I pull open my bedroom curtains and light dapples my room, giving it a soft warm glow. But the floor is like ice and the moment my bare feet hit it I jump, snatch up my discarded socks, and practically fall over trying to put them on.

The chill sobers me up and the events from the night before come rushing into my thoughts - the challenge, Jennie's threat, and the Jackal conversation I had with Sejeong. I don't see how it could be coincidence that she used deceptive, innovative, clever to describe Rose - the same words eomma used to describe a family of stuffed animals in a game we played when I was young. It was a childish game - at least I thought it was. Eomma said she used to play it with Uncle Jin and their mother back in Amercia. Each animal family had three words to describe them, all of which are emblazoned in my memory like nursery rhymes.

I freeze and my stomach does a fast twisty-thing. It didn't occur to me last night, but when Appa came to my room to break the news about going to this school, he picked up one of my old stuffed animals and said, "Do you remember that game you used to play with eomma? I could never get you two to take a break from it." Then he smiled at the memory, the way he often does when eomma comes up in conversations. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now . . .

I open my bedroom door, caught up in my thoughts, and nearly jump out of the socks I just put on. On the other side, with a hand raised to knock, is a young woman who looks to be in her twenties, carrying freshly pressed clothes. She's wearing a maroon wool dress and a crisp white . . .  I think it's called a bonnet? Her cheeks have a natural pink flush that reminds me of a rose.

I didn't mean to startle you, Miss Suzy," she says. "I was just coming to tell you that I've brought morning tea with bread and jam at Miss Sejeong request." She takes a look at me like she's trying to log every detail, but not in the threatening way the kids and teachers in this school do. Her look is warm and curious.

I put my hand over my heart, like somehow this will slow down my pulse. "No, no. It's not you. Sorry. I just didn't expect anyone to be there when I opened the door."

She does a quick curtsy and gives me a huge smile. "I'm Sohee, your and Miss Sejeong's chambermaid. If you need anything, please let me know," she says, and I detect an Seoul accent. She moves past me into my room and lays the clothes she's carrying over the trunk at the end of my bed.

Sohee, I think. Meaning small yet shining, and also "friend of horses"?  Which I suppose suits  her. Her small frame and upbeat personality reminds me of being outdoors in the sunshine.

"Thank you," I say as she begins to straighten my blankets. "But I mean you don't have to . . . I'd rather just . . . Thanks."

"Not a problem," she says, and makes her way back into the common room with me at her heels.

Sejeong is already sitting at the table near the arched window, and the sight of freshly baked bread makes me want to hug everyone.

"Omo, Sohee, you just made my whole morning," I say with wide eyes.

I slide into my seat and put my napkin on my lap with enthusiasm.

"I got you the very freshest loaf," Sohee says with pride. "Grabbed it just as Cook was taking it out of the oven."

I break off a piece of the bread and steam escapes into the cool morning air. "You might be my new favorite person."

"Thank you," Sejeong says crispy before Sohee can respond and in a way that tells me it's an invitation for Sohee to leave.

"Yes, thank you!" I chime in as I scoop some golden butter onto my knife.

The door clicks closed and Sejeong's brows push together.

"What?" I say as I chew.

Sejeong sips her tea. "Are you always that friendly with people you don't know?"

"Actually . . . yeah," I say. I would tell her that she sounds like appa commenting on me being too trusting, but that would be violating rule number one.

"Well, don't be," she says.

I wipe my mouth with my napkin and take a good look at her. "Sohee seems sweet. And don't you think it has to to take care a bunch of secretive people out in the middle of nowhere in some hanok with no electricity? I'm sure she would appreciate a kind word or two."

Sejeong pauses like she's not sure what to make of me. "All Strategia serve their Families in one wya or another, Suzy. No one gets a pass. And besides, Sohee won't be here for more than a few years unless she chooses to be."

I pause, my bread halfway to my mouth, and my skin starts to pickle. I've definitely heard that word before. "So Sohee's Strategia?" I say, trying to make the word sound casual and natural.

"Yes. Everyone in the Academy is Strategia - the professors, kitchen staff, guards, the people who tend to the animals. You didn't think we would allow a non-Strategia to be here, of all places, did you?" She looks at me incredulously.

"No, I guess not," I say. Not only does she think I know what Stategia are, but if she's claiming everyone in this school is one, then where does that leaves me? I pour myself some tea, trying to figure out how to ask her to define it without putting a spotlight on myself. "There's no technology taught in this school." Assassins and spies need tech. "Why is that?"

Sejeong shrugs. "Waste of time. We only get four years here. We can learn tech skills at home. And it's not really a priority when everyone has tech specialists in their Family."

