo room seats about twenty and is arranged on a raise platform. And two long tables, seating at least fifty each, run perpendicular to it. All the tables have navy velvet chairs in neat rows and crisp white tablecloths that are super impractical for a herd of teenagers. There are centerpieces made form sprigs and spruce and white flowers, and from the ceiling hang wrought-iron chandeliers with real candles.

Teachers take their seats at the elevated table and the students politely and quietly finding theirs. There is a low buzz of conversation, but nothing like the chaos of my cafeteria.

I follow Sejeong down the middle of the tables. Each place is set with china plates and silverware that looks freshly polished, something I thought belonged exclusively to movies. As I'm gawking at the fancy place settings, I hear my name. I look up and find Rose smiling at me from across the table.

"Sit, sit," Rose says, and Jimin pulls out a chair.

"Sejeong," I say. "Do you want to -"

"No," she says, and keeps walking.

I watch Sejeong's back as she gets farther away from me.

"Don't worry so much. Sejeong worries enough for all of us," Rose says.

I accept the chair Jimin pulled out for me. Although I can't help but feel weird that I didn't follow Sejeong, even though I'm pretty sure we could use a minute apart.

"Thanks," I say to Jimin, who sits down next to me.

"You're quite the hot topic around here." Rose pushes bowls of bibimbap and kimchi in my direction, and I gladly accept them. "Not that anyone will tell you that."

A girl with mid-length silver hair with bangs turns and looks at Rose.

"What?" Rose says. "Problem?"

The girl shakes her head and return her eyes to her meal, but she doesn't seem the least bit put off. In fact, if I had to guess, I would say she and Rose are friends. Interesting that Rose, who's obviously bold and fluid, who have one friend who's so reserved and another who's so stiff.

Jimin pours me a glass of water, and now that I'm so close to him, I notice a faded clean scar, like a cut from a knife or a sword. And by the way it's faded, it looks like he had it for a long time. Did someone really slice him in the face when he was a kid?

"It's funny," I say, "barely anyone here has even looked in my direction, much less spoken to me."

"We're not the most open friendly bunch," Jimin says, like he prefers it that way.

"Speak for yourself," Rose says. "I'm a hoot."

He raises his right brow. "I bet most of this room would disagree."

"Says the gloomy person from the moors of grey and rainy," she says with full, which makes me think Jimin's Busan accent is real even if Rose's isn't.

He gives her a warning look.

"Okay, okay," she says in a dramatic surrendering voice. "You're not gloomy. Barrels of laughs, you are. No one can stop when they're around you. You must take after your -"

"Rose," he says in a sharper tone, and his back straightens further.

She laughs. "You should really see your face, mate."

I look back and forth between them as I grab another bite of bibimbap. This school might be seriously questionable, but the food is outrageously good.

"Now, Suzy," Rose says. "Tell us about you."

I smile. "I thought that was the first rule of this place, not to say."

"Did you really think for a second that we don't share personal things?" Rose asks. "You know what else is a rule that no one follows? No dating."

I almost choke on my water and Rose laughs, a big relaxed laugh, which earns her looks from some of the nearby students. She glares at them until they look away.

"Well then, I'm glad I'm going home soon," I say.

"Home?" Jimin asks.

"For the holidays," I say.

Rose and Jimin share a subtle look, and I get the feeling they've just made some sort of assessment. I look down at the long table at Sejeong and wonder if I should leave them and join her.

"It's hard when you first arrive here," Rose says. "It was an adjustment for all of us. Granted, we've all been here awhile now. But you, you're what, seventeen?"

I brush off her question with a shrug. "Which for here seems to be wicked old."

Jimin reaches over to grab a piece of kimchi with his chopsticks and shakes his head. "It's not that, it's that you're the first student we've ever heard of who came in this late. How did you do it? Must have been extremely expensive." His intonation and posture make me examine him more closely. I've never met anyone with all the awkwardness of a debate club nerd and yet the physical appearance of an attractive prince.

Rose nods.

"I . . ." If I tell them that we never had much money, I'll be telling them something about my family. And if I say I don't know, then I'm revealing how truly ignorant I am of my situation. Damn it. Conversation in this place is like navigating around land mines.