Tech specialist, compulsory work for the Families, the Council of Families that Sejeong mentioned last night, and whatever the students are . . . It's sounding like these Families are self-governed, self-reliant, and powerful.

Sejeong gives me an odd look. "Now hurry up and drink your tea. We're still going to the dining hall to meet Sehun."

(ﾒ￣▽￣)︻┳═一

"Do we need to bring textbooks or something to class?" I ask as we head down the stairs. Our entire day yesterday was eaten up with tours, assessment, and visiting various class options. But we never actually participated in one.

Sejeong shakes her head. "With the exception of poisons class, most of the advanced students don't use textbooks or take notes; we learn."

I follow her through the foyer and out into the vine courtyard. "What does that mean?"

"Why are you constantly asking me what things mean?" she says, still giving me the suspicious look she adopted over morning tea. "I wouldn't do that in front of other people if I were you."

I keep pace with Sejeong's fast steps. The coldness that crept into her demeanor yesterday after I sat with Rose at lunch is still there.

I open my mouth to respond as we step into the garden lounge, and we almost smack into two guys having a quiet conversation. One is the confident archer with the blonde hair who winked at me yesterday. His friend also has blonde hair, handsome and thin and has a tattoo of an anchor peeking out from the rolled cuff of this shirt. He doesn't have the same commanding presence his friend does, though. Just by seeing them talk together, you can tell there is an imbalance of power between them.

"So it's the new girl," the confident archer says, shifting his attention and flashing me a smile. His accent from Seoul.

His tattooed friend crosses his arms. "You're not going to introduce us, Sejeong? Where are your manners?" He sounds like he's from Suncheon and has a lilting voice. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a singer in a band.

"Taemin" - Sejeong gestures toward the archer, and then toward the guy with anchor tattoo - "and Kai. This is Suzy." Sejeong's tone is flat, like she could be reading off a grocery list, just trying to accomplish the task at hand. Great. I'm a grocery list.

"A pleasure, I'm sure," Taemin says, and bows, but there's something deceitful about his friendliness. He's nothing like Sehun, who always seems to be assessing; Taemin's positive attitude feels like a lure. "Have you enjoyed your first two days at Spirit High?"

"Spirit High?" I say with a smirk. "Clever. Well, all I can say is the food's excellent . . . when it's not poisoned."

Kai laughs, but it's not an easy laugh and I can't help but feel like I'm participating in some elaborate dance I don't know the steps to. I look to Sejeong for clues as to who these guys are, but her expression remains neutral. I can tell by the tension in her stance, though, that she wants to get the hell away from them. And if she isn't doing it, I can only assume she doesn't feel comfortable dismissing them.

"Oh, great, the royals and the nerds talking to each other," Rose says in an American accent, walking up with Lisa. "What is the world coming to?"

"It's a world where you're irrelevant, Rose," Taemin replies, and once again I sense something cruel behind his upbeat tone.

"Oh, boohoo," Rose says as she walks away. Lisa touches her arm, which seems to be a signal for Rose to stop.

I take a better look at Taemin and Kai. There is clearly some dynamic here that I'm not understanding. Sejeong's tense around these guys and Lisa doesn't seem to want Rose to get into a conflict with them.

But of course Rose turns back just before they enter the building. "I don't matter to you,  Taemin? However will I go on?"

"Maybe you won't," Kai answers, and unlike Taemin, the threat in his tone is direct.

Rose rolls her eyes and goes inside like nothing happened, but Lisa frowns.

Sejeong takes the distraction as an opportunity to walk away from them, and I follow.

"They're all running from us," Kai says, and they both laugh.

I look over my shoulder briefly before we enter the building on the far side of the courtyard, and the hair on my arms immediately stands up. Taemin and Kai are staring directly at me. If attention from Rose is bad, my gut tells me that this is much worse.

I look at Sejeong with newfound appreciation. She might be uptight and closed off, but at least she lacks the menacing vibe these other students have.

"Sejeong, what I said last night . . . about you being right about Rose," I say quietly.

Sejeong scans the foyer with the displayed shields, but no one is near us.

I keep my voice low. "I just wanted to say that I haven't learned my way around here yet. And yes, I definitely ask too many questions. But I'm going to do my best to keep up. I get why you think I was being reckless. And . . . my loyalty is to you. One hundred percent." I mentally wince, remembering what Sehun said about me being impulsively loyal. But this is who I am. I don't betray my friends, even the new ones."

Sejeong looks at me and I swear I catch a glimpse of vulnerability behind her stone expression.