I laugh to distract them from my silence. "Secrets are secrets," I say. From the corner of my eye I catch an almost imperceptible smile from the girl with bangs. "But enough about me. What about you, Jimin? By the way you talk, I'm guessing you're from Busan?" I pause. "Did you know you name means 'lucky' or 'succession will spread to the whole country'? And Rose, your name is originally from Europe, but it's a common name in lots of countries." I drum my fingers on the table as I dredge up what I recall about her name's etymology. "Not to mention that Rose is a name given to both boys and girl back then, but recently it's more of a female name. It's also funny how your name is changeable, almost like your accent. Maybe it's even an alias?"

Rose claps her hands together with exaggerated slowness and guffaws, earning more hard looks from nearby students. "Game on! I like this girl."

I take another bite of bibimbap.

"Suzy," a male voice says behind me. I turn around to find Sehun, whose posture is relaxed but whose eyes are focuses. His black hair is neat and style to showcase his forehead.

"Oh, go away, Sehun," Rose says. "We were just starting to have some fun." She smacks her hands on the tablecloth, rattling a few plates. The girl with bands looks up. "If you take Suzy away, I'll be stuck with this church mouse" - she waves her hand at the girl - "and Eeyore," she adds, inclining her head toward Jimin.

"As much as I regret spoiling your game - I mean fun," Sehun says in a voice that would be charming if his demeanor weren't so piercing, "Suzy has a lot to cover on her tour and it would better to get a head start before lunch is over."

Rose scoffs, but neither she nor Sehun seems tense. Jimin and I, on the other hand, radiate nervous energy.

"Why don't we ask Suzy what she wants to do, huh?" Rose says, and looks at me. "Would you rather walk these isolated halls with this smooth-talking thief, who will be assessing your every move, or stay here and eat and laugh with us?"

"Oh, Rose, you're not sulking over losing your knife, are you?" Sehun says, and a chill runs down my spine. The nicer his tone, the more intense he sounds.

Sehun stands up so fast that her chair screeches backward. "Oh, Sehun," she says slowly, "how is that studious twin of yours - so scheduled, so predictable? Is there is one person I can always find, it's that sweetie Sejeong." She used a perfect Alabama accent, and I can see the threat in her eyes.

I put my white cloth napkin on the table. "And you know who's always with Sejeong? Me. Her roommate. The one who can get into this school after the cutoff age, mid-semester. Wonder what else I can do that you all can't." I move to push my chair away from the table, but Jimin grabs it and pulls it out for me, jerking me backward. He whispers near my ear, "I know."

My heart pounds. "Excuse me?"

But Jimin acts like he didn't say a word.

I start to walk away, but Sehun stops me.

"Check your pocket, Suzy," Sehun says, and I do.

I pull a salad fork from my cloak pocket. I don't know what it means, but I get the feeling it's nothing good. Sehun takes it from my hand and tosses it onto the table with a clang.

Rose blows me a kiss.

I turn away from them and follow Sehun out of the cafeteria, deeply regretting that fact that I didn't listen to Sejeong in the first place. The moment the door closes behind us, I start talking. "What the hell was that?"

"It's against the rules to take anything from the dining hall, especially silverware that could be used as a weapon," Sehun says, and gives me a pointed look. "The kitchen staff counts it after every meal. A missing fork would trigger a search."

"But when -"

"When Jimin pulled out your chair," Sehun replies before I can finish the question. 

"So they set me up?" 

Sehun watches my process the information, and it suddenly occurs to me that I'm alone with him.

I look both ways down the hall. "Isn't Sejeong coming?"

"No. She's finishing her meal."

"Shouldn't we . . ." I start. "Didn't she want to be the one to show me around?"

Sehun smiles and I reflexively take a step back toward the cafeteria. "You just chose to sit with Rose when she told you not to."

"Maybe we . . ." I can't think of any reason not to go with him.

"Sejeong is a very capable girl," he says with an emphasis on capable, and I'm not sure if he's telling me not to worry about Rose's threat or that it wasn't my place to stand up for Sejeong.

"I don't doubt it, " I say.

Sehun begins to make his way down the hall at a leisurely pace like he doesn't give a care in the world.

I watch him out of the corner of my eye as we walk. Even if he doesn't I should have stood up for Sejeong, the fact that I did has a count for something, right?

"If you want to ask me something, just ask," he says.

I frown. He's not even looking at me and still it feels like he's reading my every move. "Do I need to worry about Sejeong now?"

"Yes," he says. "But not just because of that conversation. Attention from Rose in general is a bad sign. What did she say to you? Maybe I can help you sort it out."

"Actually, right before we left, Jimin whispered 'I know.'"

Sehun nods. "Either he's telling you knows who you are, that he knows something you don't want him to, or possibly was just screwing with you in order to slip the fork into your pocket."

"Well, he can't know who I am because I've never met him before," I say.

Sehun looks doubtful. "That's the most naive logic I've heard in a long time. He could know who you are because he knows your family, or because he somehow knew you were coming to this school. There are lots of reasons people might deduce who are here, and never having met you has nothing to do with it."

I stare at him for a second. I want to tell him that I'm nothing like the rest of these students and that he's dead wrong that here could know me, but I'm sure I'd only be revealing information if I did. "When did you know I was coming?"

The corners of his mouth turn up slightly. "Sejeong found out the night you arrived, just a few hours before you got here."

I look down at the hall trying to make sense of his answer. The only thing it tells me is that the school knew I was coming, which of course they did. I find it hard to believe they would take me if I were dropped on their doorstep. But it doesn't tell me how long they knew and  how much appa didn't tell me.

"Did Rose say anything else?" Sehun asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"She wanted me to tell her how I got into this school so late."

He stops in front of a door, and for some reason, he looks amused. "Do you always tell the truth?"

Great, how do I answer that? "Do you always stare at people with those laser eyes?"

He laughs, but it doesn't lighten him.

We both stand there for a moment, I reach for the door latch, but he gets to it first.

He holds the door open for me. "The advanced students' parlor." He sweeps his hand in front of him.

My shoulders drop. It's the friendliest room I've been in so far, with its soaring fireplace, piano, and huge window streaming with light. There are cozy couches around the fireplace and big armchairs with footstools next to reading tables. It's as lavish as the rest of this place, but it also feels lived in.

I walk right up to the picture window, which is larger than any I've seen in this hanok, and place my hand on the cold glass. Below, a handful of cows graze or sleep lazily in dappled sunlight under the oak canopy. They remind me of the cows Jisoo's boyfriend, Jinyoung, and his family kept.

Jisoo and I enter Jeongseon's town square, which is pretty much the typical postcard with its old-fashioned homes and brick storefronts with hand-painted signs. It's late Saturday morning and people are out walking their dogs, shopping at the market in the middle of the square, and sifting through items at the stores.

"What are you and Jinyoung doing today that's so important you can't go to the movies?" I ask Jisoo.

She shrugs and doesn't look at me. "Not much. Hanging out at his house."

I stop in front of Sunmi's - which boasts it's the best diner in Jeongseon. It's also the only diner in Jeongseon. "Not much? This is coming from the girl who for the last two weeks has harassed me with details about every possible everything having to do with Jinyoung?"

"I think he wants to show me something."

"What?"

Jisoo's cheeks turn pink. "It's nothing."

I smirk. "His ability to unhook your bra?"

Jisoo's cheeks go from pink to red and I can't help but smile. "No, idiot. You know he hasn't even kissed me yet."

I wag my brows at her. "I can keep guessing."

She looks around at the other pedestrians, all of whom we know, and she gets hostile. "You better not."

I put on my thinking face. "Hmmm. Let's me think. Maybe Park Jinyoung wants you to -"

"He wants me to milk cows with him, okay?" she yells at me.

I stare at her in shock. "Wait. Let me get this straight. Kim Jisoo, whose worst nightmare is getting dirty, and who wore high heels to last year's graduation bonfire in the middle of the woods, is going to do farm chores?"

"Shut up," she says. "It's not funny." But she's smiling.

"I beg to differ," I say, beginning of a laugh shaking my words.

She attempts to keep her composure but cracks, and just like that we're both laughing loud and hard.

"Are you two going to keep acting like fools in front of my door, blocking my paying customers, or are you going to come inside and have some strawberry shortcake?" Sunmi says, opening the  diner door. her long hair hangs in a loose braid over her shoulder.

"Strawberry shortcake!" Jisoo squeals.

Sunmi hides her smile. She's Jisoo's godmother and she knows very well that strawberry shortcake is her favorite dessert. "Get inside before you let out all my heat." She shoos us through the door.

"Miss us?" I ask her, and kiss her on the cheek.

"About as much as I miss acne," she says, leading us to our favorite table next to the window and plucking the RESERVED sign off it.

I feel Sehun watching me as I stare at the cows. "Sejeong told me you weren't prepped for coming to this school."

My smile disappears and I immediately scan the room. The only door is the one we came through. "And Sejong thought I was playing a game."

"Were you?" he asks, his invasive gaze intensifying.

I shrug and look back out the window, trying to appear casual, but my heart beats a mile a minute.