"I just want you to know that I am listening to you," I say. "And I'm grateful you're taking all this time to explain everything in detail."

She gives me a quick nod, and I can already tell that some of the hardness has left her demeanor.

We walked toward the dining hall in silence. Then, casually she says, "Sehun told me what happened with Jimin and the fork," and steals a glance at me.

I smile. I know an acceptance of an apology when I hear one. I walk a step closer to her, keeping my voice quiet. "What are the chances that Jimin about knew about the search last night?"

"I want to say he did," she answers. "Because the timing is suspicious, and if there's one thing we're not, it's random. But the only way he could know about a search is if a faculty member told him, which is forbidden. Unless he overheard something he wasn't supposed to. I just don't know."

I nod. "What about Lisa? How does she fit with Rose and Jimin?"

"Lisa is Rose's roommate," Sejeong says, and pauses in front of the dining hall door. "She's also one of the best tactical students at this school, but she doesn't talk to anyone except for Rose and Jimin, mostly Rose. And she's probably right not to."

I want to ask her what she means by that, but she pushes open the door and I follow her inside. The dining hall at breakfast is nothing like at lunch and dinner. It's almost lively. Students congregate in groups, and there's even some light laughter - which I now attribute to the fact that the teachers' table is empty.

As we walk between the tables, I spot a muscular brown hair guy and blue hair guy watching us approach. They exchange a few words, and it's obvious I'm the topic of the conversation.

Just as we pass the muscular guy, his chair moves backward and smacks into my leg. Across the table, his blue hair friend smirks.

"Ow. Watch it," I say, rubbing my leg.

The muscula guy stands up, and he's a good five inches taller than me. "It's not my problem if your reflexes are bad," he says. He's got a similar eye shape with Uncle Jin, and his tone is just short of threatening.

Sejeong must her it, too, because she looks from me to him like she's trying to sort something out. "And it's not her problem that you're too big for these chairs, Jungkook," she says calmly.

My jaw drops. Sejeong didn't say boo to Rose or Taemin and Kai, but she'll mouth off to this huge guy? Jungkook, I think. Means "gift from god" or, as it happens, "strong bunny."

He lifts a playful eyebrow at Sejeong, but when his gaze returns to me, it's not gentle. I get the sense he knows something I don't and he's not happy about it. Gift, yea right. This guy's a bunny. "You're lucky you're with Sejeong."

"That I know," I say lightly, and I catch a glimpse of approval in Sejeong's expression.

He walks past me and his shoulder knocks into mine hard enough that I stumble backward.

"He's all bark," Sejeong says.

"Sure," I say, pretending it doesn't bother me as I watch Jungkook walk away. "But what's all the hostility about?"

I turn back to Sejeong, but she's walking again and I need to pick up the pace to catch her.

"Everyone is testing you," Sejeong says. "Give it a couple of months."

She stops at a chair across from her brother, whose eyes are just as hard as to meet as always. I audibly let my breath out. Months? No chance. My conversation with Sehun about how no one leaves for the holidays replays in my mind, and my uneasy feeling are coming back. I suddenly feel the need for some air and a place to quietly think.

"Is there a bathroom down here?" I ask Sejeong.

"Through the door to the right."

I walk back between the tables, careful not to make eye contact with anyone so I don't provoke any more aggression. I've never felt this way. My town is friendly. My school is friendly. There probably isn't a person in all of Jeongseon I don't know by name, address, and favorite foods.

I open the door and slip into the quiet hallway, walking a little way down the guard who stands outside the dining hall. I lean my back against the stone for a moment and close my eyes. This is the first time in my life that I haven't been excited about meeting people, when I've wanted to be away from the crowd instead of the middle of it. I could go outside, maybe sit in that garden. I shake my head. That would take too long and I'd probably freak Sejeong out that I was messing up her schedule.

A door creaks and my eyes pop open at the sound.

"," I breathe.

Jungkook walks out of what I can only guess is the bathroom. HIs eyes narrow when he sees me. He probably thinks I followed him, but saying I didn't is only going to make it look like I did.

"You look like her," he says like he's disgusted, but keeps his voice low that the guard in front of the dining hall can't hear him.

My heart pounds. I can't imagine who from his life I might look like. The only person I've ever been compared to is eomma, who Appa claims I look exactly like. But how on earth would Jungkook know that?

"I don't know what you want me to say." I keep my voice steady and neutral, imitating Sejeong, and I repeat her words in my thoughts: He's just testing me.

Jungkook scans my face, searching for something. A denial, maybe? "You're an idiot for coming here," he says. "And even more of one having followed me into this hallway."