"Interesting," he says.

"What's interesting?" I say with a little too much emphasis on what.

"You weren't prepped," he says.

I make eye contact with him. "I didn't say that."

"You did," he says. "If you were prepped and being strategic by pretending you weren't, you would never call my attention to that fact. You would keep up that game. Also, your pulse quickened when I questioned you, and you looked away from me."

My brows furrows. "How could you possibly know my pulse quickened?"

"The vein in your neck."

"You stay away from my neck," I say, channeling my inner Jisoo.

He smirks. "You also very subtly shook your head, telling me your answer was no. And you took a fats breath through your mouth instead of your nose, indicating stress." He pauses, waiting for me to pick up my chin off the floor. "What you can do with names - piece them together and identify people with them? I can do that with body language."

"Okay?" I say, not really wanting to use any more words than that after his analysis.

"You're my sister's roommate," he says, his seemingly happy expression never wavering. "Don't lie to me, or I will know."

"Is that a threat?"

"Not unless it needs to be."

I rub my hands over my face. "You know what? I think I'm going back to the cafeteria."

"Dining hall," he corrects me.

My chest rises a little higher when I breathe, which I'm sure he notices. I turn away from the window.

"You don't like being here," he says, and I stop in my tracks. His ability to read me is annoying as . "If you weren't showing everyone your hand all the time, you'd probably like it more."

"I'd like it more if everyone in this school were less creepy," I say, frustrated, which only widens his smile. "And stop smiling like that. If anyone should make something less obvious, it should be you and your gloating."

He laughs, which seems to surprise him as much as it does me. He pauses. "It wasn't smart, what you did with Rose."

I huff. "I was defending your sister."

"You think that's what you did?" He shakes his head and his expression turn serious. "You showed Rose that you're loyal without being discerning. That you aligned yourself with your roommate after less than a day. That you're emotional, and that by threatening the people around you, she can get a reaction out of you. Maybe even hurt you. You didn't defend Sejeong, you made her a target."

My jaw tenses. "It's all head games with you guys. Deception. Why would anyone even want to hurt me? I've been here for one day. This school . I can't wait until my two weeks are over."

His composure breaks ever so slightly, like I've startled him. "Two weeks?"

"Yeah, until the holidays."

"Holidays," he repeats with a look that again tells me I've said something revealing.

Do I even want to ask? "You know, Rose looked at me the same way when I said that."

Sehun lets out an "aish" whistle. "We don't go home for the holidays. Rose now knows you don't a clue how this school works or know anything about the culture here."

"Wait. We, as in you and Sejeong, or we as in everyone?"

"Everyone," he says, and it's like someone stole all the air from the room. "Holidays - any of them, really, with the possible exception of New Year's - aren't celebrated. And New Year's fall on on variety of days for people at this school, so here we celebrate nothing."

This can't be right. Appa distinctly said a few weeks. I'll miss the lighting of the tree in the town square, the Jeongseon carolers, the terrible play our local theater puts on every year, and Sunmi's menorah lighting followed by her homemade fresh Holidays donuts. I rub my forehead and press my lips together. A lump forms in my throat. I got in when no one else could, so maybe I can get back out. Sehun notices my upset, but for once, he doesn't rub it in my face.

He looks at me like I'm a Rubik's Cube. "I've never met anyone who didn't want to be here, who didn't consider it an honor."

I laugh. "I find that really hard to believe. There's no laughter here. No easy attitudes. No fun."

"Oh, there's fun, all right. I'm juts not sure you would thin so. Or that you could keep up."

I study him for a second. "Try me."

He takes his time. "Let's see here. On Friday and Saturday night curfew is extended to midnight. And from twelve to twelve-ten the guards change, reducing the active stations to one-third. If you think you can handle it, meet me outside the wines tomorrow night."

I study his face. Sneaking out to go climb some trees? He's got my number. Sejeong just have told him how I reacted to that courtyard.

"Or don't," he says with a smile.

I try to mask how much the idea appeals to me. "Why on earth should I trust you?"

"You shouldn't."

I grunt.

"But my guess is that you weren't prepped to come here, then you have some questions."

I look at him sideways. Damn he's good. "Are you saying you'll answer those questions?"

The door creaks and Sejeong walks through, her graceful steps not making a sound.

I barely blink and Sehun demeanor has shifted. He's farther away from me and leaning lazily up against the window like we didn't just have that conversation.

"Hey, Sehun," Sejeong says, holding up the braided pine needles. "One to zero."