My hands clenched. "I didn't -"

But I don't get my rebuttal out, because a fist is suddenly headed for my face. The impact with my cheekbone rattles my entire skull and I slam back into the wall, sliding to the floor.

My hands immediately fly to my face, the left side of which is already swelling. I can hear the guard's boots pound against the stone as he rushes over. My nose isn't bleeding yet, which at least makes me think it isn't broken, but the pain is unreal and tear involuntarily flow down my cheeks.

I look up at Jungkook with my unswollen eye. The guard is restraining him now, holding his arms back behind his back, and a crowd is already forming in the hallway, spilling out from the dining hall. The guard pull Jungkook away from me and he doesn't resist.

Sejeong helps me up by my arm. I can see her questioning with her eyes if I'm okay, but she doesn't say a word. I grab at the wall behind me. My head pounds like someone's playing the drums. I want to scream at Jungkook, but there's a lump in my throat and I'm afraid if I open my mouth I'll angry-cry.

The crowd parts to let Headmaster Kang through. She looks from me to Jungkook, like she's trying to cherry-pick information from our body language.

"Down," Kang says, and the guard forces Jungkook to his knees. She turns to me. "Well, go ahead."

No "Are you okay?" No "I can see that you've been knocked out by a guy twice your size - maybe we should get you to a doctor."

I stare at her in horror. "Go ahead?" I ask.

"An eye for an eye, just like I told you," Kang says, looking at me expectantly. "Only, I didn't expect it to be quite so literal or quite so soon."

This isn't just a strange school with creepy rules. The people here are actually vicious, even the ones who are supposed to be regulating law and order.

"You want me to hit him in the face?" My voice cracks in disbelief.

"Do it!" Rose yells from somewhere in the crowd, and I catch a glimpse of Taemin and Kai, watching with interest.

My stomach flips. Kang raises her hand and Rose shuts up. I look at Jungkook. He seems calm, like he did exactly what he need to.

"Uh, um," I stammer, still in shock.

"Well, get on with it," Kang says, and I can't believe how casual she's being about this.

"I . . . I'm not going to hit him," I say, and I can feel the surprise ripple through the crowd. I've never hit anyone in the face in my life and I'm definitely not going to start with a guy whose face will probably do more damage to my hand than the other way around.

"Do you think the rules don't apply to you?" Kang asks.

"I didn't say that. I just . . . What will punching him prove?" And as I think about it, the answer occurs to me. "The real problem is that he hit him in the first place, not that I won't hit him back." I want to tell her exactly what I think of these students with their "tests," and her archaic punishment system, but my emotions are running too high and I can't get my thoughts clear enough to do it without sounding like I'm scared.

Kang lifts her chin and raises her voice. "Apparently Suzy believes that retaliation is beneath her. So if any of you are looking to blow off some steam, she's an easy target. She won't hit back."

My mouth opens and for a moment I think I must be hearing things. Did she really just tell all the students that they could hit me? Frustration wells in my chest and a lump forms in my throat. Now I know what Yoo meant when he warned me that I might not survive here. I catch Sejeong's eye in the crowd and she frowns.

Jungkook hasn't taken his eyes off me, and now he mutters, "Like I said, you're an idiot."

Anger begins to bubble inside my already clenched chest - anger that I was hit, that I haven't understood a single thing since I set foot on this campus, and that I'm even here at all. This is the most screwed-up school in the world.

"This is your only chance, Suzy," Kang says, like maybe I don't get what she's offering me.

I step forward. I can't have people thinking that they can hit me whenever they want. I'm sure there are already about six onlookers who would jump at the chance. But I also can't believe I'm in a position where I'm being encouraged to hit another student in a school, and by the headmaster. All I want to do is walk away and fly straight back to Jeongseon.

I pull back my arm and fist shakes.

Jungkook laughs, and the sound grates on my last nerve. The only thing worse then being punched for no reason is then being laughed at for it in front of people.

this. I step forward with my left leg, pulling my right one back, and kicked him in the balls with all my might.

Jungkook's eyes widen; he grunts and crumples to the floor. Kang raises an eyebrow.

"I slipped," I say with an edge in my voice.

"Well, now you're even," she says. "There will not, and I repeat, there will not be retaliation later. This is it. You walk away with an even score."

"Understood," I say, even though I really don't. And just like a switch has been flipped, everyone starts moving at once.

"That was your third mark, Jungkook. Meet me in my office after class," Kang says. He stands up and I reflexively take a step back.

"Come on," Sejeong says. "Let's get you to the nurse."

Jungkook walks past me and Sehun says something to him, only I can't hear what it is.